Philippine Canadian Inquirer Issue #127

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AUGUST 8, 2014

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Rural folk are better prepared for storms

Speaker Belmonte’s push for antidynasty bill elates group

Strong earthquake in Southern China

Global Filipino: Angeli Bayani

Weird news: Strange but true stories

Filipinos THE NEW NORMAL Many refuse to leave

Libya due to jobs The Associated Press MANILA, PHILIPPINES—Only a fraction of about 13,000 Filipinos have expressed a desire to leave Libya so far despite frantic Philippine government efforts to evacuate them because they’re afraid of losing their jobs in the conflicttorn country, Foreign Secretary Albert del Rosario said Sunday. ❱❱ PAGE 11 Many Filipinos

A SHIP that ran aground during Typhoon Yolanda makes an ingruous backdrop for a basketball game in Tacloban City.

RELEVANT SKILLS. MEANINGFUL JOBS.

PHOTO BY RAFFY LERMA

Special powers for Aquino pressed MANILA, PHILIPPINES—Is President Aquino about to use emergency powers to deal with the looming energy shortage in Luzon in 2015 when several world leaders will come to the Philippines for the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation

(Apec) summit?

A technical report elaborating on his State of the Nation Address (Sona) on July 28 said the government would tap private firms to put up 500- to 600-megawatt power plants by March next year.

Citing Department of Energy (DOE)

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Philippine News

3 FRIDAY AUGUST 8, 2014

Luy testimony: ‘Pogi’ got P224-M ‘rebates’ Hearsay evidence, says Revilla’s defense lawyer

BY MARLON RAMOS Philippine Daily Inquirer “POGI” RECEIVED a handsome amount of over P224.5 million as “rebates,” or kickbacks, from his pork barrel funds coursed through spurious nongovernment organizations (NGOs) established by detained businesswoman Janet Lim-Napoles, principal whistleblower Benhur Luy told the Sandiganbayan yesterday.

Returning to the witness stand for the prosecution, Luy said Sen. Bong Revilla, whose code name in Napoles’ records was Pogi, or handsome in Filipino, got 50 percent of the total cost of all projects funded by his Priority Development Assistance Fund (PDAF) allocations from 2006 to 2010.

“Attorney Richard Cambe collected the rebates of Senator Revilla every time he visited the office of JLN Corp.,” Luy repeatedly told the court, referring to the Napoles-owned company at Discovery Suites in Ortigas Center, Pasig City. “(Cambe) also got his commission from all the transactions involving Revilla’s PDAF. The money given to them was covered by separate vouchers,” Luy said during his direct examination handled by Prosecutor Joefferson Toribio.

Revilla’s lawyer Joel Bodegon was unfazed by Luy’s disclosure which he dismissed as nothing but “hearsay.”

“In the first place, Luy admitted that they manufactured the documents and even forged the signatures on the documents. Senator Revilla has nothing to worry about,” Bodegon later told the INQUIRER. Luy, who appeared composed throughout his daylong testimony, testified Revilla received his share through lawyer Richard Cambe, the senator’s former chief political officer and acting chief of staff.

Both Revilla and Cambe are currently held for plunder and graft charges at the Philippine National Police Custodial Center at Camp Crame, Quezon City, in connection with the PDAF scam.

Caught by surprise

In his testimony at Revilla’s bail petition, Luy also presented to the Sandiganbayan First Division the external hard drive, which purportedly contained all the financial transactions of JLN from 2006 to 2012 with legislators and government agencies in the alleged P10billion pork barrel racket.

The prosecution move caught the lawyers of Cambe, Revilla and Napoles by surprise. They questioned the legality and authenticity of the hard drive’s contents.

Quizzed by Associate Justice Rodolfo

Ponferrada, Luy admitted that he never personally saw Revilla receiving money from Napoles.

Ponferrada also noted that Luy’s records did not mention anything about Revilla getting his alleged share of the loot directly from Napoles.

In his previous testimony, Luy said he himself took the money from a cash vault at the JLN office and gave it to Cambe in several instances. He said the money was placed in trolley bags and paper boxes.

“Madam Janet would tell me that Senator Revilla had already received the money which Cambe collected from the office,” Luy said.

“Why is it that there is nothing there that says Senator Revilla himself personally got the money?” Ponferrada asked Luy. “I don’t know,” Luy replied. “I relied on what Madam Janet told me.”

Sharing of loot

As financial officer of Napoles’ company, Luy said he recorded and listed all the money that each of the bogus NGOs had received and the portions of the funds which went to Revilla and other government officials who were in cahoots with Napoles.

“I would tell Madam Janet that the cash or check that Cambe collected for Senator Revilla was already recorded in the ledger,” he said.

For projects which Revilla assigned to the Technology Resource Center (TRC) and National Agribusiness Corporation (Nabcor) as implementing agencies, Napoles got 32 percent of the total project cost, Luy said.

He said 10 percent went to the heads of the implementing agencies, 2 percent to JLN as “management fee” and the remaining 5 percent to Cambe as his commission.

For programs which Revilla funded through the National Livelihood Development Center (NLDC), Luy said the senator also got half of the total project cost.

Napoles, on the other hand, received 40 percent while then NLDC head Gondelina Amata got 2 percent. Cambe got a 5percent commission and the rest went to JLN as management fee.

According to Luy, Revilla received a total of P224,512,500 in kickbacks from Napoles. Luy said Cambe collected various amounts for Revilla during a fiveyear period, the biggest of which was a P28.5 million in cash, the alleged senators’ kickback for a P90-million project implemented by the TRC in 2009.

On another occasion, Cambe received P3 million as initial payment for his own commission, Luy said.

He said Revilla assigned the projects

Janet Lim-Napoles with Alyas “Pogi.”

PHOTO FROM RAPPLER.COM

to six Napoles-linked NGOs—Social Development Program for Farmers Foundation Inc., Agrikultura para sa Magbubukid Foundation Inc., Agri and Economic Programs for Farmers Foundation Inc., People’s Organization for Progress Foundation Inc., Masaganang Ani para sa Magsasaka Foundation Inc. and Philippine Social Development Foundation Inc. Luy also testified how Napoles instructed her employees to form fake farmers’ groups or foundations to apply for various livelihood projects to be funded by the PDAF. Signatures forged

Upon orders from Napoles, he said he

and his fellow JLN employees forged the signatures of the beneficiaries and the original receipts for the supplies for the project. He said a cousin of Napoles helped them produce fake official receipts which they used to claim the funding for the projects.

Michael Ancheta, Cambe’s lawyer, tried but failed to block the presentation of the printed copies of the hard drive’s contents, pointing out that the documents were not marked by the prosecution during the preliminary conference and that their authenticity was still in question.

But Associate Justice Rafael Lagos said the court’s rules provided that the authenticity of electronic evidence could be established through other evidence.

Stephen David, Napoles’ lawyer, asked the court to subpoena Luy’s travel records from the Bureau of Immigration.

Citing the information they supposedly received, David said the principal witness flew to other countries “numerous times” since 2006.

“We believe that Luy was actually out of the country during the times he claimed he witnessed Napoles giving money to Richard Cambe,” David told reporters after the eight-hour court proceeding. ■

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Philippine News

AUGUST 8, 2014

FRIDAY 4

Comic relief in plunder case

BY MARLON RAMOS Philippine Daily Inquirer MANILA, PHILIPPINES—It wasn’t all courtroom drama.

Several amusing exchanges among the defense lawyers, public prosecutors and justices of the Sandiganbayan have made the bail hearing of legislators and private individuals facing plunder and graft charges in connection with the P10-billion pork barrel racket more interesting.

On Tuesday, lawyer Stephen David provided such comic relief for those attending the hearing of the bail petition of Sen. Jinggoy Estrada when he suddenly asked for a restroom break in the heat of his grilling of prosecution witness Vic Escalante Jr. ‘Natural right’

Escalante, a field investigator of the Office of the Ombudsman, returned to the witness stand to testify about Estrada’s supposed role in coursing millions of pesos in public funds to the nongovernment organizations (NGOs) established by David’s client, suspected pork barrel scam architect Janet LimNapoles.

“While the witness is looking at the documents, may I ask the court if I could

TIPID TAWAG

6

…” David’s voice trailed off.

“Go ahead. It’s your natural right,” Associate Justice Alexander Gesmundo replied, sensing David wanted to relieve himself and drawing laughter from the audience.

“You may join (David) if you want,” Associate Justice Roland Jurado, chair of the Fifth Division, told the defense panel as he ordered a five-minute break.

Taking his turn to cross-examine Escalante after questioning by Estrada’s lawyer Sabino Acut Jr., David asked the antigraft investigator if he saw the name of Napoles in the various documents regarding the supposed release of the Priority Development Assistance Fund (PDAF) allocation of Estrada to Napoles-linked NGOs. He also quizzed the witness whose names appeared in the documents, including the list of officials and board of trustees of the NGOs. When Escalante replied that the names of primary whistle-blower Benhur Luy, his parents Gertrudes and Arthur Luy, and friend Al Jerome Benito were on the list, an emphatic David asked him: “Why didn’t you file a case against Al Jerome Benito?” ❱❱ PAGE 13 Comic relief

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Philippine News

5 FRIDAY AUGUST 8, 2014

Lapid found liable in fertilizer scam Senate OKs repeal of antiwomen law

BY TONETTE OREJAS Inquirer Central Luzon

CITY OF SAN FERNANDO— The Office of the Ombudsman has approved the filing of graft charges against Sen. Lito Lapid in connection with the overpricing of 3,880 liters of liquid fertilizer bought by the provincial government in 2004 when he was governor of Pampanga province.

An Ombudsman task force has found that the P5 million used to buy the fertilizer came from agricultural funds that were allegedly diverted to the campaign of then President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo in 2004, a scandal that became known as the P728-million fertilizer fund scam.

Ombudsman Conchita Carpio Morales signed the resolution for the filing of graft charges against Lapid and six others on June 3.

The fertilizer scam case is the eighth graft case to be filed in the Office of the Ombudsman against Lapid since he was elected governor in 1995 and the second to be ordered sent to the Sandiganbayan for trial. In a statement sent to the INQUIRER on Thursday, Lapid said he had no information about the resolution of the case.

He said the case was still pending in the Office of the Ombudsman, which he had requested to do a “judicious and fair review” of the matter.

“I request that we avoid secondguessing. Instead, we should hope that the concerned people in the Ombudsman would scrutinize every side of this issue so they could issue a lawful resolution,” Lapid said.

Morales also approved the filing of charges against provincial accountant Benjamin Yuzon and former provincial accountant Vergel Yabut.

Also recommended to be charged are Leolita Aquino and Ma. Victoria Aquino-Abubakar, incorporator and president of Malayan Pacific Trading Corp.

(MPTC), respectively, and Dexter Alexander Vasquez, owner of DA Vasquez Macro-Micro Fertilizer Resource.

No public bidding

The Ombudsman resolution said the provincial government headed by Lapid bought the fertilizer for P4.8 million, at

BY LEILA B. SALAVERRIA Philippine Daily Inquirer

Ombudsman Conchita Carpio Morales signed the resolution for the filing of graft charges against Lapid and six others on June 3.

INSET PHOTO FROM EN.WIKIPEDIA.ORG

P1,250 per liter, without a competitive public bidding.

Without competitive bidding, the provincial officials involved gave “unwarranted benefit to the suppliers,” the resolution said.

Had the provincial government called a public bidding, it could have bought equal or better-quality fertilizer at the lowest price possible, the resolution said.

Carried out without competitive public bidding, the transaction violated the Anti-Graft and Corrupt Practices Act (Republic Act No. 3019), the Government Procurement Act (RA 9184), and the Revised Penal Code, the resolution said.

The resolution said Lapid requested the Department of Agriculture regional office in Central Luzon to release P5 million allotted to Pampanga on May 17, 2004, after being informed

by Vasquez on May 12, 2004, that Macro-Micro’s quotation for foliar fertilizer was P1,250.

“Lapid also issued, and upon Yabut’s certification of cash availability, approved on May 21, 2004, [Purchase Request] No. GO- 109 specifically detailing that 3,880 liters of MacroMicro Foliar Fertilizer will be purchased at P1,250 per liter or for P4.850 million as well as the certification that no suitable substitute of the same quality as the aforesaid fertilizer and the same will be procured through direct purchase from MPTC,” the resolution said.

It said the Ombudsman’s Task Force Abono, which investigated the case, found two companies that offered liquid fertilizer at P120 to P150 a bottle.

MPTC, it said, has no license to operate and no certificate of product registration from the

Fertilizer and Pesticide Authority (FPA).

Charges dismissed The resolution said the farmers who supposedly received the fertilizer denied getting any from the provincial government in 2004.

For lack of probable cause, the Ombudsman dismissed the charges against Lulu Alingcastre, former provincial general services officer; Leonardo Mendoza, technical assistant at the Tourism Infrastructure and Enterprise Zone Authority (Tieza); Ramir Flores, administrative officer, and seven incorporators of MPTC. Pork barrel scam, too

Lapid has also been implicated in the P10-billion pork barrel scam allegedly masterminded by businesswoman Janet Lim-Napoles.

Pork barrel scam whistleblower Benhur Luy said his files contained entries for Lapid’s cash advances: P1,132,500 on Dec. 20, 2002; March 23, 2003; and May 7, 2003.

Lapid allegedly used P5 million from his Priority Development Assistance Fund (PDAF) allocation in 2011 for the purchase of antidengue inoculants in Polillo town, Quezon province, although no dengue cases were reported there.

An INQUIRER report in July 2013 said P5 million from Lapid’s PDAF also went to each of the towns of Teresa, Baras and Pililla in Rizal province for projects.

In that report, lawyer Filmer Abrajano, Lapid’s chief legal officer, said the pork-funded projects in the four towns, costing a combined P20 million, were legitimate and listed online by the Department of Budget and Management. ■ www.canadianinquirer.net

THE SENATE has approved on third and final reading a bill that will repeal the Revised Penal Code provision that makes it a crime for widows to remarry within 301 days from their husbands’ death, or for women whose marriages have been dissolved to take a new husband within the same time period.

Under Article 351 of the Revised Penal Code, the penalty of one to six months imprisonment and a P500 fine will be slapped against widows who will remarry within 301 days from their husband’s death, or before giving birth if she is pregnant at the time of his death.

The same penalty will apply to women whose marriages have been annulled or dissolved and who will marry before giving birth or before 301 days have lapsed.

No such provision against the premature marriage of men is present in the law.

Sen. Pia Cayetano, who chairs the Committee on Women, Family Relations and Gender Equality, endorsed the measure’s approval before the plenary.

The bill’s principal author is

Sen. Nancy Binay, who said in her explanatory note that while nobody has been convicted for violating this provision, it is still necessary to clean up the Revised Penal Code of such discriminatory sections.

“It is high time that Congress took the necessary step to abolish provisions of our laws which are antiquated and serve no other purpose than to perpetuate discrimination against women,” Binay said.

“Approval of the measure by a male dominant-Senate is the right step towards ensuring the the equality of law between men and women,” she said in a separate statement.

Binay said hers is not the first bill seeking to delete this provision. Previous attempts, however, had not been successful.

Senate President Franklin Drilon said he is fully behind the measure.

“This measure enjoys the full support of the Senate, for it is only right to abolish laws that serve no purpose other than to perpetuate discrimination against women,” Drilon said in a statement.

A similar measure has been filed in the House of Representatives, and remains pending before the committee on revision of laws. ■

Philippine News

AUGUST 8, 2014

FRIDAY 6

Why raps vs 3rd batch of solons taking time

BY JEROME ANING Philippine Daily Inquirer NEARLY THREE months after submitting her affidavit on the P10-billion Priority Development Assistance Fund (PDAF) scam, suspected mastermind Janet Lim-Napoles’ list of lawmakers who got kickbacks is still being studied by the National Bureau of Investigation, Justice Secretary Leila de Lima said yesterday.

As for the filing of a complaint against a third group of suspected beneficiaries of PDAF kickbacks, De Lima said the complaint was “under review.” She declined to disclose how many former and current lawmakers would be sued. “For the third batch, the results of the NBI probe is already there.

They’re just under review.

We’re just having a few [transactions] double-checked.

We’re double-checking the bases of the conclusions that the concerned lawmakers allegedly received kickbacks,” she said.

Asked if the investigators

were having difficulty doublechecking, De Lima explained that there were transactions in the third batch that were coursed through agents.

De Lima, who met the NBI team to get an update from the investigators, said they had obtained all special allotment release orders (Saros) pertaining to the PDAF-funded projects proposed by former and current congressmen and senators whom Napoles identified in her affidavit.

“The vetting is still ongoing.

We have obtained all the Saros and we’re still evaluating. But these are just Saros, mind you.

It doesn’t confirm yet or it’s not yet proof that they (lawmakers) really dealt with Napoles. These are proofs that those lawmakers really have PDAF, but as to whether the funds went to the Napoles nongovernment organizations, we’re still verifying,” De Lima said.

The rest for verification

The Department of Justice chief added that the team was still continuing to get “more details” from the implementing

firm, but we’re going to coordinate with the Commission on Audit to see if they have audit reports or findings about the funds that went to the LGUs (local government units),” she said.

Dealing with agents

agencies, or the government bodies that contracted the Napoles NGOs to implement the projects.

“This is really such a gigantic task because [the transactions took place] in different years.

Some took place long ago, others are recent. Except for the years 2007 to 2009, where all transactions are already clear, the rest are for verification,”

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she said.

De Lima recounted that she browsed through a “matrix” provided by the NBI team that contained the Saros, the projects and the dates.

According to her, the NBI team was also encountering difficulties in verifying PDAFfunded projects of local government units.

“Those are difficult to con-

“It’s not easy to double-check things like that, especially if they were coursed through agents. Some of those in the third batch dealt with Mrs. Napoles through alleged agents.

So we’re trying to double-check if there was really a receipt of kickbacks by the concerned lawmakers, directly or indirectly. Now, even if they got kickbacks through agents, which is possible, it doesn’t mean that it’s not true they got kickbacks,” she said.

“We just want to make sure.

Our guiding post here is that when we transmit our complaint to the Ombudsman, we have to make sure the results of the Ombudsman’s own verification would confirm or affirm our findings. [This is to make sure] that the entire process won’t get diluted,” she added. ■

Philippine News

7 FRIDAY AUGUST 8, 2014

P2.6-T nat’l budget has P500-B lump sum But Almendras claims everything in detail

BY DJ YAP, LEILA B. SALAVERRIA AND CARMEL LOISE MATUS Philippine Daily Inquirer “LUMP SUM” items amounted to P501 billion in the proposed P2.606-trillion national budget for 2015 that Malacañang submitted to the House of Representatives on Wednesday.

The proposed budget is up 15 percent from last year’s budget of P2.265 trillion, reflecting the jump in the administration’s assumption of a 7 to 8percent growth in gross domestic product next year.

Earlier however, Cabinet Secretary Jose Rene Almendras said everything was detailed in the proposed national budget.

“There are no lump sum amounts,” Almendras said at a forum organized by the Kapisanan ng mga Brodkaster ng Pilipinas (KBP) Cebu Chapter in Cebu City.

Lump sum is a phrase associated with the graft-ridden Priority Development Assistance Fund (PDAF) and Disbursement Acceleration Program (DAP) that lawmakers and President Aquino had used at their discretion, respectively, before the Supreme Court declared the PDAF and the DAP unconstitutional.

6-volume budget proposal

In behalf of the President, Budget Secretary Florencio Abad formally presented the proposed budget, contained in six thick volumes, to Speaker Feliciano Belmonte Jr. and other leaders in the chamber, which would now deliberate on the expenditure program in the next few months.

“The Aquino administration crafted this proposed P2.606trillion national budget for 2015 anchored on the premise that no one, especially the poor and vulnerable, should be left behind,” said a primer of the Department of Budget and Management (DBM).

P501.7-B special purpose

Abad said a total of P501.670 billion was to be set aside as Special Purpose Funds (SPF) under the proposed national expenditure program prepared by his department for next year.

The funds are budgetary allocations in the General Appropriations Act (GAA) that are allocated for specific purposes, according to the DBM. “These are usually lump sum in nature, as the recipient departments or agencies and/or the specific programs and projects have not yet been identified during budget preparation and legislation.

“These are then made available for allocation to agencies in addition to their built-in appropriations during budget execution,” it said.

At a press conference, Abad said the SPF shall be used for “calamity funds, contingency funds, miscellaneous personnel benefit funds, pension and guarantee funds, the Internal Revenue Allotment (for local government units), debt service or interest payments” and other items.

“The total amount that pertains to the Special Purpose Funds that I mentioned is P501.670 billion, or about 29 percent of the new General Appropriations Act. The rest are department and agency budgets,” he said.

The budget secretary deflected questions about the lump sum appropriations by saying the proposed budget had already been “disaggregated.”

“That’s why you can see there are six volumes of it, because it’s almost completely disaggregated with respect to important programs that benefit the communities,” he said.

There were only four volumes of the proposed budget last year.

“So, there’s very little lump sum unless it’s necessary, for example, calamity funds [which cannot be a line item because] you cannot predict what’s going to happen,” he said.

Abad said the proposed budget, for the first time, used a budget priorities framework that defined the investments of government both in terms of sectors or programs and geographical areas.

For example, he said, 37 percent of the budget was for social services, such as the conditional cash transfer (CCT) program, basic education, public health and social housing, while about 27 percent was for economic

services, the biggest chunk of which goes to infrastructure with almost P600 billion.

Outcome-based

In Cebu City, Almendras announced the adoption of the outcome-based performance informed budgeting (PIB) strategy in the proposed national budget.

The PIB is a scheme that uses performance information to assist in deciding where the funds will go.

Performance information include the purpose of the funds required, the outputs that would be produced or the services that would be rendered, the outcomes that would be achieved by the services, and the cost of the programs and activities proposed to achieve the objectives.

The PIB, according to Almendras, is different from the traditional line item-based budgeting as it focuses more on outputs and outcomes, and places less emphasis on inputs.

Almendras said the shift to PIB was in line with the Aquino administration’s goal to strengthen the link between planning and budgeting and to simplify the presentation of the budget to make it more understandable to the public.

Savings’ definition

In response to the Supreme Court ruling declaring the DAP unconstitutional, the proposed budget refined the definition and use of “savings.”

In the President’s budget message, salient points of which were released to the media, the administration asked Congress to impose a one-year validity of appropriations, effectively disallowing the budgets intended for the year to “carry over” to the succeeding year.

“This encourages departments and agencies to utilize their allocated funds as early as possible, rather than to postpone the implementation of programs and projects to the following year,” the DBM said.

Declare savings June 30

Abad said the administration also sought Congress to allow the declaration of savings “by the end of the first semester—a realistic timeframe, as it gives enough time for the implemenwww.canadianinquirer.net

Cabinet Secretary Jose Rene Almendras.

PHOTO FROM EN.WIKIPEDIA.ORG

tation of augmented programs and projects.”

“The policy right now is after giving them [agencies] five months of this year the opportunity to begin the process of procurement, we give them the first semester of the following year to obligate,” he told reporters.

“If they’re not able to obligate the allotments released to them, then that’s when, at the end of June 30, we make declaration as to whether there are unobligated appropriations or unreleased appropriations” in consultation with agencies concerned, Abad said.

Legislate definition

He said that it was within the power of Congress to legislate the definition of savings, and that the Supreme Court recognized such a right.

Belmonte agreed. “I would agree with the budget secretary on one thing, the term savings has no constitutional definition, and not having any, it is up to us to legislate the proper definition, the proper applicability of it and so forth, how far it extends, how law extends to the use of unprogrammed funds, at what point you can use it.”

Senate President Franklin Drilon shared the same view, saying that Congress has the

prerogative to review and revise the definition of savings.

Drilon said one point that could be considered was to redefine it in a way that would allow officials to declare and use these even before the end of the year.

He said that when projects were abandoned or there was a change in priorities and some projects were shelved, the appropriations for these should be made available to augment other items in the budget.

“We believe we do not have to wait for the end of the year, because by the end of the year, the budget authority would have lapsed and you have to go through bidding and all of that,” Drilon told reporters.

“The very strict and literal interpretation of the term savings, to me, can be reviewed,” he added.

No definition of savings

Drilon said, though, that the Senate had no new definition of the term savings yet.

“I do not know yet, because it was the President’s idea. We will know the proposed definition from Malacañang,” he said when asked how Congress sought to define savings.

