Philippine Canadian Inquirer Issue #110

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VOL. 4 NO. 110

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APRIL 11, 2014

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China accuses PH of damaging ties

Napoles owns retreat house

Wheels of justice moving forward

Filipino-Canadian in Focus: Jane McLean

Bible stories, our stories

Friendship Singapore style: P231M for victims

BY TARRA QUISMUNDO Philippine Daily Inquirer

TRAVEL The uncombed sand may not be powdery fine but Buluan Island in Ipil town, Zamboanga Sibugay province, offers seclusion and tranquility to local tourists, especially at sunset. The island, ideal for overnight camping, features a white sand beach and clear blue waters.

PHOTO BY EDWIN BACASMAS

SC ruling on RH law: Win-win Pros cheer ruling as antis also claim victory

BY CHRISTINE O. AVENDAÑO Philippine Daily Inquirer BAGUIO CITY, PHILIPPINES—There was jubilation on both sides.

Cheers from pro-reproductive health (RH) law advocates who wore purple rang out in front of the Supreme Court building here when the tribunal’s spokesperson announced Tuesday that the high court had unanimously de-

clared the Responsible Parenthood and Reproductive Health Act of 2012 “not unconstitutional.”

But the Supreme Court, on its annual summer session here, rejected eight of the law’s provisions, something that Catholic Church leaders and other opponents of the law found laudable. They also claimed victory.

The provisions include those per-

❱❱ PAGE 7 Friendship Singapore

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Cost to governments of MH370 disappearance HITMANSNR / SHUTTERSTOCK.COM

❱❱ PAGE 13 SC ruling

IT WAS “a small gesture of friendship and solidarity” with a neighbor in need, Singapore President Tony Tan Keng Yam said of his country’s donation to those affected by Supertyphoon “Yolanda” five months ago.

Tan yesterday handed over some S$7 million or P231 million in donations to partner organizations in the Philippines to support a package of reconstruction and rehabilitation projects in areas affected by the supertyphoon in Eastern Visayas.

❱❱ PAGE 21

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APRIL 11, 2014

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Philippine News

3 FRIDAY APRIL 11, 2014

China accuses PH of damaging ties

BY TARRA QUISMUNDO Philippine Daily Inquirer CHINA YESTERDAY accused the Philippines of “unilaterally” closing the door to talks to settle the increasingly tense South China Sea dispute and undermining its ties with Beijing by seeking international arbitration.

In a rare press conference yesterday, Chinese chargé d’affaires Sun Xiangyang called on the Philippines to “correct its mistake and come back to the right track” through negotiating the dispute directly.

“What the Philippine side did seriously damaged bilateral relations with China. We find it very hard to understand these moves of the Philippines and we are deeply disturbed by and concerned with the consequence of such moves,” said Sun, reading a strongly worded statement at the Chinese embassy press conference.

The official said China had the right not to recognize rulings in international litigation, saying the refusal to take part in the legal process was well within China’s right under international law.

Insisting that an agreement between the two parties was required before international arbitration could be initiated, Sun said the Philippines “had failed to notify” nor seek “China’s consent” before pushing ahead with its legal action.

He said the Philippines had disregarded China’s position that it does not accept the process.

“The Chinese side has found it very hard to understand why the Philippine side should unilaterally shut the door to negotiations and consultations,” said Sun. ‘Against morality’

While the Chinese ambassador was holding forth in Manila, Chinese state media in Beijing yesterday accused the

Philippines of violating morality and international law by seeking United Nations arbitration.

“The act of the Philippine side is against the international law and the historical truth as well as against morality and basic rules of international relations,” said the People’s Daily, the official mouthpiece of the Communist Party, in a commentary denouncing the Philippine move.

The Philippines had “provoked China” by going to “socalled international arbitration, a move that is both illegal and unreasonable” and “an act lacking credibility,” it said.

It was attempting “to legalize its invasion of Chinese islands through the arbitration,” it added.

“The Philippines attempted to solicit international sympathy through disguising itself as a small and weak country,” the People’s Daily commentary said.

The commentary was reported in English by the official news agency Xinhua, often an indication that authorities want it to reach a wider audience.

PH envoy summoned

On Monday, China summoned the Philippines’ ambassador in Beijing to lodge a strong complaint over Manila’s seeking of international arbitration in the festering territorial dispute.

Chinese Deputy Foreign Minister Liu Zhenmin told the Philippines’ ambassador that Beijing was “extremely dissatisfied and resolutely opposed” to the case Manila had brought to The Hague, repeating that China did not accept it and would not participate, the ministry said in its website.

The case would not shake China’s resolve to protect its sovereignty and territorial integrity, the foreign ministry cited Liu as saying.

The only way to address the issue was through bilateral talks, he said, repeat-

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ing another of China’s standard lines.

China which is vastly more powerful than any of the several countries it has disputes with in the strategically significant waters prefers to negotiate with them individually, rather than in international forums.

PH case vs Beijing

The Philippines at the weekend asked a UN tribunal to rule on Beijing’s claims over most of the strategically significant South China Sea, submitting nearly 4,000 pages of evidence to back its case, subjecting Beijing to international legal scrutiny over the waters for the first time.

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It argues that the Chinese stance is illegal under the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea (Unclos), and interferes with the Philippines’ sovereign rights to its continental shelf and the part of the South China Sea within its exclusive economic zone, which it calls the West Philippine Sea. Both countries are signatories to Unclos, but Beijing argues that its provisions do not apply to the row.

China displays its claims to the South China Sea on official maps with a socalled ninedash line that stretches deep into the maritime heart of Southeast ❱❱ PAGE 9 China accuses

2014-03-24 11:21 PM

Philippine News

APRIL 11, 2014

FRIDAY 4

House seeks to probe MRT GM’s ‘envoy’ Administration critics allege Malacañang coddling Vitangcol

BY GIL C. CABACUNGAN Philippine Daily Inquirer MEMBERS OF the House of Representatives want to summon Wilson de Vera, the alleged “envoy” of Metro Rail Transit (MRT) general manager Al Vitangcol III, to an investigation of allegations that the transport official tried to extort $30 million from Czech train car builder Inekon Group 21months ago.

Bayan Muna Rep. Neri Colmenares and Navotas Rep. Tobias Tiangco said yesterday that the House committee on good government and public accountability should compel De Vera to answer the allegations hurled at him and Vitangcol by Czech Ambassador to the Philippines Josef Rychtar and Inekon Group CEO and chair Josef Husek.

In interviews with the INQUIRER yesterday, Colmenares and Tiangco, who filed separate resolutions late last year seeking a congressional inquiry

into the alleged MRT extortion attempt, said De Vera was “essential” to a face-off between Rychtar and Vitangcol in the scandal that had tarnished the image of the Aquino administration.

Colmenares said De Vera could provide the committee with crucial testimony since he was tagged as the go-between of Vitangcol to Inekon.

Tiangco said De Vera should explain his presence in the meetings between MRT and Inekon.

“Who is he fronting for?” asked Tiangco who noted that Rychtar and Husek hinted at De Vera’s close ties with top officials of the Department of Transportation and Communications (DOTC) and some politicians.

De Vera ran for mayor of Calasiao town, Pangasinan province, under the Liberal Party last year but lost.

Tiangco said Vitangcol failed to attend two hearings of the House good government com-

mittee. “If he does not attend our next hearing, committee members have agreed to exercise Congress’ powers to compel him to attend,” Tiangco said.

He said Rychtar had indicated willingness to attend the committee hearing. The ambassador is standing by his affidavit and denied reports that the statement is unsigned, Tiangco said.

In his cover letter to the affidavit submitted to the House committee chair, Pampanga Rep. Oscar Rodriguez, Rychtar said: “It reveals that I, as the ambassador of the Czech Republic, confirmed that an extortion attempt took place in July 2012 followed by other suspicious circumstances which led to a questionable bidding in March 2013.”

In the same affidavit, which he also submitted to the NBI, Rychtar said, referring to De Vera: “I think all of us considered him to be an envoy of Mr. Vitangcol since he behaved like

www.canadianinquirer.net

Metro Rail Transit general manager Al Vitangcol III. PHOTO FROM HTTP://DOTC-MRT3.WEEBLY.COM/

that at an official dinner. He went straight to the point of suggesting the payment from Inekon to secure the deal for them. I think everybody was surprised with this suggestion of Mr. W. de Vera, whichwas $30 million.”

In his affidavit submitted to the House committee, Husek

said he and Rychtar first met with the MRT group led by Vitangcol, De Vera, and Manalo Maralit on July 9, 2012, over dinner at Carpaccio restaurant in Makati City. Husek said they agreed to meet the next day at Rychtar’s residence. ❱❱ PAGE15 House seeks

Philippine News

5 FRIDAY APRIL 11, 2014

Philippine Muslim rebels ‘Tell no one’ Makati bettor form political party as won P250M lotto they end rebellion

BY NIÑA CALLEJA Philippine Daily Inquirer

BY JIM GOMEZ The Associated Press MANILA, PHILIPPINES—The largest Muslim rebel group in the Philippines said Tuesday it had formed a political party as it turns away from a decades-long rebellion after signing a peace pact with the government.

Mohagher Iqbal of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front said his rebel group’s new political group, the United Bangsamoro Justice Party, would be a springboard to contesting the leadership of a more powerful Muslim autonomous region to be established in the south of the largely Catholic Philippines.

The rebels signed an autonomy deal with the government on March 27 to end years of fighting that has killed tens of thousands and held back progress in resource-rich but poverty-wracked southern regions that have been the homeland of minority Muslim Filipinos.

The agreement was welcomed by the United States and other governments, which fear that remote Muslim rebel strongholds could breed al-Qaida-inspired extremists.

The 11,000-strong Moro rebel group, Iqbal said, would eventually be transformed into a social movement that would help call for good governance and the rebuilding of former battlefields into vibrant communities with adequate schools, hospitals and public infrastructure.

“We can continue the strug-

gle but no longer with arms,” Iqbal told The Associated Press by telephone from the south.

Under the peace accord, called the Comprehensive Agreement on the Bangsamoro, the Moro Islamic Liberation Front agreed to gradually disband their guerrilla force and drop a demand for a separate Islamic homeland in exchange for broader autonomy. An existing five-province Muslim autonomous region is to be replaced by a more powerful, better-funded and potentially larger region to be called Bangsamoro.

Bangsamoro is the term used by the rebels to refer to Muslims as well as other ethnic groups in the southern Philippines.

The new Muslim autonomous region is expected to be launched in 2016 after Congress passes legislation creating it. Iqbal’s group said it was too early for it to draft candidates for the planned a 50-member parliament to be led by a chief minister.

Iqbal said the guerrillas will compete only in Muslim autonomous regional elections and not regular Philippine elections. The party still needs to be approved by Manila’s Commission on Elections.

Despite the peace deal, at least four smaller armed Islamic groups have vowed to keep fighting the government, including the Abu Sayyaf, a Muslim extremist network with international links that Philippine troops have been battling with U.S. military support. ■

MANILA, PHILIPPINES—The first thing the holder of ticket number 39-21-42-28-05-27 will hear when he—or she—goes to the lottery office to claim the prize is: “Thank God you won, and, tell no one about this.”

A lone bettor who bought that ticket in Makati City won the P249.8 million jackpot prize in Monday night’s 6/55 Grand Lotto draw, the Philippine Charity Sweepstakes Office (PCSO) said on Tuesday.

The lucky winner has remained unidentified, as of Tuesday. The prize of P249,841,572 has been the biggest pot so far this year.

Until Monday, nobody had hit the winning combination in the 6/55 draw for more than three months, according to PCSO General Manager Jose Ferdinand Rojas II. The winning bettor bought the ticket at an outlet along Washington Street in Barangay (village) Pio del Pilar.

Biggest winner

A sari-sari owner last won the Grand Lotto in January, taking home the jackpot prize of P155 million.

The biggest lotto prize in PCSO history was won in November 2010. A bettor residing in New York and visiting the Philippines won the P741.176 million prize, also in the 6/55 draw.

Before the actual draw on Monday night, lotto sales all over the country had reached P84,707,580.

The jackpot prize will be back to P30 million, its minimum amount, in the next draw on Wednesday.

From a dream

Under the peace accord, called the Comprehensive Agreement on the Bangsamoro, the MILF agreed to gradually disband their guerrilla force and drop a demand for a separate Islamic homeland in exchange for broader autonomy.

PHOTO FROM ARTICLE.WN.COM

Last Friday, a businessman who hit the jackpot in the 6/49 Super Lotto draw on April Fools’ Day claimed his prize at the PCSO headquarters in Pasay City.

The 32-year-old father of two from Pampanga placed his bet on the winning combination 09-13-17-20-22-2. He said numbers came from his dream.

“Every time we have a grand winner we announce the locawww.canadianinquirer.net

INQUIRER FILE PHOTO

tion of the lucky lotto outlet where the winning ticket was bought,” Rojas told the Inquirer.

The PCSO normally awards a certificate to the lucky outlet to encourage bettors to buy their tickets there.

Rojas said disclosing the location of the lotto outlet where the winning ticket was bought would not be a threat to the winner.

“Even if we know the winner placed his bet in Makati, we are not sure if he lives near the area,” said Rojas.

Monday night’s prize was the biggest so far this year.

The PCSO expects the winner to claim the prize this week—before the start of the Holy Week.

“He or she could be waiting for the news about the win to die down before he comes here to claim the prize,” Rojas said.

“Most of the winners come here with all things already planned. Some come with their families. There is comfort and safety in numbers,” Rojas said.

The winner will receive his prize in full through a check issued by the Land Bank of the Philippines.

While it has always been the policy of the PCSO to keep the identity of the winner confidential, Rojas said he would have the picture of the winning ticket taken as proof that the winnings had been claimed. ■

Philippine News

APRIL 11, 2014

FRIDAY 6

Napoles owns retreat house, whistle-blower swears

BY JAYMEE T. GAMIL Philippine Daily Inquirer MANILA PHILIPPINES—A former employee of suspected pork barrel scam mastermind Janet Lim-Napoles on Monday testified that a retreat house run by priests in Makati City, where principal whistle-blower Benhur Luy was allegedly detained, was owned by a Napoles company.

Whistle-blower Marina Sula told a Makati court Monday that as a former liaison officer for Napoles’ properties in JLN Corp., she had transferred the title of the Bahay San Jose retreat house located at No. 52 Lapu-Lapu St. in Magallanes Village to La Roca Enterprises sometime in November 2010 on instructions of Napoles.

Sula testified that Napoles bought the Magallanes property from one Lisa Ong. Sula said she was ordered to place the property under La Roca Enterprises, which had been bought

by Napoles from a Mrs. Castro.

Sula was one of three prosecution witnesses presented Monday in Makati Regional Trial Court Branch 150 at the resumption of the hearing on the serious illegal detention charge filed against Napoles by Luy, her cousin and former employee.

Conspiring to detain

Luy has accused Napoles and her brother, Reynald Lim, of conspiring to detain him from December 2012 to March 2013 in Napolesowned properties, including the Bahay San Jose retreat house and the Southgarden Unit of the Pacific Plaza Tower in Bonifacio Global City, Taguig, from which Luy was eventually rescued by the National Bureau of Investigation.

Napoles had denied ownership of the Magallanes retreat house.

“Madam [Napoles] said that La Roca only owned one property, so I was told to title the [Magallanes] property under La Roca,” Sula testified.

She said the Magallanes property had been “occupied by Monsignor (Josefino) Ramirez for almost three years,” until she (Sula) left JLN Corp. in August last year.

The other property under La Roca Enterprises is No. 9 Narra Rd. in Forbes Park, Makati, Sula said.

The Pacific Plaza condo unit was bought by Napoles under JLN Corp. sometime in 2009, Sula said. She confirmed that both the Magallanes property and the Pacific Plaza unit were owned by Napoles “until 2013.”

Another former JLN employee, Mary Arlene Baltazar, also took the witness stand, reiterating her testimony during the bail petition hearings.

www.canadianinquirer.net

Baltazar said that on orders of Napoles, she was ordered on Dec. 19, 2013, by a JLN Corp. co-employee to forge Luy’s signature on a bank form authorizing the transfer of P800,000 from Luy’s Metrobank account to the JLN Corp. account. Baltazar said that at the time, Luy was already under detention in the JLN Corp. offices.

Unable to do the forgery, Baltazar said the task was instead passed to another coworker, but Baltazar said it was she who faxed the form to Metrobank the next day.

Flor Villanueva, another witness, also reiterated her testimony during the earlier bail petition hearings.

Deferment request

The prosecution has so far presented eight witnesses in the serious illegal detention case. Luy was scheduled to testify as the last prosecution witness Monday, but Napoles’ lawyer, Alfredo Villamor, asked for a deferment as he had a scheduled appointment with his car-

diologist.

Napoles, meanwhile, who is currently confined at the Ospital ng Makati for a uterine cyst, has been cleared for a biopsy.

At a press briefing at OsMak on Monday, Florentina Villanueva, the hospital’s head obstetrician-gynecologist, said Napoles’ endocrinologist had given the go-signal for an endometrial biopsy, since Napoles’ elevated blood sugar level has been “managed.”

“We will be getting a tissue sample from her uterus,” Villanueva said, explaining the procedure.

She said the procedure could be done within 45 minutes, even within a day, once Napoles gives her consent.

The sample will then be used to determine if Napoles’ cyst is benign or cancerous, said OsMak medical director Perry Peralta.

The biopsy results, which will take around three days to be released, “will dictate what the next procedure will be,” Peralta added. ■

Philippine News

7 FRIDAY APRIL 11, 2014

Moro deal illegal–Miriam

Tan, who was on his first state visit to the Philippines, did not issue remarks at the event but said in a press statement that the funding package was a “small gesture of friendship and solidarity with the Filipino people.”

Singapore’s president also lauded Singapore Red Cross (SRC) for choosing “trusted partners” in disbursing assistance from the city-state. Apart from government funding, SRC had separately raised S$11.45 million or P377.85 million in donations from Singaporeans through its public appeal. ❰❰ 1

BY NORMAN BORDADORA Philippine Daily Inquirer THE RECENTLY signed Comprehensive Agreement on the Bangsamoro (CAB) between the government and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) appears to facilitate the secession of a Bangsamoro region from the country and, thus, is unconstitutional, Sen. Miriam Defensor-Santiago said yesterday.

Santiago, chair of the Senate committee on constitutional amendments and revision of laws, said the historic agreement provides for the creation of a Bangsamoro “substate” instead of just an autonomous region as provided for under the Constitution.

She added that the executive branch misrepresented itself in signing the agreement with the MILF when it called itself the Philippine government.

“The executive branch alone does not represent the Philippine government. Thus, the executive branch, in negotiating the agreement had no power to bind the two other branches— legislative and judicial,” Santiago told graduates of the Gordon College in Olongapo City.

Santiago said “the executive branch not only exceeded its powers, but may have infringed upon the powers of the legislative branch.”

“When the executive branch misrepresenting itself as the Philippine government enters into an agreement with the rebel group, the result is not a mere autonomous region as provided for by our Constitution, but a substate,” Santiago said.

“Thus, the agreement is concluded between one branch mistakenly identifying itself as the government, and what will turn out to be a substate,” she added.

Reacting to Santiago’s remarks, Communications Secretary Herminio Coloma said Malacañang respected the senator’s views but maintained that both panels were guided by the Constitution in crafting the CAB. “We respect Senator Santiago’s views. We affirm that throughout the PH-MILF negotiations on the CAB, the Philippine panel was guided by one basic principle—that all provi-

Friendship Singapore...

DAMPENING SPIRITS? Santiago, chair of the Senate committee on constitutional

amendments and revision of laws, said the historic agreement provides for the creation of a Bangsamoro “substate” instead of just an autonomous region as provided for under the Constitution.

PHOTO FROM WIKIPEDIA.ORG

sions of the agreement must be consistent with the Constitution,” he said.

He added that senators and representatives would review the proposed Bangsamoro basic law once the draft bill is submitted for their deliberations.

Government chief negotiator Miriam Coronel-Ferrer said the senator is a brilliant professor and an expert in constitutional law. “We certainly appreciate her insights and opinion on the Comprehensive Agreement on the Bangsamoro.”

Santiago said the agreement violated the supremacy of the Constitution.

She added that the agreement “not only reduces the sovereignty of the central government, but also provides that in the future, such sovereign powers as have been reserved may be further increased, provided the Bangsamoro agrees.”

“It will therefore be the Bangsamoro which will determine what should be the remaining sovereign powers of the central government,” Santiago said.

Santiago cited the following reasons why the Bangsamoro entity, which the CAB seeks, will be an unconstitutional substate: • The powers of the central government shall be determined by the agreement, thus turning Bangsamoro into a substate; • The Autonomous Region for Muslim Mindanao, which is provided for by the Constitution, will be abolished by mere agreement with the-

MILF, which is not surprising if you consider that the Bangsamoro has become a substate; • Allocation to the Bangsamoro of all powers exercised by the national government over local government units; • Although the Constitution provides that natural resources belong to the state, in the Bangsamoro territory, only Bangsamoro will have exclusive jurisdiction over natural resources; • The Annex on Power Sharing gives to Bangsamoro so-called exclusive powers, which is defined as a tautology, as “powers or matters over which authority and jurisdiction pertain to the Bangsamoro government”; • Only the Bangsamoro shall be under a ministerial form of government, while the rest of the country will operate under a presidential form of government; • The agreement in Part 7, para.

4, subpara (b) provides that one of the functions of the Transition Commission is “to work on proposals to amend the Philippine Constitution for the purpose of amending and enriching in the Constitution the agreements of the parties whenever necessary without derogating from any prior peace agreement.”

“Say again?! What?! The agreement embodies the consent of the executive branch to amend the Philippine Constitution in order to accommodate the agreement! This is beyond ridiculous,” Santiago said. ■ www.canadianinquirer.net

Spirit of solidarity

“These may seem small in the greater scheme of the rebuilding effort, but they are huge gestures of friendship and reflect the spirit of solidarity of the Singapore people with the Filipino people,” said SRC secretary general Benjamin William during the turnover ceremonies.

“As the funds flowed in, it was clear to me and my colleagues that the people of Singapore shared the grief and suffering brought about by Yolanda and wanted to reach out to touch the lives of [those] in need,” William said, adding that contributions of varying amounts poured in, “from as big as a million dollars from a successful businessman to a 10-year-old schoolgirl giving her entire savings of pocket money.”

SRC’s partner organizations include the Philippine Red Cross, International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies, International Committee of the Red Cross, Anglican Crisis Relief Outreach and Support Singapore, Life Community Development, Humanitarian Assistance Network for Disaster and Assisi Development Foundation.

Beyond fund-raising

Singapore’s partners in the Philippines are set to implement a package of projects including housing, medical facilities, water and sanitation, and the repair of homes and schools across the disaster zone. Expected to benefit from the package are some 1.5 million Filipinos from the typhoon-hit communities on Bantayan Island in Cebu province, Busuanga Island in Palawan province, Leyte province, Ormoc City, Panay Island and Samar province.

“The outpouring of support is heartening but we must remember that the work of rebuilding communities goes beyond fund-raising. It is a commitment that can stretch over years,” William said.

“We hope that all the rebuilding and rehabilitation projects supported by Singapore Red Cross and the people of Singapore will make a lasting difference to the people of the region... We hope that each and every project will represent relief and new hope,” he added. ■

President Aquino listens as President Tony Tan Keng Yam of Singapore delivers his message during the state luncheon at the Rizal Hall of the Malacañan Palace for the State Visit to the Philippines of the Singapore Head of State on April 3.

This is President Tan’s first state visit to the Philippines.

PHOTO BY BENHUR ARCAYAN / MALACAÑANG PHOTO BUREAU

Philippine News

APRIL 11, 2014 FRIDAY 8

The 53 accused: Where are they now? Who’s in, out of PH

BY NANCY C. CARVAJAL Philippine Daily Inquirer SIX OF THE 53 people, including three senators, in the first set of respondents recommended for prosecution in connection with the pork barrel scam have fled the country, the INQUIRER has learned.

Authorities began ascertaining the whereabouts of these people after the Ombudsman found probable cause to indict them for plunder or graft, said a knowledgeable source, who asked not to be identified for lack of authority to speak on the matter.

The source said that contrary to earlier reports, Pauline Therese Mary C. Labayen, Sen. Jinggoy Estrada’s deputy chief of staff, has not left the country for the United States.

“There are no official records of Labayen’s departure and a check with US immigration records showed that there was no record of her arrival,” the source said.

Another source said Dennis L. Cunanan, deputy director general of the Technology Resource Center (TRC) and a provisional state witness, left the country with his family last week, also bound for the United States.

“We have yet to receive the complete report of his departure and destination, but the initial information is that he left with his wife and children,” the source said.

However, this was contradicted by another source, who said Cunanan was still in the country.

Six who left

According to the official records, Estrada left the country

with his wife, Precy, on March 26 bound for Hong Kong and is now reported to be in Los Angeles.

Sen. Ramon Revilla Jr. and his wife, Cavite Rep. Lani Mercado, with their children left very early last March 30 to go on a pilgrimage to the Holy Land.

Jessica Lucila “Gigi” Reyes, former chief of staff of Sen. Juan Ponce Enrile, was reported to have left for Macau on Aug. 31, 2013, and is now believed to be in the United Kingdom or Morocco.

Estrada, Revilla and Enrile are the only senators so far to have been included in the Ombudsman’s respondents list.

Ruby C. Tuason, former social secretary of deposed President and now Manila Mayor Joseph Estrada, the senator’s father, left on March 2 for San Francisco, California. Tuason, a provisional state witness, has executed affidavits and testified at the Senate hearing on the scam that she had personally delivered kickbacks to Estrada in the latter’s Senate office.

Antonio Y. Ortiz, the TRC director general alleged to have also benefited from the scam, left the country on Sept. 11, 2013, five days before the National Bureau of Investigation filed the plunder complaints in the Office of the Ombudsman.

Still in the country

The following respondents are still in the country or at least are not confirmed to have left the country: • Janet Lim-Napoles, the owner of JLN Group of Companies, which is at the center of the scam, and the alleged mastermind of the wholesale conversion of the congressional pork barrel into kickbacks

for certain legislators, is under hospital arrest at Ospital ng Makati and is scheduled to undergo surgery.

• Napoles’ children, James Christopher and Jo Christine L. Napoles, have moved out of their Pacific Tower residence.

• Reynald “Jojo” Lim, Napoles’ brother with a P5-million bounty on his head on illegal detention charges, remains at large but is believed to be in the country.

• Ronald John Lim, Napoles’ nephew who heads one of the Napoles bogus organizations, Ginintuang Alay para sa Magsasaka Foundation, also has not flown the coop.

• Richard A. Cambe, Revilla’s chief political adviser, has stopped reporting for work at the Senate. There is no record of his departure.

• Gondelina G. Amata, president of the National Livelihood Development Corp. (NLDC), one of the government implementing agencies implicated in the scam, appeared to be in the country as there’s no record of her departure.

Napoles employees

The source also said there were no records of departure of these Napoles employees who have been named in the Ombudsman’s resolution: • John Raymund de Asis, a former Napoles driver and president of Kaupdanan para sa Mangunguma Foundation Inc., was recently seen at the Office of the Ombudsman submitting his counteraffidavit.

• Evelyn de Leon, president of Philippine Social Development Foundation Inc. and a trusted bagman of Napoles who had earlier been convicted in the Kevlar helmet scam

but is now on parole.

• Fernando Ramirez, a security officer and driver of Napoles who, according to the whistle-blowers, personally delivered money to Estrada, Revilla and Reyes.

• Hernani Ditchon, a sister of De Leon and incorporator of Agrikultura para sa Magbubukid Foundation Inc. (APMFI).

• Laarni A. Uy, a cousin of Napoles and incorporator of APMFI. • Aileen Palama, of Countrywide Agri and Rural Economic Development Foundation (CARED); Amparo L. Fernando, also of CARED; Dorilyn Fabian, of APMFI; Eulogio D. Rodriguez, a driver of Napoles and head of another Napoles nongovernment organization; Margarita Guadinez, Napoles’ accountant; Jocelyn Piorato, head of APMFI; Myla Ogerio, incorporator of Agri and Economic Program for Farmers Foundation Inc.; Nitz Cabilao, incorporator of Social Development Program for Farmers Foundation Inc.; Noel Macha, JLN Corp. auditor; Renato S. Ornopia, a utility boy for JLN Corp., Rodrigo Galay, an information technology consultant for JLN Corp.

Gov’t employees

The following respondents who work in government agencies implicated in the scam also have not left the country, the source said.

Rhodora B. Mendoza, former director for financial management services/former vice president for administration and finance of the National Agribusiness Corp. (Nabcor); Victor Roman C. Cacal, general service supervisor/paralegal of

the Nabcor; Mario L. Relampagos, undersecretary for operations of the Department of Budget and Management (DBM); Alan A. Javellana, former Nabcor president; Chita C. Jalandoni, department manager III, NLDC; Consuelo Lilian R. Espiritu, budget officer IV, TRC; Emmanuel Alexis G. Sevidal; director IV, NLDC; Encarnita Christina P. Munsod, former support services supervisor, Nabcor; Filipina T. Rodriguez, NLDC budget officer IV; Francisco B. Figura, legal officer/ former group manager, TRC; Gregoria Buenaventura, division chief, asset management division, NLDC; Lalaine Paule, Office of the Undersecretary for Operations, DBM; Ma. Ninez P. Guañizo, bookkeeper/officer in charge of accounting division, Nabcor.; Ma. Rosalinda Lacsamana, former group manager, TRC; Maria Julie A. VillaralvoJohnson, former chief accountant, Nabcor; Marilou Bare, Office of the Undersecretary for Operations, DBM; Marivic V. Jover, chief accountant, TRC; Ofelia E. Ordoñez, chief budget specialist, NLDC; Romulo Relevo, general services unit head, Nabcor; Rosario Nuñe, Office of the Undersecretary for Operations, DBM; Sofia D. Cruz, chief financial specialist/project management assistant, NLDC; and Evelyn Sucgang, NLDC employee.

Extradition treaties

The Philippines has extradition treaties with 13 countries: Australia, Canada, China, Hong Kong, India, Indonesia, Korea, Micronesia, Spain, Switzerland, Thailand, the United Kingdom and the United States.

