edge davao 6 issue 143
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Edge Davao 6 Issue 143, October 3, 2013TRANSCRIPT
EDGE Serving a seamless society
DAVAO
By NEILWIN JOSEPH L. BRAVO
P 15.00 • 20 PAGESwww.edgedavao.net
Mindanao power situationhas 200-megawatt deficit
INSIDE:
24Power outages
extend to 7 hours
16LIKE FATHER LIKE SON
VOL. 6 ISSUE 143 • WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 2, 2013
AUTHORITIES have released the com-puterized sketch of
the third suspect in the bombing incident at SM City Davao Cinema 1 last September 16.
P/Supt. Antonio Rive-ra, chief of the Investiga-tion Detection and Man-
agement Branch (IDMB) of the Davao City police office , also a member of the Special Investigation Task Force Group for the twin bombings of Cinema 1 of SM City Davao and Cinema 5 of Gaisano Mall, describes the suspect with five feet and eight
inches , with fair complex-ion, medium build and aged 45 to 50.
Davao City police di-rector Ronald dela Rosa said the suspect is con-sidered a suspect based on information disclosed by cinema workers. He
BOMB SUSPECT NO. 3
IN a note she posted on her Facebook account and tagged to some
friends, former council-or Angela Librado-Trini-dad declared on Tuesday her bid for the barangay captain electoral post in Barangay Matina Cross-ing as the election frenzy for the October 28 polls starts to heat up.
L i b r a d o -Tr i n i d a d , who served as city coun-cilor for three terms be-ginning 2001 to 2010, ended speculations of her running for the top barangay post with her declaration.
She wrote: “I hope to beat the news about me and October 28, 2013. In most parts of Matina
Crossing, rumors about my having been drafted to represent Hugpong sa Tawong Lungsod, the local political party I have been associated with for nine years have already spread. And de-spite pressure upon me to “make my presence felt” in said barangay the
Police release sketch of bomber
A computer graphic image of the third suspect of the September 16 bombings in Davao City as released by the police yesterday.
THE THIRD BOMBER
By EMILORD P. CASTROMAYOR
FBOMB,10
FLIBRADO,10
Librado declares brgy bid
RARE EXPERIENCE. A capacity crowd made up of 80 guests was lucky to be the first to experience the maiden planetarium show at the full dome Digital Planetarium during the opening of SM Science Discov-ery Center at SM Lanang Premier yesterday. Lean Daval Jr.
VOL. 6 ISSUE 143• WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 2, 2013
ALL stakeholders of the Information C o m m u n i c a t i o n
Technology in the city have set their sights on the hold-ing of the Innovation Expo 2013 iEx 2013 on October 11 and 13 at the Seda Hotel and SM Annex, Matina, re-spectively.
Atty Sam Matunog, chair of the ICT-Davao and organizer of the event said the activity is both expo and conference that will bring local IT product de-velopers, vendors, innova-tors and business process outsourcing service pro-viders to highlight their capabilities in the local small, medium enterprise market.
He said the iEx 2013 will be highlighting Health-care and Education, two of the key champion sectors of ICT in the region.
Matunog said pioneer-ing activities will include information forum, infor-
mation auction and infor-mation robotics.
He explained the infor-mation forum will be held on October 11 at the Seda Hotel to showcase vari-ous innovations, business models and applications for effective management in healthcare and educa-tion sectors.
Matunog said the Ro-botics will be held at the SM Annex in Ecoland Ma-tina on October 13 and will showcase various cre-ations, innovations and the talent of students in Robot-ics.
“Basic seminar on ro-botics will be presented to the students and the public free,” he said.
Matunog also revealed that on the same day, ICT vendors will auction hard-ware and software items. Bidders will have to regis-ter at One Hundred Pesos only.[PIA 11/Joey Sem G. Dalumpines]
BARANGAY health workers in To-ril and Sta. Cruz
municipality recently completed their unique course, the first of its kind in the Philippines, to stan-dardize and eventually digitize their Health In-formation System (HIS) for their communities.
The three-day HIS training conducted by public health experts from the University of the Phil-ippines Los Baños (UPLB) led by public health ex-pert Dr. Renato Torres, was aimed at helping the health workers come up with standardized health metrics and data that are complete, accurate, time-ly, accessible and readily available to the end users.
With standardized data, local government, policy-makers and even the private sector will be able to set responsive programs that will accu-rately address the needs of the community.
“Before different ba-rangay will have a differ-ent diagnosis of patients. A simple cough can have separate terms and sepa-rate recommended treat-ments depending on the barangay and the health center. This training will allow us to see the real situation of our communi-ty and we will know what help we need to improve the health of our commu-nity,” Binugao, Toril ba-rangay captain Antonio S.
2 EDGEDAVAO
THE BIG NEWS
FBRGY.,10
THE National Power Corporation (Na-pocor) can pro-
vide an average of 1,200 megawatts of electricity for Mindanao, 200 mega-watts less than the is-land’s 1,300 megawatt demand, according to the Association of Mindanao Rural Electric Coopera-tives (Amreco)
Amreco general man-ager, Sergio Dagooc, in yesterday’s i-Speak forum at the Seda Abreeza Hotel, said that as of yesterday, Napocor has a capacity of 946 megawatts of elec-tricity for Mindanao, and
curtailment is zero.Dagooc said, “by 2015
to 2017, the power sup-ply of Mindanao will be excessive, as long as the power demand will be supplied up until the con-tracted generators run by then.”
He said that in Davao City, there are no consis-tent brownouts like what other provinces are expe-riencing because Davao Light and Power Compa-ny is a private distributor that can also generate its own power.
Amreco on the other hand is a non-stock and
non-profit organization that does mission work by lighting up the far-flung areas of provinces.
Amreco has 33 mem-bers in Mindanao, 6 of which supply the islands that are not part of the Mindanao mainland called Small Power Utility Group (SPUG), still under the Napocor.
Dagooc said, 80 per-cent of their members have Triple A standard, which means they are fi-nancially, technically, and institutionally stable.
He added that, ac-cording to Republic Act
9136m otherwise known as the Electric Power Industry Reform Act of. 2001 the power industry has 3 sectors, namely, the Generation sector, the Transmission sector and the Distribution sector. At present, it has added one more sector, called the Retail Electricity Sup-pliers (RES).
Napocor is part of the Generation sector, the National Electric Grid Corporation of the Philippines is part of the Transmission sector and Amreco is part of the Dis-tribution sector.
SCIENCE DISCOVERY CENTER. Debby Go (2nd from left), SM Supermalls assistant vice president for operation, Department of Tourism (DOT) assistant secretary Art Boncato (center) and Manuel Atacador (2nd from right), SM Family Entertainment Center, Inc. senior vice president, lead the ribbon-cutting rites to formally open SM
Science Discovery Center at SM Lanang Premier yesterday. With them are Arturo Carballo Jr. (leftmost), SM Science Discovery Center senior operations manager, and Davao City Tourism chief Lisette Marques. Lean Daval Jr.
PAMPERED. Posh Nails owner Cathy Binag interacts with members of local media who enjoyed off-work pampering courtesy of Posh Nails during an exclusive “SPARTY” at Abreeza Mall in Davao City yesterday. Lean Daval Jr.
PRESIDENT Benigno S. Aquino III has de-clared Oct 28 a spe-
cial (non-working) holiday throughout the country for the Barangay Elections, a Palace official said.
Deputy Presidential Spokesperson Abigail Valte told a Malacanang news briefing President Aquino noted it is important to give the people the fullest opportunity to participate in the elections and exer-cise their right to vote.
“Wala pa ang bill on postponement that’s why, it says “Synchronized Ba-rangay and Sangguniang
Kabataan Elections”....I would refer you to the spe-cial pay rules issued by the Dept. of Labor (and Em-ployment) on pay rules for special non-working holi-days,” Valte said.
The President earlier directed the law enforce-ment agencies and other concerned agencies to co-ordinate and cooperate with the Commission on Elections (Comelec) in en-suring free, orderly, hon-est, peaceful, and credible Synchronized Barangay and Sangguniang Kabata-an Elections on October 28.[PNA]
October 28 declared as special non-working day
ICT expo slated onOctober 11 and 13 Mindanao power situation
has 200-megawatt [email protected]
By EJ DOMINIC FERNANDEZ
Brgy. health workers complete health information training
VOL. 6 ISSUE 143• WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 2, 2013
THREE separate wa-ter service inter-ruptions in some
areas in the city have been scheduled by the Davao City Water District to give way to different service improvement projects.
For the first set, areas served by the entire Du-moy Water Supply System (WSS) will experience low water pressure for 10-hours from 8:00 PM of October 3 until 6:00 AM of October 4. Specific areas affected include the entire Talomo, Ulas, Bang-kal, Matina Aplaya, Mati-na Pangi, Matina Cross-ing, Matina, Diversion Rd., Ma-a, Langub, Bucana, Ecoland, Boulevard, Ban-kerohan, Downtown area,
Bo. Obrero, Bajada, Agd-ao, R. Castillo, Bacaca, Bu-hangin, Tigatto, Catitipan, Lanang, Pampanga and Sasa and some areas in Bago Aplaya, Puan, Pana-can and Cabantian served by Dumoy WSS. DCWD’s Engineering and Con-struction (EC) crew will interconnect the existing discharge line of Dumoy production wells no. 13 and 15 from Line 1 to Line 2 of Dumoy WSS in order to add more water supply to DCWD’s twin Panora-ma Reservoirs.
Second set is a six-hour water cut from 8:00 PM of October 4 until 2:00 AM of October 5 and will affect some portions of
3
FLOW,10
THE BIG NEWS
DAVAO City is in the talent devel-opment stage
when it comes to the ro-botics industry, accord-ing to information Com-munication Technology (ICT) Davao.
ICT Davao presi-dent, Samuel Matunog, in yesterday’s Kapehan sa Dabaw at SM An-nex, Ecoland said there 11 schools that will be showcasing their inno-vations in the robotic in-dustry in the Innovation Expo (IEX) 2013 which will be held on October 11 to 13 at the SEDA Ho-
tel and SM Annex Ecol-and, respectively.
He said they want to showcase inventions of the youth through the iRobot program of the iEX 2013 on October 13 to learn what should be done to support this in-dustry, and determine where Davao City stands in terms of robotics.
“So far, I haven’t heard of any entrepre-neur using robotics,” he said, adding, “I believe, robotics is very useful for business, especially in the Agriculture sec-tor.”
The iEX 2013 is ba-sically an expo and con-ference that will bring together local IT prod-uct developers, vendors, innovators, and busi-ness process outsourc-ing service providers to highlight their capabil-ities in the local small, medium entrepreneur-ship (SME) market.
Wit Holganza of the National ICT Confeder-ation of the Philippines (NICP) said, “we have learned that there are actually in-school com-petitions on robotics, where students create
robots that can do basic chores with their artifi-cial intelligence.
Another event that the iEX 2013 will have is the iAuction which will also be held the day af-ter iRobotics.
iAuction is an event that will feature vendors who will be auctioning hardware and software items that can cost as low as half its prices.
This is the first of its kind in Davao City where the proceeds will go to Summer Workshop for IT kids grades 6 to 12.
MINING SUMMIT. Mindanao Business Council chair Vicente T. Lao welcomes participants of the two-day 3rd Mindanao Mining Summit held at SM Lanang Premier’s SMX Convention Center yesterday. Lean Daval Jr.
APPROPRIATIONS. Speaker Feliciano Belmonte, Jr., Minority Leader Ronaldo Zamora and Appropriations Chairman Isidro T. Ungab do a thumbs-up sign with colleagues soon after the House of Representatives adjourned early Saturday morning following approval on second reading of the proposed P2.268-Trillion 2014 General Appropriations Act which,
among other salient provisions, promotes transparency and accountability, deleting the controversial lump-sum Priority Development Assistance Fund (PDAF). Instead, funds would be allocated to the various priority programs of government implementing agencies with adequate safeguards to ensure they directly benefit the people and promote inclusive growth.
A volunteer nurse in Maguindanao al-leged she was sexu-
ally abused by a Marine sol-dier on the night of Sept. 17, provincial health officer Dr. Tahir Sulaik yesterday said.
Sulaik said that “Bella” (not her real name) alleged in a report to him that she was molested by one Pfc. Clarito who was reportedly drunk at the time and forci-bly entered her room.
Clarito’s superiors have refused to give the full iden-tify of the soldier.
