the standard - 2015 april 18 - saturday
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The digital edition of The Standard: a nationally circulated newspaper published daily in the Philippines since February 1987.TRANSCRIPT
PAL to flyto NewZealand
VOL. XXIX NO. 62 2 Sections 24 Pages P18 SATURDAY : APRIL 18, 2015 www.manilastandardtoday.com [email protected]
Contemptcharge vsTrillanesA3
A16B4
China told:Keep seasfree for all
‘Pacquiao strongerthan ever’
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MILF STILL LIABLEFOR MASSACREFOR MASSACRE
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Protest action against reclamation. Members of the group Bayan Muna picket in front of the Chinese consular office in Makati to protest China’s reclamation at the Panganiban Reef that is within Philippine territory. DANNY PATA
MNLF: BBL stalemate may lead to terrorism
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MILF still liable for massacreBy Rey E. Requejo
JUSTICE Secretary Leila de Lima said Friday the ongo-ing peace talks between the government and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) will not stop the filing of criminal charages against MILF fighters who killed the 44 police com-mandos in Mamasapano on Jan. 25.
De Lima added that the MILF cannot invoke the peace process to extricate its commanders or fighters implicated in the murder of the Spe-cial Action Force (SAF) commandos.
“We’re talking about crimes here that are covered by the criminal justice system. What is clear to me is that even in the course of peace negotiation under a peace process regime, the power of the state to go after violations of criminal laws is not suspended,” De Lima said in an interview.
De Lima she would insist on this stand once she approves the recom-mendation of the fact-finding team of the Justice Department for the filing of several criminal charges against 90 commanders and mem-bers of MILF, Bangsamoro Islamic Freedom Fighters (BIFF) and private armed groups.
“They (MILF) should understand that we would not accept that argu-ment (that they could not be charged because of the ceasefire agreement). We will insist on our position,” she said.
The MILF, in its own report on the Mamasapano incident, said its fight-ers were merely defending them-selves and that it was the police com-mandos who had violated a ceasefire agreement.
But the Justice Department report on the same incident said the MILF and other rebels could be charged for the deaths of the police commandos.
The MILF on Friday said it would not surrender any of its men in-volved in the Mamaspano massacre.
“We have long said that we will not surrender them because they did nothing wrong. They were only defending themselves,” MILF vice chairman for political affairs Ghadzali Jaafar said in a TV inter-view.
“If it were up to us, it would be better if they are not charged with a crime. The only thing they did was to defend themselves,” Jaafar added.
A spokesman for the military said they expect the MILF will not stop government forces from serviing the arrest warrants on the MILF mem-bers.
“Once the court issues the war-rants of arrest, we will assist the Philippine National Police when they enforce [them]. That’s our ma-jor role, to assist the Philippine Na-tional Police in the law enforcement operations,” AFP spokesman Brig. Gen. Joselito Kakilala said.
He said, however, that they would still coordinate with the Ad Hoc Joint Action Group and the Coordinating Committee on the Cessation of Hos-tilities. – With Francisco Tuyay
By Francisco Tuyay
A BREAKDOWN in the de-liberations on the Bangsam-oro Basic Law may force the Moro Islamic Liberation Front to resort to terrorism, even as a Moro leader warned that one of the “vengeance targets” could be media outfits that have pub-lished negative news about the controversial bill.
“They are going to resort to terrorism,” said Absalom Cerve-za, spokesman of the Moro Na-tional Liberation Front (MNLF) from which the MILF broke away when it decided to pursue its own peace agreement with the government in the 1980s.
Cerveza said terrorism was the only response the MILF would be able to come up with because the rebel group “has no capacity to overthrow the gov-ernment should they wage an all-out war.”
“They will resort to terrorism because they cannot campaign politically for the BBL. They cannot go out and tell the people that they were betrayed. No one will believe them,” Cerveza said.
Cerveza said the MILF had long been considering subse-quent actions if the government failes to deliver on its promises.
“In my huddle with MILF peace negotiator Mohaquer Iqbal in Cotabato City, I asked him, ‘have you ever thought of the possibility that the govern-ment may betray you?” and he ansered ‘yes.’”
“We will not be surprise if (the government) will betray us,” Cerveza quoted Iqbal as saying. “Let the mo-ments decide what is going to happen.”
But even among Moros, Cerveza said the MILF leadership is losing support because they are perceived to be too involved with their personal wealth.
Cerveza made the claim after another source claimed that at least 200 MILF fighters are already in Metro Manila and one of their potential targets are media outfits critical of the BBL, an imitation of the Charlie Hebdo massacre in Paris last January.
The source said MILF fighters have started “ji-had” prayers in Mindanao and attacks could include attacks on government offi-cials, military detachments as well as bombing of key gov-ernment and private installa-tions.
“If they wanted to, they can do it. They can even exact revenge by killing journalists. However, the force of public opinion is very hard to defeat,” Cerveza agreed, noting that MILF lead-ers are not using their personal assets to promote the BBL.
“Their wealth will go up in smoke... They will not sacri-fice their personal assets,” Cer-veza said. “The MILF has lost its credibility compared to the
time of former MILF Chairman Hashim Salamat who has an ideology and idealism.”
“It’s obvious that they re-ceived a lot of money and favors and that is why they yielded to the government,” Cerveza said.
But while the military was closely monitoring terrorist ac-tivities in Mindanao, the Armed Forces of the Philippine said they have not monitored any serious MILF activity in Metro Manila.
“We are ready to confront any armed aggression regardless of groups and we will not tolerate anyone from carrying out ag-
gression against anyone,” said Lt. Col. Horold Cabu-noc, Public Affairs Office (PAO) chief.
Meanwhile, the MILF breakaway group Bangsam-oro Islamic Freedom Fight-ers again attacked a military position in Maguindanao and injured six army sol-diers who were hit by a gre-nade launcher fired by BIFF fighters.
Military reports indi-cated that the six soldiers were hit by 40mm grenade launchers fired by the BIFF near the troops of the 23rd Mechanized battalion in Barangay Sambulawan in Datu Salibo, Maguindanao at about 6:50 pm Thursday.
Capt. Jo-Ann Petinglay, spokesperson of the Army’s 6th Infantry Division, said the troops were conducting blocking operations against BIFF rebels earlier engaged
into an ensued fighting in Ba-rangay Sambini in Datu Saudi town last Wednesday, when fired upon by the terrorists.
Petinglay said the troops scampered for battle position and retaliated heavily against the BIFF rebels, inflicting sever-al casualties on the enemy side.
The BIFF attacks was the third incident since the appointment of Esmael Abubakar, alias Bun-gos as the new BIFF chieftain following the death of BIFF top leader Ameril Umbra Kato last Tuesday due to heart attack.
Turnover. President Benigno Aquino III is seen here talking with Education Secretary Armin Luistro during the turnover ceremonies for two new three-story school buildings at the Tarlac National High School in Tarlac City. With t hem is PAGCOR chairman Cristino Naguiat Jr. Malacañang PhoTo BuREau
They will resort to terrorism because
they cannot campaign politically
for the BBL. They cannot go out and
tell the people that they were betrayed. No one will believe
them.
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NEWS
CYAN MAGENTA YELLOW BLACK
CYAN MAGENTA YELLOW BLACK
Keep seas free, US, 2 allies urge Beijing
PNoy: PNP vacancy filled soonBy Francisco Tuyay and Sandy Araneta
SENIOR officials of the Philippine Na-tional Police, mostly members of the Philippine Military Academy Classes of 1982 and 1983, complained on Fri-day as President Benigno Aquino III asked the public for more patience in the matter of appointing the next PNP chief.
“The delayed appointment of a new PNP chief only reflects the lack of lead-ership of President Aquino,” said a se-nior police official who is not among the candidates for the position left va-cant by the resignation of former PNP chief Alan Purisima because of the Mamasapano incident.
But in an appearance in Tarlac City on Friday, Aquino asked for more pa-tience in filling the position that has been vacant since February.
“I will beg everybody’s patience on this matter. It was not projected that we will be changing the Chief PNP at this point, in 2015. We were thinking that it would be at the end of 2015 when we would have to change the Chief PNP,” Aquino told reporters when asked about the resignation of acting PNP chief, Deputy Director General Leonardo Espina.
“Let me state that Director Espina is a very honorable person and he loves the institution and he loves the service, and he loves the country. He will turn 56, if I’m not mstaken, by July,” Aquino said.
“(But if) he assumes today, he has (only) about three months to serve. If there will only be three months to serve, there will be a turnover again to the next guy who replaces him, and that’s disruptive to the service. And on that basis General Espina has decided to resign,” said Aquino.
JUSTICE Secretary Leila M. De Lima said although Moro Islamic Libera-tion Front (MILF) chief negotiator Mohagher Iqbal may have violat-ed the law when he used a nom de guerre, he cannot be charged due to the ongoing peace talks.
In a position paper issued on Friday, De Lima said Ar-ticle 178 of the Revised Penal Code provides that those who use a false name to conceal a crime, evade judg-ment or cause damage to the public interest will be fined up to P500,000 and imprisoned for up to six months.
But De Lima said Iqbal cannot be prosecuted be-cause he is covered by the agreement on safe conduct and security guarantees that protects rebels who are negotiating with the government.
De Lima said these guarantees include the grant of safe conduct along with the freedom from seizure, detention, restraint or harassment while the peace talks are ongoing.
In short, she said, the government approved Iqbal’s use of a nom de guerre as “a confidence building measure” to pursue peace talks with the MILF.
At the same time, she said the agreement signed by Iqbal is voidable but not invalid.
For the agreement to take effect, she said, a requi-site under the Civil Code is the consent or approval of the parties in the contract.
She added that the Civil Code did not say that the use of an alias by one of the parties will be a reason to void the contract.
But Senator Ferdinand Marcos Jr., chairman of the Sen-ate committee on local government, said his panel will investigate who notarized the peace agreement and docu-ments signed by Iqbal, who signed them with an alias.
He noted that under the law, notarized documents should be signed by persons using their real names, and not a nom de guerre.
“This is entirely the first peace agreement in the world which a government negotiated with a ficti-tious person,” Marcos said.
Senate Majority Leader Alan Peter Cayetano on Thursday said he is 100 percent sure that Datucan Abas is Iqbal’s real name based on his criminal re-cords and school records from the Manuel Luis
Quezon University in Manila where he graduated. Macon Ramos-Araneta, PNA
De Lima:Alias useillegal butprotected
US, JAPANESE and South Korean diplo-mats renewed concerns Thursday about moves by China to stake its claim to dis-puted seas and urged Beijing to preserve freedom of navigation in the key water-ways.
Deputy US Secretary Tony Blinken re-peated America’s position that all com-peting claims in the South and East Chi-na Seas should be dealt with according to the rule of law.
Countries should not take unilateral actions, he said, after Beijing’s efforts to stake its claim to most of the South China Sea were high on the agenda for trilateral and bilateral talks with his Japanese and South Korean counterparts.
“We have consensus among us that the peaceful and harmonious rise of China we all welcome,” said Japanese Vice For-eign Minister Akitaka Saiki.
“At the same time, China, as a major power, not only in this region but glob-ally, has a responsibility to... abide by in-
ternational law.”He added “China has a responsibility
to address properly the concerns which are being shared by the members of the region, in Asia.”
China claims sovereignty over most of the South China Sea, including areas just off the coasts of other nations, using an assertive demarcation line that first ap-peared on Chinese maps in the 1940s.
Following a tense standoff between Chinese maritime patrol vessels and the Philippine Navy in 2012, China took con-trol of a rich fishing ground called Scar-borough Shoal that is within the Philip-pines’ exclusive economic zone.
Satellite images have now shown China recently embarking on major construc-tion activities to expand Chinese-con-trolled reefs and islets in the Spratly Is-lands, one of the biggest archipelagos in the sea.
South Korean Vice Foreign Minister Cho Tae-Yong called for the implementa-
tion of existing frameworks “so that we can preserve the freedom of navigation, stability in that body of water.”
But he also urged the swift conclusion of talks between China and Southeast Asian nations on a code of conduct in the South China and East China seas.
That would allow nations like South Korea to “enjoy this body of water for the purpose of trading, shipping our goods back and forth,” he said.
Manila welcomed the declaration from the Group of Seven or G7 foreign min-isters that strongly opposed any attempt to assert territorial or mairtime claims through the use of intimidation, coercion or force in the South China Sea.
The G7 Declaration on Maritime Se-curity expressed concerns on “unilateral actions, such as large scale land reclama-tion, which change the status quo and increased tensions,” the Department of Foreign Affairs said.
Sandy Araneta, Vito Barcelo, AFP
Reclamation far from home. This handout photo taken on April 2 by satellite imagery provider DigitalGlobe and released to AFP by the Asia Maritime Transparency Initiative department at the Center for Strategic and International Studies think tank shows a satellite image of what is claimed to be an under-construction airstrip at Fiery Cross Reef in the Spratly Islands in the disputed South China Sea. AFP
K12 enrollees. Students who will enter the K12 program of the Education Department wait for their turn during an enrollment at the Araullo high school on Taft Avenue in Manila. National Artist Bienvenido Lumbera has filed a petition asking the Supreme Court to stop the implementation of the government’s K-12 program. DANNY PATA
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news
‘Cite Trillanes in contempt’
VP offersexperience,capabilityin 2016 bid
Dinky Soliman slammed again, this time over condomsBy Sara D. Fabunan
THE head of the Presidential Commission for the Urban Poor on Friday slammed the way the Department of Social Welfare and Development allegedly forces poor
Filipinos to use artificial contra-ceptives, calling it “unacceptable.”
Hernani Panganiban said So-cial Welfare Secretary Corazon Soliman allegedly was forcing poor couples receiving dole from her department to use condoms
or other contraceptives when having sex.
“Assuming the allegation is true, then they need to do some explain-ing,” Panganiban told the Catholic Church-owned Radio Veritas.
He reminded Soliman that “cou-
ples cannot be compelled to use contraceptives” as provided in the Reproductive Health Law.
“Now, if the DSWD sees in CCT [conditional transfer or dole pro-gram] a means by which it can promote contraceptives, then that’s
when the trouble begins,” Pan-ganiban said.
“No matter where you look at it, whether you’re pro-RH or anti-RH, it’s unacceptable.”
The enforcement of the RH Law was brought to light when the De-partment of Health reported an alarming increase in Human im-munodeficiency virus or HIV in-fections in the country from Janu-ary to March this year.
The department said that in March alone, 646 cases of HIV infections were recorded, and of those 41 were from Metro Manila, the highest in all regions.
Caloocan city’s site implemen-tation officer Patrick Allan Pan-gilinan even claimed that young male sex workers might be behind the rise of HIV/AIDS cases in the country.
Study tour. Yedda Romualdez (3rd right seated), wife of Leyte Rep.Ferdinand Martin Romualdez, shares a happy moment with 22 barangay chairmen, led by ABC president Beth Zaida (seated 2nd from right) of Alang Alang, Leyte. The barangay of-ficials are in Manila for a study tour.
Ver NoVeNo
G7 meeting. Flags of the G7 nations flutter in the wind during a meeting of foreign ministers in Luebeck, Germany. The foreign ministers met to discuss key global political and security issues ahead of a G7 summit to take place in June 2015 in southern Germany. The G7 is a grouping of the seven biggest economic powers in the world -- Germany, Canada, the United States, France, Italy, Japan, Britain -- excluding China. AFP PHoTo
By Joel e. Zurbano
THE camp of Makati Mayor Junjun Binay on Friday asked the Court of Appeals to cite Senator Antonio Trillanes IV for indirect contempt for accusing the court justices of ac-cepting bribes in exchange for a de-cision in favor of the mayor.
“Trillanes, by maliciously and baselessly attacking the credibility and integrity of the honorable court and the justices of the 6th Division, clearly committed acts which con-stitute indirect contempt of court and should be made to answer therefor,” Binay’s petition said.
Binay’s camp made their statement even as
Senate President Franklin Drilon on Friday said the Senate had the power to invite the two jus-tices of the appellate court tagged in the alleged P50-million payoff to prevent the mayor’s sus-pension.
He told a radio interview that the Senate could invite anybody whom it believed could help in an investigation.
But he said the power to discipline the judi-ciary was with the Supreme Court, and that the justices should not be compelled to appear be-fore the Senate.
He was reacting to Trillanes’ request to Sena-tor Aquilino Pimentel III to invite the two jus-tices to a Senate hearing.
Binay also filed a libel case against Trillanes before the Makati City Prosecutors’ Office on Monday last week after Trillanes claimed that the justices of the appellate court’s Sixth Di-vision received P50 million to stop the Om-budsman from suspending Binay over cor-
ruption charges.Trillanes accuses Binay and his family as
“part of a syndicate” that has committed various crimes and irregularities.
“The damaging and ruinous claims spewed out by respondent Trillanes are mere concoc-tions and fabrications with no other purpose than to malign, discredit, ruin my reputation and besmirch my good name as well as that of my family,” Binay said in his libel complaint.
He said Trillanes’ remarks had cast asper-sions not only on the Justices of the 6th Division but on the entire Court of Appeals itself, thus “bringing the authority of the Courts and the administration of law into disrepute.”
Binay’s lawyers said the senator’s act of base-lessly accusing the entire CA as being a corrupt court and the justices of the 6th Division accept-ing sums of money for the issuance of a TRO and injunction was “a patent and willful con-tempt of court.”
By Vito Barcelo
VICE President Jejomar Binay said Friday he will offer his track record as Makati mayor and as vice president to the people in the coming presidential elections, adding the peo-ple would not be swayed by the “political propagan-da” against him.
“The people will not be swayed by the corruption allegations hurled against me,” Binay said in a state-ment.
Binay, who is keen on run-ning in the 2016 elections, said he was confident the people would pick a leader with agood track record.
“Ang pipiliin ng mama-mayang Pilipino iyong may karanasan at kakayahan sa pamamahala – karanasan at kakayahan na nagdulot ng magandang resulta, katulad po ng tinatamasa ng mga taga-Makati,” Binay said in a statement.
He made the state-ment after a recent Social Weather Stations survey showed that he was still the top choice to replace President Benigno Aquino III in 2016 despite a one-percent drop in his rat-ings—to 36 percent from 37 percent in December.
Senator Grace Poe was behind Binay with 31 percent after a 10-per-cent increase in her rat-ings from 21 percent in December.
Binay’s public satisfaction rating dropped to +31 (sat-isfied percentage minus dis-satisfied percentage) in the first quarter of 2015. It had dipped 13 points from +44 in December. This was also the fourth straight quarter in which Binay’s ratings dropped since his +73 in March 2014.
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LWUA, Gatchalians rappedPNoy:Forgetonlinegames
Govt stops P1.2B Huey deal
By Rio N. Araja
THE Ombudsman on Friday in-dicted ex-officials of the Local Wa-ter Utilities Administration and family members of “plastics king” William Gatchalian, including Va-lenzuela City Rep. Sherwin Gatch-alian, for an allegedly questionable takeover of a bank in 2009.
Ombudsman Conchita Carpio Morales found probable cause to charge former LWUA chief Prospero Pichay Jr., and other agency officials – Eduardo Bangayan, Aurelio Puen-tevella, Enrique Senen Montilla III, Wilfredo Feleo, Daniel Landingin and Arnaldo Espinas,
and William Gatchalian of Wellex Group Inc. (WGI) with three counts of corrpution, three counts of malversation and violation of the General Banking Law of 2000 before the San-diganbayan.
Also sued were WGI executives Dee Hua Gatchalian, Elvira Ting, Representative Gatch-alian, Kenneth Gatchalian and Yolanda de la Cruz; Forum Pacific Inc. (FPI) executives Peter Salud, Geronimo Velasco Jr., Weslie Gatchalian, Rogelio Garcia, Lamberto Mercado Jr., Evelyn dela Rosa, Arthur Ponsaran and Joaquin Obie-ta, and Express Savings Bank Inc. (ESBI) execu-tives George Chua, Gregorio Ipong, Generoso Tulagan, Wilfred Billena and Edita Bueno.
Assistant Ombudsman Aryman Rafanan said the charges stemmed from the acquisition of ESBI, a local thrift bank in Laguna owned by the Gatchalians, FPI and WGI.
On March 24, 2009, the LWUA board com-
posed of Pichay, Bangayan, Montilla, Puent-evella and Landingin passed Resolution No. 56 of 2009 to pave the way for the acquisition of ESBI without the requisite regulatory approval from Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas’ Monetary Board, Department of Finance and Office of the President, he said.