In his State of the Nation Address on Monday, Mr. Aquino ❱❱ PAGE 9 P2.6-T nat'l

Philippine News

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AUGUST 8, 2014 FRIDAY 8

Rehab plans welcome but execs say: Please hurry up

BY JOEY A. GABIETA, CARMEL LOISE MATUS AND NESTOR P. BURGOS JR. Philippine Daily Inquirer TACLOBAN CITY—It’s about time. But please hurry up.

Leaders of municipalities ravaged

by Supertyphoon “Yolanda” welcomed President Aquino’s approval of the rebuilding blueprint Presidential Assistant for Rehabilitation and Recovery Panfilo Lacson had presented for five provinces and Tacloban City.

Mayor Ricky Ramirez of Medellin town in Cebu province said his constituents had been waiting for eight months for the rebuilding to get off the ground.

“It’s about time that he said something concrete about the assistance we expected from the national government,” Ramirez told the INQUIRER. Worst-hit areas

In his State of the Nation Address (Sona) on Monday, the President said he signed this month the rehabilitation and recovery plans for the provinces of Cebu, Iloilo, Eastern Samar, Leyte and Tacloban City. These areas were among the worst-hit by Yolanda (international name: Haiyan) that struck on Nov. 8, 2013.

The President also sought the cooperation of Congress for the release of funds for the implementation of the plans.

Bernardita Valenzuela, spokesperson of Tacloban Mayor Alfred Romualdez, who is now in the United States, also welcomed the President’s announcement but expressed hopes that the rehabilitation would start immediately. “It is easy to say that it was already approved.

But the question after he approved it, then what?”

The President’s announcement was also welcomed by other mayors of Cebu including Salvador dela Fuente of Madridejos and Jose Esgana of Sta. Fe. Full recovery expected

Mayors Arnold Betita of Carles town and Peter Paul Lopez of San Dionisio town in Iloilo said the approval of the plans would hopefully lead to the full recovery of their municipalities.

“Of course we welcome it. Even if it was done eight months after the supertyphoon, it will surely help our people,” Lopez said.

Betita said the rehabilitation programs of the national government would compliment the assistance of private organizations and individuals who have significantly helped the victims.

Officials in areas whose recovery plans have not been approved by the President

In his SONA on Monday, the President said he signed the rehabilitation and recovery plans for the provinces of Cebu, Iloilo, Eastern Samar, Leyte and Tacloban City.

PHOTO FROM ISSUES.PH

are hoping that they will also receive assistance from the national government.

“We have been rebuilding and recovering on our own. But we will very much appreciate the programs and projects from the national government,” said Mayor Dante Bermejo of Panay town in Capiz province.

The whole province was also devastated by the supertyphoon, crippling its seafood and poultry industry.

Program for Capiz

The Office of the Presidential Assistant for Rehabilitation and Recovery approved on Friday the P12-billion rehabilitation and recovery plan of Capiz but this has not been signed by the President.

Valenzuela said the city was hoping the implementation of the P28- billion Tacloban Recovery and Rehabilitation Plan (TRRP) would start before the first anniversary of the supertyphoon which is less than four months away.

National funding for the TRRP is essential because the annual income of Tacloban, the worst-hit city, is expected to drop from P800 million to P620 million because of the massive devastation.

Several officials and many typhoon victims in the affected areas have repeatedly complained of the delay and lack of assistance from the national government.

The mayors said their priority was providing safe shelters for victims, especially those that need to be permanently relocated.

In Cebu, about 700 families from 11 barangays still need to be relocated in

www.canadianinquirer.net

Madridejos town, according to Mayor Dela Fuente.

Mayor Augusto Corro of Daanbantayan town said 2,300 families from six barangays in the mainland and four barangays on two islets also needed to be permanently transferred.

Corro said rehabilitation funds could help solve the lack of relocation sites.

Daanbantayan was among the worsthit towns in northern Cebu during the onslaught of the typhoon. The cost of rehabilitating the town is set at P2.3 billion.

Housing urgent

Housing is also urgently needed in Tacloban especially for families who lost their homes.

“There are still 800 families living in tents in Tacloban. And it’s been eight months now and living in tents is intolerable,” Valenzuela said.

In Iloilo, about 4,000 families mostly from island-villages in San Dionisio town also need relocation and new houses, according to Mayor Lopez.

In Carles town, houses for 7,000 residents need to be constructed.

“We are looking for a site for the project of the (National Housing Authority) and with the funds from the national government, we can purchase land,” said Mayor Betita.

Valenzuela said she did not care whether it would be the city government or the national government that would implement the rehabilitation programs and projects.

“It does not matter who will do the repairs as long as this is done,” she said. ■

Philippine News

9 FRIDAY AUGUST 8, 2014

Rural folk are better prepared for storms

BY JULIE M. AURELIO Philippine Daily Inquirer MANILA, PHILIPPINES—Even rural folk are now more prepared for disasters with their own solar-powered weather stations.

The Department of the Interior and Local Government has commended the League of Provinces of the Philippines (LPP) for installing automated weather stations (AWS) in provinces all over the country.

The solar-powered AWS is a device that tracks weather disturbances passing through a certain locality or province.

The LPP and the Weather Philippines Foundation, a nongovernmental organization, set up more than 400 free AWS which are capable of tracking wind direction and measuring velocity, air pressure and temperature.

Interior Secretary Mar Roxas

urged provincial officials to participate in communications trainings to be able to fully utilize the AWS system.

“This will complement, and not compete with, the official weather forecasts of the state weather bureau,” he said, referring to the Philippine Atmospheric, Geophysical and Astronomical Services Administration.

Roxas, who is also vice chair for disaster response of the National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council, pointed out that the AWS would help provincial governments be more disaster-aware and prepared.

“Strong typhoons are now the new normal and having accurate and localized weather forecast is certainly vital. Such information can give ample time to provinces to prepare and prevent further loss of lives and properties,” he said. ■

PH hires ferries to evacuate 13,000 Filipino OFWs in Libya after beheading, rape

BY ANGIE DUARTE Philippine Canadian Inquirer MANILA—The foreign ministry said on Thursday that the Philippines will commission ferries to expedite the repatriation of 13,000 of its nationals from Libya. The announcement came a day after a Filipina nurse was abducted and gangraped by 6-9 Libyan youths in the capital city of Tripoli on Wednesday.

According to foreign department spokesman Charles Jose, the Filipina nurse was taken from outside her residence to an undisclosed location, where she was raped by the group of Libyan youth. She was set free two hours later, and was taken to hospital y a team from the Philippine consul.

Some days before the abduction-rape, a Filipino construction worker was abducted. His

beheaded remains were found at a hospital in the port of Benghazi.

“We condemn these crimes that have been committed against our people,” President Benigno Aquino’s spokesman Herminio Coloma told reporters.

Following the beheading, the Philippines ordered the evacuation from Libya of all 13,000 of its citizens; majority of whom are overseas foreign workers.

The effort is being spearheaded by a consular team; organizing evacuation by land to nearby Tunisia and Egypt.

The foreign ministry reports, however, that as of Wednesday, only 700 Filipinos had left Libya. This, in spite of the increasingly volatile situation brought on by opposing militias fighting to take control of strategic population centres.

The Philippines has also an-

nounced a comprehensive travel ban to Libya.

A similar evacuation situation occurred in 2011, following the chaos that ensued when the late Moamer Kadhafi was removed from power. But many of the Filipino workers subsequently returned to their jobs in Libya, given the scarcity of employment in their own country.

“Just like what we did before, the Department of Foreign Affairs has hired ships to ferry and evacuate Filipinos,” Coloma said.

“We reiterate our appeal to those Filipinos still in Libya to comply with the mandatory evacuation (order),” Coloma said.

Approximately 10 million Filipinos live and work abroad, for want of good job opportunities in the Philippines. A large number of these workers are in the Middle East. ■

proposed budget, House Minority Leader Ronaldo Zamora said he had not taken a good look at it but noted that “the amount is quite large.”

“It doesn’t even include unprogrammed funds. So that’s one of the first things we will ask: Where do we get the money to fund these? And as we go into general debate, these are the questions that will be asked.

Obviously, we will be looking

into individual programs,” he said.

Zamora cited in particular the CCT program. “I am uncertain even now, after six years of CCT, whether the program is as effective as it should be.

Or should we not be looking at CCT less as a dole but more as a job-generating program, which is longer term and more sustainable in terms of growth pattern in mind?” ■

P2.6-T nat’l... asked Congress to issue a joint resolution that would clarify the concepts and definitions concerning government savings, and to approve a supplemental budget to fund the projects that used to be covered by the DAP. ❰❰ 7

Nancy’s misgivings

But Sen. Nancy Binay expressed misgivings about al-

lowing the declaration and use of savings even before the end of the year.

Binay said that when officials submitted project proposals for the budget, they should know that these were doable within the year.

Officials should be doing the paperwork and other necessary acts to ensure the projects funded under the budget would be completed, she said.

She also said that in redefining savings, it should be clarified when these could be declared. There should also be a penalty against the practice of declaring forced savings, or deliberately delaying or sidelining a project so that savings could be declared using its allocated funds.

CCT program in particular

Asked to comment on the www.canadianinquirer.net

Philippine News

AUGUST 8, 2014 FRIDAY 10

Speaker Belmonte’s push for anti-dynasty bill elates group Philippine Daily Inquirer

Speaker Feliciano Belmonte Jr. PHOTO FROM INQUIRER.NET

MANILA, PHILIPPINES—A civil society group lobbying for an end to political dynasties has expressed confidence that House Bill No. 3587, which has passed committee deliberations and which is being tackled in plenary debates, would be passed before the 2016 elections.

The Movement against Dynasties (MAD) said the group is counting on Speaker Feliciano Belmonte’s pronouncement before the plenary hours ahead of the President Aquino’s State of the Nation Address on July 28

that he is pushing for the swift passage of the bill, otherwise known as “An Act Prohibiting the Establishment of Political Dynasties,” which he hopes will guide candidacy rules for 2016.

MAD chairman Quintin San Diego said the group “hails the statesmanship of Speaker Belmonte, who himself belongs to a political dynasty,” for supporting the passage of coauthors Rep. Fredenil Castro and Caloocan Rep. Edgar Erice’s bill, San Diego said.

He said the timetable is very crucial, considering that political dynasties control most of the Senate and the House of Representatives and that the

highly controversial and now declared unconstitutional Priority Development Assistance Fund (PDAF) and the Disbursement Acceleration Program (DAP) are directly correlated to the rise of political dynasties.

Santiago said the dynastyPDAF-DAP link as a political issue in the 2016 elections would spell the rise and fall of many politicians.

MAD cochairman Danilo P. Olivares also noted that lawmakers, many of whom belong to political dynasties, have set aside personal and political interests and have thrown their support for the passage of an antidynasty law. ■

FOI measure No. 18 in Palace’s 26 priority bills

BY CHRISTIAN V. ESGUERRA AND DJ YAP Philippine Daily Inquirer MANILA, PHILIPPINES—He might have omitted it in his State of the Nation Address (Sona), but President Aquino has included the freedom of information (FOI) bill in the list of priority measures he wants Congress to pass within his final two years in office.

The FOI bill, which would mandate the disclosure of public records, is priority No. 18 on the list of at least 26 “priority measures.” Topping the list is the Bangsamoro Basic Law (BBL), based on the memorandum that Executive Secretary Paquito Ochoa Jr. sent to Speaker Feliciano Belmonte.

Malacañang on Wednesday released copies of the May 30 memorandum, including a three-page attachment elaborating on the contributions of at least 26 measures to specific areas of governance.

“These are legislative bills that intend to achieve inclusive growth,” Ochoa wrote.

“More particularly, they are projected to result in a high, sustained and broad-based economic growth that generates mass employment and draws the majority of the people into the economic and social mainstream, reduce poverty and

achieve the Millennium Development Goals.”

Aquino cited at least six measures in his Sona, including the uniformed personnel pension reform bill, supplemental budget for 2014, national budget bill and a joint resolution to clarify certain “definitions and concepts” in the Supreme Court decision against his Disbursement Acceleration Program.

Support for FOI

The President also mentioned the need to extend the notices of coverage for land distribution.

Lawmakers, at the prodding of Speaker Belmonte, on Wednesday expressed support for the passage of the FOI bill.

In his speech at the opening of Congress’ second regular session on Monday, hours before the Sona, the Speaker pushed for the passage of an FOI law in the spirit of Section 7, Article 3 of the Constitution recognizing the right of the people to information on matters of public concern.

“We must craft a viable FOI law to promote greater transparency and strengthen accountability in government, without unduly restricting the latitude of options for government action in the delivery of services to the public and in responding expeditiously to the needs of our people,” Belmonte said.

Responding to Belmonte’s

call, a number of members of the House of Representatives expressed support for the FOI bill.

The Senate has passed its version of the FOI bill but it remains pending in the House.

A big chance

In a statement, House Deputy Speaker Giorgidi Aggabao said that with the Speaker himself making a special pitch, there was now “a big chance” the FOI bill would pass this session.

Pampanga Rep. Oscar Rodriguez, chair of the committee on good government and public accountability, also welcomed the Speaker’s commitment to prioritize the FOI bill.

Rodriguez said he filed the first FOI bill in the eighth Congress because of his experience with the military then.

Abakada Rep. Jonathan de la Cruz, a member of the minority bloc, said it was high time the FOI bill was enacted into law.

“The FOI is one law which should have been passed a long time ago and should have been one of the priorities under this administration of daang matuwid (straight path),” De la Cruz said.

Parañaque Rep. Gus Tambunting, author of one of the FOI bills, thanked the Speaker for his support for the FOI bill in his opening speech. “As a major proponent of this bill, I really hope we can make this a law before the end of the year,” www.canadianinquirer.net

he said.

He said public officials as public servants were endowed with power but have the responsibility to be accountable at all times to the people whom they owe their very own title and position.

BBL draft

The Palace has yet to submit a draft of the BBL, more than two months since the original deadline had lapsed. Both the government and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front panels were still trying to settle disagreements over certain items in the draft prepared by the Bangsamoro Transition Commission.

Acknowledging the delay, the President, in his Sona, sought Congress’ “understanding,” saying “it is important to scrutinize each provision we lay down.”

The target is to pass the BBL within the year to eventually pave the way for the creation of a new autonomous region in Mindanao.

Other priority measures

Also high on the Palace list was the proposed Tax Incentives Management and Transparency Act. A version filed by Senate President Franklin Drilon seeks to include a “Tax Expenditure Account in the annual national budget to reflect the amount of tax incentives granted to private individuals and corporations to

foster transparency in the present system of granting tax incentives.”

Aquino’s priority bills included those seeking to amend the build-operate-transfer law, cabotage law, Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas charter, Human Security Act, Ombudsman Act and the Anti-Enforced Disappearance Act. Other list of priorities

The President also sought amendments to the law facilitating the “acquisition of right-of-way, site or location for national government infrastructure projects.”

He also wanted to remove “investment restrictions in specific laws cited in the Foreign Investment Negative List.”

Other measures on the President’s list of priorities were proposals for a competition law, whistle-blowers act, revision of the criminal code, delineation of the Philippine maritime zone, act instituting reforms in land administration, national land use act, delineation of specific forest limits of public domain and the water sector reform act.

Also deemed priority legislation were a civil service reform bill, a proposed magna carta of the poor, a proposed act protecting the rights of internally displaced persons and a strategic trade management bill. ■

Philippine News

11 FRIDAY AUGUST 8, 2014

Many Filipinos...

Del Rosario said only 1,700 Filipinos have signed up to be repatriated from the Libyan cities of Benghazi and Misarata as well as the capital, Tripoli, after the Philippines called for the mandatory evacuations of its nationals from the North African nation.

The Philippines has chartered a ship to transport the Filipinos this week from Libya to Malta, where flights will be arranged to take them home.

About 160 Filipinos have escaped by land to Tunisia, including 50 workers who were briefly stranded when the border crossing was shut by authorities Friday night due to violence that erupted amid the rush to escape from Libya, del Rosario said.

“I’m not sure that we can even get 50 per cent to come home,” he told The Associated Press after arriving in Manila from Tunisia, where he helped arranged the evacuations of Filipinos in Libya. “They’re so scared, but their concerns are their jobs.”

Filipino nurses are especially apprehensive about leaving because employers have enticed ❰❰ 1

In appealing his 90-day suspension from office, Estrada cited the Supreme Court’s ruling in Santiago versus Sandiganbayan which stated that the “suspension of a public official or employee is not automatic or self-operative when the accused has challenged the validity” of the criminal information filed against him.

PHOTO FROM RAPPLER.COM

Senator Estrada appeals suspension, cites pending plea in SC

BY MARLON RAMOS Philippine Daily Inquirer MANILA, PHILIPPINES—Detained Sen. Jinggoy Estrada has asked the Sandiganbayan to reverse its July 17 resolution suspending him as a member of the Senate in connection with the P10-billion pork barrel scam.

In a motion for reconsideration filed by his lawyers in the antigraft court’s Fifth Division on Friday, Estrada accused the government prosecutors of working for his ouster from the Senate by seeking his suspension despite a pending petition he had filed in the Supreme Court.

In that petition, the senator had asked the high tribunal to invalidate the filing of plunder and graft charges against him, claiming that the Ombudsman had deprived him of his right to due process.

He also challenged the validity of the criminal information the government prosecutors had filed against him.

“Senator Estrada has duly and timely challenged the validity of the proceedings against him, invoking his constitutional rights, and asked that the proceedings against him be declared null and void …,” Estrada’s 14-page appeal read in part.

Without basis

“Given such challenge, the suspension of Senator Estrada is without legal or factual basis,” it said.

In appealing his 90-day suspension from office, Estrada cited the Supreme Court’s ruling in Santiago versus Sandiganbayan which stated that the “suspension of a public official or employee is not automatic or self-operative when the accused has challenged the validity” of the criminal information filed against him. “(P)rior to the (prosecution’s) motion seeking the suspension of Senator Estrada, the validity of the information in the instant case … had been questioned and is currently being litigated by the parties,” Estrada said.

He also told the court that the prosecution was engaged in forum shopping for asking the Fifth Division to declare the criminal information against him valid pending the Supreme Court’s decision on his petition.

In addition, he said, the prosecution’s move to suspend him from office was “made in bad faith, designed to punish him and to deprive his constituents of his representation for as long as possible, which is practically equivalent to removal from office.”

Estrada, who is being held in

a temporary detention facility at Camp Crame, Quezon City, also questioned why the prosecution only sought his suspension over the plunder case and not for several counts of graft.

Remote claim

“The intention of the strategy (of the prosecution) … is quite evident: It is to nullify Senator Estrada’s right to hold office and also deprive his constituents of his representation,” he said.

In meting out the suspension order on Estrada, the Sandiganbayan said the senator’s claim that his constituents would be paralyzed by his suspension was “remote,” pointing out that there were 21 other senators who could carry out the functions and responsibilities of Estrada as a senator.

“The Senate President will surely know how to deal with the problem of filling the temporary vacancies in accordance with the provisions of the rules of the Senate,” the court said in its minute resolution.

“It must be stressed that this court … has found the existence of probable cause and ordered the issuance of a warrant of arrest against the accused. In view of the finding of existence of probable cause, the information is said to be sufficient in form and substance,” it ruled. ■ www.canadianinquirer.net

them to stay with additional pay and they are committed to their hospital work, del Rosario said.

Philippine calls for the Filipino workers and their dependents to move out of Libya heightened after a Filipino construction worker was beheaded a few weeks ago and a nurse was abducted and gang-raped amid the escalating violence.

President Benigno Aquino III deployed del Rosario to Tunisia with an order for him to make sure “no one gets left behind,” del Rosario said, but he added that many simply refused to leave despite the danger.

“I was told that if some of them go out of their houses, they get divested of their money and cellphones,” he said.

“That’s what is scary. Nobody seems to be in charge. There are no evident police forces so if you get in trouble, you’re on your own.”

The Philippines is among the world’s top labour exporters, with about a tenth of its 100 million people working abroad to prop up their families and the country’s economy with the money they send home. ■

Philippine News

AUGUST 8, 2014 FRIDAY 12

Infant got Estrada pork Other recipients are the dead with ghost projects

BY MARLON RAMOS Philippine Daily Inquirer MANILA, PHILIPPINES—A 19-month-old infant and several dead persons were among the “farmers” who purportedly received farm inputs purchased out of the pork barrel allocation of detained Sen. Jinggoy Estrada, an antigraft investigator told the Sandiganbayan on Tuesday.

At the continuation of his testimony, lawyer Vic Escalante Jr. said he and other field investigators of the Office of the Ombudsman had discovered irregularities in the implementation of the projects financed by Estrada’s Priority Development Assistance Fund (PDAF).

Citing the affidavits of witnesses, Escalante said Estrada pocketed over P50 million in kickbacks from at least 10 livelihood projects in the provinces of Laguna, Pangasinan, Compostela Valley, Agusan del Norte and Agusan del Sur. The projects were allegedly carried out by nongovernment organizations (NGOs) created by Janet Lim-Napoles, the purported brains of the P10-billion PDAF scam.

“We went to the (villages) to check if those on the list of beneficiaries were actual residents.

Many, if not all, were not residents of the villages where the projects were implemented,” Escalante told the antigraft court’s Fifth Division at the hearing on Estrada’s petition for bail.

“All of them denied receiving livelihood packages and kits.

One of those who executed an affidavit said her spouse was already dead before the project implementation,” he continued. “One father said one of the beneficiaries was his child who was only 1 year and 7 months old.”

He said even the mayors and municipal agriculturists denied signing the delivery reports and acknowledgment receipts for the supposed Estrada-sponsored projects, bolstering the allegations of whistle-blowers that there were ghost deliveries.

Testimony hearsay

Unperturbed, Estrada and his lawyers dismissed Escalante’s testimony as mere hearsay, pointing out that the investigator admitted in court that he had no personal knowledge if the senator himself received kickbacks from the projects.

Estrada challenged government prosecutors to present their main witnesses against

him, principal whistle-blowers Benhur Luy and Ruby Tuason, to speed up the proceedings.

“He does not have any knowledge that Luy delivered money to me or any person for that matter. I’m pretty confident that I will be granted bail,” he told reporters after the threehour court proceeding.

Estrada, who allegedly pocketed P183 million in commissions, accused the prosecution of delaying the bail hearing, noting that the testimonies of the witnesses that the prosecution was set to present in the weekly hearing had “no probative value.”

“I hope the prosecution will present their strong witnesses, Benhur Luy and Ruby Tuason, for the court to determine if I will be (allowed to post) bail or not,” he said.

Asked why he wanted Luy and Tuason to take the witness stand, Estrada told the Inquirer: “The other prosecution witnesses will not have anything to say. By presenting Luy and Tuason, at least it could expedite the hearing.”

“The time in jail is time wasted. It’s been too long already,” he said of his detention.

Manila Mayor Joseph Estrada also believed that Escalante’s testimony was weak. “It’s all hearsay. So there’s no damage at all,” the former President told reporters.

Letters of endorsement

In his direct examination handled by acting Deputy Special Prosecutor Manuel Soriano Jr., Escalante revealed that Estrada had endorsed numerous projects that were coursed through National Livelihood Development Corp. and National Agribusiness Corp. through letters addressed to then Agriculture Secretary Arthur Yap. Soriano asked Escalante to identify which documents he used to conclude that Estrada benefited from the projects.

But Sabino Acut Jr., one of Estrada’s lawyers, objected, pointing out that the best evidence was the document itself.

In addition to the sworn affidavits of Luy and other whistleblowers, Escalante said copies of the tripartite memorandums of agreement between Estrada’s office, the implementing government agencies and the Napoles-linked NGOs showed that the senator’s pork barrel funds went to spurious projects.

Fictitious beneficiaries

He said he and the other investigators also interviewed mayors and other concerned local officials who revealed that the individuals on the list of beneficiaries of Estrada’s PDAF were fictitious.

“In their sworn affidavits, Benhur Luy and other witnesses admitted that they forged the signatories (on the documents) and even the names on the list of beneficiaries,” he said.

In his cross-examination, Acut asked Escalante if he had personal knowledge about the processing of the special allotment release orders, notices of cash allocation and other documents pertaining to the supposed funneling of PDAF allocations to Napoles’ NGOs. Escalante replied, “None, sir.” ■ www.canadianinquirer.net

Pia revisits Manila condo controversy

BY LEILA B. SALAVERRIA Philippine Daily Inquirer MANILA, PHILIPPINES— Sen. Pia Cayetano wants the Senate to look into the ongoing construction of a condominium project in Manila which critics said would ruin the sightline of the Rizal Monument.

Cayetano, who chairs the Senate committee on education, arts and culture, said her proposal to look into the Torre de Manila project would check whether it had violated any regulation and see whether new laws are needed to allow the national government to have a say in local projects affecting heritage sites.

