Manila Standard - 2018 April 30 - Monday

twitter.com/ MlaStandard

facebook.com/ ManilaStandardPH

S

manilastandard.net

Missed your copy of Manila Standard? Call or text our Circulation Hotline at 0917-8848655 or email: circulation@manilastandard.net

ARRIVAL SPEECH. President Rodrigo Roa Duterte, in his speech upon his arrival at the Francisco Bangoy International Airport in Davao City at dawn of April 29, 2018, said he and other heads of states from Association of Southeast Asian Nations member countries should uphold and honor the timehonored principles of sovereign equality and non-interference in internal affairs. AFP VOL. XXXII • NO. 74 • 3 SECTIONS 16 PAGES • P18 • MONDAY, APRIL 30, 2018 • www.manilastandard.net • editorial@manilastandard.net

Rody: Kim’s move heroic, a master stroke DAVAO CITY—President Rodrigo Duterte hails North Korean leader Kim Jong-un after his historic decision to end the Korean war, saying that Kim made the right timing after 65 years.

During his arrival after his attendance on the 32nd Association of Southeast Asian Nation (ASEAN) summit Duterte said Kim has become his idol after the perception about him changed with just his one “master stroke.”

“For all of the time, he was pictured

NoKor resets clock: Fast forward to unity SEOUL—North Korean leader Kim Jong Un said he would move the country’s clocks 30 minutes forward to unify with the South’s time zone as a conciliatory gesture after Friday’s inter-Korean summit, Seoul said Sunday. Next page

to be the bad boy of the community.

But with one master stroke, he is now the hero of everybody. He appears to be amiable, jolly good fellow, and very accommodating,” he said.

He said that Kim’s decision will be a good thing in the entire world since there will be “less stress in the Korean Peninsula” and a war can be avoided through it.

Duterte stressed that the impact would be great nit just in the Korean Peninsula,

but in the entire world since China, the United States and even Rusia might be included if the war escalates—“a war which nobody can win.”

“I hope he remains to be that way because nobody is really after him.

Just a matter of historical divide which was created there, wala naman kasali ang buong mundo,” Duterte said.

Duterte noted he would like Kim to think that they are already “friends” and Next page

Kuwait deployment ban now permanent—Du30

By F. Pearl A. Gajunera

P

RESIDENT Rodrigo Duterte on Sunday said the temporary ban on Filipinos going to work in Kuwait is now permanent, intensifying a diplomatic standoff over the treatment of migrant workers in the Gulf nation.

‘‘

KIM JONG UN

This is a chance for other equally beautiful places and hidden wonders around the country to be discovered while Boracay is undergoing rehabilitation.

—Senator JV Ejercito

RETRACING A ROUTE. A deckhand works on board a traditional Philippine wooden boat known as ‘balangay’ before setting sail from Manila to China. Three identical wooden boats crafted from a centuries-old design set off from the Philippine capital for China on April 28, 2018 to retrace a historic trip by a Filipino sultan and showcase longstanding maritime ties. AFP

Joma Sison told: Come home and talk peace DAVAO CITY—President Rodrigo Duterte said Sunday he would not leave the country to negotiate peace with the communist rebels and would not agree to a coalition government.

“I am ready to listen to anybody, even to [Communist Party of the Philippines founder Jose Maria] Sison, lecture on

me how to improve the lives of Filipinos.

So I have to find the peace. But there are lines that I cannot cross,” Duterte said.

He revealed that the CPP has previously asked him to go to Amsterdam to discuss the elusive peace with Sison, but he refused to travel to the foreign country.

“You know, it would not look good

for a President to be chasing the elusive peace. I would have crossed the fine line of governance. I told Sison that he should come home and I would spend for everything,” he said in a mix of English and Filipino.

Duterte also said that while he is open Next page

Comelec wants to recycle EMS for 2019 election

Japan finds comfort women statue a touchy issue; Du30 warns militants

By Joyce Pangco Pañares PRESIDENT Rodrigo Duterte said the comfort woman statue along Roxas Boulevard that was removed by the Public Works Department Friday can be transferred somewhere else, saying it was an insult to the Japanese government that had alr eady made reparations to the Filipino women who were forced into sexual slavery during the Second World War. Duterte, however, said he was not aware of the decision to remove the

statue to give way to a drainage improvement project.

“Whose initiative was it [to remove the statue]? I really do not know. I don’t even know that it exists,” Duterte said in a press briefing Sunday dawn.

“But it has created somehow a bad [impression]. You can place it somewhere else…But do not use [public spaces] because that issue, insofar as I’m concerned, that issue is already finished.”

“The Japanese had paid dearly for that.

Rey E. Requejo and Macon Ramos-Araneta THE proposed construction of a casinoresort in Boracay faces legal complication due to the 2008 Supreme Court decision classifying 400 hectares of the island as forest and agricultural land that belong to the state, an official said Sunday.

“Assuming that a large area of the island is in fact forest land, no part of it

By Rey E. Requejo

Next page

DoJ puts a damper on Boracay casino bid can be appropriated by any person unless the state declares it as alienable,” Justice Secretary Menardo Guevarra said when sought for his opinion.

He made his statement even as JV Ejercito said Boracay’s closure for a six-month rehabilitation was an opportunity for other tourist spots to shine. ‘‘Definitely, this is a chance for other equally beautiful places and hidden Next page

Duterte in February imposed a prohibition on workers heading to Kuwait following the murder of a Filipino domestic whose body was found stuffed in a freezer in the Gulf state.

The crisis deepened after Kuwaiti authorities last week ordered Manila’s envoy to leave the country over videos of Philippine Embassy staff helping workers in Kuwait flee allegedly abusive employers.

The two nations had been negotiating a labor deal that Philippine officials said could result in the lifting of the ban but the recent escalation in tensions has put an agreement in doubt.

“The ban stays permanently. There will be no more recruitment especially domestic helpers. No more,” Duterte told reporters in his hometown city of Davao.

Around 262,000 Filipinos work in Kuwait, nearly 60 percent of them domestic workers, according to the Department of Foreign Affairs. Next page

TRIBUTE TO WORKERS. Members of the Trade Union Congress of the Philippines light candles for workers who died at work and offer their prayers at the TUCP office in Quezon City on April 28, in the runup to the May1 Labor Day celebration. Manny Palmero

1,000 cops gear up for Labor Day protest

By Francisco Tuyay AT LEAST 10,000 policemen will be mobilized in Metro Manila to enforce the law as a result of the thousands of demonstrators participating in tomorrow’s Labor Day celebrations, an official said Sunday.

Metro Manila Police Chief Camilo

Pancratius Cascolan said the 10,000 policemen coming from the different police districts will be scattered in the rally areas.

He made his statement even as Labor Undersecretary Joel Manglungsod said President Rodrigo Duterte will be in Cebu on Tuesday to grace the 116th Labor Day celebrations at the IC3 ConvenNext page tion Center.

THE Commission on Elections has asked the Supreme Court to allow it to use its election management system in preparation for next year’s midterm elections.

The Comelec asked the high court, acting as the Presidential Electoral Tribunal, to exclude the EMS and its servers from the coverage of the precautionary protection order issued in July 2016 in connection with the election protest of former senator Ferdinand Marcos Jr. against Vice President Leni Robredo.

The Comelec, through its legal department director Maria Norina Tangaro-Casingal, appealed to the PET to allow it to use the EMS servers used in the May 2016 elections for the May 2019 elections to save on costs.

“The Government of the Republic of the Philippines, through the Comelec, had already spent a considerable amount of money,” the Comelec said.

“In May 9, 2016 National and Local Elections, for the EMS alone, Comelec Next page

A2

News

MONDAY, APRIL 30, 2018

mst.daydesk@gmail.com

Catholic priest gunned down in Cagayan A YOUNG Catholic priest was shot dead in Cagayan province on Sunday, becoming the second cleric slain in around four months.

Fr. Mark Ventura, 37, was shot dead at 8 a.m. right after celebrating Mass at a gymnasium in Brgy. Peña Weste, on the outskirts of Gattaran town.

A report from the Thomas Aquinas Major Seminary, where Ventura was a former rector, said the priest was shot by an unidentified assailants who fled on board a motorcycle.

Gattaran police report said Ventura just finished the mass and was blessing children and meeting with the choir members when the suspect suddenly appeared from behind and shot him twice. He died on the spot.

After shooting the priest, police report said, the suspect who was wearing a helmet ran towards the National Highway where another suspect, also wearing a helmet, was waiting.

Ventura served as the director of San Isidro Labrador Mission Station, a post he only assumed early this month, in Mabuno village, also Gattaran.

Witnesses said the suspects headed towards Baggao town.

A priest for almost seven years, he was also known for his anti-mining advocacies and for helping indigenous peoples in the province.

In December 2017, Fr. Marcelito Paez was killed by still unidentified gunmen in Jaen, Nueva Ecija.

The 72-year-old priest was gunned down after he facilitated the release of a political prisoner.

In the Senate, Partido Liberal president Francis Pangilinan has condemned the killing of Ventura.

“The brazen attack on the 37-yearold Fr. Ventura, known for his advocacy against mining and being of aid to indigenous peoples, has no place in our society and under this administration which boasts of prioritizing law and order and brags about reduced crime rates.

We call on the authorities to capture and prosecute Fr. Ventura’s killers as soon as possible and not treat Fr. Ventura’s death as just another death under investigation wherein perpetrators are never held accountable, as in the case of Fr. Marcelito Paez, who was also killed by unidentified gunmen in Jaen, Nueva Ecija five months ago in December 2017.

We hope that Fr. Ventura’s death is not a reflection of our nation’s character in light of the recent actions of the government against Sister Patricia Fox—an aid worker for the past 27 years who has been ordered kicked out of the country on baseless claims that she is out to besmirch the government,” Pangilinan’s statement read.

Rody:...

From A1

that he would want to congratulate him for his “heroism” to come up with the decision of ending the 65-year truce.

Recently, South Korean President Moon Jae-in and Kim had a historic summit that marks the first entrance of a North Korean leader in the South.

During the summit, the two leaders signed the Panmunjom Declaraion for Peace, Prosperity and Unification in the Korean Peninsula that leads to the formal denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula.

In his speech, Kim said that the Korean countries “will be reunited as one country.” F. Pearl A. Gajunera

Joma...

From A1

to negotiations, “a coalition government is out of the question.”

The President sounded more conciliatory than he did when he broke off talks with the communists in anger over several rebel attacks on government forces.

“Look, I cannot fight forever with my own countrymen. I am not a soldier. I am not a policeman. I am just a worker of the government tasked to make it easy for everybody,” he said.

Duterte said that it is about time that the government start talking peace with the CPP-NPA since he, 73, and CPP founder Sison, 79, were getting old.

He said there was still a small window for peace, saying he would give negotiations two months once Sison returns to the Philippines for talks.

He said the New People’s Army, the armed wing of the CPP, should keep their arms inside their camps while the two sides talk peace. F. Pearl A. Gajunera

Govt scraps rice import quota P “I will unleash the power of plenty,” Duterte said.

“That’s the only way to [stop the artificial rice shortage]. This makes me mad because it has bogged every administration ever since.”

Duterte said the NFA’s rice inventory must always be full so the government could use it as a countermeasure against

the rice traders attempting to create an artificial shortage to profit from it “If you flood the market in one region and create an aberration in the distribution, I can order the NFA to sell at a loss in that region. I have a countermeasure, so I told the NFA to always ensure their inventory is full,” Duterte said.

“If the NFA oversupplies, that is not a

problem. Let’s sell it to Filipinos. Even if we sell at a loss, that is okay since it is taxpayers’ money that was used to buy the rice.

Filipinos who paid us tax will also be the ones to eat NFA rice. If we lose, so what? We return the taxes that Filipinos paid with cheap rice. If they try to create shortages, I will unleash all of NFA’s inventory.”

Duterte said he ordered NFA administrator Jason Aquino to limit the importation of rice during the non-harvest season, adding the quota set in the past had been a source of corruption in the agency.

“If possible, we should buy all our local harvest so that during the harvest season, there is no importation. That is a government-imposed regulation,” Duterte said.

“And anybody who has the money can

Kuwait...

come home, especially the 700 Filipino migrant workers who faces charges in Kuwait, the government would do its best to bring them home.

“Your government will do its best to help you return and resettle. I appeal to your sense of patriotism and to your love of country and family,” Duterte said.

He said that once the migrant workers come home, he will also ask their local governments to help them resettle in their own province.

Senator Nancy Binay, meanwhile, said someone must be held accountable for the release of videos showing the rescue of Filipino domestics that sparked the diplomatic row between the Philippines and Kuwait. “We are facing a problem because our 250,000 countrymen are still in Kuwait,” Binay said.

Binay urged the DFA to look into the matter and administer sanction to those who possibly violated protocol by uploading the rescue video.

“There should be an accountability on how the [video of the] incident was uploaded... Was that a policy of the DFA—the rescue of our countrymen in distress?” she said.

“There are some things that should not be made known to the many to protect more people. This is not entertainment that should be uploaded,” she added.

Senator Richard Gordon said the Kuwaiti government’s recent move to order the Philippine ambassador to leave the country has placed Filipino workers in Kuwait in a precarious situation.

He said he remains hopeful that the

Kuwaiti government would look into the longer relationship between the two countries and will understand that this is part of the Filipino culture of trying to save their people from further harm.

Opposition Senator Risa Hontiveros said Duterte was gambling with the lives and employment of hundreds of thousands of Filipinos in Kuwait.

“What is so ‘Solomonic’ about a solution that actually cuts the baby in half? It is extremely reckless, shortsighted and uncaring. President Duterte should stop gambling with the lives and employment of thousands of OFWs, and the welfare of their families, in a desperate attempt to break the diplomatic impasse with Kuwait.

This is not a game. We are talking about the lives and future of our OFWs and their loved ones,” Hontiveros said.

She also questioned the President’s promise to find jobs for returning workers, when his administration doesn’t even have an alternative strategy to the country’s labor export policy.

Senator Cynthia Villar said the protection of Filipinos must be paramount.

“I don’t blame them [DFA] that they’re aggressive. So if Kuwait got mad, we cannot do anything about that,” she said.

The senator also said the government should be ready to have jobs ready for the workers who decide to return to the country.

Oppostion Senator Francis Pangilinan said Philippine officials behind the controversial rescue operation of distressed Filipinos in Kuwait must be sacked as part of

Duterte, however, told the visiting Japanese official the national government will remain “blind and deaf” to the issue and will leave it to Manila local executives to deal with the statue.

“That [freedom of expression of the relatives of comfort women] is a constitutional right which I cannot stop. It’s prohibitive for me to do that,” the President said.

The Gabriela Women’s Party on Sunday denounced the sudden removal of the statue erected to honor comfort women during World War II, as it called for an investigation over the incident.

“We denounce the sneaky, ‘ninja’ removal of the statue as such move points to the obliteration of Japan’s gross and systemic sexual abuse of Filipino women in our history,” Gabriela Party-list Rep. Arlene Brosas said.

“Such is a shameful hallmark of a foreign policy that kowtows to foreign powers but treats foreign rights advocates like

Sister Patricia Fox harshly,” she added.

Brosas said her group will file a resolution in Congress to determine who are behind the removal of the statue.

Rep. Emmi de Jesus said the liability of Manila City officials and other agenicies should also be examined.

“Why was the removal done in the night, apparently with the permission of the local government? Was the National Historical Commission notified? Somebody should answer for demolishing the memory of all the women who were victims of sex slavery,” she said in a mix of English and Filipino.

De Jesus said the statue’s removal constitutes a blatant insult to all women victimized by Japanese forces during World War II who are denied justice up to now.

“Quite ironically, Japan boasts of its mega-infrastructure urban landscapes but scurries away upon the sight of any concrete reminder of its atrocities and abuse against women,” De Jesus said.

promoted while Boracay was undergoing rehabilitation.

Guevarra said the 400 hectares in Boracay, including the beach front, were reserved forest land meant for “protection purposes” and could not be privately owned.

He made his statement amid reports of a plan to build a $500-million integrated resort on a 23-hectare property in Boracay by Macau casino giant Galaxy Entertainment and its local partner, Leisure and Resorts World Corp.

“It’s not that easy. There is a complicated process of reclassification [of land],” Guevarra said.

In its ruling, the high court cited reclassification of the island as a suggestion. It explained that Congress needed to pass a law that would reclassify the land and entitle the claimants to ownership over certain areas.

Malacañang earlier announced that President Rodrigo Duterte was planning

to reclassify the island for land-reform purposes.

Apart from the reclassification process both in the executive and legislative branches, Guevarra believes that the legal issues on building a casino in Boracay could also reach the high court.

“It may involve constitutional issues,” he said.

Under the high court ruling, the tribunal classified the owners of resorts fronting the shoreline as merely “builders in good faith” because the area is forest land that cannot be privatized.

“The continued possession and considerable investment of private claimants do not automatically give them a vested right in Boracay,” according to the decision written by now retired Associate Justice Ruben Reyes.

“Nor do these give them a right to apply for a title to the land they are presently occupying.”

with South Korean President Moon Jaein, Moon’s spokesman said.

The pair held the summit—the third such meeting between the two Koreas— at the border truce village of Panmunjom, during which Kim set the foot on the south side of the border for the first time and the two leaders pledged to pursue denuclearisation and a permanent peace.

Kim said he found it “heartbreaking” to see the two wall clocks hanging at the summit room showing different times for the two neighbours, the spokesman Yoon Young-chan said.

“Since we were the ones who made the change from the standard time, we will

go back to the original time. You can announce it publicly,” Yoon quoted Kim as saying.

Yoon hailed the move as a “symbolic move” for better ties between Seoul and Pyongyang.

The creation of “Pyongyang time” drew criticism from Moon’s conservative predecessor, Park Geun-hye, for further deepening the disparity between the two Koreas whose division was sealed by the 1950-53 Korean War. The two countries have remained at war technically after the war ended with an armistice instead of a peace treaty, and Moon and Kim on Friday vowed to seek the formal end of the war. AFP

By Joyce Pangco Pañares

RESIDENT Rodrigo Duterte said Sunday his order to scrap the rice importation quota during the nonharvest season would allow the National Food Authority to ensure more than enough supply of the grain that could be sold even at a loss.

From A1

Last week the Philippines apologized over the rescue videos but Kuwaiti officials announced they were expelling Manila’s ambassador and recalling their own envoy from the Southeast Asian nation.

Duterte on Sunday described the situation in Kuwait as a “calamity.”

He said he would bring home Filipino maids who suffered abuse as he appealed to workers who wanted to stay in the oilrich state.

“I would like to [appeal] to their patriotism: Come home. No matter how poor we are, we will survive. The economy is doing good and we are short of our workers,” he said.

About 10-million Filipinos work abroad to seek high-paying jobs they were unable to find at home, and their remittances are a major pillar of the economy.

Duterte said workers returning from Kuwait could find employment as English teachers in China, citing improved ties with Beijing.

Describing China as a “true friend,” he said he would use Chinese aid to fund the workers’ repatriation.

Duterte added that he was not after “vengeance” against Kuwait and did not “nurture hate.”

“But if my people are considered a burden to some of them, to some government mandated to protect them and uphold their rights, then we will do our part,” he said.

He also vowed to those who wish to

Japan...

From A1

The reparation started many years ago. Let us not insult them…If it is erected in a private property, fine, we will honor it and the Japanese government and people would understand that there is a democracy here and freedom of expression is very important. But do not use [public spaces]…It is not the policy of government to antagonize another nation,” the President said.

Duterte said it is difficult to continuously reminisce how Japanese soldiers treated at least 1,000 Filipino comfort women during the 1941 to 1945 wartime occupation.

In January, Japan’s Minister for Internal Affairs Seiko Noda expressed regret over the construction of the 2-meter-high bronze statue that was unveiled by the National Historical Commission of the Philippines on Dec. 8.

DoJ...

From A1

wonders around the country to be discovered while Boracay is undergoing rehabilitation, Ejercito said.

He called on the Tourism department and private stakeholders to close ranks and implement a massive promotional campaign for the other equally exciting tourist destinations in the country. ‘‘For every crisis, there is an opportunity. I believe that this is a great chance for other tourist destinations to take center stage, Ejercito said.

Earlier, Senator Sonny Angara urged the government to promote other Philippine tourist destinations, especially in the poorer areas, to sustain the country’s tourism growth.

He said there were many world-class tourist destinations here that could be

NoKor...

From A1

The two countries on the divided peninsula have had different time zones since 2015 when the North suddenly changed its standard time to 30 minutes behind the South.

Pyongyang cited a nationalistic rationale, saying it would return the North to the time zone used before Japan’s 191045 colonial rule of the peninsula to mark the 70th anniversary of its liberation from Tokyo.

But Kim promised to change the time zone back during the historic summit

import. My job is to fill our warehouse and inventory. It should be filled until we reach an oversupply.”

Aquino ordered the agency’s special bids and awards committee to hasten the government-to-government procurement of 250,000 metric tons of rice to replenish government buffer stocks.

Duterte earlier ordered the NFA to immediately import the needed stocks as consumers continued to clamor for the P27- and P32-per-kilo NFA rice.

Aquino said the President wanted the government to have buffer stocks that were good for 60 days.

“As a long-time responsible and responsive leader, he knows the government should always be ready to effectively address any contingency,” Aquino said. efforts to fix the Philippines’ disagreement with the Gulf state.

He said Philippine officials should also seek a dialogue with top-level Kuwaiti officials to “diffuse the tension” between the two countries.

“Fire whoever was behind the rescue attempt and all those who gave bad advise to the President and have direct talks with the Kuwait’s head of government to diffuse the tension and address the deteriorating situation,” he said.

A party-list lawmaker on Sunday backed President Duterte’s appeal for Filipinos in Kuwait, especially domestic workers, to come home.

ACTS-OFW Rep. Aniceto Bertiz III on Sunday said the problem in Kuwait concerns mainly domestic workers, because they are not covered by Kuwait’s labor laws and the government there is overly protective of employers.

“In the case of professionals in Kuwait, there’s really no problem because they are protected by their skills. Employers avoid mistreating highly skilled staff because they are difficult to replace,” Bertiz said.

“But in the case of domestic workers, we really have to discourage their deployment to countries where they have little or no legal protection,” he added.

“Without adequate legal protection, domestic workers are naturally vulnerable to abuse and exploitation because they live with their employers and their skills are easy to replace,” he added. With Macon Ramos-Araneta, Maricel V. Cruz and AFP

1,000...

From A1

Manglungsod said the President will have an important announcement to make during the Labor Day event, which will feature a job fair.

Reports said thousands of protesters were expected to converge at the Chino Roces Bridge fronting Malacañan Palace, Liwasang Bonifacio and other rally points in celebration of Labor Day. The highlight of the Labor Day celebrations will be the pressing issue of the “End of Contract” policy that President Duterte promised to terminate through an executive order but failed to do so.

Cascolan said the police to be deployed on Labor Day will be armed only with truncheons.

“The Crowd Dispersal Management teams will not have any firearms,” Cascolan said.

But he said the policemen will bar protesters from assembling in designated converging points in the absence of a rally permit.

“No permit, no rally,” Cascolan said.

With PNA

Comelec...

From A1

already spent the amount of P6,576,396.96 representing the total lease bid and purchase option prices.”

The EMS servers contain the election database including the Project of Precincts, Voting Jurisdictions, List of Candidates, among others. They also create the election configuration per precinct level, including the CCS, Vote Counting Machines, SD Cards and provide security configurations and digital certificates and private key certificate per VCM issued to the Board of Canvassers and Board of Election Inspectors.

The poll body said it plans to use the hardware of the EMS servers for next year’s elections, but will turn over the hard disk and storage device to the PET. It said the EMS was necessary for poll preparations since it is the “core or brain” of the automated election system.

“The EMS Servers are part of the Automated Election System. They are indispensable because they complete the AES,” the Comelec said.

“They manage all the data and election configuration, hence are considered as the core or brain of the election configuration. Without the EMS, there will be no election configuration.”

News

A3

MONDAY, APRIL 30, 2018 mst.daydesk@gmail.com

Teo denies knowledge of bros’ deal with PTV 4 TOURISM Secretary Wanda Teo has distanced herself from her siblings on Sunday, as she denied knowledge in the ad placements of more than P60 million worth of ads by her agency on the TV show of her brothers, which drew attention from the Commission on Audit.

The CoA specifically mentioned the show Bitag, which is produced and hosted by Teo’s brothers Ben and Erwin Tulo, where the DOT reportedly placed the ads.

Bitag is a blocktimer on government station PTV 4.

Teo said she didn’t know that the commercials would be placed in the show of her brothers.

“Ang kontrata is between DOT and PTV [4],” Teo said in a radio interview.

“Beyond that hindi ko na alam kung ibinigay nila sa outfit ng brother ko.”

CoA said it flagged the show because there was no memorandum of agreement or contract between PTV 4 and the Tulfo’s Bitag Media Unlimited Inc. to air the DOT commercials.

The auditing agency said that last year PTV 4 paid Bitag P22.09 million in May, P18.96 million in November and another P18.96 million in December.

“Since there was no MOA wherein the terms and conditions of the agreement are supposed to be spelled out, there was also no basis for the computations on how the said three payments were arrived at,” CoA noted.

CoA has ordered PTV 4 management to submit supporting documents for the ad deal with Bitag.

CA upholds conviction of Fil-Chinese linked to drugs

By Rey E. Requejo THE Court of Appeals has sustained the decision made by the Regional Trial Court of Antipolo City sentencing a Filipino-Chinese national to a life imprisonment after he was found guilty of manufacturing and possessing illegal drugs in 2011.

In a 20-page decision, the CA’s Eight Division through Associate Justice Samuel Gaerlan denied the appeal of accused Lawrence Yu seeking the reversal of the trial court’s decision.

Lawrence Yu was arrested on June 30, 2011 during a raid conducted by operatives of the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency in Filinvest East Homes, Antipolo City, Rizal.

The PDEA agents found and subsequently dismantled a kitchen-type laboratory and confiscated several selfsealed plastic bags containing white powdery substance suspected to be shabu, self-sealed plastic bags containing tablets, assorted chemicals and various laboratory equipment and paraphernalia.

His bodyguard Elmer Doctor and a certain Kisses dela Cruz were also arrested during the raid but was later on cleared by the court of any criminal liabilities.

In seeking for a reversal of his conviction, Yu argued that the trial court committed error when it gave weight to evidence presented by the prosecution which were not formally offered, thus, rendering the search illegal and the seized items inadmissible as evidence against him before the court.

The accused argued that the PDEA agents exceeded their authority in the implementation of the search warrant, thus, the evidence they had gathered should have been treated by the trial court as “fruits of the poisonous tree.”

“Appellant Yu/s argument that the PDEA agents exceeded their authority in the implementation of the search warrant because the warrant only permitted the search of the vehicles is misplaced,” the CA ruled.