Bella, a 21-year old reg-istered nurse, is assigned in Barangay Lapaken in Datu Blah Sinsuat town.
Sulaik called the inci-dent an “unacceptable and grave attack to noble volun-teerism work.”
Bella in her report said
she was awakened upon sensing that somebody was lying beside her and was molesting her.
She said she then screamed for help to the other medical workers who were staying in the same bunkhouse. Her colleagues drove out Clarito from the place.
Three hours after, around 2am on September 18, Clarito came back bring-ing with him a firearm, Bel-la’s report added.
+But it was not clear in the complaint report +what happened after the soldier returned.
Sulaik condemned the reported attack on Bella saying the nurse offered to serve poor communi-ties where her services
THE United States lurched into a dread-ed government shut-
down Tuesday, October 1, for the first time in 17 years, after Congress failed to end a bitter budget row after hours of dizzying brink-manship.
Ten minutes before midnight, the White House budget office issued an order for many govern-ment departments to start closing down, triggering 800,000 furloughs of fed-eral workers, and shutting tourists out of monuments like the Statue of Liberty, national parks and muse-ums.
Prospects for a swift resolution of the mess were unclear, and economists say
the struggling US economic recovery could suffer if the shutdown drags on for a matter of weeks.
Only workers deemed essential will be at their desks from Tuesday on-wards, leaving government departments like the White House with skeletal staff.
Vital functions like mail delivery and air traffic con-trol will continue as normal, however.
On a day of dysfunction and ugly rhetoric in the di-vided US political system, Republicans had repeatedly tied new government fund-ing to attempts to defund, delay or dismantle Presi-dent Barack Obama’s signa-ture health care law.
By EJ DOMINIC FERNANDEZ
Robotics in Davao still in development stage
Low pressure, water cutsin many city parts Oct. 3-5
Volunteer nurse accusessoldier of sexual abuse
With no budget, US gov’t shuts down
FWITH,10
FVOLUNTEER,10
VOL. 6 ISSUE 143• WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 2, 20134 EDGEDAVAO
SUBURBIA
DAVAO DEL NORTE
TAGUM CITY
COMPOSTELA VALLEY PROVINCE
GENERAL SANTOS CITY
THE Compostela Val-ley Province local government hosted
an “Araw Ng Parangal at Pasasalamat” on Septem-ber 30, 2013 at Sanitary Function Hall, Poblacion Nabunturan to recognize and honor the Retirees for the year and those loy-alty service awardees for being in the government service for 10, 15, 20, 25,
30, and 35 years. Gracing the occasion
were Civil Service Com-mission Regional Direc-tor Anabelle B. Rosell and CSC- ComVal Provincial Director Maria Nilda A. Rigodon.
Escorted by their re-spective families and De-partment Heads during the processional towards the awarding ceremo-
nies, the Retirees each received a Ring and a Plaque from the provin-cial government given through Vice Governor Manuel E. Zamora and Provincial Administrator Virgilia S. Allones. There was a gift-giving portion also where their col-leagues offered gifts for them. [GRACE ALMEDILA, IDS-COMVAL]
MINDANAO’S top local chief exec-utive urged the
Aquino administration to redirect the Priority Devel-opment Assistance Fund (PDAF) in bankrolling local peace-building efforts.
With PDAF under fire, Davao del Norte Governor Rodolfo del Rosario, Chair of the Confederation of all the Local Chief Executives in Mindanao (Confed), pro-posed the rechanneling of the fund to be used in fi-nancing local peace-related actions through the various Regional Peace and Order Councils (RPOCs) in the country.
Del Rosario, who is also the chair of the Regional Peace and Order Council (RPOC)-XI, also put forward the renaming of the PDAF into Peace and Develop-ment Assistance Fund.
In his keynote address during the recent summit
on security sector transfor-mation, the governor made it clear he does not favor abolishing the PDAF or pork barrel, saying it would be better for the fund to be channeled to propel local peace initiatives.
“It should be substan-tially targeted towards peace-rebuilding and peace-enhancing activities on the ground,” he said.
The official recom-mended the fund shall be coursed through the respective RPOCs for the councils to direct the mon-ey to the local government units for the proper imple-mentation of important peace-building programs and projects.
He further pushed the creation of Human Devel-opment Committee in all the RPOCs in the country to handle peace-related activities in the respective regions.
Del Rosario last year created the Human Devel-opment Committee of the RPOC-XI, along with the Se-curity Affairs Committee, to focus on improving ac-cess to improved health, better education and more income opportunities.
These significant inter-ventions, he said, are criti-cal to achieve lasting peace, particularly in the con-flict-affected or prone areas.
In the same forum, the governor also heralded Davao del Norte’s success in localizing the government’s peace process through its Convergence for Peace and Development program.
In partnership with the army and police, he said, the province blazed the trail in bringing together govern-ment resources to econom-ically depressed and politi-cally threatened areas every Friday of the week. [NOEL BAGUIO/DAVNOR PIO]
THE daily rotational brownouts in Gen-eral Santos City and
parts of South Cotabato and Sarangani provinces have stretched to seven hours on Tuesday due to a major power load cut im-posed by the National Grid Corp. of the Philippines (NGCP) after the toppling of its transmission tower in North Cotabato last Friday.
Rodolfo Ocat, Socoteco II general manager, said they were forced to in-crease the area’s rotation-al outages from 2.5 hours to seven hours daily after the NGCP reduced their load-to-maintain alloca-tion starting Monday to 60 megawatts (MW).
He said such allocation is almost half of the daily power demand of around 110 MW of its franchise area, which covers General Santos City, two municipal-ities of South Cotabato and the entire Sarangani Prov-ince.
Ocat said they initially set the new curtailment schedule to two days or until Wednesday, depend-
ing on the progress of the ongoing repairs on the NG-CP’s damaged transmission tower.
He said they have divid-ed the area into two feeder groups, with each getting 3.5 hours of curtailment in two sets daily.
Key areas of Region 12 have been experiencing long brownouts since Sat-urday following the blast-ing by unidentified men of the NGCP’s tower 141 in Kabacan, North Cotabato at around 7:40 p.m. last Fri-day.
Region 12 compris-es the provinces of South Cotabato, Sultan Kudarat, Sarangani, North Cotaba-to and the cities of General Santos, Koronadal, Tacu-rong, Kidapawan and Cota-bato.
On Monday, distribution utilities South Cotabato I Electric Cooperative (Soco-teco I) and Sultan Kudarat Electric Cooperative (Sukel-co) implemented rotational brownouts lasting five to six hours daily as a result of the incident.
Socoteco I serves Koro-
nadal City, Lutayan town in Sultan Kudarat and eight municipalities of South Co-tabato.
Sukelco’s franchise area covers 14 localities in Sultan Kudarat and Maguindanao provinces.
Ocat said the toppling of the transmission tower has caused congestion on the NGCP’s transmission line from Kibawe in Bukidnon to Kabacan and to its Simuay substation in Sultan Kuda-rat, Maguindanao.
“Being at the tail-end of the transmission loop, So-coteco II suffered very low load-to-maintain allocation,” he said in an advisory.
Ocat said the NGCP im-posed the power load cut to avoid tripping of the Mt. Apo Geothermal and the South-ern Philippines Power Cor-poration power plants.
Due to the congestion of the NGCP’s transmis-sion lines, Socoteco II was temporarily constrained to utilize its contracted power supplies from the Mapalad Power Corporation (MPC) and the Therma Marine Inc. (TMI), he said. [MindaNews]
ONE festival ends and another one will be-gin. The 11th edition
of Tagum City’s Kaimunan Festival offered a prelude to the great festivities of the city’s indigenous peoples by kicking off its week-long trade fair at the Freedom Park last September 30, 2013.
Mayor Allan L. Rellon and the city’s first Indige-nous Peoples Mandatory Representative Datu Rudy T. Onlos led in the trade fair’s opening ceremony along with some members of the 6th City Council, vis-
itors from Indonesia, gov-ernment employees and members of the IP commu-nity.
Stalls offering native and commercial delicacies and goods mushroomed in the Freedom Park for the trade fair leading up to the grand celebration of the Kaimunan Festival which will commence on October 6 and will conclude on Oc-tober 10.
This year’s festival is pegged on the theme “Sam-puru aw isa kaumay yang Pagdaraday nang Allag Pag-kumpas nang Dailaw-Dailaw
nang Tagallang na Magba-baya sang mga Tipanud adi Tagum,” literally translated to “11 years of God’s blessing, protection and guidance to the Tipanuds of Tagum.
During the five-day Kai-munan celebration, series of activities are lined up that includes a tipanud art work-shop, IP kids day, free civil registration for IPs and the grand celebration on Octo-ber 10, where the indigenous peoples will converge in the Tagum City Pavilion to cele-brate their rich heritage and culture. [Louie Lapat/CIO Tagum]
FRUITFUL DISCUSSIONS. Confed Chair Governor Rodolfo del Rosario discusses local peace initiatives with OPAPP Asst. Secre-tary Jennifer Oreta answers questions during the recent Summit on Security Sector Transformation, where he urged the Aquino administration to redirect the Priority Development Assistance Fund (PDAF) in bankrolling local peace-building efforts. [NOEL BAGUIO/DAVNOR PIO]
OPENING CEREMONY. Tagum City Mayor Allan L. Rellon, members of the 6th City Council of Tagum, visitors from Indonesia and members of the indigenous peoples community witness the ritual performed by Datu Suknaan prior to the opening ceremony of the trade fair of the Kaimunan Festival last September 30, 2013. Photo by [Leo Timogan / CIO Tagum]
Power outages extend to 7 hours
‘Araw ng Parangal’ showcases ComVal’s pride in public service
Govt asked to rechannelPDAF for peace efforts
Kaimunan trade fair previews grand IP fest
VOL. 6 ISSUE 143• WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 2, 2013
MI N D A N A O ’ S business sector expressed con-
fidence that Mindanao’s economy will bounce back following the resolution of the Zamboanga crisis, par-ticularly that situation in the city is now returning to normalcy.
Daniel Lim, president
of the Davao City Chamber of Commerce and Indus-try, Inc. (DCCCII) said that Mindanao would definite-ly overcome the negative effects of the Zamboanga siege.
“We will certainly sur-vive from this crisis. This may slow down our growth, but it will definitely not stop
Mindanao from growing,” he said while adding “the incident may have caused Mindanao to step back in terms of economic growth, but we will move forward again.”
He said that there is no guarantee that this incident will not happen again, but believed that development will prevail with more peo-ple favoring peace and eco-nomic stability, after seeing the effects of the crisis in Zamboanga.
DCCCII was the lead organizer of the recently concluded 22nd Mindanao Business Conference (Min-BizCon) held in August this year, which gathered the region’s business chambers and convened more than 800 key business players from across Mindanao.
“Business chambers should be vocal against and must not be cowed by acts of terrorism, Lim said while adding “chambers must be more upfront in condemn-ing these acts, and express full support to other cities whenever similar incidents happen.”
Efren Uy, president of
the Cagayan de Oro Cham-ber of Commerce and In-dustry (CDOCI) said “Min-danao’s economy will take a rebound from the crisis with members of the re-gion’s chambers working as one powerful force.”
“As long as members of the chambers and the pri-vate sector will seriously
commit for the continuous promotion of Mindanao and its investment attrac-tions, we will surmount this crisis,” he added.
DCCCII’s Lim also ap-plauded the Philippine gov-ernment for its successful handling of the Zamboanga incident and admired its deliberate intent to solve
the crisis with a lesser num-ber of casualties among ci-vilians.
“I commend the govern-ment in handling the crisis in the most humane man-ner that may have required them a longer time to solve, but ensured the safety of the most number of civil-ians,” he said.
5EDGEDAVAO
THE ECONOMY
MARKET VIABILITY. A group of Korean travel agency executives arrive in Davao City for a five-day field trip cum market viability study starting last Thursday, September 26. The aggressive campaign by local tourism officials to penetrate the rich Korean market
has shifted into high gear in a move that will involve the chief players of local tourism. The Department of Tourism (DOT) is working on a direct flight from Incheon to Davao under its Route Development Division of the DOT central office.
