the standard - 2015 september 26 - saturday

VOL. XXIX NO. 226 3 Sections 32 Pages P18 SATURDAY : SEPTEMBER 26, 2015 www.thestandard.com.ph [email protected]

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Roxas rateshimself as2016 pollsunderdog

Health department: Surge in cases recorded in just one month

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Stampedein MeccasaddensPH govt

PNP lauded for Reyeses’ Thai arrest

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Health department: Surge in cases recorded in just one monthDENGUE AILS 23,000

By Francisco Tuyay and Rey E. Requejo

PRESIDENT Benigno Aquino III congratulated the Philip-pine National Police for “its landmark accomplishment” of capturing the fugitive broth-ers, former Palawan Gov. Joel

Reyes and former Coron May-or Mario Reyes, a� er the two arrived from � ailand, where they were arrested by � ai po-lice in Phuket.

“On behalf of the national leadership I would like to ex-tend the commendation of President Aquino to the PNP

under Director Gen. Ricardo Marquez for the landmark accomplishment,” newly ap-pointed Interior Secretary Senen Sarmiento said Friday.

“� e arrest of brothers Joel and Mario Reyes is the initial victory of the law enforcement

Back from Thailand. Interior Secretary Mel Senen Sarmiento presents the Reyes Brothers, the main suspects in the killing of environmentalist Gerry Ortega, to reporters in Camp Crame on Friday. ANDREW RABULAN

By Macon Ramos-Araneta

DENGUE cases surged by more than 23,000 from Aug. 9 to Sept. 5, records from the Health Department’s Bureau of Epidemiology showed.

From Jan. 1 to Aug. 8, a total of 55,079 peo-ple across the nation were a� icted with den-gue. � e new numbers bring the total dengue cases so far to 78,808.

Earlier this week, the province of Cavite de-clared a state of calamity a� er it recorded close to 4,000 dengue cases with 16 deaths from January to September. � e Bulacan provincial government also declared an “all-out war” on dengue a� er more than 4,000 cases and 10 deaths.

In Ilocos Norte, Laoag City o� cials ex-pressed alarm at more than 400 cases that were recorded in the city since January. Just last week, at least 39 patients, four of them children from Barangay Talingaan, were taken to the Laoag City General Hospital on suspi-cion that they had dengue.

In the Cordillera region, nine towns in Apayao, Abra and Mt. Province declared dengue outbreaks as cases continue to rise, the Health Department’s entomologist and dengue program coordinator in the region, Ursula Segundo, said.

� e towns of Luna, Flora and Sta. Marcela in Apayao province have also declared dengue outbreaks as cases of the mosquito-borne dis-ease have risen. Last month, six towns declared dengue outbreaks in Tadian and Paracelis mu-nicipalities in Mountain Province, and in the towns of Luba, Villaviciosa, San Isidro and Pi-digan in the province of Abra.

In Negros Oriental, the provincial health of-� ce reported earlier this month a dengue out-break in the cities of Guihulgan and Canlaon with the Regional Epidemiological Survey Unit posting 176 cases, with Guihulngan City reporting more than 90 cases.

In a phone interview, Health Department spokesman Dr. Lyndon Lee Suy told � e Standard that it is possible to have 20,000 new cases in a month, but said this might not be the accurate � gure.

Since August and September are the peak months for dengue cases, he said, the huge in-crease in cases is very likely.

“I don’t want to sound an alarmist, but the over 20,000 rise in dengue cases in just one month was not the � rst time. We had the same increases the previous years. In fact, if we will check the DoH records, there were even higher � gures in the past,” he said.

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Dengue...From A1

PNP...From A1

pillar of [the] criminal justice sys-tem... In the end justice has been effectively served,” Sarmiento said.

Wanted for murder and on the run for three years, the brothers were arrested in Phuket for vio-lating Thai immigration laws on Sept. 20.

The brothers arrived at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport Ter-minal 2 at 3:08 a.m. Friday aboard a Philippine Air Lines flight that left Thailand at 11 p.m. Thursday.

Under heavy guard and hand-cuffed, the Reyes brothers were immediately taken to the PNP’s Camp Crame headquarters in Quezon City, where they arrived at 3: 57 a.m.

Chief Supt. Victor Deona, head of the PNP Criminal Investigation and Detection Group, said the brothers were arrested by the Royal Thai Po-

lice for violating the kingdom’s immi-gration laws, but the PNP provided them the information about where the brothers were hiding.

The two slipped out of the coun-try last March 18, 2012 aboard a Cebu Pacific flight bound for Viet-nam even before Palawan Regional Trial Court Branch 52 Judge Ange-lo Arizalda could issue warrants for their arrest for the 2011 murder of broadcast journalist Gerry Ortega.

Deona said the PNP had several leads on where the brothers were holed up, but it was only on Feb. 4 when the Royal Embassy of Thai-land communicated with its Phil-ippine counterpart and confirmed the entry of the Reyes brothers into Thailand.

On Sept. 8, the PNP received an e-mail from an anonymous infor-mant who told them the brothers were hiding in a villa in Rawai on the southern portion of Phuket.

The Thai police and Interpol lat-er confirmed their presence in the villa and the brothers were arrested.

On Sept. 21, the CIDG sent a five-member team to take custody of the brothers from the Royal Thai Police.

At the press conference, the fu-gitive brothers were presented to journalists, but they were not al-lowed to make any statements. Re-porters were also not allowed to ask them any questions.

The brothers were booked at the CIDG, then taken to the airport for a 1:10 p.m. flight to Palawan, where they will be presented to the court that issued their arrest warrants.

Marquez on Friday said the po-lice escort would ensure that the brothers were taken without inci-dent to wherever the Palawan court would have them detained.

Sarmiento added that no spe-cial privileges would be accorded them in jail.

The Palace said the legal pro-ceedings against the Reyeses would proceed even without Justice Sec-retary Leila de Lima, who is widely expected to run for the Senate next year, and who bid farewell to her

staff Thursday.“Regardless of who occupies the

position of Justice Secretary, it is imperative that the case must be pursued,” Communications Secre-tary Herminio Coloma Jr. said.

At the same time, deputy presi-dential spokeswoman Abigail Valte dismissed an allegation by whistle-blower Sandra Cam that De Lima and the Reyes brothers were friends.

“We have no comment on anoth-er of Cam’s claims,” Valte said.

The Ortega family on Fri-day pressed the Justice Depart-ment to act promptly on the case.

The family, through laywer Alex Avisado, said their quest for justice did not end with the arrest of the Reyes brothers.

Avisado urged De Lima to act be-fore she leaves office to resolve their petition for review questioning the first resolution of prosecutors who dismissed the murder charges against the Reyes brothers.

He added that upholding the

indictment of the Reyeses would remove questions on De Lima’s im-partiality, since she was an election lawyer for the former governor.

“We believe that the higher demands of substantial justice should compel the DoJ secretary to adopt a different position in order to avoid any suspicion that she could be protecting the Reyes brothers as the former counsel of Gov. Joel Reyes,” the lawyer said in a statement.

He also lamented De Lima’s recent pronouncement that her hands were tied by the depart-ment’s pending petition in the Supreme Court against an appeals court ruling in 2013 that cleared the brothers.

The Court of Appeals ruling nullified the Justice Department’s creation of a second panel of pros-ecutors that recommended the in-dictment of the Reyes brothers.

“If we resolve the petition for review, we will have to withdraw our petition in the SC,” De Lima said. PNA

PH saddened by fatalstampede in Mecca

Boat race. Major Rudy Escapolao and Col. Abraham Claro Casis prepare for the Dragon Boat Race at the Baywalk in Manila during the AFP-PNP Olympics 2015 on Friday. Manny Palmero

He also said that the numbers do not strictly indicate cases during a certain pe-riod, because earlier cases are incorporated in the totals.

“Dengue cases which happened in the months of June and July when the rainy season started were included in the records of August and September,” he said.

Furthermore, he said the current num-ber of cases reported represent a 16.5-per-cent increase compared to the same period in 2014 when 67,637 cases were recorded.

Calabarzon (Cavite, Laguna, Batangas, Rizal and Quezon) accounts for 11,894 cases, followed by Central Luzon with 11,806; National Capital Region, 8,099; Il-ocos region, 6,501; and Central Mindanao. There were 233 deaths recorded.

In Cavite, health officer George Re-pique said the figure was 200 percent higher than the number of cases record-ed in the same period last year.

In Bulacan, Gov. Wilhelmino Sy-Alvarado appealed to residents to help fight the disease by searching for and destroying all possible breeding sites of dengue-carrying mosquitos.

But Lee Suy said the outbreak of dengue cases in the two provinces have been stabilized.

Dengue fever is an infectious disease carried by mosquitoes and caused by any of four related dengue viruses.

The multiple types of dengue fever is found in most countries of the tropics and subtropics, particularly during and after the rainy season.

Philippine Red Cross chairman Richard Gordon assured the public there is enough supply of blood, not only for dengue pa-tients but for other cases as well.

He said if a local PRC chapter or blood facility does not have enough supply, the national headquarters could coordinate with the nearest Red Cross blood center to send the blood.

“We just sent 45 bags of blood to Marinduque which has no local blood bank,” Gordon said.

Gordon said the PRC has fully mo-bilized its Cavite chapter to augment medical facilities in the province. Aside from moving enough blood supply and testing facilities there, PRC is setting up a 100-bed tent with IV fluids and blood supplies at the General Emilio Aguinal-do Hospital grounds.

“We can set up a full service emergency hospital in the field should, if God forbid, the situation warrants it,” Gordon said.

The Philippines is one of four coun-tries in the Western Pacific which re-ported the highest dengue incidence in recent years. With PNA

THE Philippines extended its condolences Friday to the families of victims who died Thursday in a stampede near the Islamic Holy city of Mecca during an annual hajj in Saudi Arabia.

“We extend our condolences to the fami-lies of those who died in the stampede. On the part of the Philippine government, our consulate general in Jeddah is verifying un-confirmed reports that one Filipino pilgrim died in the stampede in Mecca,” said Com-munications Secretary Herminio Coloma Jr.

At least 717 people taking part in the pil-

grimage were killed in a stampede near the Islamic holy city of Mecca, officials in Saudi Arabia said. Another 863 people were in-jured.

It was the deadliest incident to occur during the pilgrimage in 25 years.

King Salman has ordered an urgent re-view of this year’s hajj plans “to improve the level of organization”.

The supreme leader of Iran, which lost at least 95 of its citizens in the crush, criti-cized Saudi Arabia’s preparedness.

The stampede was the second disaster to strike Mecca in two weeks, after a crane collapsed at the Grand Mosque, killing 109 people.

During the hajj, pilgrims travel to Mina,

a large valley about five kilometers from Mecca, to throw seven stones at pillars called Jamarat, which represent the devil.

The pillars stand where Satan is believed to have tempted the prophet Abraham.

People were going towards the direction of pillars while others were coming from the opposite direction, creating chaos.

Among those who died were pilgrims from Nigeria, Niger, Chad and Senegal. Pil-grims clambered on top of others to move to safety, adding to the death toll.

People were chanting Allah’s name while others, including children and infants, were crying. People fell to the ground seek-ing help, but there was none to be had, re-ports said. Sandy Araneta

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Ignore Palace moves on BBL, House urged

Romualdez said the new Decem-ber 2015 deadline set by the Palace for the BBL’s passage was an admis-sion that the Aquino administration could no longer have the measure approved.

He made his statement even as The National Anti-Poverty Com-mission on Friday urged the lead-ers of the House of Representatives and the Senate to ensure the pas-sage of a BBL that conforms to the

Comprehensive Agreement on the Bangsamoro and the Constitution.

The commission also urged Congress to consider the long neg-ative effect of the armed conflict in Mindanao on the entire country.

“[The] long-standing armed conflicts and violence in the terri-tories of the Bangsamoro had also affected the entire island of Mind-anao and the whole country,” the commission said in a resolution.

Romualdez said the BBL should not be passed without having given lawmakers the chance to carefully review, study and scrutinize the peace measure and declaring that the bill was compliant with every provision of the 1987 Constitution.

“Lawmakers need more time to study the BBL because we want to guarantee that what we would be passing will be legal and constitu-tional,” Romualdez said.

Both the House and the Senate are having a hard time passing the BBL due to lack of time, and that has prompted senators and con-gressmen to agree on December as the new deadline to approve the measure.

But a House leader who refused to be named said the new dead-line was just a “show” to project that the government was relent-less in its commitment to approve the measure.

Zamboanga City Rep. Celso Lo-bregat, one of the BBL's critics, agreed there was no time to pass the BBL and have it enacted under the Aqui-no administration.

“Even if we pass it in the House, we still have to reconcile it with that of the Senate," Lobregat said.

He says he supports the proposed BBL provided its provisions do not violate the Constitution, adding he is also for lasting peace in Mindanao.

Maricel V. Cruz and Sandy Araneta

Mar sees self as the underdogILOILO CITY—Admin-istration standard bearer Manuel Roxas II on Thurs-day said he still sees him-self as an underdog despite an increase in his ratings in the latest presidential preference survey. But he said he will not be complacent.

“We will continue to pres-ent our platform. We will show the concrete examples of the things we’ve champi-oned,” Roxas told reporters at the sidelines of the Angkla Party-list’s Maritime Week celebrations.

Roxas, in the last So-cial Weather Stations sur-vey conducted Sept. 2 to 5,

placed third with 20 percent behind survey front runner Senator Grace Poe with 26 percent and Vice President Jejomar Binay with 24 per-cent.

Malacañang said Roxas had posted a significant in-crease in his ratings in the recent surveys.

“The SWS and Pulse Asia preference surveys for the third quarter were the first to be held after President Aquino endorsed him as LP standard bearer,” Com-munications Secretary Her-minio Coloma Jr. said in a text message.

“The significant improve-ment in Secretary Roxas’ rat-

ings follow the same upward trend in the President’s satis-faction ratings.”

Coloma made his state-ment even as Camarines Sur Rep. Maria Leonor Robredo reiterated she was not yet pre-pared to seek the vice presi-dency despite pressure from the Liberal Party to be Roxas’ running mate.

“I’m not yet ready. I don’t have enough preparations for this post,” Robredo said.

Senate President Franklin Drilon said Roxas’ running mate will be announced during the Liberal Party’s convention on Sept. 30. John Paolo Bencito, Sandy Araneta and Macon Ramos-AranetaGuinness entry. Engineers count the number of origamis forming a dragon-like display,

an entry to the Guinness Book of Records, in Manila’s Chinatown on Friday. DAnny PAtA

2nd placerBinay seesmore hardwork ahead

Fire in the city. A worker tries to douse a fire that gutted a warehouse in Valenzuela City on Friday. AnDRew RABulAn

LEYTE Rep. Ferdinand Martin Romualdez on Friday appealed to his fellow lawmakers to resist the pressure from Malacañang to pass the proposed Bangsamoro Basic Law without subjecting it to a thorough debate and scrutiny.

VICE President Jejomar Binay on Friday vowed to work harder as he topped the voters’ preference in Mindanao and placed a close second to Sena-tor Grace Poe in Metro Manila, Luzon and the Visayas.

“More hard work,” Bi-nay’s camp said in reac-tion to the recent Pulse Asia survey that placed Binay in a statistical tie with Poe for first place in the presidential pref-erence survey commis-sioned by the ABS-CBN television network.

In the latest Pulse Asia survey, Binay received 21 percent of the respon-dents’ vote while Poe re-ceived 27 percent.

The survey was con-ducted from Aug. 27 to Sept. 3, 2015, according to Pulse Asia research direc-tor Ana Maria Tabunda.

In a statement, Binay spokesman Rico Quicho said Binay was grateful to the people’s continuing support for him.

“Rest assured that he will continue to work hard,” Quicho said.

In the survey, Binay topped the voters’ preference in Mindanao and placed second in the National Capi-tal Region, Balance Luzon and the Visayas.

Tabunda said the sur-vey supported Binay’s claim that his core base remained intact.

“So far, there was a basis for what Binay has said and holds up his voter prefer-ence,” Tabunda said.

“The drop was mini-mal. It’s no difference with the voter preference he got in June.”

In June, 22 percent of the respondents said they would vote for Binay if the elections were held at the time of the survey. Vito Barcelo

‘Jenny’now atyphoon

SENATOR Miriam Defensor-Santiago called on her colleagues in the Senate to reject any additional funds for the nationwide free Wi-Fi initiative without looking into the status of the project, which the Department of Science and Technology vowed to finish by December.

“Was it not too ambitious for an agency to embark on a P3-billion project this year when it failed to implement several projects worth less than a billion in 2014? Of course Internet-loving Filipinos want free Wi-Fi, but can the DoST deliver on its promises?” she said.

The nationwide free Wi-Fi project costs P3 billion. An initial P1.4 billion has been programmed this year, but the DoST is asking another P1.6 billion in its proposed P17.8-billion budget in 2016. DoST officials are set to face senators for budget deliberations on Oct. 6.

Santiago, author of the Magna Carta for Internet Freedom, will file a resolution on Monday, urging a Senate

inquiry on the DoST’s Information and Communications Technology Office, which, according to state auditors, underspent by P827.6 million in 2014.

The senator cited a recently released Commission on Audit report, which found that the ICTO faced roadblocks in two major projects in 2014. Due to this, it spent only P65.2 million of the P892.8 million in e-Government funds programmed that year.

The CoA said bulk of the unused funds were earmarked for the Integrated Government Philippines Project, which would have set up a shared network among offices delivering common services, and the Philippines Community eCenter Program.

State auditors claimed that the underspending was the result of procurement delays, as they questioned whether the ICTO bids and awards committee for special projects was fully capable of handling high-value projects.

Wi-Fi initiative questioned

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HR group: PH militarystood by during attacks

Skin art. American Karl Fleckentein has one more tattoo done by a Filipino artist after the opening of the Philippine Tattoo Expo, dubbed as ‘Dutdutan 2015,’ at the World Trade Center in Pasay City on Friday Sept. 25. DANNY PATA

ALTHOUGH it is not expected to make landfall in the Philippines, Severe Tropical Storm “Jenny” [international name Dujuan] intensified into a typhoon Friday afternoon and is expected to further strengthen into a Category 3 hurricane by Sunday.

The Philippine Atmospheric, Geophysical and Astronomical Services Administration said no public storm warning signal raised because of Jenny which was spotted 1,010 km east of Basco, Batanes at 4 p.m. Friday.

Pagasa weather forecaster Samuel Duran said Jenny packed maximum sustained winds of 120 kph near the center and gustiness of up to 150 kph. It is forecast to move Northwest at 9 kph and may remain in the Philippine Area of Responsibility until Monday.

Duran said the typhoon will likely enhance the prevailing southwest monsoon affecting Visayas and Mindanao and trigger flashfloods and landslides will be experienced in Palawan, Western Visayas and Zamboanga Peninsula.

He said cloudy skies with light to moderate rains and isolated thunderstorms is expected over Southern Luzon, the Bicol region and the rest of Visayas and of Mindanao while partly cloudy to cloudy skies with isolated thunderstorms will prevail over Metro Manila and the rest of Luzon.

Moderate to strong winds blowing from the northwest to west will prevail over Luzon and coming from the southwest over Visayas and Mindanao. The coastal waters throughout the archipelago will be moderate to rough, he added.

Forecasters said the typhoon has steadily strengthened since Thursday and may hit Japan’s Ryukyu Islands and mainland Japan, Taiwan and eastern China.

If Jenny maintains its speed and movement, Duran said the tropical storm is forecast to exit by Monday towards Taiwan.

THE international Human Rights Watch accused the Philippine military of repeatedly standing aside while paramilitary forces attacked indigenous villages and schools in Mindanao.

“These forces have committed killings, torture, forced displacement, and harassment of residents, students, and educators with impunity,” Human Rights Watch said in a statement on its website.

“The Philippine government should urgently act to end these abuses and investigate al leged complicity by military personnel,” the group added.

“Paramilitaries in Mindanao have been terrorizing tribal

people while the military at best does nothing,” said HRW deputy Asia director Phil Robertson. “The Aquino administration should not only be cracking down on the paramilitaries, but also on the military officers supporting them.”

Residents interviewed by HRW and government officials have linked military personnel to the two paramilitary groups involved in the attacks while Surigao del Sur Gov. Johnny

Pimentel, publicly accused the military of creating and controlling the Magahat Bagani Force (the “Magahat”) paramilitary group.

“The military created a monster,” HRW quoted Pimentel as saying on Sept. 6.

HRW received reports that elements of the military were consistently nearby when the Alamara group carried out attacks in Davao del Norte.

In some instances, the troops accompanied paramilitaries as they harassed students and teachers of a tribal school in the town of Talaingod.

“The soldiers stayed outside the classrooms but allowed the Alamara to go inside, fully armed, accusing us of being supporters

of the NPA [the communist New People’s Army],” said one student, referring to an incident in March.

Tribal and environmental groups have accused the military of using these paramilitaries, who are tribal members and thus familiar to local residents, to help clear ancestral areas to pave the way for mining companies and other business interests.

The government has designated the Caraga region, which includes Surigao del Sur, as the “mining capital of the Philippines.” Davao del Norte and Bukidnon are also known for rich mineral and natural resources that indigenous peoples claim as their ancestral domain.

Memorial celebration. Former military chief Gregorio Pio Catapang chats with Leyte Rep. Ferdinand Martin Romualdez, his brother Philippine Chamber of Mines president Philip Romualdez and sister-in-law Sandy Prieto-Romualdez during the memorial celebration of the birth of deceased Leyte Gov. Bejamin “Kokoy” Romualdez in Makati City.

Kidnappers slip past dragnet

QUEZON City Mayor Herbert Bautista has signed a memorandum of agreement with the Land Transportation Office to create an interconnectivity system for easier and faster information sharing that will enable a more efficient traffic management in Quezon City.

In a simple signing ceremony held at the city hall, Bautista signed the MOA with LTO Assistant Secretary Alfonso Tan, aims to give the city government direct access to LTO’s motorist database, the very same way the LTO will now be able to get local traffic violations from the QC traffic division.

“We believe that information sharing between the QC government and the LTO is crucial in strengthening the capabilities of the city’s traffic division, particularly in the apprehension of erring motorists,” Bautista said.

Elmo San Diego, head of the QC Department of Public Order and Safety, said that prior to the agreement, erring

motorists in QC are able to get new licenses even without having settle their fines since the LTO does not have information on the traffic violations in QC.

“At the present setup, LGU tickets are not compiled by the LTO. Therefore, even if you have numerous Ordinance Violation Receipts the LTO does not know about it because there is no interconnectivity. You can easily replace licenses from the LTO by just submitting affidavits of loss, therefore making the OVR’s useless,” Bautista said.

Bautista stressed that with the new interconnectivity system, those who fail to settle their ticket violations in Quezon City will no longer be able to renew their driver’s licenses at the LTO.

“We warn erring motorists that with this new system, you can no longer circumvent the law. Those flagged by the QC as having unsettled traffic violations will not be able to renew their licenses until they settle the corresponding fines,” added Bautista.

QC, LTO forge data pact

By Francisco Tuyayand Sandy Araneta

SECURITY forces continued their search for the three foreigners and a Filipino who were abducted by still unknown armed men, spurring fears that the kidnappers may have slipped past the dragnet in Southern Mindanao.

Capt. Alberto Caber, spokesperson of the military’s Eastern Mindanao Command, said operations were no longer limited to the Davao Region, fueling speculation that the victims could have been taken out of the main island of Mindanao to Basilan.