However, the treaty with the United Kingdom has yet to be ratified by the Senate. ■

Eatery owner selling relief rice faces raps

BY CYNTHIA D. BALANA Philippine Daily Inquirer THE DEPARTMENT of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) will file a criminal case against an eatery owner in Tacloban City who was caught selling rice sacks intended for Super typhoon Yolanda victims.

Social Welfare Secretary Dinky Soliman on Monday said Marchita Ygrubay, 52, owner of Sola Eatery, is liable for violation of the Anti-Fencing Law after she was caught selling 17 25-kilogram rice sacks labeled “DSWD Relief Supplies, Not for Sale.”

“May this serve as a stern warning to individuals who

continue with their unscrupulous ways,” said Soliman, adding that the DSWD will conduct an investigation to include others selling relief goods.

Soliman said DSWD Field Office VIII (Eastern Visayas) Regional Director Nestor Ramos discovered the anomaly when he went to have dinner at the eatery on April 3. www.canadianinquirer.net

Upon learning of the irregularity, Soliman instructed Ramos to contact the local police.

The next morning, a team headed by DSWD Assistant Regional Directors Restituto Macuto and Virginia Idano went to the eatery on Salazar Street.

With the assistance of the city police led by Supt. Domingo Ca-

billan, the relief commodities were confiscated from Ygrubay.

According to Ramos, Ygrubay said she did not know that the goods were not supposed to be sold.

She said she was just helping the sellers who were Yolanda survivors from the districts of Pampango and Magallanes. She refused to name them. ■

Philippine News

9 FRIDAY APRIL 11, 2014

Philippines says kidnappers brought captives from Malaysia to southern Philippine island The Associated Press MANILA, PHILIPPINES— Gunmen who kidnapped a Chinese tourist and a Filipino worker from a Malaysian resort have brought their captives to an island township in the Philippines’ southernmost province, authorities said Friday.

The kidnappers, believed to be Abu Sayyaf militants, brought the two women to Simunul in Tawi-Tawi province, Philippine presidential spokesman Edwin Lacierda said, citing a military report.

The women were seized late Wednesday from the Singamata Reef Resort in Semporna district in the eastern Malaysian state of Sabah. The resort is popular with Chinese tourists.

The kidnapping was a reminder of the security threats in Sabah, a popular tourist destination a short boat ride from the southern Philippines, home to Muslim militants and kidnap gangs.

A naval task force is searching for the gunmen and their captives around Basilan, Sulu and TawiTawi provinces, which comprise scores of islands southwest of Manila where the militants operate, said regional military spokeswoman Capt. Rowena Muyuela.

In carrying out the kidnapping, seven men armed with rifles, four of them masked, arrived at the resort on a speedboat, according to Malaysian police.

The gunmen seized the tourist—a 28-year-old woman from Shanghai—from the balcony of her room, police said. The Filipino woman, 40, was a receptionist at the resort.

China said its consulate in the Malaysian city of Kuching had mobilized staff to deal with the kidnapping and urged local authorities to ensure the safety of Chinese citizens.

China’s ties with Malaysia have come under stress recently because of anger among Chinese over the search for a missing Malaysia Airlines jetliner carrying 153 Chinese passengers.

The Abu Sayyaf, a militant Muslim group, has carried out seaborne kidnappings for ransom in the region before.

In 2000, Abu Sayyaf gunmen snatched 21 European tourists and Malaysian and Filipino workers from Malaysia’s Sipadan diving resort and brought them to the southern Philippines, where they eventually were released in exchange for large ransom payments.

In November, suspected Abu Sayyaf militants killed a Taiwanese tourist and kidnapped his wife from a resort in the Semporna area. The woman was released a month later in the southern Philippines.

The Abu Sayyaf had links to international militant networks, including al-Qaida, but a U.S.-assisted Philippine military crackdown has weakened it considerably in recent years.

The group, which is on the U.S. list of terror groups, has about 300 fighters and is now much more focused on ransom kidnappings than global jihad.

Kidnap gangs are holding more than a dozen captives in the southern Philippines, including two European bird watchers who were seized from Tawi-Tawi province in 2012.

China accuses...

Asia.

Vietnam, Malaysia, Brunei and Taiwan also have claims to parts of the potentially energyrich waters.

The tribunal will now ask China to respond to the Philippines’ position, but Beijing can choose to ignore it. The Philippine government does not expect the tribunal to reach a decision before the end of 2015. ❰❰ 3

US accuses China

The United States, a treaty ally of the Philippines, said on Sunday that the right of any state to use dispute resolution mechanisms under the Unclos should be respected.

On Monday, the US State Department accused China’s Coast Guard of “harassment” of Philippine vessels and called its attempt on Saturday to block a Philippine resupply mission to the disputed Ayungin (Second Thomas) Shoal “a provocative and destabilizing action.”

State Department deputy spokesperson Marie Harf told reporters that the Philippines had permission to resupply troops to the remote reef because it has kept a naval presence there since before a 2002 declaration of conduct in the South China Sea. “As a treaty ally of the Republic of the Philippines, the United States urges China to refrain from further provocative behavior by allowing the Philippines to continue to maintain its presence at Second Thomas Shoal,” she said.

The attempted Chinese blockade, which led to a twohour standoff with the Philippine ship, was the latest incident in the festering South China Sea dispute. On March 9, China successfully turned away a similar resupply boat from the Philippines.

The latest developments in the dispute come ahead of a visit this month by US President

www.canadianinquirer.net

Chinese chargé d’affaires Sun Xiangyang said China had the right not to recognize rulings in international litigation, saying the refusal to take part in the legal process was well within China’s right under international law.

Barack Obama to Asia, including the Philippines. Obama is expected to offer reassurances to regional allies in the face of increasingly assertive Chinese territorial claims.

PH ‘did not object’

In his press conference yesterday, Sun accused the Philippines only taking interest in the disputed territories when oil reserves were found in the waters.

He said that after the end of World War II in 1946, the Philippines “did not object” to “a series of steps” that China took to “confirm and reaffirm its sovereignty” over the islands.

“It was only after oil reserves were discovered in the 1970s in the waters surrounding the Nansha Islands (the Spratlys) that the Philippines began to claim sovereignty over these islands and sent troops to occupy some of the islands and reefs,” Sun said.

The Chinese official said that Beijing had attempted several times to undertake bilateral talks to settle the dispute, and blamed the Philippines for the failure of any of these proposed negotiations to prosper.

“China has had rich practices in successfully settling boundary, territorial and maritime

disputes through negotiations…

We see no reason why China should abandon such successful practice that it has upheld for long,” Sun said.

He cited what he described as a longstanding practice in international law for nations to refuse to participate in international proceedings.

Territorial disputes

“In international practice, when their major national interests or positions are involved, many countries have taken the position of not accepting the jurisdiction nor enforcing the rulings of related international litigation or arbitration,” he said.

He said the convention also allowed parties not to recognize the jurisdiction of any international justice or arbitration, a declaration Beijing had made in 2006.

He also questioned the basis of the Philippines’ case, saying Unclos “is not applicable to all maritime issues.” “[T]he disputes between China and the Philippines are principally territorial disputes over islands, which are not covered by the convention,” he said.

The Department of Foreign Affairs has yet to respond to China’s latest statements. ■

Philippine News

APRIL 11, 2014 FRIDAY 10

‘Wheels of justice moving forward’ First time senators indicted for plunder

BY CYNTHIA D. BALANA Philippine Daily Inquirer THE WHEELS of justice are moving forward.

Eight months after the alleged P10-billion pork barrel scam broke out, sparking outrage that led to a Million People March and a Supreme Court ruling declaring that the practice was unconstitutional, the Office of the Ombudsman (OMB) came out with its ruling.

An OMB special panel said yesterday there was enough basis to hold Senators Juan Ponce Enrile, Ramon Revilla Jr. and Jinggoy Estrada, businesswoman Janet Lim-Napoles and several others criminally liable for plunder and graft in connection with the alleged illegal disbursements of the Priority Development Assistance Fund (PDAF).

The ruling marks the first time senators are indicted for plunder.

Enrile faces 15 counts of graft, Revilla 16 and Estrada 11.

“The people in the controversy are among the powerful who think they could still bank on the public forgetting the issue once its in the courts, but that’s not the case anymore,” according to Peachy Bretana, one of the organizers of a massive march against the pork barrel last year.

‘They can’t do it again’

“It’s the only way they would know that they can’t do that to us again, we won’t just be sitting pretty. Those days are over,” Bretana said in a phone interview.

Plunder is punishable by reclusion perpetua or life, and forfeiture of the ill-gotten wealth in favor of the government. It is a nonbailable offense.

Ombudsman Conchita Carpio Morales approved the recommendations of the panel, which found probable cause in three joint resolutions to indict them for violations of Republic Act No. 7080 (plunder) and Section 3 (e) of Republic Act No. 3019, otherwise known as the AntiGraft and Corrupt Practices Act. The OMB said the respondents have five days to appeal the decision. It said the resolu-

tions on the cases were sent to the respondents yesterday and that cases will be filed in the Sandiganbayan once a ruling is handed down on their motion for reconsideration, if they file one.

“The wheels of justice are moving forward,” said Communications Secretary Herminio Coloma. “We share our people’s fervent hopes on the final resolution of these cases.”

The 144-page resolution on the cases involving Enrile also held liable his resigned chief of staff Jessica Lucila “Gigi” Reyes, Ruby Tuason, Napoles, her nephew Ronald John Lim and her driver John Raymond de Asis for plunder, in addition to 15 counts of graft along with several other respondents.

The 140-page resolution on the cases involving Revilla found his aide Richard Cambe, Napoles, Ronald John Lim and De Asis liable for plunder plus several others equally liable for 16 counts of graft.

The 120-page resolution on the cases involving Estrada found probable cause to also indict his aide Pauline Labayen, Napoles, Tuason and De Asis for plunder, and several others for 11 counts of graft.

The OMB, however, dismissed the criminal charges against Mark Oliveros, Editha Talaboc, Delfin Agcaoili Jr., Daniel Balanoba, Lucila LawasYutok, Antonio Santos, Lucita Solomon, Susan Victorino, Shyr Ann Montuya in the Enrile cases, and Mylene Encarnacion in the Revilla and Estrada cases, for insufficiency of evidence.

On the charges for plunder,

the OMB concluded that the three senators took undue advantage of their position to illegally divert their PDAF allocations to the Napoles nongovernment organizations (NGOs), in exchange for kickbacks amounting to more than P172 million for Enrile, P242 million for Revilla and P183 million for Estrada “under amodus operandi of a combination and series of overt criminal acts repeatedly taking place over a number of years.”

Ghost projects

It said the supposed PDAF funded projects turned out to be “ghost” projects.

The cases stemmed from several complaints filed by the National Bureau of Investigation through lawyer Levito Baligod on Sept. 16, 2013, and by the OMB Field Investigation on Nov. 18, 2013, based on the exposé of whistleblower Benhur Luy that the INQUIRER published in a series of articles in July last year. Luy gave evidence of huge amounts of the PDAF allocations going to alleged “dummy” NGOs in a scheme supposedly hatched by Napoles.

The OMB panel cited the sworn statements of Luy and former Napoles employees Marina Sula and Merlina Suñas, the 2007-2009 Commission on Audit special review of PDAF disbursements, and sworn statements of local government officials and the purported beneficiaries.

The panel said pieces of evidence either remained uncontroverted by mere denials or www.canadianinquirer.net

dovetailed with the affidavits of some respondents.

The resolutions accused the respondents of receiving kickbacks or portions of the diverted amount, and of being manifestly partial in the selection of the Napoles NGOs and the conduit implementing agencies (IAs). Such a scheme, the OMB said, resulted in unwarranted benefit to the Napoles NGOs which were chosen without public bidding.

The OMB explained that the number of counts (showing commonality of criminal design per set of conspirators) was determined from the common paper trail arising from either each special allotment release order (Saro) or every IA/NGO tandem, if one Saro was split and coursed through different IAs and NGOs, regardless of the number of projects. It said each of the senators repeatedly received sums of money from Napoles for endorsing her NGOs to implement the PDAF projects.

The OMB also gave a picture of how the scam was supposedly perpetrated: The senator or his authorized representative would agree to transact his PDAF with Napoles who, in the case of Enrile and Estrada, acted through Tuason. Once a PDAF allocation become available to the senator, his staff would inform Napoles or her staff directly (or indirectly through Tuason).

Napoles or Luy would then prepare a listing of the available projects and the corresponding indication of the specific implementing agencies.

According to the OMB, this “listing” came with a letter from the legislator adopting the program, a list of implementing agencies, and the amount of PDAF to guide the Department of Budget and Management (DBM) in the preparation and release of the corresponding Saro.

“Significantly, money was paid and delivered to the senator even before the Saro and/or NCA (notice of cash allocation) is released. Napoles would advance the down payment from her own pockets upon themere release by the Senator’s office of the listing of projects to the DBM, with the remainder of the amount payable after the Saro is released by the DBM and a copy of the Saro forwarded to Napoles,” the OMB said.

After the DBM issued the Saro, the Senator, through his staff, would then write another letter addressed to the implementing agencies. Upon receipt of the Saro, Napoles would direct her staff including witnesses Luy, Sula and Suñas to prepare the PDAF documents, including project proposals by the NGO and endorsement letters, for the signature of the legislator and/or his staff, which reflected the preferred NGO to implement the undertaking.

Along with the earlier PDAF documents, the endorsement letter of the senator was transmitted to the IA which, in turn, directed the preferred Napoles NGO to execute the project.

OMB spokesperson Rawny Lopez said the resolutions covering members of the House of Representatives, who were also accused of receiving kickbacks from their PDAF, would be released separately.

Assistant Ombudsman Asryman Rafanan was asked about the case involving Tuason, who had admitted she received commissions from the illegal transactions, offered to return the money and had applied to become a state witness. “Her liability in the crime had to be resolved first before a decision of her application as state witness,” Rafanan explained. ■ With reports from Leila B. Salaverria, Christian V. Esguerra and Nancy C. Carvajal

Philippine News

11 FRIDAY APRIL 11, 2014

Philippines files child abuse, trafficking complaints against vacationing Italian diplomat

BY TERESA CEROJANO The Associated Press MANILA, PHILIPPINES— Philippine police said Monday they have detained a vacationing Italian diplomat and filed complaints of human trafficking and child abuse after he was allegedly found in the company of three underage boys at a resort.

The Italian foreign ministry identified the diplomat as Daniele Bosio, Italy’s ambassador to

Turkmenistan, and said he had been suspended from his duties after Philippines authorities upheld his detention. It gave no further comment.

Philippines police Senior Superintendent Romulo Sapitula said members of the child rights group Bahay Tuluyan who were on an outing in the same resort in Laguna province, south of Manila, became suspicious and alerted authorities.

Catherine Scerri of Bahay Tuluyan said she and her col-

leagues saw the foreigner at the resort with three children aged 9 to 12 who were clearly not related to him.

Sapitula, the provincial police chief, said an investigation showed that the diplomat took the children to his accommodation in Manila and then to the resort.

According to the police statement, the diplomat told investigators during questioning that the boys “were street children that I had brought from Manila” and that they had informed their

parents about the trip.

The statement said that the boys told police that the diplomat brought them to his house where he “personally bathed and scrubbed their naked bodies and afterwards gave them money and food.”

The complaints were filed before a prosecutor, who will determine if there is enough evidence for formal charges to be brought against the diplomat.

The Philippine anti-trafficking law sets a penalty of life im-

prisonment and a fine of at least 2 million pesos ($44,500) if the victim is a child.

Child abuse carries a prison term of up to 40 years.

A police press statement said the Italian ambassador to the Philippines, Massimo Roscigno, visited the police station in Binan, Laguna, to ensure that legal assistance was provided to the diplomat. ■ Frances D’Emilio contributed to this report from Rome.

3 indicted solons in pork scam also urged to quit

BY NORMAN BORDADORA AND LEILA B. SALAVERRIA Philippine Daily Inquirer IT IS high time for Senators Juan Ponce Enrile, Jinggoy Estrada and Ramon Revilla Jr. to resign and authorities should put them in a regular jail instead of keeping them under house arrest or in air-conditioned palaces.

Sen. Miriam Defensor-Santiago and organizers of the Million People March yesterday outlined moves that should be taken against the senators following Tuesday’s announcement by the Office of the Ombudsman that there was sufficient evidence to charge the three for plunder in connection with the P10-billion pork barrel racket.

Santiago said the three senators should be suspended and go straight to jail for the nonbailable crime of plunder.

“That’s automatic under the law. Once the Ombudsman files a case in court, which should be the Sandiganbayan in this case, automatically, instantaneously, the public official is suspended from public office,” Santiago said.

“In the face of overwhelming evidence, we are making an immediate call for the resignation of Senators Enrile, Estrada and Revilla. This, too, is overdue.

In other countries a mere hint of wrongdoing is enough for public officials to resign their posts,” said the Scrap Pork Network, a group of netizens

Santiago said the three senators should be suspended and go straight to jail for the nonbailable crime of plunder.

PHOTO FROM NEWSINFO.INQUIRER.NET

behind the massive protest at Rizal Park in August last year.

“The current administration’s daang matuwid philosophy continues to be ignored by corrupt officials who steal budgets for food security or who chip away at monies intended for public infrastructure, defense systems, healthcare, education and social services,” it said.

The kickbacks that Enrile, Estrada and Revilla allegedly received were “but the tip of the iceberg of fund scams,” the network said, adding it was looking forward to more indictments of lawmakers who allegedly diverted their Priority Development Assistance Fund (PDAF) to ghost projects and kickbacks.

“Seven months after our protest in Luneta, we believe that a full accounting by, and prosecution of all involved, are overdue,” it said.

Enrile, Estrada and Revilla have denied wrongdoing. Es-

trada said he would not preempt a suspension order by going on leave. “I didn’t commit anything wrong,” he said. Also charged with plunder were Janet Lim-Napoles, the detained businesswoman who allegedly engineered the scam, and six other individuals.

‘2-tiered’ justice

Santiago told reporters on Wednesday that the three senators should be treated according to law.

“Once the Ombudsman files the case in court, it should be automatic. The Sandiganbayan will now issue an order suspending these senators from office and they should be held in detention cells,” she said.

“They should not be detained in air-conditioned palaces or be placed under house arrest because the people will see that there’s a difference in treatment when one is poor and www.canadianinquirer.net

when one is powerful.”

Putting the three senators, including the 90-year-old former Senate President Enrile in a regular jail, will prevent the perception that justice is “twotiered” in this country, said Santiago.

Santiago expressed doubt that the three would be allowed to post bail by the Sandiganbayan once the charges against them reach the antigraft court.

“It’s like insulting the Ombudsman because the Ombudsman has already said that we are filing the case because we have found probable cause. We have evidence that is strong,” Santiago said. “Now, if the court allows them to post bail, it’s like saying that the evidence of the Ombudsman was weak. That will become a dilemma if the Sandiganbayan does that kind of thing.”

Santiago, who has a running feud with Enrile, said Tuesday

was “a very happy day” after Sen. Teofisto Guingona III released the Senate blue ribbon committee draft report that found merit in the evidence against the three senators and after the Ombudsman found probable cause to charge her foe and his co-respondents.

“This is the very first time in our history that a Senate President has been indicted,” Santiago said, referring to Enrile, who presided over the impeachment trial of Chief Justice Renato Corona, who was convicted of dishonesty in his statement of assets, liabilities and net worth in May 2013.

“That is an indictment not only of the Senate President involved but also of the entire Senate. What kind of Senate will elect a Senate President a man who ultimately turns out to be one of the biggest thieves in the country,” she said.

Probe other senators

Santiago said several other senators linked to the PDAF scam should also be investigated and prosecuted.

“Let’s look through the affidavits of the whistle-blowers and see who else were named there. They were named cursorily in the past media coverage,” she said.

“Now that we have in the process resolved the initial hurdles, we should go to the next ranking senators. So it’s possible that maybe the Senate may be diminished by maybe you know six, seven senators,” she said.

She did not identify them. ■

Philippine News

APRIL 11, 2014 FRIDAY 12

Delfin Lee ‘to tell all’ at Senate hearing

BY GIL CABACUNGAN Philippine Daily Inquirer REAL ESTATE developer Delfin Lee will attend a Senate committee hearing this week and answer all questions regarding the allegations that he, in connivance with housing officials, had defrauded the Pag-Ibig Fund (Home Mutual Development Fund) of P6.6 billion using hundreds of ghost buyers of his company Globe Asiatique’s flagship project in Pampanga, according to his lawyer.

Lawyer Willie Rivera also claimed that Lee had been framed and singled out by state housing authorities for being on the wrong side of the political fence. The realtor, he said, has links to Interior Secretary Mar Roxas, a bitter rival of Vice President Jejomar Binay who is chair of the Housing and Urban Development Coordinating Council (HUDCC) which controls the Pag-Ibig Fund.

“Korina (Sanchez) is a close friend of Lee’s daughter, Divine, and that is a fact,” said Rivera. Divine Lee was one of the bridesmaids in the October 2009 wedding of Sanchez, a news anchor, to Roxas, then a presidential candidate. Roxas gave way to Sen. Benigno Aquino III and ran for vice president instead but lost to Binay.

“In the interest of justice and

fair play, I humbly submit myself to the Senate investigation to finally reveal in public the real and truthful circumstances surrounding the cases and continuing allegations against my integrity and business conduct,” said Lee in a statement released by his lawyer.

The Senate committee on urban planning, housing and resettlement chaired by Sen. JV Ejercito is scheduled to hold its first hearing on the alleged PagIbig scam this week.

In his statement, Lee said he would use the hearing not as a venue for his defense but “to shed light on the truth” and “edify” the lawmakers on loopholes in the system.

“Lee will never invoke his constitutional right against self-incrimination in the Senate hearing because he has nothing to hide, provided the questions are relevant and material to the issues at hand,” said Rivera.

Lee has maintained that “the alleged manipulations and collusions that have placed (our) home buyers at a disadvantage were completely ill-conceived and misleading.”

Rivera said that while Lee availed of P6.6 billion in financing from Pag-Ibig in 2009, there were 204 other real estate developers accredited by HMDF— like Ayala Land, Vista Land and the Moldex Group—that availed themselves of bigger loans un-

Lawyer Willie Rivera also claimed that Lee (in photo) had been framed and singled out by state housing authorities for being on the wrong side of the political fence.

PHOTO FROM INTERAKSYON.COM

der the same express funding window developed by then PagIbig president and now Marikina Rep. Romero Quimbo.

Rivera said Quimbo imposed more stringent requirements on Globe Asiatique when it availed of the P6.6 billion for the Pampanga projects.

But why has Quimbo remained silent on his legacy project? “He’s probably scared of being dragged into the controversy. Who knows what kind of story they’d concoct to destroy him just like what they did to us,” said Rivera. Quimbo was appointed by then President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo as Pag-Ibig head from February 2003 to March 2009. He

has since become a Liberal Partymember and was given the coveted post of ways and means committee by the ruling House majority bloc.

Globe Asiatique’s rapid growth came to a halt after the 2010 elections, when a new management took over PagIbig Fund and refused to honor the contracts signed by the previous administration, Rivera said.

“They talked about mismanagement where there was none.

This blunder is apparently the result of the hidden agenda of the officers of HDMF in running after Delfin Lee and Globe Asiatique. If HDMF only followed religiously and in good

faith the contracts that it prepared, and which were later on signed by Globe Asiatique—the same contracts signed by 205 real estate developers accredited by HDMF—none of these issues would have cropped up,” said Rivera.

Pag-Ibig president Darlene Berberabe denied targeting Lee for political gain as she noted that Globe Asiatique was first investigated in mid-2010, or “way before any talk of politics in 2016.”

She said Pag-Ibig, the DOJ and COA all evaluated independently the evidence on hand, which pointed to same conclusion of fraud by Lee and his cohorts. She said that even the RTC judge and Supreme Court had issued a TRO on all the cases that Lee had temporarily won in the Court of Appeals.

“With so many eyes, ears and brains pointing to the same conclusion, I do not see how they can claim there is no basis,” said Berberabe.

Rivera argued that if Pag-Ibig canceled the contracts of the other 204 real estate developers “you will see that the same controversies of double sale, fictitious buyers and damage to HDMF will crop up and these legitimate businessmen will also be destroyed and will be subjected to the same inconvenience and oppression that Lee and Globe Asiatique are suffering now.” ■

Marcoses oppose forfeiture of seized Malacañang jewelry

BY CYNTHIA D. BALANA Philippine Daily Inquirer THE WIFE and daughter of the late dictator Ferdinand Marcos are opposing the forfeiture in favor of the state of a collection of around 300 pieces of jewelry that had been left behind in Malacañang when the Marcoses fled during the 1986 People Power Revolution.

In a motion filed in a special division of the Sandiganbayan, Imelda Marcos, the dictator’s widow, and daughter Irene Marcos-Araneta asked the antigraft court to reverse its Jan. 13, 2013, resolution ordering the forfeiture of the collection.

They said the forfeiture order

was not justified and proper under Republic Act No. 1379—an act declaring forfeiture in favor of the state of any property found to have been unlawfully acquired by any public officer or employee—because they had not been given enough time to challenge it.

The forfeiture would be tantamount to depriving them of their property without due process of law, they said. They also asked the court to dismiss the government’s motion for summary judgment in the civil case, insisting that the court had no jurisdiction over the case as it had long been terminated and executed.

The jewelry collection, called the Malacañang collection, is part of a bigger Marcos hoard,

which includes tiaras, necklaces, brooches, earrings and belts studded with diamonds and other gems, that has been stored in the vaults of the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas since it was confiscated in 1986.

They are divided into three caches according to where they were found: the Malacañang collection of around 300 pieces that was left behind after the Marcoses fled the Palace; the Hawaii collection consisting of 400 pieces, which was seized by the US Bureau of Customs upon the Marcoses’ arrival in Hawaii; and the Roumeliotes collection of 60 major pieces that Imelda’s Greek accomplice, Demetriou Roumeliotes, tried to spirit out of the country a few weeks after www.canadianinquirer.net

the ouster of the dictator.

Only the Malacañang collection has been declared forfeited by the court. No judgment has yet been handed down on the two other collections.

The Roumeliotes collection has by far the most valuable pieces, according to the Presidential Commission on Good Government.

A 1991 assessment placed the value of the Malacañang collection between $110,055 and $153,089, making it the smallest and least valuable of the three collections.

By comparison, the Roumeliotes collection is composed of 60 pieces of more extravagant jewelry and loose gemstones seized from Roumeliotes on-

March 1, 1986, at then Manila International Airport as he was about to fly abroad.

The Hawaii collection consists of trinkets and baubles found inserted among the Marcos family’s luggage when they landed at Honolulu International Airport on Feb. 25, 1986.

The heirs asked the court that they be given ample opportunity to prove that the jewelry may have been lawfully acquired through other means or acquired prior to the late dictator’s tenure.

Like the Marcos bank accounts in Switzerland, the heirs said the government had not presented any affidavits nor other evidence to prove that the collection was ill-gotten. ■

Philippine News

13 FRIDAY APRIL 11, 2014

SC ruling... taining to providing minors access to contraceptives without parental consent; penalizing healthcare providers for refusing or failing to disseminate information about RH programs and requiring parental consent from a minor in nonemergency situations; and penalizing public officers who refuse to support RH programs.

“The [high] court, after a scrutiny of the various arguments and contentions of the parties in the foregoing consolidated cases consisting of 14 petitions challenging its constitutionality and two interventions to uphold its constitutionality, unanimously held that Republic Act No. 10354 is not unconstitutional based on the grounds raised, except with respect to [eight] items,” Supreme Court spokesman Theodore Te said, reading a prepared statement.

Opponents have 15 days to ask the court to reconsider its ruling, Te said.

It was Associate Justice Jose Catral Mendoza who penned the opinion of the court on the petitions.

The ruling came more than a year after the suspension of the law’s implementation following petitions from Pro-Life Philippines Foundation Inc. and other Catholic Church groups to declare the law unconstitutional.

Catholic groups assailed RA 10354, signed by President Aquino in December 2012, because it would allow the state to use public funds to educate the youth on RH matters and provide couples with contraceptives.

Catholic leaders considered the law an attack on the Church’s core values and said it would promote promiscuity and destroy life. The government said it would help the poor manage the number of children they have and provide for maternal healthcare.

Aquino had certified the legislation as urgent, aiming to reduce maternal deaths and promote family planning in the impoverished country that has one of Asia’s fastest-growing populations. ❰❰ 1

Napoles, who has been detained for the serious illegal detention charge filed by her cousin and former employee Benhur Luy, has been complaining of profuse menstrual bleeding and excruciating abdominal pain.

PHOTO FROM GLOBALBALITA.COM

Court allows Napoles to bring in own doctors

BY NIÑA P. CALLEJA Philippine Daily Inquirer THE MAKATI Regional Trial Court on Wednesday granted the request of Janet Lim Napoles, the alleged mastermind of the pork barrel scam, to allow the doctors of St. Luke’s Medical Center to perform surgery on her and attend to her medical needs at the Ospital ng Makati.

In a two-page order, Makati RTC Branch 150 Judge Elmo Alameda allowed Dr. Elsie Badillo-Pascua, Dr. Efren Domingo, Dr. Leo Aquilizan, Dr. Michael Lim-Villa, Dr. Nick Cruz and an unnamed anesthesiologist and pulmonologist from the St. Luke’s Medical Center to conduct the surgery on Napoles who is now confined at the city governmentrun Ospital ng Makati (OsMak) in Barangay Pembo in Makati City.

Judge Alameda issued its ruling immediately after the hearing on the earlier motion filed

by Napoles’ camp on Tuesday.

At the hearing, Dr. Perry Ishmael Peralta, medical director of OsMak, signified the willingness and readiness of the hospital management to grant Napoles’ request.

Peralta also noted that allowing doctors from St. Lukes to perform the surgery on Napoles would not violate any existing rules and regulations of OsMak. “Be that as it may … the court will not hesitate to give its imprimatur to this medical undertaking for humanitarian con-

siderations,” Alameda said in the order.

Napoles who has been detained for the serious illegal detention charge filed by her cousin and former employee Benhur Luy, has been complaining of profuse menstrual bleeding and excruciating abdominal pain.

Doctors from Camp Crame Hospital where Napoles underwent tests found a cyst in her uterus.