It was clear based on the copy of the warrant, according to the CA, that it covers the premises of Block 6, Lot 2, Irvine Place, Filinvest East Home, Antipolo City and not merely the vehicles found therein.

“Hence the argument of the appellant that the PDEA agents exceeded their authority has no leg to stand on,” the CA ruled.

DIPLOMATIC STANDOFF. In this file photo taken on Feb.18, 2018, Filipina workers returning home from Kuwait fill out forms upon their arrival at Manila International Airport.

President Rodrigo Duterte on April 29, 2018 said the temporary ban on Filipinos going to work in Kuwait is now permanent, intensifying a diplomatic standoff over the treatment of migrant workers in the Gulf nation. AFP

Plan to release names in brgy ‘narco-list’ stopped

By Joyce Pangco Pañares

P

RESIDENT Rodrigo Duterte said it was not yet time for the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency to disclose the names of 211 barangay officials who are on its list of narco-politicians.

“Not yet. It is not time,” the President said. He did not elaborate.

PDEA director general Aaron Aquino earlier vowed to make public the barangay narco-list today (Monday).

Aquino said most officials in the list were drug protectors, but not all of them are running for the May 14 barangay and Sangguniang Kabataan elections.

“The list came from all intelligence units.

These 211 are validated—confirmed they are involved in illegal drugs,” Aquino said in a television interview.

Of the 211 in the drug list, 89 are barangay chairmen while the rest are kagawad or councilmen, the PDEA chief said.

A human rights group warned the impending release of narco-list will endanger the lives of the 211 barangay

officials tagged by PDEA. “The Duterte administration will be putting hundreds of people in danger if it released the names of barangay [village] officials it accuses of involvement in the illegal drugs trade,” Human Rights Watch said in a statement.

It said making the list public will deprive the suspects their right to due process.

“This virtual hit list violates due process and is an affront to the rule of law,” HRW said.

But Philippine National Police chief Oscar Albayalde said the disclosure of the narco-list will help educate voters. “[This will] provide our electorate a chance to choose and decide who to vote for,” Albayalde said.

‘Ease foreign ownership on media, schools, telcos’

By Maricel V. Cruz AN OPPOSITION lawmaker on Sunday urged the consultative committee tasked

by President Rodrigo Duterte to draft possible changes to the 1987 Constitution to consider relaxing restrictions on foreign ownership of Philippine mass media, educational institutions and telecommunications.

“We have to allow greater foreign participation in certain economic sectors if we are to quickly attract fresh investments, create new jobs and improve services in the years ahead,” Buhay Party-list Rep. Lito Atienza said.

Atienza said the constitutional provision forbidding any foreign equity in Philippine mass media “has become totally irrelevant amid rapid technological advances.”

“In fact, the prohibition has been rendered meaningless by Internet

streaming as well as global broadcasting via cable and satellite TV,” Atienza said.

Article 16, Section 11 of the Constitution provides that only citizens of the Philippines, or corporations, cooperatives or associations wholly owned and managed by Filipinos, may own and operate mass media.

“We disallow majority foreign ownership of Philippine educational institutions, yet we send our brightest children to study overseas,” Atienza, former three-term mayor of Manila, said.

“We might as well allow the best institutions of higher learning abroad to set up wholly owned subsidiaries here,” Atienza said.

Under Article 14, Section 4 of the Constitution, all educational institutions, except those established by religious groups and mission boards, have to be owned solely by citizens of the

Philippines, or by firms at least 60 percent owned by Filipinos.

Atienza also called “counterproductive” the provision restricting Philippine telecommunications to entities at least 60 percent held by Filipinos.

“Owing to the foreign equity limit, we now have slowest average Internet connection speed in all of Asia, and Filipinos have for years been forced to live with the substandard broadband services of two dominant suppliers,” Atienza said.

Article 12, Section 11 of the Constitution limits foreign equity in Philippine public utilities, including telecommunications, to no more than 40 percent.

The 25-member consultative committee led by retired Chief Justice Reynato Puno is now reviewing the Constitution.

The panel is expected to submit its recommendations to the President, who intends to transmit the proposals to Congress.

GETTING READY FOR THE RAIN.

Quezon City Hall and Manila Waters workers conduct a cleaning activity along the estero of Bernardo Park in Quezon City to prevent clogging in preparation for this coming rainy season.

Manny Palmero

De Lima’s order used to deport Australian nun —Duterte PRESIDENT Rodrigo R. Duterte on Saturday reminded critics slamming the Bureau of Immigration order to expel Australian nun Patricia Fox from the Philippines for allegedly violating the terms of her visa, that the government was simply following an order signed during the previous administration.

“Hindi ko ni-revoke yan. Sabi ko, hayaan niyo diyan, balang araw magamit natin [I didn’t revoke it. I said, let’s leave it there, we’ll be able to use it in the future],” Duterte said referring to Operations Order no. SBM 2015-025 approved by then Justice Secretary Leila de Lima in July 2015.

Under the said order, “foreign tourists are prohibited from engaging in antipolitical activity as defined by law and jurisprudence, such as but not limited to, joining, supporting, contributing or involving themselves in whatever manner in any rally, assembly or gathering, whether for or against the government.”

Duterte made the statement before the Filipino community in Singapore at the sidelines of the 32nd Asean Leaders’ Meeting.

“Kung sumali ka doon sa protesta, mga political rallies, ide-deport ka.

Kaninong order yan? ’Di ko man tinanggal ’yan. Ang aking kaibigan nasa loob ng presuhan, si De Lima [If you join protests, political rallies, you’ll be deported. Whose order was that? I didn’t revoke it. It’s the order of my friend who is now in jail, De Lima],” Duterte said.

De Lima was arrested on Feb. 24, 2017 due to her alleged involvement in the illegal drug trade.

“That is the irony of life. Kung kayong gumawa okay lang. Kung kami ngayon masama. Kaya naisip ko [If you do it, it’s okay. If we do it, we’re bad. That’s why I thought] I will not revoke that order, it stands there,” he added.

Last April 25, the BI ordered Fox to leave the country after it canceled her missionary visa due to her involvement in partisan political activities.

“She [Fox] was found to have engaged in activities that are not allowed under the terms and conditions of her visa,” Immigration Commissioner Jaime Morente said in a statement.

The bureau has given Fox a month to leave the country upon receipt of the decision and ordered the deactivation of her alien certificate registration.

Fox’s missionary visa is due to expire on Sept. 5, 2018.

“We direct Fox to leave the Philippines within 30 days from receipt of this order,” the decision added.

BI, however, said that Fox may still enter the country as a tourist.

Without naming Fox, the president hurled invectives against the nun.

“Hindi ka naman nagsusweldo, turista ka lang. Sabihin mo madre ka eh ano...

Siguro mo ba ’yung Diyos mo Diyos ko?” he said.

“Sabi ko nga noon sa ano, your God has no common sense. My God has it.”

(You do not pay us, you’re a mere tourist. You say you’re a nun, so what?

Are you sure that your God is my God? As I’ve said before, your God has no common sense. My God has it.)

With PNA

A4

Opinion

MONDAY, APRIL 30, 2018

Adelle Chua, Editor

Today, I bury my mother

EDITORIAL

uation, seeing the precious house her father had built set ablaze by incendiary bombs released by “liberating” American forces. She was also conscripted into service by the Japanese as translator because she developed quite a facility in conversational Nippongo.

But she and my dad gave us, their TODAY, my mother will be laid to rest. I shall be both priest and son. children, the ultimate joy parents can As priest, I shall stand before the bier give their children: The gifts of disand recite the obsequies prescribed cernment, diligence and faith that alby the Catholic Church. As a son, low any person to make sense of his I shall be bidding a final goodbye life. She was unselfish: Whatever to my mother. It must be one of the she could give us, she would, includmost heart-rending experiences for ing her “Santa Claus” gifts that we continued to receive even until last any priest.

Leticia P. Callangan-Aquino. “La- Christmas!

She became etitia” is Latin a lawyer at for “joy.” As a the time that child she had women lawyers many joys parwere a rarity. ticularly from In fact, she was a doting father, Her fulfillment the class muse my grandfather as a lawyer came in at the Lyceum (grandma was of the Philipof the sterner, teaching the law with pines (where d i s c i pl i n a r i a n assiduousness, forming she completed type) and from future lawyers with a her law studan aunt who ies after transshe would alpassion. ferring from ways recall with MLQU) befondness even cause her classin her old age, mates had no her Auntie Bilother choice— ing (Librada Sumabat). But there were woes aplenty she was the only woman in her class! too, and all of these gave her nerves She and daddy wed, and came back of steel and strength of character. to Tuguegarao to settle (luring daddy She lost her only sibling to uremia at away from Camiling).

When I was born, and then my a time when medicines were scarce and physicians were not quite sure brother, and then, five years later, my about the course of treatment. She sister, she put her entire profession in told me that while seeing her sister the back-burner—setting aside what die, she blamed my grandmother for could have been a promising pracgiving her a fruit to eat the day be- tice and becoming a full-time mother fore—obviously a childish attempt at from whom we learned our first lesidentifying an explanation for what, sons, acquired our manners, and inherited the Catholic faith. Study peto her, was inexplicable.

Then there was the experience of riods were supervised, and reciting Turn to A5 the Second World War—life in evac-

F

Right and wrong

OLLOWING the expulsion of Ambassador Renato Villa, President Rodrigo Duterte has declared a permanent ban on the deployment of Filipino workers to Kuwait.

Duterte, who returned to the Philippines from Singapore early Sunday morning, urged some 250,000 Filipinos working in Kuwait to leave to find better opportunities in places that will treat them well.

“The ban stays permanently,” Duterte told reporters upon arriving at the Davao airport. “There will be no more recruitment for especially domestic workers.”

Duterte earlier declared a deployment ban following the discovery of the body of Joanna Demafelis, a Filipino domestic, inside the freezer of an apartment in Kuwait. The case became emblematic of the abuse that Filipino workers suffer at the hands of their employers in Kuwait.

Even as both sides negotiated an agreement that would provide Filipino workers in the Gulf state better protection, a diplomatic row broke out over rescue missions conducted by Philippine embassy staff to retrieve abused Filipino workers

from their Kuwaiti employers. The operations became widely publicized when embassy staff uploaded videos onto social media networks, triggering an angry response from the Kuwaiti government, which expelled the Philippine ambassador after declaring him persona non grata.

In the confusion that followed, Foreign Secretary Alan Peter Cayetano both apologized to the Kuwaiti government for the rescue operations, then defended them as being consistent the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations and the Vienna Convention on Consular Relations.

“We remain convinced that the actions we took in Kuwait are a rightful exercise of our duty under international law to protect our nationals abroad,” Cayetano said.

This begs the question: if we were so convinced we were right, why did Cayetano and Villa apologize so profusely for what the Kuwaitis viewed

as a clear violation of their sovereignty?

Why did embassy staff publicize the “covert” rescue operations by posting the videos on the internet and social media without regard for the diplomatic consequences?

President Duterte, by his Labor secretary’s own admission, was taken by surprise by Kuwait’s reaction and Villa’s expulsion. This suggests a failure on the part of the Department of Foreign Affairs to precisely anticipate such surprises and prepare for them. Apologizing for, then defending our behavior merely emphasizes this failure.

In light of the many abuses that Filipinos suffer at the hands of their employers in Kuwait, the President’s decision Sunday to maintain the deployment ban is most likely the correct one. It can never be a mistake to protect Filipinos here and abroad. With the benefit of hindsight, however, it would have been better if the President’s hand were not forced, and that he came to this decision from a position of strength, rather than from a defensive posture that the DFA put him in with its ineptitude.

Targeted marketing ment Agreement which was signed in Manila last December 2017 between the Manila Economic and Cultural Office and the Taiwan Economic and Cultural Office resident representatives. The Philippines was the first Asean country to sign a new set of rules and regulations to protect invesFOR three days last week, the Manila tors from both economies.

Economic and Cultural Office and This was to lay the predicate for the Philippine Trade and Investment our push to invite more businessmen Center Taipei sponsored a business to invest in our country, through our forum which was held at the Howard economic zones which provide incenPlaza in the city’s Da-an district. tives for foreign investments, as well Flying in from the Philippines were as into our tourism industry which Chairperson and Administrator Willacks adequate infrastructure and ma Eisma of Subic Bay Metropolitan support services.

Authority, Vice-President Evangeline What really got the audience of Tejada of Clark Development Corhard-nosed businessmen was the poration, Linda Pamintuan, Executestimonial of tive Director of Hugh Lo, ViceSubic and Clark President of Alliance for Dethe New Kinpo velopment, JonGroup, a manuathan Defensor There are so many facturing firm de Luzuriaga, that has through things we yet have President of the less than a decto do to increase the Philippine Softade already set ware Industry level of foreign direct up five factoAssociation, exries for various investments coming in ecutives of the electronic and to our country.

Cagayan Export electric prodZone Authoructs in our priity as well as a vately owned representative of e c onom ic the Tourism Inzones, mostly frastructure and Enterprise Zone Auin the Calabarzon area. thority to present their selling points Lo spoke in lieu of New Kinpo as investment destinations to TaiwanCEO Simon Shen, a good friend of ese businessmen. the Philippines who was on a busiAlso invited as a major resource ness trip to Europe, where the comperson to give Taiwan businessmen pany has several big clients from all an overview of the Philippine econoover the continent. He spoke about my was Jonathan Ravelas, first viceour young and excellent labor force, president and chief market strategist especially female workers who are of BDO Unibank Inc., which has been easy to train and show meticulous actively helping us in sponsoring consistency in quality of work. He such investment promotion activities. also praised the forms of assistance Some 300 businessmen packed given to their factories by the Philthe ballroom of the Howard Plaza to ippine Economic Zone Authority as listen to our major economic zones well as local officials of Batangas and present their advantages as an investLaguna, and pointed to the Duterte ment destination. administration’s Build, Build, Build A senior executive of the Ministry program which would enhance the of the Office of Economic Affairs competitiveness of the Philippines as (a combined National Economic and an investment destination.

Development Authority And DepartThe forum was followed in sucment of Trade and Industry parallel ceeding days by visits to industry asministry), Liang-Tsai Chen spoke sociations such as the Taiwan Elecabout the mantle of protection to Taitrical and Electronic Manufacturers wanese and Filipino investors affordAssociation, the Shin Kong Group, ed by the revised Bilateral Invest-

Turn to A5

Kink in ties with Kuwait BILATERAL relations between the Philippines and Kuwait have reached an all-time low. The rescue of distressed Filipino workers from the homes of abusive employers incensed Kuwait who said the Philippine embassy action was a violation of its sovereignty. To show its displeasure, Kuwait expelled Philippine Ambassador Renato Villa.

The order for the rescue operations was authorized by DFA Undersecretary for Migrant Affairs Sarah Ysmael Arriola. Kuwaiti authorities claimed the rescue operation was in violation of the 1961 Vienna Convention on diplomatic relations that require coordination with the host country. Philippine Mission to the United Nations staff member Elmer

How do you deal with a situation that requires immediate response?

Cato was reportedly also with the rescue team.

But how do you deal with a situation that requires immediate response when our citizens are so badly abused their lives could be in danger? One such case that brought this dire consequence was the discovery of Filipino domestic Joanna Demafelis who was left in a basement freezer in Kuwait.

Her employer—a Lebanese man and his Syrian wife—fled to their home countries. But even as they had been apprehended, Kuwait was reluctant to extradite the couple. Will justice for

Demafelis also be frozen because of Kuwait’s indifference?

Because of Ambassador Villa’s expulsion, the Philippines said the Memorandum of Understanding for the protection of Filipino workers in Kuwait has been shelved. President Duterte told remaining Filipinos in Kuwait to leave and return to the Philippines. Three batches of OFWs have already returned to Manila. Those who opt to stay in the Gulf country face the risk of arrest, detention and other acts of arbitrary harassment.

There are some people who think the country will suffer from the strain and even the severance of diplomatic relations between Manila and Kuwait.

I don’t think so. Qatar which has a bitter dispute with Kuwait is willing to take in our displaced workers.

There are some 300,000 Filipino workers in Qatar and so far we have not received any report of them being maltreated. Kuwait is only one Turn to A5

Rolando G. Estabillo Publisher can be accessed at: manilastandard.net 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

MEMBER

PPI

Philippine Press Institute The National Association of Philippine Newspapers

Former Chief Justice Reynato S. Puno Anita F. Grefal Baldwin R. Felipe Edgar M. Valmorida

Board Member & Chief Legal Adviser Treasury Manager Head—Ad Solutions Circulation Manager

Ramonchito L. Tomeldan Chin Wong/Ray S. Eñano Joyce Pangco Pañares Adelle Chua

Managing Editor Associate Editors News Editor Opinion Editor

Emil P. Jurado

Honor Blanco Cabie Night Editor Jimbo Gulle City Editor Romel J. Mendez Art Director Roberto Cabrera Chief Photographer

Chairman Emeritus, Editorial Board

Opinion War’s end CROSSROADS JONATHAN DE LA CRUZ FINALLY, a real opening for permanent peace in the Korean Peninsula is at hand. After seven decades of an uneasy truce marked by annual rites of angry exchanges (and shows of force on both sides) not only across the demilitarized zone dividing the two Koreas but by and among the contending parties’ allies across the globe, the screaming headlines the world has been waiting for finally got printed: “Korean war to end, new era for peace’.

Which is most welcome indeed. Now, it is up to the parties and their principal sponsors, the United States for the South and China for the North, to nurse this opening to its logical conclusion—reconciliation and reunification of the two Koreas with the signing of a permanent peace agreement ending the war and eventual denuclearization of the entire peninsula.

Once achieved, then the reality of an era of peace, unity and prosperity at least in the peninsula and East Asia will come to pass. It will not be easy.

As observers of the scene noted, the world has witnessed hopeful moments in this unfinished Korean drama many times before all of which ended up in f lames. After the 1953 truce and armistice agreement was signed, almost every US President with the encouragement of Japan and its allies in the AsiaPacific have tried to broker a permanent peace in the peninsula.

Even at the height of the Cold War, there were efforts not only from the West but even China and Russia encouraging the leaders of both Koreas to get to the negotiating table and talk peace.

The latest such initiative kept then US Secretary of State John Kerry circling through the region and talking its leaders—especially

Targeted...

From A4

one of Taiwan’s biggest conglomerates, the Industrial Technology Research Institute, Taiwan Information Service Industry Association and Taiwan’s National Federation of Industries.

CNFI’s member industry associations constitute one-third of Taiwan’s GDP and employs also a third of the entire island’s work force. There were very frank and business-like exchanges of views, where Taiwanese businessmen were able to explain their concerns and comparisons candidly drawn between the Philippine investment environment vis-à-vis other Asean countries.

Through it all, we were assisted by our hard-working Trade Representative and Director for Commercial Affairs, Michael Alfred V. Ignacio— who has had previous postings in Silicon Valley, San Francisco, Belgium and New Delhi—as well as his Mandarin-speaking staff.

The Meco recently moved to a new office in Neihu, which is the new business district of Taipei. It now houses in one floor and under one

Kink...

From A4

country that is not going to make a dent in the deployment of our OFWs. We still have workers in Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Oman, and even the strifetorn states of Syria, Libya and Iraq.

In Asia our workers are employed in Malaysia, Japan, Singapore, Thailand, Taiwan and Hong Kong.

Aside from Qatar, the Department of Labor and Employment has been informed by Canada, China and Japan that they require nurses, teachers and other workers that match Filipino qualifications in certain areas.

Despite the expulsion of Villa, Presidential Spokesman Harry Roque said Malacanang will send a new ambassador to Kuwait. Such a move would portray the Philippines as groveling before Kuwait because of oil and employment opportunities for our workers. Labor Secretary Silvestre Bello will also go to Kuwait to repair the

China which has always been North Korea’s most reliable benefactor and which in the last two decades has been embarking on its own diplomatic road show—into getting going on Korea.

Well, Kerry and then-US President Barack Obama managed to wangle an agreement which at that time was also hailed as a breakthrough. The problem is, no sooner had the ink dried on the piece of paper, the newly installed North Korean leader Kim Jong-Un went on a road show of his own, testing

Not just in the Koreas, but everywhere else

his country’s new nuclear weapons and issuing out all kinds of vitriol against the US and its allies.

An acidic climate of threats and counter threats ensued spoiling the Obama-endorsed “historic accord” and spilling over to the 2016 US presidential elections.

This same accord was assailed by then candidate Trump as a fraud, a pact which gave undue advantage to North Korea without any verifiable quid-pro-quo for the US and its allies. “All the time, Obama was played along”—this was how Trump described the agreement.

That mind set persisted, leading the newly minted leader to insist that the accord be scrapped. More than that, he taunted Kim, calling him names (rocket man is the most graphic) and inundating him with all the insults his Twitter acount could issue.

Then, out of the blue, Trump positively responded to the advice coming from a South Korean delegation which visited North Korea before the Winter Olympics. “Rocketman” was supposedly ready to meet

roof not only Meco staff but also our Trade, Labor and Tourism offices.

Previously, Philippine personnel were scattered in different offices, making it difficult to coordinate activities, and especially hassling for our OFW’s who had to shuttle from the Philippine Overseas Labor Office (which included OWWA, SSS, even Pag-IBIG) to Meco for their consular needs.

One important assessment of these engagements, and similar such for a held last year which we intend to bring to our policy-makers in Manila and the political leadership is for a single “Philippines, Incorporated” approach in selling the country to foreign investors.

This means that while we highlight each economic zone’s comparative advantage, we do not compete, but rather promote the entire Philippine economy through targeted marketing with a unified and cohesive approach.

Ceza in Cagayan should for instance harp on proximity, proximity, proximity, while the more established economic zones like Subic and Clark can tout their ready-made infrastructure.

There are so many things we yet have to do to increase the level of FDIs coming in to our country. Build, Build, Build intends to get our woeful

with him and discuss with finality the denuclearization of the peninsula and the end of hostilities.

What followed was a series of feel-good offensives from the North which were reciprocated in kind by the South—participation in the Olympics, even fielding a joint Korean team in one of the games; visit of a South Korean rock band; Kim’s highly publicized trip to China where Chinese President Xi gave his blessings and encouraged the young leader to proceed with the initiative to finally bring peace to the region.

And then this symbolic and decidedly historic meeting of the leaders of the two Koreas in the demilitarized zone prior to the expected summit between the North Korean leader and President Trump. Now, the diplomatic dance is reaching a crescendo of expectations which needs to be properly nursed, as it were, to fruition.

The Panmunjom Declaration is no silver bullet. But, as the Korean leaders exchanged visits to their respective sides of the demilitarized zone (Kim Jong-un was the first North Korean leader to set foot on South Korean soil), it was clear that those baby steps could lead to bigger ones which, if properly taken, could lead to a safer, more peaceful and more prosperous world.

Which leads us to the title of this peace—war’s end. It’s not just an end to the Korean war, but an end to all the wars now raging across the globe: From the Syrian war to Afghanistan to the turmoils in Libya and pockets of Africa (Niger, South Sudan, Congo, to name a few), to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and even to the conflict in the West Philippine Sea. The WPS/South China Sea conundrum, as one observer noted—is what we all look forward to as we enter the third decade of the 21st century.

It is our hope that this latest peace initiative in Korea will prod all men of goodwill to accelerate all efforts to achieve the same before the middle of this century

infrastructure upgraded in a catch-up game with our neighbors who had the prescience and political will to develop their economic and physical infrastructure while we were playing too much politics and involving ourselves in less important pre-occupations.

Taiwan is an excellent example, along with South Korea, of economies which focused on the right things at the right time. Their phenomenal growth through four decades is testimony to policy consistency and serious, purposive implementation. The same can be said of China, from the time Deng Xiao Ping opened up the economy which became an astonishing powerhouse in just a little more than a generation.

We may be a late bloomer in comparison, but now our country is getting into the groove of things, and there is plenty of work to be done.

The recent business forum and the exchanges with the business community of our country’s nearest neighbor constitute building blocks towards enhanced economic relationships. It takes plodding and concerted efforts, especially to link our small and medium-scale entrepreneurs to theirs, these SMEs being the sinews of each other’s economy.

MONDAY, APRIL 30, 2018

Pass the National Integrated Cancer Control Act imaging tests like X-rays and MRIs, and even home care, and the cost easily runs into hundreds of thousands to even millions of pesos.

For the poorest of the poor, for whom putting food on the table every day is already a Herculean task, such IN A country like the Philippines, an expense is hard to imagine, let few worse tragedies can befall a fam- alone cope with. A study pegs the cost ily than cancer. For the poor, the fate of cancer treatment as more than what is doubly tragic—treatment is exor- most families earn in a year.

The result? Families are stuck with bitant, virtually impossible—and a diagnosis is almost always seen as an a literal life-or-death decision: Either use up their life savings or sell propautomatic death sentence.

It need not be, of course. Over the erty to pay for the cost of treatment years and decades, sophisticated and or forego treatment and just wait for advanced ways to treat cancer have the disease to consume a loved one. been developed, thanks to tireless re- The ultimate tragedy, of course, is that search. But between breakthroughs in either option spells some version of laboratories and patients, the local re- death, financial or otherwise.

Abandonment or discontinuance of alities to receive treatment is a long, complex, and expensive process. The treatment in some areas and of cermulti-sectoral alliance of the Cancer tain types of cancer reach as high as Coalition Philippines is spearhead- 75 percent because of the reliably asing what it hopes would be landmark tronomical cost of treatment. It’s not a surprise that legislation that most patients do would institunot follow their tionalize a comtreatment plans, prehensive proand even those gram that makes who survive the cancer awareThe bill seeks to disease shift to ness, prevention change the dangerous lower paid and and treatment notion that a cancer unskilled work accessible esbecause of their pecially to the diagnosis is an instant illness, which poorest citizens death sentence. result in worsof the country. ening feelings It’s not an isoof depression or lated problem. anxiety.

According to the This worrying World Health Organization, cancer incidence is pro- trend, Angara noted, occurs not only jected to increase by as much as 80 per- among the poor but even among the cent by 2030, with “low-resource coun- middle class. A solution could come in tries” like the Philippines bearing the the form of his proposed Senate Bill heaviest brunt. Already, cancer is the 1570, or the National Integrated Canthird leading cause of death in the Phil- cer Control Act, which seeks to make ippines, with an estimated one out of cancer treatment and care more equievery 1,800 Filipinos diagnosed each table and affordable for Filipinos.

One such way is the establishment year. This means more than 55,000 households have to contend with a ter- of a special cancer assistance fund for patients, especially indigents, as well rifying cancer diagnosis annually.

Worse, studies said it is common as the expansion of the current benefor Filipino cancer patients to be diag- fits of the Philippine Health Insurance nosed late, when the cancer has pro- Corp. or PhilHealth to include screengressed to a later stage. This means ing, detection, diagnosis, palliative the cost of care has risen and the odds care, and rehabilitation.

“This should cover all types and of survival have narrowed. And yet, unlike heart disease or vascular prob- stages of cancer of patients regardless lems, there is a glaring lack of deci- of age,” Angara said.