Police Chief Supt. Federico Dulay, head of Task Force Oceanview, said the police believes the kidnappers and their victims —Canadians John Ridsdel and Robert Hall, Norwegian Kjartan Sekkingstad, and Filipina Tess Flor—were still in the region.

Meanwhile, Malacañang oppose on Friday the offer of Davao City Mayor Rodrigo Duterte that exchange himself for the freedom of the victims.

“Operations are already underway to rescue [the victims]. It would not be prudent for government to place another in a risky situation,” said Deputy Presidential Spokesperson Abigail Valte, in a text message to the Malacañang Press Corps.

At the same time, Malacañang maintained that the Philippines is a safe place for tourists, and that the Samal Island kidnapping incident is an isolated case.

“The Island Garden City of Samal is one of the most popular and favored tourist destinations in the country on account of its scenic location, superior facilities and peaceful environment,” said Communications Secretary Herminio Coloma Jr. during a press briefing in Malacañang.

“Records show that the last known high-profile criminal incident in this tourist island happened in 2001 when there was a foiled attempt by a group allegedly the Abu Sayyaf—an alleged kidnapping attempt on the part of the Abu Sayyaf,” Coloma said.

“So that was 2001 or 14 years ago. The police and military authorities are doing their level best to track and arrest the perpetrators so they can be brought to the bar of justice and they are working for the early and safe release of those that were abducted from Samal Island,” said Coloma.

Pinoy nurses want out of MEBy Vito Barcelo

FILIPINO nurses working in hospitals near the Saudi-Yemen border has sought the Philippine government’s assistance to help them return home to escape the escalating war near the Saudi-Yemen border, the Department of Foreign Affairs said.

The DFA also said that the Kingdom will not blacklist Filipino nurses who want to leave their work in hospitals even if they did not complete their existing contracts.

Foreign Affairs spokesperson Charles Jose said that non-completion of their contracts will not cause the nurses to be blacklisted from working back to Saudi or in other Middle Eastern countries.

Saudi Arabia is currently embroiled in months-long clashes with neighboring Yemen.

However, the Philippine Consulate General in Jeddah reported that

some Filipino nurses have opted to stay despite the conf lict while others decided to stop working without finishing their contracts.

The DFA said Saudi employers of Filipino nurses who chose to stay behind assured of their safety and have contingency plans should war erupts near the Saudi-Yemen border.

The Philippine Embassy officials were assured by Saudi employers that if the Filipino nurses decide to leave “they will not be forced or prevented from leaving.”

Jose said the Saudi government will be the one to provide them clearance or address the issue of benefits. They will also be given their monetary entitlements and privileges whether or not they complete their existing contracts, he added.

Those nurses, on the other hand, whose contracts are ending within the next couple of months will be allowed

to go through the regular process of securing an exit visa.

For those with contracts that are in the process of being renewed, Jose said these may be retracted if the concerned individual decides not to continue working in the Kingdom. Last week, five Saudi soldiers were killed near the border with Yemen.

A Saudi-led military coalition began an offensive to drive Houthi militia forces out of Yemen’s energy-rich province of Marib. The Saudi coalition began air strikes against the Houthis and their allies, forces loyal to former president Ali Abdullah Saleh, in late March after they pushed from their northern stronghold towards the southern port of Aden.

Two Filipinos, a female nurse and a male construction worker, were injured in a mortar attack in Samtah near Saudi-Yemen border last week.

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Mid-Autumn Festival. A shopper takes a closer look at a giant moon cake while a worker cleans up its glass box at a mall in Binondo, Manila on Friday. MANNY PALMERO

Reaction patrol. Coast guards board a boat off Davao City and Samal Island on Friday as law enforcers continued to search for three foreigners and one Filipina hostage who were kidnapped from their yacht in Samal Island on Thursday. AFP

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Police arrest more ‘Most Wanted’

Liberal stalwarts deny turning local officials against Poe

By Joel E. Zurbano

THE government’s crackdown on the most wanted men in Metro Manila has resulted in the arrest of nine persons in the last week of September alone, bringing to 204 the total number of most wanted arrested out of the 440 on the list.

Lawmaker seeks better health facilities in tourist spots

Chief Supt. Joel Pagdi-lao, director of the National Capital Region Police Of-fice, said he hopes that the arrest of wanted men would further trim down criminal acitivities in Metro Manila, especially this coming holi-day season.

He ordered all district directors—Manila Police District, Southern Police District, Eastern Police District, Northern Police District and Central Police District—to intensify po-lice street patrol operations to prevent robbery, snatch-ing, theft and numerous modus operandi.

“Christmas is fast ap-proaching. So it is right for us to intensify our campaign going against these most wanted persons. We have to stop them, arrest them to bring peace and order in the community and peace of mind to all parents,” said Pagdilao.

Pagdilao recently ordered the deployment of 314 Po-lice Officers - 1 (PO1s) and 123 newly graduates of Philippine National Police Academy to ensure peace

and order situation in the metropolis.

In his memorandum, Pag-dilao said the policemen will focus on street patrol along major thoroughfares, vital and financial installations, and places of convergence in Metro Manila such as Metro Railways and Light Railways Transit systems, bus termi-nals and shopping centers.

As the holiday season draws near, the NCRPO called on citizens to do their part to lessen and prevent criminal activities. It also ad-vised the public to be aware of the modus operandi of criminal groups.

Last Monday, the NCRPO recognized the operatives of Malabon City Police and Marikina City Police for their successful operations against the No. 4 and No. 6 most wanted persons in their area of jurisdiction.

Pagdilao encouraged his men to continue to be loyal to the organization, act with concern for the public, and work hard in every task as-signed to them as he pinned the “Medalya ng Kagalin-gan” to said police officers.

IN RESPONSE to the growing demands to bolster emergency preparedness in the tourism industry, a lawmaker has filed a bill establishing well-equipped health facilities in key tourism destina-tions in the country.

Agusan del Norte Rep. Erlpe John M. Amante, in filing House Bill 6070, said recent events involving death of several tourists in Boracay Island, Leyte and the island-paradise of Coron due to the inadequacy of the nearby hospital to treat the patients have placed the coun-try in a bad light.

“These situations brought to fore the necessity in making the country’s tourist destinations more prepared and effective in dealing with emergencies and health-related crises,” he said.

Amante said tourism industry is prone to accidents due to the fact that most of its re-lated activities entail providing experiences

that offer “risks, thrills, and adventure.”“But despite this industry’s well-known

nature, any untoward incident is still un-acceptable to the public; and the occur-rence of such could even substantially affect the image of our destinations espe-cially if this is due to failure of authorities to respond to life-threatening situations.”

Under the bill to be known as the “Tourism Health Facilities Act,” the De-partments of Tourism, Health and Inte-rior and Local Government are tasked to coordinate in the identification of tour-ist sites for the construction of tourism health facilities, to be referred as THFs.

Priority will be given to tourism sites that are isolated or with no existing health facility within four-kilometer radius. Each facility shall have a mini-mum capability to respond to emergen-cy cases and treat common illnesses and injuries. Maricel V. Cruz

By Maricel V. Cruz

A MEMBER of the House inde-pendent minority bloc said Friday they did not discount the possibil-ity of Liberal Party stalwarts exert-ing political pressure on local of-ficials to turn them against Liberal Party officials have denied exerting pressure on local officials to turn against independent presidential

and vice presidential candidate Senator Grace Poe and Francis Es-cudero, respectively.

This came up as the invitation to the two to Sunday’s founding anni-versary of Tawi-tawi was withdrawn.

Abakada party-list Rep. Jonathan de la Cruz said: “If the same was instigated by the LP, it just shows that it will not hesitate to use every means fair or foul to gain advantage

this early in the game.” The Liberal Party’s standard bearer

for the 2016 presidential elections is former Interior and Local Govern-ment Secretary Manuel Roxas II.

Liberal stalwarts, however, de-nied this was the reason for the withdrawal of the invitation.

House Speaker Feliciano Bel-monte does not believe that the LP would do such a thing. “I do not be-

lieve LP applied pressure,” Belmon-te, LP vice chair, told The Stan-dard. “To me it is up to the locals [whether they will allow themselves or not to be pressured by anyone].”

Quezon City Rep. Bolet Banal, an-other Liberal Party official, said that the LP does not need to do extra effort nor to resort to any desperate move to im-prove the rating of its presidential bet.

“This early in the game, Mar

Roxas is already in a statistical tie with them. In the coming months, I think more people will appreciate and value Mar’s integrity and loy-alty to our country,” Banal said.

The reported withdrawal of invi-tation to Poe and Escudero was also denounced by the two senators.

In a joint statement, Poe and Escu-dero said that the invitation had been withdrawn for political reasons.

Heavy duty. An improvised tricycle called ‘kuliglig’ is loaded with junk shop materials along Reina Regente Street in Binondo, Manila. MANNY PALMERO

No running on hallways. Students spend their break along the corridors of Aurora A. Quezon Elementary School. JANSEN ROMERO

Youth party slams brutal dispersal of Iloilo protest

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NEWS

Aquino orders termination of contract for river irrigation

Regional wage board raises minimum rate in Metro Cebu

Kabataan party-list Rep. Terry Ridon said about 500 UP stu-dents, faculty, staff, and con-cerned citizens marched from the UP Iloilo City campus Thursday afternoon, as part of the National Day of Action against Budget Cuts in Education. They were protesting against the impending budget cuts for state universities and colleges in 2016, including

the P2.2-billion budget cut for UP.When the group reached Gen-

eral Luna Street, Ridon, citing reports reaching his office, said about 200 riot police stopped them from marching onwards to the Iloilo Provincial Capitol and proceeded to violently disperse the rally.

The police then arrested 11 protest leaders, including Bry-

an Bosque and Gabyel Guillen of Anakbayan-Panay, UP Visayas faculty Erick Dasig Aguilar and Gretchen Velarde, Iglesia Fili-pina Independiente Diocese of Iloilo Vicar General Fr. Marco Sulayao, Bagong Alyansang Makabayan-Panay Chair Hope Hervilla, and Karapatan-Panay Secretary General Reylan Ver-gara, Ridon said.

“We condemn in the strongest possible terms the violent dispersal of the anti-budget cut protest in UP Visayas.

“We note in particular how the government is using an iron fist against legitimate peaceful as-semblies in Iloilo, mostly after the city’s hosting of one of the

Asia-Pacific Economic Coop-eration ministerial meetings,” Ridon said.

“The state violence exercised by the Aquino administration against the protesters is reminiscent of the dark days of Martial Law, when even legitimate issues and concerns were met with state violence,” Ridon added.

He said it was “deeply alarming” and ironic that the Aquino admin-istration inflicted violence against peaceful protesters just a few days after the nation commemorated the 43rd anniversary of the declaration of Martial Law.

Ridon said the arrested protesters were only released from detention at noon Friday.

By Maricel V. Cruz

A YOUTH representative in Congress decried the brutal dispersal of an anti-budget cut rally in the University of the Philippines Visayas in Iloilo City on Thursday.

By Dexter A. See

LUNA, Apayao—President Benigno Aquino III has ordered the National Irritation Administration to termi-nate the P450-million contract for the failed rehabilitation of the Up-per Chico River Irrigation System in nearby Kalinga province because of the contractor’s negligence to com-ply with obligations to complete the project on time.

UCRIS provides irrigation water to over 6,500 hectares of rice farms in Tabuk City, Kalinga and over 4,800 hectares of fircefields in nearby Que-zon, Isabela.

The President said he concurs with the recommendation of NIA and the Cordillera Irrigators Asso-ciation for the termination of the contract with Mark Built—Policar-pio consortium.

At this time, the contractor should already have a 98-percent accomplishment rate but has actu-ally only completed 30 percent of the agreed work.

The delay poses a serious threat to the government’s food self-sufficiency program considering that Kalinga is the rice granary of the Cordillera.

Mr. Aquino said the matter would first be referred to the World Bank which is the source of funding for the project. The government will then propose the repacking of the contract in order to complete the rehabilitation of the region’s major irrigation system to expand the over 11,000 hectares of ricefields benefit-ting from the operation of the na-tional irrigation system.

Engineer John Socalo, NIA-CAR re-gional irrigation manager, confirmed the proposed termination of the con-tract of UCRIS. The agency, however, has given the contractor a deadline to provide the adequate units of equip-ment and manpower to meet the De-cember deadline of the project.

By Vito Barcelo

THE Regional Tripartite Wages and Productivity Board has raised the minimum salary of workers in Metro Cebu by P13 a day.

Labor Secretary Rosalinda Baldoz said the DoLE-RTWPB in Region 7 approved the salary increase from the current P340 to P353. This will take effect im-mediately.

The regional wage board ap-proved the adjustment in the daily basic wage of minimum wage earners in the private sector in Metro Cebu, including the cities of Mandaue, Lapu-Lapu, Talisay, Naga, Carcar, and Danao cities and the municipalities of Compos-tela, Consolacion, Liloan, Cordova, Minglanilla, and San Fernando.

The increase, however, will not apply to other areas of Cebu Prov-

ince, Bohol, and Siquijor.DOLE Regional 7 Director Ex-

equiel Sarcauga said that the wage raise was agreed upon by the wage board to recover the erosion of the workers’ purchasing power amid the increase in the prices of prime goods.

Sarcauga said the P13 increase is in response to the petitions earlier filed by the Alliance of Progres-sive Labor and Associated Labor Union-TUCP who filed a P145.00 and P92.00 across the board wage increase, respectively.

Sarcauga said that prior to the grant of the wage increase, the Re-gional Wage Board in Cebu City conducted a series of wage consul-tations and public hearings.

He added that there was no voting on the P13 increase be-cause it was a consensus among the members.

Scenic view. Kids play basketball along the coast of Narvacan, Ilocos Sur. DAVID CHAN

Anklewear. Sounds made by this century-old ‘sikil,’ worn on the ankle by Manobo women during dances, accompany the rituals and tribal occa-sions of the Dulangan Manobos in the municipality of Sen. Ninoy Aquino, Sultan Kudarat. AMIEL MARK CAGAYAN

he was editor-in-chief of the Daily Mirror, the sister publi-cation of the Manila Times. As I was just starting out, though, I never had a chance to talk to this multi-faceted talented man who loved life and its simple pleasures.

After that, Abe would invite me to his townhouse in Eco Vil-lage in Makati which he used as his atelier. I thought I recog-nized one of his earlier works turned over to the National Mu-seum as one he was working on during one of my visits.

Appointed by President Mar-cos as Philippine Ambassador to Paris- based-Unesco, Abe didn’t stay too long because he said the cold winter was not too kind to an old man’s bones.

OPINIONA8

[ EDI TORI A L ]

ABAYA MAKES HISTORY

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ADELLE CHUAE D I T O R


OPINION

ATTENDING the turnover of Emilio Aguilar Cruz’s paint-ings to the National Museum last Tuesday was for me a travel back in time to an era of Filipi-no men of letters that included Adrian Cristobal, Blas Ople and J.V. Cruz. They are all gone now and probably get together wher-ever they are to banter and ex-change wits.

Emilio Aguilar Cruz, more known as Abe, was not only a painter. He was a also a journal-ist, diplomat and a quintessen-tial man. I cannot claim to have known him well. But in the brief years that I did, I wished I had met him earlier. His son, Larry, was also a former journalist but was a victim of his own success in the restaurant business Alas, everyone knew him more as the owner of the successful LJC res-taurant group.

Lorenzo de Jesus Cruz was the former deputy press secretary of Kit Tatad during the Marcos years. But that’s another story

as Kit is the only one left of that elite circle of writers. Larry later on became Director of the Bu-reau of National and Foreign Information under Secretary Tatad’s Department of Public Information where I served as press attaché to the Philippine Mission to the United Nations in New York.

Before Larry went into the restaurant business, he would invite close friends to his house in Las Piñas for a feast of Ka-pampangan food which his fa-ther relished. It was there that I first had a chance to get close to Abe. I had known him when

ABE, ADRIAN, BLAS AND JAYVEE

FOR THIS piece, I yield my space to Tommy Matic IV who has been passion-ately involved in various conversations ensuing from the film Heneral Luna. This is an attempt for people to understand the most difficult context within which Gen-eral Emilio Aguinaldo and General Anto-nio Luna operated in, and thus, appreci-ate them more as Filipino heroes both.

“The movie Heneral Luna has sparked a lot of conversation. As a relatively young nation, we should be concerned with our history.

The problem is less with the film as with the hoary old myths and politicized messages that it brings out as witnessed by a plethora of conversations and com-ments on Facebook. The film insinuates that Emilio Aguinaldo is to blame for Luna’s murder, something that has never been proven beyond reasonable doubt, and, it seems, without fully considering the actual situation that these historical characters had to deal with.

It is easy for our generation of Filipi-nos to take freedom for granted. It is also easy to judge the heroes of our past by the standards of the present, with the arro-gance of hindsight, an ignorance for real historical conditions, and an unrealistic demand that heroes act ‘heroically’ as if in a fairy tale and never do evil, never make mistakes. Heroes in the Filipino mindset are virtually demi-gods.

I will explore briefly the historical situa-tion and provide some factors that viewers can consider while watching Heneral Luna.

When Aguinaldo and his Hong Kong Junta returned, they found a people ready and hungry for freedom. As news of Agui-naldo’s return spread, municipio after mu-nicipio overthrew their Spanish colonizers. With the exception of Baler and Manila, virtually all the archipelago was free for the first time in three-hundred odd years.

While this was what the Filipino patriots had long desired, it was clear that freedom was as vulnerable as a candle in the wind, and the storm of colonialism was starting to howl. This was an era when almost all the world was under colonial rule, save for some.

After Dewey defeated the Spanish fleet in Manila Bay, the Great Powers sent in their warships, ostensibly to protect their interests in Manila but before long it was clear that Germany had less than amicable designs.

As Spain lost its grasp on the Philip-pines, it was of great interest among the Great Powers which one of them would ‘take over’. The idea of the locals rul-ing themselves was not only unimagi-nable but anathema to the white colonial mindset. After all, if a bunch of brown skinned upstarts in the South China Sea start ruling themselves, what will the Malays, Indians, Indonesians, etc. think? The Philippines lay astride the main Brit-ish trade route and was a gateway to the China Trade, something that Germany

AGUINALDO’S AND LUNA’S

BIGGER CONTEXT

So, he returned to Manila to pick up on his painting although he did some watercolor and charcoal sketches of the city which is home to the French mas-ters. He dropped by to see me once in New York during one of his trips . He asked me to take him to one of the res-taurants in New York’s Chinatown. He knew the name of the place but could not remember where in Chinatown’s warren of narrow streets it was located. So I took him along Mott Street where he spotted a small restaurant that he said looked familiar.

It was not the one he had been to many years ago but it was a pleasant discovery as the food was good. After dinner, Abe asked if I was familiar with the Bronx. I was surprised as the Bronx was like a no man’s land for someone who lived in Manhattan or the nearly sylvan setting of nearby Long Island. I agreed to drive him to the Bronx where we looked up a woman Abe said was a friend and former model who had posed for him. I found the place which was a four-storey walkup apartment in a mixed neighborhood of Puerto Ricans

and African Americans. Abe waited in the car with another friend as he could no longer climb the four flights of stairs.

When I knocked, the door was opened by a burly Latino man. Behind him was the frail figure of what looked like a Pinay who seemed scared.

“Si?” He asked in a gruff voice. I made a hasty retreat after what sound-ed in broken Spanish as “Sorry, wrong apartment.”

I told Abe I found the place but his friend had moved to another place, parts unknown. Continued on A10

TAKE it from a man who makes a show out of taking the Metro Rail Transit with an aide holding an umbrella for him and plenty of cameras in tow.

This is the same official who tried to assuage our collective anger about the worsening traffic in the metro by saying it was not fatal.

His words angered us more.He also seconded his boss, the President, who insisted that the

regular gridlocks were a sign of economic progress.Now he outdoes himself by daring to suggest a revision of history.Transportation and Communications Joseph Emilio Abaya,

commenting on the critical and commercial success of the independent film Heneral Luna—a fictional adaptation of historical events during the Philippine-American War of 1998—said he has read other books and other versions of events, and that he does not believe that General Antonio Luna was assassinated.

The film, as do history books, implies Luna was ordered killed by then-President Emilio Aguinaldo, Abaya’s great grandfather. Aguinaldo has also been linked to the killing of Andres and Procopio Bonifacio.

It may be natural impulse for us to defend family members and ancestors especially when they are accused of wrongdoing and have no means to defend themselves.

But defending an ancestor and challenging history are different things, which an educated, pedigreed man like Abaya should know. He did not even mention which books, and which contrarian versions, he has read.

Then again, why expect so much from a Cabinet official who is not only notorious for being incompetent but for coming up with crazy excuses for his numerous failings?

Never has Abaya, or any other from this administration, behaved humbly enough to simply acknowledge mistakes and failures and vow to do better onwards.

He himself is writing his history, and that of the administration he serves.

BACK CHANNEL

ALEJANDRO DEL ROSARIO

POWER POINT

ELIZABETHANGSIOCO

They are all gone now and probably

get together wherever they

are to banter and exchange wits.

Rolando G. Estabillo Publisher Jojo A. Robles Editor-in-Chief Ramonchito L. Tomeldan Managing Editor Chin Wong/Ray S. Eñano Associate Editors Francis Lagniton News Editor Joyce Pangco Pañares City Editor Adelle Chua Senior Deskman Romel J. Mendez Art Director Roberto Cabrera Chief Photographer

MEMBERPhilippine Press InstituteThe National Association of Philippine NewspapersPPI

can be accessed at:www.manilastandardtoday.comONLINE

MSTPublished Monday to Sunday by Philippine Manila Standard Publishing Inc. at 6/F Universal Re Building, 106 Paseo de Roxas, corner Perea St., Legaspi Village, Makati City. Telephone numbers 832-5554, 832-5556, 832-5558 (connecting all departments), (Editorial), 832-5546, (Advertising), 832-

5550. P.O. Box 2933, Manila Central Post Office, Manila. Website: www.manilastandardtoday.com E-mail: [email protected]

MST Management, Inc. Philip G. Romualdez Chairman Arnold C. Liong President & Chief Executive Officer Former Chief Justice Reynato S. Puno Board Member & Chief Legal Adviser Jocelyn F. Domingo Director of Operations Ron Ryan S. Buguis Finance Officer

Ma. Isabel “Gina” P. Verzosa Head, Advertising Solutions Anita F. Grefal Treasury Manager Edgar M. Valmorida Circulation Manager Emil P. Jurado Chairman Emeritus, Editiorial Board

Continued on A11

ideological bankruptcy, for even in dialectics there is a hierarchical order to set in motion the strategy of one-step backward for tactical consideration, and make a two-steps forward to attain their strategic objective.

Stated otherwise, they cannot sacrifice the ide-ology that justifies their existence for the sake of political convenience without betraying their followers about their al-liance with an alleged American citizen who

has already shown signs of disloyalty by her act of tampering her birth cer-tificate and by her refusal to submit the Mamasapa-no Investigation Report to cover US involvement in that operation that led to the death of 44 of our elite police force.

The possible coalition cannot be made a condition to assure their senatorial candidate, Neri Colmena-res, a seat in the Senate. Since it is the so-called Makabayan party lists that

need the coalition which many suspect that the agreement is more to en-sure B.S Aquino fs so-called greforms h will be pursued beyond 2016, and making sure that those who stashed away those billions to bribe political sycophants would not end up in jail.

