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SEPTEMBER 4, 2015

VOL. 9 NO. 183

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Pimentel: It’s a case vs persons, not church

Bongbong unapologetic over father’s presidency

INC leaders ‘manufacturing revolution’

PM Harper denies Canada recession as election looms

Build a wall with Canada?

Canada’s lower MIPEX score raises questions on new immigration policies

BY JANE MORALEDA Philippine Canadian Inquirer

OBSTRUCTION OF JUSTICE Iglesia ni Cristo (INC) members block the vehicle of Justice Secretary Leila de Lima on her 56th birthday on Thursday (Aug 27) at the gate of the Department of Justice on Padre Faura Street in Manila for showing according to the protesters “extraordinary attention” to the illegal detention case filed by an expelled INC minister against the ruling body of the politically influential religious bloc. By 10:30 p.m., there were 2,000 protesters, according to police. They reportedly plan to stay there until the weekend.

RAFFY LERMA / PDI

Deal or No Deal: INC says an agreement was reached; Palace says ‘no deal struck’

BY CHING DEE Philippine Canadian Inquirer MANILA — Atty. Trixie Angeles, legal counsel to expelled Iglesia ni Cristo

(INC) minister Isaias Samson Jr., said the both INC and concerned government agencies should include Samson in the loop when discussing any agreement.

❱❱ PAGE 21 Canada’s lower

Fil-Can in Focus: Winston L. Sayson

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❱❱ PAGE 26 ❱❱ PAGE 9 Deal or

FOR THE first time in eight years, Canada’s score at the Migrant Integration Policy Index (MIPEX) declined.

The new data, which was released by the Ryerson University, showed the country’s score dropping by one point.

Although Canada only suffered a one-point decline, its lower index score still raised alarm as the country was before known as a leader in integrating newcomers. Furthermore, there was also the fear that the country’s score would continue to go down.

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Philippine News

FRIDAY SEPTEMBER 4, 2015

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Expelled INC Minister unruffled despite alleged security threat

BY LEI FONTAMILLAS Philippine Canadian Inquirer

Three presidential bets as shown during Pres. Aquino’s 6th SONA: VP Jejomar Binay, Sen. Grace Poe, and Interior Sec. Mar Roxas SCREENSHOT FROM PCI LIVESTREAM

Would-be bets to undergo NPC scrutiny

BY DJ YAP Philippine Daily Inquirer AFTER MEETING with Sen. Grace Poe, the Nationalist People's Coalition (NPC) will sit down with Vice President Jejomar Binay, Interior Secretary Mar Roxas and Davao City Mayor Rodrigo Duterte before deciding whom to support in the 2016 presidential elections.

Quezon Rep. and NPC spokesperson Mark Enverga said the talks with the three other presidential aspirants would help the party make up its mind, although “majority” of the NPC members were inclined to back Poe and her presumed running mate, Sen. Francis Escudero.

“We want to listen to the platforms and programs of every candidate so that we will be guided accordingly before eventually deciding whom to support in the next elections,” he said in a statement at the weekend.

“We already heard the platforms and programs of Senator Poe although she has yet to make a decision on whether to run for president or not, and we believe that it's about time we also heard from the other candidates before making our final decision,” Enverga said.

He gave no details, however, as to when and where the meetings with Binay, Roxas and Duterte would take place.

Enverga said the consultations with the other presidential hopefuls was part of the party’s effort to “observe due diligence in ensuring that only the best can-

didate will earn the party’s coveted support in next year’s election.”

“We will only select candidates whom we believe would best represent and work for the aspirations of our people while advocating clean, dedicated and transparent governance,” he added.

The NPC has held a series of meetings with Poe and Escudero in the past few weeks.

On Aug. 11, Roxas, the standardbearer of the ruling Liberal Party, met with 12 NPC lawmakers and other party stalwarts to solicit their support.

