The Standard - 2015 November 17 - Tuesday

VOL. XXIX NO. 278 3 Sections 32 Pages P18 TUESday : NOVEMBER 17, 2015 www.thestandard.com.ph editorial@thestandard.com.ph

Poe ‘sad, worried’ ahead of DQ ruling

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AT APEC, AQUINO BLAMES ARROYO

By Sandy araneta

SPEAKING to world business leaders at the Apec CEO Summit Monday, President Benigno Aquino III again blamed detained former President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo for the poverty that prevails in the Philippines, referring to her term as the “lost decade.”

“When one thinks about it, it is quite sad.

If 10 years ago my predecessor had done what we’re doing now, I can only imagine where the Philippines would be,” Aquino told delegates at the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation CEO Summit.

In his speech, Aquino pointed to his administration’s efforts to fight corruption, including the hospital arrest of Mrs. Arroyo and three opposition senators on plunder charges and the ouster by impeachment of former Chief Justice Renato Corona.

“We plugged leaks throughout the bu-

reaucracy, and we did not shy away from confronting the most complex and crippling problem of our nation, namely, corruption,” Aquino said.

“Over the last five years, we cracked down on all those proven to have engaged in wrongdoing. Now, a former President is under hospital arrest after being charged with plunder. The former chief justice who had no compunctions about being selective about implementing the law was removed through impeachment, after it was revealed that he violated our laws by failing to declare

over 98 percent of his assets as mandated by our Constitution.”

Aquino also played up the 1986 People Power revolt that toppled the regime of President Ferdinand Marcos and installed his mother, Corazon Aquino, in his place.

“In 1986, millions of our people gathered in Edsa—our capital city’s most prominent avenue—and other cities throughout the nation to overthrow a dictator, who had for too long subjected our country to his tyranny and oppression. People armed only with Next page

Bedlam. The traffic was bumper to bumper on Edsa on Tuesday due to the closure of two lanes for the use of Apec VIPs. Inset, President Benigno Aquino III delivers a speech at Makati ShangriLa Hotel during a State Luncheon for the Apec delegates. Lino SantoS and MaLacañang Photo Bureau

Farmers seek justice for Luisita massacre

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‘Homeless illegally detained for summit’

By John Paolo Bencito and Joel e. Zurbano AN INtERNAtIONAl human rights watchdog slammed the government Monday for trying to purge Manila’s streets of the homeless and holding them against their will ahead of the country’s hosting of the Asia-Pacific Economic Co-

operation summit this week.

“Philippine authorities have violated the rights of hundreds of Manila residents to put a cynical veneer of ‘cleanliness’ on the city for Apec delegates,” said Phelim Kine, deputy Asia director of Human Rights Watch.

“The removal and detention of homeless and impoverished residents

from where they live and work without due process is a violation of their basic human rights.”

As part of the Apec preparations Monday, the government closed the entire stretch of Roxas Boulevard, forcing workers and students to walk from Coastal Road in Parañaque all the way to lawton in Manila.

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Farmers still seeking justice from Aquino

By Christine F. Herrera

ELEVEN years after the Hacienda Luisita massacre, the militant Kilusang Magbubukid ng Pilipinas demanded justice for the seven farmers killed when government forces dispersed their protest at the plantation owned

by President Benigno Aquino III’s family on Nov. 16, 2004.

“Hacienda Luisita farmers are still fighting for justice for the massacre victims,” said KMP chairman Rafael Mariano during a protest at the Ninoy Aquino Memorial Shrine in Quezon City to mark the 11th anniversary of the violent dispersal.

After more than a decade, Mariano said, nobody has been arrested for the killing of Jaime Pastidio, Jesus Laza, Jhaivie Basilio, Juancho Sanchez, Jessie Valdez, Jun David, and Adrian Caballero who died after government forces opened fire on striking farmworkers in Tarlac.

At least 50 peasant leaders from India, Indonesia, Bangladesh, Taiwan, Malaysia, the United States, Australia, and the Philippines, joined the picket to show their solidarity and support for their struggle against the family of President Aquino.

The leaders are here for the Peasant Anti-Imperialist Solidarity convened by the Asian Peasant Coalition, the International Fisherfolk and Fishworkers Coalition, and the KMP. “We are here in the Philippines to express solidarity with Filipino farmers and fortify the collective struggle of Asian peasants against globalization and its policies affecting farmers,” said Rahmat Ajiguns, leader of AGRA Indonesia and secretary-general of the APC. “While the Aquino government is busy with its superficial image-building and overkill preparations for Apec this week, human rights violations intensify across the country,” Mariano said, referring to the AsiaPacific Economic Cooperation summit this week.

He said the international community is now fully aware of Aquino’s record of human rights violations and the state of injustice endured by Filipinos.

At Apec...

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rosaries, good intentions, and belief in their countrymen stood up to tanks, artillery, and planes. This was the miracle of Edsa, which made possible that which was impossible, and returned democracy through People Power. After 14 years of Martial Law, our people were successful in lifting my mother into the presidency to lead the rebuilding of our nation,” said Aquino.

Aquino also recalled the words of his father while their family was in exile during the Martial Law years.

“I will never forget one particular instance, when my family was in exile in Boston, and I asked my father: ‘If we are in the right, why are we the ones in exile?’ He responded with a question of his own: ‘How can those who cannot even eat, think of concepts such as freedom and dignity?

The first freedom is the freedom from hunger.’ That is the first that has to be won,” said Aquino.

Aquino told the business leaders he shared his father’s words because the focus of the meetings in days to come—Apec’s Inclusive Growth Imperative—was “deeply personal” to him.

“We will have important conversations about how we can free our people from the oppression of poverty, and how to empower them to take part in sustainable economic growth.

Today, perhaps I can tell you about

“Aquino carries out his economic policies through brutal force and those who question, oppose and get in the way are either killed or persecuted. To date, almost 300 farmers were killed under Aquino’s reign of terror,” Mariano said.

Mariano said the Hacienda Luisita massacre may be a distant memory for President Aquino and the Cojuangco and Aquino families, but Filipinos will never forget it.

“The farmers struggle in Hacienda Luisita will remain a thorn in the throat of Aquino until his last day in Malacañang and beyond,” he said.

“Up until today, Hacienda Luisita remains in the control and stranglehold of Aquino’s relatives, the Cojuangco-Aquinos and no lands were distributed to farmer-beneficiaries despite the decision of the Supreme Court in 2012. In fact, the Aquino administration, through the Department of Agrarian Reform, local courts and agencies have prevented the actual distribution of lands in Hacienda Luisita,” he said.

“The Cojuangcos implemented scheme after scheme of maneuvers to undermine the farmers’ struggle and to prevent actual land distribution,” Mariano said.

Hacienda Luisita, Mariano said, has become a symbol of Filipino farmers’ “struggle against a despotic landlord and the grave injustices that befell on the peasantry under Aquino’s presidency.”

In a manifesto, the KMP noted that “the landlordPresident and the entire Cojuangco-Aquino clan utilized all state machineries and used various legal and political maneuvers to continuously deprive farmers and further strengthen landlord control over the lands.”

The KMP also assailed what it described as “connivance” between the DAR and the Cojuangcos on various issues, including the list of farmer-beneficiaries and the reduction in the size of land marked for distribution under the Agrarian Reform Program.

“On top of these maneuvers, militarization, violence and abuse of rights of the farmworkers further intensified in Hacienda Luisita. The Northern Luzon Command of the Armed Forces of the Philippines is positioned at the very gates of the Hacienda and stationed within are different units of the military, police and paramilitary including the 3rd Mechanized Infantry Battalion of the AFP, the Tarlac Provincial Police, private security guards, and the Cojuangcos’ ‘Yellow Army’ who are wreaking havoc and perpetuating fear and violence against the people of the hacienda,” it said.

the Philippine story: what we have done to achieve large-scale transformation,” he said.

Aquino recalled in a meeting with his Cabinet in which they discussed why the poverty rate hardly moved over the last 10 years—or what he sometimes refers to as the “lost decade.”

He said the numbers were alarming. Income growth was low, and inequality was at incredibly high levels, in terms of access to employment and social development opportunities, particularly in health, education, and social protection. All this, despite relatively consistent economic growth.

“We resolved that this sort of trickle down economics was not the way forward, and that the only real growth is that which is felt by the many. Thus, inclusive growth became the north star of our national policy—growth that truly helps each and every Filipino lift themselves up from poverty, and play a meaningful role in continuing our country’s growth story,” he said.

The President’s claims about reducing poverty come amid a recent survey by the Social Weather Stations that the incidence of hunger had worsened to 15.7 percent of the population, with 3.5 million families experiencing hunger at least once in the last three months.

To make the most of scarce resources, the government turned to “bottom-up budgeting,” Aquino said.

“We reached out to communities,

believing that they, more than anyone else, know their own needs. We took advantage of technology to implement mechanisms to aid in transparency and accountability, through websites.... These gave our citizens greater power to monitor our budget, and also to report individuals suspected of wrongdoing,” he said.

Aquino said his administration had also increased the budget for infrastructure, from 1.83 percent of gross domestic product in 2010 to 4.1 percent of GDP this year, with a target of 5 percent by 2016.

“Indeed, our entire growth strategy hinges on the idea of empowerment. Empowered citizens, after all, are empowered consumers, whose income will go to the goods and services produced by companies.

The end result: Instead of having many big fish in a very small pond, we are moving our economic ecosystem into a bigger pond, where everybody can grow and reach their full potential,” Aquino said.

In an earlier interview with the Apec secretariat, Aquino said global climate change was at the top of his agenda during the Apec summit.

“We’re trying to get away from the cycle of a destruction brought about by typhoons and reconstruction that doesn’t change anything. We get visited by 20 typhoons a year. So, [we need to] stop the pattern of destruction-reconstruction, destruction again, reconstruction again. Let’s build back the communities better,” he said.

Homeless...

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Others walked from Naia Road to Edsa Extension after local authorities closed the Tambo Road in Parañaque City.

The road closures also led to traffic snarls on major thoroughfares, including areas of the South Luzon Expressway, Diosdado Macapagal Avenue, Sen. Osmeña Highway, Quirino Avenue, Taft Avenue, Gil Puyat Avenue and Edsa from 6 a.m. to 10 a.m.

In a statement released Monday, Human Rights Watch said as early as Nov. 9, the authorities began rounding up several hundred adults and children from streets and informal settlements in Manila and the surrounding municipalities of Metro Manila. These “rescued” street dwellers were being detained like prisoners in transient shelters operated by the city government’s Social Welfare department without any appropriate charge, the group said.

Adults operating food carts or who sold scavenged items in the streets and were told by officials who detained them that they would be able to return to the streets and resume their work after the summit. On the orders of local mayors, including Manila Mayor Joseph Estrada, police and social workers are detaining them under guard in government facilities for the homeless and orphans, Human Rights Watch said.

“Dario,” a scavenger arrested on a street near Roxas Boulevard, said the personnel who detained him on Nov. 11 were “brutal.”

“They were merciless,” Dario told international watchdog Human Rights Watch. “They took our things or did not allow some of us to bring our belongings.” He and his wife have been held in custody at the Jose Fabella Center in Mandaluyong City, where they are being held.

“Nora,” a 33-year-old woman with a physical disability that makes it difficult for her to walk, earns her living as a dispatcher for jeepneys. She said that on Nov. 11, a group of men who identified themselves as officers from the Metro Manila Development Authority approached her on Taft Avenue, near city hall, and said that they had brought her food. But instead of distributing food, they started detaining people.

“I’m crippled. I can’t run,” she told Human Rights Watch. “One of them literally hoisted me up and threw me to the floor of the truck. They hurt my back and my legs.”

Officials first took “Nora” to the Reception and Action Center where she stayed one night and then transferred her to the Jose Fabella Center the next day.

Although she can move around freely in the large compound, she and the others are prevented from leaving the center.

“Jonas,” a laborer at a Manilawarehouse, said he was taking a nap when the police detained him. “I did nothing wrong. I was just taking a nap near the warehouse where I worked to prepare for my next shift. But they took me anyway.

They had no warrant of arrest,” he said.

“Cora,” 52, a street vendor in the Ermita district who was detained on Nov. 11, said she pleaded with the municipal authorities to release her, but to no avail. “No matter how I pleaded, they didn’t listen,” she said. “They will only let me go after Apec, that’s what they told me.”

Quoting the Department of Social Welfare and Development, a total of 48 homeless or indigent individuals have been “rescued” from Nov. 9 to 12 at the Jose Fabella Center, with 40 coming from Manila, while the others are from nearby Quezon City and Pasay City.

The Manila city government claimed they had “rescued” at least 141 street children as of Nov. 10, dozens of whom were sent to Boys Town, a cityoperated transient home in Marikina City.

Those with families are being brought to the Manila Reception and Action Center, a city governmentoperated facility in Arroceros, Manila

or at the DSWD-operated Jose Fabella Center in Mandaluyong. Those without families meanwhile, are being brought to Boystown.

However, a source, who wished not to be named out of fears of reprisal, disputed figures from authorities.

“From a measly 60 per day figure back in Nov. 10, at least 300-500 homeless dwellers from the streets are being brought by trucks or utility vehicles of the city hall,” a source told The Standard. “They would usually load people, even the crippled.”

“They’re many. Every day, they’ll make rounds especially the whole stretch of Roxas Boulevard, Taft Avenue, making sure that even those in the side streets will get covered,” the source added.

Social Welfare Secretary Corazon Soliman earlier denied that the government is hiding street dwellers from Apec delegates, and said the homeless were being rounded up as part of the policy to rescue and reach out to them.

But Human Rights Watch said the authorities have also been conducting daily “clearing operations” not only in the country’s capital but in other Metro Manila cities, including Pasay City and Quezon City. Local government units are detaining people with the assistance of the MMDA, an agency directly under the Office of the President.

Rights groups, including the Human Rights Watch and another urban poor group, Kadamay, called for the immediate release of mostly indigent and homeless street dwellers who were illegally detained just before the Apec.

“Abusing Manila’s homeless population shouldn’t be part of the price tag for the Philippine government to host high-profile international events,” Kine said. “Apec delegates should make it clear to their Philippine hosts that abusive ‘clearing operations’ against Manila’s most vulnerable residents only tarnish the reputations of the Philippines and Apec.”

“Every time there is a big international event, the government would scramble to hide the poor and homeless from the eyes of international media and guests. The poor are coerced into joining their rescue operations then after, they go back to the streets only to return to return to their impoverished conditions,” said Gloria Arellano, Kadamay national chairperson.

During the visit of Pope Francis in January, the Aquino administration rounded up at least 600 street dweller families from Roxas Boulevard and took them to a resort in Batangas for an alleged five-day conditional cash transfer program “orientation” to keep them away from the route of the papal motorcade.

Manila Auxillary Bishop Broderick Pabillo earlier accused the DSWD of plotting to conceal again the street dwellers from the Apec’s foreign participants by offering them P4000 to rent an apartment, claims that Soliman denied.

Left-leaning groups, meanwhile, accused the Philippine National Police of violating the rights of lumad protesters camping out at the Baclaran Church in Parañaque City after hundreds of policemen held the Manilakbayan marchers in virtual detention in the church compound, forming a barricade to prevent them from transferring to another site.

“PNP trucks and personnel have prevented the lumad from leaving the church compound, in clear violation of their rights,” Renato Reyes, Bayan secretary-general said.

The Standard tried to reach administrators of the Manila Boystown and the Reception and Action Center but they shunned requests for an interview, citing the need to coordinate first with the Manila Social Welfare Department.

Officials from the Manila Social Welfare Department have not been available for comment.

A party-list group on Monday said all workers will get from this week’s Apec summit are lost income, road closures and a clampdown on protests, while Apec delegates and VIPs travel in comfort. With Christine F. Herrera and Vito Barcelo

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Poe ‘worried, sad’ about DQ case A DAY before the nine-member Senate Electoral Tribunal decides on the disqualification case filed against Senator Grace Poe over her citizenship, the presidential front runner said she felt nervous and sad.

Suffering in Manila. Commuters from Cavite walk from the coastal area to Baclaran on Monday as a result of the closure of Roxas Boulevard for the Apec meetings. DAnny PAtA

VP: Salary hikes for state workers not enough MALACAÑANG’S’ proposed salary standardization for teachers is not enough to offset the decline in the purchasing power of the peso, Vice President Jejomar Binay said Monday.

He said providing quality education was key to addressing poverty.

“Malacañang’s proposed salary standardization, where an entry-level teacher’s salary would increase only by 11.89 percent from P18,549 a month this year to P20,754 after four annual salary hikes ending in 2019, would be hardly felt if we factor in inflation,” Binay said in a speech at the Centennial Celebration of the San Alberto Magno Academy in La Union.

“It would be better if we looked at adjusting the salary of a Teacher 1 from the current Salary Grade 11 to at least Salary Grade 19.”

Binay made his statement even as Leyte Rep. Ferdinand Martin Romualdez expressed hope that the House leadership under Speaker Feliciano Belmonte Jr. would show the same enthusiasm

and political will in passing the bill lowering individual and corporate income tax rates like it did when it passed the proposed “Salary Standardization Law of 2015” last week.

“We hope that this bill adjusting the income tax rates to inflation will finally get the support from the government,” Romualdez said.

“We should not prolong the agony of our people, especially the low income earners, by having this measure passed into law.

This is a good way to show our malasakit to them.”

A member of the Makabayan Bloc in the House of Representatives said the government employees occupying low- and middle-level positions were the biggest losers under the Aquino administration’s proposal for salary increases, while those occupying top posts—including the President—were the most favored.

“A measly P2,205 increase in four years is given to a Teacher I under the Malacañang proposal

embodied in House Bill 6268 for the ‘Salary Standardization Law of 2015’ or SSL 2015,’’ ACT Teachers party-list Rep. Antonio Tinio said.

“This increase amounts to a mere P24 in additional finances per day for the ordinary public school teacher.”

Binay said he would continue to push for the welfare of teachers and noted that his daughter, Senator Nancy Binay, had already filed several bills in Senate aimed at giving teachers additional benefits.

“It is only appropriate to show gratitude for their service and dedication by way of giving them reasonable compensation and benefits,” Binay said.

He recounted how having quality education helped him improve his life and vowed to increase the education budget by 20 percent if he was elected Presdient.

He said that, under his administration, he will increase the budget for education and training by 20 percent. The increased fund will be used to build more

classrooms, buy more books and other instructional materials for elementary schools.

He said one of the priorities of his administration would be the review of the implementation of the K-12 program.

“I agree with the noble purpose behind K-12, but I feel that stakeholders are ill-prepared for such major adjustments in their schedules and resources,” Binay said.

“We will fine-tune the system to prepare the schools and the students to be ready for the changes.”

Binay said he would also replicate the University of Makati’s Dualized Education System nationwide to compliment K-12.

“K-12 must also be complemented by an apprenticeship program,” Binay said.

“Private sector enterprises— through their sectoral councils— must be encouraged to work with higher educational institutions in developing a college curriculum that is more attuned to the requirements of the labor market.”

Vito Barcelo and Maricel V. Cruz

But she remained confident that the tribunal, led by Senior Associate Justice Antonio Carpio, would rule in her favor because the truth would prevail: that she is a naturalborn Filipino citizen.

“We are fighting for the truth, but of course there are political considerations for others,” Poe said.

“I hope they will think that the law was meant to uphold justice.”

SET member Senator Nancy Binay had earlier assured reporters she would be objective in her decision. Her father, Vice President Jejomar Binay, is also running for President in the May 2016 elections, Another SET member, Senator Bam Aquino, was named campaign manager of the ruling Liberal Party. The party’s national chairman, President Benigno Aquino III, is his first cousin.

Carpio was also among the justices who voted on the disqualification of Poe’s adoptive father, the late Fernando Poe Jr., when he ran for President in 2004.

Poe said that on her case, the interpretation of the law lay in the hands of the SET members whom she believed would be on the side of truth.

“Perhaps the law is not literal but this is oftentimes used not as an injustice,” Poe said.

Instead, it is something that will bring about justice, so that’s for me. The most defenseless here in our country are the children.”

Poe said she she keeps on praying and hoping that everything will be fair. She would be most happy if the SET members would be on her side.

Her case is a heavy burden on her part because she is carrying hundred of thousands of children who are similarly situated like her—a foundling. She has been pushing for their rights.

Before she was adopted, Poe was found abandoned by her biological parents in a church in Iloilo. She was later adopted by FPJ and his wife actress Susan Roces.

Should the SET disqualify her, Poe said, she could appeal the decision but the situation of other foundlings would be endangered. Macon Ramos-Araneta

Roxas promises a govt that will go to people THE ruling Liberal Party’s standard bearer, Manuel Roxas II, on Monday promised that ordinary people need not go to Malacañang for help but may expect Malacañang to go where they are to serve them should he gets elected president in 2016.

“Through your support, if I get elected as your President, you will not be the one to go to Malacañang but Malacañang instead will come to you here in Bogo,” Roxas told residents of Bogo town in Cebu over the weekend in his native “Inilonggo” Bisaya dialect.

“That’s our promise: to bring the government to you so we can help.”

Roxas, in his visit to Cebu, claimed that during his stint as

Interior secretary the Yolandahit areas were able to undergo a sustainable long-term recovery process.

He said he initiated the DILGRAY programs to accomplish the reconstruction of totally and partially damaged provincial/ city municipal buildings, public markets, civic centers and village infrastructures in the Yolandaaffected areas.

Roxas also promised what he called the continuation and improvement of the reform programs initiated during the Aquino administration, which he said were centered on improving the lives of every Filipino family.

“I will not forget you, I will not abandon you,” Roxas said. John Paolo Bencito

Preparation. A coastguard and his dog inspect bags and equipment outside the Apec Media Center in Manila during the preparations for the Apec meeting. AFP

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PH, Chile ink two key pacts

By Maricel V. Cruz and Sandy Araneta CRITICIZED at home for her stalled reform program in Chile, socialist President Michelle Bachelet was greeted with state honors on Monday as she began a state visit aimed at boosting economic ties across the Pacific Ocean and marking its almost 70year diplomatic relation with the Philippines.

Sidebar at the court. Anti-riot police guard against protesters who gathered on Monday in front of the

Supreme Court which was set to vote on the legality of the Enhanced Defense Cooperation Agreement. The court, however, postponed the vote to December. LINO SANTOS

SC postpones vote on Edca

By Rey E. Requejo THE Supreme Court has again postponed its scheduled vote on the Enhanced Defense Cooperation Agreement between the Philippines and the United States.

Court sources said it was the second time the tribunal deferred its ruling on the case. The justices first set deliberations on Nov. 10, but reset the ruling to Nov. 16 because some justices were not ready to vote.

The justices decided to again reset voting to Dec. 16 after a magistrate asked for more time to write a separate opinion, the SC insider revealed.

The two main petitions against Edca were filed in May last year by a group led by former Senators Rene Saguisag and Wigberto Tañada and militant lawmakers led by Bayan Muna Representatives Neri Colmenares and Carlos Zarate.

Similar petitions were also filed by Kilusang Mayo Uno and Confederation for Unity, Recognition and Advancement of Government Employees.

The case was heard by the high court in oral arguments in November last year and had been up for resolution since December last year.

Petitioners alleged that Edca violates provisions on national

sovereignty, territorial integrity and interests, freedom from nuclear weapons and autonomy of local government units in the charter.

They also argued that Edca is a treaty—not merely an executive agreement as Palace has claimed —which needs concurrence of the Senate before it could be implemented.

The groups stressed that the agreement violates Section 25, Article XVIII of the Constitution, which requires that any foreign military bases, troops or facilities “shall not be allowed in the Philippines except under a treaty duly concurred in by the Senate.”

Process for court vacancy starts THE Judicial and Bar Council will start accepting nominations and applications for the vacancy at the Supreme Court that will be created by the early retirement of Associate Justice Martin Villarama Jr. in January.

Supreme Court spokesman Theodore Te revealed on Monday that the JBC has officially started the selection process for the SC post and set the deadline for nominations and applications on Nov. 23.

The seven-member council tasked to vet candidates for judicial posts has also set the deadline for submission of supporting documents of nominations on Dec. 8.

Applications and nominations must be submitted, with the acceptance of the applicant and her personal data sheet, to the JBC secretariat in the SC centennial building on Padre Faura Street in Ermita, Manila.

Despite the opening of a vacancy, Te would not confirm if the high court had already approved Villarama’s application for optional retirement on Jan. 16.

JBC member Jose Mejia said the public interviews could be set in January and the council will then come up with a shortlist by February next year, which means President Benigno Aquino III may be able to name his

sixth appointee in the high tribunal before the period covered by the election ban on midnight appointments.

However, posts in the SC are exempted from the ban, according to the high court’s 2010 ruling on the vacancy that was created by the retirement of then Chief Justice Reynato Puno, which President Aquino had questioned.

Villarama was supposed to retire on April 14 next year when he reaches the mandatory retirement age of 70. However, in his letter to Sereno, the magistrate requested to avail of optional retirement effective Jan.16, 2016 due to his “deteriorating health.” Rey E. Requejo

The 64-year-old Bachelet, who will also be attending next week’s Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit, was officially received Monday morning at Malacañang Palace where she also signed two agreements on expanding bilateral trade and cooperating on disaster risk reduction and management.

“In order to take the first step, today we signed a letter of intent in which we commit ourselves to conclude a feasibility joint study to evaluate potential benefits of a free trade agreement,” Bachelet said, adding that negotiation will likely start early next year.

“The relation between Chile in the Philippines is the oldest diplomatic tie that we have had with a member country of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations,”

she said.

“On July 4, 2016, we will celebrate 70 years of relation between both nations and this visit has been an excellent opportunity to deepen our ties and establish a substantial work agenda in the bilateral and multilateral areas,” said Bachelet.

“Separated though we may be by the vast Pacific Ocean, the Philippines and Chile have enjoyed warm relations for almost 70 years,” President Benigno Aquino III said after the signing of the pacts.

“Chile and the Philippines have a common experience of facing the challenges of being newly restored democracies, after our peoples reclaimed their liberties and rebuilt their institutions, towards becoming truly vibrant democracies,” Aquino said.

Two more leaders arrive THE heads of Columbia and Papua New Guinea arrived separately on Monday ahead of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation Leaders’ Summit which begins Wednesday.

Columbian President Juan Manuel Santos arrived on board a Columbian Air Force plane at 4:15 p.m. Papua New Guinea Prime Minister Peter O’Neill arrived on a private plane 30 minutes later at the Ninoy Aquino International

Airport.

Santos was welcomed by Budget Secretary Butch Abad, Columbia’s honorary consul George Araneta and charge d’affaires Stella MarquezAraneta.

O’Neill, on the other hand, was welcomed by Education Secretary Armin Luistro, Manila International Airport Authority General Manager Jose Angel Honrado and other government officials.

Oh, promise me. The

National Press Club of the Philippines was draped in black on Monday to mark the sixth year after the Maguindanao Massacre of Nov. 23, 2015.

To date, the case remains unresolved.

