The Standard - 2015 June 01 - Monday

VOL. XXIX  NO. 103  3 Sections 32 Pages P18  MONDAY : JUNE 1, 2015  www.manilastandardtoday.com  editorial@thestandard.com.ph

‘NO TO DRAFT LAW’ A3 23 million go back to school

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SINO CRIME LORD PAID BBL ‘PAYOLA’ Next page

Mug shot. This photo from the Chinese Embassy in Manila shows Wang Bo, the alleged crime lord who coughed up “millions” that supposedly ended up in the pockets of lawmakers to guarantee the swift approval of the proposed Bangsamoro Basic Law.

CebuPac, Tiger spread their wings

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Barako stuns RoS

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Crime lord paid BBL ‘payola’?

By Christine F. Herrera

THE Aquino administration used funds from an alleged Chinese crime lord to raise campaign funds for the ruling Liberal Party and to guarantee the swift approval of the Bangsamoro Basic Law (BBL), The Standard learned Sunday.

Lawmakers received millions in hard cash from Monday to Wednesday last week, shortly after Wang Bo, who is wanted

by Interpol and the Chinese government for allegedly embezzling $100 million, was ordered released by the Bureau of Immigration and Deportation, highly reliable sources said.

“Unknown to the lawmakers, the funds they are receiving from the Palace to change their votes and blindly pass the BBL came from the leader of a crime syndicate in China,” a high-ranking official at the BID, who requested anonymity, told the Manila Standard.

“The BID officials... violated the deportation order issued on March 5 upon the request of China as they reversed themselves and issued a release order on May 21 to let Wang walk, instead of turning him over to the Chinese authorities,” the official added.

But a protest by the Chinese Embassy in Manila stopped the release of Wang, who now remains in BID custody.

House Speaker Feliciano Belmonte immediately dismissed as “an absolute lie” that lawmakers were paid off to vote for the BBL. “I will resign if anybody can prove that PNoy (President Benigno Aquino III) promised even one centavo for a BBL vote,” Belmonte told the Manila Standard.

Wang, 31, was apprehended at the airport when he arrived from Malaysia on Feb. 10, after he was found to be in the blacklist and in possession of a cancelled passport, the immigration official said.

“Wang became a free man.

They returned to him his cancelled Chinese passport and restored his status as a businessman, like he was never a fugitive from justice,” the official added.

The release order for Wang was issued even though the government was aware that his passport had been cancelled, that he was wanted by Interpol, and had a pending warrant of arrest in China for crimes that are punishable by death, the source said.

Official records, copies of which were furnished the Manila Standard, show the release order was issued by the three-member Board of Commissioners on May 21.

The Board of Commissioners was led by BID Commissioner Siegfred Mison with Deputy Commissioners Abdullah Mangotara and Gilberto Repizo as members.

Before the May 21 board meeting, Mangutara and Repizo reportedly had a private meeting with Wang’s representative, sources said.

“In that meeting, Mangotara

and Repizo hinted they were to raise funds for the President’s BBL campaign in Congress,” said the source, who was privy to the meeting.

“At least P100 million was committed for the entire BID... while some $10 million or P440 million (at P44 to a dollar) would be allocated for some 292 lawmakers.

The amount for the senators was not discussed,” the BID official said.

After that meeting with Manalo, Mangotara and Repizo pushed for the complete reversal of the board’s March 5 deportation order in favor of a May 21 release order.

The Chinese Embassy protested the release order and sent Police Attache Fu Yunfei to the BID and reiterated that Wang was “a fugitive from justice, an undocumented alien, involved in illegal gambling, possessed a cancelled passport, and poses a threat to public interest.”

On May 26, Fu also submitted to Justice Secretary Leila De Lima documents showing that Wang was suspected of opening casinos in transnational network gambling and is wanted by China to face the death penalty.

On May 27, De Lima issued an order to hold in abeyance the May 21 release order and to uphold the March 5 deportation order.

“I precisely ordered to hold in abeyance his release to pave the way for his eventual deportation.

The board of commissioners originally ordered his summary deportation but subsequently reversed itself when it granted Wang Bo’s motion for reconsideration and directed his release from detention,” De Lima said in a text message to The Standard.

“I had to intervene so as to prevent his release. Otherwise, it would be difficult to locate him for deportation as requested by the Chinese Embassy. Now reviewing his case on appeal to DOJ,” she added.

The Chinese Embassy asserted that Wang was a threat to public interest and safety and that his passport had been cancelled.

“Wang is wanted in China with an arrest warrant for illegal gambling. Wang’s presence in the Philippines poses a risk to public interest,” the Chinese Embassy told Philippine officials.

Wang, through his counsel Dennis Manalo, denied the charges against him.

Wang has been in the country since 2008 and has been a holder of a visa since 2009.

Wang said his ELC Technology Consulting Co. Inc. is compliant with all Philippine government requirements and has been granted special incentives to operate in the

Happier times. Leaders of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front and members of the government panel meet in Malacanang Palace during the signing of the Comprehensive Agreement on the Bangsamoro as President Aquino looks on approvingly in this photograph taken last March.

Cagayan Economic Zone.

Wang was charged for allegedly being a key player in the gambling company named Skybet in Manila and was suspected of opening casinos in transnational network gambling.

Special Prosecutor Antonio Rivera said there was a presumption of truth and accuracy in the Chinese embassy’s statements about its own nationals.

“The presumption stays unless the alien submits evidence to the contrary,” Rivera said.

“Thus, the statement from the Chinese Embassy constitutes substantial evidence that respondent poses a risk to public interest, which makes him undesirable and that he is an undocumented alien,” he said.

He added that if the embassy cancels the passport of an alien, he loses the privilege to enter or remain in the country, opening him up to deportation.

Although Wang’s release was aborted, a House official who asked not to be identified said that “a truckload of money” was delivered to the House in the middle of the night on May 25.

“No wonder that on Tuesday, the 125-member House committee on appropriations and 75-member House committee on ways and means, chaired by Davao Rep. Isidro Ungab and Marikina Rep. Romero Quimbo, respectively, unanimously approved the Palace-backed BBL,” the source said.

Quimbo’s panel approved the provisions on taxations and

grants in the BBL while Ungab’s panel approved the funding, including the block grant, for the Bangsamoro.

A check with the House security showed that the CCTV cameras recording the activities in the rear entrance of the House main building, where the bags of cash were purported unloaded, and the hallways and corridors leading to the Office of the Speaker, where the bags were supposedly taken, had been erased.

The House security personnel manning the CCTV operations said they had run out storage for the real time recordings. The recordings for Monday to Wednesday, a security personnel said, were overwritten.

But Belmonte said the CCTV cameras were defective the day he assumed office.

“Some were working but many were not,” he said.

A House official who spoke on condition of anonymity said the contract with the supplier of the CCTV cameras provides that real-time recordings must remain intact for six months before these can be erased.

“They erased the evidence,” the source said.

From Monday to Wednesday, Belmonte, a ranking leader of the Liberals, was busy meeting the lawmakers bloc by bloc, including the party-list groups.

As the House begins its marathon plenary debate on the BBL this Monday, party stalwarts and party whips have been at odds over the “sudden conversion” of

lawmakers opposed to the passage of the BBL. A high-ranking official of the Nationalist People’s Coalition, an ally of President Aquino, said only four of the 44 NPC members were in favor of passing the BBL last Monday.

“From four in favor on Monday, the number increased to 12

by Friday evening,” the NPC stalwart told the Manila Standard.

Another member of the 42-strong Visayan bloc, led by Bacolod City Rep. Albee Benitez, said only one was in favor of the BBL, but the number grew to five

by Friday.

Benitez said the Visayan bloc will vote as a bloc despite their members’ party affiliations and official stand.

In a meeting on Tuesday, the Visayan bloc members were told to refrain from making public their individual position on the BBL issue.

Since last week, the lawmakers also found themselves getting calls from various agencies that their projects were ready for implementation.

“Except for the funds lodged with the Commission on Higher Education, the rest of the projects such as health, social welfare, infrastructure, livelihood projects, have already been released.

Maybe they are withholding the CHED funds because these are for the indigent but deserving scholars and we expect to get it or not depending on our votes in the plenary by June 10 on the BBL,” a lawmaker said.

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Most Filipinos, Mindanao folk don’t want BBL

By Joyce Pangco Pañares

MAJORITY of Filipinos reject the proposed Bangsamoro Basic Law and they include those who live in Mindanao and are supposed to be its beneficiaries, the results of the first Standard Poll showed.

The poll, conducted by resident pollster Junie Laylo from May 8 to 18, also found that 63 percent of the Filipinos surveyed do not believe the Moro Islamic Liberation Front truly represents the Bangsamoro people.

At least 54 percent of the respondents said they disagreed with passing the BBL while 44 percent said they would still disagree with the measure even if it was amended to correct its unconstitutional provisions.

Even the respondents from Mindanao, who are supposed to benefit directly from the Palace-backed measure, were against it, with 52 percent saying they did not want it passed.

Once enacted, the BBL will pave the way for the implementation of the peace agreement between the government and the MILF, abolishing the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao and establishing another political entity to be called the Bangsamoro.

Malacañang has pinned its hopes on the passage of the BBL by June 11 or before Congress adjourns.

But this early 12 senators have already submitted a committee report saying the only way the draft measure could withstand legal scrutiny before the Supreme Court was to revise it.

The survey also showed that 60 percent of the Filipinos polled did not believe it was right for the proposed Bangsamoro government to have exclusive devolved powers.

The majority of the respondents (62 percent) also rejected the proposal that the Bangsamoro have its own constitutional bodies similar to the Commission on Audit, Commission on Elections and the Ombudsman.

At least 59 percent of the respondents across all geographical areas also believed the creation of the Bangsamoro would go against the Constitution.

Across the country, less than a fifth of the respondents expressed confidence that the passage of the BBL would bring lasting peace in Mindanao, while only 20 percent said the measure would help lessen or even stop the armed encounters between the military and Muslim rebels.

The Standard Poll also looked into the trust ratings of the four major movers of the BBL: presidential peace adviser Teresita Deles, government chief negotiator Miriam Ferrer, MILF chairman Murad Ebrahim, and MILF chief negotiator Mohagher Iqbal.

The survey showed that Iqbal was the most distrusted, with all four of them getting negative net trust ratings: Deles at -27, Ferrer at -34, Murad at -41, and Iqbal at -44.

As an organization, the MILF received negative net trust ratings of -50 percent (12 percent “much” trust, 62 percent “little” trust).

Even in Mindanao, where the MILF has its stronghold, 50 percent of the respondents said they distrusted the group.

The majority of the respondents (59 percent) also said they were skeptical of Malaysia as a third-party broker of the peace talks given its territorial claim to Sabah.

The poll had a sample size of 1,500 with 300 respondents each from the National Capital Region, North/Central Luzon, South Luzon/Bicol, Visayas and Mindanao.

The Standard Poll had error margins of +/- 3 percent for the national result and +/- 6 percent for the regional results.

All regions were represented in the survey.

Laylo, The Standard’s in-house pollster, has 25 years of experience in political polling and strategic research.

Trust ratings

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Palace rejoices over poll on dole

By Sandy Araneta MALACAÑANG on Sunday rejoiced over the effect on the lives of the needy Filipinos of the government’s conditional cash transfer program or dole to the poor as revealed by a Standard opinion poll reported on the same day.

At least 90 percent of the dole’s beneficiaries said they were satisfied with the program, and that they rated the Aquino administration highly as a result of it.

But the same poll said the majority of the respondents who welcomed the government dole said the quality of their lives had not improved at all since President Benigno Aquino III took office in 2010.

Many critics of the government dole say it encourages mendicancy, and that the billions of pesos doled out to the poor could better be spent building infrastructure and creating jobs.

The Standard Poll, conducted by resident pollster Junie Laylo on May 8 to 18, showed that 52 percent of those surveyed were satisfied with the performance of the Aquino administration while 24 percent were dissatisfied, resulting in a net satisfaction rating of +28.

“Of course, since that was the feedback, we are also rejoicing since this is the administration’s highlight of the program, which is a different strategy called the trickle-down effect,” Communications Secretary Herminio Coloma Jr. told the staterun dzRB radio.

Giant smiley. A total of 6,667 people join to create a human smiley at the Luneta Grandstand in an effort to eclipse the world record established in Qatar on March 27 this year by 4,047 people. DAnny PAtA

‘BBL will die in high court’

By Macon Ramos-Araneta

THE Palace-drafted Bangsamoro Basic Law will quickly die at the Supreme Court if not amended, Senator Ferdinand Marcos Jr. warned on Sunday even as he rejected the accusations he is delaying its passage.

“Can you imagine the constitutional infirmities of the BBL, how glaring they are and they still insist nothing will be changed?” said Marcos, chairman of the Senate’s local government committee that is tackling the proposed BBL. He made his statement even as Senator Sergio Osmeña III said Marcos and the other senators participating in the hearing on the BBL had no political agenda.

He replied in the negative when asked if he saw the BBL being used by the senators eying higher positions in the May 2016 elections.

“No, no, no. They’re doing their job and they’re doing a very good job,” Osmeña said.

House Speaker Feliciano Belmonte Jr. earlier criticized Marcos and Senator Francis Escudero for suggesting that the two chambers of Congress were headed for a clash as a result of their versions of the BBL. Speaking during the open forum after delivering a speech at the 5th General Meeting of the Davao City Chamber of Commerce and Industry in Davao City, Marcos said that if they wanted to sabotage the BBL, they would not change it.

“That is precisely what we will do. We will not change it. It will immediately be dead in the Supreme Court, but that is not our job” Marcos said.

He said their jobs as legislators was to ensure the passage of the best possible law, and that meant the proposed BBL should be constitutional, enforceable and would lead to progress and peace.

“And that’s what we are doing,” said Marcos of the BBL, which was declared “unconstitutional” by the Senate committee on constitutional amendments and revision of codes led by

Senator Miriam Defensor-Santiago.

The committee, signed by 12 out of its 14 members, called for a substantial revision of the BBL to pass any constitutional challenge.

The committee’s report noted that the BBL “fails the two-fold test set by the Constitution: national sovereignty on the one hand and territorial integrity on the other hand.”

Marcos said he was working overtime to finish his consultations with the major stakeholders on the BBL but not to delay its passage but to address its f laws and enable it to withstand any legal challenges.

He denied delaying the BBL and Osmeña agreed, citing the need for the Marcos committee to conduct more public hearings to clarify the questionable provisions.

“We need to debate on the BBL. We need to revise, amend, or delete [some provisions...],” Osmeña said.

“We all want and pray for peace in Mindanao and between Christians and Muslims in the Filipino-Muslim Mindanao region. Everybody is working to achieve peace.”

Disallowed funds diverted to House BAGUIO CITY – An opposition lawmaker said Sunday the Palace is using the disallowances of some 180 congressmen with the Commission on Audit (COA) to pressure them into voting in favor of the Bangsamoro Basic Law (BBL).

“This administration is vicious, using all means of lobbying and pressure to force lawmakers to succumb to its whims and caprices, even if the BBL is obviously unconstitutional at face value,” said Leyte Rep. Ferdinand Martin Romualdez, the leader of the independent minority bloc in the House.

He said 180 coincided with the number the Palace said was the difference between those who would vote in favor and those who would vote against the BBL. Romualdez said the 180 lawmakers have already been warned that if they vote against the BBL, the COA would pursue their disallowance and that they would face charges that would derail their political future.

Romualdez said the kind of lobbying and political pressure applied by the previous

administration paled in comparison with what the Aquino government was doing.

Romualdez, president of the Philippine Constitution Association, said the draft BBL that the Palace submitted to Congress was unconstitutional, and the minor changes introduced by the House ad hoc committee on the BBL did not change this.

He said the passage of an unconstitutional law would open lawmakers who voted for it to lawsuits.

Some 70 lawmakers who are also lawyers who support the BBL will expose themselves to the filing of disbarment cases if the Supreme Court declares the law unconstitutional, he added.

As lawyers who swore to protect the people and uphold the law, they should have been the first to point out the unconstitutional provisions of the BBL, he said.

Romualdez did not name the 180 lawmakers, but said he was hopeful that they would listen to their conscience when they vote on the BBL. – Dexter See

Santacruzan. Last year’s Miss Manila candidates parade on Roxas Boulevard during the annual Santacruzan dubbed as Paseo de Malate Flores de Ermita. DAnny PAtA

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PH pushes plan on sea row

By Sandy Araneta

Malacañang on Sunday pushed for its rules-based Triple action Plan to resolve the West Philippine Sea dispute amid artillery sightings in artificial islands built by china which insisted it was exercising its sovereignty over the contested islands.

Communications Secretary Herminio Coloma Jr. said the government has yet to verify the article which stated that the Asia Maritime Transparency Initiative, which monitors developments in the South China Sea, has reported on the presence of artillery into Chinese reclamation sites in the Spratlys including the Philippine-claimed Kagitingan or Burgos Reef.

The United States surveillance report said that large artillery vehicles were seen pushing their way toward the reclamation sites.

The artilleries were discovered weeks ago, but the

US has not issued photographical evidence yet.

“We need to verify if the report is true,” said Coloma.

Coloma said that as a whole, the reclamation activities have called the attention of several countries since these activities have created unrest and tension in the region.

“That’s why since August 2014, the Philippines has raised the issue in the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) in Myanmar of the Triple Action Plan,” said Coloma.

The plan’s first point is the moratorium on the activities in the maritime entitlement in the South China Sea, as well as in the islands where the Philippines has occupied ----the Pag-asa Island—including scheduled maintenance activities there.

Coloma said this has been done, the cessation of activites by the Philippines in observance of the moratorium. According to the Department of Foreign Affairs, this is to show the country’s integrity in coming out with the Philippine position or what it calls the “high moral ground”, said Coloma.

Coloma said the second point in the Triple Action Plan is the country’s unity with the ASEAN member-countries in following the Declaration on the Conduct of Parties in the South China Sea, which hopefully would result

to the creation of the legally-binding Code of Conduct based on the principle of the ASEAN Centrality, which should be decided on by the ASEAN countries, including China.

Coloma said the third point is the Philippines filing of a case before the Arbitral Tribunal of the United Nations (UN), in order to have a clear position regarding the interpretation of the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea. Coloma also reiterated the Philippines’ stance on a rules-based and diplomatic approach in considering the handling of the South China Sea or West Philippine Sea disputes.

Coloma said the Philippines will continue to follow legitimate and diplomatic rules in resolving the issue.

Rejecting US demands to stop its intensifying reclamation works in the South China Sea, Chinese Admiral Sun Jianguo, deputy chief of the general staff department in the People’s Liberation Army, told a security summit in Singapore that “the situation in the South China Sea is on the whole peaceful and stable, and there has never been an issue with the freedom of navigation.”

“China has carried out construction on some islands and reefs in the South China Sea mainly for the purpose of improving the functions of the

Blood-letting drive. Donors let blood flow during the ‘’2nd TxTFIRE Blood Letting’’ drive at the Lorenzo Ruiz Academy along Ongpin street of Binondo, Manila. The campaign is in cooperation with the Philippine Blood Center which will give 30% of the total donated bags that will be made available to all fire volunteers in times of need for free. EY ACASIO

Aquino can’t help win votes —Serge THE endorsement of President Aquino will not help win votes for Interior and Local Government Secretary Mar Roxas if he runs for President in the elections next year, a Malacanang ally in the Senate said on Sunday.

“I have said this many times, [the President’s] endorsement has not proven to be much help in the past,” said Senator Sergio Osmena III in an interview on radio DZBB. Osmena said Filipino voters vote independently in their choice for President. “[This is] regardless of who makes the endorsement, except of course, if it’s Pope Francis. In 1992, 1998, 2004 and 2010, it would appear there was no [big] effect,” said Osmena, who was President Benigno Aquino III’s campaign manager in the 2010 elections.

He recalled that during past elections, what was notable was the “split ticket vote” of the electorate.

“FVR [former President Fidel V. Ramos] won while his [candidate for] vice president [Lito Osmena] lost. Erap [former President Joseph Estrada] won while [former Senator Edgardo] Angara was defeated,” said Osmena.

In the case of Aquino, when he ran for President in 2010, Osmena said Roxas was his running mate, but Roxas also lost.

Farmers slam PNoy coco EOs

By Rey E. Requejo AN alliance of coconut farmers’ organizations has asked the Supreme Court to stop the implementation of the two executive orders of President Aquino mandating the privatization of the multibillion-peso assets that have been awarded to them.

In a petition, the Confederation of Coconut Farmers Organizations of the Philippines, the biggest organization of coconut farmers in the country, appealed to the SC to restrain Malacanang from implementing Executive Order Nos. 179 and 180, which govern the inventory and privatization and reconveyance and utilization of coco levy funds, respectively.

The petitioners said that the two EOs violate the SC ruling in January 2012 that the reconveyance of coco levy funds by the government should be for the “development of the coconut industry” and benefit of farmers.

Charlie Avila, executive director and

spokesman of the group, stressed that while they do not object to inventory of all coco-levy assets and investments, the government should not hastily privatize them, for being just the trust owner of the assets.

“The privatization hang-up of government via its EO 179 is a complete abandonment of its duties as trustee of the coco levy assets and is indubitably contrary to the Supreme Court ruling and the moral philosophy of trust ownership,” the CCFOP said.

“These twin executive orders can only lead to a much worse coco-economy of exclusion and would cause new plunder of the coco levy funds... The Aquino government has no regard for the moral nature of the ownership of the coco levy assets,” the petitioners added.

Petitioners also pointed out that the President usurped the authority of Congress in ordering the allocation and use of the coco levy funds, which they said should require law passed by Congress.

Unlawful. On the eve of the school opening, the Stop K to 12 Alliance calls for a stop

to the implementation of the much-criticized education program during a protest in Sta Mesa, Manila on Sunday, May 31, allegedly because it is unlawful.DANNY PATA

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Immigration chief rapped over missing Chinese

Schools open, 23-m students expected

By Rio N. Araja

By Sandy Araneta

CRIMINAL complaints have been filed against Commissioner Siegfried Mison of the Bureau of Immigration before the Office of the Ombudsman for the alleged questionable release of an undocumented Chinese national.

A subordinate of Mison, intelligence officer Ricardo Cabochan, also filed complaints against intelligence officers Wilson Soluren, Gary Baltazar and Arsenio Cantada; civilian agents Andres Sayoco and Aldrin Larrosa, and immigration detention facility acting warden L’Rev de la Cruz for gross violation of Republic Act 6713, or the Code of Conduct and Ethical Standards for Public Officers and Employees.

He also accused Mison and company of violation of Sections 3(a), (e), (h) and (j) of Republic Act 3019 and other pertinent provisions and related statutes as well as relevant provisions in the Revised Penal Code under Article 223 or 224 concerning the infidelity of custody of prisoners.

The complaints arose from the release and disappearance of a Chinese alien, Fu Gaofeng, who was arrested for working in the Philippines without any working visa or permit.

According to Cabochan, a warrant of deportation was already issued on Fu Gaofeng.

“Respondents abetted, confederated and conspired with each other in order to ensure the release of the said individual despite the existence of a final warrant for deportation for undesirability under Section 69 of Republic Act 2711,” his complaint read.

Cabochan said he was reassigned to the Office of the Commissioner, alleging Mison has an axe to grind against him and that his reassignment was meant to harass him so he would retract his accusations.

Fu Gaofeng was nabbed at the Yinyi Philippines Investment Holding Group and was taken to the BI wardens facility in Bicutan, Taguig City.

“Despite the turnover, the person of Fu Gaofeng was never deported but in fact released and (is presently) nowhere to be found,” Cabochan said.

President Benigno Aquino iii has ordered the department of education and other agencies to ensure the orderly, safe and peaceful opening of schools nationwide today with as many as 23 million student sexpected to troop to the classrooms.

“According to the Education deparment, there are more or less 23 million students from the elementary and high school who will troop to the approximately 46,624 public schools, said Communications Secretary Herminio Coloma Jr. Apart from the DepEd, the Metropolitan Manila Development Authority will deploy 800 traffic personnel in

order to help ensure order and safety in Metro Manila, Coloma said.

Agencies are also coordinating with the Philippine National Police for security of the students.

The Department of Trade and Industry and the Food and Drugs Administration are continuing to monitor the prices and supply as well as the safety, of all school supplies, he said.

