The Standard - 2015 August 23 - Sunday

VOL. XXIX  NO. 192  3 Sections 24 Pages P18  SUNDAY : AUGUST 23, 2015  www.thestandard.com.ph  editorial@thestandard.com.ph

2 KOREAS HOLD HIGH-LEVEL GAB

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INENG’S FURY: 10 DEAD, THOUSANDS DISPLACED

By Francisco Tuyay

AT least 10 people were killed while five were injured as Typhoon “Ineng” pounded Northern Luzon on its way out of the country, officials said on Saturday.

Ineng [international name: Goni] weakened slightly but accelerated as it continued to north northeast direction, the Philippine Atmospheric Geophysical and Astronomical Services Administration said in its 5 p.m. bulletin.

The storm is expected to leave the Philippine Area of Responsibility by Monday but only after affecting more than 40,000 people in 12 areas, mostly in Northern Luzon.

President Benigno Aquino III instructed government agencies to preposition their assets so they can respond immediately to the needs of affected people.

In Ilocos Norte, which declared a state of calamity on Saturday, thousands of households in lowlying villages remained under water while other villages were still isolated at press time, said Vice Next page Governor Angelo Marcos Barba.

CUSTOMS’ CALLOUS AND CRUEL POLICY HIT

By Sara Susanne D. Fabunan and Vito Barcelo A CATHOLIC prelate criticized the Aquino administration’s new policy of forcibly opening the “balikbayan” boxes that Filipinos overseas send to their families here in the country under the pretext of a campaign against smuggling.

Balanga Bishop Ruperto Santos said the new policy is “callous and cruel” and makes Filipino workers overseas more prone to abuse by unscrupulous officials of the Bureau of Customs.

Vice President Jejomar Binay also said the policy again proves the insensitivity and bungling of the Aquino administration while Senator Ferdinand Marcos Jr. described it as Next page

PASSING STORM. Department of Public Works and Highways workers start clearing operations of a major landslide along Kennon Road in Baguio City which was triggered by Typhoon Ineng, Below, a Manila resident finds time to repair the roof of his home after the Coast Guard has ordered fishing boats grounded for days because of the inclement weather. DAVE LEPROZO AND AFP

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SOLONS: END VILIFICATION OF VP

By Maricel V. Cruz and Vito Barcelo

AFTER 23 hearings over the course of a year, congressmen said it’s about time the threemember Senate Blue Ribbon subcommittee probing corruption allegations against Vice President Jejomar Binay stop its probe.

Staying Safe. A fisherman checks on his outrigger boat after the Philippine Coast Guard prevented fishing vessels from sailing due to rough waters caused by monsoon rain intensified by Typhoon Ineng. afP PHOtO

CUSTOMS’ From A1...

government bullying of Filipino citizens.

“Government fails to protect their rights and now even ‘balikbayan’ boxes are not spared,” said Bishop Santos, chairman of the Commission for the Pastoral Care of Migrants and Itinerant People of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines.

“We oppose this disheartening action and lacking concern for our OFWs who are mostly the senders,” he said.

“Those things inside are for personal use and not for business, so why tax them?

As they open those boxes, they are exposing those hard earned goods [to] abuses,” Santos said.

“How we will know that not a single [item] will be taken away? How about of planting of something that could be used against the sender?” the prelate said.

Instead of laying covetous

eyes on the shipping boxes of OFWs, Santos said the BOC should instead focus on big-time smugglers.

“Go focus on those free ports. Open those warehouses and sealed container vans and those things inside that are taxable. There are no Ferraris or Porsches in balikbayan boxes,” Santos said.

Binay, for his part, lashed the BOC for the plan and said it only proves the insensitivity of the government to the plight of small people.

“This is another proof of the administration’s insensitivity and ineptness in thanking the overseas Filipino workers who bring in billions of dollars to the country through remittances,” he said.

Binay, wo served as Presidential Adviser on OFW Concerns, scoffed at the Custom’s justification that implementing tougher measures on balikbayan boxes will help curb illegal smuggling in the country.

“Based on the International Monetary Fund, almost US$19 Billion worth

INENG’S From A1...

Barba said the provincial board held a special session on Saturday and unanimously approved a resolution declaring the entire province under a state of calamity at about 2:12 p.m.

Based on initial report of the Provincial Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council , over 40,998 individuals or 9,402 families, covering 136 villages in Ilocos Norte are now affected due to flash floods.

The PDRRMC continues to conduct evacuations in areas threatened by flash floods due to washed out dikes and swollen rivers.

Since Friday, the PDRRMC along with the various MDRRMCs responded to at least eight rescue operations and evacuated families in Barangays Manalpac, Nag-

of imported goods were not taxed since the Aquino administration assumed in 2010. More than six times compared to the US$3 billion under the Arroyo administration,” Binay said.

The Vice President said government should not blame OFWs for its failure to curb illegal smuggling of goods.

Marcos, on the other hand, urged the Aquino administration to stop bullying OFWs. “Have you no shame?”

Marcos asked the BOC. “For every OFW, a balikbayan box is the equivalent of his or her love letter to a spouse and the rest of the family.

“Every item inside that box was bought with a specific person and purpose in mind, bought for with the hardearned money of our modern-day heroes,” he said.

“So if a single item there gets lost, can you imagine how that feels to an OFW who invested so much emotion and money just to get those goods home?” Marcos

patpatan, Sta. Ana and Bagbag in Solsona, Catagtaguen in Banna, Cabaroan in Bacarra, Capangdanan in Pinili, Elizabeth, San Esteban, and Baresbes in Dingras and Barangay Loing in Piddig.

A tornado was also reported in Barangay Caunayan, Pagudpud that blown-off some GI sheets of a covered court here while a house was partially damaged in San Antonio, Sarrat.

While communication lines are generally okay in the entire province, power is still out in the rural villages of Batac City, some areas of Laoag City, Bacarra, Piddig, Sarrat, Dingras, Solsona, Pasuquin, Burgos and Pagudpud.

Due to fallen trees, roads were temporary closed in Barangays Magnuang, Billoca and at the Batac City market on Friday.

In its weather update, Pagasa said the eye of typhoon Ineng was 105 kms east of Basco, Batanes at 4

asked.

Marcos warned Customs Commissioner Albert Lina against further restrictions on the use of balikbayan boxes by the OFWs. “Mr. Lina, you are a public servant. It is your duty to consult with stakeholders first, before embarking on any draconian measure that would turn their lives upside-down. You seem bent on bullying our OFWs while turning a blind eye on the large-scale smuggling that goes on in nearly all ports across the archipelago,” Marcos said.

The lawmaker also challenged the BoC to justify its move to open balikbayan boxes at random before the Senate during its forthcoming budget hearings.

“Let them defend themselves during the budget deliberations. Specifically, I would like to know how many bigtime smugglers have they managed to put behind bars during the five years under this administration,” the senator said.

p.m. Saturday.

Ineng’s maximum sustained winds weakened from 160 kilometer per hour to 150 kph near the center while its gustiness also decreased from 195 kph to 185 kph.

If the storm maintains its speed and direction, it is forecast to be at 405 km northeast of Basco, Batanes

by Sunday afternoon.

By Monday afternoon, it is expected to be outside Philippine Area of Responsibility (PAR) or at 1,035 km Northeast of Basco, Batanes and by Tuesday afternoon will be outside PAR or at 1,660 km Northeast of Basco, Batanes.

Different agencies reported that nine of the fatalities were residents of Benguet province while one was from Mountain province.

The latest fatalities include oneyear old Jury Catubing, Nole Lubante Jr., 21, and his pregnant wife Nova Mae Tuazon who were found

“It is obvious, the hearing is in aid of vilification,” said 1-BAP Rep. Silvestre Bello III, adding that the subcommittee, comprised of Senators Aquilino Pimentel III, Antonio Trillanes IV and Alan Peter Cayetano, has not produced substantial evidence to prove their allegations.

“No evidence has been gathered from the very start, except hearsay and perjured testimonies,” Bello added.

The United Nationalist Alliance (UNA) also denounced the continuing political harassment of Binay and his family, UNA president and Navotas Rep. Tobias Tiangco said the group expects more attacks as the 2016 elections draw near.

“It’s up to them what they want to do,” Tiangco said, noting that the subcommittee will again convene on August 26.

At the same time, Binay’s political spokesperson Rico Quicho agreed with the view of Justice Secretary Leila De Lima that the country is turning into a “banana republic,” but not for the reasons the DOJ chief stated.

“On the contrary, the Supreme Court decision affirmed the Vice President’s belief in the fairness and impartiality of our courts,” Quicho said.

“The Vice President is confident that he will also find in the justice system the fairness and impartiality that has been absent from the on-going Senate inquisition,” he said.

“This is why he has filed a civil suit and is looking forward to putting his senatorinquisitors, ex-Vice Mayor Ernesto Mercado, Mr. Hechanova, Renato Bondal and now Mr. Arthur Cruto on the witness stand,” he added.

“The courts are blind to political agenda. It only respects evidence and this is what

dead inside their house which was buried by a landslide.

Cordillera regional police spokesperson Supt Cherry Fajardo said the victims were hit by landslide while sleeping at the height of Ineng’s heavy rains.

Fajardo said Catubing’s father and mother Regina and her threeyear-old sibling were also injured when caught by a landslide at their home in Sitio Bayating, Brgy Topdac, Atok town at around 12 a.m.

Saturday.

The other fatalities were identified as Michael Guingaban, 58, Glen Baldasan, 27, both died of suffocation and Michael Lagasan, trapped inside his vehicle by a landslide along the Palatang Mangkayan road in Benguet.

In Abra, hundreds of millions worth of agricultural products and private and government infrastructure were damage along with farm animals that were swept away

we will demand from the senators and their cohorts,” Quicho said.

“We are a banana republic because this administration’s economic policies have further enriched the elite, while the rest of the country wallows in poverty,” he said.

“Government agencies like the DOJ enforce the laws selectively, unleashing the powers of the State to cripple political foes while protecting allies and partymates,” he said.

Paranaque Rep. Gus Tambunting, also an UNA member, said the Senate probe against the Binays was obviously politically motivated.

Tambunting urged Trillanes to refrain from using the Senate and the subcommittee hearings as a venue to advance his political ambitions.

“Trillanes should stop because it was obvious that [the Senate probe] was politically motivated in the first place and should not have even started it,” Tambunting said. “[The court] will determine by the rule of evidence if the VP is guilty or not. It’s a pity that Trillanes and his allies have used the Senate to promote and pursue their political ambitions rather than coming up with laws that would improve the economy and improve the life of the people, especially the poor,” Tambunting pointed out.

Abakada party-list Rep. Jonathan de la Cruz, member of the House Independent Bloc, said he believes the Senate subpanel has done so much to look into the controversy and that it’s about time that it concludes its probe.

“The Senate has its own rules so out of courtesy, I cannot advise in that score. But for good measure the public perception is that this year, long investigation has taken the full course,” de la Cruz said.

by high water current brought by Ineng’s relentless down pour since Thursday.

“Although we have no casualties, we were hit by heavy rains and strong winds damaging our agriculture crops including several of livestock,” Abra Gov. Eustaquio Bersamin said in a radio interview.

He said that the Abra river has turned into an ocean.

“As soon as the situation normalizes, I will go to Manila to ask for help to assist my constituents who were badly affected by the typhoon,” Bersamin added.

The typhoon also rendered 12 major roads and 6 municipal roads and 7 bridges in regions 1,2 and CAR not passable to types of vehicles while workers from the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) have increased pace to removed all obstacles in the affected road network. - With Sara fabunan

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NEWS

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SC OKAYS 2 MORE SANDIGAN PANELS

By Maricel V. Cruz THE Supreme Court has approved the formal organization of two new divisions in the Sandiganbayan anti-graft court, according to Presiding Justice Amparo CabotajeTang.

Tang announced the creation of the two new divisions during the hearing of the House committee on appropriations, chaired by Davao City Rep. Isidro Ungab, on the P26.6 billion budget proposal for the judiciary for 2016.

“The Supreme Court already authorized the formal organization of these two new Sandiganbayan divisions. The deadline for application (for positions) was last August 3,” Tang told lawmakers.

Tang responded to the query of Rep. Marikima Rep. Romero Quimbo if the process of choosing justices for positions in the two new Sandiganbayan divisions is indeed ongoing.

Quimbo asked the question being the principal sponsor of the proposed extension of the Sandiganbayan during the House deliberations on the bill.

Last April 16, 2015, President Aquino signed into law Republic Act 10660, which created two more divisions in the Sandiganbayan, bringing to seven the total number of divisions in the anti-graft court.

Each division has three members each.

“We wish you well and hope

this will expedite cases that are pending before the Sandiganbayan,” said Quimbo, a lawyer and chairman of the House committee on ways and means.

Of the P26.6 billion total budget of the judiciary for 2016, P505.9 million has been allotted to the Sandiganbayan.

In his Budget Message to Congress, President Aquino said the P505.9-million budget would enable the Sandiganbayan to adjudicate corruption cases expeditiously.

He said the anti-graft court’s 2016 budget is 51 percent larger than in 2010 and will cover the creation of two more divisions to ease the Sandiganbayan’s case backlogs.

Based on the budget proposal of the Judiciary, of the P505.9 million budget for the Sandiganbayan, P285.397 million will go to personnel, P137.564 million to maintenance and other operating expenses, and P82.943 million to capital outlay.

The capital outlay includes funding for the reconstruction of the Sandiganbayan’s fifth floor to house the two additional divisions, and the acquisition of their furniture, fixtures and Information Technology (IT) equipment.

The original budget proposal of the Judiciary was P37.6 billion, but the executive department approved only P26.6 billion, representing a measly 0.89 percent of the total national budget of P3.002 trillion for 2016.

MOre pAtienCe pleASe. The Aquino administration is again asking for more patience from the public as they face the daily challenge of time-consuming traffic jams in various places in Metro Manila. SOnnY eSpiritu

honeymoon. American singer and actress Ariana Grande arrived at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport Saturday afternoon ahead of her concert at the Mall on Asia on Sunday as part of her Honeymoon tour. rudY C. SAntOS

NO TRAVEL ADVISORY VS KOREA

By Sara Susanne d. fabunan

THERE is still no need to issue a travel advisory for Filipinos visiting South Korea because there has been no incident threatening Philippine nationals despite the heightened tension in the Korean peninsula.

But Deputy Presidential Spokesperson Abigail Valte said the Philippine embassy in Seoul is in full alert and is ready to reactive evacuation protocols that have been in place since 2010 when North Korea shelled the South Korean border island of Yeonpyeong, killing two civilians

and two soldiers.

Renewed tension emerged on Friday after North Korean leader Kim Jong-Un ordered troops onto a war footing to back up an ultimatum for South Korea to halt high-decibel propaganda broadcasts across the border or face concerted military action.

The move came as military tensions on the divided Korean peninsula soared following a rare exchange of artillery fire on Thursday that put the South Korean army on maximum alert.

Technically, the two Koreas have been at war for the past 65 years, as the 1950-53 Korean conflict ended with a ceasefire that was never ratified by a formal peace treaty.

“We feel that it would be enough really to continue to issue the statements via media. Of course, our networks among and between the Filipino groups in South Korea have already been alerted,” Valte said in an interview over stateowned Radyo ng Bayan.

“We have a good protocol in South Korea as far as the evacuation and the information network of our OFWs there are concerned because we have many Filipino groups in South Korea. There are those Filipinos who are working as teachers, Filipino professors, religious groups and they are very actively in touch with our embassy,” Valte said.

“If you remember, we already had plans in place. I think this was sometime back in 2011, early on in President Aquino’s term, when there was also a similar exchange of fire between the two countries,” she said.

Meanwhile, in Washington, the United States pledged

to defend South Korea, its top military officer has said.

General Martin Dempsey, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, made the comments in a phone call to a senior South Korean counterpart on August 21, as a North Korean deadline loomed for Seoul to halt the loudspeaker propaganda broadcasts.

“Chairman Dempsey reaffirmed the unwavering commitment of the United States to the defense of the ROK (South Korea) and reiterated the strength of the US-ROK alliance,” a Pentagon statement said.

Dempsey and Admiral Choi Yoon-Hee “concurred they would watch North Korea’s actions closely in the coming

days and would ensure that the US and ROK continue to work closely with one another to deter further North Korean provocations and defuse tensions”.

South and North Korea appeared to take a step back from a looming military clash and agreed to hold top-level talks Saturday, as their respective armies faced off across the border on high alert.

The international community has long experience of North Korea’s particularly aggressive brand of diplomatic brinkmanship, and the lastminute decision for dialogue will confirm for many that this has largely been another exercise in attention-seeking by Pyongyang. - With Afp

FVR TO DELIVER AUTHENTIC SONA

Building the future. American soldiers along with their counterparts from the

Philippines and Australia work together to repair Bartolome Doria Elementary School in Bohol province as part of the Pacific Angel operation, a multilateral humanitarian assistance civil-military operation, which improves military-to-military partnerships in the Pacific while also providing medical health outreach, civic engineering projects and subject matter exchanges among partner forces. u.S. Air fOrCe / t. Sgt. AArOn OelriCh

FORMER President Fidel V. Ramos is expected to deliver his Authentic State-of-theNation Address before the Philippine Constitution Association in Makati City on August 27, the group of constitutionalists announced on Saturday.

Leyte Rep. Ferdinand Martin G. Romualdez said Ramos, who was president from 1992 to 1998, will be the guest of honor and speaker in Philconsa’s monthly membership meeting to be held at the 6:30 p.m. at the Manila Golf & Country Club.

Philconsa chairman former Justice Manuel M. Lazaro said Ramos’s own

address will be delivered as a form of reaction to the Stateof-the-Nation Address delivered by President Benigno Aquino III last July 27 and the True State-of-the-Nation Address of Vice President Binay last August 3.

The National Anthem will be led by Associate Dean Rita Linda V. Jimeno, Philconsa vice president for constitutional reforms while the invocation will be delivered by Philconsa governor and treasurer, UP Regent Nelia T. Gonzales.

The Philconsa Creed will be led by retired Gen. Dionisio R. Santiago while the welcome remarks will be delivered by Romualdez.

New members will also be presented by Dr. Margarita R. Cojuangco, VP for Academic Affairs, to be inducted by retired Chief Justice Reynato S. Puno, Philconsa president emeritus.

The Guest of Honor and Speaker will be introduced

by Retired Omb. Aniano A. Desierto, Executive VicePresident.

Immediately after former President Fidel V. Ramos’ speech, an open forum will be conducted Philconsa governor Antonio S. Lopez, publisher and editor-in-chief of BizNews as moderator while former justice secretary, Agnes Devanadera will act as master of ceremonies.