But she clarified that the probe was not intended to interfere in business and would only look into existing laws on culture and national heritage.

“Of course, if it has not violated any law, even if I’m not in favor of it, there’s nothing I can do. But our hearings are in aid of legislation. So maybe we need to create laws to ensure that the (national) government also has a say because it may go beyond local concerns,” she told reporters Monday.

Based on media reports, she said, “compromises” had been reached regarding the project.

But even if issues had been resolved in the local level, there may still be national and heritage issues that need to be addressed, the senator added.

In mid-2012, an online campaign against the DMCI condo project was spearheaded by tour guide and cultural activist Carlos Celdran, prompting the Manila City council to launch an inquiry into the planned 49-story structure, which secured permits during the term of Mayor Alfredo Lim. The council later concluded that the building violated the height restriction in the area but did not violate any law with regard to the Rizal Monument.

In January this year, the council adopted the Manila zoning board’s recommendation to affirm all permits and licenses issued in relation to the condominium project.

Councilor DJ Bagatsing, chair of the committee on tourism who earlier authored resolu-

An online campaign against the DMCI condo project was spearheaded by tour guide and cultural activist Carlos Celdran in 2012.

PHOTO FROM DMCIHOMES.COM

tions recommending the temporary suspension of the permits, then explained that DMCI officials had “a roundtable discussion” with him and Celdran and agreed to improve the design of the facade to complement the Rizal Monument sightline.

The company also agreed to plant two rows of tall trees “to protect the view” and keep the building free of advertising materials, Bagatsing said. He also said Celdran would “vigilantly monitor” the developer’s compliance with these commitments.

Cayetano noted that there had been instances in the past when violations of laws and regulations were discovered when projects were already under way.

The fact that construction had begun was no reason not to try to uncover any irregularities, she said.

“We cannot be ruled by circumstances just because we have failed to implement our laws. So that’s what I want to look into. What are really the repercussions of this? Because before you know it, there will be so many violations. And it’s high time I think that we put a value on [our national heritage sites],” she told reporters.

The Inquirer on Tuesday contacted a DMCI spokesperson who said the company would rather not comment on this issue. Earlier in the day, DMCI president Isidro Consunji told a stockholder who raised the issue that he did not agree with Celdran’s view. ■ With a report from Doris C. Dumlao

Philippine News

13 FRIDAY AUGUST 8, 2014

Hopeless mother sends baby to morgue; baby turns out to be alive

BY ANGIE DUARTE Philippine Canadian Inquirer GENERAL SANTOS CITY—A mother was recently prompted by financial woes to remove her baby from intubation and send him to the morgue, even if the baby had not yet been declared dead.

Two-week-old baby Aldrin was rushed to a hospital in General Santos Doctors Hospital on July 20, due to signs of weakness. The baby’s doctor said that Aldrin was not breathing, and had no heartbeat. He was promptly revived and intubated, and fitted with a bag valve mask to help him breathe.

The doctor advised the family that this was the baby’s only recourse and that he would die without intubation and assisted breathing.

Thirteen days later and with-

out visible improvement , however, he infant’s mother—faced with a hospital bill amounting to P100,000 and steadily climbing—decided to have the baby brought to the morgue, presuming that the latter’s baby’s condition would no longer improve.

The mother brought her baby to the morgue at 5 pm, although the doctor never declared the infant to be dead.

Much to the mother’s surprise, baby Aldrin was still moving and breathing at 8am the next day.

According to reports, PO3 Jepson Corsit heard the baby crying inside the morgue. The baby was rushed to the hospital shortly thereafter, where he is now in stable condition.

Baby Aldrin’s mother expressed her thankfulness that her baby was not immediately embalmed. ■

Comic relief... ❰❰ 4

‘Gospel truth’

“Because he was Luy’s friend. Luy said he just included the name of Al Jerome Benito without his knowledge,” he replied.

“And you believe whatever Benhur Luy said?

You took whatever he said as gospel truth?”

David retorted.

Standing his ground, Escalante said the Ombudsman validated what Luy and the other witnesses mentioned in his sworn affidavits.

David also scoffed at the witness for his supposed failure to remind the individuals tagged in the multibillion-peso pork barrel scam that their testimonies might be used against them “as enshrined in the Constitution.”

“You’re a good lawyer and a good field investigator. You should know that,” Napoles’ counsel said as if taunting Escalante.

‘Stop lecturing’

But Associate Justice Gesmundo restrained David’s manner of handling the cross-examination and ordered the lawyer to ask questions and not to give his opinion.

“Stop lecturing him about the Miranda rights. If you want, you can just file a case against him,” the magistrate told David.

Earlier in the proceeding, Assistant Deputy State Prosecutor Manuel Soriano Jr. sought the court’s intervention when two of Estrada’s defense lawyers, Acut and Jose Flaminiano, were raising objections at the same time.

Appearing like a schoolboy being bullied by his classmates, Soriano said it was a violation of the court’s rules.

Looking amused, Gesmundo told Soriano that an accused was allowed to have two or more lawyers as long as there is only one lead counsel.

When Soriano’s fellow public prosecutor stood up to raise a point moments later, the justice jokingly said: “That’s a violation. Nakita niyo na! (You see!)” ■

What’s next for Lacson after ‘Yolanda’ recovery plan?

BY LEILA B. SALAVERRIA Philippine Daily Inquirer MANILA, PHILIPPINES–After completing his main task of leading the management and rehabilitation efforts in areas devastated by Super Typhoon Yolanda and coming up with an 8,000-page recovery plan, what’s next for Rehabilitation Secretary Panfilo “Ping” Lacson?

“If there’s nothing more for me to do, I will say goodbye,” Lacson said on radio station dzBB, when asked if he would seek additional powers from the President to help ensure that his rehabilitation plans would be implemented well.

The former senator said his office’s main task had been to draft the comprehensive, master rehabilitation plan to help the areas ravaged by Yolanda (international name: Haiyan), the strongest storm on record, which struck the Visayas in November last year.

“We have no role in the implementation, but in our mandate,

we have an oversight function.

We’re just [here] to observe, to report and to monitor,” he said.

Under Memorandum Order 62, Lacson is tasked to exercise oversight over the relevant government agencies with respect to the implementation of the plans and programs and to submit to the President status reports on their implementation.

It also designates him as the overall manager and coordinator of rehabilitation, recovery and reconstruction efforts of government agencies and departments, to the extent allowed by law.

Lacson said the Philippines had been compared to other countries that had suffered from national disasters which, however, had a different set of powers for their rehabilitation officials.

He said Indonesia’s rehabilitation czar Kuntoro Mangkusubroto spent five months negotiating with the President over his powers. In the end, he got all that he asked for, including power over the budget, the planning and the implementa-

“If there’s nothing more for me to do, I will say goodbye,” Lacson said on radio station dzBB, when asked if he would seek additional powers from the President to help ensure that his rehabilitation plans would be implemented well.

PHOTO FROM SOLARNEWS.PH

tion of the rehabilitation plan for areas struck by the deadly Indian Ocean tsunami of 2004.

Lacson said he would have asked for more powers had he been given an assignment concerning a war mission. But heading the Yolanda rehabilitation efforts was a humanitarian cause, he said.

“Will you ask what your turf www.canadianinquirer.net

was when there was an urgent need that needs to be addressed, when so many were suffering?” he said.

Lacson also spoke of the need to keep a close watch on the P170.9 billion worth of programs and projects that have been set aside to rebuild and rehabilitate the ravaged provinces.

He said that if just one per-

cent of that amount is lost to leakage and corruption, that would still have been a very big loss—P1.7 billion worth of funds wasted.

Lacson said the Electronic Monitoring Platform, Accountability and Transparency Hub for Yolanda website would soon be up and running to allow officials, donors and other organizations to keep a close, realtime watch on the projects for Yolanda’s survivors.

This would be crucial for keeping tabs on the projects.

For example, he said an organization that donated houses could see for itself, using the website, the actual construction of the houses.

Civil society organizations would also play a crucial role in ensuring the projects are properly implemented.

The eight-volume, 8,000page master plan addresses livelihood, resettlement, social services, infrastructure, gender sensitivity needs, disaster preparedness, climate change adaptation and “other environmental concerns.” ■

Philippine News

DFA priority: Peace in disputed sea

BY CHRISTINE O. AVENDAÑO Philippine Daily Inquirer THE DEPARTMENT of Foreign Affairs (DFA) yesterday said its priority in the remaining two years of the Aquino administration would be “to ensure the peace in the West Philippine Sea” amid rising territorial conflicts with regional giant China.

This includes attempts to get all concerned parties, including China, to agree to a moratorium on activities such as base building, reclamations and gas explorations that could further raise tension in the South China Sea. In a report it issued to coincide with President Aquino’s State of the Nation Address (Sona) before Congress today, the DFA listed its achievements for 2013 as well as its priorities for the remaining two years in the term of President Aquino.

“For the remainder of President Aquino’s term, the DFA will continue to be faithful to its mandate to preserve and enhance national security, work towards inclusive growth and development, and safeguard the welfare and interests of our people abroad, while upholding the values of good governance,” the DFA also said in a nine-page pre-Sona report.

On its national security mandate, it mentioned disputes in the South China Sea “continue to pose serious challenges to national sovereignty and integrity.”

Specifically, the DFA will focus on its arbitration case against China.

Manila filed last year an arbitration case before the United Nations arbitration tribunal over China’s nine-dash line claim that in turn will give Beijing ownership of the entire South China Sea. Last March 30, the DFA submitted a memorial to the arbitral tribunal which gave China until Dec. 15 to present its counter memorial. China has refused to take part in the arbitration proceedings.

“We hope that China’s nonparticipation will hasten the arbitration proceedings,” the DFA said.

In the immediate term, the DFA said it was “also determined to get all concerned parties to agree on a moratorium on provocative and destabilizing actions in the “West Philippine Sea/South China Sea.” Foreign Secretary Albert Del Rosario had earlier called for a moratorium on these activities after China was found to be undertaking reclamation activities in some of the disputed areas, including that of the Philippines and Vietnam. ■

Manila filed last year an arbitration case before the United Nations arbitration tribunal over China’s nine-dash line claim that in turn will give Beijing ownership of the entire South China Sea. PHOTO FROM TRAVELERPARADISE.BLOGSPOT.COM

AUGUST 8, 2014 FRIDAY 14

Special powers... figures, the report projected an energy shortage of between 400 MW and 1,000 MW for Luzon from March to May 2015, resulting in rotating brownouts.

“Mindanao may experience longer brownouts in 2015 if no new power plants come in,” the report said, but noted that the June 2014 supply would be enough for “the country’s highest projected demand level of 11,943 MW” this year.

The document suggested that the government “invoke Section 71 of Republic Act No. 9136, or the Electric Power Industry Reform Act of 2001” in order to deal with the need for additional capacity during the critical period in Luzon in 2015.

“Upon issuance of the joint [congressional] resolution, the government would contract a private proponent to construct capacities equivalent to 500 to 600 MW power plants and operate and maintain the same for a period of five years.”

Also known as the “Electric Power Crisis Provision,” Section 71 states that: “Upon determination by the President of the Philippines of an imminent shortage of the supply of electricity, Congress may authorize, through a joint resolution, the establishment of additional generating capacity under such terms and conditions as it may approve.”

But Energy Secretary Jericho Petilla on Sunday said he was not sure whether the President had agreed to his proposal that the provision be invoked.

“I also don’t know why it was worded that way [in the Sona technical report],” Petilla told the Inquirer by phone. “But when we had a discussion [the week before the Sona], the President said that would be the last resort.”

Prepared by the Office of the President, the Sona technical report compiled accomplishment reports submitted by different government agencies.

Petilla acknowledged that information on how the government intended to resolve the looming power shortage came from his department. Still, he was unsure why the Sona report stated categorically that government would “invoke Section 71.”

“Let’s just put it this way: If the President wanted to invoke ❰❰ 1

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President Benigno S. Aquino III, unveils a photo of the late President Corazon C. Aquino at the opening the “History and Her Story” – a special commemorative photo exhibit on the 5th death anniversary of former President Corazon C. Aquino at the Glorietta Activity Center in Palm Drive, Makati City on August 04.

PHOTO BY ROBERT VIÑAS / MALACAÑANG PHOTO BUREAU

it, he would have already mentioned it in the Sona. The mere fact he didn’t say it in the Sona means he had not invoked it,” he said.

In his address to the joint session of Congress, Aquino said he had instructed Petilla to “coordinate with the Joint Congressional Power Commission, the Energy Regulatory Commission, members of industry, and, most importantly, the consumers, in order to increase our capacity to respond to this problem.”

“We want to be completely ready so that we can avoid paralysis if the worst-case scenario arises. The goal: To have planned solutions for problems that will not arise until next year,” he said.

Power industry officials and businessmen have warned of a looming shortage as a result of the growing demand for electricity brought by the booming economy.

Economic activity tends to spur electricity demand. For the Luzon grid, a 1-percent growth in gross domestic product translates into an increase in electricity consumption by 0.6 percent, according to DOE documents.

For the Visayas, it’s 1 percent and for the Mindanao grid, 0.8 percent.

The last time Congress granted a president emergency powers to solve crippling outages was in 1993. The Electric

Power Crisis Act, or Republic Act No. 7648, allowed then President Fidel Ramos to enter into agreements that favored independent power producers (IPPs).

The deals ended the crisis but resulted in higher electricity rates with the imposition of the purchased power adjustment in which consumers were required to pay whether or not they used the electricity produced by the IPPs. The IPP deals have led to power rates in the Philippines becoming among the highest in Asia, adversely affecting the competitiveness of the country’s industries.

Based on the Sona technical report, the government, once a joint congressional resolution was issued, “would contract a private proponent to construct capacities equivalent to 500 to 600 MW power plants.”

The report included an assurance that the government, which would “operate and maintain” such facilities for five years, would “not intervene in the power generation business.”

“The additional capacity will only be run when the grid is in yellow alert upon the determination of the system operator or upon the instruction of the DOE,” it said. “The additional capacity will also be traded and will be a price taker on the Wholesale Electricity Spot Market. ■

Philippine News

15 FRIDAY AUGUST 8, 2014

Ebola watch: 7 Filipinos from Africa checked daily

BY NIÑA P. CALLEJA Philippine Daily Inquirer HEALTH AUTHORITIES are closely monitoring the condition of seven of 15 Filipino migrant workers who returned last month from Sierra Leone, in West Africa, where an Ebola outbreak has killed more than 700 people.

Officials said most of the migrants were construction workers repatriated from Sierra Leone on orders of their employers due to the Ebola outbreak, which has also stricken Guinea and Liberia.

The Philippines has 115 peacekeepers in Liberia, but the military said on Friday that the peacekeepers working for the United Nations mission had been reminded to take extra precautions against the Ebola outbreak.

Lyndon See Suy, spokesperson for the Department of Health, told a press briefing on Friday that health authorities have been monitoring the migrant workers since they returned from Sierra Leone in late June.

“They came in batches starting the last week of June until mid-July. Since their arrival, we have been calling them every day to check on them,” Suy said.

Philippines ‘Ebola-free’

He sought to ease fears that the Ebola virus might reach the Philippines, saying the country remains “Ebola-free.”

“The Department of Health is in a better position now to contain this if it reaches us,” Suy said.

He refused to give further information about the migrant workers from Sierra Leone, even their current location, saying the DOH had promised them confidentiality.

“We got their contact numbers through their recruitment

agencies. And we have been calling them since,” Suy said.

He said that with help from the Bureau of Quarantine, DOH personnel met all the 15 at the airport upon their arrival, but the follow-up checks were done over the phone.

The health personnel, he said, asked the workers if they were showing any symptoms similar to Ebola.

Three of the 15 exhibited Ebola-like symptoms, which include fe-

v e r and diarrhea but all of them later tested negative for the disease.

“We called the help of the [DOH] regional office and they were immediately taken to the hospital. Their specimens were taken and brought to the Research Institute for Tropical Medicine for examination,” Suy said.

The three patients along with five other migrants have been cleared of Ebola, Suy said. Only the remaining seven are being monitored, he added.

Suy said it was not necessary for the DOH to check up all of the seven personally, as the close monitoring it had been conducting since their arrival were part of the standard precautions.

He said the workers were

being monitored only because they came from an Ebolastricken country.

The health department also advised all overseas Filipino workers with fever, headache, intense weakness, joint and muscle pains and sore throats to seek clearance from health authorities in their countries of employment before traveling home to the Philippines to prevent the entry of the Ebola vi-

rus in the country.

“You don’t want to risk the lives of your families and loved ones,” Suy said, adding that all the 15 migrants who returned from Sierra Leone have been cooperating with the DOH. In a statement, Health Secretary Enrique Ona said his department was strictly watching the Ebola outbreak and would not allow it to reach the Philippines.

He said an interagency meeting was recently organized by the Office of Migrant Workers of the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) to discuss the situation of Filipino workers in the three Ebola-stricken West African countries.

Hans Cacdac, administrator of the Philippine Overseas Employment Administration (POEA), said there were 280

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newly hired workers in Sierra Leone. But with crisis alert level 2 raised by the DFA in Sierra Leone, Guinea and Liberia, the POEA had declared a ban on the deployment of new hires.

According to DFA records, 880 Filipinos are working in Guinea; 632, including peacekeepers for the United Nations, are in Liberia, and 1,979 in Sierra Leone.

are being done and led by the UN to ensure that our troops’ safety and health will not be compromised,” Zagala said.

Ona said the Filipino migrant workers in the three West African countries were coordinating with their recruitment agencies to assess the risk to themselves.

“Proper coordination of Philippine labor officials is now being undertaken with the DFA and the Bureau of Immigration for possible repatriation,” Ona said.

The DOH through the quarantine bureau will determine the status of returning Filipino migrant workers upon arrival and refer symptomatic cases to hospitals, he said.

Migrants not showing symptoms will be closely monitored daily by the Heath Emergency Management Staff of the DOH, he said.

Deadly disease

Peacekeepers safe

Lt. Col. Ramon Zagala, spokesperson for the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP), told reporters yesterday that a health advisory was issued to the 115 Filipino peacekeepers in Liberia way back in March.

“This health advisory gives direction for measures to be followed by all personnel stationed in affected areas and adjacent affected areas such as Liberia,” Zagala said.

He said the members of the Philippine peacekeeping contingent led by Col. Glicerio Peralta remained “Ebola-free.”

“We’d like to assure the peacekeepers’ families that all health and safety precautions

According to the DOH, Ebola is a severe, infectious, often fatal disease in humans and primates (monkeys, gorillas and chimpanzees) caused by infection from the Ebola virus.

Ebola can be transmitted through contact with blood secretions, organs or other bodily fluids of infected animals, body fluids and stool of an infected person, contaminated needles and soiled linen used by infected patients, or direct contact with the body of a patient who died from the disease.

Signs and symptoms of infection with Ebola virus include fever, headache, intense weakness, joint and muscle pains and sore throat.

Ona said earlier that “there is no specific cure or vaccine yet available” for Ebola. ■ With a report from Julie M. Aurelio

Opinion

AUGUST 8, 2014 FRIDAY 16

THERE’S THE RUB

How long?

By Conrado De Quiros Philippine Daily Inquirer TECHNICALLY, it is of course hearsay.

Benhur Luy did not personally witness Bong Revilla, or his bagman, Richard Cambe, receive his “rebates”—what a gloriously shady euphemism—from Janet Napoles. He only had Napoles’ word for it. But quite apart from why Napoles would lie about it—she was free as a bird then and Luy was her bookkeeper—there were other pieces of evidence. Among them the hard drive he submitted to the Sandiganbayan the other day to block Revilla’s bid for bail. On the whole, Revilla’s case is a leaking roof which he would be hard put to, well, panday.

I leave the case to the lawyers and the Sandiganbayan. I mention it only to highlight what’s happened after the State of the Nation Address.

Which is that after P-Noy’s judicious avoidance of a confrontation on the Disbursement Acceleration Program, indeed his virtual non-mention of it at all, and insistence instead on going back to basics, he has swung things around to what they were before he got waylaid by the distraction.

Chief of them is bringing back public attention, or discourse, on the senators who have been jailed for their

part in Napoles’ racket. That was where we left off early last month.

I don’t know how well or deeply we’ve really appreciated the impact of that event. The criticisms that have been hurled against the P-Noy administration notwithstanding, principally that it practices selective justice or double standards, the indictment and jailing of the three senators are near-universally held by the public to be just and welcome. In any case, the criticisms against the administration have to do only with legal infractions, real or imagined, not with corruption.

The beef against the three has to do with corruption, and most Filipinos at least do not doubt its reality.

Its impact has already been felt in terms of public officials, notably members of Congress, taking care to clean up their act, or clean up their past, whichever is the more urgent, particularly in light of the list of potential “prosecutables” growing longer. Lito Lapid is but the latest casualty of the Commission on Audit’s dogged effort to ferret out the sins of the past, having been charged by the Ombudsman with diverting P5 million of his “fertilizer fund” in 2004 to the presidential campaign of his kababayan, Gloria Arroyo.

The picture of him that appeared in our pages along with his protesta-

tions of innocence says it all. That is the face of worry. That is the face of fear. That is the face of the damned.

The jailing of the three senators has given impetus to government’s anticorruption drive and has produced a chilling effect on public officials, notably the lawmakers who had until late last year flown under the radar with their then perfectly legal pork barrel in the form of Priority Development Assistance Fund, making them a little more scrupulous about their use of taxpayer money. It hasn’t removed

On the whole, Revilla’s case is a leaking roof which he would be hard put to, well, panday. the corruption, Customs remains hugely prone to it, the sums involved being huge, but it has made them hugely careful. Being hugely careful does tend to reduce corruption. At least it tends to discourage a regard for taxpayer money as fair game, or as the people’s tribute or balato to government officials they can do with it as they pretty much please. Which was the case before the three senators were dragged before the Ombudsman.

Some chilling effects are better than

others. Certainly this is one chilling effect this country would not want to thaw.

The question however is how deeply this change has taken root. Or more to the point, the question is how long this change will last. Some questions are more chilling than others.

Last week’s Sona drove home that question forcefully. Specifically in the form of what happens after P-Noy’s term ends. That is just two years away.

That is just two years away, and we’re still looking pretty much at a vacuum. P-Noy himself drew attention to it when he spoke of the need for the country to put in place someone who can pursue a commitment to tapat na panunungkulan, to dedicated public service, without naming who that someone is. It couldn’t have helped that while omitting to mention Mar Roxas, he remembered to mention in his extemporaneous remarks at the end Jojo Binay in a rather flattering light, a comrade-in-arms from way back when he got a second lease on life. Thankfully—for Roxas—the cameras did not pan on to him to get a reaction shot when P-Noy said that.

The change that has taken place since P-Noy undertook his anticorruption drive, and especially since he showed his resolve in jailing the three senators—that bears the mark of the

executive as much as the Ombudsman and the justice department—is real and palpable. But so is the possibility of it being reversed a couple of years from now. Even now, you hear talk of the indicted and soonto-be indicted not having to worry too greatly about their fate they have only two years to wait and they can always have the charges against them dropped, or have themselves acquitted, by friendlier courts.

All this makes you wonder if the strength—and weakness—of the P-Noy administration doesn’t lie with P-Noy himself. It is his personality, or reputation, or legacy that limns his administration in light, that allows his administration to pursue its anticorruption drive to these lengths. When he speaks of wanting to work a transformation of the country because he owes it to his parents, you can believe him. Unfortunately, you cannot say that same thing of the people around him. The aura does not extend to them, it dims them by contrast. The stature does not raise them to great heights, it dwarfs them by contrast. Who will continue his work? Who will continue to prosecute the prosecutable? Who will continue to jail the jailable?

The change is real, but for how long? ■

ons and money that now speak. The United Nations and all the major embassies of the Western powers have evacuated their personnel—the clearest sign that the international community has given up, at least for now.

Ironically, it is in such periods of political dissolution that a people may sometimes piece together a collective life from whatever reserves of social solidarity it can tap as a countervailing force against the sheer power of arms and money. Revolutionary theory expects this form of solidarity to be forged in the fires of the revolutionary struggle itself. But perhaps that is too much to expect from the kind of political upheavals and instant democracies we have seen lately.

Instead of being an integral part of the emancipatory process, the search for statesmen in postrevolutionary situations today tends to begin only after the dust has settled. Typically sponsored by the dominant foreign powers that shaped the outcome of the struggle, the new leaders have little legitimacy apart from their foreign connections. Trained abroad in modern governance, they tend to be hobbled by their ignorance of local realities and lack of empathy with their own people’s sensibilities.