Mindanao biz sector still upbeat on economy amid Zambo crisis
VOL. 6 ISSUE 143• WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 2, 2013
MONTHLY AVERAGE EXCHANGE RATE (January 2012-April 2013)
Month 2013 2012 2011
Average 42.23 43.31December 41.01 43.64November 41.12 43.27October 41.45 43.45
September 41.75 43.02August 42.04 42.42
July 41.91 42.81June 42.78 43.37May 42.85 43.13April 42.70 43.24
March 42.86 43.52February 40.67 42.66 43.70January 40.73 43.62 44.17
Stat Watch7.1
1st Qtr 2013
7.8 1st Qtr 2013
USD 3,741 million
Feb 2013USD 4,708
million Feb 2013USD -967
million Feb 2013USD -640
millionDec 2012
P 4,964,560 million
Feb 2013
2.4 % Mar 2013P113,609
million Mar 2013
P 5,281 billion
Mar 2013
P 41.14 Apr 2013
6,847.5 Mar 2013
132.8 Apr 2013
2.6 Apr 2013
3.1 Apr 2013
418,108 Feb 2013
20.9% Jan 2013
7.1% Jan 2013
1. Gross National IncomeGrowth Rate(At Constant 2000 Prices)
2. Gross Domestic ProductGrowth Rate(At Constant 2000 Prices)
3. Exports 1/
4. Imports 1/
5. Trade Balance
6. Balance of Payments 2/
7. Broad Money Liabilities
8. Interest Rates 4/
9. National Government Revenues
10. National government outstanding debt
11. Peso per US $ 5/
12. Stocks Composite Index 6/
13. Consumer Price Index 2006=100
14. Headline Inflation Rate 2006=100
15. Core Inflation Rate 2006=100
16. Visitor Arrivals
17. Underemployment Rate 7/
18. Unemployment Rate 7/
Cebu Pacific Daily 5J961 / 5J962 5:45 Manila-Davao-Manila 6:15Zest Air Daily Z2390 / Z2390 5:45 Manila-Davao-Manila 6:25Cebu Pacific Daily 5J593 / 5J348 6:00 Cebu-Davao-Iloilo 6:30Philippine Airlines Daily PR809 / PR810 6:10 Manila-Davao-Manila 7:00Philippine Airlines Daily PR819 / PR820 7:50 Manila-Davao-Manila 8:50Cebu Pacific Daily 5J394 / 5J393 7:50 Zamboanga-Davao-Zamboanga 8:10Cebu Pacific Daily 5J599 / 5J594 8:00 Cebu-Davao-Cebu 8:30Cebu Pacific Daily 5J347 / 5J596 9:10 Iloilo-Davao-Cebu 9:40Cebu Pacific Mon/Tue/Thu/Fri/Sun 5J963 / 5J964 9:40 Manila-Davao-Manila 10:10Philippine Airlines Daily PR811 / PR812 11:30 Manila-Davao-Manila 12:20Cebu Pacific Daily 5J595 / 5J966 12:00 Cebu-Davao-Manila 12:30Cebu Pacific Thu 5J965 / 5J968 12:55 Manila-Davao-Manila 13:25
Cebu Pacific Tue/Wed//Sat 5J965 / 5J968 13:35 Manila-Davao-Manila 14:05Silk Air Mon/Sat MI588 / MI588 13:35 Davao-Singapore 18:55 Silk Air Wed/Sun MI566 / MI566 15:20 Davao-Singapore 18:55Silk Air Thurs MI551 / MI551 12:05 Davao-Singapore 15:45Cebu Pacific Mon/Tue/Wed/Fri 5J507 / 5J598 15:00 Cebu-Davao-Cebu 15:30Philippine Airlines August 15:55 Mani2Mani 16:50Zest Air Daily Z2524 / Z2525 16:05 Cebu-Davao-Cebu 16:45
as of May 2013
EDGEDAVAO6 THE ECONOMY
FOR DETAILS CONTACT:RICA F. BAELLOCorporate Communications HeadTel: +632-888-7650; email: [email protected]
MINDANAO POWER SUPPLY. Association of Mindanao Rural Elec-tric Cooperative (Amreco) general manager Sergio Dagooc (right) states that the power supply of Mindanao will be excessive by 2015 to 2017 as long as the power demand will be supplied up until the
contracted generators will run by then during yesterday’s I-talk at Seda Abreeza Hotel along J.P. Laurel Avenue, Davao City. With him is Amreco executive director Clint Django Pacana. Lean Daval Jr.
AT least P842 million worth of projects have been com-pleted across Mindanao
under a World Bank-funded pro-gram for agriculture since the project was launched six years ago, officials said.
In 2007, the Department of Agriculture (DA) launched the expanded Mindanao Rural De-velopment Program (MRDP), mostly funded by a loan facility from the World Bank with coun-terpart funds from the national and local governments.
Under MRDP’s Community Fund for Agricultural Develop-ment (CFAD), the government allotted at least P1.2 billion in livelihood assistance to farmers and peoples’ organizations, of which P842 million has been uti-lized so far, according to a state-
ment issued by the DA Region 12 office in Koronadal City.
Region 12, also called the Soccsksargen Region, led the disbursement of program funds at a rate of 93 percent and is also the region with the most number of completed subprojects among the six regions in Mindanao, said Amalia J. Datukan, DA-12 direc-tor.
Region 12 comprises the provinces of South Cotabato, North Cotabato, Sultan Kudarat and Sarangani and the cities of General Santos, Koronadal, Tacu-rong, Kidapawan and Cotabato.
Of the 770 subprojects in Region 12, 694 have been com-pleted worth P242.5 million, she said.
“Our accomplishment only speaks up how our MRDP per-
sonnel devoted their time and ef-forts in ensuring that our project beneficiaries do their part in dis-bursing the funds given to them,” Datukan said.
Next to Region 12, Caraga region posted a total of 527 com-pleted subprojects out of 686; Northern Mindanao with 516 out of 775; Davao Region with 398 out of 560; Zamboanga Pen-insula with 301 out of 506; and the Autonomous Region in Mus-lim Mindanao with 295 out of 483, according to the statement.
In terms of the CPAD bud-get, Northern Mindanao and Caraga have accessed P250 mil-lion each, P202.5 million for the Davao Region, P192.5 million for ARMM and P127.5 million for Zamboanga Peninsula, it added.
CFAD applies the de-
mand-driven approach where the farmer-beneficiaries plan, decide, procure, implement and manage their livelihood activi-ties, the statement said.
Lealyn Ramos, MRDP pro-gram director, said their respec-tive local government units en-dorsed the beneficiaries.
Currently, 549 subprojects worth P234.8 million are ongo-ing and 500 subprojects worth P168.7 million are up for im-plementation in the different parts of the island, the state-ment said.
The other components of MRDP include Investments for Governance Reforms and Pro-gram Administration, Rural Infrastructure and Natural Re-source Management. [Bong S. Sarmiento/MindaNews]
P842-M poured to Mindanao under WB-funded project
THE Philippine Deposit Insurance Corporation (PDIC), the receiver of the
closed Rural Bank of Sto. Tomas (Davao del Norte), reminded bor-rowers of the bank to continue to pay their loans and transact only with authorized PDIC represen-tatives.
In a statement, PDIC advised borrowers of the Rural Bank of Sto. Tomas to pay their loans and other obligations directly at any Philippine National Bank (PNB) Branch under account name, PDIC FAO BURL – RURAL BANK OF STO. TOMAS withReference Number 373-0949-00013 .
The Receiver cautioned bor-rowers that it has discontinued the engagement of the bank’s col-lectors. PDIC has not engaged any person to collect the loans of the bank.
To ensure proper recording of payments made by borrowers, it further advised borrowers to keep copies of the PNB Depos-it/Payment Slips. The Receiver emphasized that only payments with validated PNB Deposit/Pay-ment Slips shall be considered valid payments.
The Monetary Board (MB) placed the Rural Bank of Sto. To-mas under the receivership of the PDIC by virtue of MB Resolution No. 1469 dated September 13, 2013. As Receiver, PDIC took over
PDIC advises borrowers of closed Sto. Tomas bank to pay their loans
the bank on September 16, 2013. Upon takeover, all bank records are gathered, verified and vali-dated.
Rural Bank of Sto. Tomas is a three-unit bank with Head Office located along R. Magsaysay Ave., Sto. Tomas, Davao del Norte. Its
two branches are in Asuncion and Braulio Dujali, both in Davao del Norte. According to the latest Bank Information Sheet (BIS) as of June 30, 2013 filed by the Rural Bank of Sto. Tomas with the PDIC, the bank is majori-ty-owned by the Estate of Maria-
no S. Solis, Sr. (22.6%), Rosele R. Solis (17.9%), Oscar L. Lacuesta (7.8%), Ma. Lourdes S. Pineda (6.7%), Debin Uraya (4.1%), Abundio T. Merced (3.9%) and Marsman Estate Plantation (3.8%). Its President and Chair-man is Rosele R. Solis. [PNA]
VOL. 6 ISSUE 143• WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 2, 2013 7EDGEDAVAO
ENVIRONMENT
A Barangay Forest will soon be estab-lished in Tarragona
following the recent sign-ing of a Memorandum of Agreement (MOA) where 5 upland barangays will establish their nurseries and produce a total num-ber of 50,000 seedlings of native species which will then be planted in the area months from now.
Being the signatory of the MOA, Tarragona May-or Nestor L. Uy is positive that the BFP in his mu-nicipality will succeed. “BFP is a good program to address our problem on climate change. As the barangays work for the achievement of this, they also know that they con-tribute to the healing of Mother Earth,” Uy added.
The BFP is being im-plemented by the DENR and the Department of Interior and Local Gov-ernment (DILG) in order to produce and plant tree seedlings in every baran-gay of the municipalities
in the country. This is in connection with the im-plementation of Repub-lic Act 10176 or “an Act Reviving The Observance of Arbor Day By Autho-
rizing The Local Govern-ment Units The Respon-sibilities For Celebrating the Day For Tree Planting As An Annual Event” and Executive Order No. 26
or the National Greening Program.
Priority baran-gays for the BFP are those on the upland ar-
eas, barangays within the 609 focused munici-palities identified by the National Anti-Poverty Commission (NAPC), ba-rangays within priority
critical watershed areas with approved water-shed management plan and barangays affected by the recent calamities [DENR 11 PR]
Barangay forest established in Tarragona
BARANGAY FOREST. Tarragona Municipal Mayor Nestor l. Uy signs the MOA with the DENR for Barangay Forest Program implementation in Tarragona, Davao Oriental.
THE Department of Environment and Natural Resourc-
es (DENR) 11 is calling on all chainsaw owners and dealers to register their chainsaws or face sanctions for violation of Republic Act 9175 or the Chainsaw Act of 2002.
DENR regional ex-ecutive director Joselin Marcus E. Fragada gave this warning after the recent confiscation of a chainsaw when some mini-sawmills were dis-
mantled in Kapalong, Davao del Norte. “Warnings about illegal possession of Chain-saws have already been made several times in the past, but some may take it lightly not know-ing the seriousness of the violation”, he added.
“We, together with our partners specifical-ly the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP), Philippine National Po-lice, Local Government Units (LGUS) are close-ly monitoring forest
activities in the region and very resolute on stopping illegal logging. So any act that might be link to forest destruc-tion will not be allowed, including the illegal ownership of chain-saw”, Fragada stressed.
The Chainsaw Act declares that “the State shall pursue an ag-gressive forest protec-tion program geared towards eliminating illegal logging and oth-er forms of forest de-struction which are be-
ing facilitated with the use of chainsaws. The State shall regulate the ownership, possession, sale, transfer, impor-tation, and/or use of chainsaws to prevent them from being used in illegal logging or un-authorized clearing of forests.
Chainsaw registra-tion should be made at the nearest Community Environment and Nat-ural Resources Offices (CENROs) in your local-ity [DENR 11/PR].
DENR urges registration of chainsaws
Several best Southeast Asian practices and les-sons learned on manag-ing protected areas (PAs) will be presented during the Fourth ASEAN Her-itage Parks (AHP) Con-ference this week in the Philippines’ Tagaytay City to further help address is-sues plaguing these sites across the region.
ASEAN Center for Bio-diversity (ACB) communi-cations and public affairs chief Rolando Inciong noted that information about such best practices and lessons learned must be disseminated as South-
east Asia is reeling from environmental woes.
”Southeast Asia hosts some 18 percent of all known flora and fauna species – this region is considered the world’s biodiversity superpower but environmental de-struction here continues,” he said.