Coloma said the K to 12 Program will also be formally carried out in this school year. He said that the program is a foundation of reforms in the education sector in order to boost the capability and adaptability of students in their preparations for college education.

In this way, the students will be more prepared in starting their employment or starting their own business, he said.

Coloma said, in his speech in the PICC last Friday, President Aquino stressed the importance of the K to 12 Program in the country, in order to give the Filipino students “adequate capability to make the most of the opportunities being made available to them in the country, and contribute to economic development.”

According to the President, Coloma said the program strengthens the teaching of additional knowledge in elementary, junior high school and senior high school, in order that the students can choose their specialized tracks in the academy, technical and vocational education, as well as in sports and in the arts.

Through this program, the students will ensure sufficient knowledge and skills after finishing high school so that they would be more productive in society, Coloma said.

Coloma noted that the President had said that focusing on education will be the fastest and best way to achieve inclusive growth or development of the majority.

Back-to-school blues. Grade

school teacher Glen Talosig at Senator Ninoy Aquino public school in Baseco Compound, Manila writes her greeting before schools open while (inset) a mother and her child check the students’ list posted outside another school also in Baseco compound on Sunday May 31, 2015.

DANNY PATA

4 senators ink anti-VP report; others non-committal

By Macon Ramos-Araneta NO commitment has been made by the 13 other members of the Senate blue ribbon committee to sign the report which asked the Ombudsman to investigate Vice President Jejomar Binay for plunder over the alleged overpricing in the construction of P2.7-billion Makati parking building.

In an interview at radio DZBB Sunday, subcommittee chair Senator Aquilino Pimentel III said that as of last week, only four senators, including himself, signed the report, which also suggested that the Vice President’s son, Makati Mayor Jejomar Erwin “Junjun” Binay, and other persons be

investigated for the same crime.

The other signatories are Senator Grace Poe, Senate Majority Leader Alan Peter Cayetano and Senator Antonio Trillanes.

Cayetano and Trillanes are the prime movers of the long-running Senate investigation on alleged corruption committed by the Vice President.

But Pimentel expressed the hope the number of senators who will sign will increase this week.

“There will be additional signatories because over the weekend, some of the members asked for a copy of the report. Perhaps, they are already studying it,” he said.

But “they did not say they will sign,” he

added.

“If they will sign, of course, we like that. They are welcome to sign, but we are not pressuring them,” said Pimentel.

He also said that he expected Cayetano to convince his sister, Senator Pia Cayetano, who is out of town, to also sign the report when she arrives.

Last Thursday, Pimentel said it isn’t important for him to get the support of the majority in the Senate because his duty ends with coming up with the report.

The report, he said, should be signed by nine senators or majority of the 17-member blue ribbon committee headed by Senator Teofisto Guingona III before it becomes official. It will then be submitted to the plenary.

But Pimentel said he is confident that he can get the majority vote if he solicits signatures.

Pimentel and Senator Sergio Osmena III have renewed their appeal to Binay to appear in the remaining Senate hearings to give his side on the issue.

Pimentel said they might have three to five more hearings, which the Vice President can attend any time he chooses.

But he said the Vice President is already running out of time because there are only a few hearing dates left.

He said the final subcommittee report can be “adjusted” if the statements of the Vice President are found convincing and credible.

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‘Passers-by ignored boy who was electrocuted’

By Alvin T. Guanzon BUTUAN CITY- The captain of the barangay where an eight-yearold boy died after being electrocuted in Barangay San Ignacio in this city said he could still be alive had people immediately helped him and had the city ambulance arrived on time.

The boy, Jade Randolf Campos, was picking up plastic bottles and other scrap so he could sell them to buy school supplies for today’s school opening, his family said.

Balut vendor Arsenio Campos, the father of the victim, said his son asked for help from passing motorists, residents in nearby houses and stores in the commercial area where the incident took place at 10 am Thursday.

“If only they immediately brought him to a nearby hospital or clinic, he could have been alive today. When I arrived 30 minutes later, my son was crying, asking me to bring him to the hospital so that he can still to go school.”

Barangay Captain Jocelyn Amado said Campos accidentally touched a steel fence connected to a live wire, adding that many other children in the village resort to hunting for scrap to provide for their school needs.

The steel fence encircling the commercial lot compound located on Montilla Street was allegedly connected to a live electric current to prevent thieves from entering the property.

Amado added that the barangay office never knew about such connection. This poses grave danger to the public, she says, and is illegal.

“My grandson will never see school again” said the boy’s grandmother Generosa Campos, 63.

“He could have been alive today if those Butuanons who saw him brought my grandson immediately to the hospital. He was still alive even if we already responded late to the scene,”she added.

Family members said Jade Randolf had always told them he wanted to become a policeman or a school teacher to help them get out of poverty.

Strip of sand. These beach beds await visitors to this resort on Calanggaman Island, Palompon, Leyte. MEL CASPE

Ifugao people balancing heritage with modernity MAYOYAO, Ifugao—It is fiesta time in the famed rice terraces of the northern Philippines, and young men in colorful tribal clothing pound ancient rhythms on brass gongs as wild boars squeal ahead of slaughter.

The annual festivals, held in remote mountain communities after the planting of the rice that is at the core of their existence, are a vital way of passing centuries-old customs to the new generation.

Those traditions are the soul of the Cordillera ranges, one of the Philippines’ most spectacular regions where Ifugao tribes people are custodians of World Heritagelisted rice terraces.

But the stepped paddy fields, built 2,000 years ago and the highest in Asia, as well as the Ifugao’s traditional lifestyles, are facing unprecedented threats amid the relentless forces of modernity.

“There is a danger of these beautiful areas turning into urban jungles,” Edison Molanida, World Heritage sites manager for the national government’s culture commission, told AFP. “One of the main threats is the rapid pace of development in the area. And by rapid pace, we mean unmanaged development.”

In its description justifying World Heritage status, the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) describes the region as “a living cultural landscape of unparalleled beauty.”

On misty mornings, when the first rays of pale orange sunshine fall across the stone walls that follow the mountains’ contours, the terraces look like giant staircases climbing to

the heavens.

UNESCO also praises the Ifugao people for having remained in harmony with nature for so long, such as by using herbs instead of pesticides, eschewing fertilizers and generally showing great care for limited natural resources.

The irrigation system, which taps water from mountaintop forests and shares it equitably throughout the communities, is hailed as a “mastery of engineering.”

A generation or two ago, many of the Ifugao villages and the lifestyles of the people who lived in them largely resembled those of centuries ago.

Large areas of the five listed districts, home to roughly 100,000 people and a day’s drive from the capital Manila, today retain many of the aspects celebrated by UNESCO. Change afoot But radical change is underway.

Once picturesque villages are acquiring the chaotic trappings of typical poor Philippine towns, including ugly multi-story buildings made of cheap concrete, polluting diesel vehicles, and ramshackle tinroofed shanties.

Introduced pests, including giant Indonesian earthworms, are causing major damage to the structures of the terraces, causing some to collapse.

In Mayoyao, one of the region’s most scenic villages, local officials say the worms, as well as snails originally brought in as a food for protein, are the biggest dangers to the terraces.

Television and the Internet are similarly eroding traditional work ethics, which are vital to maintaining the labor-intensive terraces.

“When our parents told us to go and work, we’d obey,” Margaret Licnachan, 38, a rice farmer and mother-of-four, told AFP as she

sat in the stone courtyard of her Mayoyao home.

“But today, our children refuse to go and work in the terraces. They are lazy.”

Molanida, the World Heritage sites manager, described the “abandonment of the rice growing culture” by significant numbers of Ifugao as one of the biggest dangers for the region.

“If the younger generation are no longer interested in the rice culture and move to cities, or adopt modern lifestyles, who will be left to tend to the terraces?”

Locals optimistic In a lengthy interview from his mountaintop office overlooking the terraces, Mayoyao vice mayor Jimmy Padchanan insisted local elders were working hard and successfully to control the march of modernity.

“We cannot deny the effects of modernization on our culture,” Padchanan said.

“But it is not all bad. We are blending

old societies with the new, while maintaining many of our values.”

Padchanan said he was confident the rice terraces and ancient traditions could survive the onslaught of the 21st century.

“The Mayoyao rice terraces will continue to be handed down from generation to generation. The rice terraces shall endure for as long as the Mayoyao are here,” he said.

Locals also pointed out they had a right to develop and enjoy modern society, and should not have to live in fossilized communities.

Standing in traditional tribal clothes during a recent festival, Mayoyao elder and rice farmer Mario Lachaona spoke passionately about preserving customs but cautioned against overromanticizing the old days.

“It is up to the Ifugao people to decide if they want to fight harder to conserve their culture and prevent chaotic development,” Molanida said.

“Otherwise the rice terraces may become grass terraces.” AFP

Mock village. A man fixes artificial palm trees to line the mock Yakan village inside the ARMM compound in Cotabato City, in preparation for Ramadan. OMAR MANGORSI

A8

adelle chua EDITOR M O N d aY, j u N e 1 , 2 0 1 5

opinion

[ edI TORI a l ]

TOO hIgh a pRIcE THERE is a sense of desperation in the way President Benigno Aquino III is trying to pressure Congress into passing the Bangsamoro Basic Law

by June. The timing raises suspicions that Mr. Aquino is doing this so that he can hold the law up as a shining achievement in his last State of the Nation Address in July.

The Palace denies this, but offers no plausible explanation why a piece of legislation with such a huge and potentially harmful impact on the entire nation—not just Mindanao—should not be more carefully debated and amended as needed.

The official line is that the government must provide enough time for a transition period so that the leaders of the proposed autonomous Bangsamoro region can build up their capacity to govern. But this sounds like a facile excuse rather than a legitimate reason to rush the passage of the BBL. After all, regardless of when the law is finally passed, our lawmakers can certainly incorporate an adequate transition period.

There are other signs that the President is motivated primarily by his need for vainglorious boasting.

In Senate hearings last week, we learned that key groups in the proposed Bangsamoro region were never consulted about the peace agreement with

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the Moro Islamic Liberation Front or the BBL that was drafted to implement it. Instead, Mr. Aquino’s handpicked peace negotiators assumed that the MILF would speak for the entire region, without the consent of the sultanates of Mindanao, the local government officials in the affected region and neighboring provinces, the Moro National Liberation Front and the non-Muslim people who live there, including indigenous peoples.

Confronted with such a yawning deficiency in its proposed law, the administration has offered no other solution than to plow ahead with what is now clearly an artificial deadline. If the President were truly concerned about inclusiveness in the new Bangsamoro region, should he not have ordered his negotiators from the start to consult with all these other stakeholders as well? And realizing that they did not, should he not have gone back to these stakeholders and reached out to them?

But he did not. Instead, Mr. Aquino reverted to gangster tactics that have worked for him in the past, bribing lawmakers with pork to get his way, and threatening to prosecute those who cannot be swayed with bribes.

There is no coincidence that the members of the House ad hoc committee on the BBL who had

been vocal about its unconstitutional provisions suddenly reversed themselves and approved the bill practically unchanged after meeting with the President in the Palace.

There can also be no coincidence in Justice Secretary Leila de Lima’s sudden interest in resurrecting the threat of criminal charges against lawmakers who were implicated in the pork barrel scam, after declaring some time ago that she had no time to pursue these cases.

Recalcitrant senators and congressmen need only remember how the President used the full force of the government bureaucracy to persecute his political enemies to appreciate his need for speed on the BBL. It is easy to understand Mr. Aquino’s rush.

With barely a year left in office and no major achievements under his belt other than the jailing of his political opponents, Mr. Aquino is desperate for something tangible to hold up to the public. In his mind, peace in Mindanao could be that legacy—but his ill-considered peace agreement with the MILF and the constitutionally infirm BBL are more likely to bring more chaos and fighting than lasting peace.

That is certainly an unacceptable price to pay for Mr. Aquino’s ego.

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A10 The IrIsh choIce IrElAnd, known for its staunch fr. ranhIlIo adherence to the callangan Catholic faith, aquIno voted convincingly for gay marriages. The republic already had a legal provision for civil unions -- like many other states -- that provided for a stable union of persons of the same sex. That was not enough for them.

They wanted the characterization of marriage and its legal guarantees for same-sex unions, and they said so through the ballot.

Almost immediately, netizens fired away at how irrelevant the Catholic Church was becoming, and how out of sync with the world. And I fired back through a Facebook post: Of course, it is part of the mission of the Church to be a “sign of contradiction,” and therefore out of sync. That is what the Crucifixion was all about. Had Jesus preached a Gospel only after he had polled the people for their preferences, he would never have had to climb up Calvary.

And the roman It was clear that they Martyrology bears were drawing a line witness to the fact between law and moral conviction. that for a long time -- particularly in its nascent years -- the Church, faithful to Jesus’ commission, was indeed out-ofsync with the world, if that means echoing the preferences and whims and passions of the times!

Its very relevance consists in standing fast by what it has taught, particularly because the Gospel it carries is not of its conjuring.

On the other hand, intransigence is not in itself a virtue, nor is it necessarily evangelical. Very stupid people tend to be intransigent! It will be well for the Catholic Church then, through its theologians and philosophers, to revisit its understanding of the human person and of human intersubjectivity or togetherness. It is necessary for arguments about the “bona” and the ends of marriage that rest on a decadent version of the natural law theory to be reviewed. Bad arguments remain bad, no matter how ancient they may be.

There are restatements of the natural law theory today well worth considering and other modes of moral argument. Foucault, in fact, may still be a good teacher for our moral theologians today, allowing us to identify a prevailing episteme or frame of discourse so that we do not confuse this with revealed truth.

Were the Irish voting against the Catholic Church? I really do not think so. But it was clear that they were drawing a line between law and moral conviction. Giddens takes to be one of the facets of modernity the separation of sexuality from reproduction.

Whatever our moral persuasions may be in this respect, people of the 21st century (and already even towards the end of the 20th century) have gradually rejected the notion that sexual activity must be procreative, or at least open to it, to be permissible. Once this separation was achieved, the road was open to all “experiments” in respect to partnering, whether long or short term, including partnering with a person of

pensées

M O N D AY : j u N e 1 , 2 0 1 5

OPINION

lettertotheeditor@thestandard.com.ph

Where Is The PeoPle’s survIval Fund?

By rodne rodiño Galicha THE most recent domestic climate finance mechanism signed into law by President Benigno S. Aquino III in 2012 is republic Act 10174: An Act Establishing the People’s Survival Fund to Provide long-Term Finance Streams to Enable the Government to Effectively Address the Problem of Climate Change, Amending for the Purpose republic Act no. 9729, Otherwise Known as the “Climate Change Act of 2009”, and for Other Purposes.

Called briefly as the People’s Survival Fund or Super Fund as some legislators describe it, the law provides P1 billion for climate change adaptation programs and projects to be accessed by local government and organizations accredited by the Climate Change Commission. The funding is to be included in the General Appropriations Act (GAA) which may be supplemented by donations, endowments, grants and contributions.

According to the CCC, the PSF can be used for adaptation activities, where sufficient information is available to warrant such activities, in the areas of water resources management, land management, agriculture and fisheries, health, infrastructure development, natural ecosystems including mountainous and coastal ecosystems; improvement of the monitoring of vector-borne diseases triggered by climate change, and in this context improving disease control and prevention; forecasting and early warning systems as part of preparedness for climate-related hazards; supporting institutional development, for local governments, in partnership with local communities and civil society groups, for preventive measures, planning, preparedness and management of impacts relating to climate change, including contingency planning, in particular, for droughts and floods in areas prone to extreme climate events; strengthening existing, and where needed, establish regional centers and information networks to support climate change adaptation initiatives and projects; serving as a guarantee for risk insurance needs for farmers, agricultural workers and other stakeholders; and community adaptation support programs by local organizations accredited by the CCC. Further, the fund shall be suppletory to any annual appropriations allocated by relevant government agencies for climate change-related programs and projects and by local government units; and shall encourage counterpart funding arrangements among local governments, community organizations, the private sector, and other entities.

To ensure proper management of this adaptation fund, the law mandates the formation of the PSF Board which shall promulgate policies that will maintain the fiduciary character of the Board; provide overall strategic guidance in the management and use of the fund including, but not limited to, the the same sex. That is the phenomenon, and no one argues against a phenomenon. You address it.

The debate will continue to rage, and it may be best to be more circumspect about making dogmatic pronouncements.

Human nature remains highly elusive. What is closest to us, medieval philosophers said, we find hardest to grasp. But what cannot and should not be postponed is pastoral solicitude. Even if the Church presently disapproves of homosexual unions, what can no longer be put off for some indefinite, later time is turning our backs on a policy of exclusion. More important than any doctrine was Jesus’ defiant act of breaking barriers:

development of funding windows for various adaptation activities, including counterpart funding arrangements, and guidelines for project assessment, approval and evaluation; develop social, financial and environmental safeguards to be used in project implementation; identify additional sources for the fund; issue final approval of projects for the use of the fund; adopt a conflict of interest policy to ensure that board members will not vote on projects if they have a direct stake therein; and ensure an independent third party evaluation and auditing of activities supported by the fund, taking into consideration the principles of transparency and accountability, and government accounting and auditing rules and regulations.

Hence, in fiscal years 2013 and 2014, the Congress approved a total of P1 billion, P500 million for each year. In 2015 GAA, P1 billion was included. This totals a P2 billion allotment since 2013.

In a recent hearing conducted by the newly created Special Committee on Climate Change at the House of representatives being chaired by Ako Bicol Partylist representative rodel Batocabe, the members of the committee asked for the whereabouts of the P2- billion fund and how it was disbursed since the PSF was signed by President Aquino in 2012. The legislators contended that this could have been used and maximized by local communities to minimize and mitigate the effects of climate change in their areas through adaptation programs and projects.

A representative of the department of Budget and Management (dBM) clarified that the total of P 1 billion for 2013 and 2014 was classified as “unprogrammed” in the GAA simply because there were no programs nor projects submitted yet.

However, in another instance, the CCC said that the dBM would still look for the source of the fund.

But where is the fund now? The dBM during the hearing said that the P1 billion (2013 and 2014 appropriations) out of the P2 billion is now gone for it was not used and was classified as unprogrammed. Was it possible to access that fund that time? dBM’s answer was a big yes but disbursement was not possible because there were no project proposals and there was no approved Implementing rules and regulations (Irr) of the law. Hence, the only remaining fund which can be possibly accessed this year is Php 1 billion.

Early this year, the CCC announced that the P1 billion climate finance was already ready to be accessed and the PSF Board approved the selection criteria for lGUs. The criteria includes location in one of the 18 major river basins and key biodiversity areas, high poverty incidence, exposure to climate/ disaster risks, and a Seal of Good Governance by the department of Interior and local Government (dIlG). Further, interconnected risk among cities Continued on A10 the separation of clean and unclean, respectable and disreputable, men and women, Pharisee and publican. That is why at his death, the heavy veil in the Temple that separated the Holy of Holies from all that was not holy enough was rent in two!

And if Pope Francis has won the world’s respect, esteem and affection, it is because he has asked the church he leads to be more welcoming of all, including those persons with whose convictions we take issue! rannie_aquino@sanbeda.edu.ph rannie_aquino@csu.edu.ph rannie_aquino@yahoo.com

M O N D AY : J U N E 1 , 2 0 1 5

OPINION

ADELLE CHUA EDITOR

lettertotheeditor@thestandard.com.ph

A11

WHAT MINING DESTROYS THE Department of Environment and Natural Resources RITA LINDA must get its act V. JIMENO together. Last week, it proudly launched a five-year initiative which, it said, will boost the protection and conservation of five key marine biodiversity areas in the Philippines. One of them, it said, was the Verde Island passage in Batangas. Calling the project, “Strengthening the Marine Protected Areas to Conserve Marine Key Biodiversity,” the DENR announced that it had established more coordinated approaches to conservation efforts in the Verde island Passage and four other areas which are found in Surigao del Sur, Davao Gulf, Central Visayas and West Sulu sea. These areas are the richest in the country in terms of marine biodiversity and their protection is critical to ensure the fish population in the Southeast Asian region, not just the Philippines, the DENR said. The conservation efforts will involve limiting fishing and development activities to enable depleted fish stocks and the ecosystem to recover and replenish.

Also last week, the DENR announced that it had entered into an agreement with a group of museums and research centers based in the US, foremost of which is the Smithsonian Institute. DENR’s Director for Biodiversity Management, Mundita Lim, said that, as part of the agreement, autonomous reef monitoring structures were installed in the Verde Island Passage in 2012 and are now set for retrieval.

These monitoring structures were placed in the Verde Island Passage to determine the state of health of marine organisms there which are necessary to the health of the coral reefs. The research will allow DENR’s marine management bureau and the research centers to understand the impact of ocean

warming, climate change and ocean acidification to the coral reefs and what needs to be done to ensure the health of the coral reefs.

Verde Island Passage is considered as the center of the center of the world’s marine biodiversity, hosting dolphins, sea turtles, humphead wrasses, giant groupers, giant clams, and some 300 species of corals—considered one of the biggest concentrations of corals in the whole world.

Unfortunately, the Biodiversity Management

WHERE IS... From A10

sign the IRR since 2013? If 30 days lapsed, why is Fund law? it that the concerned agency was unable to publish it?

Rodne Galicha is the country manager of The We are expecting intensified El Nino and rainy Climate Reality Project and steering committee season is fast approaching. Extreme typhoons may member of Aksyon Klima Pilipinas. He blogs atwww. be coming due to climate crisis. We have lost P1 rodgalicha.com. billion of the PSF and we haven’t maximized the appropriated P1 billion this year.

Many LGUs may have formulated CHASING PLUMBLINE their Local Climate Change Action HAPPY Plans which backs up their adaptation PASTOR ADELLE programs and projects, but the PSF APOLLO CHUA QUIBOLOY law has no IRR. What does it mean?

Mr. President, when will you Pastor Quiboloy’s column Ms. Chua’s column will sign the Implementing Rules and will resume next week. resume soon.

Regulations of the People’s Survival

OUT OF THE BOX

or municipalities will also be considered; and flexibility to areas which are affected by extreme weather events.

It can be recalled that the signed IRR has been submitted to the Office of the President in May 2013, eight months after the signing of the law. No definite action was taken since then. The CCC said that the Malacanang had called for a meeting on the IRR this year but it did not materialize.

In the light of the inaction of the president on the approval of the IRR, legal experts say that after 30 days, it is deemed approved and can be implemented days after its publication.

Why is it that President Aquino has been unable

#FAILOCRACY

The government must get its act together.

Bureau of DENR does not seem to know that the DENR is now processing the application for environmental clearance certificates of Egerton Gold Phils., Inc. When approved, gold will be mined by Egerton in coastal barangays of Lobo which have long coastlines and shorelines fronting the Verde Island Passage.

The proposed mining in Lobo will use the openpit type (surface contouring), known as dirty mining.

Studies have been consistent in saying that modern industrial gold mining destroys landscapes and creates huge amounts of toxic waste. It generates about 20 tons of toxic waste for every 0.333 ounce gold ring.

For every gram of gold produced, about two grams of mercury are released into the environment. The waste consists of deadly cyanide, mercury, arsenic and lead. What most people do not realize is that when mercury enters the atmosphere, or reaches rivers, lakes and oceans, it can travel across great distances.

Mercury is extremely harmful to human health, the studies say. Verde Island Passage, Southern Luzon, Palawan, Western Mindanao and Southeast Asia will be contaminated with mercury. Moreover, the vapor released by mining activities has been proven to damage the kidneys, liver, brain, heart, lungs, colon, and the immune system of humans and animals.

In Lobo, most of the barangay captains gave their thumbs up to mining making way for the Sangguniang Bayan to endorse the proposed project to the DENR for its approval. The promise of employment must have been dangled to the clueless barangay captains but, alas, the very project proposal estimated that at the maximum, only a total of 250 workers will be employed for a period of only 10 years. The resorts in Lobo, together, employ a lot more than that number today; and if tourism continues to flourish, it will create many more jobs and sources of income. If the taxes that are expected to be paid by the mining company seem attractive to the local government, it must bear in mind that whatever amount of money it collects from mining will never be enough to bring back what it will lose. More than the LGU, however, the ball is in the hands of the DENR. Can it commit to further strengthening the protection of Verde Island Passage and at the same time grant gold mining in Lobo that will kill the marine life in the passage, as well as the air and soil in Lobo and nearby towns?

