Cortines told a news confer-ence that police alerted him late Monday to an email sent to sev-eral members of the school board, threatening attacks involving backpacks and “other packages.”

“In an abundance of caution, as the superintendent has indicated, we have chosen to close our schools today until we can be absolutely sure that our campuses are safe,” said the school district’s police chief, Steven Zipperman.

California Congressman Brad Sherman told CNN that the email had come from an IP address over-seas, from a person claiming to be a “extremist Muslim” who said the attacks would involve nerve gas.

The message also said the person boasted of having “32 ac-

complices... all ready to take action today,” Sherman said, however cautioning that some of the claims lacked credibility.

In New York, however, offi cials said a similar threat to schools had been received and was being treated as a hoax.

“There is no credible threat to our children. We are convinced that our schools are safe,” Mayor Bill de Blasio told a press confer-ence, adding that the threat was “so generic and outlandish” that it could not be taken seriously.

“The immediate assessment by the intelligence division, and again, in consultation with the FBI, is that there was nothing credible about the threat,” he said.

In Los Angeles, police and

FBI agents were called in to help search the more than 900 schools in the district, Cortines said, add-ing that he expected the operation to be completed by the end of the day.

New York police commissioner Bill Bratton said Los Angeles school offi cials had over-reacted.

“We cannot allow ourselves to raise levels of fear,” Bratton told reporters.

“Certainly levels of awareness, but it is not a credible threat and not one that requires any action on our part similar to what my un-derstanding is the school system in Los Angeles took.”

Bratton, who previously served as Los Angeles police chief from

Wednesday - Tuesday, December 16 - 22, 2015

Gerphil to tour

with David Foster

in 2016See Page 6W W W . U S A S I A N P O S T . C O M

Vol. 5 No. 12 LOS ANGELES A BALITA MEDIA PUBLICATION

See LA SCHOOLS, page 12

Seventy-seven M113A2 of the donated armored personnel carriers (APCs) arrived late Wednesday and the rest will come next month, the US embassy in the Philippines said in a statement. The donation boosts the Philippine army’s inventory of armored vehicles by over a third to 455, said AFP spokesman Colonel Benjamin Hao.

MANILA, Dec 12 (Mabuhay) – The lawyer of Rizalito David on Saturday insisted that the name of Senator Grace Poe should no longer be included in the template of the ballot for the 2016 polls fol-lowing her disqualifi cation by two divisions of the Commission on Elections (Comelec).

According to Atty. Manuelito Luna, it is “improbable” that the Comelec en banc will reverse the decision of the first and second divisions to cancel Poe’s certifi cate of candidacy (COC) for president.

The fi rst division ruled in favor

of the consolidated petitions of former Senator Francisco “Kit” Ta-tad, former UE Law Dean Amado Valdez, and De La Salle Univer-sity Professor Antonio Contreras which sought to disqualify Poe in next year’s presidential polls on the grounds that she is not a natural-born Filipino and that she fails to meet the 10-year residency requirement.

The second division, likewise, voted in favor of petitioner Atty. Estrella Elamparo, who also claimed that Poe misrepresented

MANILA, Dec 11 (Mabuhay) – Voting 2-1, the Commission on Electdions First Division canceled on Friday morning Sen. Grace Poe’s certifi cate of candidacy for president.

The case stemmed from the peti-tions fi led by former Sen. Francisco Tatad, Prof. Antonio Contreras and former US Law Dean Amado Valdez.

Poe, meanwhile, immediately released a statement accusing the First Division of ignoring the evi-dence she presented “just to deny me the chance to better serve our countrymen, and to also deny our people their choices in an open election.”

Acknowledging the setback, Poe said she will appeal the decision with the Comelec en banc and with the Supreme Court.

“We will appeal to the Comelec and the Supreme Court to uphold the truth, and the spirit and aims

of our Constitution,” she said.Poe’s legal counsel, Atty. George

Garcia, said those who voted in favor of the petitions against Poe were Commissioners Rowena Guanzon and Luie Tito Guia.

Commissioner Christian Robert Lim was the lone dissenter.

Garcia said the division’s deci-sion is not yet fi nal and executory and is subject to a motion for re-consideration.

“Wala pa rin pong pagbabago, ganun pa rin po ang effect nito ... kami po ay kandidato pa rin ... ang aming pangalan ay nasa listahan pa rin, hindi po magbabago ang lahat,” Garcia said. “Kami po ay magfa-fi le agad ng motion for re-consideration limag araw paglabas ng desisyon na ito.”

Garcia said the decision, with Lim’s dissent, is a “good develop-ment,” and they will look into the points the commissioner raised in

MANILA, Dec 12 (Mabuhay) – More than 20,000 vote counting machines (VCMs) from Smart-matic Corporation are expected to arrive in the country before the year ends.

In a statement on Saturday, the Smartmatic said that a total of 21,000 machines is due to arrive in December, and that 30,000 more VCM units will be delivered early in January and the remaining will be in before the end of January

M a n i l a , P h i l i p -pines | AFP | Sunday 12/13/2015 – Mixed martial arts fi ghter Yang Jian Bing of China died after col-lapsing from severe dehydration in his attempt to make the weight for a fl yweight bout in the Philippine capital.

Organisers, One Champion-ship, said that the 21-year-old had been pronounced dead at a Manila hospital from cardiopulmonary failure on Friday, hours before the scheduled fi ght.

“Yang, a native of China was hospitalised at the San Juan De

Los Angeles, United States | AFP | Friday 12/11/2015 – Filipino boxing icon Manny Pacquiao has delayed the planned announcement of his next opponent in what could be the fi nal fi ght of his legendary career. Bob Arum, Pacquiao’s promoter, said earlier this week that Pacquiao would reveal his next foe during cable network truTV’s coverage of a fi ght card in Puerto Rico featuring Filipino star Nonito Donaire.

But a spokesman for Arum, Fred Sternburg, told ESPN that Pac-quiao, the only fi ghter to win world titles in eight different weight classes, is not yet ready to make a decision regarding who he will fi ght next in a card set for April 9, 2016, at Las Vegas.

Pacquiao, 57-6 with two drawn and 38 knockouts, turns 37 next Thursday and plans to run for a senate seat in the Philippines and retire from the ring to devote himself to work as a lawmaker. He is already a congressman in his homeland.

Possible opponents for Pacquiao include Tim Bradley, an American who is 33-1-1 with 13 knockouts who split two prior fi ghts with “Pac Man”, and unbeaten American Terence Crawford, 27-0 with 19 knock-outs. Pacquiao underwent rotator cuff surgery after a unanimous decision loss to now-retired Floyd Mayweather last May.

Comelec 1st Division cancels Poe’s COC for presidentDavid lawyer insists: Don’t

include Poe in 2016 ballotOver 20k VCMs for 2016 polls to arrive in PHL this month

MMA: Chinese fi ghter dies in PHL after bid to make weight

Pacquiao delays announcement of next opponent

See 20K VCM, page 12See DON’T INCLUDE, page 12

See CHINESE FIGHTER, page 12

See COMELEC, page 12

Email ‘hoax’ closes LA schoolsBy Jocelyne Zablit

Los Angeles city offi cials on Tuesday defended their decision to shut down all public schools following an emailed threat, as authorities in New York dismissed a similar mes-sage as a hoax.

Ramon Cortines, the superintendent of Los Angeles schools – the second-largest educa-tion district in the United States with 640,000 students – said the measure was ordered as a precaution, triggered in part by the December 2 attacks in nearby San Bernardino that left 14 people dead.

The San Lorenzo Ruiz Music Ministry, the children’s choir and other guest performers seranade the parishioners of San Lorenzo Ruiz Church in Walnut, CA. The concert highlights the Season of Advent - a time to celebrate becoming Christmas. SLR Pastor, Rev. Tony P. Astudillo said “We aspire not only to entertain but to evangelize and set the audience hearts afl ame with Christ’s spirit of love and mercy”. Photo: JUN CAMACHO

Visit www.usasianpost.com Wednesday - Tuesday, December 16 - 22, 2015 THE US ASIAN POST2

Residents salvage usable material from the site of a fi re in a shantytown in Barangay Damayan Lagi in Quezon City on Friday. An inferno, the third blaze that struck Metro Manila’s slums in consecutive weeks, has killed nine people according to authorities.(MNS photo)

M a n i l a , P h i l i p -pines | AFP | Friday 12/11/2015 – An inferno in one of Manila’s huge shanty towns has killed nine people, authorities said Friday, the third blaze to have struck the city’s slums in as many weeks.

R e s i d e n t s g r a b b e d clothes, furniture and ap-pliances as they fled the burning Damayang Lagi shanty town shortly after midnight, survivor Arman Altoveros told AFP.

“The fi re spread so fast, everything was gone in min-utes,” the 43-year-old rick-shaw driver told AFP as he scavenged for charred pots and pans on burnt rubble that used to be his wife’s small canteen.

