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VOL. 6 NO. 271

EARLY OUTCRY

With President Duterte’s declaration of martial law in Mindanao, militant groups have vowed to take to the streets to voice their protest, continuing what these students of the University of the Philippines did in September last year to mark the anniversary of the declaration of martial rule by then President Marcos in 1972. Story on page 13.

MARIANNE BERMUDEZ / PDI

Priest says he and 200 others held hostage in Marawi seige

BY JIM GOMEZ The Associated Press MARAWI, PHILIPPINES — A Catholic priest who was taken hostage by militants linked to the Islamic State group says he’s being held alongside 200 other captives, including children, in what appeared to be a battle-scarred part of a southern Philippine city.

In a video apparently taken under duress by militants, Father Teresito Suganob said his captors wanted the military to withdraw its forces from Marawi, where Islamic militants still hold pockets of territory after a week of gunbattles with the army.

A colleague of Suganob confirmed to The Associated Press that the man in the

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Mocha embroiled in another fake news controversy

35 Prime Minister Justin Trudeau meets the FilCan community in Surrey BC ❱❱ PAGE 22

❱❱ PAGE 7 Priest says

Lounges vs. lines: Testing travel with and without perks

Philippine News

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JUNE 2, 2017

FRIDAY

SC lifts Torre de Manila TRO

BY JULIE M. AURELIO Philippine Daily Inquirer THE SUPREME Court has lifted its temporary restraining order against the controversial Torre de Manila apartment block on Taft Avenue in Manila because it has so far not violated any law.

The high court also found no proof that the project “is contrary to morals, customs and public order or that it brings harm, danger or hazard to the community.”

“There is one fact that is crystal clear in this case. There is no law prohibiting the construction of Torre de Manila due to its effect on the background ‘view, vista, sightline or setting’ of the Rizal Monument,” the court ruled.

The high tribunal stopped the construction of the 49-floor apartment block in June 2015 after the Order of the Knights of Rizal complained that it “mars” the sightline of the Jose Rizal monument at Luneta.

But the court examined Manila’s Ordinance No. 8119, or

the city’s zoning ordinance, and noted that it only served as guidelines in the development of historic sites and facilities.

“There is nothing… that disallows the construction of a building outside the boundaries of a historic site or facility, where such building may affect the background of a historic site,” the court said.

Also, the high court said Republic Act No. 10066, or the National Cultural Heritage Act of 2009, does not mention if another project, building or property may be the subject of a cease-and-desist order when it adversely affects the background view, vista or sightline of a heritage property.

Moreover, the court noted that the complainant also conceived of a similar idea in the 1950s when it proposed to build a theater, 29.25 meters high and 286 meters from the monument.

However, several sectors objected to the plan since the theater, among the other proposed buildings, would dwarf the monument.

In 2013, the Knights of Rizal

again suggested building a Rizal Center in the park, which was disapproved by the National Historical Commission of the Philippines and the Department of Tourism.

“Thus, the Knights of Rizal, having earlier proposed a national theater a mere 286 meters from the back of the Rizal Monument that would have dwarfed it, comes to this court with unclean hands,” it said.

The Supreme Court stressed that “one who seeks equity and justice must come to court with clean hands.”

The court added: “[The Knights of Rizal] is now precluded from seeking any equitable refuge from the court. The petition should be dismissed on this ground alone.”

The high court also found no grave abuse of discretion when the Manila City Hall issued permits and licenses to the property developer, DMCI Project Developer Inc. “Thus there is no justification at all for this court to exercise its extraordinary certiorari power,” the decision read.

Neither was the city govern-

Torre de Manila on Taft Avenue in Manila.

HARIBONEAGLE927 / WIKIMEDIA COMMONS

ment remiss in its duties under Ordinance No. 8119 because the developer applied for permits, approvals and licenses before the construction began.

“Even the Knights of Rizal could not point to any law that the City of Manila had violated and could only point to declarations of policies by the National Historical Commission of the Philippines and the Venice Charter, which do not constitute clear legal bases for the issuance of a writ of mandamus,” the court pointed out.

The decision was penned by

Associate Justice Antonio Carpio and was promulgated last April 25.

Eight other justices concurred: Chief Justice Maria Lourdes Sereno, Associate Justices Presbitero Velasco Jr., Lucas Bersamin, Mariano del Castillo, Bienvenido Reyes, Estela Perlas-Bernabe, Marvic Leonen and Noel Tijam.

Those who voted against the construction were Associate Justices Francis Jardeleza, Samuel Martires, Teresita De Castro, Diosdado Peralta, Jose Mendoza and Alfredo Caguioa. ■

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Philippine News

JUNE 2, 2017

FRIDAY

Philippine military: City siege was start of extremist plan

BY JIM GOMEZ The Associated Press MARAWI, PHILIPPINES — The militants who have besieged much of a southern Philippine city over the past week include foreign fighters and local gunmen who want to establish a regional branch of the Islamic State group, the military said Tuesday.

Soldiers have taken control of about 70 per cent of Marawi, where the gunmen have been fending off the army for a week, military chief of staff Gen. Eduardo Ano said. About 100 militants, troops and civilians have been killed.

“They wanted to show the world that there is an ISIS branch here which can inflict the kind of violence that has been seen in Syria and Iraq,” Ano told The Associated Press, using an acronym for the Islamic State group.

The siege in Marawi followed an unsuccessful army raid that attempted to capture militant commander Isnilon Hapilon, who has been designated by the Islamic State group as its leader in the Philippines.

Marawi is regarded as the heartland of the Islamic faith on the southern Mindanao island.

Hapilon escaped and gunmen loyal to him swept through the city of 200,000 people, torching buildings and taking hostages.

Ano said the gunmen were prepared to fight because they had been planning to unleash attacks during the holy month of Ramadan to capture the attention of the IS group.

The unrest has boosted fears that the violent ideology of the IS is gaining a foothold in the restive southern islands, where a Muslim separatist rebellion has raged for decades.

President Rodrigo Duterte declared martial law in the

President Rodrigo Roa Duterte views the presentation being showed by Armed Forces of the Philippines chief of staff Gen. Eduardo Año related to the current developments on the terror crisis in Marawi City during a meeting in Davao City.

PRESIDENTIAL PHOTO

south through mid-July, but lawmakers on Tuesday asked for a public session of Congress to determine whether it is still necessary.

Duterte’s declaration unnerved Filipinos who lived through the rule of late dictator Ferdinand Marcos, who imposed martial law in 1972 and used it to hold power for more than a decade.

The army insists the drawnout fight in Marawi is not a true sign of the militants’ strength

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because the military has held back to spare civilian lives.

Ano said the military, working house to house, had cleared 70 per cent of the city as of Tuesday morning and the remaining militants were isolated.

Still, the fighters have turned out to be remarkably wellarmed and resilient. Experts have warned that as IS is weakened in Syria and Iraq, battered by years of American-led attacks, Mindanao could become a focal point for regional fight-

ers.

Three Malaysians, an Indonesian and possibly Arab extremists have been killed in the Marawi fighting, Ano said.

He said Hapilon was still hiding somewhere in the city and that authorities were working to confirm whether another top militant had been killed.

At least 65 militants and 15 Philippine troops have been killed, Ano said. The bodies of 19 civilians have been recovered and local authorities have reported more civilian deaths still to be tallied.

The fighters’ support network in Marawi remains unclear, though the power of one militant group — the Mautes _has grown in recent years. Led by members of the city’s Maute clan, the group has become increasingly active across Lanao del Sur province, where Marawi is located, and has been instrumental in the fighting this past week. ■

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Philippine News

FRIDAY JUNE 2, 2017

7

Priest says... video is the priest. It was not clear when the video was taken or who released it online, and whether Suganob believed what he was saying or was forced to say it.

“We want to live another day, we want to live another month,” Suganob said, standing in front of debris and partially burned buildings. Directing his remarks to Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte, he said, “We want to live few years and in your generosity, Mr. President, in your heart, we know you can make something (happen).”

Marawi Bishop Edwin de la Pena conMuslim multi-sectoral leaders appeal to President Rodrigo R. Duterte and to their Muslim brothers firmed that it was Suganob in the video.

“I was glad to see that he is alive but for a ceasefire in Marawi City to give way for the observance of Ramadhan.

OLIVER MARQUEZ / PNA we were also saddened because the fact that the terrorists are ready to negotiate means they are pressed against the wall hostages. whether it is still necessary. and they are also desirous to get away Soldiers have now taken control of Duterte’s declaration unnerved Filifrom the situation and their bargaining about 70 per cent of Marawi, military pinos who lived through the rule of chip are the hostages,” he said in a tele- chief of staff Gen. Eduardo Ano told the late dictator Ferdinand Marcos, who phone interview.

AP on Tuesday. More than 100 militants, imposed martial law in 1972 and used “It was taken in Marawi and it was government forces and civilians have it to hold power for more than a dehim, and the emotions that came out been killed. cade.

I think were really authentic,” he said, Up to 90 per cent of Marawi’s people The army insists the drawn-out fight adding that Suganob looked truly afraid have fled to safety amid the intense in Marawi is not a true sign of the miliwhen an explosion was heard in the fighting and military airstrikes, and tants’ strength because the military has background. De la Pena said he could rescuers in ambulance vans have criss- held back to spare civilian lives. About not tell where in Marawi the video was crossed the city in recent days to save 40-50 gunmen were still holed up in two made. hundreds of trapped residents. buildings in Marawi’s business district, He said Suganob’s mention of people Some communities resemble ghost Ano said. with him made it appear that they are towns. Neatly stacked bananas, avoalso alive. cados and vegetables in an abandoned “It gives us a lot of hope that these peo- market were beginning to rot and were ple are worth saving, because they are being eaten by a cat and a chicken. Hestill alive,” he said. “If licopters frequently the air strikes continbuzzed overhead and ue, they will really be sporadic gunfire and in danger.” blasts shattered the Suganob said in The army eerie silence. the video that he was insists the Ano said the militaken prisoner along drawn-out fight tants include foreign with a professor from in Marawi is not fighters and local Mindanao State Unia true sign of gunmen who want to versity, two female the militants’ establish a regional church workers and strength branch of the Islamic seven teachers. because the State group.

“Along with us military has “They wanted are about 200 carheld back to to show the world penters, household spare civilian that there is an ISIS helpers, children and lives. branch here which youth, and ordinary can inflict the kind Christian settlers,” of violence that has he said. The presence been seen in Syria of that number of hostages could not be and Iraq,” Ano said, using an acronym independently confirmed. for the Islamic State group.

The siege in Marawi followed an unAno said the gunmen were prepared to successful army raid last Tuesday that fight because they had been planning to attempted to capture militant com- unleash attacks during the holy month mander Isnilon Hapilon, who has been of Ramadan to capture the attention of designated by the Islamic State group as the IS group. its leader in the Philippines.

The unrest has boosted fears that the Marawi, a mosque-studded city about violent ideology of the IS is gaining a 800 kilometres (500 miles) southeast of foothold in the restive southern PhilipManila, is regarded as the heartland of pines, where a Muslim separatist rebelthe Islamic faith on southern Mindanao lion has raged for decades. island.

President Duterte declared martial Hapilon escaped and gunmen loyal to law in the south through mid-July, but him swept through the city of 200,000 lawmakers on Tuesday asked for a pubpeople, torching buildings and taking lic session of Congress to determine ❰❰ 1

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Still, the fighters have turned out to be remarkably well-armed and resilient.

Experts have warned that as IS is weakened in Syria and Iraq, battered by years of American-led attacks, Mindanao could become a focal point for regional fighters.

Three Malaysians, an Indonesian and possibly Arab extremists have been killed in the Marawi fighting, Ano said.

He said Hapilon was still hiding somewhere in the city and that authorities were working to confirm whether another top militant, Omarkhayam Maute, had been killed.

At least 65 militants and 20 Philippine troops and police have been killed, the military said. The bodies of 19 civilians have been recovered and local authorities have reported more civilian deaths still to be tallied.

The fighters’ support network in Marawi remains unclear, though the power of one militant group — the Mautes — has grown in recent years. Led by members of the city’s Maute clan, the group has become increasingly active across Lanao del Sur province, where Marawi is located, and has been instrumental in the fighting this past week. ■ Associated Press writer Teresa Cerojano in Manila contributed to this report.

Philippine News

8

JUNE 2, 2017

FRIDAY

Abolition of PCGG, OGCC opposed

BY MARLON RAMOS Philippine Daily Inquirer

Publisher Philippine Canadian Inquirer, Inc. Correspondents Jane Moraleda Cheng Ilagan Katherine Padilla Deby Mangabat Phoebe Balubar Socorro Newland Bolet Arevalo Administration Head Victoria Yong Graphic Designer Shanice Garcia Photographers Angelo Siglos Vic Vargas For photo submissions, please email editor@canadianinquirer.net For General Inquiries, please email info@canadianinquirer.net For Sales Inquiries, please email sales@canadianinquirer.net PHILIPPINE PUBLISHING GROUP Editorial Assistant Christelle Tolisora Associate Publisher Lurisa Villanueva

GOVERNMENT LAWYERS opposed proposals in the House of Representatives to abolish the Presidential Commission on Good Government (PCGG) and the Office of the Government Corporate Counsel (OGCC).

Both Justice Secretary Vitaliano Aguirre II and Government Corporate Counsel Rudolf Philip Jurado opposed House Bills No. 5216 and No. 5233 seeking the abolition of the two agencies.

The bills contained the proposal of Solicitor General Jose C. Calida, seeking more powers for himself and reducing the powers of the Department of Justice (DOJ), OGCC and PCGG. The bills seek to abolish the PCGG and OGCC and merge its functions under the Office of the Solicitor General (OSG) which will also become independent of the DOJ. “We strongly object to these provisions. First, the provisions on the abolition of the OGCC and PCGG are considered a rider,” Aguirre said in a position paper submitted to the House.

“The Constitution provides that ‘ every bill passed by the Congress shall embrace only one subject which shall be expressed in the title thereof.’ The Constitution does not allow the insertions

of riders in legislation, a rider being a provision which is alien or not germane to the subject or purpose of the bill in which it is incorporated,” Aguirre’s position paper read.

Moreover, conflicts of interest may arise should the Solicitor General represent the government in a court case involving one of the government corporations represented by the OGCC. “There are numerous cases wherein the OGCC and the OSG find themselves representing opposing sides with conflicting interests. The OGCC represents GOCCs (government-owned and controlled corporations) while the OSG represents different agencies of the governments,” Aguirre noted.

Aguirre said there was nothing wrong with the current setup and unnecessary changes might even cause, rather than solve, more problems.

“This department sees nothing wrong with the OSG, OGCC and PCGG existing independently of each other. In order to strengthen the OSG, there is no need to abolish the OGCC and the PCGG,” he added.

“It is our view that the OSG should continue to be an agency attached to the DOJ because the powers and functions of the OSG are devolved from [the DOJ’s] power,” Aguirre argued.

The justice secretary said transferring the OSG from the DOJ to the Office

of the President would only “distort the powers and functions of [DOJ] secretary and the solicitor general.”

In his own position paper, Jurado said dissolving the agency was a “bane to sustained good corporate governance.”

The OGCC has been very instrumental in safeguarding the economic and financial interests of government corporations through litigation, Jurado said.

“Over the years, the OGCC has done its share in protecting the government’s multi-trillion-peso assets and equities through its contextualized knowledge of the clients’ needs and its industry awareness,” Jurado said.

But Calida claimed that the functions of the OGCC could be absorbed by an Office of Legal Services, a new agency under the Solicitor General.

On May 24, Calida said in a House hearing the proposed abolition of the two agencies would result in a leaner bureaucracy. But he also sought more funds so he could acquire a new building to house additional lawyers and administrative personnel.

Calida noted several instances when GOCCs sought the OSG’s counsel instead of the OGCC, citing the cases involving GOCCs such as the Bases Conversion and Development Authority, Philippine Ports Authority, Philippine Economic Zone Authority and Manila International Airport Authority. ■

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Trade chief assures Russian businessmen of graft-free deals

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MOSCOW — President Duterte might not have been able to face Russian businessmen in Moscow, but Trade Secretary Ramon Lopez assured potential investors there would be no corruption in their dealings with the Duterte administration.

“I would just repeat what he’d normally say if he were here … He would assure all investors … he will assure you there will be no corruption in his administration,” Lopez told Russian businessmen.

Lopez made the assurance at a business forum in Moscow that Mr. Duterte was supposed to attend on Thursday.

Trip shortened

Mr. Duterte, however, had to cut short his trip because of the terror attacks in Marawi, but several Cabinet officials stayed behind to finish scheduled activities.

Lopez also told the businessmen that Mr. Duterte was so intent on the matter

Agriculture Secretary Emmanuel Piñol shares an overview of the agreement signed with his Russian counterpart during a press conference at the Four Seasons Hotel in Moscow, Russia.

PRESIDENTIAL PHOTO

of Russian investments in the Philippines that he had pledged to take care of corruption complaints personally.

“He will assure you, if you will encounter corruption in the Philippines … he will be the one to go to that person giving you a problem. So he will either kick him out of the door or fire him,” he

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said.

Mr. Duterte wants to make life easy for investors and businessmen, he stressed.

“He will also encourage you to ride on the growth momentum this country, this administration, is having at the moment. So come on and ride the growth story of the Philippines,” he added. ■

Philippine News

FRIDAY JUNE 2, 2017

9

EU to take aid elsewhere if PH doesn’t want it

BY JEANNETTE I. ANDRADE Philippine Daily Inquirer

With school opening just around the corner, Divisoria is again the favorite hunting ground of customers looking for quality but cheap school supplies.

JOEY O. RAZON / PNA

Gov’t urged to include cost for free public college in 2018 nat’l budget

BY AZER N. PARROCHA Philippines News Agency

protocols. It is a merit-based aid. And one that can be maintained by merit alone,” Recto said.

MANILA — A senator on Tuesday urged the government to include the cost of free tuition in state universities and colleges (SUCs) in the 2018 national budget.

Senate President Pro-Tempore Ralph Recto made this call after both houses of the Congress are set to ratify the reconciled version of the Universal Access to Quality Tertiary Education Act. Recto, author of the measure, said that without indicating the cost, the measure will suffer delays in its implementation or end up as an unfunded mandate even if it is signed into a law by Pres. Rodrigo Duterte.

He said that the cost can already be included in next year’s proposed budget since Malacanang is in the midst of assembling its 2018 spending request, which will be sent to Congress as early as the fourth week of July.

By his count, some 1.6 million students in 114 national government-funded SUCs and 102 local government universities and colleges (LUCs) stand to benefit from the law.

The senator further said that whatever the final cost would be, the Congress would not treat it as an “unrecoverable expense”, but as “investment with a high return.”

He also clarified the misconception that free public college benefited the affluent.

The senator explained that free tuition, and other financial aid, is not an entitlement without condition as a student must first qualify for college admission.

“This bill does not override admission

Private colleges also benefit

Recto, meanwhile, said the bill does not cover only SUCs and LUCs, but private colleges as well.

In response to fears that students in private higher education institutions would flock to SUCs, Recto said that the solution is to establish a Tertiary Education Subsidy (TES) program.

“So what this bill will create is GASTPE for college,” Recto said, referring to Government Assistance to Students and Teachers in Private Education.

This assistance allows the government to sponsor the schooling of a student in private high schools at a fraction of the full tuition.

He said that simply put, there should also be a ‘public-private partnership’ in college education.

“Private colleges can accommodate more students, and if the quality of instruction they offer is superior and at a fraction of what SUCs spend, then everybody wins — them, the government, and above all, the student,” Recto said.

In a separate interview, Sen. Paolo Benigno Aquino IV said that once Pres.

Duterte signs the law, it will be effective around the second semester of school year 2017 to 2018.

He said that among the major provisions of the measure is that SUCs will no longer be allowed to collect any fees from students.

As for concerns that affluent students benefit from the law, Aquino said that there is a provision that allows a student from an affluent family to opt out from the free tuition option ■

A VISITING senior official of the European Union (EU) yesterday called on the Duterte administration to make clear its position on receiving financial aid, saying there were other countries “where the money can be well used.”

In an interview with reporters in Manila, EU managing director for Asia and the Pacific Gunnar Wiegand said that there was still no clarification on what the Philippine government meant in pronouncing its categorical rejection of EU aid.

“We hope misunderstandings can be clarified soon. But if we are not welcome to provide money, there is no lack of other countries in the region and beyond where the money can be well used,” he said.

Constructive dialogue

But Wiegand said that the EU was currently engaged in “constructive dialogue” with the Philippine government.

Wiegand is in the country to attend

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the Association of Southeast Asian Nations regional forum on ways to boost cooperation in combating nontraditional security threats.

Wiegand noted that while the EU did not take the Philippine government’s pronouncement last week as an outright rejection of its financial aid, he said: “We are looking for a clear expression of the government’s position on what is meant with the announcements that we have recently heard. My understanding is that this country wants to continue to cooperate with the EU in a number of important fields, but I need to have the clarity about the arrangements which would be seen as necessary.”

Clarification

He assured that the 27member EU was “willing to continue to cooperate with the Philippines.”

Addressing the Philippine government’s apparent abhorrence of aid with conditions, Wiegand clarified what “conditionality” meant.

“Conditionality is standard provi❱❱ PAGE 13 EU to

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Philippine News

JUNE 2, 2017

FRIDAY

LRT-2 East Extension Mocha embroiled in another Project ensures ease of fake news controversy travel in eastern MM

BY LEILA B. SALAVERRIA Philippine Daily Inquirer

BY AEROL B. PATENA Philippines News Agency MANILA — Travel time from Recto to Masinag is expected to be reduced by 40 minutes from the usual travel of three hours traversing the same route by bus or jeepney once the Light Rail Transit (LRT) Line 2 East Extension project is completed by the first quarter of 2019.

The Department of Transportation (DOTr) and the Light Rail Transit Authority (LRTA) led Tuesday the groundbreaking ceremony for the construction of the Emerald and Masinag stations of the LRT-2 East Extension Project at the location of the proposed Masinag station in Brgy. Mayamot, Antipolo City.

DOTr Secretary Arthur Tugade said the railway project will promote ease of travel for residents of eastern Metro Manila particularly in Pasig and Antipolo.

“It will be a timely addition to have both new stations in the LRT Line 2 as we acknowledge the need for greater accessibility of passengers coming from the eastern side of Metro Manila extending to key areas of Antipolo and its nearby cities,” the transportation secretary said.

The Emerald and Masinag stations are designed to accommodate 80,000 daily passengers adding to the current LRT 2 average daily ridership of 240,000.

“This increased capacity of 80,000 daily ridership of the

rail line will not only provide a means to decongest our roads, but more importantly, offer better riding options to our daily commuters. As we improve the public’s general mobility, we also unburden them from traffic worries,” Tugade stated.

LRTA Administrator Reynaldo Berroya vowed to ensure that the LRT-2 East Extension Project will be completed with no further delays.

“The completion of the LRT Line 2 East Extension Project is part of the fulfillment of the government’s promise to ease traffic congestion by extending the service of the LRT Line 2 system to the eastern part of Metro Manila,” he said.

Representatives from the provincial government of Rizal and cities of Antipolo, Pasig and Marikina as well as officials of project contractor DM Consunji Inc. (DMCI) also attended the event.

The LRT-2 East Extension Project involves the construction of a 4.0 kilometer extension of the existing LRT-2 System from Santolan, Pasig City to Masinag in Antipolo. Rizal.