It is for this why so-called Makabayan party lists continue to keep their distance from reaching a possible an alliance with Bongbong Marcos because they have covertly reduced

their struggle to one of a personal crusade for their self-exiled leaders now holed in The Netherlands. Up to now, they deny that they committed a sacrilege to Marxism when they sup-ported the counter-revolu-tion in 1986 that in the end cause them to devour their own children just to keep the party alive.

What now prevails is op-portunism of the highest order.

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OPINIONS AT U R D AY : S E P T E M B E R 2 6 , 2 0 1 5

A10

POLITICAL parties that style themselves as pro-gressives must remain consistent to their ide-ology. While time has changed and fanaticism is now frowned upon, some of those who opted to re-main demarcated have in-terpreted the past to keep the loyalty of their mem-bers, ignoring the truth that the past they are refer-ring to could have liberat-ed our people without go-ing through the process of a bloody transition. They refuse to accept that it was the man they branded as dictator that elevated to new heights the meaning of self-determination and economic independence.

As they say, nobody can ignore the truth, just the history of a country, for all its glory and infamy, will always be a part of its saga. It is in knowing our history why we are able to compare the past from the present, and from there, draw the line whether we have tru-ly managed to attain our commitment to improving the lives of our people. It is from this simple postulate why political parties find solace in their existence.

The coalition of eight Makabayan party lists made up of Bayan Muna, Gabriela, Anakpawis, Teachers-ACT, Piston, Kabataan, Migrante and Katribu have their reason why they are amalgam-ated as one political bloc. But despite their claim of representing the national-ists and the progressives f status, they have not been able to liberate themselves from their own ideological encapsulation.

For all their cry of Mar-cos as a dictator, they ig-nore the truth that it was he who allowed the ter-mination of the Laurel-Langley Agreement in July 1974, reduced and even-tually terminated the US military bases agreement on Sept. 15, 1991, created numerous state-owned en-terprises to allow our peo-ple enjoy the services they needed, introduced laws to ensure their economic welfare, and most impor-tant attempted to industri-alize this nation that had it succeeded could have finalized our quest for eco-nomic liberation.

If only they would look back, they would realize that the program imple-

mented by the Marcos administration was more than what they have bar-gained for under the pres-ent dispensation where they shamelessly opted for a parliamentary struggle, a strategy they used to malign their predecessors in the progressive move-ment. The net result is they now come up to sup-port a presidential can-didate who is suspected to be a US citizen, and whose candidacy is being financed by the country’s foremost kingmaker, and by America’ chief accoun-tant in this country, and whose empire is built upon a system called US imperi-alism. Their strategy now is to support a candidate willing to give them both the logistical support and help to increase their changes of winning in this coming election.

They even failed to ana-lyze that measures like compensation, building of monuments for their alleged heroes, putting up a museum to recall Mar-tial Law, and now seeking their support for the ap-proval of a law that would dismember our country, are in fact measures de-signed to co-opt them into the system without giving them any conces-sion on how to resolve the problems that were al-most resolved during the administration of Marcos.

The so-called progres-sives refuse to admit that our economic emancipa-tion was almost at hand when it was snatched from us by the combined forces of the oligarchy, the Church and the imperial-ist, and supported by these self-styled liberators. In-deed, history is our great-est teacher for it allows us to draw our lesson which their dialecticians refuse to admit. Our own intel-ligentsia class where their alma mater was demol-ished to gave way for a shopping mall owned by the country’s mestizo oli-garch have become buf-foons unmindful that it is their tail that is being pulled by the elite.

When the so-called Makabayan party lists announced they are seeking an alliance with a candidate whose citizenship comes from the country that has given value to their existence, they completely betrayed their 3.5 million followers. Maybe Grace Poe is a stooge, but their support for a stooge makes them doubly stupid. They continue to exhibit their

MAKABAYAN KOALISYON

NEVER TRULY MATURED

THE FUTURE OF OUR SEEDS AND PLANTS

WE WERE taught in the elementary grades that the Philippines is primarily an agricultural country. It still is today, although this may be changing. In 1960s, agriculture comprised around two-thirds of the 7,944,450 employed work-ers. This decreased in the 70s with slightly over one-half of the total employed. In 2013, the agricultural sector comprised 47 per-cent of the total labor force. In January 2015, accord-ing to Philippine Statistics Authority, only about 29.5 percent now belong to this sector. There is a radical downward trend in agricul-ture-sector participation to the labor force as compared the 60s, 70s and 80s.

In terms of share to the total economy, the agri-culture sector also saw a precipitous drop over the past decades. In 1946, for instance, about a third of the economy (29.7 per-cent) was agricultural, which then declined over the years. According to the Philippine Statistics Authority, in 2012, it is now contributing a mere 11.1 percent to the econ-omy in 2012.

The Philippines is not unique. Many Asean coun-tries are also experienc-ing a similar shift as more and more workers troop to non-agriculture related activities. The decline may have been caused by a number of factors like eco-nomic managers adopting policies towards industri-alization and the shrinkage of available arable lands

due to urbanization. These have been compounded by the continuing preference by workers for the manu-facturing and service sec-tors which offer better re-muneration and return on investment.

With a burgeoning global population, shrink-ing agricultural resources and erratic climactic con-ditions brought about by climate change, ensuring sustainable food produc-tion and supply is a chal-lenge. It has become more critical. This is where the Department of Agricul-ture comes in.

Since its establishment in 1988, the DA has been at the forefront of formu-lating and implementing policies and programs to-ward uplifting the lives of the Filipino farmers and fishermen. It has adopted measures to improve agri-cultural production, and other mechanisms that help farmers and other food producers to optimize their production inputs and incomes. It is mandat-ed to promote “agricultural development by providing the policy framework, pub-lic investments, and sup-port services needed for domestic and export-ori-ented business enterprises.”

Under the leadership of Agriculture Secretary Pro-ceso Alcala, the DA has rightfully prioritized not just production but the welfare of farmers. This approach has not been well appreciated because of the low-key style of Sec-retary Alcala but person-

ally I have observed how small and poor farmers have benefited from this prioritization.

Secretary Alcala has also been the best agricul-ture secretary that I have seen in the area of climate change. Led by Undersec-retary Fred Serrano, the climate team of the DA is a pleasure to work with on domestic and global cli-mate change issues. They are visionary, hard-nosed and patriotic. They fiercely protect the national inter-est and that of farmers.

The same can be said of the Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources. As I have written before, Sec-retary Alcala installed a wonderful team there led by veteran environmental lawyer, Director Asis Perez.

Finally, another area where Secretary Alcala has done well is in the area of plant conservation. This is one of the DA’s most im-portant mandate but it has largely been overlooked.

The Bureau of Plant In-dustry is the government agency which implements programs of the Depart-ment of Agriculture to help the Filipino farmers on plant genetic resource conservation and man-agement; improving crop farming system through research and development; production of quality seeds and planting materials; plant pest surveillance and forecasting; assisting farm-ers on pest management system and control strate-gies; enforcement of plant quarantine laws, rules and

regulations; farm mecha-nization; provision of ana-lytical services on physico-chemical, microbiological and pesticide residue anal-ysis; provision of services on seed testing, seed certi-fication and planting mate-rials certification.

BPI is currently headed by lawye Paz Benavidez who is also the concur-rently DA Assistant Secre-tary for regulations. Asec. Benavidez finished her law degree from the University of the Philippines in 1995. She was my student in law school and worked for my office in the Department of Environment and Natural Resources when I was an undersecretary there during the Ramos administration. In fact, I remember her ap-pearing in my office on my second and third day there volunteering to be hired by me, insisting she would not leave until I hired her. She wanted to specialize in environment and natural resources issues as she has been a research consultant of the Committee on Ecol-ogy, House of Representa-tives while in law school.

Upon her assumption into office as OIC- Direc-tor of the Bureau of Plant Industry in July of 2014, Asec. Benavidez immedi-ately reminded employees that she is not authorized to and will not accept any collections and donations for any purposes. Her state-ment is true to form be-cause I know Asec. Benavi-dez very well as a person of integrity and competence.

BACKBENCHER

ROD P.KAPUNAN

EAGLE EYES

DEAN TONYLA VIÑA

Continued on A11

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Aguinaldo’s...From A9

desperately needed. This is the political backdrop for the British flotilla siding with Dewey’s American squadron against the Germans in what almost was Manila Bay part II.

Aguinaldo and Apolinario Mabini knew the necessity not only for American patronage and protection, but for at least one Great Power to officially recognize them as a sovereign nation. Recognition would not happen without respect which could only come with two important things—a functioning government and an army. The Philippines had to show the Great Powers that it was worthy of recog-

nition as a sovereign nation and ready to fight and die if this was challenged.

Aguinaldo needed an army and this was a major problem. The revolutionary forces had an army but it was not a profes-sional one. The Philippines had no long-standing heritage of standing militia forc-es trained in contemporary firearms and commanded by native leadership. Spain ruled through divide and conquer, using loyal tribes from one region to suppress revolts in another.

The Revolutionary forces in both 1896 and 1898 were little more than warlord-style ‘armies’ with self-proclaimed officers that had little to do with actual military hierarchy. They faced severe disadvan-

tages against a better-equipped contem-porary professional army.

An established Filipino militia would have provided training and instilled discipline in their ranks. And, perhaps more importantly, it would have acquainted the revolutionary leaders with military hierarchy—respecting the rank not the man, and forged a sense of loyalty to the ideal of the military tradition instead of a particular person.

The Spanish colonial army in the Phil-ippines was the only professional force in 1898. They established fixed garrison regi-ments for local protection backed up by regiments of the paramilitary Guardia Civil composed of native conscripts but com-manded by Spaniards. Continued on A11

NEW IRREGULARITY AT MMDA; SOMETHING STINKS AT PASIG PROSECUTION OFFICE

AS LONG as Francis Tolentino is the head of the Metro Manila Development Authority, the traf-fic problem in the national capi-tal region will only get worse. Tolentino’s attention is on his undeclared campaign for a seat in the Senate in the May 2016 elections under the administra-tion Liberal Party.

Weeks ago, Tolentino was in Cebu, attending an affair with President Benigno Aquino III. On another occasion, Tolentino was in Bicol. In both instances, Tolentino failed to explain why he was not at his post at the NCR. Perhaps, Tolentino was in Bicol to press Leni Robredo to run as vice president under the LP.

In a clumsy attempt at dam-age control, Presidential Com-munications Operations Office Secretary Herminio Coloma defended Tolentino’s trips to the provinces. Coloma told the news media that since Tolentino is a government official, he can make provincial sorties. The government apologist likewise said that Tolentino goes to the provinces to share his expertise in disaster preparedness.

Coloma’s explanation is non-sense. An official assigned to

fix up the traffic mess in Metro-politan Manila must stay in the metropolis. How can Coloma sincerely label Tolentino as an expert in disaster prepared-ness when he is unable to pre-pare residents of Metropolitan Manila for the traffic disasters each time he skips his duties as MMDA chief?

Tolentino’s frequent absence at his workplace is bad enough. Worse, several anomalies have been surfacing in the MMDA during his watch.

Months ago, the MMDA ac-quired several motorcycles for the Asia Pacific Economic Co-operation conference in Manila. Each motorcycle cost the tax-payers P400 thousand. That’s far more expensive than most of the high-end motorcycles avail-able in the market. Besides, why would the MMDA need those very expensive motorcycles for a brief international conference?

Recently, the news media dis-covered that P20 million worth of traffic lights belonging to the MMDA ended up in Legazpi City in Bicol. Tolentino has not been able to explain this anomaly.

The latest anomaly in the MMDA involves the wastage of taxpayers’ money. According to the Commission on Audit, the MMDA wasted P803 thou-sand to beautify the Circulo del Mundo Rotunda along Andrews Avenue near the Ninoy Aquino International Airport. The

beautification project called for the installation of expensive, stylish park lamps and several trees back in August 2012 and July 2013. That beautification was a wastage of public funds because the rotunda was demol-ished in January 2014 to give way to the NAIA expressway.

CoA auditors assert that the MMDA was aware that the NAIA expressway project was already approved by the National Eco-nomic Development Authority in May 2012, and that construc-tion will start by January 2014. In other words, the MMDA knew that there was no need to beauti-fy the rotunda because it was go-ing to be demolished soon. By proceeding with the beautifica-tion project, the MMDA wasted public funds.

MMDA officials said that the expensive, stylish park lamps were installed to improve the peace and order situation in the area, and that they used the ro-tunda for a nursery for its tree-planting project. State auditors debunked this explanation by stressing that if peace and or-der were the reason cited by the MMDA, the agency should have installed cheaper, lighting fix-tures which provide enough illu-mination, and not the expensive, stylish, park lamps which did not provide enough lighting.

As for the alleged tree nurs-ery, the auditors revealed that the MMDA purchased 15-foot

tall trees, which are meant for a mini-forest and botanical gar-den. A nursery, the auditors ex-plained, is a place where trees are propagated and grown to a usable size. They pointed out that the trees purchased by the MMDA did not need a nursery.

It looks like Tolentino may be facing numerous anti-graft charges even before he can of-ficially declare his bid for a seat in the Senate.

***An anomaly is brewing inside

the Office of the City Prosecutor of Pasig City because of a base-less complaint for estafa against a policeman. From the docu-mentation available, it appears that a couple from Barangay Pinagbuhatan bought a condo-minium unit from a business-woman who, according to the couple, was introduced to them by the policeman at some past social occasion. The couple al-leged that the payment was un-dertaken through a branch man-ager of a local bank.

When the couple discovered that the condominium unit was already mortgaged before they bought it, they wrote a letter to the businesswoman and to the bank official. In the letter, the couple threatened to sue both the businesswoman and the bank official for estafa.

After learning that the businesswoman absconded, the couple filed a complaint for estafa

against the businesswoman, the bank official, and the policeman. They included the policeman purportedly because they would not have bought the condominium unit from the businesswoman if they did not meet her, and they would not have met the businesswoman if the policeman did not introduce her to them.

The complaint is accompa-nied by annexes consisting of title deeds and correspondences between and among the couple and the bank official. There is nothing in the annexes which mentions the name of the po-liceman, or which bears his signature. Even the dates men-tioned in the complaint conflict with the allegations.

According to the resolution issued by the investigating pros-ecutor, there is no evidence to show that the policeman con-spired with either the business-woman or the bank manager to commit estafa. Despite this finding, however, the investigat-ing prosecutor ruled that both the businesswoman and the po-liceman should be charged with estafa. Good grief! Where is the logic there? That’s injustice plain and simple.

The policeman is expected to seek a reconsideration soon. Hopefully, the city prosecutor will undo the injustice visited upon the policeman. Abangan ang susunod na kabanata.

A11S AT U R D AY : S E P T E M B E R 2 6 , 2 0 1 5

OPINION

HAIL TO THE CHAIR

VICTOR AVECILLA

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Abe...From A9

Adrian Cristobal was one of those men who cannot suffer fools. He wrote some of President Marcos’ speeches as did Blas, Jay-vee, Kit and sometimes Yen Maka-benta. Some say Adrian was the ghost writer of FM’s books “Notes on the New Society” and “Revo-lution From the Center.” Adrian , Blas Ople J.V. Cruz and Kit Ta-tad were the President’s Men who provided Marcos with some of his most erudite thoughts without taking anything from FM’s own brilliant mind.

Witty and arrogant to a point, Adrian chose his friends and he could cut you with the sharpest of sarcasm without you knowing it, if he sensed you’re pandering to get close to him. During the visits of former First Lady Imelda Marcos in New York for the UN General Assembly sessions, Adrian, Jayvee, Blas and Kit would sit at the lobby of the old Baltimore Hotel in Man-hattan before proceeding to the UN on First Avenue. With us were Chitang Nakpil and other mem-

bers of the Philippine delegation. I would just sit and listen, awed by this gathering of beautiful minds. It was like a Filipino version of the writers that huddled at the old Algonquin Hotel in New York, a group that included literary figures like Dorothy Parker and Alexander Woollcott.

Adrian once asked me to watch over his younger brother, Efren, who was then the labor attaché at the Philippine Consulate in New York.

“Please, cover his back. It’s my fault, sinuwapang ko ang utak sa aming familia,” he said in his self- deprecating sense of humor.

Ka Blas, as Ople was known to friends and colleagues, was labor secretary during the Marcos years. Proud of his Bulakeño heritage, he was elected senator in the post Marcos years and later appointed as Secretary of Foreign Affairs. Ear-lier, he was chairman of the bicam-eral Commission on Appointments when I went through the CA for my posting as Philippine ambassador to Hungary with concurrent juris-diction over Poland, Bosnia-Her-

zogovina and the former republic of Yugoslavia.

A well-read man, his trips to New York were often spent looking for new books. He read both fiction and non-fiction books that dealt with government, politics and bi-ographies of great men. When stuck in Manila’s traffic, he would read a book from at least three al-ways lying on the back seat. He was a chain smoker and enjoyed a good drink.

Jose V. Cruz was the Philippine ambassador to the Court of St. James’s when I was press counselor at the Philippine Embassy in Lon-don. He wrote speeches for FM and Imelda Marcos and it was amaz-ing at how fast and easy he made it looked. Gifted with good looks, he was a bon vivant with a pleasant sense of humor. Like Ople, Jayvee enjoyed a good drink. He was more than a boss to me as we became good friends during our four years together in London. I was one of the few JV allowed to visit him at St. Luke’s Hospital in Quezon City when he was waging a losing battle with cancer.

The future...From A10

She is not only a person with highly technical expertise in her field of competence. She has a humble and caring disposition who, without question, is an in-valuable addition to the depart-ment. In researching this column, I have followed her work quietly for the last six months and I am impressed with the dedication and competence with which she has done her work, restoring confi-dence in a government agency that has also been in the headlines for controversies and scandals.

During her DENR days, Asec. Benavidez was one of those instru-mental in the formulation of the

implementing rules and regula-tions of Philippine Executive Order No. 247, the regulatory framework for the prospecting of biological and genetic resources. Later she also served as a legal counsel of the Technical Secretariat of the Inter-Agency Committee on Biologi-cal and Genetic Resources. Today, building on her previous experi-ence in this field, Asec. Benavidez has become a global leader in im-plementing the International Trea-ty on Plant Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture. This is one of the most important treaties for food security and for farmer rights. I am glad that the Philippines is at the forefront of its implementation.

Now that we are in the middle

of an election campaign, many of us tend to take a no-prisoners approach in criticizing politicians and governance actors. As I have hopefully tried to show in various columns highlighting the great work of some officials, let’s not forget there are good things being done now, as there were in other administrations. These are beyond partisan politics. Among others, it’s a good and comforting thought to know that the future of our plants and seeds are assured with Asec. Benavidez leading the Bureau of Plant Industry.

Facebook: tonylavs5 or Dean Tony La Viña Twitter: tonylavs

Aguinaldo’s...From A10

These were the backbone of the Span-ish colonial army fighting the Revo-lutionaries in 1896. By 1898, demor-alization and desertion had all but broken the ranks of these native units in Spanish service. Some companies deserted to the Revolutionary forces en masse. If Aguinaldo could harness these veteran troops, he could stand a far better chance of presenting not only a professional army to the Great Powers but, if necessary, fighting them off.

Enter Antonio Luna. The Luna brothers were among the local elites, studied in Europe, and Antonio had done some military studies. He was seen by Aguinaldo as his ace in the hole who could transform his rag-tag motley crew into a professional and respectable army. Luna also brought with him many former officers of the Spanish colonial army. While they were a welcome addition, one can only imagine what the Filipino rank and file, particularly those from Cavite (who had seen their friends and family killed by Spanish bullets), thought, especially when Luna’s re-cruits were given ranks above them.

Luna set about reorganizing and professionalizing the Revolutionary Army.

Meanwhile, Aguinaldo set about organizing his government, show-ing the Americans that they had a flag and a national anthem, putting these symbols of state on display in a grand political theater in Malolos, while pinning his hopes on the en-voys sent out to the Treaty of Paris and capitals of the Great Powers to lobby for the recognition of Philip-pine sovereignty.

It was the failure (understand-able in the socio-political climate of 1898/99) of the Filipino diplomatic efforts, the sale of the Philippines by Spain to America at the Treaty of Paris, and McKinley’s Benevolent

Assimilation proclamation that ulti-mately put an end to Filipino hopes of independence. Aguinaldo, hoping that the Treaty of Paris would not be ratified by the United States Congress, refused to move against the Ameri-cans even as more provocations were being reported day by day.

They needed time but fighting erupted on Feb. 4, 1899. Aguinaldo tried to parlay with American gen-eral Otis, but the latter, who probably planned to incite the whole thing all along, replied that the fighting “must now go on to its grim end.”

The US Army that the Filipino Revolutionaries fought in 1899 was perhaps the most experienced fighting force in the world against mobile guerrilla groups. Their reg-ulars were professionally trained and well equipped. Their volun-teers were rough, tough frontiers-men who grew up hunting and accustomed to harsh living. Their officers and commanders fought in the American Civil War and the subsequent Indian Wars. Finally, they had Colonel Frederick Fun-ston, one of the most ruthless and daring officers of the era, to pose a mortal threat to the Filipino guer-rillas in 1899.

The outbreak of war would show how impossibly monumental a task was given to Luna. The revolution-ary forces were still operating with a warlord mindset, refusing to take orders or recognize the authority of any but El Presidente. This was less the fault of Aguinaldo as it was a consequence of the warlord men-tality of being separate but equal commanders with a leader as the only arbiter and supreme com-mander over them.”

This was the bigger context of Aguinaldo and Luna—heroes both.

[email protected] @bethangsioco on Twitter Elizabeth Angsioco on FaceBook

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SAT URDAY: SEPT EMB ER 2 6 , 2 0 1 5

SPORTS

Blatter to face media asscandals widen at FIFA

Quizon,Borromeocop Shell

chess titlesDANIEL Quizon and Genesis Borromeo came away with a pair of inspir-ing breakthrough victo-ries, while veteran cam-paigner McDominique Lagula took the seniors’ plum in the 2015 Shell Na-tional Youth Active Chess Championship national finals at SM Megamall last Sunday.

Proving their worth in their first grand finals appearances, Quizon and Borromeo snared the kid-dies’ and juniors’ titles, respectively, in varying fashions with the former, a San Juan Elementary School standout, domi-nating the 12-and-under division with eight points for a 1.5-point victory over Mark Bacojo and Adrian de Luna.

Borromeo, on the oth-er hand, hurdled Ahmad Azote and Laila Nad-era at resumption of the nine-round Swiss system tournament to cushion the impact of his final round setback to Adrian Yulo.

The Dias College main-stay from Tanjay, Ne-gros Oriental, the low-est-ranked player in the 16-player field, actually finished tied for first with top seed Dale Bernardo of Far Eastern University , who lost one and won two matches in the last three rounds, at 6.5 points. But Borromeo took the 13-16 crown with a superior tie-break score to complete his successful run in his first-ever stint in the cir-cuit sponsored by Pilipi-nas Shell.

ZURICH—FIFA president Sepp Blatter was set to face the media on Friday, as the scandals that surround him widen at a seemingly relentless pace.

Blatter’s press conference following FIFA’s executive committee meeting was al-ways going to be closely watched, with both the US and Swiss justice depart-ments carrying out major in-vestigations into corruption at world football.

But events over the last two weeks have raised the stakes.

On Thursday, Switzer-land’s Attorney General

Michael Lauber’s office said FIFA had agreed to hand over the emails of suspend-ed secretary general Jerome Valcke, evidence Lauber had demanded as part of an in-vestigation into World Cup bidding.