The victims include a seven-year-old girl.

Flames and thick black smoke trapped her and the other eight people in their houses, said national fire bureau spokesman Super-intendent Renato Marcial.

The blaze brings this year’s fi re-related death toll in the Philippines to 323,

higher than the 228 fi gure for the whole of 2014, of-fi cials said.

The Damayang Lagi fi re destroyed 50 houses, leav-ing an estimated 600 people homeless. Many of those affected by the fi re lived in rented rooms in the maze of makeshift residential struc-tures, the authorities said.

Fires routinely hit the slum, Marcial said.

“These slums are very high risk. At any time, there is potential for a fire,” he told AFP.

“They overload their elec-tric outlets with no regard for their safety. They also steal electricity, damaging power lines,” he said.

Altoveros vowed to re-build the two-storey, wood and tin shack he used to share with his wife and two teenage children.

A fi re in 2009 razed an earlier structure they called home, but they did not leave Damayan Lagi because they did not own land.

“I don’t know how long we’ll be sleeping on the street, but we have no choice

but to start again,” he added.Fires are common haz-

ards in the sprawling capi-tal, where millions live in hovels made of scrap wood and cardboard and fi re safe-ty regulations are rarely imposed.

Last week, 5,000 people were left homeless after a huge blaze gutted 500 tin-roofed huts in the city’s old quarter. It also forced the temporary evacuation of 500 prisoners at a nearby jail.

In late November, about 800 homes went up in smoke in another Manila shanty town.

In May, 72 died when a fire tore through a Ma-nila footwear factory. Sur-vivors blamed the disaster on barred windows.

MANILA, Dec 11 (Mabu-hay) – Vice President Jejo-mar Binay on Friday blamed Budget Secretary Florencio Abad for the underspending of the Aquino administra-tion.

At the presidential fo-rum on countryside devel-opment initiated by Galing Pook, Binay said that in the last Cabinet meeting he at-tended, President Benigno Aquino III asked every de-partment secretary why they were underspending. He said each agency head pointed to Abad.

“Tanong ni Presidente sa secretary, bakit ka naga-underspend, ang sagot e hindi po nagre-release si Sec. Abad kaya hindi maka-pasok ng kontrata. Lahat ng secretary tinanong, ganun ang sagot,” he said.

Binay said when the Pres-ident asked the National Economic and Development Authority if there is a possi-bility that the gross domestic product would go down, the NEDA offi cial answered in

the negative.“Tinanong ni Presidente

ang NEDA, “NEDA tayo ba ay bababa pa sa GDP?” Ang sabi ng NEDA hindi na po Mr. President. E kaya pala hindi na bababa ang GDP e ilalabas na ang pera tulong sa pamumulitika,” he said.

In a text message, Sec-retary Abad called Binay’s accusation as mere “hypoc-risy” after failing to get the president’s endorsement.

“If the VP attended Cabi-net meetings regularly, he would know the real picture. But he chose to spend offi cial time campaigning,” said Abad. “How is it that every year he was praising the performance of the Aquino administration when he was still part of it and hoping to be anointed by the Presi-dent...It’s called hypocrisy,” Abad added.

Just last Wednesday, Binay claimed the govern-ment was deliberately un-derspending funds to save up for the coming 2016 polls.

“Ano ang ginagawa nila?

Underspending. Meron na-man po talagang pera, ayaw lang nilang gastusin. Pero ngayon lumalabas na kaya pala hindi ginagastos ay gagamitin sa darating na halalan,” Binay said during a visit in Negros Oriental.

But Malacañang dis-missed Binay’s claims, with presidential spokesman Ed-win Lacierda saying that the Vice President was merly sourgraping for failing to get the endorsement of Presi-dent Benigno Aquino III.

“Ganyan talaga pag hindi na endorso ng pangulo, ang dating pinupuri, pinupuna. What is certain is that si VP Binay, gumanda ang buhay nya dahil hanggang ngayon hindi nya maipaliwanag ang alegasyon ng korapsyon laban sa kanya,” Lacierda said.

Binay, who was a member of the Aquino Cabinet, is facing a string of corruption allegations during his term as city mayor of Makati.

Binay resigned from the Cabinet last June. (MNS)

MANILA, Dec 11 (Mabu-hay) – The Offi ce of the Om-budsman has fi led graft com-plaints against three former Department of Education (Deped) offi icials inTagum City, Davao del Norte for an allegedly anomalous pur-chase of cellphones in 2007.

Deputy Ombudsman for Mindanao Rodolfo Elman ordered the charges against former schools division su-

perintendents Aurora Cu-bero and Salvacion Yumang, and administrative officer Emma Betonio.

The respondents allegedly claimed that the purchase of 32 units of cellular phones, amounting to P317,380, was necessary for offi cial use.

Elman noted that, “the prevailing threshold for shopping (in 2007) was only P50,000 for unforeseen

contingency requiring im-mediate purchase, while P250,000 [is the threshold] for ordinary or regular offi ce supplies and equipment not available in the procurement service.”

He added that “there is no showing that the cellu-lar phones are ordinary or regular offi ce supplies” as contemplated in procure-ment laws. (MNS)

MANILA, Dec 11 (Mabu-hay) – A former mayor of Looc, Romblon and fi ve other former municipal officials have been charged with graft in connection with the alleged anomalous awarding of contract for a small-scale irrigation project worth P8.9 million in 2007.

In a complaint recently filed by the Office of the Ombudsman before the San-diganbayan, former Looc mayor Juliet Ngo-Fiel was charged with violation of Section 3 (e) of Republic Act 3019 or the Anti-Graft and Corrupt Practices Act.

Also charged with her were former Municipal Plan-ning and Development Co-ordinator (MPDC) and Bids and Awards Committee (BAC) chairman Solomon Gregorio; municipal engi-

neer and BAC vice-chairman Renato Saludaga; municipal agricultural offi cer and BAC member Jessie Jomadiao; municipal civil registrar and BAC member Wilma Pas-tor and municipal assessor and BAC member Rolando Gregorio. Based on the infor-mation of the case, Fiel and members of the BAC in No-vember 2007, awarded to the lone bidder, R.G. Florentino Construction and Trading (RGFCT), a contract for the rehabilitation of Small-Scale Irrigation/Small Water Im-pounding Project.

The amount of P8,999,500 was supposedly paid to RG-FCT even though Fiel al-legedly lacked the author-ity from the Sangguniang Bayan of Looc to enter into a contract in behalf of the municipality.

Moreover, the Ombuds-man said the Commission on Audit had also discovered several irregularities in the bidding process such as lack of certifi cate of availability of funds, non-publication of the invitation to bid and that RGFCT also failed to submit various bidding re-quirements and eligibility as contractor.

The Ombudsman’s Of-fice of the Special Pros-ecutor (OSP) recommended P30,000 bail for each of the accused in exchange for their temporary liberty.

Last month, the case was raffl ed off and assigned to the Sandiganbayan First Division.

The case stemmed from a complaint fi led by former Looc Mayor Manuel Arbole-da in 2009. (MNS)

MANILA, Dec 11 (Mabu-hay) – The Court of Tax Appeals (CTA) en banc (full court) has stopped its second division from taking further actions on the six counts of tax evasion charges against former Chief Justice Re-nato Corona. In a resolution dated Dec. 4, the Tax Court granted the preliminary pro-hibitory injunction fi led by Corona’s camp last August.

“The Second Division of the Court is hereby DI-RECTED to refrain from further proceeding in Crimi-nal Case Nos. O-357, O-359, O-361, O-363, O-364 and O-367,” the Tax Court said.

However, the CTA re-quired Corona to post a bond equivalent to the total amount of tax liabilities where he has yet to be ar-raigned. Corona is facing 12 counts of violation of the National Internal Revenue Code (NIRC) for violation of Sections 255 (failure to fi le income tax return) and 254 (attempt to evade payment of taxes). He is facing six

counts for each violation.Last February, Corona in-

sisted before the Tax Court’s 2nd division that he should be arraigned only for violat-ing Section 255, or failure to fi le income tax returns. He argued that both sections 255 and 254 (attempt to void or defeat tax collection) constituted the same acts of tax evasion under the NIRC.

Nevertheless, the Tax Court denied the bid and insisted he should be ar-raigned. Corona’s counsel Atty. Rean Balisi filed a motion for reconsideration which was denied prompt-ing them to ask a full court ruling on the matter.

The Tax Court en banc last Oct. 6 issued a 60-day temporary restraining order against the second division.

Corona was supposed to be arraigned last September but was rescheduled to Oct. 7 to give the Tax Court en banc more time to study and act on their appeal.

Corona’s counsel Atty. Rean Balisi said that if the

former Chief Justice will be arraigned, his appeal will become moot and academic.