The avowed goal is to lower the sive government response to deal with overall mortality and impact of all what is clearly a public health issue.

For cancer prevention advocate adult and childhood cancer, decrease and Quezon City Rep. Alfred Vargas, incidence of preventable cancer in these grim statistics stress the need for adults, and prevent cancer relapse and government to get its act together and recurrence and secondary cancers institutionalize an integrated, multi- among people living with cancers and disciplinary, multi-sectoral, and na- survivors.

In terms of a broader ambition, howtionwide cancer control and management for all types of cancer, including ever, the bill should seek to change the oft-ignored preventive and diagnostic dangerous notion that a cancer diagnosis is an instant death sentence, and services.

“Cancer poses a substantial chal- that treating it need not be a completelenge to our health systems. It affects ly private matter because the governnot just the patients but has a signifi- ment, as it should, is ready to offer cant impact on their families, friends support, especially for its most vulnerable sectors. and communities,” he said.

The Committees on Health of both Senator Juan Edgardo “Sonny” Angara agreed, adding that the ap- Houses of Congress chaired by Senaproach should bridge the divide be- tor JV Ejercito and Rep. Helen Tan tween the kinds of access to cancer have most commendably prioritized treatment that rich and poor patients the passing of what may be one of receive. “We need to develop a system the most important law that when in which all people with cancer have fully implemented will address the access to high-quality and affordable country’s third cause of death. This problem cuts across all classes and cancer treatments,” he said.

Chemotherapy, for instance, re- can hit anyone.

We hope President Rodrigo Dumains to be one of the most expensive parts of cancer treatment, and is gross- terte will invest his strong political ly inaccessible for the poor. Add vis- capital to support this people-led its to the doctor, radiation treatments, legislative initiative.

Today,...

From A4

diplomatic row.

No one is urging the country to go to war with Kuwait. But let us at least fight for our self-respect so that others in the community of nations would treat our workers well.

Isn’t it about time we stood proud and refused to let our country be held hostage by Kuwait’s oil resources?

Without our workers including skilled Filipino engineers in Kuwait’s oil fields , who will take care of Kuwait households, their children and cook for them? Let their women, who are treated as second-class citizens, do it for them.

What’s with the Sandiganbayan?

After denying former senator Jinggoy Estrada’s travel petition to the US purportedly for a speaking engagement, the anti-graft court has now allowed him to leave. This, after threatening to cite him for contempt for lying about being invited by the New York-based Pinoy for Good Governance. PGG president Loida Nicolas Lewis said she never invited Estrada

who had been indicted for his involvement in the pork barrel funds.

There was no ground for allowing Jinggoy Estrada to go. He is a flight risk who might not come back. Nor was there any reason given by the Sandiganbayan for its sudden change of heart. It is cases of this nature and circumstances why our citizens cast suspicion on the country’s justice system.

Our own people are partly to blame for this bizarre attitude towards erring politicians. Jinggoy’s father, former President Joseph Estrada, was convicted of plunder in connection with the misuse of the tobacco excise tax and involvement in jueteng. And yet he was pardoned upon conviction.

Erap went on to be voted mayor of Manila. He is now grooming son Jinggoy to succeed him as Manila mayor.

The poor people of Manila do not seem to have much of a choice unless another candidate with better qualifications comes up in the political horizon.

A5

think any maniturgium was used at my Ordination I found it more meaningful to give her my stole. And there is so much that goes with it: Gratitude above all for being the one person in my life who nurtured my priestly vocation from within my family, not only praying fervently for my perseverance, but urging me, already as a priest, to pray. While priests are expected to exhort their people to pray, it was mommy who had one frequent refrain for me: “Pray, pray, pray.”

The morning of her passing, I longed to see her, and I asked my assistant to phone her driver to bring her over to school. It would never happen. Instead, I was called at midday to be told that she had passed away silently, serenely during her morning nap. There is no experience as heart-rending as losing a mother, but I take comfort in the faith that when Jesus cried out in bitterness and desperation on the Cross—“Why have you abandoned me?”—he cried for me too. And the cries of the Son of God are never in vain!

the Holy Rosary as a family was not to be taken lightly. She was as strict and demanding on us as she was on herself, because she allowed herself no luxury, no frills as she was every solicitous of our needs.

Her fulfillment as a lawyer came in teaching the law with assiduousness, forming future lawyers with a passion, and authoring three law books with no other motive than to get students to grasp the intricacies of law.

Mommy passed away in her sleep on the day of her 62nd year of wedded life to daddy. And daddy was a broken man when he arrived from Manila to see mommy in her casket.

I am broken too and I do not yet see how I shall rise from this. I placed one of my priest stoles in mommy’s hands. It is tradition in some places for a priest-son to place in his departed mother’s hands the “maniturgium”—the cloth with which holy rannie_aquino@csu.edu.ph chrism from his hands is wiped off rannie_aquino@sanbeda.edu.ph at Ordination Rites. Since I do not rannie_aquino@outlook.com

A6

News

MONDAY, APRIL 30, 2018

mst.daydesk@gmail.com

Marathon session on BBL sought

By Maricel V. Cruz CONGRESS has to fast-track its approval of a viable Bangsamoro Basic Law that would clear the way for President Rodrigo Duterte’s vision for the long-elusive peace in Mindanao and spur rapid economic developmen particularly in the island’s poorest provinces.

Camarines Sur Rep. Luis Raymund Villafuerte suggested to his fellow lawmakers to hold marathon sessions on the BBL bill when the Congress resumes session on May 15.

If necessary, he said, both chambers of Congress should hold sessions on the BBL bill even on Thursdays and Fridays.

“We need to speed up the approval of the BBL but this does not mean that we should do it in a haphazard manner, which is why we need to work overtime so we can go over its provisions and ensure that the law becomes an effective tool in bringing genuine autonomy to our Muslim brothers,” said Villafuerte, vice chairman of the House committee on local government.

“We can hold sessions even on Thursdays and Fridays until late at night to speed up the bill’s approval.”

Villafuerte said the final version of the BBL should ensure that the autonomous region arising from it would be financially stable enough to undertake economic activities designed to lift its people out of poverty.

“A vibrant economy is essential to achieve lasting peace and Mindanao. Building peace also requires building prosperity that will benefit people in the island’s conflictafflicted communities,” he said.

SOLO FLIGHT. The fountain area of Plaza Sta. Cruz in Manila becomes an improvised pool where streetchildren like this boy take a refreshing dip to beat the summer heat. Ey Acasio

‘Yolanda’ housing woes persist

By Ronald O. Reyes

B

ALANGIGA, Eastern Samar—A broad community of victims of the 2013 Super Typhoon ‘‘Yolanda’’ (‘‘Haiyan’’) insists on government investigation into the alleged anomalies in resettlement projects for the survivors five years after the storm.

“The contractors need to be held accountable for the substandard units or construction that they do,” Rina Reyes, project coordinator of land rights group Rights Network and leader of Community of Yolanda Survivors and Partners.

“What came out from this dialogue is the negligence of the National Housing Authority. They cannot simply pass this on to the contractors. It’s the NHA that has the social contract to the people, and they are reneging

on that contract,” Reyes said.

The Office of the Presidential Adviser for Special Concerns and Oversight Office for Yolanda Rehabilitation through Usec.

Wendell Avisado conducted its final leg of grassroots consultations for storm victims in “Yolanda” corridors in Balangiga, Eastern Samar on April 27.

Forum participants were told that in Balangiga alone, the construction of 460 housing units for the survivors was stopped after only 200 units remained in various stages

of construction while only two housing units were completed. The project started in 2014 with each unit costing P290,000.

In an interview, Balangiga mayor Randy Graza said that these units are also ‘substandard,’ the reason why the construction was halted.

Lita Bagunas, another CYSP member and the president of Uswag Este-Katarungan, a federation of typhoon-affected farmers, fisherfolks, and informal settlers in Eastern Samar, also complained about their resettlement project in the municipality of Giporlos, saying the houses are “too small, far from the source of livelihood.”

“The unit has 26-floor area. It’s typical design from NHA,” said engineer Jun Punzalan of the private construction company handling the Giporlos Greenfields housing project.

The Greenfields project was started in October 2017 and is expected to be

completed in November this year, Punzalan added.

Giporlos Mayor Mark Biong said that they are doing revalidation on the housing recipients to “ensure that the poorest of the poor” will benefit from the project while hoping that his town will receive another housing project from the national government for his affected constituents.

He also denied that they are not conducting consultations with the stakeholders at the same time As of April 23 accomplishment status, NHA said reported that of the 743 housing units in Greenfields, 566 units are currently in various stages, no completed unit yet, while land development is at 36.14 percent.

During their resettlement site visit in Brgy. Can-amo, in Lawaan town, Avisado, along with Director Kim de Leon, saw how the wall of one housing unit “shook” when the officials attempted to push it.

MWSS takes on concerns over Kaliwa Dam project

FLAGSHIP PROJECT. MWSS Administrator Reynaldo V. Velasco presides over a consultative meeting on the New Centennial Water Source-Kaliwa Dam project in a bid to address issues and concerns on environmental impact, resettlement, among others.

THE Metropolitan Waterworks and Sewerage System held a consultative meeting on the New Centennial Water Source-Kaliwa Dam Project and dialogued with the project’s stakeholders to address the latter’s concerns on environmental impact and resettlement, among others.

In his welcome remarks, MWSS Administrator Reynaldo V. Velasco lauded the participants for taking time and effort to attend the session. “I am glad that we are all here and you responded to our invitation because I think there is really a need to understand the urgency of the water flagship project under President Rodrigo Duterte who made possible the funding for the project through a bilateral agreement with Chinese President Xi Jing Pin in October 2016 in a state to China,” he said.

Stressing that it took 30 years for the project to finally take off, Velasco said the project is not only an additional 650 mld water source project for Metro Manila to augment the 4,000 mld from Angat Dam but will also contribute to the development of the municipalities near the project site. “I am very certain that this Kaliwa dam project will also benefit the local government units around the project area notably Infanta and General Nakar,” added Velasco.

After the Kaliwa dam project overview was presented by New Centennial Water Source Project Manager engineer. Jose Alfredo B. Escoto Jr., MWSS Deputy Administrator for Engineering & Operations engineer Leonor C. Cleofas tackled the issues and concerns relative to the construction of the Kaliwa Dam. According to Cleofas, an inter-

agency cooperation is necessary for the realization of the project.

MWSS is seeking the cooperation and support of DPWH for access roads construction and the DENR in connection with the Environmental Compliance Certificate; the LGUs for permits; Protected Areas Management Board; National Commission of Indigenous People, Department of Finance; Neda; and National Irrigation Administration.

Estimated construction cost of the project is P13.43 billion of which 85 percent will be funded by Official Development Assistance from China amounting to P10.2 billion while 15 percent will be shouldered by MWSS. Three Chinese firms have been pre-qualified to bid in the construction of the Kaliwa Dam: China Energy Engineering Co. Ltd.; Power China Ltd.; and the consortium of Guandung Foreign Construction Co. Ltd. and Guandong Yuantian Engineering Co. Ltd. nominated by China Ministry of Commerce.

Last March 26, 2018, the three Chinese contractors have secured the bidding documents. They also conducted site visitations last April 12-13 2018. A pre-bid conference was held on April 16, 2018 where questions from the contractors were addressed by the Bids and Awards Committee.

Bids are scheduled to be submitted on May 11, 2018 while contract award and signing is slated by August 2018. By early September 2018, Notice to Proceed is targeted to be issued.

By Dec. 31, 2018, the ECC, PAMB clearance and FPIC (Free and Prior Informed Consent) Process for the project is expected to be secured prior to the start of the construction.

Plastic poses serious threat to marine life, says US envoy

By Macon Ramos Araneta SAYING that plastic use is the most serious threat to marine life and resources, the United States Embassy in Manila had cited the need to address environmental degradation brought about by the worsening problem of using plastic materials.

Speaking during the Green Film Festival to mark the Earth Day celebration at the SM Mall of Asia in Pasay City, Michael Klecheski, Deputy Chief of Mission of the US Embassy in Manila, said plastic is one of the biggest sources of water and marine life pollution.

“This year’s theme [of Earth Day] is World’s Mismanaged Wastes and Debris and this is something important to the world and fundamentally important to the Philippines and we all experience it. You all know the damage that all that plastic does if we don’t manage it properly as you can see in the Manila Bay,” he said.

“Your DENR is addressing it. Government doing all the stuff is very important but the truth is we need good partners in the civil society, business and people as a whole. Every individual can contribute,” he added.

Klecheski said the Earth Day and the GFF are a good way to remind the people on the importance of taking care of the environment and to recommit to protecting nature and world around us.

He said they have decided to partner with SM Supermalls, the Department of Environment and Natural Resources, Department of Education and Commission on Higher Education in holding this quarter’s GFF run in various SM malls all over the country because they believe in what SM and GFF strive to do in the project.

“The US has been committed to environmental work for a very long time and it’s important for us to have great partners and SM is a great partner in this because we have been doing this for a long time,” also said the embassy official.

He related that the youth is an important group that we have to inculcate the importance of environmental consciousness not just so they know it but they have to do something about it and that’s true for every generation.

SM has been holding GFF for the past nine years in a bid to raise awareness on the current state of environment to encourage positive action towards preserving the eco-system. Environmental documentaries are shown quarterly in SM Cinemas to high school and college students for free.

Since its start, more than 700,000 students have been able to watch environmentally themed movies and documentaries.

CYAN MAGENTA YELLOW BLACK

Sports

Manila

Standard

TODAY

A7

MONDAY, APRIL 30, 2018 sports_mstandard@yahoo.com

POC throws full support to bowling T HE Philippine Olympic Committee has cemented its recognition of the Philippine Bowling Federation as the national sport association for tenpin bowling in the country.

``This is a very strong group of leaders.

They are all bowlers, they all love the sport and they went through the process,’’ said POC president Ricky Vargas during the opening of the 2nd PBF Philippine International Open Championships Saturday at the Coronado Lanes in Starmall on Edsa, Mandaluyong City. ``They have one vision and one goal.

They all want to bring back the glory days of bowling and that for me is motivation

enough to pursue that dream,’’ added Vargas after swearing in PBF president Steve Robles, chairman Sen. Tito Sotto and the rest of the PBF board.

Backed by the Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corporation, over 300 local bowlers led by the members of the national team and 150 international participants from Asia and Oceania will vie for supremacy during the April 28 to May 13 tourney.

World Cup champion Krizziah Tabora heads the Philippine contingent along with Kenneth Chua and Lara Posadas, who are both seeking to retain their respective men’s and women’s open singles titles in the meet sponsored by Smart Communications, Cafe Puro and Boysen.

Aside from Tabora, Chua and Posadas, other members of the national squad, namely Enzo Hernandez, Raoul Miranda, Kevin Cu, Anton Alcazaren, Jomar Jumapao, Merwin Tan and Kenzo Umali of

the men’s pool were presented to the covering media.

Joining them were women’s pool mainstays Liza Del Rosario, Alexis Sy, Rachelle Leon, Mades Arles, Bea Hernandez and Dyan Coronacion during the opener of the event that offers over P3 million in prizes and a finely crafted trophy for the Open divisions by world-renowned Filipino sculptor Joe Datuin.

Bowling icon and four-time World Cup champion Paeng Nepomuceno is the head coach of the national bowling team, with former champions Biboy Rivera, Jojo Canare and Rey Reyes as assistant coaches.

“True to our mission of promoting and developing the sport of tenpin bowling in the national and grassroots levels, the PBF has organized another prestigious Asian ranking tournament, the 2nd PBF Philippine International Open,’’ said PBF secretary general Bong Coo. Gracing the opening rites were Sen. Tito

Sotto, also the current PBF chairman, and 2019 Southeast Asian Games chef de mission Monsour del Rosario and Councilor Boy Esteban from the Office of Mandaluyong City mayor Carmelita Abalos. ``This tournament will bring in worldclass bowlers from the various countries in the Asian zone and gather Filipino bowlers of all levels, making it a good training ground for the Philippine national team which is preparing for the Asian Games. It is also a venue to scout new and emerging talents for the sport,’’ added Coo, a four-time world champion and the most decorated athlete in any sport.

Aiming to promote tenpin bowling in the country, the PBF-PIO is sanctioned

by World Bowling and the Asian Bowling Federation.

Right after the ceremony, the PBF Invitational Corporate Cup took place with 36 teams of four players each competing for the championships in various divisions.

Tondo booters fall to Perspolise

POC president Ricky Vargas (right) inducts the new officers of the PBA (from left to right) Alexander Lim (treasurer), Paeng Nepomuceno (head coach), Maria Salome Lopa (board member), Rene Reyes (board member), Nikko Go (vice president), Sen. Tito Sotto (chairman), Steve Robles (president), Bong Coo (secretary general) and Biboy Rivera (board member).

Pacman focuses on endurance for coming fight

By Peter Atencio

WITH less than 2 months left, boxing superstar Manny Pacquiao is just getting started.

Set to challenge Lucas Matthysse, Pacquiao is going easy on his training these days.

Looking calm and composed, the only eight-division world champion in the history of boxing is focusing more on endurance with his early morning joggings.

“Maghahanda pa lang ako. Pero jog-

ging, jogging muna,” said Pacquiao when he met French businessman Pascal Banet and local partner, former Ilocos Sur governor Luis “Chavit” Singson when they opened a sports retail store on Thursday evening at the Festival Mall in Alabang, Muntinlupa.

On the surface, Pacquiao does not look worried when he goes for the World Boxing Association welterweight title at the Axiata Arena in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.

Speed will be his main focus when he goes up against Matthysse, he said.

Internationalists shine in age-group chessfest MAKATI City’s pride, reigning national youth champion Francois Marie Magpily, and Philippine Sportswriters Association awardee Al-Basher Buto of Cainta, Rizal spearheaded the champions in the recent 2018 National Age Group Chess Championships Luzon leg at the Ramon Magsaysay Technonogical University in Iba, Zambales.

Magpily, one of the country’s four bets in the 2017 World Youth Championships, turned the tables on Dasmariñas City’s Kylen Joy Mordido, ASEAN+ Age Group Chess Championships multi-gold medalist, prevailing via tiebreak in the U20 girls category.

Buto, AAGCC multi-gold medalist and 2017 Asian Schools Chess Championships gold medalist, had a more impressive showing. He finished with an unblemished slate in the U8 category.

Sharing the limelight with Buto by also submitting perfect scores in the chessfest sponsored by Province of Zambales under ardent chess enthusiast Gov. Amor D. Deloso and Philippine Sports Commission and organized by National Chess Federation of the Philippines under Congressmen Butch Pichay and Bambol Tolentino, chairman & president and secretary general, respectively, were Leonel Escote (U16) and John Marx Anastacio (U18).

Celtics...

Philippine Sports Hall of Famer GM Eugene Torre, NCFP executive director and deputy secretary general Red Dumuk and RMTU sports director Robert Alvin Yap awarded the prizes to the top 10 performers in each age group.

The podium finishers included: boys U20- Genesis Mateo Borromeo, Daniel Quizon & Nelson Busa, Jr.; U18- Anastacio, Israelito Rilloraza & Carl Anthony Canio; U16-Escote, John Ruiz Bravo & Jarvey Labanda; U14Cyrus Vladimir Francisco, Justine Diego Mordido & Jasper Faeldonia; U12- Mark Jay Bacojo, Elijah Josh Opriasa & Oscar Joseph Cantela; U19- Gladimir Chester Romero, Joseph Raphael Vergara & James Gilbert Bragais; U8- Buto, Archeon Mer Bautista & Clark Jemuel Cabatian; Girls U20- Magpily, Mordido & Viona Nepascua; U18- Jesca Docen, Maycydel Fajardo & Vic Glysen Derotas; U16- Jarel Renz Lacambra, Natsja Jasmine Balabbo & Queenie Mae Samarita; U14- Rohanisah Buto,Ruth Joy Vinuya & Ma. Elayza Villa;U12- Franchesca Largo, April Joy Claros & Raiza Mae Locmayoan; U10- Daren de la Cruz, Mecel Angela Gadut & Jane Helen Aragones; U8- Jean Antonette Brade, Iyael Sam Pagala & Franiel Angela Pagala.

tallied 26 points and 13 rebounds for the defending From A8 champion Warriors who Green finished with 16 points, 15 re- took command of the conbounds, 11 assists, and Kevin Durant test in the second quarter.

“We knew we had to come out and get the ball moving,” Green said.

“Make sure everyone was a threat on the floor and P0 M+ 00-00-00-00-00-00 we did. We knew we could pick them apart.”

Golden State again 00-00-00-00-00-00 P0 M played without two-time MVP Stephen Curry.

DIGITS 0-0-0-0 Coach Steve Kerr said it was “very likely” Curry would play game two on DIGITS 0-0-0 Tuesday. Curry has been out since March 23 with a EZ2 0-0 sprained knee. AFP

LOTTO RESULTS 6/55 6/45 4 3 2

“Speed ang focus ko, and more punches,” said Pacquiao before he left.

So far, Pacquiao, has gone 5-2 in his last seven encounters.

This includes losses to Floyd Mayweather Jr. in May 2015 and Jeff Horn in July of 2017.

After Matthysse, Pacquiao appears not to be done.

A possible fight against junior lightweight titleholder Vasyl Lomachenko is in the pipeline and it could happen later this year.

PERSPOLISE stunned tournament favorite Tondo FC, 4-0, at the Neymar Jr.’s Five National Finals at Turf BCG, in Bonifacio Global City, Taguig, Metro Manila.

“I think we were all rooting for Tondo FC, they would have made a great story!” said Sports Director Anton del Rosario. “But I’m happy for Perspolise, I’ve got friends there. In the world finals, Perspolise won’t play like they’re on vacation. They’re going to play to win!”

During last year’s inaugural Neymar Jr.’s Five Philippine Qualifier, Tondo FC won the hearts of event-goers as the tournament’s sentimental favorites. Following the withdrawal of Baggie FC, Tondo FC surprised everyone when they advanced to the finals in a losing-effort to Naxional in an intense and hotly contested battle.

“We played better than last year,” said Tondo FC’s Dennis Balbin. “We really had to prepare for this year. We worked on team defense and organization, learning that Neymar Jr.’s Five is really a team effort.”

In its second year in the Philippines, Neymar Jr,’s Five drew many teams in a series of qualifying rounds in Manila and Cebu.

Republic of the Philippines Department of Health CENTRAL OFFICE BIDS AND AWARDS COMMITTEE

Name of Contract

50,000.00 50,000.00 50,000.00 50,000.00 25,000.00

2.

The DOH now invites Bids from eligible Bidders for the procurement of the abovecaption projects. Delivery of the Goods is required as specified in Section VI. Schedule of Requirements. Bidders should have completed contracts similar to the cited projects as stated in the ITB. The description of an eligible bidder is contained in the Bidding Documents, particularly, in Section II. Instructions to Bidders.

3.

Bidding will be conducted through open competitive bidding procedures using a non-discretionary “pass/fail” criterion as specified in the 2016 Revised Implementing Rules and Regulations (IRR) of Republic Act (RA) 9184, otherwise known as the “Government Procurement Reform Act”.

Bidding is restricted to Filipino citizens/sole proprietorships, partnerships, or organizations with at least sixty percent (60%) interest or outstanding capital stock belonging to citizens of the Philippines, and to citizens or organizations of a country the laws or regulations of which grant similar rights or privileges to Filipino citizens, pursuant to RA 5183.

Interested bidders may obtain further information from the COBAC Secretariat, Ground Floor, Building 6, DOH, San Lazaro Compound, Rizal Avenue, Sta. Cruz, Manila and inspect the Bidding Documents at 8:00 AM to 5:00 PM, Monday to Friday.

It may also be downloaded free of charge from the website of the Philippine Government Electronic Procurement System (PhilGEPS), provided that Bidders who interested to participate shall pay the applicable fee for the Bidding Documents not later than the submission of their bids.

5.

The DOH will hold a Pre-bidding Conference and the Submission and Opening of Bids at COBAC Conference Room, G/F, Bldg. 6, DOH, San Lazaro Cmpd., Rizal Ave., Sta. Cruz, Manila on the schedule given below: IB No.

Name of Contract

of Human Papillomavirus IB No. 2018-161-A Procurement Vaccine (HPV)-Re-bid IB No. 2018-089-A Procurement of Fluconazole-Re-bid of Influenza Polyvalent IB No. 2018-153-A Procurement Vaccine (Re-bid) Procurement of Purified Vero Cell IB No. 2018-086-A Rabies Vaccine (PVCRV)-Re-bid IB No. 2018-233 Procurement of Primaquine

Activity (Date & Time) Pre-bidding Submission and Conference Opening of Bids

08 May 2018; 10:00 A.M.

22 May 2018; 9:00 A.M.

Bid must be duly received by the BAC Secretariat at the address below on or before the date given above. All Bids must be accompanied by a bid security in any of the acceptable forms and in the amount stated below: Form of Bid Security (a) Cash or cashier’s/manager’s check issued by a Universal or Commercial Bank. (b) Bank draft/guarantee or irrevocable letter of credit issued by a Universal or Commercial Bank: Provided, however, that it shall be confirmed or authenticated by a Universal or Commercial Bank, if issued by a foreign bank. (c) Surety bond callable upon demand issued by a surety or insurance company duly certified by the Insurance Commission as authorized to issue such security. (d) Bid Securing Declaration

Amount of Bid Security (Not less than the required percentage of the ABC)

Two percent (2%)

Five percent (5%) No percentage required

Bid opening shall be at COBAC Conference Room, G/F, Bldg. 6, DOH, San Lazaro Cmpd., Rizal Ave., Sta. Cruz, Manila. Bids will be opened in the presence of the Bidders’ representatives who choose to attend at the address above. Late bids shall not be accepted.

7.

8.

Statement of Condition (Head Office and Branches) As of March 31, 2018

Cost of Bidding Documents (Php)

ABC (PHP)

IB No. 2018Procurement of Human 161-A Papillomavirus Vaccine (HPV)-Re-bid 325,000,000.00 IB No. 2018Procurement of Fluconazole-Re-bid 51,972,598.50 089-A IB No. 2018Procurement of Influenza Polyvalent 85,500,000.00 153-A Vaccine (Re-bid) IB No. 2018Procurement of Purified Vero Cell 160,000,000.00 086-A Rabies Vaccine (PVCRV)-Re-bid IB No. 2018-233 Procurement of Primaquine 11,700,000.00

4.

The DOH reserves the right to reject any and all Bids, declare a failure of bidding, or not award the contract at any time prior to contract award in accordance with Section 41 of RA 9184 and its IRR, without thereby incurring any liability to the affected bidder or bidders.