The government must get its act together. Perhaps it is well to remind the DENR and the local government of Lobo, Batangas, of that old Cree proverb that says: Only when the last tree has died, and the last river been poisoned, and the last fish been caught will we realize that we cannot eat money.

Email: ritalindaj@gmail.com Visit: www.jimenolaw.com.ph

CHONG ARDIVILLA

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A12

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Williams reaches Final 16 PARIS—Serena Williams battled back from a set down for the second straight match to defeat Victoria Azarenka 3-6, 6-4, 6-2 and reach the last 16 of the French Open on Saturday.

The 33-year-old American was staring defeat in the face at a set and 2-4 down in the second before finding her range in the nick of time.

She was also a break down early in the deciding set, but by that time she had found her range and she duly won six games in a row to clinch the win.

Williams will next play fellow American Sloane Stephens for a place in the quarter-finals as she continues

in search of a 20th Grand Slam title.

Stephens made it through with a 6-4, 6-1 win over Tsvetlana Pironkova of Bulgaria, reaching the last 16 at Roland Garros for the fourth straight year.

“Today it was not easy, Victoria played very well and I was struggling,” said the two-time champion Williams.

“She won the first set and I just said to myself ‘allez, allez Serena, come-on.’”

Azarenka was quickest out of the

blocks in a late-starting match, taking the opening two games before Williams levelled at 2-2. Azarenka then won four of the next five games to take the set 6-3.

Williams was struggling with her usually mighty serve and she was broken again in the third game of the second set as Azarenka grew in confidence to take a 3-1 lead.

The American had a break point to get back level at 3-3 but three unforced errors in a row saw her 4-2 down instead.

Two games later she had another shot at taking the Azarenka serve and this time she made no mistake on her second break point with the Belaru-

sian hitting long under pressure.

That proved to be the turning point of the match with Williams clearly in the ascendancy suddenly opening up with all the power she has at her disposal.

She levelled the set scores after a disputed line call that had the two players trading barbs and staring daggers at each other over the net.

Williams fell behind 0-2 at the start of the deciding set, but turned on the power as Azarenka wilted to win the last six games of the tie.

Williams and Stephens kept the American flag flying at Roland Garros after earlier defeats for Madison Keys and Irina Falconi. AFP

Switzerland’s Roger Federer returns the ball to Bosnia-Herzegovina’s Damir Dzumhur during the men’s third round at the Roland Garros 2015 French Tennis Open in Paris. AFP

Labasano, Regala rule HEAD Jr. net tourney YOUNG guns, Jed Justin Labasano and Dana Mae Regala, grabbed two titles apiece recently to dominate the 13th leg of Globe 17th HEAD Graphene XT Junior Tennis Satellite Circuit at the Olongapo Tennis Club in Olongapo City.

Labasano played true to form to rip Manuel Banzon, 7-6 (2), 3-6, 6-3, and bag the boys’ 16-under singles’ trophy and then rallied past Alexander Bulilan, 2-6, 6-2, 6-3, to claim another title – the boys’ 14-under singles – in the competition organized by Dynamic Sports.

Regala, for her part, blasted Jovie Anne Macaraeg, 6-2, 6-3, for the girls’ 18-under singles’ crown and she also took the title in the girls’ 16-under singles’ division by outlasting Jhastine Ballado,

6-2, 6-2.

The competition was sponsored by Globe Telecommunications, Chris Sports, Head ATP Tennis Balls, Graphene XT, Toalson, Philippine Sports Commission (PSC) and Philippine Tennis Association, along with Sports Radio 918AM, Home Radio 97.9FM Natural, Boracay Informer, Todo 88.5FM Aklan, Radyo Inquirer 990AM, Power Wheels Magazine, Motorcycle Magazine, Balikbayan The Asian Journal Magazine, Wazzup Pilipinas, Reach Magazine, Oishi and AMAX Inn Makati.

Gian Paolo Aquino won over Jonas Silva, 6-2, 6-1, to win the boys’ 18-under singles’ crown, while Franchezca Malaki blanked Althea Faye Ong, 6-2, 1-6, 6-4, to get the girls’ 14-under title.

Watanabe back on track DEFENDING back-toback Superbikes’ champion Dashi Watanabe of Kawasaki bounced back flaunting his usual top form to score a dominating triumph that got him back in the title hunt recently in the second leg of the 2015 Pirelli Superbikes Championship Series at the Clark International Speedway.

The triumph evened up the title race with rival and kickoff leg winner Ducati franchise rider Raniel Resuello, sounding off Watanabe’s more serious intentions for a third straight Superbikes’ plum in this event sanctioned by the Superbikes Racing Association and sponsored

by Pirelli, FDR and ENEOS with media partners Inside Racing Magazine, Motorsiklo Xklusibo @ DZME 1530, and Motorcycle

World Magazine.

His kickoff stint ended in a debacle when he went extremely high side, causing him to overshoot at the first turn. The incident paved the way for Resuello’s successful start that opened doors for another crack at the title he first won in 2012.

But Watanabe’s resounding comeback gave a clearer glimpse of a more exciting head-to-head encounter with Resuello this season.

The win also showed how Watanabe was at ease with his new machine, the 2015 Kawasaki zx10r that steered his flawless run as he went full throttle throughout the 10-lap race and rarely slowed down even at the curves to secure safe distance from the rest of the pack as early as the third lap.

He captured the Super-

bikes’ Expert crown after checking in way ahead by 7.225 seconds over Resuello. Marvin Mangulabnan of BMW Racing Team claimed third, while Anthony Roman of KTM Philippines Team and Rizaldy Canare ended fourth and fifth, respectively.

Promising young ace rider TJ Alberto of Team Ducati Philippines hardly showed residual effects of the accident in the kickoff leg as he even displayed marked improvement to emerge champion in both the Superbikes Intermediate and Novice classes.

Alberto, who checked in sixth overall, turned back Colin Butler and Ralph Kenneth Torres for the Superbikes’ Intermediate title with Lawrence Macalinao and Jericho Arnaiz winding up fourth and fifth.

Rivera, Eala bag 2 tennis titles each

SHAIRA Hope Rivera and Alex Eala came away with victories in varying fashions to annex two titles each in the eighth First Gen Juntaphil Metro Age Group Tennis Championship at the Alabang Country Club in Muntinlupa over the weekend.

The top-seeded Rivera, a gem of a find from Monkayo, Compostela Valley, outlasted No. 2 Rafaella Villanueva in a tight first set duel then imposed her will to hack out a 7-6(2), 6-3 victory and capture the girls’ 18-and-under crown.

As second seed, Rivera held off Melanie Faye DIzon, 6-4, 6-3, to pocket the 16-U diadem in the annual tournament co-presented by the First Gen Corp. headed by Francis Giles Puno and sponsored by Smart Communications.

Eala, ranked No. 7, bucked the odds to upend her higher seeded rivals in the 14-U class then overpowered No. 1 Mikaela Vicencio, 6-1, 6-1, to run away with the title.

As top seed, the young Eala clobbered third seed Macie Carlos, 6-2, 6-0, to clinch the 12-U crown in the week-long event organized by Juntaphil led by president Edward Puno with Technifibre as the official ball and Caloy Creer as tournament referee.

Rivera earlier defeated Dizon, 6-2, 6-3, in the 18-U semis to arrange a title clash with Villanueva, who whipped Mae Perez with an emphatic 6-0, 6-0 romp in their side of the semis duel.

Bowditch leads by 2

IRVING—Australia’s Steven Bowditch fired a fourunder par 65 Saturday to seize a two-stroke lead after the third round of the rainsoaked US PGA Byron Nelson tournament.

Bowditch, whose only US PGA win came at last year’s Texas Open, stood on 13-under 195 after 54 holes.

He has managed only four top-10 finishes in 145 prior tour starts but has been on top after opening with a 62 Thursday.

Sharing second were Americans Dustin Johnson, Jon Curran, Scott Pinckney, Jonathan Randolph and Jimmy Walker with Americans Charley Hoffman, Joe Affrunti and Ryan Palmer another stroke behind. AFP

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FIFA president Sepp Blatter attends a press conference in Zurich after being re-elected during the FIFA Congress. Blatter said he was “shocked” at the way the US judiciary has targeted football’s world body and slammed what he called a “hate” campaign by Europe’s football leaders. AFP

FIFA, UEFA can’t afford to part ways But while Blatter, who controls the World Cup, and Platini, with the Champions League, may be at daggers drawn, they each know they cannot afford a costly divorce.

Platini told Blatter to resign the day after Swiss police arrested seven FIFA officials in Zurich accused by US authorities of taking tens of millions of dollars in bribes. The French football legend said he was “disgusted” at the tarnishing of FIFA’s image.

On Saturday, the day after he won his fifth term as president of the world’s most powerful sporting federation, Blatter said there was a “hate” campaign coming from UEFA and “a person” within it.

Next Saturday, on the sidelines of the Champions League final in Berlin, the UEFA executive will “review its relations” with FIFA. Some voices, such as Denmark’s Allan Hansen, a member of the executive, say UEFA should withdraw from the world body.

England’s FIFA vice president David Gill has already refused to serve under Blatter because of the world body’s multiple scandals.

Platini says all options will be considered, but he opposes a split with FIFA, calling it the “headquarters” of football.

Blatter agreed. “FIFA needs UEFA, UEFA needs FIFA,” he told a press conference Saturday after an executive meeting which

his arch-rival attended.

Blatter chided the European body for blocking his efforts to introduce an “independent ethics commission”, which he said could have stopped rotten officials getting onto the executive.

But the war stopped there and Europe kept its 13 places at the 2022 World Cup without a major fight at the executive committee.

It had feared an attempt to see numbers cut.

- High financial stakes The world football war is nothing new. But the financial stakes are growing.

“It’s part of history,” according to Jerome Champagne, a former Blatter right hand man at FIFA who tried to stand against his former boss in the election.

Ever since controversial Brazilian Joao Havelange beat England Stanley Rous to the FIFA presidency in 1974 “UEFA has permanently -- in 1998, 2002 and again in 2011 -- tried to take power,” said Champagne.

Europe, dominated by its cash rich major clubs in the Champions League, wants to restrain FIFA’s power, according to Champagne.

“Behind the war of personalities, it is a war of strategic visions,” he added. “Today football

is becoming like basketball where there is only one league that matters, the NBA.” The rival football enterprises are both huge earners.

FIFA made $5.7 billion between the 2010 and 2014 World Cups, much of which goes back to small federations in Africa and Asia who backed Blatter this week.

It has a grip on the rules and regulations of the world’s most popular sport. But decisions from the award of World Cups to television contracts have been surrounded by corruption claims for many years.

UEFA predicts bumper revenue of more than $5 billion for 2015-16 alone when it stages the European Championships in France. Earnings from the the Champions League are putting on healthy growth each year.

Its reputation is clean. But many of the players who shine for Barcelona, Real Madrid, Juventus and Manchester United come from beyond Europe however.

And that causes frustration for countries outside.

Franz Beckenbauer, the German legend who was on the FIFA executive says FIFA and UEFA need “urgent” talks or football everywhere will suffer. AFP

Babolat praises Palaro host, teachers, athletes

BABOLAT, one of the world’s best tennis and badminton equipment providers, praised the host organizer of the recent 58th Palarong Pambansa in Davao del Norte headed by Governor Rodolfo del Rosario for their impressive hosting of the annual multi-sporting events last May 3 to 9 in Tagum City.

Babolat Philippines, under Techno Sports Inc., also congratulated all the teachers, who officiated in the Palarong Pambansa tennis and badminton events at different venues inside the Davao del Norte Sports and Tourism Complex.

“Babolat would like to congratulate host Davao del Norte for hosting the Palarong Pambansa this year. We would also like to thank all the student athletes who gave their best in the annual multi-

sporting tournament,” said Babolat official Archimedes Pangilinan.

“We would also like to pay tribute to all the teachers, who officiated during tennis and badminton games despite the very hot weather in Tagum City,” he added. “They never complained and they were all dedicated to do their jobs during games. Let’s salute all teachers there.”

Babolat was one of the sponsors during the Davao del Norte Palarong Pambansa. They provided tennis and badminton nets, tarpaulins, equipments and umpire shirts, among other things during the games.

Palarong Pambansa in Davao del Norte was participated in by at least 10, 000 student athletes from 17 regions all over the country.

Teachers and tennis officials, who officiated during the recent 58th Palarong Pambansa tennis event in Davao del Norte, are shown here.

Gentry named Pelicans’ coach NEW ORLEANS—Alvin Gentry, an assistant coach for the Golden State Warriors as they prepare for the NBA Finals, has been hired as the new coach of the New Orleans Pelicans.

The team confirmed Saturday night that Gentry, 60, will replace Monty Williams, who was fired by the Pelicans on May 12 after going 173-221 over the past five seasons with the club.

The Pelicans made the playoffs for

the first time since 2011 this year, edging Oklahoma City for the last Western Conference spot in the final game of the season, but were swept by the NBA-best Warriors in the first round.

Gentry has served stints as a coach for four prior NBA clubs, including Miami, Detroit, Phoenix and the Los Angeles Clippers. He went 335-370 over parts of 12 seasons between 1994-2013. AFP

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SPORTS sports@thestandard.com.ph

Suarez stops ex-world champ

By Peter Atencio

CHARLY Suarez won by technical knockout over a former world youth champion in the ongoing Olympic qualifying AIBA pro boxing tournament in Tashkent, Uzbekistan.

According to reports, Suarez prevailed over gold medallist Magomedrashid Dzhabrailov of Russia in the fifth round.

Dzhabrailov opted not continue fighting in their 8-round lightweight encounter after Suarez floored him for the third time.

Suarez said his hard work and training paid off with his win.

He said he is looking forward to another good outcome when he meets five-time world champion Domenico Valentino of Italy in the second round on July 17.

Valentino won on points over Arthur Bril of Germany in another encounter.

According to Suarez, his stint in Uzbekistan will help him solidify his bid for the next Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro.

Suarez is now ranked no. 5 in the AIBA rankings after his fight.

Hurshid Tojibaev of Uzkekistan is ranked no. 1, followed by Russian Dmitry Polyanskiy and Donato Robson.

A silver medalist in the President’s Cup Almaty 2014, Suarez has all the credentials to compete against the very best in his weight category.

There were four other lightweight (60 kg) bouts that evening, according to the tournament’s, official site.

Home favorite Tojibaev prevailed on points over Ireland’s David Oliver Joyce, 77-75.

Although Joyce continued to advance and attack with flurries, Tojibaev picked his punches with superb timing, which frustrated his Irish rival in the last three rounds.

Tojibaev’s next opponent in APB, Polyanskiy defeated Brazil’s Robson Conceicao.

AIBA World Championships medalist Valentino beat Germany’s Artur Bril for the second time.

Golf champ. Cyna Rodriguez (right) receives her trophy as she shakes hands with Pilipinas Golf Tournaments, Inc. general manager Colo Ventosa after topping the ICTSI Riviera Ladies Classic with a six-shot romp over Sarah Ababa. Rodriguez posted another dominant win on the Ladies Philippine Golf Tour, pulling away with an eagle-spiked frontside 33 and capping her romp with a birdie-birdie finish for a 69 and a six-shot victory.

PH tackles Singapore at start of SEAG football Game Today (Jalan Besar Stadium) 8:30 p.m. – Philippines vs.

Singapore

SINGAPORE—The Philippines will be bracing for a hostile crowd as the National Under-23 squad tackles host Singapore to usher in the country’s campaign in 28th Southeast Asian Games at the Jalan Besar Stadium on Monday.

“The boys are physically and psychologically ready for tomorrow’s game,” said head coach Marlon Maro, whose charges will not only be up against the Singaporeans but also their hometown fans, who are expected to fill virtually every nook and cranny of

the 6,800-capacity venue.

“Mas marami nga sila, but I believe mas malakas at mas maingay ang mga Pinoy,” added the coach, who was hoping that the huge Filipino expatriate community would come out and root for the Nationals at 8:30 p.m. (same time in Manila), opening Group A action in the SEAG football tournament.

The Filipino booters have been here since Tuesday, a day after their last tuneup game where they narrowly lost to top United Football League club Green Archers FC, 2-3, at the Rizal Memorial Football Stadium.

Maro said that based on what he has seen of the hosts so far, “I believe we can match the Singa-

poreans evenly. We might even be faster than them.”

For extra motivation, Maro shared his own experience with the national team back in the 1991 Manila SEA Games when the Filipinos reached the semifinals of the football competitions for the first time, dropping a 0-2 decision to the Singaporeans, who bagged the bronze medal.

“Sabi nila ‘Wow, coach’ di pa kami pinapangana noon. That was 24 years ago and they were not even born yet.”

Maro added that his players had something to prove after some of the eliigibles members of the Philippine Azkals like Kenshiro Daniels, OJ Porteria and Amani Aguinaldo begged off to

focus on the PH senior squad’s buildup to its World Cup qualifying match against Bahrain on June 11.

“These boys are hungry. They want to prove something, that they are all deserving to here,” the coach said. “Gusto nilang mapatunayan na kaya rin nilang maglaro sa bayan.”

Co-skipper Jinggoy Valmayor, who was with the last national Under-23 side that saw action in SEAG soccer tourney in Indonesia four years ago, said the present squad was quite disciplined “at walang pa-istaran” “‘Di kami nagpapasikat, ‘di rin kami nagsisisihan sa laro. Buo kami as a team,” added the UP and Pachanga ace.

Nissan Academy lures thousands

By Peter Atencio

Summer Games @ the beach. News Information Bureau employees enjoy several summer games during their team-building at Barangay Ilog Malino in Bolinao, Pangasinan. PNA

CYAN MAGENTA YELLOW BLACK

FROM virtual reality to real time.

This is what the Nissan GT Academy promises every participant to its program.

Nissan Philippines Inc. president and managing director Antonio Zara said this three months after the program’s launch last March 25.

With over 6,000 participants, the program is on its way to selecting the first-ever Filipino race driver, who will try to make a podium finish in a car-racing event scheduled at the Silverstone Circuit in Northamptonshire and Buckinghamtonshire, England.

“It’s a virtual reality competition. So far, a lot of progress has been achieved. We got 6,000 participants,” said Zara at a gathering the Valkyrie Night Club in Bonifacio Global City, Taguig.

During the competitions held at the malls,

participants sat down on virtual reality pods, or portable Playstation gaming consoles fitted to look like a car’s interior.

Then, they tried to chalk up the fastest time by going around a virtual course,which looked like the Silverstone circuit on a screen in front of them.

The Top 20 players on the leaderboard have so far been chosen.

But, because there could be others who could come up with fast times as well, the search will continue.

NPI will continue to hold Live Events, 13 in all in the coming months.

“We will continue to do that in June in Metro Manila, and later in the Visayas and Mindanao,” added Zara.

Zara confirmed that the Marlon Stockinger, a young Filipino race driver, will serve as a mentor and guest judge in the national finals.

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SPORTS sports@thestandard.com.ph

Barako regains solo PBA lead

By Jeric Lopez

BANKING on a burly second-half surge, league-leading Barako Bull was able to get back on track with a solid 112-103 victory over the Rain or Shine Elasto Painters to regain sole possession of the top spot in the 2015 Philippine Basketball Association Governors’ Cup at the Smart Araneta Coliseum yesterday.

Games Tuesday (Mall of Asia Arena, Pasay City): 4:15 p.m. - NLEX vs. Alaska 7 p.m. - Meralco vs. Talk ‘N Text

Liam McMorrow was his usual dominant self, tallying team-highs of 32 points and 25 rebounds to lead the Energy Colas.

RR Garcia gained a share of the spotlight by scoring a career-high 26 points, including four triples.

The Energy Colas improved to 5-1 in the standings, half-a-game ahead of Alaska, which holds a 4-1 record, for first place. Furthermore, Barako inched closer to securing a berth in the quarterfinals. ‘’They showed that they have character especially in that third

quarter when Rain or Shine also made a run,’’ said Barako Bull coach Koy Banal, who also acknowledged Garcia’s steady play. ‘’RR (Garcia) was fantastic. He helped us a lot.’’

Following a game of spurts in the first three-and-a-half quarters where both squads exchanged runs and leads, the Energy Colas were able to break through late in the third frame to gain the upperhand.

Barako Bull suddenly sizzled and manufactured a decisive 2410 blast that bridged the last two periods to build a commanding 89-75 advantage two minutes into the payoff period after Dylan Ababou’s triple.

From there the Energy Colas held off every desperate attempt by the struggling Elasto Painters.

Paul Lee’s back-to-back- triples pushed Rain or Shine to within seven points, 102-95, but hat was the closest they got as Barako Bull hit timely shots to keep the game out of reach of the Elasto Painters.

Joseph Yeo continued his splendid play with 19 points and six assists. Dylan Ababou contributed 10 points of his own for the charging Barako Bull.

Wendell McKines had a great outing for Rain or Shine with a game-high 41 points, along with 17 rebounds while Lee finished with 21 points.

Wendell McKines of Rain or Shine (left) passes the ball to a teammate after being hounded by Barako Bull’s William Wilson in a PBA game won by the Energy Colas, 112-103.

BIDS AND AWARDS COMMITTEE INVITATION TO BID 1. The Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP), through its Bids and Awards Committee (BAC), invites bidders to apply for eligibility and to bid for the hereunder requirement: Name of Requirement

Approved Budget for the Contract (ABC), VAT inclusive

One (1) Lot – Supply, Delivery, Installation, and Set-up of a Security Information and Events Management (SIEM) Solution to replace the existing SIEM System of BSP, as per BSP Terms of Reference Completion Period:

Php5,170,000.00, VAT inclusive

Within two hundred forty (240) calendar days to commence on the date stipulated in the Notice to Proceed to be issued by the Information Technology Sub-sector.

2. Bidders should have completed from Y2010 to present a contract similar to the requirement. The Eligibility Check/Screening and Preliminary Examination of Bids shall use non-discretionary “pass/fail” criteria.

3. 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.

Women's champion Kasumi Ishikawa (JPN) and men's champion Yuya Oshima (JPN)

4. All particulars and activities relative to Eligibility of Bidders, Bid Security, Performance Security, Pre-bid Conference(s), Evaluation of Bids, Post-qualification and Award of Contract shall be governed by Republic Act No. 9184 and its revised Implementing Rules and Regulations (IRR).

Japanese dominate Subic tablenet SUBIC BAY – Yuya Oshima and Kasumi Ishikawa dominated the tables to lead the all-Japan winner’s circle in the singles tournaments at the conclusion of of the GAC Group International Table Tennis Federation World Tour Philippine Open on Sunday at the Subic Bay Exhibition and Convention Center.

Oshima – ranked 57th in the world and second in the bracket – blanked tournament top-rank and world no. 24 Jung Youngsik of South Korea in straight sets, 11-5, 11-7, 12-10, 11-9, to cop his first senior men’s singles title in the World Tour circuit.

In the semifinals of Sunday’s late morning session, Oshima made quick work of Chinese Taipei’s Wu Chih-Chi, 11-4, 11-8,

11-6, 11-7, also in straight sets to complete his dominant outing on the tournament’s final day.

The two met each other in the qualifying rounds of the German Open last March, with the world ranked no. 24 South Korean booting out Oshima in a hotly contested match. With this weighing heavily in his head, the Japanese bet did not take this chance lightly and dominated the match from the get-go to claim the top prize.

“I played against him in Germany last March, so I made up my plan against Jung carefully in advance. So it’s a measure of revenge for me,” said Oshima. “I haven’t had good results for the past few months, so it is a great thing for me to achieve and win

the title here. It will give me much more confidence.”

“I played very cool in my mind, and it helped me so much in winning the title,” he added.

In the women’s singles, Ishikawa – the tournament’s top seed – nabbed her third World Tour singles title at the expense of Ai Fukuhara in six sets, 7-11, 11-8, 11-8, 9-11, 11-5, 11-8, in a battle pitting two of Japan’s most-skilled offensive players.

Ishikawa – coming off a tough seven-set semi-final encounter against Yuka Ishigaki earlier in the day – mustered enough firepower to control her matchup against compatriot Fukuhara, who is currently regaining her form following a foot injury that washed away her 2014 campaign.

a.

b.

c.