An arraignment is the reading of criminal case against an accused. It is sig-nifi cant because it intends to protect the accused as he or she would be informed of the nature and cause of the accusation against him or her. It will also allow the court to proceed with the trial in case the accused went into hiding. In the Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR) complaint, it alleged that Corona did not include in his statement of assets and liabilities (SALN) his condominium unit at The Columns on Ayala Avenue, which he bought for P3.6 million in 2004 and his prop-erty at Fort Bonifacio worth P9.16 million which he ac-quired in 2005.

The revenue agency claimed that for nine years, Corona did not pay his taxes worth P120,498,219.52, in-clusive of surcharges and interest.

VP Binay blames Abad for gov’t underspending

3 ex-DepEd offi cials face graft raps for cellphones purchase

Ex-Romblon mayor charged with graft for P8.9-M irrigation project

Tax court en banc stops 2nd division from acting on cases vs Corona

Manila slum inferno kills nine

THE US ASIAN POST Wednesday - Tuesday, December 16 - 22, 2015 Visit www.usasianpost.com 3

N e w Y o r k , U n i t e d States | AFP | Sunday 12/13/2015 – Shorts instead of scarves: New York City and the Washington area shattered or matched warm weather records Sunday for December 13, less than two weeks before the usually chilly Christmas holiday.

In New York City, some people headed out in light summer clothes to revel in midday temperatures in Central Park that climbed to 66 degrees F (19 degrees C), according to the Na-tional Weather Service.

On Saturday, which was also unseasonably warm,

thousands participated in the city’s annual “Santa-Con” bar crawl, which sees revelers dress up as various holiday characters, with some Santa Clauses turn-ing out in only a T-shirt and red trousers – or even going bare-chested.

The mean temperature for the Big Apple on Decem-ber 13 is 38 degrees F, with the highest previous re-corded temperature for the day at 64 degrees F in 1923. Data records were fi rst kept beginning in 1869.

Temperatures are ex-pected to remain well above the seasonal average

throughout the week, the National Weather Service said.

Around the US capital, two local airports hit new record highs, and the third tied its historic high.

In northern Virginia, Dulles International Air-port hit 73 degrees by early afternoon, breaking the record of 71 from 1984. And Baltimore-Washington International saw a record 72 degrees, topping 69 back in 1889.

Reagan National, mean-while, tied its record 71 degrees, also hit in 1889, NWS offi cials said.

A man works on an Eiff el Tower display in a Christmas decorations shop in Quezon City on Friday. Shop attendants say that the Eiff el Tower display, which costs P18,000, became a hit after the recent terrorist attacks in Paris, France. The miniature tower is already their tenth model to be constructed for the holidays. (MNS photo)

S y d n e y , A u s t r a -l i a | A F P | M o n d a y 12/14/2015 – Droughts, erratic rains and frosts brought by a super-charged El Nino are severely impact-ing the Pacifi c, with Papua New Guinea worst hit, aid group Oxfam said in a report Monday.

Calling for an urgent up-scaling in relief to save lives, the charity said 4.7 mil-lion people faced hunger, poverty and disease in the Pacifi c region as a result of the weather pattern.

“This is a crisis on a huge global scale,” the report, “Early Action on Super-charged El Nino Vital to Save Lives”, said.

“The current El Nino is one of the strongest ever measured, which means there will be more extreme weather conditions that will threaten people’s food secu-rity, lives and livelihoods.”

El Nino is the name given to a weather pattern associ-ated with a sustained period of warming in the central and eastern tropical Pacifi c which can spark deadly and

costly climate extremes.Last month, the UN

weather agency warned the phenomenon, triggered by a warming in sea surface temperatures in the Pa-cifi c Ocean, was the worst in more than 15 years.

Oxfam sa id c l imate change was super-charging the effects of El Nino and despite a landmark glob-al climate pact reached in Paris on the weekend, much needed to be done rapidly to cut emissions.

It said the result of the current strong El Nino would likely be 40–50 mil-lion people globally facing hunger, disease and water shortages in early 2016 as the slow onset crisis plays out. The worst-affected places include Papua New Guinea in the Asia-Pacifi c as well as Ethiopia and Malawi in Africa and Guate-mala, Haiti and Honduras in Latin America. “Papua New Guinea has been severely affected, particularly in the Highlands, with widespread drought and frost affecting up to three million people

and destroying crops and livestock,” it said.

“Drought has also af-fected Vanuatu, Fiji, the Solomon Islands, Samoa and Tonga, damaging crops and water supplies.” Because El Nino also increases the prob-ability of a longer tropical cyclone season in the south-ern hemisphere, countries in the eastern Pacifi c such as the Cook Islands and Samoa may also be at risk of strong storms, it said.

Across Asia monsoon rains have been limited, with Indonesia worst af-fected, while the forecast for the Philippines is also poor, with 85 percent of the coun-try expected to be in drought by March 2016, it added.

Oxfam said in Ethiopia some 8.2 million people cur-rently needed support due to a lack of rainfall while huge areas of southern Africa were also in drought.

In Central America and Haiti, small farmers and day laborers are the worst af-fected, with the potential for greater drought and major fl ooding in South America.

By Marlowe HOOD

Once dismissed as dan-gerous science f iction, schemes to stave off global warming by re-engineering Earth’s climate may well gain in traction as a result of the Paris agreement.

The landmark climate deal reached in Paris on Saturday poses a dilemma.

It sets ambitious targets for capping global warming yet Earth’s economy re-mains hugely dependent on carbon-spewing fossil fuels.

So, if temperatures rise and countries fail to switch to cleaner energy in time, the allure of high-tech fi xes will, for many, become un-avoidable.

But all proposed “geo-engineering” methods carry serious risks and limita-tions, with many doubts about cost, feasibility and governance, say climate experts.

The direct solution to global warming has long been to curb heat-trapping greenhouse gases by en-ergy effi ciency or a shift to cleaner renewables.

Despite the rapid rise of solar and wind, though, the change has not happened quickly enough.

So the pathway to keep-ing global warming “well below two degrees Celsius” (3.6 degrees Fahrenheit) compared to pre-Industrial Revolution levels – the goal embraced at the 195-nation talks – has narrowed over time.

More ambitious still, the Paris agreement calls on countries to pursue efforts to limit warming to 1.5C.

Today, even the most aggressive scenarios for cut-ting back on fossil fuels laid out by the UN’s 3,000-strong corps of science advisors, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, rely heavily on removing carbon dioxide (CO2) from the at-mosphere.

“Nearly all of the emis-sions scenarios” – more than 100 out of 116 – “assessed by the IPCC that keep global averages below 2C assume the large-scale removal of CO2 from the atmosphere by the end of the century,” said Chris Jones, a scientist

at Britain’s Met Hadley Cen-tre and co-author of a new peer-reviewed study on geo-engineering’s side-effects.

Sucking CO2 from the airEngineered fi xes for cli-

mate change are roughly divided into two categories.

The fi rst, solar radiation management, blocks some of the Sun’s heat-generating rays.

One scheme worthy of a Star Trek prequel that so far remains on the draw-ing board would place giant mirrors in space to defl ect one or two percent of solar radiation.

A less challenging way to get the same result imitates the cooling impact of a ma-jor volcanic eruption such as the Philippines’ Mount Pinatubo in 1991, which lowered Earth’s tempera-ture for a year or two after spewing billions of tons of sulphate particles into the stratosphere.

Other mooted schemes including brightening and multiplying the number of refl ective ocean clouds.

But even if these plans worked, they would not draw down the volume of atmospheric CO2, which is absorbed by the oceans – and turning them worryingly more acidic.

Some might also bring unintended consequences. A scheme to sow the sea with iron dust, to spur the growth of CO2-gobbling microscopic plants called phytoplankton, was fi ngered in a 2008 Royal Society study as a feared source of oxygen loss, endan-gering other species in the ocean food chain.

So far the real money has gone into the second type of geoengineering: sucking carbon dioxide out of the air.

Planting forests – “carbon sinks” in climate jargon – is of course a well-known op-tion for this. Forestation is a familiar technology and safe, but growing trees takes decades to take full effect when time is short, and would eventually compete with agriculture for land.

A new pilot plant funded by tech billionaire Bill Gates and Canadian oil sands fi nancier Murray Edwards and set up by Canadian fi rm Carbon Engineering in

Squamish, British Colum-bia, transforms about one tonne of CO2 per day into sand-line pellets.

Negative emissions -The long-term objective is

to combine this carbon with hydrogen, a by-product of renewable energy genera-tion, to make clean fuels for vehicles.

But the problem is one of cost and timing: reining in the threat of global warming will require avoiding billions of tons of CO2 emissions in the coming decades. Scaling up direct air capture is likely to take far longer.

The so-called “negative emissions” technology that figures most prominently in projections for curbing global warming siphons off CO2 from the production of plant-based fuels, turns it into a liquid, and stores it in the ground.