Judge Alameda said that when it allowed Napoles to undergo surgical operation and confinement at the Ospital ng Makati, the court assumed that medical personnel of OsMak’s Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology would attend to her needs and operation.

The court also noted that OsMak had set some rules on the St. Luke’s Medical doctors.

Peralta said the St. Luke’s doctors must follow the standard care of a patient and the rules, regulations and policies of OsMak. “Otherwise, the privilege accorded to them will be revoked,” Peralta was quoted in the ruling.

Judge Alameda stressed that the period of confinement of Napoles at OsMak must cover only the “pre-operative, intraoperative, and post operative procedures.”

To deter any prolonged confinement, the attending physician of Napoles and Dr. Peralta were ordered to submit a progress report on Napoles’ medical condition immediately after the operation. ■

Double negative

The UN Population Fund counts 3.4 million pregnancies in the Philippines annually; half are unintended and a third are aborted, often in clandestine and unsafe procedures. www.canadianinquirer.net

The fund says 11 women in the country die of pregnancy-related causes every day.

A briefer from Te included a footnote explaining the use of “not unconstitutional” in the high court’s decision. It said the double negative was used because “all laws are presumed to be constitutional and the burden of showing that a law is unconstitutional is on the petitioner.”

“Failing that burden, the declaration is in the double negative—not unconstitutional,” the briefer said.

“To assert that it is unconstitutional would presume that the law operates on a starting point of unconstitutionality, which is not the situation,” it added.

Partially granted

Te did not release a copy of the decision but during the briefing, he read its dispositive portion, saying that the petitions were “partially granted.”

Asked whether the ruling meant that the high court had lifted the status quo ante order it issued on RA 10354 that suspended the law’s implementation, Te told the media to just wait for the release of the text of the decision.

The eight provisions (and the provision in the RH implementing rules and regulations) that were declared unconstitutional by the high court were the following: • Section 7, which (a) requires private health facilities and nonmaternity specialty hospital and hospitals owned and operated by a religious group to refer patients, not in an emergency or life-threatening case, as defined under Republic Act No. 8344, to another health facility which is conveniently accessible and (b) allows minor-parents or minors who have suffered a miscarriage access to modern methods of family planning without written consent from their parents or guardian; (RA 8344, otherwise known as the no-deposit law, prohibits the “no deposit, no admittance” rule in emergency or serious cases); • Section 23 (a) (1) as it punishes any healthcare provider who fails or refuses to disseminate information regarding programs and services on reproductive health regardless of his or her religious beliefs; • Section 23 (a) (2) (i) as it al-

lows a married individual, not in an emergency or lifethreatening case, as defined under RA 8344, to undergo RH procedures without the consent of the spouse; • Section 23 (a) (3) as it punishes any healthcare provider who fails and/or refuses to refer a patient not in an emergency or life-threatening case, as defined under RA 8344, to another healthcare service provider within the same facility or one which is conveniently accessible regardless of his or her religious beliefs; • Section 23 (b) as it punishes any public officer who refuses to support RH programs or shall do any act that hinders the full implementation of an RH program, regardless of his or her religious beliefs; • Section 17 which renders pro bono RH services, insofar as they affect the conscientious objector in securing PhilHealth accreditation; • Section 3.01 (a) and ( j) as it uses the qualifier “primarily” for contravening Section 4 (a) of the RH law and violating Section 12, Article II of the Constitution; and • Section 23 (a) (2) (ii) as it penalizes a health service provider who will require parental consent from the minor in nonemergency situations.

Separate votes

Te told reporters that justices held separate votes on the eight provisions.

For Section 7 (a) and (b), the voting was 11-4 each, with Chief Justice Ma. Lourdes Sereno, Associate Justices Bienvenido Reyes, Estela Perlas-Bernabe, and Marvic Leonen voting for these subprovisions as not unconstitutional.

For Section 23 (a) (1), the vote was 10-5; Section 5.24, 123; Section 23 (a)(2) (i), 11-4, and Section 23 (a) (3), 11-4.

For Section 23 (b), 10-5; Section 17, 11-4; Section 3.01 (a) and (j), 141, and Section 23 (a) (2) (ii), 11-4.

Nine justices led by Sereno submitted separate concurring and dissenting opinions.

The other eight were Senior Associate Justice Antonio Carpio, Associate Justices Teresita Leonardo-De Castro, Arturo Brion, Mariano del Castillo, Roberto Abad, Reyes, Bernabe and Leonen. ■ With a report from AP

Philippine News

APRIL 11, 2014 FRIDAY 14

AMLC to freeze assets of Enrile, Estrada, Revilla

BY NANCY C. CARVAJAL Philippine Daily Inquirer THE ANTI-MONEY Laundering Council (AMLC) has started moves to freeze the assets and bank accounts of the lawmakers implicated in the pork barrel scam and recommended for prosecution for plunder by the Ombudsman, Justice Secretary Leila de Lima said yesterday.

“I am not at liberty to be sharing the work of the AMLC, but suffice it to say that the AMLC has been working on this. It’s just that they started with those whose involvement was clear, based on the whistle-blowers’ affidavits,” she said.

De Lima was replying to reporters’ questions on whether the assets of the senators linked to the scam—Senators Juan Ponce Enrile, Jinggoy Estrada and Ramon Revilla Jr.—would also be frozen like those of alleged scam mastermind Janet Lim-Napoles.

Press reports yesterday said that a Manila court issued an asset preservation order on Thursday against the bank accounts, vehicles and real properties registered under the name of Napoles, her family and other people linked to the scam, including whistle-blower Benhur Luy. The court was acting on a petition for civil forefeiture of assets filed in February by the AMLC against Napoles et al.

It was not clear why the lawmakers were not included in the petition for forfeiture that the AMLC filed.

“As to whether AMLC is also going to apply for the freezing of deposits of the other players, of the other personalities being implicated, it’s for AMLC really to do it,” De Lima said.

Money belongs to gov’t

The justice secretary explained that asset recovery is “really a part of the integral process of exacting justice in anticorruption cases, particularly in plunder as it involves public funds.”

“In seeking justice there are five areas of coordination— preliminary investigation, prosecution, trial and recovery of assets,” she said.

In a plunder case like this, she said, the theory is the money belongs to the government coffers, “it should be recovered.”

Other solons in next batch

De Lima also said that “new names,” meaning lawmakers who have not been named before, are in the next batch of pork scam cases to be filed with the Office of the Ombudsman by the National Bureau of Investigation.

She did not give any names, nor did she give a time frame for when the new batch of cases will be filed.

But she confirmed that they still involved the bogus nongovernment organizations controlled by Napoles.

De Lima said that her department has conducted an inventory of complaints filed and is looking at two sets of cases, those involving the Napoles NGOs and the non-Napoles NGOs. Intent but no action

The Cebu Coalition Against the Pork Barrel System has asked Enrile, Revilla and Estrada to resign from office after the Ombudsman found probable cause to charge them with plunder.

“All public officials being tried should resign from office, not necessarily as an admission of guilt but so that the truth be known without undue influence,” said a statement from the civil society group signed by its lead convenor, Msgr. Romualdo Kintanar.

“At no other time in Philippine history has the reputation of the Senate been as damaged as it is now. The legislative branch has been subject to so much distrust from the citizenry,” it said.

The coalition said it was time to make an example of the power of the law, and regain the respect the legislature once had.

However, the antipork coalition noted that no concrete action has been taken yet on the scam.

“The Ombudsman has released news that it intends to file plunder and malversation charges against some senators and other respondents, while the Senate blue ribbon committee has only released its draft report recommending the same,” it said.

“Intent simply precedes ac-

tion. It is not yet action itself,” it added.

Senate ethics

At the Senate, Sen. Aquilino Pimentel III said the chamber should convene the ethics committee so it could carry out its role of hearing complaints against senators, though not yet against those linked to the pork barrel scam.

Pimentel said it would be prudent for the ethics committee chair to await the ruling of the courts on the plunder and graft case against Enrile, Estrada and Revilla before hearing any complaints against them.

“If the evidence that will be used by the committee will be the same evidence to be used in the litigation, it’s better for the committee to await the results of the litigation. Because what if they are acquitted?” he said.

This would be akin to a criminal court awaiting the resolution of a civil case before trying the same case, said the senator, who is a lawyer.

“You want to discipline senators based on an alleged criminal act and yet the criminal act has not been established—why should we now discipline the senators?” he said.

But he reiterated that the ethics committee should be constituted now so it could do its work.

No takers

Sen. Teofisto Guingona III, chair of the blue ribbon committee that conducted an inquiry into the pork barrel scam, earlier proposed that the ethics committee be convened to investigate the three senators.

“To restore the integrity of the Senate and the trust and confidence of the public, an institutional purging is needed once and for all,” he said.

Almost a year after the 16th Congress opened, the Senate has yet to convene the ethics committee. So far, there have been no takers of the committee chairmanship, presumably because of the extreme sensitivity of its work.

The chair and members of the committee are elected on the floor, and the Senate won’t be resuming sessions until May 5. ■ www.canadianinquirer.net

NLEX before the Holy Week exodus.

PHOTO FROM WIKIPEDIA.ORG

NLEX, SCTex, Cavitex security tightened for Holy Week exodus

BY MIGUEL R. CAMUS Philippine Daily Inquirer MANILA, PHILIPPINES—The toll-road arm of the Metro Pacific Investments Corp. is preparing contingency measures ahead of the expected surge in vehicle traffic in Metro Manila during the Holy Week.

The company operates the 90-kilometer North Luzon Expressway and, on a temporary basis, the 94-kilometer Subic Clark Tarlac Expressway, where vehicular traffic could swell by as much as 30 percent, Metro Pacific Tollways Corp. president Ramoncito Fernandez told reporters on Monday.

The group also operated the 14-kilometer Manila-Cavite Expressway, serving southern Metro Manila, although traffic here may remain flat or even decline during the Holy Week, he said.

NLEX serves an average of 170,000 vehicles per day while SCTEX services about 24,000.

Traffic was expected to start building up by April 16 (Holy Wednesday), when Metro Manila residents leave the capital to spend the holidays in their hometowns. Cavitex serves a little over 100,000 vehicles per day.

“Practically the same number of vehicles is expected to pass through NLEX, SLEX and the Cavitex for their return journey starting the afternoon of Black Saturday (April 19) until the late evening of Easter Sunday,” Metro Pacific said.

The Metro Pacific group would thus increase the deployment of personnel at major toll plazas, specifically Balintawak, Bocaue, Mindanao Avenue, Dau and Mabalacat for NLEX. At SCTEX, manual lanes would be set up at the Tarlac and Tipo exits.

Cavitex management was likewise beefing up its personnel to complement existing crew of traffic patrol officers, patrol officers, toll tellers and collectors and security guards.

Additional lanes will also be made available to speed up the passage of vehicles at toll gates during peak hours. Road maintenance activities would be deferred during this time, to avoid worsening traffic conditions, and would resume on April 22, Metro Pacific said. The aforementioned measures are part of its so-called Safe Trip Mo Sagot Ko program.

“The move has become a traditional exercise for the three expressways to ease traffic flow and make it more convenient for motorists as they turn up in droves for the traditional observance of the Holy Week in the provinces,” Metro Pacific said.

In addition, Metro Pacific said motorists would also be given free wifi and phone calls at selected toll service facilities.

Metro Pacific Investments, a unit of Manuel V. Pangilinanled First Pacific Co. Ltd. of Hong Kong, is a major operator of tollroad in the country along with rival San Miguel Corp. and Indonesia’s Citra Group. ■

Philippine News

15 FRIDAY APRIL 11, 2014

House seeks...

During that meeting, which Vitangcol did not attend, Husek claimed that De Vera “suggested that we (Inekon) would be selected as supplier of the tram vehicles and related services, provided that we paid to an unknown entity a certain amount of money. ... and indicated such payment should amount to $30 million.”

Husek said he was “shocked” by De Vera’s demand because “we did not expect this way of doing business.”

Rychtar said Inekon rejected the demand because “the requested additional and nonstandard payment would cause the price to rise significantly.”

“Mr. Wilson de Vera left several times the premises of the residence to consult someone by mobile phone. When he finally returned to the residence, he told us that according to Mr. Vitangcol the contract price for one tram vehicle was not to exceed $3 million, as that is a fixed ceiling price set forth in a MRT consultancy expert report. He then told us that the sum of $2.5million instead of $30 million indicated originally would be sufficient,” Husek said.

“We refused that proposal and intended to leave the residence. Before we did so, Mr. Wilson de Vera encouraged us to think about his suggestion,” he said.

The following day, Husek’s group went ❰❰ 4

to the office of Vitangcol who not only followed up on De Vera’s proposal but also offered a 60-40 joint venture between Inekon and “people suggested by Mr. Vitangcol” who would assume the maintenance contract of MRT. “We refused both offers. This made Mr. Vitangcol apparently upset and in few minutes we left his office without any follow-up on the negotiations,” Husek said.

A few hours later, Husek said Rychtar received a text message from Maralit stating that “Vitangcol and De Vera were furious, because we refused to accept their suggestions ... and MRT would never do any business with Inekon Group in the future.”

Rychtar said he tried to forget the “incident” as unimportant because “people sometimes try to get advantage when they know or pretend to know higher officials and they attempt to convert the situation to their profit.”

In October 2012, Rychtar said MRT’s maintenance contract with Sumitomo expired andwas transferred to CB & T and PH Trams, which he claimed included a Maralit, a certain “Boyet Bacar” and “Mr. P. Rodriguez” who told him that the joint venture was “backed by the highest DOTC officials and some politicians.”

In March 2013, the DOTC bid out

a contract to purchase 48 new MRT coaches (this was eventually won by China’s CNR Dalian Locomotive & Rolling Stock). Rychtar said Inekon officials went to the bidding but did not participate because the terms were not objective and the price and terms of delivery were unrealistic.

Later, Rychtar said he received two sets of “white papers” that described in “precise terms a fraud organized for the new coaches bidding by persons from the private sector as well as from the state institutions” and the “technical parameters of the scam inside the Terms of Reference of the Bidding.”

“All of the above-described facts led me to the decision that there was already sufficient evidence confirming that bidding process and all other activities related to the deals with DOTC/ MRT are manipulated and faked in the disadvantage of the Czech company,” said Rychtar, who poured out his grievances to Transportation Secretary Joseph Abaya in a twohour meeting in April last year.

Rychtar had a second meeting with Abaya in July last year for a discussion of allegations in newspaper reports (not in the INQUIRER) that presidential sister Maria Elena “Ballsy” Aquino-Cruz and her husband, businessman Eldon Cruz,

Corona charged with perjury at Sandiganbayan

BY CYNTHIA D. BALANA Philippine Daily Inquirer FORMER CHIEF Justice Renato Corona was formally charged yesterday with eight counts of perjury and another eight counts of violations of the Code of Conduct and Ethical Standards for Public Officials and Employees for his alleged undeclared assets before the Sandiganbayan.

This after the Office of the Ombudsman recently denied his motion for reconsideration in the forfeiture case.

The Ombudsman indicted Corona for allegedly deliberately lying on his true net worth by not declaring properties and several bank accounts as well as undervaluing a number of real estate properties that he declared.

In indicting Corona, the Ombudsman cited the discrepancies in his statement of assets, liabilities and net worth (SALN) from 2004 to 2011.

As a public official, he is required by law to make a full disclosure of his net worth in his yearly SALNs. During the investigation, the Ombudsman Special Panel of Investigators

was able to establish that from 2001 to 2011, the spouses Corona earned a total of P30.4 million, of which P27.1 million was earned by Corona as an official at the Office of the President, a Supreme Court justice, member of the Senate Electoral Tribunal (SET) and member of the House of Representatives Electoral Tribunal (HRET).

On the other hand, his wife Cristina earned P3.2 million for 2007-2010, based on the Alpha List submitted to the Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR) by the John Hay Development Corp. (JHDC) where she was employed.

The resolution stated that from 2002 to 2010, Corona’s cash deposits ballooned from P1.34 million to P137.9million.

By 2010, the cumulative discrepancy between his SALN declaration and his actual cash deposits had amounted to P134.4 million.

The resolution also cited records of the Land Registration Authority (LRA) on several properties owned by the Corona spouses in Quezon City, Makati City and Fort Bonifacio in Taguig City, which were found to be significantly undervalued by P17.3 million. ■ www.canadianinquirer.net

were involved in the extortion attempt.

(The couple were invited three years ago

by Rychtar in Prague to meet a group of Czech businessmen.)

In a separate paper submitted to the Department of Foreign Affairs, Rychtar denied that he or his embassy was the source of the malicious reports.

“I insist that the President’s family members are not involved and implicated; instead the responsibility lies with some government officials and private persons associated with them,” Rychtar said. He clarified that he did not implicate any DOTC undersecretary in the extortion attempt.

Rychtar wrote a letter to President Aquino “strongly denying” the allegation and insisted that the Cruz couple did no business with any Czech firm.

Rychtar also took note of the DOTC’s silence on the allegations hurled at the President’s sister.

“Until now (July 25, 2013) it was only the Czech ambassador who reacted quickly to clear the name of the members of the President’s family. Up to now, the officials of the DOTC, who knew the real story since three months ago, did not initiate any action to clear the names of the President’s family,” Rychtar said in a letter to the Department of Foreign Affairs. ■

Opinion

APRIL 11, 2014 FRIDAY 16

THERE’S THE RUB

Dealing with God

By Conrado De Quiros Philippine Daily Inquirer IT’S ASTONISHING how China, despite becoming the second most powerful nation in the world, continues to harbor a parochial outlook. It’s astonishing how China, despite heralding the wave of the future, at least compared to the United States which is in the throes of decline, remains trapped in the past. It’s astonishing how China, despite being in a position to become a shaper of the world, barely understands the world.

Nothing shows it more sharply than its response to our move to bring the case on the Ayungin Shoal before the United Nations Arbitral Tribunal at the Hague.

“The Philippines’ arbitration proceeding,” expostulated Chinese Embassy spokesperson Zhang Hua, “completely confuses right and wrong, distorts the fact and diverts attentions. The aim of its move is to cover up the illegal nature of the Philippines’ infringement and provocative behavior by the abuse of process against China, and to defraud the international community of its sympathy and support.

“The Philippines willfully initiated the arbitration… ignoring the fact that

the essence of the disputes… is Philippines’ illegal occupation of the islands and reefs of China’s Nansha Islands.

“China has never thought of taking Philippine territory. It is actually the Philippines that occupies China’s islands and reefs. Some people believe that these islands and reefs are closer to the Philippines, and therefore they belong to the Philippines. This has no basis in international law…. (The Philippines’) real motive (in seeking international arbitration) is to launch a media campaign to smear the Chinese side.”

You don’t quite know where to begin to comment on something as crudely disingenuous as this. We ourselves may have a parochial outlook, may be living in the past, and may not understand the world, or care to, but it is nothing compared to this.

China’s leaders seem to be inhabiting an entirely different planet. I don’t know who exactly Zhang imagines will buy his proposition, in whole or in part. Practically every portion of the quotations above defies reality as the world knows it.

To begin with, the Philippine decision to seek international arbitration on the Ayungin Shoal is merely meant to launch a smear campaign against China? Too late. You don’t have to do

anything right now to bring China lower in the world’s esteem than it already is. It has managed to piss off practically every one of its neighbors, with the exception of Cambodia. As I said last time, China seems to have forgotten Mao’s dictum to never create a host of enemies at the same time, only one by one. Over the last couple of years, it has made bitter enemies of the Philippines, Japan and Vietnam.

Not to speak of the other Asian countries which sympathize with us.

Where can you thresh out territorial disputes on a one-on-one basis with one side insisting that you must first admit that you are the landgrabber and go on from there?

And why shouldn’t they sympathize with us? It’s common sense. You work in an office and end up feuding with one of your coworkers, the fault could be his. You end up feuding a couple of coworkers, the fault could still be theirs. You end up feuding with three coworkers and disagreeing violently with everyone who sympathizes with them, you just suck.

China says it’s not in the business of bullying anyone, it attacks only

when attacked. And the Philippines has attacked it by laying claim to islands which patently belong to China. That argument should apply as well to Japan and Vietnam: China is not bullying them either, it is simply retaliating for their attack on China by their attempts to claim patently Chinese territories as their own.

Do the Chinese officials have any idea how ridiculous they sound?

Why should the Philippines want to spend time and money trying to ruin their good name, or claim to sanity?

They’re doing a pretty good job of it by themselves.

Just as well, China says it has never been averse to talk and negotiations, it’s even willing to take up the disputes within the Asean. So long as the talk is ultimately bilateral, so long as the negotiations are ultimately between China and the individual countries protesting its land-grabbing.

Again, you have to wonder what planet the Chinese officials are inhabiting. Where on earth (quite literally) can you dialogue with one side insisting that the basis of your dialogue should be that he is right and you are wrong, and you should accept his utterances as given truths?

Where can you thresh out territorial disputes on a one-on-one basis with

one side insisting that you must first admit that you are the land-grabber and go on from there? Where on earth, or heaven, can you talk with anyone who insists he is God? The last you see in that sweeping dismissal of the Philippines’ claim to the Ayungin on the ground of its proximity to it as having “no basis in international law.” At the very least, there’s the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (Unclos) to disprove it.

Unclos is fairly categorical about nations having sovereignty over land and sea 200 nautical miles from it.

At the very most—and here’s the part about playing God—isn’t that the very reason the Philippines is seeking international arbitration, so that it can bring international law precisely to bear on it? Isn’t that the reason the world, including China, should welcome the initiative, so the issue could be ruled upon once and for all by a council of peers? But, no, China says however the arbitration court rules, it will not accept it. Whatever the world court rules, it will reject it.

What is that saying but, “I don’t care what you believe in, but I am the international law”? What is that saying but, “I don’t care what you think, but they are not my peers”?

It’s impossible dealing with God. ■

ANALYSIS

PH braces for China dispute fallout

By Amando Doronila Philippine Daily Inquirer THE PHILIPPINES is bracing for a heavy fallout of retaliation from China after Manila filed last Sunday a case with the United Nations arbitration tribunal in The Hague, subjecting Beijing to international legal scrutiny over disputed waters in the South China Sea. The memorandum filed by the Department of Foreign Affairs sought UN arbitration of territorial claims made

by Manila over eight shoals and reefs that China has allegedly occupied.

The submission of the case triggered an instant storm of protest from Beijing, which accused Manila of deliberately provoking trouble in the South China Sea by delivering supplies to a Philippine Marines outpost on Ayungin Shoal (Second Thomas Shoal) last weekend, evading two Chinese Coast Guard ships trying to block a small Philippine boat carrying food, water and fresh troops to the outpost at the same time that it was seeking UN arbitration.

China appeared to have been particularly galled by the fact that its blockade was breached and the delivery allowed the Filipinos to maintain their outpost despite its superior forc-

es in the disputed waters. The breach of the blockade was a blow on the face of China. Its denunciation followed swiftly, ramping up the war of words between the two countries. The Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson, Hong Lei, said the Philippines, by carrying out the delivery of supplies with journalists on board the ship to record the scene at the same time that it was seeking arbitration, was deliberately trying to create tension.

“This shows that the reason the Philippines is pushing the international arbitration case is to conceal their plot to illegally occupy Chinese territory and create trouble in the South China Sea,” Hong told a news briefing. He said China would never allow the Philippines to claim Ayungin, which is called Ren’ai Reef by the Chinese. “The Philippine side will certainly face consequences for its provocative actions,” he warned without elaborating.

It appeared that China was particularly riled by the Philippine and international media’s coverage of the successful effort of the Philippines to resupply its outpost on a ship in Ayungin, and the inclusion of the shoal as part of its memorandum to the arbitration tribunal.

On Monday, President Aquino

responded to China’s accusations of the Philippines’ supposed “provocations.” He said the Philippines was not seeking confrontation. “We are not here to challenge China, to provoke them into any action, but I do believe that they should recognize we have the right to defend our interests,” he told reporters.

In submitting its memorial, or memorandum, to the UN tribunal,

With firm conviction, the ultimate purpose of the memorial is our national interest. It is about defending what is legitimately ours.”

- Foreign Secretary Albert del Rosario the Philippines calmly argued its case. In a news conference, Foreign Secretary Albert del Rosario said, “With firm conviction, the ultimate purpose of the memorial is our national interest. It is about defending what is legitimately ours. It is about securing our children’s future. It is about guaranteeing freedom of navigation for all nations. It is about helping to preserve regional peace, security, and stability. And finally, it is about seeking not just any kind of

www.canadianinquirer.net

resolution but a just and durable solution [based] on international law.”

The memorial consisted of 10 volumes of nearly 4,000 pages including 40 maps. It identified in its statement of claims the reefs and shoals illegally occupied by China: Ayungin Shoal, Mischief Reef, Mckennan Reef, Subi Reef, Gaven Reef, Scarborough Shoal, Johnson Reef, and Fiery Cross Reef.

Reuters reports that China summoned the Philippine ambassador on Monday to lodge a strong protest over Manila’s act of seeking international arbitration. Chinese Deputy Foreign Minister Liu Zhenmin told the Philippine ambassador that Beijing was “extremely dissatisfied and resolutely opposed” to the case Manila had filed, and reiterated that Beijing did not accept it and would not participate in it.

The United States, a treaty ally of the Philippines, said on Sunday that the right of any state to use dispute resolution mechanisms under the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea should be respected. On Monday, the US State Department accused China’s Coast Guard of “harassment” of Philippine vessels and called its attempt to block a Philippine resupply mission to Ayungin Shoal a “provocative and destabilizing action.”

US State Department spokesperson Marie Harf said the Philippines was permitted, under the Principles of the 2002 Declaration on the Conduct of Parties in the South China Sea, to maintain previously established outposts without interference.

“As a treaty ally of the Republic of the Philippines, the United States urges China to refrain from further provocative behavior by allowing the Philippines to continue to maintain its presence at Second Thomas Shoal,” Harf told a press briefing.

These developments come ahead of a visit this month by US President Barack Obama to Asia, including the Philippines. Obama is expected to offer reassurances to regional allies in the face of China’s increasingly assertive territorial claims.

The Philippine memorial to the UN arbitration tribunal is the first submission by a claimant-nation to challenge China’s so-called “ninedash line” claim encompassing nearly the entire South China Sea, including waters close to the shores of its neighbors. At the center of the dispute between the Philippines and China are the Spratly islands, a chain of up to 190 islands, reefs, outcrops and banks believed to be sitting on large deposits of oil and natural gas. ■

Opinion

17 FRIDAY APRIL 11, 2014

VIEWPOINT

Curator of grievances

By Juan L. Mercado Philippine Daily Inquirer HISTORIAN HORACIO de la Costa, SJ, once noted that, as a nation, we celebrate our defeats as victories. Tomorrow’s nationwide Araw ng Kagitingan rites underscore this insight.

Day of Valor pivots around a ceremony at Mount Samat in Bataan.

In 1942, 76,000 half-starved Filipino and American soldiers surrendered there—after delaying Japan’s thrust in Southeast Asia by three months.

“Bataan has fallen,” said a broadcast from Malinta Tunnel in beleaguered Corregidor. “Men are not made of impervious steel. The flesh must yield at last, endurance melts away, and the end of the battle must come…. But the spirit that made it stand cannot fall!”

Then Capt. Salvador P. Lopez wrote that text. “SP” later became foreign secretary, then, University of the Philippines president. Who remembers today?

An Inquirer feature queried a jeepney driver, a second year college engineering student and a stall vendor. They hemmed, then hawed, why April 9 is a national holiday.

“I am playing Dota with friends,” the student said. He knew little of history, let alone the “Death March.”

Why should he care?

“Isn’t Araw about easing traffic?” a jeepney driver wondered.

And Bataan drew a blank stare from the vendor.

Indeed, “the memories of men are too frail a thread to hang history from.” Eight out of 10 students barely recall Sen. Benigno Aquino Jr., or why he was gunned down, surveys show.

“We have little collective memory of the past,” former Ateneo University president Bienvenido Nebres, SJ, told a Legacies of the Marcos Dictatorship conference. “We tend to live in a perpetual present. Thus, we cannot see well into the future.”

The Death March saw prisoners of war (POWs) forced to trek 148 kilometers from Bataan to Tarlac. An estimated 2,500-10,000 Filipino and 100-650 American POWs did not make it. At the Libingan ng mga Bayani, the remains of 32,268 Death March veterans are interred.

Remember President Sergio Osmeña? One of his finest moments came during the government-in-Washington exile. The 1935 Constitution mandated that TB-wracked President Manuel Quezon’s term would lapse on Dec. 30, 1943. Quezon dug in. US President Franklin Roosevelt stayed aloof from a “local issue.” Ask US Congress to suspend succession, until after the invaders were ousted, Don Sergio

proposed. Congress agreed on Nov. 10.

Osmeña gave up much to ensure unity.

Then, there was Philippine Scout Sgt. Jose Calugas who also doubled as cook. On Jan. 6, 1942, enemy fire battered Filipino-American troops at the critical Layac junction in Bataan, says the sparse citation that came with the Medal of Honor. Calugas “ran 1,000 yards across a shell swept area,” manned a howitzer “by himself, and fired effectively.” Although his posi-

Araw ng Kagitingan rites matter. Because ‘we forget at the cost of betrayal.’ tion was under constant heavy enemy fire, his shelling shattered advancing armored vehicles. Calugas survived the Death March. Upon release from concentration camp, he joined the underground resistance.

Flying obsolete P-26 planes, pilots Jesus Villamor, Cesar Basa, Salvador Manlunas and three others, from the 6th Pursuit Squadron, challenged a flight of 54 Japanese bombers and Zeroes. The grit of these men is recalled today by the sprawling Villamor Air Base, with Manlunas Street running alongside. And Basa Air Base is in Floridablanca, Pampanga.

Then, there were the heels.

Makabayang Katipunan ng mga Pili-

pino (Makapili) was formed in November 1944 to aid the invaders. The Makapilis turned informers and torturers.

In October 1947, the Supreme Court found Makapili Julio Garcia guilty of treason and sentenced him to life. Amnesty later spared other collaborators.

Doing research at the US National Archives, in July 1985, University of South Wales Prof. Alfred McCoy “came across US Army records that discredited Ferdinand Marcos’ claims to heroism in World War II.” Thereafter, the records anchored a New York Times series, by Seymour Hersh, that debunked Marcos’ war medals.

