THE US ASIAN POST Wednesday - Tuesday, January 15-21, 2016 Visit www.usasianpost.com 1

Wednesday - Tuesday, January 15-21, 2016

Jasmine Curtis-Smith

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RichardGuiterrezSee Page 6W W W . U S A S I A N P O S T . C O M

Vol. 5 No. 16 LOS ANGELES A BALITA MEDIA PUBLICATION

More than a million people turned out for the festival of the Black Nazarene on Saturday, one of the world’s largest religious gatherings, to see the life-sized statue wheeled through the streets of Manila.

Risking life and limb, shoeless men and women chanting “Viva!” (Long Live) ran over heads and shoulders to touch the icon as it made its way through the capital of Asia’s most fervently Catholic country.

Father Douglas Badong, rector of the Manila church where the statue is based, said one of the street vendors at the festival suf-fered a fatal heart attack.

“Because of the crowd, the heat, his body couldn’t take it,” he told AFP.

Another 27-year-old man, who was reportedly suffering from a

liver ailment, passed out after helping to drag the statue’s fl oat and could not be revived, Badong added.

Police said at its height, about 1.5 million people took part in the seven-kilometer (4.5-mile) parade, which runs to the icon’s home in-side the downtown Quiapo church.

Many believe the Black Naza-rene has miraculous powers and sick people will often resort to des-perate measures to try to touch it.

Philippine Red Cross secre-tary-general Gwendolyn Pang said her agency, which had a fi eld hos-pital at the site, treated almost 1,600 people who were injured during the festivities.

Some 55 of them were “major cases”, such as fractures caused by the huge crush of people or strokes caused by stress, more than double Devotees swarm around the image of the Black Nazarene as it crosses Roxas Boulevard during the annual Traslacion on Saturday

in Manila. The procession of the venerated image is participated in by thousands of devotees who join the whole day procession as it winds thru the streets of Manila.(MNS photo)

Hanoi, Vietnam | AFP | Friday 1/8/2016 – Vietnam has issued its second rebuke in a week to Beijing, accusing its northern neighbour of “threatening peace” after more Chinese aircraft landed on a con-tested reef in the South China Sea.

Chinese state media on Wednes-day said two civilian planes landed on one of the islands in the Fiery Cross reef in the disputed Spratly Islands, which are claimed by Ha-noi but controlled by Beijing.

The landings are “a serious violation of Vietnam’s sovereignty and threaten peace and stability

in the region”, foreign ministry spokesman Le Hai Binh said in a statement issued late Thursday.

The two “test fl ights” Wednes-day follow an initial aircraft land-ing on Saturday, which prompted the fi rst formal diplomatic com-plaint from Hanoi.

The planes departed from and returned to the city of Haikou, the capital of the southern island province of Hainan – a two-hour journey each way.

The fl ights have raised alarm in the region and attracted criticism

MANILA, Jan 8 (Mabuhay) – Aside from preparing contingency plans, the Philippine government should also appoint a “Cabinet-lev-el crisis manager” for the Middle East, Senator Antonio Trillanes IV said on Friday.

“It is high time that we appoint a Cabinet-level crisis manager for the Middle East to make sure that somebody is on top of the situation

on both strategic and operational levels,” Trillanes, chairman of the Senate committee on national de-fense, said in a statement.

He said the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) and the Department of Energy (DOE) should also prepare contingency plans that could be immediately implemented should the brewing

MANILA, Jan 9 (Mabuhay) – Sen. Grace Poe on Saturday urged Commission on Elections (Comelec) chairman Andres Bau-tista to launch an investigation on “personalities” within the poll body who are allegedly trying to sabotage her chances of joining the 2016 presidential race.

Poe’s camp made the call in light of the reported infi ghting between Bautista and Comelec Commis-sioner Rowena Guanzon over the latter’s fi ling of a comment with the Supreme Court on the Poe cas-

Sen. Francis “Chiz” Escudero is urging former Metro Rail Transit 3 (MRT-3) general manager Al Vi-tangcol to reveal the details of the $1.5-million contract awarded for the commuter train’s maintenance in October 2012, which became the basis of the graft case fi led against him.

Barely a month after the Sandi-ganbayan affi rmed his indictment for graft, Vitangcol broke his si-lence last Wednesday to lament what he regarded as apparent haste in resolving the case against him. He insisted it was actually the Department of Transportation and Communications (DOTC) that awarded the contract.

It was earlier reported that the controversial MRT maintenance deal with Philippine Trams Rail Management Service Corp. (PH Trams) was “perfected” at a time when the DOTC was headed by Liberal Party presidential candi-

MANILA, Jan 8 (Mabuhay) – President Benigno Aquino III on Friday reiterated his call to Congress to pass the Bangsamoro Basic Law (BBL), saying such framework would make inclusive gover-nance the norm in Mindanao rather than the exception.

Aquino made the statement as he praised his close ally, Au-tonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM) Governor Mujiv Hataman, during the inauguration of the 300-megawatt baseload power plant in Davao del Sur.

According to Aquino, enacting the BBL would ensure that Min-danao’s transformation will continue past the term of Hataman, whom the president said was able to increase the investments in the ARMM region from P87.9 million in 2010 to P3.9 billion in 2014.

“You must remember, Gov. Hataman’s time in offi ce is limited, and we need to make sure that his region has a framework that can truly make good, inclusive governance the norm rather than the exception,” said Aquino.

“This is why we need to pass the Bangsamoro Basic Law in the soonest possible time. For my part, I believe it would certainly push Mindanao, and the Philippines, further into the global spotlight,” he added.

The BBL pending in Congress is the proposed legal framework of the peace agreement signed between the government and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) in 2013. It seeks to create a political entity called the Bangsamoro, which would replace the existing ARMM.

In his speech, Aquino also thanked Therma South Inc. (TSI), a subsidiary of Aboitiz Power Corporation (ABC), for being an “early

MANILA, Jan 8 (Mabuhay) – Advocates of the Reproductive Health Law scored Friday the cut on the budget intended for the procurement of contraceptives for the government’s family planning program.

In a press statement, Senator Miriam Defensor Santiago said she was appalled with the P1 billion budget as it threatens to deprive some seven million women of re-productive health services.

“This abandonment is immoral

in a country where some 200 out of 100,000 women who give birth die,” she said.

“It is irreconcilable that Con-gress, which enacted the RH Law after much hardship in 2012, would three years later render that same law inutile,” she added.

Santiago, a presidential candi-date, said if ever she is elected to the highest government post she will work to fully and conscien-tiously implement the Reproduc-

A passenger gets off a double decker bus during its dry run at the SM North EDSA Valet parking area on Thursday. The new service currently operates along 3 routes in Metro Manila, carrying passengers from Quezon City and Mandaluyong City straight to the Makati central business district without any stops.(MNS photo)

Two dead, hundreds hurt in ‘Black Nazarene’ festivalManila, Philippines | AFP | Sunday 1/10/2016 – Two peo-

ple died and hundreds were injured during a huge religious festival in the Philippines, where barefoot crowds hurled themselves at a statue of Jesus believed to have healing powers, authorities said Sunday.

Gov’t must appoint ‘Middle East crisis manager,’ Trillanes urges

RH advocates score P1-B budget cut on contraceptives procurement

Vietnam issues second warning to China over island fl ights

Poe urges Bautista to probe ‘personalities’ after Comelec infi ghting

Aquino makes pitch for BBL: Make inclusive governance the norm in Mindanao

Chiz urges MRT chief Vitangcol to tell all

See BLACK NAZARENE, page 12

See SECOND WARNING, page 12 See POE URGES, page 12

See PITCH FOR BBL, page 12See VITANGCOL, page 12

See MIDDLE EAST, page 12

See CONTRACEPTIVES, page 12

Visit www.usasianpost.com Wednesday - Tuesday, January 15-21, 2016 THE US ASIAN POST2

By Jocelyne ZablitLos Angeles, United

States | AFP | Saturday 1/9/2016 – For several weeks, Sam Mongeau’s three-year-old daughter Bella has had a lingering cough, while other members of his family have experienced nose bleeds, headaches and fatigue.

Mongeau, 40, blames it all on a massive gas leak near his home in Porter Ranch, a sleepy middle-class community northwest of Los Angeles, where a state of emergency was declared by California’s governor earlier this week.

“Everyone’s been get-ting sick,” Mongeau, a sales manager at an area auto dealership, told AFP.

“It’s almost like you wake up every day from anesthe-

sia, feeling groggy, tired.”The leak was detected

on October 23 in an under-ground natural gas well at the Southern California Gas Company’s (SoCalGas) Aliso Canyon site—one of the largest gas facilities in the United States.

The well sits about 8,700 feet (2,651 meters) under-ground, and the leak is thought to come from a broken pipe about 500 feet below the surface.

Repeated efforts to stop the leak by pumping liquid and mud down the well have failed, and the gas company is now drilling a relief well to intercept and plug the damaged well.

The operation is expected to take until late February or March.

‘Get some fresh air’ -That timeline is not soon

enough for the area’s 30,000 residents, many of whom say they are getting sick from the rotten-egg smell of the odorant put into the gas to help detect leaks.

“I have been getting nau-sea and headaches,” said Linda Noel, 50, as she wait-ed outside a center set up by the gas company to assist area residents. “Everyone in the family has been to the doctor or to urgent care.

