The Standard - 2015 November 22 - Sunday

VOL. XXIX  NO. 283  3 Sections 24 Pages P18  SUNDAY : NOVEMBER 22, 2015  www.thestandard.com.ph  editorial@thestandard.com.ph

JAPAN TO ADMIT MORE PH WORKERS

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MANILA, JAKARTA TAKE ON SEA ROW

By Sara D. Fabunan

THE leaders of 10 Southeast Asian nations held their semi-annual meeting in Kuala Lumpur on Saturday to chart the next phase of their plan and forge a single community while contending with the thorny issue of the South China Sea territorial disputes.

Throughout the first day of the summit, President Benigno Aquino III pushed for the approval of a binding code of conduct in the South China Sea while Indonesia announced on Saturday it will openly oppose China’s vast claims in the South China Sea. Indonesia President Joko Widodo is expected to challenge China’s socalled “nine-dash line” map as having no legal basis, an Indonesian govern-

ment source said Friday. Indonesia officially protested China’s map when it was submitted to the United Nations in May 2009.

The area in the so-called nine-dash line, which covers most of the South China Sea, overlaps with the exclusive economic zone generated from Indonesia’s Natuna Islands.

Although Indonesia is not a claimant state in the territorial disputes

in the South China Sea, it has been monitoring China’s development of infrastructure there, including rig and lighthouse construction, as well as its seismic surveys and fishing activities, according to an Indonesian government position paper.

In his speech during the ASEAN summit plenary session, Aquino told his counterparts that China’s reclamation in Next page

IN PLENUM ASSEMBLED. Heads of states of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations link arms for the traditional ‘family photo’ at the start of their semi-annual summit meeting in Kuala Lumpur on Saturday. The leaders are (from left) President Benigno S. Aquino III of the Philippines, Singapore Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong, Thailand Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha, Vietnam Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung, Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak, Laos Prime Minister Thongsing Thammavong, Brunei Sultan Hassanal Bolkiah, Cambodia Prime Minister Hun Sen, Indonesia President Joko Widodo and Myanmar President Thein Sein. MALACAÑANG PHOTO

3 I.S. SUSPECTS JOIN LOCAL JIHADISTS THE VISIONARIES

C1

By Francisco Tuyay

AT LEAST three suspected members of the terrorist group Islamic State have mysteriously slipped into the country and have purportedly linked up with local militants in Mindanao for a still undetermined purpose, an informed source said Saturday.

The source, who asked not to be identified because of the nature of his work in the intelligence community, made the revelation after leaders of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations met in Kuala Lumpur and condemned the string of terrorist attacks from Paris to Mali.

Prime Minister Najib Razak of

Muslim-majority Malaysia opened a fresh round of summitry in Kuala Lumpur by railing against the ideological mantle claimed by Islamic militants.

Three of these Islamist militants, the source said, are known to be Syrians and had been hiding out in Mindanao, but he declined to identify them.

Next page

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WARM WELCOME. Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak escorts President Benigno Aquino III to the plenary hall of the Kuala Lumpur Convention Center for the opening ceremony of the 27 th summit meeting of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations on Saturday. MALACAÑANG PHOTO

3 I.S. ...

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The source said the Syrians were last seen in Central Mindanao and are believed to have met with Malaysian terrorist Amin Baco, who is a member of the Jemaah Islamiya and has pledged allegiance to the IS and its leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi.

Baco, believed to be a master bomb maker, is also suspected to be one of the leaders of the terrorist Ansar al-Khilafa Philippines, another IS affiliate.

The source said the Syrians are believed to have gone with unidentified Filipino jihadists to Jemaah Islamiya’s former base at Mount Cararao in Lanao del Sur, but they have since disappeared.

“The three Syrians were spotted in the Cararao complex in Lanao and stayed there for days, but at present they cannot be located,” the source said.

The source said they still have not determined how the Syrians slipped into the country, but it is typical for JI and IS supporters to enter via the country’s “back door” with northern Borneo.

The source said Ansar alKhilafa Philippines is under the command of Mohammad Jaafar Maguid, also known as Tokboy, a notorious kidnapper, bomb expert and former commander of the 105th Base Command of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front.

“The Ansar Khilafa terror wing wants to synchronized with their Malaysian counterpart to be able to establish a regional terror group,” the source said.

The arrival of the three Syrians bring to eight the number of international terrorists who are believed to have entered the country and are hiding out with Filipino extremists in Mindanao.

Aside from Baco, Malaysian Home Minister Dr. Ahmad Hamidi identified some of the terrorists

as Malaysian jihadists Dr. Mahmud Ahmad, a University of Malaya lecturer; stationary shop owner Mohamad Najib Husen; former Selayang Municipal Council employee Muhammad Joraimee Awang Raimee, 39; and Jeknal Adil, 30.

Ahmad said the terrorists are associated with Daulah Islamiyah Asia Tenggara (Southeast Asia Islamiya Network) which has links to IS and arrived in Mindanao in 2013.

Last year, an active military officer confirmed the presence of the Malaysian jihadists, one of whom is Amin Baco, who was with ASG leader Isnilon Hapilon and Hatib Sawadjaan, another notorious bandit responsible for the ambush killing of dozens of soldiers in Sulu last year.

One of the jihadists is a member of the Malaysian Special Forces, who went absent without leave.

Meanwhile, in Kuala Lumpur, Razak condemned the ideological mantle claimed by Islamic militants.

“The perpetrators of these cowardly and barbaric acts do not represent any race, religion or creed,” he told fellow Southeast Asian leaders.

“They are terrorists.”

US President Barack Obama condemned the violence typified by the “appalling” jihadist hostage siege in Mali that left at least 27 dead, including an American citizen.

“This barbarity only stiffens our resolve to meet this challenge,” he said in Kuala Lumpur, referring to global jihadism.

Obama and his counterparts are meeting in the Malaysian capital for round two in a week of back-to-back regional meetings.

The top-level diplomacy kicked off in Manila with a summit of the 21-member Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation bloc.

Apec ended with an urgent call for cooperation against extremism following the attacks in Paris by Islamic State group adherents that killed 130.

asean community tops leaders’ meet KUALA LUMPUR—Leaders from the Association of Southeast Asian Nations gathered here on Saturday to discuss the establishment of the landmark Asean Community by Dec. 31 this year and map out a plan for its further development to 2025.

“We are all here in Kuala Lumpur at a historic moment for the 10-nation associ-

ation. Tomorrow, we will formally declare the establishment of the Asean Community on Dec. 31, 2015,” Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak said in his opening remarks.

This marks “the culmination of a decades-long effort to integrate, to cohere and to forge ahead together,” he said.

Under the theme “Our People, Our Community, Our Vision,” the summit, the 27th of its kind, is expected to unveil the 2015 Kuala Lumpur Declaration on the Establishment of the ASEAN Com-

MANILA...

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the South China Sea threatens stability in the region and urged other Asean members not allow instability.

“As I have stated many times in the past, our collective prosperity requires stability in the region. This has come under threat by unilateral actions such as the massive reclamation and building of structures on features in the Spratly islands, which have urgent and far-reaching implications to the region and the international community,” Aquino noted.

He added, as a rules-based community, Asean should not allow any country, “no matter how powerful, to claim an entire sea as its own and to use force or the threat thereof in asserting such a claim.”

Aquino then urged his fellow leaders to develop a post2015 ASEAN Connectivity Agenda.

“We have not resolved, even

munity, signaling the formal establishment of the community by Dec. 31, 2015.

The envisaged ASEAN Community will cover some 600 million people with a combined GDP of $2 trillion.

The 2015 Kuala Lumpur Declaration on ASEAN 2025: Forging Ahead Together will also be endorsed at the end of the summit and related meetings.

ASEAN has maintained the high ambitions it set in the three community blueprints—economic, political-security and socio-cultural with “impressive growth,” Najib said.

The summit is convened at a time when ASEAN nations are facing economic downturn, currency devaluation, threats of terrorism and human trafficking.

Created in 1967, ASEAN groups Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam.

As one of the five original founding members of ASEAN, Malaysia took over the rotating chairmanship with an aim to accelerate economic integration, strengthen the institutional framework and make ASEAN more inclusive.

“ASEAN is increasingly seen not only

amongst Asean members, the competing claims especially among the Spratlys. These improvements further complicate and increase the difficulty of coming to compromises that will be necessary to prevent further tension from rising,” he added.

The ASEAN is composed of Brunei Darussalam, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam while Papua New Guinea will stand as an observer.

The Philippines and other Asean countries, including Vietnam, Malaysia, and Brunei, has a continuous territorial dispute over China’s excessive claims in the South China Sea citing its nine-dash line in its historical Chinese map.

Last year, the Philippines has proposed the Triple Action Plan, which aims to reduce and manage tensions in the South China Sea until a settlement of disputes may be obtained.

TAP will also address re-

as integral to the global economic and security architecture, but also as a region of tremendous opportunity,” Najib said.

The bloc has advanced and risen together the ASEAN way over its evolution with emphasis on community and consensus-building, non-violence and moderation.

In charting its future course to 2025, ASEAN aspired to deepen the integration process to realize a rules-based, peopleoriented, people-centered ASEAN Community, he added.

Najib also condemned terrorist attacks that have shaken the world in recent weeks in his opening address at the Kuala Lumpur Convention Center.

“The perpetrators of these cowardly and barbaric acts do not represent any race, religion or creed, nor should we allow them to claim to do so. They are terrorists and should be confronted as such with the full force of the law,” said Najib.

He assured fellow leaders at the meeting that Malaysia stood with them “against this new evil that blasphemes against the name of Islam,” calling for new solutions to the problems of extremism which have cast a shadow to the entire world. PNA

ports that China is planning on constructing infrastructure on the Paracel Islands claimed by Vietnam and the Spratly Islands claimed by the Philippines.

The freeze on activities in the region is the first part of the three-part action plan of the Philippines.

The second part is the intermediate approach, which calls for the full implementation of the 2002 Declaration on the Code of Conduct (DOC) and the expeditious conclusion of a more binding Code of Conduct.

The DOC was signed in 2002 between China and Asean , a non-binding edict aimed to reduce tensions in the region and prevents claimant-countries—China, the Philippines, Vietnam, Malaysia, Brunei and Taiwan-from aggressively pursuing their claims.

The Code of Conduct, on the other hand, is a more binding edict that was enshrined in the DOC. It hopes

to further promote peace and stability in the economically vital sea lane.

Aquino said Manila has always adhered to the rule of law in solving the Philippine maritime dispute with China.

“Our decision to resort to arbitration reflects our belief that it is a transparent, friendly, durable, and peaceful dispute settlement mechanism that can bring stability to the region,” Aquino said.

He also thanked the international arbitral tribunal for taking jurisdiction over some of the complaints the Philippines has filed against China.

“We welcome the Arbitral Tribunal’s decision on jurisdiction, and look forward to the next round of hearings, scheduled for next week at The Hague,” he added.

Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak for his part also echoed Aquino’s call for a peaceful rules-based approached in resolving the territorial dispute in the South China Sea.

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NEWS

editorial@thestandard.com.ph

REBELS ATTACK 2 FIRMS’ LAND IN RIZAL

By Francisco Tuyay

COMMUNIST guerrillas simultaneously attacked the properties of Ayala Land and Arce Dairy Products in Rodriguez, Rizal Thursday and seized 14 firearms from the security personnel of the two companies, the National Democratic Front announced Saturday.

In a statement posted on its website, the NDF quoted a certain Macario Liwanag, purportedly the spokesperson of the New People’s

Army’s Narciso Antazo Aramil Command, as saying the guerrillas attacked the companies’ offices and security detachments in Barangay Macabud at 5 p.m. Thursday.

Aside from nine rifles and four pistols seized from the security personnel, the rebels also seized ammunition, radio sets, bulletproof vests, combat boots and military packs, Liwanag said in the statement.

The rebels staged the raid purportedly because the two companies were involved in widespread land-

grabbing from farmers who are intimidated and forcibly evicted from the land that were allegedly seized by the two companies.

“Through intimidation and deceit, Selecta Farm seized 45 hectares of land while Ayala Land amassed 76 hectares. They continue to expand their land to the detriment of the farmers and citizens of the area through paid and armed goons,” Liwanag said in the statement.

The two companies were able to

control 131 hectares of land which were made part of various maneuvers meant to exclude the property from the land reform program, the NPA said.

“Despite the farmers’ demand that the land be distributed to them under the land reform program, government agencies, like the Department of Agrarian Reform, the town government of Rodriguez and the provincial government of Rizal, played deaf to their pleas,” the NPA said.

“Worst was the maneuver of the local government of Rodriguez which reclassified Barangay Macabun, which was previously and wholly classified as agricultural land, into industrial and commercial land so that it will not be included in the land reform program.

“This village remains without power, without a clear water distribution system and rich only in decrepit roads although it is quite near Metro Manila,” the NPA said.

JAPAN TO ADMIT MORE FILIPINOS IN TOKYO AREAS

By Vito Barcelo

AFTER easing its visa requirements for Filipinos last year, Japan will also open its doors to Filipino domestic workers soon, according to Japanese Press Secretary Yasuhisa Kawamura, spokesperson of Prime Minister Shinzo Abe. Kawamura said Japan already accepts a limited number of foreign nurses and caregiv-

IN TUNE WITH THE NATIVE. Japanese nun Tomoe Murayam tries out the agung, a set of vertically suspended gongs used by tribesmen in Mindanao, to the amusement of Manobo leader Gregorio Kaluhamin who is one of the lumad camped out at the Baclaran Church in Parañaque City. EY ACASIO

ers and Filipino domestic workers will initially be accepted in three prefectures, including Osaka and Kanagawa, which is part of the Greater Tokyo area.

“Japan’s reception of the Filipino household workers to Japanese economic special zones... we requested, on the side of the Philippines, that they also prepare the necessary systems,” Kawamura said.

Kawamura said the acceptance of more OFWs was one of the matters taken up during the bilateral talks between Abe and President Benigno Aquino III on Thursday.

During the talks, Japan also affirmed its commitment to transfer military materiel to the Philippines as part of the international community’s demand for freedom of navigation in disputed areas of the South China Sea. “We’d like to issue a strong message at the upcoming East Asia Summit meeting in order to preserve an open and free and peaceful ocean,” Kawamura said.

Abe also announced Tokyo’s pledge of P93 billion in official development assistance loans for the construction of a railway from Manila to Malolos, Bulacan which is expected to be completed in 2021.

Japan has also announced it will continue assisting Mindanao through various economic activities, which will be implemented ahead of the state visit to the Philippines of Emperor Akihito and Empress Michiko, the first Japanese monarch to ever visit the country.

Meanwhile, the Department of Labor and Employment welcomed Kawamura’s announcement that it will soon open its doors to more Filipino workers.

Labor Secretary Rosalinda Baldoz earlier said the Philippine government is negotiating with Japanese authorities to make it easier for Filipino nurses to pass Japan’s licensure examination and provide more labor opportunities in Japanese hospitals.

“We welcome the improving results of the licensure examination of Filipino nurses in Japan, but we continue to negotiate to make the language test easier so more of our nurses will pass and be able to work there,” Baldoz said.

Japan is already home to more than 200,000 overseas Filipino workers who work mostly as nurses and caregivers as well as the electronic industry.

Baldoz said OFWs in Japan have remitted more than $500 million in four years from 2010 and 2014.

In October last year, Japan started to substantially relax its visa requirements for nationals from the Philippines, Indonesia and Vietnam in a bid to increase its tourist arrivals and improve its people-to-people exchanges.

‘IN-FA’ SET TO ARRIVE SUNDAY TYPHOON “In-Fa” continued to churn at sea outside the Philippine Area of Responsibility on Saturday but the Philippine Atmospheric Geophysical and Astronomical Services Administration said the typhoon may enter the country by Sunday evening or Monday morning.

Pagasa said at 5 p.m. Saturday that In-Fa was 1,670 kilometers east of Samar with maximum sustained winds of 175 kph near the center and gustiness of up to 210 kph. It is expected to move west northwest at 25 kph.

“Cloudy skies with light to moderate rains and isolated thunderstorms will be experienced over Eastern and Central Visayas, Caraga and Davao Region. Partly cloudy to

cloudy skies with isolated rain showers or thunderstorms will prevail over Metro Manila and the rest of the country,” Pagasa said in a forecast.

Moderate to strong winds blowing from the northeast will prevail over Luzon and Visayas and the coastal waters along these areas will be moderate to rough. Elsewhere, winds will be light to moderate coming from the northeast with slight to moderate seas, the agency said.

But Pagasa said the typhoon, which will be renamed “Marilyn” when it enters Philippine territory, will not likely make landfall although it is expected to strengthen before it enters the PAR. Meanwhile, Pagasa said

the country should expect cloudy skies with light to moderate rains and isolated thunderstorms in the Eastern Visayas, Caraga and Davao Region which is now affected by the Intertropical Convergence Zone.

Metro Manila and the rest of the country, on the other hand, will experience partly cloudy to cloudy skies with isolated thunderstorms.

Meanwhile, moderate to strong winds blowing from the northeast will prevail over Northern Luzon, and its coastal waters will be moderate to rough.

Elsewhere, according to Pagasa, winds will be light to moderate coming from the northeast with slight to moderate seas. PNA

LOOK MA, JUST HANDS. A boy shows off the fish he found floating in Manila Bay on

Saturday. Fishermen claim the fish is safe to eat and only died because of the sudden mixture of the fresh water from Laguna da Bai with the salt water of Manila Bay. DANNY PATA

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OPINION

ADELLE CHUA EDITOR

lettertotheeditor@thestandard.com.ph

OPINION

THE ROAD TO PARIS: A CHANCE FOR CHANGE

[ EDI TORI A L ]

#APECNOTTIE

THIS piece was written by the representatives of the European Union memberstates in the Philippines, namely Ambassadors Franz Jessen (European Union), Josef Muellne (Austria), Roland Van Remoortele (Belgium), Jaroslav Olša Jr. ( Czech Republic), Jan Top Christensen (Denmark), Thierry Mathou (France), Thomas Ossowski (Germany), Nicolaos Kaimenakis (Greece), Massimo Roscigno (Italy), Maria Christina Theresia Derckx (Netherlands), Luis Calvo (Spain), and Asif Ahmad (United Kingdom) and Chargé d’Affaires Mihai Sion (Romania).

International climate change conferences produce strong—almost repetitive— messages of urgency in the past. Yet our daily experience of extreme weather events suggests too little has been achieved by negotiators. There are few places where this inability to act has been felt more dramatically than the Philippines. This might be about to change.