In some scenarios, this technique – called BECCS, or bioenergy with carbon capture and storage – is supposed to absorb up to a trillion tonnes of CO2 by century’s end, roughly the amount scientists say can be emitted without pushing the climate past the 2C cap.

“We simply don’t know if deployment of negative emission technologies on that scale is feasible,” said Jones.

His study, published in Nature Climate Change, concludes that the resources needed could pose huge problems.

“There is no negative emissions technology cur-rently available that could be implemented to meet the 2C target without signifi-cant impact on either land, energy, water, nutrient or... cost,” the study says.

The big worry, say many climate activists, is that such schemes—once under-taken—will undermine ef-forts to cut carbon emissions that cause the problem.

“Geo-engineering tech-nologies such as BECCS will only delay the real and absolute emissions reduc-tions that are desperately needed right now,” said Oliver Munnion, co-director of Biofuelwatch. mh/djw/ri© 1994-2015 Agence France-Presse

New York, Washington bask in warm winter weather records

Engineering climate: From pariah to savior? Urgent aid needed to fi ght ‘super’ El Nino: Oxfam

SANTA ANA, California – An Orange County resident who allegedly bilked dis-tressed homeowners with false promises that he could help them avoid foreclosure by obtaining modifications to their mortgages – or even completely eliminating their loans – was arrested this morning on federal fraud charges by Special Agents with the FBI. Antonio Mar-quette, 56, was arrested with-out incident at his residence in the community of Midway City. Marquette is expected to be arraigned on a 12-count indictment this afternoon in United States District Court in Los Angeles.

According to the 12-count indictment, which was re-

turned on Wednesday by a federal grand jury in San-ta Ana and was unsealed upon this morning’s arrest, Marquette operated Bolsa Marketing Group in Garden Grove in 2010 and 2011 and allegedly charged homeown-ers up to $70,000 in cash for services that simply were not rendered.

Through Bolsa Marketing, Marquette allegedly ran a scheme that targeted dis-tressed homeowners and in-duced them to pay up-front fees to obtain mortgage relief services. The indictment al-leges that Marquette operated the scheme by “falsely prom-ising homeowners mortgage loan modifi cations that would substantially reduce their

mortgage payments, avoid foreclosure, or eliminate their mortgage loans entirely.”

As part of the scheme, Marquette allegedly made various promises to homeown-ers, including making guar-antees that he could reduce their outstanding debt to 25 percent of the loan balance in only four months. Marquette also sent fraudulent checks to “pay off” mortgages and fi led bogus documents county recorders offi ces, according to the indictment.

“Mr. Marquette is charged with preying on vulnerable homeowners who seemingly would do anything to avoid foreclosure,” said United States Attorney Eileen M. Decker”.

FBI arrests O.C. man who allegedly took over $1.2-M from distressed homeowners

Visit www.usasianpost.com Wednesday - Tuesday, December 16 - 22, 2015 THE US ASIAN POST4

OPINIONMANILA, Dec 12 (Mabuhay) – Malacañang on Saturday

reiterated that the administration had nothing to do with the disqualifi cation cases fi led against Sen. Grace Poe before the Commission on Elections (Comelec).

“Mayroon silang kanilang mga dahilan at huwag po na-tin ikonekta pa sa administrasyon kasi medyo hard sell po ‘yung ganoon,” deputy presidential spokesperson Abigail Valte told state-run radio dzRB, referring to the complain-ants against Poe.

Valte was also reacting to former senator Richard Gor-don’s statement that there seems to be a “pattern” of getting rid of the presidential race opponents of Liberal Party (LP) standard bearer Mar Roxas.

Gordon is included in the list of senatorial candidates under the ticket of Poe and Sen. Francis Escudero.

The Palace spokesperson said that the LP has no political connections with the complainants.

“Hindi naman po kaalyado ng administrasyon si Kit Ta-tad... The others, si Professor [Antonio[ Contreras from De La Salle University is a known Aquino critic, ‘di ba? I think si… Wala ring relationship with… Atty. [Estrella] Elamparo, I think, was formerly with GSIS and then eventually left, ‘di ba? So tingin ko malinaw naman e kung sino ‘yung mga taong ito,” she said.

Valte also mentioned Navotas Rep. Toby Tiangco, who fi rst questioned Poe’s eligibility to run for president citing residency and citizenship issues.

Tiangco is a spokesperson of the United Nationalist Al-liance, whose standard bearer is Vice President Jejomar Binay.

Two Comelec divisions have ruled ni favor of four peti-tions to cancel the certifi cate of candidacy of Poe for the presidential elections in 2016.

The First Division voted 2-1 in favor of the petitions fi led by Tatad, Contreras and former University of the East Law Dean Amado Valdez.

The Second Division had earlier voted unanimously in favor of the similar petition fi led by Elamparo.

Following the Second Division’s ruling, Poe alleged that the fi ling of disqualifi cation cases against her are part of the strategy of Roxas and Binay camps.(MNS)

MANILA, Dec 11 (Mabuhay) – The decision of the Commis-sion on Elections’ (Comelec) First Division to cancel Grace Poe’s certifi cate of candidacy for president belies the claim of her camp that the Liberal Party is behind the moves to disqualify her, a spokesperson for the administation coali-tion said Friday.

Marikina Rep. Miro Quimbo of the Daang Matuwid co-alition said the dissenting vote of Comelec Commissioner Christian Robert Lim, an appointee of President Benigno Aquino III, disproves allegations that the LP is behind ef-forts to disqualify Poe from the presidential race.

“Only shows that what they’ve been accusing the LP of – using the appointees of the President to eliminate Mar’s op-ponents – is baseless and untrue,” he said in a text message.

The administration is fi elding former Interior Secretary Mar Roxas as its standard bearer in the 2016 elections.

On Friday, the Comelec First Division voted 2-1 – with Lim as the lone dissenter – to cancel Poe’s COC on account that she is not a natural-born Filipino. The other members of the panel are Commissioners Rowena Guanzon and Luie Tito Guia.

Akbayan Rep. Barry Gutierrez, also a spokesperson for the coalition, said Poe should just respect the decision of the poll body.

“Hindi pwedeng irespeto lang ang batas at institusyon kung pabor sa ‘yo at sisiraan mo nang lubusan kapag hindi, lalo na kung gusto mong maging Pangulo,” Gutierrez said.

MANILA, Dec 11 (Mabuhay) – Senator Grace Poe on Friday insisted that she is qualifi ed to run for president despite the ruling of the Commission on Elections’ First Division canceling her certifi cate of candidacy (COC) for president on account that she is not a natural-born Filipino.

“I am a true Filipino from birth,” said Poe, a found-ling, in a statement. “I was raised as a Filipino, lived, studied, got married in the Philippines, and wish to serve fellow Filipinos as a Filipino.”

“That my very identity is being taken away from me, is hurtful,” she added.

She also accused the First Division, which voted 2-1 to cancel her COC, of ignoring the evidence that she presented “just to deny me the chance to better serve our countrymen, and to also deny our people their choices in an open election.”

The First Division’s ruling stemmed from the petitions fi led by former Sen. Francisco Tatad, Prof. Antonio Contreras and former US Law Dean Amado Valdez questioning Poe’s citizenship.

Acknowledging the setback, Poe said she will ap-peal the decision with the Comelec en banc and the Supreme Court.

“We will appeal to the Comelec and the Supreme Court to uphold the truth, and the spirit and aims of our Constitution,” she said.

She added the pending the en banc and the Su-preme Court’s fi nal ruling, she will remain a candi-date for president. Poe reiterated that the issue at hand was not just her candidacy but the welfare of the foundlings and even overseas Filipino workers.

“How these cases will be resolved will ultimately

pervade the lives, status and limited opportunities accorded to all other foundlings, putting them at disadvantage for reasons and circumstances that are not their doing,” Poe said.

“It will also affect once and current overseas Filipi-nos who may wish to give back to their true country through public service,” she added.

Poe said that institutions are being used to exclude Filipinos is a cause for serious concern. “Our laws should protect and defend their welfare, not shut them out,” she said.

Meanwhile, in a separate statement, Poe’s running mate, Sen. Francis Escudero, remains hopeful that she will not be disqualifi ed from the 2016 presiden-tial race, reiterating that the ultimate decision rests with the SC.

“At the end of the day it’s the Supreme Court who can disqualify a candidate with fi nality,” said Escudero.

“We are hopeful that if Senator Grace cannot achieve justice from the Comelec, she will fi nally achieve justice in the Supreme Court,” he added, citing previous SC rulings involving election-related cases that may serve as precedents in Poe’s case.

One of these is the SC ruling in 2004 that declared Poe’s adoptive father, the late actor Fernando Poe Jr., whose citizenship was also questioned when he ran for president at the time, a natural-born Filipino.

“Under the law, adoptive children take over the rights and the pertinences of a legitimate child. So if you are a legitimate child of a natural-born father, then the status of your citizenship is also natural-born,” he pointed out. (MNS)

MANILA, Dec 12 (Mabuhay) – Enough of excessive partisan politics.