“All I want is to get out of here and get some fresh air.”

Suna Najar, 46, said she has been getting rashes on her neck and face, and her 12-year-old daughter regu-larly has nose bleeds.

“We are four in the family and they are offering to re-

locate us to one hotel room,” she said. “You feel like this is totally out of your control and that you’re at everyone’s mercy.”

More than 10,000 resi-dents have so far been re-located by the gas company and hundreds more have asked to be moved. Two lo-cal elementary schools have shut down, and the students are being shuttled to other districts.

Meanwhile some 1,000 people have joined a class-ac-tion suit against SoCalGas, many encouraged by well-known environmental ac-tivist Erin Brockovich, who works for a legal fi rm and who has held several town meetings with residents.

Brockovich’s story of tak-ing on corporate America

was made into a movie in 2000 that earned Julia Rob-erts an Oscar.

The gas company and health offi cials say the gas leaking from the facility poses not health risk. Ex-perts however say the en-vironmental impact will be signifi cant, as methane is a potent greenhouse gas.

The leak is spewing about 1,000 tons of methane a day, experts say, the equivalent to pollution produced daily by 4.5 million cars.

“To put this into perspec-tive, the leak effectively doubles the (methane) emis-sion rate for the entire Los Angeles basin,” said Stephen Conley, a scientist at the University of California in Davis.

“On a global scale, this

is big.”Michae l Mizrah i , a

spokesman for SoCalGas, said while the company fully realizes that the leak has disrupted the lives of local residents and will have an environmental impact, it was doing its utmost to remedy the situation and was closely monitoring air quality in Porter Ranch.

He said crews were work-ing around the clock to stop the leak, which has cost SoCalGas $50 million (46 million euros) so far.

“Everybody wants to call this an environmental di-saster, I’m not going to use those words,” he said. “We know this is a major incident and our goals are to continue to stop the leak and serve the community, period.

Massive California gas leak provokes anger

San Salvador, El Salva-dor | AFP | Friday 1/8/2016 – El Salvador on Friday unveiled a program to help its citizens forcibly deported from the US integrate back into society in their home-land.

The scheme was an-nounced by Foreign Minister Hugo Martinez as American officials were implement-ing a new policy of raiding homes to round up migrants who have deportation or-ders against them and fl y them back to their countries, mostly to Central America and Mexico.

“Here we have clear rec-ognition of the migrants’ worth as a source of knowl-edge and useful experience,” Martinez said.

With $420,000 in funding, the fi rst phase of the pro-gram seeks to train an initial group of 100 returnees in micro- and small-business creation to give them a pro-ductive start in their home communities. With just one training center to start, the plan will expand to have 14 centers across the country.

The returned migrants will also receive psycholog-ical counseling to help with the trauma of being deport-ed, the minister said.

“We have faith they will give us the seed capital needed to start our new proj-ect” of reintegrating into Sal-vadoran society, said Carlos Rene Pineda, a 53-year-old unemployed tailor deported three months ago after living

for 33 years in the United States.

He expressed hope of us-ing $1,500 in promised aid to buy a machine to make trousers and shirts.

The United States deport-ed 21,752 Salvadorans last year, according to govern-ment fi gures.

The number is expected to dramatically jump this year with the new round-up operation put in place by President Barack Obama’s administration.

There are 2.6 million Sal-vadorans living in America. Their remittances to fami-lies in their home country amount to more than $4 bil-lion a year, or 17 percent of El Salvador’s gross domestic product.

M o s c o w , R u s -sia | AFP | Saturday 1/9/2016 – Russia opened an investigation on Saturday after a hospital doctor was captured on video punching a patient, knocking him to the floor and killing him instantly.

The shocking video of the attack in the southern city of Belgorod was aired re-peatedly on state television and went viral on YouTube, while Russian media nick-named the attacker “the boxer doctor.”

The incident raised ques-tions over a cover-up culture in state medicine, with in-vestigators only announcing the probe several days later, after security camera foot-age was released online and shown on television.

In the video, the strong-ly-built doctor in med-ical clothing drags the bare-chested male patient from the examination table, asking him “why did you touch the nurse?” and push-es him out of the doorway.

When the patient returns, the doctor deals him a sin-gle blow to the face and a crash can be heard as the middle-aged man falls back-wards onto the fl oor.

Meanwhile the doctor continues to scuffle with another man accompanying

the patient, and it is only minutes later that the med-ics notice the patient lying motionless and attempt unsuccessfully to revive him.

Belgorod’s Investigative Committee said in a state-ment released Saturday that the incident took place on December 29.

The doctor hit the patient in the face after he “kicked a nurse during a procedure,” the investigators said.

“The cause of death of the victim was trauma to the skull and brain from hitting the back of the head on the hard surface of the fl oor.”

Death through negligence -

Russian media named the doctor as Ilya Zelendinov, a surgeon at the hospital, and the patient as 56-year-old Yevgeny Bakhtin.

Investigators said the doctor was suspected of causing death through neg-ligence, for which he could serve up to two years in jail.

He has been fi red from his job but remains free after signing a declaration that he will not travel during the investigation.

Investigators denied any delay, saying they opened a criminal probe the day after the incident, after the hospital reported the death and a post-mortem showed

a head injury.The relatively minor

charge refl ects the fact there is “no grounds to say that the doctor wanted to murder the patient,” investigators said.

“If the victim had stayed on his feet or hit his head on a less hard surface, the con-sequences would not have been so critical.”

Health Minister Veronika Skvortsova has ordered the state health watchdog to carry out a check into the incident, state television reported Saturday.

Russian medics have long operated in a culture of se-crecy, with patients having little recourse to compensa-tion for medical errors.

Last year two Russians resorted to taking guns to hospitals and shooting dead doctors for perceived mis-takes in their treatment. Both killed themselves at the scene.

Washington, United States | AFP | Sunday 1/10/2016 – Actor Sean Penn took on a heap of US criti-cism Sunday, one day after Rolling Stone magazine published his account of a clandestine meeting with Mexican drug baron Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman.

In the article, the actor and director says he met Guzman deep in the Mex-ican jungle in October for a “seven-hour sit-down” because he was “drawn to explore what may be in-consistent” with media and government portrayals of Guzman.

On the American right, where Republican presiden-tial hopefuls are battling it out, Penn’s exploits were greeted with scorn.

US Senator Marco Rubio, one of the Republicans run-ning for his party’s nomina-tion for the White House, said Penn’s efforts were outlandish, but not before dishing out a healthy plate of criticism on the star’s acting career.

“Look, I think Sean Penn is not someone I spend a lot of time thinking about. I didn’t even know he was still around,” Rubio said.

“If one of these American actors who have benefi ted from the greatness of this country, who have made money from our free enter-prise system, want to go

fawn all over a criminal and a drug traffi cker in their in-terviews they have a consti-tutional right to do it. I fi nd it grotesque,” he continued.

‘This so-called interview’ -On the left, even the most

circumspect of phrasing pegged Penn’s exploits as begging “a lot of interesting questions.”

Democratic presidential candidate Bernie Sanders told ABC news “I haven’t thought about it much. I’ve been kind of running around Iowa.”

The White House, which avoided answering ques-tions on any ethical and legal violations that may have occurred, denounced comments made by Guzman himself during the inter-view.

In a stunning admission of his criminal enterprise, Penn says Guzman told him over sips of tequila that “I supply more heroin, meth-amphetamine, cocaine and marijuana than anybody else in the world.”

D e n i s M c D o n o u g h , White House chief of staff, told CNN that Guzman’s “braggadocios action about how much heroin he sends around the world including the United States is mad-dening.”

Asked whether the US will participate with Mexico on its requests to question Penn, McDonough replied:

“It poses a lot of interesting questions for him and others involved in this so-called interview. We’ll see what happens.” Leading media lawyer Floyd Abrams told AFP Sunday that the inter-view will not likely put Penn in any legal jeopardy as it “doesn’t violate any law.”

‘What happens to real journalists’ -

Journalists, meanwhile, spared no effort in criticiz-ing Penn and his article on everything from its ethical merits to writing style.

Chief among concerns was the fact that the story had been read and approved by Guzman before publica-tion, a move that is highly irregular within the field, although some defended the magazine, on the basis that the scoop was worth it.

Washington Post exec-utive editor Marty Baron tweeted a link to a December story about the dangers and death faced by Mexican jour-nalists, commenting: “Good moment to remember what happens to real journalists who cover Mexican drug traffi ckers.”

NBC correspondent Luke Russert, son of famed Amer-ican journalist Tim Rus-sert, sarcastically asked on Twitter: “Is Sean Penn’s interview with Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi in the next is-sue?” referring to the leader of the Islamic State group.

Russian doctor caught on camera fl ooring patient with deadly punch

El Salvador starts scheme for citizens deported from US

Sean Penn’s ‘Chapo’ article roasted on air, online

ANIMALTESTING

FIGHTING

President Benigno S. Aquino III administers the oath of offi ce to newly appointed government offi cials in a ceremony at the Rizal Hall of the Malacañan Palace on Thursday (January 7). Also in photo are DTI Secretary Adrian S. Cristobal Jr., Presidential Assistant on Food Security and Agricultural Modernization Fredelita C. Guiza and TESDA Director-General Irene M. Isaac. (MNS photo)

THE US ASIAN POST Wednesday - Tuesday, January 15-21, 2016 Visit www.usasianpost.com 3

By Glenn ChapmanL a s V e g a s , U n i t e d

States | AFP | Saturday 1/9/2016 – Turntables turned heads as a renewed love of old-time vinyl records struck a chord at the fa-mously futuristic Consumer Electronics Show.