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OPINION

ADELLE CHUA EDITOR

lettertotheeditor@thestandard.com.ph

A5

OPINION WHAT’S IN YOUR HEAD?

[ EDI TORI A L ]

BRILLIANCE

BY AFFINITY

THE assassination of former Senator Benigno Aquino Jr. was commemorated Friday with the usual statements on how he was a hero whose death galvanized a nation.

The late senator never got to be president, but his wife, and later his son, certainly did. In 1986, a revolution swept Aquino’s widow into power even as the people were well aware that she had no experience whatsoever in running a nation.

It was enough that Ninoy and Cory were husband and wife; she would continue whatever it was he had begun. In 2010, the couple’s son benefited from the outpouring of sympathy after the death of his mother.

Mrs. Aquino’s six-year administration was plagued by incompetence and instability, but she was not expected to be a brilliant president, anyway. It was enough that she restored democracy. Never mind, too, that along with democracy, the rule of the oligarchs was restored, as well.

And it was enough that Benigno III was his mother’s son, never mind the fact that his stint as lawmaker—first as representative of his district in Tarlac and then as senator—had been completely unremarkable.

These are just two cases among thousands of mistaken competence by virtue of one’s relationships. How often has the electorate catapulted into office somebody just because he or she is the spouse, offspring or sibling of a well-known figure?

Now, in the presidential race, the adopted daughter of Fernando Poe Jr.—an actor who ran for president in 2004 and who, his supporters claim, would have won had he not been cheated—invokes her father’s heart for the people and makes references to him at every opportunity as her way of endearing herself to the public.

This, too, is the reason for the clamor—real, imagined, who knows?—for the widow of former Interior and Local Secretary Jesse Robredo to team up with the Liberal Party’s presidential bet.

These examples show how, rightly or wrongly, Filipinos are swayed by their cultural bias for family ties. Why must we attribute traits to a person just because he or she is related to somebody we know? Birth is random, and often the attributes are a product of speculation among anything else.

This has been deeply embedded in our voting history such that the attribution is automatic even before we have seen proof of the competence of the next person.

This lack of critical appreciation has escaped us for so long that we keep voting the same breed of people into office: entitled, and with no compulsion at all to do better because the scripts are already there. They just have to know the lines to be delivered by their characters.

Unfortunately, some don’t even take the trouble to memorize the words at all.

LIES AND HALF-TRUTHS

THE campaign period for the 2016 elections has not officially started but that has not stopped a number of aspirants for certain elective positions from already unleashing their campaign propaganda on the electorate. We know that what these aspirants are doing is not illegal; they are not official candidates yet and precisely because the campaign period has not begun, the Commission on Elections has no

jurisdiction over their political activities. But that doesn’t mean that their actions are ethical or moral.

To begin with, it is clearly indicative of blatant and shameless display of influence and resources.

Television ads cost a hell lot of money—the cost of a 30-seconder television advertisement shown repeatedly over a onemonth period on primetime can reach hundreds of millions of pesos. Even if the candidate is independently wealthy, there still remains the question about how he intends to recover all that investment. Candidates aspire to be known as selfless

But what is really infuriating about early propaganda is the manipulative way in which these are designed to condition the electorate into rethinking lies and half-truths.

individuals with qualities that would qualify them for sainthood but the fact of the matter is they are in it for a specific return of investment. It could be

for monetary gain, which is why being in politics is also referred to as a career. It could also be part of efforts to consolidate power and influence in support

of business, economic, or other family or individual interests.

The aspirants who are now flaunting their vast resources with those early campaign ads in TV or in various social networking sites are likewise contributing to increasing the inequities in our political system. Of course, expensive television ads do not guarantee victory as illustrated in the case of Senator Juan Ponce Enrile’s son who lost in the last senatorial elections despite having all those sleek ads. However, it puts ordinary people without economic resources at a clear disadvantage.

This is why TV ads of politicians who used to be known as

valiant champions against marginalization rankle; now that they are in a position of influence and power, they have become sellouts, turning their backs on their party-list background and advocacies. What a shame.

Everyone knows that the ads are political in nature and they are indicative of the intent to run for an elective post, but because the campaign period has not started yet and the specific positions these aspirants are aiming for are not advertised, there is no venue for anyone to officially question or chal-

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lenge their assertions. Thus, aspirants can re-frame issues and bend the truth as much as they wish and get away with it.

But what is really infuriating about early propaganda is the manipulative way in which these are designed to condition the electorate into rethinking lies and half-truths.

For instance, I’ve come across propaganda that re-frames certain economic and historical data in an effort to make people believe that the country was better off during the Marcos dicta-

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torship. This is pure arrant nonsense.

I was already alive during the years of the dictatorship and I have very powerful and vivid recollection of the stark realities of those years.

There’s this yarn about how relevant experience is not a requirement for leadership positions. Again, this is hogwash. The only valid predictor of future performance is past performance in a similar or related capacity. There’s only one way to ascertain a person’s capability to deliver the requirements of a particular position, and that is to Continued on A6

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Chairman President & Chief Executive Officer Board Member & Chief Legal Adviser Director of Operations Finance Officer

Ma. Isabel “Gina” P. Verzosa Head, Advertising Solutions Anita F. Grefal Treasury Manager Edgar M. Valmorida Circulation Manager

PIXAR’S Inside Out is an animated film about an 11-year-old girl named Riley Andersen and what goes on inside her head. Five emotions—Joy, Sadness, Anger, Fear and Disgust—interact with each other and drive Riley to talk and act the way she does.

Riley goes through a tough phase when her parents decide to move from small-town Minnesota to San Francisco. She has to attend a new school.

She misses playing hockey. Combine all these with her precarious age. There is a control room of sorts called Headquarters, best described as Riley’s conscious mind. Outside HQ are various personality islands—friendship, family, hobby, among them.

Throughout the movie, the viewer is taken through the nooks and crannies of Riley’s inner world, which includes longterm memory, the subconscious, dream land, imagination. A long-forgotten imaginary friend, who boards the train of thought, resurfaces and helps out.

The Emotions find themselves in vain attempts to make Riley the happy child she once was. Joy and Sadness wander far from headquarters such as the remaining three—Fear, Anger, and Disgust —are forced to take control. Without Joy in her conscious mind, Riley’s relationship with her parents worsens, she is not able to make friends at her new school, and loses interest in hockey which she has loved since she was little.

Joy and Sadness make valiant attempts to get back to headquarters but they meet obstacles along the way. The islands crumble; some memories are lost. They see Riley planning to leave home to return to Minnesota. Joy and Sadness themselves get separated, and it is here Joy realizes that some of Riley’s happiest, most poignant memories are that way because of the sadness that preceded them.

Sadness is a blue, heavy, thing that drags us down and diminishes the happiness in everything. When sadness touches our memories, it renders us incapable of experiencing optimism and joy.

Not so, the movie seems to say.

Inside Out tells children and adults alike that it is all right to feel a whole range of emotions and sometimes all at once. No such thing as pure joy—we become happy because every memory carries with it a complex web of feelings. Never wallow in sadness, of course, or allow fear or anger or disgust or other emotion to dominate our words and actions.

Continued on A6 Rolando G. Estabillo Jojo A. Robles Ramonchito L. Tomeldan Chin Wong/Ray S. Eñano Francis Lagniton Joyce Pangco Pañares Adelle Chua Romel J. Mendez Roberto Cabrera

Publisher Editor-in-Chief Managing Editor Associate Editors News Editor City Editor Senior Deskman Art Director Chief Photographer

Emil P. Jurado Chairman Emeritus, Editiorial Board

S U N D AY, A U G U S T 2 3 , 2 0 1 5

A4

OPINION

ADELLE CHUA EDITOR

lettertotheeditor@thestandard.com.ph

A5

OPINION WHAT’S IN YOUR HEAD?

[ EDI TORI A L ]

BRILLIANCE

BY AFFINITY

THE assassination of former Senator Benigno Aquino Jr. was commemorated Friday with the usual statements on how he was a hero whose death galvanized a nation.

The late senator never got to be president, but his wife, and later his son, certainly did. In 1986, a revolution swept Aquino’s widow into power even as the people were well aware that she had no experience whatsoever in running a nation.

It was enough that Ninoy and Cory were husband and wife; she would continue whatever it was he had begun. In 2010, the couple’s son benefited from the outpouring of sympathy after the death of his mother.

Mrs. Aquino’s six-year administration was plagued by incompetence and instability, but she was not expected to be a brilliant president, anyway. It was enough that she restored democracy. Never mind, too, that along with democracy, the rule of the oligarchs was restored, as well.

And it was enough that Benigno III was his mother’s son, never mind the fact that his stint as lawmaker—first as representative of his district in Tarlac and then as senator—had been completely unremarkable.

These are just two cases among thousands of mistaken competence by virtue of one’s relationships. How often has the electorate catapulted into office somebody just because he or she is the spouse, offspring or sibling of a well-known figure?

Now, in the presidential race, the adopted daughter of Fernando Poe Jr.—an actor who ran for president in 2004 and who, his supporters claim, would have won had he not been cheated—invokes her father’s heart for the people and makes references to him at every opportunity as her way of endearing herself to the public.

This, too, is the reason for the clamor—real, imagined, who knows?—for the widow of former Interior and Local Secretary Jesse Robredo to team up with the Liberal Party’s presidential bet.

These examples show how, rightly or wrongly, Filipinos are swayed by their cultural bias for family ties. Why must we attribute traits to a person just because he or she is related to somebody we know? Birth is random, and often the attributes are a product of speculation among anything else.

This has been deeply embedded in our voting history such that the attribution is automatic even before we have seen proof of the competence of the next person.

This lack of critical appreciation has escaped us for so long that we keep voting the same breed of people into office: entitled, and with no compulsion at all to do better because the scripts are already there. They just have to know the lines to be delivered by their characters.

Unfortunately, some don’t even take the trouble to memorize the words at all.

LIES AND HALF-TRUTHS

THE campaign period for the 2016 elections has not officially started but that has not stopped a number of aspirants for certain elective positions from already unleashing their campaign propaganda on the electorate. We know that what these aspirants are doing is not illegal; they are not official candidates yet and precisely because the campaign period has not begun, the Commission on Elections has no

jurisdiction over their political activities. But that doesn’t mean that their actions are ethical or moral.

To begin with, it is clearly indicative of blatant and shameless display of influence and resources.

Television ads cost a hell lot of money—the cost of a 30-seconder television advertisement shown repeatedly over a onemonth period on primetime can reach hundreds of millions of pesos. Even if the candidate is independently wealthy, there still remains the question about how he intends to recover all that investment. Candidates aspire to be known as selfless

But what is really infuriating about early propaganda is the manipulative way in which these are designed to condition the electorate into rethinking lies and half-truths.

individuals with qualities that would qualify them for sainthood but the fact of the matter is they are in it for a specific return of investment. It could be

for monetary gain, which is why being in politics is also referred to as a career. It could also be part of efforts to consolidate power and influence in support

of business, economic, or other family or individual interests.

The aspirants who are now flaunting their vast resources with those early campaign ads in TV or in various social networking sites are likewise contributing to increasing the inequities in our political system. Of course, expensive television ads do not guarantee victory as illustrated in the case of Senator Juan Ponce Enrile’s son who lost in the last senatorial elections despite having all those sleek ads. However, it puts ordinary people without economic resources at a clear disadvantage.

This is why TV ads of politicians who used to be known as

valiant champions against marginalization rankle; now that they are in a position of influence and power, they have become sellouts, turning their backs on their party-list background and advocacies. What a shame.

Everyone knows that the ads are political in nature and they are indicative of the intent to run for an elective post, but because the campaign period has not started yet and the specific positions these aspirants are aiming for are not advertised, there is no venue for anyone to officially question or chal-

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lenge their assertions. Thus, aspirants can re-frame issues and bend the truth as much as they wish and get away with it.

But what is really infuriating about early propaganda is the manipulative way in which these are designed to condition the electorate into rethinking lies and half-truths.

For instance, I’ve come across propaganda that re-frames certain economic and historical data in an effort to make people believe that the country was better off during the Marcos dicta-

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torship. This is pure arrant nonsense.

I was already alive during the years of the dictatorship and I have very powerful and vivid recollection of the stark realities of those years.

There’s this yarn about how relevant experience is not a requirement for leadership positions. Again, this is hogwash. The only valid predictor of future performance is past performance in a similar or related capacity. There’s only one way to ascertain a person’s capability to deliver the requirements of a particular position, and that is to Continued on A6

MST Management, Inc. Philip G. Romualdez Arnold C. Liong Former Chief Justice Reynato S. Puno Jocelyn F. Domingo Ron Ryan S. Buguis

Chairman President & Chief Executive Officer Board Member & Chief Legal Adviser Director of Operations Finance Officer

Ma. Isabel “Gina” P. Verzosa Head, Advertising Solutions Anita F. Grefal Treasury Manager Edgar M. Valmorida Circulation Manager

PIXAR’S Inside Out is an animated film about an 11-year-old girl named Riley Andersen and what goes on inside her head. Five emotions—Joy, Sadness, Anger, Fear and Disgust—interact with each other and drive Riley to talk and act the way she does.

Riley goes through a tough phase when her parents decide to move from small-town Minnesota to San Francisco. She has to attend a new school.

She misses playing hockey. Combine all these with her precarious age. There is a control room of sorts called Headquarters, best described as Riley’s conscious mind. Outside HQ are various personality islands—friendship, family, hobby, among them.

Throughout the movie, the viewer is taken through the nooks and crannies of Riley’s inner world, which includes longterm memory, the subconscious, dream land, imagination. A long-forgotten imaginary friend, who boards the train of thought, resurfaces and helps out.

The Emotions find themselves in vain attempts to make Riley the happy child she once was. Joy and Sadness wander far from headquarters such as the remaining three—Fear, Anger, and Disgust —are forced to take control. Without Joy in her conscious mind, Riley’s relationship with her parents worsens, she is not able to make friends at her new school, and loses interest in hockey which she has loved since she was little.

Joy and Sadness make valiant attempts to get back to headquarters but they meet obstacles along the way. The islands crumble; some memories are lost. They see Riley planning to leave home to return to Minnesota. Joy and Sadness themselves get separated, and it is here Joy realizes that some of Riley’s happiest, most poignant memories are that way because of the sadness that preceded them.

Sadness is a blue, heavy, thing that drags us down and diminishes the happiness in everything. When sadness touches our memories, it renders us incapable of experiencing optimism and joy.

Not so, the movie seems to say.

Inside Out tells children and adults alike that it is all right to feel a whole range of emotions and sometimes all at once. No such thing as pure joy—we become happy because every memory carries with it a complex web of feelings. Never wallow in sadness, of course, or allow fear or anger or disgust or other emotion to dominate our words and actions.

Continued on A6 Rolando G. Estabillo Jojo A. Robles Ramonchito L. Tomeldan Chin Wong/Ray S. Eñano Francis Lagniton Joyce Pangco Pañares Adelle Chua Romel J. Mendez Roberto Cabrera

Publisher Editor-in-Chief Managing Editor Associate Editors News Editor City Editor Senior Deskman Art Director Chief Photographer

Emil P. Jurado Chairman Emeritus, Editiorial Board

S U N D AY, A U G U S T 2 3 , 2 0 1 5

A6

OPINION

lettertotheeditor@thestandard.com.ph

CHINA WANTS GREAT POWER, NOT GREAT RESPONSIBILITY

By William Pesek FORTY-THREE years after Richard Nixon made his famous visit to China, that country has seemingly decided to take a page from the former US president’s Treasury Department. As China lowers the value of the yuan, the country’s economic policy makers are mimicking the blasé attitude of Nixon-era Treasury chief John Connally, who dismissed international complaints about US monetary policy with a curt remark: “It’s our currency, but it’s your problem.”

To be fair, Japan has acted with similar self-interest since late 2012, when its 35 percent devaluation began. But that raises a prickly question: What options do Asia’s smaller economies have when the region’s two biggest seem intent on passing their own vulnerabilities onto everyone else?

China will be watching closely for the region’s response, for economic as well as political reasons. Beijing’s designs for regional leadership have always depended on winning the loyalty of its neighbors in order to reduce America’s financial, diplomatic and military role in Asia. Vietnam has already initiated a devaluation of its own, lowering the value of the dong by 1 percent this week in order to keep pace with China. Less clear are the potential responses of South Korea, Indonesia or the Philippines.

China claims it’s just doing what the International Monetary Fund asked in moving to a more market-determined exchange

rate. But markets have taken so badly to China’s 3 percent devaluation because no one really believes President Xi Jinping’s government when it says bigger drops aren’t coming.

Take the Bloomberg News report that China’s wealthiest investors have been the quickest to bail out of plunging stocks.

China would surely deny Communist Party cronies are getting tipoffs on when it’s best to sell, but investors would be forgiven if they felt skeptical.

The government’s obsessive efforts to censor deadly explosions at a toxic-material warehouse in Tianjin have only fed suspicions that Xi’s team is obfuscating on economic matters, too. As Patrick Chovanec of Silvercrest Asset Management said in a Twitter exchange, China is facing an “erosion in trust in government (stock bubble, Tianjin blast, etc.)” both at home and abroad.

Former US Treasury secretary Henry Paulson made reference to China’s reality-challenged growth targets in an Aug. 18 speech. Rather than setting unattainable goals like 7 percent growth, he said, Beijing would do better with international investors if it offered targets that don’t stretch credulity. Others have made similar points about China’s local-government debt.

As best JPMorgan Chase can tell, Chinese municipalities face a debt-service burden of about $156 billion this year. What can’t be known (aside from the true debt figure, of course) is the extent to which rising interest pay-

ments and falling land revenues are affecting the solvency of local governments.

Beijing still believes money can buy the trust and soft power it craves, which explains the new $100 billion Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank it has sponsored.

But as long as analysts don’t feel the Chinese government’s pronouncements are genuinely reliable, skepticism about the yuan will only grow.

Beijing still believes money can buy the trust and soft power it craves, which explains the new $100 billion Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank it has sponsored. But as long as analysts don’t feel the Chinese government’s pronouncements are genuinely reliable, skepticism about the yuan will only grow.

Xi should start by informing the world how low, exactly, the

yuan might go. Beijing would win further goodwill by reassuring governments and investors that it is trying to efficiently resolve the country’s looming crises in debt and stocks. The absence of such guarantees suggests Beijing is inclined to do the opposite, leveraging the country’s massive state-owned enterprises and banks to meet the government’s own growth targets and exporting its deflation pressures.

Finally, China must act like a true stakeholder in Asia. Until now, China hoped to reap the benefits of becoming a rising power without the responsibilities that accompany that status.