A 1992 review of PAs also cited management deficiency as “one of the most common threats” to such areas, ACB noted.
ACB likewise said ex-perts at the 1992 World Parks Congress identified effective management
as one of the four major PA-related issues of glob-al concern.
Among best practices and management lessons scheduled for presenta-tion during the confer-ence are those from the Philippines’ Mt. Kitanglad Range Natural Park – an AHP - and world-famous diving site Tubbataha Na-tional Marine Park.
ACB will spearhead the Oct. 1-4 conference that will be anchored on the theme ‘Integrating global challenges for sus-tainable development and effective management of
AHPs.’Through the confer-
ence, ASEAN countries aim further boosting collaboration on devel-oping strategies for bet-ter managing PAs and AHPs.
Aside from protect-ing the environment, such bid targets helping alleviate poverty.
Climate change, bio-diversity values, bene-fit-sharing as well as in-volvement of indigenous and local communities are among challenges to managing PAs and AHPs. [PNA]
Asean conference seeks boosting management of protected areas
PALAWAN, touted as the Philippines’ final ecological frontier,
may lose its status as a UN-ESCO Man and Biosphere Reserve if the proposed construction of a coal-fired power plant pushes through in the province.
The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNE-SCO) declared Palawan as a Man and Biosphere Reserve in 1990, classifying the prov-ince as a “site of excellence where new and optimal practices to manage nature and human activities are tested and demonstrated.”
The UN body is current-ly reassessing Palawan’s special status. However, the plan to put up a coal plant threatens the viability of the title.
“The question is not whether Palawan should de-velop. The question is how it should develop. Business as usual will no longer cut it. We need to mainstream next practices. Fifty year old formulas, such as fossil fuel dependence, will fall by the wayside,” says Jose Ma. Lorenzo Tan, Vice-chair and CEO of the World Wide Fund for Nature Philippines (WWF-Philippines).
“If we do not want to find ourselves latching on to old-school technology, we need to break away from central-ized grid-dependence, and balance our energy mix. The key is to seize our pow-
er, and spread the risk,” he adds.
The current proposed coal-fired power plant in the province is facing stiff, on-the-ground opposition from local communities, such as members of civil society and the academe.
On Monday, 30 Septem-ber, Western Philippines University students orga-nized a march to protest the proposed coal plant in the municipality of Abor-lan in Palawan. Doctor Lita Sopsop, Dean of the College of Arts and Sciences of the Western Philippines Univer-sity, estimated the number of people who participated at 1,500, composed of mem-bers from the academe, civil society and locals in Abor-lan.
Dr. Sopsop, who took up a doctorate in Environmen-tal Science at UP Los Banos, said that the WPU’s man-date is clean energy, with the WPU declared as an Af-filiated Non-Conventional Energy Center (ANEC) of the Department of Energy in Palawan.
“We oppose the coal plant because of the negative impacts to health and the en-vironment, particularly to lo-cally declared fish sanctuar-ies in the area. Hanapbuhay ng mga tao dun ang fishing. The discharge of waste water from the coal plant will cause thermal pollution that is haz-ardous to the marine ecosys-tem, especially coral reefs.”
Palawan risks losing UNESCO status due to planned coal plant
VOL. 6 ISSUE 143• WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 2, 20138 EDGEDAVAO
VANTAGE
OLIVIA D. VELASCOGeneral Manager
Columnists: MA. TERESA L. UNGSON • EDCER C. ESCUDERO • AURELIO A. PEÑA • ZHAUN ORTEGA • BERNADETTE “ADDIE” B. BORBON • MARY ANN “ADI” C. QUISIDO • LEANDRO B. DAVAL SR., • NIKKI GOTIANSE-TAN • NICASIO ANGELO AGUSTIN • EMILY ZEN CHUA • CARLOS MUNDA Economic Analyst: ENRICO “GICO” G. DAYANGIRANG • JONALLIER M. PEREZ
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EDGEDAVAOProviding solutions to a seamless global village.
ANTONIO M. AJEROEditor in Chief
OLIVIA D. VELASCOGeneral Manager
Columnists: CARLOS MUNDA • MA. TERESA L. UNGSON • EDCER C. ESCUDERO • AURELIO A. PEÑA • MARY ANN “ADI” C. QUISIDO • LEANDRO B. DAVAL SR., • NICASIO ANGELO AGUSTIN • VIDA MIA VALVERDE • Economic Analysts: ENRICO “GICO” G. DAYANGIRANG • JONALLIER M. PEREZ • Lifestyle Columnists: BAI FAUZIAH FATIMA SINSUAT AMBOLODTO • MEGHANN STA. INES • NIKKI GOTIANSE-TAN
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NEILWIN JOSEPH L. BRAVOManaging Editor
GREGORIO G. DELIGEROAssociate Editor
RAMON M. MAXEYConsultant
RICHARD C. EBONAMarketing Supervisor
SOLANI D. MARATASFinance
AQUILES Z. ZONIOCorrespondent
EJ DOMINIC C. FERNANDEZ / EMILORD P. CASTROMAYORReporters
JOCELYN S. PANESDirector of Sales
KRISTINE D. BORJAMarketing Specialist
AGUSTIN V. MIAGAN JRCirculation
EDITORIAL
THERE is so much national debate now on the release by the Department of Budget and Man-agement of more than P1 billion to some 20
senators after the trial and conviction of Supreme Court Chief Justice Renato Corona. Many Filipinos believe that the financial bonanza was a form of bribe or incentive to the senators, as first hinted in a speech of Senator Jinggoy Estrada, himself belea-guered for being charged with plunder in connec-tion with the P10-billion pork barrel scam allegedly masterminded by Janet Lim Napoles.
Malacanang has denied that the money at an aver-age of P50 million per senator was a bribe or incen-tive. Budget Secretary Florencio Abad declared that the released amount was part of the Disbursement Acceleration Program (DAP), a term which a number of recipient lawmakers said they heard for the first time.
There are now reports that some members of the House, not just senators, also received fund releas-
es of P10 million each months after the Corona trial. There is even an allegation from former senator Jok-er Arroyo that some congressmen and women were given funds during, not after, the Corona trial.
Palace defenders insist that the DAP has legal ba-sis.
Whatever, we believe there is still need to inves-tigate how these funds were spent. We agree 100 percent with the proposal of Senator Miriam Defen-sor-Santiago for the Commission on Audit (COA) to conduct a special audit of DAP similar to the special audit that it is conducting into the spending of other public funds.
While we are at it, we laud the consistency shown by former senator Panfilo Lacson who is known to have never availed himself of the P200 million Pri-ority Development Assistance Fund (PDAF) or pork barrel given annually to each senator. Although he voted for the conviction of CJ Renato Corona, he dis-tanced himself from the DAP.
PDAF, DAP, whatever?
VOL. 6 ISSUE 143• WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 2, 2013
PEOPLE Power, Consent–of-the-governed Essential to such government is people power
and its dynamic role in upholding the principle of consent-of-the-governed, to support what is right, to reject or dissent otherwise. And citizens are duty-bound to contribute to the give-and-take of ideas and acts necessary for the governing process.
Doing so applies especially at the primal base of the republic—the barangay—where all the people are and where direct democracy operates. As members of the Barangay Assembly, the community’s legislative governing body and its highest authority, everyone is expected to participate in local governance—just as citizens do in Swiss villages and in Israel or in Athens.
Only in the barangay is it possible to convene an entire community to take up issues that concern them. From municipal to upper levels, it would be unwieldy to convene the entire constituency, which is why they are governed by what is called representative democracy—in which mainly officials (proxies of the people) speak or act on their behalf, although the people may also participate if they so desire.
Let No One Equate Elections with Democracy
Active people power or the exercise of citizen sovereignty is important to ensure consent-of-the-governed to acts of government especially during periods between elections. It is needed in times like today—when the public trust has been violated so grossly, and at the highest level at that!
In the wake of the general outrage provoked by the pork barrel revelations, restoring trust and confidence won’t be easy. No less than a revolution in our attitudes may be called for. Let’s explore this next. [MindaViews is the opinion section of MindaNews. Manny Valdehuesa writes from Cagayan de Oro and is the president and national convenor of Gising Barangay Movement Inc. He can be reached at [email protected]]
(Conclusion)
VANTAGE POINTS 9EDGEDAVAO
AQUILES Z. ZONIOCorrespondent
BY MANNY VALDEHUESAWORM’S EYEVIEW
Why banana growers are planting cacao
How trapos corrupt our political system
BANANA growers and farmers in recent years, had been pummeled left and right by various destruc-
tive forces in the Philippines--- low buy-ing prices, plant diseases, bank debts, strong winds, floods, pole-vaulting, Chi-na ban, typhoon, etc-- it’s a miracle that this multi-million export industry is still standing and growing strong.
The Filipino natural instinct to sur-vive, however, are forcing more and more banana farmers and growers to “hedge” their business of banana farming and production with other lucrative crops like cacao, coffee or even oil palms.
Of course, the idea is not to replace their more profitable bananas, but to hedge against the possibility of losing income from this fruit due to unforeseen events like what Davao banana farmers suffered from in recent years.
This hedging move by growers and farmers seems to be more logical than the idea of “supplementing” their income with the new set of crops they’re intro-ducing to their farms.
“Our farmers can no longer depend totally on bananas alone to survive amidst all the problems they’ve suffered from the past, like bank debts, typhoon, diseases, floods, China ban---- they’re forced to look for new alternative crops they can count on when they lost their bananas,” says Rene Dalayon, president of Cacao Industry Development Associa-tion of Mindanao, Inc. which is support-ed by funds from the US Department of Agriculture and the US Assistance for International Development.
Dalayon, who also heads the Federa-tion of Banana Cooperatives or FEDCO, like many other banana growers, is still shipping export-quality Cavendish ba-nanas to his loyal buyers in Japan, which is the traditional market for Philippine fresh bananas for the more than 50 years.
The weekly banana shipments from his FEDCO-run farmers’ cooperatives in Davao del Norte province are still
going strong despite the recent China ban, threat from Panama wilt disease, t y p h o o n , floods, etc that almost wiped out all the banana plantations in Composte la Valley and Davao Oriental. Only about one fourth of the Davao del Norte prov-ince were badly hit by the typhoon and floods that followed.
Banana farms covering about 40% of the entire banana industry’s 70,000 hectares were destroyed at the height of “Typhoon Pablo”, the strongest and most destructive typhoon ever to hit Mindan-ao island in the Philippine South, known to be free from typhoons for so many decades.
‹»This 40 percent is finally recover-ing now, plantations are back standing and bearing fruit and waiting to be har-vested and shipped to banana markets overseas,” says Stephen Antig, chair-man of the Pilipino Banana Exporters and Growers Association or PBGEA, the group that represents big exporters like Dole-Stanfilco, Del Monte, Sumitomo, Unifrutti-Chiquita, etc.
Antig said their problems in the in-dustry are not over yet---they’re still faced today by the import ban for Phil-ippine bananas in China and the threat of Panama wilt disease, which are all being tackled by each company in the banana industry with some help from the Philippine government.
“That’s still a big threat to us, but we’re handling it well. We’re putting up strict quarantines at our farms to pre-vent this disease from spreading, you know, like a foot bath at packing plants, as well as lab tests for all planting ma-terials used by our growers,” Antig told
business reporters in Davao.But the bad news is --- Philippine
banana export is down 13% in 2012 compared to the previous year. This year, the figure as of June 2013 shows China banana imports down 43% due to the ban in the Mainland while Iran banana import from the Philippines also sank 36%.
“It’s really bad for us because Iran was supposed to be a buffer for the China ban on our bananas. We turned on Iran when China rejected all our ba-nanas. But the growing tensions in the Middle East took a toll on our banana exports to that country,” Antig said.
All these problems, according to An-tig, are helping boost higher FOB pric-es for bananas bought by buyers from Philippine banana exporters and even farmers’ coops supplying the fruit di-rectly to foreign buyers. “ This is a very good sign for the industry today. Ba-nana farmers will be benefited by this,” Antig said.
From an average of $2.50 per carton box of bananas, the FOB price in Davao port had surged lately from $5.80 to $6.80 per carton box. (FOB means “free on board” the term used by exporters to mean the cost per box covering the fruit cost, trucking cost to port, the wharfage fees, customs, port costs, etc before loading the boxes into the ship.)