Sony, Panasonic, Victrola, and Audio-Technica were among the companies show-ing off turntables boasting digital age spins such as high-resolution audio or wirelessly connecting to speakers.

Turntable makers at CES, which wraps in Las Vegas on Saturday, told of vinyl records being all the rage after years of digital tunes dominating the music industry.

Sony Electronics presi-dent Mike Fasulo said at the show that vinyl records were “on fi re” and that the Japanese entertainment giant’s music arm was work-ing hard to keep up with demand.

A Victrola booth on the CES show fl oor was packed with a wide array of turn-tables that combined mod-ern features with vintage designs.

Victrola turntables date back more than a century, and the brand was bought recently by Innovative Tech-

nology which has offi ces in the US and Hong Kong.

Connecting with music“There is something retro

about vinyl that inspires the nostalgia in all of us,” Guill-ermo Moncada of Innovative told AFP at the Victrola booth.

“We grew up with our par-ents vinyl collections, and our millennial generation is now collecting them as well,” the 29-year-old continued.

“We have a personal re-lationship with vinyl as opposed to an MP3 fi le.”

While digital music from mobile devices or streamed online might slipped into the background for people, vinyl tends to be more tactile and interactive. Listeners may admire album cover art or ponder lyrics printed on the back or on record sleeves..

Records also call for lis-teners to get involved by fl ipping them over.

“You are sitting there ac-tually enjoying the music,” Moncada said of opting for vinyl records.

“You have a connection with it in a sense; that is something a lot of us are starting to realize again.”

In addition, many audio-philes appreciate the sound of music on vinyl, grainy edges and all.

Vintage meets modern -

Turntables have been hot sellers for Los Angeles-based Boytone, which even has a model with a cassette tape player.

An array of turntables found at CES were built into carry cases to go mobile in designs reminiscent of de-cades past.

Despite vintage looks, new model turn tables boast-ed features such as Blue-tooth connections to speak-ers of headphones, or being able to plug into computers so music on records could be “ripped,” or copied, into digital fi les.

“It allows you to keep your turntable and vinyl in one room while enjoying your records virtually anywhere in the house,” Crystal Grif-fi th of Audio-Technica said of wireless capabilities in a freshly-unveiled model.

A new Sony turntable included the ability to auto-matically convert analogue music from records into digital format for listening on other devices.

“Our new PS-HX500 turntable serves as an im-portant bridge that connects the growing number of vinyl record collectors to the con-venience and sound quality afforded by hi-res audio,” Yamato Tanikawa of Sony Electronics said in a release.

San Francisco, United States | AFP | Thursday 1/7/2016 – A US judge has ruled that a macaque mon-key who snapped grinning selfi es that went viral last year online does not own the copyright to the photo-graphs.

Activist group People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals brought the case in San Francisco on behalf of Indonesian simian Naruto, who shot to fame last year after a photographer pub-lished pictures taken by the monkey with his camera.

PETA petitioned the court to have the macaque “declared the author and owner of his photograph.”

But in a preliminary rul-ing Wednesday, Judge Wil-liam Orrick said that “while Congress and the President can extend the protection of law to animals as well as humans, there is no indica-tion that they did so in the Copyright Act.”

The photos were taken in 2011 on the Indonesian island of Sulawesi by British nature photographer David Slater. He later published a book of his photographs, which included two selfi es taken by six-year-old Naru-to.

The San Francisco-based company that published the book – Blurb – was named as a co-defendant in the case.

In filing the lawsuit, PETA had argued that “US copyright law doesn’t pro-hibit an animal from own-ing a copyright, and since Naruto took the photo, he owns the copyright, as any human would.”

Slater insists he owns the rights since he set up the tripod and walked away for a few minutes only to fi nd out that the monkey had grabbed his camera and snapped away.

When the copyright con-troversy erupted, he said that the widespread distri-bution of the photos on the Internet had cost him a lot of money by robbing his book of potential sales.

By Michael MathesWashington, United

States | AFP | Saturday 1/9/2016 – Jeb Bush’s US presidential bid is boiling down to early voting New Hampshire, some associates say, while others envision his protracted battle for the Republican nomination stretching deep into the spring.

Either way, supporters and analysts agree it will be diffi cult for Bush, a former Florida governor and son and brother of two pres-idents, to emerge as the nominee given American conservatives’ current ap-petite for anti-establishment candidates and the roiling ethno-nationalism of erratic frontrunner Donald Trump.

Bush launched his cam-paign as the prohibitive fa-vorite, his main hurdle being overcoming foreign policies of his presidential brother George W. Bush.

Jeb’s team, and a sup-porting SuperPAC, a fund-raising entity allowed to raise an unlimited amount of money, raked in a strato-spheric $100 million in early months.

Today his poll numbers are in single digits and other campaigns appear to count him out.

He is mocked relentless-ly by Trump, who tweeted Friday that new figures showing his rival’s poor favorability were “not good news for Jeb Bush.”

Despite his command of the issues Bush has ap-peared stiff and frustrated at Republican debates.

In private, according to one major donor and ac-quaintance, Bush has ex-pressed exasperation at the state of the race, and how a bullying tycoon with a tenuous grasp of foreign policy has commandeered the primaries.

“He’s said he can’t quite understand this phenome-non,” the donor, who spoke under anonymity so he could discuss the campaign more freely, told AFP.

It has been distressing, the donor said, for Bush “to see someone like Trump

rewarded for so many in-tolerant, outrageous, false statements that he says all the time.”

With Bush running sixth out of 12 Republicans, aver-aging 3.3 percent in polls, his campaign reportedly has now cancelled television ads in Iowa, which votes on February 1.

Instead he redeployed many staffers to New Hamp-shire to blanket the state until the February 9 pri-mary, members of his state leadership team said.

“I’ve now come to a recog-nition that New Hampshire is probably do or die for Jeb,” the donor said.

“I never would have thought that,” he added. “But he has put so many resources into New Hamp-shire, it’s like he’s pushing all the chips into the center of the table.”

‘Volatile’ primaries -Bush is not alone. Fellow

establishment candidates like New Jersey Governor Chris Christie and Ohio Governor John Kasich are crowding in for town-hall events as they make their stands in the all-important Granite State.

“It certainly doesn’t look wonderful for Jeb Bush,” observed Steffen Schmidt, an Iowa State University professor who has analyzed presidential races for 40 years. “When you were sup-posed to be the establish-ment guy and now you’re languishing at the bottom of the polls with Mike Huck-abee and a bunch of other losers, it’s tough.”

And yet Schmidt insisted a long-term path exists for Bush beyond Iowa and New Hampshire, provided he does not tank there.

Wins in those early states carry huge psychological boosts, but the primary race is about winning enough overall delegates to earn the nomination.

Schmidt notes that Re-publicans in several large states like New York, Illi-nois, Ohio, Wisconsin and Pennsylvania, which vote in March and April, and California and New Jersey

in June, are more moderate and less likely to support Trump or today’s number two candidate, conservative Senator Ted Cruz.

“The Republican estab-lishment is going apoplectic with both Trump and Cruz,” Schmidt said.

“If Bush is able to get some momentum and get his act together, he could go long.”

That change in dynamic could take several weeks to coalesce, said Schmidt, stressing that Bush’s large war chest would prove cru-cial down the road.

“In California it’s not a ground war, it’s an air war,” he explained. “It’s all televi-sion, and that’s expensive.”

New Hampshire state Representative Carlos Gon-zalez, a Bush supporter, said he remained optimistic despite the poor polls.

“His game is up to par, and he’ll do better than ex-pected,” Gonzalez said.

“I wouldn’t say it’s crunch time, because the whole primary season is very vol-atile.”

Meanwhile he and other observers said Bush’s team and SuperPAC Right to Rise ought to hit Trump even harder than they are pres-ently doing.

Of the $99.3 million spend by independent groups on advertising in the campaign cycle up to January 4, 2016, just two percent went to spots attacking Trump, ac-cording to a Huffi ngton Post analysis.

Political consultant Stu-art Stevens, who strategized for Republican nominee Mitt Romney in 2012, said going negative on Trump is exactly what Bush should have done from the start, in-stead of making the “terrible mistake” of also attacking establishment rivals.

“There is no shame in losing a presidential race,” Stevens told AFP.

“But to run and lose and in the process end up help-ing the person who most represents everything you oppose in the Republican Party and public life, that would be a tragedy.”