Based on the most recent presidential preference surveys, Poe is the frontrunner in the race, followed by the erstwhile leader, Binay. Farther behind are Roxas and Duterte in the third and fourth spots.

Next to the LP, the NPC is regarded as the second largest political party in the country, with two senators, 40 House members, 14 governors and 22 city mayors on its roster.

It was founded in 1992 by businessman Danding Cojuangco to launch his unsuccessful run for the presidency.

Once the party leadership has arrived at a decision on whom to support in 2016, “all members are expected to toe the party line,” Enverga said.

He added that an initial consultation among party members “showed that majority of them were inclined to support a Grace-Chiz tandem.”

But “this does not mean that the party has already made its decision to throw its support behind them,” Enverga said. ■

MANILA — Despite alleged threats to security, former Iglesia ni Cristo Minister, Isaias Samson Jr., stands firm on his fight against the alleged corruption among the sector’s Sanggunian.

“If there’s something that happens to me, so be it. I believe it is God’s will as long as I have my life and my strength. I will continue to fight against corruption, Samson said.

Samson earlier filed an illegal detention case against eight leaders of the religious organization, claiming that he and his family were placed under house arrest.

Members of the INC held a five-day protest in EDSA against the investigation into possible criminal acts by some of its top leaders.

Samson believed that the sector’s Sanggunian is using its members as

“shields.”

“I know who they are, what they can do, and they will do just to protect themselves. In the past days they have lied to people, they used the name of Bro. Eduardo Manalo in order to make the members of the church follow them and they even made the members of the church to shield them,” Samson claimed in a telephone interview with ANC’s Headstart, last Tuesday.

The expelled minister added that the Sanggunian sent two of its members to the United States to talk with some of the INC’s members who supposedly have grievances against alleged corruption in the sect.

However, Samson explained, that he is not going against the church nor its executive minister but he is going against the corruption “being rampantly committed by the Sanggunian.”

Samson added that he is not sure if he is open to meeting with the Sanggunian. ■

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Philippine News

SEPTEMBER 4, 2015

FRIDAY

Poe, other presidential bets predictably speak like politicians

BY LEILA B. SALAVERRIA Philippine Daily Inquirer FEW POLITICIANS have been critical of the INC, and some of the potential candidates for President and Vice President in next year’s elections are among those defending the group’s mass action.

A former lawmaker, however, said politicians placating the INC should be condemned.

Former Akbayan Rep. Walden Bello said the INC’s “disruption” of Metro Manila was unacceptable.

“Politicians conciliating these fanatics must be condemned,” Bello said in a text message.

Bello said that while he has had differences with De Lima on certain issues, the justice secretary is right in extending protection and judicial remedy to INC members who feel threatened by the INC hierarchy.

“If a Roman Catholic priest is accused of sexual exploitation of minors, he would be subject to secular prosecution by the state and would never be allowed to invoke the separation of church and state principle to protect him from prosecution,” he said.

Grace Poe

Interviewed in Nueva Ecija on Friday, Sen. Grace Poe, a potential presidential candidate, said people should not belittle the importance of religion.

“For me, those people are defending their faith. We respect that and they also have to protect their rights,” Poe told reporters.

She also said it would be good if De Lima would face the protesters and explain the situation.

“After all, those of us in [the] government have the responsibility to explain well to the people the reason for the steps we have taken,” she said.

Asked if she believed the DOJ should

Sen. Grace Poe.

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handle the case, she said the agency already had a lot on its plate.

She cited the Mamasapano clash, noting that while the incident had been investigated, nobody had been placed on the witness protection program.

BongBong Marcos

Another aspirant for higher office, Sen. Ferdinand Marcos Jr., also came to the defense of the INC. “The INC certainly has the right to stage a peaceful mass action to express their sentiments in defense of their faith,” Marcos said in a statement.

According to Marcos, the DOJ’s handling of the case “leaves much to be desired.”

He claimed that De Lima discussed the merits of the case, which he said created the impression of undue interest in the case, whether rightly or wrongly.