The bank acquisition ran in conflict with Of-fice of the Government Corporate Counsel’s legal opinion that such transaction was subject to review by DoF and approval by the Office of the President, including compliance with ap-plicable banking laws, rules and regulations, he added.
The finance department also formally objected to the proposed acquisition since it was inconsis-tent with the ongoing rationalization and stream-lining of the government corporate sector and that the financial health of the thrift bank should be closely examined and validated.
By Sandy Araneta
PRESIDENT Benigno Aquino III yesterday ad-vised students in Tarlac, the hometown of the Aqui-nos, to prioritize their stud-ies instead of spending too much time on the social media network Facebook, and video game Clash of Clans.
“You must welcome the opportunities you have made through your efforts. You have probably heard about this several times from your parents, but this time this is coming from the President of the Philip-pines,” Aquino said.
“I hope you study hard. All the support is there, but I cannot learn for you. Open your textbooks first, before opening Facebook. Finish first all your assign-ments before the raid in Clash of Clans. Like what I have told you before, you will continue all of these (programs),” Aquino told the students, during a turn-over ceremony of two new 3-storey school buildings at the Tarlac National High School, in Barangay San Roque, Tarlac City, Tarlac.
Aquino, earlier yester-day, was in the ceremonial turnover of the Depart-ment of Education (DepEd) Public Private Partnership (PPP) for School Infra-structure Project Phase 1 Classrooms in Region 3, City of Malolos Integrated School-Sto. Rosario, Ba-rangay Sto. Rosario, City of Malolos, Bulacan.
THE Philippines has ter-minated the contract to purchase 21 helicopters worth about P1.2 billion, a Palace official said Friday.
“[Defense Secretary Voltaire] Gazmin termi-nated the contract and is-sued a blacklisting order against the supplier,” said Communications Secre-tary Herminio Coloma Jr. in a text message to the Malacanang Press Corps yesterday.
“We only have accepted 7 UH-1 helicopters,” Coloma also said in the text mes-sage. “We continue to com-mit to the observance of our procurement laws and defend what is advanta-geous to the government.”
The Department of Na-tional Defense (DND) earlier said they were planning to scrap the con-tract for the supply of 21 UH-1 helicopters worth P1.2 billion, citing the supplier’s failure to deliver the air assets on time.
In a notice to terminate forwarded last March to the joint venture of Rice Aircraft Services Inc. and Eagle Copters Ltd., De-fense Secretary Voltaire Gazmin informed the supplier of its failure to comply with the delivery schedule.
“You are hereby ordered to submit a verified posi-tion paper stating why the contract should not be
terminated within seven days upon receipt thereof,” Gazmin said in the notice addressed to Robert Rice, the official representative of the joint venture.
Gazmin, who cited the procurement law, said the contract for the purchase of UH-1 helicopters will be partially terminated for exceeding the 10 per-cent maximum liquidated damages.
Gazmin said the liqui-dated damage is equivalent to one tenth of the one per-cent of the unperformed portion per day of delay. The supplier pays liquidat-ed damage if it fails to meet delivery timetables.
Sandy Araneta
Graduating to what? Students and urban poor youth donned graduation robes during a rally outside the Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) to protest the Aquino administration’s policies against unemployment that actually promote labor exportation. LINO SANTOS
Market day. The children of workers hold up protest placards during an all-workers unity rally at Quiapo, Manila to campaign for the national minimum monthly wage of P16,000. LINO SANTOS
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news
Recantation a mystery, says DOJ Sec
She described witness Jerramy Jo-son’s recantation as “mysterious.”
De Lima yesterday disclosed that she had already ordered the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) to invite and question Jo-son, who had recanted her earlier
statement that Justice Undersec-retary Francisco “Toti” Baraan and several prosecutors received millions from the camp of the principal accused in the Maguin-danao massacre case.
De Lima said the NBI would
By Rey Requejo
Justice secretary Leila de Lima doubts the retraction of the witness in the bribery charge against the Ampatuans and sev-eral officials of the Department of Justice.
look into the personal back-ground of Joson to determine her credibility and see whether she has any psychological problems.
“I need to dig up the truth, whatever the truth is on this is-sue,” the Justice Secretary said.
“What was her motive in do-ing that (recantation) when the damage has already been done? For all we know, she’s concocting stories for his personal, selfish motives,” De Lima noted.
According to De Lima, she was puzzled by the recantation of Joson considering she was the source of the allegation.
“Harm has been inflicted on the institution and on the case, and then she would just take back what she said just like that? What would she say now – that she was again paid to recant – after say-ing she was paid to expose the al-leged notebook?” she said.
Joson earlier alleged that she
was used by the camp of Ma-guindanao Gov. Esmael “Toto” Mangudadatu in a supposed bid to remove Usec. Baraan as super-vising official of the DOJ panel prosecuting the case.
Joson said she concocted charges against Baraan and some prosecutors through the note-book carrying the records of the amounts paid by the Ampatuans to the DOJ officials upon orders of lawyers Santos and Oquendo.
MMDA warns public on breaking anti-smoking, anti-littering laws
Caloocan gives public service a twist on People’s Day
NOTICE OF LOSSNotice is hereby given to the public that the BOI Certificate of Registration No. 2010-131 issued to Marcventures Mining & Development Corporation on July 19, 2010 was declared loss as per Doc. No. 451; Page No. 92; Book No. 478 Series of 2015 before Notary Public Atty. Virgilio R. Batalla in Makati City.(TS-Apr. 18 & 19, 2015)
Invitation to Bid for Security Services for Various Plants and Facilities for PSALM Corporation
1. The Power Sector Assets and Liabilities Management (PSALM) Corporation, through its 2015 Corporate Operating Budget, PSALM intends to apply the sum being the Approved Budget for the Contract (ABC) to payments for the Procurement of Security Services for Various Plants and Facilities for PSALM Corporation as follows:
Name of Project Project Reference NumberApproved Budget for the Contract
(ABC)
Non-Refundable Fee for the
Bidding Document
A m b u k l a o - B i n g a Facilities & Magat Housing Complex
2015-SS-AMBIGAT-A008-01 PhP 3,000,000.00 PhP 3,000.00
Pulangui IV Hydroelectric Power Plant
2015-SS-P4HPP-A009-01 PhP 13,500,000.00 PhP 13,500.00
South Luzon Plants, Facilities & Installations
2015-SS-SLPFI-A010-01 PhP 4,900,000.00 PhP 5,000.00
Cebu II Diesel Power Plant Complex 2015-SS-CDPPC-A011-01 PhP 2,700,000.00 PhP 3,000.00
Power Barges 101, 102 & 103, and Satellite Office
2015-SS-PBSO-A012-01 PhP 3,500,000.00 PhP 3,500.00
Bids received in excess of the ABC shall be automatically rejected at bid opening.
2. The PSALM Corporation now invites bid for the Procurement of Security Services for Various Plants, Facilities and Installations for PSALM Corporation. Delivery of the Goods is required as indicated in the Bid Data Sheet of the Bidding Documents. Bidders should have completed, within three (3) years before the date of submission and receipt of bids, a contract similar to the Project. The description of an eligible bidder is contained in Section II of the Bidding Documents, Instructions to Bidders (ITB).
3. Bidding will be conducted through open competitive bidding procedures using a non-discretionary “pass/fail” criterion as specified in the Implementing Rules and Regulations (IRR) of Republic Act (RA) 9184, otherwise known as the “Government Procurement Reform Act”. Bidding is restricted to Filipino citizens/sole proprietorships, organizations with at least sixty percent (60%) interest or outstanding capital stock belonging to citizens of the Philippines, and to citizens or organizations of a country the laws or regulations of which grant similar rights or privileges to Filipino citizens, pursuant to RA 5183 and subject to Commonwealth Act 138.
4. Interested bidders may obtain further information from PSALM and inspect the Bidding Documents at the address given below, fro m 9:00 AM to 5:00 PM, Monday to Friday.
5. A complete set of Bidding Documents may be acquired by interested Bidders beginning on 20 April 2015 from the address below and upon payment of a nonrefundable fee for the Bidding Documents, pursuant to the latest Guidelines issued by the GPPB. It may also be downloaded free of charge from the websites of the Philippine Government Electronic Procurement System (PhilGEPS) and the website of PSALM, provided that Bidders shall pay the non-refundable fee for the Bidding Documents not later than the submission of their bids.
6. PSALM will hold a Pre-Bid Conference on 27 April 2015 at 2:00 PM at the 6th Floor, Bankmer Building, 6756 Ayala Avenue, Makati City which shall be open only to all interested parties who have purchased the Bidding Documents.
7. Bids must be delivered to the address below on or before 11 May 2015 at 2:00 PM. All Bids must be accompanied by a bid security in any of the acceptable forms and in the amount stated in ITB Clause 18.
8. Bid opening shall be on 11 May 2015 at 2:15 PM at the 6th Floor, Bankmer Building, 6756, Ayala Avenue, Makati City. Bids will be opened in the presence of the Bidders’ representatives who choose to attend at the address below. Late bids shall not be accepted.
9. The PSALM reserves the right to accept or reject any bid, to annul the bidding process, and to reject all bids at any time prior to contract award, without thereby incurring any liability to the affected Bidder or Bidders.
10. For further information, please refer to:
FREDERICO P. QUEVEDO Bids and Awards Committee Power Sector Assets and Liabilities Management Corporation 4th Floor Bankmer Building, 6756 Ayala Avenue, Makati City Tel./ Fax No.: (02) 739-5236 e-mail: [email protected] [email protected] PSALM website: www.psalm.gov.ph
(Sgd.) FREDERICO P. QUEVEDO BAC Chairperson
Republic of the Philippines
(TS-Apr. 18, 2015)
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Orchids overload. A woman along Padre Faura Street in Manila arranges the different types of orchids she is selling. There are about 1,000 types of orchids in the Philippines. DANNY PATA
By Joel E. Zurbano
VIOLATIONS of the laws against smoking and littering can prevent residents from leaving the country, the Metro Manila Development Authority said Friday.
The agency cited the case of Raul Samson, an Overseas Filipino Worker, who was apprehended by Immigration officers at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport be-cause of a standing warrant of arrest.
Samson was about to leave the country for Singapore last week but his departure was prevented because the Makati City Metro-
politan Trial Court Branch 67 is-sued a warrant for his arrest for violating Republic Act 9003, or the Ecological Solid Waste Manage-ment Act of 2000, in 2013.
Records showed that members of the MMDA environmental team ar-rested Samson for throwing a ciga-rette butt at the Metro Rail Transit station in Guadalupe, Makati City on April 25, 2013.
Due to non-settlement of his viola-tion within the prescribed period of settlement, the MMDA has pursued the filing of a case. Samson failed to attend the arraignment of the case. Upon the recommendation of the
prosecutors’ office, the court issued a warrant of arrest against him.
On April 6, Samson appeared at the MMDA office to pay for the administrative fine of P500.
MMDA chairman Francis To-lentino said the Anti-Littering Law prohibits littering, dumping, and throwing of garbage or any kind of waste in open or public places.
Under the law, violators are is-sued an EVR (Environmental Vio-lation Receipt ), with correspond-ing fines ranging from P500 to P1,000 and community service for those who cannot afford to pay the administrative fines.
By Jun David
A LOCAL government unit now seeks to provide answers to its resi-dents’ personal concerns—from a dead phone, a busted radio, bad hair, knotty joints, even to ugly blackheads.
Caloocan City, both North and South, might be the only city gov-ernment that offers said services to its residents in addition to the regu-lar financial, medical, and burial assistance.
Facials, massages and appliance repair services are all offered here
—and for free during people’s Day, observed regularly since Caloocan City Mayor Oscar Malapitan as-sumed office in July 2013.
These services are provided ev-ery Thursday for city hall-south and every Friday for city hall-north. A team of local employees also visits the barangays in the north as part of their “mobile city hall” program.
The Manpower and Livelihood Center assures the city of a steady supply of skilled technicians, syl-ists and artists through its free vo-cational training in automotive re-
pair, welding, cellphone repair, hair cutting, massage therapy and many others, the mayor said.
“The graduates are just giving back to the city what they have learned through their free voca-tional education,” Malapitan added.
While people go to the city hall for their usual business—obtaining assistance from the local govern-ment—and wait for their numbers to be called, they can avail them-selves of these free services. “That they do not have to spend money for repairs and grooming is a big help to them,” the mayor said.
s at u r d ay : a p r i l 1 8 , 2 0 1 5
news A7
SBMA employees: Agency is for improving our plight
Napocor, DOE say the young are champions, stewards
Strike looms at Cebu coal plant
Court with a view. Basketball players in Sabangan, Ilocos Sur can either focus on the game or enjoy the scenic coastline. DAVID CHAN
Taste of trade. Zambales Gov. Hermogenes Ebdane, Jr. visits a trade fair and exhibi-tion and samples a freshly cooked prawn handed to him by an Aeta.
SBMA Chairman Roberto Garcia believes the agency is exempt from the SSL. Tranche 4 of the SSL would raise the wages of the SBMA employees, which for the past years have been way below standards set by
the law. Garcia, backed by local
government unit (LGU) representatives to the Board, even asked Presi-dent Benigno Aquino III to take his side in the is-sue and to remove the six
members of the SBMA board who had passed the resolution.
According to them, the resolution to implement the SSL, passed by SBMA direc-tors Philip Camara, Ramon Sesdoyro, Alfonso Siapno, Norberto Sosa, Gerald Sam del Rosario, and Philip Chua Chiaco is unlawful.
The LGU representa-tives who sided with Garcia and voted against the SSL are Directors Benjamin Antonio III, Bienvenido Benitez, Wilfredo Pineda, Joven Reyes, Francis Gar-
cia of Bataan and Cynthia Paulino of Olongapo City.
Paulino is the wife of Olongapo City Mayor Rolen Paulino.
“Even those people who are supposed to look after our interests, like Mayor Paulino and his wife Cyn-thia, are now against us. We wonder why they would do something like that,” the workers added.
What made it worse, the employees said, was Mayor Paulino’s duplicity in pretending to support the SBMA employees. “He
even joined vigils and asked city hall employees to come with him. He made sure he got his picture taken so he could say he was with us. But his real intentions are showing now.”
Former Senator and cur-rent Philippine Red Cross chairman Richard Gordon, the founding Chairman and Administrator of the SBMA, built the agency after the Americans’ exit from the na-val base and the eruption of Mount Pinatubo so that the community could recover from these upheavals.
By Dexter A. See
LINGAYEN, Pangasinan—The Department of Energy, National Power Corpora-tion and provincial execu-tives this week launched Batang Kalikasan—Young Environmental Champi-ons, saying that young peo-ple can play a vital role in environmental protection and preservation.
Some 500 youth rep-resentatives attended the launch.
“They have the energy to participate in our pro-grams for our watershed areas and the voice to rally the public to be environ-mentally-conscious and responsible,” said Napocor President/ CEO Ma. Glad-ys Cruz-Sta. Rita.
Pangasinan is home to the Napocor-managed 345-megawatt San Roque Dam and Watershed that serves as the second biggest dam in Asia.
Energy Secretary Car-los Jericho Petilla for his part discussed energy conservation and Energy Regulations No. 1 –94--the guidelines set by the Department in granting financial benefits to host communities where con-cerned sectors were in-formed on how to access the funds to implement energy-related projects in their own communities to help sustain the growth of the renewable energy in the countryside.
Batang Kalikasan was first launched by Napocor in Laguna in 2013 where youth advocates pledged support to the preservation of the Caliraya-Lumot Watershed Reservation.
By Junex Doronio
CITY OF NAGA, Cebu -- Hundreds of supervisory and rank-and-file employees of Kepco-Salcon Power Cor-poration picketed Thursday in front of the coal-fired power plant to pressure the Korean-led management to agree to their demands.
The workers wanted to the company to recognize their two unions.
They staged the picket upon learning that Mayor Valdemar Chiong would likely support their move.
Lowell Sanchez, president of Kepco-Cebu Supervisors Association, said the man-agement refused to grant the following requests: reinstate-ment of terminated officials
and payment of their back wages, cessation of unfair la-bor practices, and voluntary recognition by the manage-ment of the union to be the official bargaining unit of the supervisory employees.
“If management contin-ues to ignore our demands, we will push through with our plan to go on strike and cripple the company’s opera-tion,” Sanchez said.
Alexander Ponce, presi-dent of Kepco-Cebu Em-ployees Association, said they have eight issues of un-fair labor practices commit-ted by the management.
The two unions of Kepco-SPC filed a notice of strike Friday last week before the National Conciliation and Mediation Board-7, accus-
ing the firm of union busting and unfair labor practices.
Both unions are affiliated with the Workers’ Solidarity Network, which is the na-tional federation of all power industry unions, including electric cooperatives.
Kepco-SPC produces 200-megawatt of power daily.
Last month, Hyang-Reol Lyu, KEPCO Philippines Corp. president and chief executive officer, disclosed that the company will also build a 300-megawatt (MW) coal-fired power plant to further expand its presence in the local power sector.
The Kepco-SPC manage-ment has assured that the power supply would not be cut off.
OLONGAPO CITY—The Concerned Em-ployees of the Subic Bay Metropolitan Au-thority are decrying the move of the SBMA chairman to stop a resolution implementing Tranche 4 of the Salary Standardization Law that would ensure fair wages and job oppor-tunities for the people here.
treaty allies Japan, South Korea and Taiwan in the course of his Asian swing.
Secretary of Foreign Af-fairs Albert del Rosario said he would bring up Manila’s concerns in the meeting he’s seeking with US Secretary of State John Kerry and Defense Secre-tary Ash Carter. He said previous talks with China were dead-end diplomatic engagements.
A minimum credible defense is the Philippine objective of seeking more modern military hardware under the aegis of the MDT and the avowed American rebalancing of forces to the
Asia-Pacific region.In my continuing con-
versations with retired Ambassador Alberto Enco-mienda, he said that while
the country needs a cred-ible self- defense capabil-ity, we should be cautious about relying too much on the Mutual Defense Treaty. He said the MDT does not apply in a South China Seaconflict situation as the Spratlys is not part of the country’s “metropolitan territory.”
Article V of the MDT, Encomienda pointed out , defines the subject of the Treaty as being “that (of ) an armed attack on the Pacific Area on either of the Parties (in the Pacific Area) as “deemed to in-clude an armed attack on the metropolitan territory
OPINION
CYAN MAGENTA YELLOW BLACK
A8
[ EDI TORI A L ]
TRUTH TIME
REPORTS of the coun-try’s top diplomat’s trip to Washington this month to ask for more sophisticated air and naval equipment to meet the challenge of Chi-nese military buildup in the South China Sea brings to the fore the validity of
the 1951 PH-US Mutual Defense Treaty.
It is under the MDT, mor-ibund until China staked a sweeping SCS claim trig-gered by the Scarborough/ Panatag shoal incident that Manila invoked US com-mitment to the treaty, a pledge affirmed as “iron clad” by President Barack Obama during his Manila visit in April last year.
The Obama commitment was also made to other US
TUGGING AT UNCLE SAM’S COATTAILS
IT’S now plain that Moro Islamic Liberation Front chief negotiator Mohagher Iqbal – we shall refer to him by that name simply because we are so used to it by now – has been refusing to divulge his true identity for one simple reason: To hide his involvement in terroristic activities in the past.
We are referring to the Davao International Airport bombing of March 4, 2003, where 20 people died and 143 were injured, and the bombing of the Sasa Wharf, also in Davao City, less than a month later on April 2, 2003, where 17 were killed and 56 were wounded.
Iqbal is not the only leader of the MILF, which the government is now talking peace with, similarly situated. The Public Attorney’s Office, the source of Iqbal’s alleged real name, also has records implicating Al Hadz Ibrahim Salamat, Aleeem Aziz Mimbantas, Ghadazli Jaafar and Eid Kabalu in the Davao bombings, as well. PAO chief Persida Acosta, according to Senator Alan Peter Cayetano, has records of the real names of these MILF officials because she acted as their lawyer after they were charged with masterminding the attacks.
And there is a good reason why Iqbal’s counterparts on the government side of the negotiations, Peace Process Secretary Teresita Deles and panel chairman Miriam Coronel Ferrer, did their best to keep their identities a secret. Because the government negotiators want us all to believe that the MILF’s leaders and members are not terrorists, they cannot by necessity allow the people on the other side to be implicated in terroristic activities.