Such was the statement of Senator Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr. as he urged the electorate to reject politicians who will divide the people in the 2016 elections.

“Ask yourself if this or that candidate is for unity. If not, then don’t vote for him or her,” Marcos said in a statement on Saturday.

The senator said “efforts to move the country for-ward have failed because of excessive partisan politics perpetrated by those who hold power.”

“We can’t have stability if the government is fi lled with politicians who divide the people for the sake of politics or their own personal agenda or gain,” Marcos said.

He added that Filipinos have the traits and talents to improve the dire situation of the country but were being hindered by too much politicking.

“The Filipino people are industrious, honest, and resilient that’s why our OFWs (overseas Filipino workers) are preferred by foreign employers over other nationalities. Magagaling tayong mga Pilipino pero bakit mahirap ang ating sitwasyon? (We Fili-pinos are skilled but why is our situation diffi cult?)” he said.

Marcos said solutions to the problems besetting the country were available. However, he said that these could not be properly implemented because govern-ment offi cials are themselves divided.

The senator cited the alarming drug problem, corruption, rampant crime, massive unemployment, traffi c, as among the consequences of politicking in the country.

“We know the solutions to these but we can only solve them if we are united as Filipinos and the fi rst and paramount job of the government is to unite us all,” he said.(MNS)

MANILA, Dec 11 (Mabuhay) – President Benigno S. Aquino III said on Friday he expects the country’s leading columnists and commentators to enlighten the public as the country holds a national election next year.

Attending the Bulong Pulungan Christmas Party at the Sofi tel Hotel in Pasay City, President Aquino praised the media luminaries for their contribution to democracy and development.

“All of you are veterans and luminaries in the world of media. Throughout every election, you have probably seen every possible character: the false prophets, the wannabe messiahs, the corrupt patrons, and the well-intentioned but ultimately ill-equipped candidates,” he said in a speech before participants of the Bulong Pulungan.

“In May, however, for the fi rst time in memory, there is a valid call to continue the upward trajec-tory of our country. We fi nally have someone selling a vision—with a track record that proves that this vision is not only achievable but very much probable through the continuity of reform,” he said.

“We can now legitimately put forward to our people: Their dreams do not have to expire after only six years.”

The President said that in the 2016 election, his administration’s Daang Matuwid policy will be subjected to a referendum.

“It is a campaign that I will personally lead, and I am mindful that there are those who will be re-lentless in making sure that they retake the reins of powers, in effect setting us back to the old days where personal gain rather than public interest held sway over governance,” he said, adding that these are the same individuals who cannot afford another defeat.

He further noted that some candidates will offer the moon and the stars, without actually putting forward any plan for the nation’s future.

“In short, there are those who are certain about their ambition, but are much less certain about its implications on the rest of the country,” the Chief Executive said.

President Aquino said he trusts that the coun-try’s major columnists would continue to do their part in speaking the truth and delivering a message of hope,¬ not only in the remaining six months of his administration but even after he leaves offi ce.

This, he said, is the same message that enabled the country to stand up against a dictator in 1986; dismantled the system of lying, cheating, and steal-ing in government in 2010; and laid the foundations for a Philippines that is more inclusive.

“It has indeed been an honor for me to participate in Bulong Pulungan. It is an event that I will surely miss,” the President said. (MNS)

Malacañang insists it had no hand in Poe DQ cases

Comelec 1st division ruling shows LP not behind Poe DQ moves: admin spokesman

Grace Poe: My very identity is being taken away from me

Marcos tells Filipinos: Don’t vote for candidates not for unity

Aquino expects country’s columnists to deliver message of hope

By Sophie EstienneS a n F r a n c i s c o , U n i t e d

States | AFP | Tuesday 12/15/2015 – Pressure is grow-ing on social networks to play a bigger role in fi nding and weeding out jihadists and others looking to recruit members and plot deadly attacks.

But it’s more complicated than it sounds: networks like Facebook and Twitter support free expres-sion, and fi ltering our bad actors is challenging both from a techni-cal and civil liberties perspective.

Still, US and European offi -cials are pressing social media to do more following deadly attacks over the past few weeks in Paris and southern California which have been linked to supporters of the Islamic State organization.

A White House statement earlier this month called for “a dialogue” with Silicon Valley and others on the subject, saying more should be done “when the use of social medial crosses the line be-tween communication and active terrorist plotting.”

The European Commission has also called for dialogue with the major social media networks.

And France passed emergency measures that could shut down websites or social media accounts which encourage terrorist ac-tions.

Concerns have been rising amid increased presence on social networks of radical groups that seek to recruit fi ghters and com-municate for planning.

FBI Director James Comey

said the Islamic State organiza-tion, also known by the acronym ISIL, “has persistently used the Internet to communicate, and its widespread reach through the Internet and social media is most concerning.”

Comey said that through social media, “the message of radical-ization spreads faster than we imagined just a few years ago.”

In Congress, Senators Dianne Feinstein and Richard Burr pro-posed legislation to require on-line communications services to report potential terrorist activity.

“That information can be the key to identifying and stopping terrorist recruitment or a ter-rorist attack, but we need help from technology companies,” said Feinstein, from California.

Social media link to attacks poses conundrum

THE US ASIAN POST Wednesday - Tuesday, December 16 - 22, 2015 Visit www.usasianpost.com 5 LOS ANGELES

Dahil sa Health and Wellness resources ng AARP, si Loida at iba pang katulad niya

are now able to have as much fun in the ballroom as they did in the boardroom.

Loida has enjoyed a long career as a successful businesswoman, and she remains just as active today. Bilang miyembro ng halos 20 na taon, she keeps current with AARP publications on health, diet, exercise at iba pang activities that help her enjoy life and live it to the fullest. Not surprisingly, her boundless energy and generous contributions para sa Filipino community have made her a role model for many. Para kay Loida, walang hanggan ang mga posibilidad and the best is yet to come. AARP offers members a wealth of resources na siguradong makapagbibigay ng saya, sigla at importanteng impormasyon para rin sa inyo. To learn more, visit aarp.org/aapi or call 1-866-805-1986 today.

AARP is a non-profit organization committed to enhancing your life at 50-plus by providing

trusted and useful resources to help you stay active, engaged and vibrant.

Caregiving • Health & Wellness • Fraud Prevention • Volunteer • Life Reimagined

This could be my best move yet.Loida Nicolas Lewis, AARP Member

Chair and CEO of TLC Beatrice, LLC Philanthropist

Friday December 11 2015 (Relaxnews) – We love winter, but colder tempera-tures can lead to a whole host of beauty problems, such as dull, chapped or dehydrated skin. Here are a few tips from the experts for anyone looking to perk up their look for the festive season.

Celebrity beauty artist Lisa Eldridge suggests us-ing a foundation one shade darker than usual to “warm up” the skin. In this tuto-rial with Alexa Chung, she suggests using Chanel’s “Vitalumiere” ($58) and thinning it out by applying a tiny bit over a well-mois-turized base and buffi ng it into the skin using a brush.

To fake the kind of dewy, healthy glow that seems to come naturally in spring time, Eldridge uses a high-lighter for a gentle shim-mer – in this case, a Becca “Shimmering Skin Perfec-tor” ($49) in “Rose Gold.” Another tip is to gently buff concealer in around the creases of the nostrils to counteract any redness that might be brought about by exposure to the elements.

Makeup artist Charlotte Tilbury, meanwhile, relies on her own “Magic Founda-tion” (£29.50, approximate-ly $45) to pump moisture back into tired skin. The formula includes Laricyl to tighten pores, hyaluronic fi lling spheres that plump

the skin with water and vitamin C to revive it.

Once you have your base looking fl awless, then you can experiment with the rest of your look. Beauty bloggerShaaanxo suggests trying out a “frosted” eye for a glamorous wintery vibe. This look involves blend-ing a white eyeshadow (she suggests one from the Lorac Pro Palette, $42) over the socket, blending a brown shade into the outer corners before using liquid black liner to create a crisp fl ick and dabbing the white hue at the inner corners and underneath the eye. This look can be offset with a soft pink blush for a wintery glow. “A Classic Case of Winter Face - Makeup and Chat with Alexa Chung” (Screen grab). ©YouTube/Lisa Eldridge

Makeup tips to combat winter skin this season

Thursday December 10 2015 (Relaxnews) – A large new study of women in the UK refutes a widespread be-lief that unhappiness itself can cause ill health.

Indeed, say researchers, life-threatening poor health can lead to unhappiness, hence the association with increased mortality, but unhappiness itself does not appear to be a cause.The research team sent women involved in the UK Million Women Study a questionnaire in which they were asked to rate their health, happiness, stress,

and feelings of control and relaxation.