ANDREW RABULAN

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Romualdez comes to aid of ‘bala’ scam detainee

By Maricel V. Cruz

Mustering of troops. Army Scout Rangers stand at ease as they take part in the mustering of troops prior to their immediate

deployment to their assigned tasks in different venues of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation’s summit meetings. FRANCISCO TUYAY

Labor steps up anti-HIV drive

By Vito Barcelo

THE Department of Labor and Employment on Monday warned employers not to discriminate against workers afflicted with Human Immunodeficiency Virus and Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome as it intensifies the information campaign on the prevention of HIV and AIDS in workplaces.

Labor Secretary Rosalinda Baldoz said that private establishments should implement non-discriminatory policy and practices to ensure confidentiality of HIV status, and work accommodation and arrangements.

“Any form of discrimination against persons with HIV/AIDS is sanctioned under R.A. 8504,

or the Philippine AIDS Prevention and Control Act of 1998.

Under the law, each employer shall ensure non-discriminatory practices in the workplaces, such as acquiring HIV testing,” Baldoz said.

The labor chief also reminded employers that under R.A. 8504, HIV testing should not be required

as a precondition for employment. sion, and promotion of non-disShe said the Occupational crimination against persons with Safety and Health Center is HIV/AIDS. Baldoz said that out of 31,428 working to make more visible and extensive efforts in reach- companies visited by Labor Law ing and informing workers on Compliance Officers nationwide, the dangers of risky workplace there are already 24,018 compabehaviors that may lead to HIV/ nies found compliant as of September 2015 AIDS infection.

Data from the Department of The OSHC has intensified its

HIV and AIDS prevention and Health, there were 560 new HIV control campaign through the cases reported in the first quarter conduct of lectures, training, and of this year, 209 of which were orientation in private companies. reported in the National Capital It has also developed and dis- Region; 102 from Region 4-A; seminated information, education, and 48 in Region 3. The 560 new and communication materials on cases represent a 42-percent ininformation on the basics of HIV crease compared to the 393 cases and AIDS prevention, transmis- reported in April 2014.

SENATORIAL aspirant and Leyte Rep. Ferdinand Martin Romualdez on Monday expressed readiness to provide work to the overseas Filipino worker who lost her job in Hong Kong when she failed to return there as scheduled after being detained over the ‘tanim bala’ (planting-bullet) scam at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport .

Romualdez said his staff is now establishing contact with Gloria Ortinez for details of her case and to provide her suitable employment here at home. Leyte solon said that he was hopeful “Nanay Gloria”, with this simple act of malasakit (compassion) can find hope to move past this ordeal and still support her family without having to work abroad.

A lawyer , Romualdez emphasized he will also explore all possible options to provide legal assistance to Ortinez if she chooses to file charges against those responsible for her anguish and lost opportunities.

“The future of Nanay Gloria’s kids and dependents are now in limbo because of the deliberate criminal intent of those who inserted a bullet in her luggage.

“Crimes who victimize our OFWs and take advantage of the desperation of our hard-working citizens erodes our society and is further proof that “malasakit” is indeed lacking in our government,” Romualdez said.

Romualdez called on all tanimbala victims to come out in the open and identify their tormentors.

He said it will be the best and fastest way to stop the scam once and for all and send the extortionists to prison.

“If the accountable Naia and DoTC officials will insist they’re helpless in stopping the ‘tanim-bala scam,’ they should at least have the decency to resign to give way to competent ones.

“Incompetence has no place in public service. Public service requires public trust and it’s obvious the concerned officials have lost this trust and should be removed if they refuse to resign,” Romualdez said.

Bonuses for Makati City workers okayed

By Joel E. Zurbano THE Makati City government said it would release the Christmas bonuses of 8,000 city hall employees amounting to P343.

7 million.

Acting Mayor Romulo Peña Jr. said the early release of the yearend bonuses aimed to give employees ample time to do their shopping for the holidays early and avoid the rush.

“It would be more convenient and also economical for the em-

ployees as they can still avail themselves of great discounts and bargain sales at this time,” he said in a statement.

Peña said city government employees can look forward to just compensation for their services as well as more incentives, including non-monetary benefits such as universal health insurance package.

Year-end bonuses received

by Makati employees each year include the 13th month pay, fringe benefit which is almost

equivalent to a month’s salary, cash gift of P5,000, and P6,000 as incentive allowance.

Human Resource Development Office records showed that the lowest ranking casual employees with Salary Grade 1 will receive P27,942.84 each, while the lowest ranking regular employees will receive P24,300 each.

Regular employees earlier received half of their 13th month pay last May in time for the enrolment period.

PH-US deal. Director General William Hotchkiss III of the Civil Aviation Authority of the Philippines and Director Leocadia I. Zak of the US Trade Development Agency exchange banter after signing a cooperation agreement wherein the US will train CAAP personnel on the use of aircraft rescue and firefighting vehicles. ERIC APOLONIO

A6

t u e s d ay : n o v e m b e r 17, 2 0 1 5

news

editorial@thestandard.com.ph

Justices junk Cudia’s third petition

By Rey E. Requejo

The Supreme Court has denied with finality the appeal of dismissed Cadet 1st Class Aldrin Jeff Cudia for release of his diploma and transcript of records from the Philippine Military Academy.

During their en banc session, SC justices resolved to deny the third appeal filed by Cudia’s parents last September.

“The Court denied with finality the motion [it being his third] and considered the case closed and terminated,” SC spokesman Theodore Te said, in a media briefing.

In their appeal coursed through Public Attorney’s Office chief Persida Rueda-Acosta, Cudia’s parents sought the release of the cadet’s diploma or certificate of completion of academic requirements and transcript of records.

They had asked the SC to order the PMA to release the requirements when he was supposed to enrol in the University of the Philippines College of Law after passing the entrance exam.

The high court already dismissed his petition with finality last April, but Cudia’s camp insisted on the appeal.

Petitioners invoked humanitarian consideration and revealed that Cudia’s father Renato has already

been bedridden after suffering a stroke last January. They explained that the SC ruling allowing Senator Juan Ponce Enrile to post bail in a plunder case over humanitarian consideration could be a “supervening event” in Cudia’s case.

But petitioners no longer appealed the high court’s ruling that affirmed PMA’s dismissal order against Cudia.

In his original petition, Cudia had asked the SC to order his inclusion in the list of graduating cadets in their Siklab Diwa batch and give him the honors and awards he deserves.

Lastly, he pleaded the high court to commission him “as the new ensign of the Philippine Navy if all the material requirements for his baccalaureate degree have been completed in time for 16 March 2014 Commencement exercises.”

However, in his latest pleading, Cudia no longer asked for his reinstatement in the PMA and just asked for release of his diploma and transcript of records.

Retired police general barred from leaving

By Rio N. Araja MCCC-funded infra. President Benigno S. Aquino III has cited the ongoing rehabilitation of a 222-kilometer

road from Samar to Eastern Samar as crucial in the government’s overall infrastructure development plan to interconnect the three provinces of Samar Island. The Secondary National Roads Development Project, being funded as part of the $434-million Millennium Challenge Corporation Compact in the Philippines, complements the Samar Island Circumferential Road Project that aims to interconnect the provinces of Samar, Northern Samar, and Eastern Samar and promote trade and commerce with the rest of Eastern Visayas and beyond. With President Aquino are DPWH Secretary Rogelio Singson (left), MCCC deputy resident country director Burak Inanc, and MCA-Philippine managing director & CEO Marivic Añonuevo (right).

Republic of t h e Philip p in e s Co m mi sion on El ec t ions M anila

THE Sandiganbayan has issued a hold-departure order on a former National Police general who is facing graft charges for his alleged involvement in the AK-47 rifle scam.

The anti-graft court’s Fifth Division directed the Bureau of Immigration to bar Chief Supt. Raul Petrasanta, former Firearms and Explosives Office head, along with 14 other police officials and individuals, from leaving the country.

Those prevented from going out of the country were (ret.) Civil Security

Group director Gil Meneses, former FEO head Napoleon Estilles, Firearms and Licensing Division head Chief Supt.

Regino Catiis, Supervisory Office for Security, Investigation Agencies head Chief Supt. Tomas Rentoy III, Sr. Supt. Eduardo Acierto, Sr. Supt. Allan Parreño, Supt. Nelson Bautista, and Chief Inspectors Ricardo Zapata Jr. and Ricky Sumalde.

SPO1s Eric Tan and Randy De Sesto, non-uniformed personnel Nora Pirote and Sol Bargan, and Isidro Lozada of the Caraga Security Agency.

The HDO was designed “to preserve and maintain the effectiveness of its jurisdiction over the case and the persons of the accused” more specifically to render them available “at all times” in the case proceedings.

The graft suits stemmed from the questionable issuance of licenses from August 2011 to April 2013 covering more than 100 units of high-powered AK-47 rifles in favor of four private companies despite incomplete or falsified applications and the lack of supporting documents.

INC jobs, houses for Kabihug

N OTICE TO TH E PU B LIC A ll interested par ties are invited to at tend the public hear ing on the transfer of polling prec ints to identif ied public malls sc heduled on 27 N ovember 2015, Fr iday, 10:0 0 A .M., at the Projec t M anagement O f f ic e, G round Floor, Palac io del G ober nador, Postigo Street, Intramuros, M anila.

For the list of all af fec ted barangays, please c hec k the of f ic ial CO M ELEC website (w w w. c omelec.gov.ph) ( T S - N O V. 17, 2 015 )

THE Iglesia Ni Cristo through its social arm the Felix Y. Manalo Foundation has launched a housing and livelihood project for Kabihug families in Barangay Bakal, Paracale, Camarines Norte —many of them lacking jobs and roofs over their heads.

The Kabihug are an indigenous group belonging to the Negrito race.

Based in the highlands of Bicol province, the group’s members have often been victims of oppression and discrimination because of their ethnicity.

According to INC general auditor Brother Glicerio Santos, “the members of the Iglesia Ni Cristo know what it feels like to be oppressed, so when Executive Minister Brother Eduardo V. Manalo learned that our brother Kabihugs were suffering from discrimination, he immediately decreed that we extend assistance to them.”

The newly opened INC community project stands on a 100-hectare land atop the slopes of Paracale. It contains 300 housing units to serve as permanent shelters for Kabihug families and also consists

of livelihood facilities such as a 20-hectare calamansi orchard, an eco-farm, and a 300-square-meter fish-drying plant.

The FYM Foundation also built a garment factory and a learning center that will initially offer kindergarten and grade 1 elementary courses to Kabihug children.

Manalo led the inauguration, which also coincided with the first worship service of the INC local congregation of Bakal and the dedication of its new house of worship, which crowns the whole community.

“The Executive Minister gave the Kabihug brethren various means of livelihood,” said Santos.

“Aside from these, he also welcomed them into our church, and organized them into a new local congregation and ordered the constriction of a 370-seater chapel where they can worship together.”

In his homily during the chapel dedication, Manalo emphasized that while addressing poverty and other such problems is necessary, far more important is for people to be able to exercise their right to render true worship to God in order to receive His blessings.

T U E S D AY : N O V E M B E R 17, 2 0 1 5

A7

NEWS

editorial@thestandard.com.ph

Sandiganbayan suspends mayor of Tuguegarao

By Rio N. Araja THE Sandiganbayan on Monday ordered a 90-day preventive suspension on Tuguegarao City Mayor Jefferson Soriano for his alleged involvement in the anomalous procurement of defective rubber boats in 2008 and 2009.

The anti-graft court invoked “the suspension under Section 13 of Republic Act 3019 admits no exceptions, and that the impossibility of tampering with evidence and intimidating witnesses is not a ground for denial of the preventive suspension.”

“The claim that the suspension from work may deprive them of their only source of income cannot override the mandatory character of Section 13 of RA 3019,” it said.

Based on court records, Soriano as the chairperson of the bids and awards committee, awarded four separate supply contracts for rubber boats worth P131.5 million in 2008 until 2009.

Upon delivery and inspection, the boats and engines were found not functional when fitted together rendering them unusable for disaster operation efforts, the Office of the Ombudsman said.

Ombudsman Conchita Carpio Morales noted various defects in the equipment “which make their use risky to end-users.”

In a separate case, the antigraft court also ordered the suspension of officials of the Department of Budget and Management, Technology Resource Center and National Livelihood Development Corp. for the questionable utilization of the Priority Development Assistance Fund of former Rep. Samuel Dangwa of Benguet.

Ordered suspended were Mario Relampagos, Rosario Nunez, Lalaine Paule, Marilou Bare, Marivic Jover, Consuelo Lilian Espiritu, Belina Concepcion, Gondelina Amata, Gregoria Buenaventura, Chita Jalandoni, Sofia Cruz, Filipina Rodriguez and Ofelia Ordoñez.

High court to DoTC: Answer petition vs LRT 1 extension

By Rey E. Requejo

THE Supreme Court has directed the Department of Transportation and Communication and the Light Rail Manila Corp. to comment on a petition filed by militant groups seeking to stop its P65-billion concession agreement for extension of the Light Rail Transit Line 1 to Cavite.

In a media briefing, SC spokesman Theodore Te said the tribunal required the DoTC and LRMC to comment on the petition filed last week by the groups led by Bagong Alyansang Makabayan and Confederation for the Unity, Recognition, and Advancement of Government Employees.

The petition filed last week sought issuance of a temporary restraining order on the concession agreement between DoTC and LRMC because the deal is disadvantageous to the government and violative of constitutional provisions.

They also asserted that respon-

dents violated the right of the people to information on matters of public concern under Section 28, Article II of the 1987 Constitution since no public consultation was made prior to the signing of the agreement.

Petitioners also alleged that the concession agreement is one sided as the concessionaires are “given payout, a risk-free revenue contract” with the government shouldering all the financial risks while also guaranteeing the profits of the consortium.

Lastly, they questioned the invalid delegation of authority by the LRTA to both the DoTC and the LRM, saying only the LRTA has the mandate to operate and build the LRT 1.

Petitioners also asked the SC to void the agreement, which covers the privatization of the operation

and maintenance of the current LRT Line 1 as well as the construction and extension of the existing LRT Line 1 from 20.7 kilometers to 32.4 kilometers by providing trains originating from the end of Baclaran, traversing the municipalities of Parañaque and Las Piñas, and ending in Bacoor, Cavite.

Bayan Muna Rep. Neri Colmenares and Bayan secretary-general Renato Reyes Jr. led the filing of the petition.

A similar petition was filed by law school dean Salvador Belaro Jr. last February.

The respondents were given 10 days from notice to comply with the order.

Te said the SC acted on the case without necessarily giving due course to the petition.

Never too old. Eighty-four-year-old weaver Eliza Chawi works on intricately designed Cordilleran traditional tapestry. DAVID CHAN

‘White Russians’ return home to Eastern Samar

By Mel Caspe

Remembering. Former Russian refugees go back to Tubabao Island in Guiuan, Eastern Samar, their home from 1949 to 1953. MEL CASPE

TWENTY-ONE Russians who used to be refugees on Tubabao Island, Guiuan, Eastern Samar have returned to the island in time for the 125th birth anniversary of the late President Elpidio Quirino.

Dubbed as “White Russians,” these are those who resisted the communist revolution in the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. More than 6,000 refugees lived in Guiuan, where they were allowed to live by the late president, from 1949 to 1953.

The revolution gave rise to a White Army fighting the Red Army. “White Russian” was used to refer to people who fought the communist army and/

or fled as a result of the violence and strife. Some of them took refuge in Europe while others sail to the cities of Hankow and Shanghai in China.

Some of the refugees in Guiuan eventually moved to France and Australia; most of them migrated to the United States.

Quirino was born Nov. 16, 1890 in Vigan, Ilocos Sur. Presidential Proclamation 967 signed by President Benigno Aquino III, all Filipinos here and abroad are enjoined to commemorate Quirino’s memory and legacy.

Quirino began his public service career as a student teacher.

Giving asylum to the White Russians is one of Quirino’s legacies.

T u E S D AY : N O V E M B E R 17, 2 0 1 5

A8

opinion

ADELLE chuA EdiToR

lettertotheeditor@thestandard.com.ph

opinion

Welcoming our apec visitors

[ EDI TORI A L ]

EAgLE EYES dEAn TonY LA ViÑA

Looking good Hosting a high-profile international event is always an opportunity to showcase the gains made in a country. it is a source of pride that a country would have the ability to spend for preparations for an event of such magnitude and importance. imagine having heads of state or their deputies, housing them, feeding them, ensuring they are safe and comfortable and productive. in hosting this year’s Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit, the Philippines is asserting that it has come a long way and is now ready to embrace globalization and leadership on the international stage.

Unfortunately, no less than the President is mangling all the sense of unity that the event should be inspiring in all Filipinos. At a meeting of top regional executives on Monday, Mr. Aquino referred to a lost decade during which his immediate predecessor ran the country. “it is quite sad,” he said. “ if 10 years ago my predecessor had done what we’re doing now, i can only imagine where the Philippines would be.” sadder, however, is the fact that Mr. Aquino is on his last months in office but still has not shaken off the habit of blaming everybody else except himself for what goes wrong.

But for all the things that had gone well, he is quick to take the credit, regardless if it is deserved. in Mr. Aquino’s eyes, all things are bright and rosy—a view not shared by Filipinos who endured oppressive traffic conditions Monday morning just to get to their workplace.

And it’s not just because the roads are closed this week. The traffic and the poor public transportation system are just some of the daily realities the people have to deal with every day. of course, one cannot expect Mr. Aquino to acknowledge his role in the deterioration of living conditions in Metro Manila and in the other issues faced by the country. All those are attributable to his good-for-nothing predecessor. in his insistence on looking good, Mr. Aquino also ordered the release of funds so that the homeless roaming the streets where the dignitaries would pass could temporarily rent a place to make themselves scarce this week.

Does the President delight in making ordinary people suffer just so he could look good?

What prevail are resentment and bitterness when this could have been a good time to show the world the best things about being Filipino. talk about squandering an opportunity.

Hollande and aquino

Trending—if the few remaining Yellowists can still really muster up a trend—in social media pages favoring President noynoy Aquino is a lament about why the Philippine leader always gets blamed for everything, while no one blames France’s Francois Hollande for the terrorist attacks in Paris. This ghoulish attempt to make propaganda hay out of the

grim killings in France should not go unnoticed, least of all because there is simply no basis for comparing the two leaders.

But let’s hear it as rock drilon, kin of Senate President Franklin drilon, wrote it: “do the French blame their president for the barbaric massacre by iSiS last Friday wherein 129 lives were lost for not making France secure enough from terrorist attack [sic]? Are there calls for his resignation, rumors of a coup d’etat? Because here, everything, including calamities, gets blamed on President Aquino!”

Talk about your apples and oranges—or yellow lemons, really, to continue with the fruit analogy. First of all, as i recall, Hollande blockaded Paris and sealed of his entire country’s borders within an hour after the first iSiS attacks.

As online media commentator and critic JP Fenix pointed out, no one is blaming Aquino for calamities. “We blame him for his action (and lack of it) after the calamities,” Fenix said.

“Big difference.”

The sad truth about the current Aquino presidency is that, whenever a crisis situation de-

A9

The sad truth about Aquino is that, whenever a crisis situation develops, his first response is to disappear.

velops—whether it be a hostage-taking or a devastating typhoon—Aquino’s first response is invariably to disappear from view. And when he is most needed (like upon the arrival of the bodies of the 44 slain Special Action Force troopers or the anniversary of Super Typhoon ‘‘Yolanda’’), Aquino

always finds a way to be somewhere else far away.

Of course, only someone surnamed drilon would even entertain the idea that Aquino is the “blamee” when he always takes on the role of “blamer.”

Aquino’s go-to and long-standing response has always been to blame other people, whether

they be local government officials, previous presidencies like those of Ferdinand Marcos and gloria Arroyo and even the media, when he is accused of not getting the job done, calamity or no.

This is what led Aquino to say in his speech before the Apec CeO forum yesterday: “if 10 years ago, if my predecessor had done what we are doing now, i can only imagine where the Filipinos would be.”

So the next time you hear about poor noynoy, always being blamed, think

Published Monday to Sunday by Philippine Manila Standard Publishing Inc. at 6/F Universal Re Building, 106 Paseo de Roxas, corner Perea St., Legaspi Village, Makati City.

Telephone numbers 832-5554, 832-5556, 832-5558 (connecting all departments), (Editorial), 832-5546, (Advertising), 832-

about it: The man has never taken any blame for anything, much less apologized for anything—maybe that’s why his fans call him the best President this country ever had. *** Speaking of what happened in France, i pray that nothing of the sort happens here, especially this week, when we play host to 19 heads of state and their delegations for the Apec summit. But if something of the sort takes place, i fear that Aquino will definitely prove to be the polar opposite of what

5550. P.O. Box 2933, Manila Central Post Office, Manila. Website: www. manilastandardtoday.com E-mail: contact@thestandard.com.ph

MST ONLINE

can be accessed at: www.manilastandardtoday.com

MEMBER

PPI

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Hollande is, for all the world to see.

After all, our homegrown Muslim fundamentalist-bandits, also known as the Abu Sayyaf group, have already pledged allegiance to iSiS and pulled off their share of atrocious attacks on foreigners and Filipinos alike for many years. While the authorities have promised that they have taken every measure possible to prevent Paris-like attacks from happening this week, the Apec summit must seem like a perfect opportunity for the local bandits

Anita F. Grefal Treasury Manager

Continued on A11

Continued on A10

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

We Are hosting this year’s Asia-Pacific economic Cooperation summit which will culminate with the economic Leaders’ Meeting from november 18 to 19. it will be attended by US President Barack Obama and Chinese President Xi Jinping, among others. russian President Vladimir Putin and indonesian President Joko Widodo, however, begged off, citing their attendance to ongoing investigations of Metrojet Flight 9268 and the 2015 Southeast Asian haze, respectively.

Over the years, Apec, since its establishment in 1989, has remained an important avenue in sustaining economic growth in the Asia-Pacific region.

The direction of Apec was formulated in the Bogor declaration made in the 1994 Apec economic Leaders’ Meeting in Bogor of indonesia which set the goals of, “free and open trade and investment in the Asia-Pacific by 2010 for developed economies and 2020 for developing economies.” The main ideas of Bogor declarations are: strengthening the open multilateral trading system; enhancing trade and investment liberalization in the Asia-Pacific; and intensifying Asia-Pacific development cooperation. The Bogor goals of 1994 aimed at attaining this goal by 2010 for industrialized economies and 2020 for developing economies.

Today, Apec has 21 members including all major economies with a combined gross domestic Product of over $16 trillion. Over the past decade, Apec’s role has grown in extent and now encompasses business facilitation, trade liberalization, economic and technical cooperation, youth and women.

Since Apec is essentially a multilateral forum about discussing trade and financial cooperation in the Asia Pacific, the maritime disputes in the West Philippines Sea is not in the agenda of the summit. However, it could still be discussed in the sidelines.

A potential new, unanticipated, talking point that may come up during the meeting will be on terrorism especially in the aftermath of the coordinated Paris attacks that killed 129 and injured hundreds more. The highest level of security will of course be a major concern to us, the host country.

The overall subject of Apec 2015 will focus on the promotion and advancement of inclusive growth in the Asia-Pacific region, hence the Apec

Chairman President & Chief Executive Officer Board Member & Chief Legal Adviser Director of Operations Finance Officer Edgar M. Valmorida Circulation Manager

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

T u E S D AY : N O V E M B E R 17, 2 0 1 5

A8

opinion

ADELLE chuA EdiToR

lettertotheeditor@thestandard.com.ph

opinion

Welcoming our apec visitors

[ EDI TORI A L ]

EAgLE EYES dEAn TonY LA ViÑA

Looking good Hosting a high-profile international event is always an opportunity to showcase the gains made in a country. it is a source of pride that a country would have the ability to spend for preparations for an event of such magnitude and importance. imagine having heads of state or their deputies, housing them, feeding them, ensuring they are safe and comfortable and productive. in hosting this year’s Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit, the Philippines is asserting that it has come a long way and is now ready to embrace globalization and leadership on the international stage.

Unfortunately, no less than the President is mangling all the sense of unity that the event should be inspiring in all Filipinos. At a meeting of top regional executives on Monday, Mr. Aquino referred to a lost decade during which his immediate predecessor ran the country. “it is quite sad,” he said. “ if 10 years ago my predecessor had done what we’re doing now, i can only imagine where the Philippines would be.” sadder, however, is the fact that Mr. Aquino is on his last months in office but still has not shaken off the habit of blaming everybody else except himself for what goes wrong.

But for all the things that had gone well, he is quick to take the credit, regardless if it is deserved. in Mr. Aquino’s eyes, all things are bright and rosy—a view not shared by Filipinos who endured oppressive traffic conditions Monday morning just to get to their workplace.

And it’s not just because the roads are closed this week. The traffic and the poor public transportation system are just some of the daily realities the people have to deal with every day. of course, one cannot expect Mr. Aquino to acknowledge his role in the deterioration of living conditions in Metro Manila and in the other issues faced by the country. All those are attributable to his good-for-nothing predecessor. in his insistence on looking good, Mr. Aquino also ordered the release of funds so that the homeless roaming the streets where the dignitaries would pass could temporarily rent a place to make themselves scarce this week.

Does the President delight in making ordinary people suffer just so he could look good?

What prevail are resentment and bitterness when this could have been a good time to show the world the best things about being Filipino. talk about squandering an opportunity.

Hollande and aquino

Trending—if the few remaining Yellowists can still really muster up a trend—in social media pages favoring President noynoy Aquino is a lament about why the Philippine leader always gets blamed for everything, while no one blames France’s Francois Hollande for the terrorist attacks in Paris. This ghoulish attempt to make propaganda hay out of the

grim killings in France should not go unnoticed, least of all because there is simply no basis for comparing the two leaders.

But let’s hear it as rock drilon, kin of Senate President Franklin drilon, wrote it: “do the French blame their president for the barbaric massacre by iSiS last Friday wherein 129 lives were lost for not making France secure enough from terrorist attack [sic]? Are there calls for his resignation, rumors of a coup d’etat? Because here, everything, including calamities, gets blamed on President Aquino!”

Talk about your apples and oranges—or yellow lemons, really, to continue with the fruit analogy. First of all, as i recall, Hollande blockaded Paris and sealed of his entire country’s borders within an hour after the first iSiS attacks.

As online media commentator and critic JP Fenix pointed out, no one is blaming Aquino for calamities. “We blame him for his action (and lack of it) after the calamities,” Fenix said.

“Big difference.”

The sad truth about the current Aquino presidency is that, whenever a crisis situation de-

A9

The sad truth about Aquino is that, whenever a crisis situation develops, his first response is to disappear.

velops—whether it be a hostage-taking or a devastating typhoon—Aquino’s first response is invariably to disappear from view. And when he is most needed (like upon the arrival of the bodies of the 44 slain Special Action Force troopers or the anniversary of Super Typhoon ‘‘Yolanda’’), Aquino

always finds a way to be somewhere else far away.

Of course, only someone surnamed drilon would even entertain the idea that Aquino is the “blamee” when he always takes on the role of “blamer.”

Aquino’s go-to and long-standing response has always been to blame other people, whether

they be local government officials, previous presidencies like those of Ferdinand Marcos and gloria Arroyo and even the media, when he is accused of not getting the job done, calamity or no.

This is what led Aquino to say in his speech before the Apec CeO forum yesterday: “if 10 years ago, if my predecessor had done what we are doing now, i can only imagine where the Filipinos would be.”