Follow-up Times reports, by Jeff Gerth and Joel Brinkley, revealed US Army records stating: Services given

by Marcos and 23 others, to the 1st Cavalry Division in 1945, were “of limited military value…. At no time did the Army recognize that any unit, designating itself as Maharlika, ever existed as a guerrilla force in the years of Japanese occupation 1942 to 1945.”

“The immensity of Mr. Marcos’ claim that Maharlika served the entire Luzon was absurd,” reviewing officer Capt.

Elbert Curtis wrote. The United States shredded Marcos’ claims regarding Maharlika. President Aquino scuppered House Resolution 1135 which urged a Libingan burial for Marcos.

Across town, some of 9,541 Marcos victims received last month their second $1,000-check awarded by the US District Court of Hawaii which found Marcos “liable for systematic torture, summary executions and disappearances.” Walter Dacumos was one of those who got a check, writes Inquirer’s Ceres Doyo, also a victim. He recalled how then 2Lt. Panfilo Lacson stepped on his chest. “Inapakan ako sa dibdib (He stepped on my chest). I was given the water cure. I was in detention with Ricky Lee (who became a scriptwriter). He vomited blood and so did I.” And what will he do with his P50,000?

“I will buy myself a good bed,” he said softly without batting an eyelash.”

Araw ng Kagitingan rites matter.

Because “we forget at the cost of betrayal.” Amnesia over past crimes “reflects a weak sense of the nation and of the common good,” Sociologist John Carroll writes in “A Nation in Denial.” “Unless (the country reaffirms) those values, it may be condemned to forever wander in the valueless power plays among the elite.”

Who said “remembering with undiminished intensity over time does not make us curators of our ancestors’ grievances”?

It buttresses against corrosive national amnesia. ■

available only in a limited number of provinces, but already, it has been meeting a storm of criticism from local governments and even from PCSO agents engaged in another form of government-approved gambling—the Small Town Lottery or STL. Conceived to compete with the (still) popular jueteng, an illegal numbers game, the STL operates through a network of local provincial operators who in turn field their own armies of agents. Indeed, admits Juico, many of its STL operators are in fact former jueteng lords with their own ready-made networks of kubrador or collectors. The main difference, it seems, is that, unlike jueteng, STL operates aboveground, with the government taking its rightful share of income and taxes, and eradicating the need for under-the-table arrangements with local police and politicians.

“But many operators and even local governments refuse to allow the ‘BingoMilyonaryo’ into their areas,” observes Juico. In talks with STL operators, she says, she has pointed out the huge discrepancy in income between the STL and the “BingoMilyonaryo,” with “BM” taking in just P5.8 million last year while the STL earned P188.26 million in the same period.

It may still be very early days for the “BingoMilyonaryo,” but I’m guessing the STL operators are aware of how computerization could very easily—and quickly—gain acceptance among Filipinos. Not for nothing is the Philippines called the texting and social media capital of the world. *** Filipinos may be inveterate gamblers, willing to test their luck in any number of ways, clinging to the hope that springs eternal that fortune may just be a winning ticket away.

That through the PCSO this penchant for games of chance is channeled into a huge charitable operation is simply icing on the cake. Although, these days, with pork barrel money that legislators used to reserve for charity cases effectively blocked, Juico says the number of cases referred to the PCSO has grown exponentially.

One other challenge, says Juico, is to widen the reach of the PCSO, not just to make the possible windfalls accessible to more Filipinos, but also to make its charitable operations cover an even wider area. Thus, heeding P-Noy’s appeal to reach even more Filipinos, the PCSO recently added five more branches in the provinces of Surigao del Norte, Benguet, La Union, Negros Oriental and Mountain Province. ■

AT LARGE

Loving games of chance

By Rina Jimenez-David Philippine Daily Inquirer A FRIEND recalls standing before the counter of a drugstore in a province south of Manila when he was approached by a woman accompanied by her young son. “Sir,” said the woman in Filipino, “I need to buy medicines for my sick husband but I don’t have enough with me. Could you please help me meet the full amount?”

The man, feeling compassion for the woman who appeared genuinely distressed, dug into his pocket and fished out a P100 bill. Apparently, it was more than the woman expected, and after flashing a smile of gratitude at my friend, she turned to her son and instructed him: “Here, take P20 and buy me a lotto ticket.”

Disheartened and speechless, my friend just walked away with his medicine purchase. But he still couldn’t quite believe what he had just witnessed. “If people still doubt our fondness for gambling, then I should tell you that this story is more common than you think,” he declared.

No wonder then that among the top contributors to the government treasury are two government entities that oversee legalized gambling in this country: Pagcor (Philippine

Amusement and Gaming Corp.), which manages its own casinos as well as grants franchises to private casino operators, and the Philippine Charity Sweepstakes Office (PCSO), which organizes and oversees different forms of lotteries, raising money for a variety of charitable causes, particularly the health needs of indigents, and in response to disasters.

But not even the PCSO is immune from the effects of disasters, particularly last year when a string of natural and human calamities—starting with the Zamboanga standoff and culminating with Supertyphoon “Yolanda”—severely cut into the agency’s income. *** “We were hard-pressed to meet our targets,” admits PCSO Chair Margie Juico, “especially since we lost so many outlets in Leyte, Samar, and the rest of the area affected by Yolanda.”

To this day, she adds, PCSO must bear the income it had to forego with the populace in the affected areas still unable to take part in the lotto, the smalltown lottery, sweepstakes, or its newest variation, the “BingoMilyonaryo.”

“The BingoMilyonaryo,” says Juico, “was adopted and put into operation because we needed to think of other ways to make up for our lost income.”

The PCSO describes “BingoMilyo-

naryo” as part of its “revenue-generating strategies.” For only P5 per combination, the buyer stands to win any (or all) of five different number combinations, including the jackpot prize.

What makes the “BingoMilyonaryo” even more exciting and reassuring is that placing one’s bet can be made through a “new and convenient” method, an Android application by Lot-

Filipinos may be inveterate gamblers, willing to test their luck in any number of ways, clinging to the hope that springs eternal that fortune may just be a winning ticket away. toCell using G-Cash. Working through roving agents and outlets like sari-sari stores, the PCSO offers instantaneous confirmation of a win through the mere touch of a cell phone. Players can also play through their own mobile devices on WiFi or 3G Internet.

In this way, the possibility of cheating or manipulation is minimized, since the “BingoMilyonaryo” draw is carried out at the PCSO main office, with results almost instantaneously conveyed. *** For now “BingoMilyonaryo” is

www.canadianinquirer.net

FRIDAY APRIL 11, 2014

18

Canada News

Prime Minister Stephen Harper Announces Government Contribution to the Typhoon Haiyan Relief Fund for the Philippines PRIME MINISTER Stephen Harper announced that individual Canadians contributed over $85 million in eligible donations that the Canadian Government is matching through its Typhoon Haiyan Relief Fund.

As promised on November 10, 2013, the Government of Canada is fulfilling its commitment to match every eligible dollar donated by individual Canadians to registered Canadian charities responding to the impact of this natural disaster, between November 9 and December 23, 2013.

According to Prime Minister Harper, “Our Government worked closely with the Filipino-Canadian community, humanitarian partners and the Government of the Philippines in the aftermath of Typhoon Haiyan to identify priorities and quickly provide emergency assistance where it was needed most. The Typhoon Haiyan Relief Fund was a success and our Government is proud to play a role in matching the generosity of Canadians.”

Some facts

• On November 10, 2013, Canada established the Typhoon Haiyan Relief Fund, through which every eligible dollar donated by individual Canadians from November 9 to December 23, 2013 to registered Canadian charities would be matched by the Government of Canada.

• Thousands of individual Canadians from across the country contributed to registered Canadian charitable organizations to provide assistance in the aftermath of Typhoon Haiyan. Over $85 million of these contributions were eligible for matching under the Government’s Typhoon Haiyan Relief Fund. The end result was more resources through combined funding from the Government of Canada and Canadian charitable organizations - being provided to typhoon-affected people in the Philippines.

• From the very beginning, Canada has played a leading role in the global response to the impact of the typhoon that hit the Philippines on

NEWS BRIEFS

FROM THE CANADIAN PRESS

STUDENTS, SENIORS WEIGH IN ON ELECTIONS BILL

Prime Minister Stephen Harper, joined by Senator Enverga and workers at a Red Cross Warehouse, announces our Government’s contribution to the Typhoon Haiyan Relief Fund for the Philippines.

November 8, 2013, by providing significant humanitarian assistance to meet the needs of the people affected by the typhoon.

• Canada has sent relief supplies like tents, blankets, water purification tablets, shelter kits, and other essential items from Foreign Affairs, Trade and Development Canada’s emergency stockpile.

• With support from the Government of Canada, the Canadian Red Cross Society deployed a medical team and field hospital to provide emergency health support in the Philippines.

• Elements of the Canadian Armed Forces’ Disaster Assistance Response Team (DART) were also deployed to support relief efforts by providing clean water, medical assistance and logistical support, including addressing pressing needs on Panay Island.

Canada’s current longer-term development assistance program in the Philippines supports initiatives focused on enhancing sustainable economic growth by improving the enabling environment for investment and building economic opportunities for the poor.

According to the prime minister, “I am deeply proud of the way Canadians came together to help the people of the Philippines in the aftermath

of Typhoon Haiyan. The remarkable support that Canadians provided both here at home and the very strong presence of both our DART team and humanitarian partners on the ground, especially on Panay Island, made us a global leader in helping address the impact of the crisis.”

Of the over $85 million to be matched by the Government, $15 million was initially disbursed for emergency relief activities in November 2013 to Canada’s humanitarian partners which had the expertise and capacity to provide immediate assistance on the ground.

The Government of Canada announced that a further $50 million of the $85 million to be matched by the Government is being allocated to the following experienced and trusted Canadian and international partners to help the people of the Philippines recover from the impact of the typhoon and help them rebuild their lives: CanadianNon-GovernmentalOrganizations

Action Contre la Faim - $3.75 million to help up to 35,000 affected people in Leyte province and Panay Island.

ADRA Canada - $2.2 million to help ❱❱ PAGE 38 Prime Minister

OTTAWA—A half dozen groups representing seniors and students were scheduled to testify Monday evening at a parliamentary committee studying controversial changes to federal election rules. With the Conservatives pushing to have Bill C-23 through the committee stage by the beginning of May—and the Commons poised to break for two weeks starting this Friday—the clock is running out for opponents of the Fair Elections Act to be heard.

CANADIAN FIRMS BECOMING MORE POSITIVE: BOC OTTAWA—The Bank of Canada’s latest sampling of business sentiment shows company confidence in the economy is turning decidedly positive, and that may be good news for Canadian workers. The influential quarterly survey of 100 representative firms shows that hiring intentions in March were the most positive in almost two years, with executives also pointing to higher sales over the past year and better prospects for future sales.

SPOUSAL EXEMPTION AN OBSTACLE, SAYS MACKAY OTTAWA—Allowing people to refuse to testify against their spouses is an “obstacle” to getting at the truth in a court of law, says Justice Minister Peter MacKay. Currently, under the Canada Evidence Act, spouses can refuse to testify against their partners except in certain specific cases such as sexual assaults or those involving children.

MORE NEEDED FOR GENDER EQUALITY: CHIEF JUSTICE CALGARY—The head of the Supreme Court of Canada says progress is being made in attracting more women to the legal profession but more work is necessary before equality is achieved. Chief Justice Beverley McLachlin told a legal conference in Calgary that matters have improved from when she was growing up on a ranch near Pincher Creek in southwestern Alberta.

Canada News

19 FRIDAY APRIL 11, 2014

Canadian Red Cross aids Haiyan-lashed communities

BY CHING DEE Philippine Canadian Inquirer WHEN SUPER typhoon ‘Haiyan’ hit the Visayan provinces of the Philippines, the Canadian Red Cross and the Canadian Armed Forces were two of the first teams who responded in aid of the Filipinos within a week.

Philippine Canadian Inquirer’s Melissa Remulla-Briones had the chance to interview representatives of the Canadian Red Cross and Armed Forces about their efforts in helping out the thousands of Filipinos who are now recovering in the aftermath of ‘Haiyan.’

Canadians all over chipped in and made donations in kind and in cash for disaster relief in the Philippines. A Red Cross representative explained how these donations were handled.

According to the representative, “Those contributions have been made into Canadian Red Cross, and those in turn have been put into a restricted fund for direct aid to the people affected by typhoon ‘Haiyan.’ At last count, they were at CAD $42.6 million.”

Dr. Brad Eason, the Task Force Surgeon and Commander of the Canadian

DART briefing conducted by Dr. Brad Eason.

Finance Minister Oliver pledges tax relief for families once budget balanced

BY LUANN LASALLE The Canadian Press TORONTO—Federal Finance Minister Joe Oliver says the government will provide tax relief once the budget is balanced next year.

Oliver told a business audience in Toronto on Monday that there won’t be any big stimulus package next year.

But he said once the budget is balanced and moves into a surplus position there will be relief for “hard-working Canadian families” who pay too much in taxes.

Oliver didn’t address the contentious issue of income splitting and he stressed that job creation would continue to be a top priority.

Oliver, a lawyer with an MBA who worked in the private sector finance community before entering politics, was addressing the Bay Street crowd

for the first time since taking over as finance minister from Jim Flaherty last month.

Until March, Flaherty and had been the Harper government’s only finance minister and was the one who managed the economy through the 2008-2009 recession.

In the past, Oliver has said he would carry on his predecessor’s focus on creating jobs , economic growth and balancing the budget.

However, he has also appeared to back Prime Minister Stephen Harper on income splitting, a 2011 election promise that Flaherty had publicly questioned.

He has also differed with Flaherty’s approach to mortgage rates, recently saying he would not intervene after the Bank of Montreal announced a half-point cut to its key mortgage rate, dropping its fixed, five-year setting to 2.99 per cent. Flaherty chided BMO for such a move last year, warning that such low rates could overheat the housing market. ■

Armed Forces, also shared his experience in the Philippines.

“By the time we landed and started operating in Panay Island, what we saw was primarily roads that were blocked, trees down, power lines down, houses that were completely leveled,” he recalled.

“On medical needs, by the time we arrived probably a week after the typhoon, it was minor wounds, infections related to skin conditions, gastrointestinal illnesses related to unclean water, not enough food… We did not see trauma,” Eason pointed out.

Eason worked with a very eager team.

“My team was very excited to be there, highly motivated to give and provide assistance. They all felt quite privileged to have the opportunity to come to the Philippines and help the people,” he said.

When asked about Canada’s preparedness if something like that were to happen, Eason responded, “Not only do we have a lot of military assets that can help. I think there’s a lot of disaster management that happens at national and provincial levels as well that’s wellprepared for this kind of event to take place.” ■

Malugod po kayong iniimbitahan ng ISSof BC Vancouver Community College sa

VCC Career Fair 2014 Go ahead. Get hired.

Miyerkules Ika 16 ng Abril 2014 10 a.m – 3p.m VCC Broadway Campus (Building B - event space) 1155 East Broadway Vancouver

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World News

APRIL 11, 2014

Senate nears passage of jobless benefits bill but the House is not inclined to accept it

BY DAVID ESPO The Associated Press WASHINGTON—Capping a three-month struggle, the Senate closed in Monday on passage of election-year legislation to restore jobless benefits for the long-term unemployed that expired late last year.

Approval of the measure would send it to a hostile reception in the House, where majority Republicans generally oppose it.

The bill was the first major piece of legislation that Democrats sent to the floor of the Senate when Congress convened early in the year, the linchpin of a broader campaign-season agenda meant to showcase concern for men and women who are doing poorly in an era of economic disparity between rich and poor.

In the months since, the Democrats have alternately pummeled Republicans for holding up passage and made concessions in an effort to gain support from enough GOP lawmakers to overcome a filibuster. Chief among those concessions was an agreement to pay the $9.6 billion cost of the fivemonth bill by making offsetting spending cuts elsewhere in the budget.

The White House-backed measure would retroactively restore benefits that were cut off in late December, and maintain them through the end of May. Officials say as many as 2.7 million

jobless workers have been denied assistance since the law expired late last year. If renewed, the aid would total about $256 weekly, and in most cases go to men and women who have been off the job for longer than six months.

In the run-up to the vote, Sen. Dan Coats, R-Ind., criticized Majority Leader Harry Reid for not allowing votes on GOPdrafted proposals to amend the measure, calling that refusal a “black mark” in the Senate’s history.

Sens. Jack Reed, D-R.I., and Dean Heller, R-Nev., the bill’s leading supporters, said they were willing to consider changes in hopes of securing passage in a highly reluctant House.

Heller also said he was seeking a meeting with Republican House Speaker John Boehner to discuss the measure.

Some Democrats assailed Boehner rather than seek to meet with him. Said Sen. Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y.: “The House needs to extend unemployment benefits to millions of Americans right now, without attaching extraneous issues that are merely an attempt to score political points.”

Boehner has said repeatedly a condition for any vote to renew the benefits is inclusion of job-creating provisions in the same legislation.

“The Senate is sitting on dozens of bills that we’ve sent over there,” he said at a recent news conference. “So I think it’s time for the Senate to work with the House to help get the economy moving again. That’s the real issue.”

Whatever the bill’s fate in the House, Senate Democrats have taken steps to follow their action with a test vote on a bill to strengthen “equal pay for equal work” laws. That measure includes a provision giving women the right to seek punitive damages in lawsuits in which they allege pay discrimination, a change that Republicans call a gift to trial lawyers who contribute extensively to Democratic campaigns.

Next up in the Democratic

attempt to gain ground during the election year will be a proposal to raise the federal minimum wage to $10.10 an hour. It is currently $7.25 an hour.

Underscoring the political backdrop, a little-noticed provision in the jobless-benefits legislation is specifically designed to benefit the long-term unemployed in North Carolina, where Democratic Sen. Kay Hagan faces a stiff challenge for a new term. It would make residents eligible for long-term benefits if the state negotiates an agreement with the Department of Labor. North Carolina residents are currently ineligible because state benefits were reduced below a federal standard.

In an additional indication of the challenge confronting the broader legislation, the National Association of State Workforce Agencies sent a letter to lawmakers citing “significant concerns about the implementation of the legislation” after a Senate compromise emerged last month. The organization represents state agencies that would be responsible for administering the law.

Citing the letter, Boehner pronounced the Senate bill “unworkable,” and a blog posting by his aides quoted the Ohio Republican as saying there was “no evidence that the bill being rammed through the Senate by (Majority) Leader (Harry) Reid” would help create more private sector jobs.

The drive to renew the lapsed program comes as joblessness nationally is slowly receding, yet long-term unemployment is at or above pre-recession levels in much of the country. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, it accounts for an estimated one-third or more of all jobless individuals.

In a study last summer, the Urban Institute reported that “relative to currently employed workers, the long-term unemployed tend to be less educated and are more likely to be nonwhite, unmarried, disabled, impoverished and to have worked previously in the construction industry and construction occupations.” ■ www.canadianinquirer.net

FRIDAY 20

Chile says services being restored after quake, but many still suffer outages, scarcity

BY LUIS HIDALGO AND LUIS ANDRES HENAO The Associated Press IQUIQUE, CHILE—Chilean officials said Friday that water, fuel, electricity and other essential services are being reestablished three days after a powerful magnitude-8.2 earthquake rattled the country’s far northern regions. But pockets of poor people living in damaged homes, shantytowns and tents were still suffering the brunt of the disaster, and the hypothermia death of a newborn raised the quake’s toll to seven.

The government also issued a threemonth health alert for the quake-hit regions.

It grants officials more resources to avoid the spread of infectious diseases by coping with trash and contaminated water from rotting fish in port cities.

“There will not be any fuel supply problems in any of the regions affected by the quake and drinking water services are being re-established,” presidential spokesman Alvaro Elizalde told reporters in the capital, Santiago, after President Bachelet and her Cabinet met to discuss the emergency.

“Water connection has reached a relatively high point, but we still have a way to go so that all cities can count on these basic services.”

Water, power and other basic services had yet to return to Alto Hospicio, a poor area in the hills above Iquique that was one of the worst-hit by the quake. Police reported that a 6-day old baby died here of hypothermia on Friday afternoon, the quake’s seventh victim. She had been sleeping in

a tent in the middle of street with her mother. About 2,600 homes were also damaged and the main road connecting it to Iquique has been blocked by debris after massive landslides.

“The bricks began falling with the quake and aftershocks, and I was left looking at my neighbour through a huge crack in the wall,” said Aide Reyes, 60, who has been sleeping in a tent at a makeshift camp outside Alto Hospicio with her children and her month’s old grandson.

Her neighbours shared cooking pots as well as the little food they had. “We have no water or electricity since the first quake,” Reyes said. “There’s no bread and we’re trying to buy wheat to make tortillas.”

In Iquique, a port city of nearly 200,000 people, smallscale fishermen continued to recover the little that was left from boats damaged by quakespawned waves and called for government help.

Soldiers kept a close watch on supermarkets and gas stations to prevent looting as many people continued to line up on Friday for gasoline, water and food. The city remained largely peaceful and no new major damage or casualties were reported from the continuing aftershocks that have rattled the sleep-deprived citizens of Chile’s north.

Schools remained closed and hospitals have been handling only emergencies. About a dozen babies had been born in makeshift camps run by doctors and midwifes since the quake struck. ■ Luis Andres Henao reported from Santiago. Eva Vergara contributed to this report.

World News

21 FRIDAY APRIL 11, 2014

Cost to governments of MH370 disappearance Most countries in plane search effort reluctant to discuss costs; ‘good training,’ expert says

BY LEON DROUIN-KEITH The Associated Press BANGKOK, THAILAND—It’s not a question most governments involved in the hunt for the Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 care to answer: How much has the far-flung, month-long search cost?

The U.S. bill alone has run into the millions of dollars, and some countries such as China have devoted more ships and planes to the effort than the Americans have. Australia is spending more than half a million dollars a day on just one of the ships it has in the Indian Ocean.

But governments and military experts say it’s difficult to come up with a full estimate for an ongoing search, especially since many of the costs are a normal part of maintaining effective search-and-rescue capabilities.

“If I listed how many planes and boats are involved, I could confect a very large number, but it wouldn’t have much meaning, because we’ve got to pay for the boats and the planes and the pilots and the sailors anyway, and they’re out there doing some stuff which is good training and reflects well on us internationally,” said Mark Thomson, senior analyst of defence economics at the government-funded Australian Strategic Policy Institute.

More than two dozen countries have played some role in the long search, which Malaysia is overseeing. In the days since the search has shifted to remote areas of the Indian

Ocean, several countries have deployed planes and ships for the effort, including China, Australia, Malaysia, the U.S., Britain, New Zealand, Japan and South Korea. On Monday, nine military planes, three civil aircraft and 14 ships were combing a 234,000-square-kilometre (90,000-square-mile) search area, according to Australian officials co-ordinating the search.

Malaysia has repeatedly declined to answer questions about the cost of the search.

“Nobody, not the Malaysian government, none of our partners, have talked about dollars and cents. It’s all about trying to find the aircraft,” Defence Minister Hishammuddin Hussein said at a press conference last month.

The U.S. Department of Defence allocated $4 million to help search for the missing Malaysian jetliner. Between March 8 and March 24, it had spent $3.2 million, said spokesman Col. Steve Warren. As of late last week it had spent another $148,000. The Pentagon has allocated another $3.6 million to cover the cost of a towed pinger locator, used to detect underwater signals from aircraft black boxes, and an underwater autonomous vehicle, which can look for wreckage deep below the ocean surface.

Australia’s defence department said its direct cost of using its ship the HMAS Success in the search is about $550,000 per day, and another vessel, the HMAS Toowoomba, costs about $380,000 per day. But it said there are not only direct costs such as fuel, servicing and

PA-GLTV-TELUS-Q1-2014-Philippine Canadian Inquirer-CAN.indd 1

PHOTO BY HITMANSNR / SHUTTERSTOCK.COM

Governments and military experts say it’s difficult to come up with a full estimate for an ongoing search, especially since many of the costs are a normal part of maintaining effective search-and-rescue capabilities.

crew salaries, but indirect costs such as general administration, building costs and depreciation of aircraft assets, so it is difficult to provide an exact total.

Several Chinese ships and planes have been involved in the search, but China’s foreign ministry did not respond to questions about the expense of the effort.

Geoff Davies, a spokesman for New Zealand’s defence force, said much of his country’s costs will be covered by the existing budget for search and rescue operations, though

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there are likely to be some extra costs because of the extraordinary nature of the search.

Japan’s defence ministry said it could not provide a figure because the search is continuing.

The cost of the search operation is believed to fall within the 880 million yen ($8.8 million) budgeted for emergency relief for the Japan International Cooperation Agency. Extra costs incurred by the operation include fuel and a special allowance for the roughly 90 troops involved.

Some Japanese civilians are also participating, and the govern-

ment said their accommodation and transportation has cost about 28 million yen ($280,000) as of the end of March.

Accommodation for the Japanese troops is free, as they use facilities at the Australian military under their defencecooperation agreement. ■ AP writers Rod McGuirk in Canberra, Australia, Eileen Ng in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, Robert Burns in Washington, Mari Yamaguchi in Tokyo and Nick Perry in Perth, Australia, contributed to this report.

2014-03-24 11:16 PM

Immigration

APRIL 11, 2014

FRIDAY 22

End to Immigration? Or the Beginning of a Nation of Guest Workers?

VANCOUVER, BC—Trade unions, community groups, faith-based groups, migrant groups, academe, retired Canadians, youth, an MLA, and church people watched the film screening of "End of Immigration?" a documentary film by Malcolm Guy and Mari Boti.

The film makers interviewed migrant workers, employers, lawyers and government officials on the controversial Temporary Foreign Worker Program, focused on the seasonal agricultural workers and the low-skilled workers. The film showing was

followed by a panel discussion led by Raul Gatica and Gil Aguilar from the Migrant Workers with Dignity, Jane Ordinario of Migrante BC and facilitated by Janette MacIntosh of the Coalition for Migrant Workers Justice.

The public event was held at the Our Lady of Sorrows Catholic Church on Slocan Street last Sunday, April 6th. The film screening was organized by the Coalition for Migrant Workers Justice with its leading member organizations of Migrante BC, Richmond & Vancouver Kairos groups, Canada Philippines Solidarity for Hu-

Multisectoral Group Photo - Standing: Standing:L-R: Raul Gatica, Janette MacIntosh, Florchita Bautista, Mrs. Prem, Prem, Daneen M., Sr. Cecilia Hudec, Jane Ordinario, Alejandra Seated L-R: Beth Dollaga, Stu Lyster, Mable Elmore, and Joey Hartman

man Rights, BC Civic Commission for Migrant Workers Dignity and sponsored by the BC Yukon Kairos, the Filipino Canadian

L-r: E Maestro (Migrante BC), Stephanie Lim (FILCAN), Beth Dollaga (CPSHR), Rev Stu Lyster, Leo Alejandria (Migrante BC)

Advocacy Network (FILCAN) Network, the Vancouver District and Labour Council, the UFCW, CUPE 15 and the Our Lady of Sor-

rows Church.

Film information is available at http://www.pmm.qc.ca/english/spip.php?article61. ■

Victoria McDonald’s TFWs in McDonald’s Case Highlights blacklisted amid foreign Need for Permanent Residency workers controversy

BY DIRK MEISSNER The Canadian Press VICTORIA—Three Victoria McDonald’s restaurants were put on a federal blacklist Monday for alleged abuses of the Temporary Foreign Worker Program, prompting the fast food chain to move quickly to cut ties with the franchise owner.

Federal Employment Minister Jason Kenney also suggested criminal charges could result against the owner if he lied on the original application to employ temporary foreign workers.

“I suspended both the labour market opinions and the work permits that that employer has been using pending the outcome of the investigation,” said Kenney. “And we’ve blacklisted that employer as well as two others that we believe have abused the program.”

Kenney said penalties for such a prosecution include up to five years in prison and fines reaching $100,000.

The Canada Border Services Agency could lay charges under the Immigration Act, he said.

The two other employers cited for alleged foreign worker program abuses are The Boathouse Restaurant in Fenelon

Falls, Ont., and Jungle Jim’s Restaurant in Labrador City, N.L., Employment and Social Development Canada said in a statement.

The Temporary Foreign Worker Program has been under increased scrutiny after it was revealed companies were bringing in large numbers of foreign workers, which critics claimed were displacing Canadian workers.

The Harper government has since backtracked on changes it made to the program, including allowing businesses to pay foreign workers up to 15 per cent less than the average wage for a job.

The government also announced earlier this year that it planned to impose hefty penalties by 2015 for employers who abuse the program.

McDonald’s Western Canada spokesman John Gibson said the restaurant chain has had a pristine record until now when it comes to employing temporary foreign workers. He said moves are already underway to remove the current Victoria franchise owner and run the three franchises through head office.

Gibson said most McDonald’s ❱❱ PAGE 46 Victoria McDonald’s

VANCOUVER, BC—Following reports about alleged violations of the Temporary Foreign Worker (TFW) Program by a McDonald’s franchise owner in Victoria, a Filipino-Canadian community group said that instead of bringing workers into Canada on a temporary basis, they should be brought in as permanent residents.

“If there is indeed a shortage of workers in these industries, then they should be brought in as permanent residents. The TFW program is inherently open to abuse and violations.

It creates a sub-class of ‘disposable workers’ who are then wrongly perceived by some as ‘taking jobs away’ from Canadians,” said Jane Ordinario, Migrante BC Coordinator. ”If they’re good enough to work, they should be good enough to stay,” she added.

The issue came to light after an April 6th CBC investigative report that explained how the hiring of TFWs from the Philippines was negatively affecting local workers. The report stated that three McDonald’s locations in Victoria, BC have 26 TFWs on staff.

McDonalds has also said it is working on terminating its relationship with the franchise owner.

Jane Ordinario, Migrante BC Coordinator, added that her group has written the local www.canadianinquirer.net

Philippine Consulate General for assistance and that they are also hoping that the provincial and federal governments will step in to make sure the TFWs are not “victimized” further.

“If it’s proven that this franchise owner hired them under false pretenses, then these TFWs are also negatively affected. They were ‘duped’ into coming here and as such, they don’t deserve to be ‘punished’ for something that was not their fault,” said Jane Ordinario.

“For example, what happens if they lose their jobs?” she asked.