Two additional stations will be built namely, the Emerald station which will be located infront of Robinsons Metro East and Sta. Lucia in Cainta, Rizal and the Masinag station which will be located before the Masinag Junction in Antipolo City.

DMCI bagged the contract for the two stations which is set to start construction works on June 6, 2017 and targets completion in August 2018. ■

D.M. Consunji Inc. (DMCI) Vice President, Design and Engineering Gerardo Ancheta Jr., shows the proposed alternate route for the construction of Line-2 East Extension Project Emerald and Masinag Stations.

JOEY O. RAZON / PNA

FORMER “SEX guru”-turnedpolitical blogger Mocha Uson, now a presidential assistant communications secretary, has stirred another controversy on social media, this time for using a picture of men in uniform allegedly passed off as Filipinos but who turned out to be Central American policemen.

Uson was called out on social media for a Facebook post on Sunday that called for prayers for Filipino soldiers, but which netizens pointed out accompaMOCHA USON BLOG / FACEBOOK nied a photo of praying Honduran forces.

Presidential Communications “While there have been lapsUson’s post shared the pho- Operations Office earlier this es in our judgment, it has never to from the Facebook page of month, Uson said she would been the policy of PNA to tolerCinEmotion Digital Films. The fight fake news. ate erroneous report, and it has post from CinEmotion Digital “It’s time for us to stop rely- certainly never been our intenFilms did not identify the photo ing on the wrong reports from tion to sow misinformation, as that of Honduran police- some mainstream media and much less share what is termed men. The post also carried the to strengthen social media with nowadays as ‘fake news,’” it hashtags copypaste_from_the_ the help of true members of the said. owner and mystique_warrior.

DDS (Die-hard Duterte SupThe agency said it regret“Let’s pray for our army. Pan- porters). Because we are the ted that the mistakes had cast alangin din po natin ang mga media of Tatay Digong,” she doubt on its integrity. “Rest aspamilyang naiwan at nababa- said on her Facebook page. sured, we have dealt with our hala sa kalagayan ng kanilang erring personnel and that we asawa at tatay (Let us also pray PNA blooper are reviewing our procedures for the families left behind who President Duterte described on reportage as we continue are worried about the situation Uson as “bright” and “articu- to uphold our commitment to of their husbands and fathers),” late.” Mr. Duterte said her ap- deliver accurate and balanced read Uson’s post accompanying pointment was payback after news reports to the Filipino the photo. she and her Mocha Girls group people and the world.”

In a new FaceOne of the erbook post on rors was the Tuesday, Uson photo posted contended to accompany a that she never I did not say that was Philippine army. story about the claimed that the I did not say that picture was taken terror attacks photo was that of from Marawi. It’s a symbol of army in Marawi. The members of the praying. photo of soldiers Philippine Army, used turned out and that the to have been photo was just a taken during the “symbolism.” campaigned for him in the 2016 Vietnam War. “I did not say that was Phil- presidential election for free.

PNA said it had taken down ippine army. I did not say that A government news agency the photo upon learning of the picture was taken from Marawi. also took flak on social media mistake, but by then, the story It’s a symbol of army praying,” for distributing alleged fake had been shared by its readers. she said in her post. news.

Another erroneous story was Uson said that if she posted After being called out for two its article, “95 states convinced a picture of Jose Rizal and said erroneous posts, the Philippine there are no EJKs in PHL,” the fight for freedom should News Agency (PNA) said it re- which quoted Assistant Secrecontinue, it did not mean that gretted the error and assured tary Epimaco Densing of the Rizal would literally be the one the public that it had reviewed Department of the Interior and leading the fight. its procedures to ensure that Local Government.

Journalists, she said, should similar mistakes would not Densing earlier denied some use “common sense.” happen again. of the details reported in the In a statement, PNA said it story. PNA said that when it ‘Media of Tatay Digong’ was never its policy to propa- learned of this, it interviewed After being appointed to the gate fake news. him to get an accurate report. ■ www.canadianinquirer.net

Philippine News

FRIDAY JUNE 2, 2017

11

Pernia to public: Convince congress to pass tax reform bill PHILIPPINES NEWS AGENCY MANILA — NEDA chief Ernesto Pernia is appealing to the public to support the Duterte administration in urging Congress to pass the Comprehensive Tax Reform Program (CTRP) to fund not only hard infrastructure but also soft infrastructure, human infrastructure, human capital, education and health.

Failure to pass the CTRP would impact on the government thrust to improve the country’s infrastructure which in the long term could benefit the economy, Pernia said in a press briefing in Malacanang on Tuesday, May 30.

“We have ought to realize that and people should rally with the administration to motivate, to urge Congress to pass the bill. Especially, of course, the first package and the subsequent packages have to be passed,” Pernia said.

Pernia said President Duterte has suggested to Congress that the CTRP is a priority bill and should be passed immediately before lawmakers go on recess

this week.

“And that is quite understandable because the CTRP and the PDP (Philippine Development Plan) are actually natural intimate bedfellows,” Pernia stressed.

The first major development point under the Duterte administration is socioeconomic agenda and the other one is reforming the tax system, according to Pernia.

“So that is why the President has decided to direct or to admonish Congress that it is an urgent measure. The PDP has already passed, has been approved and it’s going to be launched on Friday,” he explained adding that the tax reform program has to be passed, at least the first package.

Explaining CTRP, Pernia said that based on NEDA analysis, CTRP’s implementation will result to higher real GDP level between 0.6 percent and 1.1 percent by 2022.

Without CTRP, on the other hand, the GDP level will be lower between 0.5 percent and 1.1 percent by 2022.

The CTRP is needed to increase the fiscal space of the government so that its aggres-

sive infrastructure program as well as human capital investment program, education and health can be funded, he said.

“So the dual objective therefore is improving equity which is pretty bad across households as well as generating funds for infrastructure development, both hard infrastructure and soft infrastructure,” Pernia stressed.

Highlighting NEDA’s position, he said that in reforming the tax structure, the government will need to recognize equity considerations alongside those of revenue generation and efficiency, broadening the tax base, and simplifying the tax system.

These will raise the needed revenues while progressive schedule will promote equity, he said.

Benefit to health sector

CTRP’s passage is also a win for health sector since it will provide additional resources for the government to leverage in scaling up multi-sector wide public policy interventions to prevent the risk factors for noncommunicable diseases, Health Undersecretary Lilibeth David said during the same press

NEDA Director-General Ernesto Pernia.

briefing.

It also means an increase on the breadth and depth of PhilHealth coverage through substantial services covered and the support value provided by the National Health Insurance Program.

More health workers can be hired to work on the ground, she said noting that the tax reform program could also enhance the country’s public health facilities, she added.

Palace calls on Marawi terrorists to surrender

Meanwhile, Presidential Spokesperson Ernesto Abella reported in the same press briefing on the ongoing military operations in Marawi City, saying precision airstrikes have been judiciously used to

KING RODRIGUEZ / PRESIDENTIAL PHOTO

prevent collateral damage and employ the specific targets of resistance to protect our troops and to hasten clearing of the city of terrorist elements.

“We call on the remaining terrorists to surrender while there is an opportunity,” he said hoping to immediately end the weeklong crisis.

So far, there are 560 civilians who were rescued.

Citing data from the DOH, he said that to date, there have been 12,509 families or 59,665 persons displaced in Regions 10 and ARMM. “Of which, 1,018 families or 4,278 persons are still staying in 14 evacuation centers or 10,974 families or 54,870 persons are staying outside the evacuation centers with their relatives or friends,” he said. ■

Last of 7 of 11 Malabon ‘hulidap’ cops surrender

BY JAYMEE T. GAMIL Philippine Daily Inquirer ALL ELEVEN Malabon City policemen accused of kidnapping the girlfriend of a New Bilibid Prison inmate for ransom last week are now in custody, after the surrender of the last seven officers.

In a statement, the Philippine National Police (PNP) said

PO3 Michael Angelo Solomon, PO3 Luis Hizon Jr., PO2 Michael Huerto, PO1 Jovito Roque Jr., and PO1 Ricky Lamsen turned themselves in on Friday night, while PO3 Benandino C. Pacoma, SPO2 Jerry dela Torre yielded on Saturday morning.

The officers surrendered after President Duterte on Tuesday ordered their capture “dead or alive” while offering a P14 million reward for their arrest.

The first five surrenderers came all the way from Palawan province, after the father of one of the policemen convinced the group to give themselves up, according to Deputy Director General Ramon Apolinario, PNP deputy chief for administration.

Four other Malabon policemen from the drug enforcement unit— SPO2 Ricky Pelicano, PO2 Wilson Sanchez, PO1 Joselito Ereneo, and PO1 Frances Camua—were

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arrested on Monday.

The complainant, Norma DG Adrales, was allegedly abducted by the group in Quezon City on May 20 after she visited her boyfriend Raymond Bongabon, a drug convict serving time at the NBP. She claimed that they commandeered her van and also took her jewelry, gadgets and cash.

The officers allegedly demanded P8 million from Adrales’ and Bongabon’s family, and

also ordered her to transact with a Chinese national for the purchase of 1 kilo of “shabu.”

With the ransom still unpaid a day after the abduction, the officers filed drug charges against Adrales for the shabu they ordered her to procure.

Her relatives alerted the Northern Police District about the officers, prompting the creation of a team tasked to place them under arrest. ■

12

Philippine News

JUNE 2, 2017

FRIDAY

Napoles names Abad, Senators Drilon, Trillanes, De Lima in PDAF scam

BY CHRISTOPHER LLOYD T. CALIWAN AND AZER N. PARROCHA Philippines News Agency MANILA — The alleged pork barrel scam mastermind Janet Lim Napoles is set to file complaint against former Budget and Management Secretary Florencio Abad and Senators Franklin Drilon, Antonio Trillanes IV and Leila de Lima for their alleged involvement in the multi-billion peso Priority Development Assistance Fund (PDAF) scam.

This was bared by Justice Secretary Vitaliano Aguirre II on Monday where Napoles is now finalizing the complaint she would be filing through her lawyer Stephen David any time.

Aguirre said David had also talked to him about the statement being prepared by Napoles detailing the participation of Abad, Drilon, Trillanes and de Lima on the pork barrel scam.

“He (David) wanted to file the same in a few days possibly, or next week. So kami naman dito sa DOJ, maghihintay lang kami kung ano yung ipa-file.

And then we will investigate, as a matter of fact, even the application na sinasabi nila for Janet Napoles to be put under the coverage of the Witness Protection Program, pwede namin aktuhan yan, even without any case being filed,” Aguirre told reporters during the press conference held in DOJ on Monday.

Aside from Abad and the three senators, Aguirre said David mentioned other personalities who may be included in the complaint but said he could not recall their names.

“Sa totoo lang, I’m not privy kung ano ang sasabihin ni Ja-

net. Nandito lang kami sa DOJ to receive whatever complaints that will be filed before us.

Hindi ko pa alam kung sino ang i-include nila. It’s the call of Janet kung sino sino, ang sabi niya dyan, he (David) doesn’t want to execute a statement na hindi personal knowledge niya,” Aguirre explained.

The DOJ chief said according to Napoles’ lawyer part of her affidavit is an allegation that there was a PHP10 million reward for the latter’s arrest and that it was allegedly claimed by one of the highest Cabinet official during the past administration.

“As a matter of fact, may sinasabi doon na meron daw PHP10 million for the arrest, or for any information leading to the arrest of Janet Lim Napoles and hindi malaman kung sino ang nag-claim nyan, if ever it was claimed,” he said.

As to what charges will be filed against the accused, Aguirre said that it would be plunder, which is a non-bailable offense.

When asked for other government officials’ names to be included in the complaint as a result of the reinvestigation, Aguirre answered: “Well let’s say that this is a new evaluation by the lawyer and by Janet Napoles, on who are involved in this PDAF scam.”

He noted that if the DOJ can find probable cause, then it will be forwarded to the Office of the Ombudsman, who has the primary jurisdiction of Napoles cases involving government officials.

“The MOA (memorandum of agreement) is that both the DOJ and the Ombudsman have concurrent jurisdictions. Because of that MOA, it could be filed with us, it could be filed with the Ombudsman. It is the

call of the complainant where to file the case. In the event that it’s filed with us, then we, upon determination, are going to send our findings to the Ombudsman,” Aguirre said adding it’s the call of the complainant to file the case before to DOJ then forwarded to Ombudsman if found a probable cause.

Napoles ironically was also charged with the same offense for allegedly masterminding the scam in which pork barrel allocations from lawmakers were funneled into non-government organizations she set up to fund bogus or non-existent projects.

Aside from Napoles, also charged with the same offense were former senators Jinggoy Estrada, Ramon “Bong” Revilla Jr. and Juan Ponce Enrile.

Enrile was allowed by the Supreme Court to post bail for his temporary liberty citing humanitarian reasons while Estrada and Revilla remain in detention at the PNP Custodial Center in Camp Crame.

Early this month, the Court of Appeals acquitted Napoles in the illegal detention case filed by pork barrel scam whistleblower Benhur Luy before the Makati regional trial court.

But she remained in detention since she is still facing plunder, graft and malversation charges before the Sandiganbayan.

Aguirre then floated the idea of turning Napoles into a state witness in its reinvestigation of the pork barrel scam though he maintained that she will not be able to win her eventual freedom in exchange for new leads and testimony regarding the scam.

The DOJ chief also reiterated that the reinvestigation of the case was not aimed at setting Napoles free from prison and

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Janet Lim Napoles.

liability for her alleged involvement in the scam adding that it will not affect the cases currently pending before the antigraft court.

Meanwhile, Senate Minority Leader Franklin Drilon and Sen. Antonio Trillanes IV on Monday denied involvement in any irregularity involving government funds after their names were tagged into the list of lawmakers who received the highest amount of disbursement acceleration program (DAP) funds.

“I categorically deny any involvement in any irregularity regarding PDAF (priority development assistance fund), DAP or any government funds, for that matter,” Trillanes said in a statement.

For his part, Drilon also denied any involvement in the PDAF scam.

“I vehemently deny any insinuation by the Secretary of Justice that I was involved in any wrongdoing regarding the PDAF,” he said.

The DOJ is planning to conduct a probe on the previous administration’s misuse of the DAP simultaneous with the reinvestigation on the multi-bil-

SENATOR BAM AQUINO / FACEBOOK

lion-peso PDAF scam.

A news report showed that the DOJ would cover the amount given to senators to vote for the conviction of the late former Chief Justice Renato Corona during his impeachment trial in 2012.

The same report showed that Trillanes was among the senators who received the highest amount of DAP funds. Also tagged were Senate Minority Leader Franklin Drilon and detained Sen. Leila de Lima.

“I was never even mentioned in any of the so-called Napoles lists provided during the height of the investigations in 2013,” Trillanes said, referring to alleged PDAF mastermind, businesswoman Janet Napoles.

Drilon said that he would await the copy of the affidavit and respond at the proper time and venue.

Earlier, Aguirre said the Duterte administration had no intention to seek revenge on anyone and merely wanted to obtain justice. ■

FRIDAY JUNE 2, 2017

Philippine News

EU to...

SEXIST REMARK

sion of all our financing agreements with partners whether it is in this region or other regions of the world. There’s nothing special about it,” he said. ❰❰ 9

He added that applying the provisions should not be too difficult for a democratic country that “stands for the rule of law and which takes its own commitments for the guarantee of human rights seriously.”

EU has given some 75 million euros in financial grants for various programs in the Philip-

aid package will go to Moro communities.

Taxpayers’ money

“We do not believe that we have, in anyway to beg, to ask the Philippines, ‘Please take Standard provisions our money.’ It is the offer of Among the standard proviEurope that we stay engaged in sions in EU financial agreethese fields in which we have ments, partan established ner-countries track record of are required to working well toensure that the gether with Philfunding is used ippine partners for the purpose We hope misunderstandings can and beneficiafor which it is be clarified soon. But if we are not ries,” Wiegand given, that there welcome to provide money, there said. will be no coris no lack of other countries in the He denied that ruption, and region and beyond where the money conditions atthat the grant is can be well used. tached to grants based on respect were a form of of human rights interference to and rule of law. domestic affairs “We believe of the Philipthat our cooperation with the pines and some 200 million to pines.

Philippines is based—and will 250 million euros have been set Asked why the EU had to set continue to be based—on those aside for new projects in the ar- standard provisions for its fivery principles. And I don’t see eas of the peace process, renew- nancial aid, Wiegand simply why the Philippines would ar- able energy and strengthening said: “Because it is the money of gue against any of those prin- the country’s legal system, said our taxpayers. They want to see ciples,” he said.

Wiegand. The bulk of the new where their money goes.” ■

Rights groups wary of martial law abuses

BY JAYMEE T. GAMIL, JEANNETTE I. ANDRADE, JULIE M. AURELIO Philippine Daily Inquirer THE DECLARATION of martial law and the suspension of the writ of habeas corpus continued to alarm local and foreign groups that fear increased rights abuses.

The leftist group Karapatan belittled assurances from security forces that they will observe the law in implementing martial law in Mindanao.

“We cannot be assured by the guidelines released by the Department of National Defense and Philippine National Police on the implementation of martial law simply because they themselves are the violators of people’s civil and political rights,” Karapatan Secretary General Cristina Palabay said in a statement.

On Thursday alone, Karapatan said participants of the Ecumenical Women’s Forum in

Sultan Kudarat were allegedly interrogated for an hour by the 6th Marine Battalion Landing Team in Palimbang town.

In Davao City, some 250 people were detained for not having proper identification papers for “verification processes.”

“Such incidents are already a prelude to more abuses,” Palabay said.

From July 2016 to April 30, Karapatan has documented 55 cases of extrajudicial killings, 101 incidents of illegal arrest and detention, and 30,904 cases of threat, harassment and intimidation in line with counterinsurgency operations.

The National Council of Churches in the Philippines also expressed concern over President Duterte’s declaration, saying it has a “chilling effect” on Filipinos.

“The sudden declaration of Martial Law is bound to make matters worse. it will also make the civilians more vulnerable,” the group said.

The NCCP urged the Presi-

dent to lift it “at the soonest possible time and address the issues that gave rise to this conflict, not through an all out war but through peaceful means.”

The Catholic Bishops Conference of the Philippines also appealed to the government to carefully study supposed plans to expand martial law to the rest of the country.

“Expanding it to Luzon and the Visayas is a crucial decision,” said Fr. Jerome Secillano, executive secretary of the CBCP’s Permanent Committee on Public Affairs.

At the same time, the New York-based Human Rights Watch said martial law could give rise to abuses that could rival the Duterte administration’s war against drugs.

“Duterte’s martial law threatens military abuses in Mindanao that could rival the murderous ‘drug war’ in urban areas,” said Phelim Kine, deputy Asia director at Human Rights Watch. ■ www.canadianinquirer.net

13

Duterte penchant for making jokes?

Get used to it, Aguirre tells critics

BY LEILA B. SALAVERRIA Philippine Daily Inquirer GET USED to it.

Justice Secretary Vitaliano Aguirre II on Monday gave this rather flustering advice to those criticizing President Duterte for his penchant for making rape jokes.

He also urged the public not to make a big fuss over the issue, saying “a joke is a joke.”

“We should get used to the President’s mouth. Let’s not blow it up,” Aguirre said in a press briefing.

“Some say we should not joke about rape. But we should know when the President is stating a hyperbole. Do not capitalize on it,” he said in English and Filipino.

Instead of taking Mr. Duterte to task, Aguirre said it was important for people to “support what the President was doing” and his decision to place Mindanao under martial law.

The tough-talking President, who had previously drawn flak several times for making sexist remarks in public, again found himself in the crosshairs of netizens who lambasted him for telling soldiers in Iligan City on Friday that he would still support them if they raped up to three women while implementing martial law.

Injustice to soldiers

Vice President Leni Robredo called Mr. Duterte’s remarks “an injustice to our soldiers.”

“It is not good to make a joke about rape because this is the time when our soldiers need our support. This is the time when we have to give them the highest respect that they need,” Robredo told reporters.

The President joking about rape “does not help” the current security situation, she added. “This is the time to reassure our people who are now anxious that [the abuses] would not take place.”

Sen. Grace Poe said in a TV interview that “rape is never a funny joke and it should never [be] a joke.”

“We’ve done so much in the past years to elevate the stature of women and our role in society and nothing should undermine that,” the senator said.

Poe said she realized the President cracked jokes depending on his audience. “So he feels that with the soldiers, it will be funny,” she said.

“But I think even soldiers now should learn what is acceptable and what is not,” she added. ■ With reports from Nikko Dizon and Maila Ager

ALBERT ALCAIN / PRESIDENTIAL PHOTO

Opinion

14

JUNE 2, 2017

FRIDAY

Senate junks joint session on martial law in Mindanao PHILIPPINES NEWS AGENCY MANILA — The Senate on Tuesday night voted to junk the resolution calling for a joint session in the Congress to deliberate on President Rodrigo Duterte’s declaration of martial law in Mindanao with a vote of 12-9.

Members of the Senate minority bloc previously filed Senate Resolution 390 calling for the joint session noting the need for a venue for the public to better understand the President’s declaration of martial law.

However, most members of the Senate majority bloc decided that a joint session would only be required if either Senate or House of Representatives decided to revoke the declaration.

Senators who voted for the resolution were five senators

belonging to the minority bloc namely Senate Minority Leader Franklin Drilon, Senators Paolo Benigno Aquino, Risa Hontiveros, Francis Pangilinan and Antonio Trillanes IV. Four senators belonging to the Senate majority also voted for the resolution namely Senate Pres. Pro-Tempore Ralph Recto, Senators Francis Escudero, Sherwin Gatchalian and Grace Poe. Aquino said that colleague, Sen. Joel Villanueva, who was no longer in the session hall when the voting took place, also said that he was for the resolution.

Meanwhile, the senators who voted against the resolution were Senate President Aquilino Pimentel III, Senate Majority Leader Vicente Sotto III, Senators Juan Edgardo Angara, Nancy Binay, Joseph Victor Ejercito, Richard Gordon, Gringo Honasan, Panfilo

Senators who filed Senate Resolution 390.

Lacson, Loren Legarda, Manny Pacquiao, Cynthia Villar and Juan Miguel Zubiri.

To recall, Ejercito and Legarda, previously said that they were in favor of a joint session but later changed their minds.

In explaining his vote against the resolution, Pimentel reiterated that a joint session in the Congress would only be neces-

JOSEPH VIDAL / PRIB PHOTO

sary if there was a prevailing sentiment to revoke the declaration.

“In my opinion the Constitution does not make the holding of the joint session mandatory.

It’s a judgement call on the part of each house whether it wants to invite the other house for a joint session. And that will most likely happen if the pre-

vailing sentiment within that house is for the revocation of the proclamation of marital law,” Pimentel said.

He said that it was clear that the prevailing sentiment in the Senate has already been determined, which was not to revoke the declaration.

“If one house should request the other house for a joint session then it should be mandatory or there should be a moral obligation on the part of the other house to hold that joint session to hear out the prevailing sentiment in the house requesting for a joint session. The opinion of this (representation) is that one house triggers the need for this joint session,” he added.

Senators who voted for the resolution, however, insisted that it was the constitutional mandate of the Congress to hold a joint session but respected that they had lost the vote. ■

PUBLIC LIVES

How do we get used to losing our freedoms?