By their actions in the controversy about Iqbal’s use of an alias, Deles, Ferrer and the other members of the panel have conspired to keep away information that they unilaterally decided was unimportant. But as Cayetano has also pointed out, the significance of the use of aliases by Iqbal and the rest strikes at the very heart of the negotiations with the rebel group: The need for mutual trust between the two sides.
If Deles and Ferrer can, in their desire to hammer out an agreement with the MILF, choose to gloss over inconvenient facts, how can we, in whose name they are negotiating, trust them, in turn, to work for our interest?
The government panel has not been forthright in its disclosures to the public, which has become wary of the real motives of the MILF after the Mamasapano incident. For their own protection (from legal action, really), Iqbal and the MILF leadership have decided to enlist the government panel in a scheme that allowed them to pretend that they were never involved in terrorist acts.
And that’s where we are right now: Instead of trust, we have suspicion. Where there should be transparency, there is only a perpetual cloud of doubt over the peace talks and the proposal to pass the Bangsamoro Basic Law.
Let everyone involved give the people all the facts. Then let them participate in a negotiation that impacts them all.
Enough of the lies and omissions. Let’s have some truth, for a change, before we can have peace.
BACK CHANNEL
ALEJANDRO DEL ROSARIO
A retired ambassador
cautions us against relying too much on the Mutual Defense
Treaty.
ADELLE CHUAE D I T O R
S AT U R D AY : A P R I L 1 8 , 2 0 1 5
OPINION
CYAN MAGENTA YELLOW BLACK
CYAN MAGENTA YELLOW BLACK
THE controversial Reproductive Health Law just turned one year old earlier this month.
In April 2014, in Baguio City, the Supreme Court announced its deci-sion that the law is not unconstitu-tional save for a few provisions. To commemorate this milestone, RH champions and advocates trooped to the city of pines. We gathered at the grounds of the Philippine Informa-tion Agency to celebrate the law and discuss what has happened since the SC decision as well as the challenges in implementation that the law faces.
Former Department of Health (DOH) secretary Esperanza Cabral and former Albay Representative and RH principal author Edcel Lag-man, former Representative and co-author of the RH bill turned Baguio Mayor Mauricio Domogan led the celebration.
Also present were some of the non-government organizations that played leading roles in the long and difficult advocacy that resulted in the present law: the Philippine Legislators Com-mittee on Population and Develop-ment (PLCPD), Inc., Forum for Fam-ily Planning (Forum), Likhaan Center for Women’s Health (Likhaan), Fam-ily Planning Organization of the Phil-ippines (FPOP), Filipino Freethinkers (FF), WomanHealth Philippines, and my own Democratic Socialist Women of the Philippines (DSWP). We were also joined by organizations in Baguio that took active roles in the RH move-ment.
Carlos Celdran, whose Damaso case unintentionally provided the advocacy with a big break as it ex-posed intolerance of the anti-RH Catholic Church, was likewise there.
One year is really a short time for the RH law to make a significant difference especially since the for-mer DOH leadership has been on the slow side in preparing for its full implementation. However, things are now moving and hopefully, the law will be implemented full-blast in the coming months.
Since DOH Secretary Jeannette Garin took over in December of last year, the department has been busy making things happen. The struc-ture that would implement the law,
RH LAW TURNS ONE
of either of the Parties (in the Pacific Area), or on the island territories under its jurisdiction or on the armed forces, public vessels, or aircraft in the Pacif-ic.”
The United States said as much. It is not taking sides in the South China Sea dispute but expressed its concern on the freedom of in-ternational navigation. But Chi-na’s unabated reclamation of land
in the SCS to project forward military outposts to strengthen its nine-dash line boundary in disputed waters has become wor-risome not only to the US but also to Australia. Bill Twedell, Can-berra’s ambassador to Manila, expressed concern over China’s massive land reclamation activi-ties as destabilizing to the peace and security of the Asia-Pacific region.
President Obama’s castigation of China’s aggression in the South China Sea was followed up by Ad-miral Samuel Locklear, US com-mander of the Pacific Fleet, who said the military bases being built on reclaimed land could be used to deploy planes, warships and even used as a platform to launch mis-siles. Locklear, who testified re-cently at a US House armed forces
Continued on A11
POWER POINT
ELIZABETHANGSIOCO
ManilaStandardTODAY
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Continued on A11
lessly been issuing frivolous TROs for a fat fee, and it has been one of the most profitable legal devices that have long plague our judicial system, which rea-son why the Act defining the duties and functions of the Ombudsman prohibit in Section 14 courts from issuing TRO.
* * * * *One unsettling fact about the
Bangsamoro Basic Law that this lackluster administration is trying to ignore is that it would be able to fulfill its promise of approving the sellout agreement as scheduled. The PNoy administration is con-fident, and in fact arrogant, that it would be approved by Congress because of the enor-mous war chest it has allocated to ensure its approv-al. The approval by Congress will be hailed by this pretending to be honest government that the Filipino people favor the BBL, and it was a triumph of peace against the warmongers who continue to propagate war forgetting that 44 of our brave Special Action Force sacrificed their lives to bring about peace in this deeply divided land.
But for all the optimism of PNoy, he is misleading the people that the process will be completed once Congress votes to approve it. They would not say there is a need to ratify because it in fact is an amend-
ed to the Cory-initiated Constitution. The BBL will directly nullify, if not abrogate, Sections 15 to 19 of Article X of the Constitution. The Malaysian stooges
already manifested their position they will not honor the provisions in the Constitution pertaining to the autonomous regions, but in-sist that the BBL will supersede all other provisions pertaining to au-tonomy.
The funny thing is that while this pretending-to-be-honest gov-ernment is shouting on the top of its voice it will oppose any move to revise the opprobrious legacy of his mother, it is silent that the BBL will
undergo the gauntlet of ratification. Many right-thinking Filipinos see that what lies
ahead is a looming war of greater magnitude and di-mension. It poses a dilemma to some who now buy the yellow propaganda of giving peace a chance. They only way for it to resolve the deadlock to finalize the conflict where peace is brought about by either vic-tory or defeat. We could only blame our stupid panel for negotiating from the standpoint of assuring the secessionist rebels Congress will approve it once the pork barrel is dangled on condition they do a politi-cal circus of betraying our people.
OPINIONS AT U R D AY : A P R I L 1 8 , 2 0 1 5
A10
Part ITHE political ambi-tion of Vice Presi-dent Jejomar Binay is fast sinking. Like a boxer, Binay ap-pears to duck at ev-
ery shadow he believes would hurt his presidential ambition. Binay has become vulnerable to his at-tackers; he has become too defensive to a point that even if some of the charges against him are baseless, people tend to believe them. It is his overreaction in suppressing them that betrays him now.
When Binay rushed to forestall the suspension of his son, Makati mayor Erwin “Jun Jun” Binay, many thought this was understandable because the suspension order issued by Ombudsman Conchita Carpio-Morales would have a demoralizing effect on Binay’s political power base where he began his ca-reer as mayor and eventually established his dynasty in the post-Marcos era.
In his desperation to stop the suspension order, he went to the Court of Appeals to block the order issued by Ombudsman. He suspected this was mas-terminded by the Liberal Party, cum Aquino admin-istration. Binay managed to stop the proclamation of Vice Mayor Romulo Pena on March 16, 2015, but that did not end there. It gave rise to a bigger prob-lem for Binay. In no time, Senator Antonio Trillanes IV hollered in the Senate floor that the justices who issued the order received P20 million each and an-other P5 million each for the writ of injunction. The anomalous procedure of the Court of Appeals to issue a TRO to a co-equal body that is specifically prohibited by Section 14 of the Ombudsman Act was capitalized by Trillanes to accuse Binay of bribing Justices Jose Reyes, Jr. and Francisco Acosta of the Sixth Division.
Maybe the camp of Binay will dismiss the charge as political harassment, something that has become a daily menu since he announced to run for the top gun in the coming presidential election. But even if Trillanes would not be able to come out with a wit-ness to support this claim, many are inclined to be-lieve him. People in this country are tired at seeing how our corrupt politicians, using taxpayers’ money, openly sneer at the law.
People believe Trillanes on the basis that the jus-tices acted with alacrity to wrongly issue the TRO against a co-equal body tasked to ferret out corrupt officials in government. Whether Mayor Jun Jun Binay will eventually be found guilty or be absolved of the charge, that is beside the point. The people simply made up their logical deduction there was corruption involved because the TRO was issued to preempt the Ombudsman.
The expose of Trillanes serves as a reminder that courts cannot go on punishing people and their lawyers based on that rather monotonous slogan that “ignorance of the law excuses no one” or in dismissing cases on the flimsy ground that the hypocritical court in more concerned in upholding the ritualistic pro-cedures than in seeking to render justice our people could rarely obtain under the present dispensation. Mayor Binay and his cohorts were suspended for six months for the alleged overpricing in the construc-tion of the Makati City Hall. The mayor will not be deprived of his day in court; that should the Ombuds-man find no prima facie evidence or fail to resolve the complaint within six month, he can get back to his post, and that would be much sweeter for him than in preventing the Ombudsman from doing its duty.
To most observants, it is not the outcome of the charges of corruption hurled by Trillanes against Binay, but of the bizarre method in preempting a co-equal and constitutional branch of the government that is specifically mandated to do the job. In fact, it is now of common knowledge that courts have reck-
BINAY’S SINKING AMBITION
GOING BACK TO FISHING
THIS is the final of this series of Easter columns. And aptly, I end also with one of the last resurrection stories that the gospels tell us about.
It starts with the apostles deciding, in their sorrow and confusion (although Jesus had already appeared sev-eral times to them, they still did not make sense of it), to do something familiar. They decide to go back to fishing. And so they go to the Sea of Tiberias.
The Gospel of John tells us what happened there: “Af-ter this, Jesus revealed himself again to his disciples at the Sea of Tiberias. He revealed himself in this way. To-gether were Simon Peter, Thomas called Didymus, Na-thanael from Cana in Galilee, Zebedee’s sons,* and two others of his disciples. Simon Peter said to them, “I am going fishing.” They said to him, “We also will come with you.” So they went out and got into the boat, but that night they caught nothing. When it was already dawn, Jesus was standing on the shore; but the disciples did not realize that it was Jesus. Jesus said to them, “Children, have you caught anything to eat?” They answered him, “No.” So he said to them, “Cast the net over the right side of the boat and you will find something.” So they cast it, and were not able to pull it in because of the number of fish. So the disciple whom Jesus loved said to Peter, “It is the Lord.” When Simon Peter heard that it was the Lord, he tucked in his garment, for he was lightly clad, and jumped into the sea.”
This is the third time that Jesus appeared to the dis-ciples after resurrection. The disciples must have been annoyed, not knowing it was the master, being asked to cast the net over the right side. They’ve been fishing the whole night and caught nothing. Tired and lacking sleep here is a stranger telling them to do on how to catch a fish. What strange thing to see a man on the shore to see a school of fish on the water when they themselves, fishermen by profession, could not. But I figure that they thought that the man would not make a suggestion unless he had a reason to do so. Whatever reason, they complied with the suggestion. And so they cast and now they could not haul the net because of the multitude of fish. It was at this point that John, the beloved disciple recognized Jesus and said: “It’s the Lord!” Impulsive as he always was, Peter plunged himself into the water to meet the Master.
What is remarkable about Peter in this episode is how he eagerly plunged himself into the water mindless of the fact that the boat was on deep waters and he would get wet because of it, not to mention the possibility of drowning. This is the kind of enthusiasm that the Lord requires from each and every one of us. We cannot meet
and experience the Lord in a lukewarm manner. Re-member that following the Lord is fraught with dangers, difficulties and inconveniences. Yet like Peter, we cannot vacillate or hesitate when the Lord calls us. Oftentimes, obedience to the Lord is an act of faith, a leap of faith so to speak. Christ early on in his ministry warned “Who-ever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross daily and follow me.” In Matthew 7 Jesus also reminds us to “Enter through the narrow gate. For wide is the gate and broad is the road that leads to destruction, and many enter through it. Indeed, follow-ing Christ requires of us to make difficult choices; and often, the easy choice may not be the right one, morally and spiritually, that is.
As the disciple whom Jesus loved would teach us, it is important to recognize God’s activity in our lives. Al-though we know as a matter of doctrine and as a matter of theology that God is present everywhere, it is still es-sential to assume an obedient and compliant disposition towards God to know and recognize his hand in every-thing we do. Nothing happens by chance. Yet oftentimes we forget, conveniently or not, that we do everything un-der his gaze. Yet there are many times when we see God’s presence – like answered prayer, a striking characteristic providence of Christ when we instinctively recognize that it is that Lord’s hand behind a particular event. We are always in the presence of the invisible God but until he does something recognizable then it is only the time that we become aware of his presence. We need to have our senses aroused to recognize him.
The Gospel continues that when they had finished breakfast, Jesus asked Simon Peter, three times if he loved him. To which Peter answered “Yes.” He then said to Peter. “Tend my sheep.” At this moment, Jesus told Peter the manner of his death, saying: “Amen, amen, I say to you, when you were younger, you used to dress yourself and go where you wanted; but when you grow old, you will stretch out your hands, and someone else will dress you and lead you where you do not want to go.” Tradition tells us that St. Peter was crucified in Rome un-der Emperor Nero Augustus Caesar. Christian tradition also held that he was crucified upside down at his own request, since he saw himself unworthy to be crucified in the same way as Jesus Christ.
In going back to fishing, what they were familiar with, the apostles found themselves invited to travel to distant shores and, as Jesus foretold when they first met, they become fishers of persons. Is that something you are also called to do?
Facebook page: Dean Tony La Vina Twitter: tonylav
BACKBENCHER
ROD P.KAPUNAN
EAGLE EYES
DEAN TONYLA VIÑA
Many are inclined to believe Trillanes even when he cannot come
up with solid proof.
THE BBL DESERVES CONGRESSMEN’S TERRIBLE ENGLISH
MANY members of the House of Rep-resentatives should take a refresher course in basic English. The hearings held last April 7 and 8 over the contro-versial Bangsamoro Basic Law (BBL) revealed the kind of English spoken during legislative sessions conducted by the lower house.
Three representatives said “we are here to get the truth from everyone here.” Unless they were to use torture to extract information from their wit-nesses like Interior Secretary Man-uel “Mar” Roxas and top officials of the Philippine National Police, they should have said “we are here to get to the truth.”
One representative who wanted the house rules applied strictly to the pro-ceedings should have said “we should not apply our rules liberally.” Instead, he remembered General Douglas Ma-cArthur and declared, “we are not lib-erated by our rules.”
If an office is held by just one per-son, it is absurd to call him the “chief ” of that office. A solon who wanted to stop the House from questioning Pres-ident Benigno Aquino III referred to President Aquino as “one chief execu-tive,” as if there were many incumbent presidents.
The sector of the army which uses cannons and mortar is called the ar-tillery (pronounced ar-TEE-leh-ree). Many solons repeatedly pro-nounced this word ar-TIL-yeah-ree, like the double-L in Trillanes. Worse, they had a plural form of the word – ar-TIL-year-rees.
There many other mispronounced words – committee (accent on the sec-ond syllable) became KO-mee-tee; neg-
ligence (accent on the first syllable) became neg-LEE-jehns; and circum-stance (accent on the first syllable) be-came sehr-KOM-stans.
A representative familiar with mili-tary concepts said the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) must end all forms of terrorisms. Huh? We heard of international terrorism, but we nev-er realized that the House uses a plural form of the word. Maybe the interna-tional terrorist threat has worsened.
Still another representative insisted on a votation. There is no such word in the dictionary. We found election, but no votation.
The presiding officer was some-thing else. He – said he intended to give every congressman a chance “to ask question,” directed certain wit-nesses to “please response,” and an-nounced brief breaks by saying, “hear-ing is suspend.”
Surprisingly, the only person who spoke proper English during that time was an outsider – Undersecretary Evan Garcia of the Department of Foreign Affairs.
Opponents of the BBL should ask the House of Representatives to hold more hearings on the controversial draft law. If the BBL is exposed long enough to the congressmen, their ter-rible English may just kill the bill out-right without need for judicial scrutiny.
Iqbal’s pseudonym raises eyebrows, problems
Mohagher Iqbal of the Moro Islam-ic Liberation Front (MILF) never fails to surprise everyone.
First, he said the Mamasapano mas-sacre was not a massacre because the 44 slain policemen had firearms with
which to defend themselves. Next, he said that while the MILF will give Malaysia a copy of the full report on its findings in the Mamasapano mas-sacre, the Philippine government will only get an “executive summary” of the same findings. Although Iqbal promised the MILF will return all of the firearms stolen from the slain policemen, only a handful were re-turned, and they were cannibalized for parts! When the AFP proved the MILF had been operating training camps in Mindanao for its commandos – in vio-lation of the ceasefire it signed with the government – Iqbal claimed these camps were just “orientation centers” where MILF personnel conduct semi-nars on the BBL.
Now, it turns out that Iqbal was us-ing a pseudonym all the while. His excuse – it is his nom de guerre (war name) which he uses because he is a revolutionary. Nonetheless, the name Mohagher Iqbal is still a false name, a pseudonym, an alias. He is not who he claims himself to be. Worse, Iqbal admitted that he has many aliases.
Since this stealthy man is not who he claims to be, legal problems will necessarily arise. For one, the validity of the so-called Framework Agreement on the Bangsamoro which he signed on behalf of the MILF and which led to the drafting of the BBL can be repu-diated. The Republic cannot be bound by an agreement with an individual who is not who he says he is.
If a person can be made criminally liable for the illegal use of an alias in a private transaction, there is greater reason for filing a criminal case against one who uses a false name in a trans-
action with the Philippine government itself. As expected, the Secretary of Justice has a contrary opinion, one in accord with the mental template of her boss, President Aquino. At the end of the day, what matters is what the law provides, and what the courts have to say.
The law governing the use of aliases is clear. It is illegal to use an alias un-less it is for a legitimate literary pur-pose, like when an author uses a pen name to maintain privacy, or for the performing arts, as what many film and television actors and actresses do to protect their privacy, or to make their names sound more appealing at the box office.
Is Iqbal authorized by law to use an alias? No such law has sur-faced. Therefore, his use of an alias is illegal, and he must be made to ac-count for it. Since the law must be obeyed, he should also be prohibited from holding public office under a false name.
In the meantime, congressional debates on the BBL should be held in abeyance until presidential ad-viser Teresita Deles and panel chair-man Miriam Coronel Ferrer can pro-vide satisfactory answers as to why Iqbal was allowed to use an alias – or more specifically, one of his many aliases. Moreover, Deles and Ferrer must disclose if they were aware that Iqbal was using a pseudonym from the start of the negotiations. Their answers will indicate if they are mere stooges of the MILF, or it they just for-got to do their homework. In either instance, they have a lot of further ex-plaining to do.
A11ADELLE CHUAE D I T O R
S AT U R D AY : A P R I L 1 8 , 2 0 1 5
OPINION
HAIL TO THE CHAIR
VICTOR AVECILLA
the National Implementation Team (NIT), has been set up with former Secretary Cabral as the convenor. The NIT has for its members the various government instrumentalities man-dated to implement the law as well as representatives of civil society orga-nizations including myself.
The Regional Implementation Teams (RITs) are also now standing. RITs follow the set-up of the NIT so government, NGOs and other stake-holders in the regions are involved.
Providing family planning services to those who want or need it is among the law’s major provisions. However, the law also requires that FP sup-plies, including all contraceptives, are certified by the Food and Drugs Administration as non-abortifacient before they can be used for the gov-ernment’s FP program.
To date, virtually all contraceptives have already been FDA-certified. This means that each type and brand of contraceptive has been tested and scrutinized by the FDA. Not only that, the DOH is already distributing FP
supplies to LGUs and NGOs that run FP services. These services are pres-ently being provided to those who want to plan their families. It is safe to say that family planning supplies and commodities are more available now compared with the past years.
Community-based education pro-grams on RH in general, the law, family planning, and other related topics are also ongoing primarily done by NGOs. Government, for its side, is also busy orienting its instru-mentalities on their responsibilities under the law besides clarifying gray areas especially related with the high court’s decision.
RH education is among the most important provisions of the RH law. This program becomes even more important in the light of the SC deci-sion prohibiting access of minors to family planning services, particularly contraceptives without parental or guardian consent.