Ordinario explained that because the work permits of the TFWs are tied to a specific employer, they might end up in a situation where their immigration visa allows them to stay in the country for two years but they will not be able to legally work until they find a new employer willing to file the papers needed to hire them as TFWs— so that they can be issued a new work permit.

“But how are they supposed to live in the meantime? Because there’s also the question of whether or not they can collect Employment Insurance (EI). We know that in the past, TFWs have been denied EI because ‘technically’, they weren’t available for work—since their work permit was tied to their previous employer,” she said,

noting that many TFWs have families in the Philippines who depend on the remittances from the TFWs to survive.

The allegations that the franchise owner broke the rules of the TFW program to bring the Filipino temporary workers to his franchise outlets are serious because it leads the public to perceive that the Filipino temporary workers are at fault instead of focusing on these employers and the flawed nature of the temporary foreign worker program. ■ Migrante BC is a communitybased organization led and run by volunteers committed to protecting and promoting the rights and welfare of Filipino TFWs and immigrants. It is a member of Migrante Canada and the Manila-based global alliance of Filipino migrant worker groups, Migrante International.

Immigration

23 FRIDAY APRIL 11, 2014

PANGARAP : SO, OUR JOURNEY BEGINS

So, What Is in Your Inbox?

BY BOLET AREVALO THE EMAILS YOU HAVE LEARNED TO WRITE AND THOSE THAT YOU RECEIVE CAN MEAN SO MUCH IN YOUR OWN ABILITY TO HOLD ON, TO KEEP BELIEVING THAT ONE DAY THAT INBOX WILL CONTAIN AN EMAIL THAT SAYS, “YOU’RE HIRED.’’ Every time I write a cover letter for a job that I think I really want, my last sentence always indicates that I can best be contacted through my email address. Because I am out of the house almost every day, out looking for a job or volunteering or running some errands, my email address is the most efficient address by which I can be reached.

As soon as I started to love my computer, I was never the same conservative, traditional mom.

One of my sons commented that it made him very happy to realize that his mom was into computers because then he felt like his mom was not growing old. While it is good to keep in step with your kids, you owe it actually to yourself to keep up to date with the world.

I used to have a job that required me to travel a lot, not only within my own country, but overseas as well. For a budget-conscious person, I did more emailing than doing expensive phone calls or texting to be able to check on the office, the house and my friends. And certainly, I am not a person of

few words, so email is just perfect.

But that was not how I got started on the email bandwagon. The office set it up and required that the company go paperless. So memos, reports and proposals began being sent via email. Notations, corrections, and approvals were also emailed, and to show your proofs or confirmations, you could just print the email approval and presto, the project was on its way.

Pretty soon, you will come to realize how easy the internet has made life for all of us.

Nowadays, companies advertising through the internet, also use the internet to receive applications via email, or the more sophisticated ones have interactive application process set up in their sites. Answering to a job posting has been made so easy with the email function of the internet, but it has also made it difficult to compete for attention.

A friend who advertised for a job just to test how much competition she would have after sending an email application, found that in less than 40 minutes that she put out the want ad, more than 300 emailed applications rushed to her inbox.

Another employer related that in less than 24 hours, he had more than 1500 resumes in his email address, and he kept wondering how he would be able to read all of them.

PA-GNTV-TELUS-Q1-2014-Philippine Canadian Inquirer-CAN.indd 1

If you have written your cover letter and resume well, then chances are it is in the same inbox where you

will receive an invitation to come over for an interview.

All these are separate topics in themselves, but suffice it to say that while learning to send those email applications are good, be very sure that what you send can be worth reading or can catch attention.

Be careful when you press Send. That Send button in the email address is so critical that you should really exercise caution before pressing it. The past mistake of sending a wrong cover letter you had intended for another job can ruin your chances for a job that you really want, even though you had sent the right resume.

What I do to avoid this is

www.canadianinquirer.net

make my cover letter the first page of my resume. In this way, I am able to make sure that I have the right combination of cover letter

and resume. This should also give you a little edge because they say addressees sometimes never get to reading your resumes after reading the first one or two paragraphs of your cover letter. Some never get as far as opening your attachments at all.

Learning to email is one of the best things that you could do to make your life, not only your job search better. In between those frustrating job postings that you have replied to, an incoming hello email from a friend back home can get you back on track again and renew your spirit. Sending an email is simply just like writing a letter. It can be therapeutic. It

can work for you in many ways.

Learning how to email is a necessary function that internet can allow you to do through your computer if you want to make the most out of it. Emailing job applications can be very competitive, but it is totally possible to get a job by responding to an Internet posting. The emails in your inbox are like your traditional snail letters, only faster. They can serve to strengthen you despite frustrating job search as you keep receiving hello mails from friends and families who care about you, other than FB and other forms of social media. ■ Nobody ever said that our journey, will be easy. But as I write and as you read, we share our strengths and we can hold to the promise that “Where two or three are gathered in My name, there I am in the midst of them,” Matthew 18:20.

Bolet is a marketing communications practitioner and dabbles in writing as a personal passion.

She is author-publisher of the book: The Most Practical Immigrating and Job Hunting Survival Guide, proven simple steps to success without the fears and the doubts. The book is available in Amazon.com, Barnes & Noble, Chapters/Indigo, the Reading Room and other online bookshops worldwide, and in National Book Store and Power Books in the Philippines. Please check out https://www.amazon. com/author/boletarevalo.

2014-03-24 11:19 PM

Seen & Scenes

APRIL 11, 2014

FRIDAY 24

FOOD SAFE COURSE The Victoria Filipino-Canadian Caregivers Association (VFCCA) headed

by Anette Beech recently held a Food Safe Course for its members.

1ST BIRTHDAY CELEBRATION First Birthday: Master Landon Lim, first child of Martin Lim and Kristy Peng and grandchild of Flor and Violy Lim, celebrated his first birthday recently. Shown with him in photo are his parents, Martin and Kristy. St. Jamestown News Service

PH JOINS CULTURAL DIVERSITY CELEBRATION IN OTTAWA 4 April 2014—The Philippine Embassy in Ottawa reported to the Department that, for the fourth year running, the Philippines made its presence felt at the Celebration of Cultures organized by Algonquin College in Ottawa on 4 April 2014.

The Philippines was among 20 countries that participated in the international festival showcasing Canada’s rich cultural diversity, including the Netherlands, U.S. Turkey, Poland, China, Japan, Indonesia, Dominican Republic, Costa Rica, Kuwait, Iraq, Armenia, Kazakhstan, Moldova, Zambia, Honduras, UAE, Ecuador and Guatemala.

The Philippine Embassy exhibit, made colorful by an It’s More Fun in the Philippines (IMFIT PH) theme and enhanced by shell craft and baskets from Iloilo as well as snacks from the Philippines, was a popular draw for the students who flocked to the festival.

The Algonquin Times, purportedly the best campus newspaper in Ontario, interviewed Minister and Consul Flerida Ann Camille P. Mayo who seized the opportunity to create awareness not only of Philippine tourist destinations but also popular Philippine export products to Canada such as home décor and ethnic food.

“For this market segment, Filipino food is key to engaging passive onlookers in an active conversation on the Philippines,” Ambassador Gatan suggested. “The Embassy takes part in Algonquin’s Celebration of Cultures every year, cognizant of the openness of the Canadian youth to experience exotic cultures and explore foreign countries, especially the Philippines because of our extensive people-to-people links,” he added.

For photo submissions, please email info@canadianinquirer.net. www.canadianinquirer.net

Seen & Scenes

25 FRIDAY APRIL 11, 2014

CANADA GETS A TASTE OF WHY IT’S MORE FUN IN THE PHILIPPINES The Philippine Consulate General in Vancouver, together with its partner agencies, the Tourism Promotions Board of the Philippine Department of Tourism showcased the beauty of the Philippines and its 7,107 colourful islands via a press briefing and musical show at the Oak Room of the Four Seasons Hotel in Downtown Vancouver on April 1. Story on page 37.

Photos by Angelo Siglos.

MISSION POSSIBLE Earlier this year, a 10 person medical mission team from non-profit organization Gateway International Fellowship of Toronto (GIFT) travelled to the Philippines to deliver medical and dental aid to the victims devastated by Super Typhoon Haiyan/Yolanda.

The mission was from January 26 to February 6, 2014 with the team led

by Mr. Rick Falco from Mississauga, Ontario. The first two days, the team went to the municipality of Bingawan in the province of Iloilo. The GIFT team served 1,121 patients in the town of Bingawan, 1,359 patients in Tapaz, Capiz., 527 in Banate, Iloilo, 282 in Barangay Maindang and 484 patients in Cuar: Medicatero, Capiz. The mission team was able to help 3,773 medical and dental patients in total. www.giftcanada.net. Lyra Torres

WOMEN’S DAY CELEBRATION - TORONTO

FEMALE PAG ARTISTS ATTEND PHILIPPINE CONSULATE’S WOMEN’S MONTH CELEBRATION Female representatives of the Philippine Artists Group of Canada, Nelia Tonido and Michelle Chermaine Ramos, attended the Philippine Consulate’s Women’s Month celebration in Toronto on Friday, March 28th 2014.

Consul General Junever Mahilum-West, an honorary PAG member herself, hosted the event to acknowledge the contributions of female achievers in various areas of the community including the arts, media, education, charity and politics.

Left to Right: Artists Michelle Chermaine Ramos and Nelia Tonido, Consul General Junever Mahilum-West, John West and Frank Tonido. www.canadianinquirer.net

APRIL 11, 2014

FRIDAY 26

FILIPINO-CANADIAN IN FOCUS:

Jane McLean

BY CHING DEE Philippine Canadian Inquirer FILIPINOS ARE incredibly talented in the arts—whether it’s singing, painting, or acting.

Such is the case of Jane Gregorio—now more popularly known as Jane McLean.

An undeniable acting

passion

for

Young Jane moved with her family from Manila to Missisauga, Ontario before she was a year old. Like any typical Filipino immigrant family, Jane went to school and her family tried to get by one day at a time.

From the beginning, Jane always knew that her passion is acting. It was an undeniable affinity to the performing arts that urged her to do one-woman shows in their basement in front of her family. However, her parents persuaded her into getting a “traditional job.” To fulfill her parents’ wishes, Jane took a Canadian Securities Course and eventually took a job at Financial Concept Group in North York.

“I took a very traditional route,” Jane shared with The Tribute’s Toni-Marie Ippolito.

“I have been performing since I was a kid. I've always had a love of singing, dance, performance and all that stuff. I really didn't pursue it apart from school and high school plays and community theater and so on and so forth. And when you come from a fairly conservative Catholic family, well it's considered a hobby!” she added.

But pencil pushing was really not for her and the deep call of performing for an audience simply became too much to contain.

“I really felt like something was missing. And it took getting sick with an inner-ear cold infection that kind of knocked me out for a couple of weeks that made me realize, ‘Hey, I'm super young, I'm super healthy, why is this happening to me?’

And it was the stress. It was the stress of doing something that you're not passionate about. So I really did a lot of reevaluating,” she recalled.

Jane took a risk and quit her job at Financial Concept and in 2001, she moved to California

to enroll at the American Academy of Dramatic Arts.

“I decided to go to theater school and spent a year doing that. It was scary and I had a lot of people thinking that I was just crazy, but I did it anyway because I thought, you know, I have to live my life for myself,” Jane said.

This brave move proved to be beneficial in reaching for her dreams, as she landed roles for television (Terminal City, 24, Dexter, Defiance) and movies (The Time Traveler’s Wife).

‘Girl on TV’

Jane was beyond thrilled to play Masuka’s girlfriend in her favorite show ‘Dexter.’

“The whole setup was that I had serious anger management issues and by the last episode we were supposed to break up and we shot it… I had such a blast on that show… The fact that I was on that set—that I could play such a fun character—was the exciting part. And just to be part of a show that I'm such a huge fan of,” she said.

In an interview with Examiner.com, Jane shared her thoughts about her role as Tennety Olfin in Syfy Chanel’s ‘Defiance’ last year.

“I filmed two episodes. I’m a recurring character on the show and I play a politician that arrives on ‘Defiance’. Basically all of my interaction is with Grant Bowler’s character and Julie Benz’s character,” she said.

“The creative people involved have invested a lot of passion.

The sets are elaborate and realistic, which adds to bringing of the characters to life. You really feel like you’re there. Grant Bowler and Julie Benz are extraordinarily talented and professional. They’re an amazing and fantastic crew. Grant Bowler was fantastic. I kept trying to get him to blast out his Australian accent. I was impressed by how he stayed in character.

They were a really supportive group and it has been a phenomenal experience,” she pointed out in admiration.

On being ‘Charisse’

About 6 years after the book’s launch, the movie adaptation of Audrey Niffenegger’s “The Time Traveler’s Wife” was re-

leased in 2009. In the movie, Jane played the supporting role of Charisse—Clare’s (Rachel McAdams) best friend.

As if the stars aligned specially for Jane, the movie director was in Toronto at that time to check locations for the shoot.

Her manager—who was equally excited—urged her to go for the role and set up the audition.

“It was so serendipitous that we were both in Toronto, and they set up a special session to cast my character. I read the script but I hadn't read the book at that time. I bought the book two years before, but I didn't read it. I started to get really excited about it because the script is just phenomenal.

I remember thinking to myself, ‘Okay, you are not reading the book until the deal is done,’ because I didn't want to jinx myself!” she laughed.

Five-year-old spoiler alert: Jane got the role.

Some say that playing the supporting role is just as important as playing the lead. You have to be convincing, acting with conviction, without outdoing the main character. Your job as the supporting character should be to let the lead shine— a task that Jane did not take lightly.

“A lot of thought was put towards prior experiences of my own,” she shared when asked about her preparations for the role of Charisse. “Specifically those of my relationship with my sisters, you know, like the relationship that Charisse has with Claire. They've got a very strong sisterhood bond.”

Jane recalled shopping with Ron Livingston for Charisse’s wardrobe to get a better idea of her character. It was an activity suggested by the director himself.

Working with Hollywood star Eric Bana and fellow Canadian Rachel McAdams was a breeze, according to Jane.

“She's wonderful. She's a good Torontonian gal and super down-to-earth. She's very, very approachable, very easy to work with and very, very generous. As an actor, you sort of dream of working with people like that because they really pull you in,” Jane explained.

“At first I was a little intimidated. I thought he might be a www.canadianinquirer.net

Jane McLean.

Jane McLean on the set of Defiance.

PHOTO BY @MSJANEMCLEAN / TWITTER

little bit intense,” she said about Bana. “But those were my perceptions because I watched him in Munich and Troy. But he's a funny guy! And he's wonderful to work with and very easy on the eyes!”

Aside from working alongside two Hollywood stars, Jane also met one of the producers of the movie—Hollywood heartthrob Brad Pitt.

“It was not as eventful as I thought it would be. It didn't dawn on me that it was him,” she recalled. “We were already two weeks in and Eric and I were finishing up a last shot, and this guy comes up to me and he's wearing a hat, and comes over and says ‘Hi Jane, I'm Brad, very nice to meet you.’ So I said ‘Oh, it's very nice to meet you, Brad.’ So we finish our shot… and then it hit [me]: ‘Oh my God, I just met Brad Pitt. Holy sh--!’”

Jane is no stranger to the public’s not-too-pleasant perception of book-to-movie adaptations, so she put a lot of thought about playing such an important character from an international best-seller.

“Everybody views it differently because you base it on your own experiences. But I trusted a lot in the script. And the script is absolutely beautiful. It's not exactly the same as a book, there's a lot of stuff you have to be really crafty with how you develop it as a movie, because again you're trying to condense what was 500 pages into two hours. And that can be very, very hard to do,” she explained.

Jane continues to live the life that she dreamed but she never forgot her Filipino roots. In fact, her Tagalog is still flawless.

And when Ippolito asked her if she could time-travel anywhere, Jane answered without skipping a beat.

“I would love to go back to the Philippines,” Jane piped. “I was born there. I came to Canada when I wasn’t even a year old, so how fun would it be to go back to that time when you were a baby and you didn’t have a worry in the world? So, I think it would be great to go back and see through the eyes of a child, and open my eyes to new surroundings.” ■

Bible Stories

27 FRIDAY APRIL 11, 2014

GLOBAL FILIPINO: MERCEDES CABRAL

An Independent Woman

BY ERIC S. CARUNCHO Philippine Daily Inquirer IF I were a painter, that is the title I would choose for a nude portrait of Mercedes Cabral.

It is not just the dusky, sensual features, the full and lush figure that seems to revel in its own physicality, and the confident stance that says “I’m at home in my nakedness.”

One look into Cabral’s deep dark lustrous eyes and it is not hard to fathom why she has become Anna Karina to director Brillante Mendoza’s Jean-Luc Godard: part muse and part clay from which the auteur could mold his vision of The Eternal Female.

Barely six years since her groundbreaking (and controversial) debut in Mendoza’s critically-acclaimed “Serbis,” Cabral has become the go-to girl for independent filmmakers both Filipino and foreign. She has racked up an impressive filmography that includes Mendoza’s “Kinatay” and “Thy Womb,” and acclaimed Korean director Park Chan-wook’s “Thirst.”

She has been feted at Cannes (where she was voted “the most beautiful” in a 2009 online poll) and lionized in Venice.

Last December her face loomed over New York City’s Times Square when British filmmaker Isaac Julien’s installation film “Playtime,” where she shared the bill with the likes of James Franco and Maggie Cheung, was shown on the electronic billboard on New Year’s Eve. And yet, back home, all that people seem to want to know— even six years after the fact—is, did she do it for real with Coco Martin in “Serbis”?

Really?

Part of Cabral’s peculiar dilemma is the dual nature of her celebrity.

On one hand, she is seen as a serious actress willing to undertake the most challenging roles, even for the most measlybudgeted art house film, if she believes in the script and the director.

On the other, she is one of FHM’s “100 sexiest women” (and three-time “girlfriend of the month”), and the star of Philippine cinema’s most erotic bed scene since “Scorpio Nights.”

“It’s annoying,” admits the 27-year-old actress, of being stuck with the “bold star” tag even after having proven herself internationally.

“But I always tell myself that everything that happens, whether good or bad, happens for a reason. I’ve learned to look for the positive side of even the negative things that happen to me. It’s best to have a positive outlook, so your problems don’t eat you up.

First thing in the morning, I try to think of something positive, and it lifts my day.”

There is a lot to feel positive about.

In fact, when Sunday Inquirer Magazine (SIM) caught up with Cabral for our very first nude photo shoot, she had just returned from Denmark where she had completed principal cinematography for an upcoming Danish film for the august Nordisk Film studio, the oldest continuously-operating film studio in the world.

“Sobrang sarap (It was so good!),” is how she describes working with the Danish cast and film crew. “These were some of the most intense actors I’ve worked with. I learned a lot from them. They knew that I’m not a formally-trained actor so they were very patient with me.”

She got the part upon the recommendation of Mendoza, who has been an exceptionally generous mentor in sharing Cabral’s talents with the world.

Clearly, after she took off her clothes for the photo shoot, Cabral was the most comfortable person in the room. Draped only in an assortment of shawls, she was completely relaxed, which was more than I could say for the SIM staff hovering around her.

“Because I was a Fine Arts major, I have a healthy attitude about the human body and I’m open-minded about nudity,” she says. “As long as it’s artistic and not smutty, okay lang. When it comes to films, as long as the sex scenes serve the script, okay din. After ‘Serbis,’ I turned down a lot of offers where it was clear the sex scenes were just there to entice the audience and titillate the viewer.”

The middle child of three siblings, Cabral describes her growing-up years as “normal”—

she was neither a tomboy nor super-girlish, neither loud nor quiet.

One thing she always had was a penchant for drawing. This led her to enroll in the UP College of Fine Arts as a sculpture major, following in the footsteps of her older brother.

After going to strict Catholic schools, the relatively loose and free-wheeling ways of art school proved an eye-opener for Cabral.

“I feel that my identity was really formed after I went to UP,” she says. “I had fun in high school, but it didn’t really prepare me for real life, and I didn’t really know myself until college.”

In the bohemian atmosphere of art school, in the company of fellow artists and free-thinkers, Cabral felt she was at last ready to embrace life in all its fullness.

And then it all came crashing down. On her second year in college, Cabral’s family had a reversal of fortune. She had to quit school and find work.

“Nawasak ang mundo ko (My world just shattered),” she recalls.

She managed to keep her connection to the art world by finding work as a nude model for muralist Alfred Galvez. (In one installation piece she found herself covered in body paint and little else as part of the exhibit.)

She also started posing for pictorial spreads for men’s magazines. As her profile gained prominence, she met filmmaker Francis Villacorta, who encouraged her to audition for film roles.

“I didn’t have any acting experience, not even theater,” she recalls. “I couldn’t really see myself acting, but he got me into an acting workshop, and I discovered that I like it.”

Eventually, she came to the attention of Brillante Mendoza, who was looking for an actress to play opposite Coco Martin in “Serbis,” a gritty slice of life in a sleazy, run-down movie theater.

Much to her surprise, Cabral got the part.

“I thought I wouldn’t pass the screen test because I didn’t really know anything about acting,” she recalls. “It turned out that Direk Dante’s style was www.canadianinquirer.net

Mercedes Cabral.

real-time acting, with a lot of improvisation. He didn’t like ‘acting,’ he would give you a character and a situation and you reacted based on your character.”

What she may have lacked in acting experience Cabral more than made up for in screen presence, and in fact her very inexperience might have contributed to the freshness and directness of her performance in “Serbis.”

As it was, the graphic sex scenes she did for the film helped the word-of-mouth groundswell that eventually made it a hit, but real cinephiles recognized the debut of a major new talent.

The following year alone, Cabral appeared in 14 films. True, most of these were no-budget independent projects, but still, her movie career was off and running.

After “Kinatay” and her international debut in “Thirst,” however, even the mainstream could no longer ignore Mercedes Cabral.

Today, Cabral has also become a much sought-after character actress in network telenovelas, bread-and-butter acting jobs that, frankly, pay the bills while she undertakes indie projects for love and not much else.

To her credit, Cabral remains ambivalent about being sucked in by “showbiz.”

“I started doing television two years ago, and that’s where I learned the difference between mainstream television and indie films,” she says. “Before, I just acted the way I learned how, but

acting for television is very technical. You have to be conscious of every move, where the lights are, where the camera is.”

She’s had to adapt to the shifting nature of the telenovela, where characters can change from day to day, or even be killed off entirely, depending on audience ratings.

Television really caters to the mass audience, she says, and its makers seldom depart from the tried and true formulas for fear of losing audience ratings, because above everything else, it is a business.

She is also acutely aware of being something of a fish out of water in mainstream showbiz.

“They treat me a little differently because I’m not a Marian Rivera, or a Bea Alonzo, or an Anne Curtis,” she says. “They never let me forget it. I can’t really do anything about it except to fulfill my responsibility as an actor because that’s my work, and I love my work.”

Despite her increased profile in the business, Cabral says she still prefers to work on the passion projects of independent filmmakers who have vision and great stories to tell.

“I never really thought I’d end up in this industry,” she says.

In fact, she guesses, if she was not forced to drop out of art school, she would probably be a struggling sculptor now trying to break into the local art scene.

But sculpture’s loss has turned out to be our gain.

“Like I’ve said, things happen for a reason, that’s why I’ve learned to embrace everything.

Ang lahat ng bagay, may kapalit (There’s always a trade-off ).” ■

FRIDAY APRIL 11, 2014

28

Bible Stories

Lessons in Life, Learned from Lepers

BY ANGIE DUARTE Philippine Canadian Inquirer IT’S THAT time of the year!

Where religious bones in bodies of countless people start to ache and creak. Conscience makes itself felt in ways akin to hunger pangs, refusing to be ignored. Yes, it is undeniable: as Holy Week nears, people with a certain religious bent grow a shade more religious. And perhaps, a shade more guilty (which, if I may so myself, is the most unflattering shade for anyone to wear.)

Mind you, mere outward religiosity is entirely different from true spirituality. The former devoid of the latter is likened

by Jesus Himself to hypocrisy, as is seen in Matthew 6:5 (NIV): (5) And when you pray, do not be like the hypocrites, for they love to pray standing in the synagogues and on the street corners to be seen by others. Truly I tell you, they have received their reward in full.

But that is not quite my topic; just thought I’d throw that in, for free. Wink, wink.

I would like to share a story from the Bible; it is a tale that is a tad more obscure than your traditional Sunday School fare, but it is one that has helped me on numerous occasions on this journey called life. Shock of shocks! “You mean we can apply the Bible to our daily lives even when it ISN’T Holy week??? “ “You mean we can apply the Bible to our daily lives, AT ALL???” Yes, and yes.

Resoundingly so.

Let’s look at the story of four lepers, sitting at the entrance to the city gates—some translations say they were on the walls of the city gates. “What??? Lepers sitting at the city gates?

Why on earth were they there?”

Well, I’m glad you asked…

The lepers’ conundrum

The account can be found in the Old Testament Book of Kings; Second Kings, to be

precise. Quoting 2 Kings 7: beginning with verse 3, from the easier to read and comprehend New International Version (NIV): (3) Now there were four men with leprosy at the entrance of the city gate. They said to each other, “Why stay here until we die? (4) If we say, ‘We’ll go into the city’—the famine is there, and we will die. And if we stay here, we will die.

Here you have four leprous men, and one very big conundrum: they were not allowed in the city of Samaria, because of their leprosy. Lepers, back in those days, were considered unclean or unholy. So much so that they had to announce their presence by yelling out “Unclean! Unclean” as they went about their business or approached others. Imagine the stigma. Imagine the shame.

Imagine how non-existent the self-worth.

The book of Leviticus details this in chapter 13, verses 45-46: (45) Anyone with such a defiling disease must wear torn clothes, let their hair be unkempt, cover the lower part of their face and cry out, 'Unclean! Unclean!' (46) As long as they have the disease they remain unclean. They must live alone; they must live outside the camp.

They were outcasts; considered outsiders amongst their own people. Now I certainly am no leper, but there are times that I have felt like that. Life has a way of sometimes making you feel cast out of the best it has to offer. Problems and extreme challenges come against you. Or perhaps you have done something so terrible; sinned so “horribly” that you now feel unclean and isolated from the “good folk.” Just like the lepers.

Believe you me, I can SO relate.

City under siege

Creating an even bigger conundrum, the city was under siege by the Syrian army (point of clarification, the Arameans settled in Syria, and as such, were known as the Syrian-Ar-

An illustrator’s rendition of the biblical account of the four leprous men, form the book of 2 Kings.

PHOTO FROM DANNOLD.COM

ameans. The King James translation of the Bible indicates that it was the Syrian army, in reference to the same passage), and famine had gripped the land.

No supplies were allowed in or out, which is kind of the point of a siege. So why would they even want to enter the city, in the first place? No food at the gates, no food within them, either.

Whatever could they possibly do?

The lepers were, pardon the intentional pun, falling apart.

Literally, and figuratively.

“If we go to the city, we die; if stay here, we die,” they thought to themselves. Damned if you do, damned if you don’t.

Now remember, these lepers had already come from the city; they were cast out because of their disease. They were a pariah in their own community.

They could not go back, and— with the famine—nor would they have good reason to.

It is interesting to note and is truly ironic that many times, those people we look to as “having it all” are themselves under siege, and are unable to offer any real solutions or answers.

Those who we perceive as living a better life on the greener side of the fence may very well be struggling, themselves.

Sure, they may not be isolated and dealing with the same set of challenges—but they have their own struggles. This is why

people we generally considered as successful, rich, well-adjusted, beautiful, socially accepted sometimes commit self-destructive acts of desperation (like suicide), or end up in a vortex of abuse—drugs, alcohol, sex; you get the picture. These people, too, are under siege and falling apart—only they are falling apart in ways that may not be quite as obvious to the onlooker.

Get up, and move forward!

So what do you do when you find yourself at a point in your life at which EVERYTHING, and then some, seems to be falling apart? When you cannot stay where you are, and you cannot go back, because both places have nothing left to offer? When you feel all is lost in your past (city under siege), and nothing more remains there for you, yet your present is just as terrible?

What do you do when you don’t know what else to do?

YOUR BEST BET IS TO KEEP MOVING FORWARD!!!

Boldfaced, with three exclamation points for emphasis. I would underline and italicize it, too; but I think you get the point.

Don’t give up; don’t quit.

Think about your situation, wallow for a bit in your misery if you have to; then use reason and play the options out in your

head. THEN, IN FAITH, GET UP, AND MOVE ON. The lepers realized they had nothing left to lose, and they chose to move forward: 2 Kings 7: 4(b)-7: (4b) So let’s go over to the camp of the Arameans and surrender. If they spare us, we live; if they kill us, then we die.

They took a giant step of faith. True, their faith was tempered by fatalism (“If we die, we die…”), but the act of moving forward involved lots of faith, nonetheless. Others may have opted to give up and stay put, instead of venturing forward.

The lepers knew that moving forward, at least, gave them a fighting chance, and they acted on it.

The rewards of faith

Here’s the thing about faith that many who have tested it know: when you act in faith, even that as miniscule as a mustard seed, your actions will be rewarded. To avoid falling off religion’s deep end , or losing those who are of the nonspiritual persuasion, I’d like to postulate that faith has many anchors with faith in God, being the most solid and obvious one. But perhaps we can also view faith as rooted in the belief that things will get better; faith that if we do not give up, and continue doing what is right; ❱❱ PAGE 31 Lessons In

Bible Stories

29 FRIDAY APRIL 11, 2014

Nourishment of Biblical Proportions

BY CHING DEE Philippine Canadian Inquirer HAVE YOU ever heard of “Daniel’s Diet?”

It’s a weight-loss program based on Daniel, a Biblical character. According to Scriptures, when King Nebuchadnezzar told his subjects to eat the “King’s choice foods,” Daniel chose “not to defile himself” and only subsisted on “vegetables to eat and water to drink.”

Hence, the birth of a biblical diet. A divine way to shed those extra pounds.

But the Bible is way more than just a source of inspiration for a diet program. It can also be a culinary book for the faithful who loves to eat great food.

Biblical ‘super foods’

Google defines ‘super food’ as “a nutrient-rich food considered to be especially beneficial for health and well-being.”

According to an article from Examiner.com and About.com, there are at least 30 ‘super foods’ that were mentioned in

Biblical Meal (Holy Communion).

the Bible that are now proven to be great for healing all sorts of ailments. The article believes that the Bible gave people suggestions about super foods and a couple of recipes utilizing these nutrient-blessed items.