President Benigno S. Aquino III greets Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth aff airs of the UK of Great Britain and Northern Ireland Rt. Hon. Philip Hammond MP, during the courtesy call at the Music Room of the Malacañan Palace on Thursday (January 7). Also in photo is Foreign Aff airs Secretary Albert del Rosario. (MNS photo)

President Benigno S. Aquino III exchanges pleasantries with Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth aff airs of the UK of Great Britain and Northern Ireland Rt. Hon. Philip Hammond MP, during the courtesy call at the Music Room of the Malacañan Palace on Thursday (January 7). Also in photo is Ambassador of the UK of Great Britain and Northern Ireland to the Philippines Ambassador Asif Ahmad. (MNS photo)

President Benigno S. Aquino III administers the oath of offi ce to newly appointed government offi cials in a ceremony at the Rizal Hall of the Malacañan Palace on Thursday (January 7). (MNS photo)

US court rules selfi e monkey can’t own photo copyright

Jeb Bush races to salvage presidential campaignWaxing nostalgic over vinyl records at CES

Visit www.usasianpost.com Wednesday - Tuesday, January 15-21, 2016 THE US ASIAN POST4

OPINIONMANILA, Jan 8 (Mabuhay) – Lawyer Estrella Elamparo

on Friday asked the Supreme Court to dismiss Sen. Grace Poe’s petition against her disqualifi cation, saying the law-maker does not seem interested in being recognized as a Filipino but is only after her ambition to become president.

In her formal comment submitted to the SC, Elamparo noted how Poe, a foundling from Iloilo adopted by celebrity couple Fernando Poe Jr. and Susan Roces, has repeatedly rejected the notion that she is a naturalized Filipino.

“Some legal scholars and jurists have opined that peti-tioner is a Filipino national by virtue of an abbreviated form of naturalization - considering that she has been de facto considered by the government a Filipino, and has in fact been issued a Philippine passport,” said Elamparo.

“But petitioner is simply not interested in citizenship… Obviously, petitioner is not after being a Filipino national only, because mere citizenship or nationality that is not enough to give her the Presidency. What she wants is to be considered natural-born,” the lawyer added.

Elamparo said Poe had repeatedly stated that she is not a naturalized Filipino in the verifi ed answer and memorandun she fi led with the Commission on Elections (Comelec) in re-sponse to Elamparo’s plea to have her certifi cate of candidacy for the 2016 presidential polls cancelled.

“Viewed in this light, one can easily see the hypocrisy behind her quest for the Presidency. Enough with the sen-timental pleas. This Petition is not about being recognized as a Filipino; it is about her misguided ambition which regrettably unfortunately runs roughshod against the fun-damental law,” said Elamparo.

Elamparo defends ComelecIn her petition, Elamparo asked the SC to dismiss Poe’s

petition against the Comelec because the lawmaker alleged-ly failed to prove the poll body decided in a “capricious and whimsical” manner in canceling her COC.

“A mere disagreement with Comelec on the weight it gave to certain evidence or on its interpretation of some diffi cult provisions of law is no basis to strike down the Comelec deci-sion as despotic, arbitrary or whimsical,” read her comment.

Elamparo maintained that Poe’s declaration in her 2012 COC for senator of having a residency of six years and six months was not an honest mistake but an admission against interest.

According to Elamparo, despite supposedly realizing the supposed mistake early in 2015, Poe did not do anything about it until she was “ambushed” by the media sometime in June 2015, a day after the camp of a political rival raised the issue.

Elamparo said the earliest reckoning period of Poe’s resi-dency was from July 2006 when she re-acquired Philippine citizenship.

She said Poe could have established her residency had she acquired a permanent resident visa, “which she did not do, negating further any intent to reside in the Philippines prior to July 2006.”

Elamparo also said the Comelec was not bound by a sep-arate decision from the Senate Electoral Tribunal, which declared Poe as a natural-born citizen in November last year.

She said the Comelec was correct to rule that a foundling like Poe is not a natural-born Filipino, and that interna-tional law does not confer natural born status and Filipino citizenship to Poe.

Comelec decision vs. PoeIn the December 23, 2015, ruling that Poe was contesting

before the SC, the Comelec en banc junked Poe’s petitions against the separate rulings of the First and Second Divi-sions canceling her COC for president.

The en banc voted 5-1-1 upholding the decision of the Second Division on Elamparo’s petition to cancel Poe’s COC because of her failure to meet the constitutional requirement of a 10-year residency for presidential candidates.

The Comelec en banc, meanwhile, voted 5-2 to uphold the First Division’s decision disqualifying her from the 2016 presidential election based on questions of citizenship and residency raised by former Senator Francisco Tatad, politi-cal analyst Antonio Contreras and former law dean Amado Valdez.

Elamparo: Poe more interested in political ambition than citizenship

V a t i c a n C i t y , H o l y See | AFP | Sunday 1/10/2016 – Pope Francis describes himself as “a sinner” in need of God’s mercy, in an upcoming book where he also urges the Catholic Church to focus on its mission as a grassroots, hands-on organisation.

The first book of his papacy, “The Name of God is Mercy,” pub-lished on Tuesday in 86 countries, comprises a series of interviews, some of them highly personal, with the 79-year-old Argentine-born pope.

In extracts from the French-lan-guage edition provided to AFP by the French publisher Laffont, the pope calls himself “a man who is in need of God’s mercy.”

Expounding on the notion of forgiveness, the pope – a frequent visitor to prisons – refers to his

“special relationship” with con-victs.

“I have always been very much attached to them, precisely be-cause of the awareness that I have of being a sinner,” Francis says, according to AFP’s translation of the extracts.

“Every time I cross the doorway of a prison, I always ask myself, ‘Why are they are here, and not me?’ I should be here, I should deserve to be here. Their fall could have been mine. I don’t feel superi-or to those in front of me.”

The pope, interviewed by veter-an Vatican reporter Andrea Torn-ielli, talks of the power of “shame,” describing it as guidance from God for providing a moral path.

“Shame is a grace: When we feel God’s mercy, we really are ashamed of ourselves. Despite all

our past of wretchedness and sin, God remains faithful to us and raises us up.”

Turning to the jubilee year he launched on December 8, whose theme is divine mercy, the pope says, “The church condemns sin, because it has to tell the truth: this is a sin. But at the same time, it embraces the sinner who acknowl-edges what he is.”

“I hope that the jubilee will show the face of a Church which is rediscovering the womb of mercy,” Francis added.

“A Church that goes out into the world... a fi eld hospital whose characteristic is to spring up wher-ever there’s fighting. Not some elaborate structure, kitted out with everything... (but) a mobile structure, for saving (people), for fast intervention.”

By Laurent ThometM e x i c o C i t y , M e x i -

co | AFP | Sunday 1/10/2016 – The recapture of kingpin Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman was a boost to the Mexican government, but his Sinaloa drug cartel lives on despite the loss of its “CEO,” analysts say.

The gang, whose empire stretch-es around the world, will retain its supply of cocaine from South America, keep feeding addicts in the United States and fi ll its coffers full of cash.

“The capture won’t have a sig-nifi cant impact other than a mor-al victory,” Mike Vigil, a former international operations chief at the US Drug Enforcement Admin-istration, told AFP.

“It’s going to continue to func-tion. It’s not even going to skip a beat,” Vigil said.

To make a real dent, the gov-ernment should go after the car-tel’s assets, bank accounts and properties while cleaning up the corruption that has aided the criminal enterprise, the former law enforcement offi cial said.

“The infrastructure has been developed through decades, and the fact of the matter is that just because they get rid of the CEO doesn’t mean that it’s going to collapse,” he said.

While the 58-year-old Guzman now faces the prospect of being ex-

tradited to the United States, the cartel has another veteran leader ready to step in, Ismael “El Mayo” Zambada, who is in his late 60s.

Guzman’s sons are active in the cartel, but Zambada – a man who never spent a night behind bars – is seen as the natural successor who has the respect of his peers.

Drug lord’s view -Guzman himself told US actor

Sean Penn in an interview for Rolling Stone magazine that the business would go on without him.

“The day that I don’t exist, it won’t reduce drug trafficking,” Guzman said in a video, answer-ing questions that Penn sent to him months before his capture. The pair also met in a secretive, sitdown interview.

Raul Benitez Manaut, a security expert at the National Autonomous University of Mexico, said the car-tel continued to operate normally during the 17 months that Guzman was incarcerated until his escape on July 11.

“It’s not destroyed. It is weak-ened, but it can rebuild because it has ‘Mayo’ Zambada,” Benitez said.

While he was in prison, Guzman told Penn, his business did not change. “Nothing has decreased. Nothing has increased,” he said.

Benitez said some rivals could now seek to seize on Guzman’s capture to gain terrain.

“The ones who must be happy are the Gulf cartel, because they are their main competitors,” the expert said.

The Sinaloa cartel dominates Mexico’s Pacifi c region while their rivals operate along the coast of the Gulf of Mexico.

The two gangs have fought bloody turf wars over control of the drug trade to the United States over the years, though the Gulf cartel has been weakened by the capture or deaths of its own leaders.

‘More work to be done’ -Gustavo Fondevila, a security

expert at the Center for Economic Research and Teaching, said the Sinaloa cartel will avoid the frag-mentation or infighting seen in other groups whose leaders have been arrested or killed.

“It’s not a cartel that has inter-nal problems,” Fondevila said.

“This doesn’t diminish the work of the security agencies. Catching ‘El Chapo’ was very important be-cause you can’t let a character like that on the loose,” he said.

A federal offi cial, who agreed to speak on condition of anonymity, told AFP that Guzman’s arrest was an “unprecedented success” for federal forces.

But, the official conceded, “there’s always more work to be done against organized crime.”