By Randy David Philippine Daily Inquirer FROM the perspective of President Duterte and his advisers, there’s probably no better time than now to determine what else he can do, or how far he can go, as president of this country. Declaring martial law in Mindanao is his way of testing the outer limits of his political prerogatives. This course of action, as I’ll try to show, will put a stress on political legitimacy rather than on strict legality—on what the people appear to be willing to accept, rather than on what the law says.

Our current political milieu, I’m afraid, favors the populist language of willful leadership, of final solutions to festering problems, and of abiding trust in those who are prepared to break the rules in order to destroy the status quo once and for all. Accordingly, it sees the legal system as the last refuge of a dysfunctional Establishment. It regards all assertions of individual freedoms, and of civil and political rights, as selfish, mistaken, unpatriotic, and delusional.

The detested “Establishment” includes everything and everyone Mr. Duterte and his followers have mocked since the 2016 electoral campaign: the political oligarchy led by the Aquinos that came to

power after Edsa 1, the business the continuing protection of their Forces of the Philippines are more elites that benefited from and liberties in the face of a perceived mindful of the restrictive provisupported the latter, the Catholic threat against the state, he chose to sions of the newConstitution. bishops, the mainstream media, warn them that he will be “harsh”? Still, I am alarmed by the AFP the Western press, the global advo- Hardly. spokesperson’s warning that they cates of democracy and civil liberSpeaking to the troops in Iligan reserve the right to “censure” (sic) ties, the United States, the Europe- City on May 26, three days after published material and restrict an Union, and the United Nations. declaring ML in Mindanao, he said: the freedom of expression. I don’t As a legal instrument in the “I am here to say to you, fight and I think the law allows them. But, this hands of the chief executive, mar- will pray for you, and I will answer is nothing compared to the way Mr. tial lawitself is no longer what it for everything. Wag na kayo maga- Duterte himself talks about martial used to be. The framers of the 1987 lala. (Don’t worry.) During martial law powers. Ironically, his portrayConstitution essentially stripped it law, your commanders, you, can ar- al of ML powers stands in sharp of extraordinary powers by explic- rest any person, search any house, contrast to the careful legalistic itly subjecting it to language in which review by coequal the 1972 proclamabranches of the tion of martial law Unlike Marcos, Mr. Duterte doesn’t seem to care state, namely the is couched. Unwhat the rest of the world thinks. Who will dare check legislature and the like Marcos, Mr. him if the Filipino public thinks he’s doing the right judiciary.

Duterte doesn’t thing?

But, as a politiseem to care what cal concept, ML draws its consid- wala nang (no need for a) warrant.” the rest of the world thinks. Who erable sting not so much from its I am not a lawyer but, as far as I will dare check him if the Filipino constitutional basis as from the know, the 1987 Constitution does public thinks he’s doing the right remembrance of its past uses and not give the President such powers thing? Every opinion survey seems abuses—its rationalization as a under martial law. Nor does it free to confirm his continuing populartool of last resort, memories of the soldiers and police officers who ity, almost as if the public has given unspeakable brutality it brought act illegally—whether on orders of him blanket approval for every out among its enforcers, and the their superiors or not—from crimi- cause he chooses to champion. enduring terror it instilled in our nal liability. Martial law does not He has sufficiently intimidated people. suspend the Bill of Rights, nor does the Church, the mainstream meWas it a coincidence that the it replace civilian courts with mili- dia, the political opposition, and very first thing Mr. Duterte con- tary courts. It obligates the Presi- the business community. He has jured after announcing ML in Min- dent to report to Congress, and the tamed the police and the military, danao was the image of martial latter to assess ML’s factual basis. charmed the armed Left by invitlaw under Marcos? That, instead We have been assured that the ing its nominees to sit in the Cabiof assuring ordinary Filipinos of guidelines issued by the Armed net while they resume peace talks,

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and silenced the organized Moro liberation groups by dangling the prospect of concluding a peace agreement with them. As the US and the West signal their gradual disengagement from world affairs in the face of their own domestic problems, Mr. Duterte basks in his newfound friendship with the powerful rulers of China and Russia.

What better time, indeed, can there be for a Filipino autocrat to measure the metes and bounds of his actual powers?

It is wonderful to hear Ombudsman Conchita Carpio Morales, Chief Justice Maria Lourdes Sereno, and Justice Antonio Carpio speak up boldly on crucial issues of law. But, as influential as they may be, their voices constitute only a small particle in a still evolving legal system. And, as I said, the prevailing political climate is not exactly hospitable to legal arguments.

What is to be done?

Let Congress and the high court debate the justification for martial law. But, as citizens of this republic, let us not waste our breaths supplying the reasons for why we need martial law. That is how we get accustomed to losing our freedoms.

Let us remain focused instead on what we need to do to defend what remains of our democracy. ■

Opinion

FRIDAY JUNE 2, 2017

15

AT LARGE

Joking about rape—again

By Rina Jimenez-David Philippine Daily Inquirer MAYBE WE shouldn’t be shocked any more by yet another outrageous statement from our motor-mouth of a President. Well, maybe we aren’t shocked or surprised, but certainly, and given the occasion and the historical circumstance, the context of it, we are all the more angry, irate, offended and pained.

Speaking to soldiers who had survived the early skirmishes against self-proclaimed terrorists who had overrun the city of Marawi, the President “joked” on Friday that troopers could “rape up to three women” and he would take responsibility in their place, even do a stint in prison for them.

Note that the President didn’t say this about soldiers killing or wounding any of the so-called terrorists, or even about violating the human rights of civil-

ians or combatants. Instead, he brought up the possibility of women being raped by soldiers.

Women are, it appears, in his view a “normal” target of abuse in times of war, even by soldiers.

Was he not in effect giving the soldiers “permission” to rape any woman they encounter?

Even more offensive is the interpretation by some media outlets that Mr. Duterte made the comments about rape in jest “to lift the spirits of troops” charged with quelling this latest outrage, which led him to declare martial law throughout the island of Mindanao.

Whaaat? Assurance of being exonerated should they commit crimes in the course of putting down the occupation of Marawi—specifically of getting away with rape—is all our soldiers and police need to lift their morale? Are we counting on defenders of democracy, or thugs obeying the harebrained orders of their boss, as we battle

this terroristic outrage?

What makes Mr. Duterte’s remarks, even if, or especially if, he was joking, is that he made them in Marawi, which is one of the most conservative areas of Muslim Mindanao that has, of late, become even more fundamentalist.

Surely, the Maranaw who are the majority among the residents of Marawi will not take the mention of rape—especially when issuing forth from the mouth of a sitting President— as a joke or as a means of lifting the spirits of soldiers.

There are so many questions being raised about the need to declare martial law throughout Mindanao, with a very imminent threat of the declaration covering the Visayas and Luzon as well. But the President’s attempt at humor at the expense of women needs to be denounced immediately.

Noteworthy is the fact that, instead of calling for immediate

aid for the hapless civilians fleeing Marawi and facing shortages of water, food, medicines and other necessities, not to mention risking their lives as they flee through combat zones, the President instead chose to provoke laughter at the expense of women. For that he declared martial law?

Of all the disinformation attempts spurred by the situation in Marawi, perhaps the most egregious was the “revelation” that Sen. Bam Aquino was “suspiciously” present in the city the day before the conflict broke out. This led to speculation that either Aquino alone, or the Liberal Party and even a conglomeration of Duterte opposition forces, conspired with the Maute Group to launch the destabilization attempt.

Now it turns out that Senator Bam was in Marawi on the invitation of the government itself.

More specifically, the Department of Trade and Industry had

to issue a clarification that Aquino, “along with stakeholders in the military, the business sector and the local government,” was in Marawi to attend the launch of the Negosyo (Business) Center of the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao, the first in the ARMM but the 508th such center in the country.

Senator Bam had to be there, being the author of the Go Negosyo Law that directs the DTI to establish the centers in all municipalities “to give micro and small entrepreneurs access to entrepreneurship education, mentorship, money and markets.”

Malice, my old journalism teachers taught us, is simply “knowing that something is not true but going ahead and publishing it as the truth.” The “alternative facters” in this case are certainly guilty of malice, but in this age of trolls and antisocial media, can we expect anything better from them? ■

LOOKING BACK

Recalling Marcos’ martial law

By Ambeth R. Ocampo Philippine Daily Inquirer FERDINAND MARCOS cast such a long and terrible shadow on the Philippines that the term “martial law” is always associated with him. Fear and suspicion over President Duterte’s recent declaration from overseas of martial law in Mindanao are fed by memories of Marcos and martial law. But contrary to popular belief, Marcos was not the first or the last to declare martial law in the Philippines: Jose P. Laurel, president of the wartime Republic, declared martial law nationwide on Sept.

21, 1944; it took effect the next day.

The dates of the Laurel and Marcos declarations are coincidental, and students taking history class should be reminded that the date of the declaration and the actual implementation are two separate things. In the case of Marcos, the document is dated Sept. 21, 1972, to conform

to his lucky number “7,” such that his significant acts had to be made on a seventh day or any date divisible by 7. Depending on the source you are reading, the actual signing of Proclamation 1081 could have been Sept. 17 (postdated) or Sept. 23 (backdated).

Martial law also stretches back into the Spanish colonial period. Few people know that martial law is referenced in our flag. Contrary to popular belief, the sun’s eight rays do not refer to “the eight provinces that first rose in revolution against Spain.” Rather, these refer to: Batangas, Bulacan, Cavite, Laguna, Manila, Nueva Ecija, Pampanga, and Tarlac—the eight provinces placed under martial lawby Spanish Governor-General Ramon Blanco, Marques de Peña Plata, on Aug. 30, 1896, following the outbreak of the revolution led by Andres Bonifacio aweek earlier.

Now that it is feared that Mr.

Duterte will extend martial law from Mindanao to cover the entire Philippines, to address the threat of IS, people are looking back at Marcos and martial law. But no one seems to have the patience to read the entire 20 pages of legal justification in Marcos’ Proclamation 1081 to get an idea of the situation at the time—real or imagined— that made martial law possible. The first wordy paragraph reads: “Whereas, on the basis of carefully evaluated and verified information, it is definitely established that lawless elements who are moved by a common or similar ideological conviction, design, strategy and goal and enjoying the active moral and material support of a foreign power and being guided and directed by intensely devoted, well trained, determined and ruthless groups of men and seeking refuge under the protection of our constitutional liberties www.canadianinquirer.net

to promote and attain their ends, have entered into a conspiracy and have in fact joined and banded their resources and forces together for the prime purpose of, and in fact they have been and are actually staging, undertaking and waging an armed insurrection and rebellion against the Government of the Republic of the Philippines in order to forcibly seize political and state power in this country, overthrow the duly constituted government, and supplant our existing political, social, economic and legal order with an entirely new one whose form of government, whose system of laws, whose conception of God and religion, whose notion of individual rights and family relations, and whose political, social, economic, legal and moral precepts are based on the Marxist-Leninist-Maoist teachings and beliefs;” The word “whereas” appears 22 times before you can get to

the operative part of the document where Marcos declares martial law. All throughout it Marcos raises the specter of communism to scare the people and justify martial law following 18 bombings in Metro Manila from March to September 1972 and the assassination attempt on then Defense Minister Juan Ponce Enrile that, depending on the source you are reading, was either staged or authentic.

One will be surprised that there is so much history embedded in the Marcos martial law document, but there is so much more that is not in it. So many other strands in the story have to be woven together to provide a clear and complete picture: other official and unofficial documents, newspaper accounts, memoirs, and memories of ordinary people. We need to know and to remember what made Marcos and martial law possible. ■

16

JUNE 2, 2017

FRIDAY

Canada News Ontario to raise minimum wage to $15 an hour by 2019, ensure equal pay for part time workers

BY JESSICA SMITH CROSS AND ALLISON JONES The Canadian Press TORONTO — Ontario will increase minimum wage to $15 an hour over the next 18 months as part of sweeping changes to labour laws, the province’s Liberal government announced Tuesday, satisfying a longstanding demand of left-leaning voters one year away from an election.

The minimum wage increase was the centrepiece of a slew of reforms Premier Kathleen Wynne revealed in a campaignstyle setting, including ensuring equal pay for part-time workers, increasing vacation entitlements and expanding personal emergency leave.

Wynne, whose party has been faring poorly in recent polls, said the changes, along with a number of her government’s recent announcements, are her plan for a fair society.

“Our plan takes dead aim at the challenges that confront us in this new, uncertain world,” she said, citing the Liberals’ pharmacare plan, a basic income pilot project, 100,000 new child-care spaces, and a plan to cool the housing market.

“It puts fairness at the heart of all we do.”

Ontario’s minimum wage increase will be phased-in gradually. It will rise, as scheduled, with inflation from $11.40 currently to $11.60 in October.

Then, the government plans to bump it up to $14 an hour on

Jan. 1, 2018 and $15 the following year.

Ten per cent of Ontario workers currently make the minimum wage, Wynne said, and 30 per cent make less than $15 an hour.

“That’s millions of people, many of them supporting a family on a wage that just doesn’t go far enough,” she said. “They’re raising children, saving up for their education, wondering if they’ll ever be able to get ahead on the monthly budget, let alone own a home.”

Before the minimum wage increase to $15, however, there will be an election in June 2018.

NDP Leader Andrea Horwath, who has long pushed for a $15 minimum wage, suggested the Liberal government is only introducing the wage raise now to shore up votes for next year.

“I think it’s clear to the people of Ontario that for Liberals it’s always about them,” she said.

“It’s always about them and their own political fortunes and what works for them politically, while for 14 years they’ve done nothing to address the erosion of people’s standard of living.”

Wynne also detailed plans to ensure part-time workers will get equal pay for doing work equal to full-time staff, and said that workers will be able to get three weeks of paid vacation a year after five years with a company, instead of two weeks.

The proposed changes are in response to a governmentcommissioned report released last week that included 173 recommendations addressing pre-

Premier Kathleen Wynne.

carious work.

The Changing Workplaces review concluded that new technology, a shrinking manufacturing sector and fewer union jobs, among other factors, have left approximately one-third of Ontario’s 6.6 million workers vulnerable.

The province’s changes to workplace laws will also establish fairer rules for scheduling, including making employers pay three hours of wages if they cancel a shift with fewer than 48 hours notice, Wynne said.

Personal emergency leave would also be expanded. Currently it is only available to employees at companies with more than 50 people, but proposed legislation would ensure all employees in the province get 10 days per year, two of them paid.

KATHLEEN WYNEE / FACEBOOK

The government has planned for the majority of the labour standards changes to come into effect in early 2018.

Labour Minister Kevin Flynn said the government will table legislation before the house rises for the summer this week, with plans to send it to committee for consultations around the province over the summer.

Flynn said that even though some of the changes — including the $15 minimum wage and rules concerning work scheduling — will come to into force after the next election, they’re not contingent on the Liberals being re-elected.

“Any political party wants voters to feel pretty good about you when you’re going into an election, that’s part of being in politics, but it’s more than that,” he said. “Today’s really a

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good day for the little guy.”

The Canadian Federation of Independent Businesses and a coalition of employer groups including the Ontario Chamber of Commerce objected to the proposed changes.

“We are shocked and appalled that the government is broadsiding small business owners with a 32-per-cent increase in the minimum wage within only one-and-a-half years,” said CFIB director Julie Kwiecinski.

“Small businesses, who don’t share the larger profit margins of big business, will be forced to make difficult choices.”

The Keep Ontario Working Coalition, formed in response to the proposed labour law changes, warned the changes will lead to “unintended consequences, including job losses, rising consumer costs, and economic hardship.”

Flynn said, however, that there’s a body of evidence that shows a higher minimum wage can benefit local economies and lead to job growth.

“This money that goes to bread, it goes to diapers, it goes to bus fares, it goes to rent,” he said. “This is money that gets spent and invested right back in the community.”

Progressive Conservative Leader Patrick Brown wouldn’t say if he would cancel the planned minimum wage increase to $15 if he wins the 2018 election, but echoed concerns of businesses groups who have called for an economic impact study on the proposed changes. ■

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17

Trudeau stands by Kinder Morgan despite changing politics in B.C.

BY JOANNA SMITH The Canadian Press ROME — Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is standing by the Kinder Morgan pipeline project, even as the New Democrats and Greens in B.C. are teaming up to fight it.

“The decision we took on the Trans Mountain pipeline was based on facts and evidence on what is in the best interests of Canadians and indeed, all of Canada,” Trudeau said Tuesday in Rome, where he held a joint news conference with Italian Prime Minister Paolo Gentiloni.

“Regardless of the change in government in British Columbia or anywhere, the facts and evidence do not change,” he said.

Trudeau said his Liberal government understands that growing a strong economy requires taking leadership on both the environment and the economy.

“That is what drives us in the choices we make,” he said.

“We stand by those choices.”

His comments come as the

anti-pipeline Green Party and NDP in British Columbia announced Monday they’ve come to an agreement that could cast doubt on the project’s future.

The leaders of the two parties say they’ve reached a deal that could see the formation of a minority NDP government in the province.

Both have voiced their opposition to the Trans Mountain expansion, which would see the pipeline running from Edmonton to Burnaby nearly triple its capacity.

Kinder Morgan is expected to proceed Tuesday with its initial public offering for the expansion.

Trudeau also praised the benefits that international trade can bring to a world where people are anxious about the future.

In a speech to Italian parliamentarians in Rome today, Trudeau held up the trade deal between Canada and the European Union as an example of an agreement that can both create new jobs and ensure more people can benefit from economic growth.

“We are proud of it, and you

should be, too,” Trudeau said Tuesday in his address to 45 parliamentarians and other dignitaries in the Sala della Regina, or the Queen’s Room, a majestic committee room at the Chamber of Deputies in the Italian Parliament.

“It will create the kind of growth that benefits all our citizens, not just our wealthiest,” Trudeau said.

The trade agreement, known as CETA, is now being considered by the Senate.

Trudeau thanked the Italian parliamentarians who supported the deal, and said it would not have been possible without the support of “like-minded” leaders like Italian Prime Minister Paolo Gentiloni, with whom he is also meeting today.

International Trade Minister Francois-Philippe Champagne says the Liberal government hopes to bring other countries onside with trade by making it “real” for people.

Trudeau is in Italy to promote trade and cultural ties between the two countries at the end of a trip to Europe that included the NATO meeting in Brussels, the G7 Summit in Sic-

MEUNIERD / SHUTTERSTOCK.COM

ily and a private audience with Pope Francis at the Vatican.

On Tuesday, Trudeau was introduced with glowing remarks

by Laura Boldrini, president of the Chamber of Deputies, noting his efforts at fighting climate change.

Speaking in Italian, she said that this issue cannot be solved with simplistic solutions within the confines of a single country.

“The biggest challenge can’t be tackled alone,” she said.

Pietro Grasso, president of the Senate, expressed concern over the “isolationism and protectionist sentiment” that was heard at the G7 summit.

Trudeau addressed the anxiety that people around the

world are facing as “the twin forces of technology and globalization” that are changing everything, and quickly.

But he argued that this can bring solutions to problems like climate change.

“All these things are possible if we shape the great forces of change to deliver progress for people,” Trudeau said.

“That’s what progressive leadership does in moments like this.”

“Leaders who think we can hide from these changes, or turn back the clock, are wrong,” he said.

“It’s our responsibility to harness these changes and make them work for people.” ■

Nova Scotia election:

Aboriginal candidate’s historic bid falls short THE CANADIAN PRESS HALIFAX — A Nova Scotia man has lost his historic bid to become the first Mi’kmaq elected to the provincial legislature.

NDP candidate Trevor Sanipass came in a strong third in Waverley-Fall River-Beaver Bank.

Before polls closed, Sanipass

told The Canadian Press that the excitement around his candidacy extended well beyond his riding, with aboriginal people around the province cheering him on.

“Having that (aboriginal) voice really is important, because right now, we’ve never had one,” Sanipass said. “We need more representation at all levels of government.”

Sanipass, a 41-year-old member of the Eskasoni First Nation, said he decided to run for office for one of the same reasons he became a correctional officer: The overrepresentation of aboriginal offenders in Canada’s prisons.

“I just can’t sit back and not do anything,” said Sanipass, who is also a nationally recognized arm wrestler. “I wanted

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making in some way just by me being there, I’m good with it.”

Sanipass said he hoped his campaign would make history for all Nova Scotians, but more than that, he longed for a day when aboriginal politicians won’t be a novelty.

He said he hopes other members of the Mi’kmaq community will try their hand at politics. ■

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Sanipass said he campaigned to represent all constituents of his riding, but had he won, he wouldn’t have shied away from aboriginal issues.

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18

Canada News

JUNE 2, 2017

FRIDAY

Andrew Scheer narrowly beats Bernier to become federal Conservative leader

BY STEPHANIE LEVITZ The Canadian Press TORONTO — Andrew Scheer, an apple-cheeked social conservative and former House of Commons Speaker seen by some as a pragmatic, mainstream echo of Stephen Harper, survived a 13-ballot battle Saturday with rival Maxime Bernier as he eked out the narrowest of wins in the fight for the helm of the federal Conservatives.

The nail-biting process of winnowing the 13-candidate field went the full distance before Scheer, 38, was declared the winner with just 50.95 per cent of the available points, barely besting longtime frontrunner Maxime Bernier, who posted 49.05 per cent after leading all 12 of the previous ballots.

“Every single kind of Conservative is welcome in this party and this party belongs to all of you,” the Ottawa-born Saskatchewan MP told the crowd during his victory speech.

“We all know what it looks like when Conservatives are divided; we will not let that happen again. We win when we are united.”

The ranks of the party are as large as they’ve ever been, thanks in large measure to the high-profile, hard-fought lead-

ership race, and the party’s fun“The leader’s job is to pick the appeared to collapse given his draising might appears to have common ground between all of profuse opposition to the suprenewed power, he added. those types of conservatives,” ply management system that “I’m here to tell you there Scheer told a news conference regulates some of the province’s is renewed hope for Canada, after his win. most lucrative agricultural instarting today,” Scheer said.

“There’s some aspects of is- dustries. Indeed, Scheer’s cam“Trudeau’s Liberals are so fo- sues that will divide our caucus paign went to lengths to porcused on photo-ops and self- and will divide our movement, tray him as an alternative. ies that they don’t care if their and that doesn’t enjoy wideIn the end, Scheer even won policies hurt and not help the spread support in the general Bernier’s own riding, nabbing middle class. Sunny ways don’t public. But there are other ar- 51.1 per cent of the vote there. pay the bills.” eas — protecting freedom of Bernier said he remained Some see Scheer’s focus on speech, like cutting taxes for committed to his own princonsensus-building as an im- families, like protecting con- ciples — and to the party. He portant brick in the road back science rights for medical prac- said he sees a place for himself to government, much as Harper titioners — those are all things in a party led by Scheer, even kept the various factions of the that the entire conservative though the ultimate victor’s party in check in order to stay in movement can get behind.” stay-the-course approach difpower for more fered so wildly than 10 years. from his own Others, though, big policy ambiaccuse him of tions. repressing his We all know what it looks like when “I like comopposition to soConservatives are divided; we will not petition, it was cial lighting rods let that happen again. We win when a great comlike abortion and we are united. petition,” said same-sex marBernier, visibly riage. crushed.