One good news for the industry, ac-cording to Antig, was the recent trial shipment of one container van of fresh Cavendish bananas to California, USA. This is the first ever commercial ship-ment of Philippine bananas to America whose target are the Pinoys living on the US west coast, according to Antig.
“Although this is still a trial ship-ment, we expect more banana ship-ments to the US in months to come. We’re also looking at Mongolia, Russia, Kurdistan, Turkey, as possible markets,” the PBGEA head said.
(Comments ? Email > [email protected])
EXPLORING I N V E S T-M E N T
PROSPECTS – At present we have seen a lot of interest from foreign capital-ists in the city’s diverse busi-nesses. Letting in global busi-ness players will be a wonderful thing for Davao City’s business environment because they pro-vide fairer competition and better service. The news generated around that doing business in the city is steadfast have been exactly what the city officials were hoping for.
Such expressions of confidence are more than just a welcome in the city these days. All this may explain why many investors, espe-cially those that were already here, are more interested in diversification. Nevertheless, it is an important step towards rapid econom-ic growth and development. There are lots of opportunities for other industries in Davao City that prospective investors should be ex-cited about. The city’s flourishing investment climate prompted both domestic and foreign investors to explore more trade opportunities.
The present investment trend is increasing the city’s exposure for many companies based either in Manila or abroad who are looking to diversify into the local market. Many dauntless capitalists are very bullish on the investment prospects in the city and region because they can choose from a wide range of businesses.
For the determined investors, trade is very encouraging and the city is good value. They have shown a lot of interest in tourism, food industry, furniture making aside from pro-cessing of homegrown fruit produce. Likewise they are interested in fast-growing sectors. Business process outsourcing (BPO) and in-formation technology (IT) are two sectors that investment managers understand.
We will see more and more local and for-eign investors coming to the city in the months and years ahead. Aside from being a big mar-ket, the city government aggressively contin-ued its effort in offering strong business po-tential in the domestic and global market. The pace of establishing new businesses improved rapidly during the second and third quarter of last year and the long-term business outlook for the city and the entire Davao Region is su-perb.
On the other hand, the city’s far larger domestic sectors – construction, retailing, ag-riculture, among others have likewise thrived. With the completion of additional modern shopping malls, world-class hotels, commer-cial buildings and high-end condominium units, analysts predict occupancy rates of 75 to 80% - higher than in the previous years. But other market forecasters are pessimistic still, for one; they observed that there has been over-investment in the property market.
Despite spikes of negative observation, self-assured investors seem unwilling to change course on these. Trade opportunities can be attractive for any industrialist where growth and profits exist and the city’s compet-itive positioning is improving at accelerating pace. This prodded city officials and captains of trade and industry to report with confidence that increased investments will ultimately lead to higher employment rate.
If there is business here, if there are con-tracts to be done and trade opportunities to get excited about, investors will keep on com-ing. City officials still expect big domestic and foreign companies with new investment port-folio to rush to the city with subcontracting deals and other spending. They are predicting that the latecomers will need to do everything to catch up with the prompt stakeholders. Even the normally upbeat local officials admit that the prediction about foreign and domestic investors storming the city was on the mark.
The city is an extremely robust, vibrant and educated metropolis and there are lots of trade opportunities to explore. And most im-portantly the basic institutions are righty in place. Being an entrepreneur based in the city may be the most comforting and reassuring jobs in business today. The influx of investors in the days ahead would accelerate growth and drive an economic boom. It is one glaring indi-cation that Davao City has much more to offer and is more important to the potential inves-tors than the other bustling cities in this part of the country.
Terms of confidence
VOL. 6 ISSUE 143• WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 2, 201310 EDGEDAVAONEWS
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kept coming back to Cin-ema 1 before the incident happened wanting to know if there were many moviegoers inside, a cine-ma worker told the police.
Dela Rosa added that before the last full show this third person of inter-est came back and again asked if there were many people inside the cinema.
“If ever he is still in Davao we can apprehend him,” he added.
P/Supt Julius Silagan, commander of the Talo-mo police station, said the computerized sketch was
based on the description of witnesses who said the suspect was wearing a white shirt with long sleeves, black slacks, dark gray bonnet, sported a white mustache and wore reading glasses.
This new suspect‘s im-age was captured only by the SM City Davao CCTV camera.
As of the moment there are still no updates on the two persons of in-terest, although the police have already identified the second person of in-terest.
“We know his name, address and his affilia-tion,” Dela Rosa said, add-ing “we cannot yet dis-close information about him because our investig-arion is ongoing.”
Although there is as yet no confirmation that he is a member of a ter-rorist group, he is “affili-ated by virtue of his activ-ities,” Dela Rosa clarified, adding that the second person of interest may be engaged in making bombs while the two other sus-pects are mere planters or carriers of bombs.
ASSISTANCE. Residents of Barangay Daliaon Plantation in Toril receive food and clothing assistance from Davao City Vice Mayor Paolo Z. Duterte as part of his Pulong-pulong ni Pulong program Monday afternoon. Lean Daval Jr.
soonest and after weeks of neither confirming nor denying these rumors, I finally stood before and sat down with some of my friends and people I had the opportunity to work with and for during my stint at the City Coun-cil in Matina Crossing to confirm what they had heard about my bid.”
L i b r a d o -Tr i n i d a d , daughter of the late labor leader Nonoy Librado and former city council-or Marlene Librado, also quashed rumors about the concerns spread by some camps of her lim-itations.
“Perhaps it is the best time to assert that these
are none of the disqual-ification against wom-en which at this earliest time must be discour-aged and criticized,” the lady lawyer said.
She stressed that her family’s “advocacy for non-traditional and gen-uinely pro-people poli-tics knows no boundar-ies, neither is it selective nor discriminating.”
Librado-Trinidad has since shied away from politics after bowing out of office in 2010. She also prudently stayed away from the office of her younger sister Leah Librado-Yap who won a council seat after the ex-piration of her term.
L i b r a d o -T r i n i d a d appealed to her fellow barangay candidates to engage in real issues that matter to the people of Matina Crossing the most. She cited among others, women’s rights, women empowerment, employment and eco-nomic security for all, poverty alleviation, lack of social services, disas-ter preparedness and other social concerns.
“As my track record in my 9 years in the City Council would attest, I shall not only discuss these issues, I shall also engage government it-self to address them,” she said.
Saniel said. Aside from health
volunteers from Binu-gao, there were also vol-unteers from Sirawan, as well as barangays Darong and Inawayan in Sta. Cruz who joined the training.
Organized and spon-sored by AboitizPower and its subsidiary Ther-ma South Inc., the first phase of the program was the training last April 23 to 25 at Felis
Resort Complex, which followed the baseline health data conducted by experts in 2012.
More recently, the barangay health work-ers received medical equipment donation from AboitizPower, like sphygmomanometers, digital thermometer, measuring tape weigh-ing scale for adults and infants among others.
Their health centers also received equip-
ment that will help the barangay health work-ers improve their re-cords-keeping and basic health diagnosis.
The next phase of the program is the Baran-gay Management Infor-mation System, where attendees from the dif-ferent barangays will go to UP Los Banos to train on health data manage-ment. Expenses for the training will be shoul-dered by AboitizPower.
Agdao. Areas without wa-ter are Tancontian, Sitio Bagong Buhay, New Sal-monan Village, Maglana Settlers, Ruiz Village, De-nia Village, Ibula Village, Sto. Niño Kasadya Village, Belisario Village (Agdao) and NHA Agdao. Areas that will experience no water are San Francisco Village, San Miguel Vil-lage, South San Juan, Min-trade, Nagsil, Sta. Lucia Village, Sto. Niño Pelayo Village, Fatima Village, Ubalde, Davao Farms Subd., Southbay, Bay Side Village and Olingan Village. This water cut is needed to allow the Operation and Mainte-nance crew of DCWD to tap the 150mm diameter Unplasticized Polyvinyl Chloride (uPVC) main pipeline to the existing 150mm uPVC main pipe-line over the newly laid concrete culvert at R. Castillo St. in Agdao for preventive maintenance
purposes.Third set will be on
October 5 from 10:00 AM to 5:00 PM and will affect some areas in Caban-tian specifically from the corner of Forestal Road going to Achievers Homeowners Associa-tion, Achievers Home-owners Association and Ramonena Subdivision. The EC crew will tap the newly installed 100mm diameter Polyvinyl Chlo-ride (PVC) pipeline to the existing 100mm PVC pipeline for the main-line improvement at the Achievers Homeowners Association. Once this Php374,000 project is completed, 50 new ser-vice connections can be accommodated.
In behalf of the man-agement, DCWD acting general manager Edwin V. Regalado is asking for the understanding and cooperation of would-be affected customers. He
likewise advises them to store enough water pri-or to the scheduled wa-ter interruption as water supply may be restored earlier if work goes smoothly or later if un-foreseen problems arise.
The general public may visit DCWD website (www.davao-water.gov.ph), official Facebook account (www.facebook.com/davaocitywaterdis-trict) or call the DCWD trunk line at 221-9400 and press “1” on their phone dial to listen to latest daily water up-dates or call directly its Central Information Unit / complaints cen-ter through the 24-hour hotline 221-9412 or call/text 0927-7988966, 0925-5113293 and 0908-4410653 for oth-er updates, complaints, queries and other mat-ters pertaining to DCWD services. [Jovana T. Du-haylungsod]
But each time their ef-fort was killed by Obama’s allies in the Democratic-led Senate, leaving the gov-ernment in limbo when its money ran out at the end of the fiscal year at midnight Monday.
“This is an unnecessary blow to America,” a som-ber Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid said on the Sen-ate floor two minutes after the witching hour.
Obama, heralding the first government shut-down since 1996, told US troops in a video that they deserved better from Con-gress, and promised to work to get the government reopened soon.
The president’s team sent out a tweet from his of-ficial account soon after the shutdown went into effect reading “they actually did it, a group of Republicans in the House just forced a gov-ernment shutdown over
Obamacare instead of pass-ing a real budget.”
Sylvia Mathews Bur-well, Obama’s budget di-rector urged Congress to swiftly pass bridge financ-ing that would allow the government to open again.
“Agencies should now execute plans for an order-ly shutdown due to the ab-sence of appropriations,” she said in a memo.
Obama had earlier ac-cused Republicans of hold-ing America to ransom with their “extreme” political de-mands, while his opponents struck back at his party’s supposed arrogance.
House Speaker John Boehner rebuked Obama in a fiery floor speech after an unproductive call with the president.
“I didn’t come here to shut down the govern-ment,” Boehner said. “The American people don’t want a shutdown, and nei-
ther do I.”Blame gameRepublicans accuse
Obama of refusing to ne-gotiate in good faith, but the White House says Obamacare is settled law and says there is no way to stop it from going into force, with a goal of providing af-fordable health care to all Americans.
The crisis is rooted in the long running campaign by “Tea Party” Republicans in the House to overturn or disable Obamacare – the president’s principal do-mestic political achievement – key portions of which also come into force on Tuesday.
More broadly, the shut-down is the most serious crisis yet in a series of roll-ing ideological skirmishes between Democrat Obama and House Republicans over the size of the US govern-ment and its role in national life.[AFP]
are most needed without thinking of her security and the meager pay.
As a volunteer nurse, Bella only receives an P8,000 honorarium.
“It is so painful to real-ize another health worker will suffer this way,” he said over the phone.
The health official said Bella’s mother recently passed away, and the inci-dent added to her grief.
“The victim is deter-mined to push the case and we will be with her in this battle”, Sulaik added.
The provincial health office has sent its com-plaint to the national headquarters of the Phil-ippine Marines.
Brig. Gen. Alexander Balutan, the command-ing officer of 1st Marine Brigade based in Lebak, Sultan Kudarat said they
received the report on Monday, September 30.
“We have to see yet the formal complaint, but what we have learned is that our bachelor soldier is a suitor of the nurse. I think there is a misinter-pretation here. What we knew [is that] the two are communicating, so I think molestation is an over-statement at the moment until we can ferret out the truth after the conduct of investigation,” Balutan said.
He assured he will not tolerate abuses by his men.Balutan, however, said he was disappointed that the issue has reached the me-dia and to their national headquarters even before he was informed as the sol-dier’s immediate superior. [Ferdinandh Cabrera/Min-daNews]
VOL. 6 ISSUE 143• WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 2, 2013 11EDGEDAVAO
NATIONMANILA
MANILA MANILA
MANILA
FIXING POTHOLES. A DPWH worker fixes potholes along P. Burgos Street at the sprawling Luneta Park Tuesday for eventual smoother vehicular traffic flow in the capital. [PNA photo by Avito C.Dalan]
Senate President Franklin M. Drilon described Tues-
day the plunder case filed anew against him by former Iloilo Rep. Augusto Syjuco Jr. as a pathetic and desperate move to malign him.