For further information, please refer to: COBAC-A Secretariat Building 6 Department of Health San Lazaro Compound, Rizal Avenue, Sta. Cruz, Manila Tel. Nos. 651-7800 local 1625 to 1627; 1650 to 52 Facsimile No.: 711-6061/740-6830

(MS-APR. 30, 2018)

EXORCISING the ghost of the past will be Petron’s main objective when it clashes with F2 Logistics in the Chooks to Go-Philippine Superliga Grand Prix best-of-three finals series starting tomorrow (Tuesday) at the Smart Araneta Coliseum.

Petron coach Shaq Delos Santos said they are drawing motivation from their heart-breaking setback last year, when they suffered a massive meltdown in Games 2 and 3 to surrender the Grand Prix title to F2 Logistics.

It could have been Petron’s first Grand Prix crown since emerging victorious in 2014, with American Alaina Bergsma and Brazilian Erica Adachi as reinforcements.

But the Cargo Movers crawled their way back from a 0-9 hole in the second set to steal Game 2 and crush the Blaze Spikers’ morale in the do-or-die Game 3 en route to their second crown in this prestigious women’s club tourney bankrolled by Isuzu and UCPB Gen with ESPN5 as official broadcast partner.

“We will do everything to prepare for our finals rematch with F2 Logistics,” said Delos Santos shortly after knocking own Cocolife in their best-of-three semifinal showdown.

“F2 (Logistics) is a very talented team.

It is a strong and aggressive team. The big challenge for us is what happened last year when we lost to them in the finals. This is a new opportunity and we’re accepting this challenge to, hopefully, win the title.”

A lot of things already happened since that dramatic finals series last year.

The Cargo Movers lost De La Salle University standouts Kianna Dy, Majoy Baron, Desiree Cheng and Dawn Macandili as well as head coach Ramil de Jesus, who opted to spearhead the Lady Spikers in defending their title in the University Athletic Association of the Philippines.

For the Blaze Spikers, a major piece in their championship puzzle in American import Hillary Hurley is gone due to a recurring ankle injury.

16th to 19th Floors, Fort Legend Towers 31st Street corner 3rd Avenue, Bonifacio Global City, Taguig City 1634

The Department of Health (DOH), through the General Appropriations Act of 2018 intends to procure the following project listed below: IB No.

Games Tomorrow (Smart Araneta Coliseum) 4:15 pm – Cocolife vs Foton 7:00 pm – F2 Logistics vs Petron

Form 2B (Revised June 2014)

InvItatIon to BId Procurement of varIous Goods 1.

Petron eyes payback vs F2 Logistics

(SGD) NESTOR F. SANTIAGO, JR., MD, MPHC, MHSA, CESO III Assistant Secretary of Health COBAC – A Chairperson

AMOUNTS ASSETS

CURRENT QUARTER

PREVIOUS QUARTER

Cash and Cash Items PhP Due from Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) Due from Other Banks Financial Assets at Fair Value through Profit or Loss Available-for-Sale Financial Assets-Net Held-to-Maturity (HTM) Financial Assets-Net Unquoted Debt Securities Classified as Loans-Net Investments in Non-Marketable Equity Security-Net Loans and Receivables - Net Interbank Loans Receivable Loans and Receivables - Others Loans and Receivables Arising from RA/CA/PR/SLB General Loan Loss Provision Other Financial Assets Bank Premises, Furniture, Fixture and Equipment-Net Real and Other Properties Acquired-Net Other Assets-Net

380,909,779.19 3,142,908,298.80 627,140,606.02 62,530,854.94 2,687,319,078.67 1,265,646,116.62 6,390,048.48 12,440,816.63 31,250,370,290.59 4,149,657,697.10 27,521,760,206.80 0 421,047,613.31 142,030,051.77 181,841,025.64 111,791,068.89 989,082,894.67

452,374,266.22 3,492,925,784.40 879,092,879.79 416,129,670.83 1,057,882,388.30 1,110,295,691.00 9,501,704.98 12,440,816.63 31,324,159,574.30 4,411,580,075.57 27,079,298,845.61 206,518,118.00 373,237,464.88 152,782,830.44 201,781,919.90 109,776,237.56 821,940,233.87

TOTAL ASSETS

PhP

40,860,400,930.91

40,041,083,998.22

Financial Liabilities at Fair Value through Profit or Loss Deposit Liabilities Bills Payable a) Interbank Loans Payable Due to Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas Other Financial Liabilities Other Liabilities

PhP

58,417,805.96 29,556,376,189.22 1,458,143,232.00 1,458,143,232.00 2,695,778.88 1,112,040,256.94 1,614,937,013.02

63,147,488.07 26,701,899,073.71 4,284,822,838.00 4,284,822,838.00 0.00 413,723,363.64 1,544,152,836.95

TOTAL LIABILITIES

PhP

33,802,664,276.02

33,007,745,600.37

Capital Stock Other Capital Accounts Retained Earnings

PhP

2,533,200,985.17 -54,679,326.11 4,579,214,995.83

2,533,200,985.17 133,073,181.66 4,367,064,231.02

TOTAL STOCKHOLDERS’ EQUITY

PhP

7,057,736,654.89

7,033,338,397.85

TOTAL LIABILITIES AND STOCKHOLDERS’ EQUITY

PhP

40,860,400,930.91

40,041,083,998.22

Financial Standby Letters of Credit Performance Standby Letters of Credit Commercial Letters of Credit Trade Related Guarantees Commitments Spot Foreign Exchange Contracts Trust Department Accounts a) Trust and Other Fiduciary Accounts b) Agency Accounts Derivatives Others

PhP

1,942,023,307.18 97,166,165.21 1,375,410,957.63 6,226,229.89 87,958,400.08 2,801,375,120.86 1,559,012,762.10 705,988,040.03 853,024,722.07 9,841,706,704.78 852,973,690.77

1,875,916,798.27 110,799,367.09 746,397,748.24 3,308,601.46 0 1,348,041,969.60 1,666,699,761.65 736,278,012.90 930,421,748.75 12,136,118,520.98 1,824,158,374.86

TOTAL CONTINGENT ACCOUNTS

PhP

18,563,853,338.50

19,711,441,142.15

PhP PhP

32,003,609,788.18 332,191,884.28

32,101,403,440.39 404,006,401.21

PhP PhP

496,282,907.62 1.55% 164,091,023.34 0.51% 151.78%

402,002,888.64 1.25% -2,003,512.57 -0.01% 193.34%

66.94%

100.50

PhP

662,631,462.19

646,955,432.06

PhP

20,773,175.62

21,633,867.51

PhP

0.06% 0.00

0.07% 0.00

LIABILITIES

STOCKHOLDERS’ EQUITY

CONTINGENT ACCOUNTS

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION Gross Total Loan Portfolio (TLP) Specific Allowance for credit losses on the TLP Non-performing Loans (NPLs) a. Gross NPLs b. Ratio of gross NPLs to gross TLP (%) c. Net NPLs d. Ratio of Net NPLs to gross TLP (%) e. Ratio of total allowance for credit losses to gross NPL (%) f. Ratio of specific allowance for credit losses on the gross TLP to gross NPL (%) Classified Loans & Other Risk Assets, gross of allowance for credit losses DOSRI Loans and receivables, gross of allowance for credit losses Ratio of DOSRI Loans and receivables, gross of allowance for credit losses, to TLP (%) Gross Non-performing DOSRI loans and receivables Ratio of gross non-performing DOSRI loans and receivable to TLP (%) Percent Compliance with Magna Carta (%) a. 8% for Micro and Small Enterprises b. 2% for Medium Enterprises Return on Equity (ROE) (%) Capital Adequacy Ratio (CAR) on Solo Basis a. Total CAR (%) b. TIER 1 Ratio (%) c. CET 1 (%)

0.00%

0.00%

2.37% 3.00% 5.00%

2.81% 3.33% 3.01%

18.79% 17.93% 17.93%

19.40% 18.53% 18.53%

I/ We hereby certify that all matters set forth in this Published Balance Sheet are true and correct, to the best of my/our knowledge and belief.

(Sgd.) ANDREW A. FALCON Chief Finance Officer (Signature Over Printed Name)

(Sgd.) WEI, ERH - CHANG (a.k.a. PETER WEI) President and CEO (Signature Over Printed Name)

CYAN MAGENTA YELLOW BLACK

Sports

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

A8

MONDAY, APRIL 30, 2018

Nadal nears 400th clay court win BARCELONA, Spain – Rafael Nadal racked up the 400th clay court victory of his career on Saturday as he swept past Belgium’s David Goffin 6-4, 6-0 to reach the Barcelona final and stand just one win from an 11th title in the Spanish city.

World number one Nadal also extended his winning streak on clay to 44 consecutive sets as he downed Goffin for a third time in three meetings on the red dirt surface he has dominated for more than a decade.

In Sunday’s final, the 31-year-old Spaniard, fresh from an 11th Monte Carlo title last weekend, will face Greek teenager Stefanos Tsitsipas.

“Very happy,” Nadal, who will be chasing his 77th overall career title, told atpworldtour.com.

“I played I think my best match of the tournament so far, no doubt about that. It was a great first set in my opinion. Both of us played at a very high level.”

Nadal slipped a break down at 0-2 to fourth seed Goffin in the first set on Saturday but that was the only blip on his afternoon.

Goffin saved two match points in the sixth game of the second set but a weary forehand went long on the third and Nadal celebrated with fists punched to the sky.

Nadal’s 400 wins on clay is the fourth best of all time with Guillermo Vilas of Argentina a long way ahead with 659 while Spain’s Manuel Orantes won 502 and Austria’s Thomas Muster racked up 422.

However, Nadal has lost just 35 times on clay in his career, easily giving him the best winning return of 91.9%.

Since his first tour-level clay-court victory over Karel Kucera of Slovakia at the 2003 Monte Carlo Masters, Nadal has also collected 54 clay court trophies.

Ten of those have come at Roland Garros, providing the bulk of his 16 Grand Slam titles.

Nadal said he will not under-estimate Tsitsipas in Sunday’s final.

“Stefanos is a great player. Always the young players have something special and he’s playing with big confidence,” said the top seed.

“He’s playing so well, so it’s going to be a very tough match. I need to be ready to play at the highest level possible.”

Tsitsipas, 19 years old and ranked 63, continued his magical run at the event reaching a first ATP final with a 7-5, 6-3 win over fifth-seed Pablo Carreno Busta. AFP

Alaska Aces forward Calvin Abueva (88) drives past Blackwater Elite defenders including big men James Sena (left) and Poy Erram (7). Alaska beat the Elite, 93-74. PBA

Alaska Aces demolish Blackwater Elite,93-74

By Reuel Vidal

T

HE Alaska Aces started strong, lost a big 30-point lead then stepped on the gas again in the fourth period to post a decisive, 93-74, victory over the Blackwater Elite Sunday, April 29, 2018 in the 2018 Philippine Basketball Assocition Commissioner’s Cup at the Smart Araneta Coliseum.

Simon Enciso converted a free throw then a jumpshot. Vic Manuel likewise converted his own jumper plus the bonus free throw to give the Aces more breathing room as they extended their lead to 16 points, 78-62, with 7:52 to go in the fourth.

Manuel would then put the game away by scoring three consecutive baskets against a field goal by Mac Belo as the Aces hiked their lead to 20 points, 84-64, with 5:05 left to play.

Manuel was selected Best Player of the Game after scoring 27 points (on 13 of 18 shooting from the field) and three rebounds.

With the victory the Aces (1 win, 1 loss) climbed into a tie at fourth place with the Globalport Batang Pier (1-1), the Phoenix Fuelmasters (1-1) and the Meralco Bolts (1-1).

The TNT Katropa (2-0) lead the standings. They are followed by the Rain or Shine Elasto Painters (1-0) and the Co-

lumbian Dyip (2-1).

Bringing up the rear are the NLEX Road Warriors (0-1) and the Elite (0-3).

The San Miguel Beermen, the Magnolia Hotshots and Barangay Ginebra have not yet played this conference.

The Aces thus bounced back from an overtime 103-109 loss to the Rain or Shine Elasto Painters last Friday.

Alaska Aces big man Marion Magat dribbled the length of the court, then relied on his lengthy frame to stretch into a layup past the blocking hands of Poy Erram to push Alaska to a 28-point lead, 47-19, with 3:44 left to play at the half.

Kevin Racal later converted a fastbreak layup as the Aces roared to their biggest lead at the half of 30 points, 49-19.

The Eite, starring import Jarrid Famous, outscored the Aces 10-7 the rest of the way to reduce the Alaska advantage to 25 points at halftime, 54-29.

Celtics oust Bucks to advance to 2nd round of NBA playoffs Shankland

LOS ANGELES—Terry Rozier and Al Horford scored 26 points each as the Boston Celtics routed the Milwaukee Bucks 112-96 in game seven to book their spot in the second round of the NBA playoffs.

The Celtics’ victory in Saturday’s deciding game was their fourth win at the Boston Garden as the home teams won all seven games in the Eastern Confer-

ence series.

“We got it done that is the most important thing,” said Rozier. “Before this series everybody doubted us. But we believed in each other and it worked out for us.”

The storied Celtics franchise is now 36-0 lifetime when leading a playoff series 2-0, and they will try to make it 37 straight when they face the Philadelphia 76ers in the next round. Game one is

Monday in Boston.

“We got to pay attention to details and take away what they want to do,” Rozier said of the next round.

Elsewhere in Oakland, Draymond Green posted his fourth career playoff triple double as the Golden State Warriors rolled over the New Orleans Pelicans 123101 in the opening game of their second round series.

Turn to A7

Seahawks pick one-handed linebacker LOS ANGELES—Shaquem Griffin’s odds-defying football journey is set to continue after the linebacker who lost one hand at the age of four was drafted Saturday by the Seattle Seahawks.

The Seahawks chose Griffin in the fifth round (141st overall), making him the first one-handed player ever selected in National Football League entry draft.

Getting picked was a dream come true for Griffin as he joins his twin brother, Shaquill Griffin, who was drafted by Seattle in the third round last year.

“That was the phone call I was waiting for my entire life,” Shaquem Griffin said regarding the call from Seattle general manager John Schneider when he was chosen. “I literally broke down after that. I couldn’t breathe. I didn’t know how to talk, I mean, I was just lost for words.”

hangs on to solo lead

By Peter Atencio WITH a round left, Grandmaster Samuel Shankland stayed in the solo lead after repulsing Alexander Onischuk last Saturday in the 2018 United States Chess Championships in St. Louis, Missouri.

Shankland found the winning line on the 29th move and forced Onischuk to give up after 49 moves of a Queen’s Gambit Declined.

This kept the 26-year-old Shankland in the solo lead with 7.5 points.

Fabiano Caruana then prevailed over Yaroslav Zherebukh in 31 moves of a King’s Indian Attack.

Caruana has seven points at no. 2 and has distanced himself from Filipino GM Wesley So. So has six points in lone third after he played to another draw with Ray Robson in 40 moves of a Ruy Lopez.

So far, So has racked up two wins and eight draw after nine rounds, and Hikaru Nakamura as his last opponent.

Anthony rejects reserve role with OKC LOS ANGELES—Carmelo Anthony isn’t interested in sticking around in Oklahoma City as a bench player for the Thunder.

A day after the Thunder were eliminated from the first round of the NBA playoffs, Anthony said during his exit interview on Saturday that such a role was out of the question.

“I’m not sacrificing (with) no bench role,” he said. “I think everybody knows I’ve sacrificed damn near everything, and was willing to sacrifice nearly everything for this situation to work out.”

The 33-year-old forward spent significant time on the bench during the Thunder’s first-round loss to the Utah Jazz.

Anthony, who averaged 16.2 points, 5.8 rebounds and 1.3 assists for the season, can opt out of the final year of his contract, which is worth $28 million, and not return to the Thunder in 2018.

And he indicated he was mulling that option after a sometimes frustrating campaign that followed his trade from the New York Knicks on the eve of training camp.

Anthony waived his no-trade clause with the Knicks to make the move happen, with the Thunder hoping he would join established star Russell Westbrook and another OKC newcomer, Paul George, to form a Big Three that would see them challenge the Golden State Warriors and Houston Rockets in the Western Conference.

But Anthony said that with the trio joining forces so close to the start of the season “everything was just thrown together” and his role wasn’t properly defined. AFP

Vandeweghe seeks clay court revenge

Boston Celtics big man Al Horford (42) glides to the basket against the Milwaukee Bucks in Game Seven of Round One of the 2018 NBA Playoffs on April 28, 2018 at the TD Garden in Boston, Massachusetts. AFP

STUTTGART, Germany—CoCo Vandeweghe will be out for clay-court revenge when she faces Karolina Pliskova on Sunday for the Stuttgart Grand Prix title.

The American has risen to the occasion this week on her least-preferred surface, reaching her first clay final by seeing off France’s Caroline Garcia 6-4, 6-2 in Saturday’s semi-finals.

Fifth seed Pliskova, who defeated Vandeweghe in the Stuttgart second round a year ago, booked her spot

with an identical scoreline win over Estonia’s Anett Kontaveit in 65 minutes.

Vandeweghe stands 3-2 in her head-to-head series with Pliskova, but is still bruised by her loss to the slender Czech in the German city 12 months ago.

“She kicked my ass here last year,” the American said. “Hopefully this year will be different.

“I beat her at the US Open last year, but that’s a completely different surface.” AFP

IN BRIEF SEC warns public vs ‘online paluwagan’ THE Securities and Exchange Commission has warned the public against investing in “online paluwagan.”

The SEC, in an advisory posted on its website, said it received information that individuals or group of persons were enticing the public to invest in what is obviously a “Ponzi Scheme” in the guise of “online paluwagan” through social media accounts, pages, or groups.

The scheme, according to the information received by SEC, involves a scheduled collection of money from each member by one or few administrators with an expectation to distribute the funds with interests to all members on their respective payout schedules.

The persons recruiting or soliciting investments were promising huge returns to their members within one to 90 days with interests ranging from 10 percent to 757 percent.

The SEC said the transactions between the administrators and members were made through remittances, wire transfer and cash deposits.

“Unfortunately, many of their respective members incurred huge loss of money and the administrators were reportedly unable to refund investments,” the SEC said.

Jenniffer B. Austria

Air Asia PH launches Clark-Taiwan flights AIRASIA Philippines is set to launch Clark-to-Taiwan flights on July 12, Clark International Airport Corp. said over the weekend CIAC president and chief executive Alexander Cauguiran said AirAsia would begin the thrice weekly flights from Clark International Airport to the Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport.

Taoyuan is the international airport serving the capital city of Taipei and northern Taiwan, and Taiwan’s largest and busiest airport.

“This new development is an opportunity to explore the beauty of both the Philippines and Taiwan and will benefit travelers, tourists, OFWs and their families, as well,” Cauguiran said.

“The Taipei flights are also advantageous to numerous Taiwanese locators and other business travelers based in Clark and Subic,” he added.

AirAsia also services domestic routes such as Kalibo, Caticlan, Puerto Princesa, Iloilo, Tacloban and Davao through Clark airport. Darwin G. Amojelar

Business Duterte wants Bulacan airport finished quickly P

By Julito G. Rada

RESIDENT Rodrigo Duterte wants the P735.6-billion Bulacan airport of San Miguel Corp. and other major infrastructure projects to be implemented quickly to fulfill his promise under his leadership, Finance Secretary Carlos Dominguez III said over the weekend.

Dominguez made the statement after the National Economic and Development Authority board headed by the president approved the construction of a new airport in the coastal town of Bulakan in Bulacan province.

“The president wants all infrastructure projects to be done quickly. He doesn’t discriminate whether it’s this or that. He just wants all the infra to be done quickly because he believes that one of the reasons he was elected is to make life easier for people and this requires precisely better infra development,” Dominguez told reporters in a news briefing.

The Neda board also approved Clark International Airport expansion project,

Ambal-Simuay River and Rio Grande de Mindanao River Flood Control project, Pasig-Marikina River and Manggahan Floodway bridges construction project and Davao Food Complex.

The unsolicited proposal of San Miguel involves the construction, operation and maintenance of Bulacan International Airport over an area spanning 2,500 hectares.

It includes the construction of a terminal, parallel runways and airport toll road. Once completed, the project will be able to accommodate 100 million passengers yearly by its opening year of 2023. It will also include an 8.4-kilometer airport toll road.

Bulakan, a first-class town, is located

northwest of Obando and Valenzuela City and is only 35 kilometers north of Manila.

Dominguez said while the project was approved, the Neda board wanted to review the final terms of the concession agreement.

San Miguel’s unsolicited proposal would be subject to Swiss Challenge which means other groups will be invited to make competing offers, with the proponent given the right to match any better proposal.

“I suppose the Swiss challenge has to go to another review. That’s what I interpret it to be,” Dominguez said, adding that Transportation Secretary Tugade had a timetable for the review of the concession agreement.

Dominguez said San Miguel was not prohibited from teaming up with other groups for the airport project.

“A partnership is obviously allowed for that… This project is a P735-billion project and we must make sure the proponent has the financial and technical capability to carry it out…

That’s all,” he said.

Govt bares schedule of LNG construction THE government plans to start construction of a planned $2-billion integrated liquefied natural gas terminal in the last quarter of the year or early 2019, an energy official said over the weekend.

“We need it to realize fourth quarter of this year but of course we’re also looking at early quarter or first semester of next year. We’re looking at hopefully before the end of this year or early next year, to have the groundbreaking for this project,” Energy Undersecretary Donato Marcos said.

The department earlier set the target for the groundbreaking of the country’s first LNG terminal in June with completion scheduled by 2020 to 2021 in time for the start of decline of production of the Malampaya gas project in northwest Palawan.

Marcos said the Malampaya gas project was expected to supply an equivalent of just 1,000 megawatts of power capacity by 2024, or less than a third of its current supply. Alena Mae S. Flores

CHI-CEBU PROPERTY MERGER. Cebu Holdings Inc., a subsidiary of developer Ayala Land Inc., is merging with subsidiary Cebu Property Ventures and Development Corp. to consolidate the portfolio of the largest, full-time real estate developer in Cebu. It is focused on developing sustainable mixed-use estates with commercial, residential and office components such as Cebu Business Park and Cebu I.T. Park in Cebu City, Gatewalk Central in Mandaue City and the recently launched Seagrove in Lapu-Lapu City. Shown are CHI president Aniceto Bisnar Jr. (fourth from left), CHI chairman Anna Ma. Margarita Dy (fifth from left) and other members of the CHI board at the annual stockholders’ meeting that approved the merger.

PH remains out of intellectual piracy watch list for fifth year

By Othel V. Campos THE Philippines successfully stayed out of the US intellectual piracy watch list for five straight years.

The Intellectual Property Office of the Philippines said the country was not included in the latest Special 301 Report of the United States Trade Representative which identified economies with weak intellectual property rights enforcement.

“The enduring campaign drive of the Philippines in fighting counterfeiting and piracy is an effort that the United States, one of the Philippines’ largest trading partners, continues to recognize,” said IPOPHL director general

Josephine Santiago.

“This bodes well for the country especially that at this time we have embarked on, and will continuously explore, innovative ways in introducing to the public the importance of intellectual property, in strengthening our engagement with stakeholders, and in the need to fight the proliferation and patronizing of fake products,” Santiago said.

“The message is clear and encouraging that we are going in the right direction,” she said.

The county was first listed in the USTR Special 301 Watch List in 1994, but was gradually eased out of its “Priority Watch List” category to the regular “Watch List” until it was finally removed in 2014.

Ray S. Eñano, Editor Roderick T. dela Cruz, Assistant Editor business@manilastandard.net extrastory2000@gmail.com MONDAY, APRIL 30, 2018

High oil prices seen to widen trade deficit, hike inflation RISING oil prices may widen the Philippines trade deficit and push up inflation rate because the country imports most of its oil requirements, Japanese global financial firm Nomura said over the weekend.

Nomura said in a report the Philippines was one of the countries considered “clear-cut losers” as higher oil prices would likely impact the economy.

“Importing almost all of its oil needs, we estimate a $10/bbl increase in oil prices could increase the trade deficit by 0.5 percent of GDP, which would significantly pressure a current account deficit that already reached 0.8 percent of GDP in 2017 due to strong import demand,” Nomura said.

“We assess the potential impact of sustained, higher oil prices on 26 emerging market economies. The clear-cut winners include Saudi Arabia, Nigeria, Colombia and Malaysia, and the clear-cut losers are Turkey, India and the Philippines,” Nomura said.

The trade-in-goods deficit in 2017 increased 15.9 percent to $41.5 billion as the growth in imports of goods of 14.2 percent outpaced that of exports of goods at 12.8 percent.

Trade deficit surged 72.8 percent to $3.06 billion in February from $1.77-billion deficit a year ago as imports jumped 18.6 percent while exports declined 1.8 percent.

Total exports went down from $4.74 billion in February 2017 to $4.66 billion in February 2018. Imports increased to $7.72 billion in February 2018 from $6.51 billion in February 2017.

Total external trade in goods in February reached $12.38 billion, reflecting a positive growth of 10 percent from $11.26 billion recorded in the same month in 2017.

Nomura said aside from widening the trade deficit, the higher oil prices could also trigger an acceleration in inflation.

“CPI inflation―which rose to 4.3 percent year-on-year under the new 2012 base year in March―could rise by 0.2 pp with a relatively quick passthrough given no fiscal subsidies,” Nomura said. Julito G. Rada

Govt may develop own bond exchange—Dominguez THE government may develop its own bond exchange to develop the capital market, if the shareholders of Philippine Dealing System refuse to sell their stake to state-run Land Bank of the Philippines, Finance Secretary Carlos Dominguez III said over the weekend.

“What we are doing is we said LandBank can purchase the shares so we can push it ahead. Now we are offering to buy the shares… We are not confiscating anybody’s shares. It’s up to them to sell it to us,” Dominguez said.

“If they don’t want to sell it, well fine.

It will be very clear now who doesn’t want to develop the capital market and who are those shareholders of PSE [Philippine Stock Exchange] and PDS. Now that is not going to stop us from doing other things we can do,” he said.

“If they don’t want to sell it, then we will set up the bond system. We can do it. We will have a department in Land-

Bank or DBP [Development Bank of the Philippines] or both together that will promote bonds to the MSMEs [micro, small and medium enterprises]. We can do it,” Dominguez said.

Dominguez said if the other parties would not cooperate, that would not be enough reason for the government to stop from fulfilling its obligation to improve the capital market.

“We are making a fair offer. [If] they don’t want to sell… we cannot force them, we will not confiscate the shares from them. But it will be very clear to the public who doesn’t want to develop the capital market...That will not stop us from developing it,” Dominguez said.

LandBank issued “fresh offer letters” to all shareholders of the Philippine Dealing System and Holdings Corp. last week to inform them of its intention to acquire the majority stake in the fixedincome exchange.

LandBank president Alex Buenaventura said at the sidelines of an event at the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas the bank opted to again send letters to PDS shareholders “because [in] the first round which we did last March, not too many accepted our offer.”

LandBank earlier issued offer letters to all shareholders of PDS, but only one accepted the offer.