On Nov. 30, at least 196 countries will gather in Paris under the United Nations auspices to shape a global agreement that will curb greenhouse gas emissions responsible for climate change. Their objective is to keep emissions in check so that global temperatures stay within +2°C by the end of the century.

Every country will go to Paris with slightly different expectations. The draft text currently under discussion is well-balanced and offers hopes that a compromise can be found. The EU and its 28 memberstates—who jointly decided to implement a 40-percent binding carbon emission cut by 2030—will adopt a constructive position in Paris. We believe three key elements should form part of the final deal.

First, a common long-term goal for carbon emissions. We need to know by how much greenhouse gas emissions must be cut to avoid disaster and by when, using available scientific data. Ignoring this longterm goal would be a bit like running without agreeing on a finishing line. Second, a 5-year revision mechanism should be adopted. That would allow parties to reassess national capacities periodically because our world is not static. Developed countries will contribute most to greenhouse gas emission cuts but countries gradually becoming large emitters themselves could be invited to adjust their contributions accordingly. The recent visit of President Hollande of France to China has paved the way for such a re-

PERHAPS in our frustration with debilitating traffic, the string of lame excuses and the hypocritical window dressing during Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit held the past week, Filipinos turned their attention once again to personalities.

Online and off, they feasted on the physique of the delegates—Mexican President Enrique Peña Nieto and Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, and, to some extent, United States President Barack Obama.

Look at how they carried the traditional Filipino barong tagalog, social media users gushed. They looked dignified, respectable; they were real statesmen. Not a few compared them to how our own President Benigno Aquino III conducted himself.

Soon, the fact that Filipinos were entertaining themselves with the physical attributes of the delegates through the hashtag #APEChottie became international news. Who cared whether the Canadian leader still had to give a satisfactory answer to the issue of garbage from his country finding its way to the Philippines? We also did not pay attention to the news of Mexicans challenging our fascination with their president, who appears to be derided at home because of various anomalies.

Perhaps it is human nature to zero in on something to get excited about when many things go wrong and when many don’t even understand how such a summit can directly improve their lives.

The so-called hotties are gone now. The adulation for the leaders has died as they go back to their usual concerns, perplexed, perhaps, at how Filipinos are able to get excited about the oddest of things.

We brace ourselves for the reality of “back to normal” beginning tomorrow, made worse by the run-up to the holiday season and the circus that is the May elections.

We are left with everything that was there before the summit—poor public transport system, congested roads, street dwellers everywhere, and the glaring lack of opportunity even for those who tirelessly seek it.

Nobody left to swoon about, too, especially not this President who claims he treads the right path but exaggerates accomplishments, justifies his failures, blames his predecessor, and claims anybody who does not agree with him is out to destroy him.

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REMEMBERING A MENTOR

MONDAY afternoon, stuck in traffic on the way to Makati, I was exchanging text messages with a friend. We were talking about how we were nearing our 40thyear mark, and how only a good 30 something years remain, if we are lucky. That’s clearly halfway into the journey. The question: Have we even done something meaningful in our lives at all?

We ended with reinforce-

ments: Life is short. We should not spend our remaining just “putting up” with things. We have to ensure the quality of what lies ahead and realize our potential as individuals.

In the morning I woke up to the news that a mentor had passed on.

Reynaldo Binuya was my high school English teacher and school paper adviser. He died Monday, Nov. 16. He was 52.

I first met Sir Rey in 1989, at the club meeting of the high school newspaper which he moderated.

There were only a few members of The Gracean Envoy—I was the only freshman—and all of them seemed to me intelligent, tal-

Life is short; stop making excuses.

ented, and intimidating. Like he was. The following summer, Mr. Binuya conducted a journalism workshop where I became close with some of the older staff, many

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of whom remain my Facebook friends today. I was promoted to Feature Editor in sophomore year, to Associate Editor in junior year, and EIC senior year.

Competitions at various levels of the Secondary Schools Press Conference—presscon, as it was known—were also occasions to know each other better. It was Sir Rey who acted as our chaperon when we went out to represent the school. He made sure we were safe and well-fed, and even occasionally teased us about boys who would strike up conversations with us during these contests. As a mentor, he would only dish out the more important pieces of advice and the general principles.

Everything else, he left you with a desire to discover for yourself.

I remember my fourth year in high school when it was the National Capital Region’s turn to host the national presscon. We were billeted at Rizal High School in Pasig for an entire week. SM Megamall had just opened, its main attraction being the ice skating rink. Sir Rey accompanied me and two other schoolmates to try it for the first time, even though it meant sitting on the ice for a lot longer than actually skating on it.

That week, too, I was called for a scholarship interview at a university I had applied to (one I did not end up attending). I did not know how to get from Pasig to Taft

Avenue at that time, so he said he would accompany me. I told the people there he was my uncle.

As an English teacher, Mr. Binuya spurred engaging discussions and challenged his students to ask questions. He was knowledgeable about the classics and contemporary literature as well as global current events, and yet you never got the sense he was showing off. The effect was that you were challenged to read more and know more so that you could

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catch up to be worthy of his conversation.

We did not see a lot of each other after high school. He had moved to another school, too, one where he stayed longer, and where he inspired many other students.

We met only several times to talk about a book project on campus journalism. I could sense he was happy that I had taken this career track. I don’t know if I was even able to say I owed much of that decision to him.

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Last July, he sent a text to pass on a weekend journalism lecture to me. The venue was in Parañaque and he said he was not feeling too well to travel that far (he lived in Caloocan). I took the gig and thanked him, tried to do a good job, and that was that.

In August, through Facebook, we heard about his sickness. I planned on visiting him, going to the extent of asking him directions to his house. But then I fell down the stairs and could not go

anywhere for a week. And then I became too busy again, tending to the family, to the house, to my multiple engagements—not having time, no, not making time.

This for a person who was one of the few whose influence and example steered me into the direction I took.

Yes, life is short. So stop making excuses for not doing that thing which you’ve always wanted to do.

Spend more time with your family. Tell someone you love him/ her.

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

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

Anita F. Grefal Treasury Manager Edgar M. Valmorida Circulation Manager

Forgive those who have wronged you. Write that story. Travel. See your friends. Visit your mentors and let them know of the impact they’ve had on your life. Don’t wait for free time; it will never come.

Mr. Binuya will always be remembered as the one who enables, and challenges, and raises the bar. He was a true teacher, a true mentor. It is an honor to have been his student. adellechua@gmail.com

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

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

Emil P. Jurado Chairman Emeritus, Editiorial Board

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

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OPINION

ADELLE CHUA EDITOR

lettertotheeditor@thestandard.com.ph

OPINION

THE ROAD TO PARIS: A CHANCE FOR CHANGE

[ EDI TORI A L ]

#APECNOTTIE

THIS piece was written by the representatives of the European Union memberstates in the Philippines, namely Ambassadors Franz Jessen (European Union), Josef Muellne (Austria), Roland Van Remoortele (Belgium), Jaroslav Olša Jr. ( Czech Republic), Jan Top Christensen (Denmark), Thierry Mathou (France), Thomas Ossowski (Germany), Nicolaos Kaimenakis (Greece), Massimo Roscigno (Italy), Maria Christina Theresia Derckx (Netherlands), Luis Calvo (Spain), and Asif Ahmad (United Kingdom) and Chargé d’Affaires Mihai Sion (Romania).

International climate change conferences produce strong—almost repetitive— messages of urgency in the past. Yet our daily experience of extreme weather events suggests too little has been achieved by negotiators. There are few places where this inability to act has been felt more dramatically than the Philippines. This might be about to change.

On Nov. 30, at least 196 countries will gather in Paris under the United Nations auspices to shape a global agreement that will curb greenhouse gas emissions responsible for climate change. Their objective is to keep emissions in check so that global temperatures stay within +2°C by the end of the century.

Every country will go to Paris with slightly different expectations. The draft text currently under discussion is well-balanced and offers hopes that a compromise can be found. The EU and its 28 memberstates—who jointly decided to implement a 40-percent binding carbon emission cut by 2030—will adopt a constructive position in Paris. We believe three key elements should form part of the final deal.

First, a common long-term goal for carbon emissions. We need to know by how much greenhouse gas emissions must be cut to avoid disaster and by when, using available scientific data. Ignoring this longterm goal would be a bit like running without agreeing on a finishing line. Second, a 5-year revision mechanism should be adopted. That would allow parties to reassess national capacities periodically because our world is not static. Developed countries will contribute most to greenhouse gas emission cuts but countries gradually becoming large emitters themselves could be invited to adjust their contributions accordingly. The recent visit of President Hollande of France to China has paved the way for such a re-

PERHAPS in our frustration with debilitating traffic, the string of lame excuses and the hypocritical window dressing during Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit held the past week, Filipinos turned their attention once again to personalities.

Online and off, they feasted on the physique of the delegates—Mexican President Enrique Peña Nieto and Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, and, to some extent, United States President Barack Obama.

Look at how they carried the traditional Filipino barong tagalog, social media users gushed. They looked dignified, respectable; they were real statesmen. Not a few compared them to how our own President Benigno Aquino III conducted himself.

Soon, the fact that Filipinos were entertaining themselves with the physical attributes of the delegates through the hashtag #APEChottie became international news. Who cared whether the Canadian leader still had to give a satisfactory answer to the issue of garbage from his country finding its way to the Philippines? We also did not pay attention to the news of Mexicans challenging our fascination with their president, who appears to be derided at home because of various anomalies.

Perhaps it is human nature to zero in on something to get excited about when many things go wrong and when many don’t even understand how such a summit can directly improve their lives.

The so-called hotties are gone now. The adulation for the leaders has died as they go back to their usual concerns, perplexed, perhaps, at how Filipinos are able to get excited about the oddest of things.

We brace ourselves for the reality of “back to normal” beginning tomorrow, made worse by the run-up to the holiday season and the circus that is the May elections.

We are left with everything that was there before the summit—poor public transport system, congested roads, street dwellers everywhere, and the glaring lack of opportunity even for those who tirelessly seek it.

Nobody left to swoon about, too, especially not this President who claims he treads the right path but exaggerates accomplishments, justifies his failures, blames his predecessor, and claims anybody who does not agree with him is out to destroy him.

Continued on A6

REMEMBERING A MENTOR

MONDAY afternoon, stuck in traffic on the way to Makati, I was exchanging text messages with a friend. We were talking about how we were nearing our 40thyear mark, and how only a good 30 something years remain, if we are lucky. That’s clearly halfway into the journey. The question: Have we even done something meaningful in our lives at all?

We ended with reinforce-

ments: Life is short. We should not spend our remaining just “putting up” with things. We have to ensure the quality of what lies ahead and realize our potential as individuals.

In the morning I woke up to the news that a mentor had passed on.

Reynaldo Binuya was my high school English teacher and school paper adviser. He died Monday, Nov. 16. He was 52.

I first met Sir Rey in 1989, at the club meeting of the high school newspaper which he moderated.

There were only a few members of The Gracean Envoy—I was the only freshman—and all of them seemed to me intelligent, tal-

Life is short; stop making excuses.

ented, and intimidating. Like he was. The following summer, Mr. Binuya conducted a journalism workshop where I became close with some of the older staff, many

A5

of whom remain my Facebook friends today. I was promoted to Feature Editor in sophomore year, to Associate Editor in junior year, and EIC senior year.

Competitions at various levels of the Secondary Schools Press Conference—presscon, as it was known—were also occasions to know each other better. It was Sir Rey who acted as our chaperon when we went out to represent the school. He made sure we were safe and well-fed, and even occasionally teased us about boys who would strike up conversations with us during these contests. As a mentor, he would only dish out the more important pieces of advice and the general principles.

Everything else, he left you with a desire to discover for yourself.

I remember my fourth year in high school when it was the National Capital Region’s turn to host the national presscon. We were billeted at Rizal High School in Pasig for an entire week. SM Megamall had just opened, its main attraction being the ice skating rink. Sir Rey accompanied me and two other schoolmates to try it for the first time, even though it meant sitting on the ice for a lot longer than actually skating on it.

That week, too, I was called for a scholarship interview at a university I had applied to (one I did not end up attending). I did not know how to get from Pasig to Taft

Avenue at that time, so he said he would accompany me. I told the people there he was my uncle.

As an English teacher, Mr. Binuya spurred engaging discussions and challenged his students to ask questions. He was knowledgeable about the classics and contemporary literature as well as global current events, and yet you never got the sense he was showing off. The effect was that you were challenged to read more and know more so that you could

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catch up to be worthy of his conversation.

We did not see a lot of each other after high school. He had moved to another school, too, one where he stayed longer, and where he inspired many other students.

We met only several times to talk about a book project on campus journalism. I could sense he was happy that I had taken this career track. I don’t know if I was even able to say I owed much of that decision to him.

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Last July, he sent a text to pass on a weekend journalism lecture to me. The venue was in Parañaque and he said he was not feeling too well to travel that far (he lived in Caloocan). I took the gig and thanked him, tried to do a good job, and that was that.

In August, through Facebook, we heard about his sickness. I planned on visiting him, going to the extent of asking him directions to his house. But then I fell down the stairs and could not go

anywhere for a week. And then I became too busy again, tending to the family, to the house, to my multiple engagements—not having time, no, not making time.

This for a person who was one of the few whose influence and example steered me into the direction I took.

Yes, life is short. So stop making excuses for not doing that thing which you’ve always wanted to do.

Spend more time with your family. Tell someone you love him/ her.

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

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Anita F. Grefal Treasury Manager Edgar M. Valmorida Circulation Manager

Forgive those who have wronged you. Write that story. Travel. See your friends. Visit your mentors and let them know of the impact they’ve had on your life. Don’t wait for free time; it will never come.

Mr. Binuya will always be remembered as the one who enables, and challenges, and raises the bar. He was a true teacher, a true mentor. It is an honor to have been his student. adellechua@gmail.com

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Emil P. Jurado Chairman Emeritus, Editiorial Board

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

A6

OPINION

lettertotheeditor@thestandard.com.ph

THE INESCAPABLE PAST

By Fiachra Gibbons PARIS—Parents owe their children certain basics: food, clothing and love. We are not supposed to inflict our pasts on them.

Standing by the window with my baby in my arms as the sound of shooting and bomb blasts came echoing over the rooftops from the Bataclan, I had the dread feeling I was adding another notch to my list of failures as a father.

She had been woken by the sirens outside and maybe our panic, too as we decided which one of us was going to rush towards the gunfire.

Her mother and I are both reporters. As the man, I obviously stayed with the children.

“I can’t do this anymore,” one or maybe both of us said, as we always do. We have been here many times before, with and without the children. Atocha, Copenhagen, Tunisia, and back in Belfast too many times to mention. Almost always it is she who

goes, even though it was me who grew up in the “badlands” along the Northern Irish border to the rhythm of a war that seemed as endless as the Ulster rain.

A good part of my life since has been spent among people who have gone to bed wondering if their neighbors might kill them in their sleep. This is not a feeling I moved to Paris for.

We walk the floor, the baby and I, singing lullabies and listening to France Info radio in between Twitter, and more bloody Twitter.

“Putain merde! Putain merde!” (Holy shit! Holy shit!) a hipster with one shoe howls as he limps down the street from the direction of what is now a siege. Another passes later with blood on his shirt with a girl crying hysterically into her phone, “They are everywhere, everywhere!”

This was not supposed to happen in Paris, everyone said, although who were we kidding? This happens everywhere now, and we also happen to live in the Marais,

the historic heart of Paris’ Jewish community, which had been targeted before.

Still it shook me. And it drove me mad when in the following days leaflets appeared in our building offering help to move to Israel.

The baby is finally sleeping on my shoulder, and I am about to attempt the delicate maneuver of lowering her onto the bed without her wake-up detonator going off.

As I lie beside her I wonder—what if one of them gets into the building? Is there anything at hand that I could kill him with that wouldn’t wake her?

A journalist has been hit. No confirmation of course. Thanks for that Twitter. Still nothing from her outdoors. Bloody iPhone battery life.

France wakes on Saturday to find it is “at war” and to the talk of “us” and “them”— the familiar formulas I grew up with that cut the blood to the brain and harden the heart. Hateful things are already being said on the radio, a politician is making a pitch

A child outside a memorial to victims at the Petit Cambodge restaurant. AFP

THE ROAD... From A5 vision mechanism to be adopted. China, today’s largest emitter, is clearly supportive of the idea. Finally, a certain degree of accountability and transparency is needed so that the international community can keep track of progress in each country.

Would that be enough to make climate change a thing of the past? Probably not.

The best agreement in Paris only makes sense if the level of ambition is sufficient to put us on the right track today. A recent UN report aggregated all countries’ voluntary contributions to carbon emission reduction until 2030—the “short term” as far as climate change goes. The report sent a strong positive message. At least 161 countries covering 90 percent of global emissions have taken part in this pre-conference exercise. This is unprecedented. Yes, the momentum is real. The report, however, tells us we are still far from what is needed

if we want our children to enjoy the world we enjoyed while growing up. More needs to be done and more needs to be done now.

We should not postpone greenhouse gas emission cuts to a later date. The further we get from the most desirable or “least cost” path, the more difficult and costlier future adjustment becomes. The private sector needs predictable, long-term commitments to invest in a low carbon future today. The cost of extreme weather events if we act later will also be greater. So great in fact that resources available may not be enough to cover future loss and damages due to climate change.

Raising ambition today can be done in two ways. First, every participating country should go back to the drawing board and reassess available low emission economic policies. There is a lot that can be done domestically. The Philippines, for instance, has implemented ambitious renewable energy targets while improving the environmental

footprint of its fuel mix. The current administration also prioritized reforestation which allows carbon capture by the ecosystem. The Philippines has not officially committed to implement these measures domestically under the future Paris agreement (unless foreign assistance becomes available). The recent speech of President Benigno Aquino III in front of the Foreign Correspondents Association of the Philippines inviting all nations to make their commitments unconditional, however, should pave the way for more domestic action.

In parallel to domestic efforts, the amount of finance needed to implement low carbon policies in the poorest countries will have to be secured. The EU stands ready to deliver, having spent 9 billion euros (P450 billion) in 2013 alone on climate finance in developing countries. The Philippines, too, is a driving force in the field of finance. The country is chairing the newly formed Climate Vulnerable Forum

to be president again, ripping at the edges of frayed nerves.