Over 30 food items mentioned in the Bible were proven to be highly nutritious and a great way to aid healing and recovery from certain illnesses.

If you’re looking for a great healthy snack, go for fruits and nuts. As mentioned in the Old Testament, one can reap great health benefits by munching on apples or pomegranates, figs,

KOODO_Q1 LD Print_ON Philippine Inquirer.indd 1

PHOTO BY VIKI2WIN / SHUTTERSTOCK

grapes and raisins, melons, olives, almonds, dates, pistachio, and sycamore fruit.

Vegetables, grains, and legumes are also staples of a healthy diet. According to the Scripture, beans, cucumbers, gourds, leeks, lentils, and onions are packed with nutrients that will boost immunity and ease recovery. For grains and grain-based products, one can choose from barley, corn, wheat, flour, bread, millet, spelt, and unleavened bread.

Our biblical ancestors are also no stranger to the goodness of meat. In fact, when Jesus fed

www.canadianinquirer.net

Lentil Stew.

PHOTO BY STOCKCREATIONS / SHUTTERSTOCK

5,000 people in an afternoon, he miraculously multiplied fish and bread.

For meats, the Bible mentioned people eating fish, partridge, pigeon, quail, dove (yes), eggs, poultry livestock (your regular chicken), goat, lamb, oxen, sheep, and venison.

Dairy and fruit/animal byproducts are also a significant part of their diet back then. In fact, from the Old Testament ‘til the New Testament, the Bible documented various food items falling in this category— butter (in moderate amounts), cheese (try not to overdo it) and

curds (yes, check it out on Isaiah 7:15), milk, grape juice, honey, olive oil, and vinegar. And of course, the choice of drink in almost every biblical feast: Wine.

Biblical cuisine

Other than the numerous super foods mentioned above, people who lived in biblical times were also fond of using herbs and spices in their food preparation to kick it up a notch.

That means that even before Ina Garten, Gordon Ramsay, ❱❱ PAGE 31 Nourishment of

2014-04-07 11:15 AM

Bible Stories

APRIL 11, 2014

What Is The Difference Between Being Baptized In Water And Being Baptized In The Holy Spirit?

“THE WATER does not do anything except get you wet,” says Matt, 8. “When you get baptized in the Holy Spirit, you get cleansed by God, and he will come into our hearts. Getting baptized means you’re telling the whole world that God has come into your heart.”

On the baptism of the Holy Spirit, Bible scholar JC Ryle wrote: “It consists of the implanting of grace into the inward man. It is the same thing with the new birth. It is a baptism, not of the body, but of the heart. It is well to be baptized into the visible Church; but it is far better to be baptized into that Church which is made up of true believers.”

“The difference is when you get baptized in water, it is a symbol of being purified by God,” says Caleb, 8. “When you

get baptized by the Holy Spirit, God has brought you into his kingdom.”

As one who received baptism by immersion as a professing Christian who was trying to work his way to heaven, I can affirm that being baptized by the Holy Spirit into the body of Christ is far better. At my first water baptism, I mistakenly thought that salvation was Christ plus my dedication.

I thought that salvation was a joint venture. Christ would do part, and I would do part.

As I stood in the church, wet from water baptism but confused from the mixed message, a girl sensed my bewilderment.

She invited me to another meeting where a pastor showed me from the Bible that salvation is a free gift that can only be received by faith alone in

Christ alone (Ephesians 2:8-9).

In Old Testament times, the Holy Spirit came upon a few believers for special tasks. The prophet Joel foresaw a time when God would pour out his Spirit on all believers (Joel 2:28-29). Jesus predicted that his disciples would receive the baptism of the Holy Spirit “not many days from now” (Acts 1:5).

When the disciples received the Spirit’s baptism, they began to praise God in foreign languages they had not learned.

Jews from foreign countries who had gathered at Jerusalem for the Pentecost feast understood the disciples in their own languages.

In his sermon, the Apostle Peter said this was the fulfillment ❱❱ PAGE 39 What Is

FRIDAY 30

What does the Bible tell us about prayer?

BY KATHERINE MARFALTEVES Philippine Canadian Inquirer AS GOD’S children, do we really know how to pray?

In our day to day living, we communicate with God. We thank, repent, and ask for His guidance and blessings. But the biggest question is: Are we praying in accordance to what was written in the Bible?

Before going any further, it is important to know and understand the meaning of prayer.

According to Biblical definitions, when we pray, we make petitions to God and we expect to receive what we asked for.

Moreover, prayer is not the mere utterance of words, as there are underlying principles that apply when praying.

For us to gain a deeper understanding of prayer, here are a few teachings from the Scripture.

To whom should we address our prayer?

In John 16:23, 26-27, Jesus instructed us to address our prayers to the Father—this is one of the most fundamental teachings about prayer.

We could also address our petitions to the Holy Spirit, according to a prayer mentioned in Matthew 28:19, “In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, Amen.”

Knowing God’s Will

In essence, knowing God’s will refers to knowing and understanding the Bible as stated in I John 5:14-15: “Now this is the confidence that we have in Him, that if we ask anything according to His will, He hears us. And we know that if He hears us, whatever we ask, we know that we have the petitions that we have asked of ❱❱ PAGE 39 What does

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Bible Stories

31 FRIDAY APRIL 11, 2014

Nourishment of... or Nigella Lawson graced our TVs, the Bible was already fond of using different herbs and spices to improve their meals.

Mary Fairchild of About.com compiled the herbs and spices mentioned in the bible: anise, coriander, cinnamon, cumin, dill, garlic, mint, mustard, rue, and of course—salt—perhaps Lot’s least favorite seasoning.

Inspired by the Bible’s keenness on cooking and serving great food, food writer and culinary instructor Kitty Morse wrote a Mediterranean cookbook entitled “A Biblical Feast.”

As written on its website, the book features “close to fifty kitchen-tested recipes [and] give step by step instructions on how to combine these 84 biblical foodstuffs into wholesome dishes like Lentil Salad with Watercress & Goat Cheese, Sesame-Almond-Nigella Mix, Ezekiel’s Bread, Saffroned Millet with Walnuts or Poached Apricots with Pomegranates in Honey Syrup. The appropriate Biblical verse is paired with each recipe, along with a head note explaining the foods’ culinary, historical and spiritual links.”

Morse is not the only one who was bitten by the ‘biblical cooking’ bug. Just a simple Google search will bring about several dozen of suggestions.

In 2006, Anthony Chiffolo and Rayner Hesse, Jr. wrote and published a book entitled “Cooking with the Bible.” They wrote in the website, “we have presented eighteen meals found in the scriptures: thirteen from the Hebrew Scrip❰❰ 29

Fried Fish with Sauce.

PHOTO BY PEREDNIANKINA / SHUTTERSTOCK

tures and five from the New Testament. We have included the foods that would have been in common usage in the Middle East in biblical times, such as lentils, olives, onions, figs, dates, cheese, honey, fish, lamb, goat, bread, and wine.”

Canadian group DLTK also has a section about biblical recipes that are accessible through the internet. Most recipes were updated to fit the modern man’s kitchen supplies.

• 1 large onion, diced • 1 clove garlic, crushed • 2 cups dry red lentils • 1/4 cup pearl barley • 2 qts. vegetable or chicken stock • 1 1/2 tsp cumin • 1 tsp hyssop or parsley • 1/2 tsp sumac (optional) • 1 bay leaf • Salt and pepper to taste

Biblical recipes for Lent

If you’re observing Lent and trying to cut down on meat and meat products, here are some biblical recipes that will not just fill your tummy—it may also take your faith on a different level.

A stew can go two ways: a light starter or a hearty main dish.

Here’s the recipe for Jacob’s Lentil Stew courtesy of Tori Avey of The History Kitchen.

JACOB’S LENTIL STEW • 1/2 cup fresh chopped cilantro (coriander), divided • 3 carrots • 3 celery stalks, including leaves • 2 tbsp extra virgin olive oil

Sauté onion in some olive oil ‘til translucent. Add garlic, carrot chunks, and celery and continue to sauté. Add red lentils and barley and mix well. Add 2 quarts of broth and bring to a boil. Add cilantro, cumin, hyssop or parsley, sumac, and bayleaf. Stir well. Reduce heat to simmer for 1 ½ to 2 hours, stirring occasionally. Season with salt and pepper as desired.

Fish as a main dish? Why not try out St. Peter's Fish with Parsley Sauce courtesy of Cooking with the Bible.

ST. PETER’S FISH PARSLEY SAUCE

WITH

• 1 cup fresh parsley • 1 clove garlic, chopped • 4 Tbsp. water • juice of one lemon

Date Bar (Granola Bar).

• salt and pepper • 3 Tbsp. flour • 6 St. Peter's fish, bass, or trout, filleted • ½ cup olive oil • 3 Tbsp. onion, chopped Blitz parsley, garlic, and 2 tbsp of water in a food processor until smooth. Add 2 more tbsp. of water if needed to thin it out. Add lemon juice, salt, and pepper. Set aside.

Season flour with some salt and pepper. Coat fish fillets with flour and fry until golden brown on both sides. In the same pan with half the oil, sauté the onions until caramelized.

Add some flour and stir until light brown. Add the parsley mixture and stir for another 2-3 minutes.

Serve the fried fish fillet with parsley sauce.

PHOTO BY ISTETIANA / SHUTTERSTOCK

dates, finely chopped • 1 cup light brown sugar • 1/2 teaspoon salt • 2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour • 1 teaspoon baking soda • 1 cup unsalted butter • 1 cup granulated sugar • 2 1/2 cups old-fashioned rolled oats

pound (3 cups) pitted

Pre-heat oven to 375 degrees Farenheit. Line a baking sheet with parchment and set aside.

For the filling, boil dates, brown sugar, 1/4 teaspoon salt, and 1/2 cup water in a sauce pan. Simmer until dates are soft, which is about 10 minutes.

Set aside to cool.

In a bowl combine flour, baking soda, and 1/4 teaspoon salt.

In another bowl, mix butter and granulated sugar until creamy and light colored. Mix in oats.

Add flour mixture alternately with 1/2 cup warm water and mix well. Best to use your hands to mix.

Roll dough on a floured surface to make two 10-inch squares. Transfer one square to baking sheet and spread date mixture evenly to the edges; cover with the other square.

Cut into 2-by-3-inch pieces.

Bake until golden brown, about 30 minutes. ■

some things from it and hid them also.

The spoils of war awaited the lepers, even though they had not fought the battle themselves, FOR THE LORD had fought it for them! Their part was to step out and move forward in faith. “To keep on keeping on,” and not give up.

But wait! There’s more—the rewards of faith are not only reaped by those who move forward and do not quit, but also by others who see this, and are likewise inspired to keep on .

The lepers chose to return to

the palace, to tell others of the news: (9)Then they said to each other, “What we’re doing is not right. This is a day of good news and we are keeping it to ourselves."

So they returned to the gates of the city, to share the good news with the gatekeepers; four outcasts now bringing hope and salvation to an entire city.

What do you do when you don’t know what else to do?

YOU KEEP MOVING FORWARD. Tomorrow may very well be the day that things turn around for you, for the better! ■

For a dessert as sweet as God’s love for all humankind (probably not as cheesy as what you just read), here’s an easy nutty bar: Date Bars courtesy of Ladies’ Home Journal and Recipe.com.

DATE BARS • 1

Lessons In... and continue putting one foot in front if the other to move forward—somewhere, somehow things will turn around in our favour!

Now maybe that is the remnant of the cockeyed optimist in me, rearing up its chirpy head. But honestly, I refuse to live a life ruled by despair and hopelessness. And so, I choose to believe. And I know where and in Whom my faith lies, and I am neither ashamed nor hesitant to admit it. Have I been disappointed, at times? Of ❰❰ 28

course. Severely so. We all have.

BUT I KEEP MOVING FORWARD, nonetheless. I cannot wallow forever in the misery of past mistakes: I cannot live in a present plagued by lack—so I press on to what is hopefully a better tomorrow.

This is what the lepers chose to do, and God did not let them down.

2 Kings 7: 5-9 reads: (5) At dusk they got up and went to the camp of the Arameans. When they reached the edge of the camp, no one was there, (6) for the Lord had caused the Arameans to hear

the sound of chariots and horses and a great army, so that they said to one another, “Look, the king of Israel has hired the Hittite and Egyptian kings to attack us!” (7) So they got up and fled in the dusk and abandoned their tents and their horses and donkeys. They left the camp as it was and ran for their lives.

(8) The men who had leprosy reached the edge of the camp, entered one of the tents and ate and drank. Then they took silver, gold and clothes, and went off and hid them. They returned and entered another tent and took www.canadianinquirer.net

FRIDAY APRIL 11, 2014

32

Entertainment

‘Captain America: The Winter Soldier’ sets April record with $96.2M debut

BY JESSICA HERNDON The Associated Press LOS ANGELES—Disney and Marvel could be one of the finest teams around.

Continuing the success of their superhero franchise, “Captain America: The Winter Soldier” has set a record as the biggest domestic April release ever.

The Disney sequel debuted with $96.2 million topping the previous record holder, 2011’s “Fast Five,” which opened with $86.2 million. Last weekend “The Winter Soldier,” which stars Chris Evans as the shieldwielding superhero, and Scarlett Johansson (whose sci-fi “Under the Skin” also debuted this weekend with $140,000) as Black Widow, commanded 32 international markets, gaining $75.2 million in its overseas bow.

Expanding to Russia, Australia and China in its second week, the Marvel comic adaptation, boasting a budget of over $170 million, has earned $207.1 million internationally, bringing its overall worldwide haul to over $303 million.

Also a touchstone for Imax, “The Winter Soldier” attained $9.6 million on 346 screens showing the film in the enhanced resolution format. Internationally the film showed on 278 Imax screens resulting in a $6.5 million gain, $4 million of which was delivered

from China.

“Captain America: The First Avenger,” which had a budget of around $140 million, debuted in 2011 with $65 million when it opened in July. Overall it earned $371 million worldwide.

Why the shift to an April release rather than remaining a summer launch?

“We looked at the possibility of creating separation from the other summer tentpoles,” said Dave Hollis, head of worldwide theatrical distribution for Disney. “There was an opportunity. We have the second Marvel film coming at the end of the summer in ‘Guardians of the Galaxy.’ We wanted to start and end the summer and take advantage of this holiday. In the next month or so we’ll have the benefit of spring break.”

“The Avengers effect,” as Hollis calls it, set the stage for the continuation of Marvel’s massive box office presence, which has continued with the “Iron Man” and “Thor” franchises.

With the release of the films’ sequels, both have seen jumps of earnings over 35 per cent.

“There are very few movie brands that are this consistent,” said Paul Dergarabedian, senior media analyst for boxoffice tracker Rentrak of the Disney-Marvel team. “For ‘The Winter Solider’ to push on $100 million in April shows that you can release a big movie any time of the year. Every studio is going to be looking at this date to plant their flag in the future.”

Paramount’s biblical saga “Noah,” starring Russell Crowe, Jennifer Connelly and Emma Watson, took a drastic dip in its second weekend, earning $17 million after debuting with $44 million. Still, it sailed into second place, crossing the $70 million mark domestically, while pushing Lionsgate’s young adult science-fiction thriller “Divergent,” led by Shailene Woodley, to third with $13 million in its third week. Its stateside cume is now $114 million.

Freestyle Releasing’s surprise hit “God’s Not Dead” took the No. 4 slot with $7.7 million in its third weekend.

Despite the decrease in the “Noah” box office performance, the outcome of film’s debut, its overall haul, and the success of both “Son of God” and “God’s Not Dead” bodes well for other biblical-themed films coming this year, including “Heaven is for Real,” starring Greg Kinnear and “Exodus: Gods and Kings,” starring Christian Bale.

Coming in at No. 5, Wes Anderson’s “The Grand Budapest Hotel” collected $6.3 million, bringing its domestic total to $33 million. Fox Searchlight expanded its stylish comedy to 1,263 locations and the studio plans to add even more in the coming weeks. This is Anderson’s second widest expansion following 2009’s “Fantastic Mr. Fox.” “As this movie is expanding it is just building an audience,” Dergarabedian said. “$33 million compared to something

PHOTO FROM POSTERSPY.COM

like ‘Captain America’ doesn’t sound like a lot, but it’s a huge number for a film like ‘Grand Budapest’ that is so indieminded and original.”

The weekend’s other releases included Codeblack Films’ “Frankie and Alice,” starring Halle Berry as a dancer with multiple personality disorder. Playing in 171 locations, it earned $350,000.

And Fox Searchlight’s darkcomedy “Dom Hemingway,” starring Jude Law and “Game of Thrones” star Emilia Clarke, had a domestic gross of $32,000 after showing in only four theatres in New York and Los Angeles. Next week the film will expand to nearly 40 locations.

Disney’s “Muppets Most Wanted,” which landed at No. 6 with $6.3 million in its third weekend and Fox’s “Mr. Peabody and Sherman,” coming in at No. 7 with $5.3 million in weekend five, were the top kid-

die films. But Fox’s animated “Rio 2” stands to knock them down a few notches when it releases next weekend.

Estimated ticket sales for Friday through Sunday at U.S. and Canadian theatres, according to Rentrak. Where available, latest international numbers are also included. Final domestic figures will be released on Monday.

1.”Captain America: The Winter Soldier,” $96.2 million.

2.”Noah,” $17 million.

3.”Divergent,” $13 million.

4.”God’s Not Dead,” $7.7 million.

5.”The Grand Budapest Hotel,” $6.3 million.

6.”Muppets Most Wanted,” $6.3 million.

7.”Mr. Peabody and Sherman,” $5.3 million.

8.”Sabotage,” $1.9 million.

9.”Need for Speed,” $1.84 million.

10.”Non-Stop,” $1.83 million.

Entertainment

33 FRIDAY APRIL 11, 2014

12 PH interns in Van Damme film Country joins Beijing fest for the first time

BY MARINEL R. CRUZ Philippine Daily Inquirer THE FILM Development Council of the Philippines (FDCP) has sent 12 aspiring filmmakers to Guangzhou, China, for a month-long internship on the set of a Hollywood production featuring action star Jean Claude Van Damme, FDCP chair Briccio Santos announced during the weekend.

“They were picked by the council’s technical panel,” Santos told the INQUIRER. “It was the panel that advised producers, consultants and film institutions to recommend nominees for the boot camp.”

Vital exposure

The interns, who left Manila on Thursday, will participate in the production of the Van Damme movie, “Pound of Flesh,” up toMay 5. “The goal is for them to learn the ins and outs of a Hollywood produc-

tion,” said Santos. “They will be assigned different tasks; they may also appear in the movie as bit players.”

The venture was launched under the auspices of the FDCP Film Cultural Exchange Program, with the support of the Chinese government. It was made possible through an agreement with the Chinabased Ace Studio. “The experience and wisdom that they stand to learn from the exposure will be vital in their overall development as filmmakers,” said the FDCP chief.

The chosen 12

The interns are Richelle C. Adevoso, Audrey Shane A. Alminaza, Brian Anthony B. Bagoyo, Alfred John M. Brian, Therese Gracielle V. de Guzman, April B. Marañon, Anna Francesca Z. Marfori, John Marvin S. Nueva, Seline Mae T. Ong, Jonathan M. Paredes, Diomar Joseph G. Parulan and Eleaverne Shayne Ruebe.

Directed by US filmmaker Ernie Barbarash (“Cube Zero,” “Assassination Games,” “6 Bullets”), “Pound of Flesh” is a coproduction of Canada and China, and involves production companies Ace Studio and Odyssey Media. “This could pave the way for the next Van Damme movies to be shot in the Philippines,” said Santos.

First time in Beijing

Meanwhile, the FDCP will represent the country for the first time at the fourth Beijing International Film Festival and Film Market (BJIFF) set April 17 to 19. “The Council is proud and looking forward to being present at the event’s film market,” Santos said.

According to a statement from FDCP, the aim of the BJIFF is to develop China’s film industry and provide comprehensive support and services to domestic and international participants by setting up two large professional markets—

Jean-Claude Van Damme.

PHOTO FROM PHOTO WORKS / SHUTTERSTOCK.COM

the Film Factor Market and the Film Project Market.

Santos elaborated: “Film locations being one of the main demands of this specific market, it is the FDCP team’s hope to promote the Philippines as

such—a versatile filming location. The opportunity to mingle and forge potential partnerships with exhibitors and visitors from all over the world is one that the FDCP team cannot wait to accomplish.” ■

“Attracting and retaining the best international talent to fill skills shortages in key occupations is critical to Canada’s economic success.”

- Hon. Jason Kenney, P.C., M.P.

Minister of Employment and Social Development

Respond to Canada’s need for immigrants.

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www.canadianinquirer.net

Entertainment

She wants her kid to meet Japanese dad

BY MARINEL R. CRUZ Philippine Daily Inquirer COMEDIENNE POKWANG said she would not get in the way of daughter Ria Mae, should the girl decide to look for her estranged Japanese father, especially since she is marking her 18th birthday this year.

“I asked if she wanted to meet her father and she simply replied, ‘Why not?’ I guess she’s still a little undecided. I’ve always told her not to harbor ill feelings toward her father. I remind her that she wouldn’t be here if not for him, and that she should have a heart that’s open and forgiving,” said Pokwang during the press launch for the ABSCBN drama series “Mira Bella.”

The 43-year-old single mom said: “I still appreciate his role in my life because I wouldn’t have Ria Mae if not for him.

She’s my inspiration. I will not be selfish…I’d do anything to make Ria Mae feel complete as a person, even if that meant reconnecting with her father.”

Pokwang, however, stressed that she no longer hoped to reconcile with her former partner, who is based in Japan with a new wife and their own children. “Their kids are almost the same age as my daughter. We no longer communicate, but I heard that he has found out about my current work here in the Philippines from a common friend, and through TFC (ABSCBN’s international channel).”

Fear factor

Pokwang admitted that failed relationships have left her scarred and reluctant to try again. “May takot factor,” she confessed. “I’m not saying that

men shouldn’t be trusted. I’ve just decided not to be too concerned about my love life and, instead, to focus on saving up for my daughter’s future.”

Ria Mae is a college freshman taking up Culinary Arts. “She’s got three more years in school— and maybe then I can finally relax.” Pokwang also had a son; he died of a congenital brain ailment at age 6.

Despite all her heartaches, Pokwang admitted being “a romantic” and that she still believes “there’s a guy for every girl.”

She advised single moms like herself to enjoy life to the fullest. “Make your children the source of your happiness,” she said. “Don’t be afraid to fall in love again, but be sure to set priorities.”

Pokwang plays adoptive mother to “Mira Bella” lead star Julia Barretto in the series directed by Erick Salud, Jerome Pobocan and Jojo Saguin. “Mira Bella” took two years in preproduction, and finally started airing on March 24.

“We didn’tmind that it took so long to get the show started.

We knew it would be worth it,” Pokwang said. “Julia is a promising actress. She admits that she’s not as good as her aunts (Claudine and Gretchen), but tries to make up for it by working hard.”

The comedienne, bullied in the past because of her looks, said she accepted the project because it hit close to home.

“The story speaks to me. I wish people would define beauty not by what they see but by what’s inside someone’s heart,” she said.

Pokwang starts working in June on a comedy film, “My Amensia Z,” opposite Zanjoe Marudo. ■

In the press launch for the ABS-CBN drama series “Mira Bella”, Pokwang admitted that failed relationships have left her scarred and reluctant to try again.

PHOTO COURTESY OF ABS-CBN

APRIL 11, 2014 FRIDAY 34

GMA Network widens ratings lead in Urban Luzon and Mega Manila in March GMA NETWORK (GMA) widened its lead in TV ratings in the viewer-rich areas of Urban Luzon and Mega Manila in March, according to data from the industry’s leading ratings service provider Nielsen TV Audience Measurement.

Urban Luzon and Mega Manila account for 77 and 60 percent, respectively, of the total urban TV household population in the entire country.

For the period March 1 to 31 (March 23 to 31 based on overnight data), GMA’s total day audience share in Urban Luzon reached 35.7 percent, up 4.1 points from ABS-CBN’s 31.6 percent, and up 24.7 points from TV5’s 11 percent.

In comparison with the previous month, GMA increased its total day margin over ABSCBN and TV5 in Urban Luzon, from 2.4 to 4.1 points, and from 22.1 to 24.7 points, respectively.

Furthermore, majority of the top programs in Urban Luzon belonged to GMA (17 out of 30) with multi-awarded news magazine program Kapuso Mo, Jessica Soho leading all Kapuso shows in the top 30 list.

GMA’s top-rating weekend shows Magpakailanman, Celebrity Bluff and Pepito Manaloto: Ang Tunay na Kuwento also made the list in Urban Luzon, as well as Kapuso drama Carmela, and the newly launched primetime series Kambal Sirena.

Completing the list were investigative public affairs program Imbestigador, Saturday night sitcom Vampire Ang Daddy Ko, the country’s longest running noontime show Eat Bulaga, telefantasya Adarna, GMA’s flagship newscast 24 Oras, GMA Telebabad’s Rhodora X, the longest running gag show on Philippine TV Bubble Gang, widely followed Koreanovela A 100-Year Legacy, weekend game show Picture!

Picture!, anime program Slam Dunk, and GMA’s flagship documentary program I-Witness.

GMA also kept its stronghold in Mega Manila with a 37 percent total day average, higher than ABS-CBN’s 29.1 percent by 7.9 points, and TV5’s 11.8 percent by 25.2 points. www.canadianinquirer.net

Marian Rivera and Alden Richards.

Jessica Soho.

Similarly, GMA’s lead over rivals ABS-CBN and TV5 in Mega Manila grew from 6.3 to 7.9 points and from 22.3 to 25.2 points, respectively, versus February.

Kapuso Mo, Jessica Soho also led all GMA shows in the list for Mega Manila, which was likewise dominated by the Kapuso Network scoring 18 out of the top 30 shows. Also in the top 10 were Celebrity Bluff, Magpakailanman, Kambal Sirena, Pepito Manaloto, Carmela, and Imbestigador.

Vampire Ang Daddy Ko, Rhodora X, Adarna, 24 Oras, Bubble Gang, Eat Bulaga, A 100-Year Legacy, Picture! Picture!, IWitness, Slam Dunk, and Fairy Tail likewise drove GMA’s ratings in Mega Manila.

GMA was notably ahead of ABS-CBN and TV5 across all day parts in Urban Luzon and Mega Manila including the hotly contested primetime block.

Meanwhile, GMA dominated the morning block in National Urban TV Audience Measurement (NUTAM) ratings by virtue of its 33.2 percent audience

share, outscoring ABS-CBN’s 30.2 percent by 3 points. GMA was ahead of TV5 across all timeblocks in NUTAM GMA and TV5 subscribe to Nielsen TV Audience Measurement while ABS-CBN is the lone local major TV network that reportedly subscribes to Kantar Media, formerly known as TNS. In Mega Manila, Nielsen TV Audience Measurement gathers data based on a sample size of 1,190 homes as compared to Kantar Media's 770 homes.

Meanwhile, Nielsen has a nationwide urban sample size of 2,000 homes, which is statistically higher than Kantar's sample size of 1,370. ■ To know more about your favorite Kapuso shows and artists, visit the GMA International website www.gmanetwork.com/ international, Facebook pages www. facebook.com/ GMAPinoyTV, www.facebook.com/ gmalifetv, and, www.facebook. com/gmanewsinternational, and Twitter pages @GMAPinoyTV and @GMA_LifeTV.

Entertainment

35 FRIDAY APRIL 11, 2014

TV5’s History wins in Hildegarde Awards TV5’S PROGRAM History bagged the Outstanding Achievement in the Broadcast Media (Television) category in this year’s Hildegarde Awards, staged by St. Scholastica’s College (SSC) Manila’s Mass Communications Department.

Now in its 8th year, Hildegarde Awards is consistent with SSC’s vision of building a gender-fair society. It is established in honor of the 12th century Benedictine abbess, mystic, musician, and healer St. Hildegarde of Bingen, aiming to celebrate women’s achievements in mass media and its allied fields.

Hosted by musician, poet, and TV personality Lourd de Veyra, History gets a different brand of history lessons and trivia. Taglined “Tsismis noon, Kasaysayan ngayon,” the show looks into controversies in Philippine History that have long intrigued scholars and common citizens alike—basically, history lessons they don’t teach you in school.

History is part of News 5’s “Karunungan" series, under the “KBO” block, which stands for "Karunungan, Balita, Opinyon.” KBO aims to strengthen News 5's position as a credible

source of knowledge by offering a unique mix of informative and educational shows every night.

History airs on Kapatid TV5 on these days and times: Wednesday KSA 9:45pm (Replay Thurs 3:30am), Thursday Guam 4:45am (Replay 10:30am), Wednesdays PST 7:45pm (Replay Thurs 12:00am), EST 10:45pm (Replay Thurs 3:00am) and Aksyon TV International on these days and times: Thursdays KSA 12:15am (Replay 11:30am), Guam 7:15am (Replay 7:30pm), Wednesdays PST 4:45pm (Replay 11:30pm), EST 7:45pm (Replay 2:30am). ■

History’s host Lourd de Veyra receives the trophy at the awarding ceremonies held recently at St. Scholastica’s College in Manila.

Kris Aquino’s Philippine premiere of “Noah” special someone is delayed due to distribution dispute Herbert Bautista

BY KATHERINE MARFALTEVES Philippine Canadian Inquirer KRIS AQUINO finally confirmed that Quezon City Mayor Herbert Bautista is her mysterious special someone.

On Monday, through ABSCBN’s nightly show, “Aquino and Abunda Tonight,” the 43-year-old actress-TV host, read a statement which explained it all.

In the statement, Aquino mentioned that Mayor Bautista asked the permission of her brother, Pres. Benigno Aquino III to date her.

Kris cleared that she consulted Herbert before reading the statement. She added that the statement would say all that

they want to say.

The presidential sister also appealed to the public to give them the privacy that they need so they can have “a chance for forever.”

“We are a work in progress,” she added.

Before Aquino’s admission, the public already had an inkling that something romantic is going on between the two.

On Friday, Bautista visited Aquino on the set of her show “Kris TV”. And on Saturday evening, Aquino posted a photo on Instagram, showing the Aquino clan having dinner with Herbert. In the said photo, the 45-year-old mayor was seen talking to Kris’ sisters.