But, on top of these disabling quali-

ties, there is the curse that the mad scramble for oil wealth casts on hapless nations like Iraq and Libya.

When one contemplates what is happening today to countries that hosted some of the world’s greatest civilizations, one cannot help recalling how the Philippines’ own difficult passage from revolution to nationhood was greatly eased by the grounded imagination of rare intellectuals like Apolinario Mabini. It was this great Filipino, whose 150th birth anniversary we are celebrating this year, who guided Gen. Emilio Aguinaldo through the critical stages of forming a government after the latter declared independence in 1898.

Mabini offered Aguinaldo a vision that saw through the machinations of US colonialism and rose above the selfish interests of the local elites.

In a rather perverse twist to the narrative of the Arab Spring, deposed tyrants like Saddam and Gadhafi, who had ruled their people with an iron fist, are today sorely missed by a world that seems to have run out of ideas on how to handle the challenge of failed states. To have believed that revolutions could be outsourced and democracy imposed from outside— that, to me, has been the biggest source of this tragedy. ■

PUBLIC LIVES

Libya after Gadhafi

By Randy David Philippine Daily Inquirer ALMOST three years have quickly passed since Moammar Gadhafi, the Libyan dictator who ruled his country for 42 years, was toppled from power by a revolution. That revolution drew its stimulus from the youth-powered “Arab Spring” and was celebrated throughout the democratic world as the triumph of the people. In reality, the fractious and poorly armed Libyan rebels could not have succeeded against Gadhafi’s superior army without the military intervention of the United States and the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (Nato).

Today, Libya, an oil-rich country and one of the first in the region to welcome Filipino workers, is more chaotic than ever. The attempt to create a stable postrevolutionary state has failed—despite the active support of the United States and other Western powers. The lesson this conveys is that while a revolution may be fast-tracked, a functioning state cannot be assembled from prefabricated pieces. Glue is needed to hold it together, and that is what has been missing in both Iraq and Libya since the fall of their respective dictators.

The old glue available in both

countries—religion—has proved incapable of binding large sections of the existing society into a unified community. Indeed, divisions within the Islamic faith itself have been a major reason for the widening societal cracks that have become more visible since the overthrow of the dictatorial state. These sectarian fault lines often fuse with existing rifts based on regional, ethnic and political loyalties—thus producing opportunistic alliances that are as brittle as they are unpredictable. Underlying these fierce struggles in both Libya and Iraq is, of course, the battle for control of oil wealth.

This is the situation that foregrounds the beheading of the Filipino worker last month at a checkpoint manned by an unnamed militia group, and the more recent abduction and gang-rape of a Filipino nurse by young gunmen who roam the streets of Tripoli Less than 1,000 of the estimated 13,000 of our countrymen who live and work in Libya, mostly in hospitals, have returned home. The Philippine government is hoping to rescue them from their homes and places of work and ferry them to safety in Malta across the Mediterranean. They have to travel by land to get to the nearest port, and this will not be easy. Some may find it

easier to cross the border to Tunisia or to Egypt. In any case, they will have to negotiate or purchase their safe passage from one checkpoint to another.

And, no one can be certain about the situation on a day-to-day basis.

Tripoli, Libya’s capital city, has been plunged in darkness following the continuous shelling of its power plants. The place has become the battleground of two rival militias, one based in Misrata and the other in Zintan, both claiming credit and thus

In reality, the fractious and poorly armed Libyan rebels could not have succeeded against Gadhafi’s superior army without the military intervention of the US and the NATO. supremacy for the overthrow of Gadhafi in 2011. In Benghazi, the Islamist militant group Ansar al-Sharia has declared the city an “Islamic emirate,” even as the national Libyan army under the retired renegade general Khalifa Haftar has vowed to drive all Islamist elements out of this major city to the country’s east.

Clearly, all the basic traces of government have vanished. It is weap-

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Opinion

17 FRIDAY AUGUST 8, 2014

ANALYSIS

Binay gains from Aquino’s SC attack

By Amando Doronila Philippine Daily Inquirer THE latest public opinion surveys on performance and trust ratings of top Philippine officials reveal that more Filipinos approved of the performance of Vice President Jejomar Binay over President Aquino, although both their ratings tumbled.

Most galling to the President was the finding that respondents of Pulse Asia’s June 24-July 2 survey gave Binay an 81-percent approval rating while Mr. Aquino trailed a distant second with 56 percent.

However, both leaders posted a decrease in their approval ratings, with Mr. Aquino’s dropping to 56 percent from 70 percent in March and Binay’s to 81 percent from 87 percent.

The tail end of the conduct of the survey covered July 1 when the Supreme Court issued a ruling that the Disbursement Acceleration Program—which came under severe criticism as the President’s “pork barrel”—was unconstitutional.

The survey came in the midst of the filing of plunder and graft charges by the Office of the Ombudsman against Senators Juan Ponce Enrile, Ramon Revilla Jr. and Jinggoy Estrada, and alleged mastermind Janet Lim-Napoles and several other government officials in the Sandiganbayan in connection with the P10-billion pork barrel scam.

While the cases were filed as part of the President’s anti-corruption campaign, he did not escape the public opinion backlash unleashed by the Supreme Court ruling, against which he railed in a heated public attack on the high tribunal.

Backlash The controversy raised by Mr. Aquino’s assault proved to be his undoing in terms of his approval and trust ratings, which plunged as a result of his intemperance.

On the other hand, Binay benefited from the windfall. It is ironical that he became a beneficiary. He kept a low profile in performing his duties.

He was not a passionate disciple of Mr. Aquino’s “daang matuwid” (straight path) crusade and one gets a sneaky feeling that Binay may have been embarrassed to identify himself with the President’s “yellow army” and reformist standard-bearers.

Indeed, the President himself apparently did not consider Binay one of his knights in shining armor charging to slay the monsters of corruption embedded in past administrations.

Top aspirant The Pulse Asia survey also produced a result that might be offensive to the self-righteous Mr. Aquino. Binay emerged as the top choice among

the possible presidential contenders in the 2016 national elections.

Binay got 41 percent of the votes among 1,200 respondents nationwide—an increase from 40 percent in March. He was followed by Sen. Grace Poe, with 12 percent and Manila Mayor Joseph Estrada, 9 percent.

Sen. Francis Escudero, Interior Secretary Mar Roxas and Sen. Miriam Defensor-Santiago were at 4th to 6th places, getting 7 percent.

While Binay obtained slightly lower approval ratings, he remained the most appreciated and trusted national leader in the country. He obtained an approval rating of 81 percent in June, down from 87 percent in March, and a trust rating of 79 percent, a decline from 86 percent.

Mr. Aquino is a distant second, with an approval rating of 56 percent (from 70 percent), and a trust rating of 53 percent (from 69 percent).

than her score in March.

Not one went unscathed from the kiss of death from a declining and unraveling regime, which is struggling to make up in its last 700 days for its lost years so it could leave a legacy of economic accomplishments—enabling the poor to share the benefits of growth spurred by the government’s inclusive growth targets.

Binay does not have a ghost of a chance to be endorsed by Mr. Aquino as his successor in 2016. For one thing, he does not need that endorsement. For another, there can’t be a more politically incompatible lineup in outlook than Mr. Aquino and Binay in terms of good governance.

3 other leaders Three other leaders suffered declines in their ratings, dragged down by their close association with the President. They were Senate President Franklin Drilon, who came in third with an approval rating of 52 percent—just 4 percentage points away from the President—followed

by Chief Justice Maria Lourdes Sereno with 35 percent and Speaker Feliciano Belmonte Jr. with 33 percent.

Drilon’s 52-percent approval rating in June was 6 percentage points less than that in March, while his trust ratings fell by 9 percentage points, or to 46 percent from 55 percent.

Steepest drop In the Pulse Asia survey, it was the President among the top five leaders who suffered the steepest drop in public approval and trust ratings since he took office in 2010.

Kiss of death Sereno’s approval rating was 5 percentage points less than that in March, or 35 percent from 40 percent, while her trust rating was 32 percent, or 4 percentage points less

Kris’ emotional appeal The tumbling popularity ratings of the administration have driven it to deploy members of the Aquino family to intervene to help prop up its crumbling popularity.

On the fifth death anniversary of former President Cory Aquino on Friday, Kris made an emotional appeal on TV, asking the public to support her beleaguered brother who, she said, was “doing a good job.”

She said: “All of us who love and support Noy (the President) should be there with him in moments [when] he is being criticized, but more importantly, in the moments [when] he is doing good. I tell Noy now that the great majority of people still believe; they know what a good job he is doing. But the problem is that his supporters and believers choose to remain silent.”

This is a cheap shot, from the Aquino dynasty. What is this—a call for another people power? ■

A road helps greatly in facilitating transport and communication, true, but it also helps schoolchildren make the commute to and from school and home safely and easily; provides employment to locals, including women who take on the pioneering role of “flag women”; and addresses health problems such as respiratory ailments arising from the dust raised when vehicles rush through unfinished and unpaved roads.

Before the road project, the 222-kilometer road network in the Samar provinces had a rather dramatic name: “The Hell Roads of Samar.” The network is now known as the “Millennium Road,” and has become “a symbol of hope and progress.”

In the immediate post-Yolanda period, the network became, in the words of a parish priest in Eastern Samar, “a lifeline for relief operations.”

The good roads became a conduit for the transport of construction materials, food and fuel, which were then urgently needed in the devastated areas. *** Under the Kalahi-CIDSS component, selected communities are being empowered, with residents and local officials meeting and deciding what development projects are most urgently needed and what should receive prior-

ity funding. These projects range from water systems, housing and power to daycare centers, social services, even environmental protection.

In Malitbog, a barangay in Bongabong, Oriental Mindoro, the village chief Victoria Padullo exclaimed that they now “feel like we got rich” since a water system was established. The barangay received some P3.4 million from the MCC, with the balance of about P1 million provided by the local government, for a water system that services 576 of the 689 households in the barangay.

The benefits go way beyond household convenience. Schoolchildren, for instance, now get to school on time, “fresh and clean.” Health problems related to diarrhea and other water-borne diseases have declined. And families can now spend more on meals since they no longer have to spend so much on buying water from far-flung sources.

“For the hundreds of barangays in the MCC-covered areas whose subprojects have been completed,” observes the MCC, “the physical infrastructure is a big bonus, a realization of their lifelong dreams. But what is more important, according to them, is that they are now more capable to take care of their own future.” ■

The controversy raised by Mr. Aquino’s assault proved to be his undoing in terms of his approval and trust ratings, which plunged as a result of his intemperance.

AT LARGE

Roads and empowerment

By Rina Jimenez-David Philippine Daily Inquirer EVERY year, as the Christmas season approaches, employees in various companies gear up for the annual talent “competition,” when groups or departments vie for prizes and recognition at the end-of-the-year celebration.

This was also true for the employees of the Millennium Challenge Account—Philippines (MCA-P), a government-owned and -controlled corporation created to manage the “compact” between the governments of the Philippines and of the United States through the Millennium Challenge Corporation. The MCC is a US foreign assistance agency (created in 2004) that promotes “innovative and independent” programs in developing countries around the world.

The Christmas competition—held to build camaraderie among MCA-P employees—had been ongoing for two years, but last Christmas the employees themselves thought the budget for choreographers, costumes and props could be better used for other purposes, more specifically for helping the survivors of Supertyphoon “Yolanda.”

After all, the folks at MCA-P felt a special link to the areas hit by Yolan-

da, especially Samar and Eastern Samar where one of the major components of the MCC Compact, the construction of a road from Paranas to Guiuan, was being implemented.

The budget for the Christmas program was channeled to buy clothes, blankets, toys and other basic goods to Compact-funded areas in Leyte and Samar, while a portion of the amount was allotted for the Asinan Elementary School in the town of Buenavista in Bohol, which was hit by an earthquake months earlier. *** The amount involved may have been just a drop in the bucket in the overall flood of donations in the wake of Yolanda, and MCA-P was just one of many public and private, local and international groups to respond to the post-Yolanda and post-earthquake emergencies. But the diversion of funds meant for a Christmas party to alleviate the needs of disaster survivors speaks well of the mindset of the management and employees who know that their organization exists primarily to “fight global poverty.”

The MCC was created by the US Congress with strong bipartisan support and since then has been “changing the conversation on how best to

deliver smart US foreign assistance by focusing on good policies, country ownership and results.”

In the Philippines, a five-year $434-million compact focuses on three areas: modernizing the Bureau of Internal Revenue, expanding and improving the community-driven project Kalahi-CIDSS supervised by the Department of Social Welfare and Development, and rehabilitating a secondary national road in Samar and Eastern Samar. The accountable and responsible entity in charge of the local projects is MCA-P, with Marivic Añonuevo as managing director and CEO. *** Assuming the post of MCC resident country director is John Polk, a civil engineer who has been with MCC since 2006 and served as deputy resident country director here until his predecessor, Matt Bohn, was promoted this year to a regional post.

While the ongoing road project suffered only minor damage from Yolanda, Añonuevo says the world’s most powerful typhoon on record made the task of completing the Secondary National Roads Development Project even more urgent and significant.

This is because, in the words of the project leaders, a road is not just a road.

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FRIDAY AUGUST 8, 2014

18

Canada News

Clear the air over charity audits with summer committee hearing, NDP urges

NEWS BRIEFS

FROM THE CANADIAN PRESS

BY DEAN BEEBY The Canadian Press OTTAWA—The New Democrats are pressing for an unusual summer meeting of a parliamentary committee to clear the air over the auditing of charities for their political activities.

New Democrat MP Murray Rankin, the party critic for national revenue, wants the finance committee to convene before Parliament resumes in six weeks, calling the matter urgent.

Rankin wrote a letter Tuesday to James Rajotte, Conservative chair of the committee, to say there are too many allegations that the audits are being used to silence opponents of the Harper government.

Since the spring of 2012, the Canada Revenue Agency has launched 52 audits of charities for their political activities, after the government ordered the special probes and eventually provided some $13.4 million for the initiative.

The first wave of audits in 20122013 targeted environmental groups who have opposed the government’s energy and pipeline policies, but the initiative has since expanded to cover other groups who fight poverty, provide international aid and promote human rights. Many have also publicly criticized government policies.

Critics say the audits have caused an “advocacy chill,” preventing the scrutinized organizations from speaking out for fear of aggravating the auditors and potentially losing their coveted charitable status.

The Canada Revenue Agency refuses to provide the names of the groups being audited, citing confidentiality provisions of the Income Tax Act. Rankin said public hearings before the finance committee would give besieged charitable groups a safe venue to speak out without appearing to provoke the tax agency.

“It wouldn’t be as if they’ve gone to the press and spilled the beans,” he said in an interview from his Victoria riding.

“We can’t let this fester much longer. We’ve got to clear the air. It’s bad for the reputation of the CRA and it’s bad for the environmental organizations and other charities that are somehow under a shadow.”

Rajotte, however, said the issue has already been examined in depth at committee, most recently in the spring session of Parliament.

“A number of us asked CRA officials to clarify how CRA goes about determining who should be audited,” he said in an interview from Edmonton.

“At the committee, they’ve always been very explicit that there’s no political direction whatsoever.” ❱❱ PAGE 24 Clear the

Public health agency urges Canadians to stay away from Ebola affected countries The Canadian Press OTTAWA—Health officials are telling Canadians to avoid travel to three African countries hit hard by an outbreak of Ebola virus.

The Public Health Agency of Canada says the recommendation that Canadians avoid all non-essential travel to Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone is in line with an advisory is-

sued by the United States.

The agency had said Thursday there was no need for a travel warning, based on information from the World Health Organization (WHO).

But it has upgraded its travel health notice, saying Canadians can help health officials control the outbreak in the affected countries by staying away.

The health agency says while the risk of contracting the illness re-

mains low, travellers could find it hard to access health care services if they get sick, and could also be exposed to the virus while seeking medical care.

A statement from Health Minister Rona Ambrose and Lynne Yelich, minister of state for foreign and consular affairs, said the travel recommendation is meant ❱❱ PAGE 34 Public health

TORONTO POLICE INVESTIGATE CONCERT DEATHS TORONTO—Toronto police are trying to determine what drugs may have been consumed by two people who died and 13 others who were sickened at a weekend music festival, but some of the recovering victims are not even sure what they took. A 20-year-old woman and a 22-year-old man who attended the Veld Music Festival in Downsview Park died after it’s believed they took party drugs purchased at the concert, police said.

CANADIAN RESEARCH IN EXPERIMENTAL EBOLA DRUG TORONTO—Canadian research is at the heart of an experimental Ebola therapy recently given to two American aid workers infected while caring for patients in Liberia. The unlicenced drug, called ZMapp, is made of three monoclonal antibodies, disease fighting proteins that target a specific part of an invading pathogen, in this case the Ebola Zaire virus. That is the specific strain of Ebola responsible for this outbreak.

ROB FORD MUSICAL FINDS ITS STAR TORONTO—After campaigning nearly as hard as a candidate in Toronto’s mayoral race, Sheldon Bergstrom of Prince Albert, Sask., has landed the role of Rob Ford in an upcoming new musical comedy about the city’s embattled mayor. “I’ve been fascinated by him for a long time,” the actor-singer-comedian told The Canadian Press on Tuesday. “All across Canada, all throughout the world, people are watching this man, this mayor of ... Canada’s greatest city, and he has managed to pull off some amazing things and pull off some crazy things in his time as mayor.”

19 FRIDAY AUGUST 8, 2014

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AUGUST 8, 2014

FRIDAY 20

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World News

21 FRIDAY AUGUST 8, 2014

Strong earthquake in southern China kills at least 381, injures more than 1,800

BY JACK CHANG The Associated Press BEIJING—Rescuers dug through shattered homes Monday looking for survivors of a strong earthquake in southern China’s Yunnan province that killed at least 381 people and injured more than 1,800.

About 12,000 homes collapsed in Ludian, a densely populated county located about 366 kilometres (277 miles) northeast of Yunnan’s capital, Kunming, China’s official Xinhua News Agency reported.

The magnitude-6.1 quake struck at 4:30 p.m. on Sunday at a depth of 10 kilometres (6 miles), according to the U.S. Geological Survey. Its epicenter was in Longtoushan township, 23 kilometres (14 miles) southwest of the city of Zhaotong, the Ludian county seat. China’s earthquake monitoring agency put the magnitude at 6.5.

Ma Liya, a resident of Zhaotong, told Xinhua that the streets there were like a “battlefield after a bombardment.”

She added that her neighbour’s house, a new two-story building, had toppled, and said the quake was far worse than one that struck the area in 2012 and killed 81 people.

The magnitude-6.1 quake struck at 4:30 p.m. on Sunday at a depth of 10 kilometres (6 miles), according to the U.S. Geological Survey.

PHOTO FROM RT.COM

“The aftermath is much, much worse than what happened after the quake two years ago,” Ma said. “I have never felt such strong tremors before.

What I can see are all ruins.”

Rain and thunderstorms were forecast for the area in the coming hours, complicating efforts to bring tents, water food and other relief supplies to survivors.

Roads had caved in, and rescuers were forced to travel on foot.

Xinhua and state broadcaster CCTV said 381 people were killed, citing rescuers. CCTV

said 1,891 were injured, three were missing and 29,400 had been evacuated. The death toll was expected to rise, once rescuers reached remote communities to assess casualties.

Many of the homes that collapsed in Ludian, which has a population of about 429,000, were old and made of brick, Xinhua said, adding that electricity and telecommunications were cut off in the county.

The mountainous region where the quake occurred is largely agricultural, with farming

and mining the top industries, and is prone to earthquakes.

Relief efforts were underway, with more than 2,500 troops dispatched to the disaster region, Xinhua said. The Red Cross Society of China allocated quilts, jackets and tents for those made homeless by the quake, while Red Cross branches in Hong Kong, Macau and neighbouring Sichuan province also sent relief supplies.

U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon offered “his condolences to the Chinese Govern-

ment and the families of those killed,” according to a statement from his office. The statement said the U.N. is ready to “lend its assistance to efforts to respond to humanitarian needs” and “to mobilize any international support needed.”

The White House also offered its condolences.

“Our thoughts and prayers are with the families of those that lost their lives,” said National Security Council deputy spokeswoman Bernadette Meehan. “The United States stands ready to assist.”

Chinese state broadcaster CCTV said the quake was the strongest to hit Yunnan in 14 years.

In 1970, a magnitude-7.7 earthquake in Yunnan killed at least 15,000 people, and a magnitude-7.1 quake in the province killed more than 1,400 in 1974.

In September 2012, 81 people died and 821 were injured in a series of quakes in the Yunnan region.

In May 2008, a powerful quake in Sichuan province left nearly 90,000 people dead or missing. ■ Associated Press writer Christopher Bodeen and researcher Henry Hou contributed to this report.

As Kerry prepares Asia Pacific trip, US says it wants to calm tensions in South China Sea

BY MATTHEW PENNINGTON The Associated Press WASHINGTON—The United States will be looking to calm tensions stoked by recent Chinese oil drilling in disputed waters of the South China Sea at an upcoming meeting of the region’s foreign ministers, a senior U.S. official said Monday.

Although the U.S. claims neutrality in the disputes, China is unlikely to respond favourably.

Secretary of State John Kerry’s trip in Myanmar, starting Saturday, comes after China angered Vietnam by deploy-

ing a deep-sea oil rig for two months near islands claimed by both countries.

Assistant Secretary of State Daniel Russel told reporters that China’s withdrawal of the rig in mid-July had removed an irritant but left a legacy of anger and strained relations with Vietnam and likely raised serious questions among China’s other neighbours about its long-term strategy.

“China as a large and powerful nation has a special responsibility to show restraint. There is a big footprint that comes with military strength and it warrants setting your foot very, very carefully and treading very

gingerly when you are in a sensitive area,” said Russel, the top U.S. diplomat for East Asia.

At the meeting of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations in the Myanmar capital, Naypyitaw, Washington will be proposing that South China Sea claimants take voluntary steps to reduce tensions. The U.S. suggests freezing actions that change the status quo, such as seizing unoccupied islands and land reclamation.

Chinese officials have already made clear they don’t support the proposal. China says it has a historical right to most of the South China Sea and resents what it sees as U.S. meddling, www.canadianinquirer.net

viewing it as an attempt to contain its growing power. The other claimants include the Philippines, which is a U.S. treaty ally, Taiwan, Malaysia and Brunei.

Russel said all the claimants, including Vietnam, can do more to clarify what they say is theirs in accordance with international law. He said the U.S. would also urge conclusion of a long-delayed code of conduct— another initiative China is unenthusiastic about.

Separately, while in the Myanmar, Kerry will be pressing the country’s leaders to apply greater safeguards for human rights. Kerry will also be gauging the former pariah

nation’s preparations for 2015 elections, Russel said.

Last week, more than 70 U.S. lawmakers warned of worsening conditions in Myanmar, also known as Burma, including anti-Muslim discrimination and violence, and urged the Obama administration to sanction those complicit in abuses and atrocities. The lawmakers also urged Obama not to make further concessions to the reformist government unless there’s significant progress.

After Myanmar, Kerry will travel to Australia to join Secretary of Defence Chuck Hagel and Australian officials for security talks. ■

World News

AUGUST 8, 2014

FRIDAY 22

Portuguese bank collapse and rescue revives questions about eurozone stability

BY BARRY HATTON The Associated Press LISBON, PORTUGAL—A new Portuguese bank appeared Monday, born from the ruins of a collapsed business empire, and declared on its website that it was now “stronger and safer.”

Investors rattled by the eurozone’s latest financial drama will, however, need more reassurances.

Portugal’s biggest banking scandal, which compelled authorities Sunday to put up 4.9 billion euros ($6.6 billion) to prevent the collapse of ailing Banco Espirito Santo, raised questions about how regulators were apparently hoodwinked.

It will also focus minds on the European Union’s year-long health check on the banking sector, whose results are due in October.

The debt crisis that in recent

years battered countries sharing the euro currency, forcing countries such as Greece, Ireland and Portugal to request bailouts, has ebbed in recent months. Investors remain wary, though. They fear more nasty surprises could be around the corner, and the scandal surrounding Banco Espirito Santo’s huge unreported debts is fueling those concerns.

Barclays analysts predicted investors will “remain guarded about risks which could stem from latent problems in the (Portuguese) financial system.”

Lisbon’s difficulties demonstrated “the major surgery that Europe still has to undergo with respect to its economic and banking problems,” said a note from CMC Markets UK. The European Central Bank, the eurozone’s main regulator, is currently examining the books of more than 100 of the bloc’s top banks. The goal is to

weed out the lame ones, helping ensure financial markets have faith in the banking system.