That announcement came hours after Lauber’s office said FIFA had indicated it would only hand over the emails if certain conditions

were met. Those conditions were

not disclosed and there was no comment as to what ul-timately led FIFA to unseal the emails.

FIFA said only that it “fully supports” the Swiss investigation and had co-operated with the attorney general since his inquiry was launched in May.

A week before FIFA agreed to the email re-lease, football’s govern-ing body put the French-man on indefinite leave over accusations he agreed to let World Cup tickets be sold at vastly

inf lated prices.Valcke, who had been

Blatter’s right-hand man, fiercely denies the allega-tions.

Aside from a possi-ble black market ticket scheme, Valcke had al-ready been implicated in an alleged $10 million bribe payment reportedly made by South Africa in connection with its host-ing of the 2010 World Cup.

The Swiss investiga-tion is focused on whether bribes were paid during bidding for 2018 and 2022 tournaments -- awarded to

Russia and Qatar, respec-tively.

If clear evidence of mis-conduct emerges, both countries could be stripped of their hosting rights, FIFA officials have said.

- More charges coming -Three days before Val-

cke was suspended, Lauber and his US counterpart Lo-retta Lynch made clear that their investigations were nowhere near complete.

Lauber said assets, in-cluding flats in the Swiss Alps, had been seized in the probe which he de-scribed as “not yet near half-time.” AFP

Spain’s Real Madrid to conduct football trainings in PHFOR the first time in the country’s history, Spain’s renowned football team, Real Ma-drid, is coming to the Philippines to help train the country’s future football stars.

Just days after Real Madrid CF stole the world spotlight again when its very own star, Cristiano Ronaldo, appeared with a young Syrian refugee in a match in the Spanish capital, the club through the Real Madrid Foundation, has signed an agreement with Andrew Tan’s con-glomerate, Alliance Global Group, Inc., parent company of Emperador, Inc., and the PinoySports Foundation to conduct the biggest and first-ever series of foot-ball clinics in the Philippines.

“We are very confident that with the training and guidance of Real Madrid’s coaches, more young Filipino players will be able to achieve their football aspirations. AGI, through Emperador, Inc., is ready to invest its resources and take the lead in growing the popularity of the world’s number one sport in the Philippines.,” said Kevin L. Tan, director, Alliance Global Group, Inc.

Under the partnership, a ‘rolling’ football clinic

will be established to conduct the popular campus experience program of Real Madrid CF by bring-ing in professional football coaches from Madrid,

Spain to mentor the youth and local coach-es across the 16 regions of the Philippines.

The series of football clinics will be launched at the world-class McKinley Hill Stadium in McKinley Hill, Fort Bonifacio, on Oct. 5 to 9, and Oct. 12 to 16. This will be led by three visiting coaches from Real Madrid C.F., who will be mentoring 36 coaches and 360 stu-dents from the National Capital Region.

“Together with PinoysSports Founda-tion, Alliance Global and Emperador are the taking the lead in making football closer to the hearts of more Filipinos. Emperador, for its part, supports the search for the country’s future football stars,” added Tan.

The formal signing of agreement, which was held over the weekend in Ma-drid, was led Tan along with former Sen-ator Edgardo Angara, who also chairs the PinoySports Foundation, Real Madrid Foundation executive vice president En-rique Sanchez, Real Madrid C.F. director

for institutional relations Emilio Butragueño, who was once a popular Spanish football star.

Shown here during the tour in Santiago Bernabéu Stadium, the official home of Real Madrid in Spain are (from left) Pinoy Sports Foundation secretary Edson Byron K. Sy, Philippine Ambassador to Spain Carlos Salinas, PinoySports Foundation Chairman former Sen. Edgardo Angara, Real Madrid Director for Institutional Relations Emilio Butragueñ, Alliance Global Group Director Kevin L. Tan, and Filipino businessman Roberto Ongpin.

Royals clinch 1sttitle in 30 years

KANSAS CITY—The Kan-sas City Royals wrapped up their first division title in 30 years on Thursday, clinch-ing the American League central crown with a 10-4 win over Seattle.

Mike Moustakas homered, drove in three runs and reached base five times for the Royals, who hadn’t won a division title since 1985 when they were in the AL West.

That same year the Roy-als won their only World Series title. Last year they made it to the Fall Classic as a wild card team, but fell to the San Francisco Giants in Major League Baseball’s title series.

The door was open to the division win when the Minnesota Twins fell 6-3

to the Cleveland Indians on Thursday, and the crowd at Kauffman Stadium cheered when the Minnesota final score flashed on the score-board in the top of the ninth inning.

The Royals became the first team to secure a di-vision title this season, although St Louis and Pittsburgh have locked up playoff berths in the Na-tional league.

Right-handed hurler Johnny Cueto picked up the victory, holding the Mari-ners to three runs and seven hits over seven innings in a solid start.

Right fielder Alex Rios also had three hits for the Royals, including a run-pro-ducing triple in a three-run eighth. AFP

Fans cheer after Mike Moustakas no. 8 of the Kansas City Royals scored on a Alex Rios triple in the eighth inning against the Seattle Mariners at Kauffman Stadium in Kansas City, Missouri. AFP

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SAT URDAY: SEPT EMB ER 2 6 , 2 0 1 5

SPORTS

A T L A N T A —Henrik Stenson upstaged his rivals on the opening day of the $8.25 million Tour Championship on Thursday, firing a seven-under-par 63 to snatch a two-shot lead over England’s Paul Casey.

The pre-tournament hype had focused on the prospect of a battle be-tween golf ’s “New Big Three” of world number one Jason Day, reign-ing Masters & US Open champion Jordan Spieth and four-time Major-win-ner Rory McIlroy.

But instead it was Swed-ish veteran Stenson who seized his chance to shine at the USPGA Tour’s sea-son finale, opening with consecutive birdies at the first three holes before a further birdie and an ea-gle left him six under at the turn.

Another birdie on the 10th raised the tantalising prospect of Stenson break-ing 60, and that rare feat looked within his grasp after he drained a six-foot birdie putt at the 12th to go eight under with six to play.

However Stenson was unable to pick up any more shots and bogeyed the 17th to fall back to seven under -- two clear of Casey who shot 65.

“At that stage I was just trying to get up and hit the fairways, give yourself chances, because they’re tricky holes,” Stenson said of the finishing holes on the par-70 East Lake course. “It’s all about just keeping it going.

“I didn’t quite hit it as good the last five or six holes as I did for the first 12, but if I could have that (two-stroke) spread for the next three days, I think I’ll take it,” he added.

- McIlroy three adrift -McIlroy meanwhile was

three off the lead after a four-under-par 66 com-prising six birdies and two bogeys. Zach Johnson was level with McIlroy on four under.

Spieth was in a group of six players five shots off the lead at two under after carding a 68.

Spieth never managed to get his putter going on a frustrating front nine, sinking only one birdie to be one under at the turn.

The Texan holed a 10-footer to pick up a birdie on the 12th but his momen-tum was undone by a bogey on the next hole. AFP

Stenson sets pace at Tour championshipNew finals’sked givescontendersmore rest

LOS ANGELES—The NBA has again tweaked its fi-nals format to ease travel demands and give players more rest in the champion-ship series slated to tip off on June 2.

Under the revised format, if the title series goes a full seven games it will end on June 19, with two rest days guaranteed any time the series shifts to a different city.

That means the league is scrapping the long-standing Tuesday-Thursday-Sunday schedule for the finals, which had been standard since 2003.

Games one and two will now be played on Thursday, June 2 and Sunday June 5, be-fore the series shifts to the sec-ond city for games three and four on Wednesday June 8 and Friday June 10.

The series would shift back and forth between cities for games five, six and seven as necessary in the 2-2-1-1-1- format instituted in 2014 with two days between each con-test.

The changes follow last months announcement that the league had reduced the number of back-to-back games and sets of four games in five nights in its regular-season schedule.

The 2015-16 season, which begins on October 27, includes only 27 cases of a team playing four games in five nights -- a 61 percent reduction from the 2014-15 campaign.

2016 NBA finals scheduleGame 1: Thursday, June 2Game 2: Sunday, June 5Game 3: Wednesday June 8Game 4: Friday, June 10Game 5: Monday, June 13 (if

necessary)Game 6: Thursday, June 16

(if necessary)Game 7: Sunday, June 19 (if

necessary) AFP

Bosh vows to reverse Heat’s fortunesMIAMI—Miami Heat forward Chris Bosh declared himself fit for the upcoming NBA campaign after blood clots on his lung sidelined him last season.

“I am released and ready for con-tact,” Bosh told reporters five days before the Heat open training camp.

“I feel I’m in pretty good shape and ready to attack training camp,” added the 31-year-old. “I would rath-er be doing that than having tubes in my chest. That sucks.”

Bosh, who is now off blood thin-ners, was hospitalized in February for nine days because blood clots on a lung.

He didn’t play again last sea-son and in his absence -- and after the departure of LeBron James for Cleveland -- the Heat failed to make the playoffs after winning the NBA title in 2012 and 2013, and falling to San Antonio in the finals in 2014.

“It’s like everything that could have gone wrong for us last year went wrong,” said Bosh, who noted

that veteran star Dwyane Wade also battled injuries.

On the bright side, his enforced absence, and frightening medical trouble, has given him renewed pas-sion for the game.

“I think I was lacking a little pas-sion for a while,” he said. “Mentally, I can see myself just really continuing to have an excellent career as far as this season is concerned. It’s such a great game. I came that close to los-ing it.”

Bosh acknowledged that he could develop new clots that could require him to take the blood thinners that would prevent him from playing.

But he said he doesn’t have a genetic pre-disposition to them, and has learned preventive meas-ures to use, especially during air travel.

“I’m a lot smarter now,” Bosh said. ‘I know about the precautions.”

Meanwhile, the Los Angeles Lak-ers inked veteran NBA forward Metta World Peace to a reported

one-year, non-guaranteed contract on Thursday.

World Peace, known as Ron Artest before changing his name in 2011, is the 19th player on Los Angeles’ roster with teams allowed to take a 20-strong squad into training camp.

The 35-year-old has been a pres-ence at Lakers practices this offsea-son while mentoring forward Julius Randle, the seventh overall selection in the 2014 draft who broke his leg in his first NBA game last season.

“It’s great to have him go against Julius. To watch those two guys practice, it’s almost comical,” Lak-ers general manager Mitch Kupchak said. “I’m not sure who gets the bet-ter of it. I would be surprised if ei-ther player admitted to anybody af-ter practice that they hurt more than they did before practice.”

World Peace, a former NBA De-fensive Player of the Year, last ap-peared in the league during the 2013-14 season, when he played 29 games for the New York Knicks. AFP

Japan sports minister resigningover $2-billion stadium controversyTOKYO—Japan’s sports minister said Friday he had tendered his resignation over abandoned plans for the 2020 Tokyo Olympics main stadium after the venue’s $2.0 billion price tag sparked a public backlash.

But Hakubun Shimomura added that he would stay in the job until a cabinet reshuf-fle expected next month—a request from Prime Minister Shinzo Abe.

The stadium fiasco has pushed back a new venue’s completion date, embarrassing Japanese sport officials who have also been forced to find an alternate showpiece site for Rugby World Cup matches in 2019. Japan is hosting the event.

“I offered my resignation to the prime minister over the phone last night,” Shi-

momura told a news conference Friday.“I caused trouble and made the public

worry.”He will also return six months’ worth of

ministerial salary, worth a total of 900,000 yen ($7,500). Shimomura’s parliamentary salary of 1,315,000 yen per month will be unaffected, however.

His departure comes after a third-party panel released a report on Thursday that said the minister was responsible for the stadium fiasco.

Abe shocked Olympic organisers in July when he pulled the plug on Iraqi-British architect Zaha Hadid’s winning design as soaring costs put it on course to become the world’s most expensive sports stadium.AFP

Japan’s sports minister Hakubun Shimomura said he had tendered his resignation over abandoned plans for the 2020 Tokyo Olympics’s main stadium which carried a two billion USD price tag that angered the public. AFP

Henrik Stenson of Sweden lines up a putt on the 16th green during the first round of the TOUR Championship By Coca-Cola at East Lake Golf Club in Atlanta, Georgia. AFP


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A privilege, not an inherent right

QUITE honestly, we didn’t wish to get em-broiled in the seeming controversy surround-ing writer Snow Badua for several reasons we’d rather not dis-

cuss. Suffice it to say, as a media man associated with the PBA in various capacities since the launch of the league in 1975 and having an insight into the workings of the league and its nuances, we feel it is incumbent on us to try to shed some light on an issue which, in some respects, has been blown out of proportion.

The so-called ban, as the PBA has clearly clarified is not an attack on the press as an institution, but a dis-ciplinary measure taken against an individual who, in the valued judgment of Commissioner Chito Narvasa and the PBA board, violated the fundamental tenets of responsible journalism.

We have always maintained that freedom of the press is not a license to malign individuals or associations and must be exercised with an utmost sense of responsibility.

As to the issue that triggered this whole affair, which was in fact, an alleged affair or indiscretion that one of the executives of San Miguel Corporation and a prominent personality in the organization and the league itself, was guilty of.

The basic question we need to ask—and answer—is whether the private lives of individuals in the PBA are of public interest and need to be treated in the manner it was.

The PBA must primarily be about the game itself, the league, its attention to the fans who have support-ed the PBA in growing numbers through the years and the fundamental issue of integrity.

We recall that our beloved and esteemed friend and mentor, the late Commissioner Rudy Salud, had often told us that “integrity is non-negotiable.” If we take integ-rity to mean the quality of wholeness we must seriously question the stories and the use of the social media to tar-nish and malign an individual or although it would seem that the person written about also failed to measure up to the standards of the “quality of wholeness.”

But the over-riding concern must surely be the effects on the family of the PBA official concerned and the con-tention that this indeed was a family affair best resolved within the household of the parties concerned.

While the PBA is a private association, with its own Constitution and By Laws, we once again turn to the wisdom of Rudy Salud, who made it clear that while the PBA is a private association, it is one imbued with public interest because it is an integral part of the eve-ryday lives of millions of Filipinos who support it.

Against this background, one cannot imagine that the so-called “affair” of a PBA official and a model are of pub-lic interest, although they are the fodder of the often irri-tating gossip programs on television which, we strongly believe, cater to the baser instincts of a misguided public.

There must be a higher calling for the PBA and those of us who chronicle its story. It should always remain the story of basketball and what the Asia magazine many years ago described as the “Big Little League.”

In the context of what the league stands for and our peoples’ passionate love for basketball, the alleged indis-cretions of one man is too little to be considered big and worthy of the attention of a responsible journalist, who has, in recent years, been extended all the privileges and sometimes more than others, and has regrettably been used by one or two individuals within the PBA as a ve-hicle to attack those, who disagree and on one occasion even went to the extent of physically assaulting a fine, decent colleague in the PBA who is the backbone of the statistical inputs that enhance the stories of the games and set the standards for the various prestigious awards.

The PBA is, whatever its faults or shortcomings, a league that mirrors the passion of the Filipinos, with basketball and it is this facet that must be enhanced not the alleged passion demonstrated outside the playing court by one man.

We recall that many years ago, the late “Man on the Ball” Romy Kintanar was taken out of the TV/radio coverage of the games after he incurred the ire of a prominent board member, with his articles that were considered malicious.

At that time, nobody in the media raised a fuss about it, perhaps because they were unaware of what happened to one of the most popular figures in the PBA.

We need to recognize that accreditation is a privi-lege and not an inherent right. We ourselves had our name stricken off the list of TV reporters assigned to cover the Southeast Asian Games some years ago be-cause a top official of the Philippine Olympic Com-mittee did not appreciate some of our critical articles, which had absolutely nothing personal about them.

We accepted our fate because the authority to grant accreditation was a right that was useless to question or quarrel over.

Perhaps Snow Badua can accept his fate and within the parameters set down by Commissioner Chito Narvasa, with the PBA board’s support if not approval, function like a true and responsible media man because he has the talent to do a good job and is known to be hard-working, but needs to re-direct his attention to more ennobling as-pects of the game and the men who play the game.

Beyond all this must be the underlying reality that the so-called ban on Snow is not a ban in the strictest sense of the word because it allows him to perform his duties as a a media man but at some cost. And, most significantly, it should not be misinterpreted as an at-tack on press freedom.

INSIDE SPORTS

RONNIE NATHANIELSZ

SBC’s Big 3 strikes hardas Lions whip Cardinals

De la Cruz scored a game-high 17 points, including key baskets in the fourth quarter, for the Red Lions, who went on to post their 12th triumph in 16 matches.

The Cardinals tried to fight back behind Josan Nimes, who kept Mapua in the fight, 60-61.

But Dela Cruz scored on a follow-up and a trey on their next play to give San Beda a 63-66 spread with 4:06 to go.

And after Allwell Oraeme struck twice with a layup, and a three-point play to move Ma-pua within range, 65-68, Ade-ogun scored on a putback and Amer drilled two free throws to give the Lions the lead for good, 71-65, in the last 31.7 seconds.

“It’s a big win. We get an ad-vantage out of this because it’s now the homestretch. Every game really counts,” said Red

By Peter Atencio

SAN Beda College’s Big Three of Arthur de la Cruz, Baser Amer and Ola Adeogun struck the hardest in the endgame as the Red Lions turned back the Mapua Cardinals, 75-65, yesterday to snatch back the solo lead in the 91st National Collegiate Athletic Association men’s basketball tournament at the San Juan Arena.

Lions’ coach Jamike Jarin.The win assured the Red

Lions of at least a playoff for a Final Four berth and closer to clinching one of the top two seeds that would give them a twice-to-beat advantage.

The Cardinals, with Oraeme hitting 15 points and 21 re-bounds, finally lost after a six-game winning streak and fell into a tie with the Jose Rizal Heavy Bombers at fifth (10-6).

The Bombers, with John Pontejos scoring 19 points, re-mained in contention for a Fi-nal Four berth after toppling the University of Perpetual Help Altas, 62-60.

Lady Tamaraws, EACspikers eye sweep for 3rd

FAR Eastern University and Emilio Aguinaldo College gun for a sweep of their respective best-of-three se-ries for third as volley ction in the Shakey’s V-League and Spikers’ Turf resumes today (Saturday) at The Arena in San Juan City.

The Lady Tams face the UST Ti-gresses at 12:45 p.m., looking for a follow-up to their 25-17, 26-17, 25-20 victory last week and clinch third place honors in the Shakey’s V-League Season 12 Collegiate Conference pre-sented by PLDT Home Ultera.

The match will be aired live over GMA News TV Channel 11 with the six-time champion Tigresses out to re-bound and force a sudden death.

Game 3, if necessary, will be played on Oct. 4, according to the

organizing Sports Vision.The EAC Generals are also seeking a

repeat of their 25-18, 25-12, 25-14 romp over the National College of Business and Arts for third place in the Spikers’ Turf Season I Collegiate Conference, also presented by PLDT Home Ultera.

Both matches can also be viewed live via streaming on www.v-league.ph.

The two battle for third matches also serve as prelude to tomorrow’s Game 2 of the Shakey’s-backed V-League and Spik-ers’ Turf finals with Ateneo shooting for a sweep of the both titles over National U.

The Lady Eagles exploited the ab-sence of Dindin Santiago-Manabat to take the opener 25-19, 25-13, 25-23 while the Eagles trounced the Bulldogs, 25-17, 25-18, 25-19, to likewise move closer to a title sweep.

AFP-PNP Olympics. Members of the Armed Forces of the Philipines gather at the Manila Baywalk for a Dragon Boat Race as part of the AFP-PNP Olympics 2015 on Friday. MANNY PALMERO

Games Tuesday (San Juan Arena)10 a.m.- Perpetual vs San Sebastian (jrs)

12 nn.- Jose Rizal vs Lyceum (jrs)2 p.m.- Perpetual vs San Sebastian (srs)

4 p.m.- Jose Rizal vs Lyceum (srs)

John Grospe’s putback in the last 2:50 allowed JRU to break a 60-all deadlock, and eventu-ally post their 10th triumph in 16 matches.

The Altas, who fell to third at 11-5, missed five big attempts in the endgame, including one from Earl Thompson in the fi-nal second.

“Buhay pa. May dalawang games pa kami. Crucial ito,” JRU coach Vergel Meneses said.

In juniors’ play, Evan Nelle scored a season’s best 21 points for the defending champion San Beda Red Cubs, who topped the Mapua Red Robins, 89-84, for their 16th straight win yesterday.

The victory moved the Red Cubs two wins closer to an outright finals slot, while snap-ping the Red Robins’ 14-game winning run.

The state of Hawaii to Lawrence Antonio Lago, you are hereby notified that a petition for adoption of the child born to Marie Venensi Widmann has been filed in the Family Court, First Circuit, state of Hawaii. The petition alleges that your consent of the above-named child by the petitioner above-named is not required and may be dispensed with pursuant to Hawaii revised statutes section 578-2(c) as amended. A hearing on the petition will be held on Sep 22 2015 at 1:30 PM at the Family Court located at Kapolei Court Complex, 4675 Kapolei Parkway, Kapolei HI 96707-3272. If you fail to appear at the hearing on the date and time at the place noted above or if you fail to file a written response to the allegations reflected in the Petition for Adoption, further action may be taken including granting of the adoption without further notice to you. Your written response should be addressed to the Presiding Judge, Family Court, first circuit, 777 Punchbowl street, second floor, Honolulu, Hawaii 96812. Failure to obey this notice may result in an entry of a default and default judgement against you. You are further notified that the child, the adoptive parents and the natural parents have rights under H.R.S. 578-15 regarding confidentiality of adoption records after the child reaches age 18.

NOTICE

(TS-SEPT. 5,12,19,26, 2015)


[email protected]

Lim claimsseat in finals

Tigers, Eagles try to catchup with leading TamarawsTHE University of Santo Tomas Growling Tigers and the Ateneo Blue Eagles clash today, each eyeing a win to get into a tie with pacesetting Far Eastern University Tamaraws (4-1) in the main o� ering in the University Athletic Association of the Philippines men’s basketball tournament at the Mall of Asia Arena in Pasay City.

The Growling Tigers take on each other at 4 p.m, right after the Na-tional University Bull-dogs and the University of the Philip-pines battle at 2 p.m.

The Growling Tigers dropped back into a tie for second sy 3-1 after losing to the surging Bulldogs, 54-55, in a tightly-fought match.

“Nandoon kami. Lum-aban. Breaks of the game. Lumaban naman ‘yung team pero masakit ‘yung talo. Bounce back na lang kami against Ateneo. Dito kami mag-gogrow,” said UST coach Bong de la Cruz.

Dela Cruz said Ed Daquiaog’s early quick two fouls were a big factor to the team’s loss--their first in four games.

The Blue Eagles, on the other hand, outlasted the University of the East Warriors, 77-72 to take their third win and tie the

Growling Ti-gers at 3-1.

A t e n e o coach Bo Per-asol said he remains con-fident of his

team’s capabalities, cit-ing Von Pessumal’s good performance against the Warriors.

Pessumal shot 6 of 10 from the three-point range to finish with 21 points.

The Bulldogs, mean-while, hopes to put to-gether a third straight win after three losses against a slumping Maroons, who dropped their last two games after hacking out two straight victories.