There are no tanks. No sandbags. No barbed wire. People are not being burned out of their homes. This not Syria, nor Northern Ireland nor Cyprus in the old days, when my partner’s aunt’s windows were pulled out one night by the neighbors, angry she hadn’t taken the hint and was still waiting for her husband and teenage son to come home a year after they disappeared with the rest of the men left in the village after Turkish troops invaded.

No, this is not war. That’s what they want. Yet 129 people are dead.

Under a bright sunshine that was in perfect contrast to the mood of the city, I met Helene, who had brought her four-year-old Jeanette to Place de la Republique—which also became of symbol of shared grief and solidarity after the Charlie Hebdo attacks —to explain to her why everyone was so sad. She had earlier sat her two older boys around the table to talk to them about Islam and France’s difficult history with Algeria and where this murderous anger might come from.

She was exactly the sort of clear-eyed public-spirited person who gives France its backbone. But even she feared the worst, warning that if Muslims did not demonstrate massively their repugnance at what had happened, there would be consequences. “I am afraid of what will happen... It will burn,” she said, clearly shocked at herself.

As we said our goodbyes I noticed a man crying and realized he had heard some of what was said. Mehdi, a Muslim waste collector, said he and his wife had hardly slept since Friday with shock and fear. “We are French, too… I was born here and so were my children.”

Paris is numb now, and we are easy prey to anger and tears. My heart like everyone else’s is bursting. The loss is terrible. Fourteen people died on the terraces of the Petit Cambodge and the Carillon cafe that face each other across a corner of the 10th arrondissement that is the epitome of trendy multicultural Paris. I used them both and was probably the best customer of the gluten-free patisserie next door.

How can we defeat the Islamic State, someone on the radio despairs, how do you defeat madness? By being sane of course.

The cue for how we should proceed was set for me by someone whose strength I can only marvel at. Journalist Antoine Leiris lost his wife Helene Muyal at the Bataclan. In an open letter to the gunmen he wrote while his baby son was having his nap, he told them, “You will not have my hate… We two, my son and I, are stronger than all the armies in the world. I cannot waste any more time on you as he has just woken from his sleep.

He is only just 17 months old, he is going to eat his snack just like every other day, then we are going to play like every other day, and all his life this little boy will defy you by being happy and free. Because you will never have his hatred either.” AFP which convened last Nov. 9-11 in Manila.

Concrete suggestions on risk pooling and mobilization of climate finance through well-targeted taxes on financial transactions were put forward. Such innovative ideas might be the kind of breakthrough we need in the negotiation. The forum also called upon all parties to raise ambition and keep global warming below +1.5°C. They are the countries who will suffer most from climate change. Their voices must be heard in Paris.

The efforts still needed to make the Paris conference a success are enormous but the international community has a real opportunity to address climate change. The Philippines stands out in the global discussion for its ability to generate new ideas on climate finance but also for its potentially exemplary contribution to global mitigation efforts. As a recent campaign by France, the host country, once put it: the road to Paris starts in Manila.

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

A7

NEWS

editorial@thestandard.com.ph

MILITANTS HIT OUT AT GOVT ‘OVERKILL’

MR. MALASAKIT IN TARLAC. Senatorial candidate and Leyte Rep. Ferdinand Martin Romualdez attends the mass at the San Nicolas De Tolentino Parish in Capas, Tarlac during the celebration of El Shaddai’s 21st anniversary. At right is former Tarlac Vice Gov. Pearl Pacada. VER NOVENO

MILITANT labor group Kilusang Mayo Uno on Saturday condemned the suppression of protests during the recent AsiaPacific Economic Cooperation summit in Manila, saying the Aquino administration defended those responsible for the country’s poverty and the suffering of workers and the poor.

The group said from Nov. 16 to 19, excessive force was used by police and military men, who threatened militant leaders and demonstrators with lawsuits.

“Instead of respecting the Filipino workers’ and people’s right to assert that their demands be heard, the Aquino government responded with an overkill amount of force. It clearly sided with big capitalists and powerful governments against Filipinos,” said Jerome Adonis, KMU secretary-general.

He said eight activists from the labor sector were seriously hurt in the protest last Thursday along Sen. Gil Puyat Avenue in Pasay City, against

which the police used truncheons.

Among those injured were Steve Ranjo and Genero Paredog, both members of the Pagkakaisa ng mga Samahan ng Tsuper at Operators Nationwide (PISTON) and Bironico Pardillo, Nilo Juayang, Sonny Aguinaldo, and Allan Bacara, all employees of Golden Fortune Techno Built Inc. “We condemn the Aquino government and the PNP for their use of violence against protestors. We are studying the possibility of filing administrative charges against government and police officials involved before the Ombudsman,” said Adonis.

The group also condemned the PNP’s use of a loud speaker which played dance music to try to counter the sound coming from last Thursday’s protest and to disrupt rally program.

Four police officers were also hurt after the law enforcers engaged in a scuffle with the militant groups on that day. Joel Zurbano

FUND LACK HURTS STATE SCHOLARS • Marcos demands regular budget for free education

By Joel E. Zurbano

THERE is no reason for the Aquino administration not to allocate P15 billion for free education of students enrolled in state universities and colleges if it can afford to spend P10 billion to host the recently concluded Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit in Manila, according to Senator Ferdinand Marcos Jr. “The government can afford to fund the education of all students enrolled in SUCs if education is truly a key priority under this administration,” said Marcos.

He said all the government has to do is to allot P15

billion for scholarships and grants-in-aid out of the over P2-trillion 2016 budget instead of constantly shaving the funds for SUCs. “I think we can do this and many people would benefit.

This is the right time all SUC

NDF FREES ARMY SOLDIER AFTER 133 DAYS IN CAPTIVITY

By Froilan Gallardo SUGBONGCOGON, Misamis Oriental—The National Democratic Front on Friday released a government soldier taken captive for 133 days by the rebels to a group of civilians ending months of negotiations in Misamis Oriental.

A frail-looking Army Private First Class Adonis Jess Lupiba walked the last few steps to freedom flanked by top cadres of the New People’s Army during a three-hour ceremony in Barangay Kaulayanan, some 16 kilometers from Sugbongcogon.

The 26-year-old Lupiba was turned over to Misamis Gov. Yevgeny Emano and Iglesia Filipina Independente Bishop Felixberto Calang who traveled to the hinterland village to fetch the soldier.

“It is a wonderful day for peace. I am glad this ended well despite the tense negotiations for the release of Lupiba,” Calang said.

Lupiba’s wife, Henelou, and his family broke down in tears when Calang and Emano handed the soldier to them after he signed his “release papers.”

Allan Juanito, NPA spokesperson for North Central Mindanao, said Lupiba was found not to have committed any crimes against the revolutionary movement and the people.

The rebels captured Lupiba after a brief firefight in Barangay Alagatan in Gingoog City, also in Misamis Oriental last July 11, 2015.

Lupiba said he surrendered to the rebels to prevent innocent bystanders from being caught in a crossfire had he chosen to put up a fight.

students in the Philippines have free education. This is not impossible. We studied the budget. P15 billion will pay for all the students for free tertiary education,” he explained.

Marcos said there is a need to implement a large scale scholarship/student aid program in the country and institutionalize reforms in the educational system.

“That is why we are looking at the budget and looking at what we can do for education. That is why I have been proposing these measures that some may see as radical but actually aren’t.

These are the measures we need to push. These are the

initiatives that we need to fight for.”

The senator from Ilocos Norte said giving free college education would greatly benefit those who have the potential to succeed in life but are impeded by poverty and their inability to get an education supported by the SUCs. Marcos said the data of Commission on Higher Education showed that the 547 SUCs in the country are all subsidized by the government, yet students still have to pay tuition.

CHED figures also showed that a total of 1.4 million students were enrolled in SUCs for the school year 2013-2014.

Apart from free college education in SUCs, Marcos is also pushing for an increased support for public school teachers whom he described as a crucial factor in improving the country’s educational system.

The government spent around P10 billion for its year-long hosting of the Apec summit, held in several areas like Metro Manila, Cebu, Clark Freeport Zone in Pampanga, Iloilo, Tagaytay, and Boracay Island.

Abakada Party-List Rep. Jonathan dela Cruz supported the advocacy of Marcos, saying his group is also pushing the increase

in funding not only for the growing college population in the country but also those enrolled in technical and vocational schools as well.

“In addition, one of our initiatives has been the expansion of the student loan program to include more financial institutions to support the SUCs as this has been very effective based on the experience of the United States,” he said.

Dela Cruz said his group is also pushing the rationalization of the proliferation of locally funded colleges and universities to ensure that these are sustainable and meet the growing needs of the students in the tertiary level.

It takes a

VISIONARY to recognize other Visionaries Catch the first roster of Visionaries this November THE STANDARD

2015

VISIONARY AWARDS

A8

SUNDAY: NOVEMBER 22, 2015

editorial@thestandard.com.ph

GET RID OF MABUHAY ROADBLOCKS—MMDA

By Joel E. Zurbano

AS THE Yuletide draws near, authorities on Saturday urged the public to help the government in its campaign to get rid of illegally parked vehicles and other obstructions on Mabuhay Lanes, or secondary roads used by private motorists avoiding the congested Epifanio de los Santos Avenue.

Lawyer Emerson Carlos, chairman of the Metro Manila Development Authority, said the government is implementing the Mabuhay-Lane scheme to help private motorists avoid heavy traffic, specially during the holiday rush.

At least 21 special lanes in selected areas in Metro Manila have been opened as alternate routes to shorten the travel time during Christmas holidays, when traffic flow is expected to be heavy, he said.

“A simple help from the community would be a big help for the government to improve traffic. Iyung simpleng paninita lang sa kapitbahay na nagpaparada ng sasakyan sa lansangan, malaking tulong na iyun,” said Carlos in a radio interview.

“We need your help, your cooperation to solve this problem. To clear the roads of obstructions once and for all,” he added.

Carlos acknowledged the support and cooperation of local officials and community leaders in cities of Makati and Mandaluyong, saying the designated Mabuhay Lane routes in those area are already cleared of any illegal structures and other obstructions.

The MMDA chief said earlier that the campaign of his agency in close coordination with local government units, National Police–Highway Patrol Group, and departments of Public Works and Highways, and Interior and Local Government, will be a year-round activity.

Noemi Recio, MMDA traffic engineering chief, said the DILG also has marching orders for barangay officials to clear Mabuhay Lanes (formerly Christmas lanes) of obstructions such as basketball courts, videokes, illegally parked vehicles and even small eateries and canteens.

“The DILG has already manned and instructed the barangays to clear these roads. If these obstructions will be removed, Edsa will no longer be congested as motorists have options to take alternate routes,” she said.

Recio said private motorists can use the Mabuhay Lanes on their way to various commercial centers n Metro Manila. “We have shortcuts to Greenhills, Divisoria and Baclaran. If you are coming from NLEX [North Luzon Espressway], there is no need to use Edsa.”

The Metro Manila mayors decided to help the MMDA to clear the Mabuhay Lanes in their jurisdiction and also provide help to traffic enforcers.

The MMDA recently conducted a series of road clearing operations in cities of Manila, Parañaque, Pasay, San Juan and Quezon City and was able to impound more than 200 vehicles.

ROYAL SCOUT. For the second time in two years, King Carl XVI Gustaf of Sweden (third from left) visits Tacloban City as part of his country’s commitment to the survivors of Typhoon ‘Yolanda.’ King Gustaf is also on a seven-hour private visit as honorary chairman of the World Scouting Foundation. MEL CASPE

BINAY CITES APEC GAINS AMID CHAOS

By Vito Barcelo VICE President Jejomar Binay said the Philippines will gain long-term benefits for hosting the 2015 Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit in terms of trade and investments, but expressed disappointment over the government’s lack of preparation in handling the traffic situation in Metro Manila during Apec week.

Binay expressed elation that the Apec was held in the country, but was saddened by the traffic chaos that inconvenienced thousands of Filipinos in Metro Manila.

The Vice President noted the importance of hosting the Apec meet saying the Philippines’ trade with Apec member economies make up 80 percent of the country’s total trade.

“Being an Apec member means we belong to the international community. So I am happy that it was held here,” he said.

Binay was tasked to welcome the different heads of state who attended the Apec meet. He also attended the Apec Economic Leaders’ welcome dinner which he said showcased world-class Filipino talent.

According to Binay, the Philippine government made different bilateral agreements, reaffirmed commitments and explored new areas for cooperation while hosting this year’s Apec summit.

“At the end of the meeting, it will bring what we expect from it, like bilateral agreements, “ he said.

He said that among the benefits from the Apec summit were the United States President Barack Obama promise to transfer two additional ships to the Philippine Navy “to bolster the Navy’s ability to conduct long-endurance patrols, while Japan also reaffirmed its deepening of strategic partnership” with the Philippines. According to Japanese Deputy Press Secretary Koichi Mizushima, both countries are working on a deal to transfer military equipment to the Philippines.

South Korean President Park Geun-hye also expressed support for the Philippines’ military modernization program while Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau vowed support to the Philippines’ possible accession to the United States-led Trans-Pacific Partnership composed of 12 countries, and on the other hand, the Philippines and Vietnam signed a joint statement on the establishment of strategic partnership to elevate their cooperation on peace, stability and prosperity in the Southeast Asian region.

‘STEEL WARRIOR’ WESTMINCOM’S NEW COMMANDER

By Florante Solmerin PRESIDENT Benigno Aquino has appointed Major General Mayoralgo dela Cruz, a battle-tested Mindanao veteran, as the new commander of the Western Mindanao Command.

Dela Cruz, a member of the Philippine Military Academy “Matikas” Class 1983, will replace Lieutenant General Rustico Guerrero (PMA “Dimalupig” Class ’81) who will bow out of service for reaching the mandatory retirement age of 56.

Dela Cruz’s promotion as Westmincom commander was a “walk in the park” because of his extensive familiarity in Mindanao before he was elevated commander of the Army’s Mechanized Infantry Division.

The Armed Forces of the Philippines is awarding the Legion of Honor to Guerrero. His leadership at Westmincom, however, was questioned when his command just watched in the sidelines as Moro

rebels and criminals clashed with 44 members of the police’s Special Action Force in Mamasapano, Maguindanao.

The SAF men were in a mission to arrest international terrorist Malaysian national Zulkifli Abdhir alias Marwan when ambushed by hundreds of armed men from the Moro Islamic Liberation Front, Bangsamoro Islamic Freedom Fighters, and other armed groups in a day-long firefight.

A native of Bocaue, Bulacan, Dela Cruz was the first brigade commander of the 1st Mechanized Infantry Brigade and served as battalion commander in two different battalions under the Philippine Army.

His military experience includes Scout Ranger Course, Basic Airborne Course, Armor Officer Course, Military Intelligence Officer Course, Command and General Staff Course, Regimental Officer Advance Course in Australia, Dynamics of International Terrorism Course at US Air Force Special Operations School in Florida, USA, Regional Defense Counterterrorism fellowship program at the National Defense University, Washington DC, USA, 1st Asia Pacific Program for Senior National Security Officers at Rajaratnam of International Studies in Singapore and International counter-terrorism Fellows Bangkok Symposium at the National Defense University, Thailand.

XMAS DECORS. A woman appreciates the Christmas decors on

display at Dapitan Arcade in Quezon City on Saturday, Nov. 21, 2015.

People start to flock to the arcade as the Yuletide approaches.

JANSEN ROMERO

B1

SUNDAY: NOVEMBER 22, 2015

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

BUSINESS DUTCH CEO REVIVES

MINDANAO CACAO INDUSTRY A Dutch national, who established a cacao trading company in Davao City five years ago, is changing the landscape of coconut farms in the Visayas and Mindanao.

Kennemer Foods International chairman and chief executive Simon Bakker

Simon Bakker encouraged coconut farmers to supplement their income by planting cacao, the raw material for cocoa powder and chocolate, between coconut trees.

In just a few years, he helped revive the dormant cacao industry in the country, bolstered farmers’ income by six times and brought locally produced cacao beans to the Malaysia factories of Mars Inc. and other multinational chocolate companies.

Bakker, chairman and chief executive of Kennemer Foods International, caught the attention of the Asian Development Bank, which labeled his pioneering cacao contract growing program as an ideal model of inclusive business, where poor individuals become a part of the growth story of a major corpo-

ration. Simply put, Kennemer program enables small farmers to become players in the supply chain of cacao beans within the Asia-Pacific region.

Bakker insists that what he is doing is just regular business. “We did not set out to make an inclusive business. For us, working with smallholder farmers makes business sense,” he says. “It is not a charity. This is an equal business transaction. We wanted to make good quality cacao and chocolate.

We are a regular business and we happen to have a lot of social benefits and we are now happy to be called inclusive,” he tells journalists in a roundtable discussion in Makati City, amid the country’s hosting of the Asia-Pacific Economic Co-

operation Summit, where inclusive business is the main theme.

Bakker says under the Kennemer cacao growership program, he talks to small farmers and provides them planting materials, technology and financing, with the help of the Land Bank of the Philippines. “It has kind of evolved from there and we are now labeled as inclusive business,” he says.

Kennemer Foods is an integrated agricultural company which supplies high-quality fermented cacao beans to processing companies in Malaysia and Indonesia. Under its cacao growership program, the company provides financing assistance, planting materials and other inputs, farmer training and supervision, monitoring, evaluation and post-harvest assistance. It guarantees to purchase up to 100-percent of the cacao production of farmers under the program.

“The cacao industry in the Philippines faded away in the 1990s.

There was no industry anymore, but

there were a few pockets in Davao.

We started buying cacao from small farmers in 2010,” he says.

He says the few cacao farmers in the country were not fermenting their beans, resulting in low-quality produce.

Bakker says while the cacao industry is limited to several thousand hectares in the Philippines, about 3 million hectares are planted to coconut, the country’s main farm export. He says between coconut trees, there is a large gap that can be planted to other crops such as cacao. Such farming method is called intercropping.

“Cacao needs shade. The ideal condition is 30 percent shade and 70 percent sun. If you have one hectare of coconut, you have a perfect shade and sunlight condition.

We have 3 million hectares of coconut, where 90 percent [of areas] is not used,” he says.

“With one hectare of coconut, CONTINUED ON B3

The Economist: “Banks, insurance companies to benefit from digital partnerships”

Voyager and Smart eMoney lead in global fintech DIGITAL partnerships are essential to help banks and insurance companies remain competitive in the digital age, said a study published recently by The Economist Intelligence Unit.

The report, “Disrupting banks: Digital partnerships in the financial services industry”, highlighted global trends for digital partnerships between organizations in the financial and technology sectors.