The Banco Espirito Santo case could undermine that effort.

Portuguese authorities sought late Sunday to extinguish the Espirito Santo wildfire by splitting it into two banks: a new one, called Novo Banco, which keeps the company’s healthy businesses and will later be sold, and a so-called “bad bank” that will hold toxic assets and retain the Banco Espirito Santo name. The bad bank will be put into liquidation, meaning it will cease to exist once the bad investments are dealt with.

Officials had last month attempted to halt the bank’s collapsing share price by insisting the bank had sound finances and that private investors were ready to take it over. That was until the true picture emerged last week: the bank reported a

record half-year loss of 3.58 billion euros, trading in its shares was suspended, and the Espirito Santo family’s three main holding companies asked for bankruptcy protection.

Bank of Portugal governor Carlos Costa conceded in a televised statement close to midnight Sunday that officials had been duped by a type of Ponzi scheme whereby cash and debts were shifted around the Espirito Santo family’s tourism-tohealth care business empire on four continents.

Costa said the bank’s activities “were in clear violation of Bank of Portugal rules” and used “fraudulent schemes.”

Police suspect former Chief Executive Ricardo Espirito Santo Salgado, who stepped down last month, of fraud, forgery and money-laundering at the bank, whose business dates from the 19th century and has been one of Portugal’s most venerable

financial institutions, as well as for years its biggest private bank.

“International experience shows that schemes of this kind are very hard to detect before they collapse, especially when it takes place in different countries,” Costa said.

Just as worryingly, Costa said an audit by the central bank of Banco Espirito Santo had detected problems 11 months ago.

He said the central bank had attempted to ring-fence the problems, without elaborating.

It remains unclear why action to shore up the bank was not taken back then. Some Portuguese politicians are demanding an inquiry into how Banco Espirito Santo slipped through the net of supervision.

Costa did not take reporters’ questions after his statement.

European stress tests of ❱❱ PAGE 24 Portugese bank

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Immigration

AUGUST 8, 2014

FRIDAY 24

Strengthening Citizenship, Speeding Up Processing

Strengthening Canadian Citizenship Act continues to protect the integrity of Canada’s immigration system OTTAWA—Canada’s Citizenship and Immigration Minister Chris Alexander announced that recent changes to the Strengthening Canadian Citizenship Act are already paying big dividends: citizenship backlogs are at their lowest level in more than two years, and applications are now being processed more efficiently than ever.

The government’s overhaul of the Citizenship Act saw the citizenship decision-making process move from three steps to one. This change and others in the Act are designed to improve program integrity and safeguard the value of Canadian citizenship.

The number of decision makers has also increased which will ensure that citizenship applications are processed more quickly and backlogs are reduced.

According to Minister Alexander, “Canadian citizenship is highly valued around the world and our government is committed to ensuring that deserving applicants can be welcomed into the Canadian family more quickly. This is good for Canada’s economy, and good for Ca-

nadian society.”

It is expected that in 2015/16 the processing time for citizenship applications will be less than a year. It is also projected that the current backlog of applications will be reduced by more than 80 percent.

Changes to Citizenship Act now in effect: In addition to the new streamlined decision making model, the government has implemented a range of legislative amendments to further strengthen Canada’s citizenship program. These amendments relate to authorities to refuse incomplete applications and a uniform system for judicial review of citizenship decisions are also now in effect.

These changes were part of Bill C-24, the Strengthening Canadian Citizenship Act, which received Royal Assent on June 19, 2014. These improvements are in addition to funding in Economic Action Plan 2013 of an additional $44 million over two years to the citizenship program to ensure the timely processing of applications. ■

Portugese bank... banks in 2009, 2010 and 2011— conducted not by the ECB but another EU office with fewer powers—fell short of convincing markets. Some banks passed the tests on paper but needed bailouts soon afterward.

Banco Espirito Santo passed them all and was the only major Portuguese bank to not require any public aid during the country’s bailout program.

Simon O’Connor, a spokesman for the EU’s economic and monetary affairs commissioner, argued that Banco Espirito Santo was a special case. Its woes shouldn’t be taken as a sign of systemic weakness, neither for the eurozone as a whole nor for Portugal, he said.

The rescue money will come from a special fund set up during the eurozone ❰❰ 21

crisis and designed to help financial institutions in difficulty. That means Portugal doesn’t have to raise new taxes to get the money or apply for more help from the EU. Shareholders and junior bondholders, including some major companies such as Portugal Telecom which held the bank’s commercial paper, will bear the brunt of the losses. The cash injection is a loan and will be repaid with interest, with no cost to taxpayers, Costa said.

Still, almost 5 billion euros is a big number in Portugal, one of the eurozone’s smaller economies. The aid is roughly equivalent to the annual budget for the country’s schools and universities. ■ Juergen Baetz contributed from Brussels.

Clear the...

The 10 committee members must decide whether to hold a special session, not the chair, Rajotte added, noting that the three NDP members would be enough to call such a meeting.

Last month, the New Democrats wrote to Revenue Minister Kerry-Lynne Findlay, asking her to order a special investigation into allegations of politically motivated audits of charities, headed by a retired judge or other neutral person.

Findlay roundly rejected that request Tuesday in a separate letter to Rankin and Megan Leslie, the party’s environment critic.

“Your baseless accusation that I have used my office to blatantly misappropriate CRA resources to target and intimidate charities that may not agree with our government’s policies is absolutely reprehensible,” she wrote. ❰❰ 18

www.canadianinquirer.net

“As an honourable parliamentarian, I find your unwarranted attacks on the integrity of the CRA and my office shameful and plunges parliamentary discourse to new lows.”

She then called on the NDP to repay taxpayers for using publicly funded workers at satellite offices, a separate unresolved issue that was raised in the last session of Parliament.

Canada’s charities are permitted to devote up to 10 per cent of their resources to political activities, though the definition of what that constitutes is considered vague by some lawyers specializing in the area. Partisan activities, such as promoting a particular candidate for office, are clearly forbidden.

The CRA has devoted at least 15 auditors to the political-activities audit initiative, and expects to carry out 60 such audits by 2016. ■

25 FRIDAY AUGUST 8, 2014

GLOBAL FILIPINA: ANGELI BAYANI

The Natural

BY CATHY YAMSUAN Philippine Daily Inquirer We told Angeli Bayani to come as she wanted to be photographed, and she came as herself.

In a black The Doors t-shirt with the sleeves hacked off, denim shorts and black Doc Martens, her face scrubbed of make-up, this year’s Gawad Urian best actress could have passed for one of the students hanging out at the Vargas Museum Café in University of the Philippines Diliman where we had chosen to meet, not far from her stomping grounds when she was a UP theater arts major.

Hers may not yet be a household name, despite the Urian for her role in Lav Diaz’s “Norte: Hangganan ng Kasaysayan,” the Camera d’Or award shared with the cast and crew of the Singaporean film “Ilo Ilo” at last year’s Cannes Film Festival, and being singled out by acclaimed Taiwanese director Ang Lee as a “national treasure” for her exquisitely calibrated performance in the same.

Her face, however, is now more recognizable to mainstream audiences, thanks to recurring roles in popular network soap operas, including GMA’s current “Niño.”

With Cannes and Urian recognition under her belt, Bayani’s acting career has started to gain traction on mainstream film and television, after years of her laboring in semi-obscurity in the theater and independent cinema ghettoes.

Apart from “Niño,” she’s currently filming “Foreigners,” an independent Australian feature, as well as juggling numerous other projects. For the first time in Bayani’s life, she needs a manager to keep track of her work schedule.

It’s all the more surprising to learn that just five years ago, she came close to throwing in the towel.

A single mother, Bayani had just given birth to her son Marek (named after a character in Alexei Arbusov’s “Kawawang Marat”) and was at a crossroads.

“There came a point when I thought acting was a luxury I couldn’t afford,” she says, speaking mostly in Filipino throughout the interview.

“I was just starting out and had just become a mother; here was now another person depending on me, and I felt I needed security. I thought about giving up acting so I could earn some real money—maybe work at a call center.”

At that time she had been juggling stage and television bit parts, and earning a pittance for long hours spent taping, hours she felt she ought to spend with her young son.

“I felt like a fish out of water,” says the die-hard stage actress of her initial forays into television. “I still couldn’t accept being in the mainstream. Iyak ako nang iyak.”

Eventually, after much soulsearching, she resolved to accept whatever the universe chose for her, be it a long-awaited break or a call center job.

What came were more acting opportunities, even though the roles were still small, and so were the fees.

“I realized then that as a struggling artist, I had to nurture that side of me because this was what I had become,” she says.

“Even if I had started out not wanting to be an actress, this was what opened up for me,” she continues. “It’s where I’m happiest. It’s where I’m most creative. I told myself, ‘if you’re happy, your child is happy.’

“It was then I realized that

you can’t force yourself to do what you don’t want to do, even if the money is there,” she says.

“You attend to your happiness first, you attend to yourself first. You care for your craft because it is who you are. It is what you are. If you can do that, your child can feel it.”

It was after she had embraced her destiny that things started falling into place for her.

But even after “Ilo Ilo’s” critical success at Cannes and the Golden Horse Film Festival, her future was still anything but secure.

“Actually, after I got back from Cannes, I didn’t get any offers,” she says. “It was my driest season. I texted people asking about auditions. I did a lot of voice dubbing for Koreanovelas.”

But the momentum was building.

Bayani considers her performance in “Norte” her best work so far, and the jury for the Gawad Urian voiced their agreement when they chose her “best actress” over veterans Nora Aunor and Vilma Santos (in the process giving her the unfortunate tabloid tagline “the woman who beat Ate Guy and Ate Vi”).

But Angeli Bayani is not ready to rest on her laurels just yet.

Born in 1977, Bayani is actually second-generation theater: her father, Nilo Bayani, belonged to Rolando Tinio’s Teatro Pilipino in the ’70s. Her mother, Fresnaida Diego Ablog was a pre-school teacher.

By all accounts, the elder Bayani was a ’70s bohemian, prone to alternative spiritual beliefs.

“I think he called himself ‘Omega’ at that time,” recalls Bayani. “If I remember correctly he even became a monk at one point, or studied with monks—I’m not really sure.

But I guess that was the attrac-

FROM SENSIBLE TO STAR. Bayani has been dubbed “a national treasure.”

PHOTO BY JILSON SECKLER TIU

tion for my mother: She was a probinsiyana from Aparri. She had never met anyone like him before.”

In any case, however, soon after Bayani and her brother were born, they were sent to live with Angeli’s paternal grandparents, who were skeptical of her father’s unconventional lifestyle and his ability to raise a family.

It was a radical break.

“It was a very strict Catholic upbringing,” she recalls of life with her grandparents. “I grew up praying the Angelus every day and saying a novena before going to bed at night, I went to church in a dress and a veil.”

She was also sent to Angelicum, a Catholic school, for her elementary and high school education.

“I rebelled,” she says. “I started to question why my parents weren’t around. I couldn’t get any answers, so when I turned 13 I moved in with my parents.

I grew up being told ‘you’re too much like your father,’ and it felt like a bad thing.

There was that stigma growing up. Was it because he was in the theater? I needed to know why my grandparents looked down on him.”

In a sense, she had never really known him, and what she discovered opened her eyes.

For all his good intentions, she says, her father could not support the family. It was her mother, she found, who was the rock, the breadwinner.

“Apparently, what I inherited

from my father was his being a seeker,” she says. “Even when I was small, whenever I had a question, I was always told to just follow. Why? I only wanted to know why. So I learned to seek my own answers.”

But she also inherited from her mother a fierce determination to make it on her own and to be independent.

She would need that strength because, although she didn’t know it yet, her path would eventually lead to the stage.

Bayani initially enrolled in biology at the University of the Philippines, with a vague notion of perhaps going on to medicine.

“I wanted to do the sensible thing,” she recalls.

But she soon realized that her heart lay elsewhere. A radical left turn led her to enroll as a voice major in the college of music, where she discovered that she liked performing, perhaps more than singing. Eventually she found her way to the theater arts program and a home in UP’s small but energetic theater community.

By that time, however, it was too late: Her course changes had run her afoul of the university’s strict maximum residency rule. Six years had passed and she still hadn’t finished her course.

Bayani was left with no recourse but to plunge into theater full time, joining the Cul-

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❱❱ PAGE 38 The Natural

Seen & Scenes - Vancouver

AUGUST 8, 2014

FRIDAY 26

PCG VANCOUVER ENJOYS FAMILY PICNIC

Kenzo Diano and Maggie Ferrer.

Above: Miriam Ferrer, Ellen Sosa, Ailyn Gumabay and Consul Melanie Diano.

Top left: PCG-Vancouver family at Golden Ears Provincial Park in Maple Ridge, B.C. (photos

by Consul Melanie Diano).

Bottom left: Jeanie-Vi Sobreviga (seated) awaits her turn in the Pinoy Henyo game.

PICNIC DAY FOR VICTORIA SENIORS

Mia, Melanie and Stephen Diano.

PINOY PRIDE AT PRIDE FEST

Lenny Damaso, Rich Abarquez and Sydney Schaffner leading the PPV marchers along the parade route (photo by William Christiansen).

VFCSA members Delmer Samson, Elias Penalosa, and Ben Rivera (advisor) The lechon or roasted pig is a staple in most Filipino picnics.

Top right: Shoney Cabellon and Mary Jetko at Hayley Park. / Bottom right: (From L) Dalma Corbo, director; Dionie Niedoba, VFCSA member; Bethy Layo, 2nd vice president; Mary Jetko , president; Andrea Mitchell, director.

Above: Out and Proud at the 2014 Pride Parade with PPV members Alvin Jay Inovejas and Angel Ruiz (photo by William Christiansen).

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

Right: At the assembly area on Thurlow and Nelson Streets in Vancouver (photo

by William Christiansen).

www.canadianinquirer.net

Pinoy Pride Vancouver represents the Pinoy LGBTQ+ community at the 36th Annual Pride Parade (photo by William Christiansen).

Seen & Scenes - Toronto

27 FRIDAY AUGUST 8, 2014

HOOPS CHAIR CELEBRATES BIRTHDAY

FILIPINOS JOIN CARIBANA 2014

Florencio Lim of Scepter Corp. and chairman and founder of Fil-ACT Basketball Association celebrated his birthday recently with a big gathering at Rembrandt Banquet Hall. He is shown in photos with better half Violy, grandchildren Cameron, Cara and Landon, relatives and friends including Tito Lim, Tito del Carmen, Carli and Marilyn McKenzie, Bonnie and Luz Quiming, Romy Turla, Mercy Turla and Arthur Manalo.

For the first time in it’s 47-year history in Toronto, the Caribana, billed as an explosion of Caribbean cuisine, music, revelry, as well as, visual and performing arts had an Ati-Atihan group from the Philippines, dancing behind the Panmasters Steel Orchestra as they played Caribbean music during the Caribana grand parade held on August 2.

The Parade is the marquee event of the three-week festival and winds along a 3 1/2-km. stretch of Toronto's Lakeshore Boulevard. Two of the Philippine Canadian Charitable Foundation (PCCF) beauties were among the participants in the parade: Miss Teen Philippines Canada 2014, Adrienne Eduria, and Mrs. Philippines Canada 2014,Velona Daliva.

Below are highlights of the event.

PRINCE OF PEACE SENIORS HOLD LUAU Photos show Hawaiians dancers; Fr. Regulo Imperial; seniors playing bingo; and other Seniors. www.canadianinquirer.net

FRIDAY AUGUST 8, 2014

28

Weird News

Strange but true stories Stranger Than Fiction: Weird Headlines from Around the Globe

BY CHING DEE Philippine Canadian Inquirer Sometimes, reality really is stranger than fiction.

Forget what you know about what’s logical and normal.

Sometimes, headlines can seem like a Salvador Dali artwork— beautifully strange (or strangely beautiful) and downright insane.

Here are just a few of the weirdest, strangest, most unbelievable news that made it to the headlines this year.

The following news items are best described by an exchange between Chandler Bing and Mr. Douglas in the ‘The One With Two Parts’ episode of ‘FRIENDS:’ Mr. Douglas: “That’s unbelievable!”

Chandler: “...and yet believable.”

And knowing how infinitely capable the human race is when it comes to creating weird stuff, I’m pretty sure we can outdo ourselves before the year ends.

The potato salad that united the internet

Some people love potato salad. Some may even call it their favorite food ever. And then there are people—specifically 6,911 individuals—who would donate a total of US$55,492 to a man who wants to make potato salad.

Thanks to Kickstarter, “the world’s largest funding platform for creative projects,” and Zack Danger or Columbus, Ohio.

Zack’s Kickstarter post simply reads “I’m making potato salad. Basically I’m just making potato salad. I haven’t decided what kind yet.” And the backers started piling up. Dollar after dollar, thousands after thou-

Who would donate a total of US$55,492 to a man who wants to make potato salad?

PHOTO BY ROHIT SETH / SHUTTERSTOCK

Woman in black.

Peaches in knickers, anyone?

sands, until Zack realized that he has to up his ante.

His first stretch goal was when he hit US $35: “I will make 4x as much Potato Salad.

I know $40 isn’t 4x $10, but you guys have earned it.”

Upon reaching US $250, he promised “Better mayonnaise (from the natural foods section).” Wow. His last stretch goal as of posting was for US $3,000, which reads, “A BIG STRETCH GOAL: We’re really tearing through these stretch goals. I honestly don’t know what is realistic anymore. So, I thought maybe we try to double the cur-

PHOTO FROM @HLNTV / TWITTER

rent number? “$3000: My kitchen is too small! I will rent out a party hall and invite the whole internet to the potato salad party (only $10 and above will be allowed in the kitchen)! The internet loves potato salad! Let’s show them that potato salad loves the internet!!”

What can we say, Zack— you’re right. The Internet really loves potato salad.

Devil won’t stop texting priest

You remember that time when you really, really had to text someone with a really important message but your net-

work carrier won’t cooperate?

Well, apparently the devil has better reception on his cellphone than some of us.

Father Marian Rajchel from Jaroslaw, Poland told The Austrian Times that he started getting “hate texts” from the devil after performing an exorcism on a teenage girl. Since then, the devil has been sending him text messages through the girl’s phone.

“The author of these texts is an evil spirit who has possessed her soul,” said Fr. Rajchel to Austrian Times. “Often the owners of mobile phones are not even aware that they [have] been used like this, however in this case it is clear.”

One of the devil’s messages reads: “She will not come out of this hell. She’s mine. Anyone who prays for her will die.”

After praying for the girl and replying to the devil’s SMS, the priest received the reply, “Shut up, preacher. You cannot save

PHOTO FROM WINCHESTER POLICE / TWITTER

yourself. Idiot. You pathetic old preacher.”

Fr. Rajchel adds, “Clearly this young girl has been possessed, and needs further help.”

According to Fr. Rajchel, the devil and his legion won’t think twice about using modern technology—perhaps to adapt to the world’s quickly changing lifestyle.

Peaches in knickers

An aphrodisiac is any substance that causes or increases sexual desire. Wine, oysters, and chocolates are just some of the most famous aphrodisiacs known to man.

However, there are other inedible things that can work as an aphrodisiac—say, a gorgeous ensemble of the most delicate lingerie.

But what if we put food and lingerie together? And like most things trending and ❱❱ PAGE 32 Stranger Than

Weird News: Strange but true stories

29 FRIDAY AUGUST 8, 2014

5 year old loses re-election as Samsung Galaxy S4 mayor of tiny US town catches fire in bed of Texas teen The Associated Press

DORSET, MINN.—Robert “Bobby” Tufts may have lost his bid for a third consecutive term as mayor of his tiny northern Minnesota tourist town, but the 5-year-old isn’t taking it too hard.

After helping raise money for local charities and declaring ice cream the top of the food pyramid, it was just time to move on, he said.

“It was fun, but it’s time to pass on the vote,” Bobby told The Associated Press on Monday, a day after he lost the annual election in Dorset.

Bobby’s rule over the tiny town—population ranging from nine to 28 people—was purely ceremonial, being that Dorset has no formal city government.

People can vote as many times as they like—for $1 a vote—at ballot boxes around town. The winner is drawn at random during the annual Taste of Dorset festival.

BY ANGIE DUARTE Philippine Canadian Inquirer

Robert Tufts.

The new mayor, Eric Mueller, is bringing in more experience: He’s 16.

Bobby said he was proud of his efforts during his rein in Dorset, about 150 miles (241 kilometres) northwest of

PHOTO FROM NEWS.YAHOO.COM

Minneapolis. He helped raise money for the Ronald McDonald House Charities of the Red River Valley in Fargo, North Dakota. One of his other major acts was declaring ice cream a necessary food. ■

Police find giant tortoise out for stroll in Los Angeles suburb, attempt to find its owner The Associated Press ALHAMBRA, CALIF.—At least officers didn’t have to issue a speeding ticket when they spotted a giant tortoise ambling down a street suburban Los Angeles.

The Alhambra Police Department joked on its Facebook page that the 150-pound (68-kilogram) reptile was captured Saturday afternoon after a brief pursuit.

“The tortoise did try to make a run for it; but, our officers are pretty fast,” the post said.

It took two officers to heft the hard-shelled creature into a patrol car. They then took the reptile to the local police station before turning it over to animal control authorities.

Giant tortoises are not indig-

enous to the Los Angeles area.

Police are asking anyone with a big tortoise that went missing this weekend to contact them.

They aren’t sure if this one escaped or was abandoned by its owner.

Police say this particular reptile has some distinctive markings. They aren’t revealing them for the time being, however, to ensure that whoever claims the tortoise is its rightful owner. ■ www.canadianinquirer.net

DALLAS—A teener from North Texas awoke to the smell of smoke, only to find her Samsung Galaxy S4 in flames by her pillow.

Speaking to reporters from local news station FOX 4,which carried the story on July 25, 2014, Ariel Tolfree, 13-years old, said that her phone slipped under her pillow as she fell asleep. Later on that night, she was roused by the smell of something burning. She initially disregarded it, only to be awoken again as the smell grew stronger.

“I didn’t think much of it, so I went back to sleep, and then I woke up again and it was more prominent,” said Tolfree.

The teen added that she loves using her Samsung Galaxy S4 because “It’s really like, nice and pretty. It’s high tech.”

Her father—who suspects the phone overheated, causing the battery to swell and start a fire—however, expressed dissatisfaction over the product’s safety.

“We have a reasonable expectation that the products we buy are going to be safe,” said Thomas.

The Tolfrees got in touch with Samsung, and spoke to a

representative of the company.

The spokesperson said that Samsung products are safe; and pointed out that the battery inside the teen’s phone was a replacement part and not an original Samsung battery unit.

However, the company conceded that there is a need for consumer education, with regard to rechargeable batteries.

The spokesperson also noted that this is exactly the reason that Samsung posts a warning in their user guide, which specifically says that covering one of their devices with bedding or other material could restrict airflow and cause a fire.

Tolfree and her dad admitted that they didn’t read that warning.

“If anything, they should put a big warning on it, like a cigarette label, if that’s the case,” Thomas said.

For her part, Tolfree said she has come to realize that people should not sleep with their phones on their bed, but instead, set them down on a nightstand.

The Samsung spokesperson emphasized that they treat any incidence of a battery fire very seriously, and requested that the burned phone be sent to them for a full investigation into the matter.

Samsung also replaced the beddings and other items that were burned. ■

The charred remains of Ariel Tolfree’s Samsung Galaxy S4.

SCREENGRAB FROM WWW.MYFOXTAMPABAY.COM

Weird News: Strange but true stories

AUGUST 8, 2014

FRIDAY 30

For Sale: 6 Strangely Designed Houses

BY LEI FONTAMILLAS Philippine Canadian Inquirer WORDS LIKE “uncanny,” “unusual," and “extraordinary” best describe the weird and the bizarre. And because odd things easily get audience' attention, people are always off for things, places, events and people that are strangely “otherworldly.”

People love stories (and perhaps live vicariously through them) that when browsing the net and reading about other people doing strange things, or seeing some oddly built structures, they get titillated.

Those who love the weird and the fun that goes with it could really consider buying one of the properties in the Forbes list of Strange and Unusual Homes for sale.

Here are six of those strangely designed houses from forbes. com: The Mushroom House ($1.1 million)

Who doesn’t love mushrooms?

Inspired by “a stem of Queen

The Mushroom House.

PHOTO FROM @HLNTV / TWITTER

Anne’s lace” this strange retromodern "pod" designed dwelling place was designed by architect James Johnson. The inside is composed of a room, also artistically designed, a 24’ ceiling, and a gas fireplace by an outdoor hot tub. With trees surrounding the area, nature is absolutely at your doorstep.