Peter Atencio

TOP junior netter Alberto Lim Jr. was simply unstoppable as he outlasted eight-time cham-pion Johnny Arcilla, 7-5, 4-6, 6-1, to claim the first seat in the men’s singles finals of the 34th Philippine Columbian Association Open-Ce-buana Lhuillier Wildcard Event at the PCA Open clay courts in Paco, Manila.

The 16-year-old Lim arranged a showdown with defending champion Patrick John Tierro, who won via default after Elbert Anasta failed to show up for personal reasons.

Lim, who admitted that his recent stints abroad helped him build his confidence, started off aggressively against the 35-year-old Arcilla. After faltering in the second set, he bounced back even stronger, scoring two crucial break points to turn the match in his favor.

“Suwerte lang, maganda inilaro ko nu’ng third set, ginawa ko lang lahat ng makakaya ko para manalo. Malaking tulong rin po ‘yung mga laro ko abroad, nakakakuha po ako ng confidence doon, in-apply ko dito sa game ko kaya maganda ang resulta,” said Lim, who took the titles in the India ITF Jun-ior 1 and Delhi ITF Juniors last January and the China Junior 14 Nanjing in August.

The young ace, known for his explosive two-handed backhand, also booted out Australian Open juniors’ doubles champion Francis Casey Alcantara in the quarterfinals of the event sup-ported by Cebuana Lhuillier, Puma, Dunlop, The Philippine Star, Head, Babolat, Compass/IMOSTI and Sarangani Rep. Manny Pacquiao.

P0.0 M+

2 EZ2 00-00

6/45 00-00-00-00-00-00

4 DIGITS 00-00-00-003 DIGITS 00-00-003 00-00-00

2 00-00

4 DIGITS 00-00-00-00

LOTTO RESULTS

Games today(MOA Arena)

2 p.m. • UP vs NU4 p.m. • Ateneo vs UST

Alberto Lim Jr. makes an overhead smash against Johnny Arcilla.

SENATOR Juan Edgardo “Sonny” Angara said yesterday that gold-medal winners in the Olympics stand to receive P10 million in in-centives once Congress ratifies a bill that seeks to broaden the cov-erage of incentives and improve the benefits granted to national athletes, coaches and trainers.

“The smooth passage of this bill in Congress proves that lawmak-ers agree that our national athletes deserve proper recognition and as-sistance for their perseverance and the honor they bring to our coun-try,” said Angara, who is the chair-man of the Senate Committee on Games, Amusement and Sports.

Angara said a copy of the meas-ure will be sent to President Aqui-no for his signature.

“I’m sure he will not hesitate in signing this measure,” added Angara.

Under the proposed National Athletes, Coaches and Trainers Benefits and Incentives Act, the amount of cash incentives given to winning athletes, coaches and trainers will be increased.

Also, athletes with disabilities will be included in the grant of benefits and incentives for their achievements.

For the Olympic Games, An-gara said gold medalists will be

granted P10 million, while the silver medalists will receive P5 million. Bronze medalists will be given P2 million.

For medallists in the Asian Games, gold medalists will be en-titled to a P2-million cash incen-tive, while the silver medalist gets P1 million. Bronze medalists will pocket P400,000.

As for the SEA Games, the gold medalists will get P300,000, the silver medalists, P150,000, and the bronze medalists, P60,000.

“The term ‘national athletes’ should also encompass all ath-letes including those who are dif-ferently-abled. Their limitations did not stand in their way, and we have witnessed how these in-dividuals push the limits to bring pride to the country,” the senator said.

The bill also seeks to grant every national athlete, coach and trainer a 20-percent discount on trans-portation, hotels and other lodging establishments, restaurants, and purchase of medicine and sports equipment for their actual and ex-clusive use.

Winning national athletes will also be entitled to scholarship ben-efits in the form of full tuition fees in state colleges and universities. Peter Atencio

PH athletes to get more cash incentives in new bill


A16RIERA U. MALL ARI

E D I T O R

[email protected]

REUEL VIDALA S S I S TA N T E D I T O R

By Jeric Lopez

GILAS Pilipinas flexed its muscles again for another statement win as it annihilated Ku-wait by 46 points, 110-64, to finish its pre-liminary-round campaign with a bang in a highly physical game to enter the next phase of the 2015 FIBA Asia Championship at the Changsa Social Work College’s Gymnasium in Changsa, China last night.

Jayson Castro was once again on target as he led the Filipinos’ balanced at-tack with 16 points, nine of which came in the first half, where he dictated his team’s fluid offense, while Ter-rence Romeo came off the bench to score a team-high 19 points for Gilas.

Nine of the 12 Gilas players scored at least eight points.

Smart Gilas is now safely through to the second round and can place either at No. 1 or No. 2 in Group B, depend-ing on the outcome of the final game in the group be-tween Hong Kong and sur-prise team Palestine.

Should Palestine win, it takes the No. 1 seed in Group B and the Philip-pines will be No. 2. A Pal-

estine loss will have the two teams switch place. Regard-less, Hong Kong is already locked at No. 3.

These three teams will join the top three teams in Group A, which are Iran, Japan and India, to form Group E in the next phase, carrying their records over.

A furious 33-1 blast by the in-sync Gilas Pilipinas bridging the first two pe-riods broke the game wide open in a snap as the Filipi-nos never looked back and never stopped hounding the hapless Kuwaitis.

Following that blistering surge, Gilas found itself sit-ting on an enormous 33-point spread, 44-11, at the 6:56 mark of the second quarter.

In that stretch, Gilas

TURN TO A13

Stensonsets paceat TourChampionship

Gilas blastsKuwait fiveto advance

TURN TO A13

Japansportsministerquits

Wild finish looms as Lascuna ties Bibat for ICTSI golf lead

SPORTS

Pilipinas’ unforgiving de-fense held Kuwait scoreless for almost 10 minutes in that deadly salvo.

Ranidel De Ocampo’s buzzer-beater in the first half stretched Gilas’ cush-ion to 27 points, 55-27.

At the half, Castro already had nine markers, while JC Intal and Calvin Abueva weren’t far behind with eight points apiece, in the first 24 minutes of action.

Just like its dominant performance against Hong Kong the other day, Gilas didn’t have any letdown in this one, as it kept pound-ing in the second half.

The cushion in the final tally was the largest lead for the Philippines in the contest.

In the waning seconds, the physical contest got even more intense as De Ocampo and Kuwait’s Ab-dulaziz Alhamidi almost figured in a fight, striking each other but were not seen by the referees.

Thankfully, cooler heads prevailed to prevent things from escalating.

Today is a rest day for all the teams and action re-sumes tomorrow with the second round kicking off.

TRECE MARTIREZ, Cavite—Tony Lascuña overhauled a four-stroke deficit with a near-impec-cable start and cashed in on a two-shot swing on No. 15 to wrest control but fumbled with a closing bogey to settle for a 68 and a share of the lead with Michael Bibat in the third round of the P3.5 mil-lion ICTSI Tournament Players Championship at the Sherwood Hills Golf Club here yesterday.

Lascuña finally flaunted the form missing in his last two tour-naments and pounced on Bibat’s poor iron game to move closer to redemption from stinging set-backs at ICTSI Open and Cen-tral Azucarera de Tarlac Open that cost him a crack for a fourth straight Order of Merit title.

As Bibat sputtered with a two-birdie, two-bogey 72 after going bogey-free in the first 36 holes

and Lascuña back in his old fiery shape to force a tie at 206, the chase for the top P650,000 purse in this final leg of the 2015 ICTSI Philippine Golf Tour became wide open with three more title hungry players wheeling back into con-tention with under-par scores.

Orlan Sumcad sustained an impressive start of four birdies in the first eight holes and closed out with two birdies in the last four

to negate his two bogeys for a 68, joining Cassius Casas and Clyde Mondilla, who both carded 69s, at 208, just two shots behind the joint leaders heading to the final 18 holes of the event sponsored by International Container Terminal Services Inc.

“This is going to be an excit-ing finish with at least five play-ers closely bunched together,” said Lascuña, who pushed his 9-iron

shot from 140 yards and missed the green on the 18th. “But the key here is a good start and I think a 67 will win it all.”

Rey Pagunsan also bounced into contention for the first time a long, long while as the long-hitting former amateur standout fired a 67 to join Elmer Salvador and Korean Hyeok Park Jun, who both had 71s, at 210, four adrift of Bibat and Lascuña.

Tony Lascuña checks the contour of the surface on No. 9

RODERICK T. DELA CRUZASSISTANT EDITOR B1

SATURDAY: SEPTEMBER 26, 2015

[email protected]@gmail.com

RAY S. EÑANOEDITOR

New 600-MW coal plant eyed

9 of 10 Filipinos fear retirement—Pru Life UK study

BUSINESS

Bangko Sentral ng PilipinasThursday, September 24, 2015

Foreign exchange rateCurrency Unit US Dollar PesoUnited States Dollar 1.000000 46.7380

Japan Yen 0.008317 0.3887

UK Pound 1.524600 71.2568

Hong Kong Dollar 0.129039 6.0310

Switzerland Franc 1.020304 47.6870

Canada Dollar 0.749794 35.0439

Singapore Dollar 0.701361 32.7802

Australia Dollar 0.701508 32.7871

Bahrain Dinar 2.656254 124.1480

Saudi Arabia Rial 0.266652 12.4628

Brunei Dollar 0.698910 32.6657

Indonesia Rupiah 0.000068 0.0032

Thailand Baht 0.027647 1.2922

UAE Dirham 0.272324 12.7279

Euro Euro 1.118200 52.2624

Korea Won 0.000838 0.0392

China Yuan 0.156644 7.3212

India Rupee 0.015143 0.7078

Malaysia Ringgit 0.230150 10.7568

New Zealand Dollar 0.626017 29.2588

Taiwan Dollar 0.030343 1.4182 Source: PDS Bridge

6,917.559.36

Closing September 24, 2015PSe comPoSite index

43.50

44.60

45.40

46.20

47.00

HIGH P46.830 LOW P46.970 AVERAGE P46.902

Closing SEPTEMBER 24, 2015PeSo-dollar rate

VOLUME 567.700M

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 PilipinasBangko Sentral ng PilipinasBangko Sentral ng Pilipinas

oilPriceS today

P435.00-P640.00LPG/11-kg tank

P36.00-P43.95Unleaded Gasoline

P25.05-P28.40Diesel

P34.55-P39.15Kerosene

P20.75-P21.75Auto LPG

todayP25.05-P28.40

P34.55-P39.15

P20.75-P21.75

PP36.00-P43.95

8000

7700

7400

7100

6800

6500

P46.860CLOSE

Leyte school buildings. Offi cials of Philippine Stock Exchange Inc. and Philam Foundation Inc. offi cials lead the turnover ceremony for the jointly funded two-classroom building for Cassidy Elementary School in Carigara town and three-classroom building for Alangalang 1 Central School in Alangalang town. Representatives of the Philippine International Aid, Give2Asia, PWC Isla Lipana and Happy Hearts Fund joined the ceremony. Shown are (from left) Philam Life chief executive and Philam Foundation Inc. Chairman Axel Bromley; PSE president and CEO and PSE Foundation chairman Hans Sicat; Alangalang I Mayor Loreto Yu; Alangalang I Central School principal Gerry Ranes; and Education supervisor for science Susan De Vera.

By Gabrielle H. Binaday

BALESIN Island, Quezon—Nearly nine of 10 Filipino workers have growing anxiety about retirement prospects, a study by insurance company Pru Life UK showed.

� e Philippines ranked second among 10 countries in East Asia in terms of being worried over being poor and in need of money upon retirement, according to the study titled “From Challenge to Opportunity: Wave 2 of the East Asia Retirement Survey.”

� e study conducted by Global Aging Institute in partnership with Pru Life UK showed Viet-nam ranked � rst among East

and Southeast Asian countries in terms of having anxiety about life a� er the working age.

It showed 68 percent of Filipino workers were expecting to receive Social Security System or Pag-IBIG Fund bene� ts upon retire-ment, while just 8 percent were expecting to receive income from � nancial assets such as insurance or annuity products and stocks, bonds or mutual funds.

About 82 percent of respondents believe that the government should require workers to save more for the retirement, 43 percent think that taxes should be increased to provide a basic pension bene� t, 23 percent feel that retirement age

should be raised and 58 percent deem it helpful to require employ-ers to o� er more jobs to elderly.

“While the Philippine market is growing increasingly discerning of the need to plan for the future, the concept of retirement plan-ning is fairly new in the country,” said Pru Life UK president and chief executive Antonio De Rosas.

Other countries included in the survey were Indonesia (83 percent anxiety) South Korea (81 percent), � ailand (79 percent), Malaysia (68 percent), Singapore (66 percent), Hong Kong (64 per-cent), Taiwan (60 percent) and China (50 percent).

“� e majority of Filipino work-

ers surveyed are anxious about exhausting their savings [89 per-cent], being in poor health and having no one to care for them [88 percent] and being a burden on their children [80 percent] af-ter retiring,” the study said.

� e study also revealed that nearly three-� � hs of Filipino re-tirees surveyed continue to work at least part time to supplement their income.

Meanwhile, dependence on family is very high, with 78 per-cent of elderly retirees in the Philippines living with their grown children, a larger share than anywhere else surveyed ex-cept Vietnam.

By Alena Mae S. Flores

SOUTH Luzon � ermal Energy Corp., a joint venture between Trans-Asia Oil and Energy Development Corp. and AC Energy Holdings Inc. of the Ayala Group of Companies, may put up another 600-megawatt coal-� red pow-er plant in Batangas province.

� e power plant will serve as an expansion of the 270-MW coal-� red plant that is nearing full completion in the province.

Trans-Asia of the Phinma Group received approval from the

Energy Department to conduct a grid impact study for the pro-posed new 600-MW coal power plant.

� e planned new coal project is included in the latest list of proj-

ects cleared by the department to conduct an impact study to deter-mine the capability of the grid to absorb the new power capacity.

A source said Trans-Asia wanted to determine ahead “the transmission line requirements” needed for the project.

South Luzon is a 50-50 joint venture between Trans-Asia and AC Energy.

� e company formally inau-gurated the � rst 135-MW unit of the 270-MW coal plant in Calaca, Batangas in June.

South Luzon invested P23 bil-lion for the project. Completion of the second 135-MW unit is ex-

pected the end of this year.� e company will operate as a

base load plant and sell its entire capacity to Trans-Asia through a 15-year power purchase agree-ment.

South Luzon is accelerating the development of its coal project in Batangas, buoyed by the strength of the Philippine economy and the growth in demand for elec-tricity.

� e South Luzon consortium earlier awarded the engineering, procurement and construction contract for the � rst phase of the coal plant to DM Consunji Inc.

� e coal plant, located in Ba-

rangay Puting Bato West, Calaca, Batangas, will use coal from Semirara Mining Corp. and Indo-nesian suppliers.

Trans Asia may also build a 600-megawatt coal � red power plant in Pangasinan province.

The energy department ear-lier allowed Trans-Asia to con-duct the grid impact study for the two 300-MW Baquioen cir-culating fluidized bed coal fired power plants in Sual, Pangas-inan.

Trans-Asia earlier announced it aimed to double its power genera-tion capacity to 1,200 megawatt over the next � ve years.


BUSINESSSATURDAY: SEPTEMBER 26, 2015

B2

CAAP wants to bundle new terminal, Naia redevelopment

PH business rulesdeter Taiwan firmsBy Othel V. Campos

TAIWANESE companies are prepared to re-locate their manufacturing operations from China to the Philippines but cumbersome rules are preventing them from doing business here.

A top official of the Taiwan External Trade and Develop-ment Council, or Taitra, said several Taiwanese companies had been inquiring about in-vestment opportunities in the Philippines.

“Every month there are at least two new firms inquiring from us. In the last two years, about 250 companies have asked about in-vesting in the Philippines,” said Taitra Philippines director Har-rison Lan.

Lan, however, said the compa-nies learned about the difficulty of investing in the Philippines.

“This country is not very friendly to investors because of regulations. The laws are too

many and are not easy to follow. I always tell potential investors to have patience,” he said.

Only 10 out of the 250 compa-nies that inquired made actual in-vestments in the Philippines, Lan said.

Lan added language was not a barrier for potential investors, citing companies were more con-cerned on the ease of relocating their business here.

About 90 percent of Taiwanese manufacturers are based in China and 10 percent still operate in Tai-wan.

Taitra noted that Japanese, Ko-rean and Taiwanese companies in recent years started leaving China due to labor factors that affected

their profitability.Lan cited stringent local laws

as well as those by the Securities and Exchange Commission and of the Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR).

The agency, he said, would continue wooing big, world-class Taiwanese companies like Foxx-conn and Pou Chen to set up lo-cal manufacturing operations in the Philippines.

The agency is confident big Taiwanese manufacturers would not think twice in in-vesting in the Philippines once the laws local laws defined and streamlined to better serve for-eign investors.

The Philippines is also trying to convince the world’s biggest shoe manufacturer and supplier, Pou Chen Group of Taiwan, to set up local operations in the country.

“We are working hard to con-vince them to come over. Every season I check if they are ready to set foot in the Philippines even just for an evaluation,” Lan earlier said.

The Taiwanese company is the biggest supplier of athletics and casual footwear for major global brands like Nike, Adidas, Con-verse, Asics, Clarks, Reebok, New Balance, Crocs, Merrell, Timber-land and Salomon.

“If Pou Chen will set up a fac-tory in the Philippines, it will bring its own chain of suppliers which are a lot. They’re so big that they will create their own indus-trial park anywhere in the Philip-pines,” Lan said.

Pou Chen is known for its abil-ity to create an integrated supply chain wherever its builds a factory for its shoe business.

The group is known to bring in first-tier suppliers, usually around 10 companies, that de-liver Pou Chen’s raw footwear materials.

Second-tier suppliers, mean-while, normally comprise about 30 companies that will provide manufacturing support, while third-tier companies will give smaller integral parts for footwear manufacturing.

Satisfactory rating. Agriculture Secretary Proceso Alcala (left) is pleased to receive the overall satisfactory rating of the World Bank during the wrap-up meeting of the World Bank Implementation Support Mission to PRDP on September 18, 2015 in Quezon City. World Bank task team leader for the Philippine Rural Development Project Carolina Figueroa-Geron (second from left) stresses PRDP’s role as the vehicle of the DA to change the way it does business with the agriculture stakeholders. With them are World Bank portfolio and operations manager for the the Philippines Agata Pawlowska (third from left) and World Bank sector leader Frauke Jungbluth.

By Darwin G. Amojelar

THE Civil Aviation Author-ity of the Philippines wants to bundle the construction of the Ninoy Aquino International Airport Terminal 5 to the re-development of the Manila’s in-ternational gateway, which the government is pursuing under the public-private partnership program.

“I believe in the last board meet-ing, when they approved PPP for Naia we proposed to include the Terminal 5,” CAAP deputy direc-

tor general for operations Rodent Joya told reporters on the side-lines of the Philippine Aviation Summit on Friday.

Joya said said the agency was awaiting the decision of the na-tional government on the pro-posal.

Joya proposed to construct the NaiaTerminal 5 near Mer-ville Subdivision in Parañaque, which could increase Naia’s ca-pacity to 50 million passengers a year from the current 33 million 34 million.

The National Economic and

Development Authority-Invest-ment Coordination Committee earlier approved the P74.56-billion Naia Development Proj-ect, which aims to transform the Philippines’ main gateway into a world-class modern airport facility.

The private partner will be responsible in upgrading the ex-isting Naia terminals and their further development to increase airports’ capacity.

It will also handle the opera-tions and maintenance cover-ing both landside and airside

aspects, except air traffic ser-vices, to increase operational ef-ficiency and improve quality of services.

The Transportation Depart-ment is also pursuing the con-struction of a new internation-al airport in Sangley Point in Cavite to replace the old Naia.

The proposed international airport, with an estimated cost of P435.93 billion, can accom-modate 55 million passengers and 400,000 aircraft movements annually. It is projected to be operational by 2025.

The new airport at Sangley Point, a former naval station of the US Navy in the northern tip of Cavite surrounded by Manila Bay, is envisioned to replace the congested Naia.

A recent study done by the Japan International Coopera-tion Agency showed Naia would exceed its designed capacity this year, with its four terminals han-dling 37.78 million passengers, or above its 30-million capacity.

Passenger traffic by 2040 would reach 101.49 million, ac-cording to the Jica study.

DHL increases ratesDHL Express said Friday it will in-

crease rates in the Philippines by 4.9 percent starting January next year because of rising costs.

“Our annual price increase enables us to continue investing in our inter-national time definite network and to maintain our leading service quality,” said DHL chief executive Ken Allen.

Allen said the company’s major investment announcements in 2015 included new hubs in Brussels, Bel-gium, and Singapore and an expand-ed center in Cincinnati, US.

“We are also continuing to invest in the Middle East and Africa, where we have unrivaled networks, and to add freighter aircraft, particularly to strengthen our intercontinental con-nections,” Allen added.

DHL Express adjusts its prices an-nually, taking into account inflation and other rising costs, such as addi-tional expenses related to compliance with enhanced security regulations, in each of the more than 220 coun-tries and territories that it serves.

Price adjustments will vary from country to country, depending on local conditions, and will apply to all customers where contracts allow. Darwin G. Amojelar

Etihad raises $700mTHE fund-raising transactions of

Etihad Airways and partner airlines haveincreased to US$700 million.

Etihad Airways and equity part-ner airlines raised the funds raised from their unique platform financing transaction to $700 million following a surge in demand from international financial institutions.

Etihad Airways, Etihad Airport Services, Airberlin, Air Serbia, Air Seychelles, Aliltalia and Jet Airways recently they had successfully raised $500 million through the transaction, which followed roadshows in Abu Dhabi, Dubai and London.

After unprecedented increased demand from financial institutions in a range of markets, the airlines re-opened the transaction and have raised an additional $200 million, bringing the total to $700 million.

The funds, which will be split across the seven businesses, will be used for a mixture of capital expend-iture and investment in fleet, as well as for refinancing, depending on each airline’s individual needs.

Mindanao power backNATIONAL Grid Corp. of the Philippines

on Friday restored power in portions of Western Mindanao.

National Grid’s initial investigation showed that trees and vegetation planted along the Baloi-Aurora 138-kV transmis-sion line in Taytay, Ditucalan, Iligan City, in clear violation of the company’s right-of-way policy, breached the recommended safety clearance and caused the line to trip at 9:35 a.m.

The company said the line tripping re-sulted in power interruptions affecting the entire Zamboanga Peninsula as well as Misamis Occidental, and parts of Lanao del Norte.

National Grid said it had to abort the maintenance shutdown of a second line delivering power to Zamboanga Peninsu-la, the Agus 5-Aurora 138-kV line, to bring back the power immediately to the affect-ed areas.

The Agus 5-Aurora 138-kV line was en-ergized at 11:02 a.m, restoring power to Zamboanga Peninsula.

The Baloi–Aurora 138-kV line, mean-while, was energized at 1:13 p.m. after trees and vegetation that caused the fault were cleared. Alena Mae S. Flores


BUSINESSSATURDAY: SEPTEMBER 26, 2015

B3

PLDT sees betterprofit in 3rd quarter

Asianstocks riseon Yellen speech

DMCI gets clearance to sell P1-b homesaver bonds

MSME summit.