Rather than establish clear rules for diplomatic engagement in disputed areas of the South China Sea, China has preferred to play the bully. That has allowed it to get its way in the short term, but will win it little affection in the long run.

China’s desire to have it both ways also can be seen in the country’s push for the IMF to grant the yuan reserve-currency status without first achieving the transparency such a distinction normally requires. The same goes for China’s contention it has no influence over a North Korea dependent on its money. Or Beijing’s exporting of polluted air as far as the US mainland.

This is China’s moment to show it can be a trusted steward of a global economy that has lost its way. And the yuan is a good place to start. But, by defining its self-interest so narrowly, China is failing to make a positive first impression. Bloomberg

DONALD TRUMP: IMMIGRATION SAGE?

By Ramesh Ponnuru REACTIONS to Donald Trump’s immigration plan have been predictably polarized, with people either thinking it will make America great again or considering it an invitation to a pogrom. Taken seriously and stripped of excesses, though, it points the way toward a sensible compromise on immigration policy.

Taking it seriously isn’t always easy, since Trump doesn’t seem to take it all that seriously himself. The plan on his campaign website suggests he’d stanch the flow of immigrants coming to work at American technology companies; on Twitter, by contrast, Trump says that he wants talented foreigners to come work in Silicon Valley and become citizens.

The plan says nothing about how most unauthorized immigrants already in the US would be treated. But Trump has suggested that he’ll send them to their countries of origin and then let them come back, which seems like an expensive and administratively complex exercise

in pointlessness (albeit one that other politicians have sometimes also suggested). So like most of the Republican presidential candidates and Hillary Clinton, he favors an eventual amnesty.

The best feature of the plan, to my eyes, is its promise of a “moderation” in total immigration levels. Americans who want to allow fewer legal immigrants into the country have consistently outnumbered those who want to allow more. But far more politicians have fallen in the latter camp—usually without debating it. A smaller inflow would make assimilation easier and could relieve the economic pressure on low-wage workers (including previous immigrants).

The worst feature of the plan is its promise to end “birthright citizenship” so that the children of illegal immigrants are no longer automatically considered US citizens. I say that even though the US is an outlier in following this practice, even though it complicates enforcement of immigration laws (since it means either breaking up families or

sending away citizens), and even though there’s a legitimate debate over whether the Constitution really requires it.

Ending birthright citizenship is neither necessary nor sufficient to reduce illegal immigration. Trump’s other proposals—such as cracking down on visa overstays and expanding the E-Verify system -- would probably be much more effective and much less politically damaging. And even if Congress passed and the president signed a bill ending birthright citizenship, the courts would almost certainly strike it down.

So forget the citizenship proposal and some other farfetched portions of the plan.

Two remaining ideas—a reduction in legal immigration and an eventual amnesty—could be a viable compromise between the contending sides of this debate.

That compromise would reflect the reality that we’re not going to deport the vast bulk of the illegal-immigrant population and that the US economy doesn’t need to continue taking in as many unskilled immigrants as it now does.

One thing that shouldn’t be part of a compromise is Trump’s call to boost enforcement of the current law. That should instead be a prerequisite to compromise, indeed a prerequisite to having any serious immigration policy. Polls have often shown that Americans are open to an amnesty. But they don’t trust that the laws are going to be enforced in the future, or that any amnesty would be the last one.

That’s one reason there’s a market for Trump to promise tough enforcement, even in outlandish ways. For all his flaws, he understands that the public doesn’t trust lawmakers on this issue.

In 1952, the conservative intellectual Irving Kristol wrote an essay about why so many Americans were attracted to the anti-communist demagogue Joseph McCarthy. To adapt what he said then: One thing Americans know about Trump is that he is unequivocally for getting control of immigration. About the rest of our political leadership they feel they know no such thing. And with some justification. Bloomberg

What’s... From A5 But never deny them, either.

They are there, and they make our inner world richer. They give every event and memory particular color and significance that makes them unique.

Rational beings that we are, we navigate through these emotions—our individual responses to what we sense from outside and remember from within.

Our responses make us exactly who we are. ** A screening of Inside Out was held Wednesday by the Affiliated Network for Social Accountability in East Asia and the Pacific, a regional organization championing good governance through constructive engagement between citizens and government, at SM North Edsa.

The screening was done to raise awareness on the foundation’s education project: Checkmyschool. Through the project, citizen volunteers are encouraged to monitor the condition of public schools, especially in the provinces, to help improve governance in the education system.

ANSA-EAP executive director Dondon Parafina, speaking before the screening, related the film to what development workers go through. “As volunteers engage different people and encounter different situations that reflect the state of governance in the education sector, we do not only learn about happenings outside—in the schools, communities, government offices. We also learn about our inner selves—our motivations as organizers and volunteers, our combined sadness, disgust and anger when we see poor school facilities and services in impoverished areas, our fear of failing in our mission, and our joy in our accomplishments, no matter how small, no matter how slow.... not to mention our realization that we can have dreams and inner longings that go beyond our self-interests.”

More information about the project may be obtained from www.checkmyschool.org or from its Facebook page, https://www. facebook.com/checkmyschool. adellechua@gmail.com

Lies... From A5 examine track record or analyze behaviors actually displayed in the past. Potentials are nice to have, but they are not predictors of the desired performance.

And what about those ads that shamelessly package certain aspirants as exemplars of selflessness with more than enough qualities to make them candidates for sainthood?

Please. If these people are truly who they claim to be, there is no need to come up with sleek ads—actual critical incidents, unsolicited testimonials, actual documentation culled from reliable sources, and word of mouth would be more credible.

S U N D AY : A U G U S T 2 3 , 2 0 1 5

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NEWS

editorial@thestandard.com.ph

PARAÑAQUE: CALL IT BAY CITY

By Joel E Zurbano

THE city government of Paranaque will launch its new theme and campaign slogan as it bids to be one of the best and most dynamic cities in the Philippines.

Women make up almost 40 percent of the Philippine labor force, according to the United Nations.

UN AGENCIES MAKE STRONG PITCH FOR WOMEN-WORKERS

THE United Nations represented by the International Labour Organization (ILO), United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) and World Health Organization (WHO) call for a stronger support base in the Philippines to enable women to combine breastfeeding and work, in observance of Breastfeeding Awareness Month this August.

This year’s theme Tama, Sapat at Ekslusibo ang Pagpapasuso kahit nasa Trabaho calls for support to working mothers to exclusively breastfeed their babies. The theme highlights the importance of providing workplace support to mothers to continue breastfeeding even when they return to work.

“In the Philippines, almost 40% of the labour force are female. Working mothers spend majority of their child’s first 1,000 days (conception to age

2) at work. We have the urgent responsibility to ensure working mothers have an enabling environment to give their children the best start in life through proper care and breastfeeding, whether at home or in the workplace,” said UNICEF Philippines Representative Lotta Sylwander.

UNICEF and WHO recommend exclusive breastfeeding for babies for the first six months after birth—which means no solids or other liquids are given to the baby, not even water. After six months, appropriate and adequate complementary feeding should be introduced while continuing to breastfeed up to two years or beyond.

However, data shows only one out of three Filipino children are breastfed as recommended. Going back to work is a common reason why mothers stop breastfeeding. “This is

alarming, given that exclusive breastfeeding has the single largest potential impact on preventing child mortality and helping in healthy physical and mental growth,” Ms. Sylwander added.

“Breastfeeding is the most nutritious way of feeding a baby. Breast milk is readily available, inexpensive, clean and safe. It provides all the nutrients a baby requires and is the only food that a baby needs from birth to 6 months.

Breastfeeding should be continued up to at least 2 years of age, complemented after the age of 6 months with appropriate young child food.

Working mothers are strongly encouraged—and should be supported—to continue breastfeeding their children, even in the work place, to ensure their child’s optimum health and development,” according to Dr Julie Lyn Hall,

WHO Representative in the Philippines.

The many benefits of exclusive breastfeeding to a baby, especially in the first six months are irreplaceable.

Positive effects for working women, even to employers and the workplace itself are equally rewarding.

“Experiences at the firm level show that those who support exclusive breastfeeding in the workplace have benefited from higher staff continuity and loyalty; lower parental absence; increased level of productivity; higher morale and job satisfaction; improved retention of employees; reduced training budget due to loss of qualified staff; lower healthcare costs; and a more familyfriendly image and positive environment,” said Lawrence Jeff Johnson, Director of the ILO Country Office for the Philippines.

Mayor Edwin Olivarez said Paranaque will now be called “Bay City” with the slogan “Life Never Stops” aiming to be the country’s top tourist and entertainment destination with the rise of numerous world-class hotel resorts and leisure facilities in the area.

Olivarez said the “Bay City” was born out of their desire to seek and create an identity that will be unique to their city while also retaining the color, character and values of a true Paranaqueno.

The new label is justified by the fact that the city is actually nestled between the majestic Manila Bay and the equally impressive Laguna de Bay, the mayor said.

This developed as business locators continue to move into the city with the latest count already at more than 20,000 with an estimated annual gross sales of over P300 billion. Among the top companies and worldclass hotels that are now in the city are Solaire Resorts and Casino by Bloomberry Resorts Company which is the first casino-hotel to open at the Entertainment City.

Another is the 6.2-hectare City of Dreams Manila Resort that has a total of six hotel towers as well as family entertainment amenities being developed by Melco Crown Philippines and Sy’s Premium Leisure Corp.

The Aseana City by Aseana Holdings Inc. is a 204-hectare area of sustainable living and booming business community and the Manila Bay Resorts by the Okada’s Tiger Resort Leisure and Entertainment (TRLE). The latter is a 44-hectare integrated casino-resort project composed of an indoor beach club, entertainment facilities, retail and restaurants.

The Resorts World Bayshore City meanwhile is a joint venture between Andrew Tan and Malaysia’s Genting Group. It is a 31-hectare project that will house four new hotel brands namely, the Marriott, Sheraton, Hilton and Westin Hotel, casino and shops and a more than 3,000-seater Grand Opera House, among others.

Not to be outdone, Ayala Land Inc. will develop a 500,000 square meter shopping mall, bigger than the 406,000 sq m. Mall of Asia and hotel complex project.

To sustain this growth momentum, the city is cashing in on the P5-billion investment in infrastructure over the next four years to complement the national government’s huge investments of around P 110 billion for the construction of Metro Manila Skyway Stage 3, NAIA Expressway Phase 2 and the LRT Line 1 Cavite Extension Project that are due for completion in the next three years.

The city coffers went empty when he first assumed office even as the Commission on Audit (COA) has discovered that the city has a cash deficit of P 2.786 billion aside from another P2 billion that it owed the Land Bank of the Philippines.

PELAYO, 60

BILLS ON PORK, TRANSPARENCY DESERVE TOP PRIORITY—SOLON

By Maricel V. Cruz THE House leadership was urged to give priority to the passage of two bills seeking to excise pork barrel and make congressional deliberations on the national budget more transparent . Both measures have been languishing in Congress, a member of the Makabayan Bloc on Saturday said.

Kabataan party-list Rep. Terry Ridon was referring to House Bill 1535 or “An Act Abolishing the Pork Barrel System by Prohibiting the Allocation and Use of Funds for Such Purpose,” and HB 1492 or the “Bicam Transparency Bill.”

Authored by the seven-member Makabayan Bloc which is allied with the House Minority Bloc, HB 1535 seeks to not only dismantle the “legislative pork barrel” but also all other forms of pork in the national budget.

Meanwhile, HB 1492 authored by Ridon aims to set rules for the conduct of bicameral

meetings which will enable “transparency and maximum public participation” in the deliberations. Such rules include allowing the public to attend and observe in said meetings and allowing the media to cover the same.

Both bills were filed during the first session of the 16th Congress back in 2013. HB 1535 has been pending at the House committee on appropriations, the same panel deliberating the national budget; while HB 1429 has been pending before the House committee on rules.

“While Congress wields the power of the purse, and should be the one mainly scrutinizing the government’s budget proposal each year, the main job of the Legislature is to legislate laws. While the people’s victory over the Priority Development Assistance Fund (PDAF) was no small feat, recent developments show us that pork is still alive, and there is a need for us to enact laws that will vanquish the behemoth with finality,” Ridon said.

SM, ARMY DONATE BOOKS. SM Foundation in partnership with the 19th Infantry Battalion of the Philippine Army visited the municipalities of Jaro, Carigara and Tunga in Leyte to distribute school supplies, shoes, and toys. Books were also donated to elementary and high school public schools. Rubas Elementary School in Jaro were recipients of school supplies, shoes and toys while in Carigara, the schoolchildren in barangay Tinaguban Elementary School were the chosen beneficiaries.

MA. CECILIA “Cecille” PEREZ POBLETE PELAYO joined the Creator on August 21, 2015 after a lingering illness.

She was 60.

She is survived by her husband Nonnie; children JoAnne and Ricky Robledo and Leo and Agnes Pelayo; and grandchildren Patricia and Dennis Pelayo and Veronica, Ethan and Hannah Robledo.

Her remains lie at the St. Peter’s Memorial Chapels on Quezon Avenue, Quezon City.

Cremation will be at 3 p.m. on Tuesday.

The family requests the reader to pray for the eternal repose of her soul.

A8

SUNDAY: AUGUST 23, 2015

editorial@the standard.com.ph

FAKE RICE PROBE PUSHED

By Maricel V. Cruz

THE Makabayan Bloc in the House of Representatives has called for a thorough congressional probe of the proliferation and trade of fake or synthetic rice in the local markets even as agriculture and food officials have dismissed the charges as isolated case.

In House Resolution 2209, the Bloc’s leader, Bayan Muna party-list Rep. Carlos Zarate asked the House committee on agriculture and food and the special committee on food security to probe the issue in aid of legislation to put an end to the nefarious activity, which is an additional burden both to the rice-producing farmers and the

consuming public.

Zarate noted the entry and proliferation of fake rice particularly in Barangays Matina Aplaya, Mintal, Buhangin, and Cabiantan in Davao City and in Sta. Cruz, Davao del Sur. “Residents in the areas and nearby localities who purchased the suspected fake rice were not able to tell the difference because

it has the same texture, color, and shape of regular rice,” Zarate, a lawyer, said.

However, when the fake rice, which was passed off as regular rice, was cooked, it had the appearance of Styrofoam, Zarate said.

Zarate said the National Food Authority (NFA) in Davao found out that the suspected fake rice came from Bansalan, Davao Del Sur and was stored in unmarked and unlabeled sacks.

Zarate, quoting reports, said fake rice was allegedly manufactured in China and brought into other Asian countries such as India, Indonesia, Vietnam, Malaysia, and Singapore. It was said to be a mixture of potatoes, sweet potatoes and synthetic resin or plastic, which is the same material

used to make pipes and cables, reports said.

For his part, House deputy minority leader and Bayan Muna Rep. Neri Colmenares also voiced concern over the proliferation of fake rice saying it is certain to attract buyers despite its possible health risks because it is sold at cheaper prices.

Dr. Lyndon Lee Suy, spokesperson of the Department of Health, himself cautioned the public in consuming fake rice as it may cause diarrhea and vomiting, and could lead to other complications like cancer,” Colmenares said.

Rice, which is one of the most important commodities in the Philippines, is the staple food of almost 90 percent of the population.

DANCE FOR CHARITY.

Leyte Rep. Martin Romualdez dances the Kuratsa with Waraynon Ha Makati Founder Marjorie de Vera during the 8th Annual Fiesta Celebration of Hugpo Han Waraynon Ha Makati at Brgy.

Carmona Sports Complex in Makati City.The Kuratsa dance is a Waraynon tradition with the dancers throwing cash intended for charity.

VER NOVENO

PASAY MALLS WARNED OF DEADLY COSMETICS

By Joel E. Zurbano ENVIRONMENTAL group Ecowaste Coalition has asked the Pasay City government to go after dealers and sellers of banned cosmetic products and other items containing dangerous ingredients.

In a letter to Mayor Antonino Calixto, the group alerted the local government about the unlawful sale in discount malls in Baclaran and Libertad of products without the required notification or registration from the Food and Drugs Administration.

“Based on our on-the-spot market monitoring, we saw several stores operating in discount malls that are selling FDA-banned products,” said Thony Dizon, Coordinator, Ecowaste Project Protect.

The banned products being sold at retail outlets in Victory Pasay City Mall and Wellcome Plaza in Libertad, and the Baclaran LRT Plaza Mall, Bagong Milenyo Plaza Mall, Jinbao Super Center, Merwin Mart and Two Shopping Center in Baclaran include skin whitening cosmetics, slimming or weight-loss products and insect killers.

Among these prohibited goods were Golden Pearl Beauty Cream from Pakistan and variants of Jiaoli and S’zitang skin whitening cosmetics from China that the FDA had banned for containing mercury, a toxic metal that can cause damage to the brain and the central nervous systems, the skin and the kidneys.

Banned slimming products such as Brazilian Slimming Coffee, Leisure 18 Slimming Coffee an Leisure Burn Body Fat Orange Juice were also found on sale despite being banned by the FDA for containing unauthorized ingredients like sibutramine, a pharmaceutical ingredient that can increase the risk of heart attack or stroke.

Ecowaste also found retailers selling smuggled household insecticides with no product registration from the FDA, including Baolillai, Big Bie Pai, Butiki, General Toad and Tianshi insect killers in aerosol cans.

PH, MALAYSIA STAGE NAVAL ‘WAR GAMES’

By Francisco Tuyay THE Philippine Navy and its Malaysian counterpart will hold bilateral military exercise in a move to enhance maritime security and boost efforts to combat transnational crimes affecting the two countries.

Dubbed as “MTA MALPHI LAUT 18/15” the joint exercises will be take place from August 24 to 28 in the Sulu seas and involve ships, aircraft and special units from the two navies, according to Rear Admiral Primitivo Gopo, Commander of Naval Forces Western Mindanao through Public Affairs Officer Ensign Ian Ramos.

The bilateral activity, the 18th in a series of naval exercise, will be hosted by the Philippines since the signing of the Defense Cooperation under the Memorandum

of Understanding between the two countries in 1994.

The joint naval exercise came in the midst of the unresolved Sabah issue being pursued by the Sultanate of Sulu parallel to Malaysia’s pursuit for the passage of the Bangsamoro Basic Law, as a broker in the peace accord between the government and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front .

Malaysia has established a floating naval force fronting Sulu waters in an attempt to keep militants from Southern Philippines at bay and provide a buffer zone for the expected exodus of refugees from hostilities in Mindanao.

The Navy said the primary objective of the exercise is to enhance interoperability between the two Navy forces and developed better understanding and cooperation between them.