So the next time you hear about poor noynoy, always being blamed, think

Published Monday to Sunday by Philippine Manila Standard Publishing Inc. at 6/F Universal Re Building, 106 Paseo de Roxas, corner Perea St., Legaspi Village, Makati City.

Telephone numbers 832-5554, 832-5556, 832-5558 (connecting all departments), (Editorial), 832-5546, (Advertising), 832-

about it: The man has never taken any blame for anything, much less apologized for anything—maybe that’s why his fans call him the best President this country ever had. *** Speaking of what happened in France, i pray that nothing of the sort happens here, especially this week, when we play host to 19 heads of state and their delegations for the Apec summit. But if something of the sort takes place, i fear that Aquino will definitely prove to be the polar opposite of what

5550. P.O. Box 2933, Manila Central Post Office, Manila. Website: www. manilastandardtoday.com E-mail: contact@thestandard.com.ph

MST ONLINE

can be accessed at: www.manilastandardtoday.com

MEMBER

PPI

Philippine Press Institute The National Association of Philippine Newspapers

Hollande is, for all the world to see.

After all, our homegrown Muslim fundamentalist-bandits, also known as the Abu Sayyaf group, have already pledged allegiance to iSiS and pulled off their share of atrocious attacks on foreigners and Filipinos alike for many years. While the authorities have promised that they have taken every measure possible to prevent Paris-like attacks from happening this week, the Apec summit must seem like a perfect opportunity for the local bandits

Anita F. Grefal Treasury Manager

Continued on A11

Continued on A10

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

We Are hosting this year’s Asia-Pacific economic Cooperation summit which will culminate with the economic Leaders’ Meeting from november 18 to 19. it will be attended by US President Barack Obama and Chinese President Xi Jinping, among others. russian President Vladimir Putin and indonesian President Joko Widodo, however, begged off, citing their attendance to ongoing investigations of Metrojet Flight 9268 and the 2015 Southeast Asian haze, respectively.

Over the years, Apec, since its establishment in 1989, has remained an important avenue in sustaining economic growth in the Asia-Pacific region.

The direction of Apec was formulated in the Bogor declaration made in the 1994 Apec economic Leaders’ Meeting in Bogor of indonesia which set the goals of, “free and open trade and investment in the Asia-Pacific by 2010 for developed economies and 2020 for developing economies.” The main ideas of Bogor declarations are: strengthening the open multilateral trading system; enhancing trade and investment liberalization in the Asia-Pacific; and intensifying Asia-Pacific development cooperation. The Bogor goals of 1994 aimed at attaining this goal by 2010 for industrialized economies and 2020 for developing economies.

Today, Apec has 21 members including all major economies with a combined gross domestic Product of over $16 trillion. Over the past decade, Apec’s role has grown in extent and now encompasses business facilitation, trade liberalization, economic and technical cooperation, youth and women.

Since Apec is essentially a multilateral forum about discussing trade and financial cooperation in the Asia Pacific, the maritime disputes in the West Philippines Sea is not in the agenda of the summit. However, it could still be discussed in the sidelines.

A potential new, unanticipated, talking point that may come up during the meeting will be on terrorism especially in the aftermath of the coordinated Paris attacks that killed 129 and injured hundreds more. The highest level of security will of course be a major concern to us, the host country.

The overall subject of Apec 2015 will focus on the promotion and advancement of inclusive growth in the Asia-Pacific region, hence the Apec

Chairman President & Chief Executive Officer Board Member & Chief Legal Adviser Director of Operations Finance Officer Edgar M. Valmorida Circulation Manager

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

A10 P10-BILLION FOR APEC? I WONDER what Kenneth Cobonpue has done for President BS Aquino III. The President seems to have an undying love for the popular furniture designer.

First, Mr. Aquino made Cobonpue and two others refurbish and redesign Naia Terminal One, labeled the worst airport in the world, at a cost of P1.3 billion. Now, Cobonpue has been paid millions of pesos to design the furnitures and grand table where the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation leaders will congregate for a summit on November 18 and 19.

Aimed to impress the world leaders, Cobonpue created modern Philippines with “Yoda Chairs” painted on light green, evocative of young rice stalks, to tie in with the rice terraces theme of the table.

Santa Banana, I have been to Cobonpue’s furniture shop along Arnaiz Street, at the Greenbelt Residences, in Makati, and I found the replica of those chairs most uncomfortable. They are good to look—they are innovative.

But I would feel uncomfortable sitting on them for hours on end.

The problem with modern art is that while they are good to look at, they sacrifice comfort. Give me a LazyBoy or any chair with a backrest anytime. *** P10 billion of the people’s money is being spent on the Apec summit 2015. But why is it being held in Metro Manila with all its horrendous traffic gridlocks?

Why not in Clark this time? It has been almost 20 years since the 1996 Subic Freeport summit, hosted by thenPresident Ramos, who spent only P500 million for the event. In fact, he made this suggestion to President Aquino.

The President must With the world worried by the IS, why explain how the money hold a summit of 21 was spent. world leaders in a single place when there are other sites in the Philippines like Clark, or even Cebu? These would be much easier to secure.

And my gulay, why all the fuss over Apec lanes, closing traffic in otherwise busy thoroughfares in Metro Manila, and even going to the extent of closing schools?

Finally, why pretend that there are no poor people who have made their homes along Roxas Boulevard, and give them P4,660 apiece to be able to rent other places this week? That’s hypocritical.

In 1996, then-President Ramos went to the extent of seeking the help of the private sector to assist the government in hosting the first Apec summit in the Philippines.

Why didn’t BS Aquino III do the same? Does he not have friends along Ayala Avenue?

Look at other Apec summits: In South Korea, it was held in Busan, in the south of Seoul. Russia used Russky Island. Indonesia had it in Bali; the US, in Honolulu.

BS Aquino III had all the years to prepare for this week’s Apec summit. Why didn’t he? We could have used billion of pesos in building infrastructure for the summit venue.

His priorities are certainly skewed. This can only reflect the administration’s ineptitude.

I have been told that Ambassador Marciano Paynor, in charge of preparations for the summit, was so frustrated that his recommendations to save money were not heeded by the President. Paynor could not see the President at all.

It was Cabinet Secretary Rene Almendras who was actually designated to be on top since he was the one who enjoyed the trust of the President.

But why am I not surprised that the President is so bullheaded that he refuses to heed the advice of someone outside his circle?

Metro Manila is it. So traffic is blocked, flights are cancelled, schools and offices are locked down, and street dwellers are transferred to other places.

It’s rather ironic and interesting that BS Aquino III must now settle with the decades-old, Marcos-built Philippines International Convention Center (PICC) for a summit venue when he could have done it elsewhere. *** Ramon Ang, president and chief operating officer of the San Miguel Corp., is on a roll with the biggest conglomerate in the country joining forces in a joint venture with Telstra Corp. of Australia to build a new mobile broadband company.

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OPINION

lettertotheeditor@thestandard.com.ph

LOVELY MAKES A COMEBACK ALMA Moreno is a figure from childhood. In grade school while doing my homework in the living room, I would see her dancing onstage dressed in the then-famous “tangga”.

She would be lifted by her group of dancers in a supposedly alluring number. Moreno, whose real name is Vanessa, was “loveliness” personified.

Later on she receded into the background as younger actors and dancers became more famous. She became involved in numerous relationships and then in local politics, and then everybody, except perhaps her constituents in Parañaque, seemed to have forgotten about her.

Now Her Loveliness is making a comeback—and not in any possible flattering way. Going viral in the past few days is a video of her interview with Karen Davila of the ABS-CBN News Channel. Davila interviews various political personalities in her daily morning show and that morning it was Moreno, who is running for the Senate under the United Nationalist Alliance of Vice President Jejomar Binay, who was placed on the hot seat.

Moreno used to be the subject of jokes years ago for her imperfect grammar, but at least the 1980s was free from the cruelty of social media.

Today, the painful-to-watch conversation between the two women gets played and replayed with each share and view.

Remember how you would feel while watching the question-andanswer portion of a beauty contest, where the candidate gave answers that made you cringe—and then flip the channel altogether? The Headstart interview is akin to that.

Of course, this is different. You don’t hit the pause button because this is not just another beauty going for the crown. This is a person who wants us to bring her to the Senate, craft our laws, undertake investigations in aid of legislation.

And so no matter how painful and disturbing it is, we watch.

HOLLANDE... From A9 to show their solidarity with their comrades-in-arms in Europe and the Middle East.

Right now, even as the Apec summit is being held, the Abu Sayyaf still holds three foreigners and one Filipino hostage and is demanding P1 billion each in ransom for their release. And while the Abu Sayyaf is our most high-profile problem, they’re not even our only security and peace and order problem.

From everything to the chaos on the streets to the explosion of petty

CHASING HAPPY ADELLE CHUA It’s not really her “experience as a legislation” that should bring us to tears. This is no place for snobbery.

Some of us happened to be raised in English-speaking households so the language comes like second nature.

Some attended good schools that taught us the rules and taught them well. Some make a living out of decent grammar.

For some, it is not an issue. That’s all right, too, so long as one makes oneself understood and makes no misrepresentation or affectations.

What is sad about the interview is what it tells us about how politicians (not) think.

First, there seems to be no regard for the specific skill sets and attributes for each position. “Kailangan pa ba sagutin yan?” Moreno told her interviewer on national television, while she was being asked about her reservations on the Reproductive Health Law. With these five words, Moreno revealed so much of herself. Yes, she has had some experience as a local executive and local legislator. Yes, she may be popular among fellow councilors and may have touched base with the people in the grassroots. To be a senator, however, requires different competencies altogether. Aside from making laws, senators at the very least would have to be familiar with existing laws so that they would know what the gaps are and how to address them.

Moreno tells us she wants to be senator, but she could not even expound satisfactorily on discrimination, women’s issues, the Bangsamoro Basic Law, political dynasties, and tax reform. She chided her interviewer because “pinapahirapan mo ako (you are making my life difficult)” Whoever said the lives of public servants

and serious crimes, most Filipinos believe that there is a real breakdown in peace and order. Furthermore, they think that this President and the people who want to replace him in the elections next year simply do not have the capability or the inclination to get tough on crime.

Who is going to protect us from people who violate the law with utter impunity? Not this President— and not, apparently, anyone else on the horizon.

Perhaps many have forgotten, but the rise of Davao City Mayor Rodrigo Duterte as an attractive presi-

San Miguel is also ready to construct the $1.55 billion, 22.8-kilometer rail system that would connect North Avenue at the corner of Edsa in Quezon City, passing through Commonwealth Avenue, Regalado Avenue and Quirino Highway to the proposed intermodal terminal in San Jose del Monte City, Bulacan with 14 stations.

With the entry of San Miguel and Telstra of Australia into the mobile telephone business, the duopoly of Smart and Globe in the mobile telephone business is threatened so much so Smart Communications and Globe Telecom want to share with some of SMB-Telstra’s very powerful frequency band. San Miguel has four telecommunications companies under its portfolio. And with Ang’s refusal to share its frequency band with Globe and Smart, we can almost predict that the consumers will have a better mobile telephone company to choose from.

I am excited as Ramon Ang is with San Miguel being

should be easy?

There is also the notion of clamor, real or imagined. According to Moreno, many people have been egging her to run for higher office, perhaps because she has established herself among her peers. People do feel flattered when others tell them they should seek a higher elective position. Perhaps they feel important? But what good would “udyok” do—why listen to others when the person being urged to run is not sure he or she can take on the job in the first place?

We have had enough reluctant candidates who were “prevailed upon” to run by others even if they did not want to. Look at how they behaved or performed in office afterwards.

Moreno said she had sought guidance from God in deciding to run for the Senate. She asked for a sign. Her multiple sclerosis never once surfaced in all the time she was going around various provinces getting the people’s pulse. And now she has the support of the opposition coalition. She took all these to be a “yes” from heaven. But the interview should be a big sign for us all.

This is not to put somebody down for her lack of knowledge or bad grammar. I can just imagine how Ms. Moreno and her family must be feeling now that she has become a laughingstock in social media. I am sure she means well—but everybody means well, at some point.

This is, instead, to express outrage at how low we have set our expectations from our public officials. It is not enough that they mean well, or come from prominent families, or was once popular moviestars or sports heroes.

They must look within themselves and recognize whether their skills and inclinations match the positions they aspire for. Humility is leadership.

And if there is a mismatch—woe to those who give them the jobs anyway, and then complain. Nothing lovely about that at all. adellechua@gmail.com

dential candidate—never mind if he has repeatedly rejected calls for him to run—is explained by nothing else except the widely held perception that he would bust all criminal syndicates and punish those who violate the law. With Duterte insisting he is not running, some people still hold out the slimmest of hopes that he will change his mind—a testament to the desire of most Filipinos for someone, anyone, to save them from lawlessness and criminality.

That didn’t happen in Aquino’s watch. And it doesn’t look like it’s going to happen in anyone else’s.

ready to construct MRT 7. I was privy to the project when Israeli businessman Eli Levin, who was then president of Universal LRT Company, was its main proponent. Levin presented to then President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo the project that would surely decongest Edsa.

Unfortunately, the National Economic and Development Authority Internal Coordinating Council continued to delay the project until I even had to sell out the majority to Salvador “Buddy” Zamora, a known BS Aquino contributor and friend.

Ramon Ang came into the picture, when Zamora could not make a go of the project because of lack of financial backing. He sold out the majority of the project to San Miguel. Ang had since been able to get from Neda a “performance undertaking” from the finance department, the conglomerate is set to construct the project first quarter of 2016.

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OPINION lettertotheeditor@thestandard.com.ph

Isko Moreno Is a lIabIlIty to Grace Poe OUTGOING Manila Vice Mayor and former film actor Isko Moreno is annoyed with the four disqualification cases filed against Senator Grace Poe before the Commission on Elections. The cases seek to disqualify Poe from running for president in 2016 mainly because she is not a naturalborn citizen of the Philippines —a requirement imposed by the Constitution.

Because he is on his last term as Manila vice mayor, and considering that the incumbent city mayor, Joseph Estrada, will get reelected easily, Moreno is running for senator under Poe’s ticket. In a clumsy attempt to defend Poe, Moreno declared that somebody whom he refuses to identify is behind the filing of the disqualification cases against Poe, and that this mystery person will certainly benefit from Poe’s disqualification.

Moreno also decried the timing of the cases, since nobody questioned Poe’s citizenship when she ran for senator in 2013. Belittling the citizenship issue, Moreno insisted that voters should be the ones to decide whether or not Poe should be president.

The petitioners who filed separate disqualification cases against Poe in the Comelec —an ex-public prosecutor; a former senator who supported Poe’s father in the 2004 presidential campaign; a professor of Political Science; and a law school dean—acted within

their rights as registered voters when they filed their respective cases. They are also competent to pursue their cases on their own accord.

By branding them as fronts for an unidentified individual with partisan political interests, Moreno assailed the reputation of the four petitioners.

Since being branded as a dummy (as that is what Moreno is virtually calling the petitioners) is defamatory, Moreno had better substantiate his accusation. Since Moreno has taken up courses in Law, he knows he cannot make unfounded defamatory remarks against registered voters who exercised their right to question the qualifications of a candidate for the highest office in the land.

A presidential election is a long, partisan political fight between and among candidates often fueled by vested interest groups. Thus put, even assuming that one or all of Poe’s adversaries is or are behind the four disqualification cases against her, what is new about this? By golly, since the four petitioners are obviously not supporters of Poe, and they favor some other candidate for president, the four petitioners also qualify as Poe’s adversaries. Whether Moreno likes it or not, Poe’s adversaries stand to benefit if Poe is disqualified by the Comelec.

Perhaps Moreno was referring to any of the vice presidential candidates who, if

welcoming... From A9

ing the Ramos presidency. In the run-up to that summit, we also had controversial issues to deal with: the banning of Nobel Peace Prize awardee and former East Timor President Jose Ramos-Horta (at that time, he was a leader of the anti-Indonesia resistance movement) from coming to the Philippines, the Marcopper mining disaster, and the Ozone Disco tragedy. At the same time, with a booming economy and after successfully dealing with the power and the Flor Contemplacion crises. It was an auspicious time for the country which was hailed a new tiger cub economy; a leap forward from its past sobriquet as the “sick man of Asia.”

This year, our hosting of Apec is marred by the bad state of our infrastructure that essentially has closed down Metro Manila and travel for many Filipinos and residents, by the bullet-planting scam in our main airport, and most seriously by the failure of government to address the lumad killings in Mindanao. While I support completely the lumad

2015 theme, “Building Inclusive Economies, Building a Better World. The Philippines shall seek to mainstream and pursue its priorities into the agenda and economic policy identified as follows: Investing in Human Capital Development; Fostering Small and Medium Enterprises’ (SMEs) Participation in Regional and Global Markets; Building Sustainable and Resilient Communities; and Enhancing the Regional Economic Integration Agenda.

Apec is an important forum for member countries.

Insofar as the Philippines is concerned, 85 percent of our exports, and 70 percent of imports come from Apec member economies. These figures alone will highlight the importance of undertaking discussions with our economic partners that will have significant impact on our future— economic or otherwise.

This year is the second time the Philippines will host Apec.

The first time was in 1996 dur-

elected vice president, will be constitutionally mandated to succeed Poe as president—if the latter wins in the elections but is disqualified after the polls. Moreno may be treading on thin ice because Poe’s political partner, Senator Chiz Escudero, is himself a vice presidential candidate like the others.

Likewise, Moreno argued that the disqualification cases against Poe in the Comelec are ill-timed because nobody questioned Poe’s citizenship when she ran for senator in 2013. The argument is specious.

Under the Omnibus Election Code, disqualification cases against a candidate for president shall be filed after, and not before, the candidate files his or her certificate of candidacy. All four disqualification cases against Poe were filed within the period allowed by law.

The fact that nobody questioned Poe’s citizenship when she ran for the Senate in 2013 does not warrant the conclusion that the disqualification cases against her in the Comelec are ill-timed. For one, the Senate Electoral Tribunal (SET) allows a registered voter to file a disqualification case involving citizenship issues

against an incumbent senator at any time during his or her incumbency. The disqualification case currently pending against Poe in the SET complies with the rules of the tribunal.

Although President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo got herself reelected in 2004, many voters doubted the validity of her victory against Grace Poe’s father, box office king Fernando Poe Jr. (FPJ). That doubt in the minds of the voters lingered all the way to 2013 when Grace Poe, who had no experience in elective office, won first place in the senatorial race. FPJ supporters were obviously concerned with vindicating FPJ through his daughter’s election, and not about ascertaining if FPJ’s daughter is a natural-born citizen of the Philippines. Truth to tell, Poe was simply fortunate that nobody questioned her citizenship when she ran for the Senate in 2013.

Somebody should tell Moreno that Poe is disqualified from running for president because she is not a natural-born citizen of the Philippines, and that she does not automatically become a natural-born citizen of the country simply because nobody questioned her citizenship when she ran for senator three years earlier.

Like the rest of Poe’s supporters, Moreno insists that the people should decide whether or not Poe should be

president. That proposition is legally untenable. While sovereignty resides in the people, popular sovereignty must coexist with constitutionalism —the supremacy of the Constitution. The late Supreme Court Justice Cecilia MuñozPalma once pointed out that the Constitution binds both the government and the people so much so that when the Constitution mandates a restriction, that mandate binds both the government and the people in whom sovereignty resides. Accordingly, since the Constitution mandates that the president must be a natural-born citizen of the Philippines, neither the government nor the people can disobey that mandate.

Moreno’s shallow remarks are nothing new. During the incumbency of Manila Mayor Alfredo Lim, Vice Mayor Moreno presided over the city council which enacted an ordinance allowing the controversial oil depot in Pandacan to remain there despite its manifest threat to public safety.

When the Supreme Court declared Moreno’s ordinance unconstitutional in 2014, Moreno claimed that the city council had already enacted a “new ordinance,” this time calling for the removal of the oil depot. Critics revealed, however, that Moreno’s “new ordinance” was illegal because it was never published, and that it came out only after the Supreme Court announced its ruling.

and would defend their right to protest even during this time, I am also concerned that this could lose them the support of the general public.

From a foreign policy point of view, the relationship with China is of course, at this time, tense and challenging. It is to the credit of President Xi for coming. In my view, it would be extremely impolite if we embarrass him in any way with protests or any similar act. At that time of the 1996 Apec summit, China had just finished building huts in Mischief Reef in the Spratly Islands, activities which, while that alarmed the Philippines, had yet to escalate as an international issue. Even then, President Ramos expressed optimism that the Leaders’ Summit could be an opportunity to improve relations with China.

Hopefully, we could also have a breakthrough with China during the summit, even if just a reopening of conversations among our senior officials.

I will be remiss if I do not mention that there are some who expressed misgivings and are critical of the inability of

the country to take advantage of being a member of Apec.

Others have also questioned how Apec represents the worst of globalization and has not really resulted in a better Philippines, one that is more inclusive and just. I agree with that critique but would like to have another vision of a Pacific community articulated.

Regardless of how one feels about Apec, I think that this is a moment of unity for the country. I was in government in 1996, serving under President Fidel Ramos, to me the best president the country has ever had in his ability to rally us all together for the future.

It was a pleasure to succeed in hosting the Apec summit then. As an undersecretary, I was a first-hand witness then of the brilliant, visionary and disciplined leadership of Foreign Affairs Undersecretary Frederico Macaranas to deliver the best hosting of Apec ever up to that time.

I wish the same for the Aquino administration. Certainly, I have seen that same leadership in the preparatory

meetings. I would like to particularly commend how our government and private sector have come together to get the two sectors to come together (although I wish there was an equivalent reaching out as well to the social sector and to people’s organizations).

Among others, National Competitiveness Council Co-Chair Bill Luz and corporate leaders Doris Magsaysay-Ho, Jaime Zobel de Ayala and Tony Tan Caktiong have taken the lead in this effort and have done a marvelous job including in the meetings last week. In the words of a friend of mine from New York, who attended the pre-Leader’s Summit activities, our hosting has been the best ever in terms of privatesector engagement.

To our Apec guests, welcome! This is not a perfect country but it is a beautiful one. The people can be annoying at times, both demanding and submissive, but we are certainly interesting. Enjoy us!

Facebook: Dean Tony La Vina Twitter: tonylavs

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sports sports@thestandard.com.ph

Review of Palaro, Batang Pinoy sought IN THE light of the implementation of the K-12 curriculum, independent presidential candidate Sen. Grace Poe has called on the Department of Education to review and redefine the rules and regulations governing its sports development programs like the Batang Pinoy and Palarong Pambansa.

“With an additional two years in the country’s high-school program, regulations on school levels and age requirements, particularly in the Palarong Pambansa, should be reviewed by the DepEd,” said Poe. Poe pointed out that questions about age may prove to be contentious in the future, consider-

ing that the growth rate among adolescents speed up between the ages of 15 and 18 years.

She made the call ahead of the 59th edition of the Palarong Pambansa, which will be hosted by the province of Albay in August next year. The nationwide multievent competition is an annual event organized by the DepEd

that is participated in by studentathletes from private and public elementary and high schools.

And her call may come at a no better time since the K-12 program will have its full implementation at the start of the next schoolyear with the entry of the country’s first batch of Grade 12 students.

“For sure, many records will be broken because the participants would be two years older than usual and presumable stronger and more experienced,” Poe noted.

As such, DepEd Palaro organizers may even want to create new categories or levels of competition to allow more student-athletes to

compete at the level of their true potentials.

“Whereas, the Palaro may have had only elementary and high school level of competitions, these could be redefined to elementary, junior and senior high school levels,” she said.

And with the expected surge in the quality of competition, Poe said DepEd should also be prepared to preserve the records of past Palaro competitions “so that we will never forget achievements of those kids who had their roots in the DepEdsponsored competition and went on to carve their niche in higher levels of competition.”

Serbia’s Novak Djokovic reacts after beating Japan’s Kei Nishikori during their men’s singles group stage match on day one of the ATP World Tour Finals tennis tournament in London. Djokovic won the match 6-1, 6-1. AFP

Rory’s chasers close in SHANGHAI—Rory McIlroy still has his nose in front in the Race to Dubai but the 2015 European Tour season is set for a sprint to the line after his challengers closed in at the weekend.

Second-placed Danny Willett narrowed the gap Sunday to an almost negligible 1,613 points after McIlroy’s decision to skip Shanghai’s $7 million BMW Masters, the last event before this week’s season-ending DP World Tour Championship in Dubai.

“It’s going to be close, but regardless of what happens I guess I have to beat Rory in Dubai,” said Willett, whose bogey on the par-three 17th at Lake Malaren Sunday left him tied 28th and cost him the chance to tee up on Thursday as the race leader. AFP

Pinoys log 4 slots in main draw

Djokovic, Federer Eagles, Deltas rule Fr. Martin Cup caging THE Ateneo Blue Eagles, getting big baskets from in strong starts Anton Asistio, defeated the Arellano University LONDON—Novak Djokovic made a flying start to his bid for a record fourth successive ATP Tour Finals title with a 6-1, 6-1 rout of Japan’s Kei Nishikori, while Roger Federer cruised to a 6-4, 6-2 win against Tomas Berdych on Sunday.

Defending champion Djokovic and six-time winner Federer have dominated the prestigious season-ending event for the last decade, lifting the trophy eight times between them in the last nine years.

Djokovic arrived at London’s O2 Arena hoping to win the title for a fifth time and in the process become the first player to lift the trophy four years in a row.

The world number one showed why he is the firm favourite to do just that, demolishing Nishikori in 65 minutes to record his 23rd successive win and his 79th victory in 84 matches this year.

With two more group ties remaining against Federer and Berdych, Djokovic’s stroll by the banks of the River Thames was a significant statement of intent to his rivals.

Chiefs, 107-100, while the Infant Jesus Academy Deltas of Pampanga swamped Manila Patriotic School, 81-65, to clinch the senior and junior titles, respectively, of the 13th Fr. Martin Division 2 Cup basketball tournament last Sunday at the Far Eastern University gym in Morayta.

The 5’10 Asistio struck with a career-best 45 points, including seven triples as he led the Ateneo Blue Eagles to their second senior crown since 2013.

The Deltas drew double-digit performances from four mainstays as they became the first provincial team to win the junior crown in this cagefest, according to commissioner Robert de la Rosa.

Gil Mercado shot 17 points, while JB Calma had 15 points, Dolrich Garcia and Jeremiah Pangalangan made 13 and 10, respectively, for the Deltas. On the other hand, CJ Lumague topscored with 20 for the Patriots.

“Masarap ang panalo na ito. We proved that this tournament is not just for Manila teams,” said Deltas coach Allan Trinidad.

Asistio, stepping up for CJ Perez, who played with a sprain, unleashed three consecutive treys in the last 1:01, and sealed the deal in favor the Blue Eagles with their 101-95 advantage.

His timely triples came moments after the Jerry

The Ateneo Blue Eagles show their trophy after winning the senior crown.

Codinera-coached Chiefs tied the count off a triple from Michael Nulud, with 3:32 to go.

After Perez split his charities and kept Ateneo slightly ahead, 92-91, the Chiefs went on to overtake the Blue Eagles, through Lervin Flores’ drive off Tyke Bano’s pass. 93-91.

“It’s our defense. We were able to shut down one of their shooters. The players stepped up, and and some of them showed that they are ready for Team A next year,” said Blue Eagles coach Yuri Escueta.