Activities Schedule/Location Issuance of Bid Documents Starting 01 June 2015 (from 9:00 A.M. to 2:00 P.M. only) Procurement Office, Room 212, 2/F, 5-Storey Bldg., BSP Main Complex, Malate, Manila Tel. / Fax Nos. 708-7118/306-2567; 708-7115 Pre-bid Conference 17 June 2015; 10:30 A.M. MR2A Conference Room, 2nd Floor, Five-Storey Bldg., BSP Main Complex, Malate, Manila Opening of Bids 29 June 2015; 2:00 P.M. MR2A Conference Room, 2nd Floor, Five-Storey Bldg., BSP Main Complex, Malate, Manila

5. The bidding documents are posted at the website of the Philippine Government Electronic Procurement System (PhilGEPS) and the BSP Website (www.bsp.gov.ph). Prospective bidders may download the bidding documents from any of these websites; provided that bidders shall pay a non-refundable fee of Php10,000.00 at the address above prior to, or upon submission of their bids.

6. The pre-bid conference shall be open to interested parties. However, only those who have purchased the bidding documents shall be allowed to participate in the pre-bid conference and raise or submit written queries or clarifications. To ensure completeness and compliance of bids, bidders are advised to send not more than two (2) technical and/ or administrative representatives who will prepare the bidding documents.

7.

The BSP assumes no responsibility whatsoever to compensate or indemnify any bidder for expenses incurred in the preparation of bid.

8. The BSP reserves the right to reject any bid, declare a failure of bidding, not award the contract, annul the bidding process and reject all bids at any time prior to award of contract, without thereby incurring any liability to affected bidders. Further, the BSP reserves the right to waive any minor defects or formality and to accept the proposal most advantageous to the agency.

(TS-JUNE 1, 2015)

(Sgd.) SILVINA Q. MAMARIL-ROXAS Chairperson

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RIeRa u. maLL aRI EDITOR

ReueL vIdaL A S S I S TA N T E D I T O R

sports@thestandard.com.ph

sports

Members and officials of the PLDT Home Ultera Ultra Fast Hitters, led by coach Roger Gorayeb and Finals MVP Jaja Santiago, flash the No. 1 sign as they display their gold medals after nipping the Army Lady Troopers in a gripping five-set duel to claim the Shakey’s V-League Season 12 Open Conference crown before a full-packed crowd at The Arena in San Juan.

Fast Hitters win thriller, title PLDT Home Ultera proved that it is more than just a one-woman, Alyssa Valdez show in the deciding Game 3 of the Shakey’s V-League Season 12 Open Conference championship.

Drawing the best from superstar Valdez, Jaja Santiago, Gretchel Soltones Sue Roces and a gritty bench, the Ultra Fast Hitters beat a well-balanced, more experienced Army side in a sudden death, 2522, 18-25, 24-26, 28-26, 15-13, yesterday to crown themselves champions before a jampacked crowd at The Arena in San Juan City.

Slowed down by Army’s rocksolid two-man, three-man net defense, Valdez persevered and still led all hitters with 29 hits, including 25 on kills, while Santiago and Soltones unloaded 17 points apiece, including key hits in a nervewracking decider.

With the match tied at 13, Roces

delivered on a quick set then Santiago scored on a two-hand tap following a key block on Army’s Carmina Aganon, triggering a wild PLDT celebration on center court as the orange and white balloons and confetti fell from the rafters.

“Before the fifth set, I told the girls I’m already proud of what they’ve done,” said Gorayeb. “I also told them this conference is for us and this fifth set is really for them.”

It actually didn’t look that way as Army put its superb block in full display by foiling Valdez’s attacks twice and pouncing on PLDT’s ace’s error to race to a 3-0 start in the decider.

But Valdez kept on firing and Santiago and Soltones kept on

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coming up with clutch hits as the Ultra Fast Hitters turned things around, snatching leads at 5-4, 8-7, 10-9, before taking two-point cushions at 12-10 and 13-11.

But the Lady Troopers refused to fold up and took the next two points on a Dindin Manabat hit and a Valdez mishit before former two-time MVP Roces and Santiago banged in the last two hits for PLDT’s first-ever championship in the league where it all started.

For Valdez, it was her third title after she also led Ateneo to two championships in the Shakey’s V-League.

“It was as special as the first two but in terms of difficulty, this has got to be the toughest title we’ve won,” said

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Valdez, the conference MVP. For Gorayeb, he will go home with his fourth championship including one with Sandugo three years ago.

“I stopped counting already,” said Gorayeb.

In the din of the celebration, the league, sponsored by Shakey’s, honored the 13-player, all V-League team that will represent the country in the 28th Southeast Asian Games unwrapping this weekend in Singapore.

It includes the triumphant foursome of Valdez, Soltones, Santiago and libero Denden Lazaro and Army’s talented troika of Rachel Ann Daquis, Dindin Santiago-Manabat and Iloilo pride and national team captain Jovelyn Gonzaga with Gorayeb as coach.

“We’re thankful to win this title.

It also meant we can now focus

on our SEAG preparations,” said Gorayeb, whose team leaves for Singapore Thursday.

Army succeeded in slowing down PLDT’s hitters headed by Valdez, also the country’s flag-bearer in the SEAG, with a season-high 19 blocks, including six from Mary Jean Balse and five from Gonzaga.

In the end, the Lady Troopers just didn’t have enough to stop the unrelenting Valdez.

Santiago’s endgame heroics also earned her the Finals MVP plum, her first in the league backed by Mikasa and Accel and organized by Sports Vision.

After PLDT took the opening set, Army fought its way back and swept the next two but failed to finish off the Ultra Fast Hitters as Valdez unleashed back-to-back attacks to end an extended, pressure-packed fourth set duel.

BUSINESS

PLDT may revisit GMA offer B1 MONDAY: JUNE 1, 2015

RAY S. EÑANO EDITOR

RODERICK T. DELA CRUZ ASSISTANT EDITOR

business@thestandard.com.ph

By Darwin G. Amojelar

GMA Network.

heard about the issues he felt should be clarified. He added he already made a downpayment for the deal.

Majority owners of the broadcast network, which airs on Channel 7 on free TV, earlier said they started discussing with a new potential investor.

Gozon clarified there was no fixed deadline on the closure of the transaction with Ang, “but it should be done within a reasonable period which is not defined.”

Ang offered to acquire at least 30 percent of GMA for P10.80 per share. Ang’s offer was higher than the P9 billion offered by the PLDT Group.

The PLDT Group and GMA ended a third round of talks for a 34-percent stake in the broadcast company in February 2014. The talks fell through because of disagreement over regulatory risksharing.

Gozon earlier said he had recent talks with a new prospective investor he declined to identify.

GMA Network is implementing a manpower reduction program. “One thing that we don’t want is to be over staffed. We have to maintain a lean organization.

In regional office, [it is finished], but there would be more employees to be laid off in the main office,” Gozon said.

BUSINESS

PHILIPPINE Long Distance Telephone Co. Income its offer to invest in GMA may reconsider boost.

Network Inc. after talks between with busiThe Agriculture Department nessmaninaugurated Ramon Ang and the broadcast comthe Dalaguete Agri-Pinoy Trading hit Center Cebu pany a insnag. on May 28, serving as a practical market for the “We are also very open to anyfarmers’ produce and thing, ” PLDT chairman Manuel a source of alternative Pangilinan told reporters on the livelihood opportunities sidelines of theresidents. annual stockholdto other is vendor Lilly Investers’Shown meeting Metro Pacific Dales, earns P300 mentwho Corp. when he to was asked if P400 a day packingto invest in he was stillfrom interested vegetables at the center.

extrastory2000@gmail.com “Since, I’m no longer sure [with Ang’s offer], it depends now on the new suitor whether they would like to court us or not,” Gozon had said.

Ang, however, said he would still pursue the acquisition of a minority stake in GMA Network, but cited some new but “small issues” that need to be resolved.

“This is [my] personal deal for a minority stake [in GMA]. The talks are ongoing,” Ang told reporters earlier.

Ang declined to disclose the issues, assuring that he was not running away from the deal.

Ang stressed he was “all set” with the acquisition until he

GMA chairman and chief executive Felipe Gozon said “anything is possible” for a revival of talks between the owner of the network and PLDT. The Gozon, Duavit and Jimenez families own a combined 79 percent of the network.

PSe comPoSite index Closing May 29, 2015

8500 8000 7500 7000 6500 6000

7,580.46 75.43

PeSo-dollar rate

Closing MAY 29, 2015 46

P44.590

45

CLOSE

44 43

IMF set to review 2015 growth target

42

HIGH P44.520 LOW P44.610 AVERAGE P44.567 VOLUME 576.800M

P500.00-P650.00 LPG/11-kg tank P41.85-P47.20 Unleaded Gasoline P29.35-P32.70 Diesel

oPriceS il P today

P34.55-P39.15 Kerosene

THE International Monetary Fund said over the weekend it will review the 2015 growth forecast for the Philippines, after the gross domestic product growth in the first quarter fell below the target.

PH businessmen more bullish in second quarter

P23.70-P24.40 Auto LPG Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas Friday, May 29, 2015

F oreign e xchange r ate Currency

Unit

US Dollar Peso

United States

Dollar

1.000000

Japan

Yen

0.008066

0.3601

UK

Pound

1.531100

68.3636

Hong Kong

Dollar

0.128977

5.7588

Switzerland

Franc

1.059547

47.3088

Canada

Dollar

0.804117

35.9038

Singapore

Dollar

0.741620

33.1133

Australia

Dollar

0.763301

34.0814

Bahrain

Dinar

2.652520

118.4350

Saudi Arabia

Rial

0.266667

11.9067

Brunei

Dollar

0.738880

32.9910

Indonesia

Rupiah

0.000076

0.0034

Thailand

Baht

0.029603

1.3218

UAE

Dirham

0.272257

12.1563

Euro

Euro

1.094900

48.8873

Korea

Won

0.000902

0.0403

China

Yuan

0.161259

7.2002

India

Rupee

0.015675

0.6999

Malaysia

Ringgit

0.274650

12.2631

New Zealand

Dollar

0.714694

31.9111

Taiwan

Dollar

0.032619

44.6500

1.4564 Source: PDS Bridge

B3

the government’s full-year goal of 7 than GDP,” Peiris said. percent to 8 percent.

Among the three major ecoData from the Philippine Sta- nomic sectors, services had the tistics Authority showed that the highest contribution to GDP main driver of GDP growth in growth in the first quarter at 3.1 the first quarter was the services percentage points, followed by insector, which grew 5.6 percent. dustry with 1.9 percentage points Citi awards launching. The Citi Micro-entrepreneurship Awards, the annual search for outstanding micro-entrepreneurs the Industry expanded 5.5most percent and the whole agricultureinsector country, officially started this year in a recent ceremony held at the Bangkowhile Sentral Pilipinas insector Manila.

Shownwith at the are (from left) thengagriculture grew 0.2launch percentage point.

Monetary Board member Valentin Araneta, Go Negosyo executive directorbyRamon Lopez, chairpman of the Commission on Filipinos only 1.6 percent.

Inflation averagedOverseas 2.3 percent Secretary Imelda Nicolas, 2014 CMA National Winner Teresita Valdez, BangkoPeiris Sentral Governor Amando Tetangco Jr., Citi Philippines executive said the El Niño dry spell in the first four chief months, well “Overall, the significant nega- “as exports recover with the global Batara Sianturi and Monetary Board member Armando Suratos. tive surprise in Q1 and base ef- economy and public spending ac- was not expected to have a signifi- within the target range of 2 to 4 fects going forward mean that celerates with the measures that are cant impact on the economy this percent this year. Experts proour 6.7 [growth] forecast for 2015 being put in place by DBM [Budget year because of the agriculture sec- jected that the worst effects of El Niño on agriculture might be felt will be reviewed before the next Department] and the President’s tor’s small contribution to GDP. He said weak agricultural pro- in the second half of the year.

WEO [world economic outlook] administrative order.”

The IMF on May 26 retained its forecast release,” IMF resident Growth in the first quarter reached duction could be more of a threat first quarter of 2015.in three years, towas further“Th driven by expectations For forecast the thirdforquarter this year,

By Julito G. Rada inflation. e impact of El Niño growth the Philippines representative to the Philippines 5.2 percent, the slowest Respondents cited robust conof more favorable macroeconomic business outlook remained optiShanaka Jayanath Peiris said. on government’s low fiscal spending. on weak agricultural production this year at 6.7 percent, higher than sumer demand, graduation and may conditions in the country, susmistic, with the confidence index BUSINESSMEN turned more bullpersist but the share of agri- the 6.1-percent expansion in 2014, Peiris said despite the weak first- It was the slowest since the 3.7-perish in the second quarter amid ro- enrollment periods and summer tained foreign direct investments at 47.3 percent, although this was quarter print, the IMF still expected cent expansion recorded in the culture is small and the impact will despite the uneven and generally bust consumer demand and brisk season as some of the reasons for inflows, and the steady stream of lower than the 58.2 percent in the growth to pick up through the year, fourth quarter of 2011 and was below probably be felt more on inflation weaker global growth prospects.

By Julito G. Rada

construction activities, results of the quarterly business expectations survey conducted by Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas show.

Bangko Sentral said the overall Darwin confidenceG. index, or the difBy Amojelar ference between optimistic and pessimistic businessand respondents, THE Philippines Qatar rose to 49.2 percent in the second have amended their bilateral quarter from 45.2 percent in to the air service agreement

the upbeat outlook. overseas Filipino remittances,” the Other reasons mentioned were survey said. the expected increase in activities Bangko Sentral said the sentiin the construction sector, particu- ment of businesses in the Philiplarly infrastructure-related proj- pines mirrored the buoyant busiects; expansion businesses and ness outlook in the United States, the current eight of flights per week Qatar Airways currently flies launch of new products; and conGermany, Korea, and Singapore to 14 flights a week. eight times a week to Manila and tinuing in the but was in contrast the less bullThe air confidence talks were held in present Doha seven times a week totoClark. ish views of cthose in the onadministration.

May 27 to 28. The last air talks Cebu Pacifi is set to United start “Theirthemore Kingdom, between Hong Kong and India. between two positive countriesoutlook were operation Manila and

previous survey.

Among the reasons for less optimistic outlook were the interruption of regular business activities during the rainy season; lower output during the planting and Transportation and season; Foreign increased market competition with Affairs Departments, as well as the establishment new businessfrom the Clark ofInternational es which could hurt existing small Airport Corp. and representatives medium-scale businesses. ofand local airline companies.

PH, Qatar amend air accord to increase flights

increase flight entitlements for each country by 75 percent.

Civil Aeronautics Board executive director Carmelo Arcilla said Manila and Doha signed on May 28 a new memorandum of understanding on air services, increasing the maximum number of flights for each country from

B3

Eton plans to list in market again

held in 2009.

Arcilla said the parties had agreed on unlimited flights between Doha and other airports in the Philippines, except Manila.

The entitlements outside Manila were previously 14 per week to Clark and 14 per week to Cebu.

Eton investing P28b in 5 years

B4

Doha on June 5, 2015. There are about 250,000 Filipinos working in Qatar.

The Philippine air panel also completed ASA with Singapore, Oman and Australia this year.

The Philippine air services negotiating panel is composed of officials from the CAB, Tourism,

B4

Govt to consider bond swaps

The Philippine air panel held talks with the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia, Australia, Singapore and South Korea last week.

The Aquino administration is pursuing air talks as part of its open skies policy. The government aims to generate 10 million tourists by 2016.

MetroPac mulls over bank loans for Calax

B6

Kepco shuts down Cebu plant

MONDAY: JUNE 1, 2015

B2

BUSINESS business@thestandard.com.ph extrastory2000@gmail.com

MST BuSineSS Weekly STockS RevieW STOCKS

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

MEDCO Holdings Metrobank Natl Reinsurance Corp.

PB Bank Phil. National Bank Phil. Savings Bank PSE Inc. RCBC `A’ Security Bank Sun Life Financial Union Bank Vantage Equities

7 74.8 108.00 98.00 46.1 2.46 1.81 9.7 16.1 21.95 7.00 0.77 1.74 760.00 0.445 89.5 1 18.20 62.00 95.1 307 41 156 1405.00 64.90 3.13

Aboitiz Power Corp.

Agrinurture Inc. Alliance Tuna Intl Inc. Alsons Cons.

Asiabest Group C. Azuc De Tarlac Century Food Chemphil Conc. Aggr. `A’ Cirtek Holdings (Chips) Concepcion Crown Asia Da Vinci Capital Del Monte DNL Industries Inc. Emperador Energy Devt. Corp. (EDC) EEI Euro-Med Lab. Federal Res. Inv. Group First Gen Corp.

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

Lafarge Rep Liberty Flour LMG Chemicals Mabuhay Vinyl Corp.

Manila Water Co. Inc. Maxs Group Megawide Mla. Elect. Co `A’ Panasonic Mfg Phil. Corp.

Pepsi-Cola Products Phil.

Petron Corporation Phil H2O Phinma Corporation Phoenix Petroleum Phils.

Phoenix Semiconductor Pryce Corp. `A’ RFM Corporation Roxas and Co. Roxas Holdings San Miguel’Pure Foods `B’ SPC Power Corp.

Splash Corporation Swift Foods, Inc. TKC Steel Corp.

Trans-Asia Oil Universal Robina Victorias Milling Vitarich Corp.

Vivant Corp.

Vulcan Ind’l.

43 1.55 1.05 2.1 10.72 86.50 19 101 68 27 55.8 1.6 1.68 12.6 19.400 9.99 7.91 9.41 1.72 12.02 26.95 89.7 14.50 14.52 5.84 0.570 201.00 10.08 32.50 2.2 3.49 23.5 25 6.8 281.20 4.22 4.27 9.96 4 11.60 3.85 2.22 2.1 4.06 1.9 6.6 183.2 4.5 1.62 0.158 1.14 2.25 190.8 4.4 0.73 22.50 1.26

Abacus Cons. `A’ Aboitiz Equity Alliance Global Inc. Anglo Holdings A Anscor `A’ ATN Holdings A ATN Holdings B Ayala Corp `A’ Cosco Capital DMCI Holdings F&J Prince ‘A’ Filinvest Dev. Corp.

Forum Pacific GT Capital House of Inv. JG Summit Holdings Jolliville Holdings Keppel Holdings `A’ LT Group Keppel Holdings `B’ Lopez Holdings Corp.

Lodestar Invt. Holdg.Corp.

Mabuhay Holdings `A’ Metro Pacific Inv. Corp.

Minerales Industrias Corp.

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 Unioil Res. & Hldgs Wellex Industries Zeus Holdings

0.465 56.00 22.95 1.26 6.99 0.270 0.285 790 7.77 13.20 3.56 4.52 0.235 1396 6.45 68.50 3.69 5 5.1 7.5 0.72 13.96 0.63 4.5 5.1 0.0360 1.290 1.020 2.6 65.00 2.96 880.00 1.24 0.73 88.450 0.3500 0.2110 0.290

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

Ayala Land `B’ Belle Corp. `A’ Cebu Holdings Centennial City City & Land Dev. Cityland Dev. `A’ Crown Equities Inc. Cyber Bay Corp.

Empire East Land Ever Gotesco Global-Estate Filinvest Land,Inc. Interport `A’

7.890 8.90 0.74 1.300 0.255 40.05 3.5 5.16 0.85 1.25 1.05 0.140 0.430 0.860 0.180 1.22 1.86 1.34

MAY 25-29, 2015 Volume Value FINANCIAL 3,197,219.00 43,846,532.00 2,264,314,467.00 861,459,644.00 24,110,330.00 47,230.00 875,960.00 3,880.00 954,234.00 54,719,570.00 493,047 15,400 107,280.00 629,000.00 1,065,100.00 2,841,001,859.00 204,400.00 9,981,646.00 77,870,988.00 918,181.00 6,147,506.00 24,668,740.00 832,111,594.00 804,175.00 18,903,072.00 1,926,790.00 INDUSTRIAL 15,923,600 680,351,115.00 89,000 127,950.00 2,575,000 2,697,900.00 17,801,000 37,785,040.00 45,800 494,154.00 60 5,190.00 3,639,200 69,105,126.00 230 26,490.00 620 41,939.00 1,043,800 26,840,595.00 1,048,040 59,029,311.00 37,053,000 60,635,540.00 1,815,000 3,089,210.00 803,100 9,895,172.00 22,487,500 434,664,114.00 63,007,000 627,151,057.00 135,387,600 1,045,551,860.00 5,695,400 57,219,387.00 183,000 327,060.00 718,000 9,359,706.00 27,191,500 715,186,935.00 1,599,960 142,143,251.00 15,500 230,380.00 48,400 698,570.00 2,202,200 12,886,705.00 2,662,000 1,500,210.00 6,700,540 1,371,980,036.00 4,646,800 47,058,660.00 16,500 495,750.00 501,000 1,173,510.00 4,000 13,520.00 6,439,800 160,465,175.00 3,141,300 49,310,545.00 24,789,100 173,250,054.00 3,956,780 1,086,583,026.00 22,000 92,600.00 19,344,000 82,286,700.00 7,681,800 73,017,723.00 22,000 93,530.00 165,300 1,912,480.00 1,293,000 4,979,280.00 3,300,000 7,406,070.00 1,583,000 3,393,600.00 26,750,000 118,699,950.00 1,932,000 3,621,540.00 17,000 104,762.00 28,420 5,249,788.00 5,000 22,500.00 1,283,000 2,055,650.00 9,470,000 1,472,220.00 391,000 467,550.00 2,772,000 6,263,750.00 17,062,670 3,276,418,461.00 331,000 1,460,000.00 4,219,000 3,087,760.00 9,700 202,955.00 1,457,000 1,868,150.00 HOLDING FIRMS 1,760,000 810,650.00 8,056,390 456,068,101.00 53,627,900 1,221,232,005.00 46,000 58,030.00 70,600 160,167.00 10,760,000 2,866,500.00 1,130,000 306,500.00 2,181,720 1,732,952,675.00 16,264,900 127,538,384.00 60,151,400 816,596,194.00 19,000 63,930.00 1,107,000 5,034,790.00 510,000 119,950.00 8,585,865 11,994,809,290.00 344,000 2,172,344.00 19,988,280 1,374,367,757.00 25,000 100,210.00 23,500 125,990.00 4,700 27,278.00 18,290,800 136,216,949.00 717,000 511,920.00 19,033,600 262,200,802.00 12,658,000 8,438,550.00 124,168,000 568,289,900.00 864,700 4,357,621.00 7,000,000 253,700.00 30,000 38,700.00 10,177,000 9,970,720.00 32,000 81,130.00 952,530 61,867,091.00 254,000 700,400.00 1,785,850 1,581,131,865.00 306,000 380,320.00 156,000 116,620.00 6,040 501,231.00 12,110,000 4,377,500.00 1,126,000 299,140.00 3,010,000 902,850.00 PROPERTY 2,763,600 21,922,200.00 42,900 344,848.00 7,234,000 5,485,970.00 133,000 169,530.00 10,000 2,550.00 53,721,000 2,113,459,170.00 15,869,000 60,562,100.00 1,164,500 6,044,641.00 17,480,000 14,967,870.00 35,000 43,980.00 604,000 662,150.00 52,890,000 7,555,930.00 1,430,000 627,600.00 119,001 171,960.00 3,800,000 766,940.00 27,795,000 34,451,120.00 115,069,000 217,571,260.00 1,370,000 1,857,400.00 472,200 595,180 20,698,250 8,696,090 519,700 20,000 445,000 400 60,200 2,536,300 70,500 20,000 63,000 810 2,500,000 31,326,600 201,000 553,300 1,113,580 9,950 19,730 574,600 5,311,630 565 293,380 613,000

Close

MAY 18-22, 2015 Volume Value

7.5 73.5 115.90 101.50 47.1 2.44 2.03 10 15.7 21.7 7.37

390,500 333,630 15,020,700 11,864,350 265,200 287,000 399,000 100 93,600 1,999,700 72,800

2,850,244.00 24,307,711.00 1,748,743,469.00 1,191,101,514.00 12,398,230.00 709,790.00 845,080.00 1,000.00 1,323,356.00 44,744,690.00 538,770