RH education is also crucial because of the very serious adolescent preg-nancy problems we have. Without ed-ucation and access to family planning services, teen-age pregnancy would be
extremely difficult to address.The RH law directs the Department
of Education (DepEd) to develop the curriculum and adequately train teachers who will handle RH lessons in school. The DepEd has reported that it has already developed the cur-riculum and integrated in the bigger K12 curricula.
The implementation of RH educa-tion is very important to follow be-cause this will affect our initiatives to curb, hopefully, eliminate adolescent pregnancy.
The law requires DOH as lead agency in the law’s implementation, to annually report to the President and Congress on the status of the law. I know that the report is currently being crafted.
We just celebrated the law’s first birthday. While the law has limita-tions and we cannot expect miracles on the first year, I am hopeful that the DOH is on the right track as far as implementation is concerned.
Yes, RH remains a major concern and we look forward to its full imple-mentation.
committee hearing, expressed alarm that the escalating tension could re-sult in miscalculation.
2016 race heating upThe 2016 presidential race is
heating up with two still-unde-clared candidates—Senator Grace Poe and Davao City Mayor Rodrigo Duterte—beginning to crowd poll preference leader Vice President Je-jomar Binay.
Senator Poe is second in the lat-est Social Weather Stations survey at 31 per cent behind Binay, who despite new allegations of corrup-tion, has managed to keep his lead at 36 percent.
Duterte and Interior Secretary Mar Roxas are tied at third place with 15 percent in the SWS rank-ing. Roxas has yet to be officially proclaimed by the ruling Liberal Party as its standard bearer.
Poe and Duterte’s surge despite not having declared their candida-cies would indicate they could still gain more voter preference points once they make it official before the October filing deadline of cer-tificates of candidacy.
Tugging... From A9 RH Law... From A9
sat ur day: apr i l 1 8 , 2 0 1 5
sports
Cavs,Dubspicked
Nadal survives on clay; Stan, Roger exit
McDowell takes charge;Spieth struggles with 74
LOS ANGELES—Regular season heroes will rise and fall, rivalries will be renewed and the dark horses will get their chance when the Na-tional Basketball Association playoffs begin this weekend.
The Golden State Warriors, Atlanta Hawks, Cleveland Cavaliers and San An-tonio Spurs are the favourites, but there’s always someone who does the unexpect-ed and launches a team to prominence.
Golden State finished with 67 wins and 15 losses in the regular season, complet-ing one of the best seasons in league his-tory and setting a club record for victo-ries. The Warriors became just the 10th team to reach 67 wins in a season.
“Everything we have gone through to this point will hopefully prepare us for this journey of winning 16 games,” War-riors player Stephen Curry said of the playoffs.
“Every game is of supreme importance and we have to be ready.”
The Warriors, who will have home-court advantage throughout the playoffs, begin first-round action against New Or-leans on Saturday, after the Pelicans de-feated San Antonio 108-103 Wednesday, in order to make the postseason.
Klay Thompson scored a game-high 25 points as Golden State closed out their re-markable season with a 133-126 win over the Denver Nuggets for their fourth-con-secutive win.
The Pelicans charged into the posts-eason in style. They needed a win in the season finale against the defending champion San Antonio, who were riding an 11-game winning streak.
New Orleans was up to the task as they grabbed the Western Conference’s eighth and final playoff berth.
The Oklahoma City Thunder defeated the Minnesota Timberwolves 138-113 to finish with the same record as the Peli-cans. However, New Orleans held the tiebreaker thanks to winning the teams’ head-to-head series.
Cleveland finished the regular season with a 113-108 overtime win over the Washington Wizards.
With the number two seed in the Eastern Conference and a first-round matchup with the Boston Celtics already secured, the Cavaliers (53-29) rested Le-Bron James, who hasn’t played in eight consecutive season finales.
James will be back for the first game of the series on Sunday.
“I’m happy that our team is coming into this time of year after having gone through something,” Cleveland head coach David Blatt said.
- Cavs favored by bookmakers -The Cavaliers enter the playoffs with
the second-best record in the Eastern Conference, but don’t tell that to the Las Vegas bookmakers who have tabbed them as the overall favourites in to win the championship.
The Cavs own the best record in the NBA since mid-January. They were listed Thurs-day at 9-4 odds as the consensus choice to seize their first NBA title in June. AFP
MONTE CARLO —Rafael Nadal fought off a challenge from John Isner to earn a 7-6 (8/6), 4-6, 6-3 win that took him into the quarter-finals on a day of upsets at the Monte Carlo Masters on Thursday.
Nadal, bidding for a ninth title on the clay of the Country Club, was tested by a dozen aces from Isner, a huge hitter not noted for his finesse on the dirt.
But the American 15th seed put up a massive effort to stay level almost through-out against Spain’s king of clay, who is still searching for consistency and confidence in this tepid season.
Nadal won the title every year from 2005 to 2012 and has lost just three times in 55 matches at the tournament.
Earlier, Roger Federer joined holder Stan Wawrinka as an upset victim as the 2014 finalist lost 6-4, 7-6 (7/5) to France’s Gael Monfils.
Before that, Grigor Dimitrov had stunned seventh seed Wawrinka 6-1, 6-2 in the third round.
The exit of 2014 Australian Open cham-pion Wawrinka came a year after he won his first and only Masters 1000 title here.
Wawrinka was well off his game, out in 54 minutes with 41 unforced errors and just four winners against ninth seed Dim-itrov. And he is now in danger of losing his top-10 ranking place.
World number two Federer missed the chance to reach the last eight in the prin-
cipality, weighed down by 38 unforced er-rors against Monfils.
After losing a break for 3-1 in the open-ing set and standing 5-3 in the second-set tiebreak, 17-time Grand Slam winner Federer could not make much progress against the flashy French opponent who beat him in a Davis Cup rubber last No-vember.
But the Swiss is far from giving up hope only a few days into the spring clay cam-paign leading to the Roland Garros start on May 24.
“This is not going to put me under too much. It’s the first tournament on clay. I was really hoping to do better because I felt there was an opportunity. AFP
HILTON HEAD ISLAND—Graeme McDowell and Matt Every posted matching 66s for a share of the lead while Masters champ Jordan Spieth struggled to a 74 in the first round of the PGA Tour’s Heritage event Thursday.
McDowell, the 2013 champion, has made three cuts in his last six worldwide starts and his best finish was a share of 36th in Malaysia.
Every collected his second-straight Arnold Palmer Invi-tational crown in his only top-25 finish this season at Bay Hill.
Newly-crowned Masters winner Spieth struggled throughout his opening round and posted a three-over 74, which left him tied for 93rd place.
Spieth posted a double-bogey, two bogeys and a birdie in his round at the Harbour Town Golf Links course.
“I didn’t drive the ball well, I didn’t particularly strike my irons well, and chipping and putting wasn’t there. Just was an off day,” Spieth said. AFP
Stallions crush AltasCRIS Bitoon banged in 19 points for the Manuel L. Quezon University Stallions, who waylaid the University of Perpetual Help-B Altas, 57-49, Thursday in the 21st Fr. Martin Summer Cup basketball tournament at the Arellano University gymnasium in Legarda, Manila. The Stallions, coached by Jinino Manansala, joined the Far Eastern University Tamaraws, in the early lead of Group B. The Tamaraws, led by Wendell Comboy with 11 points, spoiled the debut of prized recruit CJ Perez when they turned back the Ateneo Blue Eagles, 58-52. John Umali fired 16 points, including a winning charity in the endgame as the University of Perpetual Help Junior Altas won over Emilio Aguinaldo College-Immaculate Conception Academy Briga-diers, 69-68. In other senior games, Jose Rizal University prevailed over the Arellano Chiefs, 60-52, while the Olivarez College Sea Lions stopped the Enderun College Titans, 66-65. Albert Bordeos hit 21 points for the San Beda-A Red Cubs, who out-played University of the East, 115-50, in another junior match, while the FEU Lady Tamaraws defeated Adamson, 58-50.
LeBron James (left) of the Cleveland Cavaliers and Steph Curry (right) of the Golden State Warriors are expected to lead their teams in the NBA playoffs. The Cavs will take on the Boston Celtics in the first round of the playoffs, while the Warriors battle the New Orleans Peli-cans. AFP
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sports
Pinoy Pride goes to Dubai BatangGilas playsBrunei 5
A breeze for PH team?
Cage clinic. Young kids, numbering 115, sweat it out early morning playing basketball at a summer sports clinic in Lapu Lapu City. Summer programs such as basketball clinics are rampant this season to bring productivity and fun for kids, while school is still out. RALPH PIEZAS
Fil-Japanesemakes U-23volley squad
“Pinoy Pride 31” will be held in Dubai, where the last staging on Sept. 5, 2014 re-
sulted in a turn-away crowd that had lined up for hours to buy tickets.
ARIE Irawan moved in the threshold of a second Asian Development Tour win as he surged past erstwhile joint leaders Micah Shin and Miguel Tabuena with a four-un-der 67, seizing a three-stroke lead in the third round of the ICTSI Eagle Ridge Invi-tational at Eagle Ridge’s Aoki course in Gen. Trias, Cavite yesterday.
Two behind Shin and Tabuena halfway through the $60,000 event, the pow-er-hitting Irawan flaunted superb putting and pro-duced seven birdies in a flight behind the last group in another hot but windy day. That included one on No. 17 that made up for his double-bogey mishap on the previous hole that capped his 34-33 card.
The 24-year-old Irawan, one of Ma-laysia’s most promising talents, then watched Shin bogey two of the last three holes to storm ahead at 209 and 18 holes away from scoring a follow-up to his breakthrough ADT win in Sime Darby in Malaysia last January.
The reed-thin Shin, who tied Tabuena at helm with a 66 Thursday, fell off the lead with an opening 37 but stayed within strik-ing distance of Irawan with birdies on Nos.
10 and 12 until he faded with bogeys on Nos. 15 and 18. He wound up with a one-over 72 and dropped to joint second at 212 with Tabue-na, who also had a 72, and American Brett Munson, who fired a 70.
Tabuena, seeking his first ADT victory, failed to get go-ing at the front and dropped strokes on Nos. 5 and 9 but birdied the par-5 11th for that 72 while Munson bird-ied the last hole to move to joint second from a share of
fourth and earn a spot in the championship flight with Irawan and Tabuena.
The tournament, the first of a two-week ADT swing in the country sponsored by ICTSI and co-organized by Pilipinas Golf Tournaments, Inc., is played under winter rules, a usual practice on the ADT since there are dry patches on the par-71 course since Day One.
Irawan surges with a 67as Tabuena, Shin falterBy Peter Atencio
THE Philippine under-23 men’s team is expected to have an easy time in the football tournament of the coming Southeast Asian Games in Singapore.
This is because the Filipino booters have been bracketed in Group B with lightly regarded teams such as Singapore, Myan-mar and Cambodia after the drawing of lots last Wednesday.
Group A, on the other hand, is composed of powerhouse squads led by defending champion Thailand, Indonesia, Malay-sia, Vietnam, Laos, Brunei and Timor Leste.
“The draw, many say, has been kind to us. However, many teams are preparing also, just like our team. The other side is a tough group,” said Philippine Football Federation General Secretary, Atty. Ed Gastanes.
Gastanes added that getting a win in Group B will not be dif-ficult for Team Philippines.
A 30-man national pool has been formed for the biennial meet, with Australian coach Jim Fraser and Marlon Maro han-dling the squad.
The pool will be further reduced in the coming days to a leaner 20-man lineup.
The pool members include six members of the Philippine Az-kals, ed by Mark Hartmann, along with Amani Aguinaldo, Ken-shiro Daniels, Manuel Ott, OJ Portreria and Daisuke Sato.
The others in the pool are Luis Abadia, Ronnie Aguisanda, Na-thanael Alquiros, Arnel Amita, Fitch Arboleda, Florencio Badelic Jr.,Mark Anthony Besana, Jaime Cheng, Julian Clarino, Dominic del Rosario, Curt Dizon, Neil Dorimon, Shirmar Felongco and Dan-iel Gadia, Joshua Grommen, John Kanayama, Nicholas O’Donnell, Paolo Salenga, Francisco Santos, Connor Tacagni, Richard Talaroc, Kennedy Uzoka, Gerardo Valmayor III and Nathanael Villanueva.
ABS-CBN consultant for sports Peter Musngi, who is in Dubai with ALA Promo-tions president Michael Al-deguer, told the Standard/boxingmirror.com that the fight card will be held at a bigger hall at the World Trade Center.
Musgni said that he and Aldeguer had very exten-sive and productive meet-ings and received direct feedback from Dubai and British officials, who were
impressed with the staging of the last “Pinoy Pride” event.
“The 31st edition will be an official event of Dubai Tourism, which will pro-vide a financial subsidy,” said Musngi, who, how-ever, did not mention any amount.
The 26-year-old Jason Pagara, who has a record of 35-2 with 22 knockouts, is coming off a second-round TKO of Cesar Chavez to
retain his World Boxing Organization International super lightweight title, while younger brother Prince Al-bert Pagara is the undefeated IBF Intercontinental super bantamweight champion and boasts of an undefeat-ed record of 23-0, with 16 knockouts.
Prince Albert is coming off a fourth-round victory over Rodolfo Hernandez, who was forced to retire after he injured his hand.
By Ronnie Nathanielsz
THE highly successful “Pinoy Pride” series returns to Dubai on Philippine Independence Day (June 12) with a fight card, headed by the talented and popular Pagara brothers Ja-son and Prince Albert, together with the ex-citing Mark “Magnifico” Magsayo.
CAGAYAN DE ORO—Brunei, a team coached by Filipino mentor No-mar Isla, is expected to get valuable learning experi-ence from their counter-parts from Batang Gilas and at the same time enjoy Pinoy hospitality.
For two days, Brunei, a country whose basketball program is just starting, was given a rude welcome by Indonesia and Thai-land. The two more su-perior squads showed no mercy against their less-skilled rivals despite their already huge advantages.
Isla, who coached Emilio Aguinaldo College for several years, expects the Batang Gilas squad to show more compassion in the spirit of sportsman-ship.
“‘Yung mga Pinoy na-man they know their bas-ketball. Kapag alam nilang kaya ‘yung kalaban in-aalalayan rin nila because they’re true gentlemen of the sport,” Isla said.
The Philippines and Brunei face off today at 4 p.m. in the main game of the SEABA Under-16 tour-nament at the Xavier Uni-versity Gym in the event presented by MVP Sports Foundation, SMART Communications, Mayni-lad, Rio Verde Water Ca-gayan de Oro City, and Rough Rider Jeans Cloth-ing in partnership with the Department of Tourism Promotions Board headed by COO Domingo Ramon Enerio III and the local government of Cagayan de Oro headed by Mayor Os-car Moreno.
FIL-JAPANESE Rissa Sato made it to the Philippine women’s team, which will see action in the Asian Under-23 Volleyball Championships.
Sato, a center spiker, who underwent residency with Ateneo de Manila Univer-sity, will be inserted into the national team’s roster in the tournament, which will run from May 1 to 8 at the Cune-ta Astrodome and at the Phil-sports Arena in Pasig City.
She will replace Dindin Santiago-Manabat, who begged off because she has been invited to play in a lo-cal beach volleyball tourna-ment in Boracay.
“She (Sato) showed up this week and she has a passport and she said she wants to play for the Phil-ippines,” Philippine coach Roger Gorayeb said.
Gorayeb said Sato is not as tall as Dindin, but has quick hands, moves fast and can play defense and offense.
Sato is among the initial 11 players, who were earlier an-nounced by Gorayeb to join the team, along with Ateneo star Alyssa Valdez, who was re-cently named by the Philippine Olympic Committee as the delegation’s flag-bearer in the 28th Southeast Asian Games. Peter Atencio
Dimakilinggrabs shareof chess leadINTERNATIONAL Master Oliver Dimakiling kept his share of the lead after six rounds of the 15th Bangkok Chess Open in Thailand Wednesday night.
Dimakiling lost to Ba-torsz Socko in 34 moves of a Sicilian Defense and almost dropped out of the lead with 4.5 points.
But draws posted by top seeded Wang Hao and fourth-ranked Ian Gustaff-son against their rivals al-lowed Dimakiling to stay in front.
Wang drew with GM Pons Vallejos in 24 moves of a Slav Defense, while Gus-taffson halved his point with Jozsef Horvath in 45 moves of a Queen’s Indian Defense.
They are now in a five-way tie for the lead.
Peter Atencio
Games today(Xavier Universtiy Gym)
2 p.m. – Thailand vs Indonesia4 p.m. – Brunei vs Philippines
Irawan
A14S AT U R D AY : A P R I L 1 8 , 2 0 1 5
CYAN MAGENTA YELLOW BLACK
CYAN MAGENTA YELLOW BLACK
A feel-goodmovie about
PacquiaoTHE days that we used to go to theaters to watch movies has long gone, partly due to our being engrossed
in following all manner of sports on television and of course, an occasional movie in the comfort of our home without having to navigate horrendous traffic jams that destroy whatever enjoyment you get from watching a good movie.
We had no choice, but to break the trend of many years when invited by youthful director Paul Soriano and his Dad, Pastor Jeric Soriano, who called a few times to make sure we would attend the premier of “Kid Kulafu,” the initial movie venture of Paul with Star Cinema.
The movie received incredible support from the giant broadcast network ABS-CBN, whose prime virtue is that it wholeheartedly supports any venture it gets into, with style and a relentless use of all its many platforms in promoting its product.
We braved the traffic on EDSA to get to the Rockwell Theater on time, where a huge crowd of fashionable people, was milling around enjoying snacks and each others’ company.
Many of the stars of the network were there to lend their support to Paul and the venture itself because the story of eight-division world champion Manny Pacquiao, who was known as “Kid Kulafu,” when he fought as an amateur in his early years, is always a fascinating experience.
There is so much to tell because so little has been told in the past and even we ourselves, who chronicled the saga of Manny as a 16-year- old on the weekly boxing show “Blow by Blow” needed to fill in some of the gaps in our own appreciation of his early life hounded by hardship, but molded on the anvil of courage, faith and caring.
It was both an enthralling movie and an emotional ride for those like us who shared his early years of triumph, as well as setbacks in the ring which, upon reflection, did not just make Manny a better fighter, but a better human being.
Floyd Mayweather Jr. has said that the timing of his fight with Pacquiao on May 2 was perfect. But the timing of the release of “Kid Kulafu,” was infinitely better because it once again put into stark perspective Manny’s conquest of his childhood poverty and his remarkable humility in the face of unprecedented success, which contrasts dramatically, with the arrogance and the ostentatious displays of wealth by Mayweather.
Pacquiao was named “Kid Kulafu” after a brand of wine, whose bottles he gathered as a kid and sold to the nearest junk shop or recycling agent so he could put some food on the table for his mother Dionisia and his brothers and sisters, since their father had long abandoned them.
Director Paul Soriano put it simply when he said: “He was born with nothing, but because of God, because of hard work and faith he became something.”
In our eyes, Manny Pacquiao has emerged as not just a champion and a hero, but the embodiment of the quintessential Filipino, who is both compassionate and courageous and someone, who cares deeply especially for those mired in the same kind of poverty that marked his childhood, even as he inspires them to strive to overcome.
Normally, directors enjoy a license to embellish or invent, but in the case of Paul, who spent two years doing research for the film with much of it based on his personal conversations with Pacquiao, helps distinguish “Kid Kulafu,” because it is factual without a trace of fiction. This is no myth. This is the unvarnished truth.
We who spent years with Pacquiao from the time he fought his third fight against Rocky Palma on May 1, 1995 in Imus, Cavite, were pleasantly surprised by the commitment to reality which, in itself, sets the movie apart.
In our humble view, “Kid Kulafu” is a film that must be seen because it mirrors the courage and perseverance of a poor Filipino, boy who helped earn international respect and recognition for our country at a time when it was down.
Buboy Vilar, the young boy who portrayed the role of Manny with an amazing sense of reality, was indeed a revelation. Honed to be a boxer, he surpassed all expectations with his hand-speed and movement a mirror of Manny. What an unbelievable talent this kid is. And as he himself so eloquently remarked, “Everyone can mimic his moves, but you can’t easily copy his courage.”
The movie incorporated Pacquiao’s first world title victory when he scored a spectacular eighth-round knockout of Thai hero Chatchai Sasakul after taking a bad beating in the earlier rounds, to win the World Boxing Council flyweight title in a championship bout we anchored together with longtime colleague Quinito Henson.