M a n i l a , P h i l i p -pines | AFP | Friday 1/8/2016 – China’s economy, as well as Asia’s, are unlikely to slow down sharply this year despite Chinese stock turmoil that has rocked global fi nancial markets, the Asian Development Bank president said Friday.

Sharp selloffs in the Chinese stock markets this week have re-newed fears about the fate of the world’s second-largest economy and the knock-on effects across the globe.

“I don’t have a very pessimistic view about China,” ADB president Takehiko Nakao told reporters in Manila, adding the bank was maintaining its 6.7-percent eco-nomic growth forecast this year for China.

This would only be slightly

lower than its 6.9-percent growth projection for the country in 2015.

Developing Asia as a whole, which has been highly dependent on China, should grow 6.0 percent, or up from 5.8 percent forecast for 2015, Nakao said.

Nakao said China was suc-cessfully undertaking important reforms, such as making its econ-omy less reliant on investment and more on domestic consumer demand. He also cited ongoing reform of state-owned enterprises, expansion of the social security system and reduction of disparities between Chinese cities and rural areas.

“Also there is room for stimu-lus... because its fi scal position is strong and infl ation is subdued,” he said.

Nakao said that, despite the

latest turmoil on the Shanghai bourse, the index was still about 1,000 points above its end-2013 level.

Nakao also said he did not be-lieve the yuan currency’s depreci-ation was a deliberate attempt by the Chinese authorities to weaken it to boost exports.

“This depreciation is not be-cause of artifi cial intervention to lower the renminbi,” he said, using another term for the yuan.

“It is in a sense the other way. They don’t intervene, that’s why there is a marked depreciation.”

Nakao said a rapid depreciation could trigger a reciprocal move by other countries.

“Already some countries have depreciations in currencies. But I don’t think this is a currency war,” he said.

Pope says he’s ‘a sinner in need of God’s mercy’

Sinaloa drug cartel lives on despite ‘CEO’s’ capture

Chinese economy stable: ADB president

MANILA, Jan 9 (Mabuhay) – The message of Manila Archbish-op Luis Antonio Cardinal Tagle centered on faith and devotion of Filipinos to the Black Nazarene.

Tagle presided over the mid-night Mass held at the Quirino Grandstand in Luneta, Manila, hours before the annual procession of the Black Nazarene.

The prelate reminded the thou-sands of devotees present that even if they are unable to visit the image of the Black Nazarene everyday, their devotion is alive with the celebration of the Mass.

Tagle emphasized that devotion to the Nazarene is more than all the pushing and pulling, or squeez-ing one’s self into throngs of other devotees crowding the path of the Christ’s black image.

“Para doon sa iba na ang akala ang mga deboto ay nagtutulakan lamang. Hindi po. Naranasan niyo na ba na wala kayong makapitan? Kapag naranasan niyo iyan, nandi-yan ang Nazareno, lumapit ka, ku-mapit ka, mauunawaan mo bakit ganyan na lang ang kagustuhan ng mga deboto makalapit sa kanya,” said Tagle.

Tagle said that devotion to the Black Nazarene does not only involve being thankful but also offering sacrifices to God, even as he cited devotees who waited seven hours in line along Roxas Boulevard just to get close to the Nazarene for three seconds.

Tagle also spoke of stories from people who no longer were able to join the procession but still mani-fested their devotion to the Naza-

rene simply by preparing food and handing them out to other devotees passing by their house.

“Ilan lamang po ito sa napaka-hahalaga at matingkad na aspeto ng pagpapakita ng ating debosyon at pananampalataya kay Hesus Nazareno... Ang pagbibigay ng sa-rili, pagsasakripisyo, pagpaparan-gal sa Poong Nazareno,” he said.

Tagle emphasized the true meaning of the Eucharist during the Black Nazarene procession.

“Mga kapatid na deboto ng Nazareno, regalo ka ni Hesus sa iba. Ibinibigay ka ni Hesus sa iba. Ipakita mo ang gawa ng Diyos ang pag-ibig ng Diyos,” Tagle said.

“Hinawakan nagpasalamat, ibinigay ang sarili. Iyan ang eucahristiya, ang buhay ng suma-sampalataya,” he added.

Tagle on devotion to Black Nazarene: It’s more than the pulling and pushing

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Bangs Garcia is engaged. The 28-year-old Garcia is set to marry her half-British boyfriend, Lloyd Birchmore, according to a video posted on Instagram by her friend, Star Magic artist Marlann Flores.

The short clip shows Birchmore asking Garcia for her hand in marriage. It also provides a glimpse of Garcia’s engagement ring. The caption read: “Omg I’m so happy for my best friend Val! I wish you all the best!”

Meanwhile, Garcia posted a photo of her and Birchmore on her Instagram account. The two are currently in Bo-

racay with their respective families for the holidays.

She wrote a short poem dedicated to her fiance,

which she concluded with: “I am so happy we are here in our sweet horizon once again and we will always keep on coming back here as much as we can. You make me the happiest baby ko.”

Garc ia gushed over Birchmore. “Actually sa la-hat ng naging relationships ko, I really feel him more kasi it’s my fi rst time to be very in sync with my boy-friend,” she said.

The actress also admitted that she is fortunate to have a supportive boyfriend who understands how show busi-ness works even if he is not from the industry. (MNS)

Former Viva Hot Babe member Jen Rosendahl gave birth to a healthy baby boy last Tuesday at the Cardinal Santos Medical Center in San Juan, the sexy actress shared on her Instagram account.

“Thank you for all the prayers! Baby Tyler is healthy and I am also okay,” she wrote as the caption to a photo of her holding her fi rst child with husband Jules Changco. Rosendahl is the latest celebrity to give birth to their fi rst child, following the likes of Marian Rivera, Bianca Gonzalez and Em-press Schuck. (MNS)

Jasmine Curtis-Smith will play the leading lady of Richard Gutierrez in TV5’s series for next year, “Ang Panday.”

This was announced by Viva big boss Vic Del Rosa-rio, now head of TV5 enter-tainment content.

Jasmine will be in Aus-tralia with her mom and siblings for Christmas.

“But once she comes home, she will start taping,” said a TV5 insider.

Also in the cast of “Ang Panday” is child actor Alonzo Muhlach.

Meanwhile, the lead role in the remake of “Tasya Fan-tasya” is still up for grabs.

“Actually, pinag-u-usa-pan pa namin,” revealed Vic del Rosario, “Hard to follow ang naging success ng two versions nito.

“The first one, a movie in 1994, had Kris Aquino playing the title role.

“The movie, directed by Carlo J. Caparas, who also authored the comics novel, was a super success.

“Successful din sa rating ang ‘Tasya Fantasya’ when it was made as a GMA 7 se-ries starring Yasmien Kurdi

in the year 2006,” he further stated.

“Tasya Fantasya” and

“Ang Panday” are both works of Carlo J. Caparas. (MNS)

Singer-actor Mark Bau-tista is welcoming the new year as a freelancer.

Bautista said he is con-tent with his current status.

“Para sa akin, sa stage ko ngayon, parang okay pa na wala munang network,” he said.

He added that he feels like he needs to prove that he is deserving of the proj-ects he had been getting, and that he has no problem with starting again as a singer.

As a freelancer, Bautista said he has been receiving invitations from different networks, including acting stints for ABS-CBN.

He also said he wants to go back to performing on theater.

Bautista was part of the musical “Here Lies Love,” which ended its run in Lon-don in early 2015. He is also part of “Bituing Walang Ningning,” which will have a rerun this month. (MNS)

Veteran television host German Moreno died of car-diac arrest early morning on Friday, his nephew Johh Nite confi rmed.

He was 82. Moreno died at around

3:20 a.m. while confi ned in a hospital in Quezon City. He was rushed to the hospital past 7 p.m. on Thursday.

In January last year, he was rushed to the acute stroke unit of the St. Luke’s Medical Center in Quezon City after suffering a mild stroke.

A popular host, actor, co-median and talent manager, Moreno, or more popularly known as “Kuya Germs,”

began his career in show business in the 1960s.

Before becoming an actor, Moreno worked as a janitor and a curtain raiser at the Clover Theater.

He later went on to pur-sue a career on the bodabil stage as a comedian.

Moreno’s biggest break came when he hosted “GMA Supershow” in the 1980s.

His name was immortal-ized in Philippine showbiz as host and producer of the then long-running youth-ori-ented show “That’s Enter-tainment.” (MNS)

Weeks after she broke down in tears when she split up with her boyfriend, comedienne K Brosas con-fi rmed that she is now seeing someone new.

“Kinikilig talaga ako,” Brosas said during a televi-sion interview.

Recently, Brosas emo-tionally announced their break up due to commitment issues.

However, the comedienne was in high spirits as she narrated how they met.

“Kasama ko ang mga friends ko. Nag-gathering kami, karaoke, kasi kail-angan mo ng company kasi baka anytime sumabog ka. He was there,” she said. (MNS)

Kapamilya star Judy Ann Santos gave birth to a healthy baby girl Friday afternoon, her husband an-nounced.

On his personal Insta-gram page, TV host Ryan Agoncillo posted an image that had the word “success.”

The caption had a hashtag that read: “January 8, 2016 [Juana Luisa Santos-Agon-cillo].”

Santos and Agoncillo ear-lier revealed their plans to name their third child Juana Luisa, or Luna for short.