1.68 795.00 0.425 93.6 1.07 18.24 73.85 94.5 313.2 44.8 168 1435.00 65.30 3.15

6,000 820 4,830,000 15,842,450 146,000 94,700 589,540 27,530 7,060 258,300 2,555,260 970 75,880 4,191,000

10,080.00 651,900.00 2,113,050.00 1,476,409,247.00 150,800.00 1,723,212.00 43,910,012.00 2,591,088.00 2,223,260.00 11,834,625.00 430,797,771.00 1,393,780.00 4,940,161.00 13,190,250.00

43.15 1.4 1.08 2.16 11.6 86.50 19 145

14,897,100 299,000 12,498,000 8,574,000 33,000 1,530 3,781,000 250

645,949,650.00 411,830.00 13,215,840.00 18,468,960.00 382,902.00 132,545.00 72,115,482.00 34,039.00

27.7 58 1.84 1.76 12.7 20.100 10.08 7.85 10.44 1.7 15.4 27 89 14.10 14.46 5.9 0.590 211.00 10.22 32.50 2.6

1,785,900 120,240 27,701,000 685,000 478,400 22,668,800 9,165,700 118,398,200 1,581,800 71,000 676,100 20,333,200 771,100 43,000 143,600 6,985,000 2,229,000 2,254,210 5,105,800 800 21,000

50,781,310.00 6,957,415.00 53,003,960.00 1,223,540.00 6,108,016.00 452,369,270.00 96,296,609.00 940,987,270.00 16,445,930.00 127,660.00 10,714,112.00 551,800,375.00 68,835,133.00 607,160.00 2,065,530.00 41,172,726.00 1,341,600.00 481,131,438.00 52,573,832.00 26,000.00 59,200.00

26.7 26.95 7.36 273.20 3.85 4.21 9.75 4.28 11.56 3.94 2.34 2.24 4.91 2.25 6.25 186 4.5 1.6 0.160 1.25 2.31 201 4.43 0.73 20.85 1.32

10,392,100 495,300 749,600 1,954,090 82,000 14,815,000 9,695,500 20,000 174,800 1,580,000 3,740,000 9,844,000 6,880,600 53,002,000 47,900 26,110 81,000 913,000 23,280,000 226,000 13,230,000 15,542,220 395,000 26,533,000 3,000 1,469,000

274,844,380.00 13,382,910.00 5,544,868.00 534,964,754.00 318,480.00 62,369,680.00 96,424,715.00 83,100.00 2,042,958.00 6,256,280.00 8,931,920.00 23,354,980.00 34,665,903.00 107,689,040.00 319,575.00 4,887,717.00 364,710.00 1,443,020.00 3,820,800.00 281,500.00 30,667,810.00 3,187,059,452.00 1,752,750.00 20,231,180.00 62,550.00 1,916,320.00

0.470 57.45 22.70 1.28 7.03 0.285 0.28 810.5 8.07 14.94 3.75 4.51 0.240 1428 6.40 73.00 3.81 5.8 5.04 7.61 0.74 14.38 0.67 4.77 5 0.0370 1.300 0.930 2.4 65.20 2.81 900.00 1.21 0.78 84.00 0.3750 0.2180 0.305

590,000 5,054,540 99,931,000 60,000 658,800 11,530,000 700,000 1,095,160 11,716,100 36,679,500 31,000 1,019,000 2,970,000 1,669,505 1,112,300 7,870,080 141,500 17,100 300 19,645,100 714,000 17,847,400 7,864,000 85,713,000 227,100 8,000,000 273,000 29,659,000 333,000 1,091,820 89,000 878,890 4,184,000 300,000 79,090 19,870,000 2,200,000 1,340,000

275,500.00 289,792,613.00 2,367,036,005.00 77,830.00 4,666,342.00 3,247,100.00 196,500.00 891,070,815.00 96,624,633.00 551,079,438.00 114,880.00 4,599,630.00 729,030.00 2,397,103,340.00 7,119,176.00 575,095,525.00 617,113.00 104,866.00 1,557.00 150,572,279.00 512,710.00 264,477,350.00 5,357,210.00 405,149,910.00 1,141,740.00 303,300.00 357,610.00 30,442,500.00 815,620.00 71,853,428.00 257,450.00 793,679,305.00 769,110.00 239,030.00 6,655,529.00 7,513,750.00 471,030.00 406,300.00

8.340 9.80 0.79 1.280 0.230 40.00 4.03 5.18 0.88 1.25 1.05 0.151 0.455 0.860 0.180 1.34 1.98 1.38

4,203,100 22,300 7,802,000 724,000 5,780,000 30,910,000 4,880,000 1,320,300 17,707,000 65,000 1,022,000 22,280,000 2,430,000 122,000 4,030,000 10,046,000 140,159,000 2,163,000

36,304,461.00 226,984.00 6,263,550.00 938,340.00 1,366,600.00 1,252,723,680.00 19,779,230.00 6,858,841.00 15,719,710.00 81,720.00 1,132,440.00 3,411,550.00 1,092,750.00 105,180.00 729,500.00 13,662,620.00 287,855,360.00 3,030,730.00

STOCKS

MAY 25-29, 2015 Volume Value

Close

Keppel Properties Megaworld Corp.

Megaworld Prop.

MRC Allied Ind. Phil. Estates Corp.

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

5.05 4.75 4.58 0.121 0.3100 0.4600 25.50 7.19 29.50 1.7 3.23 19.42 0.71 7.14 0.870 7.030

2GO Group ABS-CBN Acesite Hotel APC Group, Inc. Asian Terminals Inc. Berjaya Phils. Inc. Bloomberry Boulevard Holdings Calata Corp.

Cebu Air Inc. (5J) Centro Esc. Univ.

Discovery World DFNN Inc. Easy Call “Common” FEUI Globe Telecom GMA Network Inc. Grand Plaza Hotel Harbor Star I.C.T.S.I. Imperial Res. `A’ IPeople Inc. `A’ Island Info ISM Communications Jackstones Leisure & Resorts Liberty Telecom Lorenzo Shipping Macroasia Corp.

Manila Broadcasting Manila Bulletin Manila Jockey Melco Crown MG Holdings 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 Retail SSI Group STI Holdings Transpacific Broadcast Travellers Waterfront Phils.

Yehey

6.5 62 1.15 0.670 13.8 27 9.70 0.0960 4.3 86 10 1.77 6.70 2.96 985 2550 6.22 24.05 1.37 107 5.00 12.3 0.224 1.2300 2.25 9.60 2.88 1.3 2.02 51.00 0.670 2 8.14 0.350 0.475 18.18 4.55 3 9 125.00 22.20 2780.00 0.650 1.540 38.00 75.00 9.98 0.67 1.71 5.99 0.320 1.260

Abra Mining Apex `A’ Atlas Cons. `A’ Atok-Big Wedge `A’ Basic Energy Corp.

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’ Petroenergy Res. Corp.

Philex `A’ PhilexPetroleum Philodrill Corp. `A’ Semirara Corp.

TA Petroleum United Paragon

0.0049 2.60 6.60 11.50 0.245 7.4300 8.2000 1 0.81 7.38 1.6 0.320 0.233 0.238 0.0140 0.0150 3.8 22.7 3.77 0.6900 2.040 0.0120 0.0130 4.38 6.2 1.98 0.014 154.00 10.74 0.0100

ABS-CBN Holdings Corp.

Ayala Corp. Pref ‘B1’ Ayala Corp. Pref ‘B2’ First Gen F First Gen G GLOBE PREF P GMA Holdings Inc. Leisure & Resort Pref.

MWIDE PREF PCOR-Preferred B PF Pref 2 SMC Preferred A SMC Preferred B SMC Preferred C

61.5 523 525 119 120 519 6.1 1.09 111.5 1090 1040 76 81.15 86.5

Leisure & Resort Warr.

4.000

Double Dragon Makati Fin. Corp.

Xurpas

9.43 6.59 9.7

First Metro ETF

123.6

Close

32,700 177,782.00 326,690,500 1,572,812,631.00 117,209,000 542,338,110.00 14,690,500 1,735,650.00 1,660,000 528,500.00 440,000 202,400.00 9,900 246,615.00 1,537,000 11,103,480.00 23,377,100 668,982,695.00 1,410,000 2,318,180.00 865,000 2,799,290.00 99,049,700 1,908,089,662.00 1,856,000 1,328,490.00 7,500 32,000.00 5,332,000 4,603,700.00 72,336,639 228,564,846.00 SERVICES 871,800 5,658,152.00 81,080 4,940,089.00 257,000 288,420.00 20,997,000 14,239,790.00 30,700 417,738.00 300 8,100 113,505,700 1,061,834,475.00 77,760,000 7,299,630.00 12,926,000 55,657,110.00 2,865,620 252,355,134.00 9,300 92,140.00 37,000 62,320 898,800 5,216,301.00 20,000 61,690.00 110 108,530.00 466,580 1,210,678,300.00 348,600 2,180,343.00 200 4,810.00 923,000 1,185,900.00 6,552,320 715,305,009.00 25,900 138,964 94,100 1,125,362.00 19,710,000 4,446,460.00 2,132,000 2,636,870.00 94,000 218,090.00 3,578,600 34,302,441.00 3,189,000 8,760,800.00 1,000 1,300.00 5,000 10,100.00 15,450 852,664.00 1,255,000 838,300.00 497,000 983,340.00 14,328,000 116,996,677.00 2,070,000 726,800.00 130,000 59,550.00 508,100 9,257,234.00 119,000 545,220 34,000 102,000.00 14,800 133,200.00 156,210 19,454,415.00 7,529,300 159,221,114.00 607,785 8,187,426,100.00 6,355,000 4,112,150.00 176,205,000 248,518,490.00 11,965,400 456,087,160.00 14,102,900 1,067,862,220.00 28,758,400 257,516,366.00 6,400,000 4,266,370.00 90,000 157,460.00 18,865,400 114,000,446.00 780,000 252,550.00 83,000 106,050.00 MINING & OIL 518,000,000 2,566,500.00 371,000 900,690.00 3,844,100 26,650,935.00 52,200 654,090.00 3,220,000 798,950.00 30,000 243,002.00 128,800 972,268.00 19,647,000 19,010,640.00 5,628,000 4,562,200.00 20,600 153,114.00 565,405,000 842,997,070.00 11,610,000 3,831,500.00 25,570,000 5,978,420.00 3,210,000 766,800.00 201,700,000 2,825,100.00 131,200,000 1,882,600.00 2,887,000 11,148,270.00 19,636,200 463,183,720.00 6,213,000 23,292,970.00 749,000 513,600.00 2,448,000 5,069,360.00 330,800,000 3,916,500.00 10,600,000 137,800.00 189,000 560,276.00 4,063,400 25,448,520.00 22,216,000 44,572,720.00 1,397,000,000 20,393,100.00 2,420,950 375,164,477.00 5,313,700 56,077,399.00 49,605,000 546,000.00 PREFERRED 807,360 50,495,033.00 910 475,930.00 93,240 48,958,800 900 107,100.00 20,690 2,482,100.00 36,430 18,956,000.00 125,200 766,970.00 2,848,000 3,127,330 106,400 11,879,364.00 5,180 5,661,130.00 16,370 17,294,430.00 1,280,940 97,898,888.00 49,150 4,019,490.00 104,330 9,001,391.00 WARRANTS & BONDS 1,268,000 5,088,210.00 SME 5,843,100 55,011,665.00 12,100 75,942.00 6,829,800 66,600,095.00 EXCHANGE TRADED FUNDS 160,370 19,988,018.00

MAY 18-22, 2015 Volume Value

5.97 5.2 5.19 0.125 0.3300 0.4950 26.00 7.28 28.60 1.71 3.23 19.70 0.72 7.11 0.920 7.250

419,400 140,164,400 36,092,700 9,390,000 1,240,000 70,000 15,000 770,900 19,374,300 1,527,000 2,526,000 73,367,500 5,489,000 20,900 4,956,000 63,930,500

2,784,854.00 746,428,535.00 187,411,926.00 1,142,300.00 407,600.00 33,500.00 375,650.00 5,614,305.00 562,063,270.00 2,630,490.00 8,289,140.00 1,452,535,973.00 3,837,280.00 146,295.00 4,577,530.00 467,438,991.00

6.72 61.8 1.09 0.720 13.78

3,894,700 35,680 950,000 217,203,000 2,400

27,345,796.00 2,213,583.00 1,048,110.00 173,424,060.00 33,098.00

9.90 0.0950 4.7 90.6 10 1.67 6.60 3.52 987 2608 6.30 26.00 1.35 111.6 5.17 12.36 0.231 1.2500 2.36 9.73 2.65 1.36 2.10 56.00 0.680 2 8.38 0.365 0.440 18.38 4.56 3 9.49 106.60 21.05 2860.00 0.660 1.620 39.00 81.90 10.52 0.67 1.76 6.39 0.330 1.280

67,354,100 87,350,000 10,912,000 3,392,590 18,200 35,000 920,800 320,000 510 527,935 273,700 3,100 1,028,000 2,547,160 25,400 11,600 21,360,000 4,977,000 126,000 3,264,300 8,024,000 156,000 106,000 38,000 6,172,000 168,000 16,765,400 4,230,000 170,000 22,700 101,000 38,000 12,300 4,950 2,683,100 278,795 8,133,000 87,138,000 17,549,400 3,622,920 16,097,600 2,041,000 24,000 13,483,300 411,276,750 198,000

1,026,209,744.00 8,471,050.00 48,368,640.00 313,455,040.00 182,088.00 58,770 6,424,246.00 1,104,530.00 502,850.00 1,338,667,230.00 1,719,963.00 95,365.00 1,398,790.00 285,525,542.00 143,765 143,620.00 5,045,870.00 6,686,990.00 300,840.00 31,852,380.00 21,975,090.00 190,330.00 216,520.00 2,230,929.00 4,440,120.00 335,280.00 144,922,121.00 1,498,850.00 75,050.00 418,096.00 469,200 114,500.00 110,798.00 607,023.00 55,431,093.00 799,227,970.00 5,310,340.00 146,311,420.00 700,697,720.00 305,407,562.00 170,436,644.00 1,367,620.00 43,030.00 88,829,144.00 389,400.00 254,940.00

0.0051 2.70 7.50 15.50 0.250 7.4000 7.7000 1 0.86 7.47 1.58 0.340 0.237 0.247 0.0140 0.0140 3.95 25.35 3.85 0.6900 2.070 0.0130 0.0130 4.41 6.49 2.12 0.016 159.30 10.86 0.0100

290,000,000 281,000 1,690,200 24,500 480,000 189,200 140,400 4,405,000 4,714,000 134,500 108,502,000 5,310,000 49,470,000 8,990,000 57,030,000 105,500,000 2,833,000 20,080,700 4,496,000 1,487,000 964,000 101,200,000 15,600,000 51,000 4,556,600 82,916,000 67,300,000 6,428,010 9,702,200 24,700,000

1,487,200.00 768,120.00 13,021,921.00 379,750.00 122,700.00 1,424,649.00 1,078,632.00 4,492,140.00 4,020,190.00 1,019,917.00 182,161,390.00 1,819,100.00 12,255,040.00 2,236,110.00 11,094,200.00 1,531,000.00 11,303,270.00 513,828,825.00 17,154,040.00 1,050,570.00 2,007,280.00 1,258,000.00 202,800.00 224,890.00 30,221,103.00 190,827,790.00 1,020,700.00 387,739,658.00 91,725,831.00 252,500.00

63 522 526 119 119 521 6.4 1.1 111.1 1095 1050 76.75 84 86.95

565,640 2,200 21,860 900 32,050 8,500 156,500 3,554,000 30 2,000 2,950 527,290 136,550 242,510

35,695,149.00 1,148,355.00 11,482,100 107,100.00 3,825,810.00 4,423,110.00 969,591.00 3,878,920 3,333.00 2,190,300.00 3,096,490.00 40,457,369.00 11,471,020.00 20,948,827.00

4.340

2,034,000

8,930,650.00

10 7 10.2

6,326,000 105,200 10,928,600

63,827,940.00 844,231.00 113,641,594.00

127.2

275,150

35,306,336.00

MST WEEKLY MOST TRADED STOCKS Philodrill Corp. `A’ Ferronickel Abra Mining Oriental Pet. `A’ Megaworld Corp.

Manila Mining `A’ Premium Leisure Energy Devt. Corp. (EDC) Manila Mining `B’ Metro Pacific Inv. Corp.

VOLUME 1,397,000,000 565,405,000 518,000,000 330,800,000 326,690,500 201,700,000 176,205,000 135,387,600 131,200,000 124,168,000

STOCKS GT Capital PLDT Common Universal Robina Metrobank Banco de Oro Unibank Inc. Ayala Land `B’ SM Prime Holdings Ayala Corp `A’ SM Investments Inc. Megaworld Corp.

VALUE 11,994,809,290.00 8,187,426,100.00 3,276,418,461.00 2,841,001,859.00 2,264,314,467.00 2,113,459,170.00 1,908,089,662.00 1,732,952,675.00 1,581,131,865.00 1,572,812,631.00

MONDAY: JUNE 1, 2015

B3

BUSINESS business@thestandard.com.ph extrastory2000@gmail.com

Delay in UCPB sale exasperates banker A BANK executive is so eager to acquire the government’s stake in United Coconut Planters Bank that he expressed dismay over the delay in the release of the guidelines for the privatization of the bank.

His reaction is understandable, as UCPB is considered a prized asset that will help other banks gain the lead in the competitive banking sector. The interested bank, which announced its intention to join the bidding for the recapitalization of UCPB, is among the five largest lenders in the country.

“This delay has somehow affected our schedule… I hope the government will soon release the rules of the bidding,” the bank executive told The Standard at the sidelines of the bank’s stockholders’ meeting recently.

“And it is important to know what will happen to the other shares, aside from those held by the government. So the bidding rules must be out soon,” he said. The government holds more than 70 percent of UCPB. Early last month, the government set the public bidding for the right to recapitalize and purchase the government’s interest in UCPB in September this year. Julito G. Rada

PH islands are being sold online

A LEADING property portal, which lists more than 100,000 properties for sale in the Philippines, confirmed that an idyllic island in Cagayan province valued at P80 billion was leased out to an American investor.

Jacqueline van den Ende, the Dutch managing director of Lamudi Philippines, said an American investor signed a lease agreement for the 100-square-kilometer Fuga Island in Aparri, Cagayan. She did not disclose more details such as the actual lease terms, as Lamudi was not directly involved in the financial transaction.

Lamudi just provides a link between sellers, buyers and brokers.

Fuga Island is not the only island advertised for sale or lease through Lamudi’s Web site.

“We have 10 private islands for sale,” said van den Ende.

Van den Ende did not identify the 10 other islands, but a check on Lamudi’s Web site shows that some islands or parts of the islands are being sold for as much as P300 million. These include islands in Aklan, Palawan and Quezon.

Even waterfalls are being advertised for sale. A 5.2-hectare property in Iloilo province, featuring 120-meter waterfalls, is being sold for P8 million.

Roderick T. dela Cruz

Why SMC lost Mactan airport auction

GIVEN how strongly San Miguel Corp. contested its disqualification in the first bidding of the Cavite-Laguna Expressway, one would think that its loss in last week’s rebidding of the 47-kilometer toll road to Manuel Pangilinan’s Metro Pacific Investments Corp. would sadden San Miguel president Ramos Ang. It turned out that Ang was not sad at all that he lost in the Calax auction. Ang said he was willing to accept defeat, as long as the bidding process was done in an orderly manner. At the same time, he felt vindicated in his quest to contest the results of the first auction, as he was able to justify San Miguel’s original bid of P20.1-billion bid.

Looking back, Ang said among the projects he lost, he was most regretful over the Mactan-Cebu airport bidding, which was won by the joint venture of Megawide Construction Corp. and GMR of India.

Ang said he was willing to submit a bid of P15.5 billion for the project, which would have topped the P14.4-billion winning bid submitted

by Megawide-GMR consortium. Ang said he was prevailed upon by other partners, who claimed that the P15.5-billion bid was not financially viable.

For now, Ang said San Miguel was ready to move on and pursue other PPP projects.

Jenniffer B. Austria

Franchise show. PLDT SME Nation, along with Sun, Smart and ePLDT, renewed its partnership with the Philippine Franchise

Association as a co-presentor in the holding of Franchise Asia Philippines 2015 slated on June 10 to 14, 2015 at the SMX Convention Center-Manila. Shown are PFA chairman emeritus Samie Lim shaking hands with SME community engagement services and trade marketing head Gabby Cui, after the signing ceremony. With them are (from left) Franchise Asia expo chairman Jose Magsaysay, Jr., PFA president Franklin Go, PFA chairman Elizabeth Pardo-Orbeta, Smar Communications assistant vice president Corinne Zablan, PLDT SME wireless head of product marketing Neph Denostaand PLDT SME Nation business development officer Maqui Igual.

Eton Properties plans to list in market again

By Jenniffer B. Austria

ETON Properties Philippines Inc., the property arm of tycoon Lucio Tan, plans to list with the Philippine Stock Exchange again, after a five-year prohibition period.

Eton Properties deputy chief operating officer Josefino Lucas said in an interview the company wanted to have its shares re-listed with the stock exchange to raise funds through the equities and the bond markets.

“We want to access to cheaper funds to be able to fund future growth,” Lucas said.

Eton Properties was delisted in June 2013, after it filed for voluntary delisting due to its inability to comply with the 10-percent minimum public ownership requirements of the PSE. Prior to delisting, Eton Properties’ public float stood at 5.65 percent.

Eton Properties, in preparation for the planned re-listing, increased its authorized capital stock to P8 billion from P5 billion.

Lucas said he expected Eton to catch up with other top property developers in the country, after the company focused last year primarily on the delivery of its projects and the completion of existing developments.

Lucas said Eton Properties would continue to build its recurring income business by putting up more office

buildings geared towards the business process outsourcing industries as well as commercial developments.

Eton Properties plans to double its gross leasable area to 300,000 square meters over the next five years from existing 156,000 square meters.

This strategy will slowly increase the share of leasing business to 50 percent of overall revenues over the five year period.

About 70 percent of Eton Properties come from residential sales while rental income accounts for the remaining 30 percent for a 70:30 ratio.

Lucas said this year, he expected the ratio to change to 65:35 as the company to put up its fifth BPO office building in Eton Centris, to be called Cyberpod Centris Five and its sixth BPO office building in Ortigas Center.

NOTICE TO THE PUBLIC This is to inform the public that UCPB GENERAL INSURANCE COMPANY, INC. (UCPB GEN) Bail Bond Form Nos. JCR (2) 001-002, 008, 030, 055-056, 064, 068, 080, 085, 090, 094, 106-109, 118, 124, 128-129, 131-132, 136, 170, 186, 193, 221, 226, 228, 246, 248, 250, 255, 269, 287, 290, 315, 327, 336, 345, 347, 386, 389, 393, 395-396, 432434, 436, 438-439, 458-463, 470, 472, 490, 495-496, 500-504, 511, 571, 592, 594, 596, 597-598, 612-613, 618-619, 644, 697-698, 700, 705-706, 712, 719, 724-726, 736, 761, 774, 809-810, 821-822, 826, 828, 828, 840, 855, 870-872, 878-882, 886-887, 890-893, 896, 902-905, 922, 927, 931, 934, 943, 946-948, 952-967, 969, 973, 996-997, 999-1000, 1028, 1060, 1063, 1065, 1074, 1085, 1091-1092, 1096, 1102-1103, 1110, 1113-1117, 1120, 1136, 1161, 1203-1205, 1208-1211, 1231-1232, 1234, 1251, 1257-1259, 1275-1278, 1280, 1289, 1305-1306, 1329, 1338-1340, 1431, 1433-1434, 1450-1451, 1457, 1462, 1464, 1466, 1469, 1472, 1480, 1500, 1529-1530, 1589-1590, 1592-1594, 1597-1598, 1598, 1606, 1627, 1641, 1650, 1660, 1666, 1746, 1748, 1782, 1798-1799, 1840, 1849, 1851-1853, 1882-1884, 1900, 1946-1947, 1950, 1992-1995, 2001, 2012, 2034, 2045, 2048-2049, 2051-2055, 2062, 2124, 2126-2128, 2145, 2150, 2153, 2155, 2158, 2161, 2164, 2169, 2171-2173, 2178-2179, 2187, 2190-2192, 2202-2211, 2213, 2215, 2219, 2221, 2239, 2242, 2245, 2253-2254, 2258-2259, 2266, 2271, 2285, 2290, 2297-2298, 2312-2313, 2316, 2323-2326, 2332, 2351, 2423, 2424, 2428, 2434, 2437, 2440, 2450, 2479, 2513-2514, 2517, 2555, 2575, 2594-2595, 2598-2603, 2607-2650, 2656-2657, 2663-2665, 2673, 2675-2677, 2682, 2714, 2716-2719, 2725, 2746-2748 have been reported missing and that any bail bond contained in said forms are not valid as they are issued without the consent and authority of UCPB GEN. UCPB GEN further notifies the public that it is not assuming any whatever liability that may attach to UCPB GEN under the bonds written in the aforesaid missing forms.