“We’re quite confident because the PSE has already pulled out from the intent to acquire majority of PDS so that brings LandBank as the only interested party now. Our offer is P360 [per share], which is higher than their offer before at P320 and our offer is in cash. PSE’s offer was in stocks,” Buenaventura said.

Buenaventura said with PSE pulling out of the plan, it would encourage many PDS shareholders to sell to LandBank. He said LandBank would keep its offer to buy the shares at P360 apiece. Julito G. Rada

Tripping of Sual power plant results in 10-minute blackout

By Alena Mae S. Flores

TULLAHAN RIVER REHABILITATION. Malabon Mayor Antolin Oreta III (center), Maynilad Water Services Inc. president and chief executive Ramoncito Fernandez (seated left) and Dampalit kagawad Jaime Guerrero (seated, right) sign a memorandum of understanding to clean up, rehabilitate and preserve Tullahan River through reforestation and river stabilization initiatives in the city. Tullahan River is one of the major tributaries of Manila Bay. Under the agreement, Maynilad will plant about 50,000 mangrove propagules in Malabon.

B

THE Luzon grid suffered a second round of temporary system “imbalance” Sunday following the sudden outage of a unit of Sual power plant in Pangasinan province.

Power retailer Manila Electric Co. said the grid imbalance resulted in power losses in some areas lasting 10 to 15 minutes, but the power supply was immediately restored at 10:52 a.m.

“We apologize for the inconvenience. The power interruption in your area may have been affected by the temporary system imbalance due to a sudden power plant outage and may last for 10 to 15 minutes,” Meralco said in an advisory.

Grid operator National Grid Corp. of the Philippines said it monitored a ca-

pacity loss of 628 megawatts from the Luzon grid because of the tripping of a generation plant at 10:32 a.m.

Sources said unit 2 of the 1,200MW Sual power plant in Panganisan tripped. The Sual plant was built in 1996 and started delivering power in 1999.

“The generation loss resulted in automatic load dropping throughout the Luzon grid. NGCP has restored transmission services in all areas as of 10:52 a.m.,” NGCP said.

It was the second time in a week, when a major power plant tripped.

NGCP monitored a capacity loss of 653 MW in the Luzon grid on April 25, because of the tripping of generation plants.

The generation loss also resulted in load dropping throughout the Lu-

zon grid but transmission services were restored in all areas at 4:09 p.m. on April 25.

NGCP projected a peak demand of 10,164 MW for the Luzon grid Sunday versus available capacity of 11,251 MW, which meant there would be a reserve capacity of 1,087 MW. NGCP expects demand to peak in May. NGCP announced in January that peak demand would likely reach 10,561 MW for Luzon, 2,143 MW for Visayas and 2,064 MW in Mindanao.

“We breached the 10,000 MW demand in power for the first time this year. With an average growth rate of around 5 percent from 2014 to 2017, we are expecting Luzon’s peak demand in 2018 to remain in that growth rate, also in May,” it said.

B2

Business

MONDAY, APRIL 30, 2018 extrastory2000@gmail.com

Stock market to track sideways

By Jenniffer B. Austria

S

HARE prices at the Philippine Stock Exchange are expected to move sideways this week as the tug of war between the bulls and bears continues to keep the market in check.

Luis Limlingan, managing director for Regina Capital Development Corp., said some optimism came out from the market last week with S&P’s positive outlook on the Philippines and the government’s approval of P1 trillion worth of infrastructure projects.

Limlingan, however, said it was still premature to call it a reversal as investors would still monitor the release of the April inflation rate figures as well as the first-quarter earning of listed companies.

BDO Unibank Inc chief investment strategist Jonathan Ravelas said the market remained concern about the weak peso and the rising inflation rate, which were squeezing consumer spending.

“Chartwise, the week’s close at 7,721.02 highlights

near-term support emerged at the 7,500/7,550 levels. Expect some pullback towards the 8,000 levels.

However, the market is still vulnerable towards the 7,000/7,200 levels,” Ravelas said.

The PSEi last week closed nearly flat at 7,721.02 amid volatile trading, while the broader All Shares Index added 0.33 percent to close at 4,671.83.

Only the holding firms and property issues among the sectoral indices posted week-on-week gains of 1.56 percent and 0.60 percent, respectively, while the financials, industrial, services and mining and oil ended in the negative.

Foreign investors remained net sellers for the week

by P2.08 billion, while the average daily value traded stood at P5.98 billion from the previous week’s P7.51 billion.

Weekly top price gainers were Cemex Holdings Philippines Inc., which rose 4.8 percent to P3.46; Ayala Corp., which advanced 4.5 percent to P960; and Eagle Cement Corp., which gained 3.9 percent to P15.58.

Weekly top price losers were Ginebra San Miguel Inc., which declined 19 percent to P20.65; Nickel Asia Corp., which dropped 16.6 percent to P5.15; and

DMCI Holdings Inc., increased 4.9 percent to P11.50.

Wall Street stocks, meanwhile, finished a volatile session little changed Friday following mixed corporate earnings and a better-than-expected report on firstquarter US economic growth.

Earnings remained at the forefront of the investor agenda as Amazon rocketed higher following strong results while disappointing figures from ExxonMobil weighed on the Dow. US growth came in at 2.3 percent in the JanuaryMarch period, according to government data, down from 2.9 percent in the final quarter of 2017 but better than analyst expectations.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average dipped 0.1 percent to end the week at 24,311.19.

The broad-based S&P 500 rose 0.1 percent to finish at 2,669.91, while the tech-rich Nasdaq Composite Index increased a hair to 7,119.80.

US stocks have had a choppy week, alternating between worries about higher interest rates and ambivalence over corporate earnings that have been mostly good but sometimes not quite as strong as hoped for.

With AFP

MANILA STANDARD BUSINESS WEEKLY STOCKS REVIEW STOCKS

APRIL 23-27, 2018 Close Volume

Value

Asia United Bank Banco de Oro Unibank Inc. Bank of PI BDO Leasing & Fin. INc. Bright Kindle Resources China Bank Citystate Savings COL Financial Eastwest Bank Ferronoux Holding Filipino Fund Inc. I-Remit Inc. Manulife Fin. Corp.

MEDCO Holdings Metrobank Natl. Reinsurance Corp.

PB Bank Phil Bank of Comm Phil. National Bank Phil. Savings Bank Philippine trust Co. PSE Inc. RCBC `A’ Security Bank Sun Life Financial Union Bank Vantage Equities

58.9 130.00 103.00 3.18 1.45 34.4 6.47 16.32 16.22 3.48 8.78 1.53 880.00 0.580 83.5 1.07 12.2 23.80 52.45 81 108 220 38 214 1905.00 90.20 1.2

202,190 15,241,820 4,886,410 204,000 473,000 1,099,500 4,800 880,200 11,220,400 135,000 5,500 31,000 740 4,105,000 11,394,020 2,254,000 36,200 4,000 543,660 12,310 3,510 19,450 1,315,100 2,026,340 230 244,250 779,000

FINANCIAL 11,787,499.50 1,988,645,695.00 513,247,592.00 619,990.00 677,010.00 37,590,745.00 31,154.00 14,513,566.00 181,058,796.00 466,370.00 47,306.00 47,470.00 641,555.00 2,273,270.00 948,602,920.00 2,430,260.00 441,642.00 9,340.00 28,626,101.00 995,506.50 384,266.00 4,354,510.00 50,676,935.00 439,255,618.00 434,625.00 22,258,589.00 939,780.00

Aboitiz Power Corp.

Agrinurture Inc. Alliance Tuna Intl Inc. Alsons Cons.

Asiabest Group Basic Energy Corp.

Bogo Medelin C. Azuc De Tarlac Cemex Holdings Century Food Chemphil Cirtek Holdings (Chips) Conc. Aggr. ‘A’ Conc. Aggr. ‘B’ Concepcion Crown Asia Da Vinci Capital Del Monte DNL Industries Inc. Eagle Cement EEI Emperador Energy Devt. Corp. (EDC) Euro-Med Lab First Gen Corp.

First Holdings ‘A’ Ginebra San Miguel Inc. Holcim Philippines Inc. Integ. Micro-Electronics Ionics Inc Jollibee Foods Corp.

Liberty Flour LMG Chemicals Mabuhay Vinyl Macay Holdings Manila Water Co. Inc. Maxs Group Megawide MG Holdings Mla. Elect. Co `A’ Panasonic Mfg Phil. Corp.

Pepsi-Cola Products Phil.

Petroenergy Res. Corp.

Petron Corporation Phil H2O Philweb.Com Inc. B Phinma Corporation Phinma Energy Phoenix Petroleum Phils.

Pilipinas Shell Pryce Corp. `A’ RFM Corporation Roxas and Co. Roxas Holdings SFA Semicon Shakeys Pizza SMC Food and Beverage SPC Power Corp.

Swift Foods, Inc. TKC Steel Corp.

Universal Robina Victorias Milling Vitarich Corp.

Vulcan Ind’l.

38.7 14.36 0.61 1.27 20.45 0.230 117 24.00 3.46 16 250 50 71 94 60 1.96 5.48 9.9 10.700 15.58 11.90 7.18 5.40 1.79 15.6 64.45 20.65 9.25 15.28 2.050 282.00 50.50 4.87 3.04 17.84 25.45 14.44 23.15 0.192 314.20 7.09 2.6 4.75 9.19 5.4 11.9 7.90 1.44 12.48 52 6.1 4.80 1.96 3.35 1.86 14 65 5.44 0.137 0.99 138.3 2.6 3.5 0.81

6,009,300 3,473,400 26,029,000 1,197,000 168,300 24,180,000 630 175,500 57,824,000 6,367,500 2,430 3,124,600 6,920 280 6,780 1,010,000 250,300 77,100 11,727,900 18,052,000 11,204,600 3,209,800 9,743,900 6,000 2,578,900 670,830 864,000 349,500 4,466,200 10,691,000 4,005,330 42,780 848,500 27,000 1,500 4,584,100 478,300 22,592,000 3,490,000 1,623,620 242,900 11,841,000 971,000 10,370,700 261,500 73,900 91,500 2,006,000 205,300 2,563,290 88,100 376,000 157,000 42,000 1,479,000 1,895,700 1,975,410 378,800 3,030,000 536,000 9,781,830 76,000 345,949,000 21,097,000

INDUSTRIAL 232,783,650.00 49,849,042.00 15,375,550.00 1,513,900.00 3,436,234.00 5,607,290.00 76,585.00 4,291,410.00 192,641,320.00 101,974,620.00 610,436.00 150,818,985.00 497,538.50 26,367.00 407,148.50 1,955,000.00 1,300,167.00 769,097.00 121,194,564.00 277,648,548.00 129,481,252.00 23,187,718.00 52,723,114.00 10,220.00 40,058,328.00 43,433,438.50 19,068,945.00 3,251,871.00 68,893,862.00 21,431,850.00 1,138,112,296.00 2,122,040.00 4,184,401.00 85,260.00 26,452.00 116,199,195.00 7,027,378.00 528,239,530.00 668,400.00 498,446,352.00 1,683,574.00 30,078,800.00 4,697,440.00 94,725,456.00 1,347,345.00 881,992.00 722,292.00 2,934,630.00 2,468,078.00 133,862,898.50 538,235.00 1,816,120.00 299,620.00 139,440.00 2,787,080.00 26,245,144.00 129,435,192.50 2,069,618.00 404,310.00 531,850.00 1,345,214,974.00 198,170.00 1,104,015,110.00 16,892,640.00

Abacus Cons. `A’ Aboitiz Equity Alliance Global Inc. Anglo Holdings A Anscor `A’ ATN Holdings A ATN Holdings B Ayala Corp `A’ BHI Holdings Inc. Cosco Capital DMCI Holdings Filinvest Dev. Corp.

Forum Pacific GT Capital House of Inv. JG Summit Holdings Jolliville Holdings Lodestar Invt. Holdg.Corp.

Lopez Holdings Corp.

LT Group Mabuhay Holdings `A’ Metro Pacific Inv. Corp.

MJCI Investments Inc. Pacifica `A’ Prime Media Hldg Prime Orion Republic Glass ‘A’ San Miguel Corp `A’ Seafront `A’ SM Investments Inc. Solid Group Inc. South China Res. Inc. Top Frontier Transgrid Unioil Res. & Hldgs Wellex Industries Zeus Holdings

0.295 69.60 12.96 0.89 6.52 0.640 0.640 960 1703.00 6.65 11.50 7.58 0.220 1047 7.04 62.60 5 0.65 4.53 19.7 0.570 4.82 3.36 0.0410 1.150 3.310 2.57 139.30 2.57 910.00 1.72 0.79 265.000 590.00 0.2390 0.3000 0.193

1,440,000 3,779,980 40,664,200 76,000 192,800 20,760,000 5,737,000 1,429,470 10 20,886,500 21,788,800 1,600 40,480,000 506,685 18,500 8,497,250 300 370,000 2,184,000 7,375,100 9,902,000 188,445,000 5,000 27,400,000 1,438,000 42,218,000 81,000 1,421,570 7,000 1,114,790 1,104,000 343,000 19,230 1,580 790,000 296,090,000 500,000

HOLDING FIRMS 428,600.00 257,167,019.50 530,575,888.00 68,000.00 1,241,832.00 12,769,440.00 3,591,680.00 1,312,729,195.00 17,030.00 137,108,952.00 256,097,624.00 12,101.00 9,381,110.00 518,815,720.00 124,188.00 512,830,677.50 1,500.00 227,440.00 9,981,570.00 142,584,202.00 5,637,000.00 864,251,220.00 16,800.00 1,109,200.00 1,642,390.00 145,640,000.00 211,060.00 198,127,667.00 18,090.00 997,498,665.00 1,868,560.00 274,740.00 5,003,066.00 890,630.00 184,240.00 82,157,410.00 98,300.00

8990 HLDG A. Brown Co., Inc. Anchor Land Holdings Inc. Araneta Prop `A’ Arthaland Corp.

Ayala Land `B’ Belle Corp. `A’ CEB Landmasters Cebu Holdings Cebu Prop. `A’ Cebu Prop. `B’ Century Property City & Land Dev. Cityland Dev. `A’ Crown Equities Inc. Cyber Bay Corp.

Double Dragon Empire East Land Ever Gotesco Filinvest Land,Inc. Global-Estate Interport `A’ Megaworld MRC Allied Ind. Phil. Estates Corp.

Phil. Realty `A’ Phil. Tob. Flue Cur & Redry

6.800 1.08 14.86 2.100 0.830 41.000 3.34 4.51 6.07 6.3 6.26 0.450 1.02 0.970 0.249 0.455 31 0.670 0.120 1.67 1.27 1.07 4.38 0.590 0.4650 0.560 29.05

2,276,100 124,318,000 59,200 82,000 5,478,000 39,427,800 3,121,000 3,271,000 228,900 25,200 300 44,410,000 153,000 642,000 147,910,000 860,000 806,300 2,831,000 1,110,000 35,892,000 12,710,000 33,486,000 59,111,000 332,149,000 137,520,000 233,691,000 100

PROPERTY 15,444,057.00 133,752,600.00 823,184.00 167,240.00 4,512,330.00 1,600,938,620.00 10,489,110.00 14,575,970.00 1,388,405.00 159,080.00 1,878.00 19,754,950.00 156,200.00 622,190.00 36,135,420.00 383,550.00 25,406,470.00 1,911,830.00 133,440.00 60,430,390.00 16,233,530.00 14,360,200.00 290,985,740.00 185,662,940.00 65,520,400.00 142,999,750.00 2,905.00

APRIL 16-20, 2018 Close Volume

Value

59 134.00 106.00 3.14 1.48 34.4 6.7 16.66 17 3.4 8.87 1.53 850.00 0.560 82.9 1.09 12.2 23.90 54.10 87.75 110 228 43.95 225 1890.00 90.60 1.22

89,210 14,216,580 6,294,300 366,000 966,000 1,295,500 74,400 1,313,800 7,962,100 68,000 2,200 266,000 530 11,739,000 14,722,060 5,914,700 72,600 5,300 655,890 30 4,000 23,340 40,900 2,203,330 350 100,950 755,000

5,249,105.00 1,908,273,311.00 655,931,841.00 1,100,380.00 1,418,790.00 45,084,950.00 512,076.00 21,915,732.00 139,956,430.00 221,680.00 18,823.00 418,830.00 452,500.00 5,872,680.00 1,217,470,770.50 6,549,796.00 886,082.00 127,030.00 35,660,464.00 2,635.50 427,587.00 5,259,106.00 1,785,360.00 493,344,080.00 665,175.00 9,105,442.50 935,350.00

39.7 14.38 0.53 1.26 21 0.224 140 25.15 3.3 16.2 288 49 71.05 96.9 60 1.93 5.23 10 10.440 15 11.60 7.21 5.47 1.66 16.3 65.4 25.50 9.37 16.34 2.150 291.00 58.50 5.1 3.19 17.84 25.05 14.84 23.85 0.190 321.60 7.68 2.46 4.97 9.19 4.98

7,670,000 5,707,500 22,330,000 2,996,000 206,500 14,480,000 410 349,700 21,606,000 5,781,500 680 2,672,430 14,220 300 3,002,090 2,226,000 346,400 26,000 10,218,100 8,151,200 2,266,300 6,567,400 39,027,800 18,000 4,448,700 812,100 201,200 280,600 3,278,200 15,950,000 4,352,820 60 3,568,900 83,000 1,000 5,723,400 528,500 23,875,500 5,100,000 1,370,600 292,900 8,751,000 1,932,300 17,068,600 490,200

290,814,680.00 80,798,216.00 12,511,700.00 3,767,450.00 4,247,326.00 3,266,490.00 57,662.00 9,464,265.00 74,513,950.00 93,969,668.00 191,416.00 133,237,653.50 1,047,431.00 26,836.00 183,130,499.50 4,243,960.00 1,824,537.00 261,160.00 107,702,214.00 123,271,564.00 26,184,706.00 47,507,109.00 212,131,884.00 29,990.00 72,438,492.00 52,743,182.50 5,124,595.00 2,641,454.00 53,427,026.00 34,977,650.00 1,255,184,474.00 3,538.50 18,851,241.00 271,380.00 17,840.00 148,021,665.00 7,955,186.00 548,110,570.00 971,750.00 442,322,712.00 2,323,815.00 21,147,540.00 9,719,482.00 157,929,974.00 2,452,782.00

7.75 1.50 12.12 52.2 6.25 4.78 2 3.31 1.92 13.86 66 5.48 0.134 1.02 138 2.69 3.16 0.83

174,900 3,731,000 104,300 5,659,370 174,600 1,694,000 704,000 95,000 7,212,000 901,000 1,211,240 596,400 5,370,000 463,000 8,965,800 57,000 631,092,000 50,450,000

1,377,827.00 5,654,040.00 1,273,148.00 296,767,358.00 1,086,563.00 7,832,270.00 1,393,040.00 327,260.00 14,442,100.00 12,660,794.00 80,532,016.50 3,250,432.00 719,880.00 463,540.00 1,250,128,393.00 151,050.00 2,139,382,500.00 42,882,140.00

0.295 68.65 13.14 0.90 6.48 0.600 0.640 919 1703.00 6.76 12.10 7.35 0.198 1045 6.90 61.05 5 0.65 4.79 19.16 0.610 4.64 3.36 0.0410 1.160 3.420 2.54 140.90 2.6 901.00 1.67 0.81 266.000 550.00 0.2300 0.2000 0.199

1,546,000 2,977,160 75,789,500 325,000 94,300 24,408,000 17,169,000 1,924,110 5 8,245,500 27,559,500 606,100 280,000 648,560 223,900 14,619,860 1,700 1,110,000 1,862,000 13,579,500 50,646,000 255,499,000 12,000 69,400,000 5,704,000 38,783,000 270,000 752,740 46,000 1,189,897 2,070,000 400,000 15,880 2,930 2,160,000 1,750,000 1,250,000

846,850.00 204,583,408.50 1,016,641,680.00 292,700.00 603,857.00 15,021,370.00 10,894,580.00 1,761,102,455.00 8,515.00 57,262,326.00 332,044,582.00 4,586,313.00 54,340.00 695,003,630.00 1,521,080.00 896,556,682.50 8,418.00 697,210.00 8,906,090.00 250,828,296.00 30,742,260.00 1,190,693,990.00 42,060.00 2,879,700.00 6,685,270.00 132,358,330.00 695,200.00 105,861,618.00 119,390.00 1,284,138,545.00 3,433,970.00 325,770.00 4,155,536.00 1,662,180.00 508,800.00 352,080.00 242,120.00

6.700 1.02 14.68 2.030 0.830 41.100 3.44 4.51 6.06 6.42

2,328,100 17,265,000 277,400 690,000 13,780,000 65,739,800 1,655,000 5,381,000 214,000 7,700

15,622,263.00 17,057,900.00 4,190,894.00 1,423,000.00 11,470,060.00 2,646,316,545.00 5,729,210.00 24,456,580.00 1,309,062.00 49,154.00

0.440 1.03 0.980 0.265 0.460 31.55 0.690 0.121 1.71 1.30 1.12 4.4 0.550 0.4000 0.680 30.00

184,997,000 206,000 869,000 178,120,000 640,000 2,193,400 7,749,000 1,250,000 26,943,000 19,805,000 34,770,000 115,739,000 463,655,000 8,100,000 193,251,000 5,700

88,393,925.00 216,400.00 855,930.00 46,656,100.00 285,900.00 67,139,990.00 5,316,500.00 152,840.00 46,340,270.00 26,393,350.00 37,847,790.00 506,258,660.00 263,266,220.00 3,213,350.00 122,346,390.00 177,200.00

STOCKS

APRIL 23-27, 2018 Close Volume

APRIL 16-20, 2018 Close Volume

Value

Primex Corp.

Robinson’s Land `B’ Rockwell Shang Properties Inc. SM Prime Holdings Sta. Lucia Land Inc. Starmalls Suntrust Home Dev. Inc. Vista Land & Lifescapes

4 18.40 2.06 3.2 33.90 1.02 10.64 0.820 6.550

4,588,000 18,769,400 3,874,000 459,000 25,365,400 3,897,000 4,291,300 217,000 25,725,300

18,354,830.00 340,547,462.00 7,848,460.00 1,464,670.00 840,677,150.00 1,926,780.00 44,404,519.00 172,740.00 167,225,052.00

2GO Group’ ABS-CBN Acesite Hotel APC Group, Inc. Apollo Global Asian Terminals Inc. Berjaya Phils. Inc. Bloomberry Boulevard Holdings Cebu Air Inc. (5J) Centro Esc. Univ.

Chelsea DFNN Inc. Discovery World Easy Call “Common” FEUI Globe Telecom GMA Network Inc. Golden Haven Harbor Star I.C.T.S.I. Imperial Res. `A’ IPeople Inc. `A’ IPM Holdings Island Info ISM Communications Jackstones LBC Express Leisure & Resorts Lorenzo Shipping Macroasia Corp.

Manila Broadcasting Manila Bulletin Manila Jockey Melco Crown Metro Retail NOW Corp.

Pacific Online Sys. Corp.

PAL Holdings Inc. Paxys Inc. Phil. Racing Club Phil. Seven Corp.

Philweb.Com Inc. PLDT Common PremiereHorizon Premium Leisure Puregold Robinsons RTL SBS Phil. Corp.

SSI Group STI Holdings Transpacific Broadcast Travellers Waterfront Phils.

Wilcon Depot

16.4 27.7 1.38 0.475 0.048 12.5 5.35 12.02 0.0530 86.85 8.71 6.98 7.20 2.12 22.60 940 1509 5.60 306.20 4.14 84.25 2.31 13.3 8.29 0.114 1.4100 3.4 14.98 4.76 1.03 26.05 18.36 0.490 4.36 6.85 3.14 8.060 11.54 9.79 2.94 8.11 125.00 6.01 1434.00 0.430 1.010 47.50 88.60 6.79 2.36 1.270 0.425 4.79 0.870 10.900

466,900 179,600 1,305,000 13,090,000 61,200,000 761,400 100 41,329,700 65,070,000 398,900 21,500 4,283,500 165,600 58,000 197,600 20 213,700 1,858,200 36,030 7,791,000 7,036,810 61,000 281,600 44,000 14,340,000 462,000 210,000 25,900 19,724,200 1,102,000 13,239,200 800 194,000 682,000 12,329,800 4,215,000 79,222,000 17,600 14,500 145,000 600 506,000 2,872,600 252,810 26,870,000 6,578,000 12,282,900 5,912,090 897,600 1,630,000 13,990,000 64,900,000 42,633,000 49,563,000 8,227,700

SERVICES 7,321,190.00 4,996,595.00 1,813,670.00 6,134,500.00 2,894,100.00 9,537,338.00 535.00 508,048,578.00 3,586,590.00 35,113,774.00 187,376.00 28,740,177.00 1,205,283.00 127,170.00 4,554,115.00 18,800.00 321,605,060.00 10,393,561.00 10,949,412.00 32,882,900.00 605,611,279.00 141,220.00 3,745,254.00 364,560.00 1,622,540.00 643,050.00 693,900.00 382,862.00 95,800,982.00 1,111,640.00 349,966,375.00 13,800.00 96,300.00 2,967,200.00 83,174,023.00 13,444,040.00 632,132,295.00 198,374.00 138,208.00 406,370.00 4,866.00 64,221,202.00 17,741,006.00 356,616,465.00 11,180,650.00 6,690,920.00 583,729,470.00 520,887,765.50 6,211,645.00 3,805,290.00 18,069,390.00 27,386,200.00 208,753,020.00 44,625,000.00 89,349,134.00

Abra Mining Apex `A’ Atlas Cons. `A’ Atok-Big Wedge `A’ Benguet Corp `A’ Benguet Corp `B’ Century Peak Metals Hldgs Coal Asia Dizon Ferronickel Geograce Res. Phil. Inc. Lepanto `A’ Lepanto `B’ Manila Mining `A’ Manila Mining `B’ Marcventures Hldgs., Inc. Nickelasia Nihao Mineral Resources Omico Oriental Peninsula Res. Oriental Pet. `A’ Oriental Pet. `B’ Philex `A’ PhilexPetroleum Philodrill Corp. `A’ Phinma Petro Semirara Corp.

United Paragon

0.0030 1.66 4.36 18.48 1.6200 1.6000 1.62 0.300 7.73 2.160 0.206 0.140 0.145 0.009 0.0094 1.49 5.15 1.18 0.5400 0.9100 0.0120 0.0120 5.60 13.50 0.0120 2.1300 30.25 0.0063

MINING & OIL 3,552,000,000 8,933,300.00 27,926,000 46,505,790.00 1,272,000 5,614,530.00 13,100 235,478.00 332,000 537,060.00 137,000 219,300.00 3,114,000 5,087,520.00 1,200,000 359,700.00 16,400 124,325.00 50,780,000 110,848,560.00 210,000 42,760.00 14,140,000 1,990,410.00 12,480,000 1,812,510.00 103,000,000 918,500.00 4,000,000 37,600.00 1,448,000 2,108,600.00 21,550,400 83,338,860.00 294,000 354,230.00 1,516,000 808,800.00 12,638,000 12,504,240.00 510,900,000 6,291,300.00 22,300,000 267,700.00 430,200 2,406,776.00 10,602,300 140,456,348.00 30,300,000 354,400.00 163,000 356,130.00 4,796,100 143,418,420.00 17,000,000 107,500.00

ABS-CBN Holdings Corp.