Agoncillo left the set of his noontime program hours ago after learning that Santos is about to give birth.

Agoncillo admitted that it was Santos who wanted to have another baby.

“When we started hindi namin alam kung ilan ang gusto naming baby. Noong may dalawa na at fi ve-years-old na si Lucho, my wife said she wanted another. Aayaw pa ba ako?” he quipped.

Santos and Agoncillo, who married in 2009, have two other children -adopted daughter Yohan and biolog-ical son Lucho. (MNS)

Frankie Pang i l inan seems to be following the musical footsteps of her mother Sharon Cuneta.

According to Pangilinan’s sister, , the 15-year-old is very passionate about music.

“Nakikita ko na mahal na mahal niyang kumanta. She loves composing, sing-ing, playing guitar. I would never want to clip someone’s wings.

I think everyone deserves to shine if they have the chance. Everyone deserves support and I think the worst thing you can do to a kid is to make her feel like it’s a mistake to like to sing or perform. So I am all out support for my sister. I would never ever want her to feel that she has no place here because everyone has a place in this industry,” Concepcion said.

Asked if their mother will allow Frankie to pursue a singing career, Concepcion said: “Mom has always been protective but maybe it’s different with Frankie now.

Maybe she sees a lot of other daughters of actors also doing their thing. As someone who was born sa showbiz parents, I think that it should be okay. I’m her ate, of course, I will sup-port but siguro mom is just very protective. She doesn’t want any of us to be hurt.”

Last October, Cuneta uploaded a rare video of her singing John Lennon’s “Imagine” with Frankie and Concepcion.

Concepcion is Cuneta’s

daughter with former hus-band Gabby Concepcion, while Frankie is one of her three children with former senator Francis Panglinan. (MNS)

Jasmine Curtis-Smith to star with Richard Gutierrez

Jasmine Curtis-Smith

Mark Bautista now a freelancer

Mark Bautista

Former Viva Hot Babe gives birth to fi rst child

Jen Rosendahl

Judy An Santos and Ryan Agoncillo

Judy Ann Santos gives birth to baby girl

Bangs Garcia engaged to British boyfriend

Bangs Garcia

‘Master Showman’ German Moreno dies

German Moreno

After emotional split, K Brosas fi nds new love?

K Brosas

KC reveals sister Frankie wants to be a singer

KC Concepcion and Frankie Pangilinan

Mag

Life and Leisure News

Tayo!

for Filipino-Americans

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tayo!

Life and Leisure News for Filipino-Americans

www.usasianpost.com

By Abner Galino“They forget a fundamen-

tal lesson about our great country. Being an open and tolerant society does not make us vulnerable. It’s at the core of our strength.”

With these words, Demo-cratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton slammed the supposed “hateful rhet-oric” of Republican presi-dential candidates before a well-attended gathering of Asian-Americans in a hotel in the town of San Gabriel, a suburb of Los Angeles.

Clinton went on to attack her Republican rivals by going back to the Great Re-cession that happened at the end of the administration President George W. Bush.

“Make no mistake about it. What we are hearing from all them (Republican can-didates) is the same failed policies that led to the Great Recession. They want to slash taxes on the wealthy. Put consumers at the mercy of drug companies” Clinton went on, claiming that the economy “does better when you have Democratic pres-ident.”

“In fact, you are four times more likely to have a reces-sion when you have a Repub-lican in the White House,”

she concluded, which drew cheer from the crowd.

The presidential hopeful also stressed that President Barack Obama was not get-ting the credit that he de-served for saving the collaps-ing economy and bringing it back to life.

Clinton recalled that the US was losing around 800,000 jobs a month, the stock market was down and the automotive industry was on the brink of collapse when the government was handed to Obama.

Clinton’s campaign stop in the San Gabriel Valley to woo Asian Americans and Pacifi c Islanders total-ly ignored her Democratic presidential campaign rival Bernie Sanders.

Her tactic amazed many political kibitzers because her speech did not attempt to solicit support for her for the upcoming causeses in Iowa and New Hamp-shire which are expected to become tough as Sanders gain momentum on the said states.

Clinton doesn’t need to work hard to win Asian Americans and Pacific Is-landers in California be-cause they tend to vote Dem-ocratic anyway. The political

influence of the said mi-norities are critical in some swing states but obviously not in California which is a blue state.

In her speech that last-ed for about half an hour, Clinton promised to fi x the nation’s broken immigra-tion system, improve access to higher education, and increase wages. She also promised to reduce the visa backlogs, which she under-stood, differ from one coun-try to another.

“Ultimately this is more than an economic or political issue. It’s a family issue,” Clinton said.

Meanwhile, a big delega-tion of Filipino Americans came to the event show their support for Clinton. The delegation was led by mil-lionaire-philantropist-law-yer Loida Nicolas Lewis who paid for the buses that brought the Filipino Amer-ican groups to San Gabriel Valley.

In a pep talk while on their way to the forum, Nicolas-Lewis reminded the delegates that World War II fi rst received social security benefi ts during the term of Democratic President Bill Clinton. The benefi ts contin-ue up to this day, she said,

Democratic Presidential candidate and former U.S. Senator Hillary Clinton speaks to her supporters during the launching of the Asian American and Pacifi c Islander (AAPI) for Hillary on Thursday in San Gabriel.

A big delegation of Filipino Americans came to the event to show their support for Clinton. The delegation was led by millionaire-philanthropist-lawyer Loida Nicolas Lewis (center) who paid for the buses that brought the Filipino American groups to San Gabriel Valley.

Fil-am delegation from Los Angeles, Las Vegas and San Francisco with millionaire-philanthropist-lawyer Loida Nicolas Lewis, join forces to show their support to the Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton.

Clinton visits San Gabriel, slams GOP hateful rhetoric

and have been very helpful to the war veterans because they can access around 75 percent of these benefits even if they come home to the Philippines to retire for good.

“That is why I am re-ally passionate about the prospect of Hillary Clinton

becoming the next president of the United States,” Nico-las-Lewis said.

The prominent commu-nity leader added that as the second largest Asian American group in the US, the Filipino community is not getting the appropriate attention that it should get

from political parties and the government.

“So I want her (Hillary Clinton) to see us in that rally, at least 150 Filipi-nos will be there to raise our banners. So that when we need something (in the future), she has seen us,” Nicolas-Lewis said.

Photos: JUN CAMACHO

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FAMILY FEATURES

When game day arrives andfriends and family are gatheredaround the big screen to cheeryour team to victory, the only

thing missing is some great grub to makethe celebration complete.

Putting together an all-star spread isactually easier than you may think. Simplerecipes featuring high-quality ingredientsmake it possible to serve up big flavorwithout a lot of fuss. Follow these tips toscore a game day menu that will let yourguests enjoy themselves to the fullest.

Create a DIY pizza station.

Prepare dough ahead of time or purchaseindividual serving size crusts and inviteguests to make their own personal pizzas.Provide an array of fresh veggies, meats and herbs for endless combinations. Don’tforget plenty of quality cheese, and for aspecial twist, add some unexpected flavors,such as Jarlsberg Brand Cheese. Best knownas a classic wedge, this nutty, mild cheese is also wonderful shredded for a uniquelydelicious pizza flavor. Get guests startedwith this Sausage, Mushroom and HerbPizza and then invite them to get creative on their own.

Top it off right.

No game day party is complete withoutchips and dip. Take your nachos to anotherlevel with premium toppings such theseBarbecue Chicken Nachos. Other upgradedtopping options: grilled steak or chicken,grilled corn and onions, a variety offlavorful cheeses, homemade guacamole,diced fresh veggies, seasoned olives andspices, such as Cajun or Caribbean jerk.

Bring the heat.

Spice things up with peppers as an addedingredient to other treats like pizza andnachos, or make the pepper the star, as withthese Jalapeno Poppers, which blend theheat of a whole jalapeno balanced by thedistinctive flavors of goat, Jarlsberg andParmesan cheeses.

Find more game day recipes at jarlsberg.com.

Finger foods make it easy foryour fellow fans to quicklygrab a snack between playsand save the serious grub for a longer break in the action.Tide them over until halftimewith these bite-site appetiz ers.For a little extra fun, use tooth -picks bearing the mascot orsigna ture color of your fav -orite team.

Jarlsberg Cheesesalami green grape toothpick

Cut cheese and salami intobite-size cubes. Thread ingre -dients on toothpicks, varyingthe order and mixing andmatching ingredients fordifferent flavor combinations.

Cheese andMushroom Pizza

Makes: 1 pizza

1 premade pizza dough (14-16 ounces)

5 tablespoons tomato sauce

2 diced Roma tomatoes

8 ounces shredded Jarlsberg Cheese

2 ounces grated Parmesan cheese

8-10 sliced mushrooms2 teaspoons oregano

arugula (optional)

Heat oven to 425 F.Follow premade pizza

dough instructions on package. Spread thin layer of tomato

sauce and fresh tomatoes onuncooked pizza dough, sprin -kle with cheeses, top withmushrooms and finish withoregano.

Bake pizza in oven for 15-20 minutes, or until goldenbrown. Garnish with arugula,if desired.