Five out of six said they were generally happy.Unhappiness was found to be associated with de-privation, smoking, lack of exercise and not living with a partner, but it was women who were already in poor health who were most likely to report being unhappy, stressed, not in control and not relaxed.The main analyses included 700,000 women, average age 59, who were followed over 10 years, during which 30,000 died.

After allowing for health and lifestyle differences, the overall death rate among those who were unhap-py was the same as the death rate among those who reported being happy.Lead author Dr. Bette Liu, now at the University of New South Wales, Aus-tralia, explained: “Illness makes you unhappy, but unhappiness itself doesn’t make you ill.

We found no direct ef-fect of unhappiness or s t r e s s o n m o r t a l i t y . ”The study was published in The Lancet.Happiness may help you lead a better life, but not necessarily a longer one. ©Dirima/Shutterstock

Happiness may not help you live longer: study

Visit www.usasianpost.com Wednesday - Tuesday, December 16 - 22, 2015 THE US ASIAN POST6

Pope Francis has de-clared a Year of Mercy beginning on December 8, 2015, and continuing until November 20, 2016. The Year of Mercy is an Extraordinary Jubilee – a time of forgiveness and reconciliation, a time to celebrate the mercy

The Holy Father decreed that a special Holy Door be opened in every Diocese as the Door of Mercy, to allow the faithful in every part of the world to experience the mercy of the Father in its fullness.

The St. Lorenzo Ruiz Church was chosen as one of these churches. Along with other chosen parishes, St. Lorenzo will welcome

ST. LORENZO RUIZ CATHOLIC PARISH COMMUNITY

Rite of opening the Door of Mercy

A combined bilingual mass was conducted by Fr.George Tabangcura, Associate Pastor of St. Lorenzo Ruiz Parish, Bishop David G. O’Connell, D.D., Episcopal Vicar of the San Gabriel Pastoral Region Archdiocese of Los Angeles and St. Lorenzo Ruiz Parish Pastor, Rev. Tony P. Astudillo.

pilgrims who wish to obtain indulgences without hav-ing to travel to the Holy Door in the Vatican. St. Lorenzo has designated one of its doors to be the Door of Mercy. Those who pass through the Door of Mercy, in addition to ful-fi lling other conditions and works, receive the plenary indulgence – the Jubilee of Mercy indulgence.

Plenary Indulgence is the complete remission of the temporal punishment due to sin. In Sacrament of reconciliation, God forgives our sins but sin leaves a negative effect on the way we think and act. An indul-gence pardons the sinner and frees him or her to act with charity, to grow in love rather than to fall back sin.

In general, the act of indulgence requires certain prescribed conditions, and the performance of certain prescribed works. Also , indulgences can be applied either to oneself or to the souls of the deceased, but they cannot be applied to other persons living on earth.

The rite was attended by 10 pastoral community. Holy Name of Mary, Sacred Heart, St. Denis, St. Eliza-beth Ann Seton, St . John Vianney, St. Joseph(La Puente), St. Joseph (Po-mona), St. Madeleine, St. Martha & Our Lady of the Assumption.

THE US ASIAN POST Wednesday - Tuesday, December 16 - 22, 2015 Visit www.usasianpost.com 7

Inigo Pascual believes that reports linking Julia Barretto to other actors won’t affect their onscreen tandem.

Pascual and Barretto have worked on a number of projects, including the series “And I Love You So.”

“In this job naman, I don’t think we should let any personal stuff affect it. To be honest, I don’t know anything that’s go-ing on with her personal life and vice versa. It’s not my business to talk if there is anything going on. We just work and we have that friendship,” Pascual said.

As to other issues being hurled at Barretto, Pascual said: “She’s very profession-al. Hindi niya pinapakita na naapektuhan siya. She’s that kind of person. She’s really strong.”

Despite this, Pascual said he always makes Bar-

retto feel that he got her back.

“She’s my friend. Kahit naman sabihin natin na hindi kami naaapektuhan, you still want to be there for them. I guess it’s just being there for the person,” he said.

Just recently, Pascual took to Instagram to ex-press how proud he is of

Barretto for the way she handles things.

Similarly, Pascual said Barretto constantly re-minds him to never let haters get to him.

“What I love about her #JuliaTips is that she not just says it but actually goes through it and sets an example. And I appreciate you for that,” he said.

After a 12-year absence from the concert scene, singer-actress Jessa Zara-goza is getting ready for her comeback solo show.

Zaragoza announced that she will be mounting her solo concert “I Am Me” on January 5 at the Music Museum in Greenhills.

She said it’s the time for her to go back to her pas-

sion, which is singing.“Sobrang excited ako sa

project na ito. Sabi ko kay Dingdong (Avanzado, her husband), tuloy na natin itong concert. Noon pa niya ako sinasabihan to do a concert. Tapos sabi ko na lang sa kanya one day I want to do the concert. I want to perform again ng solo.

Gerphil to tour with David Foster in 2016

Gerphil Flores

Iñigo praises Julia Barretto for being professional

Inigo Pascual and Julia Barretto

Jessa Zaragosa prepares for comeback concert

join the international con-cert tour starting March next year.

“Abroad na po ‘yon. May-roon pong Thailand,” said Flores, who will be shar-ing stage with interna-tional artists like Nicole Scherzinger and Natalie Imbruglia.

Flores said she wants to promote classical music in the concert tour.

“Mataas ang hope ko, lalo na pagdating sa pag-spread ng classical music sa kabataan. Naniniwala akong handa na ang mga Filipino sa ganitong type ng musika, lalo na ang mga young generation at handa akong i-represent ang gani-tong klaseng musika,” she said.

Flores fi rst hinted that she will be doing a proj-ect with Foster last June. (MNS)

After his sold-out show at the Music Museum re-cently, Matteo Guidicelli is hoping for a repeat of his concert next year.

“Astig! Sold out kami tapos sobrang saya. Almost three hours ‘yung show. Nagpapasalamat ako sa la-hat ng nanood ng concert,” he said. “Kung nagustuhan nilang lahat, may repeat sana in the future. Baka

next year na.”Now that the show is

over, Guidicelli said he is looking forward to spend-ing the holidays with his family.

Will he also be with girl-friend Sarah Geronimo this Christmas? “Hindi [kasama si Sarah] eh. Kasama din niya ang pamilya niya,” he said briefl y.

Meanwhile, the actor

shared that he doesn’t have a gift for Geronimo yet and he also didn’t ask anything from her for the holidays.

“Kahit anong [gift ang ibigay niya sa akin]. Hindi naman importante ‘yun. Basta okay lang ang lahat,” he said.

It was in June 2014 when Geronimo fi rst admitted her relationship with Guidicelli. (MNS)

Matteo hopes to have concert repeat

Matteo Guidicelli

It’s official: Asia’s Got Talent (AGT) fi nalist Ger-phil Flores confi rmed that she will be part of the Asian tour of “David Foster and Friends” in 2016.

Flores said it’s a dream do come true for her to work with Foster, who was one of the judges of the pan-Asian talent contest.

“Sabi ko nga po napa-ka-impossible dream na naman, parang gaya ng kinanta ko sa ‘Asia’s Got Talent.’ I used to have the DVDs ng mga David Foster and Friends concerts at nangangarap lang ako na sana someday I would be able to share stage with these big artists in the music industry. At nung na-receive ko ang e-mail medyo matagal nag-sink in sa akin.

Sabi ko ‘totoo ba ito?’ Ap-parently it is and I’m very

thankful for that,” Flores said.

Flores said she will be

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THE US ASIAN POST Wednesday - Tuesday, December 16 - 22, 2015 Visit www.usasianpost.com 9

ROSEMEAD, Calif. –Panda Cares, the phil-anthropic arm of Panda Express and its parent company, Panda Restau-rant Group, hosted its 8th annual Leader In Me Holi-day Carnival on Friday, Dec. 11.

Four hundred students from Encinita Elementary School in Rosemead, CA, were recognized at the event for their academic and leadership achievements in The Leader in Me pro-gram, a whole school trans-formation process created by FranklinCovey, that teaches leadership skills at the elementary school level.

The students were wel-comed by the Panda Ex-press Panda Bear mascot and will enjoy carnival-themed booths created and staffed by Panda Restau-rant Group associates. All attendees were treated to a delicious Panda Express lunch and receive Panda swag. Toy manufacturer, Mattel Inc., will also join the celebration by donating gifts for the students.

Through Panda Cares, Panda has supported The Leader in Me program in over 550 schools through-out the country. Encinitas Elementary School, spon-sored by Panda since 2009 is one of 27 schools spon-sored by the company that has earned the prestigious Lighthouse School designa-tion from the program.

“We are proud to bring leadership development to schools nationwide,”

said Peggy Cherng, co-chairman of Panda Restau-rant Group. “Through this program, students have the opportunity to become insightful and confident leaders who will contribute to their communities.”