( T S - J U N E 1, 2 0 15 )

B4

BUSINESS

New Iloilo community. The Atria Park District is Ayala Land’s first integrated, master-planned, mixed-use community and largest investment in Iloilo. Once completed, the

21-hectare mixed used estate will integrate a residential development by Avida, the mid-market brand of Ayala Land Inc., making available 500 residential units. Avida is set to launch the second tower on June 13, 2015. Part of the estate is the Iloilo-Ayala Land TechnoHub, Ayala Land’s own hotel brand SEDA, the prestigious Ateneo de Iloilo, QualiMed Hospital offering the latest in quality, affordable health care, and The Shops at Atria, which opened on May 11,2015.

Govt to consider bond swaps THE Philippines is considering bond swaps for the government’s local and foreign debt before an impending Federal Reserve interest-rate increase, Finance Secretary Cesar Purisima said over the weekend.

“If there’s market opportunity before the Fed acts, we will move,” Purisima, 55, said in an interview in his office in Manila Friday.

“We’re always on the lookout for both foreign and local opportunities to lengthen debt maturity and reduce overall interest cost,” he said, without specifying an amount.

The government is addressing a “systemic problem” in delays to state spending, including ways to

accelerate outlays for infrastructure projects, Purisima said. Economic growth slid to a three-year low last quarter, putting pressure on President Benigno Aquino III to fix bottlenecks before an increase in US interest rates that may prompt financial market volatility.

“We are trying to correct the system, and when you are reforming, the results can sometimes be unpredictable,” Purisima said. “The

good thing is we have the fiscal space. In the next quarters, we can catch up.”

The government may sell new securities of two tenors with a size of at least P50 billion ($1.1 billion) each in exchange for infrequently traded bonds, Treasurer Roberto Tan said in March.

The Philippines has sold more than P1 trillion of bonds in debt swaps since 2006, with the most recent in August last year. The government had P5.79 trillion of debt as of end-April, with foreign debt accounting for about 34 percent of the total.

Delays in state outlays have been persistent and have been a drag on economic growth. Public spending fell in the third quarter of 2014 and

in the fourth quarter of 2013, with both periods registering the weakest expansion for the year.

The economy grew 5.2 percent year-on-year in the first quarter of 2015, its slowest pace in three years, on sluggish exports and government spending, data from the Philippine Statistics Authority showed last week.

The first-quarter growth was the slowest since the 3.7-percent expansion recorded in the fourth quarter of 2011. It was also slower than the 5.6-percent growth a year ago and the revised 6.6-percent expansion in the fourth quarter of 2014 and fell below the government’s target of 7 percent to 8 percent for 2015.

“The 5.2-percent GDP growth

in the first quarter of 2015 is lower than what the government and the market expected for the period.

While growth in the private sector remains robust, the slower-thanprogrammed pace of public spending, particularly the decline in public construction, has slowed down the overall growth of the economy,” National Economic and Development Authority director-general and Economic Planning Secretary Arsenio Balisacan said.

The Finance Department earlier reported that disbursements of the national government in the first quarter amounted to P504 billion, 4 percent higher compared to the same period last year but 13 percent below the target for the period.

With Bloonmberg

Meralco wants to roll out Market likely to recover; GDP weighs which is expected to percent. additional prepaid meters By Jenniffer B. Austria figure, come in at 1.9 percent, below Despite the market’s recent

By Alena Mae S. Flores MANILA Electric Co., the biggest electricity retailer, urged the Energy Regulatory Commission to approve a pending application for an additional 100,000 prepaid electricity meters.

Meralco is going full blast with its “Kuryente Load” prepaid retail electricity service following the approval from the ERC to roll out 40,000 prepaid meters.

“We had been given approval for 40,000 meters already for prepaid service so we are going full blast now that the ERC has approved PRES rules on this project,” first vice president and head of regulatory management Ivanna dela Peña told reporters over the weekend.

Kuryente Load is Meralco’s newest prepaid service that allows customers to monitor and control their consumption through daily balance notifications and save up to 20 percent in electricity expenses.

Kuryente Load aims to make electricity more affordable through denominations of as low as P100.

Meralco said customers can reload anytime, anywhere, through multiple loading channels such as Meralco business centers, Bayad Center outlets and e-load retailers. There are no service fees, bill deposit and meter installation charges, making it more accessible to previously unserved customers.

Meralco offered the service initially offered in Manila and in some portions of Angono, Taytay, and Cainta in Rizal province.

SHARE prices are expected to continue to move sideways with a downward bias this week on lack of positive catalysts that could push the market higher.

BPI Asset Management Inc. said in a weekly outlook investor sentiments would be strongly influenced by the weak first-quarter gross domestic product results.

“We expect the PSEi to recover from this week’s decline, as market players take cue from movements globally.

The PSEi trading range for the week is expected to be at 7,300 and 7,500, with downward bias,” BPI Asset Management said.

“Movements will be strongly influenced by the results of the Q1 GDP. For the week ahead, we expect local government securities to trade range-bound ahead of the May inflation

the government’s targeted range,” it added.

F. Yap Securities investment trader Jason Escartin, however, said the market’s recent decline could provide opportunities for bargain hunters.

“While we don’t completely rule out the possibility of gains this week, we expect sideways trade with downward bias.

Plays at this stage may be stock-specific, particularly in well-managed firms with solid fundamentals,” Escartin said.

The PSEi last week slumped 2.94 percent to 7,580.46, while the broader All Shares Index declined sank 2.95 percent to 4,360.81.

All major sub-indices were also in the red by led by mining and oil, which declined 5.32 percentp; financials, which dropped 5.11 percent; and services which dipped 3.16

decline, the PSEi is still up 4.84 percent in the first five months of the year.

Foreign investors were net sellers for the week by P2.85 billion as total foreign selling amounted to P39.58 billion while total foreign buying reached P36.74 billion.

Weekly top price gainers were Philippine Seven Corp., which surged 17.6 percent to P125; Mabuhay Vinyl Corp., which gained 14.3 percent to P3.49; and Arthaland Corp., which advanced 10.87 percent to P0.255 apiece.

Weekly top losers, meanwhile, were led by Chemical Industries of the Philippines, which dropped 30.3 percent to P101; Atok-Big Wedge Co Inc., which lost25.8 percent to P11.50; and Federal Resources Investments Group Inc., which tumbled 22 percent to P12.02.

M O N D AY : J U N E 1 , 2 0 1 5

BUSINESS business@thestandard.com.ph extrastory2000@gmail.com

B5

Businessmen hiring less in Q3 Jica’s airport study ready

By Darwin G. Amojelar THE Japan International Cooperation Agency is set to present the feasibility study on the proposed P435.93-billion international gateway in Sangley Point in Cavite to the Transport Department this month.

“They have agreed to give us the feasibility study this month,” Transport Secretary Joseph Emilio Abaya told reporters.

The new international airport, which the Jica study recommended at Sangley Point in Cavite, can accommodate 55 million passengers a year and 400,000 aircraft movements.

The proposed airport is projected to be operational by 2025.

The government wants to build a new international airport that is 25 to 30 minutes away from the Ninoy Aquino International Airport, which will reach its full capacity as early as 2018.

Jica said Naia would hit overcapacity this year, by which time the terminal will handle 37.78 million passengers. By 2040, passenger traffic would reach 101.49 million.

At end-2012, Naia accommodated 31.88 million passengers, exceeding the 30 million yearly optimal capacity of the terminal. Its maximum handling capacity stands at 35 million passengers per year.

Abaya, however, said bidding out the project in the current administration would be “difficult” as the agency must get approval from the National Economic and Development Authority.

By Julito G. Rada

BUSINESSMEN expect to hire less in the third quarter of the year than in the first and second quarters, according to the latest poll conducted by the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas.

Results of the survey released by the central bank last week showed that the employment outlook in the second quarter this year remained positive, with 20.7 percent of the respondents upbeat, albeit lower than the 25.6 percent a quarter ago.

“This indicates expectations of an overall decrease in the number of new employees to be hired for the third quarter of the year,” the survey said.

Among the sectors, only those firms in the construction industry

were more upbeat while those in the wholesale and retail trade sector were steady in their hiring intentions.

“Moreover, the percentage of businesses with expansion plans in the industry sector remained positive although lower at 29.1 percent from 32.5 percent last quarter,” it said.

Among the sub-sectors, manufacturing and electricity, gas and water indicated weaker expansion plans, while those in mining and quarrying, and agriculture, fishery

and forestry were stronger from a quarter ago.

Meanwhile, businesses cited domestic competition and insufficient demand as major risks to their operations. Domestic competition was cited by 57.7 percent of the total number of respondents, while insufficient demand leading to low sales volume was mentioned by 25.4 percent of those who were polled.

Overall, the business outlook on the economy was more bullish in the second quarter, with business confidence index rising to 49.2 percent from 45.2 percent in the first quarter this year.

The Bangko Sentral said the results indicated more businesses were optimistic about the country’s economic prospects in the second quarter compared with that in the

previous quarter.

It conducted the survey from April 1 to May 13, 2015, covering 1,522 companies nationwide. Respondents were drawn from the combined list of the Securities and Exchange Commission’s Top 7,000 corporations.

Thirteen percent of these companies were importers, 6.8 percent exporters, 19.9 percent both importers and exporters, and 47.7 percent were domestic-oriented. About 12.6 percent of the respondents did not specify their company type.

Bangko Sentral said the sentiment of businesses in the Philippines mirrored the buoyant business outlook in the United States, Germany, Korea, and Singapore, but was in contrast to the less bullish views of those in the United Kingdom, Hong Kong and India.

BGC arts festival. An explosion of colors and sounds of live music filled the landscapes of the Bonifacio Global City as it celebrated the

country’s first-ever mural-centric arts festival, dubbed as the Art BGC NextACT ONE Festival. Bonifacio Arts Foundation Inc. and Globe Telecom Inc. teamed up to bring the first arts and culture initiative of this size and scope in BGC, which kicked on May 22, as artists started to draw their murals in designated walls around BGC. Shown (from left) are BAFI program manager Monica Llamas, Globe head of stores and retail transformation management Joe Caliro, LeBasse’s Kimberly Luangraj, One Festival director Kayo Cosio and Globe head for GEN3 and iconic digital experience Leah De Guzman.

PH, other Asean nations to use more steel products

By Othel V. Campos

‘International Year of Soils.’ Agriculture Secretary Proceso Alcala (from left), Senator Cynthia

Villar and former ICRISAT [International Crops Research Institute for Semi-Arid Tropics’ director general William Dar, along with other stakeholders, sign the covenant of support between the government, non-government organizations and other industry players to signify their commitment in the implementation of the action plan developed by the Food and Agriculture Organization and the Global Soil Partnership. The signing highlights the campaign launch of the International Year of Soils, which seeks to encourage policy makers, stakeholders and the general public to take active participation in the conservation and efficient management of soils toward a more productive and sufficient Philippine agriculture.

THE Philippines is expected to consume more steel products, along with Indonesia and Vietnam, due to their fast-growing economies.

The Philippine Iron and Steel Institute said the combined per capita consumption of the three economies comprised about a third of the world’s average per capita consumption of 225 kilograms.

Despite the growing demand, steel and iron makers were wary of the outlook that the product will remain in excess supply and cheap for quite sometime, said PISI president Roberto Cola, concurrently the president of the Southeast Asia Iron and Steel Institute.

“Although this is disconcerting, the upsides of this scenario in the Asean countries are the more widespread use of steel, downward pressure on construction costs, cheaper vehicles and vessels, which as major users of steel will eventually boost demand,” he said.

Latest data show that steel consumption in the Asean 6, composed of Indonesia, Malaysia, Philippines, Thailand, Singapore and Vietnam, rose 6.3 percent to 67 million metric tons in 2014 from 63 million MT in 2013.

The region’s net importation of around 40 million MT comprised the bulk of the 2014 supply.

MONDAY: JUNE 1, 2015

B6

BUSINESS business@manilastandardtoday.com extrastory2000@gmail.com

Kepco shuts down Cebu plant Equal rights “Educate a man; you educate a man. You educate a woman; you educate a generation.”

- Brigham Young ALL over the world, March has been dedicated in celebration of women’s history and their role in the society. It all started between 1909 and 1911 when women working in the US organized a strike bearing the name of National Women’s Trade Union League to protest low wage, lack of protective legislation and poor working condition for female workers. Hence, International Women’s Day was brought to life in the early 20th century.

Women power In the Philippines, Proclamation No. 224 s. 1988 declared first week of March as Women’s Week and March 8 as Women’s Right and International Peace Day. Proclamation No. 227 s. 1988 changed this to month of March and later on Republic Act 6949 s. 1990 declared March 8 as National Women’s Day. The following statistics show how times have changed and put women in power: there are six senators out of 24 slots (2013 - 2016 term), 79 women legislators out of 289 seats in the lower house (2013 - 2016), a total of 22.5 percent government post for women in 2013 including gubernatorial, vice-gubernatorial as well as municipal mayors, 56 women where appointed in the executive, legislative and judiciary (Official Gazette, March 2014) including Chief Justice of the Supreme Court, Secretaries of DOLE, DSWD, DOJ, BIR to name a few. Women even conquered foreign affairs appointments (DFA) with statistics arising from 28 percent to 35 percent from 2002 to 2010 and Career Executive Service Officers from 37 percent to 42 percent in span of 10 years (1999 to 2010). Indeed over the years, women have proven their strength in their respective fields.

At the DBP where this author works, 61 percent are women, where 30 percent are officers and 70 percent rank-and-file. In terms of countrywide distribution, 15 percent of female officers are assigned in the regions/ branches while 85 percent are in head office. Interestingly, 56 percent of branch heads and regional heads in DBP are women. The lone woman board member of the present board of directors is Dir. Lydia Echauz, who by the way, was the Dean of the DLSU Graduate School of Business when this author joined its faculty.

Supporting women The Philippine government further its support to women thereby established Philippine Commission on Women, which aims to eliminate gender discrimination by passing Magna Carta for Women and involvement in projects in partnership with global agents such as Canadian International Development Agency, United Nations Population Fund and United Nations Development Fund for Women.

One of its projects is the so-called “The Great Women Project” which “fosters efficient, responsive, transparent and accountable governance at all levels and to support the development of sustainable SMEs that can create more, better and decent jobs for both men and women.”(www.pcw. gov.ph) Just last year, the Financing Inclusive Development Department of DBP pioneered “ILAW” (Inclusive Lending for Aspiring Women entrepreneurs). Just as mothers were considered “Ilaw ng tahanan,” this project aims to empower women entrepreneurs in financing their MSMEs. This project is DBP’s response to the “challenge of gravitating away from the metrics that merely reflect the collective wealth of the economy, rather a more equitable distribution of the opportunities and benefits through economic group”. This is in partnership with Women’s Business Council of the Philippines.

Through this offering, we can harness the potential and capabilities of women as catalyst for job creation, local economic development as we integrate them as full and equal partners of men in development and nation building. Interested women must meet these requirements to be granted a loan: the principal of a single proprietorship, a partner in a partnership enterprise, a CEO or COO in a corporation or a cooperative whose majority membership must be women.

Simple super heroes March has long ended, June has just begun. Yet our appreciation for dear women in our lives will never end. In the beginning, the Bible mentioned that woman was created to be a complement of man (Gen 2:18). The gospel reveals detailed examples of Jesus dealings with women.

Although they have been treated badly throughout history, Jesus treated women with respect.

The women in our lives are our mothers, sisters, wives, daughters, nieces, friends, co-workers, subordinates, superiors, neighbors, or just plain strangers we meet along the way. Let’s admit it, they have been strong persons, simple super heroes juggling household chores, careers and family all at the same time. May we make these precious women feel our love not only for a day, for week, nor for a month, rather everyday of our lives.

Benel D. Lagua is Executive Vice President at the Development Bank of the Philippines. With an AIM-MBM and a Harvard-MPA, he is a part-time faculty of the Ramon V. del Rosario College of Business, De La Salle University.

The views expressed herein are his own and does not necessarily reflect the opinion of his office as well as the faculty and administration of DLSU.

By Alena Mae S. Flores

KEPCO SPC Power Corp. shut down its 200-megawatt power plant in Cebu, after a fire damaged the coal conveyor that prevented the supply of coal to the plant.

Kepco SPC said in a statement a fire occurred at the crusher building of the coal plant in Naga at 5:20 a.m. May 30.

“The root cause of the fire and the actual damage to the equipment of the plant are still being further investigated. But initial assessment showed heat friction from coal dusts between the pulley and the conveyor may have triggered the ignition of the fire,” it said.

Firefighters immediately contained the fire and totally extinguished the fire at 6:30 a.m.

“No one was injured. However,

the conveyor from the crusher building was also partially damaged and this prevented the continuous feeding of coal fuel,” Kepco said.

The remaining coal at the storage silo can only last up to Saturday evening for Unit 1 after which the plant needed to be shut down to immediately start the repair of the damage portions of the crusher building and conveyor.

Kepco SPC said the repair works would take a few days.

The plant supplies power to the Mactan Electric Cooperative and

most of electric cooperatives in Panay.

The National Grid Corporation of the Philippines, meanwhile, approved to move earlier to 12 midnight the scheduled maintenance of Unit 2.

Unit 2 has been planned to be shut down for its plant preventive maintenance schedule on June 6 to 28, 2015.

Kepco SPC’s circulating fluidized bed combustion power plant consists of two units of 100 MW capacity.

The crusher building consists of the coal crushers, bucket elevators and conveyor lines.

“Only the sixth floor of the crusher building was damaged by the fire. The fire incident has also no impact on the plant’s ability to operate as soon as the coal conveyor can be repaired,” the company said.

Bosch anniversary. Bosch Philippines commemorated the 25th anniversary of its charitable foundation, Primavera, which has helped more than 30,000 children across the globe. In the Philippines, Primavera has been supporting various local community projects, including the construction of living and medical facilities in Elsie Gaches Village. Shown are Tilman Todenhofer, member of the Supervisory Council of Robert Bosch GmbH, Bosch Philippines managing director Andrew Powell, other Bosch Philippines associates and the children of Elsie Gaches Village in Alabang, Muntinlupa.

Mitra Energy, Total ready Sulu drilling

By Alena Mae S. Flores MITRA Energy of Malaysia and joint venture partner Total E&P Philippines B.V plan to conduct a 2D seismic acquisition program in the fourth quarter as part of preparations for drilling in South Sulu Sea. Mitra Energy said in a statement a minimum of 1,000 kilometer of 2D seismic data and 2,000 square kilometers of highresolution seabed data would be acquired in service contract 56 area “to evaluate the additional prospectively.”

Mitra holds a 25-percent interest in SC 56, in partnership with operator Total.

Four wells have previously been drilled on SC 56 by operator Exxon, resulting in the Dabakan and Palendag discoveries. Total farmed

into SC 56 in September 2012 and assumed a 75-percent interest, with Mitra remaining as operator.

Total on Aug. 28, 2014, formally confirmed its intention to drill an exploration well in the Halcon prospect.

“This well is expected to be drilled during third quarter of 2016, and in preparation for this, operatorship was transferred to Total effective Oct. 25, 2014,” Mitra said.

Total will carry Mitra’s 25-percent interest in the well up to a gross well cost of $75 million.

“The discovered and future gas resources are expected to be either sold via pipeline to Sabah [Malaysia] or via a floating liquefied natural gas facility to be operated by Total,” Mitra said.

The Energy Department last year approved an exploration pe-

riod extension of five years from Aug. 31, 2015, resulting in a continuing exploration period until Sept. 1, 2020.

“In October of 2014 we have taken operatorship and now we are studying the development of the first well,” Fabien Colmet Daage, general manager of Total E&P Philippines, said earlier.

“We have more time to access the potential of the site…You all know that the probability of not finding is higher than the probability of finding… but we are not discouraged,” the official said.

“Total is back.. I said Total is back because in the 70s and until the early 80s Total was actually in exploration in the Philippines,” he said.

The official said new technologies would help Total and other exploration firms get access to oil and gas.

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WORLD

cesar barrioquinto EDITOR

editorial@thestandard.com.ph

B7

Pleading for help from the coastguards ROME—”We need your help, we need your help, please,” pleads a desperate voice down the phone to the Italian coastguards.

The chaotic call, made by satellite phone in broken English from a boat somewhere in the Mediterranean, is just one of many regularly received by staff at the service’s emergency operational center in southern Rome.

“What is your position?” the duty coastguard asks several times.

“What are you coordinates?” he says, trying again. “How many of you are there?”

According to Filippo Marini of the service, the center receives an “incredible number” of calls like this.

“Fortunately we have agreements with the satellite phone company which help us to find the

geographical coordinates of the call and from that moment on we launch the rescue boats.”

In a spacious room at this huge, modern building, staff work around the clock monitoring screens showing the position of vessels and the latest weather conditions in the Mediterranean.

On a table in the middle of the room is their most important rescue tool—the phone.

Distress calls come direct from the migrants themselves and from their relatives anxious to alert the authorities to their plight.

Tensions at the center sometimes reach a peak, such as at the end of last year when the centre had to simultaneously manage the arrival of a migrant ship abandoned by its crew, a fire on board a ferry in

US papers struggling for path in digital age

Japan warned: Big One could come after quake

WASHINGTON—The news remains mostly bleak for the American newspaper industry, struggling over the past decade to adapt to the new digital landscape.

The sale of the San Diego UnionTribune in early May for $85 million underscored the horrific slump in the value of “old media” companies in recent years.

Although the sum paid by Tribune Publishing was only marginally below the $110 million in a 2011 sale of the San Diego group and excluded some valuable real estate, the newspaper was believed to be worth as much as $1 billion as late as 2004.

The story is the same at other once-proud US metropolitan dailies: according to the Pew Research Center, valuations are down by more than 90 percent from their peaks at the Boston Globe, Philadelphia Inquirer, Chicago Sun-Times and Minneapolis StarTribune.

While newspapers are trying to get readers with digital subscriptions and mobile apps, they are swimming against a powerful tide.

For the US daily newspaper sector over the past decade, weekday circulation has fallen 17 percent and ad revenue more than 50 percent, according to Pew. And in 2014, three big media companies decided to spin off newspapers to focus on more profitable broadcast or digital properties.

“Every newspaper chain talks about getting digital faster. The plain truth is that despite almost two decades of effort, most aren’t close to where they need to be,” says Ken Doctor, an industry analyst who writes the Newsonomics blog and is a consultant for the research firm Outsell.

Soon, said Doctor, newspapers will have few options aside from cutting the frequency of the print edition, as several dailies have done, to save expenses.

Doctor said the industry has failed to increase revenue since 2008, making it harder to invest in digital. AFP

the Adriatic and a collision of two other boats.

“They brought us food on carts, we did not leave the room,” recalls one officer at the center, Floriana Segreto.

The search and rescue zone covered by the Italian coastguard in theory spreads across half a million square kilometres.

But due to the crisis in Libya, the area has now been extended to around one-to-two million square kilometers.

Over the past five months, the majority of boats have been inflatables in poor condition coming from Libya.

“Since January, we have recorded the arrival of 190 inflatables against 70 other different types of boats,” Marini said. AFP

Evening prayer. Shiite Muslim pilgrims gather in the courtyard of the Imam Ali Shrine before the evening prayer in central Iraq. AFP

TOKYO—Seismologists Sunday warned Japan to stay vigilant for the next “Big One” after a powerful 7.8-magnitude earthquake hit off the coast of the quake-prone nation, injuring a dozen people.