It was the Blue Eagles’ second crown since they last took it in 2013.

Michael Canete powered the Chiefs with 14 points, while Flores delivered 14, Michael Nulud and Ariel Aguilar had 14.

DIEGO Dalisay upended Vietnamese Phuong Van Nguyen, 6-3, 6-3, while Vince Salas turned back Japanese Yusuke Nishitani, 7-6 (1), 6-1, as the Filipino bets grabbed the four remaining berths in the main draw of the PSCPhinma International Juniors Tennis Championships which unfolds today the Manila Polo Club in Makati City.

Chris Prulla eased out Manuel Balce III, 6-4, 6-1, while Noel Damian repulsed Justin Suarez, 6-2, 5-7, 6-2, as the local players took the four seats disputed in the two-day qualifier of the annual Grade 4 ITF tournament backed by major sponsors Phinma Group of Companies and the Philippine Sports Commission.

That should boost the Filipinos’ chances in the boys’ side as the four join wild cards Arthur Craig Pantino, Michael Francis Eala II, Cenon Gonzales and Joel Atienza, and John Bryan Otico, the lone Filipino in the main draw, in the chase for top honors and ranking points in the week-long tournament backed by Mariposa Foundation, Palm Rock Residencs and Dunlop Sport, also the tournament’s distributor of official balls. AFP

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sports sports@thestandard.com.ph

Future of doping war in spotlight

Ronda Rousey of the US holds her lip after being knocked out by compatriot Holly Holm by a kick to the neck to end the UFC Bantamweight title fight in Melbourne. AFP

Rousey vows: I will be back SYDNEY—Dethroned UFC world champion Ronda Rousey vowed Monday she would be back after “a little bit of time” following her stunning knockout defeat to Holly Holm in their title fight in Melbourne.

Holm pulled off one of the biggest upsets in the Ultimate Fighting Championship when she knocked out previously unbeaten Rousey in the second round to claim the world bantamweight title on Sunday.

Rousey, tagged the world’s most feared female prizefighter, was hospitalised after Holm sent her crashing to the canvas in the second round of their bout with a savage kick to her jaw.

But the US cult figure assured her supporters she has no serious health concerns and would be back in the octagon before long.

“I just wanted to thank everyone for the love and support,” Rousey said in a statement posted on Instagram. “I appreciate the concerns about my health, but I’m fine.

“As I had mentioned before, I’m going to take a little bit of time, but I’ll be back.”

There were reports after the fight of a re-match between the newly-crowned champion Holm and Rousey.

Rousey’s nutritionist and conditioning expert Mike Dolce said he expected her to rebound after her unexpected defeat.

“She will be back, absolutely,

she is an amazing athlete,” Dolce told reporters in Sydney.

“Ronda has lost before, she lost at the Olympic Games and I think that was a great test for her and look at how she came back, she came back a multi-time world champion.

“So I will be expecting the same type of rebound after this.”

Rousey claimed a bronze medal in judo at the 2008 Beijing Olympics before fighting her way to the top of the UFC and Dolce said she would draw on that experience ahead of a probable rematch against Holm.

“We go back to the gym, we go back to the basics, we go back to what made her a champion in the first place which is just hard work, sacrifice, dedication and focus on being the best in the world,” he said.

LOS ANGELES—The World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) is expected to rule against Russia’s anti-doping body at a key meeting in Colorado on Wednesday which will aim to map out future strategies for the global war on drugs.

WADA’s hierarchy meets to assess the findings of its independent panel, which uncovered a wide-ranging state-supported doping program in Russia that has plunged athletics into the biggest crisis in its history.

The IAAF on Friday provisionally suspended Russian athletes from international competition, potentially putting their participation at next year’s Rio de Janeiro Olympics in jeopardy.

WADA’s executive committee will meet in Colorado Springs, outside Denver on Tuesday before a full meeting of the agency’s foundation board on Wednesday, where officials are expected to rule that Russia’s anti-doping body (RUSADA) has been non-compliant with its code.

The board will also consider a range of recommendations made by the independent panel to strengthen WADA. The global anti-doping body had already suspended Moscow’s main drug-testing laboratory, whose director resigned last week.

WADA President Craig Reedie said in a statement on Friday the current scandal represented the “tip of the iceberg” and that a new approach was needed to keep drugs cheats firmly on the defensive.

“To truly tackle the scourge of doping, the anti-doping community must further improve the approach that has been employed to date; and, above all, the resources that are attributed to it,” he said.

Reedie said while WADA had “punched above its weight” in the first 16 years of its existence, there was broad recognition that the body required greater resources to tackle doping effectively.

Biboy places 6th, Liza ranks 12th in World Cup LAS VEGAS, Nevada—Former World FIQ champion Biboy Rivera and Liza del Rosario of the Philippines checked in sixth and 12th, respectively, as the 51st Qubica AMF Bowling World Cup international finals unwrapped yesterday in Sam’s Town, Las Vegas here.

Rivera rolled an eight-game series of 1764 pins to stay in good position to advance into the second round of the men’s competition.

Del Rosario, considered one of Asia’s top lady pintopplers, also made a strong bid to make the next round after the opening eight games.

Singapore’s Muhammad Jarish Goh, a 20-year-old student showed the way with 1855 for an average of 231.88.

Close behind on 1846 is Francois Louw of South Africa. Louw was ninth when the event was held in Toulon, France in 2010, missing out on the top eight in a one-game roll-off.

Ildemaro Ruiz Jr. of Venezuela came in third on 1798. Ildemaro has also played in the World Cup before, bowling a 300 game in St. Petersburg in 2007.

The men’s high game after the opening set is 289 with three players on that mark – Louw, Ildemaro and Kamron Doyle of the United States.

Two-time champion Aumi Guerra of the Dominican Republic grabbed the women’s lead with 1738, just a pin ahead of defending champion Clara Guerrero of Colombia.

Geraldine Ng Su Yi of Singapore checked in third on 1714.

Two returning champions – Shannon Pluhowsky of the US and Kerrie Ryan-Ciach of Canada – are also in the top 24 after the opening eight games.

The men and women contenders will play two more eight-game sets for the top 24 spots in the next round.

SPARTA opens calisthenics academy SPORTS and Recreational Training Arena, also known as SPARTA, recently opened the first and only calisthenics academy in the country.

SPARTA has a sprawling space of almost 10,000 square meters right smack in the middle of Mandaluyong City. The entire facility is being developed phase by phase. Early this year, it initially opened the country’s first and only FIFA 1-star certified indoor football field.

“We envision a sports facility which turns ordinary individuals into modern-day Spartans wherein

they can overcome their own limitations through constant practice and focused training that challenge them beyond their limits,” said its owner, TV host and football player Amanda Fernandez.

The Sparta Calisthenics Academy was launched this November with the aim of training athletes and non-athletes using bodyweight movements. The benefits of calisthenics include being able to build Spartan-like strength, power, balance, endurance, proprioception, and of course, aesthetics.

Calisthenics comes from the Greek words, “Kalos” and “Sthenos” which means beauty and strength.

The ‘KALOS’ program is designed to build one’s physique like a Spartan. This includes a strong and defined abdominal region, shoulders, arms, legs, back and chest. Whether for fat loss or muscle building, this program focuses on building the body through specialized bodyweight exercises tailored to any fitness level from beginner to advanced.

Sprint champ. Dale Earnhardt Jr. (left), driver of the #88 Nationwide

Chevrolet, and crew chief Greg Ives celebrate in victory lane after winning the rain-shortened NASCAR Sprint Cup Series Quicken Loans Race for Heroes 500 at Phoenix International Raceway in Avondale, Arizona. AFP

T UE S DAY : N O V E M B E R 1 7 , 2 0 1 5

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SPORTS sports@thestandard.com.ph

Toughest Fil-Am golf meet expected

Chess champ. Vitaly Sivuk of Ukraine (second from left) beams as he holds his trophy after ruling the 2015 Philippine International Chess Championship last weekend. With him (from left) are runner-up GM Anton Anton Demchenko of Russia, third place GM Anton Shomoev, also of Russia, NCFP Executive Director GM Jayson Gonzales, Atty. Edmundo Legaspi NCFP Director representing Chairman Prospero Pichay and Treasurer Red Dumuk during the awarding ceremony at the Subic Bay Peninsular Hotel, Olongapo City. Zambales.

Tokyo to beef up 2020 security after Paris attacks TOKYO—Japan’s Olympics Minister Toshiaki Endo on Monday promised to make public safety the “top priority” of the 2020 Tokyo Games following the deadly Paris terror attacks.

“Once again it shows how difficult security is,” Endo told local reporters, referring to the coordinated attacks in the French capital on Friday that killed at least 129 people. “Until now Japan has been viewed as a country with relatively few security fears.

“However, these kinds of terrorist threats are spreading to countries throughout the

world,” Endo said.

He added: “Cyber security and anti-terror measures will become the top priority in the run-up to the 2020 Tokyo Olympics and Paralympics.”

Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga, meanwhile, reiterated the determination of Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe to tighten security ahead of the Olympics, the 2019 Rugby World

Cup and next year’s G7 summit in the western city of Shima.

“Following the recent incidents, the prime minister has directed with all the more urgency the need for anti-terror measures,” he told a press briefing.

“The government is gathering information about relevant terror threats and taking all the necessary steps to increase protection of the country’s borders.”

Three suicide bombers blew themselves up, killing four people, outside the Stade de France as the national team played Germany in a friendly match after failing to penetrate stadium security as part of attacks at six locations

throughout Paris.

“The security measures of course will include the French embassy, important facilities and installations and places of public gathering,” added Suga.

“Japan will host the Olympics, next year we host the summit.

We need to do everything in our power to ensure the best possible counter-measures to terror.

“With big sports events such as rugby and the Olympics backto-back, these terrorist incidents will serve as an extra incentive to strengthen our defences.”

Organized acts of terrorism carried out against civilians are extremely rare in Japan. AFP

BAGUIO CITY—It could be the toughest Fil-Am Golf Invitational Tournament in years.

This is how Fil-Am vice chairman Tim Allen describes the 66th staging of the country’s biggest and oldest golf tournament, which could draw more than 2,000 players in two weeks of golfing.

Allen said during the Fil-Am presscon Monday at the Camp John Hay Golf Club that stiff competition will not be in just one, two or even three teams and only in the Fil Championship flight, but will be across divisions.

Allen is in the thick of classifying players and teams for the tournament, which kicks off on Nov. 18 and ends on Dec. 5.

Manila Southwoods is set to defend the top Fil Championship title when games start late November in the second round of competition. Southwoods has won a total of eight titles.

Southwoods won last year, a whopping 17-point victory over the Rupert Zaragoza- led Ventureslink—AAV Builders—Robros. It was also a showdown in the individual race, which the pint-sized Zaragoza lost to Southwoods Justine Quiban when he scored a twounder total of 166, against the three under 167 of the Carmona, Cavite based player. The Fil-Am uses the modified Pal Stableford format where a par is worth two points.

“This is tougher since we will see also the return of Luisita’s and other golf clubs,” said Allen.

Luisita was a regular fixture of the Fil-Am until the 1994 season when most of the clubs left to hold a rival tournament, the former Tradition.

San Miguel, which is the title presentor of the Fil-Am, is also coming in with a stronger team to better its third-place finish last year, 46 off the winner, in a tie with 2013 champion Mizuno but finished higher due to countback.

Tamaraws stun 2-time champs FAR Eastern UniversityNRMF scored the last seven points of the game to hand two-time champion Hobe Bihon-Cars Unlimited its first defeat of the season, 6760, Saturday Night in the 5th DELeague Basketball Tournament at the Marikina Sports Center, Marikina City.

After Hobe tied the game for the last time at 60-all with 2:39 minutes left, FEU-NRMF stepped up its defense en route to a 7-0 windup.

Prince Eze top-scored for FEU-NRMF with 14 points, to go with 9 rebounds, with teammate Bright Akhuetie chipping in 12 points and 9 boards.

The Tamaraws now lead the league with a 3-0 standing.

Hobe’s Bon-Bon Custodio,

Games on Thursday (Marikina Sports Center) 7 p.m. - Far Eastern University-NRMF vs Our Lady of Fatima University 8:30 p.m.- Hobe Bihon-Cars Unlimited vs Fly Dragon Logistics Games on Saturday (Nov. 21) 7 p.m. – Macway Travels vs Power Innovation Philippines 8:30 p.m.- Far Eastern University-NRMF vs Mindanao Agilas

on the other hand, came up with 23 points and 6 rebounds for the 2012 and 2013 DELeague Champs.

In another game last Saturday, Sta. Lucia Land Inc. prevailed over Macways Travel, 82-79.

Eric Rodriquez came up with 25 points and 4 rebounds as teammate Aguara Jeffakins added 21 points and 7 rebounds for the Realtors, while

Niño Marquez, in turn, scored 24 points for Macway Travel, which suffered its first defeat in the season.

Meanwhile, Austen Morris Associate reigned over Power Innovation, 90-86, as the league supported by PSBank, Accel Sportswear, PCA -Marivalley, Angel’s Burger, Mckie’s Construction Equipment Sales and Rentals, Luyong Panciteria, Azucar Boulangerie and Patisserie, JAJ Quick Print Advertising, Mall Tile Experts Corporation, Jay Marcelo Tires, Polar Glass and Aluminum Supply, and Mr. and Mrs. Dot Escalona, continued Sunday night.

DELeague will resume on Thursday with a face-off between Far Eastern University-

Shooter Olagu of Hobe Bihon-Cars Unlimited tries to score against the tough defense of Far Eastern University-NRMF’s Prince Eze and Fright Akhuete Saturday night in the 5th DELeague Basketball Tournament. Far Eastern University-NRMF won, 67-60.

NRMF and Our Lady of Fatima University in the first game, followed by Hobe Bihon-Cars Unlimited against

Fly Dragon Logistics in the second game.

Tickets are sold at P10 apiece.

T UE S DAY : N O V E M B E R 1 7 , 2 0 1 5

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SPORTS sports@thestandard.com.ph

Roach okays Pacman-Crawford

By Ronnie Nathanielsz

HALL of Fame trainer Freddie Roach has no problem with eight-division world champion Manny Pacquiao fighting undefeated World Boxing Organization super lightweight champion Terence Crawford in his last scheduled fight in April next year.

Roach, quoted by Boxing Scene in an interview with TV Azteca,

revealed that he had spoken to Top Rank promoter Bob Arum,

who asked him if he would be willing to have Pacquiao fight Crawford.

“I said yes, but the final decision is up to Manny,” said Roach.

The longtime trainer of Pacquiao said that while “the next opponent may be Crawford, but it also could be Floyd Mayweather Jr, if he comes out of retirement, which I think will happen and I think he (Floyd) will return to the ring.”

Roach maintained that

should there be a rematch, he was sure, Pacquiao “will make a much better fight than what he was able to do in his first fight.”

The trainer was referring to the May 2 “Fight of the Century,” which Mayweather won, and with Pacquiao complaining he hurt his right shoulder in the fourth round and underwent surgery five days later to repair a tear in its rotator cuff.

Arum, who also promotes

Crawford has been pushing for a Pacquiao fight at the expense of Britain’s World Boxing Councik welterweight silver champion Amir Khan, who claimed he had sent a fight contract to Pacquiao, but hadn’t received a response.

The two fighters met earlier this year in a London Gym and agreed to a fight late this year, but the Mayweather showdown pushed through and Amir Khan was left empty handed.

FIFA bans Nepal chief for corruption

Score one for Abby. Petron’s Abby Marano (right) scores one against the defense of Philips Gold’s Alexis Olgard in a Philippine Super Liga Grand Prix game at The Arena in San Juan. ROMAN PROSPERO

The Preacher’s Daughter ARMAN D. ARMERO

STEP BACK

“TO be the best, you have to fight the best.”

No, I didn’t say that, although I wish I did. It was mixed martial artist Holly Holm, who delivered the statement before her fight with the now former UFC bantamweight champion Ronda Rousey for the bantamweight title that the latter held.

The 34-year-old Holm, who is six years older than Rousey, did not only fight the “best” but fought the fight of her life against her erstwhile unbeaten opponent, coming up with well-timed strikes and capping the fight with a vicious kick to the head that dropped Rousey like a log.

Two punches to the head later, and Rousey was out cold, as Holm was declared the new bantamweight champion. The

fight ended at exactly 59 seconds into the second round, ironically against a fighter who in her last three fights had beaten opponents in less than a minute into the first round.

An emotional Holm, who is now unbeaten in 10 mixed martial arts fights, could not believe that she had accomplished what six other bidders to Rousey’s crown failed to do. She jumped and ran across the ring and fell into a tight embrace of her father, Mr. Roger Holm, the preacher.

Yes, Holly is a preacher’s daughter and she proudly declares that to the world by adopting the moniker “The Preacher’s Daughter.”

Now, I don’t know if being a preacher’ daughter had something to do with her performance, but I think that by adopting the monicker, Holly Holm paid the ultimate tribute to her father.

During the post-game interview, Holly also thanked her mother for praying for her and

credited her team for prepping her up for the fight against Rousey.

I don’t know if Holly’s mom prayed to God to make sure that her daughter wins the fight, but I am sure that she had asked God to protect her child during the fight.

I am sure that in sports as in war, God does not play favorites, and one wins because he or she had prepared and trained hard for whatever battles and challenges lie ahead.

I was and still am a fan of Rousey, but Holm’s fighting style had impressed me and I’m sure it also impressed other people who follow mixed martial arts.

My only beef against Rousey during the fight was when she refused to “touch gloves”—a customary gesture between fighters —with Holm after the referee signaled the start of the fight.

Maybe Rousey was trying to “psyche out” her opponent, but the snub clearly fired up Holm, who went on to punish the de-

fending champion with perfectly placed left straights The rest, as they say, is history.

But what lessons can we learn from this fight?

I’m not big in imparting lessons, but the fight clearly showed that Holm was the better-prepared fighter.

A former boxing and kickboxing champion, Holm played to her strengths, while Rousey fought too confident for her own good, as she tried to overwhelm and rush her foe, forgetting that as a boxer, Holm knew how to defend and to counter on the fly.

Yes, in any battle, preparation is key, and Holm and her team had obviously broken down every facet of Rousey’s game. Holm was ready, calm and in the end, collected the biggest prize of her career.

And I bet Mr. Preacher had a lot to thank God for his daughter’s win.

For reactions, e-mail me at armero_23@yahoo.com.

ZURICH—FIFA on Monday banned Nepal’s football chief for 10 years and the president of the Laos federation for two years for bribery.

The decade-long sanction against Ganesh Thapa, president of the AllNepal Football Association, was a new blow to the country’s football image after several national players were accused of match-fixing.

Thapa stood down as a football chief one year ago amid an investigation into accusations that he embezzled millions of dollars during his 19-year tenure.

Thapa “committed various acts of misconduct over several years, including the solicitation and acceptance of cash payments from another football official, for both personal and family gain,” said a FIFA statement without giving details.

FIFA’s ethics committee said Thapa had specifically been bribed over elections for the FIFA executive committee in 2009 and 2011.

On top of the ban, he was fined 20,000 Swiss francs ($19,850) by the ethics committee’s adjudicatory chamber.

Nepal’s national team captain, Sagar Thapa, and four other players have been charged with treason over alleged match-fixing in World Cup qualifiers. Prosecutors have sought life jail terms for the five who have denied the charges.

Laos Football Federation president Viphet Sihachakr was banned for two years after he “solicited and accepted a payment from another football official” around 2011 elections for the FIFA executive.

Sihachakr was fined 40,000 Swiss francs ($39,700).

LOTTO RESULTS 6/55 00-00-00-00-00-00 6/45 00-00-00-00-00-00 4 DIGITS 0-0-0-0 3 DIGITS 0-0-0 2 EZ2 0-0

P0 M+ P0 M

A16

T U E S D AY : N O V E M B E R 17, 2 0 1 5

RIERA U. MALL ARI EDITOR

REUEL VIDAL A S S I S TA N T E D I T O R

sports@thestandard.com.ph

SPORTS Kevin Seraphin (1) and Carmelo Anthony (right) of the New York Knicks look to the rebound against the New Orleans Pelicans during their game at the Madison Square Garden in New York, New York. AFP

Knicks’ Seraphin honors France with inspired play NEW YORK—New York forward Kevin Seraphin paid tribute to his French homeland with an inspired performance Sunday, helping the Knicks to a 95-87 NBA win over New Orleans just two days after Friday’s attacks in Paris.

The 26-year-old Seraphin scored 12 points while sporting a “Paris” haircut with the image of the Eiffel Tower and a peace sign shaved on his scalp.

Seraphin, who was born in Cayenne, French Guiana, made the most of his 13 minutes on the floor in front of a crowd of 19,800 at Madison Square Garden.

“I just wanted to do something creative, something

Djokovic, Federer in strong net starts TURN TO A12

different,” said Seraphin regarding his haircut, “not just put something on my shoes.

I had no time to get a tattoo or anything, so I just wanted to do something creative.

“I got it done this (Sunday) morning. I got up early and my barber came over and we just did it. It took about an hour.”

Seraphin was acquired

by New York over the summer as a free agent after

spending five years with the Washington Wizards.

His parents live in Paris and he owns a home in the southern part of city.

The Knicks were led by forward Carmelo Anthony’s 29 points and 13 rebounds, but it was Seraphin and fellow reserve, point guard Langston Galloway, who had the clutch performances.

Galloway scored 15 points, eight in the decisive fourth quarter that allowed the Knicks to win just their second home game of the season.

“He (Seraphin) gets the game ball,” said Anthony.

“He deserved it. He was ready. He was a big part of our run that we made in the second half.

“To see him and what he is dealing with emotionally

and mentally, be prepared today when his number was called was big.”

The Pelicans have lost three in a row and nine of 10 to begin the season. They are winless in six road games.

The Knicks began the fourth quarter on a 16-7 run to take an 82-72 lead with 6:35 to play. Galloway scored six points in the surge and Seraphin contributed four.

Seraphin came off the Knicks’ bench in the third quarter and scored six key points to help New York to a 68-65 lead. His hook shot gave New York a 66-60 lead with 2:06 left in the quarter and his jumper with 14 seconds to go provided the three-point cushion going into the fourth quarter.

“He (Seraphin) has been

Rousey vows: I’ll be back TURN TO A13

working hard to keep himself in shape even though he hasn’t played a lot of minutes,” said Knicks coach Derek Fisher. “We felt like he was active enough and energetic enough to give us a punch.”

Lakers honor ‘train heroes’ The Los Angeles Lakers were among the teams around the NBA to hold a moment of silence remembering victims of the Paris attacks.

The team also held a pregame ceremony honoring the Americans who helped thwart a terror attack on a train in France in August.

One of the men recognized, US Air Force Airman Spencer Stone, said Friday’s events in the French capital brought home the importance of his actions on the train. AFP

Barako 5 wants to continue its progress

By Jeric Lopez BARAKO Bull seeks to continue its progress, while three struggling teams are in dire Games Tuesday need of Sports Center, a win (Alonte Binan, Laguna) 4:15 p.m.

- Barako Bull as the vs. Mahindra Philip- 7 p.m. - Barangay Ginebra vs. Meralco p i n e Basketball Association goes out of town with a double-header in the resumption of the 2015 Philippine Cup. Carrying an even slate, the Energy (2-2) looks for a follow-up win when they take on rejuvenated Mahindra (1-3) at 4:15 p.m. at the Alonte Sports Center in Binan Laguna to open this rare Tuesday playdate.

In the second game, crowddarling Barangay Ginebra (1-3) and still winless Meralco (0-4) duke it out at 7 p.m., both of which badly need a win to avoid falling in an even deeper hole.

So far this conference, Barako Bull has alternated wins and losses and its previous outing was a victory against the Bolts, 108-106, last Sunday.

Reserve veteran guard Josh Urbiztondo showed that he still has a lot of gas left in the tank as he led the Energy’s charge in that one with a season-high 24 points.

TUESDAY: NOVEMBER 17, 2015

RAY S. EÑANO EDITOR

RODERICK T. DELA CRUZ ASSISTANT EDITOR

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

BUSINESS

B1

Remittances rebound 4.3%

By Julito G. Rada

MONEY sent home by Filipinos working overseas rebounded with a 4.3 percent growth in September, after falling for the first time in 12 years in August, Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas said Monday.

Data from Bangko Sentral showed remittances reached $2.2 billion in September, up from $2 billion in August and $2.1 billion a year ago.

The figure reversed the 0.6-percent contraction registered in August, the first in 12 years, eas-

PSe comPoSite index Closing November 16, 2015

8000 7700

ing concerns over the impact of slowing remittance flows on the economy. Remittances account for about a tenth of the gross domestic product and support various segments of the economy.

Remittances play a crucial role in the balance of payments and help stabilize the foreign exchange rate. The peso closed at 47.14 against the US dollar Monday, down by 0.2 percent from 47.05 on Friday. The peso depre-

ciated by around 5 percent since the start of the year.

Data showed that cash remittances reached $18.4 billion in the first nine months, or 4.1 percent higher than $17.68 billion recorded in the same period last year.

“Cash remittances from landbased and sea-based workers grew by 4.4 percent [to $14.1 billion] and 3.3 percent [to $4.3 billion], respectively. The bulk of cash remittances came from the United States, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Singapore, the United Kingdom, Japan, Hong Kong, and Canada,” Bangko Sentral said in a statement.

Personal remittances, which include non-cash items, also expanded by 4.3 percent in September to $2.434 billion from $2.33 billion in the same period last

year. This brought personal remittances in the first nine months to $20.36 billion, up 3.9 percent from $19.6 billion a year ago.

“For the nine-month period, personal remittances from landbased workers with work contracts of one year or more rose by 4.3 percent while those from seabased and land-based workers with work contracts of less than one year grew by 3.3 percent,” Bangko Sentral said.

Preliminary reports from Philippine Overseas Employment Administration showed that total job orders reached 663,112 in the nine-month period. About 41.6 percent of the job orders have been processed.

These job orders were intended mainly for service, production

and professional, technical and related workers needed in Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Qatar, Taiwan and Hong Kong.

Bangko Sentral said the initiatives of banks and non-bank remittance service providers to expand their international and domestic market coverage through tie-ups abroad as well as the introduction of innovations in their remittance products also supported the steady inflow of remittances.

Bangko Sentral expects a 5-percent growth in remittances this year. Cash remittances from 10.2 million Filipinos abroad hit $24.3 billion in 2014.

About 60 percent of Filipinos abroad are migrants while the remaining 40 percent are on job contracts.