The Leader in Me pro-gram was inspired by Ste-phen Covey’s book, “The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People,” that inte-grates timeless leadership principles with practical character and life skills relevant to today’s chal-lenges. By building self-confidence, interpersonal skills, elevating student achievement, and reduc-ing school-wide discipline problems, this program helps children become lead-ers in their fi eld of interest. Earning Lighthouse School status is the highest level of achievement within the program. There are cur-rently 161 schools in The Leader in Me program that have been designated as Lighthouse Schools, includ-ing Encinitas Elementary School.

About Panda Restaurant Group

Founded in Southern California in 1973, Panda Restaurant Group Inc. is the world leader in Asian dining experiences with more than 1,800 locations in 46 states along with stores in Puerto Rico, Guam, Canada, Mexico, Dubai, Saudi Arabia and Korea. The family-owned and operated chain of fast casual, full service and

quick service restaurant concepts includes Panda Express, Panda Inn, and Hibachi-San. For more information visit www.pan-darg.com, or become a fan on Facebook.

About Panda CaresEstablished in 1999,

Panda Cares’ mission is to bring hope to children in need purpose is to foster the spirit of Giving within Panda by directly serving the health and educational needs of underserved chil-dren. Learn more at www.pandacares.org.

Photo Captions: Panda Cares, the philanthropic arm of Panda Express hosted its 8th annual holiday carnival celebration honoring students from Encinitas Elementary School for their academic and leadership achievements in the Leader In Me program. Photo Credit: Panda Express

Panda Cares holds 8th annual holiday carnival celebration

As the December 15th deadline for coverage start-ing January 1st approaches, the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) today announced a collabo-ration with more than 20 faith-based organizations nationwide, with a com-bined reach of more than fi ve million people to support outreach and enrollment efforts for the 2016 Open Enrollment. HHS partners are continuing their work to make sure consumers have access to the health informa-tion they need to get covered.

“Faith groups play an essential role in support-ing health and wellness in communities across the country, serving as trusted messengers in their congre-gations,” said Kevin Couni-

han, CEO of the Health In-surance Marketplaces. “We are thankful that so many organizations are providing an opportunity for friends and neighbors to learn more about their health care op-tions and get help enrolling in coverage.”

This weekend serves as one of three Open Enroll-ment Faith Weekends of Ac-tion. Congregations across the nation will use these weekends to let their neigh-bors know about the oppor-tunity to enroll in quality, affordable coverage. Trained enrollment specialists will be available at places of wor-ship across the country to provide free and confi dential assistance for people look-ing to sign up or re-enroll in health coverage.

Kevin Counihan will visit both the Church of Chris-tian Compassion and Yesha Ministries Worship Center in Philadelphia on Sunday. Secretary Burwell will visit a local enrollment center in Austin.

With only a few days re-main before the December 15 deadline, sign up now to have coverage starting onJanuary 1, 2016. You can visit HealthCare.gov or call the Marketplace directly at 1-800-318-2596 and sign up by December 15th. Financial assistance is available to those who qualify and about 8 out of 10 people who enroll in health coverage through HealthCare.gov qualify for fi nancial help to make their monthly premiums more affordable.

HHS partners with faith organizations to promote enrollment in Health Insurance Marketplace

Visit www.usasianpost.com Wednesday - Tuesday, December 16 - 22, 2015 THE US ASIAN POST10

Fresh Mozzarella Saladwith Basil PestoPrep time: 10 minutesNet carbs: 1.7 g

4 cups arugula1/4 cup basil pesto

2 pounds sliced whole milk mozzarella cheese

2 small whole red tomatoes, sliced

Basil Pesto24 ounces basil

1/3 cup dried pine nuts1/3 cup grated Parmesan

cheese1/2 teaspoon garlic1/2 teaspoon salt1/3 cup extra virgin olive oil

Cauliflower-CheddarMashPrep time: 5 minutesCook time: 8 minutesNet carbs: 3.5 g

1 cup cauliflower1/4 cup shredded cheddar

cheesesalt and freshly ground

black pepper, to taste

Steam cauliflower in steamer basketover boiling water in medium cov -ered sauce pot until tender, about 5 minutes. Remove to bowl andmash with fork. Top with cheeseand season to taste with salt andfreshly ground black pepper.

Recipes courtesy of Atkins.

FAMILY FEATURES

The hustle and bustle of the holiday season – from office parties to family gatherings – often leads toover-indulging and deviating from a healthy lifestyle; luckily, it’s still possible to enjoy many of yourfavorite holiday dishes while reducing carb and sugar intake.

And the numbers don’t lie – numerous studies show that low-carb eating can be a healthy lifestyle optionfor people who want to lose or maintain their weight. When you control your carbohydrate intake, you startburning stored fat as your fuel source instead of carbohydrates.

Low-carb eating results in more effective weight loss and better health markers, such as a decrease in yourrisk of heart disease and diabetes. Plus, a low-carb lifestyle, such as Atkins, can be customized to your indi -vidual needs to help you lose weight and keep it off.

In fact, with the wide variety of foods to choose from in a low-carb lifestyle, it’s easy to find plenty of the festive foods and recipes you like so you can skip the stress this holiday season and simply focus oncelebrating.

These recipes – favorites of actress Alyssa Milano, who started her own journey on the Atkins program – show how easy it is to make and enjoy low-carb dishes packed with flavor. Find more low-carb recipes to share this holiday season at atkins.com.

To prepare pesto, combinebasil, pine nuts, Parmesan,garlic and salt in food proc -essor or blender; pulse untilfinely chopped. Add oil in slow and steady streamwith machine running;process until fairly smoothbut not pureed. Serveimmediately, refrigerate in airtight container for up to 3 days or freeze for up to 1 month.

Toss arugula with 2 table -spoons of pesto. Mound onto serving plates. Top with alternating slices ofmozzarella and tomato.Drizzle with remaining pesto and serve.

If sticking to a low-carb diet seems like a lofty goal, you may find it helpful to focus on all thefoods you can eat with confidence while watching your carbs:

THE DISH ON LOW-CARB EATING

� High-fiber vegetables

� Protein (fish/seafood, poultry,beef, pork, eggs, plant-based)

� Healthy fats (olive oil,avocados, nuts, butter)

� Dairy (cheese, Greek yogurt)

� Low-glycemic fruits(berries, cherries,melon)

THE US ASIAN POST Wednesday - Tuesday, December 16 - 22, 2015 Visit www.usasianpost.com 11

MOTORING

Sunday December 13 2015 (Relaxnews) – From Aston Martin to Lamborghini, 2016 promises to be a bumper year for very, very fast and very, very exclusive cars.

Aston Martin DB11After the huge publicity

campaign around the cur-rent Bond film, “Spectre,” Aston will be hoping it’s done enough to get its fans and its detractors ready for the potential shock of the DB11, which will ditch many of the outgoing DB9’s lines in favor of something more aggressive and, hopefully, faster. The pressure on the company to

deliver something that can go toe-to-toe with Porsche and Ferrari has never been greater but the company’s confi dence suggests that the new car could be something special.

Honda/Acura NSXAfter some development

complications, the NSX will be going on sale in 2016 and it will be the fi rst affordable hybrid supercar. It will offer similar technological sophis-tication to that found in the McLaren P1 and Porsche 918 Spider and comparable per-formance, although it will be less than a third of the price.

Expect demand to outstrip supply for at least the fi rst year of production.

Ferrari FFThe company’s only true

GT car, the four-seat FF, will be the focus of a major mid-life upgrade and it is expected to make its debut at this year’s Geneva motor show in March. As well as external nips and tucks there are rumors that it will be getting a turbocharged V8 engine as an option along-side the existing V12 power-plant.

Ford GTIt’s not often that the Blue

Oval is mentioned in the same

breath as Ferrari or Aston Martin, but 2016 is when the new Ford GT will officially break cover. Strictly limited to 250 examples a year and potentially as few as 1,000 examples over its entire life cycle, the mid-engine carbon-fi ber racer outputs 600hp yet boasts a relatively tiny 3.5-li-ter V6 engine, albeit one with two huge turbochargers mak-ing up for displacement is-sues. Lamborghini CentenarioTo mark what would have been founder Ferruccio Lam-borghini’s 100th birthday, the eccentric supercar company is planning a very special model.

Wednesday December 9 2015 (Relaxnews) – BMW will soon be unveiling a new concept car to pave the way for a convertible version of its i8 electric sports car. Autocar reports that the concept will be revealed at the CES 2015, which will be held in Las Vegas in the US from January 6 to 9, 2016. It will be directly inspired by the fi rst BMW i8 Spyder con-cept, which was presented at the Beijing Auto Show in 2012, but never went into production.

2016 could therefore see a third model added to the BMW i offering which cur-rently consists of the small electric i3 city car and the i8 hybrid sports model. Launched in 2011, BMW i is a brand that is separate

from the German group, offering both premium and visionary cars that are fully or part electric and inspired by sustainable development.