”This is part of the demolition job against me. That Syjuco will not stop from filing nuisance cases against me until he fulfills his obligation to his boss-es financing him to implicate my name in corruption and malfea-sance,” said Drilon.
”They will continue to bombard the Om-budsman with unfound-ed cases against me. It is obvious that his objective in doing all these is to distract the attention of the public from the real issue,” he added.
He said Syjuco has been doing media rounds to dishonor him before the public.
“At the proper time, I will hold him responsi-ble for these malicious and baseless cases,” he said.
Drilon stressed that he had nothing to do with the land as men-tioned in the graft com-plaint of Syjuco.
”It was the Iloilo City government which purchased that land. I had no participation whatsoever in the pur-chase of that land,” said Drilon.
Last week, Syjuco filed a graft case against Drilon in connection with the construction of the Iloilo Hall of Jus-tice which happened 22 years ago when Drilon was the secretary of the Dept. of Justice.[PNA]
Drilon describes Syjuco’s complaint as ‘demolition job’
TO finally put to rest the issue of Disbursement Acceleration Program
(DAP), Leyte Rep. Martin Romualdez and ABAKADA party list Rep. Jonathan dela Cruz on Tuesday filed a res-olution seeking for a con-gressional investigation into the “origin, use and distribu-tion” of the said fund.
House Resolution 358 penned by Romualdez and dela Cruz aimed to seek for clarity and transparency in the use of DAP released by Budget Sec. Butch Abad several months after former Chief Justice Renato Corona was found guilty in the Im-peachment Trial.
“This is the only way to clear the air what DAP is all about and remove specula-tions that this has been used to bribe or give bonus to lawmakers who participat-ed in the prosecution of CJ Corona,” dela Cruz said.
Then Senator Joker Ar-royo who voted to acquit Corona was among the re-cipient of DAP while admin-istration ally then Senator Ping Lacson who voted to convict Corona was not giv-en DAP funds.
Aside from the two so-lons of the independent bloc
the rest of the group signed as co-authors of the bill.
With this congressional inquiry, Romualdez believes that Abad who is a former colleague can explain the P10 million and P15 mil-lion in DAP that was given to each representative last year so it will not be per-ceived as an alleged “reward or incentive” for impeaching Corona.
“Whereas, reports indi-cate that billions of pesos of public funds have been con-solidated and used by DBM in a so-called DAP as some sort of a ‘economic stimu-lus fund’ in the years 2010, 2011 and 2012,” the resolu-tion stressed.
“Whereas, the same reports indicate that in FY 2010 and 2011, the DAP funds were released through various implementing agen-cies such as the DPWH, DA and DAR among others; whereas, in FY 2012 a sub-stantial portion of the DAP funds amounting to P1.1 Billion and counting were allocated to members of the legislature instead of the implementing agencies pre-sumably in consideration of their requests for such funds,” it stressed. [PNA]
House to probe DAP’s origin, use, distribution
A group of petitioners Tuesday opposed the motion of the Office of
the Solicitor General and the Congress seeking to lift the temporary restraining or-der issued by the Supreme Court against the release of the remaining pork barrel of congressmen for the year 2013 and the Malampaya Fund.
In the reply submitted Tuesday by the group of former Manila Councilor Greco Belgica to the SC, they
stressed the argument of the respondents that the right of the petitioners was not violated in the sense that the SC previously declared the pork barrel fund as constitu-tional lacks merit.
According to the peti-tioners, their right against illegal expenditure of public fund is continuously being violated due to the existence of the Priority Development Assistance Fund.
They argued the earlier decision of the SC in the case
of the Philippine Constitu-tion Association and the Lawyers Against Monopoly and Poverty cannot be ap-plied in the case they filed before the SC.
They cited the case of the Philconsa and the LAMP did not tackle the alleged over-stepping of the Congress on the power of the Executive Branch in the implementa-tion of the proposed budget.
They said that the Com-mission on Audit itself stat-ed that the PDAF system
violated the principle of sep-aration of powers when the congressmen were autho-rized to implement public projects which is the func-tion of the Executive Branch.
On the motion seeking for a partial lifting of the TRO on PDAF to fund the educa-tion and medical needs of the poor, the group of Belgi-ca said the Congress can en-act a special appropriations bill into a law to address the necessities of their scholars and the poor patients.[PNA]
OSG’s motion to lift TRO vs. pork barrel, Malampaya Fund opposed
“LET’S pursue all leads and search for the truth...no
matter who or what will be exposed.”
As a step toward this, Senate Majority Leader Alan Peter S. Cayetano has asked the Committee on Account-ability of Public Officers and Investigations (Blue Ribbon Committee) to subpoena the Senate staff who were implicated in the pork barrel scam [see list of staff in the
attached letter] after being mentioned by whistleblow-ers during the previous hearing.
“I write to pursue leads provided by the whis-tleblowers so that the com-mittee may gather more facts and be able to see the whole truth,” Cayetano said in a letter he sent Tuesday to panel chair Senator Teofisto Guingona III.
“We should leave no stone unturned. No special
treatment must be accord-ed to any of the individuals implicated in the scam,” he added.
Go after Napoles prop-erties, assets now
In the letter, the Majority Leader requested that a sub-poena ad testificandum be issued for the senate staff and that invitations be sent to representatives of the Anti-Money Laundering Council, Office of Ombudsman, Department of Justice,
Bureau of Immigration, and Land Registration Authority for the next Blue Ribbon hearing on pork barrel scam.
Cayetano said he wants to inquire from these people what the government is do-ing to preserve and recover properties “that are prob-ably fruits of the crime” of Janet Napoles and others who were accused by the DoJ and National Bureau of Investigation team.
Sen. Cayetano to Blue Ribbon: Pursue all leads in PDAF scam
VOL. 6 ISSUE 143• WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 2, 201312 EDGEDAVAOCLASSIFIEDSHealth and Wellness
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VOL. 6 ISSUE 143• WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 2, 2013 13
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EDGEDAVAO CLASSIFIEDS
LEGAL NOTICE
Notice is hereby given that an Extra-Judicial Settlement of the Estate With Sale and Assumption of Mortgage and Special Power of Attorney was executed by the heirs of the late Lani M. Teh,leaving a parcel of land covered by TCT No. T-213129, containing an area of 300 sq.meters more or less.Acknowledged before Notary Public Atty Beethoven L. Orcullo; per Doc. No.195 ; Page No.48;Book No. VIII; Series of 2013.
9/18,25,8/02
LEGAL NOTICE
Notice is hereby given that the estate of the late SERAPIO S. BABATUAN has been the subject of an EXTRA-JUDICIAL SETTLEMENT with partition among heirs per Doc. No.374; Page No. 7; Book No. XCI; Series of 2013 of the NOTARY PUBLIC ANGELA A. LIBRADO
10/2,9,16
VOL. 6 ISSUE 143• WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 2, 201314 EDGEDAVAOSPORTS
RACE fans converged in Manila last Sep-tember 21, 2013
at the Aseana City, Paran-aque City for the cham-pionship leg of the 2013 National Motorcycle Race of Champions as present-ed by Shell Advance Mo-torcycle Oils. Winners from Luzon, Visayas and Mindanao legs braved the bad weather brought on by super typhoon Odette. The morning started out with practice sessions amidst the wet conditions but by noon time the rains have ceased, giving way to an action-packed race day.
As the afternoon ap-proached, the track tem-perature rose, so did the intensity of the racers as they fought for the best
grid position at the qual-ifying rounds. Engine roared; the anticipation of the crowd who gathered in spite of the storm also grew. The race director gave the racers the green flag, two lights illuminate then they’re off! Riders from Luzon, Visayas and Mindanao representing various manufacturers and private racing teams battled it out on one track.
Every rider was trying squeeze out every ounce of skill and determination in order to get the win. As the races heated up, the storm intensified. This prompted the race direc-tor to stop the races for 10 minutes at one point. But not even that dampened the resolve and racing
PETRON Blaze rookie big man June Mar Fajardo debuted a
new hair color on Monday night, coming out with blonde ‘do for the Boost-ers’ semifinal matchup against the Rain or Shine Elasto Painters.
“Hindi naman kasi bawal eh,” Fajardo told television network Inter-AKTV in an exclusive in-terview. “Ito talaga yung gusto kong kulay.”
His hair was not enough to overshadow his performance, howev-er, as he dominated the paint in the Boosters’
victory, finishing with 15 points on just six shots from the field along with 17 rebounds, eight off the offensive glass.
He did it against Rain or Shine’s imposing Ex-tra Rice, Inc. frontline of Beau Belga and JR Quina-han.
“Focus lang ako sa laro,” said Fajardo. “Kail-angan hindi ka mapikon at saka nasanay na ako sa physical game.”
With Fajardo impos-ing his might down low, Petron won the battle of the boards, 56-48.
The 6-foot-10 slot-
man said that like many other people, he gets a new hairdo to pick him-self up whenever he’s feeling down.
“Kapag na-de-de-press ako, buhok ang na-pag-di-diskitahan ko, eh walang ibang magawa,” said Fajardo.
But at least one per-son in the family might not approve of his new hair color.
“Kapag umuwi ako sa probinsya, babaguhin ko na. Papaitim ko ito, kasi baka hindi ako papa-sukin ni Mama sa bahay.” (AKTV)
PINOY Pride box-ers, Genesis “Azu-kal” Servania and
“King” Arthur Villanueva from the ALA Promo-tions stable in Cebu will face off with Panama’s Rafael “El Torito” Con-cepcion and “Jose”Mata-dor” Cabrera of Mexico, respectively on Oct. 24 in Cebu City.
The 22-year old Ser-vania of Bacolod City is a junior featherweight who currently holds a record of 21 wins with eight knockouts and no loss, fights aggressively with authoritative jab that sets up fluid com-binations and is poised
beyond his years while his Panamian opponent was WBA interim super flyweight champion AJ Banal’s conqueror on the 10th round in the evening of July 26, 2008.
“El Torito” owns a re-cord of 18 win with eight KOs, six losses of which three are by KOs and one draw, ALA events man-ager Claire Lukban told Tuesday’s PSA Forum at Shakey’s Malate
”Should Genesis beat Concepcion, he will be sent to the US for fur-ther training and if he performs well, an in-ternational stint will be possible because de
la Hoya is interested in promoting him,” added Lukban.
The encounter be-tween Banal and Con-cepcion five years ago was the biggest pro-motions staged in Cebu Coliseum by ALA Pro-motions in partnership with Golden Boy Promo-tions of Oscar de la Hoya that pulled in some 15,000 fans.
This month, 31-year old, orthodox, bantam-weight Concepcion will have a much younger but a less experienced foe in Servania who holds vic-tories over three world title challengers. (PNA)
THE Petron Blaze Boosters are final-ly back in the PBA
semifinals.And just like in big
playoff games in the past, Alex Cabagnot came up with clutch shots for the Boosters.
He finished with 18 points, including a cru-cial three-pointer with 1:19 left in the game to give Petron a four-point lead that served as enough cushion for
the Boosters to pull out a victory over the Rain or Shine Elasto Painters.
Petron is looking to make the finals for the first time since it won this tournament two years ago. Now on a 10-game winning streak, the Boosters look primed to do just that.
But Cabagnot isn’t thinking too far ahead, especially against a tough semifinals oppo-nent in Rain or Shine.
“I hope we have a good chance, but to be frank, I haven’t really thought about it. I want to take it one game at a time,” said Cabagnot in an exclusive interview with InterAKTV.
The series is a bat-tle between the last two champions of the tour-nament, with Rain or Shine winning the first title in franchise history in the same conference last season.
NEW ‘DO. Junmar Fajardo (left) of Petron guards Jeff Chan of Rain or Shine sporting a new blond hairdo. Nuki Sabio
ONE ON ONE. Arizona Reid of Rain or Shine drives against Elijah Millsap of Petron in the match between Rain or Shine and Petron for the PBA Governors Cup.