In a previous interview, Bautista admitted that he is the marrying type. He already has four children. ■

The Instagram photo posted by Aquino showing the Aquino clan having dinner with Herbert.

BY KATHERINE MARFALTEVES Philippine Canadian Inquirer

THE BIBLICAL film “Noah” would have premiered in the Philippines last April 2, if not for a distribution dispute.

On March 7, a temporary restraining order (TRO) was issued by the Makati Regional Trial Court after Solar Entertainment Corporation filed an injunction case against United International Pictures (UIP).

Based on reports, Solar filed the case after UIP appointed Columbia Pictures as its new film distributor in the Philippines.

In its official statement, Solar said the TRO prevents “UIP from violating its existing distribution agreement with us, thereby maintaining the status of our Company as the exclusive local distributor of UIP films”.

As reported in the Philippine Daily Inquirer, the TRO would also prevent UIP from: “(a) entering into any film distribution agreement with any other entity within the Philippines, or, if any such agreement has already been executed, from executing the provisions thereof; and (b) engaging in mass media activities, specifically, distributing, marketing, promoting and showing of UIP films within the Philippines, which could violate the 2012 Agreement bewww.canadianinquirer.net

Russell Crowe as “Noah.”

tween UIP and our Company.”

As a result of the TRO, “Noah,” along with other films produced by both Paramount and Universal Pictures would not be shown in the Philippines, until after the case has been fully resolved.

Paramount’s “Hercules”, “Transformers: Age of Extinction” and “Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles” as well as Universal’s “Neighbors”, “Lucy” and “A Million Ways to Die in the West” are among other films which would not be shown in

Philippine cinemas due to the dispute.

“Noah,” which stars Russell Crowe, Jennifer Connelly, Ray Winstone, Emma Watson, Logan Lerman and Anthony Hopkins, has already been banned in Indonesia, Egypt, United Arab Emirates and Malaysia.

Islamic and Christian groups in the abovementioned countries condemned Crowe’s visual depiction of the revered biblical figure, as the latter’s character was shown violating the Islamic law. ■

FRIDAY APRIL 11, 2014

36

Lifestyle

From behind the makeup counter

BY ANGEL JONES Special to Philippine Canadian Inquirer ASIDE FROM my many extracurricular media activities, I am also a makeup artist. I have been a freelance makeup artist for 13 years and worked on commercials and photoshoots, weddings and events; as a demo artist for Lancome, and worked the counter at the makeup junkies heaven MAC Cosmetics. But before all that, I was an ordinary consumer lurking on the other side of the makeup counters, curious and deathly afraid to ask questions from the make-up experts manning the booths.

Afraid to look foolish for not knowing the difference between blush and bronzer, I would linger in the store, sampling swatches of eyeliner on my hand, creating a rainbow of colors. I would also try on lipstick 'till I have rubbed my lips raw.

What a lot of women don't realize is that makeup artists were once customers too. It is safe to say the artists know how scary and overwhelming the decision of which make-up to buy can be. I realized this as my girls and friends always needed to bring me with them to go makeup shopping not just because they trust my judgment but because they are deathly afraid of the artist behind the counter!

So for those who do not have the convenience of having a makeup artist to drag along to a make-up rendezvous, here are some tips to help you confidently survive your make-up shopping experience.

1. It is ok to be just looking.

There is so much pressure to buy everything we see!

Don’t feel guilty or pressured to buy something just to get some of your questions answered. If it's a slow day, artists

The author with a client.

won’t mind helping you out and answering all your questions.

Just be honest that you are just looking but that you do have questions. We appreciate the honesty so it's fair for an artist to eventually need to step away to help a customer who is ready to purchase products.

2. MU artists are there to help you. It's their job!

Don't be afraid to get advice and ask for help. Make-up artists are trained to help and assist you although stores can get pretty busy and it is hard to grab an artist for some attention at peak hours. Best time to go are during school hours and in the morning. Anything after 4pm and the weekends and it can be a mad house. You will be battling for some one-on-one time unless you know what you came in to get and get out. But be patient, sometimes there are five people all needing help at the same time. And not all companies have sales persons on commission, so if you have several artists asking if you need help it's not because they have a quota; usually it is company policy to make sure all customers on the floor are well taken cared of.

3. It is ok to want to buy something for the sake of buying something!

Shoot, I do it all the time! It is called retail therapy! Artists

know of this phenomena and would love to help you soothe your retail fix! Be honest that you just want to buy something and inform them on what you already have and an artist can help suggest something you don’t already have to add to your glorious collection! On that note, be honest if there is a budget you want to stick to as well, because the artist can help you make clever decisions based on what budget you allotted for yourself and can help you decide which items are most important to buy at that moment and which ones can wait for the next splurge.

4. Trust the artist or at least have an open mind.

MU artists love to be creative on how they look and dress.

Just because at the moment we are sporting black lips and a mohawk to promote a product launch, it doesn't mean we plan on smearing black lips and goth smokey eye on you! What we put on ourselves is not a direct connection to what we will put on your face. MU artists use their face to express art and challenge ourselves to push the creative envelope but know that customers want to be beautiful and not look all crazy! So next time you see an artist donning purple brows and piercings, trust that she/ he knows what they are doing. After all it is just make up, if you don't like it wipe

Author Angel Jones.

it off and try again! Make up remover is quite abundant at the counter and free to use!

There are so many customers that say “you choose” or “what do you think looks good” and when we do choose for you, have an open mind and give it a minute to let it all soak in.

5. Have a clear vision of what you are looking for and bring in pictures!

A major struggle for MU artists is trying to understand what the customer is trying to convey at times. Peachy nude lip is not as helpful of a description as you might think. Or the famous request: the Kim Kardashian eye. When you see a look, take a photo, save it on your phone, bring it in and allow the MU artist to interpret the look on you matching your skin color.

Yes, skin color matters! Just because that chalk beige lip works on a lighter complexion doesn't mean it will be the same on a medium tone. Don’t worry.

There is usually a version of the look that can be tweaked to suit your face and shade.

Please know that sometimes lipstick that is on red raw lips for all the testing will not look the same as if it were on lips that haven’t been rubbed raw.

Keep in mind lipstick shades looks completely different when your whole face has been freshly made as well.

6. Get a sit down full face booking.

We can get into makeup ruts and need a new look, new shades, new style of doing things. For roughly $50, usually redeemable in product, let an artist bring out your best features. You may even learn new tricks and new shades that will flatter you. With a full face of gorgeous makeup, have a night out while you are at it!

7 .Tip your artist.

If you had a great encounter with your makeup artist and your MU-artist used their skill to transform you whether it was booked appointment or a eye makeup demo, show your appreciation! Makeup Artistry is a talent, a service and a skill— a skill that boosts confidence and enhances esteem like a mini counseling session.

So whether it's a monetary tip, a company online survey or a thank you note, take the time to pay the appreciation forward to your MU-artist for their talents and the amazing experience you just had. If we tip waiters for serving us food, why not tip your artist for making you look gorgeous? ■ Follow me: Twitter & IG @missangeljones Facebook angelicavjones YouTube angelvjones missangeljones.tumblr.com

Lifestyle

37 FRIDAY APRIL 11, 2014

Canada gets a taste of why it's more fun in the Philippines

BY MELISSA REMULLA-BRIONES Philippine Canadian Inquirer THE PHILIPPINE Consulate General in Vancouver, together with its partner agencies, the Tourism Promotions Board of the Philippine Department of Tourism showcased the beauty of the Philippines and its 7,107 colourful islands via a press briefing and musical show at the Oak Room of the Four Seasons Hotel in Downtown Vancouver on April 1.

The caves of Cagayan, the pristine beauty of Batanes and the stunning coastline and rugged mountains of Batangas took center stage and awed members of the Vancouver media, representatives of travel agencies and other special guests.

A cocktail reception and musical show the same night entitled “Pilipinas, Like Kita” topbilled by Cesar Montano, Richard Merck, Cacai Bautista, Rachel Anne Wolfe, Ava Jugueta, Joee Guilas, Janice Caraga and other world-renowned artists from the Philippines capped the event.

Tourism in the Philippines

The Philippines welcomed a total of 4,681,307 foreign visitors in 2013, surpassing the 4,272,811 arrivals recorded in 2012 by 9.56%. This performance marked a new milestone for the tourism industry as visitor arrivals demonstrated sustained growth despite the challenges of the previous year.

The highest growth rates during the year were recorded in February (15.8%), June (14.0%), and August (13.0%). Visi-

tor count reached an all time high of more than 400,000 during the months of January, February, March, July, and December.

Top source markets included Canada with 131,381 arrivals.

Total revenues gained from inbound visitors for the year was up by 15.1% and estimated to be at US$4.40 billion (or Php 186.15 billion). Overall average length of stay of visitors remained at 9.6 nights. Visitors from the USA had the longest stay at 13.4 nights.

Average daily expenditure of inbound tourists also increased by 8.7% to US$101.12.

Koreans showed the biggest tourism spend at US$140.81 per day. Based on per capita spending of the Philippines’ top markets, visitors from Canada recorded the biggest tourism spend at US$1,393.68. It was followed by visitors from Australia with a per capita expenditure of US$1,382.48.

Other high-spending markets included Germany with US$1,360.34; USA with US$ 1,334.34; United Kingdom with US$1,306.86; and Korea with US$ 874.59.

The Philippines will also play host to a great number of international conferences and events, which include the 5th World Ecotourism Conference in Cebu this February and WEF East Asia Summit in May. The Philippine government is also preparing for Visit the Philippines Year (VPY) 2015, which will feature a calendar of events and an exciting mix of activities. Filipinos in Canada are invited to come and partake of the more fun promise in the Philippines. ■

PHOTOS BY ANGELO SIGLOS

3 Ways to Buy a Home for Less Money GREATER VANCOUVER—If you’re like most home buyers, you have two primary considerations in mind when you start looking for a home. First, you want to find the home that perfectly meets your needs and desires, and secondly, you want to purchase this home for the lowest possible price.

When you analyze those successful home buyers who have been able to purchase the home they want for thousands of dollars below a seller’s asking price, some common denominators emerge. While the negotiating skills of your agent are important, there are three additional key factors that must come into play long before you ever submit an offer.

This topic has been the subject of extensive analysis by Industry Experts, and a summary of their findings, and a specific step-by-step purchase plan for home buyers, can be found in a new

special report called “Home Buyers: How to Save Thousands of Dollars When You Buy.” This free report outlines the psychology of how a seller sets their asking price, and gives you 3 simple steps to follow, before you even set foot in a seller’s home, which could help you to successfully slash thousands of dollars off the price of the home you want.

To order a FREE Special Report, visit www.

VancouverBuyersSaveThousands.com or to hear a brief recorded message about how to order your FREE copy of this report call toll-free 1-888-2565085 and enter 1014. You can call any time, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.

Get your free special report NOW to find out how you can save thousands of dollars when you buy a home.

This report is courtesy of Cheryl Fuller, Royal LePage Kamploops Realty.

Not intended to solicit buyers or sellers currently under contract. Copyright 2014

No rent from jail, bonus for snake eyes among 5 Monopoly house rules fans pick for new set

BY SUSAN GREER The Canadian Press NEW YORK—No rent collection while in jail, double the dough for landing on Go and clean out Free Parking if your luck takes you there are among five made-up Monopoly rules Facebook fans voted in for future editions of the board game.

Several thousand people weighed in on “house rules” over 10 days of recent debate and a year after Hasbro Inc. added a cat token and retired the iron in a similar online stunt aimed at keeping the 79-year-old game fresh.

“Our goal is to stay current and deliver Monopoly in a way that they want to engage with it and that means sometimes being new and having modern takes on the brand,” said Jonathan Berkowitz, vice-president of marketing, ahead of Friday’s house rules announcement.

New means old all over again in this case since house rules are often passed on through generations. Some casual players may have thought a few of the 10 in the running before debate ended Thursday were already in the official rule book. And some, even regular players, might not have heard of others.

Did you know some people play that moms get out of jail for free? Always.

No questions asked. That one didn’t make the cut. Nor did buying houses for a property without an actual monopoly (a complete colour set of properties), or starting the game by placing half of all the money on the game board for a cash-grabbing free-for-all on the count of three.

Hasbro’s house rules debate came after the company received results of a survey showing nearly 70 per cent of 1,000 respondents reported never hav-

www.canadianinquirer.net

ing read all Monopoly rules and 34 per cent said they had made up rules more than once.

The winning house rule for landing on Go means players get 400 Monopoly dollars instead of the official 200. As for Free Parking, official rules call for absolutely nothing to happen when a player lands there. Under the house rule, any taxes and fees collected are thrown into the middle for a lucky someone who lands on that corner square.

Rounding out the five winners are players must travel around the board one full time before they can begin buying properties, and collecting 500 bucks for rolling double ones.

To appease hardcore players not interested in new rules, the Pawtucket, R.I., company will put the winners into a special House Rules Edition to be released in the fall and add them to classic Monopoly’s game guide next year as unofficial.

“There are a lot of Monopoly purists who want to play by the classic rules and don’t want to change it, but we love the idea of there being some optional rules in there that can mix up the game a little bit,” Berkowitz said. ■

APRIL 11, 2014 FRIDAY 38

Prime Minister... up to 27,000 affected people on Panay Island.

CARE Canada - $1.3 million to help up to 24,850 affected people in Leyte, Samar and on Panay Island.

Centre for International Studies and Cooperation $750,000 to help up to 12,500 affected people in Leyte and Western Samar.

Christian Children’s Fund Canada - $950,000 to help up to 9,200 affected people in Leyte province.

Development and Peace - $2 million to help up to 6,840 affected people in Samar province.

Global Medic – Léger Foundation - $450,000 to help up to 15,000 affected people in Leyte province.

Handicap International Canada - $1.65 million to help up to 4,690 affected people in Capiz province.

HOPE International Development Agency - $1.5 million to help up to 31,960 affected people in Leyte province.

Humanity First Canada $250,000 to help up to 6,250 affected people in Capiz and Iloilo provinces.

Plan Canada - $1.5 million to help up to 37,500 affected people in East and West Samar.

Save the Children Canada $2 million to help up to 12,500 affected people on Panay Island.

World Renew - $1.4 million to help up to 21,860 affected people on Panay Island and in Leyte and Samar provinces.

World Vision Canada - $3.6 million to help up to 12,660 affected people in Leyte province. ❰❰ 18

International Organizations

International Committee for the Red Cross - $1.5 million to help up to 250,000 affected

people in Samar province.

International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies - $6 million to help up to 500,000 affected people across all typhoon-affected areas.

International Organization for Migration - $2.5 million to help up to 2.2 million displaced people (inside and outside of evacuation centres).

United Nations Children’s Fund - $3 million to help up to 1.34 million affected people (of which 558,000 are children) across all typhoon-affected areas.

United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization - $6 million for the restoration of livelihoods for up to 128,600 affected households across all typhoon-affected areas.

United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees - $2 million for protection interventions and the provision of relief items for up to 300,000 affected people across typhoon-affected areas.

United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs - $1 million for the provision of strategic coordination, information and assessments in support of more than 110 humanitarian partners responding to Typhoon Haiyan across typhoon-affected areas.

United Nations Population Fund - $1 million for the prevention of gender-based violence and the provision of health services to up to 3.7 million women and girls of childbearing age affected by Typhoon Haiyan across typhoon-affected areas.

United Nations World Food Programme - $2.5 million for the provision of food assistance to help up to 3 million affected people across typhoon-affected areas.

World Health Organization - $1.2 million for the provision

of essential health-care services by strengthening disease surveillance and referral systems in order to help up to 7 million affected people across typhoon-affected areas.

The above assistance ($50 million) in the early recovery phase over the next year will help to create durable shelter solutions and opportunities for people in the farming, fishing and services sectors to earn a living in order to meet their basic needs. This includes food and nutrition, health care, education, safe drinking water, sanitation and hygiene facilities, as well as protection for vulnerable groups, including women and children, and internally displaced people.

Longer-Term Reconstruction

The remaining $20.59 million from the Typhoon Haiyan Relief Fund will be used for longer-term reconstruction and disaster risk reduction activities. Along with the Government of the Philippines and the international community, the Government of Canada is currently assessing the evolving needs in typhoon-affected areas, including longer-term rehabilitation, reconstruction and development priorities for the affected communities.

Initial assessments suggest that during the reconstruction phase, the greatest needs will relate to livelihoods and permanent shelter. The Government of the Philippines has set a November 2017 end date for the reconstruction phase. Canada will assist the Philippines with reconstruction efforts during this critical period.

Further Canadian Actions to Address the Impact of Typhoon Haiyan

In addition to the Typhoon

Haiyan Relief Fund, the Government of Canada: • Provided an initial allocation of $30,000 to the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies to help launch relief operations (on the day the typhoon hit); • Provided $5 million in support to humanitarian organizations for emergency relief activities at the outset of the crisis, as well as deployed relief items such as tents, blankets, water purification tablets and shelter kits from the Department of Foreign Affairs, Trade and Development’s emergency stockpile; • Supported the deployment of a Canadian Red Cross medical team and field hospital to provide emergency health support in the Philippines; • Deployed elements of the Canadian Armed Forces’ Disaster Assistance Response Team (DART) to support relief efforts in the region by providing clean water, medical assistance and logistical support. The DART addressed the pressing needs on Panay Island; • Deployed eight Canadian humanitarian experts to support Red Cross and United Nations humanitarian agencies in response to the typhoon, through an existing DFATD stand-by arrangement with a Canadian NGO partner; • Deployed four Canadian disease specialists (epidemiologists) from the Public Health Agency of Canada at different stages of the crisis as part of the Global Outbreak Alert Response Network. The epidemiologists worked with the World Health Organization in the Philippines on a coordinated health response. The team assisted the Philippine’s Department of Health to identify and make recommendations

Feds seek power to break locks off passengers’ checked airline baggage

BY JIM BRONSKILL The Canadian Press OTTAWA—The Conservative government would like to know how air passengers feel about their checked luggage being

broken into— by airport security screeners.

Transport Canada is seeking feedback on a plan to give security screeners the power to break a padlock or seal—such as plastic shrink wrap—off a bag when an X-ray flags a concern.

The Canadian Air Transport Security Authority screens all checked baggage before it is placed on a plane.

The agency’s screeners may open unlocked luggage to examine contents, and in such cases will place a notification www.canadianinquirer.net

card inside the travellers’ bag to let them know it has been inspected.

However, screeners cannot force open a locked bag. They must inform the airline, which in turn tries to locate the relevant passenger. If the travel-

on how to mitigate the risks to public health in the wake of the disaster; • Deployed two Royal Canadian Mounted Police officers to the Philippines as part of the Interpol Incident Response Team.

The officers assisted in the development of an Interpol disaster victim identification plan; • In addition, Canada prioritized the processing of Filipino applications on request from those who were significantly and personally affected by Typhoon Haiyan; • Officials in Ottawa and on the ground at the Embassy in Manila provided Canadian citizens with updated information about the typhoon. Consular teams went to areas affected by the typhoon to ensure the well-being of and provide assistance to Canadian citizens.

The Emergency Watch and Response Centre in Ottawa responded to more than 700 calls and e-mails from concerned Canadians.

Canadian Development Assistance in the Philippines

Canada has a long track record of providing development assistance in the Philippines. In the Fiscal Year 2012-2013, Canada provided over $16 million in official development assistance to the Philippines. This funding enhanced sustainable economic growth by improving the enabling environment for investment and building economic opportunities for the poor. Longer-term development programming will continue alongside Canada’s significant response to the typhoon disaster.

Canada and the Philippines share strong and friendly bilateral relations, and Canada will continue to be a partner in reconstruction and long-term development efforts. ■ ler cannot be found, an airline employee may break the lock so a screener can inspect the bag, or the luggage will be held at the airport and not put on the plane.

Transport Canada, which is soliciting public comment until next Monday, says air industry experts expect passenger volumes in Canada to continue increasing each year— meaning more inspections. ❱❱ PAGE 44 Feds seek

39 FRIDAY APRIL 11, 2014

What does... ❰❰ 30

Him.”

Pray understanding

with

Understanding the meaning of prayer is important. We should not just recite it mindlessly because it is equivalent to mindlessly taking communion as stated in I Corinthians 11:27 -31.

Let’s take a closer look at Jesus’ Pastoral Prayer in John 17.

Petition: “Father, the hour has come. Glorify Your Son...”

Reason why the Father should grant it: “...that Your Son also may glorify you.”

Qualification ( justification for request): “As you have given Him authority over all flesh...”

Definition of term: “And this is eternal life, that they may know You...”

Notice that the prayer consists of different parts. The Bible told us that our prayer should consist of all these elements.

To recap, here are some guidelines on how we can pray effectively: • Don’t repeat a prayer mindlessly.

• Put a piece of your heart in your prayer.

• Be specific in asking for what you want.

• Utter a justifiable reason on why you are praying for something.

• Define terms in your prayers, as they could bear several meanings.

• Accompany your petitions with thanksgiving as written in Philippians 4:6, I Timothy 2:1.

What to pray for?

What do we often pray for?

Material needs? Personal success? Other earthly gains?

Do we also remember to pray for spiritual growth? In Colossians 1:9-12, St. Paul taught us that the main thrust of our prayer should be our petition for spiritual needs. Not that he was telling us not to pray for material needs, but he emphasized that prayers for material needs should just be secondary.

“For this reason we also, since the day we heard of it, do not cease to pray for you, and to ask that you may be filled with the knowledge of His will in all wisdom and spiritual understanding that you may walk worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing Him, being fruitful in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God; strengthened with all might according to His glorious power, for all patience and longsuffering with joy; giving thanks to the Father who has qualified us to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in the light.”

In Matthew 6:33, we were also reminded to seek first for spiritual needs before any other material needs.

“Seek ye first the kingdom of God.” Praying for the forgiveness of sins

How many of us pray to God to forgive the sins of others, especially those who have wronged us?

Bible experts believe that this kind of prayer is the most neglected one, where in fact this is one of the first things that we should ask from the Father.

In the Bible, it was discussed that we are priests (I Peter 2:5).

As stated in the Old Testament, the main duty of a priest is to of-

fer sacrifices for the forgiveness other people’s transgressions.

So as priests, we can intercede for others by asking God to forgive their sins and He will do it.

It was evident in the Lord’s Prayer, as all petitions for people started with “Give us” as opposed to “Give me.”

Another scripture stated that we have the power to forgive sins through prayer. In John 20:23, as the risen Jesus told the disciples, “If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven them; if you retain the sins of any, they are retained.”

Genesis 20:7 also stated the same teaching, “Now therefore restore the man his wife; for he is a prophet, and he shall pray for thee, and thou shall live.”

Do we really need to kneel down, bow our heads, or close our eyes when we pray?

In Psalm 63:6, the Bible showed people praying while standing (with and without raised hands), bowing, kneel-

of what the prophet Joel predicted. The time had come when God would pour out his Holy Spirit upon all believers. About 3,000 Jews trusted Christ as their savior that day and were baptized in water (Acts 2).

The baptism of the Holy Spirit is an historic event that ushered in a new age. It occurred for the Jews on the day of Pentecost, but came later for Gentiles (non-Jews). The Apostle Peter took the gospel to the house of a Gentile named Cornelius. Like the

Jews at Pentecost, the Holy Spirit came upon them. They spoke in foreign languages and were baptized in water (Acts 10-11:18).

Think about this: The baptism of the Holy Spirit is not an experience to be sought, but a truth to be believed. Even though every Christian has been baptized by the Holy Spirit into union with Christ, not all are enjoying the fellowship with Christ that comes from being filled with the Spirit.

Memorize this truth: “And do not be drunk with wine, in

which is dissipation; but be filled with the Spirit” (Ephesians 5:18).

Ask this question: Have you been filled or controlled by God’s Spirit today? ■ “Kids Talk About God” is distributed by Creators Syndicate. To access free, online “Kids Color Me Bible” books, “Mission Explorers” videos and all columns in a Bible Lesson Archive, visit at www.KidsTalkAboutGod.org.

To read journey-of-faith feature stories written by Carey Kinsolving, visit www.FaithProfiles.org. www.canadianinquirer.net

loud, it was recommended that we utter our prayer, as our mind tends to wander when we pray silently.

Silent prayer is scriptural, but—if circumstances permit— it’s better to pray out loud, according to Bible experts.

Time and Place of prayer

In Daniel 6:10, it is written that we should pray at least three times a day: in the morning before we start our day, during a break at midday, and in the evening.

Finding an appropriate place where you can pray and reflect is important as well. Of course, the church tops the list. But when not in church, you can also pray anywhere as long as you will not be distracted. Try your room or any part of the house where you can meditate.

Physical position in prayer

What Is... ❰❰ 30

ing, laying flat on their faces, and even laying on a bed.

Quoting a teaching from a priest, “your physical position in praying does not matter.

What’s more important is the sincerity of your prayer.”

Praying out loud

What do you prefer: Praying out loud or praying silently?

While there are no hard and fast rules about praying out

Prepare a prayer list

Do you still find time to write the names of the people you want to pray for, along with your petitions for them?

If not, Bible experts suggest that you start writing your prayer list. According to them, it is better to have a list with you when praying so you will surely remember all of what you want to pray for.

This season of Lent, let us remember all the teachings of God on prayer so we can communicate with Him effectively, and thus strengthening our spiritual growth.

Have a meaningful Lenten season everyone! ■

Business

APRIL 11, 2014 FRIDAY 40

Ow, Canada: US retailers get chilly reception in Canada after expanding north

BY ANNE D’INNOCENZIO AND CHARMAINE NORONHA The Canadian Press FOR YEARS, Canadians would cross the border to the U.S. to shop at Target. Exporting its cheap chic there seemed like a no-brainer.

But a year after opening more than 100 stores north of the border, Target has found business isn’t so easy.

Shelves are hard to keep stocked. Shoppers complain the prices are higher than at U.S. stores. Sales have been weak, and the retailer lost nearly a billion dollars in Canada for the year.

Cracking the Canadian retail market, about one-tenth the size of the United States’, looks simple. The two countries are neighbours. They are culturally similar. And Canada’s malls generate 20 per cent more sales per square foot (0.09 sq. meter), because there are fewer of them.

But Target’s difficulties expose the challenges of doing business in Canada that have bedeviled other retailers. Some of the problems are old, like the web of costly regulations. But there are new ones, such as a slower Canadian economy and increasing competition that’s making the retail landscape look a lot like the U.S. economy.

The troubles are not what stores expected just a few years ago during the depths of the recession, when they saw Canada as a risk-free way of expanding internationally and re-energizing sales growth.

Now, Target is increasing marketing to convey it has unbeatable prices, while trying to make sure it has the right merchandise at the right time.

“I think there was an assumption that Target would come in and be everybody’s favourite store, but that hasn’t happened,” said Antony Karabus, president of Hilco Retail Consulting, who is based in Toronto.

Target has to fight hard to win over Canadians like Melanie Randall, a Toronto resident who crosses the border four times a year to Buffalo, New York, for shopping sprees at the

store.

As for the Canadian Target stores, “It’s not the same,” said Randall, 42, who was recently browsing Target at Toronto’s East York Town Centre. “I don’t feel like I get the same deals or shopping experience.”

Target’s tough time in Canada isn’t unique.

Big Lots Inc. is closing its 78 Canadian stores, which it bought just two years ago. Executives declined comment, but Karabus blamed increasing competition amid discounters.

Best Buy announced last year it was closing 15 of its 260 stores in Canada and cut about 5 per cent of its workforce in the country as it tries to revamp its strategy.

Even Wal-Mart Stores Inc., which has been entrenched in Canada for more than two decades, has seen its sales falter.

One big problem: U.S. retailers tend to underestimate the much different employee benefit laws and other rules, including language regulations.

All product packaging must be in both English and French. In Quebec, stores are required to make French more prominent in marketing and signs.

Canada also has a tenth of the population of the U.S. but covers a larger area. That makes distribution more costly.

Aside from those complications, Canadian shoppers are under new financial pressures.

The Canadian dollar has weakened, forcing retailers to charge higher prices. Because 90 per cent of Canadians live within an hour’s drive of the U.S. border, they are used to crossing over to compare deals, according to Diane Brisebois, president and CEO of Retail Council of Canada.

Competition is also heating up, particularly in discount retailing. Homegrown Canadian standbys like Dollarama and Canadian Tire are formidable rivals.

Canadian Tire, which operates nearly 500 stores in the country and stocks housewares, barbecue grills and other items besides tires, has increased its marketing and deepened its assortment of home decor and other areas.

Canadian Tire, which has

been in business nearly 100 years, has loyalty with shoppers who might remember buying their first bike there, said Jim Danahy, CEO of CustomerLAB, a retail consultancy in Ontario.

Each store is also owned and operated by a dealer so it tailors its merchandise to the local market, whether farm town or big city. The stores also offer convenience. Ninety per cent of Canada’s population lives within 15 minutes of a Canadian Tire store.

Given the challenges, upscale Nordstrom just postponed the Canadian debut of its discount Rack stores by two years until 2017 as it prepares to open its first full-line department store in Calgary this fall.

Some, like Wal-Mart Canada and Marshalls parent company TJX, are digging in.

Wal-Mart is adding 35 super centres in the current fiscal year, bringing the count to 395 by the end of January 2015.

Wal-Mart reported in February a 1.7 per cent drop in revenue at Canadian stores open at least a year in the fourth quarter. Wal-Mart cited price competition and weak spending.

To lure shoppers, it’s pushing $1, $2 and $3 products. Karabus said price wars have hurt WalMart, but business is still very solid.

Canadians looked financially healthier only a few years ago.

Sears expanded into Canada through a joint venture in the early 1950s , while several other major retailers including Home Depot and Wal-Mart entered Canada in the 1990s. But momentum increased following the Great Recession as the Canadian economy was hurt less by the financial meltdown.

In fact, as consumer spending in the U.S. started souring, Canadians continued to buy, nearly catching up to their American counterparts based on retail sales per household, said Colliers International, a global real estate firm.

That’s a big deal. For years, Americans were much bigger spenders than Canadians. As recently as 2004, Canadian retail sales per household equated to US$8,000 while south of the border, Americans’ spending was 50 per cent higher at www.canadianinquirer.net

about $12,000 per household.