The report also cited the emergence of the “always on” digital and mobile consumer as the main force behind these digital partnerships.

Consumers are increasingly connected through mobile phones and other gadgets and they are now expecting the same level of customer experience with digital services offered by technology companies.

Global survey on financial services and digital partnerships Based on the global survey conducted among 1,045 senior business leaders representing a total of 20 industries (with 156 respondents coming from financial services), “digital partnerships split financial services firms down the middle.”

Among the findings of The Economist Intelligence Unit were: • Fifty percent of executives believe that their partnerships have already proven their value “beyond doubt”.

• Forty nine percent expect their digital partnership to result in a business model change for their companies.

• Fifty six percent believe most companies will have to be part of a network to leverage technology trends.

Philippines ahead of the curve “In this respect, we believe our partners here in the Philippines and the region are among those ahead of the curve. Early on, we’ve established good partnerships that have resulted in customer traction for our products and platforms,” said Lito Villanueva, Vice President and Head of Financial Innovations, Digital Inclusion and Alliances at Voyager Innovations, who was interviewed as expert resource by The Economist.

Among the prominent examples of digital partnerships globally that was cited in the report of The Economist was the LANDBANK Mobile Loan Saver, a product of the collaboration between Land Bank of the Philippines and Voyager Innovations, together with digital financial services leader Smart eMoney. Both Voyager Innovations and Smart eMoney are digital innovation units of PLDT and Smart Communications, Inc. (Smart).

LANDBANK Mobile LoanSaver is the country’s first paperless and electronic salary loan program with auto savings and insurance features. In less than a year, the globally recognized service has processed over P4 billion in salary loans for more than 30,000 employees from about 580 government agencies.

More digital innovations in fintech The success of the LANDBANK Mobile Loan Saver has given birth to another innovation - Lendr, the first online consumer loans marketplace. Launched recently by Voyager Innovations, Lendr aims to provide financial institutions with a ready platform to efficiently reach out to their target customers and at the same time, provide consumers with the convenience of searching and applying for loans online with just one Lendr account.

Collaborating for Lendr. From left: Lito Villanueva, Vice President and Head of Fintech, Digital Inclusion, and Alliances at Voyager Innovations; Orlando B. Vea, President and CEO at Voyager Innovations and Smart eMoney, Inc.; Manuel V. Pangilinan, Chairman of PLDT, Smart and Voyager Innovations; Enrique Abellana, President of RBAP; BSP Deputy Governor Nestor Espenilla, Jr.; and, Vincent Mendoza, Executive Director of RBAP.

Regional collaboration for financial technology. From left: Orlando B. Vea, President and CEO at Voyager Innovations; Tengku Dato’ Sri Zafrul Tengku Abdul Aziz, CIMB Group CEO; Manuel V. Pangilinan, Chairman of PLDT, Smart and Voyager Innovations; Gurdip Singh Sidhu, CIMB Group Chief Global recognitions for financial Strategy Officer; and, Lito Villanueva, vice president and head of Fintech, technology. LANDBANK President Digital Inclusion, and Alliances at Voyager Innovations. and CEO Gilda Pico and Voyager Innovations VP Lito Villanueva As an initial breakthrough, Voyager Innovations signed a part- receiving the Best Banking Innonership with the Rural Bank Association of the Philippines and its vation Award for the LANDBANK individual member rural banks to further drive financial access in Mobile LoanSaver from the Inthe countryside through Lendr. ternational Banker at the London “Leveraging on mobile technology is a great equalizer where Stock Exchange. LANDBANK and small banks could compete with even large industry players; it sim- Voyager Innovations were the sole ply levels the playing field,” said Manuel V. Pangilinan, Chairman winners from the Philippines.

of PLDT, Smart and Voyager Innovations.

Initial traction for Lendr has been positive. Aside from the partnership with RBAP, more than 50 individual rural banks already signed up to be part of Lendr.

The company also signed a deal with Bulgarian based fintech startup Cash Credit for consumer loans credit scoring.

Most recently, Voyager Innovations and Smart entered into a strategic partnership agreement with the CIMB Group, the Malaysian-based universal bank that has presence across Southeast Asia.

Challenges are opportunities Villanueva also said that as promising as these digital partnerships for mobile banking products are, the industry still has issues to contend with. “Banks, as the incumbent players in financial technology, are not necessarily the most open-minded when it comes to working with tech companies. They may be used to their own processes and not see the cost-effectiveness of partnering with tech players.”

“That said, I have full confidence that more and more banks in the Philippines will look toward digital partnerships as a means of better serving customers. Our partners are proof of this,” he concluded.

Both Voyager Innovations and Smart eMoney are pioneers and leaders the digital financial technology space.

Among the areas they are focusing are digital payments, mobile consumer loans, government to person disbursements, remittance and digital financial services security.

SUNDAY: NOVEMBER 22, 2015

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

Compass Offices marketing director Paul Gregory (left) and global vice president of sales and marketing Germer Kegge answer questions from journalists during the opening of Compass Office Makati.

HONG KONG OFFICE MANAGER EXPANDS TO MAKATI AND BGC COMPASS Offices, a global serviced office provider that started in Hong Kong six years ago, has recently opened a 14,600-square-meter business center in Makati City and plans to open another one in Fort Bonifacio in the first quarter next year.

“We have just opened our first center at Tower 6789 in Ayala Avenue in Makati City and will open our next center in BGC [Bonifacio Global City] in first quarter of 2106. We anticipate opening several more centers in Metro Manila in 2016 as we develop a network of centers,” says Paul Gregory, the marketing director of Compass Offices.

Tower 6789 in Makati has an LEED pre-certified gold rating for its sustainable design, cleaner air circulation, improved natural lighting and temperature control. LEED or Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design is a green building certification program that recognizes best-in-class building strategies and practices.

Gregory says the strong economic growth in the Philippines, at 5.6 percent in the second quarter, convinced the company to establish its presence here. He says the new Compass Office in Makati has over 235 workstations to support the requirements of all sizes of businesses.

Hong Kong entrepreneur Andrew Chung, chief executive of Compass Offices, founded the company in 2009, with the first business center located at Silver Fortune Plaza in Hong Kong. Today, it has 40 centers in 15 cities across 12 countries, providing flexible office solutions to more than 6,000 people.

“The name is based on a compass, which as you know, has been

used by travelers for many centuries to find the right direction,” says Gregory.

“Compass Offices was founded by our CEO Andrew Chung as a result of his experiences of poor service and many hidden costs when using different serviced office providers for his businesses. He felt that this could be improved upon, hence he established Compass Offices as a new direction in serviced offices,” he says.

Gregory says Compass Offices offers flexible workspace solutions, “ranging from serviced private offices which can be rented on short, medium and flexible terms with a fixed monthly charge to virtual offices which can also be rented on a monthly basis to meeting and conference rooms which can be booked by the hour.”

Gregory says Compass Offices came to the Philippines, as the entrepreneurial rise in the Asean region shows a growing trend to leverage serviced office providers to manage the cost of commercial rent. He also cites the strong GDP growth in the country currently standing at 5.6 percent and the continuous rapid development of the business process outsourcing sector.

“With the opening of more business centers in the Philippines, we will add to the demand for space in the major business districts of Metro Manila,” says Gregory.

He says the company invested

“hundreds of thousands of US dollars” in the first business center in Makati. “Compass Office business centers are equipped with high speed broadband and Wi-Fi Internet connections, excellent IT infrastructure, shared common areas, contemporary furnishings and fittings and are supported by our front desk staff and modern meeting rooms equipped for business meetings, with high definition video conferencing,” he says.

Gregory says Compass Offices has its own niche in the market, as it focuses on serving the needs of clients. “We are committed to being innovative, transparent and focused on client relationships.

Our growth is a direct result of our unique offering that’s set a new direction in the industry.”

He says Compass Offices is the “first serviced office provider to offer superior customer service, a

With the opening of more business centers in the Philippines, we will add to the demand for space in the major business districts of Metro Manila.

collaborative and transparent approach with absolutely no hidden costs. We also offer an unbranded presence for our client’s business.

The offices are for our clients and

the center supports the growth of their businesses.”

Gregory is optimistic about the growth opportunities in the Philippine real estate market. “We continue to see significant growth opportunities in the market for flexible work spaces which continue to drive strong demand for our products and services. Our expansion program is driven by these levels of demand – the larger our network, the more closely we support our clients and the more innovative we are, the more attractive our customer offering becomes.”

He says in the Philippines, Compass Offices is actively evaluating new opportunities in several new business districts in Metro Manila. “We are always pleased to discuss new commercial opportunities with building owners and landlords,” he says.

Roderick T. dela Cruz

SUNDAY: NOVEMBER 22, 2015

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

TRADER REINVIGORATES GREE AIR-CON BRAND

the different retailers we wanted to partner with, there was of apprehension for the brand. We had a rough time convincing SM and some other retail stores like Western and Abenson since there were some challenges. The previous the group didn’t have the proper after service support,” said Pineda.

He said their principal in China had been very supportive of their efforts in the Philippines, pushing and motivating the company to get the product out to as many stores in the country as possible.

The first thing the company did was work on improving after sales, establishing service centers nationwide and have

a small team to handle after sales service.

It became apparent the company needed to improve customer service.

“We’re talking about total customer experience which is about the time they see us on the floor, the engagement with sales people, inquiries on the website or the hotlines that we have all the way until a purchase is done,” Pineda said.

Ugong Holdings also created a wholly-owned unit called Filipina Climate Solutions Inc. to specifically handle Gree as a brand. The company now has a full management team and customer relationship team to address after sales concerns.

Pineda said that after a decade of bringing and installing the brand in homes and establishments, the company now plans to reconnect with the market with more cooling solutions not just for residential and commercial applications, but also for industrial purposes.

“We are in the process of expansion right now. We see that the market is ‘very cut-throat’ so we’ve prepared for that by being able to divide our market into two—retail and commercial—so we can balance our investments and profitability. But a very promising window is that of industrial users. Construction growing and many industrial companies setting hubs in the Philippines, so this is another area that we are keenly interested and we’d like to explore more of this kind of opportunity,” he said.

In the Philippines, the company has made its goal to introduce affordable energy saving units. This prompted Gree to introduce the inverter window-type air-conditioner.

“Next year will be El Niño and it will be a good start for us since the weather has a significant impact on our sales. In contrast to that, since our

effort is to invest in better technology and introduce to the market more efficient technology, we see now that’s one of the ways we can help the country,” said Pineda.

“If we keep selling highly efficient units, energy cost for everyone will go down. We want to give the market especially the middle-class the opportunity to reap this benefit,” Pineda said.

Gree is one of the brands chosen by power retailer Manila Electric Company as one of the energy efficient consumer durables under its Meralco Bright Ideas Program.

“They have endorsed our equipment for the program as one of the more energy efficient equipment in the country. This event has actually allowed more customers to invest in Gree efficient technology. Them getting a rebate on their electric bill when computed can generate a return-on-investment in as fast as 1 and ½ year. Our goal is to allow the mass, the majority of consumers to have access with this. They’re the ones who actually need it,” he said.

Pineda said Gree is now in almost 300 stores with over 60 service networks nationwide. He said the company would launch more energy efficient equipment in the next three years.

Right now, Gree’s market share in the Philippines is around 5 percent, but UTHI plans to double the share in three years. “The market is very, very competitive. There are a lot of brands that are being introduced every year. We just feel that we need to emphasize heavily in the service we can offer. We’ve been here for 10 years, the longest partnership Gree has ever had since it started in the Philippines. From our side, we are fully committed to maintain and support all our customers,” said Pineda.

own plan is to plant at least 50,000 hectares over the next five years.

That’s about 75,000 tons,” he says.

Kennemer currently has three buying and training centers and is set to open four more. “By 2020, we will have 25 buying centers. What we do is fermentation and buying of high-quality cacao beans,” says Bakker.

Bakker assures that if more Filipino farmers decide to plant cacao, this will not affect prices, amid a supply gap in Asia and the rising global demand for chocolate. About 70 percent of cacao beans comes from West Africa while Indonesia is one of the biggest producers in Southeast Asia. Indonesia, however, saw its total production shrink from a peak of 600,000 metric tons a year to around 400,000 MT. “We have a processing facility in Asia Pacific with close to 1 million tons a year, mostly in Indonesia and Malaysia. About 700,000 tons in Indonesia and 300,000 tons in Malaysia. There is clearly a need for long-term good suppliers, specifically in Asia-Pacific,” he says.

“With the Indonesia situation, where production is not increasing, there is a need for additional pro-

duction. We are planting at a rate of 6,000 hectares a year or 5,000 farmers [in the Philippines],” says Bakker.

Bakker says Kennemer provides a link between small cacao farmers in the Philippines to global food corporations such as Mars.

“Most global businesses cannot buy anymore from nameless traders, not knowing where their produce come from. There is really a need for transparency in the value chain. A global business like Unilever, Mars or Nestle needs to know that farmers are treated fairly in terms of buying practices, in terms of pricing throughout the value chain. Otherwise, it will come back to haunt them later on,” he says.

“What we are trying to do is create good-quality product and then we can talk to multinational buyers. We are now a part of global sourcing strategy of Mars for their cocoa,” says Bakker.

Bakker says inclusive business can also be profitable. “We are making profit. We are here for a long haul. Our profit is not big yet.

We are doing well. The key is we plant, plant, plant. We really need to think long term,” he says.

Board of Investments managing head Adrian Cristobal Jr. says Kennemer’s contract growing program is an example of inclusive business, where communities become a part of the global business.

“It is not good works of the corporation. It is actually a business proposition that happens to be profitable,” says Cristobal. “Inclusive business is not something invented by policy makers or academicians. It is really something that has evolved. We tried to promote inclusive business so that small businesses and entrepreneurs can be understood and hopefully we do our part of promoting it.”

Cristobal says the ADB has identified 100 case studies of inclusive business in the Philippines across different sectors such as agribusiness, tourism, energy, education, housing, health and water.

Cristobal says the Philippines brought “inclusive business” as a main theme to the Apec Summit.

“That’s our contribution. It is an Apec theme. The Philippine hosting is inclusive. We have to ensure that the micro and small players are able to participate in this regional trade,” he says. Roderick T. dela Cruz

By Othel V. Campos

AFTER ten years of importing and distributing air-conditioning units from China, Ugong Trade Holdings Inc. now faces the “big boys” of the industry as it expands to offer a bigger range of cooling systems in the Philippines.

UTHI started bringing in the Gree air-conditioning brand in 2005, after it signed an exclusive distributorship agreement with the Gree Electric Appliances of Zhuhai.

“When we started there was a lot of apprehension on the brand. First, because it is a Chinese brand. Second, because we knew for a fact that there are a lot of after sales concerns. But when we did an assessment of the factory and the quality of the units, our company and our family believed that quality is there. Our vow of commitment started there and then, because we believe in the brand,” said UTHI president Juan Carlos Pineda.

Before the company pursued the opportunity presented by the Chinese business partners of Pineda’s father, it commissioned a study by SGV to determine the brand’s fighting chance against leading air-condition manufacturers and importers.

“We made it a point to bid for it. We paid a significant price to get the distributorship. By November. we were

DUTCH... you can only earn about 1 ton of copra or P30,000 a year. Nobody can live out of that. It is good to find a crop that does not involve cutting the coconut. So cacao happens to be like that. We have ideal conditions because we have a lot of smallholders and we have a lot of coconut,” he says.

Bakker in 2010 developed “endto-end solutions” for farmers and teamed up with Land Bank for Cacao 100, a program that provides credit for intercropping of cacao in coconut areas or planting cacao in idle lands.

“That [Cacao 100] became the basis at which we work. We initially worked with cooperatives, which were conduits of Land Bank loan.

We grouped farmers into small clusters and provided them with extensive training program. We operate probably the largest clusters of cacao nurseries in the world right now,” says Bakker.

The program became popular and spread throughout Mindanao, southern Palawan, Cebu, Bohol and Leyte. “We cluster the farmers, with a farmer leader designated as cacao doctor, or the franchise holder of the program. We teach them everything we know. It takes about a five-week training over a two-year period,” says Bakker.

Each cacao doctor coaches a set of 25 growers and becomes the consolidator of their produce. “The farmers get all planting materials, fertilizers, pesticides, cash and knowledge. The cash they get is really for the establishment of the farm and for the maintenance,” he says.

“We work with clusters of 25 hectares each. We have about 400 or 500 [clusters] right now. By the end of this year, we will be about 10,000 hectares,” says Bakker.

Bakker says the program will be

Executives of Gree Philippines celebrates its 10th anniversary.

Shown are (from left) Filipina Climate Solutions Inc. general manager Anthony Andrada, Ugong Trade Holdings Inc. president Juan Carlos Pineda, chairman Jesus Pineda, Gree Electric Appliances regional director Chen Shaolin, overseas vice president David Wei and Asia regional manager Peng Hong. able to secure the rights to distribute Gree in the Philippines. When we started it was specifically residential air-conditioning. It was 1/2, 3/4 and 1 horsepower. And we had a very small team back then. It was an industry that was new to us,” said Pineda.

“When we got into the business, we did a study with SGV to understand the market better. And the study presented was very promising. We used that as benchmark for our plan on implementing and actually penetrating the Philippine appliance market,” Pineda said.

The brand was previously managed by different distributors before UTHI took over. “When we did our offer to

FROM B1

brought to other parts of the country, including the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao.

While the program was introduced in 2010, it scaled up in 2013, after the first batch of farmers started to reap the cacao beans. Cacao planting has a two-year gestation period.

“We have a lot of parent stocks and we propagate those. The varieties we have, we give to farmers.

The key now is to find farmers who are willing to become fulltime cacao farmers. It takes about two years before they become productive. Right now, we have 50 to 60 [clusters] who are very productive. The rest is slowly coming in,” he says.

Bakker says the first batch of farmers saw a significant increase in annual income. “The income is quite significant. A decent yielding cacao farm, if you follow the protocol and put in a little fertilizer, can produce 1.5 to 2 tons per hectare.

In peso terms, we are buying right now at P125 per kilo. That’s around P180,000, and the net is P150,000 per hectare per year,” he says. “So, that is six times their previous income.”

Kennemer purchases about 40 percent of total 5,000 tons of cacao beans produced in the Philippines annually, according to Bakker.

By 2020, the company aims to plant 40 million cacao trees in 50,000 hectares owned by around 35,000 families across seven strategic zones. Land Bank has so far released P700 million for the program over the last three years, while Kennemer invested P1 billion for infrastructure and technologies.