It was real life drama with Director Soriano’s juxtaposition of Mommy D watching the fight and screaming her heart out in a role played out with remarkable fervor by Alessandra de Rossi, which was an absolute touch of cinematic genius.
We believe with all our heart that every single Filipino, who shared pride in Pacquiao’s achievements and can identify with the rags-to -riches story, should watch “Kid Kulafu.” It’s a move that all of us must identify with, because is not one of those glitzy movies with big name stars but rather a movie that should make you feel good because it is unmistakably real.
INSIDE SPORTS
RONNIE NATHANIELSZ
ONE Championships bringing Askren to PHBy Randy Caluag
WORLD-CLASS wrestler Ben Askren will defend his welter-weight title against Brazilian MMA veteran Luis Santos when the ONE Championship returns to Manila on April 24 at the Mall of Asia Arena.
Filipinos will finally get to witness a world-class wrestler in Askren, who is regarded as the one of the best MMA welter-weights in the world. He was the undisputed champion in Bellator before bringing his act to ONE Championship, Asia’s biggest MMA promotion.
A former NCAA Division I All-American, Askren has put together 14 wins on the cage. In just two fights in ONE Cham-pionship, Askren was crowned welterweight king after dispatch-ing Nobutatsu Suzuki via TKO.
Askren will defend his crown for the first time in the Manila leg, dubbed Valor of Champions, op-
posite an equally tough opponent in Santos, who made short work of Baktiyar Abbasov in his ONE de-but in November last year.
Santos, with over 70 profes-sional fights on his record is definitely a tough test for Askren. The Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu blackbelt has 61 wins, half of which came via TKO or KO finishes.
ONE Championship Victor Cui said he’s excited about the Askren-Santos championship tussle, say-ing that Akren definitely faces “ one of the toughest challenge of his career against Luis Santos.”
“Ben Askren is the absolute best in the world and we are ex-cited to see him go up against the highly skilled Luis Santos. We are also ecstatic at the chance to be back in Manila to treat (Filipino) fans to world-class mixed martial arts action,” Cui said.
Askren recently had a one-on-one interview with the Standard and gamely played the numbers’ game.
18—Askren says he has no
favorite number but if there is a number that is most significant to him, it should be July 18—his birthday.
1—The round in which Askren promised to stop Santos in their championship bout. “I’ll beat him right in the first round,” says Askren. There’s no more secret to his game as he vows to take Santos down and win by ground-and-pound.
3—The number of hours Askren spends in practice everyday
10—The number of fights Askren has signed up for a two-year contract with ONE Cham-pionship. He’s up for this third fight and has seven remaining. When he retires, Askren says he will go back to collegiate wres-tling as a coach.
11—Askren’s most memora-ble fight was his 11th win at the expense of Karl Ammossou in his third defense of his Bellator crown in January, 2013. The win was made special by the fact that it was his first TKO win in a long while after a string of six decision victories inside the cage.
5—Aside from MMA, Askren is motivated by his family. He is married to Aimee for five years and has one-year old daughter named Alex
22—Despite the long travel from the US, which took 22 hours—Askren managed to make a short stop in Manila, before pro-ceeding to Singapore to continue training at Evolve MMA Gym.
Manila Mavericks boostlineup for coming seasonCOMING off a fighting third-place finish in last year’s inaugural staging of the International Premier Tennis League, the Manila Mavericks revamped its lineup in a bid to grab the overall crown in this year’s competition.
No less than the world’s no. 1 woman player Serena Williams is leading the charge for the Mavericks.
Owner of 19 Grand Slam sin-gles titles, Williams has been dominating the women’s com-petition for more than a decade already.
Philippine Sports patron
and team manager of the Ma-nila Mavericks Jean Henri Lhuillier said: “We are looking forward to the coming season of the IPTL. While we fell short last year, this year seems to be more promising for the team. We have exerted efforts to come out with the best pos-sible team we can form so our
Mavericks fans will not be let down. We are very excited to have the caliber of Serena Williams in our fold.”
Joining Williams in the team are former world top 10 players Frenchmen-Wilfred Tsonga and Richard Gasquet, Australian legend Mark Philip-pousis, top women players Sabine Lisicki of Germany and Jarmila Gadjosova of Slovakia, Croatian tennis prodigy Borna Coric and Filipino doubles spe-cialist Treat Huey.
“We have a very balanced team and everyone is capable of delivering the wins. We have
very reasonable chances to contend for the title this year,” Lhuillier added.
The 18-year-old Coric, the 2013 US Open Junior singles’ champion, is the fastest rising star in the ATP tennis circuit, boasting of wins against top players such as Rafael Nadal and Andy Murray.
Former world no. 1 Nadal is one of the other tennis super-stars participating in this year’s edition of IPTL.
Nadal will be playing for the first time in IPTL and will ban-ner the defending champions Indian Aces.
Free Pacman updates on TNT
Bike champ. Standard Insurance’s lone entry, duathlete Joey de los Reyes, won all of the three stages and the overall championship in the three-stage Tour of Pines 2015 recently. De los Reyes had a time of 4:11:35.4 as he bested 200 other local and foreign cyclists in the bikefest that covered Dagupan, Baguio and Atok, Benguet, going up twice to Baguio proper via Marcos Highway and Naguilian in La Union.
YOU can now stay updated with the latest news on the long-awaited showdown between Filipino ring icon Manny Pacquiao and the undefeated Floyd May-weather Jr. as Talk ‘N Text and Internet.org by Face-book have teamed up to offer access to ESPN and SPIN.PH on your mobile phone without charges.
ESPN is the main dig-ital provider of sport news worldwide, while SPIN.PH is the leading sports hub of Filipinos. Both online sites offer the lat-est updates on what is dubbed as the ‘Fight of the Century” between Pac-quiao and Mayweather on May 2, as well as other sports news, features and commentaries.
ESPN and SPIN.PH are among the 24 websites, including Facebook and Messenger, that you can now access for free within
the Internet.org app using your Talk ‘N Text-pow-ered phone.
Access ESPN and Spin.PH content for free through Facebook’s Internet.org app and Talk ‘N Text
“With Talk ‘N Text and Facebook’s Internet.org app, subscribers can eas-ily be one with the rest of the country in supporting our very own ‘Pambansang Kamao,’ reading sports up-dates, features, and com-mentaries on the biggest fight of his life – free of mobile data charges,” said Charles A. Lim, Executive Vice President and Wireless Consumer Division Head of Smart and Sun.
Users can also get real-time updates, join online discussions, and cheer for Pacquiao using Fa-cebook and Messenger, which can also be ac-cessed for free through the Internet.org app.
Askren
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4 left vying for PBAcommissioner’s postBy Jeric Lopez
ONLY four are left.The Philippine Basketball Association trimmed
down the candidates for its next commissioner to four candidates, namely Jay Adalem, Rickie Santos, Vince Hizon and Chito Narvasa.
From among the four, the league will continue with its selection process and eventually choose the next commissioner, who will take over the reigns from current head Chito Salud, who is set to shift to being President and Chief Execu-tive Officer by the season’s end.
Two weeks ago, the selection committee, led by league chair-man Pato Gregorio, bared the six
remaining candidates—Adalem, Santos, Hizon, veteran cager Danny Seigle, TV commentator Charlie Cuna and former NBA Asia officer Mark Fischer.
After continued deliberation this past week, Adalem, Santos, Hizon and Narvasa, who was initially not included in the six remaining candidates, were the last four standing, while Cuna,
ACROSS 1 Not barefoot 5 Prize marble 10 Bear in the sky 14 Large tawny cat 15 Sink uncl ogger 16 Poet’s contracti on 17 Beside onesel f 18 Orange leftovers 19 Meet defi antly 20 Greeting the moon 22 Ventricle nei ghbor 23 Big gal oots 24 — Grey tea 26 Poltergeist 28 Greed 32 Golfer’s set 33 At loose ends 34 Between pi and sigma 35 Where spokes meet 36 Phoebe’s fami ly 37 Misgiving 38 Tokyo, to shoguns 39 Juntas’ pl ots 40 Metaphysical poet 41 Utter fai lures 43 — mi gnon 44 Poker stake 45 Ick!
46 Solitary 49 Gridiron pass 52 Yields to gravity 53 Video-game pi oneer 55 Almond-shaped 57 Run in neutral 58 Ivan of tennis 59 Quiet i nlet 60 Sense 61 Flirt w ith 62 Cypress feature
DOWN 1 Sauna site 2 Hefner or Downs 3 Melville work 4 Thick sandwiches 5 Free-floating 6 Toothy smiles 7 Urban threat 8 Midwest st. 9 Goddess of dawn 10 Develop 11 Caboose’s pl ace 12 Splinter group 13 Type of rug 21 Fraulein, to a laird 22 Dry as dust 24 Latvian currency
25 Mimicked 26 Red-waxed cheese 27 Boxcar ri ders 28 Pens 29 Sherlock’s lady friend 30 U of U.N.
fame 31 Knights of — 32 Sigh of relief 33 Kind of
strength 36 Bad spel l 37 Protest song
genre (2 wds.)
39 Retina cel l 40 Mince 42 Grimm
youngster 43 In vai n 45 Feet
containers 46 Yeah, ri ght!
(2 wds.) 47 Fill the hull 48 Eye
amorously 49 Actress
— Turner
50 Bard’s ri ver 51 Rinse off 53 Mi. above sea level 54 Unisex w ear 56 Spike or Ang
Saturday, April 11, 2015CROSSWORD PUZZLE
LOTTO RESULTS6/45 00-00-00-00-00-00
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2 EZ2 00-00Seigle and Fischer were excluded already.
Narvasa, who is the current president of basketball coaches in the Philippines, was not part of the six final candidates, but was the one name consistent in the whole process.
The league is targeting May 15, or earlier, to name the new commissioner.
‘’We really want a smooth tran-sition, that’s why we’re doing our best to name a new commissioner early,’’ said Gregorio. ‘’Hopefully, we can name our next commis-sioner in the next couple of weeks, on or before May 15.’’
The candidates are scheduled to meet with the board individu-ally on April 30 to discuss their
plans and visions for the league, should they take over from Salud.
Meanwhile, Talk ‘N Text im-port Ivan Johnson was fined a hefty P150,000 bill by the league after intentionally bumping Rain or Shine coach Yeng Guiao in Game 1 of the finals of the 2015 PBA Commissioner’s Cup.
The league, upon review of the video regarding the incident, slapped Johnson with the fine as it felt that the contact with Guiao was uncalled for and could’ve been avoided.
There’s no suspension handed on Johnson. He is currently play-ing as the Tropang Texters are shooting for a 2-0 best-of-seven series lead against the Elasto Painters in Game 2 of the finals.
Carmudi eyes podiumfinish at BRC
PH Superligarace for semis seats heats upTHE race for the second outright semifinal berth further heats up as Shopinas, Foton and Philips Gold fig-ure in highly crucial encounters when the 2015 Philippine Superliga women’s volleyball tournament All-Filipino Conference rolls back to Alonte Sports Arena in Binan City today.
The Tornadoes and Lady Slam-mers start things off when they clash in the first game at 2:30 p.m., while unbeaten Petron battles Mane ‘N Tail at 4:30 p.m., followed by the collision between the Lady Clickers and Cignal in the 6:30 p.m. main encounter of this inter-club tour-ney organized by Sports Core and backed by Asics, Mikasa, Senoh, Mueller Sports Medicine, Via Mare, LGR and Healthway Medical.
The Blaze Spikers remain on top of the team standings with an im-maculate 8-0 win-loss card, while Shopinas is running second at 4-3 followed by Philips Gold and Foton, which are tied at 4-4, making the derby to the last remaining semifi-nal slot pretty interesting entering the crucial stretch of the double-round eliminations.
PREVIOUS PUZZLE SOLVED
4-18-15 © 2015 UFS, Dist. by Univ. Uclick for UFS
CARMUDI PH Racing Team is confi-dent that their ace racer Polo Bautista can get a podium finish on the upcom-ing second leg of the 2015 Flat Out Race Series, which will be held today at the Batangas Racing Circuit in Ro-sario, Batangas.
The 16-year-old Slalom and Circuit racer champion Patrick Oliver “Polo” Bautista, recently capped 1st place of the coveted Race What You Brung at the Clark International Speedway last April 11. Bautista also finished with a strong fifth-place standing on the first leg of the FORS series last March 7 on the same venue.
Subir Lohani, managing director of Carmudi Philippines, said: “We have confidence in Polo’s ability and win-ning attitude. He may be young, but there is a lot of potential in him.”
Lohani further explained that they supported Bautista because he exem-plifies the same qualities of the online vehicle buying and selling market-place—bold, aggressive and tenacious.
“We feel that we too (like Polo), is in a decisive race to conquer the Philip-pine market by giving our customers with better service,” he said.
“This will not be the last time that we will support aspiring racers. We are also inviting potential racers—wheth-er on four or two wheels—to joined Team Carmudi as we embarked in the motorsports pedigree,” added Lohani.
The 2015 Flat Out Race is an eight-leg series which tests the time attack and touring skills of racers. It is the only series that runs all race circuits in the country. Racers can use any car both against the time attack or part of the grid.
To know more about Team Car-mudi, log on at www.carmudi.com.phRachel Anne Daquis (left) of Petron scores a point against Foton’s Angeli Araneta and Jennifer Macatuno in a
2015 Philippine Superliga All-Filipino Conference game won by the Blaze Spikers, 25-19, 25-20, 25-14, at the Cuneta Astrodome. ROMAN PROSPERO
CYAN MAGENTA YELLOW BLACK
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A16RIERA U. MALL ARI
E D I T O R
REUEL vIDALA S S I S TA N T E D I T O R
Cavs,Dubspickedturn to A12
By Eddie Alinea
LOS ANGELES—Filipino boxing hero Manny Pacquiao, a welterweight, will be as strong and powerful as a middleweight and as speedy and quick as a featherweight, when he fights undefeated American Floyd Mayweather on May 2 (May 3 in Manila) at the MGM Grand Arena in Las Vegas.
turn to A14
Askrencomingto PH
This was the assessment condi-tioning coach Justin Fortune made on the World Boxing Organization 147-pound champ on Thursday, 15 days before his duel with the World Boxing Council/World Boxing As-sociation counterpart.
“Yeah, Manny’s only a welter-weight, but come fight night, he’ll be like a 156-pound campaigner be-cause of his newly acquired power in both his hands,” Fortune said.
“Fans will also be amazed with the quickness and speed only a
Pacquiao as strong as a middleweight
sports
Pacmanlooks goodin sparringBy ronnie nathanielsz
EIGHT-DIVISION world cham-pion Manny Pacquiao continues to look good in sparring.
He sparred 11 rounds yester-day at the Wild Card Gym and said later he was “happy.”
Earlier, he did his usual morning run at the Pan Pa-cific Park.
In contrast, reports from within the camp of Floyd May-weather Jr. tended to confirm earlier reports by boxingmir-ror.com that Mayweather was having trouble with his fragile hands and that now, even his legs are giving him trouble.
Writer Matthew Fellows of Liberty Voice reported that “the latest out of the Vegas-based Mayweather camp is a serious concern, developing over brittle hands and loss of leg strength and endurance.”
He noted that while the media “has covered the issue in snip-pets, there is a camp-wide at-tempt to cover the seriousness with which trainers and staff are taking the issue.”
ABS-CBN reporter Dyan Castillejo told the Standard/boxingmirror.com that Pacqui-ao showed terrific hand-speed and punching power while his timing was perfect in sparring yesterday.
130-pound demon can deliver,” Fortune projected, following a nine-round sparring session that day.
“Manny, I might say, is the most powerful, strongest and fastest wel-terweight nowadays and he will show it on May 2 to the delight of the fans. When the fight is over, Manny will be the undisputed world welterweight champion and Mayweather a 47-1 win loss record-holder,” Fortune predicted.
The conditioning guru clarified that Pacquiao won’t be as heavy as a middleweight and as light as a featherweight.
“What I mean is, Manny will be pounding Mayweather shots
he won’t know where they are coming,” he said.” They will be so strong, no one in his fighting ca-reer, will hit him like this.”
“Remember Oscar (DeLa Hoya)? After losing to Manny seven years ago, he told everybody who cared to listen, he didn’t know where Manny’s punches were com-ing,” Fortune recalled. “And they were so powerful, he wouldn’t know how to defend himself.”
“Oscar wasn’t alone though. Ask David Diaz before him, Ricky Hat-ton, Miguel Cotto, Joshua Clot-tey and Antonio Margarito whom Manny, likewise, forced into sub-mission,” the cancer surviving con-ditioning trainer reminisced.
Manny Pacquiao continues his training at the Wild Card gym of his trainer Freddie Roach. ruPErt WEnDELL ALInEA
RODERICK T. DELA CRUZASSISTANT EDITOR B1
SATURDAY: APRIL 18, 2015
[email protected]@gmail.com
CYAN MAGENTA YELLOW BLACK
CYAN MAGENTA YELLOW BLACK
RAY S. EÑANOEDITOR
Skyway rising on Araneta
Govt plans to issue catastrophe bonds—Tan
BUSINESS
Bangko Sentral ng PilipinasFriday, April 17, 2015
Foreign exchange rateCurrency Unit US Dollar PesoUnited States Dollar 1.000000 44.4120
Japan Yen 0.008396 0.3729
UK Pound 1.493000 66.3071
Hong Kong Dollar 0.129011 5.7296
Switzerland Franc 1.045588 46.4367
Canada Dollar 0.820143 36.4242
Singapore Dollar 0.740796 32.9002
Australia Dollar 0.779423 34.6157
Bahrain Dinar 2.653224 117.8350
Saudi Arabia Rial 0.266660 11.8429
Brunei Dollar 0.738062 32.7788
Indonesia Rupiah 0.000078 0.0035
Thailand Baht 0.030864 1.3707
UAE Dirham 0.272257 12.0915
Euro Euro 1.076200 47.7962
Korea Won 0.000920 0.0409
China Yuan 0.161376 7.1670
India Rupee 0.016057 0.7131
Malaysia Ringgit 0.273673 12.1544
New Zealand Dollar 0.765404 33.9931
Taiwan Dollar 0.032144 1.4276 Source: PDS Bridge
7,946.891.31
Closing April 17, 2015PSe comPoSite index
46
45
44
43
42
HIGH P44.275LOW P44.375AVERAGE P44.337
Closing APRIL 17, 2015PeSo-dollar rate
VOLUME 499.100M
Bangko Sentral ng PilipinasBangko Sentral ng PilipinasBangko Sentral ng PilipinasBangko Sentral ng PilipinasBangko Sentral ng PilipinasBangko Sentral ng PilipinasBangko Sentral ng PilipinasBangko Sentral ng PilipinasBangko Sentral ng Pilipinas
oilPriceS today
P508.00-P728.00LPG/11-kg tank
P38.40-P52.05Unleaded Gasoline
P26.90-P43.80Diesel
P35.40-P39.15Kerosene
P23.70-P24.40Auto LPG
todayP26.90-P43.80
P35.40-P39.15
P23.70-P24.40
PP38.40-P52.05
8500
8000
7500
7000
6500
6000
Closing APRIL 17, 2015
P44.275CLOSE
SECTION’S CONSTRUCTION BEGINS THIS MONTH
Brand ambassador. Pascual Labaratories Inc. named actress Kathryn Bernardo (second from right) as the new brand ambassador of OraCare Mouthrinse to inspire the younger generation to be conscious about their oral hygiene. Shown with Bernardo during a news conference in Quezon City are (from left) Pascual Laboratories senior brand manager Cathy Reyes, brand manager Guia Talag and marketing manager Riza Sacay. LINO SANTOS
By Ditas Lopez and Siegfrid AlegadoTHE Philippines suffered $13 billion of damage when super ty-phoon Haiyan tore through the country in 2013, a year after an-other storm killed 1,067. Now, the nation is looking at defraying the costs of future calamities with ca-tastrophe bonds.
The government is in talks with the World Bank on a possible for-eign-currency offer of the notes, National Treasurer Roberto Tan said in a mobile-phone text mes-
sage, an idea floated by Finance Secretary Cesar Purisima in 2013.
Issuers of the debt, usually sold by insurers, pay higher yields but in the event of a major natural di-saster interest payments are fore-gone or the principal is reduced.