The BMW i3 is a small fully electric coupe with autonomy ranging from 130km (in Comfort mode) to almost 200km (EcoPro+), with zero CO2 emissions due to its 170hp electric motor powered by a lithium-ion battery.

The BMW i3 can be equipped with an autonomy extender as an option. This takes the form of a 34hp two cylinder gasoline engine, placed next to the electric motor above the back axel. This extends the autonomy range to a maximum of around 300km. The BMW i3 can be charged at a public

charging station or using a conventional socket.

The BMW i8 presents itself as a real sports car with a gasoline engine and an electric motor, totaling 362hp (respectively 231hp and 131hp) with a top speed of 250km/h and acceleration from 0 to 100km/h in only 4.4 seconds. In fully electric mode, it has an autonomy of almost 37km and a maxi-mum speed of 120km/h. Its average fuel consumption is 2.7l/100km, i.e. CO2 emis-sions of around 49g/km.

The rumor of a cabriolet version of the BMW i8 is not new. This “BMW i8s”, or “i8 Spyder”, could be one of the major announcements made by the brand to mark its cen-tenary in 2016. Compared to the BMW i8, this two-seater

The supercar stars of 2016

The BMW i8 could be available as a cabriolet in 2016

The fi rst BMW i8 Spyder concept was unveiled in 2012.©BMW

could have an even more sporty design, with a new suspension and wider tires.

It could have a maximum of 500hp according to reports by specialist websites.

CES takes place Janu-ary 6 to 9, 2016 in Las Ve-gas: cesweb.org

The Ford GT: A year after its reveal, the Ford GT will be going into very limited production in 2016. ©The Ford Motor Company

Visit www.usasianpost.com Wednesday - Tuesday, December 16 - 22, 2015 THE US ASIAN POST12

DON’T INCLUDEFrom page 1

COMELECFrom page 1

LA SCHOOLSFrom page 1

20K VCMFrom page 1

CHINESE FIGHTERFrom page 1

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herself in stating that she met the 10-year residency requirement to run for president.

Poe has said they will file a motion for reconsideration before the Comelec en banc and, if neces-sary, take the case all way to the Supreme Court (SC).

“In view of Poe’s DQ by the two divisions of the Comelec and improbability of reversal by the en banc, it would be more prudent for the Commission not to include anymore her name in the template of the ballot,” Luna said.

“Anyway, the printing of the ballots will begin in Feb. 2016 yet, so there is enough time - period between December 2015 to Feb. 2016 - say, for putting the name back in the event a writ of prelimi-nary injunction or similar orders is issued by the SC in her favor.

“Taking this option will be con-sistent with the rule that decisions of resolutions promulgated by the Commission en banc are fi nal and

executory, unless restrained by the Highest Court,” he added.

Comelec spokesperson James Jimenez earlier said that should the case of Poe drag on beyond the poll body’s internal deadline, it would be more practical to include Poe rather than strike her name off the ballot completely.

The poll body is scheduled to release the fi nal list of candidates by December 15.

“The tendency is that if there is a case that has not been resolved with fi nality, the tendency will be to put the name of the candidate on the list. It doesn’t matter who,” Jimenez said.

“If a person has a pending motion with anybody that might have an effect on the candidacy, and they’re put on the ballot, it’s easier to ignore the votes cast for that person, than to take them out of the ballot and then later on fi nd out that they should’ve been on the ballot in the fi rst place.” (MNS)

2016.A total of 93,977 VCMs will be

leased by the Comelec from Smart-matic for the conduct of the May 2016 national and local elections.

In November, the poll body re-quested for additional 3,540 units, which will be delivered around end of March 2016.

Meanwhile, poll body offi cials, lawmakers, and election watch-dogs last Friday visited the fac-tories of Smartmatic in Taiwan,

where the VCMs are being manu-factured.

They toured the Mainboard Factory and the Production & As-sembly Factory. The Mainboard Factory produces the mainboards and it has been doing the job since 2005.

On the other hand, the Produc-tion & Assembly Factory is capable of producing a monthly output of more than 500,000 network/peripheral devices and around

50,000 IPC/Embedded systems. It employs more than 700 workers.

Both factories are certified with ISO9001, ISO14001, OH-SAS18001, among others.

“We are proud to show that our factories are world-class, state-of-the-art, and completely secure,” says Elie Moreno, SMMT-TIM2016 Project Director.

He added, “Smartmatic is on track in completing and delivering the VCMs on schedule.” (MNS)

Dios Hospital... after a sudden collapse on the morning of 10 De-cember 2015,” said a statement on the organisers’ website Sunday.

The statement did not say what caused the collapse of Yang who last fought in June.

On Friday, One Championship had said in a separate statement that Yang’s fi ght with a Filipino fl yweight “has been cancelled due to Yang’s severe dehydration from attempting to make weight”.

It said the Chinese fi ghter was suspected to have suffered from “dehydration and suspected heat stroke” and had been taken to hospital to undergo “intensive rehydration treatment”.

Loren Mack, a spokesman for One Championship, on Sunday

referred questions put to him by AFP to the statement on the website.

A one-minute silence was held at the venue Friday to honor the Chinese fi ghter, Mack said.

The One Championship website home page was partly blacked out with a one-line announcement: “In Loving Memory of Yang Jian Bing (1994-2015).”

One Championship chief execu-tive Victor Cui said on the website: “There is nothing more profoundly tragic and sad than when a mem-ber of the One Championship fam-ily, current or past, passes away.

“Our thoughts and prayers are with the family and loved ones of Yang Jian Bing. We will work closely with the family and offer

all the support they need in any way we can during this very dif-fi cult time.”

In the last message posted on his Weibo social media site on No-vember 30, Yang had been upbeat about the fi ght.

“I’m excited, I have been strug-gling for so long and I’m fi nally able to participate in One FC, the Asian top competition,” he wrote.

“I have been waiting for this opportunity for so many years! Please grant me power, make me really feel the passion of this competition.”

Based in Singapore, One Cham-pionship maintains a stable of fi ghters signed to exclusive con-tracts for fi ghts broadcast on cable television.

his dissenting opinion.“Magandang development ito

bagamat hindi kami pinalad, kasi po may nagsasabi ng ano ang tama naming ipinupunto at mali,” he said.

He added: “Sinabi po sa akin ng mga kawani ko sa opisina, mas makapal po ‘di hamak ‘yung nag-ing dissenting (opinion) ni Com-missioner Lim. Marami siyang pinupunto at pag-aaralan naming mabuti kung ano ‘yung mga pinu-punto niya.”

He also said they will “defi-nitely” use Lim’s opinion in their appeal should the case reach the Supreme Court.

He added: “At sana po, baka sakaling maging basehan rin ng desisyon ng Comelec en banc.”

This marks the second setback by Poe before the poll body.

On December 1, the Comelec Second Division voted in favor of the cancellation of Poe’s certifi cate of candidacy based on the petition fi led by lawyer Estrella Elamparo.

All three members of the Sec-ond Division—Commissioners Al Parreño, Arthur Lim and Sheriff Abas—voted in favor of Elamparo’s petition.

Poe’s camp has since appealed the Second Division’s ruling before the Comelec en banc. (MNS)

2002 to 2009, said the person behind the threat may have been inspired by the television series “Homeland”.

- ‘Irresponsible’ to criticize -Los Angeles police chief Char-

lie Beck hit out at criticism that the shutdown was unnecessary, insisting it was justifi ed with the children’s safety paramount.

“It is irresponsible based on facts that have yet to be deter-mined to criticize that decision at this point,” Beck told reporters.

Authorities said they had or-dered all public transport in Los Angeles to be free of charge for students on Tuesday to enable them to get home or move about the sprawling West Coast city.

Private schools in the district remained open since the threat was only directed at public schools.

The Los Angeles Unifi ed School District comprises more than 21,000 buildings spread over 720 square miles (1,865 square kilo-meters) within Los Angeles and nearby communities.

California has been stunned by the massacre in San Bernardino, about an hour east of Los Angeles, carried out by US-born Syed Fa-rook and his Pakistani wife Tashfe

Authorities believe the Muslim couple had been radicalized for some time and may have been inspired by the extremist Islamic State group.

The couple were killed in a

shootout with police following the attack, which the Federal Bureau of Investigation is treating as an act of terrorism.

According to a new Wall Street Journal/NBC News poll released on Monday, national security has become the top issue of concern for Americans in the wake of the San Bernardino assault and the recent deadly attacks in Paris.

The poll said 40 percent of re-spondents feel national security and terrorism should be the gov-ernment’s top priority and more than 60 percent say those concerns should be in the top two.

“For most of 2015, the country’s mood, and thus the presidential election, was defi ned by anger and

the unevenness of the economic recovery,” said Democratic pollster Fred Yang, who conducted the survey with Republican pollster Bill McInturff.

“Now that has abruptly changed to fear.”jz/sst© 1994-2015 Agence France-Presse