“I’m Last year, he ready to work supported party members who Moments after the win, with Andrew; he did a great voted to remove a clause op- Scheer acknowledged the field campaign, and that’s democraposing same-sex marriage from and in particular thanked Ber- cy, you know.” the Conservative handbook, nier — who appeared to be Scheer’s speech drew the because he believes Canadians fighting back tears of disap- biggest cheers when he said he have moved on from the issue. pointment — and his other considers “the ability to have a Fellow Saskatchewan MP Brad leadership rivals for their ef- debate about any subject” the Trost later embarked on his forts and hard work. cornerstone of a democracy, own leadership campaign as a Bernier is a longtime Que- promising to “withhold federal result, finishing a respectable bec member of Parliament, but grants from universities that fourth. support in his home province shut down debate and can’t

stand different points of view.”

He also used the politically loaded phrase “radical Islamic terrorism” when he promised to “recommit our air force to the fight against (the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant).”

Saturday’s narrow margin of victory suggests a unity issue that’s likely to be a challenge for the party going forward — especially since Scheer takes his place as leader in the Commons on Monday.

Deepak Obhrai, Andrew Saxton, Rick Peterson, Kevin O’Leary, Chris Alexander, Steven Blaney and Lisa Raitt were some of the earliest casualties as early-ballot results were announced, while Kellie Leitch, Pierre Lemieux and Michael Chong fell off in subsequent rounds.

Gone in the 9th ballot was controversial Leitch, the former cabinet minister and orthopedic surgeon whose key campaign pledge to screen newcomers for Canadian values saw her dominate early media coverage of the race, only to fade from prominence as the vote grew nearer.

Brad Trost, who launched his campaign as a more hardline social-conservative alternative to Scheer, hung in longer than ❱❱ PAGE 28 Andrew Scheer

Senator Enverga questions lengthy processing times for caregivers’ permanent residency applications OTTAWA — On May 4, the Honourable Tobias C. Enverga Jr., Ontario Senator, questioned the Government Representative in the Senate during question period about the unacceptably long wait times that caregivers face to have their permanent residency applications processed under the Trudeau government.

Senator Enverga had previously questioned the minister himself on this very matter in October 2016, but had not received an answer.

“Processing times for permanent residency applications for those in the Caregiver program continue to rise, meaning that

the time that these caregivers must spend separated from their children and families continues to rise as well,” Senator Enverga said in a statement.

“The Trudeau government has not concerned itself with the serious hardships caregivers face upon coming to work in Canada, as applicants are often away from their families for at least six years. I find this upward trend in wait times for applications to be processed quite alarming, and I will hold this government to account on this very important matter,” the Senator continued.

The questions raised by

Senator Enverga examine why the wait times for permanent www.canadianinquirer.net

residency applications have increased under the Trudeau

government, as well as how IRCC’s gender-based analysis policy is being met, given that it is disproportionately women who fall victim to these rising processing times.

The Government Representative, Senator Peter Harder, responded with a promise to inquire of the minister and will provide answers to Senator Enverga’s questions in the future.

“I assure all members of the public, especially those affected by these lengthy wait times, that the government’s response will be shared with them once it is tabled in the Senate,” Senator Enverga ended. ■

World News

FRIDAY JUNE 2, 2017

19

Syrian army, allied militia gain ground against IS

BY SARAH EL DEEB The Associated Press

AMADEUSTX / SHUTTERSTOCK.COM

White House communications director resigns amid tensions

BY VIVIAN SALAMA The Associated Press WASHINGTON — A top White House communications staffer has resigned as President Donald Trump considers a major staff overhaul amid intensifying inquiries into his campaign’s dealings with Russia.

The departure of Michael Dubke, Trump’s communications director, comes as aides and outside advisers say Trump has grown increasingly frustrated by allegations of Russian meddling in the 2016 election and revelations of possible ties between his campaign and Moscow.

Trump tweeted Tuesday: “Russian officials must be laughing at the U.S. & how a lame excuse for why the Dems lost the election has taken over the Fake News.”

Dubke wrote in a statement that it had been an honour to serve Trump and “my distinct pleasure to work side by side, day by day with the staff of the communications and press departments.”

Dubke offered his resignation earlier this month, White House counsellor Kellyanne Conway told The Associated Press on Tuesday, but offered to stay on during the president’s first foreign trip. His last day has not yet been determined.

White House chief of staff Reince Priebus thanked Dubke in a statement and said Dubke had “offered to remain onboard until a transition is concluded.”

“Mike will assist with the transition and be a strong advocate for the president and the president’s policies moving forward,” he said.

A Republican consultant, Dubke joined the White House team in February. The position had gone unfilled after campaign aide Jason Miller — Trump’s original choice for communications director — backed out of the job in December before the president’s inauguration. Dubke founded Crossroads Media, a GOP firm that specializes in political advertising.

Dubke is the latest White House staffer to leave the administration as scrutiny intensifies over contacts Trump staffers may have had with Russian government officials during the campaign and transition.

It’s unclear whether other staff moves are imminent.

Trump has entertained bringing his former campaign manager, Corey Lewandowski, and former deputy campaign manager, David Bossie, more formally back into the fold. And both Lewandowski and Bossie visited the White House on Monday night, according to a person familiar with the meeting, who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss a private get-together.

Bossie told “Fox & Friends” that the Trump administration has reached out to him but hasn’t offered him a job yet.

“They have talked to many ❱❱ PAGE 21 White House

American and Syrian forces since the conflict began in 2011.

U.S. officials said the Syrian advances posed a “threat” to its BEIRUT — Syrian troops and troops and allies fighting the allied militia have pushed back Islamic State group in the area.

Islamic State militants and Meanwhile in Damascus, the U.S-backed opposition fighters, Syrian government blamed the gaining control of a large swath U.S.-led coalition for airstrikes of territory in the country’s strathat killed 35 civilians late tegic southern desert, the govThursday in Mayadeen in Deir ernment-controlled media and el-Zour province. The Syrian a war monitor said Saturday. government called on the U.N. Also Saturday, the U.S.-led to condemn the airstrikes, saycoalition leading the campaign ing they are “illegitimate” and against the Islamic State group should come to a halt. in Syria’s northeast, acknowlActivists said those killed in edged it has conducted airthe late night airstrikes included strikes near the IS-controlled family members of IS fighters. town of Mayadeen earlier in “We are aware of the unsubthe week, targeting the group’s stantiated allegations of civil“propaganda facilities.” In a ian casualties resulting from statement emailed to The Asthese strikes, however, many sociated Press, the U.S.-led coof the reports lack specificity alition said it is looking into reor evidence,” the U.S.-led coaliports the airstrikes killed over tion said in its statement to the two dozen civilians, but added AP. It said it is assessing the althe claims were legations as part “unsubstantiof their routine ated” and lacked review of all such “specificity or claims. evidence.”

The multi-pronged offensive has The coalition With the new been ongoing for over two weeks said its airstrikes advances, the and caused tension in the area, on Thursday and government and prompting a U.S. airstrike on Syrian Friday targeted allied troops segovernment and allied troops near IS media facilicured an area the border with Jordan. ties, “the numnearly half the ber one driver size of neighof (IS)-inspired bouring Lebaexternal attacks” non. The strategic juncture in backed by the U.S. and western around the world. the Syrian desert aids govern- countries, in the desert near the “(The) destruction of these ment plans to go after IS in Deir border with Jordan. The Ob- ISIS targets degrades their abilel-Zour, one of the militants’ servatory said the government ity to project terror,” the statelast major stronghold in Syria. seized over 6,000 kilometres ment said, using a different The oil-rich province straddles (3,700 miles) since the offen- acronym for the Islamic State the border with Iraq and is the sive began earlier this month. group. group’s last gate to the outside The advances also pave the Activists have reported that world. way for the government and its IS members fleeing Raqqa and The government and its al- allied troops to press toward Mosul, in Iraq, have found reflies have restored government the IS-stronghold of Sukhna, a uge in Mayadeen — the town control over mineral and oil key node in the push toward the some say could potentially resources, including the phos- province of Deir el-Zour, said become the new IS capital as phate mines in Khneifes, once Mozahem al-Salloum, of the Raqqa comes under attack. controlled by IS. activist-run Hammurabi JusAs the battle against IS picks The state-controlled Syr- tice News network that tracks up in Syria and Iraq, reports of ian Central Military media said developments in eastern Syria. deaths among civilians have the new advances secured over The crowded battlefield has been on the rise.

5,000 square kilometres (3,100 been a scene of escalating fricThere are concerns that civilsquare miles) in the desert area, tion in recent weeks, as the gov- ians in the last IS strongholds widening the government’s ernment and its allies pushed are prevented from leaving and control south of Palmyra in their way further south where could be subjected to retaliaHoms province and the high- rebel fighters backed by the U.S. tory measures by the militant way linking the ancient city to military also operate. U.S. war- groups. ■ the capital Damascus. planes struck a convoy and a The area was the backyard of base of Syrian and allied troops Associated Press writer Albert territories once controlled by on May 18, in the first such bat- Aji contributed in Damascus, IS militants — linking Palmyra, tlefield confrontation between Syria, contributed to this report. www.canadianinquirer.net

the Jordanian border area, the IS de-facto capital Raqqa, and the oil-rich Deir el-Zour.

The large swath of desert, parts of which were in rebel hands, also abuts the Damascus and its suburbs. With their new gains, the government and allied forces have successfully isolated anti-government rebel fighters in the desert area east of Damascus, denying them advances toward the strategic Homs desert area.

The multi-pronged offensive has been ongoing for over two weeks and caused tension in the area, prompting a U.S. airstrike on Syrian government and allied troops near the border with Jordan.

The opposition Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said the government and allied troops seized Saturday al-Ilianiya, an area controlled

by Syrian opposition fighters,

20

World News

JUNE 2, 2017

FRIDAY

Putin: Russian Trump pays sombre tribute to meddling “fiction” fallen troops on Memorial Day invented by Democrats

BY DARLENE SUPERVILLE The Associated Press

BY VLADIMIR ISACHENKOV The Associated Press

“Russia has never engaged in that, we don’t need it and it makes no sense to do it,” he said. “Presidents come and go, but policies don’t change. You MOSCOW — Russia’s President know why? Because the power Vladimir Putin has dismissed of bureaucracy is very strong.” allegations of Russian medThe Russian leader added dling in last year’s U.S. presi- that he agrees with Trump that dential election as “fiction” in- anyone could have been behind vented by Democrats to divert the hacking of the Democrats’ the blame for their defeat. emails.

In an interview with French “Maybe someone lying in newspaper Le Figaro released his bed invented something or Tuesday, Putin reaffirmed his maybe someone deliberately strong denial of Russia’s in- inserted a USB with a Russian volvement in the hacking of citizen’s signature or anything Democratic National Commit- else,” Putin said. “Anything can tee emails that yielded disclo- be done in this virtual world.” sures that proved embarrassing The assessment echoed a refor Hillary Clinton’s campaign. mark by Trump during a SepThe claims of Russian in- tember presidential debate terference were driven by the in which he said of the DNC “desire of those who lost the hacks: “It could be Russia, but U.S. elections to improve their it could be China, could also standing,” Putin be lots of other said in the inpeople. It could terview recordbe someone sited during his ting on their bed Monday visit to Presidents that weighs 400 France. come and go, pounds.”

“They want to but policies Asked about explain to themdon’t change.

French Presiselves and prove dent Emmanuel to others that Macron’s warnthey had nothing that any ing to do with use of chemical it, their policy was right, they weapons in Syria was a “red have done everything well, line” that would be met by rebut someone from the outside prisals, Putin said he agreed cheated them,” he continued. with that position.

“It’s not so. They simply lost, But he also reiterated Rusand they must acknowledge it.” sia’s view that Syrian President The “people who lost the vote Bashar Assad’s forces weren’t hate to acknowledge that they responsible for a fatal chemical indeed lost because the person attack in Syria in April. who won was closer to the people The U.S. last month struck a and had a better understanding Syrian air base with cruise misof what people wanted,” the Rus- siles after accusing Assad’s milisian leader said in a reference to tary of killing scores of civilians President Donald Trump. with a nerve agent launched Russia’s hopes for a new de- from the base. tente under Trump have been Putin said Russia had offered shattered by congressional and the U.S. and its allies the chance FBI investigations of the Trump to inspect the Syrian base for campaign’s ties to Russia. In the traces of the chemical agent. He Le Figaro interview, Putin said added that their refusal reflectthe accusations of meddling lev- ed a desire to justify military acelled at Russia have destabilized tion against Assad. international affairs.

“There is no proof of Assad He argued that trying to in- using chemical weapons,” Pufluence the U.S. vote would tin insisted in the interview. “In make no sense for Moscow as a our deep belief, it was a provoU.S. president can’t unilaterally cation. Assad didn’t use the shape policies. weapons.” ■

ARLINGTON, VA. — President Donald Trump expressed the nation’s “boundless” gratitude for the ultimate sacrifice paid

by Americans defending the United States, dedicating his first Memorial Day address as commander in chief to a top Cabinet secretary and two other families who lost loved ones.

Participating in the sombre, annual observance Monday at Arlington National Cemetery, Trump recounted the stories of Green Beret Capt. Andrew D. Byers of Colorado Springs and Christopher D. Horton of the Oklahoma National Guard as Byers’ tearful parents and Horton’s emotional widow looked on.

Trump also singled out for special mention Homeland Security Secretary John Kelly, a retired Marine four-star general whose son, Marine 2nd Lt. Robert M. Kelly, was killed in November 2010 after he stepped on a land mine while on patrol in southern Afghanistan.

To all Gold Star families, Trump said of their lost service members: “They each had their own names, their own stories, their own beautiful dreams. But they were all angels sent to us

by God and they all share one title in common and that is the title of hero, real heroes.”

“Though they were here only a brief time before God called them home, their legacy will endure forever,” Trump said.

Horton, a sniper sent to Afghanistan in 2011, died in a gun battle with the Taliban near the Pakistan border three months into his deployment. Byers was on his third combat tour and, Trump said, ran through smoke and a hail of bullets to rescue an Afghan soldier when he was killed last November.

Secretary Kelly’s other son, Johnny, is getting ready for his fifth military deployment. A son-in-law, Jake, is a wounded warrior.

Trump also recognized former U.S. senator and GOP presidential nominee Bob Dole, 93, who suffered lifelong injuries during World War II. He www.canadianinquirer.net

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attended the ceremony along with his wife, Elizabeth Dole, also a former U.S. senator.

“As we honour the brave warriors who gave their lives for ours, spending their last moments on this Earth in defence of this country and of its people, words cannot measure the depth of their devotion, the purity of their love or the totality of their courage,” Trump said.

“We only hope that every day we can prove worthy not only of their sacrifice and service, but of the sacrifice made by the families and loved ones they left behind. Special, special people,” he said.

Before the remarks, Trump laid a wreath at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier, touching it for a long moment before stepping away. He then rested his hand on his heart as a bugler played taps.

Stepping to the microphone to deliver the address, Trump seemed to relish the warm welcome from the audience gathered in the sun-splashed amphitheatre. Trump has been feeling particularly aggrieved in recent weeks by federal and congressional investigations into contacts between his associates and Russian government officials, including news

reports that Jared Kushner, his son-in-law and top White House adviser, proposed establishing secret back-channel communications with Russia during the presidential transition.

The president was accompanied to Arlington cemetery

by Vice-President Mike Pence, Defence Secretary Jim Mattis and Gen. Joseph Dunford, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, as well as a slew of advisers and Cabinet members, including Veterans Affairs Secretary David Shulkin and Housing Secretary Ben Carson.

After the address, Trump visited a section of the cemetery for U.S. service members killed in the Iraq and Afghanistan wars. The White House said Trump visited the gravesite of Robert Kelly, who was laid to rest in Section 60.

Asked what meaning Memorial Day held for him, Secretary Kelly said: “Sad.” Accompanied by Pence, Trump walked briefly among the white marble headstones and greeted families, including Brittany Jacobs and her 6-yearold son, Christian, who was dressed like a Marine. Jacobs’ father, Marine Sgt. Christopher Jacobs, died during a training accident in California in 2011. ■

World News

FRIDAY JUNE 2, 2017

21

Palestinian power struggle threatens further Gaza power cuts

BY KARIN LAUB AND FARES AKRAM The Associated Press GAZA, PALESTINIAN TERRITORY — When Gaza’s 2 million residents break their dawn-todusk fast during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, much of the territory is engulfed by darkness and homes have to rely on generators or batteries for the post-sundown family meals.

Rolling power cuts, a mainstay of life in a decade of Hamas rule in the blockaded Gaza Strip, have never been worse.

Power is only on for four hours at a time, followed by 14 to 18 hours of outage — and the blackouts could grow even longer amid an escalating struggle for dominance between the Islamic militant Hamas and its West Bank-based rival, the Palestinian Authority of internationally backed President Mahmoud Abbas.

Abbas, whose government pays Israel for the electricity, has stepped up financial pressure on Hamas in recent weeks by threatening to reduce its funding in hopes of forcing his rivals to cede ground.

But in a new twist, Israel’s energy minister said he would block any additional electricity cuts until further review. Yuval Steinitz argued that Israel should not be drawn into an internal Palestinian problem,

a decision that also effectively shields Hamas, Israel’s enemy, against Abbas.

Gaza’s residents have adapted to worsening hardships with ingenuity and stoicism.

In some apartment buildings, residents have pooled resources to buy communal generators.

Most Gazans buy food daily because they can no longer use refrigerators. Formerly routine activities such as showering or running a washing machine are done at odd hours, when power is on.

Gaza City resident Raed Ashour, 31, said he believes the situation is allowed to fester, in part, because people are afraid to speak out. The security forces of the authoritarian Hamas quickly quelled a rare mass protest over the power cuts in January.

“Now we are entering the second or third month of four hours of electricity, yet there is no sign of public protest,” said Ashour, a pharmacist. “It’s a political problem.”

Gaza resident Wissam Helo, 35, said his pregnant wife cannot leave their 13th floor apartment when power is out because she cannot climb the stairs to get back home. “We are with the president,” he said, meaning Abbas, when asked whom he backs in the power struggle.

He said he did not want to say more for fear of repercussions.

Gaza hasn’t had full-time electricity in more than a de-

cade, largely because of the international isolation of Hamas.

Israel and Egypt, which border the coastal strip, imposed a blockade on the territory after Hamas’ takeover in 2007. Since 2008, Israel and Hamas have fought three cross-border wars.

Since April, Gaza’s power crisis worsened, in part because of Abbas’ new strategy. After years of failed reconciliation efforts, he began cutting back Gaza support payments to pressure Hamas.

The group says it will not yield.

Gaza’s sole power plant stopped working in April, after it ran out of fuel that had partially been paid for by Qatar and Turkey, one-time regional backers whose support appears to have cooled off.

Hamas could not afford to buy new fuel, leaving Gaza with 10 power lines from Israel as the main source of electricity — about 30 per cent of the territory’s needs.

The Israeli electricity is funded by the Abbas government at a cost of about $11 million a month. The monthly payment is deducted by Israel from customs and tax reimbursements it collects on behalf of the Palestinian Authority every month.

In May, the Palestinian Authority informed COGAT, a branch of the Israeli Defence Ministry that deals with Palestinian affairs, that it would only cover up to $7 million of the monthly electricity bill. In

response, the head of COGAT, Maj. Gen. Yoav Mordechai, said last week that electricity in Gaza would have to be scaled back further.

This elicited a sharp response from Steinitz, the energy minister.

In a letter published by the Israeli media last week, Steinitz wrote to Mordechai that “we should be the ones to decide where to cut electricity,” sarcastically suggesting the Abbas headquarters in Ramallah as a starting point. Israel should “not become a pawn in their hands,” Steinitz wrote to Mordechai, referring to the Palestinians.

The minister’s office said Steinitz will seek a broader review of the issue.

Israel may be concerned the international community could blame it for further deterioration of conditions in Gaza.

There are also fears that more instability in Gaza could lead to renewed rocket fire by militants.

In a veiled warning that GazaIsrael tensions might flare up again, Hamas spokesman Salah

Bardaweel said on Tuesday that in the event of further power cuts, “no one can ensure the (current) relative stability” of the region.

Israel withdrew its settlers and soldiers from Gaza in 2005, arguing that this ended its military occupation of the territory.

The international community, however, has a different view. The United Nations considers the lands Israel captured in 1967 — the West Bank, Gaza and east Jerusalem — as a single unit and holds Israel, as the occupier, responsible for the welfare of more than 4 million Palestinians living there. Since the 2005 withdrawal, Israel has continued to control access to Gaza by land, sea and air.

Last week, the U.N. co-ordinator for the region, Nickolay Mladenov, said Israel, Hamas and the Abbas government “all have obligations for the welfare of Gaza’s residents.”

Speaking from Jerusalem to the U.N. Security Council, Mladenov warned of a “humanitarian crisis” if power is cut further. ■

Trump’s first month in office.

Trump has privately and publicly pinned much of the blame for his administration’s rough start on the White House’s communications strategy.

While overseas, Trump’s longtime lawyer, Marc Kasowitz, joined a still-forming legal team to help the president shoulder the intensifying investigations into Russian interference in the election and his associates’ potential involvement. More attorneys with deep experience in Washington investigations are expected to be added, along with crisis communication experts, to help the White House in the

weeks ahead.

The latest revelations to emerge last week involved Trump’s son-in-law and top aide, Jared Kushner. Shortly after the election, Kushner allegedly discussed setting up a secret communications channel with the Russian government to facilitate sensitive discussions about the conflict in Syria.

The intent was to connect Trump’s chief national security adviser at the time, Michael Flynn, with Russian military leaders, a person familiar with the discussions told the AP. The person wasn’t authorized to publicly discuss private policy deliberations and insisted on anonymity.

Flynn handed in his resignation in February after it was revealed he misled top White House officials about his contacts with Russian officials.

A senior administration official said Kushner was keeping his head down and focusing on work after the foreign trip. The official said Kushner was eager to share what he knows with Congress and other investigators. The official was not authorized to publicly discuss private thinking and spoke on the condition of anonymity.

The disclosure of the back channel has put the White House on the defensive. Just back from his nine-day trip to

the Middle East and Europe, Trump dismissed recent reports as “fake news.”

Trump also has renewed his criticism of Germany following Chancellor Angela Merkel’s suggestion that her country needs to adopt a more independent stance in world affairs.

Trump posted a tweet Tuesday saying “we have a MASSIVE trade deficit with Germany, plus they pay FAR LESS than they should on NATO & military. Very bad for U.S. This will change.” ■

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White House... people, including me,” Bossie said. He later added: “It’s an ongoing conversation, and that’s a fair way to put it.”

In an interview on Fox News on Tuesday, Conway said Dubke “made very clear that he would see through the president’s international trip, and come to work every day and work hard even through that trip because there was much to do here back at the White House.”

Dubke’s hiring was intended to lighten the load on Sean Spicer, the White House press secretary, who had also been handling the duties of communications director during ❰❰ 19

www.canadianinquirer.net

Associated Press writers Catherine Lucey and Jill Colvin contributed to this report.

22

Community News

JUNE 2, 2017

FRIDAY

A taste of home: Max’s Restaurant Vancouver celebrates 5th anniversary

BY KATHERINE PADILLA Philippine Canadian Inquirer MAX’S RESTAURANT Vancouver is celebrating its fifth year of serving the best ‘Cuisine of the Philippines’ not only to Filipino-Canadians but to all nationalities of the world.

The supreme Filipino restaurant known as "The House That Fried Chicken Built” traces its history back in 1945 when Filipino Maximo Gimenez and his family first served the infamous ‘sarap to the bones’ fried chicken to some American troops of World War II. Now at 70 year-old, the original recipe of Max’s fried chicken is still warming the hearts of Filipinos in all occasions.