LANGUAGE ADVOCATE. Komisyon sa Wikang Filipino commissioner Purificacion de Lima awards a plaque of recognition to Mayor Jaime Fresnedi for leading Muntinlupa City as the first locality in the country to receive ‘Kampyeon ng Wika’ citation. On August 20, the KWF lauded the city’s utilization and promotion of Filipino language in official correspondence and other forms of communication.

City Administrator Allan Cachuela, KWF director general Roberto Añonuevo, and Schools Division Superintendent Mauro de Gulan join the awarding rites.

SUNDAY: AUGUST 23, 2015

Roderick T. dela Cruz EDITOR business@thestandard.com.ph extrastory2000@gmail.com

BUSINESS

B1

RAZER CEO DRAWS BIG MANILA CROWD

MIN-LIANG Tan is not a typical chief executive of a company.

When he visited the Philippines recently, hundreds of young Filipinos spent the night outside SM North Edsa shopping mall in Quezon City on Aug. 14 to form a long queue and be the first to attend his store’s opening the next day.

Impressed by the massive crowd, Tan dropped off pizzas for the hundreds of fans who waited overnight for the chance to personally meet the man who designed the high-end computer hardware used by the most serious computer gamers today.

“I think the massive turnout of Razer fans at the new RazerStore in Manila is a testimony that our decision to open in the Philippines was the right one,” Tan tweeted later.

No other chief executive could draw as big and passionate a crowd as Tan could. He heads a company that produces computer peripherals designed for the gaming community, which he is a part of.

Tan, who obtained a law degree from the National University of Singapore, left a lucrative job in Singapore’s Supreme Court more than a decade ago to pursue his passion for computer gaming. Today, the 37-year-old lawyer is the co-founder, chief executive and creative director of high-performance gaming hardware and software company Razer Inc., which has a cult-like following among computer gaming aficionados worldwide, including the Philippines.

Razer, which is based in San Francisco, has more than 600 employees who design and build hardware and software for the e-gaming community. The private company, valued at $1 billion by Fortune magazine with estimated annual revenues of $250 million to $300 million, is the one behind such products as the computer gaming mouse Boomslang, the handheld gaming device Razer Switchblade, Razer Blade laptops, Deathstalker Chroma gaming keyboards, Kraken headsets, gamepads, audio devices and other peripherals.

“I am a gamer myself and I said I don’t care if you don’t want our product. I want it for myself. That’s how we grew. We did the first ever gaming mouse and then we made the first gaming keyboard. This whole … entire industry was created by us,” Tan tells a group of journalists who visited the first Razer concept store in the Philippines.

Tan, who was born in Singapore in 1977 and practiced law before he cofounded Razer with Robert Krakoff, was named among the 10 most influential leaders in tech in 2015 by Juniper Research and one of the 25 most creative people in tech by Business Insider.

Razer, established in 2005, is backed by Intel Capital, IDG-Accel and Heliconia Capital Management, a unit of Temasek

Razer CEO Min-Liang Tan

of Singapore.

Fans of Razer had the logo of the company tattooed on their bodies, a proof of the cult-like following of Razer.

It has design centers in the US, Europe, Taiwan and Singapore.

“I was a gamer before I became a lawyer,” Tan, who has cleanly trimmed hair and looks comfortable in his signature black jeans and T-shirt, says in a casual chat with journalists and bloggers in his second visit to the Philippines in two years. His first visit was in October 2013 when he attended the Pinoy Gaming Festival at the World Trade Center in Manila.

“Law is fun. It pays the bill. But I enjoy being a gamer, unfortunately to the dismay of my parents,” he says.

Tan says he got tired of the law practice and wanted to create something.

“Lawyers are only there to address the worst things that could happen and most people just wanted to see a lawyer and then never see him again. So I thought I was not creating anything.

That was my biggest problem. Some lawyers would go to politics, which I was not keen on. At least, [with Razer] I am giving back to society. I am creating something,” he says.

Tan was born in Singapore but is now based in San Francisco. “My family is still in Singapore. I am in Singapore four or five days a month,” says Tan, his Singaporean accent barely heard.

He says the business is guided by a simple principle—which is to design products that he wants for himself. “We focus on the gamers. We are probably

the only ones that are focused on gaming population. Our fans tend to be a bit more passionate,” he says.

Gamers, he says, no longer refer to a bunch of children playing computer games. “The gamers have changed. In the past, it used to be younger in terms of generation and very focused. But it has changed dramatically. I am seeing gamers everywhere. In the Philippines, there are tons of gamers. In every age group, there are gamers. You see younger gamers, you see older gamers,” he says.

On his decision to open Razer’s second Asian concept store in the Philippines, after Taipei, Tan says it is all about the passion of Filipino gamers. The first Asian Razer store opened at Syntrend Creative Park in Taipei in May 2015.

The Razer concept store at Level 4, Cyberzone of SM North’s Annex building, puts on display gaming products, systems, peripherals, audio products, software, apparel and gear and promises to provide gamers an immersive experience. It features six gaming stations including five Razer Blade gaming laptops and one NZXTH440.

“That’s the crazy part. Some were asking why we opened this in the Philippines? What we did after Taipei is we did a poll, to know where they wanted the next Razer store to be. And the Filipino gamers all came together and they really voted the Philippines to be the next location and that’s great thing for us. We are known to be close to our community,” he says.

Tan says building the Razer’s store in

the Philippines was pretty quick. “We made a decision when we saw the results of the poll. That was a couple of months ago and we executed it very quickly. It has been really smooth for us to set up in the Philippines,” he says.

“We had the feedback...We saw this location that is available. The size and the design was exactly what we wanted, so we moved very quickly. We do business decisions like gamers. We don’t take a lot of time. We plan and the team works very fast. We execute,” he says.

Around 6,000 Filipino gamers registered online to come for the opening of the store.

Tan says money was not even a part of the decision-making process. “We are always known to be so close to the community and we do everything for the gamers. That has made us grow so much faster than everyone else. That’s the crazy part about it. We listen to our consumers. The Filipino gamers said they wanted us to be here. So we said great, we will set up over here. That’s counter intuitive. It probably makes no business sense at all. But that’s how we do things at Razer,” he says.

“I think we have been very lucky... the way we designed...money has always been the second thing, or even the third thing in our mind. When we selected the store, there were no financial projections made. There was no planning. It sounds very weird. I just know one thing. Filipino gamers voted Manila the number one location. We made it happen. We don’t cut cost,” he says.

In a previous tweet, Tan says: “I’m sure we’d make more money if we set up the next Razer store in some countries other than Philippines—but that’s not what we’re about. Money isn’t everything to us—the community means a lot more to us. The community, the fans —means a lot to me.”

“So it’s not about how much money we can make or how much we can sell etc. It’s about the community, it’s about our fans, it’s about our love for gaming and the gamers around us. And that’s why the next flagship store is going to be in the Philippines, even when it doesn’t make financial sense for us – because it makes perfect sense for our fans there,” he says.

Tan says Razer won the loyalty of gamers by listening to them. “How does Razer get such a passionate fan base to the extent they tattoo Razer logos on themselves. How do we do that? I think we really listen to our consumers. What I do is talk constantly to the gamers themselves. My Facebook page and Twitter feed, I am the one doing it myself. I don’t have a team of people who handle it and be tactful on how to respond. I do it all by myself. That also allows me to talk directly to consumers, instead of being high somewhere in the office. I love doing that.”

He says being a gamer, he knows what Razer customers want. “I am a gamer myself. We design products to be the best for ourselves. For ourselves, we want the best technologies, the best design,” he says. Tan says “literally I played hundreds of hours of Civilization, days on end,” referring to the popular series of turn-based strategy, 4X video games.

On why Razer’s products are more expensive than others, Tan says the company caters to “very focused, very passionate gamers who want the very best.”

Razer’s headset sells for P3,000 to P4,000 while its gaming mouse fetches as high as P7,500. A keyboard is sold for more than P7,000. A gaming laptop costs more than P120,000.

“Yes, we are making a profit. We have to have a profit to reinvest so that we can make even better products in the future and build great places like this where gamers can come also,” he says.

Tan says Razer’s concept store in Quezon City aims to allow Filipino customers to experience the company’s latest technologies. “In this store, we actually train our staff not to sell products.

We encourage gamers to come here and play all day long. We encourage them to come sit down here and experience what a Razer experience is,” he says.

“That’s why we wanted to have a Razer store as a place where gamers can meet. This is not a place to sell products. This is a place, a nexus for gamers to have fun, meet other gamers, get to know the best products,” says Tans.

He says computer gaming is not necessarily a form of addiction. “When I was a kid, there was TV addiction. Today, there is smartphone addiction,” he says.

In fact, computer gaming, he says, teaches some incredible life skills.

“Gaming was one of the things where successful individuals have learned about... working together with other people, coordination, management, friendship. Gaming brings a lot more positive good than negative. But of course, everything should be in moderation,” he says. Roderick T. dela Cruz

SUNDAY: AUGUST 23, 2015

B2

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

PLDT, GLOBE DUEL OVER CONTENT

Jay Bautista, senior advisor of Strategic Consumer and Media Insights Inc.

By Darwin G Amojelar

IT’S three in the morning but Charles Viernes, 23, is still awake, chatting with Facebook friends and watching YouTube on smartphone.

Viernes, a graphic artist working in Makati City, says he usually spends eight to 10 hours on digital media. “I rarely watch television shows now,” he says.

Viernes is one of the millions of young Filipinos or the so-called millennials who are more inclined to engage in online activities than watch TV. Over the past four years, television viewership in the Philippines has been on a downtrend because of increased access to Internet and proliferation of smartphones.

Jay Bautista, senior advisor of Strategic Consumer and Media Insights Inc., says Filipinos began moving away from TV as early as 2010. This is especially true among kids, teenagers and those in the age group 29 to 39 years, he says.

“It’s the first time in history that kid’s TV viewing index has dropped.

They still watch TV, but not as much as before,” Bautista says.

Bautista blamed the declining TV viewing index among Filipinos to the improved accessibility of Internet services via smartphones.

Citing data from SCMI, Bautisa says 49 percent of Internet users in the Philippines are found online every week.

Internet penetration rate among Filipinos aged 10 to 19 years is the highest at 84 percent, followed by 20 to 29 years old at 65 percent; 30 to 39 years old, 42 percent; 40 to 49 years old, 25 percent and 50 and up, 12 percent.

The top reasons for Internet use among Filipinos are social networking, academic study, downloads, using email playing games, watching video and others.

“All of their time is now confined to online because the lifestyle has changed now,” Bautista says.

Next battleground This scenario brought telecommunication companies to the next battleground. Philippine Long Distance Telephone Co. and Globe Telecom are now dueling over content, which they believe to be the future source of profits.

PLDT recently invested $15 million in iFlix, in line with the strategy to develop new revenue streams and complement present business by participating in the digital world beyond providing access and connectivity.

It also teamed up with Fox International Channels, which allows subscribers to view nine live Fox channels including three channels for Fox Sports, National Geographic, NatGeo People, NatGeo Wild, Fox News, Channel M and Star Chinese Channel.

Globe partnered with HOOQ, an online entertainment service offering more than 10,000 foreign and local movies and TV series that can be watched on personal computers, tablets and smartphone connected over the internet.

Globe and PLDT also teamed up with Walt Disney Company Southeast Asia to expand content offerings.

Bautista says telcos saw the opportunity for people to use data, if made attractive to them.

Telcos revenues have recently shifted from short messaging system and voice to broadband data over the last three years to five years.

Edgardo Cabarios, director of the National Telecommunications Commission regulation branch agrees with Bautista, saying that telecom companies revenue stream has changed because of the popularity of social networking sites.

The number of text messages per day has dropped to one billion from two billion text messages a day in the last five to 10 years.

“Mobile broadband is the next growth area for telcos,” Cabarios says.

“Certainly from the Globe perspective what we see the consumer demand for rich content is growing as more and more customers get smartphones, tablets and devices that have the capability to display and show rich content,” Daniel James Horan, Globe’s senior advisor for consumer business says.

According to Horan, 37 percent of Globe’s customer base are using mobile data on a regular basis this year, up from last year’s 20 percent.

As of end-June, Globe’s subscriber base stood at 48.4 million. The actual data traffic was also higher at 82 percent year-on-year.

“The number of smartphone in the customer base of Globe is about 35 to 37 percent and growing rapidly as well. All of those have been driven primarily by wonderful content and services that we have been providing in the market,” Horan says.

“We all know that call and text revenues will eventually start to shift and the future obviously in the data services, Globe is in the forefront of creating this digital lifestyle for customers and this is part of that building the lifestyle and the ecosystem,” he says.

Globe’s SMS revenues fell 6 percent to P14.43 billion in the first six months of 2015 from P14.24 billion last year. Revenues from voice services went up 7 percent to P18.62 billion from P17.34 billion a year ago.

The Ayala-led telco’s mobile browsing and other data, on the other hand, grew 53 percent to P9.53 billion in the first semester from P6.22 billion in the same period last year.

The significant growth in mobile data revenues was driven by the increasing popularity of Globe’s GoSurf promotions, which provide free access to premium content, such as Spotify and HOOQ, and top mobile games.

Globe’s mobile revenues climbed 10 percent to P41.58 billion in the first six months from P37.80 billion last year.

Ariel Fermin, PLDT executive vice president and group head of consumer business says: “We’ve gone beyond telecom. So, we are moving into digital media, that’s the direction of PLDT.” “Content will give more value to our broadband services,” Fermin says.

PLDT Group’s mobile internet revenues rose 21 percent to P4.78 billion in the first six months of the year from P3.96 billion last year.

The higher traffic for mobile internet browsing was mainly due to prevalent use of mobile apps, social networking sites and other over-thetop services.

Revenues from text messaging services dipped 5 percent to P17.88 billion in the first semester from P18.77 billion last year. While wire-

less broadband revenues increased 4 percent to P5.21 billion from P4.99 billion last year.

Streaming war Globe’s Horan says they are offering a fantastic range of content through HOOQ, which no other telcos provide.

“There’s a lot of video services in the market today, but HOOQ has the biggest portfolio of content in the country,” he says.

Globe’s subscribers can access more than 10,0000 movies and television episodes and TV shows including titles from partners Sony Pictures Television and Warner Bros. It also has local content such as GMA Network Inc., Viva Communications, Regal Entertainment and ABS-CBN Corp. Globe’s offers monthly rates of P199.

“For us, we see video as a very important part of the future and we will continue to build this partnership to allow us to provide the best local content and the best international content and I think it’s really important from the Globe perspective,” Horan says Horan says since Globe started offering the service in February, the result has been “fantastic” with over 3 million minutes already streamed.

PLDT’s Fermin says iFlix is “doing very well, but it’s too early to tell.

The indication is very, very positive because the content line up is strong.”

He says the Philippines is moving in line with global trends.

“With iFlix, PLDT and Smart can offer the widest library of video content to more Filipino homes when and where they want it. Our subscribers can access and enjoy more than 11,000 hours of TV and movie entertainment from the best content providers around the world,” Fermin says.

He says all video content can be viewed at home or on the move – using their TV screens, desktop computers, laptops, tablets and smartphones at very affordable monthly rates staring P99 a month.

“The good news is we have already started stimulating usage among our subscriber base with breakthrough partnerships with the likes of FOX and iflix for mobile entertainment,”

Fermin says.

Internet TV streaming service iflix, for example, is now the fastest growing service of its kind in Southeast Asia after reaching more than 150,000 subscribers in less than three months after it launched in Malaysia and the Philippines.

Fermin says the combination of rising smartphone adoption, coupled with attractive data packages and bundles, could further boost the growth of its mobile data business through 2015.

Currently, smartphone penetration within the Smart and Sun networks stands at 35 percent and is expected to grow more rapidly in the months ahead.

Mobile data traffic passing through Smart’s mobile network surged almost 170 percent year-on-year in the first half of the year.

“This ‘data explosion’ started when we introduced our ‘Free Internet’ promo last year which aimed to give our subscribers an opportunity to try out various Internet and digital services,” Fermin says.

“We see this trend continuing for the remainder of the year as we introduce more engaging content and digital services coupled with very affordable data service bundles that bring in added revenues for the mobile group,” he says.

According to a Nielsen report in 2014, viewing online video content has become a pastime for digital consumers in the Philippines with 85 percent watching at least weekly, the second highest in the region.

The same report also reveals that seven in 10 digital consumers in the country are watching TV content and movies via online sources such as video-on-demand, the second highest penetration of Internet TV in the region at 71 percent.

Digital worries TV network?

Emmanuel Lorenzana, TV5 president and chief executive says he is not worried about the impact of the ongoing video streaming war between Globe and PLDT on traditional TV viewing habit.

Rolando Valdueza, chief financial officer of ABS-CBN Corp., says the new development gives the company an opportunity to expand its audience reach.

“We are not ignoring it. We know our strength and we know our strategy. With Globe, they pay us for the use of our content. In a way, you also expand your reach,” Valdueza says.

ABS-CBN is the only broadcasting telecom company offering mobile phone services, using the network of Globe.

The Lopez-led network also offers content such as StarFlix, an exclusive mobile movie series available for ABS-CBNmobile subscribers.

Rival GMA Network Inc. is looking for a telecom partner to distribute its content in different platforms.

Pinoy cord-cutters SCMI’s Bautista says the millennial generation is driving the change in the telecommunication industry in the Philippines.

“In the US, they called cord-cutters, they don’t want devices with cords. They want to be mobile. they want to have the decision on when and what to consume,” he says.

According to a recent report on the Global OTT TV and Video Forecast from Digital TV Research, the number of homes globally with subscription video on demand will rise by 485 percent to about 120 million by end2015 from 20 million in 2010.

By 2020, the total number is expected to reach 250 million, up over 100 percent from 2010.

Globe’s Horan says Filipinos love content, whether it is telenovela, long movies, music or games.

“The desire for the content is already there, the challenge is how we get it to pay for an affordable manner. The service of HOOQ has really changed the way we do things because if you buy our data plans, it comes bundled. You can get thousands of videos,” he says.

Bautisa says the main challenge for the shift is the Internet speed.

“That’s the main hurdle. If we are able to improve the speed, the experience would be better,” he says.

Last year, a report by Ookla, an Internet broadband testing company, ranked the Philippines 160th out of 190 countries in terms of download speed.

The Philippines is also one of the most expensive among 64 countries with median monthly cost per Mbps at $26.60.

SUNDAY: AUGUST 23, 2015

B3

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

By Joel Lacsamana

A RECENT study predicts that four out of ten Filipinos will own a smartphone by end of the year. Forget the fact that most of the top brands are costly and often oversized, smartphones are tempting targets for Manila’s criminal community. Now, technology offers a simple way to make them less attractive.

But the country has been slow to adopt it.