“For justice to triumph, the DOJ must not only be impartial in its procedure and ruling; like Caesar’s wife, it must also be seen as being fair to all,” he added.

Sen. Francis Escudero, Poe’s potential running mate, said in a statement issued on Thursday that the DOJ should not let the INC issue elbow out other cases that matter to the people.

Escudero said the DOJ’s INC investigation might be misinterpreted as an interference and infringement of the right to religious freedom guaranteed by the Constitution.

De Lima should uphold the principle of the separation of church and state, he said.

“It may be a prudent to first let the leadership of the INC resolve what appears to be a purely internal matter. We do not want to see division and misunderstanding during these times,” Escudero said.

The DOJ should instead make the Mamasapano case a priority, Escudero said.

It should release its full findings so that those responsible for the deaths of 44 police commandos could be brought to justice, he added. ■

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Philippine News

FRIDAY SEPTEMBER 4, 2015

NAPOCOR's hydro-electric power plant in Iligan.

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Iligan hydro deal illegal – COA

BY JOCELYN R. UY Philippine Daily Inquirer THE POWER Sector Assets and Liabilities Management Corp. (Psalm) had unlawfully awarded a P438-million contract to rehabilitate a hydroelectric plant in Iligan City which could have helped address the power crisis in Mindanao, the Commission on Audit (COA) said.

In its 2014 audit report released yesterday, the COA assailed Psalm president Emmanuel Ledesma for entering into a negotiated contract with the joint venture of Guangxi Hydroelectric Construction Bureau (GHCB) and ITP Construction Inc. for the “total replace-

ment” of Agus IV hydroelectric power plant without the approval of the Psalm board.

The state auditors said the awarding of the contract violated Section 48.1 of the implementing rules and regulations of Republic Act No. 9184, also known as the Government Procurement Reform Act. Noting this major deficiency, the COA asked the Psalm to cancel the contract and demand the refund of P65 million in advance payment to GHCB. “(T)he fact that (Psalm) did not secure the approval of the Psalm board…before entering into a negotiated contract with GHCB rendered the contract null and void ab initio, hence, not enforceable,” the COA said.

Worse, it said GHCB had failed to start the project as of Dec. 31, 2014, depriving the public of its intended benefits.

COA said Psalm “had all the reasons to require the refund of the advance payments because the contractor has not started the project nine months after the receipt of the payment.”

The major repair of Agus IV, which is powered by the picturesque Maria Cristina Falls, was requested by the National

Anthony Taberna goes on leave

BY LEI FONTAMILLAS Philippine Canadian Inquirer MANILA — ABS-CBN anchor Antony Taberna goes on leave from the network because of the ongoing controversies faced by Iglesia ni Cristo, which he is an active member.

Taberna cited his active ties with the religious group adding that the ongoing issues raised against it might hinder him from being impartial in his job as a journalist.

He added that his being a devout member of INC might create conflicts of interest with his roles as broadcaster.

“Mga kapamilya, napakalungkot po na nagpapaalam po muna ako sa programa namin na Dos por Dos at Umagang Kayganda dahil sa mga kaganapan po ngayon,” he said in a post on social media.

(I am saddened by the fact that I have

to say goodbye to our program, Dos por Dos and Umagang Kayganda because of the current happenings.)

“Ako po bilang aktibong miyembro ng Iglesia ni Cristo ay nasa isang sitwasyon na hindi maaaring maging credible sa pagtalakay sa isyung may kinalaman dito.

Mayroon po akong paniniwalang pangrelihiyon at mayroon din naman akong tungkulin bilang mamamahayag, bagay na hindi po maaaring pagsamahin ngayon dahil sa tinatawag na conflict of interest.”

(Being an active member of Iglesia ni Cristo, I am in a situation where I cannot be credible in discussing any issues involving it. I have my own religious beliefs and my duties as a reporter. Those two duties and interests may not be combined because of conflict of interest.)