Bakker says the company is in talks with Land Bank for additional P5-billion financing to propagate the program. “They said they were willing to provide what it takes. Our

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WORLD

HOLOCAUST DOCUMENTS TROVE UNEARTHED

Malian security forces escort a hostage freed from the Radisson Blu hotel in Bamako on November 20, 2015. Gunmen went on a shooting rampage at the luxury hotel in Mali’s capital Bamako, seizing 170 guests and staff in an ongoing hostage-taking that has left at least three people dead. AFP

MALI MOURNS AFTER HOTEL SIEGE KILLED AT LEAST 21

MALI on Saturday began three days of national mourning and declared a state of emergency after a nine-hour siege by jihadist gunmen at a top hotel in the capital left 21 people dead.

The assault, claimed by Al-Qaeda affiliate the Al-Murabitoun group led by notorious one-eyed Algerian militant Mokhtar Belmokhtar, ended after Malian and international troops stormed the luxury Radisson Blu hotel in Bamako.

The attack came as fears mount over terrorist threats a week after devastating attacks in Paris that killed 130 people claimed by the Islamic State group, which also said it had downed a Russian passenger jet in Egypt weeks before.

The Malian government declared

a 10-day nationwide state of emergency from midnight on Friday over the assault and called three days of mourning for the victims, who included several Russians, three Chinese, an American and a Belgian.

“Terror will not win” and “long live Mali, terrorism shall not pass,” President Ibrahim Boubacar Keita said in a televised address, revising an earlier death toll to 21.

Malian security sources, who had reported a higher toll, said more than 100 people were taken hostage in the raid while at least three “terrorists”

were killed or blew themselves up.

US President Barack Obama condemned the “appalling” attack, adding that “this barbarity only stiffens our resolve to meet this challenge” of extremist violence.

Mali has been torn apart by unrest since the north fell under the control of jihadist groups linked to Al-Qaeda in 2012.

The Islamists were largely ousted by a French-led military operation launched the following year, but large swathes of Mali remain lawless.

UN Secretary General Ban Kimoon also condemned Friday’s “horrific terrorist attack,” suggesting the violence was aimed at destroying peace efforts in the country.

The assault began around 0700 GMT on Friday, when gunmen

pulled up at the hotel and starting shooting their way inside, taking guests and staff hostage.

Malian television broadcast chaotic scenes from inside the building as police and other security personnel ushered bewildered guests along corridors to safety.

Special forces—including Malian, French and two US soldiers who were also in the area—staged a dramatic floor-by-floor rescue, ending the siege after about nine hours.

In an audio recording broadcast by Qatar-based Al-Jazeera television, Belmokhtar’s group claimed responsibility.

“We the Murabitoun, with the participation of our brothers from Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb, claim the hostage-taking operation at the Radisson hotel,” a man’s voice said. AFP

A VAST and historically valuable trove of Holocaust-era documents, long thought destroyed during World War II, has been found hidden in a wall cavity by a couple renovating their Budapest apartment.

The haul of 6,300 documents are from a 1944 census that was a precursor to the intended liquidation of the Hungarian capital’s 200,000 Jews in Nazi death camps.

Brigitte Berdefy, coowner of the apartment overlooking Hungary’s parliament, said that in August a worker detected paper after jamming a screwdriver through a crack in the wall.

“We thought we’d ruined the neighbour’s wallpaper,” Berdefy told AFP. But then her husband Gabor peered through the crack and saw what looked like handwriting.

Carefully removing each brick, the couple eased out some 61 kilogrammes (135 pounds) of dusty papers, many with bits of plaster caked on, but all more or less intact.

With the ink still readable—thanks to a lack of air in the cavity and nicotine from the heavysmoking former owner— the yellowed papers were given to the Budapest City Archives.

Istvan Kenyeres, head of the archives, was amazed.

“Most wartime papers are more faded or rotten than medieval documents, on bad quality paper due to the rationing,” he told AFP. “The content and scale of the finding is unprecedented,” he said. “It helps to fill a huge gap in the history of the Holocaust in Budapest.” AFP

TERROR ALERT SHUTS DOWN BRUSSELS’ RAIL TRANSPORT ALL metro train stations in Brussels will be closed on Saturday, the city’s public transport network said after Belgium raised the capital’s terror alert to the highest level, warning of an “imminent threat”.

“On the recommendation of the crisis centre of the Federal Interior Public Service, all our metro and light railway stations... will stay closed today.

This is a precautionary measure,” Brussels transport operator STIB said on its website.

“Buses will be running but some trams will be affected by this measure,” added the network, which said a decision would be taken “in consultation with relevant authorities and the police, day by day, whether to

reopen the stations”.

As Europe tightens security a week on from the jihadist attacks in Paris that left 130 people dead, Belgium’s OCAM national crisis centre raised its alert level to 4 early Saturday, “signifying a very serious threat for the Brussels region”.

The alert remains at level 3 for the rest of the country.

The centre urged citizens to avoid crowded areas such as concerts and transport hubs in Belgium’s capital, which is also home to the European Union and NATO headquarters, and recommended that authorities in the Brussels region “consider cancelling major events” including scrapping first and second division football

matches this weekend.

The security alert came hours after a suspect arrested in Belgium was charged with terrorist offences in connection with the Paris attacks.

The suspect, who has not been identified, is the third to be charged in Belgium over the deadliest terror attacks in French history after Hamza Attou and Mohammed Amri were charged this week with aiding fugitive suspect Salah Abdeslam on the night of the attacks.

Brussels resident Abdeslam, whose brother Brahim blew himself up at a Paris bar, is believed to be in Belgium and is the subject of a huge manhunt. AFP

A person films a closed entrance of the Shuman Railways Station in Brussels. All metro train stations in Brussels will be closed today, the city’s public transport network said after Belgium raiased the capital’s terror alert to the highest level, warning of an “imminent threat”. As Europe tightens security a week on from the jihadist attacks in Paris that left 130 people dead, Belgium’s OCAM national crisis centre raised its alert level to 4 early on November 21, “signifying a very serious threat for the Brussels region”. AFP

S U N D AY : N o v e m B e R 2 2 , 2 0 1 5

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WORLD editorial@thestandard.com.ph

UN BODY URGES NATIONS TO RAMP UP FIGHT VS ISIS The UN Security Council Friday urged its members to ramp up their fight against Islamic State jihadists after the Paris attacks, as europe said it would tighten border checks and Brussels issued its highest terror alert.

travelled to Syria to join IS and be trained as an operative in Europe.

News that he and another attacker were able to slip back into Europe from Syria, despite being the subject of international arrest warrants, has raised fears jihadists are taking advantage of the migrant crisis to carry out attacks.

One of the suspected gunmen in the Paris attacks linked to Abaaoud, 26-year-old Brussels resident Salah Abdeslam, is still the subject of a huge international manhunt.

In Syria, meanwhile, a monitoring group said at least 36 people were killed in air strikes by Russian and Syrian jets in the IS-controlled eastern Deir Ezzor province, describing them as the heaviest in the region since the start of the civil war.

Russia pounds Syria At the United Nations, Russia joined Western powers in backing

the French-drafted text that authorises countries to “take all necessary measures” to fight IS and other extremist groups linked to Al-Qaeda.

Describing IS as a “global and unprecedented threat to international peace and security”, the resolution called for sanctions and urges countries to step up efforts to cut off the flow of foreign fighters to Iraq and Syria.

French President Francois Hollande welcomed the move, even though the text does not provide any legal basis for military action, saying it will “contribute to mobilising nations to eliminate Daesh” (IS).

French diplomats argue it will provide important international political support to the anti-IS campaign, which has been ramped up since the attacks in Paris and after IS claimed it downed a Russian passenger jet in Egypt last month. AFP

N. Korea rejects UN rights resolUtioN

NORTH Korea on Saturday rejected a UN resolution on its human rights violations as a product of the hostile policy by the United States seeking to topple its socialist regime.

Hours before the UN Security ters agreed to rush through reforms A UN General Assembly comCouncil passed the resolution au- to the passport-free Schengen zone mittee Thursday adopted by a thorising countries to “take all to tighten the bloc’s borders, and record majority a resolution connecessary measures” against IS, Belgium put out its highest terror demning “systematic, widespread gunmen stormed a luxury hotel in alert in its capital, warning of a “seand gross” human rights violaMali’s capital, taking more than 100 rious and imminent threat”. tions in the Stalinist state. people hostage in a siege that left at Officials declined to add further For the second consecutive least 27 dead. details until later on Saturday “in year, it encourages the Security The attack on Bamako’s luxury order to allow ongoing judicial inCouncil to consider referring Radisson Blu hotel added to fears vestigations to follow their course”, Pyongyang to the Internationabout the global jihadist threat a the OCAM national crisis centre al Criminal Court for crimes week after attacks in Paris left 130 said in a statement. against humanity, a move that is people dead, although there was no The 28-year-old suspected ringlikely to be blocked by the North’s immediate confirmation of a link leader of the Paris attacks, Abdelclosest ally China which has veto with IS. hamid Abaaoud, a Belgian of Mopower in the council.

In the European Union, minis- roccan origin, is believed to have “We categorically reject ‘the human rights resolution’, a vivid expression of the US hostile policy toward the DPRK (North Korea) and a typical example of politicisation of human rights... and double-standards, as it is a serious politically-motivated provocative document”, a foreign ministry spokesman was quoted as saying by the North’s official KCNA news agency.

The move proved the “absurdity of ‘the human rights campaign’ of the hostile forces including the US which is aimed at overturning the social system in the DPRK”, he said.

He stressed ongoing chaos and bloodshed in the Middle East came as the countries in the region failed to fend off outside interference being made “under the pretexts of human rights and democracy”.

“The miserable situation in several regions of the world eloquently proves that human rights precisely mean sovereignty and it is quite right for french prime minister manuel Valls, french junior minister for parliamentary relations jean-marie le guen and french justice minister christiane the DPRK to respond to any taubira look on as french lawmakers debate a measure that would extend a state of emergency declared by the french president until the end of plot to overthrow the socialfebruary, at the National assembly in paris. a state of emergency was declared across the country after the terrorist attacks of November 13 that ist system in the DPRK with a tough stand.” AFP left 129 people dead and 350 injured. AFP

obama strUggles to Keep focUs oN asia iN trip to Kl US PRESIDENT Barack Obama voiced his determination to put Asia front and centre in his foreign policy Saturday, even as a twonation visit to the region was eclipsed by jihadist attacks in France and Mali.

America’s self-styled “Pacific president” has been frustrated to see a trip to Malaysia and the Philippines—designed to highlight his stated re-focus on Asia—overshadowed once again.

After years of talking about the need to deepen trade, security and diplomatic ties with the region, White House officials had hoped the trip would be a victory lap.

Twelve countries recently agreed to Obama’s Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) trade pact, and the US pledged to boost security assistance to its ally the Philippines, which is in a confrontation with China over maritime territory.

During the week-long Asia swing, Obama has touted his years growing up in Southeast Asia, vowed to become the first president to visit Laos, and chatted with audience mem-

bers in Bahasa Indonesia.

But at a Southeast Asian business forum on Saturday, Obama had to begin by talking about events half a world away in Mali, where at least 21 people died in an attack by gun-toting jihadists.

Obama condemned the “barbarity” and stressed the need to combat violent jihadism globally.

Later Saturday Obama made a longplanned visit to a refugee centre that took on a domestic political hue, thanks to a bitter debate over Syrian and Iraq migrants in the United States.

During his stop at the Dignity for Children Foundation, Obama knelt down to chat to children aged between seven and nine years about their art work and hopes for the future.

Many at the small, well-appointed centre, complete with a pet bunny, were members of Myanmar’s persecuted Rohingya Muslim minority, which was at the centre of a dramatic boatpeople crisis earlier this year. AFP

Us president barack obama speaks during a meeting with representatives from civil society organizations during a visit to Kuala lumpur on November 21, 2015 on the sidelines of his participation in the association of southeast asian Nations (aseaN) summit. obama and his counterparts from china, india, japan and elsewhere are meeting in Kuala lumpur for two days of talks hosted by the 10-country aseaN. AFP

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SPORTS

REUEL VIDAL EDITOR

sports@thestandard.com.ph

By Homer Vidal

THE more things change, the more they stay the same.

This holds true for the Philippine Basketball Association as well with San Miguel Beer and Alaska—he two teams that seemed to be battling for supremacy all season long last year—again at the forefront.

SMB, ALASKA ACES AGAIN LEAD THE WAY

Midway through the elimination round of the Philippine Cup and the Beermen and the Aces are tied on top of the standings.

The Beermen and the Aces have been dominant. Not even Barangay Ginebra and GlobalPort could provide any more than token challenge.

San Miguel Beer gave Barangay Ginebra a harsh reality check with a 100-82 decision last Sunday.

Everyone waited on the matchup between June Mar Fajardo and Greg Slaughter to decide the outcome of the match. And Fajardo delivered. He tallied 22 points, 14 rebounds, two steals and one assist to power the Beermen to the decisive victory.

The Aces were equally dominant when they crushed the GlobalPort Batang Pier.

Alaska Aces forward Calvin Abueva (8) tries to dribble past Talk N Text Tropang Texters guard Ryan Reyes (10).

San Miguel Beer point guard Brian Heruela (left) protects the basketball against Blackwater Elite counterpart Raphy Reyes.

Alaska beat GlobalPort at its own run-and- gun game to post a rousing 123-104 rout Nov. 20.

The Aces ran at every opportunity and shot the net to shreds to win the game pulling away.

Alaska led from the very start, outscored GlobalPort in every quarter as they never let go of their hold on the lead and gradually padded their advantage to post the easy victory.

The Aces relied on size and speed to score inside almost at will. Vic Manuel and Sonny

Thoss muscled aside their defenders to score from the paint to push Alaska to an insurmountable 118-96 advantage with just two minutes left to play.

Veteran Cyrus Baguio scored a team-high 17 points to go with two assists to win Player of the Game honors.

“I have to hand it to our players. They moved the ball well.

They played as a team. I like how we shared the ball. How we defended. How we played as

a team,” said Alaska Aces head coach Alex Compton as he acknowledged the hard work put in by his players.

Terrence Romeo scored a game-high 33 points, off the bench, but it was simply no match for the balanced scoring of the Aces who had eight players scoring in double figures.

These included Manuel with 16 points; Chris Banchero, 14; RJ Jazul 14; Thoss 14; Eric Menk, 12; Calvin Abueva, 11; and Jvee Casio, 10.

Alaska (4 wins, 1 loss) and San Miguel Beer (4-1) lead the standings.

Trailing them are the Rain Or Shine Elasto Painters (31), Barako Bull Energy (3-2), GlobalPort (3-2), the NLEX Road Warriors (3-2), the Talk N Text Tropang Texters (3-2), Barangay Ginebra (2-3) and the Star Hotshots (2-3).

Bringing up the rear are the Blackwater Elite (1-3), the Mahindra Enforcers (1-4) and the Meralco Bolts (0-5).

It’s not hard to see what brought San Miguel and Alaska success. It’s team chemistry, teamwork and continuity. Well, it helps that both squads were dominant last season as the two teams battled for the championship in two of three conferences last year.

San Miguel’s only notable addition this season is Brian Heruela and he’s hardly been a factor in five games thus far.

Alaska’s most notable recruit is Kevin Racal and he was scoreless in his first game when the Aces battled GlobalPort.

This early a repeat of last season’s championship matchups —with San Miguel and Alaska battling for the Philippine Cup title—seem inevitable.

UNLIKELY HEROES LIFT SAN BEDA

By Peter Atencio BENCH players Evan Nelle and Germy Mahinay gave San Beda the unexpected lift as the Red Cubs won their seventh consecutive National Collegiate Athletic Association junior basketball championship.

The big plays of shooting guard Nelle and big man Mahinay allowed the Red Cubs to hold their ground in the third quarter and outplay the Arellano University Braves for a 70-61 win.

The Red Cubs clinched a record-setting seventh straight junior title after Game 3 of their best-of-three finals series in the 91st NCAA at the Mall of Asia Arena.

“I feel fullfilled. Kahit paano, pinaghirapan ito,” said Red Cubs coach JB Sison, who asked his players to focus on winning the championship.

Nelle was not even in the mythical five during the elimination round. But Nelle’s performance in Game 1 and in Game 3, when he tallied a game high 13 points, merited him the finals MVP award.

He drained three of five triples in four minutes to help the Red Cubs move away.

His big game allowed the Red Cubs to pull off their second consecutive triumph in their finals series with the Braves.

“Suerte lang. Coming into this game, I had a lot of turnovers. Dami kong mali. So,

coming into this game, we should come back. We should win this one. No more losing,” said Nelle joined the team after transferring from La Salle Zobel where he finished grade school.

Nelle is not even in the top 10 of the overall statistical race. He is no. 17 in the rankings with 628 points.

One of the San Beda centers, Sam Abuhijle, is the leading Red Cubs in the race with 839 points, and at no. 4.

“He (Nelle) is the same as the others. He’s hardworking. My team has no superstars. Whoever has a good game steps up. Yun yung deserving ang minutes. So, you can see the spread on points.

You can choose anyone as

the MVP,” said Sison.

Mahinay, a big man from Taytay, delivered the most in the final game with 15 markers and 11 rebounds.

“Maraming foul, pero nagawa ko pa rin ang best ko sa team namin,” said Mahinay.

The Arellano University Braves put up a good challenge right from the start.

On the other hand, the Red Cubs were short on manpower, with two injured wingmen not seeing action.

The players were injured in Game 2.

As the game got under way, Resty Fornis hit five points and combined for nine with Nino Tamayo as the Braves took charge, 1714, in the first period.

Members of the NCAA juniors basketball champion San Beda Red Cubs rejoice after beating the Arellano University Braves to win the title. San Beda received an unexpected lift from reserves Evan Nelle and Germy Mahinay to win the title. PETER ATENCIO

After Robi Nayve scored on a drive to put San Beda on top, Guilmer de la Torre struck twice with his drives, ending the half with the Braves in the lead, 32-30.

De la Torre shot 15 points

and he drained one of two threes in the last 8:59.

This allowed the Braves to move ahead by eight, 38-30.

But the Red Cubs went on to turn the tables on the Braves in the next instance.

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SPORTS

ARMAN ARMERO EDITOR

sports@thestandard.com.ph

B7

Lagunna Governor Ramil Hernandez (6th from left) graces the opening ceremony of the 3rd Laguna Colleges, Universities Athletics Association (LACUAA) with league officials led by LACUaa founding chairman Leonardo “Ding” Andres (5th from left), honorary founding chairperson Edna Andres and other school officials.