But after both countries saw spending plunge in the recession, the gap is again widening, with American retail sales per household at about $14,394; it’s $13,014 for Canadians, Colliers said.

That’s because Canadians are deeper in debt than Americans, on average, because many bought big-ticket items like homes at low interest rates.

That has left less room for impulse spending.

It now would take a little more than a year and a half for Canadians to pay off their debt using all their income after taxes, compared with one year for Americans, Dana M. Peterson, director of global economics at Citi Research.

Linda An, 36, who recently bought a house in Toronto and is dealing with higher daily living costs, said she’s less confident. She regularly shops at American clothing stores in Canada like Banana Republic and Forever 21, but prices matter. As for household goods, she looks for the best price.

“I’m just being even more conscious looking for deals,” An said.

The environment has pressured American retailers to closely monitor prices, which are generally 10 per cent to 15 per cent higher in Canada than at U.S. stores, Danahy said.

At clothing retailer Tommy Bahama, which operates nine stores in Canada, the Canadian store had prices 15 per cent to 20 per cent higher than its

U.S. stores. It’s now bringing its prices even with those at its U.S. stores after acquiring its Canadian business back from its licensee. “(Canadians) are used to watching currency fluctuations and using that to their advantage,” said Doug Wood, Tommy Bahama’s president and chief operating officer.

Analysts are closely watching Target Canada. Target said the stores carry a majority of the merchandise shoppers see at U.S. stores. And Target said it is improving its selection and fixing out-of-stock issues.

It has much work ahead: Target’s Canadian business recorded a $724 million loss on lower-than-expected sales of $1.3 billion for the year ended Feb. 1.

A key to Target’s plans: convincing shoppers it’s priced just right.

Target said it’s not planning to permanently cut prices. The company said prices are in line with those of rivals in Canada, including Wal-Mart, and in some cases are lower. But it acknowledges they’re generally higher than at its U.S. stores.

“We are right on where we need to be in Canada,” Gregg Steinhafel, Target’s chairman and CEO told investors. “Sometimes people compare prices from Canada. That would be like comparing prices in Boston to what we have in rural Iowa.” ■ AP Retail D’Innocenzio

Writer Anne reported from New York.

Sports/Horoscope

41 FRIDAY APRIL 11, 2014

Ducks down Canucks to officially eliminate Vancouver from playoff contention

BY JOSHUA CLIPPERTON The Canadian Press VANCOUVER—John Gibson made 18 saves to record a shutout in his first NHL game Monday as the Anaheim Ducks defeated the Canucks 3-0 to officially eliminate Vancouver from playoff contention.

Daniel Winnik, Kyle Palmieri and Matt Beleskey had the goals for Anaheim (51-20-8), which is in a dog fight with the San Jose Sharks for first place in the Pacific Division.

The Canucks’ post-season chances had been reduced to a mere mathematical possibility in recent weeks and they were finally knocked off the cliff by a Ducks team that looks primed for a long playoff run.

Despite being down 1-0 after a flat first period and with their season on the line, it was more of the same for Vancouver in the second as the Canucks iced the puck three times in the opening minutes of the period and collected just three shots in total.

Anaheim grabbed a 2-0 lead at 17:03 when Palmieri deflected a point shot home past Lack for his 14th goal of the season that seemed to deflate the Vancouver bench even further.

Prior to that back-breaker, the Canucks had a couple chances to at least direct pucks at Anaheim’s rookie netminder, but both Jannik Hansen and Daniel Sedin passed up shooting opportunities in favour of passes that failed to connect.

Vancouver had just nine shots to Anaheim’s 18 through two periods

and there was a smattering of boos as the players left the ice for the intermission, with fans resigned to the fact that there will be no playoff hockey at Rogers Arena this spring for the first time in six years.

The Ducks—who sit three points ahead of the Sharks for top spot in the Pacific Division and have a crucial home date against San Jose on Wednesday—basically put things on autopilot in the third to help snap a two-game slide that included Sunday’s loss to the Edmonton Oilers.

Anaheim made it 3-0 against the sleepy Canucks 1:20 into the third when Beleskey finished off a pretty passing play with Corey Perry and Ryan Getzlaf for his seventh of the season.

Moments earlier, the Ducks moved in on a 2-on-0 break but Lack managed to thwart An-

drew Cogliano’s effort.

Gibson didn’t have a lot to do on the night, but did make a huge save on Niklas Jensen to preserve the shutout with about eight minutes gone in the third.

Some of those who remained voiced their displeasure with Canucks president and general manager Mike Gillis by starting a “Fire Gillis” chant in the dying minutes.

Coming of a spirited 2-1 victory over the Los Angeles Kings on Saturday night that kept their minuscule playoff hopes alive, the Canucks didn’t seem ready off Monday’s opening faceoff.

Lack stopped Cogliano on a breakaway 15 seconds into the first period after he stripped defenceman Jason Garrison of the puck, but the Canucks goaltender couldn’t bail his team a second time after another gaffe

a few minutes.

With Vancouver on the power play, Winnik jumped on a mistake by Canucks captain Henrik Sedin and moved in alone to rip his sixth of the season at 6:26 over Lack’s blocker.

Vancouver had a couple of chances later in the man advantage, including a scramble in front of Gibson that saw the puck dribble off the post and stay out. Canucks defenceman Alexander Edler then ripped another shot off the iron that fooled the 20-year-old Gibson, who is seen by many as Anaheim’s goalie of the future.

Ryan Kesler then raced in on a short-handed breakaway late in the period, but Ducks defenceman Hampus Lindholm made a great play to strip the Canucks forward of the puck. ■

HOROSCOPE ARIES

CANCER

LIBRA

CAPRICORN

(MARCH 21 - APRIL 19)

(JUNE 22 - JULY 22)

(SEPT 23 - OCT 22)

(DEC 22 - JAN 19)

It’s possible that the last few weeks have allowed you to gain a little clarity on certain questions you may have about your vocation, Aries. You might even be a little clearer about your feelings concerning what your destiny might be. The planetary energy makes this a good time to stop thinking about such questions and let your life take over. You are well prepared for this kind of thing!

Today isn’t a day for meditation, Cancer. The planetary energies are asking you to step outside of yourself and get back into the world again! You’ve been doing an awful lot of thinking about your image recently, and now you’re going to have to test out how the “new and improved” you operates in your daily life. You can expect some pleasant feedback and truly lasting changes!

You’re likely to find people somewhat irritating today, Libra. It’s as though nothing is good enough, and nobody seems to know exactly what he or she wants. You’ll reign supreme within this maze of overt conflict and dissatisfaction. You might even be asked to step in and restore order. If the conflict is domestic, go ahead. But tread carefully if you’re asked to be the sheriff at the office!

More than ever before, you’ll feel as though it’s time to take matters into your own hands and build your own career future. You’re fed up with living on hope and putting off your happiness until tomorrow.

Your determination will be so strong that you could even surprise yourself. Tomorrow you’ll refine your approach and make it more concrete.

Today is the first day of a new life for you,

TAURUS

LEO

SCORPIO

AQUARIUS

(APRIL 20 - MAY 20)

(JULY 23 - AUGUST 22)

(OCT 23 - NOV 21)

(JAN 20 - FEB 18)

These past three weeks were rather good for your equilibrium, Taurus. It was just a matter of getting a bit more involved in life than is usual for you, and showing what you’re capable of. It’s likely you had a mixture of successes and setbacks, but on the whole, improvements have been steady. You might have noticed that something about you needed improvement, but isn’t that true for everyone?

If you have grievances about your love life, Leo, today is the day to speak up. Indeed, today requires only total honesty and forthrightness in all areas. You can expect to confront “the other,” whether it’s your mate or co-worker, on the basis of truth and righteousness. Rest assured you’ll command his or her attention! Be careful that the weight of your words doesn’t surpass that of your thoughts.

When you woke up this morning, you may have felt an oppressive mood hanging in the air. Unfortunately, that haze of misunderstanding and conflict is likely to last all day. However, it makes this an ideal time to speak up about anything that’s bothering you! Don’t be shy about going on the warpath today. If you don’t, Scorpio, you’re likely to be the target of a surprise attack.

This is the ideal moment to address once and for all the questions that have been on your mind for the last three weeks, Aquarius. Pay particular attention to questions that touch on your sentimental side. If you’re currently involved in unsatisfactory relationships, don’t be afraid to leave them behind. And if you’re fretting about a request you made that has yet to be answered, let it go. No response is forthcoming.

GEMINI

VIRGO

SAGITTARIUS

PISCES

(MAY 21 - JUNE 21)

(AUG 23 - SEPT 22)

(NOV 22 - DEC 21)

(FEB 19 - MAR 20)

It isn’t always pleasant to have to question oneself, Gemini, but this is the main objective of today’s planetary energies - to launch you into new adventures.

So take advantage of the configuration to look inside and find the source of some of your setbacks. This isn’t an easy exercise, to be sure, but it will do you an enormous amount of good. Just be honest with yourself.

Are you thinking of switching careers or traveling to the other side of the world, Virgo? Or perhaps you just want to pull a “Greta Garbo” and stay at home alone with the shades drawn tight. A series of small incidents at work is likely to inspire you with the most outlandish of ideas. It might just be that you sense your inner need for a change of scene.

The mood you’re in today is the stuff of which memorable encounters are made. You’ll be wary at first, perhaps even somewhat hostile, to anyone who dares intrude on your freedom. Then suddenly you’ll realize that this person is someone special, intriguing, and definitely out of the ordinary. Finally, Sagittarius, you’ll realize that the qualities he or she offers just happen to be those you need the most right now.

www.canadianinquirer.net

Like your compatriots, Pisces, something is coming to an end concerning the lack of confidence you have in yourself. You have been hesitant to stand in the spotlight for quite a while now, feeling you aren’t quite ready. Well, no more excuses! Ready or not, you’re going to have to push forward. The only thing you risk losing is your pride, and that, Pisces, is your most resilient asset.

FRIDAY APRIL 11, 2014

42

Travel

EX LIBRIS

Shelf Lives

BY RUEL S. DE VERA Philippine Daily Inquirer PAPER CRANES hang in the crisp morning air, held aloft by almost-invisible strings in the window. The light hits the rest of the room, where books stand next to more books. A comfortable wooden chair stands in the center. There’s a selection of books on Baguio against the wall, and a cove of children’s books in a corner.

Welcome to what to me is the most delightful bookstore in the country, Mt Cloud Bookshop in Baguio City. Tucked away in a corner of historic Casa Vallejo on Upper Session Road, Mt Cloud is two storeys’ worth of carefully selected material for the discerning booklover and a wonderful place for a child to start an addiction to reading.

Overseeing all this is proprietor Padmapandi “Padma” Perez. The pint-sized and eternally youthful Perez, 39, is a proud product of Baguio just as Mt Cloud is a product of her imagination. Perez is the eldest of two daughters of filmmaker Antonio Jose “Butch” Perez and writer Adelaida Lim, who also helps run that Baguio dining institution Café By The Ruins.

As a child, Perez had dreamed of owning her own bookshop.

“Almost every booklover has that romantic dream of having his or her own bookshop,” she says.

Perez, who studied at the University of the Philippines Diliman and earned her PhD in Environmental Anthropology from Leiden University in the Netherlands, had just defended her dissertation when she found herself in Baguio, pondering what to do next. “I wasn’t so sure I wanted to stay in academe the rest of my life.

I was looking around for what was out there.”

Serendipitously, she heard

A comfortable perch at Mt Cloud.

TOP SHELF. Padma Perez makes the smart choices for Mt Cloud.

PHOTOS BY EV ESPIRITU/INQUIRER NORTHERN LUZON

SPACE SAVOR. A booklover browses the titles at Solidaridad.

PDI PHOTO/RODEL ROTONI

that Casa Vallejo was going to be restored. Then her mother told her, “You know that dream you have of putting up a bookshop? Casa Vallejo is the ideal place.”

Together with younger sister, Feliz “Fifi” Perez—also an anthropologist—Perez put up Mt Cloud in 2010. “We didn’t know anything about the business side of it. All we knew was that we loved books and we’ve been lucky to have traveled and seen different kinds of bookstores around the world. We had the feeling, ‘if only we could have bookshops like that here,’” she recalls. “It’s a bookshop that’s also an altar to books. Most of the bookshops here in Baguio have more office and school supplies than books. Our being Baguio girls made us want to do that here in our hometown.”

Mt Cloud reminded people

of the house Perez grew up in.

“Unconsciously we were making it look like our house,” she says. “Growing up, we were exposed to a lot of Filipiniana and classic literature so we tried to bring that in here. I think that our being anthropologists and wanting to push Filipino titles also influenced the way we choose titles.”

Mt Cloud’s inventory is weighted heavily towards literary and scholarly fare, with 80 percent of it being Philippine publications and the remaining 20 percent foreign titles. The shop’s best-selling title, aptly enough, is Anvil Publishing’s “Café By The Ruins: Memories and Recipes,” followed by children’s books.

In the beginning, people kept looking for school supplies, but now Mt Cloud is a must-see place in the City of Pines. After

three years of the Perez sisters bailing the shop out when it was in the red, Mt Cloud is finally liquid. “We’re proud of that and we hope to be able to maintain it,” Perez says.

That is quite a challenge because Mt Cloud also happens to be one of a truly dying breed— the independent Filipino bookstore. While the larger bookstore chains such as National Book Store and Fully Booked have an important role to play in terms of commerce and creativity, there is also a place for the smaller, quirkier booksellers.

Through the years, places such as A Different Bookstore, Scribe & Brewer and Cebu’s La Belle Aurore Bookshop have come and gone. Fortunately, Popular Bookstore continues to operate in Quezon City.

Longevity and pedigree are the hallmarks of Solidaridad Bookshop which is run by National Artist for Literature F. Sionil José. Located just a stone’s throw from the Supreme Court on busy Padre Faura St. in Ermita, Manila, Solidaridad has been serving up a highly selective array of titles since 1965.

Its well-lit storefront has been a beacon to Filipino titles for decades. Jose chooses every single book on the Solidaridad shelves, half of them Philippine publica-

tions and the other half foreign.

“Because it is so tiny, space is very valuable and I select the titles myself. For instance, if there is a title that I like and which I know others (the intelligentsia) will also appreciate, I order it. I avoid best sellers because they do not really sell. The emphasis is on the humanities.”

Of course, every good book store begins with a good story.

“In 1964, I returned from Colombo, Ceylon, where I was posted for two years as Information Officer of the Colombo Plan,” José recalls. “With my savings and a grant from the Congress for Cultural Freedom, I set up a publishing house and a quarterly journal, Solidarity. I was looking for an office and my father-in-law, the late Dr. Antonio Jovellanos, told me to look at the Jovellanos house in Padre Faura. It was much too big. All I needed was a couple of rooms.

My wife, Teresita, suggested we use it as a bookshop, too. It was inaugurated in 1965 by Gen. Carlos Romulo and blessed by the late Fr. Fritz Araneta.”

José has kept the fires burning all this time but admits business can be challenging.

“The biggest challenge is how to keep the shop viable,” he says. “The bookshop does not sell stationery or office equip-

Travel

43 FRIDAY APRIL 11, 2014

ment. Only books, and Filipinos are not book readers. Frankly, if we did not own the building, the bookshop would have closed long ago.”

That has been the fate of many a lovely bookstore. Rica Bolipata-Santos, director of the Ateneo de Manila University Press knows this firsthand. She ran a charming bookstore/coffee shop called Pages in a building on Katipunan facing her alma mater from 1997 to 1999.

Inspired by the literary bookshops she saw abroad, Bolipata-Santos stood by her humanities degree: “Because of my background, and since I was the book buyer, we only sold books on the humanities: literature, literary criticism and philosophy. We were a small coffee shop, too. We sold both brand new and second hand titles.” Pages allowed you to browse and read (no plastic wrapping here either) while drinking a warm cup of coffee.

“What really closed the shop down was a combination of things, the biggest factor being the collapse of the peso,” she explains. “We had already priced the books so right away, we had a loss. The second factor was my pregnancy with our second child and our first-born having developmental issues. There were challenges ahead and we felt we had no business toying with our lives—the uncertainty of it would have been OK if it had been just the two of us. But there were children now.”

She recalls Pages with fondness, noting that she loved being able to pattern the store after the bookstore abroad that they loved. “I’d like to think the books we sold had made solid thinkers out there, too.”

Over at Solidaridad, the highly opinionated and much-awarded José remains busy with his literary career: He has just released a new novel, “The Feet of Juan Bacnang.” He had eschewed expansion through the years to concentrate on his writing, something he sometimes thinks back on. “I had wanted to be a rich novelist, not a rich bookseller,” he admits. “When I think of our debts, I regret having made that decision.”

While it remains a bastion of Philippine creative writing and thinking, Solidaridad is perched firmly on José’s shoulders. “My wife and I are both in the departure lounge,” he says candidly.

“She is 84 and I am 89. I do not know what my children will do with the shop.”

But for the sake of future Filipino free thinkers and creative writers, Solidaridad must continue to stand the test of

time. Its very existence makes an entire race smarter.

Keeping Mt Cloud running has also become a primary concern for Perez, who has a 3-year-old daughter Aila with her partner Zulli Nolasco, and 19-yearold daughter Solana, from a previous relationship. “It’s a tough business,” she says, “You have to be really committed to the idea of keeping the shop going.

Otherwise, it’s not worth it.”

Advertising on radio has brought in more young customers, while being written about on Lonely Planet guidebooks and the Rough Guide have helped as well. Mt Cloud also hosts regular literary events like authors’ talks, poetry readings and a twice-a-year poetry slam.

Recent news about Casa Vallejo because of an ownership dispute has given Mt Cloud’s owners added worries.

“There’s a plan to get Casa Vallejo recognized as a historical landmark which would hopefully provide it with some measure of protection,” says Perez, adding that should they lose the building, Mt Cloud would not necessarily be limited to Casa Vallejo, because the bookshop certainly belongs in Baguio.

Indeed, it’s impossible to imagine Mt Cloud thriving in any other city. Aside from the city’s regulars, the shop also draws in a lot of tourists—with big buyers coinciding with the peak tourist season.

Then there is Perez’s ambitious plan for the Mt Cloud website. “The question I ask the team is ‘Can we be the Amazon. com for Filipiniana?’ Because there are people out there without a Filipiniana bookstore in their city or country and maybe they want a José Rizal or a F. Sionil José or Nick Joaquin book,” she says.

But those are dreams for the future and right now, Perez is immersed in the day-to-day routine of keeping Mt Cloud running. Amid all the challenges, Mt Cloud offers up delight the way only the independent Filipino bookshop can.

“It’s been really gratifying when a kid walks in and simply says, ‘Wow,’ or when people are thrilled to find out we have the books that they love,” says Perez. ■ Mt Cloud Bookshop is located at Casa Vallejo, Upper Session Road, Baguio City with telephone no. (74) 424-4437 and (63) 920-9141554. Visit http://mtcloudbookshop.com. Solidaridad Bookshop is located at 531 Padre Faura St., Ermita, Manila with telephone number (02) 2541086 and 254-1068.

London’s first cat cafe offers purr fect brew for feline fans

BY BETHAN MCKERNAN The Associated Press LONDON—Would you like some kitten with your coffee?

Feline company is exactly what one of London’s newest cafes is offering— and stressed-out city-dwellers are lapping it up.

“People do want to have pets and in tiny flats, you can’t,” said cafe owner Lauren Pears, who opened Lady Dinah’s Cat Emporium last month in an area east of the city’s financial district.

“There’s not many places in London you can just curl up with a book and chill out with a cat or two on your lap,” she said Friday. “I think that’s what our success is down to.”

Cat cafes first took off 10 years ago in Japanese cities, where many people live alone in cramped high-rise apartment blocks that don’t allow pets. Making feline friends became popular therapy for lonely or anxious workers.

“I can see how this would be good for someone lacking company,” said customer Sara Lewis, as she stroked a cat sitting on her lap. “It’s the best idea ever.”

The cozy English tea room, named after Alice’s cat in “Alice in Wonderland,” charges customers 5 pounds ($8.29) for

two hours of kitty company. Coffee and afternoon tea— sandwiches, cakes and scones— are on the menu at an additional cost.

Lady Dinah’s opened March 1, and is fully booked until the end of June.

Pears raised more than 109,000 pounds ($181,000) through a crowdfunding campaign to get the cafe up and running. Despite more than a year of planning permission delays and figuring out how to maintain health and safety standards, she says the hard work has been worth it.

The 11 resident kitties were donated by people leaving the country who could no longer look after them. Kitty welfare is paramount: the cats get regular breaks away from people, and staff have been trained by animal behaviourists to care for them.

Lisa Vann brought her 8-year old daughter, who has learning difficulties, to Lady Dinah’s for a playdate. “She’s delighted to be here,” she said.

The animal cafe craze shows no signs of slowing, with establishments now open in London, Vienna and Paris. A dog cafe, House of Hounds, is scheduled to open in London later this year.

And American animal-lovers won’t be missing out for much longer. Two cat cafes are due to open in the San Francisco Bay area by the end of 2014. ■

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APRIL 11, 2014

How Long Should My Injury Claim Remain Open?

PEOPLE ALWAYS ask how long they should keep an injury claim open. The answer is simple, you should not settle your injury claim until you know the prognosis of your accident related injuries.

Prognosis is a fancy medical term for the “likely outcome” of a medical condition. Simply put, before you settle you should have a medical opinion that lets you know whether your condition will improve, stay the same or deteriorate over time. Most doctors will not give a detailed prognosis until at least 18 months have passed. In more serious cases it can take much longer.

One of my primary roles as counsel is to work with your physician, and or experts of my choosing to obtain an accurate prognosis. I want to know how and if my client is going to be ef-

fected by the injuries and what, if anything it will cost them in the future. By obtaining a solid prognosis I am able to ensure that my client is sufficiently compensated, especially in cases where the injury could be permanent.

Never settle a claim until you or your lawyer has obtained solid medical advice that you can count on. ■ The author, Joel Zanatta, is the managing partner of Hammerberg Lawyers, one of Vancouver's foremost law firms specializing in personal injury and ICBC claims. Joel and his team of lawyers have represented thousands of injury victims throughout British Columbia.

Questions? call 604 269 8500 x126 or email jzanatta@hammerco.net

FRIDAY 44

Feds seek...

“As the numbers increase, it will be more difficult and time-consuming for airlines to locate passengers, or if not, break the lock or seal,” says the consultation notice. “A process that was once manageable could become more inefficient and use up more airline resources.”

The “most effective and efficient solution” is to have the air security screeners, rather than an airline representative, break the lock or seal when a bag requires fuller inspection, Transport Canada says.

Marc-Andre O’Rourke of the National Airlines Council of Canada, which represents several of the country’s largest carriers, had no immediate comment on the proposal.

The consultation notice says that if the air security authority gets the new power, it “might not reimburse passengers for the cost of a broken lock.”

If the screening authority were to cut plastic shrink-wrap off a bag to conduct a search, it ❰❰ 38

would not rewrap the luggage, the notice adds.

In the United States, the Transportation Security Administration screening agency is permitted to break a lock to inspect a bag.

However, the agency says it has worked with several companies to develop locks that can

be opened by security officers using universal master keys so that they may not have to be cut. The locks are sold at airports and travel stores. ■ Comments on the Transport Canada proposal can be made at http://tc.sondages-surveys. ca/s/AS_SA/?l

Have you been in a car accident?

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You have rights, entitlements, and choices with your ICBC claim and should never be told differently.

Joel leads our team of personal injury lawyers. They’ve worked successfully on thousands of files winning significant settlements for people just like you. We will help resolve your claim comfortably and get you the time you need to recover fully before returning to work.

We provide a translator and also welcome your enquires at no cost to you.

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Letters to the Editor

REPLY TO OPEN LETTER TO MHHS APRIL 8, 2014 To the Editor: This is in response to the Letter to the Editor written by Freddie Bagunu, which appeared in the Philippine Canadian Inquirer issue dated April 4, 2014: The purpose of the criteria established in relation to selection process for nominees to the board of directors of the Multicultural Helping House Society (MHHS) are ten-fold: 1. The society remains committed to ensuring that the MHHS remain focused on serving the Filipino community in Vancouver. The MHHS is committed to serving the Filipino community in providing the following: • Providing assistance in obtaining employment • Assist in receiving upgrade in education or on the job training that will facilitate the individual’s effort to obtain a Canadian job • Providing settlement services that will help individuals, youth, adult and seniors join the greater Canadian multicultural community 2. The society ensures that the above objectives are continually sought throughout the year and with every passing year.

3. The Society ensures that the management and the staff of the MHHS remain committed to these endeavours.

Further, the society and its directors are tasked with the responsibility of passing this torch to succeeding groups of individuals who would care for and strive hard for the requirements of the Fili-

APRIL 11, 2014

pino community.

4. The Society recognizes that, though the membership is multicultural, the center was established particularly for the benefit of the Filipino community.

The capital and program grants were primarily achieved on this basis.

5. In ensuring that the Filipino community is continually served through the years, the current individuals who hold the torch must carefully present potential torch bearers who are just as passionate and as caring as they are in meeting the above objectives.

6. With this in mind, it is only correct that the existing torch bearers pass on the torch to individuals who HAVE SHOWN COMMITMENT, LOYALTY AND PASSION towards MHHS, its clients and programs.

7. Therefore, it is only correct to select future torch bearers from the many volunteers of the MHHS who have spent countless hours unselfishly giving to the communities serviced by the MHHS. This, of course, is achieved by participating in the MHHS-directed endeavours and initiatives.

8. This pool of potential and welldeserving individuals has, beyond any doubt, demonstrated the PASSION, COMMITMENT and LOYALTY needed to continue holding the MHHS torch.

9. The burden of holding up the MHHS torch is not to be taken lightly.

The results of non-commitment and lack of effort affect lives of our fellow kababayans. MHHS requirements and operational objectives have a greater effect on actual lives of fellow kababayans.

10. The board must remain diligent in ensuring that these objectives continue.

As such, the board must ensure that the criteria set for nomination of future

board members are carefully considered.

The board recognizes that a general election for MHHs board of directors is upcoming. There are numerous deserving candidates for these few positions.

The existing board congratulates in advance those who are to be nominated for election to the board of directors.

These individuals have shown PASSION, COMMITMENT and LOYALTY to MHHS over the years through their countless hours and immense efforts in volunteering with MHHS. They deserve their nomination.

For others who wish to participate as members of the board of directors of the MHHS, the board encourages that they actively participate in the efforts of the MHHS through the various events held, the weekend training seminars, the crisis help groups, etc.

We are passing a torch whose flame cannot be allowed to be extinguished.

The MHHS is filled with volunteers who come from all professions who wish to help and selflessly give time and effort.

These individuals, we can ascertain, will carry the torch.

Help us carry on this torch. Our community needs MHHS as it remains the most recognizable Filipino service group entrusted by the government of Canada to serve the needs of our community. This must remain our priority.

I hope these points answer Mr. Bagunu’s’ concerns.

Sincerely yours Tomas Avendano Sr. President & CEO MHHS Foundation 4802 Fraser St. Vancouver, BC V5V 4H4

FRIDAY 46

Publisher Philippine Canadian Inquirer Editor Melissa Remulla-Briones editor@canadianinquirer.net Associate Editor Laarni de Paula Correspondents Gigi Astudillo Angie Duarte Katherine Marfal Frances Grace Quiddaoen Ching Dee Socorro Newland Graphic Designer Victoria Yong Photographers Angelo Siglos Danvic Briones Operations and Marketing Head Laarni de Paula (604) 551-3360 laarni.liwanag@canadianinquirer.net Advertising Sales Alice Yong (778) 889-3518 alice.yong@canadianinquirer.net Antonio Tampus (604) 460-9414 antonio.tampos@canadianinquirer.net PHILIPPINE PUBLISHING GROUP Editorial Assistant Phoebe Casin Graphic Designer Shanice Garcia

Victoria McDonald’s...

Associate Publisher Lurisa Villanueva

franchises are operated on an 80-per-cent franchisee-owned and 20-per-cent companyowned basis, but the three downtown Victoria outlets will now be 100-percent McDonald’s operated.

He said the three restaurants will remain open.

“We are in the process of taking ownership back,” said Gibson. “It’s basically new ownership taking over and that new ownership would be McDonald’s Restaurants of Canada.”

He said the future employment status of the temporary Victoria workers would involve the federal government, but Gibson suggested at the moments there will be “no changes in the shortterm.”

A woman who answered the telephone at Nasib Services Inc., in Victoria, identified by Employment and Social Development Canada as the McDonald’s franchise owner in Victoria, hung up when a reporter called.

Statistics provided by McDonald’s ❰❰ 3

stated there are 155 employees at the three Victoria restaurants. There are 129 domestic employees and 26 foreign workers at the three outlets.

In British Columbia, McDonald’s employs 343 temporary workers, less than four per cent of the chain’s B.C. workforce. McDonald’s stated that of the more than 85,000 people working at their restaurants across Canada, about 3,400, or four per cent of their total workforce, are temporary foreign workers.

McDonald’s said in a statement that its goal is always to hire local workers first. McDonald’s stated it plans to hire 6,100 new employees this year.

B.C.’s Jobs Ministry Shirley Bond said there are about 75,000 temporary foreign workers employed in the province, with about 3,100 of those are employed in the restaurant industry.

Bond said she supported the federal government’s swift action with regards to the Victoria McDonald’s restaurants.

“There should be no abuse of the Temporary Foreign Worker Program and if

there is there needs to be consequences applied very quickly,” she said. “I think that’s what Jason Kenney did today.”

Ian Tostenson, B.C. Restaurant and Food Services Association president, said a growing worker shortage in B.C., despite double-digit unemployment among young people, has restaurants seeking skilled food services workers elsewhere, especially those with cooking skills.

But Tostenson said there can be no tolerance for abuse among restaurant owners.

“We’re not in the business of getting into trouble,” he said. “Treating the people who work for you the right way and responsibly is key. If you’ve got a bunch of disgruntled people that doesn’t work so well.”

Some estimates suggest the number of temporary workers in Canada doubled in seven years to about 340,000 as of December 2012. The biggest growth came in the years following the 2008-09 recession, when hundreds of thousands of Canadians were out of work. ■

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The views and opinions expressed in the articles are those of the authors named, and are not necessarily those of Philippine Canadian Inquirer Editorial Team.

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