The Mushroom House is located at 142 Park Road, Pittsford, N.Y. and is listed with RE/ MAX Advance.

Frank Gehry’s Schnabel House ($13 million)

This is an unusually sculp-

tured house at its finest. The architect created a “village of sculptural forms,” a design that bright architectural minds would “unusually” fall in love with.

The entire structure is built of copper and stucco and is made of a combination of wood, glass and lead. Yes. It’s a combination of nearly all elements that will make it overwhelmingly unusual to the eyes.

The property which includes a 3,000-square foot reflecting a pond just right off of the master ❱❱ PAGE 32 For Sale

Frank Gehry's Schnabel House.

PHOTO FROM @HLNTV / TWITTER

Floating Home.

PHOTO FROM @HLNTV / TWITTER

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Weird News: Strange but true stories

31 FRIDAY AUGUST 8, 2014

Long Live the Oddballs!

BY ANGIE DUARTE Philippine Canadian Inquirer I AM no stranger to weird. In fact, weird and I are quite wellacquainted. Having—for as long as I can remember—lived my life more than a little off kilter, weird has become my state of being. I am one with the weirdness.

And I wouldn’t have it any other way.

Left off-center

The word “weird” is defined

by Merriam-Webster Dictionary as unusual or strange; of, relating to, or caused by witchcraft or the supernatural; magical; and, of strange or extraordinary character; odd, fantastic.

I am all of the above. Maybe not so much the witchcraft part (at least, not anymore; admittedly having dabbled ever so slightly with white witchcraft back in my college days).

Weirdness is a way of seeing the world a little bit off its axis of normal thought. It is a left off-center way of viewing things.

To illustrate: as a child, I enjoyed looking at everything upside down. I would hang my head between my legs for as long as I could and take in the view; fascinated with how strange and curious everything looked from another, less conventional vantage point. I wished I could stay in that position for longer, but the blood rushing to my head had other ideas, unfortunately. I wondered if “normal folk” ever saw the world as I did, with head hanging down, or if they were just too satisfied with the same old-same old.

I loved Dr. Seuss, and his offbeat way of seeing the world and its inhabitants. Maybe he hung his head upside down, too, and the rush of blood caused him to be a tad more creative and imaginative. Maybe.

I loved dressing up, and had many favorite costumes; most of which were not your typical princess or superhero (I had a knack of mixing-and-matching pieces to come up with my own costume line, like Barbiemeets-cowboy-meets G.I. Joe, with a tiara to top off the look).

The songs I especially delighted in were no better: The Worm Song, The Old Lady

Who Swallowed a Fly, There’s a Hole in the Bottom of the Sea, Dunderbeck’s Sausage Machine; some of the shiniest gems in the treasure trove of weird ditties.

Oh, and I once (well into my young adulthood) owned a pet goat, and sad was the day that she was “banished” to a farm for eating my mother’s prized ferns.

As an adult, I still enjoy wearing costumes; I turn the music up—the louder, the better—and dance around in my undies, oblivious to the disinterestedbordering-on-confused looks on my cats’ feline faces. Sometimes, I break into song and dance when I am out running.

Blame it on an exceptionally catchy playlist of music fed into my brain as I run, or, blame it on my intrinsic weirdness; it’s your choice.

I snort when I laugh, wait ‘til 4 steps have passed before stepping onto the escalator, eat the food on my plate in sections, must scratch my chest and my back at the same time or the itch doesn’t go away, talk to myself regardless of who’s listening, read the newspaper backwards (in this day and age, I could have stopped at “read the newspaper” and that may have been weird enough)…the list goes on and on.

What makes you weird?

Maybe you eat only the red Skittles, or the green M&M’s?

Or perhaps prefer the Oreos WITHOUT the stuffing? Do you refuse to write with a blue pen, adamantly sticking by black ink? Have a fashion sense all your own?

Are obsessed with Nick Cage? Whatever your quirks may be, this one’s for you; and for all weird ones at large.

is simply dismissed as the oddball of the bunch.

As such, we tend to suppress our weirdness, for fear of being judged. Sadly, though, when you are suppressing what makes you unique or odd, you are also suppressing your imaginative side, creativity, and spark. Case in point, a child’s imagination is far greater than your average adult’s.

Simply put, when you see the world from a different vantage point, you see things that are hidden from most “normal” people.

What makes you weird; the oddities that define you are not childish at all. They are the part of you that will, perhaps, enable you to bring something different to humanity’s table.

Most innovators in their field were considered weird: Einstein, Edison, Tesla, Van Gogh, Hemingway, to name just a few.

Author E.A. Bucchianeri states the link between weirdness and creativity so well, in the book Brushstrokes of a Gadfly: “Weirdism is definitely the cornerstone of many an artist’s career.”

So say hello to your innerweird child, and give your uniqueness full reign. It may be just what the world needs— without their even knowing it.

Snowflakes and eccentricities

In the 1900’s, there lived a man who was considered very odd. His name was Wilson

Hello, weird inner child; we meet again!

I, the champion of weird, must admit that traits generally associated with weirdness are more accepted in children than they are in adults. When a child acts weird, it is often deemed acceptable by society; and is sometimes even seen as cute and amusing. But woe the adult who acts such, as he or she www.canadianinquirer.net

“Snowflake” Bentley. He was not your usual child. In Snowflake Bentley, a book written about his life, Wilson is described as someone who didn't care much for playing with other kids, never got married, and was obsessed with the weather.

He was obsessed with snowflakes. Weird, huh?

So hung up on nature’s delicate works of art was he that he spent his entire life to photographing these cold, crystalline charmers. In his lifetime (he lived from 1865-1931), he photographed 5,000 differently-patterned snowflakes! Using a camera he managed to get his parents to purchase for him, Bentley painstakingly perfected the process of freezing in images these frozen gems over a period of two years.

The book tells us that Bentley had a scientist’s mind and persistence, and that he was passionate about the wonders of nature. It also reveals that his efforts and enthusiasm for photographing snowflakes was often misunderstood in those days, but his stalwart determination brought to light two truths that have contributed to the realms of science and soul: no two snowflakes are alike; and each one is disarmingly beautiful.

Imagine what the world would be without these discoveries: children would have no paper cut-outs to craft and hang, come Christmas-time; paintings and art would be a tad more dull (for we would never know the intricacies of a snowflake); why, everything snowflake-related would be virtually non-existent.

Would the world come to a grinding halt, sans Bentley’s weird, imaginative work?

Perhaps not. But it certainly would be all the more banal.

This is just one among many examples of oddballs, making an often unexpected difference.

Benefits of being weird

Aside from the connection between the weird and the creative, there are other pluses to yielding to your strangeness: • Spices up a mundane life.

Your uniqueness brings flavor to an otherwise potentially “blah” and routine existence.

If you are honest enough to admit it, you will realize that this is inarguably so. Without a few quirks and idiosyncrasies, here and there, we merely go through the motions of life; alive, but not really living.

• Weirdness weeds out the worthless. How do I mean? You weird traits will generally be your litmus test of your friend’s sincerity. Your true friends are the ones who will stick by you no matter how offbeat you are or can be. They are the ones who don’t give a rat’s behind that you are strange. They are the ones that will stand by you, when needed. They are the friends worth having in your life.

• Weird produces weird. The Law of Similarity in Sympathetic Magic dictates that “like produces like.” Bet you think I’m weird, just for knowing that. In the same vein, weird produces weird. And I doubt I’d have it any other way. I attract weird friends, thankfully. My daughter is—by her own proud admission—weird, and certainly destined for greatness.

Your weirdness will encourage other weirdos to come out of their closet of “normalcy” and get their own uniqueness going. What an exciting thought, if we had more creative minds, thinking out of the box! Imagine what can be achieved.

• You will be happier, giving in to your weirdness. Pretending to be someone you are not can lead to one thing and one thing alone: misery. Do yourself a favor and be who you are! When you are old and gray, you’ll be glad you did! No I must clarify, and I will do so in big, bold letters: WEIRDNESS IS NOT A LICENSE FOR RUDENESS OR FOR TREATING PEOPLE BADLY. “Weird” does not mean ”ass;” let’s get that straight!

I leave you with a quote and a challenge from the late, great musician, singer-songwriter and poet, Jim Morrison: “Where's your will to be weird?” ■

Weird News: Strange but true stories

AUGUST 8, 2014 FRIDAY 32

Stranger Than...

For Sale...

quirky, it came from China.

HLN TV in Atlanta tweeted a photo of a bunch of peaches clad in tiny panties.

Yep, tiny panties.

People’s Daily China also tweeted a photo of the lingeriedonning peaches, saying that a guy in Nanjing “has invested a new product—peaches in panties—and is getting patented.”

This guy from Nanjing is Yao Yan and he is selling these racy creations at a heart-stopping price of “£50 for nine” peaches, according to The Mirror UK. Yan thought of putting panties on peaches (and their notoriously fuzzy ‘butts’) to raise sales as the Chinese Valentines’ Day approaches.

❰❰ 30

bedroom is located at 526 N. Carmelina Ave, Los Angeles, C.A. and is listed with Hilton & Hyland.

❰❰ 28

Monolithic ($225,000)

Home

This house is strange not just for its design but its amenities as well.

The dome-like structure which may hardly be called a "home" at first glance has floors that heat up. Not heat like the fire-type-heat but just enough to warm the entire house specially when the desert ground gets chilly. And, yeah, desert grounds in these unusually situated dome homes do get chilly at times.

So to address that issue, heated floors were created.

Another strange thing about the house is that it was made of Airform, a steel-reinforced concrete and polyurethane foam.

The property which is listed with Dreamcatcher Real Estate is located at 35 April Way, El Prado, N.M.

Woman in black walks across America

For two months, the highways of southeast and Midwest United States bore witness to every woeful and mysterious step of the ‘Woman in Black.’

Social media, as usual, went crazy over this mysterious hooded figure walking the roads. Sightings were posted numerous times and the hashtag ‘#WomanInBlack’ went trending on several occasions.

However, on August 4th, Sky News Australia reported that the ‘woman in black mystery is finally solved.’

According to reports (although the police declined to release her name upon her request for privacy), the woman in black is Elizabeth Poles from Motts, Alabama.

According to her brother Raymond, the 56-year-old widow and mother of two is a U.S. Army veteran. Her husband died in 2008 and her father in 2009, for which she is receiving treatment at Veterans Affairs (VA) hospitals.

Reports believe that Poles walked a total of 1,400 kilometers—from Ranger, Georgia to Winchester, Virginia.

Upon arriving in Winchester, Virginia—the culmination of her journey—she was taken to an “undisclosed location” by the Winchester police and was granted the privacy she requested.

“She has expressed to officers that she wants to be left alone and is asking that the public respect her wishes,” the authorities said.

Dome

Stone Castle ($2.99 million)

Lego beach.

Police say she plans on staying in Virginia for good.

Lego beach

For years, the beaches on Cornwall were home to more than sand and water. Children—and adults, alike—enjoyed a careful stroll along the beach in search of washed up Lego pieces.

On February 13, 1997, the Tokio Express bound for Connecticut, USA encountered a huge wave described as ‘once in a 100-year wave.’

The encounter caused the ship’s demise about 20 miles from Land’s End. Tokio Express was carrying 62 steel crates—including one filled with Lego® pieces.

An Express UK report says that the ship manifest listed down 4,756,940 Lego® pieces thrown into the depths of the ocean. Around 3,178,807 pieces were “light enough to float.”

PHOTO FROM BBC (SCREENGRAB)

So, for years, various Lego® pieces washed to the shore of Cornwall—and even some pieces as far as Australia—as beach goers discovered plastic pirates, plastic flowers, and even plastic dragons.

According to the Express UK report, there are about 418,000 missing Lego diver flippers; 353,264 daisy flowers; 97,500 scuba and breathing apparatus; and about 33,941 black and green dragons.

American oceanographer Curtis Ebbesmeyer has studied the Lego spill for years.

“The mystery is where they’ve ended up,” Ebbesmeyer said to Express UK. “After 17 years they’ve only been definitely reported off the coast of Cornwall. The most profound lesson I’ve learned from the Lego story is that things that go to the bottom of the sea don’t always stay there.” ■ www.canadianinquirer.net

Ever imagined what it feels to live a Cinderalla-type existence where the ending is happily ever after in a token stone castle?

Those fairytale stories which gave us a leap (and a hop) away from reality come true with this stone castle house, now available for those who want to live like Cinderella.

However, this structure, which mounts a two-story turret, was reportedly built to mimic not Cinderella’s dwell-

Stone Castle.

ing place but a 16th century Croatian castle.

Costing almost $3 million, the castle is located at 4720 Grosvenor Ave, The Bronx, N.Y. and is listed with Stribling & Associates.

Desert Nomad House

Designed by a brilliant architect who lived and worked in the desert, this property gives you a nomadic and, at the same time, modernistic feel because of its modern interiors set in nomadic surroundings.

Architect Rick Joy gives us an idea of how environment can actually influence the kind of structure you’d want to live in.

The property, which is composed of three steel and glass cubes, can be found in 6353 West Sweetwater Drive, Tucson, A.Z. and is listed with Long Realty.

Floating Home

For those who’d love to try something rhythmic and strange as living in a floating house, a property surrounded by water at 2369 Fairview Avenue E6, Seattle W.A. is the best property to buy.

With a very modernistic exterior and interior design, this house is quite not your old stone castle idea of a house, and is even more expensive.

The property was built permanently attached to its dock and is a tri-level custom home that floats in a gated “floating waterfront community.”

It is situated in the Westlake neighborhood and is listed with Coldwell Banker Bain Associates. ■

PHOTO FROM @HLNTV / TWITTER

FRIDAY AUGUST 8, 2014

33

Entertainment

Kris plays stage Couple Mariel and Robin confirm mom role for Bimby Talentadong Pinoy hosting

BY LEI FONTAMILLAS Philippine Canadian Inquirer MANILA—The “queen of all media” plays the stage mom role as she attended her son’s first shooting day of the sequel of “The Unkabogable Praybeyt Benjamin.”

“Bimby” Yap Jr., Aquino’s son with PBA star James Yap will be featured in the film starred by Aquino’s good friend, comedian, Vice Ganda.

“Stage mom of the century ang aura ni Kris Aquino dito, nakakatuwa. Nung una minimake sure niya na nakikipagcooperate si Bimby. Mini-make sure niya na hindi ko tinatakot ang anak niya. Bago pa siya umuwi, sabi niya, ‘Iiwanan ko.

Huwag mong takutin si Bimby,” Vice Ganda shared, as quoted in a report for ABS-CBN news.

“Malaking tulong si Bimby at malaking tulong si Kris Aquino kasi mas pinagtutuunan niya ng effort ito na bumongga kaysa sarili niyang pelikula. Mas inuna niya, mas tutok talaga siya dito,” he added in the same report.

Aquino was also given praises by the film’s director, Director Wenn V. Deramas for being very supportive during the shoot.

“Nagre-read (ng lines), siya pa ‘yung tumatawag sa interpreter kasi ang role dito ni Bimby ay galing ng China eh so hindi marunong mag-Tagalog, Chinese-speaking talaga. Masaya at nagbantay si Tetay (Kris) dito,” Deramas added.

The movie, which will be pitted against Aquino’s movie, “Feng Shui” is also an official entry to the Metro Manila Film Festival (MMFF) which will be shown Christmas Day, this year. ■

SCREENSHOT FROM KRIS AND ABUNDA TONIGHT

BY LEI FONTAMILLAS Philippine Canadian Inquirer MANILA—Following former host, Ryan Agoncillo’s transfer to the Kapuso Network, couples Robin Padilla and Mariel Rodriguez confirmed that they will be hosting TV5 Network’s “Talentadong Pinoy.”

The show was formerly rumored to have been offered to Willie Revillame who rejected the offer after the failed come back of his show, Wowowillie.

Padilla, meanwhile said that he made sure that negotiations with the network were properly made before he accepted the project.

“Siyempre una kong inalam, ayokong may masasagasaan, tinanong ko agad kung ano ang nangyari kay Ryan, tapos yung pangalawa, yung usapan kay Willie bago ko tinanggap,” Padilla said in an interview for the Philippine Entertainment Portal.

(The first thing I did was to know what happened, to Ryan, then to Willie before I accepted the offer.)

Padilla said he only revealed the negotiations to Rodriguez only lately, when he was already sure about the project.

“Hindi ko agad sinabi sa kanya kasi kapag sinabi ko sa kanya at ‘di natuloy made-depress dahil matagal na naming pangarap na magsama uli sa hosting.

(At first I didn’t disclose it to her because she might get de-

Mariel Rodriguez and Robin Padilla.

pressed if the project wouldn’t push through. We really wanted to be together in hosting again.)

“Nung sigurado na, nung si Ma’am Wilma [Galvante] na ang nagsabi sa akin, dun ko sinabi sa kanya na mayroon kaming bagong project.

(When I was sure of it, when Ma’am Wilma Galvante told me, that was the only time I decided to tell her.)

It could be noted that the cou-

PHOTO FROM SHAWCUTE.COM

ples met while hosting together on Wowowee, Revillame’s show in ABS-CBN, before he transferred to TV5’s Wowowillie.

“Alam niyo naman na doon nabuo ang pag-iibigan namin.

Para sa amin isang malaking regalo ito para sa anibersaryo namin sa August 19,” he added.

(You all know that our relationship started there. This is a big gift for our second anniversary on August 19.) ■

Entertainment

AUGUST 8, 2014 FRIDAY 34

Public health... to protect Canadian travellers and allow health officials in the affected countries to focus their resources on responding to the Ebola outbreak.

“The government is closely monitoring the situation and is in close contact with our missions responsible for the affected regions,” the statement said.

“Canada and its international partners are working around the clock to provide support to the affected regions.”

The statement said Canada has committed $1.41 million to date, and is providing Public Health Agency of Canada experts and a mobile lab in Sierra Leone to the Ebola fight.

It said there are no confirmed Ebola cases in Canada.

The World Health Organization says that, as of Thursday, 729 people have died as a result of the outbreak.

Just over 1,300 people are known to have been infected since February.

In response, the WHO has launched a $100-million plan to combat the outbreak.

WHO Director General Margaret Chan was to meet today with the presidents of affected countries in Guinea. ❰❰ 18

Nigeria has also reported one death due to Ebola, in a person who had travelled ill from Liberia.

Ebola virus is a rare and severe disease which can infect both humans and non-human primates. The virus is contagious and is spread by direct contact with blood or bodily fluids from a sick person.

Symptoms of the illness include fever, intense weakness, headache, sore throat and pains, and could involve bleeding from different parts of the body.

The current outbreak is the largest since the disease first emerged in Africa nearly 40 years ago.

The health conditions of two American aid workers who contracted Ebola while helping fight the outbreak have worsened, two relief organizations said on Thursday.

Missionary Nancy Writebol and Dr. Kent Brantly are listed in “stable but grave condition” in Liberia, according to relief groups Samaritan’s Purse and Serving In Mission, both based in North Carolina.

Writebol and Brantly were part of a team from the two agencies that was working in Monrovia, Liberia. ■

Gretchen Barretto.

PHOTO FROM ANGSAWARIKO.COM

Gretchen Barreto keeps mum on Julia

BY MARINEL R. CRUZ Philippine Daily Inquirer CONTROVERSIAL CELEBRITY Gretchen Barretto, who has always been candid about issues concerning members of the Barretto clan, said she drew the line at talking about her sister Marjorie’s daughters in order to protect them.

She was referring to the recent decision of Marjorie’s daughter Julia to file a petition in court to drop the surname of her father, actor Dennis Padilla (Baldivia in real life). Unconfirmed reports said Julia’s younger sister, Claudia, also filed the same request in court.

“Let’s not get into that issue. [The girls are] very young. If there’s anyone who should discuss the issue, it should be Marjorie, and then Julia. They will talk about it when the right time comes.

Who knows? Maybe they will talk about it next week,” Gretchen told reporters during her launch as endorser of the jewelry brand Karat World on Monday.

She pleaded with reporters not to ask about the controversy. “I want to protect them. If it’s about me, I’d speak openly.

But this involves children,” Gretchen explained. “Through the years, I’ve learned to shut my mouth and keep quiet. Let the [online] bashing happen because the truth will come out eventually.”

Longtime tiff

There is also Gretchen and Marjorie’s longtime tiff with youngest sister, actress Claudine Barretto.

Gretchen said she showed her support to Marjorie and her family “by praying for them.” She pointed out that, “Marjorie is a strong, prayerful woman. We’re not perfect… but we have strong faith in God.” Gretchen said it was “normal to feel hurt” because of what her family was going through, “but I know that trials are part of life. How we deal with or react to every situation is what matters,” she www.canadianinquirer.net

said. “I’ve always been optimistic—that’s my secret. You attract good luck if you maintain a positive outlook.”

Gretchen had to wear a bridal gown for the Karat World campaign. She said she felt happy about it and even imagined she was actually about to tie the knot. “But life is not perfect,” said the longtime partner of businessman Tonyboy Cojuangco. “You have to accept that there are things in life that you don’t have. Accepting that and simply enjoying all your blessings [will give you contentment]. When this (wedding) will happen for me, I really can’t tell.”

Gretchen said she’s proud of her daughter Dominique, who is currently in Manila while on break from school.

The 19-year-old is studying fashion design in London. “I like to [think] that she’s better than [me] in a lot of ways.

She recently had a photo shoot for a new endorsement and I’m very excited for her,” Gretchen said. “She is a smart kid.

She does all the negotiations herself.

She was raised in an environment that’s full of love, that’s why she’s secure.”

Gretchen is currently busy working on the Chito Roño film “The Trial,” which also features John Lloyd Cruz, Richard Gomez and Jessy Mendiola. The Star Cinema production will be released in September. “It’s a difficult film to make.

I’m losing so much weight… Most of my scenes are stressful, although I’m excited about the project.”

She said working with John Lloyd was a “dream come true. I feel giddy talking about it. Seriously, I’m glad that, at this point in my career, I’m still given the chance to work with artists I admire.”

Gretchen, whose contract with ABSCBN is up for renewal soon, said a drama series was being developed for her by the Kapamilya network. “I haven’t received the material so I can’t talk about it yet.

I’m afraid that a project gets stalled or shelved whenever I talk about it prematurely, like ‘Alta.’ The new project is big… and I’m excited.” ■

Entertainment

35 FRIDAY AUGUST 8, 2014

Pulitzer Prize winning activist’s movie as US immigrant premiers in Manila

BY TERESA CEROJANO The Associated Press MANILA, PHILIPPINES—An autobiographical documentary by one of America’s best known immigrants living in the U.S. illegally has opened an independent film festival in his home country of the Philippines to applause, laughter and tears.

Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist and now immigration activist Jose Antonio Vargas’ mother received a certificate of recognition on his behalf at the 10th Cinemalaya film festival in Manila on Friday night.

“It’s my third time to watch it, but I still can’t stop myself from crying,” said Emelie Salinas, Vargas’ 56-year-old mother, who came with her two other children and relatives.

“Documented” was written, directed and produced by Vargas, who has worked for The

Huffington Post, San Francisco Chronicle and Philadelphia Daily News, and was part of a Washington Post team that won a Pulitzer in 2008 for its report on the 2007 Virginia Tech shootings.

The 90-minute film tells of Vargas’ 1993 journey to America as a 12-year-old unaccompanied immigrant to join his grandparents, and his painful 21-year separation from his mother.

In 2011, after wrestling with fear, he decided to come out with his secret and to campaign for a citizenship path for more than 11 million other “undocumented” immigrants, 1.3 million of whom are Asians.

Hundreds of thousands of them were brought to America as children, and like Vargas are trapped in their illegal status.

Vargas, 33, founded the campaign “Define American,” speaking all over the United

Jose Antonio Vargas.

States on the plight of immigrants who entered the country illegally, and testifying at a U.S. congressional hearing last year on immigration reform.

Last month, he was detained

by Border Patrol agents at McAllen airport in Texas, but was released several hours later because he was not considered

PHOTO FROM SSSIP.WORDPRESS.COM

a security threat. The incident was widely reported by media and Vargas’ supporters rallied for his release.

“Here in America, where people like me are called illegal, this film is an act of civil disobedience,” Vargas said in a taped message played before the Manila premier of his film at the Cultur-

al Center of the Philippines.

He said that because he did not have the proper documents, he could not join the audience in Manila, which included his family, which he has not seen for 21 years. But the premier of his movie at the festival, he added, “proves the power of film” because “movies travel in all languages, bridging cultures ... and people.”