Millsap scored 41 points to carry Petron to victory over Rain or Shine in the opening game of their semis series. Nuki Sabio
Pinoy Pride boxers battle pugs from Mexico, Panama
One game at a time for Petron
Fajardo sports new blond hairdo
Winners ride through storm in 2013 Nat’l MotoROC
spirit of the riders. In the end there were champions crowned, A T 160 Novice: 1st Place-Aljon Valencia, 2nd Place-Axl Teves, 3rd Place-Dan Carlos, A T 160.
INdulge! VOL. 6 ISSUE 143• WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 2, 2013
EDGEDAVAOARTS AND CULTURE
“MOM, are those made out of paper?” asked my 6 year old daughter, pointing out to the five-piece origami art installation seen vividly even from my office window.
The structure was still on its way to completion at the time, but it didn’t fail to call attention from both the young and old. The visually arresting size and bright colors of the origa-mi cranes filled my daugh-ter’s mind with wonder and excitement, prodding Mommy to take her out into the field so she could have a closer look. She is no stranger to origami and paper crafts, and, as such, she was swept away with the full-scale, 3-dimen-sional piece. Her eyes were wide with amazement as she looked up at the giant crane in the middle, still
skeptical on how one can “fold metal into a shape of a crane.” This innocent sense of wonder is just typ-ical of children of her age. As parent, I try and give her discerning mind the freedom to dissect myster-ies on her own to develop
her cognitive thinking. A couple of theories thrown here and there, I jumped into her analysis and cited examples of different art mediums. Origami, in the prima-ry sense, is the traditional Japanese art of paper fold-ing with which a flat sheet of paper is transformed into different forms with-out the aid of scissors and glue. In the case of the origami rotunda, which now takes center stage in the SM Lanang Premier compound, the art was translated into metalwork by one of Davao’s highly respected artists, Arch.
Michael Ebro Dakudao. The first of its kind in the Philippines, the ori-gami art installation was inspired by the designer’s family history and asso-ciation to the Japanese arts and culture. In Arch. Da-kudao’s speech, during the inauguration of the origa-mi rotunda he named after his grandparents Dr. and Mrs. Santiago P. Dakudao, Sr., he proudly shared, “Honestly, I have long wanted to pay homage to my grandparents. As the Japanese figured promi-nently in my grandparents’ history, my design inspira-tion came easy in the form of the art of origami. The origami is a universally accepted art form signi-fying beauty, peace and hope. And the most fa-mous among the origami forms is that of the crane. The crane is a symbol of long life as well as happi-ness, honor and loyalty, and good luck. The metal crane sculptures I used in the installation are painted in carefully selected bright automotive colors like red (love, passion and desire),
orange (enthusiastic ener-gy), yellow (freedom and joy to celebrate a new be-ginning), blue (meaning-ful spirituality), and finally, white (hope for the future and joyous eternity).”The inauguration was at-tended by VIP’s and local personalities, with Japa-nese Consul Koichi Ibarra as the Dakudao family’s guest of honor. Dance and visual artists also came to witness the launch of the city’s newest and most col-orful landmark. “I want to honor my grandparents as they were the most influential people in my family’s life besides our parents. Call it filial
piety as we Filipinos value with great esteem the im-portant and wonderful elder members of the fam-ily. With this in mind, the clan wants to celebrate our grandparents’ memory with a lasting memorial to honor them with. After all, the heirs wouldn’t be here in Davao City if not for them. The Dr. & Mrs. Santiago Pamplona Daku-dao, Sr. Origami Rotunda is as much a tribute to the pre-war Japanese migrant workers of Davao who contributed immensely in making The Land of Promise into what it is to-day--- a modern and bus-tling City of Davao.”
Michael Dakudao’s origami art installation
SM Lanang Premier brings another breakthrough in Davao City and the entire region with the forthcoming opening of SM Science Discovery Center Lanang, the first interactive, technology-based science center in Visayas and Mindanao. This cutting-edge educational facility will be launched to selected guests on Tuesday, 1 October 2013, 2pm, at
the 3rd Level entrance near IMAX and Bowling Center at SM La-
nang Premier. It will be offi-cially opened to the public
on Saturday, 5 October 2013. The SM Science Dis-covery Center Lanang
features 10 interac-tive galleries, which allow students and their families to learn about geology, biol-
ogy, climate, the body, energy and transpor-tation, technol-ogy, engineer-ing, and the future, among many other topics, in the most enjoy-able and enter-taining way.
At the heart of the facility is an 80-seater full dome planetarium powered by the world’s most advanced and sophisticated planetarium projector system, Digistar 5. The SM Science Discovery Center Lanang is a business unit of SM Family Entertainment Center, Inc. Its advocacy is to bring new and innovative ways to aid educators in helping children and youth reach their full potential. For inquiries, contact 285-4428 or check out Science Discovery Center-SM Lanang Premier on Facebook.
MANILA-BASED educational institutions are set to join SM City Davao first ever University Fair on October 3-5 at the Annex Event Center. Among the schools that will showcase their program and facilities are the College of St. Benilde, National Uni-versity, De La Salle University, St. Scholastica’s College, and the Philippine Normal University. The first-of-its-kind exhibition at SM City Davao aims to provide high school students in the Davao region access to the different universities and colleges. The exhibitors will be put-ting up booths where interest-ed students can inquire about the courses of-fered, school facilities, cam-pus culture and scholarship op-portunities. Also joining the fair are Ateneo de Davao University and the University of the Philippines Mindanao which will be open to inqui-ries not only for their Davao campuses but for their affili-ate schools and campuses as well. The Philippine College of Technology and MOST Institute will also be featuring their programs. The 3-day event which is supported by the Department of Education XI, National Youth Commission and the De-partment of Science and Technology XI will also hold fo-rums on career guidance and other topics which will be helpful for students who will soon be enrolling in college. Admission to the exhibition is free. For inquiries, in-terested parties may call 297.6698 local 126. Like SM City Davao on Facebook or follow @smcitydavao on Twitter for event and promo updates.
A2 INdulge! VOL. 6 ISSUE 143• WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 2, 2013EDGEDAVAOUP AND ABOUT EVENTS
Davao celebrates International Day of
Peace at Abreeza Mall
NU, St. Benilde, PNU and St. Scho join SM Davao University Fair, Oct 3-5
First science center in VisMin opens at SM Lanang Premier
IN LIGHT of ongo-ing political tensions that have devastated communities not just in the Philip-pines, but in nations as far away as Syria, it is now more im-portant than ever for each citizen of the world to pause and reflect on the senselessness of the widespread culture of violence, and in-stead, advocate for peace that heals and builds. In celebration of the United Nations’ Interna-tional Day of Peace on September 21, the Davao Peace Fair 2013 was held at the Abreeza Mall Ac-tivity Center on the same day. Following the theme “Education for Peace”, the event brought together 21 organizations representing different sectors, from so-cio-civic groups to govern-ment offices to the armed forces, to spark awareness of the peace cause. The Davao Peace Fair kicked off at 10 a.m. with welcome remarks by Dr. Ma. Theresa Ungson of the National Nutrition Coun-cil. The affair’s keynote speaker, distinguished former Senator Leticia Ramos-Shahani, deliv-ered an insightful speech condemning violence and promoting harmony and peace. Pledging on “Pause Muna, Peace Muna”, a national movement that aims to decrease violence by encouraging people to redirect their energy to positive thoughts and ac-tions, featured a choreo-graphed dance to the cam-
paign’s jingle. Participants also witnessed a cultural presentation by the Apako Indigenous Group and joined in a symbolic ex-change of balloons. The Davao Peace Fair continued with a day-long exhibit and interac-tive activities attracting both event supporters and mall-goers. At 7:30 p.m., the celebration came to a close with a harmony
prayer, feedback mes-sages and reflections, and closing remarks by Lt. General Rainier Cruz III, Commander of the East-ern Mindanao Command (EastMinCom). The Davao Peace Fair 2013 at Abreeza Mall was made possible through the joint efforts of convenors Brahma Kumaris Foun-dation, Silsilah Forum Davao, EastMinCom, and
National Nutrition Coun-cil. For more information on Abreeza Mall, please visit the concierge at the ground floor or call (082) 321-9332. For updates, please like Abreeza’s of-ficial Facebook page at w w w. f a c e b o o k . c om /AbreezaMall, and follow @abreezatweets on Twitter and @iloveabreezamall on Instagram.
INdulge! A3VOL. 6 ISSUE 143• WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 2, 2013EDGEDAVAOENTERTAINMENT
VETERAN band vo-calist Mitoy Yonting of Team Lea was hailed as the first-ever winner of “The Voice of the Philip-pines” after garner-ing the highest per-centage of public votes in the singing-reality show’s final showdown at Re-sorts World Manila’s Newport Performing Arts Theater Sunday night (Sept 29). “I feel very happy. I’m so blessed today. I thank God and those who voted for me,” said Mitoy in an inter-view with the media min-utes after his victory. Mitoy received 57.65% of the combined text and online votes to beat second placer, Team Sarah’s Klar-isse de Guzman (42.35%) in their ultimate face-off. Their scores were reset back to zero before the poll for them opened. His coach Lea Salonga, meanwhile, said, “Whenever I won something, my mom would also feel like she won it because she contributed to it. Now I feel as if I had a son who won and did something right. That’s how it feels.” In Sunday’s finale, Mi-toy crooned the Beatles hit “Help” and performed with his coach Lea and come-dian Vice Ganda in a comic take of “Total Eclipse of the Heart.” In Saturday’s (Sept 28) Live Show, Mitoy sang Freddie Aguilar’s “Anak” and his original song “Bulag.” The 43-year old winner also beat other final four art-ists, Team Apl’s Janice Javier and Team Bamboo’s Myk Perez, who got 13.56% and 12.81% of the votes, respec-tively, from the initial poll. As the winner of “The Voice of the Philippines,” Mi-toy won P2 million, a home entertainment package, a new car, an Asian tour pack-age for two, and a four-year recording contract with MCA Universal. Mitoy had been an early favorite since the show’s Blind Auditions where he delivered a spectacular per-formance of “Bakit Ako Ma-hihiya,” which had Lea and Bamboo fighting for him to be on their respective teams. Since then, Mitoy had consistently delivered su-perb performances that impressed the coaches and viewers through the Battle Rounds and Live Shows. Most Filipinos watched the Sunday finale of “The Voice of the Philippines” as
it recorded a national TV rating of 30.3%, based on data from Kantar Media. It also had Twitter abuzz and landed on its list of trend-ing topics in the Philip-pines and worldwide with the hashtags and topics #VoicePHFinale, #TheV-oicePHFinale, #MitoyForTh-eWin, #Westlife, Man in the Mirror, Ted Filan, Lolita Car-bon, Vice Ganda, #TeamLea, #PopstersUniteForTeamSar-ah, Morning Rose, among others. The finale opened with an energetic performance from the Top 24 artists of “The Voice of the Philip-pines,” Journey frontman Arnel Pineda and singer Jed Madela. Earlier in the show, the other final contenders also performed with their coach-es and surprise guests to urge the public to vote for them. Klarisse took on “Your Song” with coach Sarah and theater actor Robert Sena, while Myk and Bamboo, who danced the waltz with Linn Oeymo, performed “Morning Rose.” Janice, meanwhile, sang
“Himig ng Pag-ibig” with Asin’s Lolita Carbon before joining coach Apl in an elec-trifying performance of “The Time (Dirty Bit)” that earned cheers from the audience. The four coaches also shared the stage to give an inspirational performance of “Man in the Mirror,” while Mitoy, Klarisse, Janice, and Myk later joined Shane Filan of Westlife in “Fool Again” and “Uptown Girl.” “The Voice of the Philip-pines” is only one of the 40 local versions of the hit global franchise in differ-ent countries, including the more popular US version of “The Voice” hosted by Carson Daly with Christina Aguilera, Adam Levine, Cee Lo Green, and Blake Shelton as coaches. Before the finale drew to a close, host Toni Gonzaga and V Reporters Alex Gon-zaga and Robi Domingo an-nounced that auditions will soon be held for the second season of “The Voice of the Philippines.” for updates, like www.facebook.com/thevoiceabscbn or follow @thevoiceabscbn on Twitter.