Alco Preferred B Ayala Corp. Pref `B1’ Ayala Corp. Pref ‘B2’ DD PREF First Gen F First Gen G GLOBE PREF P GMA Holdings Inc. GTCAP PREF A GTCAP PREF B House Preferred Leisure and Resort MWIDE PREF PCOR-Preferred A PCOR-Preferred B PNX PREF 3A PNX PREF 3B SMC FB PREF 2 SMC Preferred B SMC Preferred C SMC Preferred D SMC Preferred E SMC Preferred F SMC Preferred G SMC Preferred H SMC Preferred I

27.45 104 508 503.5 101 106.9 111 504.5 5.55 999 977 100.2 1.06 107.1 1021 1056 102 111 966 75.5 78 75 75.15 77 76.5 76.2 77

125,900 24,340 6,100 5,270 62,240 160 10 2,390 612,400 100 5,180 21,110 67,000 100 2,990 520 27,560 13,140 14,350 39,890 100,940 568,890 98,070 155,370 16,720 14,210 222,940

LR Warrant

2.890

WARRANTS & BONDS 1,696,000 4,922,340.00

PREFERRED 3,490,370.00 2,534,380.00 3,095,100.00 2,657,515.00 6,241,248.00 17,131.00 1,110.00 1,205,955.00 3,409,364.00 99,900.00 5,140,560.00 2,116,706.00 70,820.00 10,701.00 3,053,240.00 549,120.00 2,780,296.00 1,411,085.00 13,969,340.00 3,015,770.00 7,899,627.00 42,692,004.00 7,396,175.00 11,970,273.50 1,279,030.00 1,082,873.00 16,900,492.00

SME 85,700.00 19,486,279.00 4,313,260.00 16,642,090.00

Value

4.11 19.10 1.97 3.13 33.00 1.02 10.3 0.790 6.450

20,314,000 19,074,500 2,765,000 727,000 37,453,300 3,362,000 10,434,900 498,000 73,200,300

88,055,650.00 363,682,782.00 5,309,570.00 2,309,660.00 1,236,406,355.00 3,441,150.00 116,170,900.00 400,560.00 485,003,845.00

16.72 28.2 1.38 0.470 0.047 12.98 5.37 12.78 0.0530 88.3 8.8 6.9 7.54 2.1 22.50 905 1535 5.69 308.00 4.46 93.35 2.35 12.66 8.28 0.117 1.4300 3.32 15 5.00 1.04 27.90 18.50 0.470 4.41 6.8 3.25 7.650 11.36 9.50 2.86

459,400 291,600 847,000 34,625,000 71,800,000 84,700 100 65,482,800 307,760,000 1,482,420 651,100 7,526,700 338,600 195,000 307,900 40 243,915 5,301,600 82,570 17,364,900 4,257,540 246,000 106,400 118,900 7,150,000 1,409,000 222,000 18,200 45,041,000 4,560,000 6,954,100 1,900 60,000 4,635,500 20,819,000 3,947,000 32,661,800 509,100 63,000 55,000

7,809,412.00 8,376,220.00 1,113,000.00 17,011,755.00 3,409,700.00 1,058,898.00 537.00 839,717,984.00 6,974,090.00 134,466,948.00 5,729,780.00 53,662,047.00 2,545,486.00 428,510.00 7,347,545.00 36,200.00 378,184,260.00 31,783,986.00 25,408,110.00 83,475,322.00 402,494,083.00 575,850.00 1,402,670.00 978,834.00 836,460.00 1,981,380.00 710,890.00 269,212.00 216,618,326.00 4,724,670.00 195,762,130.00 35,532.00 27,950.00 21,681,395.00 147,348,951.00 12,959,930.00 258,457,504.00 5,942,276.00 594,005.00 157,490.00

125.00 6.50 1395.00 0.400 1.000 48.00 87.00 7.34 2.35 1.370 0.405 4.66 0.880 10.720

365,280 6,671,100 673,125 16,160,000 8,768,000 29,523,010 3,057,300 273,600 6,424,000 30,847,000 46,890,000 15,382,000 24,057,000 23,744,300

43,976,813.00 42,934,014.00 936,644,330.00 6,504,700.00 8,773,040.00 1,409,250,234.00 260,424,055.00 1,993,342.00 15,948,530.00 44,049,580.00 19,216,850.00 73,102,510.00 21,061,150.00 258,159,404.00

0.0028 1.73 4.45 18.50 1.4600 1.6400 1.63 0.300 7.37 2.320 0.202 0.144 0.147 0.009 0.0093 1.48 6.18 1.2 0.5100 0.9200 0.0130 0.0130 5.56 14.00 0.0120 2.2500 30.25 0.0064

1,214,000,000 128,002,000 597,000 43,700 186,000 58,000 3,993,000 4,760,000 117,400 126,372,000 1,300,000 29,650,000 9,030,000 11,000,000 2,000,000 2,429,000 19,717,900 108,000 6,457,000 1,579,000 350,000,000 165,300,000 6,184,500 22,894,200 205,700,000 167,000 4,132,900 18,000,000

3,521,800.00 238,187,390.00 2,680,580.00 787,766.00 272,070.00 93,880.00 6,488,700.00 1,454,950.00 876,847.00 303,318,500.00 263,210.00 4,250,900.00 1,366,040.00 99,400.00 18,600.00 3,461,080.00 121,614,925.00 127,570.00 3,264,445.00 1,406,240.00 4,460,500.00 2,155,200.00 35,547,236.00 329,355,892.00 2,466,000.00 381,510.00 125,789,600.00 116,500.00

26.65 106 510 503 100.2 107.6 110.8

1,242,800 2,000 5,590 23,540 130,430 11,930 4,500

34,531,120.00 212,000.00 2,837,795.00 12,022,950.00 13,169,378.00 1,242,313.00 501,713.00

5.58 999 970 100.3 1.06 107

1,455,700 2,040 10,710 111,000 281,000 110

8,815,729.00 2,037,850.00 10,437,130.00 11,133,300.00 294,860.00 11,780.00

1160 102 111 970 76 79 75.4 75.2 76 76.45 76.2 75.75

5 120 20 7,260 1,620 107,220 14,220 16,150 82,980 22,410 164,820 79,360

5,800.00 12,510.00 2,180.00 7,043,840.00 123,450.00 8,463,805.00 1,067,917.00 1,219,098.50 6,378,577.50 1,715,607.00 12,507,236.00 5,997,282.50

3.000

9,978,000

29,526,530.00

3.06 5.02 3.28 3.23

1,000 7,284,900 684,000 20,661,000

3,060.00 37,443,703.00 2,165,860.00 71,054,820.00

Makati Fin. Corp.

Italpinas Philab Holdings Xurpas

2.95 5.4 3.03 3.28

29,000 3,762,100 1,425,000 5,014,000

First Metro ETF

118.6

EXCHANGE TRADED FUNDS 124,180 14,624,493.00

119.6

123,960

14,720,054.00

10.1 10.2 1.02

DDOLLAR DENONIMATED SEC. 450 4,545.00 17,180 175,793.60 434,820 443,516.40

10.3 10.24 1.02

12,550 12,690 141,000

129,265.00 129,918.00 143,820.00

USD DMPL A1 USD DMPL A2 USD TECH B2

WEEKLY MOST TRADED STOCKS Abra Mining Oriental Pet. `A’ Vitarich Corp.

MRC Allied Ind. Wellex Industries Phil. Realty `A’ Metro Pacific Inv. Corp.

Crown Equities Inc. Phil. Estates Corp.

A. Brown Co., Inc.

VOLUME 3,552,000,000 510,900,000 345,949,000 332,149,000 296,090,000 233,691,000 188,445,000 147,910,000 137,520,000 124,318,000

STOCKS Banco de Oro Unibank Inc. Ayala Land `B’ Universal Robina Ayala Corp `A’ Jollibee Foods Corp.

Vitarich Corp.

SM Investments Inc. Metrobank Metro Pacific Inv. Corp.

SM Prime Holdings

VALUE 1,988,645,695.00 1,600,938,620.00 1,345,214,974.00 1,312,729,195.00 1,138,112,296.00 1,104,015,110.00 997,498,665.00 948,602,920.00 864,251,220.00 840,677,150.00

SEC clears Ferronickel’s share sale worth P1b

THE Philippine Stock Exchange approved the P1-billion share sale of of Global Ferronickel Holdings Inc. GNFI, according to the indicative term sheet posted on the PSE website, plans to sell up to 250 million shares for P4 apiece.

Abacus Capital and Investments Corp. is the sole underwriter and issue manager of the deal.

GNFI plans to use the net proceeds from the offering to partially pay the outstanding loan of unit Platinum Group Metals Corp. from the Taiwan Cooperative Bank and as working capital for the operations of the Cagdianao Mine in Surigao del Norte province.

GNFI tentatively set the offering period on May 28 to June 1 and the listing on June 11.

GFNI, through PGMC, is the third largest nickel ore producer in the Philippines by shipment volume and the largest nickel ore producer in the Philippines by value of shipment.

It is also one of the largest singlemine lateritic exporters in the world and one of the biggest global suppliers of nickel ore, accounting for 12.6 percent of the country’s ore production.

The company is currently exploring opportunities in mineral processing.

GFNI in November signed an agreement with Vi Holding LLC, a member of an international investment and industrial group of companies from Russia with interests in mineral exploration and processing, real estate, energy and in innovative solutions, on joint business projects in the processing of lateritic ores.

The mining company also plans to further develop its relationship in with China, and explore new opportunities in other countries.

GFNI in 2017 reported a net income of to ₱779.7 million, up 1,980 percent from ₱37.5 million in 2016 on improved selling prices, operational efficiency and favorable foreign exchange impact.

Revenues rose 54 percent to ₱5.8 billion from ₱3.8 billion in 2016 as nickel ore shipments increased 39 percent over the previous year to 5.971 million wet metric tons, while the average realized price rose 5 percent to $19.29 per WMT. Share price of GFNI on Friday closed at P2.16. Jenniffer B. Austria

SMDC expects ‘18 reservation to grow by 25% SM Development Corp., the residential unit of SM Prime Holdings Inc., plans to increase reservation sales by 25 percent this year from P57.8 billion in 2017 on strong demand, SM Development executive vice president Jose Mari Banzon said over the weekend.

Banzon said the residential developer planned to launch over 15,000 residential units this year, with the company experiencing strong sales both from the domestic and international buyers.

SM Prime president Jeffrey Lim last week reported that Chinese buyers accounted for almost 30 percent of SMDC’s reservation sales in the first quarter of 2018.

Lim said the company was also looking to post a “mid teens” growth in net income in the first quarter of 2018 on strong residential sales and higher mall revenues.

Banzon, meanwhile, said the company was poised to launch the next three residential towers, in Chengdu, China, around August this year. The three are part of the company’s seventower residential project in Chengdu.

Banzon said the first two residential towers in China were warmly received

by Chinese buyers with the first tower sold out in one day.

“We expect the same results for the next three towers,” Banzon said. The last two residential towers in China will be launched in 2019.

Because of positive response on the group’s residential project in China, Banzon said the company was in search of three additional sites in China for possible expansion.

“We are looking to two to three sites within the Fujian province for residential development,” Banzon said.

Also set to be launched this year is SMDC’s first high-end project in partnership with Federal Land Inc. Jenniffer B. Austria

World

extrastory2000@gmail.com

IN BRIEF Jordan woos back nervous tourists PETRA, Jordan—With its rock-hewn ancient city of Petra, lunar-like landscape of Wadi Rum and a medical tourism drive, Jordan is luring back foreign visitors scared off by regional upheaval and jihadist attacks.

Abundant natural wonders and ancient treasures have long attracted tourists to the kingdom, traditionally seen as a haven of peace in a war-ravaged region.

But after the Arab Spring uprisings convulsed the Middle East in 2011 and the Islamic State group later rampaged across neighboring Syria and Iraq, visitor numbers slumped.

Jordan welcomed seven million tourists in 2010, but arrivals plunged to around three million in each of the following two years, according to tourism board head Abed Al Razzaq Arabiyat.

Efforts to reverse the slide suffered a major setback in 2016 with a string of attacks in the kingdom, a member of the US-led alliance against IS. A Canadian tourist was among 10 people killed in a shooting rampage claimed by the jihadists in Karak, home to one of the region’s biggest Crusader castles. AFP

Millions pledged to restore Reef SYDNEY—Australia pledged half a billion dollars to restore and protect the Great Barrier Reef Sunday in what it said would be a gamechanger for the embattled natural wonder, but conservationists were not convinced.

The World Heritage-listed site, which attracts millions of tourists, is reeling from significant bouts of coral bleaching due to warming sea temperatures linked to climate change.

It is also under threat from the coral-eating crown-of-thorns starfish, which has proliferated due to pollution and agricultural runoff.

Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull said more than Aus$500 million ($400 million) would go towards improving water quality, tackling predators, and expanding restoration efforts.

Turnbull said it was the “largest ever single investment—to protect the reef, secure its viability and the 64,000 jobs that rely on the reef”. AFP

B3

MONDAY, APRIL 30, 2018 CESAR BARRIOQUINTO, Editor mst.daydesk@gmail.com

N. Korea offers to shut test site

S

EOUL―North Korea promised to close its atomic test site next month and invite US weapons experts to the country, Seoul said Sunday, as US President Donald Trump expressed optimism about securing a nuclear deal with the secretive regime.

The reported pledge from Kim Jong Un follows weeks of whirlwind diplomacy that saw the leaders of North and South Korea agree to pursue the complete denuclearization of the Korean peninsula during a historic summit between Kim and the South’s President Moon Jaein on Friday.

“Kim said, during the summit with President Moon, that he would carry out the closing of the nuclear test site in May, and would soon invite experts of South Korea and the US as well as journalists to disclose the process to the international

community with transparency,” Seoul’s presidential spokesman Yoon Youngchan said.

“Kim said ‘the US feels repulsive about us, but once we talk, they will realize that I am not a person who will fire a nuclear weapon to the South or the US or target the US,” according to Yoon.

“If we meet often [with the US], build trust, end the war and eventually are promised no invasion, why would we live with the nuclear weapons?’”

The remarks are likely to be seen as a sweetener ahead of Trump’s own planned

summit with Kim, which the US leader said would take place “in the next three or four weeks”.

Trump vowed to do “the world a big favor” by achieving a nuclear deal with the regime at a campaign-style rally in Michigan to cheers and chants of “Nobel! Nobel!”.

Trump has been eager to play up his role in achieving a breakthrough with Pyongyang through what the White House has called a “Maximum Pressure Campaign” consisting of tough rhetoric, strengthened global sanctions and diplomatic efforts to further isolate the authoritarian regime.

“If we would have said where we are today from three or four months―months ago, do you remember what they were saying? ‘He’s going to get us into nuclear war, they said,’” Trump told supporters in Washington Township, north of Detroit.

He added: “No, strength is going to keep us out of nuclear war, not going to

get us in!”

But he also sounded a note of caution, saying he was prepared to walk away if US demands for North Korea to relinquish its atomic arsenal were not met.

His remarks came as extracts from an interview with his new Secretary of State Mike Pompeo were released.

Washington’s chief diplomat told ABC News he had a “good conversation” with Kim during his secret visit to Pyongyang over the Easter weekend, adding that the North Korean leader was “prepared to... lay out a map that would help us achieve” denuclearization.

Trump held phone calls earlier Saturday with both Moon and Japan’s Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, declaring “things are going very well”, as CBS News reported that Mongolia and Singapore are the final two sites under consideration for his meeting with Kim. AFP

UN Security Council team visits Rohingya in Bangladesh camps KUTUPALONG, Bangladesh―A UN Security Council team visited Rohingya refugees trapped in the no man’s land along the border between Bangladesh and Myanmar Sunday, as it weighs its response to one of the world’s worst refugee crises.

Myanmar has faced intense international pressure since the start of a military campaign in August that has driven some 700,000 Rohingya Muslims over the border into Bangladesh, where refugees have provided harrowing testimony of murder and rape by security forces and local mobs.

The UN delegates will interview refugees in the Bangladeshi camps before traveling to Myanmar and meeting civilian leader Aung San Suu Kyi, who has been denounced in the West for her failure to speak up for the Rohingya.

The council is urging Myanmar to allow the safe return of the Rohingya and take steps to end the decades of discrimination that the stateless Muslim minority has suffered in the Buddhist-majority country.

Bangladesh refugee commissioner Mohammad Abul Kalam told AFP that the UN team―with 26 diplomats from 15 countries―first visited Konarpara camp, where some 6,000 Rohingya have been trapped on bleak scrubland since the bloodshed began last year.

The camp’s Rohingya leader Dil Mohammad said the UNSC delegation met and spoke with some women victims of the violence in Rakhine, as well as community elders. AFP

AIR SHOW. A paramotor pilot hauls the Egyptian flag above the pyramids during an air show in Cairo on April 28. AFP Manila

Standard

TODAY HEAD OFFICE: PBCom Tower, 6795 Ayala Avenue corner V.A. Rufino Street, 1226 Makati City Customer Care: (02) 777-2266 or 1-800-10-777-2266 (Domestic Toll Free)*Email: customercare@pbcom.com.ph*Website: www.pbcom.com.ph

BALANCE SHEET (Head Office and Branches)

BALANCE SHEET (Parent Bank and Financial Subsidiaries)

As of March 31, 2018

AsofDecember31,2017

As of March 31, 2018

ASSETS

The Art of Crap-Detection* THOMAS Crapper founded a company in London at the close of the 19th century. He heavily promoted sanitary plumbing. He designed the siphonic flush, which up to this day, is still the standard of almost all toilets. He is also credited for the invention and use of the manhole for public sewage system.

Due to the company’s (Thomas Crapper & Co.) association with lavatories and sewage, the slang term ‘crap’ refers to any refuse that are expelled from these sanitary contraptions. In English, crap is used synonymously with bullshit.

According to University of Washington college professors Carl Bergstrom and Jevin West, “bullshit involves language, statistical figures, data graphics, and other forms of presentation intended to persuade by impressing and overwhelming a reader or listener, with a blatant disregard for truth and logical coherence.” Both run a popular course “Calling Bullshit: Data Reasoning in a Digital World.”

In 1969, “Bullshit and the Art of Crap Detection” was delivered at the National Convention for the Teachers of English (NCTE). Addressing a convention of teachers, Neil Postman insisted that students must be helped to learn “how to distinguish useful talk and bullshit... that helping students activate their crap-detectors should take precedence over any other legitimate educational aim.” To this end, he introduced the different varieties of bullshit or crap.

Pomposity is defined as “speaking or behaving in a very serious manner which shows that one thinks he is more important than he really is.” A growing number of people insists on appending a trail of letters after their names. Others require being addressed by their honorifics.

According to Postman, these are intended to hide personal insecurities and insufficiencies.

The use of buzzwords is another sign. The term “strategy” is widely used in business. Yet when asked what it means, almost all will respond by quoting a textbook definition. When ask to elaborate, they will quote another. Ditto with competitive advantage, vision, mission, etc. In a recent corporate event, a book publisher introduced a “whole child” approach in education. Most universities pledged to produce “future-proof” graduates.

Adolf Eichmann, a German Nazi, was tasked to transport about 1 million Jews to the gas chambers. At the end of his life, he sees nothing wrong with what he did. He was just doing his duty. He was just following orders. Eichmannism “accepts as its starting and ending point official definitions, rules, and regulations without regard for realities of particular situations.” The language is usually polite and gracious, but “utterly detached from human interests.”

Under academic rules, any successful business practitioner is prevented from teaching

in higher education, unless he has a Master’s Degree.

Upon receiving order from the government to regularize employees, a local food chain’s official statement is, “We have received the order... and we’re following the process... prescribed to appeal this order.”

Andy Warhol said that everyone will be famous for 15 minutes. Today, entertainment value commands a premium. Expertise and common sense is inconsequential. A celebrity mother who only had one child birth and a three-month old baby is now an expert in parenting. A blogger or netizen who garnered substantial number of likes is likely to be invited to give opinions on national issues.

Inanity seems harmless. Without current media platforms, the opinions of these people would not even be solicited. Their only contribution is but noise. Postman called this contribution “verbal excrement.”

In a psychology experiment, pigeons were observed to exhibit ritualistic behavior in an attempt to receive food from a dispenser. It seems that the pigeons were trying to influence the behavior of the dispenser by performing these actions. Similar ritualistic and “superstitious” behavior are observed among humans.

In business, there is a continuing faith that CSR activities contribute to a company’s financial performance. Post-2008, scholars suggest that perhaps “the study of literature and other humanistic subjects will result in one’s becoming a more decent, liberal, tolerant, and civilized human being.” Postman found this amusing.

Superstition is “belief, usually expressed in authoritative terms, for which there are no factual or scientific basis.” It arises from ignorance or a misunderstanding.

Despite its simplicity and reliability, Thomas Crapper’s contraptions were not immediately popular. However, in mid-year 1858, the hot weather “exacerbated the smell of untreated human waste and industrial effluent present on the banks of River Thames.” This Great Stink forced the English government to pass laws to address the problem. In the end, Crapper solved the problem of crap.

(Note: *The title is an example of crap. It should have simply read, “How To Detect Crap”.)

Real Carpio So lectures on strategy and human resources management at the Management and Organization Department of the Ramon V. del Rosario College of Business of De La Salle University. He is also an entrepreneur and a management consultant. He welcomes comments at realwalksonwater@gmail.com. Archives can be accessed at realwalksonwater.wordpress.com. The views expressed above are the author’s and do not necessarily reflect the official position of DLSU, its faculty, and its administrators.

Cash and Cash Items Due from Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas Due from Other Banks Financial Assets at Fair Value through Profit or Loss Available-for-Sale Financial Assets - Net Held-to-Maturity (HTM) Financial Assets - Net Unquoted Debt Securities Classified as Loans - Net Loans and Receivables - Net Interbank Loans Receivable Loans and Receivables - Others General Loan Loss Provision Other Financial Assets Equity Investment in Subsidiaries, Associates and Joint Ventures - Net Bank Premises, Furniture, Fixture & Equipment - Net Real and Other Properties Acquired - Net Other Assets - Net

P

899,023,577.92 14,674,362,628.89 1,135,628,751.26 380,850,287.94 3,015,692,403.23 14,224,622,733.21 3,163,066,476.56 51,349,855,428.79 1,765,200,000.00 50,073,648,482.11 488,993,053.32 459,004,048.28 1,041,255,262.62 1,640,694,003.14 610,098,963.96 5,772,986,732.29

P

940,731,604.65 15,279,083,879.84 1,425,180,971.84 2,738,821,492.52 52,242,432.50 15,800,989,428.50 3,273,252,255.28 47,380,188,725.68 62,412,500.00 47,783,269,279.00 465,493,053.32 541,704,367.36 995,024,594.74 1,687,789,483.98 527,637,404.51 5,727,336,901.95

TOTAL ASSETS

P 98,367,141,298.09

P

96,369,983,543.35

Cash and Cash Items P 929,719,491.82 Due from Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas 14,730,415,192.66 Due from Other Banks 1,310,248,780.90 Financial Assets at Fair Value through Profit or Loss 380,850,287.94 Available-for-Sale Financial Assets - Net 3,015,692,403.23 Held-to-Maturity (HTM) Financial Assets - Net 14,224,622,733.21 Unquoted Debt Securities Classified as Loans - Net 3,163,066,476.56 Loans and Receivables - Net 53,009,773,462.04 Interbank Loans Receivable 1,765,200,000.00 Loans and Receivables - Others 51,748,879,646.24 General Loan Loss Provision 504,306,184.20 Other Financial Assets 529,173,302.69 Equity Investment in Subsidiaries, Associates and Joint Ventures - Net 26,743,313.77 Bank Premises, Furniture, Fixture & Equipment - Net 1,740,919,440.38 Real and Other Properties Acquired - Net 678,990,198.99 Other Assets - Net 6,376,226,914.59

P

973,096,072.75 15,340,710,554.15 1,625,539,660.17 2,738,821,492.52 52,242,432.50 15,800,989,428.50 3,273,252,255.28 49,021,762,958.83 62,412,500.00 49,442,119,412.86 482,768,954.03 566,046,267.14 27,201,870.51 1,790,324,017.51 600,493,937.19 6,321,901,638.52

TOTAL ASSETS

P

98,132,382,585.57

P

976,975.32 70,734,617,277.45 12,568,053,191.87 4,600,000,000.00 653,746.00 7,967,399,445.87 645,125,146.21 2,238,882,027.78 86,187,654,618.63

P 100,116,441,998.78

LIABILITIES

LIABILITIES

Financial Liabilities at Fair Value through Profit or Loss Deposit Liabilities Bills Payable: BSP (Rediscounting and Other Advances) Other Deposit Substitutes Due to Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas Other Financial Liabilities Other Liabilities

P

187.78 73,295,229,333.37 9,831,343,490.26 9,831,343,490.26 7,000,093.76 719,169,970.61 2,321,058,552.15

P

TOTAL LIABILITIES

P 86,173,801,627.93

P

976,975.32 Financial Liabilities at Fair Value through Profit or Loss 69,031,862,144.13 Deposit Liabilities 12,567,399,445.87 Bills Payable: BSP (Rediscounting and Other Advances) 4,600,000,000.00 Interbank Loans Payable 7,967,399,445.87 Other Deposit Substitutes 632,941,774.85 Special Time Deposit 2,127,488,377.60 Due to Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas Other Financial Liabilities 84,360,668,717.77 Other Liabilities TOTAL LIABILITIES

TOTAL STOCKHOLDERS’ EQUITY

P 12,193,339,670.16

P

14,278,374,781.56 Capital Stock 1,822,618,663.61 Other Capital Accounts -4,091,678,619.59 Retained Earnings Minority Interest in Subsidiaries 12,009,314,825.58 TOTAL STOCKHOLDERS’ EQUITY

TOTAL LIABILITIES AND STOCKHOLDERS’ EQUITY

P 98,367,141,298.09

P

96,369,983,543.35 TOTAL LIABILITIES AND STOCKHOLDERS’ EQUITY

P 14,278,374,781.56 1,707,165,016.34 -3,792,200,127.74

P

P

TOTAL CONTINGENT ACCOUNTS

930,682,636.57 413,297,939.83 1,101,985,444.47 38,622,804.32 1,609,926,864.84 5,241,942,719.91 1,122,659,824.13 4,119,282,7895.78 148,063,735.99

P

2,071,783,781.58 482,827,569.30 944,839,042.30 27,770,491.74 947,163,795.68 5,267,279,338.04 1,129,107,599.04 4,138,171,738.34 177,351,268.59

P 9,484,522,145.93

P

9,919,015,287.88 TOTAL CONTINGENT ACCOUNTS

Financial Standby Letters of Credit Commercial Letters of Credit Trade Related Guarantees Commitments Spot Foreign Exchange Contracts Trust Department Accounts Trust and Other Fiduciary Accounts Agency Accounts Others

53,581,934,854.62 1,743,086,372.51 2,360,805,236.87 4.41% 1,027,746,045.99

1.92% e. Ratio of total allowance for credit losses to gross NPLs (%) 94.55% f. Ratio of specific allowance for credit losses on the gross TLP to gross NPLs (%) 73.83% Classified Loans & Other Risk Assets, gross of allowance for credit losses 1,387,603,210.22 DOSRI Loans and receivables, gross allowance of credit losses 17,068,767.06 Ratio of DOSRI loans and receivables, gross of allowance for credit losses, to gross TLP (%) 0.03% Gross non-performing DOSRI loans and receivables 10,874.41 Ratio of gross non-performing DOSRI loans and receivables to TLP (%) 0.00% Percent Compliance with Magna Carta (%) a. 8% for Micro and Small Enterprises

P

14,278,125,906.49 1,836,552,071.60 -4,159,364,975.59 -10,585,035.56 11,944,727,966.94

P 100,116,441,998.78

P

98,132,382,585.57

930,682,636.57 413,297,939.83 1,101,985,444.47 38,622,804.32 1,609,926,864.84 5,241,942,719.91 1,122,659,824.13 4,119,282,895.78 148,070,665.99

P

2,071,783,781.58 482,827,569.30 944,839,042.95 27,770,491.74 947,163,795.68 5,267,279,338.04 1,129,107,599.70 4,138,171,738.34 177,357,406.59

P 9,484,529,075.93

P

9,919,021,425.88

P

77.62% 1/ Common Equity Tier 1 is only applicable to all Universal and Commercial Banks and their subsidiary banks.