LACUAA SOARS HIGHER ON ITS THIRD YEAR

IT WAS a Saturday (Nov. 14, 2015) to remember, for students, athletes and member-schools of the Laguna Colleges, Universities Athletic Association, especially for host school University of Perpetual Help System Dalta (UPHSD)-Calamba, as they celebrate the league’s third year despite the many challenges it faced in its last two editions.

The Altas-Calamba, as host school, prepared a colorful program that started with the traditional parade of athletes and league officials, led by founding chairman Leonardo “Ding” Andres,also the reigonal commissioner for the Basketball Association of the Philippines for Region IV. Aside from Andres, also present during the opening rites were UPHSD-Calama SPER coordinator Ms. Meyenberg Austria, honorary chairman Edna Andres, UPLB Dept. of Human Kinetics chairperson Ms. Naomi Enriquez and other school officials.

Also gracing the occasion as special guest was no less than Laguna Governor Ramil Hernandez, who also performed the ceremonial toss signalling the start of the

baskeball tournament.

The UPHSD students, through the guidance of Ms. Austria, later prepared a cultural show to the delight of the crowd. The brief opening ceremony was capped by the ceremonial toss by league officials signalling the start of the basketball and volleyball competitions at the UPHSD’s covered court between the host school and players from the Univesity of the Philippines-Los Baños.

UPHSD school director Arnaldo De Guzman, also welcomed the participants at the start of the meet.

De Guzman, a former varsity basketball player who also dabbles in bowling and table tennis (pingpong), said that as a founding member of the league, UPHSDCalamba has committed to join

UPHSD-Calamba School Director Arnaldo de Guzman

Laguna Governor Ramil Hernandez performs the ceremonial toss.

the league’s sports events, since the school itself has been very active in promoting sports and fitness among the entire Perpetual community, which boasts of seven campuses across Luzon.

“As our chairman (Tony Tamayo) said, a university without a school program can not be called a univer-

sity. This is why our focus really is to promote and to support sports,” said De Guzman, who was a professor in the Binan campus, an assistant school director at the Generam Mariano Alvares Perpeutal campus, before coming in board as school director of UPHSD-Calamba in 2008.

He added that the UPHSD be-

lieves that sports is a good way to build character among students.

“Ang sports ay malaking tulong para mahubog ang karakter ng mga bata. Kaya very happy kami na maryoong LACUAA. In fact, isa kami sa mga founding members ng liga,” De Guzman added.

The amiable school director also shared that the school continues to find ways to provide better sports facilities, including its newest facility, a brand-new swimming pool and soon a tennis courts. It also recently renovated its covered court that is used for basketball and volleyball games.

De Guzman also said that the school also supports its athletes by providing them full scholarships.

“Depende siyempre ‘yan sa kakayahan ng eskwelahan, but as much as possible, talagang ibinibigay namin ang suporta para sa kanila.

With UPHSD as host-school, expect LACUAA to soar even higher on its third year. ARMAN ARMERO

RUSSIAN GM SAVCHENKO NEARS CHESS TITLE Standings after nine rounds (Open Division)—Savchenko, 8.5, Sivuk 6.5, Lu, Laylo 6, Demchenko, Kotanjian, Deepan, Gupta, Nguyen, Shomoev, Lin, Belous, 5.5, Smirnov, Rohan, Garcia, Mozharov, Puranik, Docena, Zubov, Liu, 5.0, Dimakiling, Sunil.duth Lyna, Nolte, Antonio, Abelgas 4.5, Bitoon, Pimentel, Torre, Senador, Aravindh, Sean, Severino 4, Bersamina, Pascua, Segarra, Dela Cruz, Turquza, Suede 3.5, Frayna, San Diego, Mendoza, Galas 3.

Standings after seven rounds (Challenger Division)—Tiu, Grafil, Bagamasbad 6.0, Parondo,

Marimla, Aquino, Rilloraza 5.5, Salgados, Medina, Morado, Sacar, Ruaya, Cajeras, Lopez, Bernardo Dale, 5.0, Literatus, Evangelista, Rapanot, Florendo, Miciano Redor, 4,5, Sevillano, Infiesto, Florendo P., Bautista, Subaste, Curioso, Manaog, Alidani, Lim, Diaz, Rivera 4.0.

RUSSIAN Grandmaster Boris Savchenko racked up two more wins in the seventh and eighth round to widen his lead over his pursuers to virtually pocket the title with only a round remaining in the 2015 Philippine Sports Commission-Puregold International Chess Challenge at the Sub-

ic Bay Peninsular Hotel, SBMA, in Olongapo City.

Savchenko, the no. 8 seed, waylaid no. 4 seed Shanglei Lu of China in the eighth round and then outwitted compatriot GM Pavel Smirnov after 51 moves of a King’s Indian Classical Main Line to bring his total to 8.5 points, two points ahead of his closest pursuer, GM Vitaly Sivuk of Ukraine.

Sivuk, who topped the Philippine International Chess Championhip also held here a week ago, also posted two straight wins—beating fellow Ukrainian GM Alexander Zubov in the eighth round before upending Indian GM Chakkravarthy Deepan in the ninth to charge

back into second place.

Still within striking distance of second spot with 6.0 points are Lu and Filipino GM Darwin Laylo, who split the point against Deepan and Lu in the eighth and ninth round, respectively.

Laylo will try to wrest second spot against Sivuk, while Lu faces Russian GM Anton Shomoev in the 10th round and final round in the tournament organized by the National Chess Federation of the Philippines and supported by PSC, Philippine Olympic Committee, Puregold, Asia United Bank, Burlington Socks and Marc Ventures and Mining Development Corp.

Shomoev, who also drew his two last games, is in the company of compatriots and GMs Anton Demchenko and Vladimir Belous, GM Tigran Kotanjian of Armenia, Deepan, top seed GM Abhijeet Gupta of India, Vietnames GM Duc Hoa Nguyen, and International Master Chen Lijn of China Lin with 5.5 points each.

In the Challenger Division, top seed Robert Franz Grafil, Sherwin Tiu and National Master Efren Bagamasbad emerged tied after seven rounds, with Tiu taking on Bagamasbad and Grafil testing the mettle of Rolly Parondo (5.5) in the eighth round still being played as of press time.

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RiERA U. MAllARi EDITOR sports@thestandard.com.ph

sports

AnA JulAton in Action

Julaton’s biggest test

By Randy Caluag

AFTER Holly Holm’s conquest of the once-mighty Ronda Rousy, boxing purists earned some bragging rights of sorts, celebrating their claim that boxers can take on the best in the world of mixed martial arts.

But long before the many-time champion Holm came along as MMA’s newest sensation, FilipinaAmerican boxing champon Ana Julaton already had high hopes of making a name for herself in MMA. After signing up with ONE Championship, Asia’s biggest MMA promotion, Julaton won two of her first three fights. Her loss came via a split decision to Malaysia Ann Osman.

Julaton came back with aplomb after that loss, stopping AyaSaed Saber by ground and pound in May of last year at the ONE Championship: Rise of Heroes at the Mall of Asia Arena.

The former IBA and WBO bantamweight queen will come back to the same venue to face her biggest test thus far in powerful striker Irina Mazepa in the ONE Championship: Spirit of Champions on Dec. 11 at the Mall of Asia.

Mazepa’s solid debut win over Osman made her one of the most feared fighters in the division.

Julaton was supposed to meet Mazepa as early as last year in Dubai, but the latter begged off due to

injury in training. Osman came in as a replacement and won via split decision.

But before a well-deserved rematch could take place, Mazepa immediately imposed herself and scored a TKO win over Osman.

The Julaton-Mazepa bout seems to be more interesting now—a thrilling showdown between two strikers.

Julaton said she’s ready and pumped up and very glad it’s happening before her Filipino fans.

“Irina Mazepa is a powerful striker for sure. To see what she did to Osman in Malaysia in front of a sold-out hometown crowd was spectacular and proved Mazepa can fight and has no pressure as the visitor. But even when she won the fight, my heart didn’t skip a beat. I mean I was looking for it anyhow, she really has a good game,” said Julaton.

Mazepa maybe a top-class stand-up fighter, but Julaton believes there are other areas where she can work on.

“I know that she’s strong, she’s experienced in the stand-up, but I also know too that she’s limited in

certain areas and I see that as an advantage on my side,” said Julaton.

“I’ve stayed busy at at Bishop Gorman, training four times a week to integrate grappling techniques to my overall game.

I worked hard with my coach, Ricky Lundell, who has helped me improve my ground game. I give credit a lot to my team, and my coach is super organized, and he knows which buttons to push to make me want to work.”

Lundell said Julaton has im-

proved a lot on many aspects and that Mazepa is in for a big surprise.

“I don’t think her opponent know what’s coming for because what they saw a year ago is not what they’re gonna see now. I mean, the quickness to the shots, the ability to take somebody down, the control aspect as well as being able to land submissions and ground-and-pound,” said Lundell.

Julaton has become a complete fighter, according to Lundel.

“This is a world-class boxer

Ana Julaton is welcomed warmly by her supporters.

who’s been working on worldclass takedowns and submission abilities, so this is going to be a different fight. It will be exciting to watch this come into fruition finally,” he added.

Julaton is one of the featured Filipino fighters, alongside Brandon Vera, who will take on undefeated British kickboxer Chi Lewis Parry in the inaugural ONE Heavyweight World Championship.

Mark Striegl and Ruel Catalan are also seeking action.

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C1

TATUM ANCHETA EDITOR

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

BERNADETTE LUNAS

life @ thestandard.com .ph

WRITER

@LIFEatStandard

S U NDAY L IF E

LIFE Feeding organic snacks to Hindy Tantoco’s black pig

We weren’t ready to see one mom feeding two baby heads!

Catching the sunset in Zambawood

THE VISIONARIES BEHIND THE SCENES PHOTOS BY SONNY ESPIRITU • ADDITIONAL BEHIND THE SCENES PHOTOS BY PATRICIA TOPACIO, CLARENCE MANAOIS, NOIME DAGOHOY, AND REY PORRAS

CAROTID ARTERY

BY TATUM ANCHETA “Traffic na naman,” “Blame APEC,” “Wala na yata talagang pag-asa ang Pilipinas,” “Let’s all go abroad,” “Haay look at all our presidentiables, you don’t know who to vote!” “OMG, did you read what Kris posted again?!” – rants, complaints, negativity. We all see this on social media or hear our friends rant on the dinner table. It is disheartening that we all love to dwell on the negative things than look at ourselves and see what good things we can do instead.

LIFE at The Standard’s editorial team together with photographer Dix Perez traveled to so many parts of the country the entire October to meet people who give the Philippines more reason to breathe and smile. For almost a month, we interviewed and captured the lives and profiles of 21 amazing visionaries in their respective fields, a perfect testament for change – people whose vision and passion exceed far beyond their milieu.

For the first time in the history of The Standard, we are mounting an event to honor these men and women who are catalysts for change.

Our vision is to bring to light their stories to the public, and somehow inspire our readers to change within themselves and create ripples that can change our way of thinking.

They say personal experience sparks the fire to help others – you were born in the slums and you want to get out of that environment and help others do so as well; you have a friend who is sick and this changed your life and now you want to help others find cure.

For Rachel Harrison, our awardee for Autism Awareness and Education, her advocacy stemmed from her son Julyan, a 23-yearold handsome young man with the height of a matinee idol and the looks of a surf-board model, but born with autism. Rachel created a haven in San Narciso, Zambales called Zambawood, a boutique resort that supports sustainable living, health and wellness, and a safe haven for men and women like Julyan who can experience camp and other interactive activities around the resort, supported by a staff that knows how to handle their special needs. Zambawood is just the start of a bigger vision Rachel hopes to accomplish.

Nanay Ines teaching us a thing or two on how to massage a baby

Arugaan has become a sanctuary not just for babies but for kids who hang out by the gate waiting for some good graces

Magtanim ay di biro! During the photoshoot with Charene Tan in Tarlac

And if we have a community of individuals with special needs, “What do we need to do to get them employed?” A question that Chef Waya Wijangco tried to create a solution for with her school Open Hands – operational for four years, created for autistic graduates who are currently employed or running their own family businesses.

“Good afternoon ma’am, let me get you a seat,” are the words that greet you as they open the door. I was ecstatic that these kids are very polite, but Chef Waya said they weren’t like

Behind the seams at SLIM’s, photo shoot with siblings Sandy Higgins and Mark Higgins

It's like a secret garden–Hindy Tantoco leading us to her farm

Learning from the kids of Kiddo-Preneur with photographer Dix Perez

that when they started; the training and education really molded them.

From Manila, to Zambales, we then flew to Sarangani Province and met Casimiro Olvida during the height of the Indonesian haze hovering over Mindanao. They call him “Mer,” a Bachelor of Science in Forestry graduate who is trying to reforest 7,500 hectares of land (twice the size of Makati bigger than the city of Manila) in the municipality of Maasim. As we descended to the airport of GenSan ,we saw the bald mountains greeting us, and we realized the daunting task of rebuilding a watershed whose trees been harvested since the Spanish era and torched by kaingineros.

Another amazing visionary from Mindanao is Jaafar Kimpa, a man who ensures that undocumented Muslims are recognized, registered and counted. This inspiring man helps Muslim tribes and displaced families get access to every Filipino

citizen’s benefits by making sure his fellowmen have the proper certificates and registration.

Back to Sta. Ana in Metro Manila, we met a young man under 40 named Quintin Pastrana, the guy behind Library Renewal Partnership (LRP). His love for books started his vision to cultivate a literary culture that can inspire Filipinos to empower and motivate themselves to reach their dreams. After our interview, he then led us to Pasig river to show us his other advocacy – rowing, much to our surprise as we weren’t dressed for the occasion and loaded the boats in our heels and not-so-comfy clothes. He said if people developed love for rowing, they’d keep Pasig River clean.

“You know what keeps me up at night? That people don’t blink at buying an expensive bag but they won’t pay more for their food,” says Holy Carabao’s Hindy Tantoco, our awardee for Sustainability.

Continued on C2

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SUNDAY : NOVEM B ER 22, 2015

LIFE life @ thestandard.com .ph

@LIFEatStandard

THE VISIONARIES From C1

Now many would say that there are others whose efforts in sustainability are far greater than what she does but we believe that her small efforts can pave the way for greater things. From fashion to farming, this beauty is a perfect voice for sustainable living. Not only does she make organic farming look good, it’s a good example for the upper crust (the people who have the money) to start small things from their table.

Speaking of fashion, we met with Lenora Cabili, the creative director of Filip+Inna, a local brand that managed to make waves globally. But what strikes us is the process and the people behind the brand. Behind the beautiful clothes of Filip+Inn are the works of numerous indigenous tribes from Bukidon to Davao whose skill in weaving and handmade embroidery are slowly becoming a thing of the past, but with her brand, she not only helps these tribes she also helps preserve a treasured skill to survive in this modern age.

Also under the fashion category, we are honoring the institution that created the talented greats in today’s fashion industry from Cesar Gaupo, Michael Cinco, Oliver Tolentino to Joey Samson and many more.

We met up with Sandy and Mark Higgins – heirs to the house of Slim’s Fashion and Arts School, and they tell us the story of the institution and the many talented artisans who started their dream within the halls of their school.

Learning – often the key to a better society. And what better way to have the younger generation learn than to teach them early about the practicality of business and entrepreneurship?

This is what fueled Maiki Oreta to create Kiddo-preneur, a venue for kids to sell their own products and services and learn to develop hard work and perseverance, and learn the value of money. Imagine the next generation, self-sufficient and successful – maybe, just maybe, our country won’t be so third world in the very near future.

Like reading and education, art plays a big part in inspiring a community. Roberta Dans Thomas takes Filipino artists outside of

their comfort zone and helps them breakout to the international scene.

She has worked with renowned artists Ronald Ventura, Wawi Navarroza, Renato and Guerrero Habulan, and Leeroy New, among others.

“Tao po?” – a usual greeting when a Filipino is knocking on doors, has become the name of the organization that Charie Villa created for citizen journalism, using social media as a medium for positive change especially with government services. We went around talipapas and side streets to shoot Charie’s profile and to represent her stand in being a voice for the common people.

For social entrepreneurship, we are honoring five visionaries whose works created a sustainable impact within their communities as well as outside the Philippines. Cristina Liamzon and Edgardo Valenzuela, the founders behind the Leadership and Social Entrepreneurship program that empowers OFWs and teaches them how to budget, how to save, and instill independence when they come back home or while they are abroad, at the same time connecting them into the local and economic developments within their hometowns. The only foreigner in the roster is former Peace Corps member Kevin Lee who is the founder of A Single Drop of Safe Water. His organization is composed of a team of community members and a committed government task force that plans, designs, and implements their own water and sanitation systems within marginalized communities in Benguet, Camarines Sur, Maguindanao, Sultan Kudarat, Eastern Samar/Leyte, Palawan, and Panay. John Paul Maunes, cofounder of Gualandi Volunteer Service Program, now known as Philippine Accessible Deaf Services, Inc., uses sign language and creative visual interaction to ensure that deaf children understand their rights and have a voice in the community especially in addressing the issue of child sexual abuse and exploitation.

One of the most memorable shoots for the awardees is that of Ma. Ines Fernandez known to many as Nanay Ines, a passionate promoter of breastfeeding and nutrition

Nanay Ines sharing stories about Arugaan

Burger anyone? Behind the scenes at the shoot with Zark Burger owner Zark Varona

Julyan showing us how to cook pinakbet

Kevin Lee talking about his advocacy for ASDSW

Behind the scenes at Len Cabili’s shop

It’s a wrap! Columnist Kai Magsanoc, project manager Kaye Kho, your editor, photographer Dix Perez, Charie Villa, and our assistant Rey Porras

Planting with Mer Olvida and the B'laan tribe

since the 1980s and the founder of Arugaan, an organization and a wet-nursery with a core group of volunteer mothers trained about proper breastfeeding practices, healthy indigenous food, and relactation counseling. Most of the editorial team present during the shoot couldn’t believe and were in awe at the things we learned that day. I for one did not sleep at the idea that even men are capable of breastfeeding and that single women who have not yet had a baby can produce milk.