7400 7100 6800 6500

6,772.92 124.85

PeSo-dollar rate

Closing NOVEMBER 16, 2015 43.50 44.60 45.40

P47.140

46.20

CLOSE

47.00

HIGH P47.100 LOW P47.260 AVERAGE P47.196 VOLUME 670.500M

P417.00-P640.00 LPG/11-kg tank P35.85-P43.35 Unleaded Gasoline

oPriceS il P today

Century’s loan. Century Properties Group Inc., through wholly-owned unit Century City Development II Corp. and partner Mitsubishi Corp. of Japan, sign a P2.2-billion loan facility with Bank of the Philippine Islands to partly finance the P4.5-billion Forbes Media Tower. Shown during the loan signing ceremony are (from left) BPI asset management senior vice president Paul Joseph Garcia, BPI Capital Corp. managing director Reginaldo Anthony Cariaso, BPI corporate banking group head Daniel Montecillo, CPGI chief operating officer Jose Marco Antonio, CPGI chief finance officer Jose Carlo Antonio and Mitsubishi Manila branch deputy general manager Masahiro Nagaoka. (Story of page 4)

P24.55-P28.00 Diesel P34.55-P39.15 Kerosene

Metro Pacific offered to take over SWU hospital

Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas Monday, November 16, 2015

F oreign e xchange r ate Currency

Unit

US Dollar

Peso

United States

Dollar

1.000000

47.0320

Japan

Yen

0.008155

0.3835

UK

Pound

1.523300

71.6438

Hong Kong

Dollar

0.129017

6.0679

Switzerland

Franc

0.992753

46.6912

Canada

Dollar

0.750920

35.3173

Singapore

Dollar

0.702346

33.0327

Australia

Dollar

0.711794

33.4771

Bahrain

Dinar

2.656254

124.9289

Saudi Arabia

Rial

0.266660

12.5416

Brunei

Dollar

0.699888

32.9171

Indonesia

Rupiah

0.000073

0.0034

Thailand

Baht

0.027832

1.3090

UAE

Dirham

0.272301

12.8069

Euro

Euro

1.075200

50.5688

Korea

Won

0.000855

0.0402

China

Yuan

0.156887

7.3787

India

Rupee

0.015120

0.7111

Malaysia

Ringgit

0.228833

10.7625

New Zealand

Dollar

0.652316

30.6797

Taiwan

Dollar

0.030447

1.4320 Source: PDS Bridge

By Jenniffer B. Austria METRO Pacific Hospital Holdings Inc., the hospital unit of Metro Pacific Investments Corp., said it signed an agreement with Southwestern University for a possible joint venture in the modernization of a 100-bed training hospital in Cebu province.

Metro Pacific Hospital president and chief executive Augusto Palisoc Jr. said the company was approached by Phinma Group, which recently acquired a majority stake in SWU, to help with the development of a master plan and a five-year business program for Sacred Heart Hospital.

The hospital under the agreement will undergo corporate restructuring that will give Metro Pacific Hospital the option to invest a majority stake in the hospital.

SWU owns and operates the hospital.

Palisoc said Metro Pacific Hospital had until the end of March 2016 to study and make an investment decision.

If Metro Pacific Hospital decides to invest in Sacred Heart Hospital, it will the first brown field project of the company.

“Until now we have always been investing in existing large hospitals. In this case this will be the first brown field project,” Pal-

isoc said.

He said SWU had always been focused on school business and did not pay much attention on the hospital.

“The hospital is a bit old and lacking facilities,” Palisoc said.

Early this month, Metro Pacific Hospital announced it planned to acquire a 20-percent stake in George Ty-owned Manila Doctors Hospital located along United Nations Avenue in Ermita, Manila.

Manila Doctors is a 300-bed tertiary hospital that was founded in 1956 by a group of pioneering doctors and later expanded under the current leadership the Ty Group through an investment

by Metrobank Foundation Inc. in 1979.

Hospitals currently under the Metro Pacific Hospital group are Makati Medical Center, Davao Doctors Hospital, Cardinal Santos Medical Center, Riverside Medical Center, Our Lady of Lourdes Hospital, Asian Hospital, De Los Santos Medical Center, Central Luzon Doctors’ Hospital, and more recently West Metro Medical Center in Zamboanga.

The group also has a mall-based diagnostic center MegaClinic in SM MegaMall, and two healthcare colleges—Davao Doctors College and Riverside College in Bacolod City.

TUESDAY: NOVEMBER 17, 2015

B2

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

The STandard BuSineSS daily STockS review Monday, noveMber 16, 2015

52 Weeks

Previous

High Low

STOCKS

7.88 75.3 124.4 107 56.5 17 30.45 10.4 2.6 1.01 100 30.5 91.5 137 57 180 124

2.5 66 88.05 88.1 45.45 12.02 19.6 6.12 1.02 0.225 78 17.8 62 88.35 41 118.2 59

AG Finance Asia United Bank Banco de Oro Unibank Inc. Bank of PI China Bank COL Financial Eastwest Bank Filipino Fund Inc. I-Remit Inc. MEDCO Holdings Metrobank PB Bank Phil. National Bank Phil. Savings Bank RCBC `A’ Security Bank Union Bank

2.79 49.25 101.50 84.10 39.6 15.68 19.08 7.70 1.63 0.495 80.05 18.00 51.90 103.9 32.6 137 57.00

47 5 2.36 15.3 148 20.6 36 65.8 2.97 4.14 21.5 21.6 11.96 9.13 11.8 31.8 109 15.3 9.4 0.98 241

35.9 1.11 1.86 7.92 32 15.32 10.08 29.15 1.5 1.5 10.72 9.55 9.04 6.02 8.86 20.2 71.5 13.24 5.34 0.395 173

79 3.95 4 74 33.9 90 13.26 293 5.25 12.98 6.75 15 7.03 3.4 4.5 6.3 238 5.5 3.28 0.315 2.18 2.65 234 5.28 1.3 2.17

34.1 2.3 1.63 33 23.35 17.3 5.88 250.2 3.87 8.45 3 10.04 3.03 1.95 1 4.02 161 4.1 1.55 0.138 1.02 2.09 152 4.28 0.640 1.2

Aboitiz Power Corp.

Agrinurture Inc. Alsons Cons.

Asiabest Group C. Azuc De Tarlac Century Food Cirtek Holdings (Chips) Concepcion Crown Asia Da Vinci Capital Del Monte DNL Industries Inc. Emperador Energy Devt. Corp. (EDC) EEI First Gen Corp.

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

LBC Express Liberty Flour LMG Chemicals Mabuhay Vinyl Macay Holdings Manila Water Co. Inc. Maxs Group Megawide Mla. Elect. Co `A’ Pepsi-Cola Products Phil.

Petron Corporation Phil H2O Phinma Corporation Phoenix Petroleum Phils.

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

Splash Corporation Swift Foods, Inc. TKC Steel Corp.

Trans-Asia Oil Universal Robina Victorias Milling Vitarich Corp.

Vulcan Ind’l.

40.9 2.09 1.57 11 95.00 18.32 20.85 41.2 2.39 1.5 10.18 9.120 9.09 5.95 5.50 23 69 14.62 6.04 2.550 200.00 12.5 42.00 1.95 3.01 41.00 23.9 22.85 6.2 300.00 4.1 7.70 3.4 11.92 3.65 1.94 2.44 4.17 134.5 4 2.2 0.148 1.07 2.05 202.4 4.54 0.65 1.23

0.59 59.2 30.05 7.39 3.4 3.35 823.5 10.2 84 3.35 4.92 1455 7.5 76 6.5 5.29 9.25 0.85 17.3 0.71 5.53 6.55 0.0670 2.31 1.61 84.9 974 1.66 1.39 156 0.710 0.435

0.44 48.1 20.85 6.62 0.23 0.23 634.5 7.390 12.8 2.6 2.26 837 5.3 49.55 3.43 3 4.84 0.59 12 0.580 4.2 4.5 0.030 1.23 0.550 59.3 751 1.13 0.93 80 0.211 0.179

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

GT Capital House of Inv. JG Summit Holdings Jolliville Holdings Keppel Holdings `A’ Lopez Holdings Corp.

Lodestar Invt. Holdg.Corp.

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

Minerales Industrias Corp.

Pacifica `A’ Prime Media Hldg Prime Orion San Miguel Corp `A’ SM Investments Inc. Solid Group Inc. South China Res. Inc. Top Frontier Unioil Res. & Hldgs Wellex Industries

0.390 57.0000 17.82 6.40 0.250 0.250 759 7.4 13.18 4.7 3.90 1326 5.56 70.40 3.8 4.76 7.3 0.72 13.88 0.51 5.31 9.57 0.0320 1.220 1.840 49.50 848.50 1.17 0.75 76.050 0.3250 0.2170

10.5 26.95 1.99 41.4 5.6 1.44

6.74 12 0.65 30.05 3.36 0.79

8990 HLDG 7.040 Anchor Land Holdings Inc. 8.18 A. Brown Co., Inc. 0.81 Ayala Land `B’ 33.400 Belle Corp. `A’ 3.35 Century Property 0.57

Trading Summary FINANCIAL INDUSTRIAL HOLDING FIRMS PROPERTY SERVICES MINING & OIL GRAND TOTAL

SHARES 8,518,377 63,923,494 311,723,199 118,725,588 158,216,070 548,645,727 1,212,026,240

Close

High

Low

FINANCIAL 2.58 2.58 49.25 48 100.40 99.00 85.00 82.00 39.75 39.4 15.5 15.4 19.04 18.74 7.69 7.69 1.62 1.60 0.495 0.410 79.85 78.45 18.00 17.60 51.85 50.50 104 98 32.6 31.7 135 130.4 56.95 56.75 INDUSTRIAL 41.3 40 3.1 2.04 1.57 1.55 11 10.9 99.00 98.95 18.32 17.7 20.9 20.35 42 41 2.38 2.3 1.45 1.39 10 9.8 9.100 8.97 9.05 8.82 5.91 5.55 5.70 5.45 23 22.1 68.9 67 14.60 14.10 6.07 5.77 2.630 2.300 199.90 191.00 12.7 11.76 34.00 34.00 1.95 1.95 3.7 3.35 41.00 35.00 24.1 23.55 23.2 22.5 6.34 6.03 300.00 293.00 4.12 4.05 7.70 7.48 3.4 3.4 11.96 11.80 3.70 3.61 1.94 1.90 2.44 2.35 4.18 4.13 133.5 133 3.52 3.5 2.23 2.2 0.150 0.147 1.09 1.00 2.07 2.03 200 193 4.54 4.54 0.65 0.62 1.23 1.23 HOLDING FIRMS 0.395 0.385 56.2000 52.9000 17.78 17.20 6.40 6.40 0.250 0.244 0.250 0.250 750 733.5 7.62 7.32 13.00 12.74 4.74 4.74 3.90 3.80 1307 1285 5.55 5.30 69.80 67.65 3.7 3.7 4.53 4.53 7.3 7 0.73 0.71 14 13.6 0.51 0.51 5.29 5 9.44 9.64 0.0320 0.0300 1.350 1.160 1.830 1.760 49.00 47.00 844.00 826.00 1.16 1.16 0.75 0.74 76.200 76.150 0.3250 0.3150 0.2280 0.2150 PROPERTY 7.010 6.840 8.08 7.50 0.84 0.78 34.250 32.800 3.19 3.1 0.58 0.56

Close

%

Net Foreign

Change Volume

Trade/Buying

2.58 49.2 99.15 83.30 39.5 15.4 18.88 7.69 1.61 0.495 79.05 18.00 50.75 104 32 132.6 56.95

-7.53 -0.10 -2.32 -0.95 -0.25 -1.79 -1.05 -0.13 -1.23 0.00 -1.25 0.00 -2.22 0.10 -1.84 -3.21 -0.09

5,000 12,900 2,592,260 1,587,570 44,500 1,200 201,200 600 80,000 90,000 2,730,530 165,700 245,070 1,140 68,700 285,660 3,800

41.3 3.08 1.55 10.9 98.95 17.7 20.35 42 2.31 1.4 9.9 9.010 8.98 5.70 5.55 22.1 67.95 14.60 5.93 2.460 194.00 12.5 34.00 1.95 3.5 41.00 23.9 22.6 6.34 296.00 4.05 7.50 3.4 11.80 3.61 1.90 2.35 4.15 133 3.5 2.2 0.149 1.08 2.03 197.5 4.54 0.62 1.23

0.98 47.37 -1.27 -0.91 4.16 -3.38 -2.40 1.94 -3.35 -6.67 -2.75 -1.21 -1.21 -4.20 0.91 -3.91 -1.52 -0.14 -1.82 -3.53 -3.00 0.00 -19.05 0.00 16.28 0.00 0.00 -1.09 2.26 -1.33 -1.22 -2.60 0.00 -1.01 -1.10 -2.06 -3.69 -0.48 -1.12 -12.50 0.00 0.68 0.93 -0.98 -2.42 0.00 -4.62 0.00

1,372,400 2,872,000 345,000 200 50 558,100 1,569,100 40,000 530,000 523,000 25,400 5,315,700 2,482,800 17,492,000 341,600 1,274,600 111,740 115,400 488,200 14,012,000 432,370 20,500 400 5,000 61,000 5,200 2,186,000 209,400 563,100 712,790 3,912,000 1,279,000 3,000 5,600 88,000 968,000 117,000 312,000 17,790 10,000 919,000 1,200,000 53,000 165,000 773,170 1,000 427,000 1,000

0.395 55.2000 17.78 6.40 0.244 0.250 749 7.45 12.98 4.74 3.90 1298 5.42 67.90 3.7 4.53 7.3 0.72 13.7 0.51 5.16 9.64 0.0300 1.170 1.760 47.95 831.00 1.16 0.75 76.150 0.3150 0.2280

1.28 -3.16 -0.22 0.00 -2.40 0.00 -1.32 0.68 -1.52 0.85 0.00 -2.11 -2.52 -3.55 -2.63 -4.83 0.00 0.00 -1.30 0.00 -2.82 0.73 -6.25 -4.10 -4.35 -3.13 -2.06 -0.85 0.00 0.13 -3.08 5.07

7,700,000 1,232,560 -22,211,889.00 2,449,900 -31,161,848.00 6,000 1,300,000 200,000 184,450 -55,269,710.00 5,503,200 17,549,313.00 2,982,100 2,366,346.00 2,000 514,000 1,680,900.00 125,720 -105,868,645.00 408,300 -50,670.00 1,507,180 -75,772,149.00 4,000 1,000 6,062,500 -5,978,808.00 5,000 578,600 3,227,478.00 977,000 22,554,900 -37,167,206.00 2,121,800 -48,200.00 231,500,000 58,800.00 236,000 9,792,000 96,800.00 142,600 -4,016,005.00 162,750 -97,922,770.00 51,000 107,000 1,940 -76,150.00 5,030,000 8,080,000 8,600.00

6.900 8.08 0.82 33.600 3.1 0.57

-1.99 -1.22 1.23 0.60 -7.46 0.00

711,700 13,700 3,702,000 6,643,300 1,969,000 4,638,000

78,085.00 214,774 25,998,835.50 3,950.00 -1,172,138.00 22,000.00 -76,407,810.00 -2,204,250.00 -11,756,548.00 -527,245 -2,269,549.00 -4,574,530.00 -83,950.00

408,860.00 21,061,120.00 78,355 46,300.00 8,340.00 -3,199,324.00 -6,322,073.00 -50,024,081.00 -301,844.00 -11,383,145.00 -1,391,069.00 1,579,108.00 -736,201.00 80,220.00 -5,078,390.00

4,005,770.00 690,125.00 -3,100,000.00 -24,887,992.00 -532,920.00 2,441,270.00

9,500.00 1,103,150.00 -1,036,270.00 -35,060.00 -272,800.00

-47,849,386.00 4,540.00

2,439,091.00 808.00 -17,676,790.00 1,087,480.00 -193,310.00

52 Weeks

Previous

High Low 0.201 0.69 10.96 0.97 2.22 2.1 1.8 5.94 0.470 8.54 31.8 2.29 4.9 21.35 1.06 1.62 8.59

0.083 0.415 2.4 0.83 1.15 1.42 1.27 4.13 0.290 2.69 22.15 1.6 3.1 15.08 0.69 0.83 5.73

10.5 66 1.44 1.09 15.82 0.1430 5.06 99.1 7.67 4 1700 2720 8.41 1.97 119.5 12.5 0.8200 2.2800 12.28 3.32 1 2.46 15.2 0.62 1.040 22.8 6.41 18 185 22.9 3486 0.760 2.28 46.05 90.1

1.97 35.2 1 0.63 8.6 0.0770 2.95 56.1 4.8 2.58 830 1600 5.95 1.23 102.6 8.72 0.041 1.200 6.5 1.91 0.650 1.8 6 0.335 0.37 14.54 3 8.8 79 4.39 2748 0.435 1.2 31.45 60.55

STOCKS

Close

Crown Equities Inc. Cyber Bay Corp.

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

Primex Corp.

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

11.6 0.85 2.95 10 0.490 1.9

2GO Group’ ABS-CBN Acesite Hotel APC Group, Inc. Bloomberry Boulevard Holdings Calata Corp.

Cebu Air Inc. (5J) DFNN Inc. Easy Call “Common” FEUI Globe Telecom GMA Network Inc. Harbor Star I.C.T.S.I. IPeople Inc. `A’ Island Info ISM Communications Leisure & Resorts Liberty Telecom Manila Bulletin Manila Jockey Melco Crown MG Holdings NOW Corp.

Pacific Online Sys. Corp.

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

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

7.59 SSI Group 0.63 STI Holdings 1.71 Transpacific Broadcast 5 Travellers 0.315 Waterfront Phils.

1.14 Yehey

0.0098 5.45 17.24 0.330 1.19 1.62 9.5 4.2 0.48 0.420 0.440 0.022 0.023 8.2 49.2 4.27 1.030 3.06 7.67 12.88 10.42 0.040 420 9

0.0043 1.72 6.47 0.236 0.85 0.77 5.99 1.17 0.305 0.2130 0.2160 0.013 0.014 3.240 18.96 2.11 0.365 1.54 5.4 7.26 2.27 0.015 115.9 3.67

Abra Mining Apex `A’ Atlas Cons. `A’ Basic Energy Corp.

Century Peak Metals Hldgs Coal Asia Dizon Ferronickel Geograce Res. Phil. Inc. Lepanto `A’ Lepanto `B’ Manila Mining `A’ Manila Mining `B’ Marcventures Hldgs., Inc. Nickelasia Nihao Mineral Resources Omico Oriental Peninsula Res. Petroenergy Res. Corp.

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

TA Petroleum

70 525 515 8.21 1060 1047 78.95 84.8

33 500 480 5.88 997 1011 74.5 75

ABS-CBN Holdings Corp.

Ayala Corp. Pref ‘B2’ GLOBE PREF P GMA Holdings Inc. PCOR-Preferred A PF Pref 2 SMC Preferred B SMC Preferred C SMC Preferred D SMC Preferred E SMC Preferred F Swift Pref

1.34

1

6.98

0.8900 LR Warrant

15 12.88

3.5 5.95

130.7

105.6 First Metro ETF

Alterra Capital Makati Fin. Corp.

Xurpas

High

VALUE 707,380,500.95 900,603,385.29 968,337,140.34 1,011,810,002.73 977,438,593.37 62,741,800.631 4,666,248,831.01

FINANCIAL 1,515.94 (DOWN) 23.96 INDUSTRIAL 10,881.58 (DOWN) 215.40 HOLDING FIRMS 6,406.27 (DOWN) 139.66 PROPERTY 2,858.28 (DOWN0 31.77 SERVICES 1,519.77 (DOWN) 18.98 MINING & OIL 10,852.35 (DOWN) 192.12 PSEI 6,772.92 (DOWN) 124.85 All Shares Index 3,914.43 (DOWN) 63.87 Gainers: 31; Losers: 129; Unchanged: 43; Total: 203

Close

%

Net Foreign

Change Volume

Trade/Buying

0.139 0.470 22.75 0.850 1.12 1.68 1.20 4.37 0.2550 8.49 30.50 1.47 3.15 21.10 0.74 0.900 5.370

0.137 0.130 0.134 0.470 0.465 0.465 22.7 21.75 22.25 0.850 0.850 0.850 1.12 1.07 1.09 1.80 1.67 1.75 1.23 1.19 1.23 4.4 4.33 4.37 0.2550 0.2550 0.2550 8.56 8.4 8.4 30.50 29.50 30.50 1.47 1.45 1.46 3.15 3.15 3.15 20.80 19.90 20.30 0.73 0.72 0.73 0.900 0.850 0.870 5.300 5.100 5.280 SERVICES 7.2 7.2 6.8 7.17 63.55 63 62.5 62.7 1.12 1.17 1.12 1.12 0.550 0.560 0.540 0.550 5.10 5.06 4.94 4.94 0.0520 0.0510 0.0480 0.0480 3.69 3.71 3.55 3.56 84.9 84.75 81.7 84.75 5.85 5.65 5.60 5.60 2.83 2.95 2.95 2.95 960 960 960 960 2096 2070 2000 2002 7.12 7.30 7.06 7.30 1.25 1.23 1.20 1.23 68.25 69.25 66.95 66.95 11.42 11.5 11.4 11.4 0.172 0.174 0.169 0.172 1.3700 1.3700 1.3600 1.3700 8.77 8.70 8.60 8.62 4.46 4.46 4.20 4.30 0.600 0.590 0.580 0.580 2 2 2 2 3.47 3.47 3.27 3.46 0.270 0.260 0.250 0.260 0.670 0.670 0.630 0.660 18 17.98 17.92 17.92 4.65 4.65 4.65 4.65 9.45 9.47 9 9.47 105.00 101.10 101.10 101.10 20.20 20.00 19.52 20.00 1970.00 1973.00 1959.00 1964.00 0.540 0.530 0.500 0.520 1.000 1.000 0.950 0.970 31.25 32.00 31.25 31.30 69.00 71.00 69.00 69.20 5.84 5.80 5.50 5.57 3.91 3.91 3.37 3.37 0.435 0.44 0.430 0.430 1.5 1.5 1.5 1.5 3.85 3.88 3.85 3.85 0.330 0.350 0.335 0.350 4.110 4.270 4.050 4.050 MINING & OIL 0.0050 0.0050 0.0048 0.0050 2.19 2.20 2.19 2.20 4.93 5.00 4.82 4.82 0.211 0.210 0.210 0.210 0.68 0.68 0.63 0.63 0.64 0.64 0.63 0.64 7.75 8.00 7.76 8.00 0.81 0.81 0.78 0.79 0.295 0.295 0.290 0.295 0.190 0.188 0.184 0.188 0.201 0.202 0.201 0.202 0.0110 0.0110 0.0110 0.0110 0.012 0.012 0.011 0.012 2.59 2.5 2.35 2.38 6.96 6.95 6.7 6.76 2.89 2.9 2.78 2.88 0.5800 0.5700 0.5600 0.5600 1.4000 1.3900 1.3800 1.3800 3.99 3.77 3.54 3.54 5.03 5.100 4.990 4.99 1.42 1.420 1.370 1.39 0.0130 0.0130 0.0110 0.0120 136.50 134.60 132.30 134.60 2.33 2.33 2.26 2.27 PREFERRED 64.8 64.8 61.25 64.8 525 530 530 530 519 519 519 519 7.24 7.18 7 7.18 1065 1060 1060 1060 1030 1044 1030 1030 81 85 82 85 82 82.05 82 82 79.2 79.05 79.05 79.05 79.25 79.25 79.25 79.25 80.35 80.35 80.3 80.3 2.8 2.79 2.79 2.79 WARRANTS & BONDS 2.690 2.680 2.640 2.650 SME 4 4.5 4 4 2.84 2.82 2.82 2.82 16.7 16.5 15.98 16 EXCHANGE TRADED FUNDS 112.8 113.1 110 111.1

T op g ainerS STOCKS

Low

-3.60 -1.06 -2.20 0.00 -2.68 4.17 2.50 0.00 0.00 -1.06 0.00 -0.68 0.00 -3.79 -1.35 -3.33 -1.68

4,530,000 1,460,000 1,099,900 56,000 4,112,000 42,593,000 84,000 15,041,000 1,130,000 119,500 9,883,700 207,000 2,000 13,752,200 1,450,000 1,485,000 4,032,500

-133,000.00 376,900.00 7,819,330.00

-0.42 -1.34 0.00 0.00 -3.14 -7.69 -3.52 -0.18 -4.27 4.24 0.00 -4.48 2.53 -1.60 -1.90 -0.18 0.00 0.00 -1.71 -3.59 -3.33 0.00 -0.29 -3.70 -1.49 -0.44 0.00 0.21 -3.71 -0.99 -0.30 -3.70 -3.00 0.16 0.29 -4.62 -13.81 -1.15 0.00 0.00 6.06 -1.46

210,100 57,900 110,000 163,000 11,296,000 62,620,000 4,259,000 672,650 35,000 1,000 1,000 44,840 104,100 77,000 1,948,550 23,000 1,650,000 285,000 25,200 1,316,000 57,000 10,000 4,530,000 250,000 3,385,000 9,100 10,000 12,600 310 76,000 104,785 3,527,000 5,674,000 1,471,800 232,400 10,261,100 37,121,000 3,520,000 10,000 1,727,000 180,000 49,000

34,750.00

0.00 0.46 -2.23 -0.47 -7.35 0.00 3.23 -2.47 0.00 -1.05 0.50 0.00 0.00 -8.11 -2.87 -0.35 -3.45 -1.43 -11.28 -0.80 -2.11 -7.69 -1.39 -2.58

153,000,000 -98,000.00 109,000 325,000 -1,261,180.00 170,000 1,194,000 603,000 5,900 39,941.00 7,727,000 -798,580.00 60,000 5,600,000 2,120,000 300,100,000 500,000 683,000 68,730.00 1,827,800 -950,703.00 39,000 20,000 115,000 54,000 564,400 -987,037.00 483,000 70,000.00 73,000,000 216,020 -728,435.00 43,000

0.00 0.95 0.00 -0.83 -0.47 0.00 4.94 0.00 -0.19 0.00 -0.06 -0.36

68,980 1,680 10 20,100 20 1,065 15,100 56,250 9,200 9,300 34,290 2,000

-1.49

929,000

0.00 -0.70 -4.19

149,000 1,000 2,090,700

-2,602,150.00

-1.51

32,440

202,740.00

-549,150.00 35,382,950.00 932,520.00 -51,794,190.00 -43,408,078.00 86,000.00 -4,480,535.00

-21,342,950.00 143,300.00 -5,779,116.00 960,000.00 -36,195,320.00 -3,604,529.50 -34,200.00 38,420.00 1,079,560.00 396,220.00 -46,500.00 54,900.00 -608,264.00 13,016,505.00 -62,920.00 -322,220.00 12,337,030.00 6,467,740.00 -4,265,194.00 -20,086,130.00 -2,500.00 2,322,290.00

-940,972.00 -140,000.00

295,200.00 737,025.00 10,445.50

T op L oSerS Close (P)

Change (%)

STOCKS

Close (P)

Change (%)

Agrinurture Inc.

3.08

47.37

Liberty Flour

34.00

-19.05

Mabuhay Vinyl

3.5

16.28

SSI Group

3.37

-13.81

Waterfront Phils.

0.350

6.06

SPC Power Corp.

3.5

-12.50

Wellex Industries

0.2280

5.07

Petroenergy Res. Corp.

3.54

-11.28

SMC Preferred B

85

4.94

Marcventures Hldgs., Inc.

2.38

-8.11

Easy Call "Common"

2.95

4.24

Philodrill Corp. `A'

0.0120

-7.69

Filinvest Land,Inc.

1.75

4.17

Boulevard Holdings

0.0480

-7.69

C. Azuc De Tarlac

98.95

4.16

AG Finance

2.58

-7.53

Dizon

8.00

3.23

Belle Corp. `A'

3.1

-7.46

GMA Network Inc.