Filipino netizens have been tweeting kudos to Vargas, with one describing the film as “enlightening, entertaining, heartbreaking.”

Vargas’ sister Czarina said she was happy about the audience’s positive reaction to the film.

“It is overwhelming that they liked the movie,” said Czarina, a 23-year-old nurse. “It is such an uncomfortable issue, but I am so thankful that they appreciated it and I did not see any negative reactions from the people.” ■

Ai Ai lauded for Cinemalaya film Claudine and Raymart, together for son’s birthday bash

BY ANGIE DUARTE Philippine Canadian Inquirer MANILA—Funny woman Ai Ai delas Alas has received rave reviews for her role in the indie film “Ronda,” one of 10 entries in the the 10th Cinemalaya Philippine Independent Film Festival’s “New Breed” category.

In the film directed by Nick Olanka, the comedienne takes on a dramatic role; fleshing out the part of a policewoman working the graveyard shift, dutifully patrolling Manila’s streets, while also looking for her lost son.

Critics have already given their predictions that Delas Alas will be in the running for the Best Actress Award for her performance in the movie, which also stars Cesar Montano, Julian Trono, Carlo Aquino, and Angeli Bayani.

The actress, whose career spans many years, expressed her pride over the film—which she also co-produced—to reporters from ABS-CBN News.

“Natuwa naman ako kasi for the first time iba naman ako

BY ANGIE DUARTE Philippine Canadian Inquirer

Ai Ai delas Alas.

dito. Nagkaroon na ako ng contribution sa industriya sa Cinemalaya. Kahit hindi man ako maging best actress, ma-nominate lang ako at maka-attend ako ng international film festival, ‘yun ang gusto ko talaga,” she said.

In another interview on Sunday night via radio station DZMM, Delas Alas pointed out that her Cinemalaya film brought on the realization there is always room to learn and grow, as far as her craft is concerned.

“Na-realize ko na hangga’t nandito tayo sa industriya,

PHOTO FROM BANDERA.INQUIRER.NET

meron pang room for improvement. Ibig sabihin marami pa tayong kayang gawin pala, innovation. Alam mo ‘yung may ginagawa kang iba naman sa buhay mo,” she said, adding that Cinemalaya allowed her to rediscover herself as an actress.

“Maganda ang experience…

Kasi siyempre iba pa rin ‘yung art eh. Bilang artist, lumalabas talaga sa katawan mo ‘yun.

Gusto ko ng iba naman. Ito na nga ‘yun, first time ko sa Cinemalaya so natuwa naman ako at nakasali ako this year,” about her her venture into a dramatic role. ■ www.canadianinquirer.net

MANILA—Celebrity couple Claudine Barretto and Raymart Santiago, estranged for some time now, had a brief reunion on Sunday for son Santino’s seventh birthday party.

Barretto posted photos on her Instagram account, showing Santiago and their children at the “Minecraft”-themed celebration held at the Blue Leaf Events Pavilion.

In June of this year, Barretto and Santiago arrived at an agreement regarding their children, through a judicial dispute resolution. In July, however, Barretto told reporters from ABSCBN News that she had plans of rescinding the agreement, and that she was looking to file suit against Santiago on the grounds of “economical abuse.”

The actress referenced state-

Claudine and Raymart at son Santino’s 7th birthday party.

PHOTO FROM @CLAUBARRETTO / INSTAGRAM

ments made by Santiago’s lawyer, Atty. Ruth Castelo, with regard to her estranged husband’s alleged absence from their children’s affairs and non-compliance in fulfilling his financial obligations.

Both parties have repeatedly said that they chose to take the dispute to court in order to better seek the welfare of their children, Santino and 10-yearold Sabina. Barretto and Santiago have each filed for sole custody of the children. ■

Entertainment

AUGUST 8, 2014 FRIDAY 36

Hollywood takes notice as Bible Belt brothers turn faith-based films into box office bonanzas

BY LUCAS L. JOHNSON II The Associated Press NASHVILLE—It’s the Hollywood ending every studio wants: Low-cost production and high returns at the box office.

Filmmakers Alex and Stephen Kendrick seem to have the formula down—grossing nearly $80 million on four films made for less than $4 million combined. Only thing is the Kendrick brothers work far from Hollywood and, outside the world of Christian-themed cinema, many have never heard of their films.

That could change.

Increasingly, major studios appear to be taking a leap for faith-based audiences with biblical epics such as “Noah” starring Russell Crowe, the planned December release of “Exodus” and a remake of “Ben-Hur” for early 2016.

At one point in April, there were four faith-based movies in the Top 20 at the box office, including “Heaven Is for Real,” about a 4-year-old boy’s account of his trip to heaven. It has grossed more than $99 million on a production budget of $12 million by Sony Pictures.

“Hollywood has taken note,” said DeVon Franklin, former Sony senior vice-president of production, who oversaw “Heaven Is for Real.”

The Kendrick brothers—who just wrapped up filming their fifth project—are making movies that could see wider release as distributors pay attention to the box office trends in the traditional Bible Belt and beyond.

Their latest film, which has yet to have a title, centres on a family realizing the power of prayer.

“The point is not racing to see how many movies we can produce,” said Alex Kendrick, in a telephone interview from Charlotte, North Carolina.

“The point is to take the time, in prayer and research, to make a solid film and get the most ministry out of it before moving to the next one.”

The Kendricks began with a tiny production company with their pastor at Sherwood Baptist, but decided to strike out on

their own with their fifth film.

The brothers say the separation was amicable and necessary for them to grow as filmmakers and recruit actors and crew nationwide.

In previous movies, the brothers mostly used volunteers from their church though one of their more popular movies, “Fireproof,” did include Kirk Cameron, a veteran actor memorably known starting in the 80s for his youthful role in a popular TV sitcom, Growing Pains.

“The people we’ve gotten to meet who have expertise in areas that we have needed help have come to the table,” said Stephen Kendrick. “And we’re growing as filmmakers.”

They’re also giving back. The brothers are using the fruits of their success to help upand-coming filmmakers with projects, as well as mentor a younger generation of hopefuls. During their recent filming, they brought in about 20 interns from different universities who worked under professionals involved in the making of the film.

“We believe every generation needs to be pouring into and investing in the next generation,” Stephen Kendrick said. “Hopefully, they’ll be able to stand on our shoulders one day and make even better movies.”

The Kendricks—both ministers who sport salt-and-pepper beards—grew up in suburban Atlanta and now live in Albany in southwestern Georgia. They are still part of the ministry team at the Sherwood megachurch. Along with the church’s senior pastor, Michael Catt, they created Sherwood Pictures in 2002 and scraped together $20,000 to put out their first film, “Flywheel,” in 2003 about a dishonest used car salesman who learns integrity.

With a budget of $100,000, the company released “Facing the Giants” in 2006. That film— about having courage amid adversity—ended up grossing more than $10 million, appearing in a little over 400 theatres primarily in the South. Then came “Fireproof,” a story about a couple struggling to make their marriage work. That movie was made with a budget of

just $500,000 and grossed over $33 million.

“That was what I would call the dawning of the new era of independent Christian films,” said Ben Howard, senior vicepresident of Provident Films, a part of Sony Pictures that focuses on the Christian audience.

“Courageous,” a film about fatherhood, was released in 2011 and made more than $34 million on a $2 million budget.

The fifth Kendrick brothers’ movie is expected to cost at least $3 million.

Box office expert Paul Dergarabedian said the Kendricks’ earlier movies “weren’t what anyone would consider blockbusters in the conventional sense of the word.”

“But the success of those films probably influenced filmmakers, studios, producers, distributors, to look at this genre as a viable, potentially moneymaking genre,” said Dergarabedian, senior media analyst for box-office tracker Rentrak.

Faith-based entertainment is not new territory. The Bible alone has spawned dozens of films dating back to the 1920s and Broadway has found enduring hits in shows such as “Jesus Christ Superstar.”

While the Kendricks have found success, they’re still in the shadows of faith-centric blockbusters like “Noah,” which was released in March and has made more than $359 million at the global box office on a production budget of $125 million.

However, the Kendricks and others like them have been able to move their lower-budget faith-based films from limited theatres to wider release mainly through a grassroots approach more reminiscent of community theatre. It’s this type of fan base growth, which brings in millions in revenue, that has gotten the attention of major studios.

“What people must understand is that Hollywood is a business,” said Bishop T.D. Jakes, a megachurch pastor who produced “Heaven Is for Real” and other faith-based movies.

“And while we have a message that we want to convey, we are conveying that message to an idwww.canadianinquirer.net

Still from “Heaven is for Real,” which is based on the #1 New York Times bestselling book of the same name.

SCREENSHOT FROM YOUTUBE.COM

Russell Crowe as Noah from 2014 film of the same name.

SCREENSHOT FROM YOUTUBE.COM

iom of thought that is controlled by businesses and budgets.”

The Kendricks’ marketing strategy, in particular, has become sort of a blueprint for other Christian filmmakers over the years. It involves prerelease screenings for community church leaders, who are encouraged to spread the word about the film.

“Which is accelerated because of social media,” said Sean Wolfington, a digital marketing entrepreneur who helped promote “Fireproof” and “Son of God,” a faith-based film by husband and wife filmmakers Mark Burnett and

Roma Downey about the life of Jesus Christ that was released in February and has made more than $67 million on a production budget of a little over $20 million.

Whatever the case, the success of such movies is likely to command the attention of major studios for quite a while.

“When we have films that represent our beliefs ... (and) to be able to have more options of those types of films in the marketplace; it’s certainly speaking to Hollywood, without question,” said Franklin, now president and CEO of Franklin Entertainment. ■

FRIDAY AUGUST 8, 2014

37

Lifestyle

Teens love their vacation selfies, but some adults says it’s a narcissistic distraction

BY BETH J. HARPAZ The Associated Press NEW YORK—Jacquie Whitt’s trip to the Galapagos with a group of teenagers was memorable not just for the scenery and wildlife, but also for the way the kids preserved their memories. It was, said Whitt, a “selfie fest.”

For this generation, “digital devices are now part of the interpretive experience,” said Whitt, co-founder of Adios Adventure Travel.

Indeed, many parents love seeing their kids taking selfies and posting to social media when they travel. It shows “they are engaged and excited about where they are and what they are doing,” said Susan Austin, a photographer and Iowa mom.

“To some, it might be bragging, but I think it’s more about a way today’s teens connect with and feel part of a group.”

But some adults think there’s a downside to vacation selfies.

They see them as narcissistic distractions that can detract from the travel experience. And they point to controversial examples—like a smiling selfie from Auschwitz posted to Twitter—as proof of the potential for poor judgment when young travellers use social media.

In addition, when travelling teens spend time taking selfies, “they’re so busy documenting, I wonder whether they’re actually experiencing it,” said Peg Streep, who writes about psychology and millennials.

“What should be an experience of learning and growth instead just says, ‘Look at me.’ It’s a narcissistic moment that’s really about getting likes.”

Streep pointed to a study by Linda Henkel of Fairfield University in Connecticut that found museum visitors remember more about what they’ve seen if they don’t take photos

of the objects they’re viewing.

That suggests that any type of picture-taking can take “you out of the moment of the experience and shifts your attention.”

Another concern is practical.

A real-time selfie from a far-off place tells the world you’re not home. Leora Halpern Lanz, of Long Island, New York, loves it when her three kids take vacation selfies because it’s their way “of validating where they were.” But they’re not allowed to post images until the trip is over: “I don’t need their friends or friends of friends knowing the house is empty.”

Lanz says the widely criticized Auschwitz selfie also shows “the risks of kids posting on social media” when they don’t know what’s appropriate.

Breanna Mitchell, the young woman who took the smiling Auschwitz selfie, received

death threats and messages urging her to kill herself after the image went viral. In a video interview with TakePart Live, Mitchell said the selfie was misinterpreted. She’d studied World War II history with her father and they’d planned to visit historic sites together, but he died before they could make the trip.

Her selfie from the grounds of the concentration camp was her way of saying, “I finally made it here. I finally got where me and my daddy had always said we were going to go,” she told TakePart Live. Looking back now on the selfie, she says, “I just went so wrong with that.”

Still, most travel selfies are innocent and purely celebratory—as well as being a way for teens to keep in touch with peers. Taylor Garcia, 17, who travelled to Texas this summer on a family road trip from Okla-

homa, says selfies are a fun way to remember places like Disney, SeaWorld and the Caribbean, but she also takes them “because I want to show my friends what I’m doing.”

Her mom, Melissa Garcia, who posts her own family trip photos on her blog, ConsumerQueen.com, encourages the selfies. “It’s a great way to preserve memories,” she said, adding that other families have contacted her after seeing the photos to get advice for their trips.

Austin’s daughter Abigail, 18, who shared selfies from a trip to Portugal, doesn’t see the point of posting travel pictures without familiar faces in them. She wants a photo that shows, “Hey, I’m having fun! And I like seeing them of other people, too.”

But at least one tour company, Tauck, has a written policy discouraging digital

devices. For Tauck’s Bridges program, which specializes in multi-generational family trips, guests are asked to “turn off and stow their smart phones, tablets and other portable electronic devices during shared group time.”

Tauck spokesman Tom Armstrong says the company understands that digital devices can help teens pass the time during long car rides, flights or other downtime, “and we have no issue with that.” But “when the tour director is giving commentary, or during museum visits, we think that our younger guests will actually get much more out of their trip if they’re engaged in the experience and not distracted.”

The bottom line, says Whitt: “Like all new emerging technology, the devices can be fun and wholesome, entertainment for all ages, or misused.” ■

Lifestyle

AUGUST 8, 2014 FRIDAY 38

The Natural... tural Center of the Philippines’ Tanghalang Pilipino.

“When I realized that I would be making only P50 a day with TP, I couldn’t tell my mother about it because she was so proud I was in the CCP,” she recalls.

Even then, people recognized a quality in Bayani that even she didn’t know she had.

“Tanggap ko na noon na taumbayan ako forever,” she says, meaning she was content to be a bit player in the ensemble cast, or the chorus.

But TP’s artistic director Herbie Go insisted she be cast against type in her first lead role, as Maria Clara in “Noli Me Tangere: The Musical.”

“For some reason, he fought for me,” she says. “I’m so thankful because for the first time, someone expected more from me, and believed I could do it. I had to step up. I never thought that I could be the lead.”

Later, Go told her that he saw her abilities from the beginning; it was Bayani who hadn’t realized it yet. It would take time and struggle before she overcame her resistance and embraced her destiny as an actress.

Tragically, by the time she had graduated to lead roles, her mother’s health had started to fail. A spinal injury led to paralysis, and it was at the hospital where they learned she also had thyroid cancer.

Her mother never got to see Bayani play Maria Clara on stage.

But the actress’s curious blind side to her own abilities also complicated her entry into the world of independent cinema.

In fact, when a friend told her that she was better suited to film or television because her acting was more for the camera than a live audience, Bayani was deeply offended.

“My whole life up to that point I had thought I was born for the stage,” she recalls. “I thought I would die onstage!

When he told me that I was better suited for the camera, I wanted to slap him!”

Once again, other people saw her abilities before she herself did. After her triumph at Cannes, her friend asked her if she remembered what he told her and they shared a good laugh about it.

Despite her reluctance, the ❰❰ 25

world of independent cinema beckoned.

Bayani’s first film role was for Nick Olanka’s Cinemalaya feature “Ang Huling Araw ng Linggo.” She had done a few more small films when she came to the attention of Lav Diaz, who was then casting his epic “Death in the Land of Encantos.”

“I had heard Lav was looking for an actress, but the shoot would clash with my Tanghalang Pilipino schedule, so I didn’t pay much attention.”

Eventually, however, the two met for the first time. Unbeknownst to her, Diaz had been looking to fill one of the smaller parts, but after seeing Bayani, he decided on the spot to cast her as the female lead. It was to be the beginning of a fruitful collaboration.

“I consider Lav one of my mentors,” she says. “When I first worked with him, I was used to studying the script and asking for instructions from the director. But Lav’s script only had the dialogue, no instructions. I wanted to prove that I deserved the role that he had given me. I didn’t want to panic but my brain was screaming, ‘oh my god! What am I going to do?’”

But after a while, she fell into the rhythm of filming, and her acting instincts took over.

“You can’t help it,” she says.

“When you’re on Lav’s set, the environment absorbs you and you forget that he’s directing, you’re acting. I can’t explain it: It’s like you imbibe the feel and the energy, and you know what he wants to happen even without words.”

Her subsequent film with Lav Diaz, “Melancholia,” was another exercise in instinctive, intuitive filmmaking.

Bayani’s performance in “Encantos” and “Melancholia” announced the advent of a major new talent in independent cinema.

“I was moved by her performance,” recalls filmmaker Sari Dalena. “You could see immediately that she is an actress who bares her soul onscreen.”

Dalena cast Angeli as Ka Alma in her film “Ka Oryang”: the character was a composite of several women political detainees. To prepare for the role, Angeli met with former political prisoner Hilda Narciso, and immersed herself in the experiences of other martial law torture survivors.

PHOTO BY JILSON SECKLER TIU

“As a character, ‘Ka Alma’ must go through the various torture-methods these detainees went through,” recalls Dalena. “As you can imagine, these scenes were not only physically taxing, but highly emotional as well… This is where Angeli’s brilliance lies. I remember that after filming the ice-block scene, where ‘Ka Alma’ is interrogated while strung up completely naked on a block of ice, I was really affected and brought to tears after we finished the scene. Aside from myself, after the scene was shot, Angeli wept and was inconsolable. She wasn’t ‘performing’ in any of the torture scenes; she made it real.”

Bayani also impressed Dalena with her fierce work ethic: After a whole day’s filming in Laguna, the actress would rush back to Manila for a stage performance that night, and be back on set the very next morning.

Together with her sister and co-director Kiri, Dalena next cast Bayani as Julie de Lima in “The Guerrilla is a Poet,” their film about Jose Maria Sison and the early days of the communist underground.

“We realized that Ka Joma Sison and Ka Julie de Lima were a power couple,” she recalls. “There wouldn’t be a Joma Sison without Julie. We were looking for an actress who not only fit Julie’s physical description, but more importantly embodied Julie’s influence, intellect and quiet presence in Joma’s life. Angeli may be petite, but like Julie, she has this intense quality.”

“The Guerrilla is a Poet” won critical praise, not least for Bayani’s performance. One critic likened her to screen legend Greta Garbo who “has a face that could plunge audiences into the deepest ecstasy.”

“I can compare Angeli’s relationship with contemplative cinema to that of great actors of www.canadianinquirer.net

silent films,” says Dalena. “She has this secret, love affair with the camera; she is naked and her soul is bared. She also has expressive power in her voice.

Her low register reveals her maturity and when she breaks into wild laughter, she turns into a vixen. She is incredibly smart and sensual at the same time.

The cinema loves her wild spirit. Even when a scene doesn’t have any lines of dialogue for her character, she is always reacting to what was happening in a scene—her eyes are always letting you in on what her character was thinking and feeling at any given moment. That’s why she is such a beautiful fit with contemplative films.

“Definitely, a wider Filipino audience deserves to know her more and should see her on many screens—I just hope mainstream producers realize her value and utilize her properly, giving her roles worthy of her skills. If Ang Lee can recognize the jewel in our midst, others should, too!”

By the time Lav Diaz called on the actress to resume their collaboration with “Norte,” some years had passed. Bayani had begun to work in mainstream television, including in “Ang Bayan Ko” for GMA News TV, and even a soap for TV5, where she got to share the set with Nora Aunor.

“I felt that I needed to unlearn everything I learned in television in order to feel Lav’s vibe,” she says.

The script for “Norte” was especially challenging: for the first time there were detailed instructions for the actors.

When she first worked with him, she had what Zen practitioners call a “beginner’s mind”: She had no preconceptions about how to act for film, therefore she was able to deliver a natural, instinctive performance. She had to take drastic

measures to recapture that feel for “Norte.”

“I would wake up at 5 a.m., an hour before everyone else, to do yoga. Then I would stay up an hour after everyone else went to bed to do more yoga.”

“Finally, when I got my groove back and I felt I knew what I was doing, there was still a question in my mind if what I was giving was enough.”

It was. When “Norte” was screened at the Un Certain Regard section of Cannes last year, Bayani’s performance was singled out for critical praise, although it was her role in “Ilo Ilo” that eventually took home the prize.

A few months later, however, the Gawad Urian gave Angeli’s performance in “Norte” its due.

“Sa kaka-yoga, nag-best actress,” she laughs.

It’s been a triumphant year for the actress. In the span of just six months, she won high praise at the Cannes Film Festival, was cited by an internationally acclaimed director as “a national treasure,” and won over veteran actors at the Gawad Urian awards.

But, the way Bayani describes it, the sea change hasn’t really sunk in yet.

Having spent most of her career in semi-obscurity, she still feels like a fish out of water on the set of the network soap she’s doing where she shares a dressing room with showbiz celebrities.

And the bleak reality is, far more people have heard of her and what she’s accomplished than have actually seen her work. Despite critical acclaim, independent films like “Ilo Ilo” and “Norte,” where her star shines brightest, are only seen for a fleeting instant in limited theatrical screenings.

Although her independent cinema credentials have opened the door to the mainstream, “actress” and “artista” are still two different categories, and it is the rare artist who can be both.

In a way, Bayani’s sense of insecurity despite her achievements might be a good thing. It continues to prod her to step up and to justify the fame she’s garnered so far.

“Where else will your art come from if not from the experiences that have shaped you, whether onstage or off stage?” she says. ■

Lifestyle

39 FRIDAY AUGUST 8, 2014

Full house: Some parents try Vancouver Consulate to make their home the one reaches out where kids want to hang to Filipinos in Alberta

BY LISA A. FLAM The Associated Press START WITH amenities like a monster TV or fire pit, add a never-ending supply of munchies and a relaxed attitude toward your kids bringing home a friend—or five—and you may just find that your place has become THE place where the tweens and teens want to be.

A hangout house is often the first spot kids think to gather to work on a school project or binge on the latest Xbox game or silly YouTube videos.

“There are some houses that are sort of like magnetic,” says Dana Points, editor-in-chief of Parents magazine. “A hangout house is well-stocked, welcoming, casually decorated and not too fussy, and where there’s an adult present, but on the periphery.”

Sure, with more kids around you can count on some extra cleanup or home repairs, a louder-than-usual roar, and the expense of keeping kids in chips, cookies and (maybe even) baby carrots.

But parents who open their doors to the masses say the upsides are being able to keep tabs on their kids, getting to know their friends well and gaining a peek into their tender worlds.

“I have girls, so it’s very important to have them here,” said Tammy Smith, 48. “I felt safer with them being here. The best way to keep your kids and their friends where you can see them is to own a pool and a pool house.”

Seven years ago, she and her husband built an 8,000-squarefoot home on nearly 13 acres in Trussville, Alabama, so they would have room for a heated pool and hot tub. After Friday night high school football games, her daughters would often pile in with eight or nine girls (plus boys who were eventually sent home) for a swim or sleepover. Besides swimming, the kids could play ping pong, pool or video games.

Two years ago, the Smiths added a $115,000 open-air pool house, decked out with fireplace, large TV, refrigerator, two grills and couches, to make the pool area attractive yearround.

“It’s nice to know they’re safe because they’re outside with music on, plenty of food and drink versus a movie theatre parking lot,” Smith said, adding that now, at ages 19 and 24, her daughters still regularly invite friends over.

Another hangout-house parent, Jeff Kasky, says it’s not necessarily what’s in his fivebedroom home that makes it a draw; it’s his relaxed yet not overly permissive approach.

A father of boys ages 12, 13 and 16, Kasky resides on a kidfilled cul-de-sac in a gated community in Delray Beach, Florida, with his fiancee, who has a 7-year-old daughter. The four kids enjoy having friends over, especially the two older boys.

Kids play on gaming systems or watch football on the 120inch, high-definition TV with surround sound, enjoy the fire pit, practice musical instruments and “just lie all over the place” on couches and recliners.

“They know when they come over to our house, there’s no pretense,” Kasky says. “They can just have a good time. It’s good, clean fun.”

Since Kasky is, in his own words, a “fairly immature 46-year-old,” he gives his kids leeway to get a little rowdy as long as the antics stay positive.

“I’m not going to tell them to keep their voice down for no reason,” he said.

Supervision is crucial during the teen years, when kids may try to sneak sips of a Bud when the lights are low during

a movie. Parents can subtly remind kids of their presence by throwing in a load of laundry or offering snacks.

“There are parents who, in order to be the cool house, have had to relax that rule and say as long as you are in the house you can have a drink,” Kasky said.

“That’s not acceptable to me for teenagers.”