16,951,194.60

1.30%

City of Makati

15.85% 12.95% 12.95%

)S.S.

0.03% We, Arlene M. Datu and Patricia May T. Siy, of the above-mentioned bank do solemnly swear that all 10,874.41 0.00% matters set forth in the above balance sheet are true and correct to the best of our knowledge and belief.

1.34%

12.07% 2.64% 15.85% 12.88% 12.88%

(SGD.) ARLENE M. DATU Controller, SVP

We, Arlene M. Datu and Patricia May T. Siy, of the above-mentioned bank do solemnly swear that all matters set forth in the above balance sheet are true and correct to the best of our knowledge and belief.

Doc. No. 123 Page No. 26 Book No. XX SUBSCRIBED AND SWORN to before me this 19th day of April 2018 at City of Makati, affiants exhibiting Series of 2018. their SSS nos. 0356633451 and 0373099955, respectively.

(SGD.) PATRICIA MAY T. SIY President & CEO

(SGD.) PATRICIA MAY T. SIY President & CEO

SUBSCRIBED AND SWORN to before me this 19th day of April 2018 at City of Makati, affiants exhibiting their SSS nos. 0356633451 and 0373099955, respectively.

REPUBLIC OF THE PHILIPPINES) City of Makati )S.S.

Doc. No. 122 Page No. 26 Book No. XX Series of 2018.

P

1,265,139,190.98 REPUBLIC OF THE PHILIPPINES)

Common Equity Tier 1 Ratio (%) is only applicable to all Universal and Commercial Banks and their subsidiary banks.

(SGD.) ARLENE M. DATU Controller, SVP

P 14,278,125,906.49 1,721,098,424.36 -3,877,500,378.23 69,310.53 P 12,121,793,263.16

49,544,603,393.20 1. List of Financial Allied Subsidiaries (excluding Subsidiary Insurance Companies) 1. Banco Dipolog, Inc. a Rural Bank 1,698,921,614.20 2. List of Subsidiary Insurance Companies 2,188,900,338.08 1. PBCom Insurance Services Agency, Inc. 4.42% 3. Capital Adequacy Ratio (CAR) on Consolidated Basis, as prescribed under existing regulations 489,978,723.88 a. Total CAR (%) 15.25% 0.99% b. Tier 1 Ratio (%) 12.47% 98.88% 12.47% c. Common Equity Tier 1 Ratio (%) 1/

11.13% b. 2% for Medium Enterprises Return on Equity (ROE) (%) 3.78% Capital Adequacy Ratio (CAR) on Solo Basis, as prescribed under existing regulations a. Total CAR (%) 15.21% 12.37% b. Tier 1 Ratio (%) c. Common Equity Tier 1 Ratio (%) 1/ 12.37% 1/

P

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION Gross total loan portfolio (TLP) Specific allowance for credit losses on the TLP Non-Performing Loans (NPLs) a. Gross NPLs b. Ratio of gross NPLs to gross TLP (%) c. Net NPLs d. Ratio of Net NPLs to gross TLP (%)

187.78 74,957,632,554.51 9,831,997,236.26 653,746.00 9,831,343,490.26 359,855.32 7,000,093.76 753,261,379.13 2,444,397,428.86 P 87,994,648,735.62

CONTINGENT ACCOUNTS

CONTINGENT ACCOUNTS Financial Standby Letters of Credit Commercial Letters of Credit Trade Related Guarantees Commitments Spot Foreign Exchange Contracts Trust Department Accounts Trust and Other Fiduciary Accounts Agency Accounts Others

P

STOCKHOLDERS’ EQUITY

STOCKHOLDERS’ EQUITY Capital Stock Other Capital Accounts Retained Earnings

AsofDecember31,2017

ASSETS

(SGD.) ATTY. GERVACIO B. ORTIZ JR. NOTARY PUBLIC City of Makati until December 31, 2018 IBP no. 656155 - Lifetime Member MCLE Compliance No. V-0006934 Appointment no. M-104 -(2017-2018) PTR no. 6607879 Jan. 3, 2018 Makati City Roll no. 40091 101 Urban Ave., Campos Rueda Bldg. Brgy. Pio del Pilar, Makati City

(SGD.) ATTY. GERVACIO B. ORTIZ JR. NOTARY PUBLIC City of Makati until December 31, 2018 IBP no. 656155 - Lifetime Member MCLE Compliance No. V-0006934 Appointment no. M-104 -(2017-2018) PTR no. 6607879 Jan. 3, 2018 Makati City Roll no. 40091 101 Urban Ave., Campos Rueda Bldg. Brgy. Pio del Pilar, Makati City Member: Philippine Deposit Insurance Corporation Maximum Deposit Insurance for each Deposit P500,000.00

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

B4

MONDAY, APRIL 30, 2018

DPWH starts P2.2-b infra, road works in Quirino

By Ben Moses Ebreo CABARROGUIS, Quirino—Some P2.2 billion worth of roads, bridges and multi-purpose building projects are now being implemented by the Department of Public Works and Highways in six towns of this province.

Marifel Andes, district engineer said a total of P1.6 billion in infrastructure projects will be carried out by the Quirino District Engineering Office while the remaining P600,000 will be implemented by the DPWH regional office.

She said these projects are being implemented through their Asset Preservation Program which covers the preventive maintenance and rehabilitation, reconstruction and upgrading of damaged paved roads, road widening, construction of by-pass and diversion roads, construction of missing links and new roads including the paving of roads along the Cordon-Aurora boundary road.

According to Andes, the two bridges located along Cordon-Aurora road and Victoria-Kasibu road will be replaced while the Palladan Bridge along Mangandingay-Saguday-Isabela Road will be repaired.

“The projects also include the construction of five new bridges namely; Decuraban Bridge 4, Decuraban Bridge 5, Nerdibuen, Villa Santiago Bridge 1 and Villa Santiago Bridge 2,” she said.

Through their Flood Management Program, the Quirino District Engineering Office will also undertake the construction of waterways in two remote barangays in Maddela and Diffun towns.

“Ten roads leading to declared tourism destinations will also be concreted and reconstructed under the district’s Convergence and Special Support Program,” Andes added..

These road projects, she are the access roads leading to Aglipay Caves, Napipiwongan, Mabo, Dibiwen Falls and Pensal Falls in Aglipay; Ganano Falls in Diffun; Governor’s Rapids and Maddela Eco-Park in Maddela; Siitan Nature Park and Diamond Cave in Nagtipunan; NRJ Gundaway-Susong Dalaga, Zamora-San Marcos-Ricarte Sur, Diffun and Zamora, Cabarroguis and access road leading to Quirino Tourism Complex.

LGUs LOCAL GOVERNMENT UNITS

QCPD TURNOVER. Quezon City First District Rep. Vincent ‘Bingbong’ Crisologo (left) shares a light moment with former QC Police District director Guillermo Eleazar and incoming QCPD director Joselito Esquivel, at the command turnover ceremony Wednesday at Camp Karingal. During the occasion, Crisologo credited Eleazar, who has been designated as the new regional director of Calabarzon Police, for the notable accomplishments of the QCPD against criminality and other criminal acts. Manny Palmero

Makati foots bill for city workers’ GSIS insurance M AKATI Mayor Abby Binay reiterated her commitment to renew the insurance policy of barangay officials and workers from the 33 barangays of the city under the Group Personal Accident Insurance program of the Government Service Insurance System.

The insurance is valid for one year and provides the following coverage to recipients: P1 million for accidental death/dismemberment; P50,000 for medical reimbursement; and P10,000 for bereavement assistance.

The mayor recently distributed GPAI Certificates to some 3,924 barangay officials and personnel, including watchmen and traffic aides, who have been included last year, for the first time, in the insurance

package funded by the city government under its Peace and Order and Public Safety Plan.

“We want to make sure that our public servants at the grassroots are well taken care of, especially in the event that they meet an accident while on duty. Being the government’s first line of defense in times of emergency, they deserve the added protection,” Mayor Abby said.

This year, the city government

has allotted P10 million under its POPS Plan for the said program.

The beneficiaries also include members of barangay-based institutions, Barangay Anti-Drug Abuse Council auxiliary, traffic enforcers, and city government workers.

The mayor, together with Vice Mayor Monique Lagdameo and other city officials, personally handed the insurance certificates to beneficiaries from April 16 to 20 in designated barangays for each of the six barangay clusters in the city.

The first batch of recipients came from barangays Carmona, Kasilawan, Olympia, Poblacion, Sta. Cruz, and Tejeros of Cluster 3; and from Bel-Air, Dasmariñas, Forbes Park, Magallanes, San Lorenzo and Urdaneta of Cluster 1.

Vaccines must be taken, Abby tells city folk MAKATI Mayor Abby Binay has reminded parents not to take vaccination programs for granted because it can compromise their children’s health.

The mayor issued the appeal as Makati City kicked off its intensified vaccination program against measles. The city is echoing the national campaign led by the Department of Health, following the recent spike in measles cases in Metro Manila and Mindanao.

“As a mother, I would like to appeal to parents not to take vaccination programs for granted.

Vaccines are given to our babies and children for free to prevent them from becoming sick with measles and other serious conditions. It is our obligation as parents to make sure that our children grow up healthy,” the mayor reminded.

New lawyer thanks governor for boost

By Nash B. Maulana COTABATO CITY—Faizah Kadon Tejero, 28, literally walked fast back in time to an emotional reunion with Maguindanao Gov. Esmael Mangudadatu, who awarded her the scholarship that helped her way through law school five years ago.

Kadon-Tejero, a graduate of Ateneo de Davao Law School, sought Mangudadatu in Davao City the very day her name appeared in the results of the 2017 Bar Exams released by the Supreme Court on April 26.

Yes, minutes after she knew she passed the 2017 Bar Examination, KadonTejero—a scholar of theMaguindanao Program on Educational Assistance and Community Empowerment (MagPeace)—did not only want to look back; she walked back to see how dreams do literally come true.

But the governor had been too busy for a slated meeting on Wednesday with Presi-

Tribal dancers perform during the Aliwan Festival over the weekend.

Aliwan Fiesta sees Manila, Pasay throw biggest street party THE cities of Manila and Pasay just threw the biggest street party ever as the Aliwan Fiesta unfolded over the weekend under the auspices of Manila Broadcasting Company, Star City, and the Cultural Center of the Philippines.

Kicking off the festivities along Sotto Street in front of the Aliw Theatre was the Pasakalye 2018, with energized performances by X-Battalion, Shanti Dope,

Darren Espanto, Mocha Babes, and the Go Girls.

Lovely young ladies from various regions of the country vied for the title of Festival Queen and a cash prize of P100,000 as the Reyna ng Aliwan pageant took the stage on April 27 at 7:00 p.m..

Hosted by inimitable deejays Raqi Tera of 101.1 Yes The Best and Nick of 96.3

Easy Rock, the show will also feature musical numbers by Marc Carpio and TJ Monterde.

The Grand Parade showcasing different festivals from north to south of the archipelago took place on Saturday, kicking off at the Quirino Grandstand, and winding up in front of the Aliw Theater at the CCP Complex, where the awarding ceremonies took place.

Strive to be better, Tiangco bros urge Navotas Polytechnic grads

By Jun David REP. TOBY Tiangco and Mayor John Rey Tiangco both challenged graduates of the Navotas Polytechnic College to continue improving themselves and strive to be better.

“Education does not end in classrooms

and schools. After graduation, you will encounter opportunities to learn more. Take advantage of them and continue to pursue your dreams,” the lawmaker said in his speech during the NPC 21st Commencement Exercises.

Mayor Tiangco underscored the need

to keep learning and seeking personal advancement.

“Education is an endless process. Be open to gain more knowledge and use it to develop yourselves. Our world is changing so fast; we must be able to adapt through constant self-improvement,” he added.

dent Rodrigo Roa Duterte who received two field commanders of the militant Bangsamoro Islamic Freedom Fighters, and hundreds of firearms surrendered by residents in support to massive peace campaign in Mindanao Mindanao.

“Congratulations Atty. Faizah Tejero, a Mag-Peace Scholar. I am so proud of you. Alhamdulillah! (All Praises due to God),” read Mangudadatu’s message on his Face Book account on Saturday.

“Both were ecstatic and teary-eyed,” is how Nur Eeman Aljani, executive assistant of Mangudadatu, described the reunion at a branch of the Starbucks Café in Davao City, amidst stunned customers, mostly students.

Kadon-Tejero, a native of Macasendeg Pikit, Cotabato, recalled teary-eyed during the meeting with Mangudadatu that it was through the MagPeace study grant that her law school studies was made possible. She said she would ever be grateful beyond words.

GARLIC-MADE PAPER. Senator

Cynthia A. Villar (right) and George dela Rama, head of Public Information of the Pasig River Rehabilitation Commission look on as Danny Espanola demonstrates how to use the handmade paper machine donated

by Villar to the PRRC, which will be used by residents of Brgy.

Baseco in Tondo, Manila in making specialty papers out of garlic.

Lino Santos

Life food

Bernadette lunas, Issue Editor manilastandardlife@gmail.com @manilastandardlife @mStandardliFE monday, april 30, 2018

C1

Refreshing drinks for summer Summer promises to be extra fresh and refreshing as Fruitas Holdings is releasing the perfect treats to provide its customers a quick energy boost.

Quench your thirst with Freese!, mango Cheese, Buko Keso, Honey Lemon, Cucumber Lemon, and Guyabano Juice, all of which are made from flavors that are most favored by Filipinos, creatively mixed together into great summer drinks that are not just tasty, but healthy as well.

Madrid Fusion Manila aims to promote the Philippines as a culinary destination while showcasing Spanish cuisine alongside Filipino fare

Tweaking

Madrid Fusión Manila

By Mae Gianina C. Pascual

m

ADrID Fusión manila, the gastronomy event that aims to promote the Philippines as a culinary destination while showcasing Spanish cuisine alongside Filipino fare has been moved from April to September this year.

The food congress is set to run for five years, starting in 2015, during the previous administration. Its fourth leg, however, is still being reviewed by the Department of Tourism.

During a discussion with robert Lim Joseph, an honorary consultant of Tourism Secretary Wanda Teo and a member of Philippine Association of Convention/exhibition Organizers and Suppiers, Inc. (PACeOS), he said there’s still hope for madrid Fusión manila 2018, but a list of things need to be verified before going any further.

The current administration questions the objectives of the 5-year project at a cost of P600m, a contract locked in during the previous administration, headed by former Tourism Secretary ramon Jimenez.

According to former DoT Secretary mina Gabor, president of International School of Sustainable Tourism, when they had a meeting with Tourism Promotions Board, she asked if the terms of the contract between madrid Fusion is being complied with especially in tourism arrivals and the reply she said was it is not.

Gabor believes that the Philippine brand should be promoted before anything else. She avers that the event has no clear direction on what it is trying to achieve, with too many topics and programs that are out of focus. She believes that the event should help improve knowledge in food preparations and have a holistic approach to the development and marketing of Filipino food before and after the event. She further notes that it lacks international public-

Robert Lim Joseph, an honorary consultant of Tourism Secretary Wanda Teo (Photo by Mae Pascual)

Love cheese? Say Freese!

The Fresh mango with Cheese Smoothie or Freese! is a delightful smoothie featuring the combination of fresh mangoes and cheese—both known for their health benefits. mangoes are rich in vitamin A and C while cheese is a great source of protein, calcium and Vitamin B12, which is essential for neurological health. Together, mango and cheese make the perfect summer treat, a sweet, salty, and creamy delight for all mango shake fans.

Freese! is available at all Fruitas, and House of Desserts outlets around the country for just P89 for a large cup at all outlets.

Those who love this mango-cheese combination could also check out the new mango Cheese smoothie available at mango Farm, offering the same sweet and healthy goodness of Freese. The mango Farm offers medium sized cup for P69, large sized cup for P89, and grande size for P119.

Filipinos would love the new Buko Keso, a refreshing smoothie combining cheese with all the health benefits of another classic favorite, coconut.

Known all over the world as a super food with tremendous benefits for the whole body, coconut helps prevents formation of kidney stones, diabetes, and heart problems with its antioxidant properties. This delicious smoothie is available in all Buko Loco and Buko ni Fruitas outlets for only P69 for medium, P89 for Large, and P109 for Grande.

Enjoy life’s lemons with a twist

ity to trigger awareness for tourists to pique there curiosity and come to visit the Philippines and try Filipino food.

During the first meeting of presidents of all tourism organization nationwide, Sec. Teo instructed usec. Bong Bengson to turn over all records from the madrid Fusion manila events, but the latter has only showed a copy of press releases while other information are still pending.

Philippe Bartolome, a Belgian chef, hotelier, and Chairman of Chefs on Parade shared how the Chefs on Parade held in 2011 and 2013 was staged with only P10 million budget, P300,000 of which was subsidized by the DoT. Bartolome said COP was able to give free seminars and workshops daily by well-known chefs around the world for only P50 entrance fee. meanwhile, mFm’s entrance fee costs P500 and the private dinners could reach P4,000 to P5,000 per head, thus it wasn’t unable to fill the entire SmX Convention Center.

Media and other guests in previously held Madrid Fusion Manila (Photo from MFM Facebook)

A Spanish chef, who wishes to remain anonymous and was part of madrid Fusion manila, mentioned that they were not exposed to Filipino cuisine and didn’t get a chance to share experiences, techniques, and products of Philippine gastronomy. One of the setbacks, he said, is when there are degustations of Filipino food, it lacked explanations on the background of the food they are eating, moreso, the method of cooking.

According to him, the chefs are not being paid to participate in the event thus are free to do their own agendas, losing the purpose of immersing themselves in Filipino culture and limiting their time to learn the local gastronomy and interact with Filipino chefs.

“The tourism has a small budget, so having a P120 million budget per year is already a sacrilege. With that amount and the result of the past three events, 70 percent could have been used to other tourism promotions instead,” said Joseph.

He reiterated the importance of introducing the Filipino ingredients, highlighting that in order for other countries to appreciate Filipino dishes and the style of cooking, it is also a good idea for foreigners to experience the local markets and gain perspective on the agriculture of the country and know the sources and characteristics of ingredients.

Joseph suggested that in order to make the event more dynamic, there must be food challenges nationwide where foreign chefs will engage with local chefs using local ingredients that different regions are known for. From exploring our unique ingredients and farm products, it will also benefit the country’s trade and commerce and could open doors for exportation. “money is going to the wrong place.

If not stop, at least tweak it, or at least make ‘Fusion manila’ or ‘manila Fusion’ instead,” asserted Joseph.

There’s nothing like a cool, zesty lemon drink to survive the sizzling hot summer. For a refreshing moment, two new drinks with a twist will be available at all John Lemon stores – Honey Lemon and Cucumber Lemon. These drinks combine the health benefits of honey and cucumber, with Vitamin C-rich lemon as its base.

Honey Lemon is a perfect thirst quencher, featuring the sweet taste and health benefits of honey, which is known to provide energy and increase immunity, and is packed with vitamins, minerals and antioxidants.

Cucumber Lemon is an extra cool drink featuring the distinctive, fresh taste of cucumber, which is known to lower blood pressure, reduce risk of kidney stones, manage diabetes and prevent constipation while brightening the skin and maintaining overall body functions.

These new lemon drinks promise to bring summer bliss for only P95 for a medium cup and P129 for a large cup.

Health in a bottle with guyabano

For those who want a real health kick, Guyabano Fresh Juice will be available at all Juice Avenue stores. Infused with vitamins, it’s perfect for those who want to relieve headaches and migraines, prevent leg cramps and rheumatism, and aid weight loss.

At P69 for a 500 ml bottle, it’s definitely a great way to keep the doctor away.

Life

C2

monday, apri apriL 30, 2018 manilastandardlife@gmail.com

RECIPE FILES

DINE OUT

Barley beverages SwaP the soda and other sweetened beverages for these refreshing drinks that boast of flavors and health benefits.

Sante Barley Choco Drink Ingredients: 1 sachet 6 ounces (177 ml) 8 sachets

6 pcs

Choco Barley water or milk Santé Pure Barley (24g) ice cubes

Procedure: In a blender, put all the ingredients and blend until smooth and creamy.

Pour into a glass or tumbler. Optional: Serve with banana, mango, or any fruit of your choice.

Serve immediately.

New additions to 22 Prime’s Lunch Menu, include The Wagyu Beef Hotdog and Four Cheese with Mushroom Burger

Tropical Delight Ingredients: 1 cup milk or unsweetened vanilla almond milk 8 sachets Santé Pure Barley (21g) 1 pc big banana ¼ cup yogurt (plain or strawberry flavor) 2 tsp vanilla extract

22 Prime serves new Lunch Menu DISCOver new flavors at Discovery Suites’ in-house restaurant 22 Prime as it introduces new dishes to its lunch Menu. executive Chef gerwin Bailon exhibits his expertise in the creation of 22 Prime’s lunch Menu, incorporating unique modern take on traditional western lunch specials, making them “distinctly 22 Prime.” the wagyu Beef Hotdog, for instance, features a tender, sumptuous wagyu hotdog. Meanwhile, its take on traditional tacos involves substituting beef with Blackened Salmon, delivering a unique taco experience. Prime’s Caesar salad is served not only with chicken, but with one’s choice of salmon or shrimp as well.

Seafood specials are bountiful on the lunch Menu. Starters include Oyster rockefeller, Soft Shell Crab tempura,

and sustainably line caught Yellow fin tuna Poke, to name a few. Meat specials on another hand, consist of Prime’s Burger, Steak Knife Sandwich, Baby Back Pork ribs, Braised Short ribs Stroganoff, Pork Chop Schnitzel, and asian lamb riblets.

Other selections include Sesame Chicken, Buffalo Cobb, Chicken Piccata, Seafood risotto, four Cheese with Mushroom Burger, Yellow fin tuna Salad, California Club wrap, Prawns and Chips, and fried Chicken Sandwich. this new lunch Menu is available daily from 11:00 am to 3:00 pm.

For inquiries and reservations call (02) 719-6822, email reservations@ds.discovery.com.ph, or visit www.discoverysuites.com/bars-restaurants/22-prime/.

Procedure: In a blender, put all the ingredients and blend for 30 seconds or until smooth and creamy.

Pour into a glass or tumbler.

Serve immediately.

Strawberry Shake Ingredients: ½ ounces (355 ml) milk 8 sachets Pure Barley (24g) 8 pcs to large strawberries 6 pcs cubes

water or Santé medium i

c

e

Procedure: In a blender, put all the ingredients and blend for 30 seconds or until smooth and creamy.

Pour into a glass or tumbler.

Serve immediately.

Taste health, taste Kaffea coffee

Circles Event Café offers discounted rates for its Lunch and Dinner buffets

Circles Event Café offers special buffet rates InDulge in a delicious feast at Makati Shangri-la’s Circles event Café, which is currently offering discounted buffet rates of P1,290 net for lunch and P1,390 net for dinner.

Circles event Cafe offers a wide selection of local and international cuisines, open-theater kitchen, a variety of appetizers and cheeses, an array of premium meat dishes, palat-

able western and asian specialties infused with stimulating flavors, fresh seafood, and an array of tempting desserts. the special buffet rates are valid until May 31, except on Mother’s Day (May 13).

For inquiries and reservations, call (02) 814-2580 or email rric.slm@shangri-la.com.

What’s for ‘meryenda’ MeRyenda is a a tradition for filipinos; it’s the meal we eat between lunch and dinner, a midday treat that can either be sweet or savory—the choices are plenty. understanding the need of Pinoys for more meryenda options, DaDS world Buffet launches new additions to its popular Meryenda Buffet.

Pile your plates with helpings of yummy Mini Pancakes, Dads’ Ham Pandesal, or a filling new twist to chicken, Chicken Pringles. the buffet’s pasta menu now includes hot and cheesy Baked Macaroni and creamy and savory Carbonara. feel like having something that takes you back to the meryenda you used to have at home? Have a steaming and comforting bowl of lomi or the sweet and all-time filipino favorite Champorado.

Dads’ eat-all-you-can meryenda experience features over 50 dishes including a variety of pasta and salad; american fare such as corndogs, burgers, french fries; Pinoy snack staples like arroz caldo, palabok, camote cue, okoy and turon; Chinese favorites siomai, siopao, chicken mami; and deca-

DADS World Buffet introduces new items to its Meryenda buffet

dent range of desserts including cakes, pastries, local sweets, and more.

The Meryenda Buffet is available at dadS World Buffet in Glorietta 3 and SM Megamall, from 3:00 p.m. to 5:00 p.m.

DIfferent people look for different skin which makes a person look wellthings in their coffee. Kaffea coffee is nourished and glowing.

It is formulated with a non-dairy creamer the answer to almost of those things. the fragrant coffee aroma wafts for those who are lactose intolerant.