Early this year, the Department of Justice urged local telecommunications companies to immediately install “kill switch” software on smartphones to curb phone theft. Justice Secretary Leila de Lima said there is no need for legislation to require these companies to install the “kill switch”, which allows phones to be turned off remotely if they are stolen.

“It is the responsibility of telcos as public utilities to prevent crimes and to ensure that technology is used to address peace and order issues,” she said.

The DOJ-Office of Cybercrime is tasked to implement the Cybercrime Prevention Act and recommended policy action and directive.

Interestingly, there is already pending legislation at the House of Representatives that would compel telcos to install “kill switch” software in cellular phones to enhance security and the privacy of its users.

The Kill-switch Phone Security Act of 2014 (House Bill 4511) was filed by AMA party-list Rep. Lorna Velasco in September 2014 to address the growing incidents of mobile phone theft in the country.

The bill seeks to make it mandatory for all telecom service providers to pre-install “kill-switch” software in their units to enhance security and privacy of postpaid subscribers.

The kill-switch software allows network service providers to remotely and permanently disable and erase all data and private information in mobile phones reported to be stolen, rendering the device useless for future use.

Last May, the House of Representatives approved a proposal which seeks mandatory SIM card registration. Its counterpart measure at the Senate is pending at the committee level.

Senator Vicente Sotto III, one of the authors of counterpart Senate Bill 2677, or the proposed Prepaid SIM Card Registration Act, said his proposal intends to protect ‘right to life’ as SIM registration would be an effective way to reduce crimes in the country.

If the bill becomes a law, it will cover tens of millions of existing and future prepaid mobile phone users.

There are around 115 million prepaid SIM cards in the Philippines.

Only three percent of them are postpaid, according to the National Telecommunications Commission.

Smartphone theft drops in 3 cities due to ‘kill switch’ Thefts involving smartphones have reportedly declined dramatically in three major cities in the United States and Europe since manufacturers began implementing “kill switches.” The number of stolen iPhones dropped 40 percent in San Francisco and 25 percent in New York in the 12 months after Apple Inc. added a kill switch

WHATEVER HAPPENED

TO THE ‘KILL-SWITCH’ MOBILE PHONES BILL?

At least 30 phones are stolen everyday in the Philippines, according to NTC data. The figures could be higher as not all victims report these thefts to the police. to its devices in September 2013. In London, smartphone theft dropped by half, according to an announcement by officials in the three cities.

“We have made real progress in tackling the smartphone theft epidemic that was affecting many major cities just two years ago,” said London Mayor Boris Johnson.

Johnson, San Francisco District Attorney George Gascon and New York state Attorney General Eric Schneiderman were among numerous officials arguing for new laws mandating the kill switches.

In California, where a law mandating kill switches has yet to go into effect, smartphone theft is dropping because some manufacturers have already started installing the softwarebased switches on the devices they sell, Gascon said.

“The wireless industry continues to roll out sophisticated new features, but preventing their own customers from being the target of a violent crime is the coolest technology they can bring to market,” Gascon said.

California’s law, one of the nation’s strongest, received wide support

from California prosecutors and law enforcement agencies that hoped it could help reduce smartphone thefts.

Apple, Samsung and Google have reportedly implemented kill switches in their smartphones, and Microsoft is expected to release an operating system for its Windows phones this year.

In Asia, South Korea has been a leading proponent of the smartphone kill switch. It has been mandatory since February 2013. The South Korean Ministry of Science, ICT and Future Planning has intro-

duced an act forcing local manufacturers like Samsung, LG and Pantech to incorporate one in all new smartphones.

Complementary approach Engineer Rodolfo Noel Lozada, an IT expert and mobile security application developer, recently proposed a “complementary approach” to achieve the “right to life’ goal of the SIM registration bill fled by Senator Sotto.

“Combining the proposed SIM registration bill with the pending killswitch bill will achieve the objectives of both bills,” Lozada said. “It will also provide more teeth to regulators to enforce the resulting law, and help reduce crimes in the country.”

Lozada, known to many Filipinos as the NBN-ZTE whistleblower, said the pending Kill-switch Phone Security Act of 2014 (House Bill 4511), filed by Velasco would be most effective move to addressing the growing incidents of mobile phone theft in the country.

“The tech sector fully supports the objectives of both the House and Senate Bills, but as an engineer, I am suggesting the best technical options available,” said Lozada.

Good timing for the bills Lozada said the pending bills come “at the right time.”

“The country could be the next nation in the world after the US which passed a legal measure that requires all mobile phones sold in the country to be equipped with kill switches that can disable devices if they’re stolen,” Lozada said.

At this present age of constant change and intensive use of everevolving technology, it is incumbent upon us to enact laws that respond timely and appropriately to new safety and security challenges,” he said.

The House and Senate bills on SIM card registration reportedly garnered initial support from government agencies, but local telecoms oppose the SIM card registration bill, saying it would violate the people’s right to telecommunicate.

The Philippine Chamber of Telecommunication Operators said that while it agreed with the objective of reducing crime perpetrated through cell phones using unregistered SIM cards, it did not agree with the proposed method of doing so.

WANTED: FOOLPROOF APP TO STOP SMARTPHONE THIEVES CLARO M. Recto is a well-known Philippine political figure who has given his name to a notorious street in Metro Manila’s university belt. Many students who walk through it do so with much trepidation because of its reputation for street robberies.

According to the National Capital Region Police Office, some eight incidents of theft happen on Recto, and neighboring streets every day.

Over a hundred high schools, colleges and universities near Metro Manila are also considered crime hotspots. The robbers’ main targets are students’ smartphones, tablets and other electronic gadgets.

A stone’s throw away from Recto is Rizal Avenue, more commonly known as Avenida. The network of alleys around Rizal Avenue is filled with street peddlers selling secondhand mobile phones, known in the local parlance as GSM or ‘Galing Sa Magnanakaw’ (from thieves and robbers).

A healthy market for hot smartphones Onlookers enjoy looking through the wide range of models from Samsung, Huawei, HTC and Apple. For the peddlers, converting the onlookers’ curiosity into cash is the key. Endless haggling oc-

curs until they amicably surrender these phones to their new owners.

This is why the business of stealing mobile phones thrives in the streets of Manila. Demand for these devices is always high and thieves find it very lucrative to be on the supply side.

To address the problem of rampant mobile phone theft, the Government is considering mandating that telecom providers and device manufacturers install a kill switch feature on smartphones.

A kill switch is a mobile app that enables the owner of a stolen phone to freeze their lost device and wipe its contents from a remote location. The only way to revive a locked smartphone is with the use of passwords supplied by the owner. The stolen phone is thus rendered useless.

For the past year, kill switches have been making headlines as a means of curbing mobile theft in the United States, the UK and in some Asian countries.

Magnanakaw!

Magnanakaw!

Magnanakaw!

In the Philippines , earlier this year, Galileo Software Services, Inc., a local IT company founded by engineer Rodolfo Noel Lozada, developed a mobile security ap-

plication called TARA, or ‘Theft Apprehension and Asset Recovery Application.’

With TARA app, it remotely locks and erases all a phone’s contents once it is stolen, and reported by the victim to a 24-hour call center. When a phone is stolen, and the thief tries to use it again, the unit with pre-installed TARA app, will emit what its developer calls “a loud alarm” that repeats the word “Magnanakaw!, Magnanakaw!, Magnanakaw!” endlessly.

Lozada is known to many Filipinos as the NBN-ZTE whistleblower.

Widespread support There is widespread support for a mandatory kill switch across government and industry. Department of Justice Secretary, Leila de Lima, is a prime mover behind this advocacy, and has urged telecom companies to install one in their smartphones. She cited US and UK experience to demonstrate that it can help curb theft.

De Lima believes that until the Philippines learns from their experience and adopts similar measures, smartphone theft will continue and markets in Rizal Avenue and elsewhere will continue to thrive.

Coming soon, the TARA app.

IT expert Jun Lozada says a smartphone owner can even pre-record a personal message (the more colorful, the better) to surprise a thief once he starts tinkering with the stolen gadget, reminding him that he’s out of luck as the phone had now been rendered useless.

B4

world

‘US air Strike kiLLS iS’ NO. 2’

tthis picture taken on august 18, 2015 shows residents standing in line as they mourn for the victims of the explosions in tianjin. With a swathe of one of the world’s busiest ports in ruins, more than a billion dollars in losses, and some major multinational firms still unable to access their premises, the economic impact of the tianjin explosions could reverberate for months. AFP

China blast death toll rises to 121

China’s powerful State Council, or cabinet, has vowed to conduct a “rigorous” investigation into the cause of last week’s explosions in the northern port city of Tianjin as the death toll rose to 121, state media reported on Saturday.

The government will publish the findings of the investigation, which it pledged would be timely and accurate, the official Xinhua news agency reported.

The explosions at a

hazardous goods storage facility on August 12 triggered a giant fireball and new fires broke out as recent as Friday.

The death toll rose to 121 on Saturday, up from a figure of 116 the previous day.

Some 54 people remain missing, Xinhua said in a separate report.

Residents and others have questioned how hazardous chemicals could have been stored close to residential areas.

The owners of the hazardous goods storage company at the centre of the incident, Rui hai International Logistics, reportedly included the son of a former police chief who used his connections to help the firm obtain

BeLgiUm OpeNS prOBe after traiN attack BeLgIAN prosecutors said Saturday they had formally opened an anti-terrorism probe after a gunman opened fire on high-speed train travelling from Amsterdam to Paris.

“We have opened an inquiry under the anti-terrorism law... as the suspect boarded the train in Brussels,” said eric Van der Sypt, spokesman for the pros-

ecutor’s office.

Three young Americans on Friday overwhelmed a man who opened fire with a Kalashnikov onboard the Thalys express.

The train stopped in northern France where the suspect was handed over to French police.

French prosecutors said late Friday that counter-terrorism investigators had taken

over the French side of the probe.

The suspect is thought to be a 26-yearold of Moroccan origin who had lived in Spain, according to sources close to the French investigation. he was known to the French authorities after being flagged as a potential jihadist by Spanish intelligence services. AFP

the necessary permits and pass inspections.

The blasts have also sparked fears of toxic pollutants contaminating the air and water of the city, which has a population of around 15 million people.

Thousands of tonnes of hazardous chemicals were stored at the site, officials have said, including about 700 tonnes of highly poisonous sodium cyanide, a white powder or crystal which

can give off lethal hydrogen cyanide gas.

The Tianjin environmental protection bureau said that only one out of its 18 air samples had found presence of the gas on Saturday.

The environmental bureau said on Thursday that cyanide levels of more than 350 times standard limits have been detected in water close to the site, but gave no updated figures on Saturday. AFP

The second-in-command of the Islamic State jihadist group has been killed in a US air strike in northern Iraq, the White house said Friday.

The National Security Council identified the slain militant as Fadhil Ahmad al-hayali, also known as haji Mutaz, and said he was IS leader Abu Bakr alBaghdadi’s senior deputy.

This is not the first time that US officials have announced hayali’s death.

In December, US defense officials, speaking to reporters on condition of anonymity, said he was one of several senior figures killed in coalition strikes, giving another of his pseudonyms, Abu Muslim al-Turkmani.

But US forces now say they were able to kill him, along with an IS “media operative” known as Abu Abdullah, on August 18 in a strike on a vehicle near the city of Mosul.

The White house described hayali as a member of the Islamic State’s ruling council, and “a primary coordinator for moving large amounts of weapons, explosives, vehicles and people between Iraq and Syria”. “he supported ISIL operations in both countries and was in charge of ISIL operations in Iraq, where he was instrumental in planning operations over the past two years, including the ISIL offensive in Mosul in June 2014,” it said, using another name for Islamic State.

Like many senior Iraqi jihadists, before joining the IS group, hayali had been a member of Al-Qaeda’s Iraqi faction. he was reportedly a former Iraqi officer from the era of Saddam hussein. AFP

police arrive to inspect the crime scene inside a thalys train of french national railway operator SNcf at the main train station in arras, northern france, on august 21, 2015. a gunman opened fire on a train travelling from amsterdam to paris, injuring three people before being overpowered by passengers. AFP

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WORLD editorial@thestandard.com.ph

north, south korea hold high-level talks 7 col x 10 cm

North and South Korea sat down to urgent toplevel talks Saturday, seeking some way out of an escalating crisis that has pushed both their militaries to the brink of an armed conflict.

The talks in the border truce village of Panmunjom began shortly after the expiration of a North Korean deadline for Seoul to halt loudspeaker propaganda broadcasts across the border or face military action.

Despite scepticism that Pyongyang would follow through on its threat, the ultimatum raised bor-

der tensions to their highest level for years, with the North re-positioning artillery units and South Korean and US fighter jets flying simulated bombing runs.

The dialogue in Panmunjom, where the Korean War ceasefire was signed, offers a chance for both sides to step back, although analysts said finding a workable compro-

mise would be difficult.

Seoul has refused to turn off the loudspeaker broadcasts until Pyongyang apologises for mine blasts this month that maimed two South Korean soldiers on border patrol.

North Korea denies any responsibility for the blasts and has accused the South of fabricating evidence of its involvement.

“It’s not easy to see a simple way out where neither side loses face,” said Dan Pinkston, Korea expert at the International Crisis Group in Seoul.

“It’ll be interesting to see if the North can bring something to the

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table -- possibly a resumption of North-South family reunions -that will allow the South to turn the loudspeakers off,” Pinkston said.

The four delegates -- two from each side -- include the South Korean president’s national security adviser, Kim Kwan-Jin, and the man widely seen as North Korean leader Kim Jong-Un’s number two, Hwang Pyong-So. The two men last met in October when Hwang, who is vice chairman of the North’s top military body, the National Defense Commission, led a delegation on the highest-level visit to the South for years. AFP

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South korean soldiers ride in the back of a military vehicle in the border county of Yeoncheon on august 22, 2015. South korean troops stood at maximum alert on august 22, hours before the expiry of a north korean ultimatum for Seoul to halt loudspeaker propaganda broadcasts across the border or face military action. AFP

japan prOTESTS aS rUSSIa VISITS dISpUTEd kIrIL ISLandS rUSSIaN Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev landed Saturday in the Kuril islands, prompting a swift rebuke from Tokyo, which claims sovereignty over the northwest Pacific archipelago in a long-running dispute.

Medvedev visited Iturup, one of four islands in the chain that lies off russia’s far eastern coast and just north of Japan, russian media reports said.

“Everything is perfectly modern here,” Medvedev was quoted as saying on his arrival.

“This is the result of our development programme for the Kuril islands.”

Hajime Hayashi, the head of the Japanese foreign ministry’s European division, phoned the russian ambassador in Tokyo over the visit to the islands, which Japan calls the Northern Territories.

The trip “contradicts Japan’s position over the Northern Territories and hurts the feelings of the Japanese people... It is extremely regrettable”, Hayashi said, quoted by a Japanese foreign ministry official.

Soviet troops seized the islands just after Japan surrendered in World War II. The seven-decade-old dispute has hampered trade and prevented Moscow and Tokyo from signing a formal post-war peace treaty. AFP

Iran UnVEILS nEW SHOrT ranGE MISSILES IraN’S President Hassan rouhani unveiled the country’s latest domestically produced ballistic missile on Saturday, saying such weapons are necessary for defence in the Middle East.

The Fateh (Winner) 313 missile has a 500-kilometre (300 miles) range and features more advanced sensors and technology than earlier missiles, according to Sepah News, the website of Iran’s powerful revolutionary Guards.

It was rolled out as part of Defence Industry Day, an annual event that showcases Iran’s military hardware. “a weak country incapable of confronting and defending against the military power of its neighbours and enemies cannot claim to seek peace, as it should only be prepared to be occupied at any moment,” the president said in a televised speech at the event.

“Iran’s strategy is based on defence and deterrence,” he added.

Several versions of the Fateh missile have been produced in the past few years. The 313 model has been successfully tested and is scheduled for mass production, the Sepah News report said.

Iran’s ballistic missile programme was a contentious issue in the talks that led to a nuclear deal struck in Vienna with world powers on July 14.

The agreement lifts international sanctions on Iran in exchange for putting curbs on its nuclear programme to ensure the Islamic republic’s activities are purely civilian in nature. AFP

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SPORTS

REUEL VIDAL EDITOR

sports@thestandard.com.ph

RIVERO LEADS GREENIES CHARGE TO LAND IN FINAL 4

By Peter Atencio

WITH his teammates finally stepping up Ricci Rivero no longer needed to carry the scoring load alone with the La Salle Greenhills Greenies finishing fifth after the first round of the 91st National Collegiate Athletic Association junior basketball tournament.

Other teammates got involved and stepped up their games as the season progressed.

They are now accepting the roles which coach John Flores gives, and their quest to win important games, and make it to the Final Four.

Rivero was not the only one contributing when the Greenies outplayed a dangerous Arellano University Braves, 80-69, last Aug. 14 at the Arena in San Juan.

Three other teammates stepped up to improve their record to a 5-4 win-loss slate, which allowed them to climb to fifth spot.

While the Braves have Guilmer de la Torre who led with 23, and stayed firm in third place at 6-2 despite the setback. The Greenies have the inside operators John Mallillin, Luis Velasco and Prince Ollano dishing out double-digit outputs just like Rivero.

“Nagawa namin ang gusto namin sa game na ito. Lahat involved na,” said Flores.

Because of good, defense in the final period, the Greenies were able to beat back with. repeated rallies in the first three quarters, and moved away by a big margin in the fourth.

“Defense gave us good opportunities to score. Iyun ang importante because they (Braves) were concentrating their defense too much on Ricci,” said Flores.

When the first round ended, the six-foot Ricci became the league’s scoring leader with his average of 25.8 points after eight games. Perpetual Help’s John Umali was in second with 24.89 points.

He is no. 6 in rebounds (12.78) and third in steals (2.75) and first in blocks (1.88).

There are two other teammates who are doing as well.

There’s Alain Madrigal, who norms 11.33 points, 7 rebounds and an assist. And then there’s Mallillin, who makes 11 points, and 9.11 rebounds.

During the first round, Ricci made the third highest scores of the season when he scored 35 points twice.

He did it first last July 16 when the Greenies lost to the Lyceum Junior Pirates, 80-83.

The second time he did it was when they beat Letran, 88-49, last July 30.

“I prepared for this. Pero hindi ko expect na ganito mangyayari,” said Ricci, a fourth year high school student, the last of his batch in

LSGH, which will follow the K-12 system next year.

This season, Flores gave him an important role of taking on the leadership role within the team. He joins coskippers Miguel Lanot and Rodney Manuel as the team’s acknowledged leaders.

“He told me to get my teammates involved in the game, and for the rookies not to be distracted,” said Rivero.