7.30

2.53

Century Peak Metals Hldgs

0.63

-7.35

TUESDAY: NOVEMBER 17, 2015

B3

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

Stock market declines sharply

2GO partner. 2GO Travel joins the list of businesses that uses the Globe Charge service. The shipping company now accepts MasterCard and Visa payments in its corporate offices for ticket purchases. Signing the partnership agreement are (from left) Jose Luigi Reyes, assistant vice president for business development of Mynt, a unit of Globe Telecom Inc.; Dion Asencio, VP for sales of the Enterprise Group of Globe; Stephen Tagud, senior VP of 2GO Travel; and Grace Golez, VP for retail sales of 2GO Travel.

DMCI sees income expanding to P12b

By Alena Mae S. Flores

DMCI Holdings Inc. of the Consunji Group is looking at a full year consolidated net income of P12 billion this year from P10 billion in 2014, its chairman said Monday.

DMCI Holdings chairman Isidro Consunji told reporters most of its subsidiaries overperformed this year, including Maynilad Water Services Inc., Semirara Mining and Power Corp. and DMCI Homes.

Consunji said unit D.M. Consunji Inc. and Semirara Mining were also expected to perform well next year.

“This year will be another record high income,” he said, adding some subsidiaries would start paying income tax in 2016.

DMCI Holdings booked a consolidated net income of P9.9 billion in the first nine months of the year, up 31 percent from P7.5 bil-

lion year-on-year.

Excluding a one-time gain from the sale of its stake in Private Infra Dev Corp. to Rapid Thoroughfares Inc. of San Miguel Corp., the core net income grew 24 percent to P9.3 billion from P7.5 billion on year.

PIDC is the concessionaire of the Tarlac-Pangasinan La Union Expressway.

The company said higher income contributions from coal mining, real estate, off-grid power, construction and water distribution businesses boosted the company’s profit performance.

“Despite challenging market and operating conditions,

our investments delivered robust growth during the first nine months of the year. We are focused on sustaining this momentum to achieve our full year profit target of P12 billion,” said Consunji.

Consolidated core EBITDA improved 36 percent percent to P18.7 billion from P13.7 billion in the previous year, while earnings per share jumped 31 percent to P0.74 from P0.57 on year.

Semirara Mining contributed P3.5 billion to DMCI Holdings’ bottom line, up 59 percent from P2.2 billion declared last year, due to the improved output and sales of the power generation segment.

Gross power generation of Semirara Mining’s Calaca power units surged 81 percent to 3,163 gigawatt-hours from 1,748 Gwh, while the cost of power sales decreased 50 percent to P3.5 billion from P7

First Gen reports lower net income FIRST Gen Corp. of the Lopez Group reported a net income attributable to equity holders of the parent of $120 million in the first nine months of 2015, down 26 percent from $163 million year-on-year First Gen in a disclosure to the Philippine Stock Exchange Monday attributed the decline to lower earning contributions from its geothermal and hydro operations, which were partially offset by higher earnings from natural gas plants.

Recurring net income attributable to the parent was at $129 million during the period, down 4 percent from $135 million on year.

“We expect to end the year with

weaker contributions from our geothermal operations, which will be offset by improved dispatch from the Burgos Wind Project with the transmission constraint addressed. We continue to progress with the construction of the 97-megawatt Avion peaking plant and the 414-MW San Gabriel mid-merit plant,” First Gen president Francis Giles Puno said.

“We expect to commission Avion by year-end and San Gabriel by the second quarter of 2016.

We look forward to reporting improved financial performance in 2016 driven by stronger income across our clean and renewable energy platform,” Puno said.

First Gen’s consolidated revenues from the sale of electricity were relatively flat at $1.4 billion in the first nine months.

The Santa Rita and San Lorenzo natural gas-fired power plants in Batangas accounted for $834 million, or 60 percent of First Gen’s total consolidated revenues.

The natural gas plant’s revenues dropped 8 percent from its contribution of $904 million in 2014 due to lower fuel charges, though partially offset by the higher combined dispatch of the gas plants at 81 percent against last year’s 70 percent. Alena Mae S. Flores

billion.

With its power units operating reliably this year, Semirara Mining sustained its normal costs levels.

DMCI Homes contributed P2.7 billion, a 4-percent increase from the previous year owing to higher recognized revenues from completed high-rise projects in the first quarter.

STOCKS slumped the most in a month Monday as the prospect of higher interest rates in the US and the deadly weekend terror attacks in Paris spurred foreign outflows.

The Philippine Stock Exchange Index fell 124.85 points, or 1.8 percent, to 6,772.92, its lowest close since June 2014. The gauge has fallen for nine straight days, the longest stretch of losses in 14 years, while foreign investors pulled a net $65.8 million from the nation’s shares last week, the most in two months.

Losers routed gainers, 129 to 31, while 43 issues were unchanged on a value turnover of P4.7 billion.

SM Prime Holdings Inc., the country’s largest property developer by market value, led declines.

Futures contracts show a 62 percent chance of an increase in US borrowing costs this year. Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas left its policy rate at 4 percent on Thursday, as forecast by all 16 analysts surveyed by Bloomberg. Emergingmarket stocks slid Monday as Europe’s worst terror attack in a decade spurred a shift out of riskier assets.

“Foreign investors have been pulling out money because of the looming US interest-rate increase and the impact of slowing China,” said Rafael Palma Gil,a trader at Rizal Commercial Banking Corp., which oversees about $1.8 billion in assets. “With the added uncertainty brought by the attacks in Paris, the anticipation is investors will become more risk averse and that the outflow could continue.”

SM Prime tumbled 3.8 percent to P20.30, the most in almost eight weeks, while SM Investments Corp., the most valuable company, slid 2.1 percent to P831. The 30-member Philippine equity index is valued at 16.6 times its projected 12-month earnings, compared with a multiple of 10.9 for the MSCI Emerging Markets Index. . With Bloomberg and AFP

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B4 Century secures P2.2-b BPI loan

Caraboom for Apec leaders.

The Caraboom, a non-electronic amplifier made of rattan and other indigenous Philippine materials, will be a gift from mobile leader Smart Communications to each of the Apec head of economies when they visit the country this week. Designed

by Cebu-based furniture manufacturer and exporter Pacific Traders & Manufacturing Corp., the Caraboom showcases world-class Filipino artistry and innovation. Presenting the Caraboom to Tourism Secretary Ramon Jimenez Jr. (left) is Smart public affairs group head Ramon Isberto.

Metro Pacific plans to invest up to $10b

By Jenniffer B. Austria

HONG KONG—Infrastructure conglomerate Metro Pacific Investments Corp., the local unit of First Pacific Co. Ltd., is prepared to spend $10 billion in capital expenditures in the Philippines between 2015 and 2020 to expand its power, water, infrastructure and hospital businesses.

Metro Pacific chief finance officer David Nicol said in a news briefing the company’s ability to deliver the five-year programmed spending would depend on whether or not the government would honor its commitment to implement tariff adjustments in water, toll road and rail businesses.

Under the plan, Metro Pacific earmarked P401 billion for the committed projects of core businesses. The figure could go up by another P78 billion, as conglomerate explores new projects for water and toll road units, Nicol said.

The bulk of the spending, or at least P219 billion, will be funded

through cash-flow of existing operations, while P129 billion will be sourced through debt and P53 billion through new equity.

“A central point for us when we are looking at our future is, is that figure, the P219 billion, a reliable number over that period for all these businesses? A critical component of that is, are we getting our tariff increases or not.

Can we rely on that because that is the single biggest component in terms of financing these projects,” Nicol said.

“One of the challenges the business is facing is that we want to spend the P478 billion or the $10 billion over the next few years, but we should have the confidence that the tariffs will come through as expected,” Nicol said.

He said of the total spending from 2015 to 2020, some P170 billion would be allocated for power business, P106 billion for water utility such as bulk and wastewater projects, P65 billion for expansion of toll road business and the remaining P16 billion for acquisition of more hospitals.

“These investments are something we desperately need,” Nicol said.

Nicol said without the tariff adjustments, the company’s capacity to invest would be limited to its cash-flow.

He said in the case of the toll road unit, the group posted core earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortization of P6 billion in 2014, which was not enough to cover its planned capital expenditures.

CENTURY City Development II Corp., a wholly-owned unit of Century Properties Group Inc., and joint venture partner Mitsubishi Corp. signed a P2.2-billion loan facility with Bank of the Philippine Islands.

Century Properties said in a disclosure to the stock exchange it would use proceeds from the 10year senior loan facility to partly finance the construction of the P4.5-billion Forbes Media Tower in Makati City.

The balance of P2.3 billion will be funded through equity contributions of 60 percent from Century Properties and 40 percent from Mitsubishi Corp.

Century Properties said the approval of the facility indicated the level of confidence of BPI in the demand for office space in the country and Century Properties’ and Mitsubishi Corp.’s solid foundation.

“The signing of the facility marks an important step for Century Properties. Along with our partner, Mitsubishi Corp., we are particularly proud of the level of support that we have received from BPI. The facility also helps provide Century Properties with the flexibility to move forward on the diversification of its portfolio,” said Century Properties co-chief operating officer and managing director Jose Marco Antonio.

Century Properties and Mitsubishi Corp. announced in September their partnership to develop, lease out and maintain the world’s first Forbes-branded commercial building through a joint venture agreement.

The 35-story Forbes Media Tower will rise in Century Properties’ flagship Century City in Makati City. It will to have a gross floor area of 95,000 square meters and will feature a wide range of premium amenities for businesses.

The office tower is expected to be completed by 2019.

Century Properties is currently in the process of diversifying into allied real estate segments. Its investment portfolio includes Century City Mall, the Pacific Star Building Low-rise Tower, and Centuria Medical Makati. Aside from the Forbes Media Tower, it is also developing the Asian Century Center in Bonifacio Global City and Acqua 6 at the Acqua Private Residences in

Filipino businessmen most bullish in Apec, says PwC study

By Gabrielle H. Binaday FILIPINO chief executives are the most optimistic about revenue generation among top businessmen in the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation, professional services company PricewaterhouseCoopers said Monday.

About 51 percent of top business executives in the country expressed confidence in terms of revenue growth prospects over the next 12 months, the highest among the 21 member-economies

of Apec, according to the results of the Apec CEO Survey 2015.

“The uniqueness in the Philippines is that it is the only economy that really feels that there is really a bright future so far as revenue is concerned. The Philippines is really distinctive in that category,” said PwC Philippines chairman Alexander Cabrera.

This compares with 34 percent in the US and 20 percent in China.

“Moreover, 68 percent of the CEOs believe that investments will increase in the country, while only 6 percent think it will de-

crease over the next 12 months,” Cabrera said Meanwhile, Apec 2015 CEO Summit chairman Tony Tan Caktiong said the CEO Summit would discuss how to integrate micro and smaller businesses into the inclusive business agenda that the Philippines espoused during the year-long conference.

“This year’s Apec CEO Summit will highlight for the first time the issue on ‘inclusiveness’ as one of top agenda pushed by the Philippines that aims to empower and globalize the micro, small and

medium enterprises by involving them in the supply chain and value chains of many big businesses,” said Tan Caktiong.

“The Apec gathering is one opportunity event for the Philippines to introduce itself to the world again in a big way by pushing for strategic initiatives that could be the first of its kind,” said Tan Caktiong, chairman of Jollibee Foods Corp.

He said Jollibee itself put into operation Jollibee’s farmer entrepreneurship program, involving small onion farmers in the supply

chain, providing these small entrepreneurs a sustainable livelihood.

Tan Caktiong said “it takes a radical change in mindsets as even our procurement people find this extremely difficult to implement.”

Meanwhile, another development in the discussion is the adoption of disaster risk reduction framework by the Apec Business Advisory Council, as introduced by the Philippines during the Apec senior disaster management officials’ forum in Iloilo City.

T U E S D AY : N O V E M B E R 17, 2 0 1 5

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

Think tank sees PH growing 6%

By Gabrielle H. Binaday

THE Philippine economy will likely grow 6 percent this year, faster than the 3.2-percent average expansion in Asia-Pacific, regional think tank Pacific Economic Cooperation Council said Monday.

PECC, in its annual state of the region report, ahead of the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation Economic Leaders’ Week in Manila, said the Philippines was expected to expand 6.3 percent in 2016 and 6.7 percent annually, from 2017 to 2020.

Latest data from the Philippine Statistics Authority showed the Philippine economy grew 5.3 percent in the first semester, lower than the government’s fullyear growth target of 7 percent to 8 percent.

The report said growth for

both advanced and emerging economies in the region, including the Philippines, was significantly slower than the previous crisis years, an indication of the important structural changes taking place in regional economies.

PECC said inflation in the Philippines would likely fall to 1.9 percent in 2015, slightly below the government’s target range of 2 percent to 4 percent.

PECC said inflation would likely rise to 3.4 percent in 2016 and 5.5 percent in 2017 to 2020.

Inflation rate in the first 10 months of 2015 averaged 1.4 per-

cent.

Meanwhile, the Asia Pacific region is forecast to grow 3.2 percent in 2015, the slowest since the global financial crisis, before returning to what has become the ‘new normal’ growth of around 3.4 percent to 3.5 percent, according to PECC. “Almost 40 percent of respondents to PECC’s annual survey expected weaker growth for the global economy over the next 12 months, citing a slowdown in the Chinese economy; failure to implement structural reforms; a lack of political leadership; a slowdown in the US economy;

and a lack of adequate infrastructure as the top risks to growth,” PECC said.

“Apec’s agenda has moved on from a focus on trade liberalization to addressing a broader set of issues since the Philippines last hosted the meetings in 1996,” said PECC secretary general Eduardo Pedrosa, who served as coordinator of the report.

PECC said the launching of the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank, the Trans-Pacific Partnership and the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership would help boost growth in the region.

Sweden supports Clark Green City

By Othel V. Campos STATE-RUN Bases Conversion and Development Authority said Monday it signed a memorandum of understanding with the Swedish government and two private groups to help develop Clark Green City in Central Luzon.

The Swedish group is composed of IVL Swedish Environmental Research Institute, a foundation jointly owned by the Swedish government and Swedish industry; ElectriCITY, a nonprofit organization composed of major companies operating in Sweden; and Xeric AB, a company that specializes in providing business consultancy services for small and medium enterprises.

“We welcome IVL, ElectriC-

ITY and Xeric as the newest partners of BCDA in the development of Clark Green City and look forward to a fruitful collaborative partnership through knowledge and technology transfer, research and development, and business investments,” said BCDA president and chief executive Arnel Paciano Casanova.

The memorandum of understanding creates a non-binding framework for further discussions under which the BCDA and the three Swedish groups can explore potential collaborative opportunities in relation to sustainable urbanization, best practices in urban development and providing business solution services in the development and growth of Clark Green City.

EastWest awards.

EastWest receives top recognition for the excellent performance of its Visa credit card and debit card products at the annual Visa Client Awards, the partner recognition program of global payments technology company Visa Inc. Shown during the awarding ceremonies are (from left) EastWest prepaid card product manager Katrina Trinidad-Gonzales, debit card product manager Katherine Enriquez, product marketing and corporate communications head Allan Tumbaga, Visa country manager for the Philippines and Guam Stuart Tomlinson, EastWest consumer lending cluster head Jackie Fernandez, credit card business head Sandro Villaraza, portfolio management head Mylene Pilares and Visa sales head Pia Arellano.

Remembering Jim JIM Ayson, an Internet pioneer and friend, died of a heart attack last week. He was 53.

I had known Jim from the early days, when personal computers were still new and exciting—and when hard disks went all the way up to 10 megabytes and when modem speeds maxed out at 56 kbps.

At the time, Jim wrote a column called “The Ayson Chronicles” for PC Digest, a monthly computer magazine I edited with my brother Po. I remember I looked forward to editing Jim’s columns because they were so well written that I hardly needed to touch them.

Jim was a wonk and a geek before it was fashionable to be either, and he dove deep into technology topics in his columns. The photo we ran with his column had Jim in a shirt and tie with his arms crossed, much like the American programmer and author Peter Norton did in his photo for PC Magazine, where he wrote a column called “The Norton Chronicles.” We all assumed this was a tongue-in-cheek tip of the hat to Norton, but years later, Jim said on his Google+ account that his column was actually named after Ray Bradbury’s classic collection of science fiction short stories, “The Martian Chronicles.”

Many years later, he also named his blog “The Ayson Chronicles.”

“Calling this blog The Ayson Chronicles brings me back to those thrilling days of yesteryear,” he wrote in 2008. “More precisely, the timeline covering the years 1989 to 1991, when I wrote a monthly column for a fledgling computer magazine called PC Digest.

“On a whim, I christened the column The Ayson Chronicles, named obviously after the Ray Bradbury book, “The Martian Chronicles.” The magazine editors Po Wong and Chin Wong gave me a free hand, and I wrote about the PC technology of the day in a casual conversational style...

“My writing idols [who I tried to emulate] were... irreverent, always interesting, and always kept up with

Jim Ayson (left) and Mon Isberto of Smart Communications during the 20th anniversary of the Internet in the Philippines.

what was new. There was Jerry Pournelle, who wrote the ‘Chaos Manor’ columns in Byte Magazine. And the still nasty John C. Dvorak of PC Magazine.

“The ‘tech’ in my columns wasn’t really much by today’s standards. A typical sampler of topics of the day would include pieces on dot matrix printers, 9600 baud modems, and 386 processors.”

Jim went on to write for a variety of publications, including mainstream media, but something about his early column stuck.

“Of all the columns I’ve ever written, oddly enough, the one that people still remember is ‘The Ayson Chronicles.’ Over 15 years after the fact, I still bump into people who remember that strange little column,” he wrote.

It was also during the PC Digest days that I learned about another side of Jim—his love for music (he played in the Mexicali Blues Band) and his quest to docu-

ment the local music scene. From this interest sprang Philmusic.com, a pioneering website that chronicled the local music scene. The site, which he started in 1997, enabled Jim to expand his writing beyond technology and pursue his interest in digital photography—shooting live acts for the website with one of the early digital cameras, an Agfa e1280.

But all throughout his career, Jim was fascinated by the online world—starting from the early bulletin board services and his popular PH-Cyberview mailing list, to the Internet and social media. In the early part of the millennium, Jim and his long-time companion Chette became part of a campaign to push for reforms in the way the Philippine Internet domain was managed, a cause I supported. At about the same time, he also wrote one of the most detailed and entertaining accounts of the birth of the Internet in the Philippines, and last year, he helped organize a reunion of the key players to mark its 20th year.

“I’m interested in the way that people behave in online networks, what makes them tick, and what are the trends swirling about in this user-generated…brave new world of ours,” he wrote.

A mutual friend, former photographer and bar owner Ben Razon, e-mailed me upon learning of Jim’s death and summed up perfectly what I will miss about Jim. “The thing I liked about him was that he was eternally inquisitive and expressive. Not everybody in the tech circles was like that, and he was curious about developments in music, photography and the culture of the present,” Ben wrote. “I tell ya, he left too soon.”

Column archives and blog at: www.chinwong.com

TUESDAY: NOVEMBER 17, 2015

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

DoubleDragon to sell shares

By Jenniffer B. Austria

DOUBLEDRAGON Properties Inc., jointly owned by Injap Investments Inc. of businessman Edgar Sia II and Jollibee Foods Corp.the chairman Tony Tan Caktiong, plans to raise P10 billion through the issuance of preferred shares to fund capital expenditure on several commercial and real estate projects.

DoubleDragon said in a disclosure to the stock exchange it would issue 100 million worth of preferred shares at an issue price of P100 apiece.

The preferred shares will come from the proposed increase in the company’s authorized capital stock to P20.5 billion and the creation of new non-voting preferred shares.

DoubleDragon said it was still finalizing the other terms of the preferred shares and the timetable of the issuance.

DoubleDragon in May also raised P5 billion from the issuance of fixed rate corporate notes.

DoubleDragon, which was

listed with the Philippine Stock Exchange in 2014, aims to be one of the top five largest property companies in the Philippines by 2020 through the build up of 1 million square meters of leasable space.

The property firm plans to achieve the target by building a chain of 100 community malls by 2020 that will require a capital spending of P24 billion.

The company so far has secured half of the sites required for the space build-up.

It is also developing the 4.8-hectare DD Meridian Park at the corner of Macapagal Ave. and Edsa Extension in Pasay City.

Once the entire development is fully completed, DD Meridian Park will have over 280,000 square meters of prime leasable space.

The company this year plans to complete 25 CityMalls outlets.

DoubleDragon reported a net income of P713.6 million in the first nine months of the year, up 113 percent from P338.1 million posted in the same period last year.

The company said the opening of first five CityMalls and the recent launching of Dragon8 MallDivisoria and mall stall units have started to contribute in rental revenue.

The company said it expects more significant revenue contribution once other projects currently under construction start to operate.

DoubleDragon earlier projected its net income to reach P1 billion by 2016 and P4.8 billion by 2020.

DoubleDragon has envisioned CityMall to become the largest independent chain of community malls in the country .

Visitor from CEB. Thomas Monahan III (seated, center), chairman and chief executive of leading

member-based advisory company CEB, visits local distributor Assessment Analytics Inc. to share the latest best practice insights in the field of human resources and talent measurement and discuss how the two companies can create more synergies. CEB develops innovative solutions that drive corporate performance.

With Monahan are (seated, from left) AAI chairman Jose Feria Jr. and AAI managing director Ma. Lourdes Aruego. Behind them (from left) are AAI directors Luis Galvez and Jesus Zulueta Jr., AAI director of operations and HR Carolina Narciso and AAI director Ernesto Congco.

BDO named one of top 50 Asean banks BDO Unibank Inc., the country’s biggest bank, was named one of the top 50 publicly-listed companies in Southeast Asia during the inaugural of the Asean Corporate Governance Awards.

The Asean Capital Markets Forum gave the award using the Asean Corporate Governance Scorecard as basis. ACMF is composed of capital market regulators from 10 countries—Brunei Darussalam, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos PDR, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam.

BDO said in a statement Monday it considered corporate governance as an integral part of its successful business strategy, creating accountability throughout the in-

stitution and drives improvement in business results.

“Over the years, the various recognitions received by the bank related to corporate governance have resulted to the solid trust and confidence of investors, customers and the community in general,” it said.

The bank is a full-service universal bank which provides a wide range of corporate and retail banking services that include traditional loan and deposit products, as well as treasury, trust banking, investment banking, private banking, rural banking, cash management, leasing and finance, remittance, insurance, retail cash cards and credit card services.

BDO in the first nine months posted a 5.4-percent increase in

net income to P17.6 billion from P16.7 billion a year ago on the strength of its core businesses.

Total deposits rose 12 percent to P1.6 trillion, led by the 16-percent hike in low-cost deposits. Net interest income rose 12 percent yearon-year to P41.8 billion.

The third-quarter results incorporated the completion of BDO’s acquisition of One Network Bank in July this year, adding over P20 billion to BDO’s total loans and deposits.

The bank’s fee-based service income contributed P13.9 billion to non-interest income, followed by trading and foreign exchange income at P6.3 billion. BDO’s overall gross operating income increased 11 percent to P65.6 billion.

Germany and Japan 70 years after 1945 2015 is a very significant year for Germany and Japan, undoubtedly two of the most significant players on today’s world stage.

This year is the 70th year after the formal end of the most destructive conflict that the world has ever known. In May 1945 Germany, the instigator of World War II, signed an instrument of unconditional surrender to the US, Britain, France and the other major Allied powers, and in August, the Japanese Empire agreed to surrender unconditionally to the same Allied powers after the US used atomic bombs for the first time on the cities of Nagasaki and Hiroshima.

The number of people who personally experienced the injuries, atrocities and destruction visited by Germany, Japan and its allies on the occupied countries of Europe and Asia have greatly diminished over the past 70 years, and, with their diminution, the intensity of the hatred and opprobrium felt toward World War II’s aggressors gradually disappeared. Only those who are in their late 70s and above have abiding recollections of what it was like to live under German and Japanese military boots. Certainly those who survived the Holocaust and the surviving soldiers who freed the concentration camps, and the living victims of the Kempeitai, will never forget what Hitler and the Japanese militarists did to the peoples of Europe and Asia.

Even before World War II came to an end, during their wartime conferences, the Allied leaders decided that the mistakes committed by the victorious powers of World War I—the imposition of harsh and humiliating terms on the losers—were not going to be repeated in any settlement ending World War II. No opportunity would be given to another Adolf Hitler to stoke resentment toward the victors and thereby set the stage for a Fourth Reich and a Japanese Empire II. The contrary happened. In the aftermath of World War II the US and its Western European allies embarked on the greatest rehabilitation effort in world history. The US rolled out the Marshall Plan— named after Chief of Staff General George C. Marshall—that poured enormous amounts of cash and peacetime goods, for consumer and industrial needs, into Germany and the former Austria. By 1952 Germany, led by the respected Konrad Adenauer was back on its economic and political feet. The reentry of Germany into the international community was signaled by the acceptance of Germany as a founding member of the European Coal and Steel Community, the forerunner of the European Community.

On the other side of the world the former commander of the Allied powers in the Pacific war theater General Douglas MacArthur, was appointed as the effective head of the government of Japan. At the very start MacArthur indicated that he--=and the US government that he represented—wanted not a humiliated and broken Land of the Rising Sun but a Japan that would be able to reclaim its place in the community of democratic, peace-loving and progressive nations.

Correctly perceiving that a post-War Japan needed a unifying figure, Gen. MacArthur retained Hirohito as emperor but shorn of his godlike character.

Like its European wartime ally, Japan by the early 1950s was back on its economic and political feat. So economically stable had it become that Japan was able to comply with the terms of the Reparation Agreements that it had entered into with the Philippines and the other Asian countries that it occupied. Corporate names like Mitsubishi, Nissan, Toshiba and Toyota began to carve out increasingly sizeable chunks of the world markets for their products.

Today, Germany and Japan are without a doubt two of the most important nations in the world, with Japan as the country with the world’s third largest economy and Germany as the country with the fourth largest. Germany calls the shots in the European Union and Angela Merkel is the primus inter pares among Europe’s leaders. Japan, long tied down militarily and diplomatically by its post-World War II Constitution, recently has made moves toward shedding its pacifist international posture and getting more involved in international peacekeeping initiatives.

Today, seventy years after they abjectly executed instruments of surrender in the midst of the destruction, displacement and grief that they had caused, Germany and Japan occupy places on the world stage befitting proud and respected nations. In 1945 hardly anyone could have foreseen that reversal of fortunes.

E-mail: rudyromero777@yahoo.com

T U E S D AY : N O V E M B E R 17, 2 0 1 5

WORLD

CESAR BARRIOQUINTO EDITOR

editorial@thestandard.com.ph

Yonhap: UN chief to visit N. Korea SEOUL—UN chief Ban Ki-moon will visit North Korea this week for a likely meeting with the nuclear-armed state’s diplomatically reclusive leader, Kim Jong-Un, South Korea’s Yonhap news agency reported Monday.

If the trip goes ahead, Ban would be the first UN secretary general to set foot in the North for more than 20 years, and the first international leader to meet Kim since he formally assumed power nearly four years ago.

Citing an unidentified high-level UN source, Yonhap said Ban would visit Pyongyang in his official capacity later this week, though no precise dates were given.