Max’s rich history and its wide array of Filipino food selection that are cooked to perfection is what inspired the family of Atty. Christopher Garcia, franchise owner of Max’s Restaurant in Vancouver, to bring “The House That Fried Chicken Built” in Canada.

“In 1999, my father who hails from Biñan, Laguna talked to me and said, ‘Son, let’s bring something new in town, a good brand that we can be proud of.

Something that will spur the business and give employment to the small town.’ ‘What kind

of business are you thinking?’ I asked. He said, ‘Let’s do food.’”

Garcia recalled.

“The first thing brand that came to my mind was Max’s because Max’s is a 70-year-old brand. It transcends generation.

I’ve attended numerous baptisms, weddings, graduations, and even daily meetings, we would have that at Max’s. It serves great food and good-value. It was no brainer for us,” he added.

The Garcias opened several branches of Max’s Restaurant in the Philippines and when the opportunity to bring Max’s abroad presented itself, the family, like before, did not think twice of opening one in Vancouver.

But why in Vancouver?

Christopher’s grandparents were one of the first Filipino families to immigrate in Canada in the 60’s. When they

were young, he and his brother would fly to Vancouver for summer vacations.

“Canada is a second home to us. It would mean a lot to us to bring the brand (Max’s Restaurant) in Vancouver because we know that it’s a very good brand and it would benefit the Filipinos living here in Vancouver in search for better lives not only for themselves but also for their loved ones. Being able to bring a little slice of home to them here in Vancouver would mean a lot,” Garcia said.

It took the Garcias three years to finally open the doors of Max’s Restaurant in Vancouver. According to Christopher, this is due to Max’s Restaurant’s strict franchise guidelines in accordance to its mission to provide supreme Filipino cuisine and dining experience.

“Max’s wants to make sure

CHRISTIAN CUNANAN AND LAARNI LIWANAG

that you will present the brand properly in the way it deserves to be represented,” he said.

It took them almost two years to enter in a franchise agreement with Max’s Restaurant and another year to scout the perfect location for the Vancouver branch of Max’s. In 2012, Max’s Restaurant in Vancouver finally opened its door to serve a taste of home to Filipinos in Canada.

Christopher admitted that out of all the Max’s Restaurant branches his family operates, the Vancouver branch is their

favorite.

“Whenever we come here, we walk around the restaurant and we can see the joy and happiness in the customers who eat here because they taste home.

A lot of Filipinos here become homesick and when they get to eat here, it’s a little slice of home. It takes them back to their hometown where they have their own Max’s,” he said.

“It’s our small way to help them fight off homesickness.

That’s why this branch is very, very close to our hearts,” he added. ■

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau meets the FilCan community in Surrey BC LAST MAY 19 at the Kubyertos Restaurant in Surrey BC, the Right Honourable Prime Minister Justin Trudeau met the Filipino Community for a photo opportunity.

It was facilitated by Sir Frank Macapagal who, despite short notice, was able to gather the leaders in the community. Sir Frank Macapagal is shown with his family with the Prime Minister. Other business and community leaders and alumni associations were also in attendance. The event was organized by the Office of Member of Parliament Randeep Singh Sarai.

After this event, the Prime

Minister headed to Abbotsford, British Columbia to visit the Gur Sikh Temple to deliver remarks. ■

www.canadianinquirer.net

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24

JUNE 2, 2017

FRIDAY

Entertainment Superstar feted: ‘Bongga ka, Guy!’ Noranians throw a birthday bash for the Superstar

BY BAYANI SAN DIEGO JR. Philippine Daily Inquirer NORA AUNOR marked her 64th birthday on May 21 in the company of fans, who organized the bash by sending out invites, booking the venue, tapping the caterer, and bringing in chow.

The fans and some press folk serenaded the Superstar, with Hotdog singing “Bongga Ka ’Day” but the title line rendered “Bongga Ka Guy!” It was a night to reminisce and reunite with loyal pals.

Beaming with pride and joy, Superstar Nora Aunor celebrated her 64th birthday last May 21, her actual natal day, surrounded by fans.

La Aunor told the Inquirer that her beloved Noranians had organized the big bash themselves. They sent out the invites, booked the venue (Century Hall at the Quezon Memorial Circle), tapped the caterer (Rio’s) and brought in additional cakes (courtesy of Pinky Fernando and Daniel Razon) and chow—all for the love of their idol.

The revelry was led by five fan clubs: Nora’s Friends Forever, International Circle of Online

Noranians, Grand Alliance of Nora Aunor Philippines, Federation of Nora Aunor Followers and D’ Solid Group Forever Noranians. Guy and Pip fans (avid followers of the singer-actress’ love team with Tirso Cruz III) also trooped to the party.

The event likewise served as an advance celebration of the 50th anniversary of the Superstar as “Tawag ng Tanghalan” champion (May 29).

All throughout the evening, past recordings of Ate Guy, as she is known in the biz, were played (from “The Song of My Life” to “This is My Life”).

Aunor recalled that in past celebrations, she would encourage her fans to perform in the program. This year, fans and some press folk serenaded the Superstar, who couldn’t help joining the Noranians’ impromptu “Pearly Shells/Tiny Bubbles” hula dance number.

Another highlight was a rousing group rendition of Hotdog’s “Bongga Ka ’Day,” with the lyrics rewritten as “Bongga Ka Guy!” “Bongga Ka Day” is the title of her 1980 movie.

La Aunor was most impressed by young beatbox performer Dexter Patente.

Spotted having fun were

longtime friends and colleagues John Rendez, Menggie Cobarrubias, Portia Ilagan and “Himala” scriptwriter Ricky Lee, who graced the occasion with his latest batch of workshoppers. The Superstar’s son Kenneth Villamayor was there, too. Daughter Matet de Leon also dropped by—with husband Mickey Estrada and daughters Icay, Mishka and Mia in tow.

La Aunor related that her fans are also putting together a big celebration for her 50th anniversary in show business this year. A concert would surely be the most apt way to observe the golden year—with La Aunor singing her golden hits onstage?

The Superstar reported that she had just consulted with Dr. Melfred L. Hernandez, who was recommended by fellow singer-actress Cherie Gil. With the help of “Ang Dating Daan,” La Aunor had earlier seen two specialists in Manila and Singapore. She had to go easy on the voice lessons, though, until she undergoes a throat operation in the United States.

“I hope to have the surgery done in Boston, under the same doctor who treated Julie Andrews,” she said. ■

@MATEOGUIDICELLI / INSTAGRAM

Trust is important to Matteo and Sarah

BY MARINEL R. CRUZ Philippine Daily Inquirer “TRUST EACH other; it’s an important element in our relationship.”

This, according to actor Matteo Guidicelli, is why his nearly three-year relationship with singer-actress Sarah Geronimo is “going strong.”

This despite rumors that Sarah’s parents still do not approve of Matteo. The couple has previously denied this.

The 27-year-old actor insisted that “all is well” between

them.

When asked about the possibility of settling down with Sarah, Matteo said he would rather keep details private.

“It’s a life goal. We all want to prepare for what will happen in the future—be it marriage or having a family, or retirement,” he told reporters present during the launch of Sun Life Asset Management Company Inc.’s “Make it Mutual” vlogs on investing.

Matteo is currently working on a film, titled “Ghost Bride,” opposite Kim Chiu and directed by Chito Roño. ■

Manilyn Reynes renews ties with GMA Network VERSATILE AND respected actress Manilyn Reynes remains a loyal Kapuso as she renewed last May 18 her exclusive contract with GMA Network, Inc. Manilyn said she is happy to continue her journey as a Kapuso which has been her home network for many years, “Kasi po ang Kapuso talagang may puso ika nga. Hindi lamang sa kung ano pa man ang tinitingnan ng tao, it’s because it’s true.

Kaya nga po, nabigyan ako ng pagkakataon ulit na maging Kapuso, kaya sabi ko, magta-trabaho ako ng buong pagmamahal at buong puso dahil ako ay certi-

fied Kapuso.”

The seasoned character actress added, “Actually yung first show na sinalihan ko nung 10-years-old ako, dito sa GMA. From that time on, every now and then, may show ako dito hanggang sa nag-That’s Entertainment ako, and the rest is history.”

Manilyn is currently part of the award-winning family sitcom Pepito Manaloto and the top-rating primetime series Meant To Be. Aside from these shows, she has been part of numerous GMA programs including Bakekang, Kwento ni Lola Basyang, All My Life, First

Time, Destiny Rose, and Once Upon A Kiss.

Present in the contract signing were GMA Entertainment TV's Senior Vice President Lilybeth G. Rasonable, GMA Senior Assistant Vice President for Business Development Department II Janine Piad-Nacar, Senior Program Manager for ETV Bang Arespacochaga and ETV Program Managers Enri Calaycay and Cecille de Guzman.

During the contract signing, Manilyn revealed that she really enjoys playing the role of Amelia 'Mamay' Bendiola in Meant To Be and she is very www.canadianinquirer.net

grateful for the netizens and viewers’ overwhelming support since it premiered in January this year.

“Nakakatuwa talaga yung support at love na ipinapakita ng ating manonood. Nakakaaliw sila pati na rin yung mga tweets at messages na ipinapadala nila.

We are so happy dahil hindi lang pampakilig ang ginagawa natin gabi-gabi, kundi may lesson din tayo na naibabahagi tungkol sa pagmamahalan at tungkol sa family.”

Meanwhile, Rasonable said that she is very pleased with the new chapter of Manilyn’s career in GMA since she is one of

the assets of the Network, “Manilyn started here in GMA. Dito na siya nagdalaga at dito na rin siya nakabuo ng pamilya niya.

At hanggang ngayon ay loyal pa rin siya sa GMA. How can you not be happy with that? At si Manilyn kasi ang gaan-gaan katrabaho, napakabait na tao at napakadaling katrabaho bilang artista. So siguro, nadadala rin niya yung gaan sa trabaho and it shows in her work. She is also very versatile. She can do comedy, she can make you cry, and she is a great singer, that’s why her shows are successful.” ■

Entertainment

FRIDAY JUNE 2, 2017

25

‘Wonder Woman’ film and star live up to the name

BY LINDSEY BAHR The Associated Press “WONDER WOMAN” has been the subject of so much superfluous fuss, it’d be easy to forget that behind all of the hand-wringing and both symbolic and real pressure to succeed there’s actually a movie meant to entertain.

Yet, like the heroine at its centre, “Wonder Woman” the movie rises with powerful grace above the noise. It’s not perfect, but it’s often good, sometimes great and exceptionally rewatchable.

Director Patty Jenkins’ film is so threaded with sincerity and goodness it’s a wonder how it got past the pugnacious minds responsible for what’s come before. “Wonder Woman” evokes not only the spirit of Richard Donner’s “Superman,” but also Joe Johnston’s “Captain America: The First Avenger,” while still being its own thing. Just look to the image of Gal Gadot confidently striding out alone onto an unwinnable battlefield with only a shield, a sword and a mission — and prevailing. It’s enough to give you goosebumps.

“Wonder Woman” is struc-

tured as a coming-of-age story about how Diana, the Amazonian princess, becomes Wonder Woman. It’s framed, clumsily, as an over two hour flashback provoked by a note from Bruce Wayne. Of all the stupid interconnected universe things!

Thankfully, Jenkins transitions quickly into the actual story about a naive idealist who comes to accept the complexities of mankind. From a tender age, Diana, living on the achingly idyllic island of Themyscira, dreams of being a warrior.

Her mother, Queen Hippolyta (Connie Nielsen) disapproves, although she inexplicably withholds the real reason.

It’s no wonder Diana aspires to fight. She’s been told that their sole purpose is to keep the peace and destroy Ares, the god of war. Also, and not insignificantly, the warriors led by General Antiope (Robin Wright), are some of the fiercest babes ever to grace the screen. They fly around with swords and shields, bedecked in armoured mini dresses and wedged gladiator sandals that allow them to leap 50 feet in the air.

Young Diana trains in secret, and then with reluctant permission, until an American spy, Steve Trevor (Chris Pine),

Gal Gadot.

crash lands on the island and tells the Amazons about the “war to end all wars.” Diana concludes World War I must be Ares’ doing and decides, impetuously and like so many arrogant superheroes before her, that she’s ready for battle.

In London and at the battlefront, Diana gets a crash course in humanity, from the ills (sexism, alcoholism, colonialism, racism, apathy) to the good (babies, snow, ice cream). It’s all very simplistic, but Gadot’s serious and unapologetic curiosity sells the dubious premise that a woman so versed in

KATHY HUTCHINS / SHUTTERSTOCK.COM

so many things from Socrates to the “pleasures of the flesh” could be this unaware of human flaws. Perhaps they only teach the good stuff in Themyscira.

But that’s what Trevor is there for — to help this otherworldly crusader acclimate.

Pine plays Trevor as a spiritual cousin to Indiana Jones (he even gets to goof around with an accent that immediately evokes the “tapestries” bit from “The Last Crusade”). He’s on his own mission, to stop the comically evil Germans General Ludendorff (Danny Huston) and Doctor Poison (Elena

Anaya) from prolonging the war, but it’s never a question that this is Diana’s show.

Jenkins keeps the look and feel of the film classical, as it breezes through a strong second act. But, being a DC film, “Wonder Woman” can’t help but devolve into a blurry, concrete-busting third act that feels dispiritingly like all the rest, not to mention a baffling reveal that negates most of Diana’s growth. It’s not enough to negate the good, though, and much of that is Gadot’s doing.

She is the perfect Wonder Woman — a true blue hero who’s as believable in her bafflement of women’s fashions and social mores as she is dead-lifting a tank and swatting away machine-gun fire with only her arm cuff.

I never cared about Wonder Woman before. Now I do.

“Wonder Woman,” a Warner Bros. release, is rated PG-13 by the Motion Picture Association of America for “sequences of violence and action, and some suggestive content.” Running time: 141 minutes. Three stars out of four. ■ MPAA Definition of PG-13: Parents strongly cautioned. Some material may be inappropriate for children under 13.

Discrimination suits proceed against Fox, minus Roger Ailes

BY TOM HAYS AND LARRY NEUMEISTER The Associated Press NEW YORK — The sudden death of Fox News founder Roger Ailes won’t slow the march of litigation swirling around the network, legal observers and lawyers involved in the suits said.

Three new lawsuits by people alleging a hostile work environment were filed just days after his death at age 77. And while Ailes was a potential witness in some lawsuits, his absence is unlikely to matter much.

For one, the lawsuits — like most litigation — are likely to be resolved without a trial. And Ailes was never named as a defendant in the majority of suits brought in the last year by employees, former employees and others affiliated with the network.

In the few lawsuits in which he was personally named as a defendant or was considered a potential witness, lawyers said they planned to move forward without him. In one of those lawsuits, former Fox employee Andrea Tantaros, a onetime host of “The Five,” claims she was taken off the air after complaining that Ailes subjected her to unwanted sexual comments — an allegation Ailes denied.

Douglas Wigdor, who represents 23 former or current Fox employees suing the company, said Ailes was not a defendant in any of his lawsuits, which mostly pertain to claims over race, gender, pregnancy and workplace retaliation. Only a handful included allegations of sexual harassment, none of which involved Ailes personally.

Wigdor said that he might have called Ailes as a witness in race discrimination cases to

testify about how he handled various matters, but that he wasn’t essential.

The network had already settled claims brought directly against Ailes. Before his death, Ailes denied the allegations against him. His lawyers did not respond to requests for comment.

Ailes was forced out of Fox News last July after former anchor Gretchen Carlson claimed he sabotaged her career after she spurned his sexual advances.

Then Bill O’Reilly was forced out last month after The New York Times reported that five women had received payouts of about $13 million from O’Reilly or Fox News after making claims of sexual harassment or other inappropriate behaviour.

Fox News declined to speak on the record about ongoing litigation, but the network has taken steps to ensure complaints by employees are hanwww.canadianinquirer.net

dled swiftly.

In one internal memo obtained by The Associated Press, Fox News Executive Vice-President of Human Resources Kevin Lord wrote that the network has been giving employees sensitivity training for several months on subjects including sexual harassment and racial discrimination. That training has included information on how to file workplace complaints confidentially.

Federal prosecutors declined to comment on what effect the death might have on a separate investigation into how 21st Century Fox handled settlement payouts reaching into the tens of millions of dollars. A spokesman at 21st Century Fox also declined comment. The company has said in the past that it is cooperating with the probe.

The most recent court action in the civil cases came Wednes-

day, when Fox asked a court to throw out Tantaros’ suit, saying its claims the network had her under surveillance were “at best, a paranoid fantasy and at worst, a deliberate hoax.”

If any cases went to trial, the plaintiffs possibly might have benefited from having Ailes to call as a witness, said attorney David S. Ratner, who isn’t involved in the Fox litigation.

“Ailes’ story has gone to the grave with him,” he said.

The fact that 21st Century Fox opted to settle claims that directly involved Ailes suggested a lack of faith in his ability to help disprove them in depositions or on the witness stand, said Joanna Grossman, a professor of discrimination and gender law at SMU Dedman School of Law. “My guess is he wouldn’t have been a very good witness for Fox,” Grossman said. ■

26

JUNE 2, 2017

FRIDAY

Lifestyle Alex Tizon’s widow: Lola ‘was the true matriarch’ The wife of the late Fil-Amwriter answers questions about the story’s continuing global impact

BY ERIC S. CARUNCHO Philippine Daily Inquirer IF ALEX Tizon’s “My Family’s Slave” has struck a raw nerve among Filipinos, it’s probably because many among us feel complicit in perpetuating the institution of servitude that the late Pulitzer Prize-winning Filipino-American journalist vividly described in his posthumously published cover story for The Atlantic magazine.

The cruelty and oppression that “Lola” Eudocia Pulido endured at the hands of Tizon’s parents may no longer be as common among the current generation of Filipinos. Few modern-day Filipino families believe that they “own” the help, as Tizon’s parents seemed to.

The advent of social security, health insurance and the minimum wage for domestic helpers may even be seen as evidence that it’s just another form of gainful employment, not some vestigial feudalism.

But Tizon’s story digs at an uncomfortable truth many of us would rather not think about: despite the benevolent, familial overtones it is often cloaked in, and the mutual consent implicit in the agreement, dominance and submission remain at the heart of the relationship between the amo (master) and the katulong (helper).

Few would embrace a life of servile drudgery if they thought they had other choices.

No doubt, another element of this secret shame is admitting how dependent we have be-

come on this arrangement. Life in Metro Manila would simply collapse if, on top of working to eke out a living, everyone had to do his or her own laundry, clean the house, wash the dishes, cook the meals and care for the children.

Beyond the initial controversy it sparked, “My Family’s Slave” has opened up a round of soulsearching among modern-day Filipinos. How should we feel about this part of our culture? What, if anything, should we do to change? Is there an ethical way to pass off the drudgery of housework to Life in Metro Manila would simply collapse if, on top of working to eke out a someone else, and if so, can we living, everyone had to do his or her own laundry, clean the house, wash the afford it? dishes, cook the meals and care for the children.

The conversation is just beMISERV.NET ginning, and it’s both tragic and ironic that Tizon, who died sud- He knew it would be important posed “complicity” in Lola’s fate. denly last March, is no longer and controversial, but I doubt What’s your reaction to this? around to take part in it. he thought it would go “viral” Alex didn’t try to make any That role has fallen largely on all over the world. I wish he excuses in the article. But it’s his widow, Melissa Tizon, who was here to be part of the con- important to note that he and is also a writer and continues versation. He would dive right his siblings tried many times to to live in Oregon with her two into the debate and listen to all help Lola get out of her situadaughters. sides. Even if you were one of tion and into a better life. Alex Reached by and his brothers e-mail, she had and sisters told this to say about her she could the story’s conlive with any of tinuing global We need to treat one another them or they impact. with love, compassion and equity. would help her We need to make sure that what get back to the Alex’s story has happened to Lola doesn’t happen to Philippines. But taken on a life of other innocent, powerless people.

Lola felt an inits own, and its tense devotion reverberations to Alex’s mom are just being and didn’t want felt in the Philto leave her. ippines. How do you feel about the critics, he’d want to sit down It wasn’t until Alex’s mom this, and the fact that he’s not with you and understand your died of leukemia in 1999 that around to appreciate the impact perspective.

Lola began to consider our ofit’s had? fers to move in with one of the I think he’d be surprised at There’s also been a backlash kids or go back home to the the magnitude of the response. of sorts against Alex for his sup- Philippines. She chose to move

www.canadianinquirer.net

in with Alex and me.

There’s been a lot of soulsearching on the part of Filipinos about the social institution of family servants. What do you want Filipino readers of the article to take away from it?

I am no expert on this topic, so I’ll just say we are all human beings, regardless of what station we are born into in life.

We need to treat one another with love, compassion and equity. We need to make sure that what happened to Lola doesn’t happen to other innocent, powerless people. Can we teach families the signs of abuse and mistreatment of servants? Can we provide resources to help those who are in this situation?

It’s only been a couple of years since employers were required to provide social security and health insurance for their household help, and although they’re technically entitled to minimum wage, this is often offset by their live-in status, so their takehome pay is usually less than minimum. Do you think this is enough change?

Again, I am not an expert on this topic. But my guess is that we have a long way to go on this topic.

How do you feel about the reactions to the article that defended the practice of keeping servants on cultural grounds, i.e. it’s part of Filipino culture, and it’s a mutually beneficial relationship?

Housekeeping, cooking, ❱❱ PAGE 28 Alex Tizon’s

Lifestyle

FRIDAY JUNE 2, 2017

27

1 step forward, Winery or ‘weedery’: Vineyards 2 steps back for rip up grapes, switch to pot LBGT rights in Asia

BY GILLIAN FLACCUS The Associated Press

THE ASSOCIATED PRESS A FIRST-EVER ruling in favour of same-sex marriage in Asia. A public caning in Indonesia. A soldier convicted in South Korea.

For LGBT rights, it was one step forward, two steps back this week in Asia, where traditional values often clash with modern views on lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender issues.

The developments followed the arrest in Bangladesh last week of 27 men on suspicion of being gay, though police said they would be charged with drug possession since they were detained before they engaged in sex.

Indonesia

First came a police raid on a gay sauna and gym in Jakarta, the Indonesian capital. Then the public caning of a gay couple for consensual sex in Aceh, a remote Indonesian province that practices Shariah law.

More than a thousand people packed a mosque courtyard Tuesday to witness the caning.

The crowd shouted insults and cheered as the men, aged 20 and 23, winced in pain while they were whipped 83 times across the back.

“What they have done is like a virus that can harm people’s morale,” said Sarojini Mutia Irfan, a female university student who witnessed the caning. “This kind of public punishment is an attempt to stop the spread of the virus to other communities in Aceh.”

Outside of Aceh, homosexuality is not illegal in Indonesia, but the country’s LGBT community has come under siege in the past year.

Strident anti-gay comments from high-profile politicians and Islamic hard-liners have fanned prejudice. A case before the country’s top court seeks to criminalize gay sex, as well as sex outside marriage.

Police detained 141 men Sunday evening at the sauna in Jakarta and charged 10 with violating pornography laws. The

raid followed the arrest last month of 14 men in Indonesia’s second-largest city, Surabaya, at what police say was a sex party.

The pressure looks set to increase. Police in West Java, the country’s most populous province, announced Wednesday the creation of a task force to search for and monitor gyms and other locations that hold LGBT parties. The police chief urged communities to report such activity.