Taberna added that the ABS-CBN team immediately approved his decision to go on leave. ■ www.canadianinquirer.net

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Power Corp. in 2013 in a bid to restore its full capacity of 50 megawatts.

Since 1971, Agus IV had not been able to operate to its total capacity.

After Finance Secretary Cesar Purisima and Mindanao Development Authority chair Lou Antonino approved the rehabilitation of the power plant last year, the NPC gave the contract amounting to P496.25 million to an Italian firm being the original manufacturer under the proprietary mode of procurement.

But the Psalm board, headed by Purisima, rejected NPC’s decision and issued a resolution on March 6, 2014, allowing Ledesma to enter into a negotiated contract as allowed by law.

A month later, the board decided to nullify the authority it gave to Ledesma and directed the Psalm bids and awards committee (BAC) to conduct a public bidding instead.

In an April 15, 2014, memorandum, Ledesma said the BAC “discounted the urgency of the project and directed the BAC to resort to negotiated procurement…in accordance with the original deadline set by the board.”

This prompted the BAC to issue a resolution awarding the rehabilitation contract to GHCB two weeks later.

“Despite the revocation by the Psalm board of his authority to enter into a negotiation… (Ledesma) directed the BAC to prepare a resolution recommending negotiated procurement under emergency case…and awarded the rehabilitation contract to (GHCB),” the COA said. ■

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Philippine News

SEPTEMBER 4, 2015

FRIDAY

Deal or...

INC spokesperson Bro. Bienvenido Santiago announced Monday morning that the INC is finally putting an end to their nationwide, 5-day protest.

According to him, a mutual agreement has been reached between their church and the government after hearing out each other’s side.

“Mga kapatid sa Iglesia Ni Cristo, nais naming ipahatid sa inyong lahat na nagkausap na ang panig ng Iglesia at panig ng pamahalaan. At sa pag-uusap na ito, ay nagkakaliwanagan ang dalawang panig kaya payapa na ang lahat,” Santiago told the media Monday morning.

(To our brethren in Iglesia Ni Cristo, we want to inform all of you that the side of the Iglesia and the government have spoken. And in this dialogue, both ❰❰ 1

parties explained their sides and now everything is peaceful.)

In an ABS-CBN report, Angeles was quoted saying, “We are already in danger. [Developments] does further endangerment to my client… They should be talking to my client.

Now the logical conclusion is for [Samson] to get shoved down the river.”

In the same report, Angeles added that the Department of Justice (DOJ) has given their camp no updates about Samson’s formal complaint of harassment, illegal detention, and coercion against eight officials of the INC. However, several reports note that the DOJ is yet to assign the case to a prosecutor.

Once a prosecutor has been assigned to the case, the prelimi-

President Aquino meets with his Cabinet members to discuss the INC situation

In a report by Rappler, Bello said that the government should share the details of the agreement “to dispel any sort of rumors about what is happening.”

Bello was quoted in the same report, saying that the government “should have just let this be resolved at the judicial level by normal judicial authorities.”

According to INC’s news channel, NET 25, high-level government officials heeded INC’s requests and the dialogue ended in a “peaceful agreement.”

MANUEL QUEZON III / FACEBOOK

nary investigation can begin.

Share agreement to ‘dispel rumors’

Former Akbayan Representative Walden Bello urged the

government to reveal the terms of the “agreement” with INC. On Sunday night — the last night of the 5-day INC protestrally along EDSA — President Benigno Aquino III met with his Cabinet members, including Interior Secretary Mar Roxas and Justice Secretary Leila de Lima.

The INC is accusing De Lima and the DOJ of being biased and exercising “selective justice” when De Lima reportedly personally took care of Samson’s formal complaint. The INC is also calling for the separation of church and state, which they claim has been violated by the DOJ.