PICK A PARTY BITE

Barbecue ChickenNachos

Makes: 1 large serving

1 rotisserie chicken1 cup barbecue

saucenacho chips

1 cup shredded Jarlsberg Cheese

1/4 cup chopped green onion

sour cream (optional)

Heat oven to 350 F.Pull white meat off

rotis serie chicken andplace in mixing bowl. Add barbecue sauce topulled chicken and gentlymix together.

Scatter nacho chips onoven-safe dish and placepulled chicken on top.Shred cheese with graterand coat top of chicken.Place in oven for approx -imately 10 minutes. Sprin -kle green onion on top andserve with sour cream, ifdesired.

Jalapeno Poppers

Makes: 16

16 whole jalapeno peppers, rinsed and drained

2 logs (4 ounces each) fresh goat cheese

1 cup shredded Jarlsberg Cheese

1/4 cup grated Parmesan cheese

1/4 cup diced green onion (scallions)

dash of hot saucecilantro leavesmini hot red

peppers (optional)

Using small sharp knife, cut slitdown one side of each pepper.Leave stem intact and removeseeds and veins.

In bowl, mash all cheeses, onionand hot sauce. Divide among pep -pers, stuffing each generously.Refrigerate. (Note: Recipe can be made ahead to this point.)

Arrange peppers in heavyaluminum foil packet. Grill 8-10minutes, or until cheese begins tomelt. Garnish with cilantro and, ifdesired, hot red peppers.

Visit www.usasianpost.com Wednesday - Tuesday, January 15-21, 2016 THE US ASIAN POST10

MOTORING Friday January 8, 2016

(Relaxnews) – From cars that come with their own pet drone or that respond to a wave of the hand to vehi-cles that provide real-time health diagnostics or can automatically interact with everything from smart ov-ens, lighting systems and thermostats around the home, automakers made an indelible impression on this year’s Las Vegas Nevada technology extravaganza.

Audi is concerned about its drivers’ health and with its Audi Fit concept can take data gathered from its own-er’s smartwatch or fi tness tracker and combine it with information about driving conditions to understand stress levels and other po-tential distractions, even suggesting that the driver take a break if the seat mas-sage or breathing exercise aren’t working.

The BMW iVision Fu-ture Interaction Concept Car explores how drivers will keep control over the

various in-car functions as vehicles become computers on wheels. The answer is panoramic touchless touch screens, responding to hand gestures instead. “This sys-tem is able to recognize 3D movements and relay them to the interface. This next step in gesture control will open up new possibilities,” said BMW’s Klaus Fröhlich.

Bosch is trying to solve the problem from the oppo-site side. Its future dash-board system is resplendent in touch screens but ones that manipulate the driv-er’s finger when touched that it feels like pressing a real knob or button. The sensation is remarkable and this sense of touching a knob makes a control easier to fi nd, meaning there’s no need to take your eyes off the road. “We want to make people’s lives better and easier, and the key to this is connectivity,” said Bosch CEO Dr. Volkmar Denner.

Rinspeed’s �tos concept had a drone for collecting

supplies, videoing drives and scouting out the road head. It sounds leftfi eld but Ford also announced plans to integrate car and drone technology at this year’s show as a means of helping United Nations emergency response teams.

Faraday Future turned heads with its fi rst car, the FFZERO1 -- a single-seat electric racer straight out of the future. “On our platform, electric vehicles will not only deliver on sustainability, but will be seamlessly connected and exhilarating to drive,” said the company’s Nick Sampson.

The car has a Bugat-ti-baiting 1000bhp and sim-ilar acceleration and top speed credentials. However it is just a concept. The fi rst production car isn’t due until at least 2018.

That means it will arrive at the same time as Volk-swagen’s Budd-e, a bat-tery-driven reimagining of its iconic Microbus. Revealed as a concept but one heading

BMW i Vision Future Interaction ©Newspress

CES 2016: The key concept cars

Saturday January 9 2016 (Relaxnews) – This year’s CES has been the biggest in history in terms of its focus on the automobile and its future in an increasingly connected world whether as autonomous form of trans-port or as an element of the

internet of things.“Our cars are already

becoming an integral part of the internet of things,” said BMW board member Klaus Fröhlich. “Customer wishes are changing. Driv-ers expect to be able to in-tegrate vehicles seamlessly

into their life – for example, their smartphone or their connected home.”

However, even though more than 100 car compa-nies, from manufacturers to suppliers, were showcas-ing their latest visions and innovations, everything is

CES: A million ideas but a trillion miles away from autonomous driving

for production, the MPV can travel 500km+ on one charge and previews features, like gesture-operated doors and

self-parking that are coming to the VW range shortly. “The original Microbus was the embodiment of peace,

hope and happiness, an apartment on wheels. The future belongs to cars that make everyone happy,” said

very much in its conceptual stage. Especially in terms of autonomous driving.

“Up to now, our indus-try has measured on-road reliability of autonomous vehicles, in the millions of miles, which is impressive. But to achieve full autonomy we actually need reliability that is a million times bet-ter. We need trillion-mile reliability,” Dr. Gill Pratt Toyota Executive Technical Advisor said.

That’s because a car stays in use for on average 10 years, is driven 10,000 a year and, in the case of Toy-ota, is sold in batches of 10 million a year.

“Society tolerates a lot of human error. But we expect machines to be much bet-ter,” continued Pratt who is leading a team focused on artifi cial intelligence to address this problem.

And as the car becomes more like a supercomputer on wheels, what will happen to the relationship with the driver?

Evolving relationship be-tween user and machine

“The future belongs to the digital car in which people are the point of focus,” said Daimler board member Prof. Dr. Thomas Weber, “Wheth-er we are talking multime-dia, assistance systems or autonomous driving – it is becoming more and more about how drivers and other vehicle occupants experience networking both in and out-side of the vehicle.”

Some companies have reimagined the car as a rolling sitting room where occupants will be able to stretch out and relax, but such concepts are racing too far ahead.

Volvo realizes that people still need a point of reference and a level or reassurance. It polled 10,000 people around the world ahead of CES to understand what drivers want from the car of the future and the top response was to stay in control.

“People have told us that they need to feel in control and have the choice of when to delegate driving to the car.

Today, that need is ultimately fulfilled with the presence of a steering wheel,” said Volvo’s Anders Tylman-Mikiewicz, “There-fore, a steering wheel is necessary until those needs change.”

So the steering wheel stays but wing mirrors are going. All concept cars from all car companies revealed this week had one thing in common: digital cameras where the door mirror would have been.

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&Fil-Am News Lifestyle

Balita.comYour premier source for Fil-Am Lifestyle. Updated daily with local, national and international news.

Washington, United States | AFP | Saturday 1/9/2016 – President Barack Obama said Saturday that he would visit the Detroit Auto Show this month so he can personally see how the industry has recovered since he took offi ce.

In his weekly radio and online address, Obama fo-cused on how his policies helped the US car industry recover.

In 2009, as the global fi nancial crisis peaked, “the American auto industry was on the brink of collapse,” Obama said.

“Plants were closing. Hundreds of thousands of workers were getting laid off ... another one million Americans would have lost their jobs,” he said.

In a controversial move taken early in his presiden-cy, Obama bailed out two major US auto companies to the tune of $80 billion. The plan was initiated under president George W. Bush, but Obama largely oversaw the bailout.

The money helped General Motors and the Chrysler Group, now Fiat Chrysler Automobiles. Ford did not take any bailout funds.

“In exchange for help, we demanded responsibility,” Obama said. “We said the auto industry would have to truly change, not just pretend that it did.”

While critics derided the plan as a “road to socialism” or a “disaster” waiting to happen, Obama said, “I’d make that bet again any day of the week.

“Because today, the American auto industry is back. Since our plan went into effect, our automakers have added more than 640,000 new jobs. We’ve cut the De-troit-area unemployment rate by more than half. The Big Three automakers are raising wages.”

Auto sales hit a 27-year low in 2009, but last year “they hit an all-time high,” he said.

“Later this month, I’ll visit the Detroit Auto Show to see this progress fi rsthand. Because I believe that every American should be proud of what our most iconic industry has done.”

The White House said that Obama will visit the annual vehicle extravaganza on January 20.

In the address Obama, who is in his last year in offi ce, crowed about economic growth and progress during his presidency, including “more than 14 million new jobs” as well as slashing the federal defi cit and a major expansion of health care coverage.

“The point is,” Obama said, “America can do any-thing. Even in times of great challenge and change, our future is entirely up to us.”

By Mira ObermanC h i c a g o , U n i t e d

States | AFP | Sunday 1/10/2016 – General Motors will be placing a big bet the American public is willing to drive a car built in China when it unveils the Buick Envision on Sunday night.

The largest US automak-er is certainly not trying to bring it to market quietly: Buick’s latest sport utility vehicle will be introduced at a lavish party on the eve of the Detroit auto show in the hopes of maximizing media coverage. “We expect it to be a great success,” Molly Peck, US marketing director for Buick, told AFP.

“It offers all the features and amenities of a luxury UV. It’s high quality, quiet, fi lled with advance safety technology. The design is gorgeous. The interior exe-cution is outstanding. And it’s all at a price point that offers a great a value.”

GM’s decision to import the Envision from China – a fi rst for a major automaker – has sparked outrage and is expected to become an is-sue in the 2016 presidential campaign.