“Among the greatest threats to the Philippine growth story is our heightened exposure to disaster risk,” Tan said in a March 14 inter-view near Cebu City. The World Bank might issue the notes on the country’s behalf, he said this week.
A catastrophe bond sale would help meet rebuilding costs af-
ter major calamities like Haiyan, which killed more than 6,000 people and washed away parts of the city of Tacloban in November 2013. As well as being lashed by frequent typhoons, the country’s location on the Pacific Ring of Fire means it’s prone to earthquakes and volcanic eruptions.
The Philippines suffered losses of $24.5 billion, or 3.8 percent of gross domestic product, due to weather-related events in 2013, ac-cording to Germanwatch. The en-vironmental group says the coun-try was the seventh-most affected
by natural disasters between 1993 and 2012, according to its Global Climate Risk Index 2014.
Typhoon Bopha did more than $800 million of damage in December 2012 and last year typhoon Ramma-sun cost the country $871 million. In the most recent major quake, in 2013, about $50 million of damage was done on Cebu and Bohol islands.
There are $22.8 billion of catastro-phe bonds outstanding worldwide, according to Bloomberg-compiled data. Mexico obtained $315 million of natural-disaster protection via the debt in October 2012. Bloomberg
By Darwin G Amojelar
CITRA Central Expressway Corp., a unit of San Miguel Corp., said Friday it will start within the month the construction of a sec-tion of Skyway Stage 3 along Araneta Ave. in Manila to Balintawak, Quezon City.
Citra said it would soon start building the new section of the P26.7-billion Skyway Stage 3 project, a 14.8-kilometer, six-lane elevated expressway from Buendia to Balintawak that will link South Luzon Expressway to
North Luzon Expressway.The Makati City section of
Skyway Stage 3 along Osmeña Highway already started con-struction in the first quarter of 2014.
Citra said it would conduct a
traffic dry-run along a 200-meter stretch of Osmeña Highway be-low the Skyway Buendia section between column S1-001 and S1-004 and along a 365-meter por-tion of Araneta Avenue between Imelda St. and E. Rodriguez Bou-levard.
The week-long dry-run will start at 6 a.m. on Saturday.
It said for the dry-run in Que-zon City, the four standard south bound lanes and the three stan-dard north bound lanes would be reduced to three substandard 2.5-meter wide lanes.
The company said in Makati
City, four southbound lanes and three northbound lanes would be reduced to two lanes on each direction, technically leaving two SB and NB lanes for use by mo-torists.
The innermost northbound lane will be closed to traffic dur-ing the dry-run.
It advised all vehicles going to Quirino Avenue and Nagtahan via Buendia flyover to stay on the left lane and vehicles going to Makati, Chino Roces and Buen-dia Avenue to keep right.
The Citra traffic management group together with the Metro
Manila Development Author-ity and the traffic units of Makati and Quezon City will jointly un-dertake the week-long dry run to assess the traffic behavior in the areas prior to the implementation of the final traffic management that may require some adjust-ments.
Citra, MMDA and the traf-fic units of Makati and Quezon asked for public understanding and cooperation during the con-struction of the Skyway section.
The Skyway Stage 3 project aims to decongest traffic on Met-ro Manila’s major thoroughfares.
[email protected]@gmail.com
BUSINESSSATURDAY: APRIL 18, 2015
B2
M S T52 Weeks Previous % Net Foreign High Low STOCKS Close High Low Close Change Volume Trade/Buying
MST BuSineSS Daily STockS Review Friday, april 17, 2015
FINANCIAL7.88 2.5 AG Finance 7.13 8.19 7.44 7.5 5.19 379,100 139,437.0075.3 66 Asia United Bank 70.95 70.95 70.2 70.8 -0.21 23,900 1,310,506.00124.4 84.6 Banco de Oro Unibank Inc. 118.00 118.50 116.20 118.50 0.42 3,688,210 -104,028,259.00104 84.5 Bank of PI 106.00 106.10 105.30 106.00 0.00 1,193,070 35,089,793.0063 45.8 China Bank 46.4 46.4 46 46.2 -0.43 11,400 13,885.002.49 1.97 BDO Leasing & Fin. INc. 2.29 2.35 2.34 2.35 2.62 149,000 4.2 2.03 Bright Kindle Resources 2.14 2.20 2.15 2.16 0.93 25,000 4 8.7 Citystate Savings 10.16 9.55 9.3 9.3 -8.46 1,200 18.48 12.02 COL Financial 15.32 15.88 15.28 15.28 -0.26 43,800 -307,222.0031.6 23.55 Eastwest Bank 23.5 23.75 22.85 22.85 -2.77 859,500 -8,346,100.009.5 6.3 Filipino Fund Inc. 7.99 8.78 7.50 8.44 5.63 17,900 890 625 Manulife Fin. Corp. 771.00 780.00 775.00 775.00 0.52 6,760 -651,000.001.01 0.225 MEDCO Holdings 0.415 0.415 0.415 0.415 0.00 50,000 99.4 78 Metrobank 96.8 96.9 95.6 96.2 -0.62 9,737,390 -193,717,984.501.46 0.9 Natl. Reinsurance Corp. 0.97 0.99 0.99 0.99 2.06 984,000 30.5 18.02 PB Bank 18.40 18.40 18.24 18.26 -0.76 221,000 -2,015,812.0094.95 76.5 Phil. National Bank 77.00 78.20 77.05 78.00 1.30 669,510 16,329,917.50137 95 Phil. Savings Bank 95 95 92.05 95 0.00 1,530 361.2 276 PSE Inc. 326 335 325 334 2.45 10,860 3,514,500.0059 45 RCBC `A’ 44.95 45 44.9 44.95 0.00 89,600 3,591,080.00174.8 107.6 Security Bank 166.4 169 164.3 166.4 0.00 669,700 -56,115,187.001700 1200 Sun Life Financial 1410.00 1425.00 1405.00 1405.00 -0.35 480 297,250.00127.9 66 Union Bank 70.00 70.90 70.25 70.30 0.43 8,790 -84,305.00
INDUSTRIAL47 35.6 Aboitiz Power Corp. 41.5 42.8 42.1 42.5 2.41 2,676,300 16,319,240.005 1.6 Agrinurture Inc. 1.74 1.66 1.66 1.66 -4.60 2,021,000 1.66 1.04 Alliance Tuna Intl Inc. 1.09 1.09 1.09 1.09 0.00 501,000 2.36 1.41 Alsons Cons. 2.02 2.02 1.99 1.99 -1.49 427,000 -12,000.0015.3 7.92 Asiabest Group 11.9 11.92 11.12 11.78 -1.01 37,100 148 32 C. Azuc De Tarlac 87.00 92.95 92.95 92.95 6.84 10 20.6 14.6 Century Food 18.48 18.94 18.62 18.64 0.87 62,300 7,504.00125 62.5 Chemphil 194 194 193 194 0.00 60 32 10.08 Cirtek Holdings (Chips) 34.9 35 34.75 34.95 0.14 274,300 65.8 29.15 Concepcion 61.5 62 61.5 62 0.81 34,810 4,765.004.57 1.04 Da Vinci Capital 1.78 1.79 1.75 1.75 -1.69 421,000 23.35 10.72 Del Monte 13.08 13.64 13.1 13.48 3.06 788,400 2,479,398.0021.6 8.44 DNL Industries Inc. 19.020 19.300 18.86 19.300 1.47 5,412,800 -13,587,062.0012.98 9.79 Emperador 11.50 11.52 11.48 11.48 -0.17 14,294,000 -3,078,402.009.13 5.43 Energy Devt. Corp. (EDC) 7.98 8.01 7.94 7.98 0.00 31,515,100 -57,473,570.0012.34 9.54 EEI 9.64 9.76 9.50 9.52 -1.24 1,440,000 6,192,785.002.89 1.06 Euro-Med Lab 1.79 2.11 1.7 1.84 2.79 179,000 17 8.61 Federal Res. Inv. Group 19.96 20.1 18.5 18.96 -5.01 337,300 156,368.0031.8 18.06 First Gen Corp. 28.3 29 28.4 28.95 2.30 2,655,200 22,737,275.00109 67.9 First Holdings ‘A’ 94.2 99.75 94.2 94.5 0.32 282,830 690,104.0020.75 14 Ginebra San Miguel Inc. 14.10 14.20 14.20 14.20 0.71 25,000 -355,000.000.820 0.0076 Greenergy 0.4400 0.4500 0.4400 0.4500 2.27 100,000 15.3 13.24 Holcim Philippines Inc. 14.30 14.20 14.18 14.18 -0.84 35,300 -39,704.009.4 3.12 Integ. Micro-Electronics 6.1 6.29 6.1 6.2 1.64 250,300 0.98 0.395 Ionics Inc 0.580 0.580 0.580 0.580 0.00 203,000 241 168 Jollibee Foods Corp. 212.40 214.80 212.00 213.40 0.47 283,450 6,844,052.0012.5 8.65 Lafarge Rep 9.26 9.5 9.32 9.5 2.59 267,600 79 34.1 Liberty Flour 32.00 37.30 33.60 36.05 12.66 14,200 3.95 2.3 LMG Chemicals 2.55 2.93 2.5 2.85 11.76 297,000 4 1.63 Mabuhay Vinyl 2.9 3 2.54 2.54 -12.41 6,000 45.45 16 Macay Holdings 54.00 54.50 54.00 54.05 0.09 8,400 33.9 24.4 Manila Water Co. Inc. 26.8 27.5 26.8 27.5 2.61 2,282,600 29,625,770.0090 16.2 Maxs Group 23.85 25 23.5 24.75 3.77 568,500 611,485.0013.98 7.62 Megawide 7.820 7.850 7.600 7.600 -2.81 32,100 292.4 250.2 Mla. Elect. Co `A’ 264.00 267.80 264.40 265.40 0.53 110,590 8,810,078.005.25 3.87 Pepsi-Cola Products Phil. 4.12 4.16 4.12 4.12 0.00 2,000 13.04 9 Petron Corporation 9.86 9.86 9.70 9.79 -0.71 2,588,200 -9,662,261.0014.5 9.94 Phinma Corporation 11.48 11.62 11.40 11.58 0.87 5,800 7.03 3.03 Phoenix Petroleum Phils. 4.05 4.05 3.98 4.05 0.00 315,000 3.4 2.22 Phoenix Semiconductor 2.45 2.48 2.43 2.44 -0.41 267,000 12,250.004.5 1 Pryce Corp. `A’ 2.7 2.7 2.36 2.6 -3.70 2,240,000 6.68 4.72 RFM Corporation 4.96 4.96 4.85 4.85 -2.22 235,000 -97,440.007.86 1.65 Roxas and Co. 3.19 3.05 3.05 3.05 -4.39 1,000 8.1 6 Roxas Holdings 6.4 6.5 6.5 6.5 1.56 9,800 63,700.00253 201.6 San Miguel’Pure Foods `B’ 201.8 202 201.2 201.4 -0.20 5,190 -217,416.003.28 1.67 Splash Corporation 1.61 1.66 1.62 1.66 3.11 146,000 0.315 0.122 Swift Foods, Inc. 0.170 0.170 0.165 0.167 -1.76 6,090,000 2.5 1.02 TKC Steel Corp. 1.31 1.31 1.30 1.30 -0.76 30,000 2.68 2.01 Trans-Asia Oil 2.17 2.17 2.16 2.17 0.00 576,000 226.6 143.4 Universal Robina 223 228 216 216 -3.14 2,420,370 -155,948,050.005.5 4.28 Victorias Milling 4.47 4.49 4.47 4.47 0.00 5,000 8,940.001.3 0.670 Vitarich Corp. 0.68 0.68 0.66 0.67 -1.47 1,136,000 67,000.002.17 1.39 Vulcan Ind’l. 1.44 1.48 1.42 1.46 1.39 202,000
HOLDING FIRMS0.7 0.45 Abacus Cons. `A’ 0.465 0.470 0.465 0.470 1.08 100,000 59.2 48.1 Aboitiz Equity 56.70 58.50 56.70 58.50 3.17 1,155,000 19,796,011.0031.85 20.85 Alliance Global Inc. 25.60 26.20 25.40 25.55 -0.20 12,306,600 -146,406,175.002.16 1.6 Anglo Holdings A 1.30 1.35 1.30 1.35 3.85 2,000 7.39 6.62 Anscor `A’ 7.06 7.10 7.00 7.10 0.57 6,900 2.27 1.210 Asia Amalgamated A 1.74 1.72 1.58 1.60 -8.05 119,000 3.4 1.4 ATN Holdings A 0.27 0.29 0.28 0.28 3.77 720,000 3.35 1.6 ATN Holdings B 0.28 0.28 0.28 0.28 -1.79 620,000 800 600 Ayala Corp `A’ 795 799 787 793 -0.25 390,150 -14,059,730.0011.06 7.390 Cosco Capital 8.28 8.31 8.15 8.17 -1.33 3,532,300 3,146,489.0084 14.18 DMCI Holdings 15.34 15.42 15.30 15.40 0.39 7,554,600 68,241,372.005.14 4.25 Filinvest Dev. Corp. 4.50 4.47 4.47 4.47 -0.67 1,000 0.66 0.144 Forum Pacific 0.310 0.305 0.290 0.300 -3.23 770,000 42,000.001380 818 GT Capital 1330 1332 1296 1296 -2.56 513,960 -304,308,930.006.68 5.3 House of Inv. 6.12 6.12 6.12 6.12 0.00 1,000 72.6 46.6 JG Summit Holdings 71.40 72.95 71.55 72.65 1.75 1,225,740 28,856,603.509.25 4.43 Lopez Holdings Corp. 8.79 8.9 8.7 8.86 0.80 3,763,700 12,942,908.000.9 0.59 Lodestar Invt. Holdg.Corp. 0.8 0.81 0.78 0.79 -1.25 1,883,000 -80,000.0018.9 12 LT Group 15.86 16.34 15.88 16.08 1.39 8,304,900 61,328,922.00 Mabuhay Holdings `B’ 0.59 0.67 0.64 0.65 10.17 802,000 5.53 4.22 Metro Pacific Inv. Corp. 4.93 4.93 4.87 4.88 -1.01 16,547,000 8,462,300.006.55 4.5 Minerales Industrias Corp. 5.2 5.1 5 5.1 -1.92 115,000 0.0670 0.036 Pacifica `A’ 0.0400 0.0400 0.0400 0.0400 0.00 3,300,000 0.84 0.450 Prime Orion 0.780 0.790 0.770 0.770 -1.28 1,813,000 -304,920.002.99 2.26 Republic Glass ‘A’ 2.44 2.44 2.44 2.44 0.00 9,000 87 66.7 San Miguel Corp `A’ 67.80 69.85 68.15 69.40 2.36 390,770 4,545,718.00934 709.5 SM Investments Inc. 936.00 947.50 927.00 931.00 -0.53 270,670 -127,897,510.002.2 1.13 Solid Group Inc. 1.23 1.22 1.20 1.22 -0.81 44,000 1.39 0.93 South China Res. Inc. 0.86 0.86 0.86 0.86 0.00 50,000 156 85.2 Top Frontier 104.60 104.30 100.20 101.40 -3.06 2,730 -40,452.000.710 0.200 Unioil Res. & Hldgs 0.3750 0.3850 0.3750 0.3850 2.67 3,170,000 -7,500.000.435 0.173 Wellex Industries 0.2440 0.2430 0.2310 0.2350 -3.69 1,080,000 115,500.00
P R O P E R T Y10.5 6.01 8990 HLDG 8.800 8.900 8.600 8.750 -0.57 115,500 1.99 0.91 A. Brown Co., Inc. 0.85 0.87 0.85 0.85 0.00 1,137,000 2.07 1.29 Araneta Prop `A’ 1.280 1.300 1.300 1.300 1.56 35,000
52 Weeks Previous % Net ForeignHigh Low STOCKS Close High Low Close Change Volume Trade/Buying
Trading SummarySHARES VALUE
FINANCIAL 18,842,124 1,704,305,931.39INDUSTRIAL 196,839,121 28,020,496,128.58HOLDING FIRMS 70,743,183 2,143,470,365.523PROPERTY 144,519,371 968,134,124.73SERVICES 545,205,414 1,920,015,462.80MINING & OIL 552,771,918 204,333,712.207GRAND TOTAL 1,534,361,981 35,010,768,424.23
FINANCIAL 1,857.01 (down) 0.20INDUSTRIAL 12,386.65 (down) 48.75HOLDING FIRMS 7,098.59 (up) 17.56PROPERTY 3,219.67 (down) 8.60SERVICES 2,144.88 (up) 3.91MINING & OIL 14,225.26 (down) 110.24PSEI 7,946.89 (down) 1.31All Shares Index 4,536.86 (up) 2.54
Gainers: 97; Losers: 82; Unchanged: 41; Total: 220
STOCKS Close(P)
Change(%)
Mabuhay Vinyl 2.54 -12.41
Paxys Inc. 3 -11.50
Citystate Savings 9.3 -8.46
Asia Amalgamated A 1.60 -8.05
Benguet Corp `B' 6.5000 -6.88
Petroenergy Res. Corp. 5.50 -5.17
Federal Res. Inv. Group 18.96 -5.01
Agrinurture Inc. 1.66 -4.60
Roxas and Co. 3.05 -4.39
Starmalls 7.22 -4.37
Top LoSerSSTOCKS Close
(P)Change
(%)
Liberty Flour 36.05 12.66
LMG Chemicals 2.85 11.76
Mabuhay Holdings `B' 0.65 10.17
Makati Fin. Corp. 6.9 7.81
IP E-Game Ventures Inc. 0.015 7.14
C. Azuc De Tarlac 92.95 6.84
Filipino Fund Inc. 8.44 5.63
AG Finance 7.5 5.19
Double Dragon 9.1 4.00
Suntrust Home Dev. Inc. 1.070 3.88
Top gainerS
0.375 0.192 Arthaland Corp. 0.245 0.250 0.245 0.250 2.04 80,000 40 29.1 Ayala Land `B’ 40.35 40.25 39.75 40.00 -0.87 4,450,300 55,987,365.006.15 4.1 Belle Corp. `A’ 4.2 4.25 4.17 4.2 0.00 2,725,000 -1,975,490.005.4 4.96 Cebu Holdings 5.22 5.2 5.1 5.2 -0.38 448,300 1.54 0.89 Century Property 0.91 0.93 0.91 0.92 1.10 1,665,000 -524,400.001.97 1.1 City & Land Dev. 1.20 1.20 1.20 1.20 0.00 6,000 1.48 0.97 Cityland Dev. `A’ 1.02 1.01 1.01 1.01 -0.98 30,000 0.201 0.083 Crown Equities Inc. 0.159 0.160 0.159 0.160 0.63 3,650,000 -16,000.000.98 0.445 Cyber Bay Corp. 0.450 0.455 0.445 0.455 1.11 320,000 -45,500.001.09 0.85 Empire East Land 0.880 0.900 0.880 0.900 2.27 7,000 2.25 1.4 Global-Estate 1.42 1.44 1.39 1.40 -1.41 3,533,000 -1,807,740.001.87 1.42 Filinvest Land,Inc. 1.92 1.96 1.85 1.89 -1.56 39,970,000 -31,454,420.001.8 1.19 Interport `A’ 1.45 1.46 1.42 1.46 0.69 347,000 5.73 4.13 Megaworld 5.5 5.6 5.41 5.49 -0.18 23,813,900 60,762,230.000.180 0.090 MRC Allied Ind. 0.129 0.132 0.125 0.125 -3.10 9,220,000 -71,180.000.470 0.325 Phil. Estates Corp. 0.3500 0.3550 0.3350 0.3500 0.00 720,000 83,750.008.54 2.57 Primex Corp. 7.28 7.33 7.2 7.29 0.14 446,900 366,000.0031.8 21.35 Robinson’s Land `B’ 29.10 29.65 29.05 29.20 0.34 2,468,200 -3,506,575.002.29 1.64 Rockwell 1.77 1.76 1.76 1.76 -0.56 169,000 3.6 3.08 Shang Properties Inc. 3.22 3.28 3.18 3.25 0.93 163,000 20.6 15.08 SM Prime Holdings 19.80 20.20 19.52 19.80 0.00 18,587,000 -1,315,571.001.02 0.69 Sta. Lucia Land Inc. 0.81 0.82 0.78 0.8 -1.23 1,707,000 7.56 3.38 Starmalls 7.55 7.43 7.22 7.22 -4.37 375,000 1.96 1 Suntrust Home Dev. Inc. 1.030 1.070 1.030 1.070 3.88 29,000 8.59 5.69 Vista Land & Lifescapes 7.700 7.990 7.800 7.970 3.51 9,445,600 -1,097,425.00
S E R V I C E S10.5 1.97 2GO Group’ 6.5 6.65 6.4 6.5 0.00 69,700 66 32.5 ABS-CBN 61.4 62.5 61.4 61.4 0.00 19,730 1.44 1 Acesite Hotel 1.04 1.11 1.03 1.05 0.96 314,000 1.09 0.6 APC Group, Inc. 0.690 0.690 0.690 0.690 0.00 842,000 -345,000.0012.46 10 Asian Terminals Inc. 13 13.5 13 13.5 3.85 10,400 130,000.0015.82 9.61 Bloomberry 11.84 12.02 11.70 11.80 -0.34 14,554,000 -4,926,782.000.1460 0.0770 Boulevard Holdings 0.1130 0.1140 0.1120 0.1120 -0.88 42,450,000 112,000.004.61 2.95 Calata Corp. 3.25 3.37 3.21 3.3 1.54 220,000 99.1 46.55 Cebu Air Inc. (5J) 80.7 82.2 80.7 81 0.37 334,150 -7,302,329.5012.3 10.14 Centro Esc. Univ. 10.06 10.06 10.06 10.06 0.00 2,000 9 5.88 DFNN Inc. 7.04 7.19 7.00 7.00 -0.57 214,500 1700 830 FEUI 1000 995 995 995 -0.50 475 2090 1600 Globe Telecom 2202 2258 2202 2240 1.73 39,515 53,246,590.008.41 5.95 GMA Network Inc. 6.50 6.51 6.45 6.50 0.00 200,500 1.97 1.36 Harbor Star 1.50 1.50 1.46 1.48 -1.33 241,000 119.5 105 I.C.T.S.I. 106 107.8 106.1 106.7 0.66 3,413,920 8,664,651.007 3.01 Imperial Res. `A’ 8.00 8.00 7.90 8.00 0.00 1,500 12.5 8.72 IPeople Inc. `A’ 11.96 11.96 11.7 11.96 0.00 4,000 0.017 0.012 IP E-Game Ventures Inc. 0.014 0.015 0.014 0.015 7.14 437,100,000 0.8200 0.036 Island Info 0.227 0.229 0.225 0.229 0.88 6,760,000 2.2800 1.200 ISM Communications 1.2500 1.2700 1.2500 1.2700 1.60 158,000 5.93 2.34 Jackstones 2.74 2.81 2.63 2.81 2.55 53,000 12.28 6.5 Leisure & Resorts 8.65 8.65 8.59 8.59 -0.69 1,948,900 12,889,585.002.85 1.69 Liberty Telecom 2.02 2.03 1.99 2.03 0.50 1,600 2.2 1.1 Lorenzo Shipping 1.34 1.32 1.3 1.3 -2.99 52,000 1.97 0.490 Manila Bulletin 0.680 0.690 0.900 0.690 1.47 17,000 2.46 1.8 Manila Jockey 1.99 2 1.99 2 0.50 276,000 -258,700.0015.2 8.7 Melco Crown 10 10.1 9.9 9.93 -0.70 2,640,600 18,954,214.000.62 0.34 MG Holdings 0.360 0.370 0.360 0.370 2.78 140,000 1.040 0.37 NOW Corp. 0.460 0.490 0.485 0.455 -1.09 49,000 22.8 14.54 Pacific Online Sys. Corp. 18.4 18.76 18.62 18.74 1.85 5,100 6.41 3 PAL Holdings Inc. 4.46 4.55 4.50 4.55 2.02 49,000 4 2.28 Paxys Inc. 3.39 3.02 2.99 3 -11.50 14,500 -288,000.00110.2 79 Phil. Seven Corp. 110.00 112.00 110.00 110.00 0.00 125,600 53,900.0014 4.39 Philweb.Com Inc. 14.36 14.48 14.20 14.48 0.84 401,900 315,284.003486 2726 PLDT Common 2900.00 2932.00 2900.00 2912.00 0.41 315,065 -299,682,590.000.710 0.380 PremiereHorizon 0.600 0.610 0.600 0.610 1.67 6,481,000 2.28 0.32 Premium Leisure 1.580 1.610 1.570 1.590 0.63 14,505,000 306,200.0048.5 31.45 Puregold 40.05 40.65 39.30 39.30 -1.87 1,783,800 -5,466,345.0090.1 60.55 Robinsons RTL 85.50 85.50 84.00 84.00 -1.75 899,190 -38,030,177.5011.6 7.59 SSI Group 9.74 9.88 9.74 9.80 0.62 3,333,100 19,105,897.000.87 0.63 STI Holdings 0.65 0.67 0.66 0.67 3.08 1,148,000 10.2 6.45 Travellers 6.61 6.61 6.39 6.4 -3.18 2,338,400 -1,597,542.000.490 0.305 Waterfront Phils. 0.345 0.355 0.340 0.350 1.45 140,000 1.6 1.04 Yehey 1.310 1.310 1.310 1.310 0.00 21,000