Samantha Leggat describes her home in Livermore, California, as a playground, with lots of activities for kids, like skateboarding or playing Xbox or Wii. Sometimes, when it’s just her boys, ages 12 and 14, they can’t figure out what to do— until a friend comes over. That’s how Leggat prefers it, so she knows they’re not making bad choices or in an unsupervised home.

“I’d rather they be here than anywhere else because I can be the parental person keeping an ear out,” says Leggat, 48. “I’m never hovering over them. I get to know the kids and be providing them with all the things they need.”

Leggat likes the energy of having people around and says the noise doesn’t bother her.

Smith felt the same way, though her husband was a little less tolerant of the floating pizza crusts and cookies that forced them to drain and clean the hot tub several times, or of the late-night laughter.

“I always thought it was a pleasant feeling, lying in bed and you heard all the giggling,” Smith said.

Having a hangout house is not for everyone.

“Not everybody enjoys their teenager,” Smith said. “You’ve got to want to be around them and be easygoing and still set the rules.”

Many parents who want their house to be the cool house can’t make it happen, try as they might.

“You might have a formula, but there’s some magical piece,” Points says, a “secret sauce” that’s intangible, yet needed to have a house full of other people’s kids. ■ www.canadianinquirer.net

CONSUL GENERAL Neil Frank Ferrer of the Philippine Consulate in Vancouver reported that they had successfully conducted a Consular Outreach Program to service Filipinos in Calgary, AB on July 15 to 17, at the Calgary Police Services Headquarters and in Edmonton, AB on July 19 to 21, at the Coast Plaza Hotel.

A total of 1,603 consular services were rendered including 1,408 e-passport processing; 111 notarials; 23 civil registry and 61 oath taking of dual citizenship. The team also accepted 626 application for registration/certification for the purpose of overseas voting.

Besides Congen Ferrer, members of the consular team that conducted the outreach program included Consul Melanie Diano, Lucelyn Gumabay, Ma. Adora Cruz, Vincent John Ruiz and Paulino Paco.

During the consular outreach, Congen Ferrer met with Rick Hanson, chief of Calgary police. He explained the services that the consular team renders and thanked the Calgary Police Service for providing a free venue for the outreach pro-

gram.

Chief Hanson expressed appreciation for the consular outreach service conducted within the Calgary Police Service headquarters, which has enabled them to connect and meet members of the Filipino community across Alberta.

Meanwhile, on July 22, Congen Ferrer met with Len Jillard, senior vice president and chief people officer of McDonald’s Canada to discuss the impact of the moratorium and recent changes to the temporary foreign worker program (TFWP) on Filipino temporary foreign workers (TFWs) in McDonald’s restaurants across Canada.

During the meeting, Jillard said that a number of Filipino TFWs whose work permit expired and could no longer be renewed were already sent home and received a benefit package. Congen Ferrer asked Jillard to remind the workers to abide by the terms of their work permit and not to overstay once their status have expired so that they maintain a good record and could possibly return and work again in Canada in the future. ■

PCI and Sprott Shaw College is in need of a pool of part time Tagalog teachers for their Vancouver and New Westminster Campus.

Submit resume to info@canadianinquirer.net.

Only those shortlisted will be contacted.

Business

AUGUST 8, 2014 FRIDAY 40

Free shipping may soon be the new normal as retail competition intensifies

BY LINDA NGUYEN The Canadian Press TORONTO—When Walmart Canada introduced free shipping on all online purchases last year, it was a clear message to its rivals that it was gearing up for a fight.

Craig Patterson, an analyst who runs the online news magazine Retail Insider, said the move by one of the world’s largest retailers was bold, setting a new standard in going the extra mile for consumer dollars.

“This means war. It’s a declaration of war, no question,” he said from Vancouver.

For the last few years, a battle has been waging among retailers trying to set themselves apart, as entrants such as U.S. giants Target and Nordstrom arrive to compete for the same customers.

“What this comes down to is building trust with the customer,” said Patterson. “Walmart knows that if they offer free shipping, they are coming out punching. When someone like Walmart does it, there is going to be scramble from other retailers to see how they can

compete either by adding extra value, better customer service.”

While a behemoth retailer like Walmart may be able to absorb the costs of shipping, it would be a challenging task for smaller retailers to be able to offer the same without raising prices, he said.

The head of e-commerce at Walmart Canada says it wanted to offer a seamless transition between online and in-store shopping by eliminating any minimum purchase requirement.

“It’s not about an e-commerce channel, or about a store channel anymore,” said Simon Rodrigue, vice-president and general manager of Walmart.ca.

“It’s really about the customer in the middle. If they want to buy online, if they want to buy on the phone, if they want to buy in store, we want to make sure we’re servicing them.”

Retailers have long struggled with free shipping in Canada, given the size of the country and the cost of shipping quickly to remote areas. The compromise, it seems, is to offer free shipping on minimum purchases, which can offset some of those costs.

Rodrigue said Walmart’s ability to offer free shipping to 97 per cent of the country, and even free next-day shipping to most big cities, has helped it lure customers who either didn’t know they could purchase online the same items found in the store, or were reluctant to try shopping on the website.

The Walmart Canada website now lists more than 175,000 items and gets about 400,000 visitors a day. Next month, Walmart is preparing to launch its new click and collect service, which allows Ontario customers to buy items online and pick them up - with a special access code - from lockers at 10 designated stores or at the company’s head office.

Last month, online retailer Amazon announced that it was offering unlimited free shipping for six months to students in Canada through its Amazon

www.canadianinquirer.net

Prime Program. After that, students pay half price for the annual service, which is regularly $79.99 in Canada.

“We designed this by thinking about our customers and finding a segment of our customers that have interesting needs that we can fulfil,” said Alexandre Gagnon, country manager for Amazon.ca.

The offer is aimed at students who live in residences or dormitories, who usually don’t have access to transportation, but still need regular deliveries of groceries, household items and stationary supplies. The hope is that the service will be so valuable that these students will turn into long-time customers.

Gagnon said Canadian consumers are coming to expect low-cost and free shipping with their purchases, but they still expect retailers to offer the whole package: a wide product selection, competitive prices and excellent customer service.

With more consumers opting to shop on their mobile phones, tablets and laptops, retailers are quickly realizing that they must be able to offer the same kind of experience online that customers receive in-store, said marketing strategist Brynn Winegard.

“It’s a growing expectation among consumers, especially around heavy shopping times like Christmas, that there’s free shipping,” she said. “Everyone’s busy so it becomes increasingly required and valuable for retailers to give them their time back and online shopping is a way to permit that.” ■

Sports/Horoscope

41 FRIDAY AUGUST 8, 2014

Tiger Woods faces uncertainty as back injury forces him to withdraw at Firestone

BY DOUG FERGUSON The Associated Press AKRON, OHIO—Tiger Woods was at Firestone, and the scene looked all too familiar.

Except he wasn’t hoisting a trophy.

He could barely bend over to pick up his tee.

Right when Woods thought he was making small progress toward his return from back surgery, he suffered a scary setback Sunday when he was stricken with more back pain and withdrew after eight holes from the Bridgestone Invitational.

How bad was it? Woods headed home to Florida to find out if he could play the PGA Championship this week.

But as he stood next to his car, he struggled to even take off his golf shoes before his caddie drove him away into an uncertain future.

The lasting images of Woods at Firestone were not of him

winning, like he did last year for the eighth time. They were of Woods wincing, hobbling and twitching. Those were the scenes from earlier this year when he coped with recurring back pain that forced him to withdraw from the Honda Classic and eventually led to back surgery March 31.

In his third tournament since returning from surgery, this had the look of a serious setback.

Woods injured himself playing a shot from edge of a bunker on the par-5 second hole. With all weight on his right leg, he took an awkward slash at the ball, fell back toward the sand and landed with a thud, and kept jogging out of the bunker from sheer momentum of the steep drop.

“I just jarred it, and it’s been spasming ever since,” Woods told a PGA Tour official before leaving.

Woods kept playing, hitting a number of shockingly bad

shots. He hit one into the water from the fairway on No. 3, coming up some 30 yards short of the flag. And on the par-3 fifth hole, his tee shot was 65 yards short of the hole. From a bunker left of the seventh green, he blasted out and back into the fairway and made double bogey.

He grimaced at impact when he hit a 315-yard drive into the left rough on No. 9. Woods slowly stooped over with his right hand on his leg, reached toward his back and slowly bent down to remove the tee from the ground. Moments later, he stepped into a cart and headed for the parking lot.

“It’s just the whole lower back,” Woods said. “I don’t know what happened.”

Masters champion Bubba Watson said he didn’t see Woods hit the shot that hurt him on No. 2, though he could tell as the round went on that something wasn’t right.

“He hit some shots that we’re not used to seeing Tiger hit,

even when he’s coming back from an injury like this,” Watson said. “So obviously, something was bothering him. ...

Like I told him when I shook his hand, I said, ‘I’m praying for you. Hope everything turns out good. Hope to see you next week.”‘ With the pain he showed leaving the course—and just four months removed from back surgery—it would seem unlikely that Woods plays next week at Valhalla, where he won the PGA Championship in 2000. Woods is scheduled to play the opening two rounds with Phil Mickelson and Padraig Harrington.

Mickelson was on the 11th hole—not far away from No. 9— when he noticed Woods leaving.

“As much as I love playing with him, playing against him, trying to beat him, we all want him in the field. We all want him back. I just hope he’s OK.” If Woods does not play in

the PGA Championship, that would be the end of his season.

He would have to win the PGA to be eligible for the FedEx Cup playoffs. In six starts on the PGA Tour this year, Woods finished all four rounds only twice.

Woods had back surgery to alleviate an impinged nerve, forcing him to miss the Masters for the first time and the U.S. Open.

He returned after three months to Congressional—three weeks ahead of his own schedule—and reported no pain in missing the cut by four shots at the Quicken Loans National. He also reported no pain in four rounds at the British Open. He finished 69th, 23 shots out of the lead, his worst 72-hole result in a major.

And now with another injury, Ryder Cup captain Tom Watson might have an even more difficult time picking him for the American team. The captain has said he wants Woods on the team if he was healthy and playing well.

Woods was doing neither. ■

HOROSCOPE ARIES

CANCER

LIBRA

CAPRICORN

(MARCH 21 - APRIL 19)

(JUNE 22 - JULY 22)

(SEPT 23 - OCT 22)

(DEC 22 - JAN 19)

Now is the best time to go out with

The best way to rule this week is

You’ll have a bigger chance of main-

Outside forces may have you believe

a friend or a family member and

to unleash that strong sense of

taining a happy, stress-free day start-

that your goal is impossible. Try lis-

try doing a healthy activity. This will help improve your

creativity you have been hiding inside. And the best

ing today. But that is only possible if you learn control that

tening to their tips and advices but do not let their words

current lifestyle and ease your stress a bit. Once you

way to pull it out is to take the initiative and let go of

monster called “impatience.” You have to learn that rush-

dim that bright future ahead of you. You only have one life

get that chance to go out and explore, why not try

all the “what ifs” that have been troubling your mind

ing things may ruin the plans you have carefully crafted.

to live but fortunately, you have a lot of chances if you only

something pleasurable and at the same time some-

lately. The inner artist in you will make a successful

Taking things one step at a time will allow you to see any

know how to play your cards right. Do not fear what may

thing good for your body. You may have the leisure of

coming out if you let go of all the worries and just try

negative changes that may occur and give you some time

happen to your actions in the end. Fear that you may end

time to waste but you only got a single life to live.

to be yourself today, and always.

to fix it, so take it easy and do it slowly but surely.

up saying goodbye without trying anything.

TAURUS

LEO

SCORPIO

AQUARIUS

(APRIL 20 - MAY 20)

(JULY 23 - AUGUST 22)

(OCT 23 - NOV 21)

(JAN 20 - FEB 18)

Pay attention to your inner voice.

Mood swings will be causing yo a lot

People around you will try to push

You’ve been handling too much

You have been listening to other

of trouble in the coming days. A lot

you harder in the coming days. Those

stress lately thinking about the

people’s opinion which you think may have caused you

of stress to yourself, your friends, workmates and even your

in authority will have a say on your personal actions. To

negative thoughts and feelings caused by past actions

to make the right decisions in your life. It is really not that

family will be caused by your sudden changes. Stop this by

avoid getting into any trouble, try to listen to them with

which may still have an emotional effect to you, up to

bad to trust views which you think are far better than

handling your emotions and trying to be a little under-

patience. But, do not forget that you must not let those

now. Letting go is really hard. But the best way to let

yours. Nobody better understands yourself than you, so

standing of the things and events happening around you.

disturbing words get into you negatively. Though it’s hard,

that negative vibe go is to live like you’re dying, and like

always remember to listen to what your inner self has to

Sometimes the best way to handle your own emotion is by

try to look at it positively and accept it as challenge for you

it’s your last day on earth. Who knows when the candles

tell you and never let their voice suppress yours.

handling others’ feelings like you’re on the same shoes.

to change the things that need changing.

stop burning so be happy and live your life to the fullest.

GEMINI

VIRGO

SAGITTARIUS

PISCES

(MAY 21 - JUNE 21)

(AUG 23 - SEPT 22)

(NOV 22 - DEC 21)

(FEB 19 - MAR 20)

Today’s rule: do not be afraid to

You’ll be getting a little paranoid in

Now may be the best time to go

It might be really hard to accept, but,

show your “soft” side. A great op-

the coming days because of leaning

with the flow. Arguing with majority

are things that is really not meant

portunity is coming your way so do not let rudeness blow

too much on what you call your “instincts.” It might be

decision may not always be good for you. The stars are

for you. Why bother though, if you still have a wonder-

it away. It might be good to project the strength of your

natural to conclude something based on real situations,

telling you to avoid getting into trouble in the coming

ful future to explore? A whole new adventure is coming

character from time to time to enforce the much needed

but jumping too much may not be good for your personal

days by trying to follow. A good leader is someone

your way only if you close that previous chapter and open

authority at home and in the workplace. But, remember

relations today. Remember that, instincts may not always

who is also a good follower. You, were trained a good

another. Do not let yourself get tied to the pain of the

that too much of it may not be good. Those who care

be right especially when your mind has been set to doubt

leader, so show them that you really are, by following

past. Instead, go out and see those beautiful wonders the

about you would still love feeling your warm side.

or believe something that may really be far from reality.

decisions that may not really harm you.

heavens created for you. It’s just there, right in front of you.

www.canadianinquirer.net

FRIDAY AUGUST 8, 2014

42

Travel

American couple with 12 kids living in an RV bring their road trip to Canada

BY LAUREN LA ROSE The Canadian Press TORONTO—In less than two years, Dan and Susie Kellogg have logged tens of thousands of kilometres in their RV, and they’ve had plenty of company along for the ride: their 12 children.

With their eldest child, Kerry, 20, currently working in Colorado, the remaining kids aged between 18 years to 20 months have kept on rolling, with the latest leg of the family’s lengthy journey bringing them north of the border.

Joined by their three-yearold golden-doodle, there is no end in sight to the road trip that has spanned more than 91,000 kilometres.

The Kelloggs are kayaking enthusiasts, and the sport helped in part to inspire their journey.

“We were in Tennessee for a kayaking competition... and someone said: ‘We should do this forever— we should not go home,”‘ recalled Susie seated alongside Dan at their campsite in Toronto.

“We started talking about it and we realized nobody wanted to go home.”

Susie said they returned to Colorado, had a baby, tried to sell their home and hit the road—all within 30 days.

Travelling in a RV emblazoned with the words “Kellogg Show,” the family has visited more than two dozen states, and document their adventures on their website www. kelloggshow.com. To help with the planning of their Canadian travels, the Kelloggs partnered with Go RVing Canada, a nonprofit association comprising RV manufacturers, component suppliers, dealers and campgrounds. They’re slated to make stops in Quebec, Nova Scotia and New Brunswick.

While their home is now on wheels, Susie said they still have all of their familiar comforts.

“Everybody knows when you’re travelling with kids, they have to go to the bathroom every five minutes and not everybody goes at once. And so you’re stopping more than you’re driving. And that doesn’t happen with the RV,” she said.

“They’re hungry, they open the fridge. They have to go to the bathroom, they go to the bathroom. The journey becomes part of the memory. It’s not just about the destination any longer.”

The family has visited a wide range of destinations, from camping in the sand in California to a recent first-time visit to Niagara Falls.

“We’ve been to really remote places where we’re dry camping to remote rivers and canyons and amazing places in the mountains,” said Dan. The family is particularly fond of the Ottawa River, which is among their planned stops.

“It’s just big water and I love the waves that I can surf there, and it’s really safe,” said Kady, 15.

Susie said they make return trips to Colorado, where their kids still visit their dentist and orthodontist. Dan continues his work as a software engineer on the road and the children are homeschooled, much of it done from books with considerable focus on reading and writing, Susie said.

“Everything else from diesel mechanics to history to geography is done on the road. You learn so much just stopping in various places and meeting new people.”

“We call it road schooling. It’s like hands-on learning,” Dan added. “Instead of just reading about something in a book, you actually get to see it and touch it and experience it.”

E V O L WE PHOTO FROM KELLOGGSHOW.COM

Susie said what has surprised them the most about the trip is how much closer it’s made her family.

“It’s amazing just watching the kids just with their ability to open their hearts and have compassion for other people and each other now that we’ve been living in a close space for so long, and travelling and meeting new people and seeing new places and learning about other cultures.”

Enthusiasm for the trip has translated to the younger Kelloggs.

“It’s just so much better than being at the house,” said Maddy, nine, who said their visit to Cascade, Idaho helped take away

her fears of kayaking.

Eldest son Grady said he and his brother Brody are looking into the possibility of getting a small RV themselves.

“I like travelling way more since we’ve been doing it, and I definitely feel that I’ve found what I want to do in life with video editing and game programming as well as kayaking.”

Dan and Susie feel that RV life has afforded them more flexibility and the luxury of being able to travel at a more gradual pace—and at a cost that’s budget-friendly.

“We hadn’t taken a family vacation to the beach in about seven years before we had

bought this because we were just priced out of it. We literally have to stay in three hotel rooms or rent a house,” Susie said. “To stay on the sand, on the beach ... a couple of steps and you’re in the ocean was $60 a night. That’s unbeatable.”

Susie said there’s a misperception that individuals need to be outdoorsy to go RVing.

“You can enjoy all of the things of camping like the campfire and the swimming and the time with family, and then when you’re done and it’s raining, you go inside and you have all of the comforts of your own home. You’ve got your bed and your A/C and your kitchen.

It’s for anybody.” ■

43 FRIDAY AUGUST 8, 2014

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Seen and Scenes

AUGUST 8, 2014

VANCOUVER TROUPE SHOWCASES PHILIPPINE DANCES IN ROME

FRIDAY 44

VANCOUVER PCG HOLDS OUTREACH IN ALBERTA

Counterclockwise: Kababayang Pilipino dancers patiently waiting to board their flight to Rome. / KP showcased their talents beside the world-famous colosseum. / Group shot taken in Rome, site of the Latium World Folkloric Festival.

Congen Ferrer with Len Jillard (2nd from right), senior vice president of People Resources and chief people officer, McDonalds Canada, Honorary Consul General Esmeralda Agbulos (R)and Consul Melanie Diano (L).

Consul General Neil Ferrer with Chief Rick Hanson of the Calgary Police Service.

Congen Ferrer with Ruel Cruz, president of UP-APO and volunteers.

Consular outreach in Calgary, AB on July 15 to 17.

Consular Outreach in Edmonton, AB July 19 to 21.

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

Oath taking of dual citizens in Calgary, AB.

Events

45 FRIDAY AUGUST 8, 2014

PiM’s Local Charity Launch

By PiM Foundation and Calgary Dream Centre WHEN/WHERE: August 17 at the Dream Center 4510 Macleod Trail South, Calgary

CANADA EVENTS

YUKON NORTHWEST TERRITORIES

Rogers Cup

By National Bank WHEN/WHERE: August 1 to 10, Uniprix Stadium, Montreal

NEWFOUNDLAND A Ba Ka Da atbp

MANITOBA

SASKATCHEWAN

ONTARIO

Dimasalang Expressions

By Dimasalang III International Group of Artists WHEN/WHERE: August 1 to 30, at the Vancouver Moat Gallery, Vancouver Public Library, 350 W. Georgia St., Vancouver, BC

TD Vancouver Chinatown Festival

By Vancouver Chinatown BIA society WHEN/WHERE: 12 noon to 6 p.m., August 10 to 11, various venues, Vancouver, B.C. MORE INFO: Vancouver-chinatown. com

2014 ASEAN Golf Tournament

By Consulate General of Malaysia WHEN/WHERE: August 8, Quilchena Golf and Country Club, Richmond, B.C.

Coquitlam Fall Training 2014

By ISS of BC WHEN/WHERE: Training will be delivered over 14 Saturdays from Sept. 13 to Dec. 13 at the Immigrant Services Society of B.C. #200C- 504 Cottonwood Ave. Coquitlam B.C. MORE INFO: Application deadline is Aug. 8. Contact Liza @ 604-3958000 ext. 1706

Pinoy Fiesta Unang Hirit sa Tag-init

By Globe Duo Canada WHEN/WHERE: 11 a.m. to 9 p.m., August 10, South Memorial Park, 41st Ave. & Ross St., Vancouver, B.C. 2014 Abbotsford International Airshow

By The Abbottsford International Airshow Society WHEN/WHERE: August 8 to 10, Abbotsford International Airport MORE INFO: Abbotsfordairshow.com 142 Annual Chilliwack Fair

By The Chilliwack Agriculture Society WHEN/WHERE: 9 a.m. to 10 p.m., August 8 to 10, Chilliwack Exhibition grounds, Chilliwack MORE INFO: chilliwackfair.com 15th Burnaby Blues and Roots Festival

By City of Burnaby WHEN/WHERE: 12 noon, August 9, Deer Lake Park, Burnaby MORE INFO: Burnabybluesfestival.com

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NUNAVUT

BRITISH COLUMBIA ALBERTA

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Wency Cornejo Live in Victoria

By Even 8 Events Production WHEN/WHERE: 6 p.m., August 9, First Metropolitan Church 932 Balmoral Rd., Victoria MORE INFO: with special guest Goldie. For tickets, call 250-9841620 Empowering Women Through Selfcare

By Multicultural Helping House Society and Citizenship and Immigration Canada WHEN/WHERE: 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. at Multicultural Helping House Society, 4802 Fraser St., (cor. 32nd Ave.) MORE INFO: Facilitator: Sheela Sainju, former broadcast journalist (Nepal)

QUEBEC

By the Philippine Embassy in Ottawa WHEN/WHERE: 9 a.m. to 5 p.m., August 16, at the Tahanang Rizal, 8 Rothwell Drive, Ottawa MORE INFO: A day of fun and learning for Filipino-Canadian children. Orientation on Filipino language, history, dance, songs, games and food. Open to Filipino-Canadian children aged 6 to 13.

Rogers Cup

By National Bank WHEN/WHERE: August 2 to 10, Rexall Centre at York University, Toronto Kultura Filipino Arts Festival

By Kapisanan Philippine Centre for Arts and Culture WHEN/WHERE: August 7 to 10, at various locations in the city of Toronto.

Gala Dinner Dance Fundraising By the Filipino-Canadian Association of Vaughan (FCAV) WHEN/WHERE: August 16 at La Gondola Banquet Hall, 227 Bowes Road, Vaughan, On. MORE INFO: For the renovation and beautification of Patricia Kemp Community Centre, home of FCAV and many other local community groups.

Mabuhay Philippines Festival 16th Anniversary By the Philippine Independence Day Council WHEN/WHERE: August 23 to 24, at the David Pecaut Square, 215 King Street West, Toronto Filipinas Expo & Multicultural Trade MORE INFO: Call 905-257-1069 or Show visit www.pidctoronto.com

By Philippine Chamber of Commerce-Toronto in collaboration with Coconut Festival Canada 2014 Canadian Chamber of Commerce of WHEN/WHERE: 10 a.m. to 6 p.m., the Philippines August 24 at Artscape Wychwood WHEN/WHERE: 10 a.m. to 11 p.m., Barns – 601 Christie St., Toronto, On. August 16, Metro Toronto ConvenMORE INFO: Health lectures, talks tion Centre, Hall A, North Bldg. and cooking demos, food and health MORE INFO: General Admission vendors, artisan merchandise and $12. Kids 10 & under are free. many more.

Krinos Taste of Danforth

By The Greek Town WHEN/WHERE: 6 p.m. to 12 a.m., August 8, at the Greek Town, Toronto, ON

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FRIDAY 48