Trade Undersecretary Zenaida Maglaya

(center) poses with speakers and

moderator of the first session on

pathways to global trade for small

medium enterprises of the National MSME

Summit 2015 at the Iloilo Convention

Center in Iloilo City. Joining her are

(from left) Export Marketing Bureau

director Senen Perlada, Micro, Smalll and

Medium Enterprise Development Council

Mindanao private sector representative

Mary Ann Montemayor, Garment

Manufacturers Association of Negros Occidental president Elfrena Gonzaga and

Bureau of Customs’ Port of Manila export

division chief Luis Adviento.

By Jenniffer B. Austria

THE Securities and Exchange Commission approved the P1-bil-lion homesaver bonds of DMCI Project Developers Inc., the real estate unit of conglomerate DMCI Holdings Inc.

SEC secretary Armando Pan Jr. said in an interview the corporate regulator approved DMCI’s issu-ance of deferred coupon-paying homesaver bonds with an initial offer of P500 million. The remain-ing P500 million will be issued within a year.

Homesaver bonds are interest-earning financial instrument that

primarily targets retail investors who wish to set aside funds that may be used as full or partial down-payment to purchase units in any DMCI Homes development.

The bonds will be issued in three tranches. Tranche A bonds will have minimum investment of of P180,000, payable in equal monthly subscription payments of P5,000 over a period of three years.

Tranche B bonds will have a minimum investment of P300,000 payable in equal monthly sub-scription payments over a pe-riod of five years while tranche C bonds would be issued one-time

with a minimum investment of P180,000.

Tranche A and tranche C bonds will both carry a fixed interest rate of 4.5 percent per annum while tranche B bonds will have a fixed interest rate of 5 percent per an-num.

The investment scheme targets future home buyers. A bondhold-er that will opt to use the proceeds from the bonds to purchase a unit from DMCI Homes will be en-titled to discount.

The company hired SB Capital as the underwriter for the bond sale, with the offer period set on Sept. 23 to Nov. 5.

Other property developers such as Ayala Land Inc. and Vista Land and Lifescapes Inc. previously is-sued similar financial saving in-struments.

DMCI Homes earlier projected its net income to hit P3.6 billion for 2015, an 11-percent increase from last year’s P3.2 billion, as it plans to launch five new residen-tial projects offering more than 3,000 units this year.

The projects to be launched this year include Ivorywood and Ma-ple Place in Taguig, Bristle Ridge in Baguio, Valenia Residences in Mandaluyong and Lumiere Resi-dences North in Pasig.

ASIAN stocks rose after Federal Reserve chair Janet Yellen said the central bank is on track to raise interest rates this year.

“Most FOMC participants, including myself, currently anticipate that achieving these conditions will likely entail an initial increase in the federal funds rate later this year, followed by a gradual pace of tightening thereafter,” Yellen said during a speech Thursday in Massachusetts. “But if the economy surprises us, our judgments about appropriate monetary policy will change.”

The MSCI Asia Pacific Index added 0.2 percent to 125.08 as of 4:09 p.m. in Hong Kong. The regional benchmark measure has fallen 14 percent since the end of June, on course for its worst quarter in four years, as the Fed prepares to raise rates with financial markets rattled by concern slowing Chinese growth.

“What we’ve heard from Janet Yellen has done a lot to settle the market,” Kerry Craig, a Melbourne-based global strategist at JPMorgan Asset management, which oversees $1.7 trillion, told Bloomberg TV.

The Fed is “very willing to move on higher rates this year. Ultimately they know that is a good thing for the U.S. economy and a good thing for markets. We still favor an overweight to developed market equities -- this is an environment where risk is the place to be,” Craig said.

Tokyo shares closed higher Friday, shrugging off a weak Japanese inflation report on hopes for a weaker yen after Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen hinted at a US rate hike by the end of 2015.

The benchmark Nikkei 225 index recovered in the afternoon after Yellen said overnight that improvements in the US economy “will likely entail an initial increase in the federal funds rate later this year.”

Her remarks came a week after the US central bank opted at a widely anticipated meeting against enacting the first rate hike in nearly 10 years.

Japan’s Topix index added 1.9 percent as investors bought shares ahead of a deadline to ensure they received dividend payments.

Prime Minister Shinzo Abe unveiled a new economic growth target Thursday and vowed to halt the nation’s population slide. The premier laid out three new “arrows” of his Abenomics plan: a strong economy, increased support for families with children, and social security.

Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index advanced 0.4 percent and the Hang Seng China Enterprises Index of mainland firms listed in the city gained 0.5 percent.

Macau casino companies tumbled in Hong Kong this week amid concern gaming revenue will continue to be curbed as junket operators reduce credit offered to high-end gamblers.

Bloomberg, AFP

By Darwin G. Amojelar

PHILIPPINE Long Distance Telephone Co. said it expects to post a “better” net profit in the third quarter of 2015 than last year’s.“The trend in the past two months of the quarter is slightly better than last year,” PLDT president and chief executive Napoleon Naza-reno told reporters.

Nazareno said both wireless and fixed-line businesses were expected to drive growth in the third quarter.

PLDT, partly owned by Hong Kong’s First Pacific Co. Ltd. and Japan’s NTT group, posted a net income of P7.9 billion in the third quarter of 2014, down by 14 per-cent from P9.2 billion in the same three months of 2013.

The country’s largest telco ear-

lier reported a net income of P18.9 billion in the January to June pe-riod this year, down from P19.8 billion in the same period last year.

Consolidated revenues dropped 2 percent to P81.2 billion in the first semester, as revenues from the inter-national and national long distance segments continued to sag.

Wireless service revenues amounted to P55.59 billion while data broadband revenues reached P23.02 billion.

PLDT Group’s mobile phone subscriber stood at 68.9 million as of end-June while broadband sub-

scriber base reached 4.9 million.“The rapid decline in our toll

revenues continues to beard down on our medium-term revenue growth, with the onslaught of the Internet causing adverse substi-tution,” PLDT chairman Manuel Pangilinan earlier said.

The company set a core profit guidance of P35 billion this year, or 6.4 percent lower than last year.

The company raised its planned capital expenditures to P43 billion this year from the original guid-ance of P39 billion.

Meanwhile, PLDT Home, a unit of PLDT Group, teamed up with the world’s leading ride-sharing tech company Uber to bring the trailblazing transport service for Filipino families to experience a richer digital lifestyle.

PLDT Home and Uber recently formalized a strategic partnership where the telco’s broadband sub-

scribers can more easily enjoy the benefits of the innovative trans-port service when they download the Uber app on their computers, Telpads, and any smart devices at home.

As part of the exclusive offer, PLDT HOme Fibr subscribers who are first-time Uber riders will get two free Uber rides worth up to P500 each, while Telpad and DSL subscribers using Uber for the first time will get one free ride worth up to P300, starting Oct.1.

“PLDT HOME and Uber share the same vision of providing our customers with digital solutions that add value to their daily lives, in this case, safe, reliable and af-fordable rides within Metro Ma-nila. We are confident that this partnership will break new ground in the country’s digital landscape,” PLDT vice president and head of Home marketing Gary Dujali said.

B4

Volkswagen scandaldeepens; probe starts

AnxietygrippingVW cityresidents

SATURDAY: SEPTEMBER 26, 2015


Wine’s darkest secret revealed—it’s all in the fungi

BUSINESS

By Naomi Kresge, Tony Czuczka and James G. Neuger

VOLKSWAGEN AG’s diesel-cheating affair deepened as the European Union urged all 28-member countries to start their own in-vestigations and the scandal threatened to ensnare rival BMW AG.

“We are inviting all member states to carry out investigations at the national level,” European Commission spokeswoman Lucia Caudet said in Brussels on Thurs-day. “We need to have the full picture whether and how many vehicles certified in the EU were equipped with defeat devices.”

In Germany, the transport ministry said Thursday spot checks of vehicles would not be limited to Volkswagen, while

BMW shares plunged after a re-port that a diesel version of the X3 sport utility vehicle emitted more than 11 times the European limit for air pollution in a road test.

The entire auto industry and the methods used for testing ve-hicles are coming under scrutiny following revelations that VW’s “clean diesel” cars have software intended to defeat emissions tests. The European automak-

ers’ lobby group, the ACEA, on Wednesday placed the blame in VW’s court, issuing a statement saying that “there is no evidence this is an industry-wide issue.”

Following VW chief execu-tive officer Martin Winterkorn’s departure, other executives will likely lose their jobs. Ger-man newspaper Bild reported Thursday that Audi develop-ment chief Ulrich Hackenberg and Porsche development head Wolfgang Hatz will leave their posts. Hackenberg was previ-ously responsible for VW brand development and Hatz ran the nameplate’s motor development. VW declined to comment. The automaker has also asked local prosecutors to open a criminal probe.

Standard & Poor’s said Thurs-day that it was considering low-

ering VW’s long-term rating “by one or more notches.” Compet-ing ratings service Fitch said Thursday it as was also weighing a cut.

Germany’s motor vehicle ad-ministration “will concentrate its investigations not only on the Volkswagen models in question but will also do spot checks of other car manufacturers,” Trans-port Minister Alexander Do-brindt told reporters in Berlin.

Emissions measured in road tests of 15 new diesel cars were an average of about seven times high-er than European limits, according to a study published last October by the International Council on Clean Transportation, the same group whose tipoff led US regula-tors to investigate a gap between VW diesels’ emissions in tests and on the road. AFP

Members of Volkswagen’s supervisory board Berthold Huber (center), Stephan Weil (right) and Porsche Automobil Holding SE supervisory board chairman Wolfgang Porsche (left) deliver a statement at the company’s headquarters in Wolfsburg, central Germany, on September 23, 2015. Volkswagen CEO Winterkorn resigned on September 23 amid a pollution scandal. AFP

WOLFSBURG, Germany—From the local museum to the main football stadium to the theme park down the road, everything in the German town of Wolfs-burg has something of Volkswa-gen.

As the German auto giant slides deeper into an emis-sions cheating scandal, the little northern city home to the group’s headquarters is gripped by anxiety and rage.

“The residents are angry, sad and disappointed,” said Carsten Steinbach, 55, parked outside the town’s football stadium —Volk-swagen Arena.

The Wolfsburg native, a taxi driver of three decades, had him-self worked for 13 years at Volk-swagen. Two of his children are still employed there.

Underlining the reliance of many in Wolfsburg on the auto giant, Steinbach admits that be-yond the ire at the deception carried out by VW, “there is also fear, because it’s our bread and butter.”

“Here we say that when Volk-swagen catches a cold, we get pneumonia,” said Steinbach, whose taxi is a Volkswagen, as are more than half of the vehicles parked on the city’s streets.

And most of his clients are people traveling to and from the VW headquarters.

Wolfsburg’s fate became inex-tricably linked to Volkswagen as early as in 1938, when the first factory building the iconic Beetle opened.

Visitors to the town about 200 kilometers (120 miles) west of Berlin are greeted by a massive version of VW’s blue-and-white circular logo at the main rail sta-tion, leaving them without doubt that this is Volkswagen town.

In all, 73,000 people work in Wolfsburg for the company across several sites—the admin-istrative headquarters, at the re-search and development office or the factories where the latest Golfs or Tiguans are made.

Thanks to the corporate giant, the town of 124,000 inhabitants boasts an unemployment rate that is lower than the national average.

But the pollution cheating scandal has also left the town vulnerable.

After the United States an-nounced the probe against Volk-swagen, Wolfsburg mayor Klaus Mohrs quickly said that it was “in the interest of the town” for the issue to be cleared up rapidly.

Volkswagen chief executive Martin Winterkorn’s resignation on Wednesday made front pages of German newspapers, but the Wolfsburger Nachrichten went further to ask what would be the financial repercussions on the town’s budget.

“The entire population makes money off VW. When it’s not go-ing well at VW, they pay less taxes to the town and the town would have less money and would be able to afford less investment. So that affects all of us,” said Angelika Hupetzky, 55, a specialist techni-cian at Volkswagen. AFP

PARIS, France—Being a wine-maker is a specialized calling, requiring intimate knowledge of soil composition, seasons and weather, chemistry, flavor, even marketing and sales.

Yet the distinctive bouquet and flavor of a Chablis or chardonnay could not be achieved without the input of a brainless, single-celled organism, said a study Thursday.

The previously overlooked vintner, a type of yeast called Sac-charomyces cerevisiae, makes a “small but significant” contribu-tion to a wine’s flavor and taste, scientists reported in the journal

Scientific Reports.This makes the fungus a key to

that enigmatic wine concept “ter-roir”—everything from the soil, topography, climate and agricul-tural processes that go into pro-ducing your favorite Bordeaux.

“I was surprised that we de-tected any signal at all from these geographically different yeast populations in the aroma profile of the wine—I thought we would not,” co-author Matthew God-dard of the University of Lincoln in England told AFP.

“The signal is small, but detect-able,” he said by email.

Geographic differences in wines were previously ascribed mainly to plant genetics, local soil and climate and farming meth-ods.

“The idea that microbes might play a role in terroir is new, and we think this is the first time that it has been experimentally shown that this is the case,” said God-dard.

For the study, the team first showed genetic differences be-tween populations of S. cerevisiae found in sauvignon blanc grapes in six major wine-growing re-gions of New Zealand.

Then they tested whether these genetic differences influenced the taste and smell of wine.

They found that roughly half of the chemical compounds that determine a wine’s unique traits came from yeast during fermen-tation—“most of the ‘fruity’ notes in wine are in fact derived from yeast not the fruit,” Goddard said.

The compounds are a by-prod-uct of fermentation.

Some winemakers add yeast to grape juice for fermenta-tion, but many rely on microbes naturally found in the fruit, he added. AFP

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Grand opening. Olia Majd attends the grand opening of a POLO Ralph Lauren Store at Fashion Valley with ELLE on Sept. 24, 2015, in San Diego, California. AFP

worldSaudi under fire afterdeadly rajj stampede

HONG KONG—A year since pro-democracy protests brought Hong Kong to a standstill, organizers admit China’s communist leaders show no sign of budging on reform, but say a spark could reignite the movement.

Traffic now thunders along the highway once occupied by tens of thousands of people calling for fully free leadership elections, and there has been little fanfare ahead of Monday’s anniversary.

Frustration permeates the Umbrella Movement, a loose collective that took to the streets after Beijing said it would vet candidates standing for the position of Hong Kong chief executive in 2017.

Student leader Joshua Wong, 18, says the emotionally charged rallies were “a miracle”.

“But even a miracle couldn’t change the Communist Party,” he told AFP.

Wong and his campaign group Scholarism have now turned to long-term tactics, including encouraging young people to enter public institutions and canvassing international support.

“The failure of last year’s movement motivated me to conclude we need to fight for the right of self-determination,” says Wong.

Hong Kong has been governed under the “one country, two systems” arrangement since it was handed back to China by Britain in 1997.

It allows the city much more freedom than seen on the mainland, but there are growing fears that is being eroded.

Since the rally camps were cleared in December, activists have been brought to court in what they describe as a witch hunt.

There are also concerns over media freedoms after a number of attacks on journalists. AFP

MINA, Saudi Arabia Blame shifted towards Saudi authorities on Friday after a stampede at the hajj killed at least 717 people, in the worst tragedy to strike the annual Muslim pilgrimage in a quarter-century.

The disaster, which also left several hundred people injured, was the second deadly accident to hit worshipers this month, after a crane collapse in the holy city of Mecca killed more than 100.

At the scene, bodies lay in piles, surrounded by discarded personal belongings and flattened water bottles, while rescue workers laid corpses in long rows on stretchers, limbs protruding from beneath white sheets.

Dark-skinned and light-skinned, they died with arms draped around each other.

“There was no room to maneuver,” said Aminu Abubakar, a Nigerian pilgrim who escaped the crush of bodies because he was at the head of the procession.

Fellow pilgrims told him of children dying despite parents’ efforts to save them near the sprawling tent city where they stay.

“They threw them on rooftops, mostly tent-tops... Most of them couldn’t make it.”

The stampede broke out in Mina, about five kilometers from Mecca, during the symbolic stoning of the devil ritual. The Saudi civil defense service said it was still counting the dead, who included pilgrims from different countries.

Iran said 131 of its nationals were among the victims, and accused regional rival Saudi Arabia of safety errors.

Islamabad said seven Pakistanis were killed.Pilgrims at the scene blamed the Saudi

authorities and said they were afraid to continue the hajj rituals.

But Abubakar, an AFP reporter based in Kano, Nigeria, said that on Friday morning crowd control had improved and the number of pilgrims was much less.

“Now it’s more organized... There’s more control from the entry points. We don’t expect a repeat of what happened,” he said while moving back to the stoning site on the second of three stoning days. AFP

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WORLD

Indonesiaslammedover hazeresponse

New James Bond song hailed

On to Congress. Pope Francis greets well-wishers at the Apostolic Nunciature to the United States on Sept. 24, 2015, in Washington, DC, as he travels to the US Congress. AFP

Saudi under fire afterdeadly rajj stampede

Pope Francis to appealfor the poor, refugees

S I N G A P O R E — S i n g a p o r e slammed “shocking” statements from Indonesian officials over the haze crisis as it closed all schools and distributed protective face masks Friday in emergency mea-sures after the air pollution index soared to hazardous levels.

The city-state has been cloaked in smog blown in from tinder-dry Sumatra island for about three weeks, the worst such episode since mid-2013 in a crisis that grips the region nearly ever year dur-ing the burning-off season.

The closure of primary and sec-ondary schools as well as govern-ment-run kindergartens due to the haze problem is unprecedented, the Straits Times daily said as the air quality index shot up above 300, a level considered “hazardous”.

As the pollution index rose, so did tempers, with Singapore Foreign Minister K. Shanmugam speaking out against some Indonesian figures who made light of the problem that has long strained relations among af-fected countries including Malaysia.

While Jakarta says it is taking steps to deal with the problem, “at the same time, we are hearing some shocking statements made, at senior levels, from Indonesia, with a com-plete disregard for our people, and their own,” the minister said in a Facebook post late Thursday.

“How is it possible for senior people in government to issue such statements, without any regard for their people, or ours, and without any embarrassment, or sense of re-sponsibility?” he said.

Shanmugan did not identify the of-ficials, but Indonesian Vice-President Jusuf Kalla has made waves in recent weeks by repeating comments he made in March that Indonesia’s neigh-bours should be grateful for good air quality most of the year.

“For 11 months, they enjoyed nice air from Indonesia and they never thanked us,” he said at the time.

Indonesian presidential spokes-man Ari Dwipayana declined to comment on Shanmugam’s re-marks, but said Indonesia’s neigh-bors should also take note of Jakarta’s efforts to contain the fires.

“The president has stated that all force has been mobilized, we are going all out to put out the fires by water-bombing and weather modifi-cation,” he told AFP. AFP

Making his first address to the UN General Assembly, Francis will set the tone for an anti-poverty summit where leaders will adopt ambitious new global development goals for the next 15 years.

The Vatican flag will be raised at UN headquarters for the first time to mark the occasion, only the fifth visit by a pope to the world body in its 70-year history.

The leader of the world’s one billion Catholics takes the podi-um at the 193-nation assembly as the United Nations stumbles in its efforts to end the war in Syria, now in its fifth year.

More than four million Syrians have been driven from their homes in what the United

Nations describes as the biggest refugee crisis in a generation.

Fresh from his Washington vis-it with President Barack Obama and members of Congress, the pope will seek to shore up UN efforts to reach a landmark deal on tackling global warming at a Paris climate change conference scheduled for December.

The Argentine pope will ad-dress the UN assembly in his native Spanish and will focus mostly on poverty and climate, Archbishop Bernardito Auza, the Vatican’s UN ambassador said.

Francis will speak “above all as a pastor, as a religious leader, as a prophet and as a father,” said the ambassador, who will be hosting

LONDON—The new James Bond theme song, “Writing’s On The Wall”, was released Friday, with singer Sam Smith’s nerves over how it would be re-ceived proving unfounded as fans hailed it as a classic.

The release comes a month before “Spectre”, starring Daniel Craig as Bond, is re-leased in Britain and Ireland on Oct. 26 before a worldwide release on Nov. 6.

Grammy award winner Smith is the first British male solo singer to sing the 007 theme since Tom Jones

sang “Thunderball” in 1965.“The pressure to deliver

a Bond song that stands against all the rest feels quite intense,” the British singer told The Sun newspa-per in an interview Friday.

The 23-year-old added that the movie’s direc-tor Sam Mendes had a say over the song’s lyrics and made sure that Bond “didn’t sound weak, that he still sounded powerful”.

Ajay Chowdhury of the James Bond International Fan Club said the song had

“automatically achieved classic Bond song status”.

“There are three types of Bond song: the big, bom-bastic show stopper exem-plified by Shirley Bassey’s ‘Goldfinger’, the dark, mel-ancholic, regretful ballad of which Nancy Sinatra’s ‘You Only Live Twice’ is an example and finally, the he-roic rock anthem like Paul McCartney’s ‘Live And Let Die,’” he said.

“Sam Smith’s song be-longs to the second of these categories.” AFP

UNITED NATIONS—Pope Francis heads to the United Nations on Friday [Saturday in Manila] to de-liver an appeal to world leaders to help the poor, com-bat climate change and end conflicts that have sent desperate refugees fleeing to Europe.

the pope at his Upper East Side townhouse during the New York leg of his visit.

World leaders on Friday will be adopting the UN’s 17 new goals aimed at ending extreme poverty, improving health and education, combating climate change and fostering peaceful societies.

“These are also the priorities of the Catholic Church and they are at the core of the summit,” said Auza.

The pontiff has made the plight of society’s weakest, including the hundreds of thousands of migrants arriving in Europe, a dominant theme of his papacy.

On the turmoil in the Middle East, Francis has called for an end to the “genocide” of Christians, using a term that sets off alarm bells at the United Nations.

As Europe grapples with its worst refugee crisis since World War II, Francis has decided to lead by example, taking in a refu-gee family from Damascus.

He has called on “every parish,

every religious community, every monastery, every sanctuary in Europe” to open their doors to the refugees and show solidarity.

The outspoken pope will meet with Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, who will welcome him along with a group of children before he is whisked away in a golf cart through the UN’s long corri-dors to meet with UN employees.

The select group of UN staff-ers won a lottery to have the chance to sit down with the 78-year-old pontiff.

Security, already tight at UN headquarters as some 160 leaders arrive for the gathering, has been stepped up for the pope’s visit.

His UN address follows a rap-turous welcome Thursday in New York, when adoring crowds cheered Francis as he glided down Fifth Avenue in his pope-mobile before he led evening prayers for dignitaries and mem-bers of the clergy at St Patrick’s Cathedral. AFP

Preview. Dancers perform during a preview of the Sydney Dance Company production Triptych in Sydney on Sept., 25, 2015. After a Sydney season, Australia’s leading contemporary dance company will tour Hong Kong and Germany. AFP

B7JOEL D. L ACSAMANAE D I T O RPROPERTY

j d l a c s a m a n a @ g m a i l . c o m

Ascott Bonifacio Glob-al City Manila recently opened its doors with a grand launch attended by Depart-ment of Tourism’s (DOT) undersecretary Benito Bengzon, Jr. and Taguig City Mayor Lani Cayetano. Guests were welcomed by Ascott’s Regional gen-eral manager for Phil-ippines and Thailand, Arthur Gindap; and were taken on a tour, providing a glimpse of Ascott’s luxurious studio and 1-bedroom units (Shown in photo). The Ascott Bonifacio Global City Manila is 30-storey property that has 220 units.

The Philippine Institute of Civil Engineers (PICE) will hold the Civil Engineering Summit 2015, and 12th NCR Technical Con-ference, at the Marikina Con-vention Center in Marikina City on October 8 and 9.