Among the great visionaries are the younger ones who started with their passion at such an early

Rowing in Pasig River with Quintin Pastrana

Behind the scenes in Laguna with Salt Water Lamp inventor Aisa and Jason Buensalido showing us the material used for the floating Raphael Mijeno garage in a latest development town house in Marikina

age that they make you think like “What was I doing during that age?” or “I have to start doing something with my life now!” Among them is Young Visionary for Photography Xyza Cruz Bacani whose aspirational story from being a domestic helper to being in glossies like Vogue Italia and New York Times is one for the books. Charlene Tan is the person behind Good Food Community, an organization that aims to make local communities sustainable by connecting organic farmers and “enlightened citizens” in a program called Community Shared Agriculture. Jason Buensalido is also part of the roster, our Young Visionary for Architecture. His architectural firm specializes in avant-garde and progressive designs that aim to revitalize the Philippines’ architectural scene.

Cristalle Henares, Young Visionary for Entrepreneurship and a full-time businesswoman, is the 33-year-old heiress to the Belo Empire who started with the company when she was just 24. Rolandrei Viktor Varona, another Young Visionary for Entrepreneurship, is the driving force behind the 14 branches of Zark’s Burger who, after being a seaman, started his burger chain when he was just 23 years. And already a household name after sharing a seat with US President Barack Obama and Alibaba CEO Jack Ma during the APEC, Aisa Mijeno is one of our awardees as Young Visionary for the Science and Technology category together with her brother Raphael

Mijeno. It has been a month since we interviewed and met this young inventor of Salt Water Lamp who shared with us her passion in giving light to every rural household. It gave us great pride when we saw her sharing her ideas during the APEC summit. During our interview, I asked her, “So what if companies copy your invention, what then?”

And she answered calmly, “Well, I guess it’s okay, it just means they are helping us spread the cause.”

It has been a very humbling and enlightening experience to have met these amazing men and women.

They have opened our eyes, and gave us hope with a positive mindset.

Through the month-long journey, we noticed that meeting these people made us realize – “Man, what am I doing with my life?” or “I think I need to start doing something not just for myself but for the greater good.” And maybe that is our role, by telling you about these people, we can ignite something in you. Small ripples can create tidal waves.

Read more about the stories and journey of The Standard 2015 Visionaries Awards in our special 24-page feature that will be released Sunday, November 29. On December 4, we will be honoring these visionaries at the first Annual Visionaries Awards night of The Standard.

For comments and suggestions you may email me at tatum@thestandard. com.ph, for my crazy life’s adventures follow me at @tatumancheta on Instagram and Twitter.

SUNDAY : NOVEM B ER 22, 2015

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LIFE life @ thestandard.com .ph

MoneyGram, Habitat for Humanity build classrooms in Yolanda affected areas

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choolchildren of Lourdes High School in Cortes, Bohol – one of the areas devastated by Super Typhoon Yolanda (Haiyan) in November 2013 – celebrated the construction of a one-story, two-classroom building through the generosity of MoneyGram Foundation in cooperation with Habitat for Humanity Philippines.

Moneygram, a global provider od innovative money transfer services, affirmed its commitment to help the affected communities recover from the devastation

Students of Lourdes High School in Cortes, Bohol display bags distributed by MoneyGram Philippines

which affected 80 percent of the schools in Bohol which was also hit by a magnitude 7.2 earthquake also in 2013.

The recent inauguration of the newly built classrooms was attended by community residents, officials from the local government, the Department of Education and representatives from MoneyGram and Habitat for Humanity Philippines.

“The MoneyGram Foundation is extremely proud of our ongoing collaboration with Habitat for Humanity to achieve our mission to help those rebuilding from the devastation of Typhoon Haiyan. The classrooms in Bohol that we celebrate today and the two schools we are building in the Province of Capiz not only provide a place for children to learn, they also act as shelters for the community in the event of future natural disasters,” said Alex Lim, MoneyGram’s regional manager for the Philippines.

The new building, which was built to withstand intense winds, typhoons and other potential natural calamities, underscores MoneyGram’s resolve to help transform the

@LIFEatStandard

The new one-story, two-classroom building in Lourdes High School

Officials from the local government, the Department of Education and representatives from MoneyGram and Habitat for Humanity Philippines were on hand during the inauguration

lives of the communities and customers it serves by offering meaningful access to education through sound structures that will serve thousands of children for years to come, added Lim. Established in 2012, the MoneyGram Foundation is a private, grant-making foundation focused on helping children

around the world gain access to educational facilities and learning resources. Its mission is firmly rooted in the belief that education is at the heart of better economic opportunities, healthier families and individual freedom and empowerment. To learn more, visit moneygramfoundation.org or follow facebook.com/moneygram on Facebook.

RISING FROM YOLANDA

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St. Therese Educational Foundation of Tacloban recovers from devastation

ne of the strongest typhoons to ever make landfall in recent history is Typhoon Yolanda that hit many parts of Eastern Visayas most especially Tacloban, which was named “ground zero” as it bore the brunt of the devastation. The typhoon also cost billions of damage in infrastructure, with buildings and schools razed to the ground.

Recovery has been slow, but many institutions are getting back on their feet, among them the school of St. Therese Educational

Foundation of Tacloban, Inc. (STEFTI) that now seems to bear no trace of the destruction.

According to STEFTI corporate treasurer Romulo Añover, the school has remained resilient even in the face of the destruction with the hardship not a hindrance to rebuilding the school.

A year after the typhoon, the campus has continued to expand with the restoration of old infrastructure and the construction of new ones. STEFTI is also currently working on its

STEFTI corporate treasurer Romulo Añover with the school in the background

master plan to offer senior high school and an improved academic track that includes accountancy and engineering.

Romulo recounted the harrowing conditions that the school met in the wake of the typhoon, with children crying at the thought that they had no future to look forward to. Initial estimates placed the period of recovery to three to five years. Despite the unfortunate turn of events, STEFTI was able to rise from the ashes with help from many individuals who wanted to rebuild the school.

The STEFTI staff also utilized the power of technology and social media to inform stakeholders about the school’s reopening earlier this year, with heartening results as 200 old students and transferees from different towns and areas showed up on the opening of classes.

Before Yolanda, STEFTI has been a user of Genyo – a learning platform that enables the administration to assess teaching and learning, as well as provide students and teachers

access to a wide variety of multimedia, curriculum-based teaching and dynamic learning resources.

However, budget constraints and the absence of Internet connection almost hindered the school from using the program.

Concerned that the school would be unable to use Genyo due to budget constraints, the administration discussed options with the Genyo team on how to go about the e-learning program implementation since we had no Internet connection.

Proactive and resourceful, the Genyo team introduced STEFTI to Genyo iXL, an innovative program where teachers and students can still enjoy most of the benefits of the e-learning platform even without Internet connection.

The team arrived in June 2014 and found a way to do it through GenyoiXL, an offline version of the program. “They brought the content, loaded it in a server, and continued with the offline service,” Añover recounted.

Before pursuing restoration projects, STEFTI first participated in relief operations together with different non-profit organizations in the area. To extend help to victims, the school converted itself into an evacuation center. The endeavor was also supported by Red Cross volunteers who stayed in the facility to help take care of the typhoon victims.

“We were the only private school that opened our doors to our neighbors. About 50 families occupied our gym and rooms for almost a month,” Añover shared.

STEFTI was established in July 2001 under the leadership of Babylyn Duran, Tetett Mandreza, Poi Nalda, and Didits Palami. It was first named as “The Learning Place,” a tutorial center located in Zamora Street in downtown Tacloban. In 2002, the facility was renamed St. Therese Educational Foundation of Tacloban, Inc. and started offering pre-elementary and elementary classes. The high school department was later added in 2007.

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

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LIFE life @ thestandard.com .ph

@LIFEatStandard

A young and talented violinist performs during the FCCP Ball 2015

The Latin American setting at the Manila Polo Club

Philippine Ballet Theater dancers perform before a mesmerized crowd

IN PURSUIT OF MINDFULNESS Nathan Lim, Girlie Pe Lim, Michelle Pe, Michael Pe, Benedict Pe

#INTHEMOMENT

BY FRANCIS DE LEON

Baby Ortiz, Tessie Rodrigo, Mabel Abano Baby De Jesus

Glecy Mojares

Ablaza siblings in full support of the FCCP Ball 2015: Czarina Ablaza-Syquia and Jun Jun Ablaza

Sol Tan-Gatue

Grace Palma Tiongco

FCCP Board member Martin Lopez with Sofia Capua, Renaldo Salazar and Jerome Riviere, First Secretary of the Delegation of the European Union of the Philippines.

As humans, we are able to distinguish ourselves from lower life form through our capability to dream. The expansion of our brain is further stimulated with our perennial pursuits to be creative, artistic and mindful of our culture.

If you are reading this Sunday’s column, I can deduce that you have been blessed with a good education which equips you to pursue many dreams.

Unfortunately, to the marginalized sectors of our society, it’s a totally different story.

Fortunately, there is a group of socially conscious individuals who are continually in hot pursuit to make a difference – the Friends for Cultural Concerns of the Philippines Inc. (FCCP).

From the day it was founded in 1979, its mission was clear: to uplift the sense of appreciation for the arts and culture by way of developing and nurturing young and talented Filipino artists.

For 36 years, FCCP has held fundraising balls with the socially mindful and elite set as guests. From the charitable donations, the group has given grants to the Philippine Research for Developing Instrumental Soloists and other institutions like the Philippine High School for the Arts in Makiling, Ballet Philippines, Ballet Manila and National Music Competitions for Young Artists Foundation, Inc. (NAMCYA) among other organizations.

LATIN AMERICAN FEVER HITS THE BALL

Consuls Mellie and Louie Ablaza

Cristina Caedo

FCCP Board members Bert and Nonie Basilio

This year, the FCCP went all out in the name of charity on the occasion celebrating its 36th founding anniversary.

Headed by current president Nene Pe-Lim, this year’s FCCP Ball had a colorful Latin American theme and was organized to raise funds to support

FCCP Board members Boysie Villavicencio and Nenuca Plardoni

FCCP vice president and Ball Organizing Board member Letty Hahn is an FCCP President Nene Pe Lim avid supporter of the arts

the education of underprivileged children through donations to various organizations on performing arts.

According to the organizers, the FCCP Ball 2015 aims to generate more funds to sustain support to current scholars as well as raise additional funds to accommodate new ones.

The main lounge of Manila Polo Club was filled with the country’s old rich in their Latin American regalia. The ladies were impeccably dressed and the gentlemen dapper in their suits.

The sumptuous five-course dinner prepared by the Manila Polo Club was complimented by the air of jubilation as members and guests enjoyed each other’s company to celebrate their fellowship.

What made the event truly special was the evening’s entertainment. The repertoire was composed of stellar performances by young tenors and sopranos, a violinist, ballet dancers from the Philippine Ballet Theater. The talents that this columnist has witnessed were world-class and noteworthy on their passion for the arts.

“By providing scholars with an opportunity to hone their talents through proper guidance and education in schools, they are professionally trained with the right tools and curriculum to have a broader knowledge needed in perfecting their craft,” stated Nene Pe-Lim during her speech.

Supporting FCCP Ball 2015 were Dette Aquino-Tan and Annabelle Adriano

The scholars are the fruits of the FCCP’s enduring commitment to support the performing arts through grants and scholarship. And as I have observed (and felt), their performances that evening were wholeheartedly dedicated to their proud benefactors – the FCCP. The group’s sincere commitment for the advancement of the beautiful heritage of Philippine art and culture has made this possible. In its pursuit to strengthen Filipino identity and culture, the FCCP is hoping to be a catalyst that can continuously discover, enhance, and promote Filipino artists who can take their place in the global stage.

“Art is the heart and soul of our society,” expressed the consummate master of ceremonies, Johnny Litton.

From this columnist, my hats off to the ladies and gentlemen behind the FCCP for their generosity and selfless duty to uplift the soul of the community of whom they serve. They have given talented young artists a (fair) chance to fulfill their aspirations. And once fulfilled they, too, shall pay it forward.

To FCCP, may your organization continue to live in the moment and awaken society to experiences that give profound meaning to the existence of those in need.

Cheers!

Follow me on Twitter or Instagram @francis_deleon8.

S UNDAY : NOV EMBER 2 2 : 2015

SHOWBITZ isahred @ gmail.com

Michael Angelo also hosts #MichaelAngelo on GMA News TV

Michael Angelo with the Chooks-To-Go mascots

ISAH V. RED EDITOR

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Photos by enIe Reyes

MIchael angelo’s ‘MIssIon I’M PossIble’

I

t has been said that in order to build better communities, change must start with oneself.

This is the idea behind Mission I’m Possible, a series of entertaining and inspirational talks by Michael Angelo Lobrin in various communities. The talk is powered

by Chooks-To-Go, Bounty Agro Ventures, Inc.’s brand of premium quality oven roasted chicken.

Mission I’m Possible, launched in October 2015, aims to provide entertainment to audiences as well as uplift them in order to spark a positive change in their lives. This may lead to the shaping of better communities. As the title of the project suggests, the series of one-hour community talks latches on the famous saying, “Nothing is impossible.”

As a Filipino community brand, Chooks-to-Go shares this vision

Janeena Chan

of people empowerment with Michael Angelo. This led to a second partnership. The Chooks-to-Go brand believes that Michael Angelo’s use of his own talents and skills as an entertaining and inspirational speaker best serves the purpose of the project. Mission I’m Possible is a chance for Chooks-to-Go to give back to the community.

Mission I’m Possible, a series of events is ongoing this month.

Its first month comprised of sponsored events mostly in line with the celebration of teacher’s month. To show support to the profession, Chooks-to-Go brought Mission I’m Possible to the Teacher’s Month Celebration at De La Salle University Dasmarinas, the World Teacher’s Day Magical Celebration in Enchanted Kingdom, the leadership and Development Seminar at the National Teachers

College, and held a national conference with heads of universities and colleges, all members of the Association of Local Colleges and Universities Commission on Accreditation (ALCUCOA).

Apart from celebrating teachers’ month, Mission I’m Possible also supported events advocating different causes last month, among them the Caritas Dei, Inc.: Concernt for a Cause wherein Michael Angelo delivered a talk and serenaded the audience.

Mission I’m Possible also supported the medical mission for senior citizens of Gagalangin, in Tondo, Manila.

Chooks-to-Go and Michael Angelo also took part in the celebration of the gathering of net workers at the second anniversary of W1N International at the AFP Theater.

With the continued success

of the talk series, Chooks-to-Go and Michael Angelo are open to supporting more communities and events through mission I’m Possible to your event, simply send a proposal including the event details to noelbautista. life@gamil.com.

Those with advocacy and community-centered events with no less than 500 attendees are the priority. There are only eight event slots allocated per month.

For sample coverage of our Mission I’m Possible events, you may visit www.chookstogo.com.ph.

Meanwhile, # MichaelAngelo Season 3, a 30-minute inspirational comedy talk show, will feature new segments and at the same time highlight the portions previously enjoyed by the audience such as the TomGu sketches, Payong Kahastag and the Celebrity Guest

interviews. The new season will boast new segments that include: New Celebrity Gimmick – apart from the usual games with celebrity guests, there will be new portions like “Celebrity Challenge” where guests are asked to do a stunt. “Celebrity in Action’” follows a guest doing something for their advocacy (ex. Feeding program).

Short Inspirational Talk- MichaelAngelo will have a moment to talk about something inspirational, whether it’s about personal (interpersonal relationships), Social (Trending “Uso”) or Political (sino ba iboboto) issues. It is guaranteed to stir and motivate the audience.

The new season on GMA New TV will also boast a new Opening Billboard, new art cards and title cards, new video treatments (fast paced editing, etc), fresh comedy sketches and new overall look.

Janeena hosts UaaP’s ‘UPfront’ As a sports host and youth advocate, Janeena Chan is always on the go. So, it is very important to her to look good and feel good all the time.

Thanks to The Skin Specialist (TSS), Janeena has found another effortless and painless way to boost her confidence: Super Hair Removal (SHR), a state-of-theart laser procedure designed to remove unwanted hair faster and more comfortably.

Virtually pain-free, SHR works by using a sweeping, paintbrush technique with gentle pulses of laser energy multiple times to the hair follicles, gradually heating them.

“Because the laser is constantly in motion, treatment is more similar to a hot stone massage than traditional laser hair removal where a single high dose of energy is applied to the hair follicle, resulting in both pain and potential burns,” explains founder and chief dermatologist of TSS, Dr. Jean Marquez.

Janeena has heard about the

effectiveness of SHR, so she gave it a shot. She has trusted TSS and Dr. Jean for years.

“How can you not trust a dermatologist who looks great? She walks the talk and has handled many happy clients throughout the years. I also love that she makes sure to treat her clients much like friends. It makes me more at ease especially because I am leaving the largest organ of my body, the skin, in someone else’s hands,” says the communication major, youth advocate, and motivational speaker.

Janeena is very satisfied with the results on her underarms and has since made SHR one of her

staple treatments whenever she visits TSS clinic on Timog Avenue, Quezon City.

“I can now raise my arms whenever I want to! It’s a liberating feeling,” shares Janeena, who hosts Upfront at the UAAP, anchoring live on ABS-CBN Sports and Action.

Janeena also likes SHR because the procedure is shorter than other laser methods, more comfortable and gives top results. Nearly any part of the body can be treated safely and comfortably, including the face, neck, legs, arms, bikini line, back and stomach.

SHR requires no medication or other pre-treatments. Clients spend only 30 minutes for a long-lasting, safe, and effective hair removal procedure. They can return to normal activities immediately. SHR also offers the highest coverage rate to ensure that no hair follicles remain untreated.

Dr. Jean says the SHR technology has been the subject of numerous white papers, peer reviewed articles and other professional studies.

S UNDAY : NOV EMBER 2 2 : 2015

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SHOWBITZ isahred @ gmail.com

HBO ASiA’S nEWESt ORiginAL SERiES In the bustling streets and back alleys of present day Jakarta, a parallel world of bloodthirsty creatures from Indonesian mythology has lived alongside humans for generations. Taking on

Salvita Decorte stars in HBO Asia's Halfworlds

the appearance of humans themselves, the true identity of these “Demit” has been carefully concealed for centuries by a powerful family of mortals. The arrival of a mysterious supernatural event known only as the “Gift” will bring this hidden world to the surface.

As the day of the Gift approaches, a young street artist called Sarah unexpectedly finds herself in the eye of the storm. Once the Demit realize who Sarah really is, and what she must do, humans and Demit are set on a collision course that could change the balance of their two worlds forever.

This is the premise of the Halfworlds. HBo Asia’s new series, and eight-part half-hour dark fantasy series.

Says Jonathan Spink, CEO of HBO Asia, Halfworlds has been

created with the scale to travel.