Kaffea is infused with agaricus from the cup once hot water is poured on Kaffea. the smell stays with you mushroom which boosts the imas you put the cup to your lips and ex- mune system, prevents heart diseases, perience the bittersweet coffee mixed strengthens weakened bones, and alleviates chronic and with creamer and acute allergies. the slight taste of the ganoderma caramel because it in Kaffea has antiis sweetened with cancer properties, coconut sugar. balances the good there is very and bad cholesbrief, bright afterterol, helps pretaste but no acidity vent bronchitis and in the stomach after asthma, and helps drinking a full cup. prevent urinary Kaffea coffee tract infections. passes the taste the grape seed test because it extract is one of nacombines fragrant ture’s most powerful aroma with deliantioxidants with cious flavor. over 125 phytonuIt passes a lot of trients that naturally other tests. help remove toxins It is pregnancy Kaffea is the first ready-to-drink coffee from the body. safe and can be blend in the Philippines sweetened by the COQ10—a drunk by pregnant coconut sugar. vitamin-like subwomen. It is vegan, stance found in every gluten-free, chemical-free, paraben-free (or without pre- cell of the body—produces energy needed servatives) and silicon-free. It is halal for cell growth and maintenance. It is also an antioxidant that protects the body from and prepared cruelty-free.

It is the first ready-to-drink coffee damage caused by harmful molecules.

Kaffea is delicious, aromatic coffee blend in the Philippines with coconut sugar as its sweetener. Kaffea helps with plenty of health benefits. no wonregulate blood sugar levels and blood der everybody is discovering the joys pressure. It is rich in calcium and po- of drinking Kaffea.

Kaffea is available at lazada.com.ph, tassium because of coconut sugar.

Kaffea improves skin texture and beautymnl.com, SM Supermarket Marelasticity with its collagen and glu- ket Street booths, SM Kultura outlets, tathione content. It is rich in collagen Rustan’s, and CityMall GoLokal stores which strengthens the muscles, ten- nationwide. Or call telephone number dons, and joints. It also tightens the 477-9920. ADVT

CYAN MAGENTA YELLOW BLACK Manila

Standard TODAY

MONDAY, APRIL 30, 2018

TODAY

C3

nickie.standard@gmail.com

GMA, first Philippine network to create content at YouTube Space New York

G

MA Network made history anew as the first Filipino broadcast network to produce content at the YouTube Space New York.

Top Kapuso stars Dennis Trillo, Jennylyn Mercado, Lovi Poe, Alden Richards, Betong Sumaya, and Dingdong Dantes took a side trip at the YouTube Space prior to the GMA Pinoy TV Sikat Ka, Kapuso! show in New Jersey to bond with each other and create videos that were uploaded on GMA’s YouTube channel.

The artists produced videos which presented them differently from what

From left: Alden Richards, Lovi Poe, Dingdong Dantes, Dennis Trillo, Jennylyn Mercado, and Betong Sumaya

the fans usually see.

The first video, dubbed “Concert Ko ‘To!”, featured a fun musical set where the artists showcased their versatility as they performed popular nursery rhymes that have been re-arranged.

Alden and Betong gave a funky rendition of “London Bridge is Falling Down,” followed by Lovi and Dennis who rendered a romantic ballad version of “Row, Row,

Row Your Boat”. Jennylyn, on the other hand, performed a rock vibe version of “If You’re Happy and You Know It” while Dingdong channeled his inner boy band leader with “Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star.”

Apart from “Concert Ko ‘To!”, they also produced other segments such as “What’s in my phone?”, “Pass the intrigahan”, and “What’s your favorite Kapuso show?”

The Kapuso artists’ YouTube Space visit was made possible through the joint efforts of GMA Interna-

Raven Lansangan is competiting today at the 12th edition of Mr. International Pageant. Photo

by Joy Arguil

tional and GMA Entertainment Content Group, in coordination with GMA New Media Inc., and YouTube Space New York.

Located in key cities across the globe, the YouTube Space is a venue that brings together YouTube creators to attend workshops, events, and produce content using their provided facilities.

To watch the first video created at the YouTube Space, visit http://bit.do/KapusoConcertYTSpaceNY.

SCN FORM NO. 1 (R.A. NO. 9139)

001294

REPUBLIC OF THE PHILIPPINES SPECIAL COMMITTEE ON NATURALIZATION IN THE MATTER OF THE PETITION OF NARENDAR CHANGAMAL JESSWANI to be naturalized as Filipino citizen pursuant to Republic Act No. 9139.

13. It is my true and honest intention to become a citizen of the Philippines and to renounce absolutely and forever all allegiance and fidelity to any foreign prince, potentate, state or sovereignty, and, particularly, to INDIA of which at this time I am a citizen or subject. I will reside continuously in the Philippines from the date of the filing of this petition up to the time of my admission to Philippine citizenship.

SCN CASE NO. x------------------ x

PETITION Pursuant to the provisions of Republic Act No. 9139, petitioner hereby submits a petition for naturalization to become a citizen of the Republic of the Philippines and respectfully declares: 1. My full name is NARENDAR CHANGAMAL JESSWANI , but I have also been known since childhood as N/A or I have been judicially authorized to use the alias name(s) .

N/A

of 1660. It’s by well-known Pampanga designer Derek Maniego, and formal suits by fellow KapampanganJune Angeles.

The 12th edition of the Mr. International pageant will be held at Myanmar’s National Theatre with webcast live thru Misterinternational.net.

Republic of the Philippines Department of Health CENTRAL OFFICE BIDS AND AWARDS COMMITTEE

By Eton Concepcion PAMPANGA native Raven Lansangan chose to skip graduation to be able to compete at Mr. International 2018, which finals night happening today in Yangoon, Myanmar.

The 20-year-old Mabalacat, Pampanga native and graduating student of Holy Angel University was supposed to receive his diploma degree in Business Administration major in Business Management on April 25. Instead, he chose to be in the Southeast Asian country to compete against 40 delegates from around the world.

“No pressure at all. After the hard work, finally the long wait is over. I’m ready and so excited for the greatest battle of my life. I will do my best to make you all proud,” said the bedimpled ads model at his send-off party hosted by the Prime Event Productions Philippines, Inc. (PEPPS) Foundation headed by Carlo Morris Galang.

Giving moral support to the 5-foot-11 model were the reigning 2017 Misters of Filipinas titlists for Man of the World Clint Karklins Peralta, Mister Supranational Yves Campos, Man of the Year Rubi Kinst, Mister Ocean Carlo Pasion and Mister Universe-TourismIon Perez and event host Mr. International 2016 semi-finalist Miguel Guia.

Lansangan, who plays basketball and volleyball and loves dancing and listening to classical music, aims to win the same title won by police office officer Mariano Flormata, aka Neil Perez, in 2014. He wants to win and use his title to further help promote his advocacy on raising awareness against drugs through creation of sports programs and activities for the youth.

Lansangan will wear for his national costume designed in honor of Lakandula’s grandson, Datu of Arayat Don Juan Macapagal during the Pampanga Revolt

1.

InvItatIon to BId Supply, delIvery, InStallatIon and CommISSIonIng of Cord Blood BankIng SyStem and CryopreServatIon SyStem The Department of Health (DOH), through the General Appropriations Act of 2018 intends to procure the following projects listed below: IB No.

Name of Contract

IB No. 2018234

Supply, Delivery, Installation and Commissioning of Cord Blood Banking System Supply, Delivery, Installation and Commissioning of Cryopreservation System

IB No. 2018235

2.

3.

4.

5.

6.

ABC (PHP)

Cost of Bidding Documents (Php)

PhP14,500,000.00

25,000.00

PhP14,000,000.00

25,000.00

The DOH now invites Bids from eligible Bidders for the procurement of the above-caption projects. Delivery of the Goods is required as specified in Section VI. Schedule of Requirements. Bidders should have completed contracts similar to the cited projects as stated in the ITB. The description of an eligible bidder is contained in the Bidding Documents, particularly, in Section II. Instructions to Bidders.

Bidding will be conducted through open competitive bidding procedures using a nondiscretionary “pass/fail” criterion as specified in the 2016 Revised Implementing Rules and Regulations (IRR) of Republic Act (RA) 9184, otherwise known as the “Government Procurement Reform Act”.

Bidding is restricted to Filipino citizens/sole proprietorships, partnerships, or organizations with at least sixty percent (60%) interest or outstanding capital stock belonging to citizens of the Philippines, and to citizens or organizations of a country the laws or regulations of which grant similar rights or privileges to Filipino citizens, pursuant to RA 5183.

Interested bidders may obtain further information from the COBAC Secretariat, Ground Floor, Building 6, DOH, San Lazaro Compound, Rizal Avenue, Sta. Cruz, Manila and inspect the Bidding Documents at 8:00 AM to 5:00 PM, Monday to Friday.

It may also be downloaded free of charge from the website of the Philippine Government Electronic Procurement System (PhilGEPS), provided that Bidders who interested to participate shall pay the applicable fee for the Bidding Documents not later than the submission of their bids.

The DOH will hold a Pre-bidding Conference and the Submission and Opening of Bids at COBAC Conference Room, G/F, Bldg. 6, DOH, San Lazaro Cmpd., Rizal Ave., Sta. Cruz, Manila on the schedule given below.

IB No.

Name of Contract

IB No. 2018234 IB No. 2018235

Supply, Delivery, Installation and Commissioning of Cord Blood Banking System Supply, Delivery, Installation and Commissioning of Cryopreservation System

Activity (Date & Time) Pre-bidding Submission and Conference Opening of Bids 08 May 2018; 10:00 A.M.

22 May 2018; 9:00 A.M.

Bid must be duly received by the BAC Secretariat at the address below on or before the date given above. All Bids must be accompanied by a bid security in any of the acceptable forms and in the amount stated below: Form of Bid Security

Amount of Bid Security (Not less than the required percentage of the ABC)

(a) Cash or cashier’s/manager’s check issued by a Universal or Commercial Bank. (b) Bank draft/guarantee or irrevocable letter of credit issued Two percent (2%) by a Universal or Commercial Bank: Provided, however, that it shall be confirmed or authenticated by a Universal or Commercial Bank, if issued by a foreign bank. (c) Surety bond callable upon demand issued by a surety or insurance company duly certified by the Insurance Five percent (5%) Commission as authorized to issue such security. (d) Bid Securing Declaration No percentage required

7.

8.

Bid opening shall be at COBAC Conference Room, G/F, Bldg. 6, DOH, San Lazaro Cmpd., Rizal Ave., Sta. Cruz, Manila. Bids will be opened in the presence of the Bidders’ representatives who choose to attend at the address above. Late bids shall not be accepted.

The DOH reserves the right to reject any and all Bids, declare a failure of bidding, or not award the contract at any time prior to contract award in accordance with Section 41 of RA 9184 and its IRR, without thereby incurring any liability to the affected bidder or bidders.

For further information, please refer to: COBAC-D Secretariat Building 6 Department of Health San Lazaro Compound, Rizal Avenue, Sta. Cruz, Manila Tel. Nos. 651-7800 local 1625 to 1627; 1650 to 52 Facsimile No.: 711-6061/740-6830 (SGD) HERMINIGILDO V. VALLE, MD, MPA Undersecretary of Health Chairperson, COBAC-D

(MS-APR. 30, 2018)

I am not opposed to organized government or affiliated with any association or group of persons who uphold and teach doctrines opposing all organized governments. I am not defending or teaching the necessity or propriety of violence, personal assault or assassination for the success and predominance of one's ideas. I am not a polygamist nor a believer in the practice of polygamy.

I have not been convicted of any crime involving moral turpitude. I am not suffering from mental alienation or from any incurable contagious disease. The country of which I am a citizen or subject is not at war with the Philippines and grants to Filipinos the right to be naturalized citizens or subjects thereof.

2. My present place of residence is 9627-B PILILIA ST., BRGY. VALENZUELA City/Municipality of MAKATI Province of ________and all my former places of residence are (please indicate periods of residence) COLON CEBU CITY 1951 TO 1963 ESTRADA ST. MANILA 1963 TO 1964 LEON GUINTO ST., MALATE, MANILA 1965 TO 1980 SINGALONG MANILA 1981 TO 1990 MULTINATIONAL VILLAGE PARAÑAQUE 1991 TO 2000 CABANILLAS ST. BRGY. LAPAZ, MAKATI CITY 2001 TO 2009 9627-B PILILIA ST., BRGY. VAL., MAKATI CITY 2010 TO PRESENT 3. I was born on DECEMBER 20, 1951, in DIPOLOG, ZAMBOANGA, Philippines. I have been a resident of the Philippines since birth. At present, I am a citizen or subject of INDIA. 4. My father's name is CHANGAMAL DOOLAMAL JESSWANI and he was born on __________, in INDIA. He is a citizen or subject of INDIA. My mother's name is GOPI CHANGAMAL JESSWANI and she was born on ______ in INDIA. She is a citizen or subject of INDIA. 5. My trade, business, profession or lawful occupation is SELF_EMPLOYED and from which I derive an average annual income of P300,000.00, inclusive of bonuses, commissions and allowances. My wife's/husband's trade, business, profession or lawful occupation is N/A and from which she derives an average annual income of P N/A .

(Where the above does not apply): I am exempt from the requirement of lucrative trade or occupation and from submitting income tax returns for the past three (3) years because I am a college degree holder [please state (1) degree obtained: N/A (2) name of school: N/A and (3) years graduated: N/A who cannot practice my profession (the practice of which requires a government licensure examination) by reason of my citizenship.

6. My civil status is MARRIED, I was married on DEC. 30, 2008 in SAN JUAN. My wife's/husband's name is TUSHI K. KUMAR and she/he was born on in SEPT. 29, 1969 in PAKISTAN. She/he is a citizen or subject of PAKISTAN and presently resides 9627-B PILILIA ST., BRGY. VALENZUELA, MAKATI CITY.

14. My character witnesses are ZINNIA TARLIT VILLOTA and MA. CONCEPCION B. TEODORO both Filipino citizens, of legal age, and residing at 409J TAGUIG ST., MAKATI CITY and 226 BACOOD ST., STA MESA, MANILA respectively, who have executed sworn statements attached hereto in support of my instant petition, together with: (a) brief biographical data about themselves; (b) detailed statements on the dates they first came to know me, the circumstances of our initial acquaintance and the reasons and extent of our continuing familiarity; and (c) the number of times they have acted as character witnesses in other petitions for naturalization.

15. Attached hereto as annexes and made part of this petition are the duplicate originals or certified photocopies of the following documents (please check the appropriate box): [ ] a. Petitioner's birth certificate [ ] b. Petitioner's alien certificate of registration (ACR) [ ] c. Petitioner's native-born certificate of residence (NBCR) [ ] d. Petitioner's marriage certificate, if married [ ] e. Death certificate of his/her spouse, if widowed [ ] f. Court decree annulling his/her marriage or granting legal separation, if such was the fact [ ] g. Birth certificates of petitioner's minor children [ ] h. ACRs of petitioner's minor children [ ] i. NBCRs of petitioner's minor children [ ] j. Affidavits of financial capacity by the petitioner, duly supported by bank certifications, passbooks, stock certificates, or proof of ownership of other properties [ ] k. Affidavits of at least two (2) credible witnesses who must be Filipino citizens of good reputation in petitioner's place of residence [ ] l. Medical certificate from a government hospital stating that petitioner is not suffering from mental alienation or a user of prohibited drugs or otherwise a drug dependent and that he/she is not afflicted with acquired immune deficiency syndrome (AIDS), or any incurable contagious disease. [ ] m. School diploma and transcript of records of the petitioner from the school/s he or she attended in the Philippines [ ] n. Certifications stating that petitioner's minor children are enrolled in public schools or private educational institutions duly recognized by the DECS, where Philippine history, government and civics are taught and prescribed as part of the school curriculum and where enrollment is not limited to any race or nationality [ ] o. Petitioner's income tax returns for the past three years [ ] p. Petitioner's receipts of payment of income tax for the past three years 16. Other documents submitted by the petitioner in support of his/her petition: ____________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________

7. I am legally separated from my spouse; my marriage was annulled, per decree of legal separation/annulment dated N/A granted by N/A. (please indicate the particular court which granted the same). I am a widower/widow and my spouse died on N/A in N/A.

WHEREFORE, it is respectfully prayed that petitioner be conferred Philippine citizenship pursuant to the provisions of Republic Act No, 9139.

8. I have one (1) child/children, whose names, dates and places of birth and residences are as follows:

Dated at Makati City, Metro Manila, this ___ day of _______.

Name ROHAN KUMAR JESSWANI

Date of Birth 02-11-09

Place of Residence Birth MANILA 9627-B PILILIA S T. , B R G Y. VA L E N Z U E L A , MAKATI CITY

9. I received my primary and secondary education from the following public schools or private educational institutions duly recognized by the Department of Education, Culture and Sports (DECS), where Philippine history, government and civics are taught and prescribed as part of the school curriculum and where enrollment is not limited to any race or nationality:

Name of School FRANCISCO COLLEGE PACO CATHOLIC

Place of School MANILA MANILA

Dates of Highest Grade Study Completed 1969 to 1973 HIGH SCHOOL 1964 to 1968

PRIMARY

10. I am able to read, write and speak Filipino and/or any of the following dialects of the Philippines: ENGLISH, TAGALOG. 11. I have enrolled my minor children of school age in the following public schools or private educational institutions duly recognized by the Department of Education, Culture and Sports (DECS), where Philipine History, government and civics are taught and prescribed as part of the school curriculum and where enrollment is not limited to any race or nationality:

Name of Child

Name and Place of School ROHAN KUMAR CHILD LEARNING JESSWANI CENTER, INC.

Date of Enrollment 2012 to present

PRAYER

NARENDAT CHANGAMAL JESSWAN Name and Signature of Petitioner Address: 9627-B PILILIA ST., BRGY. VALENZUELA, MAKATI Telephone Number: _____________

Right Thumbmark of Petitioner

Petitioner's signature and right thumbmark REPUBLIC OF THE PHILIPPINES) CITY/MUNICIPALITY OF QUEZON CITY) S.S. I, NARENDAR CHANGAMAL JESSWANI of legal age and a resident of 9627-B PILILIA ST., BRGY. VALENZUELA, MAKATI CITY after being duly sworn, depose and say that I am the petitioner herein, that I have read the foregoing petition and know the foregoing petition and known the contents thereof, and that the same is true of my own knowledge.

NARENDAT CHANGAMAL JESSWANI Name and Signature of Petitioner SUBCRIBED AND SWORN to before me at MANILA, this 10 day of FEB. 2015.

12. I shall never be a public charge. I am of good moral character. I believe in the principles underlying the Philippine Constitution. I have conducted myself in a proper and irreproachable manner during the entire period of my residence in the Philippines in my relations with the constituted government as well as with the community in which I am living. I mingled socially with Filipinos and have evinced a sincere desire to learn and embrace the customs, traditions and ideals of the Filipino people. I have all the qualifications and none of the disqualifications under Republic Act No. 9139.

(MS-APR. 16, 23 & 30, 2018)

CYAN MAGENTA YELLOW BLACK

Nickie Wang, Issue Editor nickie.standard@gmail.com

C4

MONDAY, APRIL 30, 2018

LA Santos tonight at Music Museum THERE’s a new pop idol in town and he is taking center stage via a major solo concert happening at 8:00 o’clock tonight at the Music Museum. The show is called #Petmalu.

The star of the concert is LA Santos, an 18-year-old Star Music recording artist. He used to appear as guest performer in various concerts, but now, he is taking this big opportunity to introduce his brand of music to a wider audience.

“I’m both nervous and excited since this is my first major solo concert, hindi po siguro talaga mawawala iyon. Pero siguro po ay normal lang na makaramdam ng ganoon talaga,” the teen singer said during a press conference held last week.

The Grade 11 student (at University of Sto. Tomas) who cites Francis M as his big influence in music said that the show will be exciting not only because of the production numbers they prepared for the concertgoers but also because of the big names he is sharing the stage with. He is having Jaya, Ian Veneracion, Jona, Michael Pangilinan, Imelda Papin, Claire dela Fuente, Eva Eugenio, Boobsie Wonderland, and his sister Kanishia Santos as guest performers.

“The concert will have big surprises including a duet with my guest performers. I will open the show with a Bruno Mars medley and then I will perform mostly OPM songs and danceable songs throughout the concert,” LA said. #Petmalu is presented by J.E.D.I. (Joed Entertainment Department Incorporated) of Joed Serrano and Dream Wings Production, Inc. with Iean Iñigo as musical director.

“We are launching a new artist here.

This concert is not just a show but an avenue to make LA’s dream come true.

Also this show is also a benefit concert.

Proceeds will go to Cherish Life Foundation,” Serrano said adding that the show is almost sold out.

“Tito Boy Abunda told me about LA, he said, ‘Please look at LA’s video on YouTube and then tignan mo, napaka-special ng batang iyan.’ So, I saw the video “Tinamaan,” I wasn’t convince at first but when I saw his version of Moira dela Torre’s “Titibo-Tibo,” from there, roon ko naintindihan ang sinasabi ni Tito Boy,” Serrano added explaining how he started believing in LA’s talent.

“Tinamaan” is one of the singles in his self-titled album released last year.

The song is an original composed by Jonathan Manalo. The record also includes another original called “One Greatest Love,” composed by Joel Mendoza.

After launching his eponymous album under Star Music, teen singer LA Santos headlines a solo concert at the Music Museum tonight.

Apart from drama,

‘THE CURE’ is all about big scenes Jennylyn Mercado, Tom Rodriguez and Leanne Bautista are a picture of a happy family in 'The Cure' until the virus starts to spread out.

B

IG-BUDGET series, well thoughtout action stunts, and filmed with an intention to bring viewers a ground breaking concept. These were some of the interesting phrases that Mark Reyes, the director of The Cure, which is airing tonight on GMA, came up with when asked to describe the primetime series.

DIGITAL MEDIA

Spreading ‘gandang’vibes with new Viber stickers RAKUTEN Viber unveiled their latest partnership with Vice Cosmetics, the popular makeup line of the unkabogable host and TV personality Vice Ganda. In the same way that Vice Cosmetics seeks to make beauty through high-quality cosmetics accessible to everyone—”ganda for all,” as the slogan declares—Viber helps spread the good and gandang vibes by making connections and communications on the app even more fun and fabulous.

Fans can download the Vice Cosmetics Sticker Pack, featuring Vice Ganda and Benjie the Unicorn, for free. Made with bright and punchy colors and details, the stickers feature hilarious greetings straight from Vice Ganda’s vivacious vocabulary—from “Tarush!” to “Ganap mo, ‘teh?” Downloading the Sticker Pack lets you follow the Vice Cosmetics Community as well, wherein followers can get an up-close and exclusive peek into the fun conversations between Vice and some of his favorite buddies in a chat group.

This collaboration was unveiled last

Big scenes and stunts filmed in an abandoned warehouse in Batangas featuring 'The Cure' lead stars Tom Rodriguez and Jennylyn Mercado.

April 7, during a surprise birthday party for Vice Ganda thrown by Viber and Vice Cosmetics at Island PH. Amidst a bevy of Vice Ganda’s celebrity friends like Regine Velasquez, Ogie Alcasid, Vicky Belo, Hayden Kho, Karylle, and Angeline Quinto, revelers got to play with Vice Cosmetics sticker props and vinyl stickers for their photos in the island-themed party, and clink glasses filled with purple-colored, Viberthemed tropical drinks.

Best of all, fans can still get a chance to meet their idol through the Meet and Greet Vice Ganda Promo! Users simply need to send a Vice Cosmetics Sticker to the Viber PH Chat Bot as their entry to the promo (users can send one sticker per day). 10 winners of a Vice Cosmetics Box Office Pouch with four lipsticks will be drawn weekly, and three lucky Grand Prize winners will get to personally meet and greet Vice Ganda. Contest runs until May 11 on the Viber PH Chat Bot, and winners will be announced on the Vice Cosmetics Community.

Vice Ganda with his fans during the unveiling of his partnership with Rakuten Viber.

Manila Standard had an intimate afternoon with Reyes during a set visit a few weeks ago. The director, whose impressive resume includes television series My Korean Jagiya, and Encantadia, and films Mulawin The Movie and Resiklo, to name a few, talked about how The Cure is different from his previous works and what makes it a stand out in the fantasy and drama-saturated primetime.

“First of all, contrary to what some people say when the trailer came out, The Cure is not a zombie series. We are in the zombie genre but there are no zombies here. We have the “infected” people who after getting infected they become rabid and manifest the strength of a gorilla or a rabid dog. They no longer have the human conscience or compassion anymore. They just want to spread the virus,” Reyes started.

“When we were starting off, people had the impression that it’s a small show but I knew from the start that it’s going to be a big project,” he added.

The Cure’s premise is set on an experimental drug that kills cancer cells. However, its side effect causes a deeper problem—the mutation of a dangerous and highly contagious virus called the Monkey Virus Disease or MVD wherein anyone infected begins to have seizures and becomes rabid and violent. Soon, law and order is non-existent as the disease spreads not only in the city, but also throughout the entire country. Now more than ever, it is crucial to find the very thing that would save everyone—a cure.

“If I had epic scenes in Encantadia, I have 200 rabid people in this abandoned warehouse in Batangas, they’re running…Apart from the drama, it’s all about big scenes. It’s a story of survival—survival of humans, survival of family, survival of two people in love, it’s a bigger picture. It’s fresh, it’s new, and the whole essence of a suspense-drama is here,” Reyes stated.

The series has a cinematic approach as the director uses film cameras for taping and they incorporated a gorilla to the storyline and used Animatronics.

“There are so many firsts in this series.

I think, that makes it a series to watch out for,” he said.

Jennylyn Mercado and Tom Rodriguez headline the series as Charity and Gregory Salvador, a happily married couple. Charity used to be a registered nurse, but she left her job to focus on her husband and only daughter, Hope.

Greg is the family provider, working as a Clinical Research Associate in an in-

Seasoned actress Jaclyn Jose plays a pivotal role in the series.

ternational pharmaceutical laboratory.

They both live a peaceful life, until Greg’s mother is diagnosed with stage 4 pancreatic cancer.

Playing equally vital roles are Jaclyn Jose, Mark LJ Reyes, Ken Chan, Jay Manalo, Irma Adlawan, Ronnie Henares, Glenda Garcia, Diva Montelaba, Arra San Agustin, and Leanne Bautista.

Behind the series is the creative team composed of creative director Roy Iglesias, creative head RJ Nuevas, creative consultant Denoy Navarro Punio, headwriter Richard Cruz, writers Luningning Ribay, Glaiza Ramirez and Lobert Villela and brainstormers Tina Velasco and Pam Miras.

The Cure is created by the GMA En-

LJ Reyes (top) and Ken Chan play support yet equally important roles in the primetime drama.

tertainment Content Group under the supervision of Senior Vice President for ECG Lilybeth G. Rasonable, Vice President for Drama Redgie A. Magno, Assistant Vice President for Drama Cheryl Ching-Sy, Senior Program Manager Cathy O. Perez and Executive Producer Winnie Reyes.