Taiwan

A Taiwan court ruling Wednesday affirmed the right of same-sex couples to register their marriages, a first in Asia and one that will likely give encouragement to China’s burgeoning gay rights movement, given the cultural ties between the two.

The constitutional Court ruling also underscores the stark differences between selfgoverning Taiwan and China, which considers Taiwan a breakaway territory.

Taiwan has evolved into a freewheeling democracy over the past three decades with a vibrant civil society, a high proportion of women in politics — including the current president — and broad acceptance of international cultural values.

China, in contrast, remains an authoritarian society where the Communist Party brooks no challenge to its strict control over political and social life.

The removal of homosexuality from the official list of mental illnesses in 2001 and an end to routine harassment of gays meeting in public has made life easier for many. However, the ruling party’s inherently conservative nature and strong societal pressure to marry and produce offspring remain impediments to greater freedoms.

Gay activists in China have become increasingly emboldened in recent years, staging small-scale public events and rallying behind unsuccessful legal cases on same-sex marriage and transgender rights, ❱❱ PAGE 31 1 step

JACKSONVILLE, ORE. — Bill and Barbara Steele moved to this sleepy corner of Oregon to start their own winery after successful, high-powered business careers.

Now, more than a decade later and with award-winning wine to show for their hard work, they are adding a new crop: marijuana.

Oregon’s legalization of recreational pot two years ago created room for entrepreneurial cross-pollination in this fertile region abutting California’s socalled Emerald Triangle, a wellknown nirvana for outdoor weed cultivation.

Recreational marijuana cannot be sold legally in California until next year. But a few miles north of the border in Oregon, a handful of winemakers are experimenting with pot in hopes of increasing their appeal among young consumers and in niche markets.

“Baby boomers are drinking less. Millennials are coming into their time, economically, where in 2016 they were the fastest-growing consumers of wine, both in dollars and volume,” said Barbara Steele, who runs Cowhorn Vineyard & Garden in rural Jacksonville with her husband.

“They’re looking for an experience of ‘wine and weed.”’

The Steeles leased their land to grow 30 medical marijuana plants last year, and this year they are growing double that amount to be branded with the same label as their wine. They started with seeds in plastic cups under incubators in their laundry room, and pride themselves on a “seed to smoke” philosophy.

This year’s crop also is for medical use, but the Steeles are seeing the benefits of the expanding market from legal recreational pot. Their weed was reviewed alongside one of their white wines in Stoner Magazine, an Oregon cannabis publication.

“That conversation is possible here because our quality — the agricultural possibility — is so high. This is an amazing growing www.canadianinquirer.net

region,” Barbara Steele said.

It’s hard to know exactly how many in the wine industry are looking at pot here, but there’s plenty of buzz surrounding the subject.

Some vineyards are ripping out portions of grapes in favour of marijuana plants or leasing land to private growers. Others are talking about wine-andweed tourism, including highend shuttles that would stop at local wineries for tastings and at marijuana farms for glimpses of how pot is prepared for market.

“There are a few wineries setting up very large recreational grows right now,” said Brent Kenyon, of the marijuana consulting business Kenyon & Associates, based in southern Oregon. “The ‘weedery’ and the winery. I think that’s huge, and we see it developing.”

But that enthusiasm comes with a caveat. Marijuana is still federally illegal, and wineries must keep their wine and weed businesses separate or risk losing a federal permit that allows them to bottle and sell wine.

That means establishing two distinct lots for tax purposes and keeping two licenses with the state, said Christie Scott, alcohol program spokeswoman for the Oregon Liquor Control Commission, which also licenses recreational marijuana.

Vineyards that grow grapes but don’t have a liquor license, however, could get a recreational marijuana license, she said.

In the nearby Illinois Valley, Katherine Bryan is tackling these challenges as she launches a marijuana business with her son.

She owns Deer Creek Vineyards with her husband, but

her pot operation will be called Bryan Family Gardens and will operate on land next to the vineyard.

“We want to be as transparent as possible because when you’re under the federal government umbrella for your wines, you have to be very, very careful,” Bryan said.

She plans to grow several hundred marijuana plants with a focus on organic cultivation and an eye toward a high-end market.

They already have some buyers lined up and are installing greenhouses and lighting as they await approval of their recreational license.

“I get $2,000 a ton for my pinot gris grapes, whereas I can make potentially $2,000 or more per pound of cannabis,” Bryan said. “We have 31,000 plants out here for grapes, so I’m pretty sure I can handle 300 to 500 cannabis plants.”

Mark Wisnovsky, of Valley View Winery in Jacksonville, says some vintners are upset because of the stigma associated with marijuana. But his family’s winery was the first in the Applegate Valley in 1971, and everyone thought they were crazy then, too, he said.

The family isn’t cultivating marijuana now, but Wisnovsky has been a vocal supporter of those who want to do so.

Diversifying with weed could save vineyard owners who have overplanted grapes for years, he added.

“A job’s a job, and money’s money, and we have capabilities here that are unique,” he said. “We either take advantage of the situation or let it steamroll over us.” ■

28

Lifestyle

Andrew Scheer... many expected, dropping off on the 11th ballot.

O’Leary dropped out of the race abruptly last month but was too late to have his name removed from the ballot.

The lengthy ranked-ballot system and the size of the field meant several rounds of balloting were necessary to crown a winner. Officials say 132,000 ballots — the party has some 259,000 eligible members — had been received by the Friday deadline for mail-in ballots.

Mesh bags released Conservative party balloons over the crowd at the Toronto Congress Centre as Scheer invited his fellow candidates and caucus members to join him onstage, ❰❰ 18

to the strains of a guitar-heavy version of “We Are the Champions.”

Ahead of Saturday’s duel, outgoing interim leader Rona Ambrose took to the stage for one final farewell — and to send some words of advice to her successor.

Bedrock conservative values are more important than any policy proposals shared during the campaign, Ambrose said.

“When we rally around those values and speak with one voice there is no limit to what we can achieve together,” she said.

“The measure of a good leader is also how they treat their opponents in defeat,” she quoted Harper as saying.

“Never forget that.” ■

New Conservative leader Andrew Scheer.

MARCOS OLIVEIRA / AGÊNCIA SENADO

Alex Tizon’s... landscaping, nannying, etc. are legitimate forms of work. But everyone should be treated compassionately and there should be appropriate compensation for the work.

Has the article changed your life and that of your family?

How? It made us realize how much Lola endured and suffered at the hands of Alex’s parents. The girls and I knew she had a hard life, but we didn’t know all the details until we began reading the early drafts of Alex’s article...

All of us were absolutely devastated when Lola died in 2011.

She was such a big part of our lives. The article, and all the attention it’s getting, brings up her loss all over again and makes us miss her even more.

And, of course, we miss Alex terribly. We still can’t believe he’s gone. Our lives will never be the same. ❰❰ 26

Where do you go from here, as far as Alex’s story is concerned,

and life in general?

We are still absorbing the story and all the reaction to it, so it’s too soon to say what’s next.

Everything is still so raw. There is so much to process. But the girls and I know we will heal over time. There is a lot of love and resilience in the Tizon family, and that is what’s helping us get through this. Our prayers are also with the Pulido family in Tarlac. We know how much they loved Lola.

Alex’s family never used the word “slave” to describe Lola. It wasn’t until Alex started writing his drafts for the Atlantic that the word came up as a description for her role...

Also, when she finally moved in with Alex and me 12 years ago, she was already in her 70s.

We didn’t want her to work. We wanted her to relax, rest and retire. Our kids loved her, and so did all of Alex’s nieces and nephews, who also lived in our neighborhood. Everyone in our family came over to see her regularly. She was the true matriarch of the Tizon family. ■

JUNE 2, 2017

FRIDAY

A sister uses her gifts to send messages to fallen soldier

BY MARTHA IRVINE The Associated Press NEENAH, WIS. — She begins each time by sharpening her tools, with the sound of metal on metal echoing through the sunlit old house she calls both home and workshop. Making a violin is a methodical art. For Sonja St. John, that structure is a necessity — and the routine, in many ways, a saving grace.

“It’s a way to stay on track even when chaos can be happening right outside,” she says.

She finishes each new violin with another ritual, by gluing a small, handwritten message inside. This began as a light gesture, with favourite fortunes from cookies placed inside with a wink as hidden signatures of sorts from her, the violin maker. But the notes she leaves now have become far more personal and meaningful.

Each is different, but they are often a tribute to those who’ve given of themselves in some way, members of the military included. Her most recent one reads: “In honour of past, present and future souls of courage and wisdom.”

The person foremost on her mind when she writes those messages is her brother, Jon St. John, an Army specialist who died a decade ago when a roadside bomb exploded near the military vehicle in which he was the gunner.

Jon, Sonja’s only sibling, was 25. She was 22 and just beginning her career after graduating from the Chicago School of Violin Making. She has a vivid memory of sliding to her kitchen floor, her back against the cupboards, when her parents shared the news in a phone call.

This was her big brother, her fishing buddy and protector, tall and strong-willed but also kind in sometimes surprising ways. Her favourite photo of the two of them together was taken at one of her violin recitals in 2002. He’d come home from college, wearing what she figures was probably his nicest sweater, and brought her flowers.

“He was just always a good friend to have around,” she said, noting how music had always www.canadianinquirer.net

been a bonding point for them.

He’d teach her about his favourite rock bands. She introduced him to jazz violin.

But in the years after his death, Sonja stopped playing, as grief enveloped her.

She got married in 2008 and divorced seven years later. After moving back to Neenah, her Wisconsin hometown, to be near her parents, she increasingly tried to drown that grief with alcohol, so much so that she checked into rehab more than once.

“I was very sick for quite a long time,” she said.

Her grandmother had died of heart problems shortly after Jon’s death but, as Sonja saw it, she really died of heartache.

Truth was, her own heart also had been broken for years.

Then, last fall, she received a note from Jason Moon, a musician and himself an Iraq war veteran whom she’d first met as a teenager, when they played music together. Moon had had his own struggles, with PTSD, after coming home from the war. He hadn’t been able to offer much support when Jon died, he said, but things had changed for him in recent years.

Now the head of a non-profit arts organization for veterans, called Warrior Songs, Moon asked Sonja if she’d be interested in helping create a song for his group’s second album. This one will focus on telling the stories of women in combat, as well as the mothers, wives and sisters who’ve lost loved ones to war.

The Warrior Songs CDs are given free of charge to veterans and are intended to be a source of support and healing.

In honouring Jon — and telling her own story — Sonja, now 33, also saw a chance to move forward and to stay sober.

“I just really woke up when I realized I know that my brother was willing to die for me and our country,” she said. “I better be willing to live and take advantage of what I DO have.”

She agreed to play a violin solo for the song and soon began practicing again.

She also began building a new violin, work she’d set aside to focus on instrument repair.

This winter, Moon recorded an interview with Sonja, and she gave him some of her journal entries. He then shared those materials with songwriter Kevin Welsh, who wrote the resulting song, titled “Star in the Dark.”

“Hey brother, where you gone?” the song begins.

“It’s been too long since you’ve been home.

“They called it ‘casualty.’

“It doesn’t seem casual to me.”

This month, Sonja recorded the violin accompaniment for the song at a studio in suburban Milwaukee. Her parents, Kay and Jon Sr., were there, too.

They recalled the son who, in 2005, showed up with Army brochures to tell them he’d be leaving in 36 hours for basic training at Fort Hood, Texas.

“You know there’s a war going on?” his mother recalled saying to him.

“Yes, I do,” he said with a determined look. Though worried, his parents gave him their full support.

Now their daughter is the major focus.

“Who knew what kind of healing would come from this process?” Moon said of Sonja’s personal journey in helping create the song, which is being released this weekend on the Warrior Songs website.

Still, it was clear that she was nervous. She’d never played in a recording studio before and was still feeling rusty.

To help keep her calm, she placed photos of Jon on a nearby music stand. Then she played a solo that would, like the song itself, become a message of another kind, much more public than those slips of paper hidden inside a violin that may never be seen.

As she finished, audio engineer Jonathon Leubner smiled.

“That’s lovely,” he said. “I can’t thank you enough.”

“Well,” she replied through a studio microphone, “let’s all thank my brother.” ■

29

FRIDAY JUNE 2, 2017

Sports What is going on in Bacolod’s field of dreams?

Now on its fourth year, the City of Smiles’ mammoth football celebration, Ceres Cup, has evolved into the biggest gathering of local talents in the ‘beautiful game’

BY CEDELF P. TUPAS Philippine Daily Inquirer COACH PAPS Macayan and his team took almost 24 hours to reach Bacolod City from their hometown in Tacloban City that was ravaged by Supertyphoon “Yolanda” almost four years ago.

They traveled by bus and ferry, but the long journey was just a minor inconvenience to what turned out to be a memorable weekend for his 14 players.

The young Tacloban booters, collectively known as Kidz United, got a taste of competing against some of the country’s best in the fourth Ceres Cup, an event that has evolved into the country’s biggest football festival in terms of the number of clubs and players participating.

“The players loved the level of competition here,” says Macayan, who is also a government employee. “Most of the players are Yolanda survivors and it was their first time as a club to compete in a tournament of this caliber.”

For a club that is also looking to get more support for its programs, the second-place finish in the boys’ Under-16 division is just about what they need to promote the sport in Tacloban.

“Our players turned to football to cope with the tragedy in our city,” Macayan says. “It would be a big help if the players get recognized for their efforts. The players are the closest thing that we have to the Azkals here and I hope they serve as an inspiration to other younger players to take up the sport.”

For their expenses in the Ceres Cup, Macayan says the team passed the hat with players and coaches pooling together funds for their trip.

“The more fortunate players helped their other teammates who could not afford to make the trip,” he says.

Kidz United ended up beating several highly rated squads like Ateneo Cebu, Bago City and Bacolod Juniors on their way to the finals, where they fell short against Koronadal City in a

penalty shootout.

There are other poignant stories of fulfillment and triumph that have shaped the Ceres Cup and sparked its immense popularity. With a staggering 465 teams spread in different categories—the youngest at 9 years-and-below; the oldest at 40-and-above—the festival was a testament to the Filipinos’ enduring love for the Beautiful Game.

From middleaged street vendors to business executives, close to 5,000 football players vied for their teams in Bacolod last weekend. Even Mindanao was wellrepresented with clubs from Basilan, Davao, Iligan and Masbate battling teams from the City of Smiles. The matches were all seven-aside with Ceres’ well-kept training pitch in Ayala North in Talisay boasting seven fields as the main venue. Seven more fields hosted matches at a nearby school. The Sta. Maria pitch near Bacolod’s famous tourist spot, The Ruins, also prepared an extra 14 fields.

The teams were ferried from

one pitch to another by numerous Ceres buses while close to 400 staffers, led by Ceres-Negros FC administrator Nicolas Golez, tirelessly worked behind the scenes. Bayawan City FC coach Lloyd Tenefrancia says his players have always looked forward to summers vying in the Ceres Cup. Represented by 60 players in this year’s tournament, the group travelled six hours by bus to Bacolod. “We’ve been here since the start of the Ceres Cup three years ago,” Tenefrancia says. “We are fortunate that the local government sets aside a budget for us to go to the festival.”

Not one of Tenefrancia’s teams made the finals of the eight categories they joined, but the players brought back happy memories.

“We started with 306 teams in 2014, then 408 and last year we had 440. It’s the club’s way of contributing to the growth of football in the country,” says organizer Warren Concepcion.

For veterans like former national team star Norman

Fegidero, the tournament also provides them an opportunity to roll back the years and play the game that they love. Now the coach of Ceres-La Salle’s collegiate side, the 47-yearold Fegidero still led Bacolod United’s march to the title in the 40above division, beating a team that travelled all the way from South Korea.

“It’s tournaments like this that keep our love and passion for the sport,” says Fegidero, who scored the winner for the national team when the Filipinos stunned heavily favored Malaysia in the 1991 Southeast Asian Games in Manila.

“As much as we love football, nothing beats the feeling of being there in the heat of the season competition. The festival provides everyone a chance to do that, no matter how old or young a player is.”

Whether it’s a grassroots event or just mere recreational play, Bacolod’s Ceres Cup has turned out to be a Filipino footballer’s top tournament choice this summer. ■

Nat’l training pool athletes shine in Pre-Asian Indoor and Martial Arts meet

BY PRIMO P. AGATEP Philippines News Agency MANILA — Members of the national training pool on Tuesday reigned supreme in the ongoing 2017 Kurash National Championships, the pre-Asian Indoor and Martial Arts Games event being held at the Harrison Plaza.

Leading the onslaught of the national training pool team are Lloyd Catipon, Bryan Guillote and Jennie Lou Mosqueda, who ruled their respective weight categories in the event supported by the Philippine Sports Commission (PSC).

Catipon stunned fellow na-

tional pool member Czar Bayas in the minus 73 kg class; Guillote also beat fellow national teammate Rolan Clamas in the minus 66 kg category; and Jennifer Lou Mosqueda demonstrated impeccable form to top the minus 63 kg class by defeating Lorelei Tolentino of the University of Santo Tomas (UST).

Melissa Buyco, representing University of the Philippines and Coleen Pacdisen of Baguio City dominated their respective categories. Buyco demolished Chello Tinga of the Philippine Coast Guard while Pacdisen beat Angela Villa of Quezon City.

Qualifying tournament in other sports to include kickboxing, wrestling, sambo and traditional wrestling are also being held in separate areas in the metropolis.

These Qualifying tournament is aimed at identifying the athletes that will join Team Philippines in the 5th Asian Indoor and Martial Arts Games.

The Asian Indoor and Martial Arts Games will be held in Turkmenistan from September 17 to 27.

The Philippines will be competing in 18 sports out of the 21 sports disciplines lined up.

Some the sports that Filipino athletes will be seeing in www.canadianinquirer.net

The event being held at the Harrison Plaza (in photo).

action are in Combat sports: kurash, jujitsu, kickbox, sambo, belt wrestling, regular wrestling, traditional wrestling and taekwondo; and weighlifting, bowling, short course swimming, athletics in the indoor games.

The AIMAG, organized by the Olympic Council of Asia (OCA), is a Pancontinental multi-sport event held every four years among athletes from all over Asia, after the merger of the Asian Indoor Games and the Asian Martial Arts Games. ■

30

JUNE 2, 2017

FRIDAY

Business BPO leader backs tax reform PHILIPPINES NEWS AGENCY

JUDGEFLORO / WIKIMEDIA COMMONS

Phoenix buys Petronas’ PH unit

BY RONNEL W. DOMINGO Philippine Daily Inquirer PHOENIX PETROLEUM Philippines Inc. is paving the way for a bigger presence in the domestic nonfuel business with the buyout of the local unit of Malaysia’s Petronas group.

Phoenix entered into a memorandum of understanding with PDB Netherlands BV, on the acquisition of the latter’s liquefied petroleum gas business through Petronas Dagangan Bhd. (PDB), which is listed at Bursa Malaysia and has operations in southern Philippines.

The plan relates to a 100percent interest in Petronas Energy Philippines Inc. (“PEPI”) and its affiliate Duta Inc., and will have to secure approval from the Philippine Competition Commission.

“We are very excited about this asset not only because it represents a new product that Phoenix can offer but also because we know that it has been operated in line with the operating standard of Petronas, a Fortune 500 company,” Phoenix president and chief exec-

utive Dennis Uy said in a statement.

Uy said Phoenix aimed to build significant presence in the nonfuel petroleum markets which currently account for about one percent of the company’s business.

PEPI, already operating in the Philippines for over 20 years, sells LPG for household and commercial use as well as in bulk for industrial use. It also sells autogas for vehicles.

PEPI generates most of its sales in Visayas and Mindanao where the market is “underpenetrated,” and where consumers have increasing disposable incomes prospects for LPG demand is attractive.

“This (planned acquisition) will allow Phoenix to further grow this business in its home market, where there is room for profitable industry expansion and less competition (versus Luzon),” Uy said.

“The company views the LPG business as a strong strategic fit as it broadens its product portfolio and petroleum presence with a particular emphasis in Visayas and Mindanao,” he added. ■

with urgency,” added Catapang.

Catapang said the CTRP’s first package, also known as the Tax Reform for Acceleration and Inclusion Act (TRAIN), adjusts the outdated formula for income tax payments under the current system, which “has unfairly burdened the working class with rates that apply for higher income classes.”

“TRAIN will not only lower the tax rates for the middle class and other working classes but it will also effectively exempt 83 percent of the labor force from paying taxes,” he said.

“In addition, the bill addresses other taxation issues which will result in fulfilling the annual investment target of an additional P1 trillion annually,” he added.

Finance Undersecretary Karl Kendrick Chua said earlier that under the TRAIN bill, a typical call center agent who earns

MANILA — A leader from the business process outsourcing (BPO) sector has sought speedy congressional approval of the first package of Comprehensive Tax Reform Program (CTRP), which he described as a “win-win” for both labor and management as it will raise the take-home pay of workers and enhance the workplace environment leading to higher productivity.

Gerald Catapang, administrator of the Facebook community page Call Center Philippines, said the CTRP is also a “win” even for non-workers because alongside slashing income tax rates, the bill will adjust other taxes to help the Duterte administration raise the extra P1 trillion it needs yearly for an aggressive spending program to improve the livIt’s a win-win for employees, ing standards of businesses, and most especially poor and low-inwhole nation. come Filipinos.

“Reforming our personal income tax system will increase PHP21,000 a month with a gross the monthly take home pay of income of PHP273,000 inclusive call center agents by an average of the 13th month pay and other of P4,000, while adjusting other benefits, will be exempted from taxes will increase funding for paying personal income taxes. health, training, and infrastrucUnder the current system, ture investments crucial for the the same call center agent, even working environment of labor- with two dependents, still has ers,” Catapang said. to pay PHP21,867 in income Catapang said the additional tax because of an outdated tax revenues from the CTRP that structure in which his net taxwill be earmarked for health care, able income of PHP136,834 is among other priorities, is “crucial taxed PHP8,500 plus 20 perfor the working sector,” which is cent in excess of PHP70,000. the “most vulnerable to physical The House started plenary disand mental health issues.” cussions last May 23 on the subHe likewise pointed out that stitute bill, House Bill No. 5636, “the increased funding for edu- which its Committee on Ways cation and training arising from and Means passed last May 15 increased tax collections under after consolidating the original the CTRP will also capacitate measure endorsed last year by the current and future workers as Department of Finance — House well as improve their perfor- Bill No. 4774—with 54 tax-related mance and productivity.” bills in the lower chamber.

“It’s a win-win for employees, Just recently, over 200 reprebusinesses, and most especially sentatives of non-government the whole nation, so we truly organizations and other civil hope the Congress will pass this society groups have called on www.canadianinquirer.net

the two chambers of the Congress to “swiftly pass” TRAIN, which, they said, would spell the long-overdue correction of the country’s tax system and complement initiatives for transparency and participatory governance leading to sustainable growth and development.

They belong to an umbrella group — the Philippine Open Government Partnership (OGP) — consisting of 66 people’s organizations, civil society and academic groups, public sector unions and business chambers who attended the two-day Open Government Dialogues, which was organized by the Departments of Budget and Management (DBM) and of Finance (DOF), with the support of the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), Union of Local Authorities of the Philippines (ULAP) and other groups.

“We appeal to the members of the House of Representatives the and the Philippine Senate to swiftly pass this legislative measure to help generate more revenue that will finance investments on the people through health, education, infrastructure, and social protection programs,” said these OGP members in a manifesto of support issued at the “Open Government Dialogues” held at the Philippine International Convention Center (PICC) in Pasay City.