Onstage. Singer Sydney Sierota of Echosmith performs onstage during The iHeartRadio Summer Pool Party at Caesars Palace on May 30 in Las Vegas, Nevada. AFP

Buildings swayed for around a minute in Tokyo and its vicinity Saturday night as the quake struck at a remote spot in the Pacific Ocean around 874 kilometers south of the capital, the US Geological Survey said.

Despite its power, there was no risk of a tsunami as its epicenter was a deep 676 kilometers below the Earth’s surface, the USGS and the Pacific Tsunami Warning Center said.

Twelve people were injured, including a 56-year-old man who broke his ribs, but no one was killed, an official of the Tokyo Fire Department and local media said Sunday.

Some 400 people were trapped at the observation decks of Tokyo Tower as its elevators stopped for more than one hour.

Runways at Haneda Airport in Tokyo were closed for about 30 minutes, with trains also temporarily halted, while a football match in the city was briefly suspended.

There were no reported anomalies at any of the region’s mothballed nuclear power plants.

A massive undersea quake that hit in March 2011 sent a tsunami barreling into Japan’s northeast coast, killing thousands of people and sending three reactors into meltdown at the Fukushima nuclear plant.

The nuclear disaster, the world’s worst since Chernobyl, displaced tens of thousands of people and rendered tracts of land uninhabitable, possibly for decades.

Saturday’s quake was the second sizable tremor Tokyo has experienced in a week, after a much less powerful—but far shallower—earthquake hit close to the capital on Monday.

Some experts warn recent quakes and volcano eruptions may be signs that areas near the country are entering “an active phase of crustal changes”.

“I can say Japan is in an active stage now,” said Toshiyasu Nagao, head of Earthquake Prediction Research Centre at Tokai University.

“Considering the geographic location of Japan, we can say the current activities are rather normal and it was too quiet” before the 2011 jolt, Nagao told AFP. “We should be vigilant by knowing that it is no wonder that an earthquake sizeable enough to affect our society can occur anytime in the future,” he said.

Kazuki Koketsu, professor with the Earthquake Research Institute at the University of Tokyo, said the latest tremor was unlikely to be a sign of a potential big jolt in capital, which was devastated by an massive earthquake in 1923. AFP

d f t m t

M O N D AY : J U N E 1 , 2 0 1 5

B8

cEsAr bArriOqUiNtO EDITOR

editorial@thestandard.com.ph

world

Back to school. Nepalese schoolgirl Ankita Kapali, 11, walks with her mother to school past damaged buildings in Bhaktapur on the outskirts of Kathmandu on May 31. Schools are reopening in Nepal following a devastating earthquake on April 25 that killed more than 8,600 people and damaged nearly 8,000 schools and 30,000 classrooms. AFP

Tough road ahead for Macau ‘US police killing more than 2 people each day’ WASHINGTON—US police have killed people at a rate of more than two a day this year, The Washington Post reported Sunday, using its own tally for lack of complete federal statistics.

The federal government must rely on partial data because the country’s 17,000 or so state and local police agencies are not required to report such killings.

The newspaper is tracking the deaths as a national debate rages over police use of deadly force, especially in black and other minority communities.

The Post found that relative to the overall population, blacks were killed at three times the rate of other minorities or whites in the police killings it analyzed this year.

The report noted that most of the people killed were armed with

potentially lethal objects—mainly guns, but also knives and other items. Sixteen percent were carrying a toy or were unarmed.

The Post found that so far this year, at least 385 people have been shot and killed by police across the United States—a rate of more than two a day.

“These shootings are grossly underreported,” former police chief Jim Bueermann, head of a nonprofit organization dedicated to improving law enforcement, told The Post. “We are never going to reduce the number of police shootings if we don’t begin to accurately track this information.”

One of the most prominent recent cases to fuel the ongoing debate about police violence is that of Michael Brown, an 18-year-old who was fatally shot last year in Ferguson, Missouri. AFP

MACAU—With casino revenues in Macau in freefall due to Beijing’s anti-corruption crackdown and a slowing Chinese economy, the gambling hub is hoping to reinvent itself as a family-friendly mass market destination.

But the enclave’s plan to replace the high-rolling elite with tourists drawn by new entertainmentfocused mega-resorts will not be plain sailing.

Macau’s creaking infrastructure is already struggling to cope with visitor numbers and analysts and residents question how the city can accommodate the influx necessary to make up for the loss of VIP gamblers.

“Casino operators cannot expect the return of the good old days,”

says Macau expert Sonny Lo of the Hong Kong Institute of Education.

Lo says the success of Macau’s reinvention depends on consumers’ appetite for both mass market gaming and non-gambling entertainment.

“It remains to be seen whether tourists are developing this taste.”

Even then, the boom heights of the past decade will be hard to reach, Lo says.

“Consumers on the mass market cannot compensate for the huge amount of money spent in VIP rooms.”

Macau soared past Las Vegas as the world’s gambling capital after opening up to international operators in 2001 and raked in more than seven times its US counterpart last year.

However, it is now being forced to follow Vegas’ lead and transform from a hardcore gambling hub into a destination with much broader appeal.

Casino revenues plunged 39 percent in April, their 11th consecu-

tive drop in the wake of Chinese President Xi Jinping’s anti-corruption crusade targeting lavish spending by officials and money laundering through Macau.

Beijing has made it clear it wants the former Portuguese colony to move away from gambling, so casino-hotels are opening a slew of mass market complexes.† The resorts offer everything from fine dining and malls to theme park rides and shows, alongside gaming.

Melco Crown’s Studio City, due to open later this year, boasts Asia’s highest ferris wheel while the recently opened Galaxy Phase 2 has a sprawling rooftop water park complete with river rapids.

Sands’ Paris-themed resort, with a replica Eiffel Tower, is due to open next year, as will the Wynn Palace and a new casino-hotel from MGM. “You see Macau evolving,” says Simon Cooper, president of Asia Pacific for Marriott Internationalówhich has two hotels in the new Galaxy complex. —AFP

No end to political fight in Hong Kong

t e

Color run event. People pose after walking through three gates filled with yellow, blue and pink powder during “the Color Me Run Tokyo” in Tokyo on May 31. Some 20,000 people took part in the color run event. AFP

HONG KONG—Hong Kong’s pro-democracy lawmakers said Sunday they would “definitely” veto the government’s planned political reforms after a last-ditch meeting with Chinese officials failed to reach any agreement.

The package unveiled in April for the semi-autonomous Chinese city would for the first time allow all voters to elect Hong Kong’s next chief executive in 2017.

But critics deride the proposal as “fake democracy” because it sticks to a ruling by China that candidates must first be approved by a

loyalist committee.

Beijing’s restrictions, announced last August, sparked more than two months of mass rallies that brought main roads in parts of the city to a standstill late last year.

Democratic lawmakers said Sunday they had made no progress after meeting top Beijing officials in the southern Chinese city of Shenzhen.

The meeting was widely seen as the last chance for compromise before Hong Kong lawmakers vote on the political reform package in June.

It needs a two-thirds majority to

pass and pro-democracy lawmakers make up more than a third of the legislature.

“We came here... trying to find a way out of the impasse,” Civic Party leader Alan Leong told reporters after the four-hour meeting, which was attended by 14 out of 27 prodemocracy lawmakers as well as 40 pro-Beijing legislators and the city’s current leader Leung Chunying.

“We are left with an unequivocal conclusion that the Central People’s Government is not going to yield,” Leong said. AFP

M O N D AY : J U N E 0 1 : 2 0 1 5

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BAMBINA OLIVARES WISE EDITOR

BING PAREL A S S O C I AT E E D I T O R g l w e e ke n d @ g m a i l . c o m

LIFE

T R AV EL

SPREADING A THEIR WINGS Cebu Pacific and TigerAir announce new destinations

bigger world of travel awaits those who have a serious case of wanderlust as low-cost carrier Cebu Pacific Air (CEB) joins Singapore’s Tigerair to form a wider network. Now, through an interline agreement, destinations such as Bangalore (India), Yangon (Myanmar), and Dhaka (Bangladesh), can be booked through the CEB website and other CEB booking channels.

Through this partnership, travelers can now enjoy seamless connections between the two airlines, with easy one-stop ticketing for connecting flights and baggage check-in. The ability to cross-book flights on a single itinerary also boosts connectivity between the two carriers, allowing travelers to connect seamlessly within the Asia-Pacific and the Middle East. Â Continued on C2

M ONDAY : J UNE 01 : 2015

C2

BAMBINA OLIVARES WISE

LIFE

EDITOR

BING PAREL A S S O C I AT E E D I T O R

glweekend @ gmail.com

SPREADING THEIR WINGS From C1

INCREDIBLE YANGON

Brimming with old-world charm, Yangon is the largest city and main economic hub of Myanmar. With a mesmerizing mix of British, Burmese, Chinese and Indian influences, it is known for its heritage structures that include an array of religious structures and colonial-era buildings. Among the most popular sights is the 2,500-yearold, gilded Shwedagon Pagoda. The most sacred and impressive Buddhist site for the people of Myanmar, it enshrines strands of Gautama Buddha’s hair and other holy relics. It is also covered with hundreds of gold plates, while the top of the stupa is encrusted with 4,531 diamonds, the largest of which is a 72-carat diamond.

Nature lovers can explore the city’s stunning lakes, shady parks and verdant tropical trees, which earned Yangon the title “The Garden City of the East.” Those who want to bring home a piece of Myanmar should head to the Gems Museum which is dedicated to precious Burmese gem stones.

They can visit the Gems Mart, which houses 82 jewelry stores on three floors and sells top-quality raw and finished gem products, including rubies, sapphires, pearls and jade.

UNBELIEVABLE BANGALORE

The third largest city in India, Bangalore offers a wide array of attractions. This includes the Bangalore Palace, which was built in 1887 by King Chamaraja Wodeyar. Inspired

by England’s Windsor Castle, this palace boasts of Tudor-style architecture, with fortified towers, green lawns, and elegant woodcarvings in its interiors.

Take a romantic walk at the Lalbagh Botanical Garden, 240-acres of enchanting garden with rare collections of tropical and sub-tropical trees and plants. The crowning jewel of this garden is the glass house made in the 17th century and modeled after London’s Crystal Palace.

Through this partnership with Tigerair, passengers can now book flights to Bangalore and Yangon through the CEB website and other booking channels. The estimated time of departure for the Manila-SingaporeBangalore flight is 1:30pm, arriving in Bangalore at 12:40 am. For the ManilaSingapore-Yangon route, flights leave Manila at 9:25 pm, arriving in Yangon at 8:45 am. For a seamless transfer, guests taking CEB flights from Manila, Cebu, Clark or Iloilo to Singapore can avail of CEBConnect upon landing at the Singapore Changi International Airport Terminal 2. CEBConnect is a convenient transfer service within the Singapore Changi Airport’s transit area.

With CEBConnect, guests no longer have to clear arrival immigration, collect checked-in luggage and check-in again for onward flight connections via Singapore.

Go farther and discover more destinations with Cebu Pacific and Tigerair!

For more information and to book flights, visit www.cebupacificair.com.

Team Philippines with Captain Michelle Mo of Hong Kong

John Panis Bryan Jonas Sayas

FLYING ON PAPER WINGS Filipinos at the world finals

T

wo hundred of the world’s paper plane elite – including three amateur Filipino pilots – converged at the recent Red Bull Paper Wings at the iconic Hangar-7 in Salzburg, Austria. Held every three years since its 2006 launch, Paper Wings played host to over 46,000 contenders in more than 500 qualifiers worldwide for this year’s edition.

Among the international finalists were Team Philippines’ Neiman Sevilla, Bryan Jonas Sayas, and John Panis.

Though they failed to take home titles for the three Paper Wings categories – longest airtime, longest distance and best in aerobatics – Sevilla ranked 20th in the first.

Following paper airplane Guinness Record holder Takuo Toda’s “The Sky King” design, the De La Salle University economics major weathered a major speed bump prior to his takeoff. “Before my turn,

I actually lost the plane I prepared, so I had about 20 minutes to make a new one and test it.” On his second attempt, Sevilla “was able to reach 9.13 seconds of airtime” – long enough to manage a 20th-place finish.

Co-finalist Panis of the University of the Philippines was actually the first among the three national representatives to compete, particularly in the longest distance category.

“As judges we’re looking for three things.

We’re looking for the construction, the creativity and the flight performance,” said Internet sensation Zach King, one of five judges. Two-time Olympic champion sailor Hans Peter Steinacher was impressed by this year’s participants. “It is amazing what some of the competitors come up with – sensational ideas. I am fascinated by the creativity on show.”

Asked about their fascination for paper planes, all three Filipino qualifiers

provided interesting answers. For Sevilla, flying paper planes is like solving a puzzle. “You have to adjust your plane every time you practice. When I won in the qualifying round, I felt like we solved the puzzle,” Sevilla says, adding that the competition in Austria introduced him to an even bigger puzzle.

“Paper planes are like the fun part of physics. It reminds you of your childhood,” shares Sayas, an engineering student. For Panis, the fascination with paper planes started when he was a school kid who would while away the boredom by folding and flying paper planes and have fun while waiting for the next class.

Not surprisingly, all three would like to fly real planes.

For highlights at the Red Bull Paper Wings World Finals 2015, visit http://www.redbullcontentpool.com.

BITCOIN

The new currency in town E-commerce has created a world that is more convenient and supposedly more secure, but a lot of people are still skeptical of purchasing items online. In the Philippines, only five percent of the population reportedly have credit card access. A big challenge for businesses engaged in ecommerce is how to make the numbers go up this industry category. The solution: Bitcoin.

Bitcoin, in two words, is simply digitized money. It allows people to buy, sell, and transfer money to other entities such as a person, an organization, an e-Commerce merchant, and the like, making its function parallel to any form of currency. The value can either go up or go down depending on the Bitcoin community’s performance, which can be similarly seen in the stock market.

Bitcoin, being a community of its own, allows money transfers directly from one entity to another – “ostracizing” government and third party interruptions. With this method, payment transfers and reception is guaranteed to be full; a hundred Bitcoins sent means a hundred Bitcoins received by the recipient. It also relieves the involved parties of long lines in banks since transactions are processed and approved with the same speed of an outgoing email.

Buying Bitcoins has become more accessible with an online payment solution called Dragonpay that allows anyone to convert their cash to Bitcoins. Considering that the most Filipinos are non-credit card holders, Dragonpay can be their tunnel to the realm of Bitcoins. Just log in to one of the popular local Bitcoin exchange; click pay with Dragonpay,

and pay over-the-counter with their partner banks and non-bank establishments.

Bitcoin is a fairly new business venture in the country and mainly led by three companies: Coins.ph, Buybitcoin. ph, and Satoshi Citadel Industries (SCI). Just recently, Satoshi Citadel Industries acquired Buybitcoin.ph – a strategic move to further enhance services. These pioneering companies have been penetrating the country gradually with the new worldwide-accepted digital currency. Despite offering the same product [Bitcoin], they utilize different approaches in promoting their businesses.

Coins.ph focuses on bringing down remittance costs for OFWs by providing a service for instantly sending money to any mobile number or email address. Receiving money transfers is also convenient with a cash pickup network covering pawnshops, banks, and door-to-door delivery all over the Philippines. Their wallet app enables users to quickly pay bills and buy mobile load.

SCI, on the other hand integrates Bitcoin to daily and occasion-based affairs to make the new currency more relatable to both the adults and the youth. Creating platforms with different purposes, they open doors to a bigger market.

There’s a platform for those who want to remit money or want to try out the new currency through a prepaid Bitcoin card, and even a Bitcoin program built for donations.

To know more about Dragonpay, visit www.dragonpay. ph. And to know more about these Bitcoin companies, visit Coins.ph, Buybitcoin.ph, and Sci.ph.

M ONDAY : J UNE 01 : 2015

LIFE glweekend @ gmail.com

BAMBINA OLIVARES WISE EDITOR

BING PAREL A S S O C I AT E E D I T O R

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SECURITY QUESTIONS ARE NOT SECURE GOOGLE

BY ED BIADO

Banks use them. Trusted websites use them.

So that means that they’re pretty reliable, right? Wrong.

The security team of Google recently did a research on the effectiveness of security questions. Online, they’re used as an additional layer of security to prevent suspicious logins and as an account recovery system for forgot-

ten login information.

The study, authored by Google’s anti-abuse research lead Elie Bursztein and software engineer Ilan Caron, arrives at a surprising conclusion: that security questions are neither secure nor reliable as a standalone account recovery mechanism.

“That’s because they suffer from a fundamental flaw: their answers are either secure or easy to remember – but rarely both,” according to a statement sent to this writer. And when an answer is easy enough to remember, it’s also easy to guess.

“Not surprisingly, easy-to-remember answers are less secure. Easy answers often contain commonly known or publicly available information, or are in a small set of possible answers for cultural reasons (i.e., a common family name in certain countries),” say the researchers, who came up with this insight with the following findings: • With a single guess, an attacker would have an almost one in five chance of guessing English-speaking users’ answers to the question “What is your favorite food?” The most common answer is pizza.

• With 10 guesses, an attacker would have a nearly one-in-four chance of guessing Arabic-speaking users’ answer to the question, “What’s your first teacher’s name?”

• With 10 guesses, an attacker would have a 21 percent chance of guessing Spanish-speaking users’ answers to the question, “What is your father’s middle name?”

• With 10 guesses, an attacker would have a 39 percent chance of guessing Korean-speaking users’ answers to the question, “What is your city of birth?” and a 43 percent chance of guessing their favorite food.

Meanwhile, answers that are difficult to guess end up being just as difficult to remember. The researchers found that: • Two in five of Google’s English-speaking US users couldn’t recall their secret question answers when they needed to. These same users, meanwhile, could recall reset codes sent to them via SMS text message more than 80 percent of the time and via email nearly 75 percent of the time.

• The safe questions, “What is your library card number?” and “What is your frequent flyer number?” have only 22 percent and 9 percent recall rates, respectively.

• For English-speaking users in the US, the easier question, “What is your father’s middle name?” had a success rate of 76 percent while the potentially safer question “What is your first phone number?” had only a 55 percent success rate.

The silver lining is that a lot of online services give us the option to come up with our own custom security question. Perhaps what we can do is to think of a really personal non-generic question that only we ourselves definitely know the answer to – one that we would have no problem recalling but would be challenging for others to guess.

If you want to read the paper in its entirety, go to research.google.com/ pubs/pub43783.html.

FROM PLIGHT TO FLIGHT ICATS’ first scholarship program International Cabin Attendant Training School (ICATS), Asia’s premier academic and training school for flight attendants, is inviting applicants for its first ever scholarship program – the only study grant of its kind in the country this year.

ICATS, a widely recognized institution that takes pride in promoting higher education and world-class flight attendant (FA) training, opens new skies for low-income but goal-driven young Filipinos who wish to pursue their dreams in the airline service industry. ICATS Scholarship Program provides qualified aspirants free access to a 30-day intensive training opportunities that will give them the competitive edge in their flight attendant careers.

“ICATS is very pleased to spearhead this significant initiative as part of its CSR campaign.

By awarding scholarship grants to those who we feel deserve such an opportunity, individuals who are once hindered from pursuing their dreams by their financial situations are now finally given equal chance to a brighter future and a meaningful flight attendant career,” said Princess Joy Garcia, CEO of ICATS. While the ICATS Scholarship Program is primarily geared at finding and cultivating talented young people, the study grant goes far and beyond as it aims to impart FA scholars the value

of determination, discipline and education in enhancing their abilities, as well as in uplifting their prospects and opportunities for a better life.

Established in 2009, ICATS has become one of the country’s top flight attendant schools providing the hospitality airline industry with highly-trained graduates who now hold successful careers in both local and international commercial airlines such as Philippine Airlines, Cebu Pacific, Emirates, Qatar Airways, Oman Air, Fly Nas, Saudi Arabian Airlines and Air Asia.

With a curriculum based on standards set by international flight attendant schools, ICATS’ competitive courses include a five-module training with key subjects on personality development, aircraft familiarization, emergency situations and procedures, on-board service and interview essentials. Add to these the rigorous hands-on training by qualified and competent instructors – all equipped with years of experience flying with major and prominent international airlines.

For full details about the scholarship program, call 470-7523, 0939-9144309 and 09178222366. ICATS is located at 1101-E East Tower, Philippine Stock Exchange Center, Exchange Road, Ortigas Center, Pasig City. Visit the website at www.icatsonline.com or email inquiries at operations@icatsonline.com.

GAME ON!

New app for urban adventures

A new app from Autotelic Corporation promises to make urban adventures easy with limitless possibilities for treasure hunts, puzzles, trivia challenges and a combination of all these with Cyburban, a platform for the creation, publication and management of adventure races.

According to Autotelic founder and gamemaster Ari Bancale, who conceptualized the app way back in 2008, is targeting groups organizing product launches, advocacy campaigns, learning programs, team building activities and other similar events.

With the app, logistics, which is the most challenging aspect of organizing events, is simplified. Players receive their challenges on their smartphones. Tracking, timing and scoring are also done by the app, real time.

Games are created in a web-based editor and are published and deployed on mobile devices. Dynamically replicated cloudbased servers are used, allowing organizers to broadcast to thousands of players simultaneously while managing and keeping track of the game on the web interface.

Games can be designed to allow multiplayers, with every game session automati-

cally synchronized between all the team members’ devices, allowing them to split up and contribute to each other’s progress individually and tracked through real time leaderboards and statistics.

Offline modes are also possible for areas with no or limited internet access. Games are then set to solo-designed or single device quests. An after event data synchronization is optional to update game’s statistics online.

The app boasts of amazing customizability, which makes it really effective in delivering messages, engaging people or just making gathering more memorable.

The company will have a major launch on June 28 at the Ninoy Aquino Parks and Wildlife Center in Quezon City.

The one-day event will take participants into a one-of-a-kind outdoor journey. Using Cyburban, participants will scan codes, complete puzzles, and locate challenges inside the park, all designed to battle against indifference towards the environment and our wildlife ecosystem.

For more information, log on to www.cyburban.org.

M O N D AY : J U N E 0 1 : 2 0 1 5

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BAMBINA OLIVARES WISE

LIFE

EDITOR

BING PAREL A S S O C I AT E E D I T O R

g l w e e ke n d @ g m a i l . c o m

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NEW YORK FAVORITES

FOR PARTY ANIMALS ONLY Every time I travel to the US, my family affiliations always make me spend some time in New York and this year’s trip is no exception. Again, I find myself gallivanting in my favorite haunts, having so much fun it’s almost sinful! But I’m not one who wants a monopoly of the good life, so just in case your travels take you to BOB ZOZOBRADO the Big Apple, let me share with you my list of favorite places and things.

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1. Liberty State Park – This is actually in the New Jersey side of the Hudson River but it gives you a postcard-pretty picture of the Manhattan skyline, a breathtaking scenery that one seldom gets in his lifetime.

Check out my “picture-perfect pose” on this page and you’ll know what I mean.

2. St. Patrick’s Cathedral – I always start my New York City visit with noontime Mass at this 5th Avenue landmark, followed by a visit to the Adoration Chapel right behind its main altar. There’s a succession of short masses at this time of the day: 11:45 am, 12:30pm and 1:15 pm, ideal for office workers on their lunch break and for tourists like me who don’t wake up too early. After satisfying my spiritual needs, I then go for my human longings – checking out the latest items in Saks Fifth, Salvatore Ferragamo, Abercrombie and Fitch, Gap and all the other brand name stores, all of them just a few steps from the Cathedral.

3. Rockefeller Center – A stone’s throw and diagonally across from St. Patrick’s is the iconic Rockefeller Plaza, which has the golden statue of Prometheus lording over it, and which becomes an ice skating rink in the winter. I always look forward to how the Channel Gardens leading to the Plaza from 5th Avenue is set up, as the blooms and the greenery always make for a perfect photo op background.

4. Ben & Jerry’s Ice Cream – This is my favorite because its taste is richer than that of the other brands. After lunch at any of the restaurants at the Lower Level of Rockefeller Plaza, I go to the B&J outlet on the same level and have my “calorific” fix for the day.

5. Times Square – This is the heart of Manhattan and is also known as The Crossroads of the World or The Center of the Universe or The Brightest Spot on Earth because of the gigantic, brightly lit electronic billboards surrounding it. It is also the busiest pedestrian intersection in the US and is the site of the annual ball drop on New Year’s Eve, attracting over

a million visitors packed like sardines within its 5.8-square-mile area. Somehow, every visitor to the Big Apple gravitates towards this popular spot.