Mitoy named “The Voice Of The Philippines”
PG 13
GP
PG 13
R 13 12:25 | 2:20 | 4:15 | 6:10 | 8:05 | 10:00 LFS
R-16
INSIDIOUS: CHAPTER 2 2D
12:40 | 3:00 | 5:20 | 7:40 | 10:00 LFS
RUNNER RUNNER 2D
12:25 | 2:20 | 4:15 | 6:10 | 8:05 | 10:00 LFS
OGGY & THE COCKROACHES 2D
Patrick Wilson, Rose Byrne
12:00 | 2:00 | 4:00 | 6:00 | 8:00 | 10:00 LFS
KUNG FU DIVAS 2D
Ai Ai Delas Alas, Marian Rivera
Justin Timberlake, Ben Affleck
A4 INdulge! VOL. 6 ISSUE 143• WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 2, 2013EDGEDAVAOENTERTAINMENT
Dingdong, Bea, Enrique team up for Star Cinema
THEY are three of this generation’s biggest stars. He is a two-time Best Actor winner and one of the top leading men in television and film. She is the undisputed box-office queen and he is one of the hottest young actor to-day. They have earned the respect of critics and the support of their audience. But they have never done a project together—until now. This October, on its 20th anniversary, Star Cinema brings to the big screen Dingdong Dantes, Enrique Gil and Bea Alonzo in “She’s The One”, a story that com-bines the excitement of an unex-pected ro-mance with the epiphany that comes with finding the one per-son you can’t live without. “She’s The One” hits theaters on October 16 and is direct-ed by Mae Cruz from a story and script by the award-win-ning Vanessa Valdez. It also stars upcoming screen sweetheart Liza Soberano in her biggest, most important and most challenging film role to date. After giving life to some of the screen’s most iconic female characters—Basha in One More Chance, Lara in And I Love You So, Mia in Miss You Like Crazy and Sari in The Mistress—Bea Alonzo brings viewers another one in this, her latest film project. Cat Aguinaldo is a young woman for whom family responsibility has always come first. The cat always stands by the side of her best
friend Wacky (Dingdong), a morning show host and serial dater who unwittingly pushes his best friend into a com-plicated ro-mantic situ-ation just to save his TV career. By the time he real-izes what he’s done and confronts his own feelings, it may be too late.
Dingdong returns to the Star Cinema fold after suc-cessful team-ups with Kris Aquino in Segunda Mano and Angelica Panganiban and Angel Locsin in One More Try. “She’s The One” is his first time to work with Bea Alonzo. The film is woven around the idea of an “epiphany”, or that one moment in life when we finally find the answer that will change everything. But we may find ourselves asking, how far are we willing to go when we do? For more updates about the movie, visit Star Cin-ema on the web at www.StarCinema.com.ph, on Face-book at http://facebook.com/StarCinema andhttp://twitter.com/StarCinema.
EDGEDavao Davao Partners
VOL. 6 ISSUE 143• WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 2, 2013 15SPORTSEDGEDAVAO
NEW YORK (AP) -- Paul Pierce won plenty of Atlan-
tic Division titles during his days with the Boston Celtics, but at the end of the seasons when he ex-ited the playoffs without lifting the Larry O’Brien trophy, none of those six divisional titles didn’t car-ried any weight.
The only one that mattered was the one he captured during the 2008 season, en route to his first and only NBA title.
Pierce, along with his teammate Kevin Gar-nett, made it known that they’re in Brooklyn for one thing only: to win it all in June. Beating out their new rivals, the de-fending division champs New York Knicks, isn’t what’s on Pierce’s mind.
‘’Truthfully, that’s not that important to me. I came here to win a cham-pionship. I don’t even want to see an Atlantic banner put up if we win it,’’ Pierce said during Monday’s Nets media day session at Barclays Cen-ter.
‘’I don’t even know how many Atlantic Divi-sion championships we won in Boston. ... I don’t remember getting a hat, a T-shirt, a call for winning an Atlantic Division. You don’t get anything for it,’’ the 15-year-veteran add-ed.
With the Celtics let-ting Doc Rivers head to the West Coast to take charge of the Los Angeles Clippers, it became ap-parent that Pierce’s and Garnett’s futures in Bos-ton were ending. Russian billionaire owner Mikhail Prokhorov gave general manager Billy King the green light to bring over the Celtics’ core after a first-round loss to an un-dermanned Chicago Bulls team in seven games end-ed the team’s inaugural season in Brooklyn.
It took a good sales pitch from Pierce and the Nets front office to get Garnett to waive his
no-trade clause and ac-cept the trade, a series of moves that King made in overhauling last season’s roster. In that deal, Brook-lyn also landed Jason Ter-ry, another veteran with championship pedigree, and then went out and signed free agents Shaun Livingston, Alan Ander-son and Andrei Kirilenko.
Top to bottom, the Nets think they are as good as any other team in the Eastern and West-ern Conference, but ac-cording to Pierce, it will come down to how that new equation plays out once training camp opens and the season tips off at Cleveland on Oct. 30.
‘’I think every cham-pionship team has its own different ingredients on how they go about it. Obviously, Miami has theirs, Dallas had theirs and it’s up to us,’’ Pierce said. ‘’Boston had theirs. So I think with this differ-ent group, it’s up to us to come up with something that we can kind of use to bond together, to help us understand our clear goal as a championship (team) and what we need to do.
‘’The way you win one championship is certainly not going to be the way you win the next one. Ev-ery team is different. All the personalities are dif-ferent and so it’s just up to us to figure it out.’’
Pierce’s perfect exam-ple was how it all changed once the Celtics made their move, acquiring Gar-nett and Ray Allen, even-tually lifting the team’s championship hopes. But he did caution that just because a certain formula works for one team, the possibility exists that it won’t pan out for the next.
‘’(Before the trade) we still were the Boston Celtics. We still were a team (that) probably that didn’t have champion-ship aspirations at the time, but I think every team, every champion-ship team has their own chemistry set,’’ Pierce said.
VIENT Buhisan and Yanick Elnar of General Santos City
shared top honors in the Race to Paradise Xtreme Jet Ski Challenge held Sunday at the Paradise Island Park and Beach Re-sort in Samal Island.
The 21-year old Buhisan of the Socsargen Jet Sports Association (SJSA) beat teammate Elnar in the finals of the Novice/Expert 4-Stroke Stock (300hp).
Third was Dennis Arquiza of the host Jet Sports Association of Davao (JSAD).
Elnar, 40, however, won the Novice/Expert 4-stroke Stock 260hp category. He beat Mayor Rody Duterte’s chief of staff and Tunafest cham-pion Christopher Law-rence “Bong” Go also of JSAD.
Third was Angelo Int-ing of Jetwave Samal.
Inting, 18, also topped
the 215hp category by beating Nathaniel Caban-as of Bluejaz and Vic dela Cruz of SJSA, who finished second and third, respec-tively.
Jodax Daquil of JSAD won the Off Shore event after an almost tragic ending at the finish line that resulted to three jet skis landing on top of each other.
Daquil, who was rushed to the hospital for minor injury, was fol-lowed by SJSA’s Michael Buhisan and Cocoy Gu-daya in that order.
Stingray Davao’s Rene Militante, 46, won the Vet-erans category by best-ing 47-year old Buhisan. Third was JSAD’s Efren Eribiano.
Militante also ruled the Open 2-Stroke Run About (550-800cc) while his 22-year old Renette settled for second place.
Renette also took sec-ond place behind Skye
WINNERS. Team Mintal Inter-rage (left) and Indangan FC (right) show their medals in the recent #iscoreforpeace Football Festival for Bangsamoro.
NEW NETS. The new-look Brooklyn Nets.
Nets want to win Atlantic first
BEIJING (AP) -- Top-ranked Novak Djokovic and Ser-
ena Williams advanced with straight-set victo-ries Tuesday at the China Open, while Venus Wil-liams was eliminated.
Djokovic beat Lukas Rosol of the Czech Re-public 6-0, 6-3 in the first round, while Serena Wil-liams downed Francesca Schiavone 6-4, 7-5 in the second round.
Venus Williams, a wild-card entry, fell to Sa-bine Lisicki of Germany 6-1, 6-2. Lisicki didn’t face a break point and broke Williams three times.
Djokovic’s run of 100
weeks at the top of the ATP rankings is in danger this week from Rafael Na-dal, who was scheduled to open against Santiago Giraldo of Colombia. Na-dal will retake No. 1 if he reaches the final.
Djokovic will take on Fernando Verdasco in the second round after the Spaniard beat Indian qualifier Somdev Devvar-man 7-6 (6), 6-3.
Fifth-seeded Richard Gasquet of France beat Florian Mayer of Ger-many 6-3, 7-6 (2), and sixth-seeded Stanislas Wawrinka of Switzerland overcame Andreas Seppi of Italy 4-6, 6-3, 6-4.
Djokovic, Serena win in China
Gensan riders win Race to Paradise Xtreme Jet Ski ChallengeDiola of SJSA in the La-dies division. Third was TV host Cherry Maning of JSAD.
Cash prizes and tro-phies were awarded by
Paradise Island assistant resort manager Jun Dia-mante and race chairman Dr. Marlon Garcia of the DocRC Hobby Shop and Aqua Sports.
VOL. 6 ISSUE 143• WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 2, 201316EDGEDAVAOSports
TOWERING 16-year old Kobe Paras, son of PBA’s only play-
er to have achieved the Rookie of the Year and the MVP in 1986 and a mem-ber of the play for pay league’s legends-- Venan-cio “Benjie” Paras -- is one of the country’s huge po-tential basketball players, according to Samahang Basketbol ng Pilipinas top gun Sonny Barrios.
Kobe, named after his father’s favorite NBA player, Kobe Bryant of the Los Angeles Lakers, said at first he was intimidated when he saw the competi-tors in the FIBA Under 18 3X3 tournament in the In-donesia slam dunk finals where he emerged world champion last Sunday but his dad told him to con-centrate and “believe in yourself and that you are better them.”
Prior to that, the old-er Paras said his son told him,”But dad, I am the thinnest, the smallest and the youngest.”
“I told him to focus on his play and luckily, he picked up so well my in-struction,” said the proud father.
The De la Salle Green-hills guard perked up, scored perfect points in the first round and then carried it further by do-ing a reverse dunk over
teammate Thirdy Ravena atop a Honda motorcycle which was a team spon-sor to convince the judges that Kobe is better than his US and Spanish coun-terparts.
Accompanied to the Tuesday PSA Forum be-cause he can’t drive, Kobe said that he would like to represent the country. And of course, he is still savoring the thrill of what happened on top of his fledgling career.
PBA Hall of Fam-er Benjie said he never taught his sons basketball until they transferred to a house where there was a hardourt when Andrei (now 18) and Kobe they were still under the age of 10.
“There were times when I’m already sleeping in the night and I would wake up to find them still playing outside. Soon they were asking me to teach them how to play better basics I never tried to in-terest them in my sport.”
The 6’5” Kobe told me-diamen he was curious about his dad’s plays and he viewed his games on video. “I envied him so I tried to play like him,” said boy whose fair facial fea-tures strongly resemble that of his former showbiz mom, Jackie Forster.
Would he also join the
TWO-EDGED WEAPON. Genesis 88 will be banking on playing President-CEO Glen Escandor (left) and former pro Mike Manigo (right) in the finals of the Escandor Group of Companies basketball tournament against White House. Lean Daval Jr.
SLAM DUNK KID. Kobe Paras soars for a dunk during the recent Lebron James exhibition tour in Manila.
LIKE FATHER LIKE SONWorld slam dunk champion Paras dreams of more titles
entertainment circuit now that he’s grown up?
“Oh no, I would like to be focused on my bas-ketball because it’s what interests me at present. I would like to play more in-ternational games for the country.”
Benjie, asked who is the better player between them, quickly replied, “Well, I think he will be
better as he grows older but should some showbiz offer come to Kobe, he should take it. It would be a waste of money if the amount is real big!”
And who is the better looker? “Kobe is hand-some but I am the bet-ter-looking man.”
Kobe said his dad is close and caring — he tries to be available to
them all the time although he is also a busy man.
The best thing is he is not a stage father — he does not interfere with their games and coaches.
He just wants Andre and him to become com-plete players by perfecting their dribbling,consisten-cy in defense and offense and respect for the skills and talent of others.
Fair enough since Kobe is likely to shoot up more in height while essaying the role of a point guard. Very few players like Mag-ic Johnson can be as dex-terous, fast and capable of leadership inside and out-side the hardcourt.
Surely, Kobe wants to be like his father’s NBA idol, instead of just being a No. 2 or 3 player. (PNA)