MINING & OIL0.0098 0.0043 Abra Mining 0.0057 0.0058 0.0056 0.0058 1.75 324,300 492,870.0017.24 8.65 Atlas Cons. `A’ 8.03 8.12 8.03 8.03 0.00 324,300 492,870.000.330 0.236 Basic Energy Corp. 0.255 0.260 0.255 0.260 1.96 60,000 12.8 6.98 Benguet Corp `B’ 6.9800 6.9000 6.5000 6.5000 -6.88 20,000 -135,500.001.2 0.61 Century Peak Metals Hldgs 1.07 1.08 1.06 1.07 0.00 485,000 429,890.001.73 0.78 Coal Asia 0.9 0.9 0.89 0.9 0.00 777,000 44,500.0010.98 5.99 Dizon 8.12 8.15 7.91 8.00 -1.48 15,300 4.2 1.08 Ferronickel 1.91 1.93 1.9 1.9 -0.52 3,877,000 -429,570.000.48 0.330 Geograce Res. Phil. Inc. 0.390 0.400 0.370 0.375 -3.85 11,940,000 3,750.000.455 0.2130 Lepanto `A’ 0.233 0.236 0.227 0.231 -0.86 7,510,000 0.023 0.014 Manila Mining `A’ 0.0140 0.0140 0.0140 0.0140 0.00 43,700,000 8.2 3.660 Marcventures Hldgs., Inc. 4.18 4.26 4.15 4.23 1.20 628,000 49.2 20.2 Nickelasia 19.7 20.15 19.2 19.2 -2.54 4,630,400 188,728.004.27 2.11 Nihao Mineral Resources 3.69 3.79 3.73 3.75 1.63 1,109,000 -37,500.001.030 0.365 Omico 0.7200 0.7300 0.7200 0.7300 1.39 71,000 3.06 1.54 Oriental Peninsula Res. 2.110 2.140 2.100 2.100 -0.47 484,000 -90,300.000.020 0.012 Oriental Pet. `A’ 0.0130 0.0130 0.0120 0.0130 0.00 81,400,000 0.021 0.013 Oriental Pet. `B’ 0.0130 0.0130 0.0130 0.0130 0.00 100,000 7.67 5.4 Petroenergy Res. Corp. 5.80 5.80 5.50 5.50 -5.17 87,200 12.88 7.26 Philex `A’ 6.41 6.56 6.35 6.37 -0.62 1,808,700 -3,060,706.0010.42 2.27 PhilexPetroleum 1.95 2.11 1.95 1.95 0.00 1,298,000 0.040 0.015 Philodrill Corp. `A’ 0.016 0.016 0.015 0.016 0.00 105,800,000 420 115.9 Semirara Corp. 160.50 165.40 159.30 159.40 -0.69 423,550 18,030,319.009 3.67 TA Petroleum 4.13 4.24 4.1 4.11 -0.48 194,000 -24,580.00
PREFERRED70 33 ABS-CBN Holdings Corp. 62.2 63.35 62.2 62.4 0.32 679,540 517,897.00553 490 Ayala Corp. Pref `B1’ 515 522.5 510.5 522.5 1.46 1,030 515 480 GLOBE PREF P 510.5 511 511 511 0.10 50 8.21 5.88 GMA Holdings Inc. 6.36 6.4 6.3 6.3 -0.94 43,000 -75,800.0012.28 6.5 Leisure and Resort 1.08 1.08 1.08 1.08 0.00 556,000 111 101 MWIDE PREF 111 111 111 111 0.00 270 PCOR-Preferred B 1070 1100 1100 1100 2.80 50 1047 1011 PF Pref 2 1047 1050 1046 1050 0.29 590 76.9 74.2 SMC Preferred A 76.1 76.35 76 76.35 0.33 160,670 -2,280,000.0084.8 75 SMC Preferred C 85 85.45 85.4 85.45 0.53 8,900
WARRANTS & BONDS6.98 0.8900 LR Warrant 4.000 4.050 3.910 3.960 -1.00 56,000 -12,000.00
S M E10.96 2.4 Double Dragon 8.75 9.1 8.75 9.1 4.00 2,528,500 5,942,991.0015 3.5 Makati Fin. Corp. 6.4 6.9 4.21 6.9 7.81 24,300 12.88 5.95 Xurpas 9.27 9.3 8.85 9.02 -2.70 2,879,000 8,703,515.00
EXCHANGE TRADED FUNDS130.7 105.6 First Metro ETF 129.1 130.2 128.8 128.8 -0.23 9,050
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BUSINESSSATURDAY: APRIL 18, 2015
B3
SplashbooksP49-mincome
PNB’s profit rises 5% to P5.5b
Stock market closes flat; Aboitiz Power, LT lead gainers
Graduation speaker. Labor Secretary Rosalin-da Dimapilis-Baldoz (cent-er) receives a plaque of appreciation as guest of honor and commencement speaker from University of Perpetual Help System co-founder, treasurer and vice chairman Daisy Tamayo (right) and president Anthony Jose Tamayo during the 19th commencement exercises of UPHS Molino Campus at the Philippine International Convention Center in Pasay City.
STOCKS closed flat Friday, following the release of weak US data and losses on Wall Street.
The Philippine Stock Exchange index, the 30-company benchmark, shed 1 point to close at 7,946.89 Friday, but the all-share index gained 2 points to settle at 4,536.86 on value turnover of P35 billion.
Gainers outnumbered losers, 97 to 82, while 41 issues were unchanged.
Aboitiz Power Corp. emerged as the biggest gainer among the 20 most active stocks, as it rose 2.4 percent to P42.50. LT Group Inc., the holding company of tycoon Lucio Tan, advanced 1.4 percent to P16.08. Port operator International Container Terminal Services Inc. added 0.7 percent to close at P106.70.
Meanwhile, Shanghai and Tokyo stocks advanced Friday but other markets retreated. The dollar lost ground as the chances of a summer US interest rate hike slimmed after disappointing jobs and housing figures, while the euro managed to hold up despite
new worries about Greece’s eurozone future.
In the afternoon, Shanghai climbed 2.37 percent and Hong Kong added 0.22 percent. But Tokyo tumbled 1.17 percent, or 232.89 points, to close at 19,652.88, Sydney sank 1.28 percent, or 76.00
points, to 5,871.50 and Seoul added 0.17 percent, or 3.60 points, to 2,143.50.
A string of poor Chinese indicators have fuelled a rally in Shanghai’s benchmark index over the past year and now mainland investors are turning their
attention to Hong Kong, buying what they consider cheap assets.
The southward flood of cash saw turnover in Hong Kong hit record highs twice last week as traders make the most of a link-up between the city’s exchange and the bourse in Shanghai. With AFP
Gifted program. ‘I Am Gifted’ program, which was created by
Adam Khoo of Singapore to inspire students with
winning attitudes and learning strategies, is
now in the Philippines. The program reflects the
belief that all children are born gifted and is
designed to fully nurture these gifts within each child. The program has
gone on to empower over 520,000 students
in Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia, Vietnam,
India, China, Hong Kong and Thailand in the past
12 years. Shown are students attending the program. Participants can register for a free
workshop on April 25 and 26 at Capitol
Commons Information Center, Meralco Avenue,
Ortigas Center, Pasig City.
By Jenniffer B. Austria
HOMEGROWN personal care manufacturer Splash Corp. said net income in first the first quar-ter of 2015 jumped 46 percent year-on-year to P49 million, on the back of higher sales.
Splash said in a disclosure to the stock exchange first-quarter net income already surpassed by more than four times the P12-million net income booked in the whole of 2014.
First-quarter sales increased 15 percent to P957 million from P832 million a year ago while operating income rose 36 per-cent to P58 million from P43 million.
Total sales of the personal care segment grew 18 percent in the first quarter, with Philippine operations posting a 21-percent growth; international opera-tions, 4 percent; and direct sales, 5 percent.
The growth in sales of personal care products more than made up for the 10-percent decline of the sales of the foods segment.
Splash said it was pursuing efficiencies in all aspects of its business to improve operations.
Splash booked P12 million in net income in 2014, down from P73 million in 2013, which in-cluded P70-million extraordi-nary gain arising from the sale of non-core asset.
Splash’s flagship personal care brands continued their strong showing in international markets.
By Julito G. Rada
PHILIPPINE National Bank, the coun-try’s fourth-largest private lender in terms of assets, said net income in 2014 grew 5 percent to P5.5 billion from a year ago, on the back of a double-digit growth in interest income.
“Anticipating these develop-ments, PNB beefed up its income from its growing core business as it took steps to shift marketing focus from large corporates to commercial/SMEs and consumer segments,” the bank said in state-ment Friday.
“Thus, interest income on loans and receivables grew by 16 percent to P15.2 billion. In addi-tion, PNB successfully decreased its interest expense by 23 percent
to P3.6 billion as the bank con-centrated on generating low-cost funds and paid off high cost li-abilities, particularly with the re-demption of its P6.7-billion high interest-bearing long-term nego-tiable certificates of deposits,” it said.
Net interest income grew 23 percent to P16.9 billion, account-ing for 64 percent of total operat-ing income in 2014.
PNB’s operating income in-
creased 12 percent to P26.4 bil-lion, augmented by other income, excluding gains from securities trading, which rose 33 percent principally from the sale of fore-closed assets.
The bank said starting in the fourth quarter, it implemented an aggressive strategy in the disposal of acquired properties through regional simultaneous public sealed biddings in all domestic branches which yielded higher gains for the bank.
PNB’s total consolidated re-sources expanded 9.2 percent to P625.4 billion as of end-2014 from a year ago. The bank said it continued to improve asset qual-ity as non-performing loans ratio decreased to 0.92 percent from 1.39 percent in 2013.
NPL coverage ratio also im-proved to 99.19 percent from
90.84 percent in December 2013.
PNB raised P11.6 billion in fresh capital via a stock rights offering in the first quarter to strengthen its capital position and prepare for the higher mini-mum capital requirements of Ba-sel III.
The stock rights offering was oversubscribed by both existing and new investors, indicative of the long-term positive prospects of PNB.
The bank’s capital adequacy ratio stood at 20.6 percent while CET 1 ratio hit 17.4 percent as of end-2014, well-above the mini-mum 10 percent and 8.5 percent required by Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas.
PNB had a total of 657 branch-es and 878 ATMs strategically lo-cated nationwide.
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PAL plans to mountflights to New Zealand
In BrIef
SATURDAY: APRIL 18, 2015
[email protected]@gmail.com
Sy-Coson co-chairs WEF East Asia meet
BUSINESS
Manulife donation. Manulife Business Processing Services, the global shared service center which provides insurance and financial services processing, accounting, investments, information technology, and customer services to other Manulife subsidiaries worldwide, turned over two renovated classrooms to the Institute of Mathematics, College of Science of the University of the Philippines, Diliman, Quezon City. Shown during the ceremony are (from left) MBPS actuarial services head Brad Wallis, MBPS vice president and general manager Gigi Mantaring, John Hancock president Craig Bromley, Manulife Philippines president and chief executive Ryan Charland, UP Diliman College of Science dean Jose Maria Balmaceda, UP Diliman Institute of Mathematics director Marian Roque, MBPS Manila site head Amelia Villamor and UP Diliman College of Science vice chancellor for research and development Fidel Nemenzo.
SM INVESTMENTS Corp. vice chairman Teresita Sy-Coson is co-chairing the upcoming 24th World Economic Forum on East Asia in Jakarta, Indonesia on April 19 to 21.
The WEF on East Asia is a so-lutions-based platform for multi-sectoral senior decision-makers who discuss ways and means of improving regional cooperation and advance critical decisions for accelerating sustainable socio-economic development.
She will be co-chairing with Hans-Paul Bürkner, chair-man of the Boston Consulting Group of Germany; John Ri-ady, executive director of the Lippo Group in Indonesia; Budi Gunadi Sadikin, chief execu-
tive of Bank Mandiri (Persero) Indonesia; and William Lacy Swing, director-general of the International Organization for Migration in Geneva.
The WEF East Asia Forum underscores the need for greater cooperation in order to optimize opportunities that will provide increased economic activity in the region.
Key to the discussions will be the waning trust between key players and geopolitical tensions which present new challenges to East Asia’s regionalism.
The issue carries the risk of undermining future economic growth, compromising poverty reduction and detracting from shared prosperity.
Other points of discussion are hyper-connectivity and innova-tions; ongoing resource scarcity, environmental degradation and shifting societal values which fur-ther exemplify the pressures that will require renewed trust in pub-lic and private sector institutions.
East Asia remains as the world’s economically fastest-growing re-gion, projected to expand by an average rate of above 7 percent in 2015.
It includes some of the world’s most prosperous economies such as Australia, China, Japan, Singa-pore and South Korea.
East Asia is further bolstered by the phenomenal rise of its emerg-ing markets, including Indonesia, Myanmar and Vietnam.
By Darwin G. Amojelar
FLAG carrier Philip-pine Airlines said it plans to mount flights to Papua New Guinea and New Zealand this year.
PAL president and chief operat-ing officer Jaime Bautista told re-porters the airline would be flying to Port Moresby in June to serve overseas Filipinos in Papua New Guinea.
Some 25,000 Filipinos live in Papua New Guinea, which has a population of seven million.
PAL and rival Cebu Pacific each holds 300 seat entitlements a week to Papua New Guinea. Both airlines have yet to use the en-titlements after Manila and Papua New Guinea concluded air talks in 2012.
Air Niugini, the flag carrier of Papua New Guinea, flies three times a week to and from Manila.
Bautista said PAL was also looking at flying to Auckland, New Zealand in the second half of 2015.
“We are still studying it, but actually it would depend on the numbers,” he said.
The Philippines and New Zea-land agreed in March 2014 to in-crease flight entitlements to 21 flights per week for both sides from the current three flights per week.
PAL inaugurated its Manila to
New York flights in March, after nearly two decades and is set to fly to Jingjang in China later this month.
PAL’s international route net-work covered 35 cities in 14 coun-tries, while its domestic network covered 32 cities and towns in the Philippines as of end-2014.
PAL Holdings, Inc., the parent company of flag carrier Philippine Airlines, reported a comprehen-sive income of P786.8 million in 2014, snapping a three-year losing streak.
PAL Holdings said the 2014 per-formance represented a dramatic turnaround from the huge P9.12
billion loss incurred in the April to December of 2013.
PAL Holdings shifted its ac-counting period from a fiscal year basis that starts in April and ends in March, to a calendar year stan-dard. This resulted in a shorter reporting period of nine months for 2013.
The annual profit was PAL Holdings’ first since fiscal year 2010-2011, when it booked a P3.1-billion income.
The next three years then saw the company grappling with in-dustrial unrest at PAL, triple-digit fuel prices, major natural disasters in key international and domestic
markets, and heightened competi-tion. These resulted in combined losses of P20.56 billion from 2011 to 2013.
The 2014 results revealed a stel-lar performance by PAL Holdings on the core operating front. Op-erating revenue jumped to P100.9 billion as passenger carriage soared and yields improved, lead-ing to an operating profit of P2.37 billion – reversing the operating loss of P5.51 billion in 2013.
Passenger operations was the main driver, with PAL ferrying 9.6 million passengers on 73,685 flights during the year, for an aver-age load factor of 71.4 percent.