The UN spokesman’s office in New York declined to comment on the report, while the South Korean foreign ministry and presidential Blue House both said they were unaware of the visit.

The UN source told Yonhap that Ban was almost certain to meet with Kim Jong-Un— a meeting which, if it happens, would mark a major diplomatic opening by Pyongyang.

Since taking over the leadership following the death of his father Kim Jong-Il in 2011, Kim has yet to receive a single head of state, and has not traveled outside the country.

The young leader has received a number of high-ranking Chinese officials in Pyongyang, but the most prominent foreigner he has met in the past four years is probably the former NBA basketball star, Dennis Rodman.

A noted breach of protocol saw Kim snub the president of Mongolia who visited Pyongyang in 2013.

“There can’t be such a situation where the UN secretary general visits North Korea and does not meet with the supreme leader of the UN member state,” the UN source said.

Ban had been scheduled to visit North Korea in May this year, when Pyongyang invited him to tour the joint North-South Kaesong Industrial Zone, which lies just over the inter-Korean border. AFP

B7

‘7 terror attacks stopped’ LONDON—British security services have foiled around seven terror attacks since June with fighters returning from Syria posing a growing threat, Prime Minister David Cameron said Monday.

Grief. A French woman sheds a tear during the vigil to remember the victims of the Paris terrorist attacks in Melbourne on November 16, 2015. AFP Manila

“Our security and intelligence services have stopped something like seven attacks in the last six months, albeit attacks planned on a smaller scale” than Friday’s attacks in Paris, he told BBC Radio 4 from Turkey.

“We have been aware of these cells operating in Syria that are radicalizing people in our own countries, potentially sending people back to carry out attacks,” he added.

Security services have spent a “long time” working out how to deal with multiple coordinated attacks on the street, but will have to go “right back to the drawing board” after the Paris attacks, which killed at least 129 people.

“It was the sort of thing we were warned about,” said the prime minister.

Cameron added there were “hopeful signs” from Saturday’s talks in Vienna on Syria that progress was being made on how to deal with the Islamic State, and that he was to speak with Russian president Vladimir Putin later Monday.

“You can’t deal with so-called Islamic State unless you get a political settlement in Syria that enables you then to permanently degrade and de-

Republic of the Phillippines Department of Health National Capital Regional Office VALENZUELA MEDICAL CENTER BIDS AND AWARD COMMITTEE

Republic of the Phillippines Department of Health National Capital Regional Office VALENZUELA MEDICAL CENTER BIDS AND AWARD COMMITTEE

Standard

TODAY

Padrigal St., Karuhatan, Valenzuela City Telefax No. 294-4625 Email addressvmc_bac@yahoo.com

Padrigal St., Karuhatan, Valenzuela City Telefax No. 294-4625 Email addressvmc_bac@yahoo.com

INVITATION TO APPLY FOR ELIGIBILITY AND TO BID

INVITATION TO APPLY FOR ELIGIBILITY AND TO BID

MEDICAL OXYGEN GAS AND COMPRESS AIR PUBLIC BIDDING NO. 2015-037 Dated December 14, 2015 1.

FUNDING SOURCE: The Valenzuela Medical Center (VMC) through INCOME/GAA/GOP intends to apply the amount of Four Million Seventy Thousand Pesos Only (Php 4,070,000.00), being the Approved Budget for the Contract (ABC) for the provision of public bidding for MEDICAL OXYGEN GAS AND COMPRESS AIR . Bids received in excess of the ABC shall be automatically rejected at Bid Opening.

2.

The Valenzuela Medical Center now invites sealed Bids from eligible Bidders for laboratory and medical equipment. The description of an eligible Bidder is contained in Section II of the Bidding Documents’ ITB.

3.

Bidding will be conducted through open competitive bidding procedures using nondiscretionary pass/fail criteria as specified in the Implementing Rules and Regulations Parts A (IRR-A) of Republic Act No. 9184 (RA 9184), otherwise known as the Government Procurement Reform Act, and is restricted to Filipino citizens/sole proprietorships, organizations with at least sixty percent (60%) interest or outstanding capital stock belonging to citizens of the Philippines, and to citizens or organizations of a country the laws and regulations of which grant similar rights or privileges to Filipino citizens, pursuant to Republic Act 5183 (RA 5183) and subject to Commonwealth Act 138 (CA 138). Only Bids from bidders who pass the eligibility check will be opened. The process for the eligibility check is described in Section II of the Bidding Documents, ITB. The Bidder with the lowest calculated bid (LCB) shall advance to the post-qualification stage in order to finally determine his responsiveness of the bid to the technical and financial requirements of the project. The contract shall then be awarded to the Lowest Calculated and Responsive Bidder (LCRB) who was determined as such during the post-qualification procedure.

4.

Interested Bidders may obtain further information from Valenzuela Medical Center and inspect the Bidding Documents at the address given below from 9:00AM-4:00PM starting November 17, 2015 to December 14, 2015.

5.

A complete set of Bidding Documents may be purchased by interested Bidders from the address below and upon payment of a non-refundable fee in the amount of 1 Million up-5 Million/ Five Thousand Pesos Only (P5,000.00); and 5 Million up-10 Million/ Ten Thousand Pesos Only (P10,000.00) and Ten Million up (P15,000.00). The method of payment will be in cash. The Bidding Documents shall be received personally by the prospective bidder or his authorized representative. It may also be downloaded free of charge from the website of the Philippine Government Electronic Procurement System (PhilGEPS) and the website of the Procuring Entity, provided that Bidders shall pay the nonrefundable fee for the Bidding Documents not later than the submission of their bids.

6.

The Valenzuela Medical Center will hold a Pre-Bid Conference open to all interested parties on November 24, 2015, 10:00 AM at 4th Floor, Conference Room of Valenzuela Medical Center, Padrigal St., Karuhatan, Valenzuela City which shall be open only to all interested parties who have purchased the Bidding Documents.

7.

Eligibility Check and Bid Opening will be on December 14, 2015. Bids will be opened in the presence of the Bidders’ representatives who choose to attend at the address below.

8.

Bids and eligibility requirements must be delivered to the address below on or before, December 14, 2015 10:00 AM, 4th Floor, Conference Room of Valenzuela Medical Center, Padrigal St., Karuhatan, Valenzuela City. All bids must be accompanied by a Bid Security in the form of Cash, Manager’s Check or Cashier’s Check Bank Draft or Bank Guarantee of two (2%) percent, 5% Surety Bond and Securing Declaration (notarized) of the total amount to bid. Late Bids shall not be accepted.

9.

The Valenzuela Medical Center reserves the right to accept or reject any Bid, and to annul the bidding process and reject all Bids at any time prior to the contract award, without thereby incurring any liability to the affected Bidder or Bidders.

SECURITY SERVICES FOR 1 YEAR PUBLIC BIDDING NO. 2015-038 Dated December 14, 2015 1.

FUNDING SOURCE: The Valenzuela Medical Center (VMC) through INCOME/GAA/GOP intends to apply the amount of Four Million Ninety Nine Thousand Three Hundred Eleven Pesos Only (Php 4, 099, 311.00), being the Approved Budget for the Contract (ABC) for the provision of public bidding for SECURITY SERVICES FOR 1 YEAR . Bids received in excess of the ABC shall be automatically rejected at Bid Opening.

2.

The Valenzuela Medical Center now invites sealed Bids from eligible Bidders for laboratory and medical equipment. The description of an eligible Bidder is contained in Section II of the Bidding Documents’ ITB.

3.

Bidding will be conducted through open competitive bidding procedures using nondiscretionary pass/fail criteria as specified in the Implementing Rules and Regulations Parts A (IRR-A) of Republic Act No. 9184 (RA 9184), otherwise known as the Government Procurement Reform Act, and is restricted to Filipino citizens/sole proprietorships, organizations with at least sixty percent (60%) interest or outstanding capital stock belonging to citizens of the Philippines, and to citizens or organizations of a country the laws and regulations of which grant similar rights or privileges to Filipino citizens, pursuant to Republic Act 5183 (RA 5183) and subject to Commonwealth Act 138 (CA 138). Only Bids from bidders who pass the eligibility check will be opened. The process for the eligibility check is described in Section II of the Bidding Documents, ITB. The Bidder with the lowest calculated bid (LCB) shall advance to the post-qualification stage in order to finally determine his responsiveness of the bid to the technical and financial requirements of the project. The contract shall then be awarded to the Lowest Calculated and Responsive Bidder (LCRB) who was determined as such during the post-qualification procedure.

4.

Interested Bidders may obtain further information from Valenzuela Medical Center and inspect the Bidding Documents at the address given below from 9:00AM-4:00PM starting November 17, 2015 to December 14, 2015.

5.

A complete set of Bidding Documents may be purchased by interested Bidders from the address below and upon payment of a non-refundable fee in the amount of 1 Million up-5 Million/ Five Thousand Pesos Only (P5,000.00); and 5 Million up-10 Million/ Ten Thousand Pesos Only (P10,000.00) and Ten Million up (P15,000.00). The method of payment will be in cash. The Bidding Documents shall be received personally by the prospective bidder or his authorized representative. It may also be downloaded free of charge from the website of the Philippine Government Electronic Procurement System (PhilGEPS) and the website of the Procuring Entity, provided that Bidders shall pay the nonrefundable fee for the Bidding Documents not later than the submission of their bids.

6.

The Valenzuela Medical Center will hold a Pre-Bid Conference open to all interested parties on November 24, 2015, 2:00 PM at 4th Floor, Conference Room of Valenzuela Medical Center, Padrigal St., Karuhatan, Valenzuela City which shall be open only to all interested parties who have purchased the Bidding Documents.

7.

Eligibility Check and Bid Opening will be on December 14, 2015. Bids will be opened in the presence of the Bidders’ representatives who choose to attend at the address below.

8.

Bids and eligibility requirements must be delivered to the address below on or before, December 14, 2015 2:00 PM, 4th Floor, Conference Room of Valenzuela Medical Center, Padrigal St., Karuhatan, Valenzuela City. All bids must be accompanied by a Bid Security in the form of Cash, Manager’s Check or Cashier’s Check Bank Draft or Bank Guarantee of two (2%) percent, 5% Surety Bond and Securing Declaration (notarized) of the total amount to bid. Late Bids shall not be accepted.

9. The Valenzuela Medical Center reserves the right to accept or reject any Bid, and to annul the bidding process and reject all Bids at any time prior to the contract award, without thereby incurring any liability to the affected Bidder or Bidders. (sgd) DONA D. SALMOS, RN, MAN BAC Chairperson

(sgd) DONA D. SALMOS, RN, MAN BAC Chairperson (TS-NOV. 17, 2015)

stroy that organization,” he said.

However, he repeated that any settlement must include the removal of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, a sticking point between the West and Russia.

Britain is to recruit an extra 1,900 security and intelligence staff to counter the threat of terrorist violence following the Paris attacks, British media reported on Monday.

It would be “the biggest increase in British security spending since the 7/7 bombings in London” that killed dozens in 2005. The measures will be announced by Cameron later on Monday, according to the Guardian.

“I am determined to prioritize the resources we need to combat the terrorist threat because protecting the British people is my number one duty as prime minister,” Cameron will say, according to the newspaper.

He later told the BBC that Islamist terrorism was “the struggle of our generation.”

“This disease is a challenge we are going to have to face with everything we have got,” he said. “We will do everything we can to make sure we keep our people safe, but we live in a very, very dangerous world.” AFP

(TS-NOV. 17, 2015)

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CESAR BARRIOQUINTO EDITOR

editorial@thestandard.com.ph

WORLD

Paris fears for what is to come amid shock PARIS—”Why are the people crying, Mummy?” a little girl out for a Sunday afternoon cycle with her parents asked, as she passed the crowds gathered on the street corner where the killing began in central Paris.

“They are very sad,” her mother said as she tried to navigate the groups standing silently and awkwardly facing the Petit Cambodge restaurant and the Carillon cafe, trying not to look at the patches of bloodstained sand on the pavement where the 14 people who died there fell.

“But why are they sad?” the girl persisted.

“Because there are no answers,” said Benedicte Joffre, who was there with her 11-year-old son.

“And because this time we are more afraid.”

She had come to this corner of the 10th arrondissement near the Canal St Martin that is the acme of a trendy multicultural Paris of halal butchers, hipster hangouts and Jewish synagogues because she was feeling the same “unbearable sadness” into which the French capital has been plunged.

“This time it is different,” she said referring to the Charlie Hebdo and kosher supermarket attacks in January. “It is much wider, it is about terrorizing us all.”

“In January they attacked a certain idea of freedom, the freedom of the press but this time it is our whole society that they have attacked,” she said.

Across the canal at Place de la Republique, which became the symbol of France uniting in the face of the earlier killings, there were tears, steely defiance, but also fear That jittery atmosphere turned to panic at the monument later in the evening after firecrackers sent scores of people fleeing, a police source told AFP. Flowers and tributes left outside the Carillon cafe were also trampled in a false alert there, while in the Marais district there were similar scenes when an Australian tourist spotted an armed man who turned out to be a plainclothes policeman. AFP

Remembering the dead. People lay flowers and placards after a vigil to remember the victims of the Paris terrorist attacks in Melbourne on November 16, 2015. Islamic State jihadists claimed a series of coordinated attacks by gunmen and suicide bombers in Paris on November 13 that killed at least 129 people in scenes of carnage at a concert hall, restaurants and the national stadium. AFP

France launches raids on suspected Islamists

PARIS—France staged pre-dawn raids on dozens of suspected Islamists and bombed Islamic State’s stronghold in Syria as the prime minister steeled the nation Monday for more bloodshed after its deadliest ever terror attacks.

As France prepared to observe a minute’s silence in honor of the at least 129 people killed in Friday’s bloodbath, police conducted “several dozen” raids across the country, uncovering in one case “an arsenal of weapons.”

Police found a rocket launcher and weapons in the southeastern city of Lyon as the manhunt for at least one “dangerous” suspect intensified.

French prosecutors said they had identified two more attackers involved in the assault, including one previously charged in a “terrorist” case.

The 28-year-old Samy Amimour was involved in the massacre of 89 people in the Bataclan concert hall, they said.

The second was carrying a Syrian passport in the name of Ahmad Al Mohammad, although authorities said the authenticity of the document had yet to be verified.

Addressing a grieving nation, Prime Minister Manuel Valls warned that more attacks could come.

“We know that operations were being prepared and are still being prepared, not only against France but other European countries too,” he told RTL radio.

Valls said Friday’s attacks were “planned from Syria”, where French planes bombed the stronghold of the Islamic State jihadists, the jihadist group that has claimed responsibility for Friday’s carnage.

Residents of Paris tried to pick up their daily lives, despite the national state of emergency that remains in place.

Pupils went back to school and museums

that had been closed over the weekend were set to re-open later in the day in the world’s mostvisited city.

Metro trains were full of commuters and the streets were noticeably livelier than at the weekend.

Attention was also turning to Belgium after French Interior Minister Bernard Cazeneuve said the attacks were “prepared abroad and involved a team situated in Belgian territory and who may have benefited from... complicity in France.”

French authorities released a photograph of 26-year-old Salah Abdeslam, a suspect also wanted in Belgium.

Abdeslam is one of three brothers linked to the slaughter and lived in Brussels, in the rundown immigrant neighbourhood of Molenbeek, where police have made several arrests.

Seven of the gunmen and suicide bombers were killed in the attacks, but prosecutors have said they believe three teams were involved, suggesting some suspects are on the run, possibly in Belgium. AFP

One attacker linked to Belgian IS cell

Portraits. A Japanese reporter holds a copy of the French daily “Liberation” showing portraits of some of the attack victims during a live broadcast near the cordoned-off crime scene of the Bataclan concert hall on November 16, 2015 in Paris. AFP

BRUSSELS—One of the suicide bombers in the Paris attacks had links to a Belgian Islamic State militant believed to be the mastermind of a jihadist cell dismantled in January, a report said on Monday.

The name of Paris attacker Brahim Abdeslam appears in several police files alongside leading militant Abdelhamid Abaaoud relating to criminal cases in 2010 and 2011, the Flemish-language newspaper De Standaard reported.

“Investigators see a link with

Verviers,” it said, referring to an eastern Belgian town where police shot dead two militants in January and broke up a cell aiming to kill Belgian police officers in the streets days after the Charlie Hebdo attacks in Paris.

Belgian prosecutors were not immediately available for comment.

Abaaoud—a 27-year-old Belgian of Moroccan descent who allegedly led the group and had fought with the Islamic State group in Syria—remains at large.

He has claimed in the IS English-

language magazine Dabiq to have rejoined the group in Syria.

Both Abdeslam, a Belgiumbased Frenchman who blew himself up outside a bar on Boulevard Voltaire, and Abaaoud lived in the Brussels district of Molenbeek, which has a reputation as a hotbed of Islamic militancy.

French police have launched an international manhunt for Abdeslam’s Brussels-born brother Salah, who is also said to be linked to the Paris attacks.

AFP

T U E S D AY : N O V E M B E R 17 : 2 0 1 5

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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

A RTS, CU LT U RE & T ECH

LIFE

Globe Ambassadors with their new iPhones

Globe ambassador Katarina Rodriguez at the #ShoppingMadeMoreWonderful station

Unboxing the new iPhone 6s

Globe finally presents the new iPhone 6s

Darla Sauler, Myrtle Sarrosa and Karen Reyes at the Globe iPhone 6s launch

#ThatWonderfulMoment

Globe Telecom offers iPhone 6s and iPhone 6s Plus Postpaid Plan Bundles

A

re you into music, travel, will surely complete each subscriber’s movies, games or shopping? digital experience. Customers will Then Globe Telecom definitely get to enjoy 10GB* of mobile data per has something that will give month and access to non-stop music, you a complete and more wonderful movies, and games. For three months, digital experience through its new subscribers will get FREE access to postpaid plan offers for the new iPhone Spotify Premium, HOOQ, and top 6s and iPhone 6s Plus. mobile games. On top of that, the T he i Phone plan comes with 6s 16GB is now FREE access to available on Plan Facebook, Viber, 1799 with P450 and Instagram, monthly cash out unlimited calls while the iPhone 6s to Globe and Plus 16GB will be TM subscribers, available on Plan and unlimited 1799 with P650 texts to a ll monthly cash out, networks, all for both on a 24-month 24 months! contract period.

Also included Anyone who in the postpaid wants to avail of the plans are free new iPhones would Gadget ca re certainly want to for 30 days, get the most out free 1GB Cloud of it. Which is why DJ Mars Miranda keeping the beats up Storage for 24 Globe decided to months, and a match the smartphones with a whole P500 discount on digital connectors bunch of goodies. Complementing the from Globe for every P1,500 purchase iPhone 6s and iPhone 6s Plus at Plan at the Globe Store. New postpaid 1799 would be a bigger data allocation customers also get to have bonus and free access to various content that deals through the G Deals App that

features offerings from various deal sites such as a P600 voucher for Hotel Quickly, a P200 voucher for GrabCar, no transaction fee for GMovies ticket bookings, and food treats from partner establishments booked via restaurant reservation app sEATs. People would always look forward to what Apple will offer next and so far, the brand has not disappointed. So what’s in the new iPhones that make them superior to their predecessors? The iPhone 6s and iPhone 6s Plus have new game-changing features such as Live Photos, 3D Touch, 12-megapixel iSight camera, and 5-megapixel FaceTime HD camera with Retina Flash. All these great features are packed in the new iPhones that are designed with Retina HD displays made from strong glass and 7000 series aluminum, in modern and sleek finishes that now include rose gold.

If there are two things these two brands offer, it’s value for your money and a more complete digital experience.

If you want to know more about Globe Telecom’s offers on the new iPhone 6s and iPhone 6s Plus, visit www.globe. com.ph/iPhone6s. For more information about the iPhone, visit www.apple.com/ iphone.

LA Aguinaldo with his new iPhone 6s

Ficius as iur? Ro maximus temporuptae essi conempore,

Karen Reyes goofing around at the #TravelMadeMoreWonderful station

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LIFE life @ thestandard.com .ph

@LIFEatStandard

T EC H TA L K

LG G4 FAMILY IS FINALLY COMPLETE WITH LG G4 BEAT LTE

L

G G4 has one of the best professional camera models right now in the market and after a series of model releases, they finally completed the G4 family with LG G4 Beat LTE with same powerful features as its contemporary but with a mid-range price.

G4 Beat LTE comes with a 5.2-inch Full HD IPS Display, a clearer version to all the units that LG released in the midtier category. The body design is similar to the grip of the gently-curved body of the LG G4 and inherits the artisanforged metallic back plates of the higher models – in metallic silver, ceramic white, and shiny gold. Not only does it look good, it also functions well, allowing full capability for downloading, browsing, and streaming online.

LG phone cameras are always packed with the best quality hardware. The back camera has an eight megapixel capability and is supported by LG’s exclusive Color Spectrum Sensor and Laser Auto Focus. The best part is that even with an entry level price, the Beat

LTE camera is packed with a manual mode – white balance, exposure and aperture level, ISO level, and shutter speed with its designated dial – that allows customizability for full creative control. Meanwhile, the front camera has a five megapixel front-facing shooter with Gesture Interval Shot that wows anyone who sees you holding your palm up to take your selfie.

“We are definitely excited to welcome home the third member that finally completes the G4 family,” says Jay Won, vice president for LG Philippines’ mobile division. “With the LG G4 Beat LTE, we want our consumers to still see and feel greatness even in a mid-range smartphone.”

LG G4 Beat LTE is a good smartphone with an affordable price that retails for only P12,990. The best part is, this unit is already available in numerous mobile stores nationwide. To learn more about LG G4 Beat, visit www.lg.com/ph; like LG Philippines’ Facebook page; or follow @ LGPhilippines on Twitter and Instagram.

LG G4 Beat LTE in Shiny Gold, Ceramic White, and Metallic Silver

LENOVO INTRODUCES THEIR NEW VIBE SMARTPHONES

BY NOIME DAGOHOY

Y From left: Lenovo Smartphone Philippines Country Manager Dino Romano, Brand Ambassadors JM De Guzman, Alyssa Valdez, Monika Sta. Maria and Country Marketing Manager Vincent Dela Cruz

Lenovo Smartphones Country Manager Dino Romano

Lenovo VIBE P1m

ou want to keep the VIBE on while on the go? No need to worry.

Bringing you the new style and power of technology, Lenovo recently launched its latest VIBE smartphones S1, Pm1 and P1 at Solaire Resort & Casino with brand ambassadors JM de Guzman, Alyssa Valdez and Monika Sta. Maria.

According to Lenovo country manager Dino Romano, VIBE P1 and P1m are perfect for consumers who want to be constantly connected, as these smart phones are equipped with high-performance processors to run games and apps as they support fast connectivity and smooth access to online content with 4G LTE. VIBE P1 and P1m are the perfect companions for users who want to stay powered and productive all day while on the go. VIBE P1 features an exceptional battery life with its 5000mAh battery that comes with a physical power saver switch that allows the extension of battery life. It also provides fast performance with the help of its 64-bit octa-core processor so users can enjoy and run their multiple apps for a lengthier period of time.

VIBE P1m on the other hand has a long-lasting 4000mAh battery with a quick charge function which allows users to get a quick power boost while on the go. It has splash-proof capability via a nano-coating technology which will assure you that whatever the weather and no matter

how clumsy the owner is, the phone will still be protected from splashes and spills according to Lenovo marketing manager Vincent Dela Cruz.

For picture perfect photographs, Lenovo VIBE S1 – one of the world’s first smartphones with a dual selfie camera on the front – is the perfect companion. Inspired by style with an eye on performance, this latest addition to Lenovo’s VIBE family has the ability to capture oneof-a-kind selfies, having an 8MP primary front camera which takes the sharpest photos and a 2MP secondary front camera which is used to analyze the depth of field information to replicate the human binocular vision.

“In this day and age, smartphone users are more inclined to taking selfies. It has become one of the most popular types of photos as large amounts of selfies are taken and shared on social media every day.

With the advancements Lenovo VIBE P1 in technology, consumers demand more from smartphones. They want their selfies to be unique so they can stand out in social media. This is why Lenovo designed the VIBE S1,” Romano said.

Check out the availability of VIBE P1 and VIBE P1m in all authorized Lenovo mobile dealers. VIBE S1 will be available on the last week of November. For more information about the latest Lenovo VIBE smartphones, just log on to www.lenovomobile.com.ph.

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LIFE life @ thestandard.com .ph

@LIFEatStandard

ARTS AND CULTURE ROUNDUP What’s on in theaters and galleries this week

EXHIBITS

THEATER PLAYS

In Between Open Fields: Allan Balisi Blanc Gallery, Quezon City Ongoing until November 28

The Secret Garden Onstage Theater, Greenbelt 1, Makati City November 20 to December 20

Using the sparsest of effects – thinly applied paint with light subdued hues – akin to a film's ghostly and translucent quality or a whitewashed, overexposed photograph, visual artist Allan Balisi focuses on the obscure spots and ambiguous consequences happening between one point to another. With his latest series of paintings that look like old images, he aims to evoke a certain sense of nostalgia especially in this age where new technology allows almost anyone to capture every moment and create special effects.

Like in most of Balisi’s paintings, color is restricted to a certain scheme that is almost absent. But the meagerness is only but a carefully calculated application that involves an acuity for the characteristics of under-saturated and overexposed photographs. What his paintings lack in color, he makes up for in his use of light that is used to transform photo-based prints.

To know more about this ongoing exhibit, visit http://blanc.ph I Put A Spell On You Because You're Mine 1/F Galleries, UP Vargas Museum, Quezon City Ongoing until December 1 In his solo exhibit, Dom i n ic Ma ng i la explores the longstanding tradition of painting through the translation of four disparate, cryptic metanarratives. The series of artworks aims to find answers on how painting is able to create a variety of expressions and ideas regarding our being in the world, and how it remains a recurring enigma in reflecting ourselves.

Mangila, through his assemblage of visual creations, invites his audience to look at the nature of painting and painting's depiction of its nature today by focusing on the unknown factor where the sphere of its coming into being is what lies beyond what we know of this art form. And this unknown sphere is what gives each piece its meaning. Hence, the paintings are mounted in the museum that make them look like a backdrop of the space.

For inquiries and more information, contact Vargas Museum at (02) 928-1927 or (02) 981-8500 loc 4024 or send an email to vargasmuseum@gmail.com. Check its website at http://vargasmuseum.upd.edu.ph

The Repertory Philippine is setting the stage to showcase another musical production before the year ends to delight young and old audiences. Directed by Anton Juan, the Rep is staging Marsha Norman and Lucy Simon's adaptation of the classic story The Secret Garden.

Based on the novel by Frances Hodgson Burnett, the story revolves around the lives of two abandoned children: the mischievous Marry Lennox (played by Ashlee Factor, 12 and Ginger Karganilla, nine) and the headstrong Colin Craven (played by Daniel Drilon, 11; Albert Silos, 10 and Noel Comia, 11) who, through the power of love, begin to transform their spoiled and selfish ways for the better.

With experienced young cast, seasoned production, and the story's beautiful message and catchy music, the Rep is sure the musical play will enthrall the audience. The show runs simultaneously with the Rep’s staging of Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs.