As one of the big men of the team, Ricci waits for his turn to get a share in ballhandling when the other team has big men, and they play a running game.

If the opposing team does not have that much of a height advantage, Ricci waits for his teammates in the shaded lane.

“Involved ang mga teammates niya ngayon, he is more patient now,” said Flores.

Ricci fired 22 points before he left the court on a disqualifying foul in the third, and still led the La Salle Greenhills Greenies to an 87-62 smothering of the University of Perpetual Help Junior Altas.

It was the Greenies’ first

La Salle Greenhills Greenies star player Ricci Rivero (9) fakes off an Arellano University Braves defender on his way to the hoop. Peter Atencio

La Salle Greenhills Greenies star player Ricci Rivero (9) drives strong to the hole as an Arellano University Braves defender tries to block his way. PETER ATENCIO

Ricci Rivero (5), then playing for the Philippine team, scores on a slam dunk during the 2015 FIBA 3x3 U18 World Championships.

triumph in two matches, and after they forfeited Monday’s won game with Letran Squires after some players wore uniforms with unprescribed jersey numbers.

Two timely three-pointers from de la Torre and Kobe Camacho in the last three minutes allowed the Braves to move away, 90-84, and sent them on their way to their second straight win, and share of the lead with the San Beda Red Cubs.

Camacho then drove in

with 2:13 left giving the Braves a 92-84 cushion in the ensuing play.

Teammates Lars Sunga and Carlo Abadeza added 21 and 13 for the Braves.

The Greenies were ahead, 52-35, in the last five minutes when Rivero got into a scuffle with Junior Altas Dan Arches. Rivero got hit in the groin during the battle for possession with Altas and was penalized by the referee for retaliating.

It was explained that

Rivero did not hit back, and was backing away from the blow when the referee saw the incident.

Alain Madrigal stepped up in the absence of suspended main man Ricci Rivero, drilling in 29 points for La Salle Greenhills (2-1), which slammed EAC-ICA, 72-61.

Jasper Salenga made 30 points and had 11 rebounds for the Mapua Red Robins (2-1), who won over the University of Perpetual Help Junior Altas, 87-51.

Madrigal took charge after Rivero got sanctioned for one-game following disqualifying foul in their encounter with the Altas. He poured in 12 points in the first canto to help the Greenies establish an 18-8 spread.

The Greenies won a protested game over the Letran Squires, 88-49, while the Lyceum Philippines University Junior Pirates came up with their first ever blowout win at the expense of the University of Perpetual Help Junior Altas, 78-59.

Ricci, playing his final year for the Greenies, hit a gamehigh 35 points and had 11 rebounds as they posted their first win.

He struck with 18 points in the third period, allowing the Greenies to take a 71-35 at the end of the third.

The match was eventually placed under protest officials because members of the Greenies wore uniforms with jersey numbers that were not prescribed, and beyond no. 19.

Because of the unsportsmanlike foul Ricci got early in the season, he will not have a chance to get the MVP honors for the second straight season.

But that is under appeal, according to his father Paolo.

Paolo, a strength and conditioning coach of Barako Bull in the PBA, said they have appealed Ricci’s case before commissioner Bai Cristobal because he did not fight back nor retaliate after hit with a closed fist during the incident.

“Nalungkot kami nung na-thrown out siya. Pero may chance pa siya,” said Paolo.

Ricci will have chances of still making it to the Mythical if he continues playing a consistent game in the second round.

His brother Prince, according to Paolo, is also providing him good advise on what he can to keep improving this season.

“Kung gusto niyang gumaling, kailangan maging magaling at mapagaling din ang iba niyang teammates sa laro,” said Paolo.

When Ricci Rivero missed nine games in the first round, no one gave him second look.

Nobody thought that he would make it to into the Mythical Five of the 90th National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) junior basketball tournament.

Coming up with big games in the second round, many consider the younger brother of La Salle Green Archers Rashleigh Prince Rivero, deserving of a role in the Mythical Five.

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SPORTS

ARMAN ARMERO EDITOR

sports@thestandard.com.ph

B7

Women’s National Collegiate Athletic Association

STILL GOING STRONG AT 46

By Arman Armero Photos by Henry Vargas

THE 46th Women National Collegiate Athletic Association host Philippine Women’s University put up a spectacular opening show at the Rizal Memorial Coliseum last Friday and thousands of students from participating schools were in attendance despite the inclement weather.

As in past opening rites, the atmosphere was joyful and electric, as WNCAA officials led by its president Dolores Fernandez of St. Paul’s College, Execdutive Director Vivian Manila, secretary-general Ma. Angelica Dela Cruz, Patricia Makabaenta of Poveda, finance officer Bernardine Yamamoto of De La Salle-Zobel and auditor Cynthia Manalo of SBCA made sure that the 46th season opens on a high note.

Other league officials who were present during the opening rites were WNCAA directors Yolando Co of Chang Kai Shek, Rene Ledesma of UA&P, Dennis Sajo of Miriam and liaison officer Kathlyn Fabian of PWU. Aside from the usual parade of athletes and colors, the ceremony was highlighted by the introduction of its special guest, Ada Milby of the Philippine Lady Volcanoes, the women’s rugby team which took the gold in the Southeast Asian Games in Singapore last June. Milby also happens to be the sister of singeractor Sam Milby.

For its 46th season, the league adopted the theme “Strong

(Top photo) The 16 participating schools led by host Philippine Women’s University join the parade during Friday’s (Aug. 21) opening ceremony of the 46th WNCAA atthe Rizal Memorial Coliseum. Below (right), Ada Milby of the Philippine Lady Volcanoes Milby makes the ceremonial tip off between the players of defending seniors champion Centro Escolar University and host Philippine Women’s University Also in photo are (back row, from left) WNCAA executive director Maria Vivian P. Manila, PWU VP for External Affairs and Marketing Alfredo Jose B. Reyes and WNCAA president Dolores Fernadez of St. Paul College Pasig. CEU, eyeing a fifth straight title, won, 53-30, with Cristine Caranto topscoring with 14 points. At left, Milby is joined by PWU VP Reyes and Ms, Manila.

Women, Strong Nation.”

CEU going for fifth This season, Centro Escolar University will be eying tis fifth straight basketball crown while PWU, as host, hopes to finish strong.

“We prepared hard and we expect to retain our title,” said WNCAA vice president Juanita Alamillo of CEU. The CEU Scorpions also took the overall seniors title last sea-

WORLD BALANCE BACKS BGY. GINEBRA WORLD Balance, a popular activelifestyle brand of footwear and apparel in the Philippines, has entered an outfit partnership with the country’s most popular team, Barangay Ginebra San Miguel for the upcoming 41st season of the PBA. With its “Never Say Die” spirit that extends even to its large base of supporters, Ginebra has established itself as one of the most admired and celebrated ballclubs in Philippine basketball.

“For a brand that’s succeeded against the influx of competitors and cheap knock-offs for so long, this partnership comes at the perfect time as we’ve always shared Barangay Ginebra San Miguel’s Never Say Die attitude,” said Barnaby Chong, General Manager of World Balance International, Inc. “We also share the long and glorious history when it comes to generations of fans who love and

remain loyal to both the team and the brand.”

The new gears the team will be wearing will reflect these shared values.

Aside from that, the designs are sleeker, edgier, ultra light and will surely make a great impression to the whole Ginebra community,” he adds.

Founded in 1979 as an expansion team, Barangay Ginebra San Miguel has earned a reputation in the Philippine basketball scene for its passionate fanbase, unmatched game day experience and an esteemed list of former and current players.

“We are happy to announce our partnership with World Balance as our Official Outfitter for the upcoming PBA season,”said SMC Sports Director and Team Governor Alfrancis Chua.

“We are very appreciative to World Balance for their all-out support to the Ginebra team,” he adds.

son after similar title romps in futsal and cheerleading.

Volleyball action opened at nearby St. Scholastica’s College gym with four seniors matches.

The futsal tournament will start on Sunday at the UA&P gym with three juniors and three seniors duels.

Former national football player and PWU athletics director Marielle Benitez said she wants the Patriots to fare bet-

ter this year. Unlike last season when their best finish was just third place in seniors table tennis, Benitez said PWU is more inspired this time.

“We’re the hosts so I’m really pushing our teams to exceed expectations, especially in futsal,” said Benitez.

The second semester events set next year are badminton, cheerdance and cheerleading, softball, swimming, taekwondo

and table tennis. Demonstration sport poomsae is also included in the league calendar.

Angelicum, Chiang Kai Shek College, St. Jude and St. Stephen’s High School are the other participating schools in the league being supported by Gosen, Mikasa, Molten, Goody and media partners Inquirer, Bulletin, Philippine Star, Sports5, Magic 89.9 and Chalk Magazine.

MANDAYAS CLINCH 5TH ‘KADAYAWAN’ TITLE last three minutes. Viernes started the onslaught by completeing a steal off Clavel to put Mandaya within two.

Another Montana turnover resulted in conversion DIMUNITIVE playmaker Jeff Viernes played big in the crumch as Royal Mandaya-CMO turned back power- from the line from Viernes that finally tied the match at 57-57 before another Viernes basket had Manhouse Montana Pawnshops, 63-57 for its fifth title in daya taking the lead, 59-57 to the delight of the 2015 Kadayawan Commercial Basketball Open huge crowd, that included Davao City Mayor Invitational tournament held last weekend at Rodrigo Duterte. the Davao City Sports Center (Almendras Caught flatfooted, Montana failed to conGym) along Quimpo Blvd.,Davao City. nect in the ensuing plays. Belga then made Montana led by only one, 18-17 after the two from the line and Jercules Tangkay first quarter and was still ahead 29-27 at drove to the basket to ice the game for the the half but later built a 14 point lead in the multi-titled Royal Madaya-CMO. payoff period behind the combined efforts “Ang sarap ng feeling.We’re champs again. of prized find Denane Lusdoc from Cebu, This victory is the sweetest because the boys reDavao pride Big Boy Clavel and reinforce- Escandor ally worked hard against a formidable team in Monments Leandsay Sanjo and Hans Thele.

Sanjo was a monster in both offense and defense as he tana. This championship is for the boys and our coachalso dominated the boards to help the Pawnborkers keep ing staff led by coach Rhoel Jolos and of course for the basketball fans who inspired us in our quest for our fifth the Mandayas at bay.

Still, Mandayas’ guest players from the PBA, led by title in Kadayawan,” said team owner Glenn Escandor.

The Kadayawan cagefest was also participated also Beau Belga, Ronnie Matias, Mark Macapagal and John

by Gold Star and the visiting MP Pacman of boxing Ferriols played steadily to keep the score close.

Then came the explosion from the Mandayas, with icon Manny Pacquiao. It was organized by Duterte the 5-foot-9 Viernes, who was later named as Finals Basketball League led by CMO executive assistant and DBL top brass Bong Go and tournament top ofMVP, coming off the bench to lead his team’s comback.

Viernes, along with the rest of the Mandayas slowly but ficial Regino ‘Boy’Cua and presented for Davaoenos surely chopped Montana’s lead with crucial baskets in the by Mayor Duterte.

By Danny Simon

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RIERA U. MALLARI EDITOR sports@thestandard.com.ph

SPORTS

RUBIO

CONQUERS HEARTS OF PH FANS

NBA superstar point guard Ricky Rubio of the Minnesota Timberwolves meets and greets the media at the adidas store in BGC. MAVELLE P. DURIAN

By Patricia Flores

WHILE Cleveland Cavaliers’ superstar LeBron James blew into town with all the hype deserving of a king, Ricky Rubio, the Spanish point guard of the Minnesota Timberwolves quietly slipped into the country without much fanfare.

That, however, doesn’t make his visit less impactful as true fans of the game welcomed the NBA superstar with open arms.

“The reception is overwhelming!” said Rubio in his first visit to the Philippines.

“I am blown away,” added Ricky, who was himself witness to the way the Philippine national team performed in

the 2014 FIBA World Cup in Spain—his home country.

“My love for the Philippines began last year when they were in Spain (for the FIBA World Cup). I remember the fans of the Philippines even won an award for that.

I want to see that kind of passion personally,” added the 24-year-old Rubio, picked fifth overall in the 2009 NBA Draft.

In a span of two days, the Spanish national team player went through a series of activities to bring out his love for one of Asia’s biggest basketball nations.

The Spaniard was able to conquer the hearts of the Filipinos as he met with some fans on Friday right after his press conference at the adidas store in Bonifacio Global City, before heading off to see what Manila had to offer.

An avid traveler, Ricky was too happy to be given an opportunity to see a little more of Manila as he toured around historic Intramuros, including the Rizal monument. He later joined some Filipino ballers and local adidas brand ambassadors for a little street basketball on Anda St.

A certified soccer fan, Ricky also dropped by one of the Younghusbands’ practice sessions on Saturday in a show of support for the beautiful game.

Then, Ricky had a pickup game with participants of the latest adidas trial run of the Crazylight Boost 2015, which he is promoting in the summer tour.

Featuring Primeknit technology for the first-time ever in a basketball shoe, coupled with industry leading Boost cushioning technology, Crazylight Boost 2015 is adidas’ most innovative basketball shoe ever, with solar blue colorway offering a tonal Primeknit upper and speckled midsole for added style.

After playing with some Filipino cagers, Ricky confirmed what had been his perception all

along.

“The Philippines plays an NBA style of game. Filipinos are very good,” said the 6’4” Rubio, who added that there is hope for “diminutive” Filipinos in the international arena.

“A lot of teams in the NBA are going small ball now. The Golden State Warriors are one of them. They play fast and just keep on shooting,” said Ricky in may have been a suggestion to the PH national team how it must play in the world stage.

“The basketball talent here in the Philippines is just crazy. I would love to come back to play more street ball and probably tour more places,” said Ricky.

The Philippines will be ecstatic to have you back in the future, Ricky.

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C1

TATUM ANCHETA EDITOR

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

BERNADETTE LUNAS

life @ thestandard.com .ph

WRITER

@LIFEatStandard

S U NDAY L IF E

LIFE

DR. JEMIMA ALBAYDA, MEDICINE WOMAN

BY BING PAREL

“C

ure sometimes, treat often, comfort always.”

Then as now, these words by Greek physician Hippocrates have guided doctors into remembering their foremost role in this world: to offer hope, to give encouragement and help patients with a positive perspective of their condition or situation.

This is, perhaps, the reason why at a young age, a Filipina is making a lot of headway in the field of arthritic medicine in the US – making use of her God-given gift to bring comfort to “the sickest of the sick and help make a difference.”

Currently the Director of the Rapid Arthritis Care and Evaluation (RACE) Clinic and a faculty member at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine in Baltimore, Maryland, Dr. Jemima Felicity “Myma” Albayda finished her degree in BS Biology in UP Diliman in 2001 and graduated from the UST College of Medicine (cum laude) in 2005.

She then completed her residency in internal medicine at the New York Downtown Hospital where she served as chief resident at the Department of Medicine.

Asked what made her decide on rheumatology as a field of subspecialization, she admits that, “Initially, I had actually considered other specialties like Cardiology or Pulmonology/Critical Care where I tended to do well and was comfortable. I had always loved the entirety of Internal Medicine and felt adept taking care of most things that came my way. However, there were always those ‘weird’ cases you would come across where it was hard to put things together or the manifestations were just so unusual,” she begins.

Those “weird” cases usually turned out to be immune-mediated or rheumatologic in nature – something that really piqued her interest. “Rheumatology is the branch of medicine that deals with diseases where the immune system goes haywire and attacks itself, such as with diseases like lupus, rheumatoid arthritis, or scleroderma. During my time in training, I saw how even the best internist would feel uncomfortable when faced with a patient with possible autoimmune disease, and that made me want to learn more about it, so that I could become a better doctor.

Also, it seemed like not a lot of people went into Rheumatology – which was even better as I never liked doing what everyone else was doing!” she explains.

A prank picture during residency where Dr. Jemima pretends to be having a drink while on call.

One of the early days in Hopkins with co-fellows – by the historic Christ statue under the Dome.

To laymen such as this writer, the thought of rheumatology strikes one as a safe, non-threatening field where one mostly deals with older people complaining about aches and pains in their joints, either due to age or an unhealthy diet. Not so, says Dr. Myma. “I think when people think of Rheumatology, they think of Arthritis or issues with your joints. Although that is true we take care of these things, that is not all there is to Rheumatology.

We actually take care of people with severe multi-organ involvement from their diseases,” she discloses.

“For example, when your immune system is overactive and there is a lot of inflammation, it can lead to kidney failure, bleeding in the lungs, neurologic events and even damage to your blood vessels which require the use of strong medications. I think I am also a little biased as that is the kind of Rheumatology I deal with being in Johns Hopkins. We see the sickest of the sick, which is both challenging, but also very fulfilling to help and make a difference,” Dr. Myma elaborates.

While it is obvious that the young doctor is an achiever, it is also equally true that its is no mean feat to get into a well-renowned institution like Hopkins, become a faculty member and be the head of a multi-specialty clinic. The humility is apparent when Dr. Myma tells us, “I am certainly humbled by the opportunity, and am well aware of how difficult it is to have gotten into, and be retained, in such an institution. But all I can tell you is that I see it all as being very much from the hand of God. There are probably people far better than I or have better credentials, and yet things have conspired to get me to where I am today. I really do believe that if there is work that He means for you to do, He gets you to it and through it,” she admits with disarming candor.

While training, experience and natural ability can get one far in any chosen field or profession, Dr. Myma says being detail oriented, the guidance from objective evidence and data plus a “gut feel” for something impacted by her faith

Checking out local markets, a favorite activity of Dr. Albayda

helps her obtain the answers that she seeks to help others.

“It really isn’t about being so knowledgeable and having all the answers, as much as it is about knowing how to get to the answers for the particular person right in front of you. And sometimes you never do. But the longer I am a doctor, the more I realize that there are times you can only effect so much change in the person’s physical condition, but journeying with them through it is probably the most important thing,” she reiterates, admitting that she is a believer in the impact of the positive and the power of hope.

In a manner of speaking, rheumatologists like Dr. Myma Albayda who have this uncanny diagnostic ability when it comes to unusual or difficult cases remind people of this fictional doctor, Gregory House – without the eccentricities and complications, naturally. Asked about an interesting anecdote involving one of her patients, the Filipina doctor avers that there are so many cases that come to mind.

“Perhaps one of the most memorable ones was the case that got me interested in the particular area I specialize in at Hopkins. It was a middle-aged woman who had been diagnosed with rheumatoid arthritis a year prior. She had initially done well with the usual treatment for rheumatoid arthritis, but then started to develop fevers, difficulty breathing and muscle weakness.”