Finance Secretary Carlos Dominguez III said that under President Duterte’s “economic breakout” strategy, tax reform will play a crucial role in fulfilling the government’s goal of transforming the Philippine economy to a high middle income one by 2022 and reducing poverty incidence to just 14 percent by that time.

If this strategy focused on inclusive growth is sustained over the medium term, the government envisions the Philippines to be a high-income economy in one generation or by 2040, Dominguez said. ■

Business

FRIDAY JUNE 2, 2017

31

It’s business as usual for most power, mining firms in Mindanao

BY RONNEL W. DOMINGO Philippine Daily Inquirer THE ELECTRICITY and mining industries in Mindanao are largely on a business-asusual mode despite President Duterte’s decision putting the entire island under martial law.

The Alsons Power group, which operates several power facilities in Mindanao at an aggregate generating capacity of 363 megawatts, assured its stakeholders that martial law had not disrupted the operations of these assets.

Also, Global Ferronickel Holdings Corp. said the operations of its subsidiary, Platinum Group Metals Corp. (PGMC) in Surigao del Norte, “remain unhampered.”

However, the Department of Energy said armed men believe to be of the Maute group had the Lanao del Sur Electric Cooperative (Lasureco) com-

pound occupied as of Thursday night.

In a statement, Alsons Power said its four affiliate power facilities continued to operate as scheduled.

The group was referring to the 105-megawatt Section 1 of Sarangani Energy Corp.’s coalfired facility in Maasim, Sarangani; 103-MW dieselfired plant of Mapalad Power Corp. in Iligan City; 55-MW diesel-fired plant of Southern Philippines Power Corp. facility in Alabel, Sarangani, and the 100-MW diesel-fired plant of Western Mindanao Power Corp. in Zamboanga City.

“All of our projects under development—such as the ongoing construction of the second, 105-MW (unit) of our Sarangani Energy Corp. baseload plant—are proceeding according to schedule and are ontrack to completion,” Alsvons Power said.

“We respect and fully sup-

port the decision of President Duterte to institute all legal measures allowed within the framework of the Constitution in order to ensure the safety and security of the island,” the group said. “We are hopeful that the security situation in Marawi will normalize at the soonest time possible.”

According to Global Ferronickel, business establishments are “aware of the constitutional safeguards [and] are open and operating.” The group is one of the country’s top nickel producer.

On the other hand, the DOE, citing an official of Lasureco, said a firefight was still ongoing at the cooperative’s compound as of 7:45 p.m. of Thursday.

“They (members of Lasureco’s staff ) were able to evacuate the compound by 2 p.m.,” the DOE said. “By that time, the compound was already occupied by gunmen, who are suspected members of the Maute

Ontario to raise minimum wage and update labour laws, premier says

BY MIA ROBSON The Canadian Press TORONTO — The benefits of Ontario’s renewed economic growth are not shared evenly across the province, Premier Kathleen Wynne said Monday as she planned to announce a raise to minimum wage as well as much anticipated changes to labour laws.

Wynne and Labour Minister Kevin Flynn are scheduled to make the announcements Tuesday morning.

“Now that we have an economy that really is doing so well, and is leading, we can now distribute that well-being a bit better,” she told The Canadian Press in an interview. “I just came back from (Ontario’s) northeast, and there are parts of the province and there are groups within the population who just are not feeling the benefit of the economy doing well.”

Wynne would not confirm

if her government is planning to raise the minimum wage — which is currently $11.40 an hour and adjusted for inflation — to $15, as labour groups have been calling for.

The changes to provincial labour laws come in response to a government-commissioned report — released last week — that made 173 recommendations aimed at creating better workplaces with decent working conditions.

The report concluded that new technology, a shrinking manufacturing sector and fewer union jobs, among other factors, have left approximately one-third of Ontario’s 6.6 million workers vulnerable.

Wynne said the goal is to deal with the precarious nature of modern work, which she defines as more short-term contracts, more part-time jobs, and less predictable scheduling. She said workers will feel a change in their everyday lives once the labour law changes have been made.

“They’ll feel more certain and they’ll feel less anxious because they’ll have a little bit more predictability in their lives, and that has a ripple effect into the lives of their families,” she said.

Business groups in the province, including the Ontario Chamber of Commerce, have expressed concerns about the cost to business of the potential labour law changes and a higher minimum wage. They have called on the Liberal government not to proceed without first studying the economic impact of the changes recommended in the report.

Wynne said her government will work with the business communities on measuring the impact of the changes.

“We want our businesses to be competitive,” she said. “But we also know that if people are better able to look after their families, or if people are able to have a decent job, that’s good for communities and that’s good for business.” ■ www.canadianinquirer.net

It is business as usual for key players in power and mining in Mindanao despite the region being placed under martial law.

group.”

In the afternoon of Thursday, Energy Secretary Alfonso G. Cusi said the Inter-Agency Task Force on Securing Energy Facilities (Iatsef ) had moved to secure the Lasureco compound.

Iatsef is composed of the DOE, Armed Forces of the Philippines, Philippine National Police (PNP) and industry players.

Cusi said Iatsef had received “firm marching orders to secure every energy facility in Mindanao.”

Further, National Grid Corp. of the Philippines (NGCP) reported that the Mindanao grid was under normal operation.

In a related development, the National Power Corp. gave notice of a plan to shut down one of two generators at the Agus Hydroelectric Plant (HEP), which is located in Marawi City itself.

The objective was to keep Unit 1 of Agus HEP running after an M-79 grenade, said to be fired by the Maute group, landed in the generator’s vicinity. ■

1 step... but they remain far from enjoying the high profile and legal protections of their counterparts in Taiwan.

“At least more Mandarin speakers can talk of equality,” said Sean Howell, president of the international gay social network Hornet that has been campaigning for marriage equality in a number of Asian countries. “Achieving marriage equality in one country in Asia will help all around.” ❰❰ 27

South Korea

A South Korean military court sentenced an army captain Wednesday to a suspended prison term for having sex with a fellow male soldier.

The case was one of several that came to light last month, triggering allegations by a watchdog that South Korea’s military was hunting down and prosecuting gay servicemen.

South Korea’s army has denied that, saying it was conducting a criminal investigation of soldiers who posted a video on the internet of two male soldiers having sex earlier this year.

Lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people are harshly stigmatized and struggle to be politically visible in South Korea. A powerful Christian lobby immobilizes politicians seeking to pass anti-discrimination laws.

The stigma is amplified in the military, where most able-bodied South Korean men are required to serve about two years as the country maintains a large force in the face of potential conflict with North Korea. Gay men are not exempt from conscription but are banned from engaging in homosexual activity while serving, leading them to keep their identity secret for fear of discrimination and reprisals.

Kim In-sook, a lawyer for the captain, said the military penal code, which makes homosexual activity punishable by up to two years in prison, is unconstitutional because it tramples on basic human rights and dignity.

She said it’s unclear whether her client would appeal because he felt tormented by the legal process. He will be dishonourably discharged if the ruling stands. ■

32

JUNE 2, 2017

FRIDAY

Technology Serena Williams accepts a new challenge in Silicon Valley

BY MICHAEL LIEDTKE The Associated Press

key, a private company, didn’t say how much Williams will be compensated.

SAN FRANCISCO — Tennis star Serena Williams has 39 Grand Slam titles, four Olympic medals, major endorsement deals and her own line of clothing and accessories. Now she is embarking on a new mission: She says she wants to help tech companies diversify their workforces and solve one of the industry’s most vexing problems.

Williams, 35, will get her chance as she joins a Silicon Valley boardroom. Online survey service SurveyMonkey announced Williams’ appointment to its board on Wednesday, along with Intuit CEO Brad Smith.

“I feel like diversity is something I speak to,” Williams said in an interview with The Associated Press. “Change is always happening; change is always building. What is important to me is to be at the forefront of the change and to make it easier for the next person that comes behind me.”

Williams didn’t offer specifics about her goals as a corporate director. She implied that her very presence can help push the company — and, by extension, the industry as a whole — in a more diverse direction.

Individual board members don’t usually exert great influence over the companies they oversee, although they are often compensated handsomely in cash and stock for their part-time work. SurveyMon-

Valley diversity

Silicon Valley’s lack of diversity has become a recurring source of embarrassment in a region that has long sought to position itself as an egalitarian place that doesn’t favour one gender, ethnicity or race over another. Yet that philosophy hasn’t been reflected in hightech workforces , despite the efforts of companies such as Google, Apple and Facebook to fix the problem.

Williams has been hanging around Silicon Valley more frequently now that she is engaged to high-tech entrepreneur, Alexis Ohanian, the co-founder of the online forum Reddit. Like many other African-Americans, she says she’s disappointed that the vast majority of high-paying technology jobs are filled by white and Asian men.

At SurveyMonkey, which employs about 650 workers, only 27 per cent of technology jobs are filled by women. Just 14 per cent of its total payroll consists of African-Americans, Latinos or people identifying themselves with at least two races, according to numbers the company provided to the AP. What she can do

Williams’ appointment is part of the solution, according to SurveyMonkey CEO Zander Lurie. “My focus is to bring in change agents around the table who can open our eyes,” he said.

Diversity advocates say wom-

LEONARD ZHUKOVSKY / SHUTTERSTOCK.COM

en and minorities add value to corporate boards — as well as companies’ executive ranks — by offering new perspectives and advocating for a broader range of a company’s stakeholders, whether that’s customers, shareholders or employees.

In a report on France’s quota requirements for corporate boards, the business research group Conference Board found that the real value of adding women came from the fact that they were more likely to be outsiders. They were more likely to be foreigners, have expertise in more diverse business issues than men and more likely to have risen through the ranks outside traditional networks, such as elite universities. This, in itself, can “substantively” improve the collective decision-making of a board, according to the report.

Williams’ celebrity may help draw attention to the lack of diversity on corporate boards themselves, said Brande Stellings, vice-president of corpo-

www.canadianinquirer.net

rate board services for Catalyst, a group focused on fighting for women’s rights at work. For instance, African-American women occupy only 122 of the more than 5,000 board seats among Fortune 500 companies, based on Catalyst’s analysis.

“This is an opportunity to show you don’t want a board full of people with the same backgrounds and experiences as everyone else,” Stellings said. “(Williams) can bring a fresh perspective and a different voice that could be helpful for disrupting the ‘group think’ that’s typical in many boardrooms.”

Stepping stone

Racism is something Williams confronted and overcame at an early age when she began playing a predominantly white sport. She grew up to become the top-ranked female tennis player in the world.

Diversifying Silicon Valley isn’t the only item on Williams’ agenda. Like a lot of rich ath-

letes, she is interested in becoming more involved in the business opportunities amid the high-tech boom in Silicon Valley. She says she is already exploring other opportunities in the area, but isn’t ready to provide details yet.

Her connection to SurveyMonkey came through her friendship with Sheryl Sandberg, Facebook’s chief operating officer and another member of SurveyMonkey’s board.

Sandberg’s husband, Dave Goldberg, was SurveyMonkey’s CEO before he died in 2015 while the couple was vacationing in Mexico.

“I have been really interested in getting involved in Silicon Valley for years, so I have been kind of in the wading waters,” Williams said. “Now, I am jumping into the deep end of the pool. When I do something, I go all out.” ■ AP Technology Writer Barbara Ortutay contributed to this story from New York.

Technology

FRIDAY JUNE 2, 2017

33

Zuckerberg urges Harvard grads Astronomers make to build a world of ‘purpose’ largest-ever map

of universe yet

BY BARBARA ORTUTAY The Associated Press NEW YORK — Facebook’s CEO returned to Harvard Thursday, telling graduates that it is up to their generation to create a purpose for today’s world, to care about others, to fight inequality and strengthen the global community.

“Change starts local. Even global changes start small — with people like us,” Mark Zuckerberg said after sharing anecdotes about graduates like David Razu Aznar, a former city leader who led the effort to legalize gay marriage in Mexico City, and Agnes Igoye, who grew up in conflict zones in Uganda and now trains law enforcement officers.

“And this is my story too. A student in a dorm room, connecting one community at a time, and keeping at it until one day we can connect the whole world,” said the 33-year-old billionaire, who received an honorary doctorate degree on Thursday, 12 years after dropping out of Harvard to focus on Facebook.

Zuckerberg, who like the graduates is a millennial, started Facebook in his dorm room in 2004. What began as a closed networking site for Harvard students is now a global com-

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BRIAN SOLIS / WWW.BRIANSOLIS.COM & BUB.BLICIO.US

munications force with nearly 2 billion members.

Zuckerberg follows another famous Harvard dropout, Bill Gates, who spoke before its graduates a decade ago. Apple co-founder Steve Jobs, who dropped out of Reed College in Oregon, gave Stanford’s commencement speech in 2005, reminding students to “stay hungry, stay foolish.”

Besides launching Facebook, Zuckerberg also met his wife, Priscilla Chan, at Harvard.

Chan went on to become a pediatrician. Together, the two formed the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative, a philanthropic organization focused on advancing

science and education. They have also pledged to give away 99 per cent of their massive wealth.

On Thursday, Zuckerberg received an honorary doctoral degree from the university, along with nine other people including the actress Judi Dench, the composer John Williams (known for “Star Wars,” “Harry Potter” and many other scores) and Somali human rights activist and physician Hawa Abdi Dhiblawe.

“If I get through this speech today it’ll be the first time I actually finish something here at Harvard,” Zuckerberg said. He did. ■

EG crowned as Manila Masters champ, avenges semis defeat

BY IVAN SALDAJENO Philippines News Agency MANILA — EG romped Newbee, 3-1, in the finals of the Manila Masters at the Mall of Asia Arena on Sunday night.

The American side bounced back from their 0-2 defeat to the Chinese side in the Upper Bracket Finals on Friday night in style to walk away US0,000 (around PHP12.25 million) richer.

Sumail Hassan was a force to reckon with in the opener as his Outworld Devourer was just

too much for Newbee.

Damien Chok then proved that EG underestimated his Naga Siren gameplay as he, one of the best players to use the hero, provided a great offlane play that helped Xu Han’s Ursa rule Game 2 to force the 1-1 deadlock.

EG then quickly went on the offensive early into Game 3 as Hassan’s Ember Spirit got the better of Song Chun’s Death Prophet, taking a 15-6 kill lead.

But Xu, now playing Lifestealer, turned the game around midway through as

he made 12 unanswered kills and put EG’s backs against the wall.

Artour Babaev, who struggled for most parts of Game 3, then connected a breakthrough, snapping Xu’s run that eventually sparked the endgame attack even as EG skipper Andreas Nielsen, playing Warlock, made a very double golem summoning that completed the comeback.

Newbee let Hassan go for Ember again in Game 4, and he made his opponents pay by carrying the fight for EG en route to the championship. ■ www.canadianinquirer.net

LOS ANGELES — Based entirely on the positions of quasars, an international collaboration of astronomers with the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS) have created the first map of the large-scale structure of the Universe. It could also help improve our understanding of dark energy.

“To unveil the mystery of the cosmic acceleration, the astronomers have been trying to map the Universe from now to the remote past. The Chinese astronomers, especially those from National Astronomical Observatories of Chinese Academy of Sciences (NAOC) working on observational and theoretical cosmology, have been playing key roles in the large international collaborations of the eBOSS galaxy survey,” Xue Suijian, professor and deputy director of the National Astronomical Observatories of China (NAOC) under Chinese Academy of Sciences, told Xinhua on Sunday.

Quasars are the incredibly bright and distant points of light powered by supermassive black holes. As matter and energy fall into a quasar’s black hole, they heat up to incredible temperatures and begin to glow.

It is this bright glow that is detected by a dedicated 2.5-meter telescope here on Earth. The telescope’s observations gave the scientists the quasars’distances, which they used to create a three-dimensional map of where the quasars are.

“These quasars are so far away that their light left them when the Universe was between three and seven billion years old, long before the Earth even existed,” said Gongbo Zhao from the National Astronomical Observatories of Chinese Academy of Sciences, the study’s other co-leader.

To make their map, the international research team used the Sloan Foundation Telescope to observe an un-

precedented number of quasars. During the first two years of the SDSS’s Extended Baryon Oscillation Spectroscopic Survey (eBOSS), astronomers measured accurate three-dimensional positions for more than 147,000 quasars, according to SDSS. And to use the map to understand the expansion history of the Universe, the astronomers had to go a step further, using measurements of a phenomena known as baryon acoustic oscillations (BAOs), which are the present-day imprint of sound waves which travelled through the early Universe, when it was much hotter and denser than the Universe we see today.

But when the Universe was 380,000 years old, conditions changed suddenly and the sound waves became “frozen” in place. These frozen waves are left imprinted in the threedimensional structure of the Universe we see today.

The results of the new study also confirm the standard model of cosmology that researchers have built over the last twenty years. In this standard model, the Universe follows the predictions of Einstein’s General Theory of Relativity - but includes components whose effects we can measure, but whose causes we do not understand, according to the study.

There is still work to be done however, and the eBOSS experiment continues using the Sloan Telescope at Apache Point Observatory in New Mexico, USA, in order to observe even more quasars and increase the size of any future maps.

“Besides eBOSS, the Dark Energy Spectroscopic Instrument (DESI), which is a larger galaxy survey mapping the Universe using remote astronomical objects up to 10 billion light years from us, will start observations in 2018, and Chinese astronomers will continue contributing great efforts,” Xue said. ■

JUNE 2, 2017

34

CANADA

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Wanted: PERSONAL ASSISTANT - HOME CARE Permanent – Full time $14.00/hour - for 40 hours per week Anticipated start date: As soon as possible Location: Scarborough, Canada (1 vacancy) Wanted homecare personal assitant to provide care to an 85 years old elderly female suffering from Alzheimer’s disease. Duty includes administer bedside and personal care to client such as aid in ambulation, bathing, personal hygiene and administration of medication.

Prepare and serve nutritious meals. Perform routine housekeeping duties such as laundry and ironing clothes and linens, washing dishes, making beds and house cleaning. Taking the designated individual for walks, park, malls and doctors appointments and any other duties deemed necessary to assist the designated individual with day to day living. Preferably with 1 year to less than 2 years of work experience in elderly care. Must speak and write English.

Completion of highschool graduate equivalent in Canada.Optional accomodation available at no charge on a live-in basis. (This is not a condition of employment)

email resume to: eymard.lumbre@yahoo.com

Wanted: Real Estate Secretary

St. Louis Bar and Grill (Bolton Location) 301 Queen St. S

Now Hiring Line Cooks - Cook menu items in cooperation with the rest of the Kitchen staff - Clean up kitchen and stock inventory - Proven cooking experience - Accuracy and speed in executing assigned tasks We have an amazing group of people working here and we are currently growing very quickly! We are looking for the right team member(s) to join our fabulous team!

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Knowledge of English language is a must; College graduate or other non-university certificate or diploma; work experience at least 2 years to less than 3 years; area of work experience –Statistics, Reports and records, Invoices, Financial statements, Correspondence, Contracts, Charts, tables, graphs and diagrams; knowledge of Business Equipment and Computer Applications - MS Excel; MS PowerPoint; MS Word; Electronic mail; MS Outlook is essential

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Pays $11.54/ hour. Care for a Child/children. Permanent. Full time. 8hrs/day.40h/wk.

Benf:OHIP.WSIB Req:Completion of Canadian High Sch.At least have experience in 1-2 years as a Nanny or FT Caregiving Training Sch. JOB TASK: Look after child/children, meal preparation, inddor / outdoor companionship, light housekeeping.

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Pays $14/ hr. Permanent.Full time.8 hrs/day.40h/wk.Benf:OHIP.WSIB Req: Completion of Canadian High Sch.At least have experience in 1-2 years as a FT Caregiving Training Sch. Companionship indoor/outdoor.meal preparation, cooking, household chores.help in handing the needs during the toileting, eating.

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FRIDAY JUNE 2, 2017

35

Travel Lounges vs. lines: Testing travel with and without perks

BY CANDICE CHOI AND SCOTT MAYEROWITZ The Associated Press ORLANDO, FLA. — Summer travellers may well find themselves stuck in long security lines and squeezed into cramped seats. For frequent travellers, or those who can and want to pay extra, perks are available including upgrades to first-class seats, airport lounges and free food.

Are the benefits worth the cost? The Associated Press sent two journalists on a two-day visit to Orlando, Florida — one with perks, and one without.

Scott Mayerowitz, who until recently covered the airline industry, has elite status with airlines, hotels and car rental agencies. He also has a five-year membership in a Transportation Security Administration program that lets him use fast-track lanes at airport security.

Premium credit cards aimed at frequent travellers get him into airport lounges.

Candice Choi, who covers the food industry, has no such perks.

Scott saved more than 45 minutes total in waiting in lines at the airport, avoided crowds and got free food along the way. Candice thought Scott’s biggest advantage was the time he saved. The extra space and food he got seemed nice, but less meaningful for a short trip.

Here’s how their experiences differed: Security

Scott breezed through the TSA’s checkpoint in less than 2 minutes without having to take off his shoes. His laptop stayed in his suitcase, thanks to his membership in the Global Entry program, which includes expedited screening.

It took Candice nearly 15 minutes to get through regular security, which included taking off her shoes and jacket.

There was also a delay after she forgot to remove a bottle of water from her purse, and found herself waiting shoeless for her belongings as a TSA agent searched her bag.

On the return flight, Scott cleared security in about 3 minutes. It took Candice 19.

Airport

Scott headed for the roomy airline lounge, and took advantage of the free Wi-Fi, newspapers and breakfast spread that included bagels, muffins, hard-

boiled eggs, fruit, yogurt and coffee. A day pass costs more than $50, but credit cards aimed at frequent travellers often include lounge access as one benefit that comes with a hefty annual fee of $450 to $550. Scott’s card also refunded him the $100 TSA Global Entry fee.

At the gate with everyone else, Candice found a seat with a table. There were outlets to recharge phones and a tablet to order food and get flight updates. She generally avoids eating much right before and during flights, though, and didn’t buy any food for the gate.

Boarding and the flights

Scott’s airline status means he boards early, and often gets upgraded for free to first class — where there are no middle seats and passengers still get hot meals.

Finding space for luggage in the overhead bins also isn’t a worry.

Elite status starts after flying 25,000 miles a year, or five roundtrip flights between New York and San Francisco.

Rack up more miles, and the perks increase substantially.

On this trip, Scott got upgrades both ways on Delta Air Lines. He was a served an egg sandwich, yogurt and fruit on the way to Orlando, a second breakfast after the first he enjoyed earlier in the lounge.

Candice waited in a disorganized crowd by the gate to board. Her pass said “Zone 3,” which was really the sixth of Delta’s seven boarding groups. The last passengers to board often struggle to find space for their bags, but there was still room in the overhead bins by the time Candice neared her seat.

Booking the flight a week in advance left Candice with a handful of middle seats to pick from. That can feel stifling for longer flights or with annoying seatmates, but was tolerable for a two-hour flight. She got cranberry juice and peanuts and defended her sliver of an armrest.

Once in Orlando, Scott was off the plane in seconds. Candice was six minutes behind as other passengers gathered their belongings and the plane cleared out.

al rentals. He settled into the p l u s h leather s e a t , turned on the ninespeaker stereo and drove off.

Candice isn’t a member of any car rental programs. But on a Thursday morning, there was only one person ahead of her in line. Registration was quick and she could have picked a car from a fleet that included midsize options like the Hyundai Elantra and Toyota Corolla.