The Secret Garden premiers on November 20 until December 20, 2015 at the Onstage Theater in Greenbelt 1, Makati City. Ticket prices range from P500 to P1,000. For more details on the play, call Repertory Philippines at (02) 843-3570 and book tickets through TicketWorld at (02) 891-9999 or visit their website at www.ticketworld.com.ph

ONE MAN'S ART IS ANOTHER MAN'S TREASURE

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rt is not only confined within the walls of a museum; art is everywhere – it's on streets, in underpass tunnels, along highways, in coffee shops and restaurants.

Taking this into account, art advocates Publicis JimenezBasic, E. Zobel Foundation and 4As Creative Guild of the Philippines launched a unique way to raise consciousness and appreciation for Filipino art through #ArtLotto. #ArtLotto is an advocacy that aims to make Filipinos pay more attention to art around them and make one lucky art appreciator

P450,000 richer. “It’s a fun, playful way to do art consciousness among Filipinos,” says Ryder Aquino, cocreator of #ArtLotto. To join, one just needs to snap a photo or take a video of an artwork, upload it on Twitter or Instagram and then add the hashtag #ArtLotto in the post.

Each post automatically serves as a ticket to win the jackpot prize which will be raffled off in January 2016.

The lottery is open to everyone with a Twitter and/or Instagram account.

Raymund Sison, co-creator of #ArtLotto, said the idea came up after observing that you can actually find art everywhere in the

Philippines. “Through #ArtLotto and in collaboration with artists, we hope to make more Filipinos pay more attention to all the art around. It’s an attempt to democratize art, to make it more inclusive instead of exclusive, and ultimately make people from different age groups and walks of life be more conscious of art everywhere,” he said.

Each post with the #ArtLotto hashtag also automatically become part of Art Lotto's people-curated art gallery which features images and videos of all forms of art.

To learn more about #ArtLotto, like its Facebook page Art Lotto or visit www.artlotto.ph

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LIFE life @ thestandard.com .ph

@LIFEatStandard

ART GETS A NEW FRAMEWORK WITH MARIA TANIGUCHI

T

he concept of what makes art is different and unique for every individual, and more often than not, personal preferences, perceptions and experiences may color one’s appreciation for a particular piece of work. There are those that evoke light feelings, while there are those that challenge one’s cerebral prowess – and certainly, the work of Maria Taniguchi fall under the latter.

No wonder then, that this young, talented Filipino artist has earned for her a spot in the prestigious Hugo Boss Asia Art Award 2015 as one of the seven finalists.

Hugo Boss Asia Art is a biannual award conceived and curated by the Rockbund Art Museum in Shanghai, China in collaboration with the fashion brand, aimed at promoting young emerging contemporary artists in Asia who are in the early stages of their artistic creation and exhibition practices.

For 2015, the award extends its focus from greater China to Southeast Asia, where seven artists have been selected as the finalists, namely Yang Xinguang and Guan Xiao from China, Vandy Rattana of Cambodia, Moe Satt of Myanmar, Huang Po-Chih from Taiwan and of course, Maria Taniguchi of the Philippines.

As one of the finalists, Maria Taniguchi has been at the

forefront of contemporary art exploration both locally and internationally. At a recent event dubbed “Maria Taniguchi: A New Framework” held at the Museum of Contemporary Art and Design in Malate, the viewing public had an opportunity to see and appreciate some of the pieces of the artist, who also spoke about her work.

Untitled (ram dram sram, 2015): Maria Taniguchi’s sculptural work is made up of a pile of pearlescent posters about 25-cm

Among those on exhibit is Untitled (ram dram sram), a pile of posters with holes of various shapes and sizes that have been engraved by lasers. It presents a “mechanical composition” in relation to the memory: the viewers pass through one poster after the other, undergoing this “reading” while the sculpture itself also gradually disappears with the action of “reading.”

The Dumaguete-born artist, who comes from a family of sculptors, received an MFA in Art Practice at Goldsmiths in London in 2009 and a BFA in Sculpture at the University of the Philippines. According to her official profile, Maria Taniguchi concerns herself with art as the materiality itself. Through this she has explored, almost unrestrictedly, various materials and objects through forms as diverse as pottery and video. When it comes to the traditional mediums such as painting on canvas, her continued exploration of the materiality of the subject – its place in time, in history, in our visual compendium – does not cease and often results in massive pieces of entity without a traceable subject matters and is instead embedded with a kind of distributed process which makes it hard to distinguish between painted images or constructed objects.

The event, which was coorganized by Rockbund Art Museum in Shanghai, also had RAM deputy director Liu Yingjiu and MCAD curator and director Joselina Cruz as speakers. The event served as an introduction of the Award as well as an exhibition of Taniguchi’s work. An open discussion on the common and different challenges of contemporary art as well as their response was also conducted.

Liu Yingjiu, Maria Taniguchi and Joselina Cruz engage in a discussion

Joining in Maria’s artwork exhibited in MCAD Manila was her brickwork painting series in 2007. Here, she enforces the action of viewing upon our senses through this creation by using a monochromatic painting technique in her corpus. Each ‘brick’ contains minute, subtle differences in color, texture, as well as details

Henri Cainglet, Shoes for Lady Gaga, 2015

Ramon Orlina, Fruitful, 2015

A HEART FOR ART Foreign Affairs Secretary Alfred del Rosario and Senator Sonny Angara (fourth and fifth from left, respectively) led the opening of the 8th Alay Sining exhibit together with (from left) Alay Sining 8’s curator Jinggoy Buensuceso, Organizing Committee chairman Paolo Delgado, art aficionado and president of Museum Foundation of the Philippines, Inc. Maritess Pineda, Rotary International Director Guiller Tumangan and RCMW president Victor Vidal

Marlon Lucenara, Javier Don Kish, Beneath The Wisdom Tree, 2015 Vintage Vespa, 2015

RCMW president Victor Vidal

Napoleon Abueva, Ring Around the Roses, 2015

Marge Organo, Autumn (Orange), 2015

Rotary Club of Makati West officials and members together with the participating artists

ROTARY CLUB OF MAKATI WEST OPENS 8TH ‘ALAY SINING’ ART EXHIBIT-SALE

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or those who appreciate art and have a heart for a noteworthy cause, the Rotary Club of Makati West offered a great opportunity for them to help through its 8th annual artfor-a cause exhibition-sale dubbed as “Alay Sining” recently held at the Gallery, Greenbelt 5, Makati City. The art exhibit-sale’s theme ‘Art with a Heart’ underscores the Rotary International’s theme of “Be a Gift to the World.”

The three-day art exhibit-sale was a fund-raising initiative for RCMW’s Gift of Life program which aims to help patients with congenital heart disease have free heart surgery.

Over a hundred Filipino artists and sculptors – among them National Artist for Sculpture Napoleon Abueva, world renowned glass sculptor Ramon Orlina, Henry Cainglet, and Marlon Lucenara and Ferdie Cacnio – supported the initiative by contributing some of their pieces for the exhibit.

More than 150 artworks were displayed during the exhibit that generated a lot of interest among exhibit viewers. A large part of the proceeds from the sale of each piece will go to the Gift of Life program to provide surgery to those afflicted with CHD, some of whom are children.

RCMW officials expressed their gratitude to the Alay Sining artists whom they described as the real heroes of the noteworthy undertaking for their generosity in contributing their work and giving their heartfelt support to the fundraising effort. Over the years, the RCMW has been instrumental in helping save hundreds of lives through it Gift of Life program.

Artist and businessman Ral Arrogante spoke on behalf of his co-artists, many of whom have been with Alay Sining since the beginning. Arrogante said that contributing to charity completes their vocation as artists.

T UES DAY : NOV EMBER 17, 2015

SHOWBITZ

ISAH V. RED EDITOR

isahred @ gmail.com

C5

The Wang Fam cast, from left topmost row, Dyosa Pochoh, Benjie Paras, Andre Pares; second row, Candy Pangilinan, a teen actress, Pokwang, Yassi Pressman; foreground, Alonzo Muhlach

FlashmOb at EnchantEd KingdOm

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n Nov. 8, there was a bit of commotion at Enchanted Kingdom, the theme park in Sta. Rosa, Laguna. And it was because the cast of the horror-comedy movie of Viva Films, Wang Fam was there.

Everyone in the park, young and old, didn’t want to miss the chance to have their photos with the cast including Pokwang, Benjie and Andre Paras, Yassi Pressman, Alonzo Muhlach, Candy Pangilinan, and Dyosa Pockoh.

The theme park was literally in chaos as the cast of the film went around and greeted everyone.

Despite the noonday sun, nobody minded the heat as everyone was cheering for the stars. By dinnertime, the park was filled to capacity and at the Amazon area, where the stars had their meal, the security of the park had difficulty containing the fans who wanted souvenir photos with the stars of the movie. And when the stars waved at them, everyone broke into a loud scream that could be heard as far as the South Luzon Expressway.

The fans also liked the short program with the artists near the food court. Time stood still at the theme park as everyone didn’t want to miss the chance to witness the numbers of each member of the cast.

Candy and Dyosa were on the stage first and gave away tickets to the premiere of Wang Fam tonight at SM Megamall.

Alonzo went up the stage next and amazed the crowd with his dance moves to the beat of One Direction’s “You Don’t Know You’re Beautiful.”

The crowd screamed louder when Yandre (Andre and Yassi) did the famous Miley twerk on stage.

A wild laughter broke when Wang Fam love team Bewang (Benjie and Pokwang) entertained the crowd with their hugot and pick-up lines.

As what Pokwang said, the audience wouldn’t do anything but laugh till the end of the movie, which opens on Nov. 18 nationwide.

Chiqui Barretto of Wrap up

Host Suzi Entrata trying her hand with Gift wrapping

Make up Artist Mica Tuaño

Suzi Entrata mEEtS PowEr wivES

i

n the last 15 years or so, Suzi Entrata has become a second mom of sorts to all the students and early risers who watch the GMA morning show Unang Hirit.

She’s kept us company while were having breakfast with her practical recipes, home tips and feature stories that inspire us.

Off-cam, she’s a devoted to TV host sports enthusiast Paolo Abrera and mom to their children. In fact, she’s known as a supermom, which a lot of women aspire to be and the “Mars” every woman would want to have as a best friend.

With three adolescent children, a couple of TV shows and hosting gigs on the side, Suzi admits balancing work and family continues to be a challenge, but it doesn’t have to be a reason to neglect yourself.

“No matter how busy you are, or even if you always have lots of things to do at home, you still have to find some time for yourself. As moms its also our duty to take care of ourselves first kasi if we get sick lalo din mahihirapan ang family natin right?”

Hosting the first gathering of the Power Wives, Suzi was in her element as she gave tips and gladly assisted resource speakers Chiqui Barretto and Mica Fuentes Tuaño in their skill and personality development sessions with the wives of seafarers.

In time for the Christmas season, Chiqui Barretto of Wrap Up taught the Power Wives a thing or two about giftwrapping, as well as some tips on how to make extra money on their newly-acquired skills. Celebrity Make-Up artist

Mica on the other hand taught the women how to properly do their eyebrows and gave them some practical advice on how to properly do their make-up.

The creation of the Power Wives is the continuation of GSK’s cervical cancer awareness efforts urging Filipinas to realize that they are empowered—that they can do something to prevent the disease from happening to them, so they can have the wonderful, meaningful and joyful life that they deserve.

The pharmaceutical company has selected the wives of our seafarers as the pioneering members of the Power Wives who underwent a program that includes sessions on personality development, image building, personal resilience, financial management and self-care.

T UES DAY : NOV EMBER 17, 2015

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SHOWBITZ isahred @ gmail.com

‘AgEnT X’ On WARnER TV

Boomerang Watch and Play

Jeff Hephner

Scene from Agent X

S

uave, sexy and dangerous, Agent X is the person that every man dreams to be and every woman dreams to be with. Premiering on Warner TV on the same day as the US, the 10-episode series is set to bring viewers on provocative adventures and life threatening missions which are too dangerous for even the most talented CIA agent. Get ready to delve behind the curtain of the US government and into the underbelly of its biggest conspiracy.

In the show, the vice president has a much more powerful role. Unknown to the public for many centuries, the constitution dictates that in times of national crisis, the country’s second-in-command can deploy a covert operative known as Agent X. The man at the center of Agent X is John Case (played by Jeff Hephner). Case is the American James Bond – smooth, athletic, tough and quick-witted – who can be brutally effective when his duties require it.

Aside from being the ultimate patriot, Special Ops-trained and CIA-tested, Case also has a strong moral compass which makes him the ideal operative for the Agent X program. When the heat turns up, John cools down, protecting America with humor and ingenuity while enjoying the danger more than he’d care to admit.

Meanwhile, Oscar® nominee, Emmy® and Golden Globe® winner Sharon Stone plays America’s first female Vice President, Natalie Maccabee, who pledges to protect the country “against all enemies, foreign and domestic.”

Honoring this vow will force her and her secret operative to tackle not only global threats, but also the palaces of intrigue of Washington D.C. With Case handling highstakes missions that are too sensitive for the

FBI and the CIA, Maccabee soon finds herself being drawn into the action.

Other stars in Agent X includes Gerald McRaney as Malcolm Millar, the chief steward of the Vice President’s residence; John Shea as President Thomas Eckhart; Mike Colter as Speaker of the House Miles Latham; and James Sheridan as FBI Director Edwin Stanton.

The series is executive produced by some of Hollywood’s big names including Armyan Bernstein, William Blake Herron, Jesse Alexander, Suzann Ellis, and Peter O’Fallon.

Agent X premiered as a two-hour special on Nov. 9 and airs 8:10 p.m, every Monday thereafter, exclusively on Warner TV. Other favorites to expect on Warner TV this month are Gotham S2 on Tuesdays at 9pm followed by Blindspot at 9:50 p.m., iZombie S2 on Wednesdays at 9 p.m., Arrow S4 on Thursdays at 9 p.m., and The Big Bang Theory S9 on Fridays at 9 p.m..

Warner TV is available on SKYcable Channel 77, SKYcable HD Channel 197, Cignal HD Channel 119, Destiny Cable (Digital) Channel 77, Destiny Cable (Analog) Channel 80, and Cable Link Channel 30.

For more updates on the best in action, comedy and drama, follow on facebook.com/ WarnerTVAsia.

Sharon Stone

CROSSWORD PUZZLE

ANSWER FOR PREVIOUS PUZZLE ACROSS 1 Formal 5 Grammy winners 10 Pro — 14 Fridge stick 15 Walrus tusk 16 Unwelcome obligation 17 Explains further 18 Swamp critter 19 Colony members 20 Roman army

22 24 25 26 28 32 35 37 38 39

Inquire delicately (2 wds.)

Vile smile Cheerleader’s prop (hyph.)

Go sky-high Talks hoarsely For fear that Give — — break Buy from China Harvest Moon mo.

Asimov of sci-fi

41 42 45 46 47 48 50 54 58 61 62 63 65 66 67 68 69 70 71

Friend or —?

Suitable to farm Cable network Ride the rapids Bach opus “Only Time” singer Expired Crop up Gymnast’s feat Wagner oeuvres Jai — Pop a top Overall fronts Mezzanine Kiwi language Cuba, to Castro Forest ruminant Please, in Vienna The other guys

DOWN 1 Ambitions 2 Of yore 3 Jam tightly 4 Most curious 5 Do autographs 6 Eggs 7 Untrue (2 wds.)

8 Brush the dog 9 Waffle topping 10 Gas station buy (2 wds.)

11 — Domini

TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 17, 2015

12 13 21 23 25 27 29 30 31 32 33 34 36 37 40 43 44 46 49 51 52 53 55 56 57 58 59 60 61 64

“Swan Lake” costume Off. helper Gonzalez’s gold Rule of thumb Chief exec Fifi’s friend Three-seater Faculty mem.

Dele canceler Bakery buy Pantyhose shade Antler bearer Long sigh Desktop symbol Still snoozing More cumbersome Table extender Cheese dish Jabber Carpenter’s weight Red Sea peninsula Orlando attraction Gaelic people Luxury fur Dreaded assignment Like Kojak — vera Parakeet quarters Sheriff Andy’s son Painting, e.g.

Boomerang launChes new digital experienCe

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ablet-wielding kids and families can plug into an unrivalled selection of animated fun with Boomerang’s new mobile app, Boomerang Watch and Play.

Boomerang Watch and Play is a free app with a twist. It allows users to simultaneously watch video and play games from hit franchises The Tom and Jerry Show, The Garfield Show, Mr. Bean: The Animated Series and Inspector Gadget, in addition to content from upcoming premieres Be Cool Scooby-Doo! and Wabbit – A Looney Tunes Production.

Boomerang Watch and Play key features loaded with hundreds of Boomerang clips, episodes and games; rotate tablet to switch between episode or game; option to watch and play simultaneously in split-screen mode.

Complementing the user-friendly app, Boomerang’s new-look website also launched today with the creation www.boomerang.asia. This is now home to the channel’s games and video content and is fully responsive to mobile device viewing.

“Boomerang Watch and Play offers the latest generation of digital natives the chance to enjoy family favourites and fresh content in a whole new flexible and safe way,” comments Mark Eyers, chief content officer, Kids Networks, at Turner International Asia Pacific.

Free to download, Boomerang Watch and Play is available through the App Store for iPads, and through Google Play Store for Android-powered tablets. A smartphone version is currently in development. The app complements the hugely popular Cartoon Network Watch and Play app, which launched in late 2013 and has already been downloaded almost 650,000 times, accumulating more than 24 million video views in less than two years.

Download from the Google Play Store: https://play.google.com/store/ apps/details?id=com.cartoonnetwork.asia.boomerang Download from the App Store: https://itunes.apple.com/ph/app/boomerang-watchand-play/id986230820?mt=8

T UES DAY : NOV EMBER 17, 2015

C7

SHOWBITZ isahred @ gmail.com

rafael rosell loves to surf

N

Rafael Rosell

from C8

ow that Rafael Rosell has started taping for Because of You has he put surfing aside?

“No,” Rosell answered adamantly when asked about it during the press con for the new series. “I still go and surf in La Union where I have found surfing buddies. I do that when there’s no taping or when I am not in any of the scenes that the production will take.”

This is the one thing that he will not put aside, taping or no taping, drama series or no drama series.

“I will really find time to surf. The high you get from it is unparalleled.”

HHHHH Heart aNd MiriaM reMaiN frieNds They remain the best of friends, Heart Evangelista-Escudero and Senator Miriam D. Santiago.

Santiago is Evangelista-Escudero’s mentor and matchmaker.

She opened the gates for the actress and Senator Francis “Chiz” Escudero to meet that eventually blossomed into a love affair, Now, the two are happily married.

Evangelista-Escudero said she

had a conversation with Senator Santiago and they discussed her support for Senator Grace Poe’s political plans in 2016, her husband being the running mate.

“Tita Miriam said, ‘You know, it’s right that you stand by your husband. And I respect that,’” Heart told members of the mass media who went to the launch of her book This is Me, Love Marie on Nov. 8.

“And we’ll always be friends.

Even if we don’t talk, or we talk after how many years, friends don’t forget each other. So, we have no problems,” the actress added.

In the same way, Heart has no problem if her mommy Cecille Ongpauco supports Senator Miriam.

“It’s not a problem. We’re all entitled to who we want (to support),” said Heart.

Senator Poe understands Heart’s mother and respects her decision.

“I understand her sentiments. I only met her maybe a month ago, samantalang matagal na niyang kilala at mentor niya si Senator Miriam,” Senator Poe said referring to Heart’s mother.

Chris Botti

Share the Stage with ChriS Botti and Sting

Premier entertainment and tourism destination Resorts World Manila (RWM), in cooperation with Hi Definition Radio Inc, hosts Chris Botti featuring special guest Sting: Up Close and Personal on March 3, 2016, 8:45 p.m. at the recently opened Marriott Grand Ballroom.

This exclusive and limited VIP seating show marks the first time Chris Botti and Sting perform in the Philippines together.

RWM presents fans with a once in a lifetime opportunity to witness a stellar performance by these two Grammy Award-winning artists by being one of 60 guests to sit at the exclusive “stage seats” just a breath away from the stars.

Since the release of his 2004 critically acclaimed CD When I Fall In Love, Chris Botti has become the largest-selling American instrumental artist.

His success has crossed over to audiences usually reserved for pop music and his ongoing association with PBS has led to four no.1 jazz albums, as well as multiple Gold, Platinum and Grammy Awards. Most recently, his latest album Impressions won the Grammy for Best Pop Instrumental Album at the 2013 55th Grammy Awards. Performing worldwide and selling more than four million albums, he has found a form of creative expression that begins in jazz and expands beyond the limits of any single genre.

Grammy Award-winning musician, singer-songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, activist, actor, and philanthropist Sting was the principal songwriter, lead singer, and bassist for the new wave rock band The Police from 1977 to 1983, before launching a successful solo career.

As a solo musician and a member of The Police, Sting became one of the world’s best-selling music artists. He has received 16 Grammy Awards, his first for best Sting

Citi cardholders get pre-sale discount on tickets to Chris Botti and Sting concert.

rock instrumental in 1984, three Brit Awards, including Best British Male in 1994 and Outstanding Contribution in 2002, a Golden Globe, an Emmy, and three Academy Award nominations for Best Original Song. He was inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame in 2002 and the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as a member of The Police in 2003. Most recently, he received a Tony nomination for his score written for the Broadway musical, The Last Ship.

“This concert has a unique value proposition,” said Martin Paz, chief integrated marketing officer, Resorts World Manila. “Unlike other shows with VIP seating that are typically restricted to front row seats, meet-and-greets, or autograph signing sessions, we now take things to a whole new level wherein those in stage seats get to watch the concert on the stage itself and just a breath away from the artists.”

Ticket prices start at P11,000 for Bronze, P17,000 for Silver, P28,000 for Gold, P34,000 for VIP, and P40,000 for SVIP. For Stage Seats, contact the RWM Sales team at 09178728012. As the Marriott Grand Ballroom has a 3,180 seat capacity for this intimate show, which is relatively limited compared to arena concerts, tickets are expected to sell out quickly due to the unique opportunity it presents Botti and Sting fans.

For more information, visit www.rwmanila.com or call the Tourist/Visitor Hotline at (02) 908-8833.

Citi CardholderS get pre-Sale diSCount to ChriS Botti ConCert

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iti Credit Cards is once again offering an exclusive deal to its loyal clients. If you enjoy soulful and upbeat sounds, take advantage of the 10 percent discount on ticket prices to the highly-anticipated concert Chris Botti featuring special guest, Sting, Up Close and Personal on March 3, 2016 at the Grand Ballroom of the Marriott Hotel in Resorts World Manila during the presale running until Nov. 30.

Chris Botti is an award-winning jazz trumpeter who earned the 2013 Grammy Award for Best Pop Instrumental Album for his 2012 album “Impressions”. This legendary trumpeter has performed alongside musical icons including Steven Tyler of Aerosmith, David Foster, Josh Groban and cellist Yo-Yo Ma, among others.

Botti will perform on stage

together with world-renowned musician Sting, a multi-instrumentalist and lead singer of the British rock band The Police who gained fame for their hits such as “Don’t Stand So Close to Me”, “Every Breath You Take”, and “Message in a Bottle”. Sting will sing a number of his greatest hits during this special concert event.

Prepare for a memorable night of world-class jazz and rock music from these iconic artists. Reserve your discounted tickets to “Chris Botti featuring special guest, Sting, Up Close and Personal” at all TicketWorld outlets or through www.ticketworld.com.ph using your valid Citi credit or debit cards.

Learn more about exclusive concert privileges and other promotions available only from Citi cards at www.citibank.com. ph, or call the 24-hour CitiPhone Hotline at 995 9999.

T UES DAY : NOV EMBER 17, 2015

C8

ISAH V. RED EDITOR isahred @ gmail.com

SHOWBITZ Most wonderful tiMe of the year with Martin ISAH V. RED For his family and loved ones, Christmas becomes more special because of Concert King, Martin Nievera.

“Christmas is more special when Martin’s around because he is Santa Claus to all of us-always goes out of his way to get the perfect gift puts lots of thought in what he chooses and he shops on his own and does not send anyone to shop for him. He sets the tone for Christmas. He loves to decorate all areas of the house and the Christmas tree. Plays Christmas music the whole time we decorate to get us in the mood.

Christmas is more special for me when he’s around because we both have kids that live away from us now in the States, so when we are not able to travel to be with our kids for Christmas it helps that we can be together,” says Vicky Nievera Davis.

For Rachel Nievera Zdzieba, “Christmas becomes more special with him around because he is like a child with such excitement to give his gifts that he

put so much thought into. His generosity is one in a million.”

Recollects Tere Tabuena del Rosario, “Christmas is always special when Martin was with us because he always made Christmas about the children! I will never forget one Christmas when we were living in Florida - when my kids were still smallhe pretended to be the reindeer on the roof - as in he climbed the roof and made those clicking sounds - he even prepared cookies for Santa- (which he also ate!) and then pretended to be Santa - with his ho ho ho and that sack of toys under the tree. The kids were in awe - and I was so touched to have my little brother Martin try his best t o weave some magic into my children’s Christmas! He is a special brother and uncle - in our family!”

“My Tito Martin is the family’s secret Santa. He doesn’t just buy gifts for everyone. No matter where he is or how busy he is, he makes such a big effort to find out what we need or what we wish

for. For the longest time, I even made him believe I am his inaanak (godchild) even if I am not so that I get a bigger gift,” shares Miguel Tabuena.

Paolo Valenciano adds, “Tito Marts usually isn’t here during Christmas. He comes back usually towards the end of the season. And right when you think Christmas is over, he shows up like a late Santa with gifts and goodies for everyone! Christmas in January.”

Concluding the happy reminiscences, Samantha Godinez-Valenciano enthuses, “Christmas with Tito Martin is always special because of the same reason why we all love the idea of a Santa Claus. It’s not about the gifts he gives but the idea of why he’s giving. He wants everyone to be happy. His main purpose in life is to make people happy. He thinks of every single gift he gives and you can see how excited he is when he gives it.”

With all these wonderful memories shared, it is no longer a surprise w h y Martin Ni e vera

kicks off the holiday season with Martin Home For Christmas on Dec. 1 at the Theatre at Solaire, Asia’s finest concert venue. Showtime is 8 p.m.

Martin Is Home For Christmas this year and will usher in the festivities with his own personal brand of entertainment.

So whether you have been naughty or nice, you are assured exquisite music, unequalled quality entertainment and a wonderful time from the Concert King himself, who has lined up his dramatic and romantic repertoire of signature songs alongside well-loved sentimental and nostalgic Christmas carols to ring in this year’s season of love, peace and goodwill.

On stage with Martin that night will be Louie Ocampo as musical director and the ABS- CBN Philharmonic Orchestra.

Martin Home For Christmas is produced

by LM Music Entertainment Agency and Fullhouse Asia Production Studios, Inc. and is staged in response to public acclaim and insistent demand of a repeat of the immensely successful Martin Home at the Theater presented by Solaire in September.

Tickets are available at TicketWorld (02) 891 9999 and (02) 888 8888 (Solaire). ➜ Continued on C7

Martin with Sam Godinez Valenciano

Martin Nievera

Martin with Luigi Tabuena and family

Martin with Paolo Valenciano

Rachel Nievera Zdzieba

Martin Nievera with Vicki Nievera Davis

Martin with Miguel Tabuena