The patient had already seen several doctors in succession with no clear answers as to whether this was part of her disease, an infection or a complication of therapy. At the time that Dr. Myma saw her, she was only a few months into her fellowship in rheumatology, “feeling very much overwhelmed with my inexperience and inadequacy.

But as I examined her, I noted a particular sound in her lungs which told me she had an inflammatory lung disease. I saw her fingers which were dry and cracked and recognized that this could be a finding which we called ‘mechanic’s hands.’ I appreciated arm and leg weakness along with swollen joints.

Continued on C2

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C2

LIFE life @ thestandard.com .ph

@LIFEatStandard

DR. JEMIMA ALBAYDA, MEDICINE WOMAN From C1

Walk for Wishes participants take their places at the starting line.

Traipsing around the streets of Stockholm.

Taken all together, this made me think that rather than rheumatoid arthritis, what she did have was actually an immune-mediated muscle disease which manifests with arthritis, weakness, rashes, fevers and interstitial lung disease – the antisynthetase syndrome,” she explains, an indication that even early in her fellowship, she already had this uncanny ability to spot tiny but nevertheless, telling details that could make a lot of difference in the diagnosis and therefore, treatment of a patient.

“We sent off for some tests which then confirmed she had that disease. I can tell you that this probably marked the turning point for me during fellowship, where I realized – I can do this! It was also what got me interested in Myositis (inflammation and degeneration of muscle tissue), which is one of the things I specialize in today. This was a really nice story of how things come full circle,” she narrates, adding that when she first encountered the patient, she was still a fellow but fast forward to three years later, she had the opportunity to see the patient again, this time as a member of the faculty. The woman, of course, remembered that it was Dr. Myma was actually the one who diagnosed her condition. “Suffice it to say that she is special to me in more ways than one,” the doctor smiles.

Interestingly, none in her immediate family is a doctor, although Dr. Myma’s mom took premed and her maternal grandfather wanted all his children to become doctors. In a way, it was her lolo that started early on to “brainwash” her into becoming a doctor and apparently, it worked.

Asked what she is like outside the confines of the hospital, the doctor laughs, disclosing that she likes comedies, hanging out with friends, eating (“the Filipino in me,” she says), traveling and trying out new things. “I am the kind of person that has music probably playing from the moment I wake up and it helps to put me in the right mood. I like being physically active, and recently have gotten into barre classes called PopPhysique which is addicting! I also have a creative side to me that constantly needs an outlet, which for the time being has been oil painting.

“I think I am generally the same person whether I am at work or outside of it. People would probably describe me as funny, a little bit crazy at times, and a lot of fun to be around (at least I think so!). I am someone that enjoys the good things in life – food, travel, experiences.

I’m very adventurous and independent and I like seeking out new experiences and ways to challenge myself. There are definitely many different facets to me, and I like being able to balance them and all the different interests I have. I think it’s safe to say I’m a very passionate individual, and how I live my life reflects that,” Dr. Jemima Albayda concludes.

Wish Kid Amie thanks the IPC team with handmade bracelets.

Wish Kid Amie (far left) with the IPC team at the Walk for Wishes event.

WALKING FOR WISHES, BRINGING JOY TO CHILDREN Local data services firm makes a difference

“W

e grant the wishes of children with life-threatening medical conditions to enrich the human experience with hope, strength and joy.”

This is how the Make-A-Wish Foundation Philippines describes its advocacy and objective – bringing hope and light to young people and their families as they bravely battle a medical condition that threatens to take the joy out of their existence.

It is said that a burden shared is burden lightened, and this is what spurred individuals and companies to participate in the Walk for Wishes, a one-day event which allowed individual and group sponsors to meet their beneficiaries, among them local cloud computing and data center services firm IPC (IP Converge Data Services, Inc.) that linked hands with the non-profit MakeA-Wish Foundation Philippines whose beneficiaries are children from three to 17 years old who battling life-threatening diseases. Make-a-Wish’s primary focus is to grant wishes to enrich the human experience with hope, strength, and joy.

Held at the Bonifacio Global City in Taguig, IPC’s contingent of 20 volunteers joined Wish Kids in a 500-meter health walk, with the event capped by the granting of specific “wishes” to their beneficiary, Amie, who wished for a new gadget.

“IPC’s participation allowed our employees to engage in an activity that benefits society. We were able to extend assistance to the children of Make-A-Wish, and at the same time we have set a culture of community involvement within our company,” said Jefrri-ann Santiago, IPC Human Resources Manager.

“Part of IPC’s corporate vision is to be a game-changer in the IT industry. This role extends to making a difference in society as a whole. Make-A-Wish takes a radical approach in helping a special sector of children. And we believe in this revolutionary thinking. Not only does it make a unique impact on the Wish Kids, but also to those who help them,” Santiago added.

IPC employees keep in step with their Wish Kid during the 500-meter Walk for Wishes.

IPC’s Wish Kid Amie opens her gift after the Walk for Wishes.

One of the IPC employees who took part ion the Walk for Wishes could not help but be touched by the plight of the children and the efforts that companies and individuals extend to bring hope and joy in the lives of these children. “We all work for our families to make sure they are well provided for and taken care of.

This gave us an opportunity to extend that kind of caring to others. The experience was amazing. It made me realize that we do have so much that we can share,” the employee noted.

The partnership with Make-A-Wish marks IPC’s first independent corporate

social responsibility endeavor. According to Santiago, previous outreach activities have been done in line with IPC’s mother company, PLDT. In particular, IPC has and continues to support the entrepreneurial efforts of Tahanang Walang Hagdanan.

“We started with something as simple as buying the greeting cards created by Tahanang Walang Hagdanan. Likewise, we began with a simple gesture of walking with our Wish Kid and granting her wish for a new gadget. From this, we’re looking forward to implementing more activities that make a positive change to those who need help,” Santiago stated.

To know more about Make-A-Wish Foundation Philippines, please visit www. makeawish.org.ph. IPC® (IP Converge Data Services, Inc.) is an Internet data center, telecommunications and cloud services company, providing local and regional enterprises with managed data services and business solutions at international standards. IPC is a wholly-owned subsidiary of ePLDT, Inc. To know more, visit www.ipc.ph.

SUNDAY : AUGUST 23 : 2015

LIFE life @ thestandard.com .ph

@LIFEatStandard

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ERASER CAROTID ARTERY

BY TATUM ANCHETA

I

’ve been staring at the blank .doc file for hours now and I feel like the blinking cursor and I already have a relationship.

Sometimes I wish words would just write themselves then I can sleep while waiting for the whole thing to get done, and I can just tell the words what’s wrong with them after. “When you become an editor you edit yourself even before you write a word,” I remember my first editor saying this while she was staring at her computer. She was probably having a “cursor relationship” back then as well.

“No! that’s not the way to do it!” screamed a fashion show director as he waved his hand asking the sound booth to stop the music.

I was watching a fashion show rehearsal and I was enjoying the director more than the models on the runway. I jokingly told my friend, “Look at his job, he just keeps telling everyone what to do and what not to do.” My officemate looked at me, “What are you talking about, that’s also what you do!”

I was a creative director then, and managed about 12 creatives composed of art director, copy writers, and web designers. I would read scripts, social media content plan, approve and revise story boards, posters, web designs and all the copy and images to be used for the platform. I would spend hours reading, browsing, and looking at everything that is wrong on our materials then send feedback to the creatives on what to add, what to remove and how to proceed. I realize that I spent most of my working life looking at things and finding what’s wrong with a material, editing and adding stuff.

I was also a photo editor for how many years and I would photoshop at least 300-500 photos for how many weeks to the point that when I walk out of the office, I would even edit the pavements and the faces of people in my head. I was so used to looking at things and finding out what’s wrong with them that even at home I’d comment on what’s on the dinner table, how the meal should have been done, this, this, this, and that. “Oh, I think this one needs a little bit more chili...” “Ate! Stop it!” my brother would scream.

“It must be difficult to have a relationship with you,” my coworker said laughing after an internal meeting where I spent the entire hour looking at the presentation deck and finding everything that’s wrong with it so

that we can improve on it. Oh, I have a string of exes who can attest to that. Even my mom gets mad at me while watching a movie, while she’s sniffing and teary eyed over the Tagalog film, I’d be like, “Bakit ganun yung lighting…” “Oh ayun na naman, sagwa naman ng script.”

“Anak, lumabas ka nga muna ng sinehan,” she’d say lovingly.

I guess by now I should learn how to separate the ‘tor’ in my daily life. ‘Tor’ as in editor, director. I didn’t realize I was

being too critical in anything that I forget to look into what needs to be edited in “being me.” I don’t want to get started on the list. I was thinking maybe I should change designation to “wrongologist” and then I Googled it and found out that it was already taken up

by Kathryn Schulz, a journalist and author of the book “Being Wrong: Adventures in the Margin of Error.” I have yet to read the book so I can’t say much about it but I love some of the excerpts I read.

“Truth is uniform and narrow; it constantly exists, and does not seem to require so much an active energy, as a passive aptitude of the soul in order to encounter it.

But error is endlessly diversified; it has no reality, but is the pure and simple creation of the mind that invents it.” Hmmm, interesting.

Now I want to get a copy.

Okay wait, word check, 669 words and counting. I won’t have to marry my blinking cursor after all. Now you may start to edit me.

S U N D AY : A U G U S T 2 3 : 2 0 1 5

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LIFE life @ thestandard.com .ph

“The Engineer” – internationally renowned music artist Leo Tavarro Valdez reminds the celebrants (Mayenne Carmona, this columnist, and Hera Geriene) to always see beauty in the world around us through a serenade in the tune of Louis Armstrong’s “What a Wonderful World.”

@LIFEatStandard

“Beautypreneur” Nikki Tang with stylish ladies Linda Ley and Chris Badiola.

A league of extraordinary women: Tess Schoefer, Len Olbes, Mayenne Carmona, Jemellie Gonzales and Dra. Cecile Infantado.

Mayenne Carmona flanked by (from left) Jan Pudil from Prague, Dr. Samuel Bernal and Bergamo’s Mel Meer.

Stunning in red Cavalli is Sulo Hotel Riviera’s executive director Tina Cuevas flanked by Ryan Jago, Mayenne Carmona, Len Olbes and Cris Albert.

THREE’S A CHARM #INTHEMOMENT

BY FRANCIS DE LEON

“Two is company, three’s a crowd.”

So goes the colloquial expression, but I would like to believe that three’s (definitely) a charm, most especially when you co-celebrate with the people close to your heart.

After weeks of feeling the “blues” (I was told by a reliable source who’s an expert in the field of Psychiatry that it’s simply called, say it with me – “mid-life crisis”), I gathered myself and looked at the brighter side of things as I always do. I reckoned, I have finally turned a year older (cut yourself some slack, FDL!) and it’s a reason to celebrate!

I am truly grateful to our divine creator for allowing me to channel my energy to moments that give significant meaning in my life.

Most notably, I am fortunate to be blessed with an extended family in the circle of consummate hosts (with the most) Ito Curata and Robert Miller who opened their splendid manor at the tony side of Southern Manila for an intimate gathering of friends in honor of celebrants Mayenne Carmona, Hera Geriene, and yours truly.

Bob Miller and Ito Curata, along with common friends Linda Ley, Rachel de Guzman and Suzette Hahn-Lopez hosted a dinner feast at Villa Curata and invited nearly 50 friends who all enjoyed (perhaps, an understatement) the birthday bash.

Indeed, Bob and Ito have mastered the art of hosting. A simple gathering becomes extraordinary with the Midas touch (and keen eye for details) of Haute Couturier Ito Curata. He featured a luscious appetizer and caviar section and a buffet table adorned with fresh flowers and mise en place of exquisite tableware.

The potluck buffet included various heirloom dishes from their gourmet kitchen and a hefty spread of comfort

Businessman David Lim with Angola Consul Helen Ong.

Style savant Mel Meer of Bergamo with handsome emcee Robert Miller.

Stylish Sheila Romero and Linda Ley. Ayala Alabang’s finest couple, ace lawyer Rene Puno with his backbone, lovely wife Ann Puno.

Celebrant Hera Geriene with former model and businesswoman Tess Schoefer and Len Olbes.

A moment of fun and laughter with businesswoman Marian Ong-Nuguid, internationallyrenowned singer Leo Tavarro Valdez and Czarina Ong-Camus.

food and decadent desserts that fueled our (Oh, what’s a celebration sans the bubbly that kept us smiling and hydrated? Of course, it was overflowing!) bodies and souls, ready for the dancing right after.

Guess who had the “staying power” throughout the night? No less than publicist and respected writer (and dance diva par excellence) Mayenne Carmona! My birthday wish was to acquire her unwavering energy and panache.

THE TIES THAT BIND

As the proverbial saying goes, “Ask and it will be given to you, seek and you will find; knock and it will be opened to you.” True enough, God sent me angels in human form.

The ties that bind. ASK family and party collaborators Ito Curata, Rachel de Guzman, Villa Medica’s Suzette HahnLopez, Linda Ley, Robert Miller with Taj Curata and the trio of celebrants.

Handsome couple Jemellie Gonzales and Alex Salvador.

“As we grow older, hopefully in wisdom and in grace, we become more mindful of our environment and the people around us,” expressed Mayenne, one of the founding members and leaders of the ASK (Angels to Street Kids) alliance that started with a group of five civic conscious ladies.

“I am in my finest moment when we are feeding the poor children and the senior citizens. This opens my heart to constantly share my blessings with the marginalized.

Love is sharing!” she added.

She told this columnist that the first feeding in 2011 became a weekly practice. To this day, they still continue to feed the marginalized in many areas around Metro Manila. And

You have my vote! Taj Curata with his proud father, Ito Curata.

Consul Helen Ong of Angola, international socialite and hotelier Tina Cuevas, and smiles

by Dra. Cecile Infantado during the birthday bash.

their group of five has multiplied to 25, with yours truly as one of them (and the faces you see in this column).

“I am in the moment every time I organize a feeding for our group.

When we are in the slums feeding the poorest of the poor, the joy that I see in the eyes of these marginalized children cannot be translated into words. It is truly an aha! moment for me,” she quipped with a heartfelt smile.

For Hera Geriene, “I am in the moment when the people I love are authentically sharing their life with me.”

Truly, I am so fortunate to be surrounded with people that I aspire to emulate. More so, blessed as they have added profound meaning in my life through their good example.

A bonding moment with Dra. Cecile Infantado, Victoria Turegun, Mayenne Carmona and Hera Geriene.

And that (in my humble opinion) keeps the “blues” away most especially when they all support your celebration of life! In our case, it was a triple treat of moments to cherish and one fine evening to remember with our ASK family and friends.

Lastly, I have a brainteaser: We recently celebrated a trio of birthdays, so what do you think is our total age combined?

Definitely, that (with a big grin on my face) will be hard to tell as we have discovered the secret to youth eternal.

To moments, filled with fun, laughter, and sharing. Cheers!

Follow me on Twitter or Instagram @francis_deleon8.

SUNDAY : AUGUST 2 3 : 2015

SHOWBITZ

ISAH V. RED EDITOR

isahred @ gmail.com

PUSH Awards set of Digital Media Awards nominees

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PUSH Awards logo

ABS-CBN LAuNCheS PuSh AwArdS

T

he entertainment website PUSH.com.ph is launching its very own PUSH Awards, the first-of-itskind award-giving body in Philippine digital media that will honor the best among the past year’s certified online hits and entertainment newsmakers based on their online reach and influence, popular votes, and excellence.

Fans and netizens can start voting for their favorites on Sept. 14 on PUSHAwards.com for all the categories under the PUSH Digital Media and Awesome Awards.

Categories include PUSHLike Most Liked Male Celebrity, Most Liked Female Celebrity, Most Liked Group or Tandem, Most Liked Music Artist, and Most Liked Newcomer, as well as PUSHTweet Favorite Male Celebrity, Favorite Female Celebrity, Favorite Group or Tandem, Favorite Music Artist, and Favorite

Newcomer based on Facebook and Twitter popularity.

Celebrities who connect with their fans via photos and videos on Instagram will also be honored in the PUSHGram Most Loved Male Celebrity, Most Loved Female Celebrity, Most Loved Group or Tandem, Most Loved Music Artist, and Most Loved Newcomer categories.

The best and most well-loved internet video celebrities on You Tube, meanwhile, will be recognized with the PUSHPlay Best Male Celebrity, Best Female Celebrity, Best Group or Tandem, Best Music Artist, and Best Newcomer awards.

The nominees with the highest number of public votes in each category will be declared the winners, who will be announced and awarded with a special trophy in a celebrity party event late this year.

Among this already prestigious

Matt Damon

group of digital media award winners, PUSH.com.ph, with the help of a distinguished panel of judges, will determine who will claim the Top PUSH Elite Awards of the year, namely the PUSH Male Celebrity of the Year, PUSH Female Celebrity of the Year, PUSH Group of Tandem of the Year, PUSH Music Artist of the Year, and PUSH Newcomer of the Year.

Aside from the Digital Media and Elite Awards, PUSH will also honor the most talked about and wellloved celebrities with the following awards: Awesome Celebrity Baby, Awesome Celebrity Family, Awesome Selfie King, Awesome Selfie Queen, Awesome OOTD King, Awesome OOTD Queen, Awesome Lip Sync Performance, Awesome LOL Performance, Awesome Dance Performance, and Awesome Song Cover Performance.

Recognizing the power of fans in digital media, PUSH Awards

ABS-CBN Digital Media Division's Donald Lim, Richard Reynante, and Domi Espejo

will also give out the Ultimate Fan Award, a recognition to be given to a fandom that will publish the most number of posts on Twitter with special hashtags assigned to each of them.

To see the initial set of nominees in the PUSH Awards 2015, visit PUSHAwards.com. Get your daily dose of entertainment news, information, and trivia by logging in to PUSH.com.ph.

Damon in Mars

Living on a pLanet where nothing grows

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eft alone to survive, Matt Damon takes on the titular moniker in the latest space adventure set in the 2030s The Martian where his character Mark Watney got stranded on Mars when accidentally left by his team in their haste to abort the mission.

Based on the bestselling novel

self-published by Andy Weir, the trailer further reveals the overwhelming odds Damon’s character Watney faces in order to survive... and after being presumed dead.

The trailer’s recent reveal held at Pasadena at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory was attended by Matt Damon and director Ridley Scott

together with the book’s author Andy Weir, astronaut Drew Feustel and NASA’s Planetary Science Division Director Dr. Jim Green.

In the reveal, NASA shared that the technology, the tools that helped the character survived in the 2030s are already being developed as it appears on

the film. “‘We’re kind of on the cusp of being able to do everything that happens in the movie,” Matt Damon said, speaking of space exploration during the trailer reveal. “With the right funding and the right attention, these are the kinds of things that we will be exploring in the very

near future and this is going to be a part of our kids’ lives.”