Old pole causes blackoutTHE National Transmission Corp. confirmed
its preliminary report that a corroded, aging equipment caused the Mindanao-wide black-out on April 5.
“A corroded suspension insulation shank gave way, causing the transmission line to fall hitting the other line conductors and the tower parts resulting in a short circuit which was not isolated on time,” TransCo president Rolando Bacani said.
He said TransCo submitted an initial report to the Energy Department on Thursday. “Since the incident was triggered by the failure of a corroded shank of a suspension insulator, we recommended an immediate inspection and/or replacement of all suspension insulators in the area considering that these were installed a long time ago and a thorough inspection was wanting,” Bacani said.
He said TransCo also recommended the im-mediate review of the timing coordination of protective relays and the installation of new and back-up protection. Alena Mae S. Flores
Ayala wind mills get perks THE Energy Regulatory Commission has
issued certificates of compliance to two wind projects led by Ayala Corp. in Ilocos Norte prov-ince, making the projects eligible for feed-in tariff rates.
“The COC for Northwind Phase 3 and Ca-parispisan came out already,” ERC spokesman Francis Saturnino Juan said.
AC Energy Holdings Inc., the power arm of the Ayala Group, said the wind farms in Ban-gui and Caparispisan, Ilocos Norte received their feed-in-tariff certificates of compliance from ERC.
The certificates entitled both the 19-mega-watt wind farm expansion in Bangui, under Northwind Power Development Corp. and the 81-MW wind farm in Caparispisan, Pagudpud under North Luzon Renewable Energy Corp. to feed-in-tariff of P8.53 per kilowatt-hour for a period of 20 years.
AC Energy said the FIT rate covers the period Oct. 10, 2014 to Oct. 9, 2034 for Northwind’s 19 MW and Nov. 11, 2014 to Nov. 10, 2034 for North Luzon Renewables’ 81 MW.
Alena Mae S. Flores
TVI postpones listingMINING company TVI Resources Develop-
ment Philippines Inc. said the planned listing on the Philippine Stock Exchange may not push through this year, amid the drop in min-eral prices.
“Commodity prices are going down and we would need to see commodity prices go-ing up. We also want to see some certainty in government policy. There’s a number of things that we want to see before we list,” said TVI chairman Clifford James at the sidelines of the Philippine Mining Luncheon at the Manila Polo Club.
James said the company was not commit-ted to any particular timetable and the listing might be moved to 2016 or 2017. “When mar-ket conditions are good that’s when we will list,” he said.
TVIRD is the local affiliate of TVI Pacific Inc. a publicly listed Canadian mining company focused on the exploration, development and production of precious and base metals.
The company is currently in the final phase of the permitting process at the Balabag gold-silver project in Zamboanga del Sur. “Our tar-get for commercial operations is early next year. We already submitted the declaration of mine project feasibility but they’ve come back to us and told us that we had to change some things. So far, documents are all done and we will go back to the Mines and Geosciences Bu-reau,” James said. Anna Leah E. Gonzales
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Museum for Maidan victims
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Pairs event. China’s Sui Wenjing (top) and Han Cong perform during the short program routine in the pairs event at the ISU World Team Trophy figure skating competition in Tokyo on April 17. AFP
UN: Ivory trade fueling Congo warNAIROBI—Smuggling of ivory, gold and timber worth over a billion dollars a year is fueling war by funding dozens of rebel groups in Democratic Republic of Congo, a UN re-port warned Friday.
“Militarized criminal groups with transnational links are involved in large-scale smuggling” of “gold, minerals, timber, charcoal and wildlife products such as ivory” of up to $1.3 billion each year from eastern DR Congo, the UN Environment Program said.
The revenues finance at least 25 armed groups -- but up to 49 according to some es-timates -- that “increasingly
fuel the conflict” in the war-torn region, the report read.
Control over the mineral-rich areas is a key factor in the conflicts that have raged in eastern DR Congo for dec-ades.
“These resources lost to criminal gangs and fueling the conflict could have been used to build schools, roads, hospitals and a future for the Congolese people,” said Martin Kobler, UN chief in DR Congo, and head of the 20,000-strong UN peacekeep-ing force, MONUSCO.
Gold forms the largest sec-tion, with organized crime gangs earning up to $120 mil-lion a year from the trade.
The vast majority of income earned goes outside the im-poverished region, but the es-timated two percent that goes to the armed groups, some $13 million a year, provides the funds to prolong war.
“This income represents the basic subsistence cost for at least 8,000 armed fighters per year, and enables defeated or dis-armed groups to continuously resurface and destabilize the region,” the report read.
Criminal gangs use their cash to push a strategy of “divide and rule” among the rebel groups, to ensure no one rebel force can dominate and take over the trade, the report added. AFP
Celebration. Guests attend the Louis XIII Cognac Hosts Celebration in honor of Haute Living CEO Kamal Hotchandani’s 40th birthday at The Forge Restaurant on April 16 in Miami, Florida. AFP
KIEV—Confident and cheery in priestly black robes, 21-year-old seminarian Oleg is on duty in the small wooden chapel built a year ago above the Maidan, the scene of deadly protests in Kiev last year that shaped Ukraine’s history.
Bullet holes are still visible in nearby trees and even the windows of a tall four-star hotel, but nowhere is the memory of the repression of the protests as raw as in photos of the slain “Heavenly 100” that stare from makeshift me-morials scattered around the vast central city square.
“We are here to talk and pray, we celebrate the memory of the young guys who died here, we help keep everything clean,” says Oleg as incense fumes swirl in the one-roomed chapel.
In the past months, city officials, relatives and citizens have been debating what to do
about the tributes placed on the Maidan by family and friends of the around 100 people killed in the pro-EU protests against ousted president Viktor Yanukovych’s corrupt rule.
Leave them be or build a mammoth memo-rial? Or a museum?
It took five years and a lot of talk before work even began on the 9/11 memorial in the United States. Another decade passed before it opened.
The eclectic tributes to the people mowed down by gunfire in Kiev in February 2014, in the opening chapter of Ukraine’s conflict, are
at the mercy of the elements. In winter, they often carry a blanket of snow.
But people keep the flowers neatly sorted in rows and the rosaries, candles and ribbons spruced up.
Crude monuments with paving stones used in the Maidan barricades as pedestals for a display of the hard hats the protesters wore as protection and the rusty slabs of metal used as shields.
The chapel has a gas mask on display that belonged to the first victim, a 20-year-old called Sergiy, as well as the blood-stained stole worn by the priest who was by his side.
“People come here to remember, soldiers leaving for the front come for a blessing,” says Oleg.
But the Orthodox prayer house was erected above a key underground hub of power lines and switches, putting its future on shaky
ground.“It shouldn’t be there,” said one member of
the committee working on how best to main-tain the memory of the Maidan revolt. “What if there were an emergency? It will have to go eventually.”
Tetyana, a financial manager from Poltava, a few hours away by train, stops at the Maidan to pay homage to the dead each time she visits Kiev because “we’ve never been as proud of our flag, our language” since the protests that brought down the pro-Kremlin Yanukovych.
But “I really don’t like how the Maidan looks now,” she says, regretting the presence of the memorials, as well as the many men in uniform canvassing passers-by for donations to help the army fight a pro-Russian insur-gency in the east.
“These dried flowers and candles, you’d think it was a cemetery,” she says. AFP
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Exclusive coffeekick onHelena JAMESTOWN, UK—Most coffee snobs can only dream of sipping on a brew made from Saint Helena beans. Imported from Yemen in the 18th century, the tiny South Atlantic island’s green-tipped Bourbon Arabica coffee plant produces some of the world’s most expensive—and most delectable—beans.
St Helena coffee’s most fa-mous fan was French emper-or Napoleon, who said it was “the only good thing” about living in exile in a rat-infested house on the island for six years until his death in 1821.
The sheer remoteness of the far-flung British island—stranded between South America and Africa—has preserved the genetic herit-age of the coffee planted by the East India Company, the English trading company, al-most 300 years ago.
But good luck getting your hands on the beans, which have become scarce after years of neglect.
Coffee groves on the is-land, which has a varied cli-mate despite being on the equator, were left deserted until some enthusiasts start-ed cultivating the crop again in the 1990s.
That renaissance was short-lived. The main pro-ducer went bankrupt, even after putting the beans on sale in London’s exclusive Harrods store.
Then in 2009, Solomon & Amp Company—a public company known as Solomons on the island—took over and breathed new life into the Bamboo Hedge plantation.
“It had become overgrown and there was die-back on many of the trees,” said Man-dy Peters, Solomons’ execu-tive director.
“We have been slowly re-building the plantation.”
Still, the organic beans are in short supply.
Solomons produces be-tween one and 1.5 tons a year, a tiny amount considering world coffee production was about 8.5 million tons in 2014. AFP
Khmer’s brutal reignremembered in tears PHNOM PENH—Tearful survivors on Friday marked 40 years to the day since the Khmer Rouge marched on Phnom Penh, ending a civil war but heralding a terror that would kill a quarter of Cambodians and leave the capital a ghost town.
A few hundred people, including monks and elderly regime survi-vors, gathered early Friday at Choe-ung Ek—the most notorious of the regime’s “Killing Fields”—on the capital’s outskirts, burning incense and saying Buddhist prayers at a me-morial stupa housing the skulls and bones of victims.
The event commemorated the April 17, 1975 triumph of the Khmer Rouge over the US-backed republi-can army of Lon Nol and with it the start of four years of a genocidal com-munist revolution.
Initially, the Khmer Rouge were given a cautious welcome by Phnom Penh’s war-weary residents as they entered the city astride tanks, their distinctive red-checkered scarves
fluttering behind them.But soon enough cadres began to
evacuate the city of two million peo-ple at gunpoint, in one of the largest forced migrations in recent history.
The sick, elderly and very young perished, their bodies littering the roadsides, as “bourgeois” city dwell-ers were marched into the coun-tryside to scratch a living from the parched soil.
By the time the tyrannical rule of Pol Pot—or “Brother Number One”—was ousted four years later, an estimated two million Cambodians had been killed by execution, starva-tion or overwork as the Khmer Rouge drove the country back to “Year Zero” through an agrarian peasant revolution.
“Forty years ago Pol Pot turned Cambodia into a hell—a ghost land,” Huot Huorn, 67, told AFP with tears in her eyes after lighting incense for the 36 relatives she lost to the regime.
“I still hate that regime... their sins are vivid in my eyes now. They starved us, jailed people with no food and water until they died... I saw them smash children’s heads against a tree trunk.”
Only after the regime was forced out by Vietnamese soldiers in 1979 did the scale of its atrocities emerge, with the bones of thousands of vic-tims—including children—uncov-ered at mass graves across the coun-try, including at Choeung Ek.
Many had first suffered at Phnom Penh’s notorious torture house—Tuol Sleng, or S21—as perceived enemies of the revolution.
The former school-turned-tor-ture-chamber has also been pre-served as a grisly testament to the horrors of the era, which ended when the Khmer Rouge were forced
to retreat to jungle hideouts.In 2010, a UN-backed war crimes
court sentenced former Tuol Sleng prison chief Kaing Guek Eav, alias Duch, to 30 years in prison—later increased on appeal to life—for over-seeing the deaths of 15,000 people.
He was the first person to be held accountable for the regime’s crimes.
Last August the two most sen-ior surviving Khmer Rouge lead-ers—Nuon Chea, 88, known as “Brother Number Two”, and former head of state Khieu Samphan, 83—were given life sentences for crimes against humanity. Both have ap-pealed.
Their two-year trial focused on the forced evacuation of Cambodi-ans from Phnom Penh into rural la-bor camps as well as murders at one execution site.
Cambodians remain divided over how to move forward, with those clamoring for justice countered by others urging reconciliation in a na-tion where both perpetrators and vic-tims of the regime are still alive. AFP
Rhino horns, elephant tusks seizedHANOI—Vietnamese cus-toms have seized elephant tusks and rhino horns worth millions of dollars on the black market from a flight ar-riving from France, officials said Friday.
The haul weighed around 65 kilograms and included 18 pieces of elephant tusk and three rhino horns, which are believed to have come from Africa, a customs official told AFP.
“The shipment was seized Thursday at Noi Bai interna-tional airport (in Hanoi) on a Vietnam Airlines flight ar-riving from France,” he said, speaking on condition of ano-nymity.
Rhino horn—which is ille-gal but highly sought after—is now estimated to command more than $50,000 per kilo-gram of horn in Vietnam.
The powdered horn, made of the substance similar to hu-man fingernails, is popularly believed to have medicinal properties, although there is no scientific proof for the claim.
Internationally, the rhino horn trade was banned by the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora in 1977.
The global ivory trade has been banned since 1989 but there has been a dramatic
surge in illegal trafficking since 2005.
In Vietnam and China, el-ephant tusks and other body parts are prized for decora-tion, as talismans, and for use in traditional medicine.
Some shops in the commu-nist country still sell products made from ivory illegally de-spite a 1992 ban which out-lawed the trade.
Environmental groups have long accused Vietnam of be-ing one of the world’s worst countries for trade in endan-gered species, and there have been a number of campaigns to warn Vietnamese not to use products from endangered animals. AFP
No to new base. Some 100 anti-US base activists shout slogans as they protest against the construction of the new base in Okinawa during a rally in front of the prime minister’s official residence in Tokyo on April 17 as Okinawa Governor Takeshi Onaga met with Prime Minister Shinzo Abe. AFP
Smoke of war. This picture taken on April 16 shows smoke rising above the Baiji area as Iraqi pro-government forces, including fighters from the Shiite Muslim Al-Abbas popular mobilization unit, take part in an operation to retake it from Islamic State jihadists. The refinery—some 200 kilometers north of Baghdad—once produced some 300,000 barrels of refined products per day, meeting half the country’s needs. AFP
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Pests ahoy! Jardine Distribution Inc. recently displayed its new line of home pests’ solutions at the Philippine World Building and Construction Exposition (WORLDBEX), at the World Trade Center. Some of these included Klerat Single Feed Rodenticide, Optigard Roach and Ant Bait, and ZAP aerosol insecticide, which comes in multi-insect, cockroach, and mosquito killer variants. Jardine represents a number of local and global companies that provide crop protection and construction chemical products.
Tranquil CamSur. Amaia Land, Ayala Land’s low cost housing segment, recently entered the Bicol region, with Amaia Scapes CamSur, a bucolic house and lot project in Brgy. Palestina, Pili, Camarines Sur, Bicol. The project occupies 11.5 hectares with 636 residential units. Future residents can choose from six house models, namely, Bungalow Pod, Twin Pod, Multi Pod, Twin Home, Carriage Pod, and Single Home. CamSur has grown into a world-class Business Process Outsourcing (BPO) location in the Southern Luzon region, and is home to the famous CamSur Watersports Complex.
BPO space at Wilcon Depot. Wilcon Depot, a supplier of construction and home-re-lated materials, recently opened up space atop their retail outlets in locations that are accessible to BPO employees in Metro Manila. These include prime real estate at the 15-storey Wilcon IT Hub at Chino Roces Avenue in Makati City. The building is the first office development of the group. Wilcon is exploring other properties at some 30 loca-tions nationwide, which it can redevelop to cater to the fast-growing office market.
Asia mover. Megaworld, a developer of integrated urban townships in the Philippines, recently received the Out-standing Performance Award (Philippines) from the Chinese magazine YazhouZhoukan during its annual Global Chinese Business 1000 Awards held in Hong Kong. Megaworld was recognized among twenty companies in South-east Asia that exhibited exemplary performance in busines, as well as strength in the global market. The Hong Kong-based YazhouZhoukan is a Chinese language news magazine that analyzes political, economical and cultural trends from around the world. Shown in photo are (from left) : Wilson Sy, head of sales and marketing, Megaworld, and Francis K.C. Tiong, CEO of YazhouZhoukan.
HOME FURNISHINGSSHOWROOM AT BGC
Both new home owners, as well as those looking for a make-over of their humble abodes can soon check out a one-stop
showroom chockfull of premium home furnishings in burgeoning Bonifacio Global City (BGC). Focus Global Inc., a distributor of leading brands in home design ideas will soon open its biggest showroom in one convenient location at Twenty-four Seven McKinley building at the corner of 24th Street, 7th Avenue and McKin-ley Parkway,
The showroom will have five floors displaying a dizzying array of trends and innovations for every room in the home. These will include Italian brands B&B and Maxalto, pieces from US-based Ethan Allen, as well as bath and wellness technologies from German brands Dorn-bracht and Villeroy & Boch. German kitchen brand Siematic, Miele of Germany and Sub-Zero built-in refrigerators and Wolf cooking ap-pliances from the USA, will be there, as well as Hunter Douglas and Pella win-dows and doors from the US.
Knock yourself out. Shopping with a purpose takes on a whole new meaning when Focus Global opens it’s new showroom for home design inspirations at the Twenty-four Seven McKinley building, BGC.
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BALANCED URBAN DEVELOPMENT= LESS STRESS IN CITIES
Urban free fall. Sprawling slums, long commutes, high stress and low productivity are the bane of
Metro Manila living. Architect Albert Zambrano’s call for green designs
that can be applied on a mass scale, could have a bigger impact on the
environment and society.
Ideal scenario. Map shows urban integration in Metro Manila : low-income (yellow) households blend in with high (red) and middle (orange) income ones.
Crazy tra� c, jumbled urban planning, and pollution in our cities will be the death of us. But not if a proposal for integrating low-income households
in high- and middle-income areas would be considered by government planners and ur-ban regulators. � is would result in increased worker productivity, lesser commuter tra� c, and faster delivery of goods and services. � e proposal was made by Mapúa pro-fessor and architect Albert S. Zambrano, when he spoke recently in the Senate about issues on justice and human rights, urban planning, housing, and resettlement. Zambrano highlighted the importance of in-city housing and resettlement, urban integration, and how these could contrib-ute to a more e� cient distribution of re-
sources and alleviate several factors that cause severe poverty such as high trans-port demand, pollution, and stress. “Today, there’s a lot of construction go-ing on,” said Zambrano. “What if for ev-ery building constructed, a corresponding portion of it would be dedicated to social housing? If we make it as a requirement, we can create a lot of social housing, if not within the same lot or property, then at least within the city itself.” Social housing refers to a� ordable rental housing which may be owned and man-aged by the government, by a non-pro� t organization, or by a combination of the two with the aim to assist households with lower or modest incomes. Zambrano said cities like New York,
San Francisco, Hollywood, London, and Singapore are implementing social hous-ing in their communities by enacting laws and policies that will provide a� ordable homes to those who have none. Zambrano said he incorporated the vertical sidewalk-medium rise building in one of his recent projects, to complement the concept of urban planning and social housing in the country. � e structure aims to decrease household expenses and increase income-generating opportunities by using natural light and ventilation, having walls suitable for grow-ing ‘pechay’ or spinach, and catching and recycling water during the rainy season. It was also designed to house micro, small, medium, and home-based enterprises.
“Green architecture at the moment is mostly implemented with projects for the up-per 10% income bracket,” Zambrano said. “It will have an even greater impact if green ar-chitecture is applied for the other 90% lower-income bracket. Zambrano said he is currently creating green designs together with students, “green designs that can be applied on a mass scale, that will have a bigger impact on the environ-ment and society.”
CDC Holdings, Inc. recently topped o� the CDC Mil-lennium Ortigas project, a 32-storey investment property, in Ortigas. CDC Holdings plans to turn over the units on the third quarter of 2015, with an
o� cial opening slated in 2016. Charlene Chua, CDC Holdings executive vice president, said the development is being built according to the speci� ca-tions of Singapore’s Building & Construction Authority’s Green Mark standards, and will incorporate eco-friendly features that minimize the consumption of water and electricity. CDC Millennium Ortigas will be composed of serviced resi-dences units, residential apartments, and commercial spaces,” said Chua. Its residential condominium, composed of 128 units – studio, one-bedroom, and two-bedroom units – will occupy the top eight � oors of the building. It will also include a 210-unit service residence, to be oper-ated by � e Ascott Limited under its Citadines brand. “Citadines Millennium Ortigas will cater to business travel-ers who prefer accommodation that combines the comforts of home and the services of a hotel in a city location,” Chua said.
CDC BUILDS‘GREEN’ RESIDENCE
IN ORTIGAS
Investment in a growing industry. With an expected gross rental yield of 6-8% and capital appreciation of 3-5%, The CDC Millenium Ortigas is not a bad investment in terms of value for money.
BY JOEL LACSAMANA