Ultimately, Scott picked her up in his rental SUV. Universal theme park

At the parks, it was Candice’s turn to be elite. Both paid $165 for a two-park ticket, but Candice added on a $99 “Universal Express” pass that let her skip lines. With Orlando at 94 degrees and humid that day, she couldn’t have been happier.

On The Incredible Hulk roller coaster, Candice went through a separate entrance and to the front of the line. It took about 10 minutes for the entire experience. On the way out, she waved at Scott, who had barely moved in line in the sweltering heat.

It took Scott 42 minutes, despite it being a slow day at the park.

Hotel

Scott was given a corner room on the

Rental car

Members of car rental loyalty programs, even those without status, get to skip the lines at the rental counter.

So Scott headed straight to the garage.

He spotted a BMW X3 SUV in a lane of cars for those with National’s “executive elite” status, which comes with 12 annuwww.canadianinquirer.net

2 6 t h floor of a newer tower with floor-to-ceiling windows looking over the city. He also got access to the hotel club with free breakfast and drinks, and a nighttime happy hour with complimentary beer, wine and desserts.

Elite status at hotels starts with 10 nights at a chain. The benefits start at check-in, where members often get a dedicated line. On this trip, there was nobody waiting to check-in, so there was no advantage.

Candice had a room with comparable furnishings on the 12th floor of the hotel’s older tower. But she didn’t get the huge windows, and her view of the pool was slightly obstructed.

Scott was rousted from sleep at 6:45 a.m. the next morning, when an electrical fire meant an evacuation and a trek down 26 flights of stairs. Later, the front desk manager left a voicemail apologizing for the rude awakening and giving Scott 15,000 points — enough for a free night at the same hotel.

The disturbance wasn’t an issue for Candice — there was no fire alarm in her tower, so she got to sleep in. ■

36

Travel

JUNE 2, 2017

FRIDAY

Isola di San Francesco fast becoming tourist attraction in Bohol

BY BEN CAL Philippines News Agency ISOLA DI SAN FRANCESCO, BOHOL — This obscure islet is fast becoming one of the top tourists attractions in Bohol after its owner-philanthropist built a chapel dedicated to St. Padre Pio of Pietrelcina, after he was cured of his right blind eye through the intercession of the famous saint.

In an interview with this writer during a tour of this beautiful islet off Panglao Island, Ramon E. Rodriguez, a philanthropist-businessman, said he was blind in his right eye after a vein erupted following a high blood pressure of 220/110.

For over a decade, he underwent medical treatment by an ophthalmologist, giving the most advanced medicine with steroid but with no effect.

Rodriguez related his grandiose life as a businessman and how he got involved as a devotee of St. Padre Pio of Pietrelcina after turning away from God for many years.

“I virtually forgot about God,” Rodriguez said with remorse in his face.

“Then I got sick with high blood pressure. I went to my doctor, who prescribed me a medicine called Predzion Steriod which I took for many years, but still my right eye was still blind,” Rodriguez said.

“One day, my close friend Jesus Mendoza gave me a novena

prayer of St. Padre Pio,” he said.

“I took it and casually put the novena prayer to my pocket. But my friend told me to give due respect to the novena prayer by treating it with some degree of reverence,” Rodriguez said.

“He reminded me about Jesus Christ our Lord God and Saviour.” “You have forgotten Him,” Rodriguez quoted his friend as saying.

Rodriguez then got the novena prayer from his pocket and put it back gently in his pocket.

Before he knew it he started praying to St. Padre Pio. “However, during the prayer, I told St. Padre Pio to cure me in 30 days and if granted my petition, I promise to honor you the rest of my life,” Rodriguez said.

“After three weeks of constant prayer my right eye was still blind,” he added.

“I reminded again St. Padre Pio that 30-day is fast approaching and I swore to fulfill my promise if cured within that period,” Rodriguez said.

“However, on the 26th day of my novena, I was shocked when I woke up that morning when my right eye could see,” he said.

“Still I could not believe. I covered my left eye and I saw everything with my right eye.

I saw my wife Didi on my side still sleeping,” Rodriguez recalled with joy.

To further manifest his right eye could see, he went to the Cardinal Santos Medical Center in Greenhills, San Juan,

Metro Manila where his family resides to see his doctor.

Getting there at 7:00 in the morning, the hospital staff was surprised to see him too early since the doctors’ clinic opens at 9:00 a.m.

Rodriguez said he proceeded to the canteen to take his breakfast.

“Before taking my breakfast, I again covered my left eye to check if my right eye could see.

I was overjoyed when I saw everything with my right eye!”

Rodriguez said.

“When I went to see my doctor telling him my right eye could now see, he told me that the medicine he gave me was effective. I did not tell him initially about St. Padre Pio’s intercession that healed me,” he said.

From the hospital, Rodriguez went to the church also in Greenhills where he saw Fr. Guido, the parish priest.

He asked him where the statue of St. Pio is. He was told there was none but was instructed to proceed to St. Francis Church along Shaw Boulevard in Pasig City.

“While I was making the sign of the cross at St. Francis Church before the image of St. Padre Pio, I felt some hands pressing my shoulders telling me that from now on you pray to Me (Jesus Christ) who answered your prayers,” Rodriguez vividly recalled on what transpired that day in his life.

“I knelt and fervently prayed

ADRENALINEROMANCE.COM

to God our Lord Jesus Christ and thanked Him for healing me through the intercession of St. Padre Pio,” he said.

With answered prayers, Rodriguez as promised constructed a chapel on the islet popularly known as Isola di San Francesco off the island of Panglao, Bohol.

Fronting the chapel is a towering 20-foot replica of St. Padre Pio of Pietrelcina, who during his lifetime suffered the agonizing bleeding wounds of Christ for 50 years before he died at the age of 85 in 1968.

Today, May 25, marks the 130th birth anniversary of St. Padre Pio. The Isola di San Francesco Island is just a 10-minute pumpboat ride.

Today, thousands of local and foreign tourists visit the islet which is fast becoming one of the major tourist attractions in

Bohol.

Most of the visitors go to the islet to pray but some go swimming and snorkeling in the unpolluted sea water around the area.

What is more, going there is free except for a donation of any amount. For Mr. Rodriguez, it was a fulfillment of a promise he made after his blind eye was healed by God’s grace through the intercession of St. Padre Pio of Pietrelcina.

Buying the island, together with wife Didi Cloribel, more than 50 years ago, the islet was tranquil all these years until the chapel was built three years ago.

For Rodriguez, the islet was destined to be a religious site.

Now, visitors not only enjoy its pristine waters but also pray to St. Padre Pio for intercession for God to answer our petitions. ■

El Nido, gold antiques thrill Hong Kong-based delegates PHILIPPINES NEWS AGENCY PALAWAN — Philippine Consul General Bernardita L. Catalla led a delegation of Hong Kong-based consular officials and businessmen to Manila and El Nido, Palawan from April 19 to 23.

In Makati City, the delegates toured the private Ayala Museum’s dioramas for a comprehensive visual approach to Philippine history, as well as the special archeological exhibition, “Gold of Ancestors: Pre-Colonial

Treasures in the Philippines”, which serves as a testament to the Filipinos’ rich ancestry and inherent craftsmanship.

Visiting El Nido, Palawan for the first time, the delegates spent three days at the exclusive El Nido Lagen Island Resort, where they swam in pristine crystal clear waters, went on a sunset cruise, and enjoyed snorkeling and kayaking during the island-hopping tours at Big and Small Lagoon, Miniloc Beach, Dibuluan Beach and Snake Island.

The participants also toured

the Cudugnon Cave, as well as hiked the tropical forest on Lagen Island before going on a swim at the exclusive cove of the resort. The delegates described El Nido as “truly paradise.”

The highlight of their experience was the open-air feast carefully prepared by the Lagen Island Resort staff on a sandbar at low tide where they feasted on specially prepared charcoalgrilled seafood and meat. They danced to live acoustic music under the stars to Filipino folk tunes accompanied by the sound of the calm waters of Bacuit Bay. www.canadianinquirer.net

They concluded their resort stay with what one of the guests called a “once-in-a-lifetime experience”: a “lights-off” night boat cruise while gazing at the night sky and marveling at silvery bioluminescent planktons almost as if escorting the boat on the way back to the resort.

On a side event in Manila, an exclusive lecture on South Sea pearls was arranged by Philippine bijouterie Jewelmer Joaillerie. The delegates also visited their shop at Peninsula Hotel and purchased golden South Sea pearl jewelry as a memento

of their spectacular experience in the Philippines.

By the end of the tour, the delegates who were now fully satisfied, promised to visit the Philippines again with their family and friends.

“We will definitely return to the Philippines again soon for leisure and possible business opportunities,” said one of the consular officers participating in the tour, the fifth in a series organized by the Consulate together with the Philippine Department of Tourism since 2015. ■

FRIDAY JUNE 2, 2017

37

Food Salmon on the grill gets tasty For a refreshing, with miso and lime juice lemony cocktail try one called French 75

BY MELISSA D’ARABIAN The Associated Press SALMON SEASON has arrived, and the markets are brimming with gorgeous wild varieties like King Salmon and Coho, which are perfect for grilling, poaching or even simply cooking in a lightly-oiled pan.

With summer here, fire up the barbecue and master the grilled salmon — it’s an incredibly versatile blank canvas that you can use in everything from light salads to heady curries to spicy tacos. And grilling salmon is quite easy, as long as you follow the rule to pull it off the grill just a minute before you think it’s actually done.

Coat salmon fillets with a little oil, salt and pepper, and cook until the salmon is almost opaque; “cook until flaky” is bad advice that will leave your salmon overcooked and strong-flavoured.

One of our summertime favourites is Easy Summer Miso Salmon, which pairs miso with refreshing lime juice to create something between a creamy sauce and a citrus vinaigrette.

Miso, or fermented soy bean paste, adds a ton of savory flavour (“umami”) and depth, while the lime juice keeps the recipe bright and summery.

There’s garlic and ginger for flavour, but the shallot keeps the flavour more Californian than Asian, although you could certainly add soy sauce, Mirin (Japanese wine) and chopped cilantro if you wanted to. Serve with brown rice, grilled veggies or a bunch of vegetable “noodles” for a filling and healthy summer supper.

Miso paste comes in various colours, with white and yellow being the mildest varieties, and perhaps the most widely available ones at the local supermarket. Keep a container of miso in the fridge (it lasts for months), and you can try adding a spoonful to soups, stews, dressings and dips, or even just stir it into a cup of boiling water and add a

BY ELIZABETH KARMEL The Associated Press

splash of soy sauce and rice vinegar for a warming quick broth.

Miso is low in calories, and offers a little protein and a smattering of minerals, including sodium, so you won’t likely need additional salt when using miso paste. Try this week’s recipe and add two new tools to your repertoire: grilled salmon and miso.

Easy summer miso salmon

Servings: 6 Start to finish: 20 minutes

Salmon: • 1 1/2 pounds wild Alaskan salmon fillet, such as King or Coho • 1 teaspoon neutral oil, like olive or grapeseed • 1/4 teaspoon salt • 1/4 teaspoon pepper Sauce: • 1 tablespoon olive oil • 2 shallots, minced • 2 cloves garlic, chopped • 1 teaspoon fresh minced ginger • 3 tablespoons white miso paste • 1 teaspoon raw honey • 1/4 cup lime juice (or lemon juice) • 3-4 tablespoons water • 1 tablespoon Dijon mustard • 1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper Heat the grill to medium and lightly oil the grates. Rub the salmon all over with the olive oil, and sprinkle with the salt

and pepper. Cook the salmon flesh side down first, (skin side up), until almost cooked through, about 7-10 minutes total, flipping halfway through.

(Internal temperature will be about 140 F, and it will rise to 145 F as it rests.)

Meanwhile, make the sauce (or can be made in advance): heat the olive oil over medium heat in a small saute pan and cook the shallots until tender, about three minutes. (Sprinkle with a little splash of water if needed to keep shallots from browning.) Add the ginger and garlic and cook another minute. Add the miso paste and mix with a wooden spoon for another minute or two, or until very fragrant and the miso paste begins to deepen a little in colour. Remove from heat, cool a minute, and then place in the blender with the honey, lime juice, water, mustard and black pepper and blend until smooth. Add extra water if needed. Spoon the miso sauce onto the hot salmon and serve with brown rice or veggies.

Chef’s Note: The sauce can be made into a salad dressing by thinning with more water and lime juice.

Nutrition information per serving: 220 calories; 94 calories from fat; 10 g fat (2 g saturated; 0 g trans fats); 62 mg cholesterol; 443 mg sodium; 7 g carbohydrate; 0 g fiber; 3 g sugar; 23 g protein.

SAID TO be as strong as a World War I-era field gun, there are two versions of the classic cocktail known as a French 75. Cognac was the original spirit when it was created in the 1920s, but today, many people make it with gin. The first time I tasted a French 75 was in New Orleans and they made it with Cognac and pink champagne. I fell in love on the spot.

For years, I made the refreshing lemony libation for brunch and afternoon get-togethers, unaware that many bartenders these days make French 75s with gin.

So recently I decided to stage a couple of French 75 taste tests. I made both the gin version and the Cognac version and, in both cases, the Cognac ended up winning.

The gin was preferred for the first sip but the Cognac version had lasting power and my tasters preferred sipping the Cognac French 75 over the long haul. If you prefer the gin version, you can substitute gin for the Cognac in my party-friendly pitcher recipe below.

Regardless of the spirit, it is a very elegant and festive champagne cocktail that is easy for everyone to make — even the unexperienced bartender. I like making the base recipe of Cognac, lemon juice and simple syrup and pouring it in a pitcher so it takes all the work out of making the cocktail.

You pour the base liquid into the bottom of a champagne flute, add a lemon curl and top it with your favourite champagne. You can also make the base of the cocktail up to three days in advance and refrigerate it in a lidded jar.

When throwing a party, wine or beer is often the preferred libation because making individual cocktails can be a full-time job, and then the host/bartender can’t

www.canadianinquirer.net

enjoy his or her own party. But a fun cocktail turns a gathering for 2 or 200 into a celebration.

I love pitcher cocktails because you can make them in advance and the “bartender” becomes a “guest” in a matter of minutes. And, in fact, your guests can even pour their own drinks if you give them a bit of instruction, like one part base to two parts champagne.

French 75 New Orleans-style

Servings: 8 Start to finish: 15 minutes

• 1 cup Hennessy Cognac • 1/2 cup simple syrup (see below) • 1/2 cup fresh-squeezed lemon juice • Rose or Brut Champagne • Lemon twists for garnish Stir together 1 cup Cognac, 1/2 cup simple syrup, and 1/2 cup fresh-squeezed lemon juice in a medium pitcher until well mixed.

Pour about 2 shots or 2 tablespoons of the Cognac base into Champagne flutes or coupe glasses.

Top with chilled Champagne (Prosecco or other sparkling wine works in a pinch).

Garnish with a lemon twist — you can make a lemon twist by carefully peeling the skin off a lemon with a sharp potato peeler.

Simple Syrup

• 1 cup superfine white sugar or granulated white sugar • 1 cup bottled water Bring sugar and water to a low boil and stir until dissolved.

Cool and use for sweetening drinks. Store simple syrup in a closed jar or squirt bottle.

Nutrition information per serving: 98 calories; 0 calories from fat; 0 g fat (0 g saturated; 0 g trans fats); 0 mg cholesterol; 1 mg sodium; 6 g carbohydrate; 0 g fiber; 5 g sugar; 0 g protein.

38

Food

JUNE 2, 2017

FRIDAY

Homemade barbecue sauce, ketchup, mustard, and monkey gland sauce THE CANADIAN PRESS HOME COOKS are showing more appetite for skipping the condiment aisle at the grocery store in favour of making their own barbecue sauces and other toppings from scratch.

They’re also customizing these condiments, such as adding mushrooms, mangoes or bananas to ketchup and apples or peppercorns to mustard.

Barbecue sauces can have dozens of variations through the addition of such ingredients as fresh ginger, wasabi, miso, hoisin sauce, garlic, herbs, spices, coffee, wine and bacon, but the one component it must have is balance, says grilling expert and author Steven Raichlen.

“My bottom personal line is there are no rules and you should feel free to mix and match with everything,” but the goal of any good sauce is to meld the contrasting elements — sweet, sour, salty, aromatic, hot — into a harmonious whole, he explains.

As Canadians head out in droves to enjoy their outdoor kitchens, here is an assortment of recipes to try to enhance grilled fare.

Sweet and smoky blueberry ale barbecue sauce

While researching their cookbook “Feast,” Lindsay Anderson and Dana VanVeller spent an idyllic summer day in Kenora, Ont., a small city on Lake of the Woods, rounding it off with a few great ales on the sunny patio of local craft brewpub Lake of the Woods Brewing Company. This barbecue sauce is courtesy of the brewery.

They suggest it’s particularly good on ribs or grilled chicken.

• 60 ml (1/4 cup) lightly packed brown sugar • 125 ml (1/2 cup) apple cider vinegar • 60 ml (1/4 cup) molasses • 60 ml (1/4 cup) honey • 125 ml (1/2 cup) Lake of the Woods’ Forgotten Lake Blueberry Ale or any other mild ale • 60 ml (1/4 cup) Worcestershire sauce • 60 ml (1/4 cup) dark rum • 30 ml (2 tbsp) yellow mustard • 15 ml (1 tbsp) liquid smoke • 15 ml (1 tbsp) chili powder

• 10 ml (2 tsp) freshly ground black pepper • 10 ml (2 tsp) ground allspice • 1 ml (1/4 tsp) ground cloves • 60 ml (1/4 cup) fresh or thawed frozen wild blueberries • 875 ml (3 1/2 cups) ketchup In a medium pot, combine sugar, vinegar, molasses, honey, beer, Worcestershire, rum, mustard, liquid smoke, chili powder, pepper, allspice and cloves and bring to a boil. Once boiling, reduce heat and simmer until mixture reduces by about a third, 40 to 60 minutes.

Add blueberries and ketchup and simmer for another 30 minutes. Remove from heat and let cool. In a blender or with an immersion blender, puree until smooth. Transfer to an airtight container and refrigerate for up to 1 month or freeze for up to 3 months.

Makes 1 L (4 cups).

Source: “Feast: Recipes and Stories From a Canadian Road Trip” by Lindsay Anderson and Dana VanVeller (Appetite by Random House, 2017).

Made-from-scratch ketchup

This citrusy ketchup blurs the boundary between traditional ketchup and chutney and can be used pretty much as you would any commercial ketchup. Orange and lemon add an unexpected tropical touch that’s reinforced by the ginger and allspice, says Raichlen.

• 30 ml (2 tbsp) extra-virgin olive oil • 1 small onion, finely chopped • 2 cloves garlic, peeled and minced • 125 ml (1/2 cup) red wine vinegar • 125 ml (1/2 cup) packed dark brown sugar

• 125 ml (1/2 cup) honey • 125 ml (1/2 cup) fresh orange juice • 1 lemon, peeled (remove zest and rind), seeded and diced • 10 ml (2 tsp) coarse salt (sea or kosher) • 10 ml (2 tsp) ground allspice • 5 ml (1 tsp) ground ginger • 2 ml (1/2 tsp) mustard powder • 2 ml (1/2 tsp) freshly cracked black peppercorns • 2 ml (1/2 tsp) ground cloves • 1 can (796 ml/28 oz) whole plum tomatoes ( juices strained and reserved, tomatoes coarsely chopped by hand or in a food processor) Heat olive oil in a medium non-reactive saucepan over medium heat. Add onion and garlic and cook until lightly browned, stirring with a wooden spoon, for 4 minutes.

Increase heat to high, stir in vinegar and brown sugar and boil until mixture is reduced by half, 3 to 5 minutes. Add honey, orange juice, lemon, salt, spices and reserved tomato juices. Reduce heat to medium and gently simmer, uncovered, until syrupy, 5 minutes.

Stir in chopped tomatoes and simmer ketchup, uncovered, until thick and flavourful, 20 to 30 minutes. The mixture should be concentrated but not too thick. Add water as needed.

Transfer mixture to a food processor and process to a coarse puree. Taste and adjust seasoning, adding salt, vinegar or any other ingredient; the ketchup should be highly seasoned. Transfer puree to jars, cover and let cool to room temperature. Refrigerate until serving. The ketchup will keep for several weeks in the refrigerator.

Makes 1 L (4 cups). www.canadianinquirer.net

Source: “Barbecue Sauces, Rubs and Marinades — Bastes, Butters and Glazes, Too” by Steven Raichlen (Workman Publishing, 2017).

Canadian mustard

You can pay tribute to one of Canada’s homegrown crops by making your own piquant mustard. This country is one of the world’s major producers of mustard seeds.

Yellow mustard seeds are only mildly spicy, so if you prefer real heat, use the much spicier brown seeds, suggests P.E.I. chef Michael Smith.

• 250 ml (1 cup) yellow mustard seeds • 250 ml (1 cup) sweet apple cider • 250 ml (1 cup) cider vinegar • 2 apples, unpeeled, cored and chopped • 60 ml (1/4 cup) honey • 10 ml (2 tsp) salt In a medium pot, stir together mustard seeds, apple cider and cider vinegar. Cover tightly and rest at room temperature overnight.

Add apples, honey and salt.

Bring to a simmer over medium heat and cook, stirring occasionally, until apple is very tender, 15 minutes or so. Let cool for a few minutes before transferring to a blender or food processor. If you prefer wholegrain style mustard, pulse for just a few moments. For a smoother result, carry on until completely pureed. Transfer to a clean jar, seal tightly and refrigerate. The mustard keeps indefinitely.

Makes about 500 ml (2 cups).

Source: “Real Food, Real Good”

by Michael Smith (Penguin Canada, 2016).

Monkey gland sauce

This sweet-spicy blend of

chutney, wine and hot sauce is popular among South Africans at barbecues, says Raichlen.

“It’s really sweet with chutney and kind of tart with red wine. It’s two kinds of polls of South Africa’s origins, the British and the Indian with the chutney and the red wine with the French,” he explains.

This sauce is customarily served warm or at room temperature with grilled meats, such as steak and lamb chops. It can also be used for basting.

This version comes from the Mount Nelson Hotel in Cape Town.

For a variation, replace half the chutney with ketchup.

• 250 ml (1 cup) fruit chutney • 45 ml (3 tbsp) dry red wine • 45 ml (3 tbsp) port wine • 30 ml (2 tbsp) salted butter • 5 ml (1 tsp) piri piri sauce or your favourite hot sauce • 2 ml (1/2 tsp) freshly ground black pepper • 2 ml (1/2 tsp) liquid smoke • Coarse salt (sea or kosher) In a heavy non-reactive saucepan over medium-high heat, combine all ingredients and bring to a boil. Reduce heat to medium and simmer sauce, uncovered, stirring often until chutney melts and sauce is richly flavoured, 5 to 10 minutes.

For a chunky sauce, serve as is. For a smooth sauce, puree in a food processor or blender.

Use immediately or transfer to a jar, cover and refrigerate.

The sauce will keep for several weeks; bring to room temperature before serving.

Makes 300 ml (1 1/4 cups), enough to serve 4 to 6.

Source: “Barbecue Sauces, Rubs and Marinades — Bastes, Butters and Glazes, Too by Steven Raichlen (Workman Publishing, 2017).

39

FRIDAY JUNE 2, 2017

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