The Martian will open Sept.

30 in cinemas nationwide from 20th Century Fox to be distributed by Warner Bros.

Check out the film’s trailer here: https://w w w.youtub e.com/ watch?v=Gsk2cYhef2c

SUNDAY : AUGUST 2 3 : 2015

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SHOWBITZ isahred @ gmail.com

CinE EUROPA nOW On itS 18th yEAR

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roundbreaking and heartwarming films take center stage in this year’s Cine Europa 18 at Shang Cineplex Shangri-La Plaza from Sept.

10 to 20. The festival, which highlights the best of European cinema, features a compelling mix of coming-of-age flicks and timeless love tales that will bring audiences to an exploration of the human spirit and emotions that is truly unforgettable.

Romance blooms amidst the magic of dance in Rise Up! And Dance (Austria) which tells the story of farmer Markus and student Romi and their shared passion for ballet and break dance. In Faith, Love, and Whiskey (Bulgaria), Neli, a newly engaged woman in America, panics and goes back to Bulgaria where she rediscovers her wild past together with her drifter friends. In the process, she falls in love with her alcoholic best friend but must make a choice when her fiancé arrives unexpectedly.

A tumultuous love affair comes at the fore of The Legend of Paul and Paula (Germany), which chronicles the dramatic story of two lovers who go through divorces, sorrows, and betrayals before finally ending up together. Meanwhile, a dash of romance and comedy awaits with Suck Me Shakespeer (Germany), about an ex-con who passes himself as a substitute teacher in the school that sits atop the stolen cash that his girlfriend buried for him.

While secretly digging for his loot, the teacher Zeki brings the unruly kids of a class back on track with his drastic yet effective methods that gain the attention of his prim and proper fellow teacher, Lisi.

In Totally True Love (Norway), nine-year-old Anne must fight for the affections of Jorgen, the new boy in her class, against the prettiest girl in school, Ellen. In Little Baby Jesus (Czech Republic), charming 60-something Jose returns to Prague after living in Mexico for 30 years to ask for a miracle from the famous Infant Jesus so he and his deeply religious wife Dolores’ daughter Penelope can bear a child.

Fourteen-year-old Diane’s life is turned upside down when she meets the adventurous and liberated Julia in Puppy Love (Belgium). While she grows up and gains some of the most thrilling experiences of her life, Diane’s friendship with Julia causes her to forget her morals and the limits of her own desires. In Gilles (Belgium), 12-year-old Gilles’ ultimate dream is to run onto the pitch of the King Baudouin Stadium wearing the uniform of his favorite football team the Red Devils. But when his personal coach and most loyal supporter – his father Papa Bert – dies, he faces a difficult search to regain a place in his new life.

Ovosodo (Italy) tackles finding one’s place in life as it follows Piero, a shy boy from a working-class neighborhood from childhood to adulthood.

An exploration of a boy and his grandfather’s relationship drives the story of 15 Years and One Day (Spain), where troublesome teenager Jon is sent by his mom to his grandfather, a retired solider who can straighten him out. In Ginger and Cinnamon (Italy), aunt and niece Stefania and Meggy learn about love and family as they go on holiday in a Greek resort where they stumble upon an unexpected person. The

CROSSWORD PUZZLE 76 79 80 84 85 86 87 88 91 92 93 95 96 97 98

ANSWER FOR PREVIOUS PUZZLE ACROSS 1 More ticked off 6 Flora and fauna 11 One-named model 15 Michael Caine role 20 Baked-potato topper 21 Empire builders 22 Explorer Sebastian — 24 Glittering adornment 25 Fray 26 Sidekicks 27 Kind of power 28 Fateful card 29 Wrestling venues 31 Queen of the Misty Isles 33 Jostle 34 Papas or Cara 35 Detail 37 Stem-to-stern timber 39 Dentist’s drill 41 Job application info

42 43 44 46 50 51 52 53 57 59 60 61 62 63 64 65 66 67 68 69 72 73 74 75

Postpone Browser bookmarks Prevailed upon Vishnu incarnation Go-ahead Quark’s home Fiery gem Tight spots Mournful poems San — Capistrano Too exacting Finish third Coaches Escorted by Washes down — — carte Pablo’s girl Stoic founder “Luck of the Draw” singer Warren who played Clyde Quaint lodging Keg Hits the hammock Motel plus

99 101 102 103 104 105 106 107 108 109 111 112 114 117 118 119 124 126 128 130 131 132 134 136 137 138 139 140 141

Bone connector Strads Gusting Gin-fizz flavor Supports Map a course — Paulo Fixes up Porkers’ plaints — Marian Four-footed pal Lyric poem Altiplano locale Say “yeth” Hogan dweller (var.)

Volcano goddess Plant parasites Toad feature Dugong cousin Tackles’ neighbors Important decades Ceremony Casino action Dweeb Cheddar type Knights of — Worker’s incentive Ques. opposite One, in combos Speck of dust Like sci-fi Went by boat Common amphibian Lord Vader Conceal a message Uses the phone “Peanuts” kid Barred to outsiders Crated up Lawn care brand — nous Atlanta campus Licorice flavor Tree secretion

Corpse Must Die (Slovakia) gives a peek into the different ways of love with the story of Kristof and Nada, husband and wife teachers whose actions towards a nymphomaniac student and a cheeky stranger begin a series of crazy events.

More charming stories are in store for moviegoers with La Belle Vie (France). After years on the run brothers Sylvain and Pierre are road-weary and want to take advantage of the perks of young adulthood.

But when the authorities discover their whereabouts, they are forced to move again, ending in Pierre’s disappearance. Sylvain meets his father on an island in the Loire River, where he finds the first stop on his way to “the good life” – his own. It’s also time to meet a new superhero in the person of Antboy (Denmark), who is actually 12-year-old Pelle who gets bitten by an ant and develops superpowers.

Another boy pursues his passion for music in Finn (The Netherlands).

Here, nine-year-old Finn struggles to make music despite his father’s wishes for him to play football instead. An encounter with an old man who plays the violin so beautifully inspires him to go for what he wants.

When a wedding ceremony gets interrupted in the wake of Joseph Stalin’s death, a fine mime production ensues. Watch as it culminates into a raucous celebration with the twists and turns of comedy of Silent Wedding (Romania). In Keep Rollin’ (Switzerland), daredevil turned paraplegic Valentin enrolls in an experimental theatre workshop and discovers the unique qualities of his mentally disabled yet talented co-members.

Intertwining stories is also a com-

Cine Europa 18 logo

mon theme this year beginning with Naked Harbour (Finland), which tells the story of eight different people who are all seeking love and approval at any cost. Multi-plot drama Stockholm Stories (Sweden) is a contemporary and humorous take on the lives of five people whose paths intersect during a few rainy days in November.

Pride (United Kingdom) is about the unlikely yet triumphant partnership of the National Union of Mineworkers and gay and lesbian activists.

Dramatic features round up the list with the likes of Miasto 44 (Poland), which tells the story of loves and friendships formed during the 1944 Warsaw Uprising; IDA (Poland), about young nun’s discovery

of a dark family secret that dates back to the Nazi occupation; and Live (Romania), which narrates successful TV anchor Ema’s struggles in the middle of a big scandal.

Audiences looking for fascinating stories that thrill, excite, and move have more than enough choices with the myriad of films in this year’s Cine Europa 18. So be sure to catch it only at the home of the country’s premier international film festivals, the Shang.

For inquiries, contact 370-2500 local 597 or log on to www.shangrila-plaza.com. Visit the Shang’s Facebook page at www.facebook. com/shangrilaplazaofficialfanpage.

Follow Shang on Instagram: @shangrilaplazaofficial.

SUNDAY, AUGUST 23, 2015

142 Japanese clog 143 Feel 144 Fender mishaps DOWN 1 Fragment 2 Maureen of film 3 Sell down the — 4 Big occasion 5 Did over, as tiles 6 Razor brand 7 Took a breath 8 Microscope lens 9 Less feral 10 Type of prof 11 Freud, to himself 12 Ifs 13 Kareem — -Jabbar 14 Benchmark 15 Outfit 16 Fibber, plus 17 Taxi riders 18 Presses a suit 19 Gobbled up 23 VIPs (2 wds.)

30 Behind the — 32 Ohio city 36 Foreign visitors?

38 Horror-film street 40 Like gargoyles 43 Bryce Canyon state 44 Surprise win 45 LP spinners 46 List price 47 Grads 48 Doling out 49 Beside oneself 51 Commuter vehicle 52 Sends packing 54 At the drop of — — 55 Drop feathers 56 Go to and fro 58 Rollover subj.

59 Quick turn 60 Fencers’ weapons 63 It once was wild 64 Corridors 67 Grey of Westerns

68 69 70 71 73 74 75 77 78 79 80 81 82

Castles, in chess Attack of the flu Sister of Helios Elev.

Corp. biggies Dampens a stamp Trudge along Cool — — cucumber Diamond org.

Barn toppers Object on radar Villa Just as soon

83 85 86 88 89 90 91 92 93 94 96 97 98 100

Vacillated Waits Gone by Heavy gold chain Blissful spot Embraced Pub sign (2 wds.)

Deep mud Topeka loc.

John, in Siberia BB gun (2 wds.)

Like many a train Kind of trail Slalom run

101 102 103 106 107 110 111 112 113 114 115 116

Vicious On edge What’s cooking Decompose Pesters Large Canadian bay Dairy product Sewing kit item “Arabian Nights” hero Fire of the mind Bete — Flattens a fly

118 119 120 121 122 123 125 127 129 133 135

— Carlo Physique Tea biscuit Venom That is (2 wds.)

Surrenders territory Post-kindergarten Chime Birthday counts Captain’s milieu Do batik

SUNDAY : AUGUST 2 3 : 2015

SHOWBITZ isahred @ gmail.com

In Sarap Diva, Senator Chiz Escudero who was a guest with wife Heart showed host Regine Velasquez-Alcasid the way to cook paella

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The photo Heart Evangelista posted on her Instagram account while cooking poltroon taught to her by her mom Cecile

heArt evAngelistA hopes to cook for chiz escudero

A

s a wife, Heart Evangelista is mulling the idea of going to a culinary school and learn how to cook so she can prepare Senator Chiz Escudero’s favorite dishes.

She also says that if she knew how to then she could also cood Chiz’s kids their own favorite dishes.

Heart says that she wants to break away from the usual menu of pasta carbonara, bread or steak that she prepares every time the family is in the house.

She regrets that when she was younger she did not have the urge to learn cooking despite that the family owns a chain of a popular restaurant.

It’s not too late yet to learn the ways of a wife and mother, so she is learning to cook now and digging into her mom’s secret recipes. She even posted on her Instagram account a photo when she is making polvoron with the help of her mom.

“Chiz can cook more than I can, especially paella Chiz’s twins’ favorite,” says Heart.

Apart from Paella, when he has the time, Chiz cooks adobo, tinola, and sinigang.

Heart says proudly that her husband owns an oven that uses charcoal as fuel when he bakes pizza and pan de sal for his kids.

Both home buddies, food is the

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thing that bonds them together when watching old Filipino movies.

HHHHH

iBiliB todAy Today, join Chris Tiu, James & Roadfill of Moymoy Palaboy and Kapuso sweetheart Gabbi Garcia in the happy word of sience.

Watch out for the high-tech mega-experiment called “Growing Tower” from Discover Science where we will know how the tower made of steel becomes taller when the sun is shining.

In Plantsa-rap Experiment, expect something yummy from Chris and his iBilib gang.

Can the tools uses to repair a car be used as musical instruments? Find out in Wrench Xylophone Experiment.

James and Roadfill try the Hybrid Road Train to find out the trivia about this experiment of the Department of Science and Technology.

And, of course, we should not miss Chris Tiu’s Animal Illusion.

The iBilib barkada -- James, Gabbi Garcia, Chris Tiu and Roadfill

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BABe, snAkes on A plAne And rush hour End the weekend right with GMA Network’s line-up of movies today.

Kapuso Movie Festival opens Sunday with the award-winning film Babe, which is about a talented pig struggling to save herself

The Hybrid Road Train which James and Roadfill took to learn what it is all about

from being butchered. The story begins when a humble farmer named Arthur Hogget (James Cromwell) wins Babe as a prize at a country fair and takes her home to make her their Christ-

mas meal. However, Arthur eventually decides to showcase the pig at the next fair where Babe meets Fly, a herding dog. Fly finds out that Babe can also herd sheep and takes her home. What could be

Babe’s final fate? Follow her adventures on Kapuso Movie Festival before Sunday PinaSaya.

Meanwhile, GMA Blockbusters offers a thrilling treat this Sunday afternoon. In the film Snakes on a Plane, secret agent Nelville Flynn (Samuel L. Jackson) is on a mission to protect a witness as he flies from Hawaii to Los Angeles. While on board, an assassin frees a heap of deadly snakes in an attempt to murder the witness.

How will Flynn protect the witness as well as the passengers on the plane? Find out this Sunday afternoon after Wowowin.

Finally, Sunday Night Box Office (SNBO) closes the weekend with comedy and action via the film Rush Hour starring Jackie Chan and Chris Tucker. Watch the partnership between Hong Kong detective inspector Lee (Jackie Chan) and Los Angeles Police Department detective James Carter (Chris Tucker) as they try to rescue the daughter of a Chinese diplomat. With their clashing personalities, they struggle to establish their teamwork and solve the case that puts a very important person’s life at stake.

Will they be able to accomplish the mission despite their lack of teamwork? Join the fun on SNBO after To The Top on GMA-7.

WelCome to afamsterdam

A

famsterdam – it’s a world most Filipinos see every day, interact with, and sometimes, if lady luck would have it, marry into one. Commonly known as afam or a foreigner assigned in Manila, these are the usually Caucasian or Middle Eastern men who work or are visiting the country for a long period.

The world of afamsterdam takes a humorous twist in Kano Luvs Pinay, the latest offering of TV5 with Tuesday Vargas as Cookie and American actor Lee O’Brien as Matthew. The romantic comedy and situational com-

edy show mixes Filipino humor, kilig, and family values while taking a look at the intricacies of interracial and intercultural relationships between a Filipina and her American fiancé.

But it’s not as simple as a Filipina loving an American show. Cookie sired a child, Jon Jon, during her younger years, played by Chok Chok Venida. And there’s the can’t-live-with-Americans guy, played by Martin Escudero, who happens to be Cookie’s brother.

Also starring in Kano Luvs Pinay are Boboy Garovillo and Ces Quesada as the overbearing parents of Cookie. Wilma

Doesnt is Osang, the ever-afam-supportive best friend of Cookie, and theater actress Kiki Baento is Girlie, the other best friend who has a strictly no afams policy with regards her love life.

Watch the lives of Cookie and Lee unravel as they prove to the world that love conquers all and that it is the universal language that knows no grammar, pronunciation, and form. Discover the various spontaneous reactions of the Filipino family and community to the presence of Matthew in their lives. Or how Matthew tries to cope and understand the culture he has thrust himself into.

The cast of Kano Luvs Pinay

Find out if despite all the hurdles and conflict that their cultural differences may bring about, will love for Cookie and Matthew still win in the end? Will there

be a happy ending? Will Cookie become an official Mrs. Afamsterdam?

Kano Luvs Pinay airs every Saturday evening on TV5.

SUNDAY : AUGUST 2 3 : 2015

C8

ISAH V. RED EDITOR isahred @ gmail.com

SHOWBITZ

The iconic image of Juan Tamad under a guava tree

GMA re-introduCes

Juan Tamad

Sef Cadayona gets star billing in GMA7s new comedy series Juan Tamad; Sef says the series is a funny take on the Juan Tamad character

to tV AudienCe ISAH V. RED

The young generation is clueless who Juan Tamad is. But the Kapuso network is hell bent in re-introducing the folklore character that personifies laziness to a new generation mad about gadgets and other electronically powered things that have made life easier than when Filipinos were calling indolent kids a bunch of Juan Tamads.

GMA News and Public Affairs is producing a series that premieres today as GMA7’s pre-primetime Sunday program. It features Sef Cadayona in his first lead role project.

The show illustrates how Juan has become to be known as Juan Tamad. It also incorporates his daily adventures and his lack of motivation to accomplish the simplest of tasks given him.

The iconic image of Juan lying on his back under a guava tree waiting for a fruit to fall into his mouth is still used, but according to actor-director Soxy Topacio who is directing the comedy show, it is a visual representation of the adage that says “things fall into place at the right

time (sa tamang panahon).”

That’s the new perspective of the series in re-introducing the lazy boy—from Juan’s antics in order to get away from household duties, home works, and later on, his work responsibilities – hence shedding light on the reason why Juan is a slacker—or is he really?

To give the audience an idea, Sef describes his role, “Kasi syempre si Juan Tamad, term lang talaga ‘yung tamad eh, pero meron siyang malaking puso. ‘Yun ‘yung gusto niyang ipakita—family values, comedy, love interest, at saka helping the community.”

Yes, Juan has a love interest who happens to be his exact opposite. She is Marie Guiguinto AKA Mariang Masipag played by Max Collins—a bright, diligent, and gorgeous lass who is Juan’s neighbor and ultimate crush. The extent Juan is willing to go to win the heart of Marie will make the series interesting to watch.

Juan goes beyond everyone’s expectations and finds himself unexpectedly in the middle of big, breaking news stories like emerging as a YouTube sensation, popularizing a gaming app, exposing a pyramiding scam, becoming a key witness in a Senate investigation and even meeting the Pope.

On top of the series’ romantic comedy angle is an amusing conflict courtesy of Juan and Marie’s quarrelling families. The ensemble of Juan Tamad also stars Roi Vinzon and Marissa Sanchez as Juan’s parents and Melanie Marquez and Gene Padilla as Marie’s. They constantly fight over a guava tree that stands between their properties.

More than the laugh trip it offers, Juan Tamad aims to impart an important message to the viewers especially to the younger generation.

“I think our main goal is to inform people of what’s happening and to just take it lightly. Siyempre ang lalaki naman talaga ng problema dito sa Pilipinas, pero ang kailangan natin is hindi maging negative. Kasi si Juan Tamad, tamad nga pero lagi siyang on a positive note. So ‘yun ‘yung I guess na kailangang lagi naming ipakita— na there’s always brighter things ahead, there’s a rainbow,” says Sef. “Gusto rin naming ipakita sa mga bata ngayon na tamad man si Juan Tamad, hindi niya nakakalimutan na importante sa kanya ang education,” he stresses.

Juan Tamad airs every Sunday at 4:45 p.m. beginning today only on GMA-7. ➜ Continued on C7

Max Collins is Mariang Masipag to Sef Cadayona's Juan Tamad