This echoes HBO Asia’s collaborative commitment with creative talents across our region to develop premium Asian entertainment for regional audiences with an appetite for cinematic TV with a unique local identity.”

Created and conceptualized by HBO Asia and directed by Joko Anwar, Halfworlds was written by Collin Chang and Anwar. It was shot in Batam and Jakarta.

Halfworlds stars newcomer Salvita Decorte as Sarah, Arifin Pu-

tra, Reza Rahadian,Tara Basro, Ario Bayu, Bront Palarae ,Alex Abbad, Adinia Wirasti, Hannah Al-Rashid, Verdi Solaiman, Cornelio Sunny,and singer-songwriters, Nathan Hartono and Aimee Saras. Eight year-old Puteri Balqis (Best Actress, 2014 Asian Television Awards) guest stars.

Halfworlds premieres 10 p.m.

Nov. 29 on HBO. New episodes premiere every Sunday at the same time . It is also available on HBO GO and HBO On Demand (in selected territories).

Robi Domingo, TJ maRquez aT PaRkmall’s oPening nighT

t

he Co family of Cebu brought popular TV personalities Robi Domingo, of Pinoy Big Brother fame and TJ Marquez who stars in Pangako Sa ‘Yo to their newly built mall for the opening night last week.

There is no way one can miss Parkmall in Mandaue City, Cebu.

There is a tall structure on the roundabout of the sprawling property that heralds the mall’s name. Its many features include beach volleyball sand court, a children’s playground right outside the mall, and a lush, landscaped park.

The brainchild of the Co family of Cebu that owns the biggest home depot in the Queen City of the South, Parkmall prides itself in doing things differently. “When we started doing the crazy sale, other malls followed suit,” says Neal Co, General Manager of Parkmall.

This year, Parkmall brought back its history-making and unprecedented 36-Hour Non-Stop Sale from 10 a.m. of Nov. 14 to 10

p.m. of Nov. 15. Bigger and grander, Parkmall hoped to clock 70,000 in foot traffic compared to last year’s 65,000 foot traffic count.

Who would want to go to the mall at 12 midnight?

Only Parkmall, a homegrown mall that is a hit with locals and visitors alike, can do it. As a way of ensuring the safety of shoppers, service vehicles were deployed to fetch people from different points like the Cebu Mactan International Airport and IT Park in Lahug, Cebu City. Those who stayed overnight availed of special discounts at Parkmall’s partner hotels.

But for the whole duration of the Non-Stop Sale, this side of Mandaue didn’t sleep due to a string of surprises and activities and a steady stream of music and entertainment for families, friends, and shoppers to enjoy.

“Parkmall was abuzz with activities, both inside and outside the mall, among them the Karaoke Mania Challenge, Dog walk with Pert Adoption, and Non-Stop Fitness

CROSSWORD PUZZLE 97 99 101 103 105 107 109 112 114 118 119 120 122 123

ANSWER FOR PREVIOUS PUZZLE ACROSS 1 Not imaginary 5 Burnt out 10 1987 film “La —” 15 Ushers’ beats 21 Italian innkeeper 22 Serviceable 23 On — — (winning) 24 Endeavor 25 Platte River tribe 26 They have backbone 28 Wet floor?

29 Cope 31 Heavy volume 32 Math statement 34 Single-strand molecule 35 Putting on a play 37 Next-door 39 No-fat Jack 40 Marshal Dillon 41 Mournful poems 43 Started a gunfight 45 Cul-de- — 46 James or Ventura

47 49 51 53 57 59 61 62 65 67 70 72 74 75 77 78 80 83 85 86 88 90 92 94 95

Like healthy fur Cut calories Tibet neighbor Dye-yielding plant January, in Jalisco Isolated valley Untrained Lap dog, for short Conductor’s stick Eastern range Mark down Novel closer (var.)

35mm cameras Lady’s man Loans, to some Twangy, as a voice Permissible Obstacle Wasp’s kin She may queen it Owl outburst Local movie houses Clutch Not his or hers Zhivago’s beloved

125 126 128 130 132 135 137 139 143 144 146 148 150 151 153 155 156 158 161 162 163 164 165 166 167 168 169

Loughlin or Petty Diamonds, slangily Polygraph flunkers Banded quartz Huge, in combos — monde (society) Tortilla snacks Mariachi wear Pride (hyph.)

Limburger property Give it a go California fort Surf go-with Homophone for urns Quarry Use steel wool Penicillin source Bubbly drinks Pet shop buy “Kidnapped” monogram Cleopatra’s wooer Spiffs up the bathroom “— en el Rancho Grande” Tartar — Craggy peaks Polar phenomena Form 1040 expert Toughens glass Many August people Carmaker’s woe Stuffed corn husk Changed one’s mind (hyph.)

— spumante Tristan’s love Hawaii red flower Dalai Lama’s city Be rife with Get equal billing Too much interest Emerson opus Whirlpool

Marathon,” shared Yael Sacris-Torrejos, manager of Parkmall. “While shoppers were taking advantage of huge discounts, live entertainment was provided. In the busier section outside the mall, there was upbeat music while the area where the banks and spas are located, the mellower beats of bossa filled the air. We also had the youth-oriented, much-anticipated After Party.”

This year’s 36-Hour Non-Stop Sale had Robi Domingo and Teejay Marquez joining the crazy shopping madness from 2 to 3 a.m. on Nov. 15.

Aside from ushering in the Christmas season, the 36-Hour Non-Stop Sale was Parkmall’s way of thanking Cebuanos for its loyal patronage and paying it forward for its eightyear retail leadership in Cebu. Back in 2007, naysayers doubted that the site, which used to be a reclamation area would become a future growth center and hub. “Where Parkmall now stands, dati itong abandoned warehouse,” Co remembers.

The Mandaue City Government

offered the property to the Cos who had the foresight to turn it into a two-level mall for Cebuanos and Cebuanos-at-heart.

But the early years were not very encouraging. One of the first tenants was a national brand, Save More, which by the way is now the third highest-selling Save More in the country. Parkmall also has the biggest Samsung concept store in the country. “Para siyang ghost town, at ang foot traffic dati 3,000 lang.”

What used to be an isolated part of Mandaue where public transportation and private motorists dared not ply is now a catalyst for growth in the area boomtown with major developers closing in and more national brands coming in to get in on the action. The location that many had doubts about now enjoys high traffic with very good purchase rate, same or even better than other malls in the city center. It has definitely been a hit among locals when normal conventions would dictate otherwise.

The mall has managed to attract

Robi Domingo

TJ Marquez

a lot of people by understanding the local buyer/diner culture and preferred mall activities as opposed to transplanting Manila norms. Across the mall and even along its facade, al fresco dining options abound including some of the finest bars and restaurants such as Chika-an, Hukad, Tsiboom and Mooon Café.

Right from its inception, Parkmall was envisioned as a mall that champions local entrepreneurs --- businesses with Cebuano origins like Orange Brutus and Cebu’s Original Lechon Belly and the second-floor bazaar full of wonderful tiangge finds, like pre owned bags, for small scale entrepreneurs --- as much as it welcomes national, big-city brands.

SUNDAY, NOVEMBER 22, 2015

DOWN 1 Motel vacancies 2 Ritzy residence 3 Hardly melodic 4 “Gil Blas” writer 5 Immature 6 Chowed down 7 Earth 8 “Rocket Man” John 9 Considered 10 Happy hour site 11 Trapped like — — 12 Kin of butterflies 13 Censors 14 Nonwinner (hyph.)

15 Selling point 16 Big-ticket — 17 Mexican Mrs. 18 Most October births 19 Happenings 20 Imperturbable 27 Five o’clock shadow 30 Musicians’ stints 33 Indy 500 entrant 36 — Davis of films 38 Monarch’s time 40 “Alice” diner owner 42 Future flowers 44 Join metals 46 Yakked 48 Tiny shrimp 50 Salty drop 52 Duffer’s goal 53 “Honest” fellow 54 Doze off 55 Traveler’s route 56 Kinks’ tune 58 Sen. Hatch 60 Cpl. and Sgt. 62 Royalty-payer 63 Sonnet stanza 64 Flat-topped hills 66 Quick bite 68 Grouchy Muppet 69 — fu 71 Phone trio

73 76 79 81 82 84 86

Liverpool poky “Fatha” Hines Tower over Nigerian tribe (var.)

PC fixers Dow uptick Sudden gust of wind Avid Very, to Yvette Large aquarium

87 89 91 fish 93 Cote sounds 96 — — premium

98 100 102 104 106 108 110 111 113 115 116 117 121

Now — — it!

Plaintiffs Mounties’ org.

Important period School grad Male vocalist Fiesta shout Furtive Make a typo Gift-tag word D-sharp alias Jason’s wife “No mas” boxer Roberto

124 Chance to sleep in 126 FICA funds it 127 Fake police ailment (2 wds.)

129 Whimsical 131 King’s address 132 Acid in milk 133 Border town (2 wds.)

134 Los —, N.M. 136 Reaches the summit 138 Spicy cuisine 140 Pinpoint

141 142 144 145 147 149 151 152 154 157 159

Destroyed data Like many nuts Vile smile Yale of Yale Frosh, next year Viscous “Hawkeye” Pierce Boot jingler Health clubs Elev.

Wray of “King Kong” 160 NASA counterpart

S UNDAY : NOV EMBER 2 2 : 2015

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SHOWBITZ isahred @ gmail.com

A girl in love, to love

A

sk most famous singers how they got into the biz and they will tell you that they got into their profession by accident. Anyone famous who is also talented, young and fresh that is.

Young people these days have it all made, with good things landing on their laps without them wishing for it and them running away with it - that is the stuff today’s popular crop of singers are made of.

Alyssa Angeles, an 18-year old International Studies major at De LaSalle University is no different.

Having spent her younger years being mentored by the likes of master songwriter Ryan Cayabyab, being trained for the limelight by no less than stellar theater group Trumpets, and idolizing singing greats like Sarah Geronimo and Ariana Grande, it is little wonder that she has turned what was just a hobby into something she can invest a full-fledged career on. She also dabbled into some modeling but soon realized it was singing that she really loved to do.

She knew she was a singer at the age of seven, when her mom would often ask her to sing for friends whenever they were in ka-

Alyssa Angeles

From C8

raoke bars. She was also a member of her school’s chorale class and has also appeared in bit parts in an indie movie and in Enteng Kabisote: Ang Agimat at Ako. She has also did radio guest appearance, particularly on Radyo ng Bayan, and has sung in Net 25’s Letters and Music, PTV’s Good Morning Boss and appeared for live performances in GMA 7’s Maynila, as well as various mall shows and school programs, singing a mix of Ariana Grande hits and her own songs, all of which she says has helped her get used to the adoring crowds and hone her singing abilities.

Which is why it comes as no surprise that she has already come up with her very first album, Alyssa:Falling In Love, which is all about the trials and travails of a girl in love, something Alyssa says she isn’t yet (but we wouldn’t be surprised if that happened soon) but when you listen to the songs included, like the carrier single “Lilim” you wouldn’t think she hasn’t been in love.

While she draws her inspiration from friends’ love stories and the countless girl talks that often happen, she is aware of how beautiful and painful it is to be in love and

has been able to bring that aspect of it into the songs in her album.

Incidentally, the album itself is something to look forward to as it is chock-full of original songs written by Jessa Mae Gabon, Popsie Saturno-San Pedro, Garry Cruz and the master writer himself Vehnee Saturno, who wrote one of her singles, “Still Crazy.” In addition to her originals, she also did her own version of the Joey Albert hit, “Ikaw Lang ang Mamahalin” which is a song that is very fitting to her vocal range. Other songs to watch out for in her debut album include “Fireflies,” “Crush Me and Don’t You Know,” the latter two being dance tunes that serve to showcase Alyssa’s massive vocal range and talent.

From karaoke bars to the world stage, Alyssa’s journey has just begun and she is talented enough to see it to the end.

Alyssa: In Love is distributed exclusively by Synergy Music and is available in record bars nationwide. Also, available on digital downloads and streaming at Itunes, Spotify. To get more updates about Alyssa visit her website www.slvssaansefes.com or follow her on Facebook.

Hillarie danielle parungao off to 65tH miss World pageant

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Miss World Philippines 2015 Hillarie Danielle Ang Parungao (middle) with 1st Princess Marita Cassandra Naidas and 3rd Princess Maria Vanessa Wright during her sendoff at the Event’s Place in Missouri St., San Juan.

Miss World Philippines 2015 Hillarie Danielle Ang Parungao (middle) with 1st Princess Marita Cassandra Naidas and 3rd Princess Maria Vanessa Miss World Philippines 2015 Wright with nationaldirector of Miss World Hillarie Danielle Ang Parungao Philippines Ms. Cory Quirino during Parungao’s sendoff at the Eventís Place in Missouri St., San Juan. is ready for Miss World 2015.

ill Miss World Philippines Hillarie Danielle Par ungao’s chances at the 65th Miss World pageant in China diminish by the Spratlys’ territorial dispute between China and the Philippines? That will be known when Miss World 2015 culminates at the Beauty Crown Grand Theater in Sanya, China on Dec. 19.

The stunning 24-year-old commercial model and graduate of nursing is up to the challenge of following in the footsteps of Miss World 2013 Megan Young, the country’s first Miss World.

She has undergone intensive preparation including shooting of her video “Katuwang,” a personal program aimed at alleviating childhood mortality which was shot in her hometown, Solano, Nueva Vizcaya.

“Through this initiative, I wish to create awareness on the issues and challenges that

affect families from getting access to quality and affordable healthcare in my province, and hopefully, throughout the country as well. I intend to use my title as Miss World Philippines to lobby for support from LGUs to jumpstart a campaign to save countless numbers of young lives and enable them to live a full healthy life,” Parungao said of her advocacy entry for the Miss World Beauty with a Purpose competition.

“As I embark on this journey, I would like to encourage all of my fellow countrymen to have another look on what Miss World is truly all about, and to join me in my quest to bring home our second Miss World title,” Parungao added. She will compete against more than a hundred contestants from all over the world wearing Filipino-designed gowns by the likes of Randy Ortiz, Bing Cristobal, Mark Tumang and Cherry Veric.

Young, inexperienCed men are after mobsters

F

our young men are pitted against a mob boss and a string of syndicates when one of them gets hitched with money trouble involving a ruthless mobster who wants his money back immediately in the witty heist thriller Criminal Activities.

John Travolta stars along with Dan Stevens, Michael Pitt, Christopher Abbott, Rob

Brown and Edi Gathegi. Directed by Academy Award nominee actor Jackie Earle Haley, Criminal Activities is his directorial debut.

“I think I knew camera geography by the time I was 12 or 13. I remember when I was 11, and my parents were completely aware of this, and they bought me a Super 8 MM, that’s film, not video, camera along with a

little plastic editor and projector.

And this was back when you had to like, you know, film was on a reel, and you had to splice it with scissors, and you had to glue the stuff together,” Haley admits.

Criminal Activities opens t Nov.25 from OctoArts Films International.

Click here for the movie’s trailer: https://www.youtube.com/ watch?v=sf2aD9It3BM

John Travolta

Cory Quirino, chairman of CQ Global Quest, Inc., license holder of Miss World Philippines, has continued its partnership with the Tuloy Foundation and the Philippine General Hospital to give support to the plight of street children and provide affordable healthcare to the less fortunate Filipinos.

Early this year, reigning Miss World Rolene Strauss and Miss World Organization President Julia Morley inaugurated the new pediatric ward at PGH name Beauty with a Purpose, for terminally ill cancer patients, which aims to provide quality and affordable treatment to more people.

“Miss World is a beauty pageant like no other because it expects its candidates to transcend the traditional definition of beauty-namely, women who are empowered, committed and purposeful,” Quirino said.

– eton B. ConCepCion

S UNDAY : NOV EMBER 2 2 : 2015

C8

ISAH V. RED EDITOR isahred @ gmail.com

Pop princess Sarah Geronimo traces her musical journey From The Top on Dec 4 at the Smart Araneta Coliseum

SHOWBITZ

Sarah Geronimo baCk on the CirCuit ‘From the top’ ISAH V. RED The singer everyone calls Pop Princess is back on the concert stage.

She performs at 8 p.m. at the Smart Araneta Coliseum on Dec. 4.

This early, the producers of the concert are incredulous to know that the Dec. 4 show is already sold out.

“We had to think quick,” said one of them. “We met and decided to put on the calendar another night. We were so lucky that the venue was still available.”

So, there goes all Popsters, or fans of Sarah Geronimo! Another day has been added and those of you who missed getting a ticket for the Dec. 4 show, there are still tickets for Dec. 5.

Sarah is also dumbfounded to know how the tickets for the show

moved too fast. “It’s December, and we all know people are saving up for gifts or parties and other things related to Christmas. So, it really was a surprise when I learned that the first night was already sold out.”

Sarah who is now experiencing some kind of independence from the eagle-eyed guidance of her parents said, “I respect my parents and I will not give them problems. Yes, I can go out on a date (with boyfriend Matteo Guidicelli) but there is still a limit to what I, or we can do.”

She added that the feeling of having some kind of freedom is liberating but she won’t take advantage of it, and neither will she allow anyone to take advantage of her.

From The Top is Sarah’s eighth major concert, proof of her enduring popularity and continuing evolution as a total entertainer.

Sarah has come a long way from the 14-year-old singer with the birit voice who captivated the judges and the audience and won the Star

for a Night singing contest in 2002.

She has transformed from the Pop Princess to a certified pop icon. Sarah has won accolade after accolade as a singer, movie actress and stage performer.

From The Top is directed by Paolo Valenciano with Louie Ocampo as musical director.

For tickets call Ticketnet at 9115555 and VIVA Concerts at 6877236, 687-5853 local 656. Ticket Prices are VIP - P4770, Patron - P4770, Box Premium – P3710, Box Regular - P3180, Upper Box B - P1590 and General Admission - P 400.

HHHHH XB Gensan is international dance competition champion Hip hop group XB Gensan was hailed champion in the recently concluded Dance2Dance World Streetdance Showcase Competition 2015 held in Zurich, Switzerland on Nov 15.

XB Gensan

They finished ahead of the teams from Russia and USA, which landed on the 2nd and 3rd spot, respectively.

In a skype call with the It’s Showtime hosts, the group thanked everyone who supported and

showed love to them throughout their journey in the competition.

All from Gen. Santos City, XB Gensan first wowed the madlang people in winning the first-ever talent showdown of It’s Showtime ➜ continued on c7 in 2010.