The summit will gather civil engineers, academicians, tech-nology providers, urban plan-ners, businessmen, as well as pol-icy and decision makers under one roof, with former president Fidel V. Ramos as guest of honor.

The event wields gravitas coming as it does a few weeks af-ter the birthday (September 25) of one of the pillars of Philippine construction, the late business-man and building pioneer Felipe F. Cruz, (who would have been 94), best known for establish-ing one of the country’s largest contractors, FF Cruz Co. Inc., almost six decades ago.

Infrastructure gIantThe company started out as a small surveying firm, and even-tually transformed into the mus-

cle behind key infrastructure projects within Metro Manila like the C-5 Ortigas Avenue ex-tension interchange.

Cruz bagged in 2007 The Out-standing Filipino Awardee for General Construction in rec-ognition of his contributions. FF Cruz’s projects included the Grade Separation of Edsa-Or-tigas Intersection, and the Ed-sa-Kamias-Timog Interchange Project. It also focused heavily on the maritime sector and rec-lamation, building the Batangas Port Development Project.

Other projects Cruz was in-volved in included the San

Roque hydroelectric plant in Pangasinan and geothermal plants in Leyte and Albay.

Cruz also raised the bar for Fil-ipino contractors at a time when the Philippines was just gaining worldwide recognition. With several contractors, Filipinos were gradually recognized by the World Bank, Asian Development Bank and JICA (Japan Interna-tional Cooperation Agency) as capable of doing large and com-plex projects locally and abroad.

generatIon of vIsIonarIesCruz got his BS Geodetic Engi-neering degree from the Universi-ty of the Philippines. He received his BS Civil Engineering degree from the National University.

The founder of FF Cruz & Co. Inc., is remembered for his long-range planning, hard work, hon-esty and generosity of spirit as he built major interchanges, ports and bridges in the country.

He was part of a generation of visionaries who helped de-

fine a country—yet adhered to old-fashioned values, strict work ethic and simple ways.

In 1949 Cruz established a sur-veying company which evolved into a construction and engineer-ing firm in 1954. In the ’60s, he became the first Filipino, and one of the first in the world, to make use of the Global Positioning Sys-tem (GPS) for civilian surveying. His contract with the US govern-ment sent him around the globe to find the exact locations of the cities using satellite tracking.

Later, FF Cruz & Co. Inc. ex-panded to build roads, geother-mal and power plants, and piers such as the Batangas Internation-al Port, Iligan Port, the Sanggali Fishing Port Complex in Zam-boanga, Port of Cagayan de Oro, Port of Iloilo, General Santos Fish Port Complex, Port of Semirara in Antique, to name a few.

MeetIng the challenge of the futureFollowing Cruz’ vision, the Civ-il Engineering Summit seeks to

prepare young civil engineers to meet the challenges of the future through design and construction.

Aside from honoring Cruz’ memory, topics to be discussed at the summit include the role of civil engineers in urban trans-portation , roads and rails infra-structure, national planning and development; disaster prepared-ness and mitigation; ASEAN and international practice, con-struction, project management and in power.

The summit will likewise tackle civil engineering commu-nity and CE law, the role of civil engineers in education, training certification with emphasis on the road map for civil engineers

The PICE is an organization accredited by the Professional Regulation Commission (PRC) of the Philippines, composed of more than 74,000 registered civil engineer members in 96 chapters and some 46,646 civ-il engineering student mem-bers in 179 student chapters throughout the country.

sturdIer classrooMs, brIghter future. One Meralco Foundation, together with building mate-rials partner James Hardie Philippines, recently turned over a fully-furnished kin-dergarten classroom to the Lagundi Elementary School in Plaridel, Bulacan, part of a joint Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) initiative. The project provides target-ed elementary schools with durable building products that adhere to the Department of Education’s specifications. The goal is to create a condu-cive learning environment for students at the first leg of the K-12 Program.

S AT U R D AY : S E P T E M B E R 2 6 : 2 0 1 5

functIon, forM, style In one package. AMA Towers Residences, a 34-sto-rey home office condominium devel-opment along Edsa-Ortigas, recent-ly opened a showroom at Highway 54, EDSA which features a modern design scheme combining the com-forts of home with the brisk utilitar-ian benefits of a business. Shown here is a studio unit with a contem-porary, sports-oriented feel.

EnginEErs’ summit to honor mEmory of Ph building PionEEr

dreaMer, doer. FF Cruz envisioned islands connected by transportation, infrastructure and communication.

new bgc darlIng

j d l a c s a m a n a @ g m a i l . c o m

B8 JOEL D. L ACSAMANAE D I T O R

PROPERTY

S AT U R D AY : S E P T E M B E R 2 6 : 2 0 1 5

The Philippine real estate industry, and the econo-my in general, are mov-ing forward at a steady

pace as the nation gears up for a colourful campaign leading to the national polls in May, 2016.Real estate developers and prop-erty players are banking on more sales by the end of the year, and are planning to take advantage of increased spending as a plethora of local politicians jockey for po-sition during the election season.

Power of recurring incomeThe retail market with its various platforms is aggressively being pursued by top developers, be-cause of its power of recurring in-come. While residential sales are generally brisk, once a project is fully sold out, a developer would have to do it all over again for an-other project in a different loca-tion. Unlike a strategically located shopping mall, it would provide steady annual net income.

The SM Group has a total net

income of Php 18.7 billion for the first half of the year, and almost 60% comes from recurring in-come. This is the power of 52 SM Stores, 41 SM Supermarkets, 43 SM Hypermarkets, 127 Savemore stores and 27 WalterMart stores.

Ayala Land Inc. (ALI) is planning to open at least five new shopping malls in the next few years in line with its goal to earn a net income of Php 40 billion by 2020. It also plans to develop the nine-hectare mixed-use complex in Parañaque City with an anchor shopping mall. The Aya-la Land Group earlier secured a 45-year lease for the 9.2-hectare prop-erty from the Wenceslao group, the owner of the Aseana Business Park complex, for the project.

COSCO Capital Inc., the listed company of Puregold’s Lucio Co, recently acquired RFC mall along Alabang Zapote in Las Piñas City. RFC has a total lot area of about 7,600 sqm and a gross floor area of about 23,000 sqm. The acqui-sition will add to the Group’s ex-isting 35 stores with a total GFA of 343,000 sqm. Cosco/Puregold

Group is planning to open eight stores in the next three years.

The Megaworld Group is join-ing the race with its plan of put-ting up 20 malls in the next five years. The Vista Land Group is in-tegrating its retail platforms with its housing projects.

Another player that is making its presence felt is the Cebu-based Gaisano-owned Metro Retail Stores Group, Inc. (MRSGI). It recently opened its 20th branch Luzon, located in Calamba, La-guna. The Gaisano Group has grown its hypermarket portfolio to 12 stores in just three years. In total, it has 46 stores in key cities around the Philippines.

A liTTle biT of A fluTTerHotels with casinos are sprouting up, even with the tight regulation of the Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corporation (PAGCOR).

The Ayala Land Group plans to invest as much as Php 30 bil-lion in the next five years to put up Seda hotels across the country. It is even considering bringing

the Seda brand broad. The Aya-la group currently has four Seda hotels located in Bonifacio Global City, Cagayan de Oro City, Davao City and Sta. Rosa, Laguna.

Robinsons Land Group is another veteran in hotel devel-opment. While it has foreign partners running the Crowne Plaza and Holiday Inn, it has been steadily increasing its budget ho-tel--- Go Hotel. At present, it is operating nine hotels and is gear-ing up for its 10th location, prob-ably in Davao. The nine sites are in: Bacolod, Butuan, Dumaguete, Iloilo, EDSA-Mandaluyong, Orti-gas Center, Otis-Manila, Puerto Princesa and Tacloban.

To boost hotel development, the Department of Tourism (DOT) is motivating developers by endorsing for incentives a to-tal of over Php 12 billion worth of tourism projects with the Board of Investments (BOI) and the Philippine Economic Zone Authority (PEZA). DOT identi-fied nine hotels that will add 651 rooms to the industry.

indusTriAl mArkeTThe Philippine Economic Zone Authority (PEZA) has 316 op-erating economic zones under its supervision, hosting approx-imately 3,500 companies. Apart from these ecozones, the Clark Special Economic Zone (CLARK) and the Subic Bay Freeport Zone (SUBIC) have offered thousands of hectares to manufacturers in the past. In recent months, even with the sprawling CLARK and SUBIC, vacancy of industrial space is less than 200 hectares.

A number of foreign manufac-turers have been looking for suitable industrial properties. PEZA intends to expand its Mactan Cebu Interna-tional Airport (MCIA) by at least 30 hectares. The Bases Conversion and Development Authority (BCDA) intended to privatize the 200-hect-are Clark Green City by way of joint venture, but the public bidding failed to enticed investors. While the government is going through its usual process of land development, supply of suitable industrial space is expected to tighten.

PH reAl esTATe on THe move As elecTion fever rises

(conclusion)

on HigHer ground. Holcim Philippines recently partnered with the local govern-ment of Davao City, and the Department of Social Works and Development (DSWD) to build a safe community that could house over 100 families living in flood-prone areas near the Ilang River in Davao City. Holcim Philippines’s Davao plant tied up with the DSWD, the City Social Services and Devel-opment Office (CSSDO), and Barangay Ilang for the project. Shown in photo (from left to right): Ilang brgy. kagawad Margo Babao,; Maria Luisa T. Bermudo, Dept Head II DSWD; Arnolfo Ricardo B. Cabling, chairman of Brgy. Ilang, Zita Balogo; Holcim Davao; plant manager, Vircelina Suarez, President Pag-asa Home Owners Association, Rebecca A. Santa; asst. regional dir. for operations DSWD; and Eduardo A. Sahagun – CEO and President Holcim Phils. Inc.

PROPERTYdoing iT AgAin, And AgAin.

Avida plans to convert a Quezon City wet market area,

or busy “bagsakan” of fresh and dry produce, into a modern

retail, business and residential urban development

called Cloverleaf.

The link between comic books, cartoon shows, films and video games is pretty solid. Their connections go

back a couple of decades past. Comic book characters started

appearing in motion pictures in the 1940s as film serials (e.g. Adventures of Captain Marvel, 1941); animated television series were first adapted to the big screen also in the early ‘40s (Dumbo, 1941); comic book figures starred in video games in the late ‘70s (Superman on Atari 2600, 1979); movies based on video games premiered in theaters as early as 1986 in Japan (Super Mario Bros.: Peach-Hime Kyushutsu Dai Sakusen!) and in 1994 internationally (Double Dragon); and so on.

Beyond the link that connects them, altogether they became an inspiration for Niccolo Balce to do something.

FROM WALLS TO DISNEY AND MORE“Video games, cartoons and comic books got me interested in drawing,” he says. “I looked up to these entertainment outlets since I thought they made art more grounded and practical.”

Inspired by the Atari game Pole Position, Balce, as a kid, drew F1 cars on the walls using crayons. Perhaps seeing his potential, his architect dad then gave him sketchbooks and proper equipment in grade school which he filled with drawings influenced by his ‘80s childhood.

Motivated to be an illustrator, because he thought “that since these things (video games, comic books, etc.) are bought, the guys who did

drawings for these things are probably making a living out of it,” he took up Bachelor of Fine Arts major in Visual Communications at the University of the Philippines to train traditionally and taught himself Photoshop, Illustrator and Flash on the side.

Years later, from the kid who drew F1 cars on the walls, Balce went on to become an illustrator whose works have been published in various comic

book publications and magazines (Viper Comics and Xbox Nation Magazine), were featured in artbooks (Exotique 4), trading cards (Street Fighter), mobile and social games (Disney Interactive), and have won him major recognition (1st Place in Wizard’s “Bayonetta Re-envisioned” Competition). His creations were even pirated in France, something that made him simultaneously feel terrible and flattered. But “I’ll probably seek legal action the next time it happens.”

At 34, Balce, also known as Robotnicc (a play on Sonic The Hedgehog 2 villain Dr. Robotnik and his nickname “Nicc”), has built himself pretty impressive credentials to back him up as he progresses into the industry and makes a name in California, where he and his wife Jamie and dog Eva are currently based.

Here in the Philippines, there’s instant respect and admiration for

artists whose creations have brought life to Disney and all its subsidiaries’ projects – and one of them is Balce. For three years (2011-2013), he worked as senior artist for Disney Interactive, responsible for concept and production art for the graphics used in Armies of Magic and Pirates of the Caribbean: Isles of War.

“Disney was great while it lasted. And it lasted far longer than I expected. I always thought I’d be out after the first project was done,” he enthuses.

More than the perks (free meals), he says he felt a happy disbelief “that I was somehow working for something I’ve sort of been shooting for ever since I was a kid.” He shares, “Never thought I’d actually get in but it happened and it’s done! And now on to new things.”

He’s now working for mobile gaming company RockYou,

drawing the environments for Kitchen Scramble while doing many other projects – commissioned and personal – on the side.

However, to this date, he still refuses to put a label on his drawing style.

“I’ve never really pegged a concrete drawing style for the way I draw things,” admits Balce. “It used to be a combination of manga and Western drawing, but now it’s morphing into something else that’s mixed with influences from WPA (Work Projects Administration)

posters and UPA (United Productions America) cartoons because of a recent project’s mid-century modern style that was fascinating to me.”

He believes his style is still evolving into something else. For someone who’s done digital artwork for almost a decade, it seems natural that he wants to go back to the traditional medium. He says his style “seems to be heading back to traditional painting,” and he’s been “wanting to balance it out and brush up on my traditional media skills on inks and gouache.”

“We’ll see and wait where it takes me,” declares Balce.

THE MAGIC IN COMICSFor comic artists, making comics does not require superpower, but it sure needs a set of special skills and the right dose of magic. As for Balce, it’s an ongoing process that goes on until it’s done and he’s happy with the outcome.

“With comic book creation, I outline a story first and make some bullet points before I do a quick draft of a few pages,” he begins. “After I’ve done some drafts, I’d tighten them up for a second pass, and if I don’t hate them, I’d go ahead and do a final pass with inks and values or colors. Then I do the whole process again for the next few pages until I’ve finished the whole thing, checking to see if it reads or flows or seems to be timed right, then going back and fixing out the kinks on a few problematic pages.”

And if Balce has to pick a favorite among everything he’s done so far, he says it would have to be his Random Encounter comic published under Viper Comics in 2005. “It was a story about a group of friends who stumbled upon some dried leaves that turned out to have healing properties powerful enough to bring people back from the dead,” he narrates.

“It’s absolutely far from perfect, and it shows how bad I am at writing, but it still is something special for me.”

C1S AT U R D AY : S E P T E M B E R 2 6 : 2 0 1 5

LIFE

TATUM ANCHETAE D I T O R

BING PARELA S S O C I AT E E D I T O R

BERNADETTE LUNASW R I T E R

P OP CU LT U RE

l i f e @ t h e s t a n d a r d . c o m . p h @ L I F E a t S t a n d a r d @ L I F E a t S t a n d a r d @ L I F E a t S t a n d a r d

ROBOTNICC AND HIS COMICSBY BERNADETTE LUNAS

After almost a decade of digital artwork, Balce's drawings are now heading towards traditional style.

The Escape from Apartment IA1st place winning fan art entry for Wizard's 'Bayonetta Re-envisioned' Competition

Gaijin Girl scene

Landscape sketch Gaijin Girl

Niccolo Balce

That's right. I'm naming this article after Janet Jackson's 1995 greatest hits album spanning the first decade of her career. A lot can happen in 10 years.

For Ms. Jackson, it's collecting 14 top-40 singles and becoming a worldwide superstar. But we can't all be music icons so the changes in our lives probably aren't that drastic – no meteoric rise to fame, no amassing of a massive fortune.

Still, 10 years is a long time and if you look hard enough, you'll realize that you're a completely different person now from way back then. I obviously can't speak for everyone but that's how I feel. Curiously enough, I only feel that now. It's got a lot to do with age, I think. At 32 years old, I'm finally embracing my true age and actually believing that where I am now is so much better than when I was 22.

I've never lied about my age but before turning 32, I would always wish I was younger. In my late twenties, I felt so old without really feeling like a real adult. I remember when I was 18, I was picturing my life a decade after. When I turn 28, I thought to myself, I would have this job, I would be living at this place and I would have a net worth of this amount.

Those things never happened, of course, because it was a stretch – a teenage fantasy, if you will. So at 28, I thought I was still that 18-year-old kid playing the part of an adult. I've accomplished some things, yes, but it wasn't enough. And it was frustrating. It made me feel like I'm nowhere I should be at life and I was a failure as a human being. Okay, I'm

exaggerating, but I hope you get my point.

It was as if digits were arbitrarily being added to my age and fine lines were starting to appear on my face. But the advertised wisdom, success and bank account size didn't seem to have gotten the invite and therefore, didn't make it to the party. It didn't help that it was around that time that people loved sharing faux-inspirational online articles and listicles on Thought Catalog or whatever, such as 30 Things You Need To Do

Before You Turn 30. Like, WTF, I haven't done more than half those things. Am I failing at life again?

Eff you, person who's better at life than me. Enjoy quitting your job to travel the world. You'll be scrubbing toilets real soon because you'll run out of money. That's a true story, by the way. Look it up. (Pro

tip based on experience: If you don't want to feel bad about yourself and your life, stay away from all that listicle mumbo-jumbo BS.)

So then I turned 30. Well, that was a mess. It was a huge leap because it was a totally new decade. We all know the story. At that age, our parents and grandparents were so far along in terms of adulting. They were all married with more than a couple of kids. They were managing household and raising families. They had legit responsibilities and they made it work.

Yet there I was: hanging out at coffee shops with equally unmarried friends, whining about work and relationship drama, talking about movies, TV shows and songs, gossiping about who said what on Twitter, planning our next trip to the

beach – basically the same thing I've been doing for most of the past decade. Has nothing changed?

When 31 approached, it was like a really bad movie sequel. Sequels are generally bad but this one was Speed 2 terrible, as if the entire year was one long hangover from being 30. I was basically cruising through the year in denial. I just wasn't acknowledging that I was in my early thirties. I wasn't prepared to deal with that daunting truth.

Then something changed a few weeks before my 32nd birthday. And sorry to go all Scheherazade on you but that, my friends, is a story for next Saturday.

Follow me on Twitter and Instagram @EdBiado

C2S AT U R D AY : S E P T E M B E R 2 6 : 2 0 1 5

LIFE l i f e @ t h e s t a n d a r d . c o m . p h @ L I F E a t S t a n d a r d @ L I F E a t S t a n d a r d @ L I F E a t S t a n d a r d

THE GISTBY ED BIADO

When 31 approached,

it was like a really

bad movie sequel.

DESIGN OF A DECADEPart 1 of 2

C3LIFES AT U R D AY : S E P T E M B E R 2 6 : 2 0 1 5


Young men and women will have a visual treat with SM’s Youth Tee Festival that celebrates

the carefree and exuberant lifestyle of the youth. No other item of clothing is more appealing than the T-Shirt when it comes to versatility, which is why the young use it to express their own personal style or as a canvas for boundless creativity and even as a statement of counterculture.

One can don a graphic tee over cut-offs or faded jeans and colorful sneakers – with a f lannel shirt tied around the waist for an added accent. Or what about pairing it up with achmbray shirt tucked under a billowing A-line skirt or reworked, worn with denim shorts and designer f lip-f lops? The possibilities are endless – the bottom line being that the T-Shirt is more than a piece of clothing but a lifestyle – and SM Youth celebrates this exuberant culture with the SM Youth Tee Festival.

Scour the racks in the SM Youth section for a witty, on-trend collection of tees. Start at Tee Culture, where statement tops feature millennial, social media

lingo (do “Beast Mode” and “Selfie” ring a bell?), or graphic pop culture prints—motorcycles and cheeseburgers on a shirt, anyone?— that are wearable signs of the times. Hop on to Character Tees, where the youth can express their veritable fanboy or fangirl-ness with a variety of T-shirts with famous characters as artwork. These shirts are definitely something that Avengers fans or Star Wars cult followers would want to keep for themselves.

SM Youth makes the Tee Festival more exciting with a special promo offering as much as P450 discount for regular-priced T-shirt purchases during the promo period. Thrown in the mix is a design contest for upcoming creatives: design a shirt and upload it on Instagram with

the hashtag #TeeFestival. The 30 most liked designs will get the opportunity to be produced by SM and sold in all SM Stores.

The SM Youth Tee Festival and all its promos run until October 31. Visit facebook.com/SMYouthLifestyle or on Twitter and Instagram

at @SM_Youth for more details on Tee Festival and the T-shirt design contest. Click on #TeeFestival for a visual treat of the month-long promo.

CREATIVELY CAREFREE WITH THE SM YOUTH TEE FESTIVAL!

STEM open day of opportunities

In the old days, hearing the word stem brings to mind the part of a plant that supports a leaf, a flower or a fruit. In the last few years, the word stem became

associated with breakthrough medical researches that have rocked the world, in the process stirring medical ethics controversies when scientists developed the use and destruction of human embryos and the use of umbilical cord, and bone marrow in an attempt to repair damaged body parts of the sick. We know this as stem cell research.

Today however, stem has taken on an altogether new meaning because it is an acronym for the academic disciplines of

Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics – with thousands of Filipino students and professionals engaged in these academic disciplines that have the potential to broaden their horizons and help them achieve personal growth.

This October 3, International Education Specialists (Inter-Ed) will hold a STEM Open Day at the second floor, Trafalgar Plaza, H.V. de La Costa St., Salcedo Village, Makati City that will give participants the opportunity to discover and explore the many opportunities for professional advancement offered by foreign universities and college.

With its over three decades of experience and partnerships with some of the world’s most respected academic institutions, Inter-Ed will pave the way to various paths for career growth available to students and professionals in the STEM disciplines – from skilled workers migration, advanced studies, internships, and many more.

Aimed at inspiring more people to see the bigger picture, the STEM Open Day likewise encourages achievers to maximize their potential and help them fulfill their dreams by offering learning opportunities in leading universities in the United States, United Kingdom and Australia.

Speakers include experts and specialists led by Katie Jones, marketing officer for the international office of the prestigious British institution, Cardiff University, who will provide first-hand information on the subject. Jones will be assisted by Inter-Ed’s team in fielding questions and addressing various concerns regarding the processes for applications in any foreign schools that may be picked by the participants.

To reserve a seat (first-come, first-served basis) for the STEM Open Day, contact Inter-Ed at 819-100, [email protected] or visit its website at www.inter-ed.com.

C4 LIFES AT U R D AY : S E P T E M B E R 2 6 : 2 0 1 5


I G S P Y

COCKTAIL DIARIES

Cocktails – the sound of the word would make anyone salivate. We don’t know about you, but for some, the idea of an ice cold concoction of liquor with sweets and bitters makes ending a stressful day all worth it. For centuries, the human race

has been making mixed drinks and it was only in 1806 that the word “cocktail” was used with the same definition we know today. So many businesses flourished and revolved around these colorful liquid mixtures. For some, it even became their passion and profession. There are so

many kinds of cocktails that have been concocted over the years with a lot of varieties to choose from – from strong to sweet, spicy to bitter, delicious to absurd, there’s always a drink for any willing imbiber. But whether you drink or not (or not allowed to), looking at these colorful and interesting mixtures would always be fascinating.

Today on IG SPY, we searched for some interesting and inspiring cocktail feeds. Learn a thing or two about cocktails, use their recipes, and be in awe of some of the quirkiest Instagram feeds online.