The United Auto Workers union, which had lobbied to build the Envision in the United States, called the decision to import it from China a “slap in the face” to taxpayers who bailed GM out of bankruptcy in the wake of the fi nancial 2008 crisis.

Republican frontrunner Donald Trump has not yet seized on the issue, but given that he regularly rails against China for stealing American jobs analysts say it’s only a matter of time.

“I suspect GM is counting on the product to trump the actual Trump,” said Harley Shaiken, a professor at the University of California who specializes in labor issues and the automotive industry.

‘New era’ General Motors has come

a long way since it fi rst tried importing vehicles from a developing nation – Mexi-co – decades ago and it has systems in place to ensure that the Chinese-built En-vision matches both Amer-ican and global standards, Shaiken said.

“GM is well aware of how

a poor reputation in these early vehicles could have much larger impacts down the road,” he told AFP.

“This is a major event that opens a new era.”

It makes good business sense for GM to import the Envision from Chi-na: it sold over 1.2 million Buicks in China last year and only 223,000 in the United States. While the Envision will help boost those numbers by round-ing out Buick’s offerings in the fast-growing crossover segment, it is still only expected to reach sales of about 40,000 vehicles in the near-term.

“GM’s North America plants are just running full-out: there isn’t a logical place to put that car,” said Stephanie Brinley, an ana-lyst with IHS Automotive.

“That doesn’t mean that all Buicks will now and for-ever be built from China, or that General Motors will as a general strategy be bring-ing vehicles in from China. What it means is that GM has a global footprint and they will use it.”

Most consumers proba-

bly won’t even realize that the Envision was built in China, said Jessica Cald-well, an analyst with auto-motive website Edmunds.com. “There may be some balking at first if people want to make an issue of it but I imagine in the long run it won’t be a deal break-er for a lot of people,” she told AFP.

“If the quality is good, I don’t know if people are necessarily going to care.”

One reason why it ’s taken so long for a major automaker to import vehi-cles from China is because they’ve been so busy trying to satisfy demand in that fast-growing market, said Jack Nerad, an analyst with Kelly Blue Book.

“I don’t think we’re going to suddenly see a fl ood of Chinese-built vehicles but I think we will see a few more,” Nerad said in a tele-phone interview.

“A Chinese brand is a bigger reach than some-thing with a very familiar label like a Buick label. I don’t know that this mar-ket is crying out for new brands.”

By Gregor WaschinskiD e t r o i t , U n i t e d

States | AFP | Sunday 1/10/2016 – Volkswagen chief executive Matthias Mueller will face a skeptical US public on Sunday for the first time since American regulators accused the Ger-man automaker of cheating on emissions tests.

VW’s “apology tour” is expected to be a sharp con-trast from the exuberance displayed by its competitors when the Detroit auto show formally opens Monday amid record-breaking US sales.

Mueller is set to speak at an invitation-only media re-ception in a Detroit restau-rant Sunday night before heading to Washington for talks with political leaders and regulators amid accu-sations that the company is

obstructing the investiga-tion into the deepest crisis of its history. Sources told AFP that he could announce the buyback of more than 100,000 affected vehicles.

VW was tight-lipped about Mueller’s schedule, but the Environmental Pro-tection Agency (EPA) has said he is scheduled to meet with its administrator Gina McCarthy on Wednesday.

Mueller, who took the helm at Volkswagen after US authorities uncovered the scandal in September, has said he will apologize during his fi rst offi cial trip to America but also “look forward with optimism and confi dence.”

The Wolfsburg-based group admits it installed software in around 11 million diesel cars of its VW, Audi,

SEAT and Skoda brands worldwide that helped them evade emissions standards.

The so-called defeat devic-es turn on pollution controls when the car is undergoing testing, and off when it is back on the road, allowing it to spew out harmful levels of nitrogen oxide.

The affair severely dam-aged Volkswagen’s reputa-tion and spawned to a host of investigations in sever-al countries. On Monday, the US government sued the carmaker for installing defeat devices on nearly 600,000 of its VW, Audi and Porsche vehicles sold in America between 2009 and 2015. The complaint alleges that Volkswagen not only intentionally violated clean-air regulations but also ob-structed the investigation by

concealing facts and provid-ing misleading information, despite the company’s public pledges of cooperation.

Penalties could top $20 billion - The attorneys gen-eral of New York and Con-necticut, who are leading a separate probe by more than 40 US states, on Friday accused the carmaker of hid-ing behind German privacy laws in refusing to turn over emails and documents.

“Our patience with Volk-swagen is wearing thin,” warned New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman.

Civil penalties in the US could run well above $20 bil-lion. Volkswagen also faces a costly recall and at least 650 class-action lawsuits from disgruntled US customers.

Meanwhile, the EPA and the California Air Resourc-

GM bets Americans will buy cars made in China

Embattled VW chief faces US public for fi rst time

Obama to visit Detroit Auto Show

es Board are still review-ing VW’s plan to recall the nearly 500,000 affected 2.0 liter cars, and the company must submit another plan for some 85,000 affected 3.0 liter cars by early February.

“They need a resolution,” Eric Lyman, vice presi-dent of industry insights at car-buying site TrueCar, told AFP. “The consumers and their own customers especially are willing to ac-cept a reasonable amount of time for the investigation to

occur and to come up with a fi x, but as we continue to get further and further along from when the scandal broke the tolerance for that wait-ing period is getting thinner and thinner,” Lyman said.

German newspaper Bild am Sonntag reported on Sunday that VW engineers have come up with a techni-cal solution for some 430.000 affected Diesel cars that would be refi tted with a new catalytic converter to meet US emission standards.

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BLACK NAZARENEFrom page 1the number last year.

Many of them were al-ready ill, she told AFP, add-ing: “They probably thought if they take part in the pro-cession, they would get bet-ter.”

Manila’s civil defence chief Johnny Yu said the procession was “a successful event”, despite the deaths and injuries, some of which he said was down to sick people taking part.

from the United States, with the Pentagon warning Thursday that the move would raise tensions in the disputed waters.

The Philippines has also

es without the chairman’s signature.

In a statement, Poe’s spokesman Valenzuela May-or Rex Gatchalian blasted Guanzon for her actions. “We believe that the actions of Commissioner Guanzon is wrong, as she is usurping the powers reserved for the en banc,” he said.

“The actions of Commis-sioner Guanzon is under-mining our electoral process and endangering our very democracy,” added Poe’s spokesman. Gatchalian said Guanzon’s actions only bol-stered the senator’s suspi-cion that there are people within Comelec trying to derail her presidential bid.

believer in the potential of Mindanao” following the inauguration of its coal-fi red power plant in Davao.

“Rest assured, we will fulfi ll our promise to leave Mindanao in a better situa-tion,” said Aquino.

“We will maintain our steadfast commitment to peace. We will continue to focus the national coffers towards infrastructure de-velopment so that those who have historically been left behind are given a boost up so they can catch up,” he added. (MNS)

date Mar Roxas. The Offi ce of the Ombudsman had also cleared incumbent DOTC chief Joseph Emilio Abaya of any liability in connection with the deal because he was appointed just two days ear-lier when he signed the con-tract. Escudero said the for-mer MRT chief should reveal the “extent of the culpability of other DOTC officials in the anomalous contract that they have left Vitangcol high and dry to claim responsibil-ity for deal.” “Mr. Vitangcol

should not be afraid to speak up. Why sacrifi ce yourself, your career, your life, your family name when you know that there were others be-hind this questionable deal? He should come clean and reveal everything he knows,” Escudero said. Vitangcol had earlier said that he was being made a “sacrificial lamb” and was being made to answer for the anomalies in the 10-month MRT 3 maintenance contract that was awarded to PH Trams, whose directors included Vi-tangcol’s uncle-in-law.

tension in the Middle East, particularly between Iran and Saudi Arabia, continue to escalate.

“The rapid deterioration of the situation in the Middle East, particularly between Iran and Saudi Arabia is quite alarming. The DFA and DOE should start preparing contingency plans to ensure the safety of the more than two million OFWs [overseas Filipino workers] in the re-gion, and to anticipate the crisis’ impact on our energy needs,” said the senator.

Saudi Arabia earlier an-nounced that it was cutting its diplomatic ties with Iran, following a massive and de-structive rally by Iranians in front of the Embassy of Saudi Arabia in Iran to protest Sau-di’s execution of Shiite cleric Nimr al-Nimr last January 2. Some analysts say an esca-lation of the tension between these two countries could be a potential threat to global oil prices.

tive Health Law.“The enemies of repro-

ductive health never sleep. We, too, must not rest in fi ghting for women’s health,” she said.

Former Albay Rep. Edcel Lagman, principal author of RH Law in the House

of Representatives, said the Congress, particularly the Senate, reneged on its obligation to adequately fund the speedy and full implementation of the Re-sponsible Parenthood and Reproductive Health Law (R.A. No. 10354).

said it would fi le a protest.Binh said Vietnam has

asked China “to immedi-ately end similar acts... that expand and complicate disputes”. China claims vir-tually all the South China Sea, while the Philippines, Vietnam, Malaysia, Bru-nei and Taiwan also have partial claims. China has asserted its claim by rapidly building artificial islands, including airstrips said to be capable of hosting military jets. Several other claim-ants, including Vietnam, have also built facilities on islands they control, but at a signifi cantly slower pace and smaller scale.