6. Broadway – My visit to New York is never complete without watching a Broadway show. This time, I went to watch and thoroughly enjoyed the remake of Gigi, topbilled by Fil-Am star Vanessa Hudgens.

7. Marriott Marquis – I use this hotel as my “holding area” because this is right in the center of Times Square and its lobby has very strong Wi-Fi signal. This is where I lounge around, to wait for the start of the Broadway show I have chosen to watch, or where I use the bathroom or where I take a break to rest my feet after hours of walking around.

8. New York’s Chinatown – An extended trip abroad always makes me crave for Filipino or Asian cuisine so the only way I can satisfy my yearnings is to drive to Chinatown and pig out on my favorite comfort food.

9. Cronuts – I don’t get these from anywhere else but from the original.

This breakfast and tea time favorite was started by Dominique Ansel Bakery in Greenwich Village so I make it a point to go out of my usual sphere of activity to enjoy freshly baked cronuts, from the very people who first created it.

10. Statue of Liberty – This colossal copper statue, officially known as Liberty Enlightening The World, was built by Auguste Bartholdi from the design of Gustave Eiffel. It is France’s gift to the United States and has become the universal symbol of peace. To get a closer look at it and have your fill of souvenir pictures, you have to take the cruise to Liberty Island.

There are many other places I go to and things I go for every time I visit New York but space constraints dictate that they will have to be mentioned some other time. Nevertheless, this list has more than enough reasons why I always enjoy my visit to this “city that never sleeps.”

After all, they say, “A man who’s tired of New York is tired of life!”

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1 The best view of the Manhattan skyline is from Liberty State Park 2 The famous St. Patrick’s Cathedral 3 The golden Prometheus lords it over the Rockefeller Plaza which turns into an ice skating rink in winter 4 My favorite ice cream is Ben & Jerry’s 5 Times Square is busy with pedestrian and vehicular traffic 24/7 6 The Neil Simon Theater on Broadway, where I watched Gigi 7 From the atrium lobby of the Marriott Marquis, with its scenic elevator 8 Chinatown colors at night 9 The world-famous bakery at Greenwich Village 10 Liberty Enlightening The World

YOUR MONDAY CHUCKLE

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:-D

Teacher: “Whoever answers my next question correctly may go home.” One boy suddenly throws his bag out the window.

Teacher: “Who just threw that?”

Boy: “Me! Okay, I’m going home now. Thanks!”

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For feedback, I’m at bobzozobrado@gmail.com

M ONDAY : J UNE 1 : 2015

SHOWBITZ

ISAH V. RED EDITOR

isahred @ gmail.com

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FILIPINO STUDENT FILM HONORED IN MEXICO G amu-gamo (Embers), a coming-of-age film about two young girls who encounter greater problems after mixing up a pornographic movie with a horror film, was cited with a Golden Palm award at the recent Mexico International Film Festival and Awards student category.

Directed by Will Sim Garcia as her thesis for De La Salle-College of Saint Benilde Digital Filmmaking program, Gamu-gamo previously won Best Storyline (Garcia and co-writer M.K. Jannin Ventur a) at UP Cebu’s UPelikula 2015 and Best Cinematography (Alex Uy) at CineSB 5inco Independent Film Festival’s The Chair Benildean thesis competition. It is also part of the official selection of the Diwa Film Showcase in Seattle, USA next month.

Child actors Barbara Miguel and Renaissance Tuason star in the film, which explores children’s capacity to imitate and try to understand any particular event they witness in their surroundings.

Ruby Ruiz, Amante Pulido, and Star Orjaliza provide support.

Aside from Gamu-gamo, nine other student films from other countries, including Artur Boruzs’ Romanian, Fi Dieter’s Cinder Pumpkin, Rene Maurin’s Bright Black, Bruce Sze Han Chen’s Awaken, Arturo Alanis’ Bermuda Triangle, Dudu Mafra’s Stultifera Navis, David McCracken’s OstrichLand, Tendering Primary School’s Be A Little Boulder, and Big Voice Media Collective’s Meredith were also honored with the award.

The Mexico International Film Festival and Awards, held annually in May, is “an awards competition created as an internationally visible platform to provide exceptional films and filmmakers with recognition for their filmmaking and screenwriting achievements.”

Entries in the film festival compete for awards in several categories, namely Feature, Animation, Documentary, Short, Foreign, Music Video, Student, Direction, Acting, Screenwriting, Television Pilot, Best of Mexico, and others. The official jury selects the best films in competition and awards them the Grand Jury Prize. In addition, Special Jury Prizes are awarded to several standout films and screenplays at the discretion of the jury.

The event, “founded on the premise that the language of film is universal and a dynamic force in bridging cultural understanding,” also supports the craft of screenwriting by discovering and recognizing new voices and original talent in screenwriting through its annual Screenplay Competition, which is open for both feature and short film screenplays.

Apart from being a digital filmmaker, Garcia is a film colorist and scriptwriter who won Best Screenplay for Adda Namnama (There is Hope) in the first Convergence Documentary Film Festival, a documentary-making competition organized by the Department of Social Welfare and Development to highlight the impact of the agency’s poverty reduction and social protection programs to the lives of their beneficiaries.

Will Sim's film thesis at De La Salle-College of Saint Benilde earns plaudits in Mexico

The Mexico International Film Festival and Awards, held annually in May, is ‘an awards competition created as an internationally visible platform to provide exceptional films and filmmakers with recognition for their filmmaking and screenwriting achievements.

Gamu-Gamo ia one of children's films honoured at Mexico International Film Festival

BLAZING FAST INTERNET AND HIGH-DEFINITION ENTERTAINMENT

Have you ever wondered if you can have fast broadband speeds and the widest selection of high-definition digital cable TV entertainment at the greatest value for money?

If you have, SKYbroadband has the answer with the latest broadband and cable bundle –boasting of up to 4 mbps of blazing fast

unlimited broadband internet, over 12 high definition cable TV channels, and over 50 standard definition channels, all in one plan.

This latest value-packed bundled plan comes with special access to two popular online video on-demand services. Anyone looking for a vast library of local and international cable shows, and vivid live streaming of their most loved channels can use iWantTV.The Philippines’ own video on-demand website features beloved shows from ABS-CBN like Forevermore and Your Face Sounds Familiar. Those looking for critically-acclaimed HBO Original Series can stream using HBO GO – the only way

online to catch-up with hit shows like Game of Thrones, VEEP, and Silicon Valley.

The newest SKYbundles Super Saver Plan 1799 allows you to enjoy all these for only P1799 per month. Getting started is also fast and easy. For just a one-time installation charge of P1999, new subscribers will get a Cisco WiFi Modem and an HD Cable Box – making sure going online, staying connected, and watching your favourite shows and movies can be done seamlessly. Only SKYbroadband provides the most convenient and hassle-free way to fully enjoy our daily lives.

Subscribe now to SKYbroadband’s spe-

cial bundled plans to enjoy the best internet speeds and high-definition entertainment the world has to offer. For inquiries and additional information, visitSKY through www.mysky.com.ph or contact the customer service hotlines at 02-381-0000 for Metro Manila, CAMANAVA, and Rizal, 046-484-4701 for Cavite, 049-534-1555 for Calamba and Binan, Laguna, 02-520-8560 for San Pedro, Laguna, 044-693-5877 for Bulacan, 032-421-1818 for Cebu, 082-3055456 for Davao, 074-442-4841 for Baguio, 034-432 0051 for Bacolod, 033-300-1210 for Iloilo, 035-225-1010 for Dumaguete, and 083-301-3134 for Gen. Santos City.

M ONDAY : J UNE 1 : 2015

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SHOWBITZ

EDITOR

isahred @ gmail.com

MARIAN RIVERA TO CO-HOST A TALK SHOW JOSEPH PETER GONZALES Expectant mom Marian Rivera sheds light on the rumor that she will host a weekly talk show for GMA along with Ai Ai delas Alas and Regine Velasquez.

“From what I know, I will be doing a once-a-week program although there’s nothing concrete yet. I still have to sit down with the management to officially discuss things. They haven’t laid-out their plans yet as to what will be the format or genre,” she says.

Doing a weekly show is not really new to Rivera who is now in her first trimester of pregnancy.

“I did Marian before, remember? I enjoyed doing that program. If ever it’s true that GMA wants me to co-host a talk show, I think it’ll be nice and promises a lot of fun and entertainment especially since it’s something new to me. This early, I’m excited because it will also mark the first time that I’ll be collaborating with ‘Kambal’ (her term of endearment for Ai Ai) as well as Ate Reg!” Speaking of Regine, how true

that initially, she didn’t like the thought of doing the show with the popular singer-actress?

“That’s not true at all!” explains Marian. “Ever since, I wasn’t the type who would say no to a project just because I didn’t like my co-star, I don’t have the right to choose in the first place! That’s my motto. I will never refuse to work with any GMA star. Especially with Ate Reg who stood as one of the godmothers during my wedding with Dingdong (Dantes). We get along fine.

That’s just baloney!”

Many ask if she can still afford to do a talk show if ever, considering her pregnancy.

“Well, why not? It’s just a weekly thing. I don’t think I’ll get exhausted with that unlike when you’re doing a soap opera. I’m really thrilled with the idea. It’s something new for me. I really hope that it pushes through!”

Interestingly, after giving birth on their first child, do she and Dong plan to have another one right away?

“Actually, my husband always asks me that. But I told him that I want to experience being a handson mom to our baby. If in case I’ll get pregnant again that soon, I’ll not be able to focus on taking care of my first born. So we agreed that

2. Noni Buencamino, Dagitab (Ten17P) 3. Allen Dizon, Magkakabaung (ATD Entertainment) 4. Juan Miguel de Guzman, That Thing Called Tadhana (Cinema One Originals, Epic Media, Monoxide Works) (Continued from yesterday) 5. Sandino Martin, HERE ARE THE NOMINEES: Esprit de Corps BEST ACTOR: (Cinema One Originals 1. Robert Arevalo, 6. Robin Padilla, Hari ngTondo (Reyna Films, Bonifacio: Ang Unang Pangulo Central Digital Lab) (Philippians Productions)

38TH GAWAD URIAN NOMINEES

CROSSWORD PUZZLE 40 42 43 44 45 48 49 50 52 57 58 60 61

ANSWER FOR PREVIOUS PUZZLE ACROSS 1 Beldams 5 Team cheer 8 Marble streak 12 Madonna role 14 Modicum 15 Perry’s penner 16 Goneril’s sister 17 Skier’s aid (hyph.)

18 A Great Lake 19 Limbs or creeks 21 Verify a recipe 23 Thinker’s sound

ISAH V. RED

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— and Abner of old radio Tooth fixer’s deg.

Stones’ album “— Lounge” Sartre contemporary First name in glue Boost a battery (hyph.)

Woe is me!

Vaughan or Miles Melville novel

62 63 64 65 66

Tall deep blue flowers Do the laundry Glossy Vogues Elegant accessory Salamander Fannie — Green, as trees (2 wds.)

Enthused (hyph.)

Subatomic particle “As I was going to St. — ...”

Revises Nymph who pined away Warm-hearted Goalies’ feats Contract Family MDs Yacht basin sight

DOWN 1 Catnip, for one 2 Affirm 3 Billion, in combos 4 Laurel or Kenton 5 Breaks in 6 — — loss 7 Express oneself gruffly 8 Swerve 9 Blew it

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Paulo Avelino

I’ll conceive our next baby after two years so I can enjoy motherhood,” ends Marian.

HHHHH

After her break-up with Gerlad Anderson, Maja Salvador is now being linked to her Bridges of Love co-star Paulo Avelino.

“I know! I guess it’s inevitable since we’re doing a soap opera together. But sorry to disappoint them, Paulo and I are just friends, no more, no less,” she avers.

Some quarters say there’s nothing wrong if they would get developed to each other since they’re both single at present: while she and Gerald called it quits already, Paulo’s relationship with KC Concepcion just ended as well.

“I won’t deny that we got closer when we started taping for Bridges of Love. We did a movie before.

Remember ‘Status: It’s Complicated’ two years ago? But we weren’t that close yet during those times.

It’s only when we got paired here in our current show that we were able to know each other better and became close.”

What’s keeping her from falling to Paulo if ever?

“Well, let’s just say that my heart is not yet ready to enter a new relationship. I’m not yet prepared to love again. That’s it!” Maja states.

Nora Aunor

Robin Padilla

2. Angeli Bayani, Bwaya (Cinemalaya, FrontRow International, Eight Films, Source of Light Films) 3. AiAi De las Alas, Ronda (Phoneix Features) 4. Eugene Domingo, Barber’s Tales (APT Entertainment, Inc./ BEST ACTRESS: Octobertrain) 1. Nora Aunor, Dementia (Octobertrain Films, 5. Hazel Orencio, The IdeaFirst Company/ Mula Sa Kung Ano ang Noon, Regal Films) (Sine Olivia Pilipinas) 7. Arnold Reyes, Kasal (Mabuhay Kolektib) 9. J. C. Santos, Esprit de Corps (Cinema One Originals) 10.Dennis Trillo, The Janitor (APT Entertainment, Inc.)

MONDAY, JUNE 1, 2015

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Marian Rivera

Wooden horse saga Must-haves Popeye’s tattoo Gossip tidbit Med. plan Ostrich kin Buddhist monks Wiener schnitzel base Earthen jar Sharif of films Cubicle fillers Groom a horse Pirated Excursion Famous last word Kind of hog Freight units Excellent!

Onetime Queens stadium — suzette Beret Two-footer?

Chilled (2 wds.)

Oahu welcome Ruminate Organic compound Torso muscles Waxed cheese Prima donna Sporty trucks Discreet summons Big shot

Maja Salvador

Robert Arevalo

6. Angelica Panganiban, That Thing Called Tadhana (Cinema One Originals, Epic Media, Monoxide Works) 7. Eula Valdez, Dagitab (Ten17P) 8. Nova Villa, 1st ko si 3rd (Real Films, VFX Studios, Bonfire Productions, Inc./ Firestarters Production) The 38th Gawad Urian will be held on June 16, 2015 and will be aired live in Cinema One. (To be continued tomorrow)

M ONDAY : J UNE 1 : 2015

SHOWBITZ

ISAH V. RED EDITOR

isahred @ gmail.com

C7

The Globe Galaxy S6 ambassadors: Chino Rodriguez, LA Aguinaldo, Robbie Becroft, Katarina Rodriguez, and Antoinette Jadaone

MEET SAMSUNG GALAXY S6 MYTHICAL FIVE H From C8

ow do you live your life?

In a fast-paced society where it’s easy to get lost in the noise of everyday chaos, many of us have turned to our devices such as our smartphones and tablets to make our lives easier to manage.

Meet Chino, LA, Robbie, Katarina, and Tonet, five of tinsel town’s newest faces who have become experts in embracing today’s digital lifestyle. They may have different interests and passions, but one thing common among them is how they maximize the power of technology to live their digital lifestyle to the fullest.

CHINO ROQUE - First Filipino Astronaut Chino is known as the first Filipino astronaut. This feat alone speaks volumes on how he has successfully reached his dream and has yet to fulfill it by traveling to space. Apart from voyaging into the galaxy, Chino is also largely into health and fitness as a CrossFit coach.

LA AGUINALDO - Suave Traveller LA is a fashion model and a certified Axe Gold Man who continues to gain a major following with his phenomenal style as well as his countless travels around the world.

His charisma has brought him far as he has traveled, sharing his dreams of exploring more of the world and sharing it with everyone.

ROBBIE BECROFT - Hip Imagineer Robbie is a photographer, lifestyle blogger, and model who shares

his interest in fashion in his blog, robbieoffduty.com. He stands out with his exceptional skill in showing what is beautiful; not just in fashion, but in the world in his journey as he travels.

KATARINA RODRIGUEZ - Style Stunner Katarina is Asia’s Next Top Model Season 2 Int’l Runner-Up, an MTV Pinoy VJ, and style influencer. Proving that she truly has the edge in fashion, she makes for a sound authority in showing what’s hip and trendy, not just in style but in music as well.

ANTOINETTE JADAONE - Box-Office Filmmaker Antoinette or Tonet is an award-winning and blockbuster director, scriptwriter and Palanca awardee.

She made her name as one of the youngest filmmakers in country, with hits such as That Thing Called Tadhana and You’re My Boss.

Blessed with a natural gift in multitasking, these five individuals are the best bunch to represent the new Samsung Galaxy S6 and S6 edge best paired with the Globe myLifestyle Plan. Technology giants Samsung and Globe Telecom recently joined forces to let you design your life in style with a device and a postpaid plan that could be your best companions in this crazy, digital world.

From metal and glass, the sleek design of the most beautiful smartphones ever created blends with powerful features such as the 5.1” QHD Super AMOLED screen, the faster charging of ten minutes for a four-hour use, the

better camera with 16MP rear camera and 5MP front camera, and the latest Gorilla glass with real RGB color to deliver images and film that are so life-like.

To best maximize these features, Globe is offering its myLifestyle Plan, which is suited for the way mobile phone users like you live today. The myLifestyle Plan has built-in unlimited calls and texts to Globe and a complete portfolio of lifestyle packs to choose from for easy access to the apps you love.

There’s the Fitness pack for only P99/month that includes access to fitness and health apps such as 7-Minute Workout, Fitocracy, MyFitnessPal, Pact, RunKeeper, Strava Running, and Cycling GPS; Shopping pack for P299/month that allows access to Amazon.com, Ayosdito.ph, eBay, OLX, and Zalora; Navigation pack for only P99/ month with useful apps like Accuweather, Google Maps, GrabTaxi, MMDA, Waze; online entertainment service HOOQ for P199/ month which gives you access to thousands of international and local movies and TV shows; and Photo pack for only P299/month that has your favorite photo apps such as Instagram, InstaSize, PhotoGrid, and Photo Repost.

If you’re into health and fitness like Chino, then the Fitness Bundle is for you. Perhaps shopping and style like LA? The young model and Axe Gold Man chooses the Shopping Bundle, which allows him to stay fashion-updated wherever, whenever. Or could you be a bona fide wanderlust like Robbie who opts for the Naviga-

tion Bundle? His blog is an inspiration to many, fueling their passion for what is yet to be seen and captured in the world. Would you happen to be someone who enjoys working behind the scene?

Box-office filmmaker Tonet would definitely share your passion for all things entertainment with non-stop access to movies and TV shows with the Entertainment Bundle. And if you’re a style stunner like Katarina, the Photo Bundle is for you. Katarina makes for a huge following on social media and wows followers with her stunning looks as seen in her amazing photos.

“As an athlete and a CrossFit coach, the attention to detail when it comes to your body really affects your overall performance.

The Samsung Galaxy S6 edge and the Globe myLifestyle Plan are jam-packed with features that allow me to monitor my daily fitness routines. With apps such as the 7-Minute Workout and MyFitnessPal available on the Fitness bundle, it’s amazing how you can jump-start on your fitness goals at the comfort of your fingertips,” shares Chino.

Antoinette enthuses, “I just love the S6 edge’s 5.1-inch Quad HD curved screen that makes viewing Youtube videos and my films’ edited sequences so easy on the eyes.

Bigger screen means I get to see more details on the videos.”

The Samsung Galaxy S6 32GB is available at Globe myLifestyle Plan 999*, which comes with unlimited calls and texts to Globe/TM, GoSURF499 (3GB mobile internet), all-you-want Facebook, plus free

Spotify Premium or HOOQ for 3 months, free Gadget Care and Navigation Bundle for 1 month and free 1GB of Globe Cloud. On the other hand, the Samsung Galaxy S6 edge 32GB is available at Globe myLifestyle Plan 1499**, which comes with unlimited calls and texts to Globe/TM, GoSURF999 (5GB mobile internet), all-you-want Chat and Facebook plus free Spotify Premium or HOOQ for 3 months, free Gadget Care and Navigation Bundle for 1 month, and free 1GB of Globe Cloud.

For more information on the offers, visit www.globe.com.ph/ galaxys6 or visit a Globe store nearest you.

Blessed with a natural gift in multitasking, these five individuals are the best bunch to represent the new Samsung Galaxy S6 and S6 edge best paired with the Globe myLifestyle Plan.

Technology giants Samsung and Globe Telecom recently joined forces to let you design your life in style with a device and a postpaid plan that could be your best companions in this crazy, digital world

M ONDAY : J UNE 1 : 2015

C8

ISAH V. RED EDITOR isahred @ gmail.com

SHOWBITZ

Ellen Adarna plays the woman that stalls the impending relationship between Trillo and Salvador

Dennis Trillo, screen's most admired leading man

Maja Salvador shows her dramatic chops opposite Yap and Dennis Trlllo

LOVE QUADRANGLE IN

‘YOU’RE STILL THE ONE’ ISAH V. RED

In Filipino movies, it is not unusual to watch a story revolving around three individuals preoccupied with love. In short, they are in a love triangle.

In You’re Still The One, the film co-produced by Star Cinema and Regal Entertainment, the audience doesn’t see just three but four characters weaving in and out of love – hence I call it a love quadrangle.

The four actors in the four-way love story are Dennis Trillo, Maja Salvador, Ellen Adarna, and Richard Yap. The lives of the characters they paly intersect at one point in time and they get involve emotionally and physically with each other.

Trillo and Salvador are Jojo and Elise, schoolmates in high schools, and best friends of sorts. While Jojo wants to be in a relationship, Elise doesn’t think it’s the right time. Yet, Jojo says he’ll wait for her to feel it’s time to be in a relationship.

Flash forward several years later, and Elise, now a law student, decides she’s ready to go on with Jojo, but unfortunately he is no longer the boy she used to be friends with in high school. He has sired a baby with a girl named Raquel (played by Ellen Adarna). While Jojo still loves Elise, he is saddled with a responsibility to lend his name to the baby Raquel is carrying in her womb.

Hurt at what she discovers, Elise moves on and meets Vincent (played

by Richard Yap). The two agree to be in a relationship.

Meanwhile, Jojo and Raquel struggle to keep their relationship and make a semblance of a happy family.

But they’re not successful. In the end, they decide to break up, and now Jojo wants Elise back.

You’re Still The One marks the first collaboration between director Chris Martinez and actors Trillo, Salvador, Adarna and Yap. It is also the first film he directed for Star Cinema since the 2010 Here Comes The Bride. He also wrote Kimmy Dora: Kambal Sa Kyeme and Ang Babae Sa Septic Tank.

Salvador has been acclaimed as an actor. She now belongs to the A-list actors, especially after her

A love triangle is common in Filipino movies, but a love quadrangle is emerging as the newest screen combination. ‘In You’re Still The One’, Maja Salvador, Dennis Trillo, Ellen Adarana, and Richard Yap romp the screen as their characters intertwine all in the name of love

Richard Yap stars opposite Maja Salvador in You're Still The One

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award-winning performance in Paul Soriano’s Thelma (2011) and as Nicole Esquivel in last year’s top rating drama series The Legal Wife. She now stars in another series on ABS-CBN, Bridges of Love, with Jericho Rosales and Paulo Avelino.

Dennis Trillo is considered on of the industry’s best actors. He is known for his performance 2 as a gay man in the controversial drama series on GMA Network, My Husband’s Lover, opposite Tom Rodriguez.

He is still a contract artist of the Kapuso network.’

Ellen Adarna is emerging to be a sought after performer after Skylight Films’ My Illegal Wife (2014). She now stars in another searing drama series on ABS-CBN, Pasion de Amor.

You’re Still The One marks her entry 3 into the romance-drama in films.

The amiable TV leading man Richard Yap takes on a dramatic path as the man Elise chooses to be with after learning her high-school friend has out impregnated another woman. Yap welcomes the change from his previous roles on TV and films.

Remember, he’s the guy housewives were swooning over in the morning drama program Be Careful With My Heart. Now, he seems ready to be a sexy young man women desire in serious romantic films.

You’re Still The One is now screening in theaters nation wide. Catch it while 1 High school friends who want their relationship to go further 2 An ideal couple you still can. troubled with the appearance of someone from the past 3 Ellen and Dennis' ➜ Continued on C7

relationship is rocked with Salvador's reappearance