@beautifulboozeManaged by Seattle based mixologist and a self-proclaimed home bar tender, Natalie Migliarini, her IG feed makes us want to pop a bottle of liquor and make use of that old Parisian shaker hiding in the pantry. What makes her photographs interesting is the artful and fun use of ingredients, from edible flowers, artichokes, to herbs and vegetables. She keeps a blog, www.beautifulbooze.com, and showcases over 200 original recipes and beautiful images of her creations. Follow her cocktail diaries as she whips up some of the most beautiful cocktail creations, and just hope you’re good enough to recreate them at home so you can experience their taste.

@eatyourdrinkLiterally, his photos look really good enough to eat than drink! The photos are so amazing they can pass for a dessert or a table centerpiece. Managed by cocktail chef Matthew Biancaniello, former head mixologist of the Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel’s Library Bar. His talent for creating cocktails from farm-fresh organic food has been the unique selling point of his creations. He uses ingredients uncommon for the normal cocktail palate. Cocktails range from Heirloom Tomato Mojito, Okra infused Novo Fogo Cachaca silver (green zebra heirloom tomatoes, lovage and garlic flowers), cactus-infused 123 Tequila with kumquats, fresh arugula inspired Roquette, or the revered sea urchin and squid ink alcoholic ice cream (yes, can you imagine?). Mathew is a self-taught mixologist. He learned just by reading cocktail books and experimenting on his own. He’s like a cocktail medicine man. Check out his out-of-this world creations and learn a thing or two about the many ingredients you see everyday but would not dare put in your cocktail.

@stirandstrainCurated by Los Angeles based writer and “cocktail maker” Elena, her four year blog, www.stirandstrain.com, has been a Finalist for the 2014 and 2015 Saveur Best Cocktail Blog. Her IG supports her regular blog entries and cocktail adventures. She calls Stir and Strain her scratch pad as she creates and tests new recipes to share to her readers. Follow her account and get amazing guides and regular booze news aside from her awesome concoctions and recipes.

@brottleHeading to a bar to get a good glass of cocktail usually costs an arm and a leg. Besides the expensive ingredients, more often than not you pay for the talent who made the recipe. Enter The Bottled Cocktail Community in NYC, a company that produces artisanal bottled cocktail recipes for 750ml bottles. We know, they are so far from us; we can only imagine and salivate on their drinks based on their photos. They make and publish videos of bottled cocktail recipes daily. Check out their account and visit www.brottle.com to get a daily dose. Who knows, you might just be able to absorb what they teach and tinker on some ingredients yourself.

@punch_drinkPUNCH is an online magazine focused on wine, spirits and cocktails. Their curated feed showcases amazing photographs featured on www.punchdrink.com. Follow their entertaining feed as they tour us to different bars, back kitchens, and share stories (and recipes) about the art of libation.

Coconut Spiked Limeade made with Blue Chair Bay Banana Rum

Benesin Mezcal, 123 tequila blanco and yellow nectarine juice with flowering oregano

The Boulevardier by Brottle (8oz #tomlawless whiskey, 8oz of @campariamerica , 8oz Carpano Antica Sweet Vermouth, and 3oz of H20) fills a 750ml bottle

Uni drink

Fresh Lemongrass Sour Second Serve (Amaro Montenegro, fino sherry, lime, simple, soda)

Mezcal Margarita The "No Crying In Baseball" Popcorn-infused rye, PX and oloroso sherries, rum, Benedictine, Peychauds, Bob Sebra baseball card

Low Rent Cocktail Grip of Pimm's Cup

The brottled Margarita (8oz sauza tequila, 8oz lime juice, 5oz cointreau, 3oz agave syrup, 3oz H2O) Fills a 750ml bottle.

Okra infused Novo Fogo Cachaça silver, Green zebra heirloom tomatoes, lovage and garlic flowers

Bottled Sea Breeze

Spicy Blackberry Margarita

BLT Bloody Mary

SHOWBITZi s a h r e d @ g m a i l . c o m

C5ISAH V. REDE D I T O R

SAT URDAY : S EPT EMBER 26 : 2015

Kia Theatre, the new entertain-ment venue in Araneta Center, was the venue for Disney Live! Mickey’s Music Festival.

Featuring Disney characters from Aladdin, The Little Mer-maid, and Toy Story, the perfor-mance offers a total rock and roll experience for the whole family. The tour finds the perfect home in Kia Theatre, which is appoint-ed with world-class audio-visual and lighting technologies.

In photo, Minnie Mouse and Mickey Mouse flank Araneta Group exec and Uniprom Inc. OIC-COO Irene Jose, Disney Live! Mickey’s Music Festival per-formance director Nick Manna, and Feld Entertainment regional marketing director for Southeast Asia Blake Tatroe.

‘Disney Live!’ at araneta Center’s Kia theatre

IPHOTO

Talented as she is, singer and stage actress Ayen Laurelconcedes Beautiful Strangerson GMA-7 is the most chal-

lenging TV series she’s done so far. Describing her scenes on the

show as “emotionally tiring,” fans see their idol playing a character named Lourdes de Jesus who is go-ing through a lot of bad things.

“Ang daming nangyayari sa char-acter ko,” she said. “Nasunugan siya, namatayan, pinagiwanan ng anak ng ate, pinakagat sa aso. May scar ako dito sa mukha and prosthetics takes a lot of time to put on. First taping day pa lang, fire scene na agad akoso talagang lapot-lapot, pawis. ”

Far from being the snooty an-tagonist who gets her evil ways in full makeup and regalia, Lourdes is the deglamorized type with whom many viewers actually sympathize.

“Noon kasi ang mga character na ginagawa (ko) ay yung mga glam-orized kontrabida,” Ayen mused. “This time talaga, (Lourdes goes) to the ground.”

The role is as exacting as it is a bless-ing to have top caliber co-stars in the show, said Ayen. There’s Dina Bonne-vie, Heart Evangelista, Lovi Poe and especially Christopher de Leon.

Ayen remembers screaming her lungs out when she learned she was going to work with the multi-award-ed actor, which, for her, is dream come true. As for Dina, Ayen likes it that she can switch from being a no-nonsense actress at work, then all funny and cheerful as soon as the director shouts, “Cut!” Heart and Lovi are also held in high regard by Ayen for being actresses in tune with their feelings that show in the work, dedicated to perfection, and are no prima donnas at all.

Then again it’s not as if they’re getting a lesser actress in Ayen. Known for her acting mettle and for being a true professional, she gives her best in Beautiful Strangerseven when she sometimes thinks she has just about to reach the limit.

“Sometimes I would think, ‘Wow, pano mo gagawin yan?’ because, it’s really no joke. I have to use every-thing that I have kasi it (her portray-al) can’t come from just anywhere. Hindi mo pwede i-fake. There were shoots na out of 15, ay more than three quarters of it ay umiiyak ako sa mga scenes. Sobrang nakaka-drain.”

But as always, it’s all in a day’s work for Ayen who still finds time to channel her energies and cre-ativity into other priorities. Aside from being a wife and mother, Ayen has been more active with her music career lately, beginning with several special appearances in other artists’ shows.

“I’m back to singing,” said she who has hit albums and critically acclaimed concerts to her name. “Na-miss ko din.”

She was part of Jessie Lucas’CCP special held recently and was a special guest in Dulce’s concert a few days ago. She will perform at APEC in Iloilo on Oct. 5. She is thinking of holding an intimate concert soon and, perhaps, even producing a new album, her third.

“I’m beginning to sing again. Saya! At least hindi ko nakalimu-tang kumanta. Muntik ko na ngang makalimutan. ‘Ay, kumakanta pala ako...’” she joked.

“Ang sarap pala bumalik sa pag-kanta kasi ang tagal ko nang hindi kumakanta. Na-e-enjoy ko na ulit and even working with people I love and admire.”

Ayen LAureL’s reTurn TO musIc

Ayen Laurel has proved herself to be an effective character actor but she is returning to her first love -- music

SHOWBITZC6i s a h r e d @ g m a i l . c o m

Sony Pictures Television (SPT) Networks, Asia is launching a re-freshed visual identity for AXN with an impactful original new look that aligns with the chan-nel’s current programming fo-cus. The new branding, includ-ing a new logo, graphic elements and marketing campaign, will roll out across AXN’s on-air and online platforms just prior to the premiere of The Voice Season.

“While AXN continues to be the pay TV destination for action, we are also tapping into an audi-ence seeking content filled with intrigue, passion and heroes,” said Hui Keng Ang, senior vice pres-

ident and general manager, Sony Pictures Television Networks, Asia. “Our new look aligns with that programming sensibility and speaks to today’s viewers, who are connecting with our brand across linear and digital channels, as well as social media.”

AXN’s dynamic new logo features a custom-built avante garde typeface, accentuated by a three-dimensional pyramid,

which is a classic shape associat-ed with mystery and the conver-gence of energy, bathed in strik-ing shades of red.

“Red evokes energy, action, passion and danger. We are har-nessing the power of that color in a new campaign that encour-ages viewers to discover and em-brace the sense of fearlessness that permeates AXN’s series,” explains Maurizio Vitale, senior

vice president of marketing, Net-works for SPT, who oversaw the network’s brand refresh globally.

The network’s new “Redefin-ing Action” campaign, which will roll out simultaneously with the refreshed brand identity, un-derscores the channel’s focus on programming defined not by a particular genre but by an over-all attitude -- intense, intriguing, smart and unexpected.

Complementing the bold new look, AXN has a stellar line up of new and returning series to get viewers excited for the Fall TV season. The focus on intense, in-triguing, smart and unexpected stories is reflected in the premiere on Sept. 28 of highly anticipated drama Quantico, starring Bolly-wood icon Priyanka Chopra; a show not short of twists where

one of the group of FBI trainees at Quantico is suspected to have plotted a massive terrorist attack. The Blacklist Season 3 is all about redefining action with Elizabeth Keen (Megan Boone) finding herself on the FBI’s most wanted list and on the run with Raymond Reddington (James Spader).

On Sept. 22, reality TV sensa-tion The Voice Season 9 kicked off with mega music stars Phar-rell Williams, Gwen Stefani, Blake Shelton and Adam Levinecoaching a new crop of singing wannabes; the sincerity, chemis-try and rivalry make it a not-to-be missed competition.

Check out AXN’s new look and programming schedule at www.AXN-Asia.com or join the conversation on Facebook at AXNPhilippines.

AXN’s New look


ACROSS 1 Guy 5 Trombone part 10 Misplace 14 Wet blanket 15 Italian money 16 Livy’s “it was” 17 Evening in Paris 18 City, canal, and lake 19 Dapper 20 Flannel items 22 Greek forum

A N S W E R F O R P R E V I O U S P U Z Z L E

CROSSWORD PUZZLE SATURDAY,

SEPTEMBER 26, 2015

23 Unsightly 24 Dr.’s visit 26 Wander off 28 Old — (geyser) 32 Scoff at 33 Lairds’ daggers 34 “Green” sci. 35 Stony 36 Whitewater craft 37 Dirty air 38 Kenya’s loc. 39 Blixen or Black

40 Avoids 41 Sounded uncertain 43 Avowed 44 Call for 45 Feast with poi 46 Dilate 49 Fell 52 With, to monsieur 53 It may be airtight 55 Grayish 57 Onion cousin 58 Cool fabric 59 Fashion magazine 60 Bakers’ meas. 61 Kid or rib 62 Bronco “brake”

DOWN 1 ABC rival 2 Circus prop 3 Verdi number 4 Swore falsely 5 Proper 6 Virginia caverns 7 Pupil’s place 8 Woodland creature 9 Hairpin curve 10 One dimension 11 Layered cookie 12 German industrial region 13 Ms. James

21 Petri-dish contents 22 Condo units 24 Slugger Hank — 25 Spear’s cousin 26 Foul-up 27 — incognita 28 Gave a ticket 29 Longest bone 30 Storrs coll. 31 Ship journals 32 “Kazaam” star, familiarly 33 Had the nerve 36 Give a darn 37 Road edge 39 Acutely perceptive 40 Barter 42 Sweater types (hyph.) 43 Prone’s opposite 45 Brain sections 46 Cartoonist — Kelly 47 Singer Burl — 48 Over one’s head 49 “I, —” (rock autobio) 50 Whodunit name 51 Surrealist painter 53 Mi. above sea level 54 Tell a tale 56 Pa Cartwright

In Breaking Borders, each ep-isode is helmed by Chef Mi-chael Voltaggio—a renowned restaurateur—and Mariana Van Zeller—a multi-awarded journal-ist. The two visit places that have been plagued by years of broken factions and deeply ingrained is-sues. Once there, they immerse themselves, and the audience, in the rich history of the area. The highlight of each episode is when the hosts bring together a few locals to share a meal pre-pared by Chef Michael, while openly discussing their thoughts and opinions on the conflict sur-rounding them.Each meal’s participants are, of course, the two hosts and a few lo-cals from the different sides of the

spectrum. These guests are from opposing sides, and there comes the challenge. Chef Michael said that each meal he prepares isn’t just about the taste. It’s about the people be-hind it. In each morsel of food, he tries to capture at least a smidge of their essence as a people, and hopefully, this translates to a hap-py and open atmosphere. “My biggest concern was being able to use food to connect people around the world in a way where they would feel comfortable enough to share their life experi-ences,” explains Chef Michael. The food served is inspired by the local cuisine and the stories the pair hear around town in prepa-ration for the sit-down. The famil-iar and warm setting of the dining

table covered with hearty dishes encourages the participants to feel at ease and therefore serves as the foundation for Mariana’s thought-provoking questions.Premiering this month, Breaking Borders brings together people from different sides of issues and

unites them around a delicious meal. “In each place we visited, we pro-vided an opportunity for two sides to confront each other. Although some were more heated than the others, the end goal was always to agree on something, even if it

was to agree to disagree,” shared Chef Michael. “That experience provided me the opportunity to connect with each individual guest on an intimate level to get a better understanding from where they came. Food brings people to-gether every second of every day.”

NEWESt tRavEL ChaNNEL aSia ShOW bRiNgSPEOPLE tOgEthER

Scene from Breaking Borders on Travel channel

The new logo of AXN

SHOWBITZ C7i s a h r e d @ g m a i l . c o m

HHHHH

Ramon magsaysayawaRdee in ‘aRt 2 aRt’Ligaya Amilbangsa, an arts and culture advocate who was the lone Filipino honoree at the recent Ra-mon Magsaysay Awards, is in the Sept. 27 episode of Art 2 Art. Produced by the Manila Broad-casting Company and hosted by prima ballerina Lisa Macuja, Art 2 Art is aired every Sunday, 3:30 to 4 p.m., on DZRH (666 khz on the AM band), on cable television via RHTV channel and online through DZRH Live Streaming. The Ramon Magsaysay Award Foundation cited Amilbangsa specifically for her involvement in the study, conservation, practice and promotion of the dance style called pangalay (“gift offering,” or “temple of dance” in Sanskrit), a pre-Islamic dance tradition

among the Samal, Badjao, Jama Mapun, and Tausug peoples of the provinces of Sulu and Tawi-Tawi. Amilbangsa tells Macuja how she was introduced to the panga-lay and how she continues to share her knowledge about it to the cur-rent generation through her Alu-nAlun Dance Circle. Two members of the group per-form pangalay numbers in the ep-isode – Gemely Amar uses a fan to mimic a bird’s movements in Igal Kabkab while Levi Azarcon simulates a fisherman catching fish in Tauti. For inquiries, please e-mail [email protected]. On Face-book, check out the account Balle-rina ng Bayan for updates on Art 2 Art episodes.

Beginning Sept. 29, Biyaheng NamNam will show how recipes can be made richer with a twist using Lucky Me! NamNam To-mato, which makes it easier to enjoy tomato-flavored dishes everyday; and Lucky Me! Nam-Nam Original, which makes any Pinoy dish even more delicious and malinamnam. GMA Network and Lucky Me! NamNam are launching a new program that will feature dishes all over the country in Biyaheng NamNam. The five-minute show will have Manilyn Reynes and for-mer Malacañang Palace Ex-ecutive Chef Aurora “Babes” Austria as hosts. Chef Babes is currently an in-structor at Center for Culinary Arts (CCA). Shot in the different regions of the country, viewers will have the chance to see the various icon-ic landscapes while learning the dishes that are popular in that particular region. The show will likewise be a visual spectacle and a learning experience for everyone. Biyaheng NamNam will feature

the famous recipes of the nation, some of which include Laswa, Chicken Binakol, Beef Kurma, Tuna Kinilaw, Bicol Express and Pinakbet with Bagnet.

Take this exciting field trip around the Philippines with Bi-yaheng NamNam every Tuesday and Thursday before Princess in the Palace only on GMA.


gma takes vieweRs on a field tRip with ‘Biyaheng namnam’

from C8

Canadian pop star Car-ly Rae Jepsen wore her heart on her sleeve as she entertained a

packed Smart Araneta Coliseum crowd for the recent Carly Rae Jepsen: Live in Manila concert.

Performing songs from her most recent album called E·MO·-TION, the 29 year-old singer and songwriter soulfully tackled a world of feelings – from regret, jealousy, and heartache, to nos-talgia, hope and romantic bliss.

While admittedly obsessed with love and relationships, Car-ly Rae nonetheless evokes a care-free mood with her songs that are influenced by the early ’80s pop music. In her pre-concert interviews, she revealed being a huge fan of Cyndi Lauper, Ma-donna, and Prince who inspired her to make her own music.

Carly Rae also expressed how she wants her album to affect peo-ple, “I really just want everyone to let them be their songs, their emo-

tions. The best feeling to me is that we can all share the same stories, even if we don’t know each other.”

At the concert, that was just what happened. Carly Rae’s fans happily sang and danced along with her singles “Run Away with Me,” “All That,” “Gimmie Love,” and “Your Type.”

Of course, the night would not be complete without a per-formance of her most popular hits, “I Really Like You,” and the Grammy Award-nominated,

multi-platinum-selling, and glob-al hit single “Call Me Maybe.”

Besides Carly Rae’s intense but catchy songs, the fans were treated to the Smart Araneta Coliseum’s wonderful amenities: first-class food options, a new entrance, wider concourses, and a new parking facility for 2,000 vehicles. The Big Dome also of-fered a one-of-a-kind viewing experience with improved sight-lines and state-of-the-art HD sound and video systems.

Carly rae Jepsen “emotional” at manila ConCert

the iconic group behind the now classic song “True” held a successful concert in Manila as part of their

world tour.Spandau Ballet’s original mem-

bers Tony Hadley (lead singer), John Keeble (drums), Gary Kemp (gui-tar), Martin Kemp (bass) and Steve Norman (guitar) performed live for the first time in the Philippines.

Besides Spandau Ballet’s biggest hit “True,” which was at the no. 1 spot in the UK singles charts for four weeks in 1983, the group also sang its other hits “Gold,” “Through the Barricades,” “I’ll Fly For You,” “Lifeline,” “Round And Round,” “Communication,” “Highly Strung” and “Only When You Leave.”

Spandau Ballet was formed in London in 1976, and went on its successful music career for more than three decades, selling more

than 25 million records worldwide, garnering numerous multi-plati-num albums, and creating 23 hit singles across the globe.

The group split up in 1990 and re-united in October 2009 with a world tour across Ireland and the UK, and a tour in Australia with Tears for Fears in April 2010. Spandau Ballet received Virgin Media Awards’ Best Comeback Band of 2009.

The band members were togeth-er again in 2014 to promote a doc-umentary about the 1980s culture, Soul Boys of the Western World, that premiered at the Royal Albert Hall. They also attended South by South-west and the Cannes Film Festival to endorse the film.

Spandau Ballet’s 2015 world tour brings them to the United States,

Europe, the Middle East, Australia, Singapore, Manila and HongKong.

– Rpangilinan

spandau Ballet in manila

Manilyn Reynes is your Biyaheng

NamNam host

From Malacañang to Kapuso network:, Chef Babes join Reynes in Biyaheng NamNam

Ligaya Amilbangsa guests in Lisa Macuja Art To Art

Gemely Amar uses fan to demonstrate traditional art

Carly Rae Jepsen thrills her Filipino fans at the Smart Araneta

Spandau Ballet makes baby boomers feel young again

C8 ISAH V. REDE D I T O R

SHOWBITZ


In show business, actors should have the guts to take everything without complain or regret. And even when they are the closest of friends.

For example, Lovi Poe and Heart Evangelista are the best of friends at GMA Network. These days they are working on the primetime soap op-era Beautiful Strangers. At the outset of the story, the characters they play are more than just friends, more like sisters, in fact.

Yet, as the plot progresses, they are torn apart by circumstances that neither of them can’t explain why. Each one is merely protect-ing her interest to make life bear-able if not comfortable.

Also, in the series, Evangelista has Rocco Nacino for her love interest, while Poe has Benjamin Alves.

The audience is curious how Poe feels when his off-screen beau seems so much in love with Evangelista, or with the charac-ter she plays.

“I find it weird that he looks at someone else with so much love not me. Parang iba yung tinit-ingnan niya ng ganun. But then, alam ko naman na its just work.”

The actress says Nacino is very effective that she sometimes feel a tinge of jealousy but she pinches herself to wake herself up to real-

ity that it’s only “acting.”On the one hand, Nacino is also

very casual about Poe and Alves having romantic scenes. “No, I don’t think Roco is jealous. Well, sometimes, he kids Ben that he is feeling wary about him doing those scenes with me. And Ben responds by hugging me in front of Roco. The two are like playing a game. I find it really amusing.”

We asked Evangelista if her husband would find time to watch Beautiful Strangers and how would he react to scenes be-tween her and Nacino. Or does he ever react at all?

“Oh, no. He never reacts, not even once. Chiz is very mature and knows that’ everything I do onscreen is only work. Separate-ly, both of us have things we do pertaining to our careers, and we both think that way.

“Sensitive about romantic scenes with my fellow actors? I don’t think it’s an issue for both of us. Although there are times that he sees the scenes on screen, I am embarrassed, so I just cover his eyes, but he insists on watching the scenes. He even searches theym on YoutTube. He loves doing throw-back on YouTube. When I see him doing that, I ask what’s he doing and he simply laughs. He even takes a screen shot of the scenee and sends it to the chatroom. He’s playful, really. One time, someone is on the cover of a magazine, as I was about to go to sleep I’d discov-

er the magazine under my pillow..I think he is really over it.”

Senator Chiz Escudero, Evan-gelista says, is the complete oppo-site of Rocco Nacino’s character in Beautiful Strangers.If Nacino and Evangelista, in the series, always find themselves ar-guing about almost everything, it’s the other way around in real life with Escudero

Heart Evangelista has discovered many things about Chiz Escudero among which is the senator’s being a homebody. He likes doing the little things at home, making sure that the house is orderly. He also loves cooking for her.

Poe and Evangelista have re-mained close amid intrigues that their friendship could be tar-nished with jealousy and even hate for each other as the love angle between Evangelista and Nacino get more intense in the coming episodes.

“It’s all in a day’s work,” the two pretty actresses chime.

No hard feeliNgs betweeN heart aNd lovi

ISAH V. RED

➜ Continued on C7

Benjamin and Lovi

Heart Evangelista Lovi Poe

Lovi Poe and Heart Evangelista

Lovi Poe and Rocco Nacino Rocco and Heart

Rocco, Heart, Lovi, Benjamin

Heart and Chiz

i s a h r e d @ g m a i l . c o m

the standard - 2015 september 26 - saturday

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