‘No deal struck’

On Monday afternoon, deputy presidential spokesperson Abigail Valte announced that “there was no deal struck” with the INC. “The talks gave both sides an opportunity to clarify issues and concerns,” Valte said, adding that the two sides — government and INC — only talked “to clarify issues,” just like what Roxas said in a statement.

“Noong mga nakaraang araw ay tahimik na nakipag-ugnayan ang pamahalaan sa mga lider ng INC. Naging pagkakataon ito upang magkaroon ng paglilinaw ukol sa mga isyu,” Roxas said in his official statement. ■

Forbes report: Sy remains richest Filipino

BY JANE MORALEDA Philippine Canadian Inquirer MANILA — Shopping mall tycoon Henry Sy, whose firm owns SM Supermalls, has been named as the richest Filipino for the past eight years, with his net worth this year amounting to $14.4 billion, higher from last year’s $12.7 billion — up by &1.7 billion.

Sy topped Forbes Philippines’ list of the 50 richest persons in the country anew.

“The country’s richest man is even richer as the value of his publicly traded conglomerates, SM Investments and SM Prime Holdings, have increased by 17 percent and 20 percent, respectively over the past year,” Forbes magazine’s report read.

Following Sy and roundwww.canadianinquirer.net

ing out the top five of the list were other business leaders John Gokongwei Jr. with a net worth of $5.5 billion, Andrew Tan with $4.5 billion, Lucio Tan with $4.3 billion and Enrique Razon Jr. with $4.1 billion.

Completing the top 10 were George Ty of Metrobank Group, Aboitiz family of Aboitiz Equity Ventures, Jaime Zobel de Ayala of Ayala Group, David Consunji of DMCI Holdings and Tony Tan Caktiong of Jollibee Foods.

Forbes also acknowledged how the Philippines’ economy continuously grew in the previous years.

“The Philippines is seeing a boost in domestic wealth, even as its resource industries suffer from the same market drag hitting the sector throughout the region,” the report continued. ■

Philippine News

FRIDAY SEPTEMBER 4, 2015

7

Championship belt taxed a lower amount than stated, says BOC

BY JANE MORALEDA Philippine Canadian Inquirer

President Benigno S. Aquino III shakes hands with General Prayut Chan-o-cha, Prime Minister of the Kingdom of Thailand, during the courtesy call at the Music Room of the Malacañan Palace last August 28.

JOSEPH VIDAL / MALACAÑANG PHOTO BUREAU

Thai PM vows to uphold code of conduct in South China Sea

BY LEILA B. SALAVERRIA Philippine Daily Inquirer PRIME MINISTER Prayut Chan-ocha of Thailand yesterday vowed to uphold the code of conduct in the South China Sea between Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean) and China, which is expected to ease tensions stemming from territorial disputes in the area.

Prayut, who is here for a two-day official visit, met with President Aquino in Malacañang yesterday and exchanged views on Asean and China relations and the situation in the resource-rich South China Sea. He also thanked the Philippines for supporting Thailand in its role as country coordinator of Asean-China relations.

Singapore will take over the role from Thailand, which ended its three-year term last month.

“I expressed appreciation to the Philippines for supporting Thailand in the role of country coordinator for Asean-China relations, and affirmed to cooperate with the Philippines and Asean countries in fully implementing the Declaration on the Conduct of Parties in the South China Sea and promoting consultation in the [Code of ] Conduct in the South China Sea,” Prayut said following his expanded bilateral meeting with Aquino.

Under the 2002 declaration, the parties reaffirmed their

commitment to the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea and agreed to resolve their territorial and jurisdictional disputes by peaceful means, exercise self-restraint in the conduct of activities that would complicate or escalate disputes and affect peace and stability.

President Aquino congratulated Thailand for its successful term as country coordinator for Asean-China relations.

He also expressed gratitude for its support for the country’s efforts “in the United Nations and in other international organizations.”

Stronger defense relations

“Thailand has truly been a reliable companion of the Philippines in promoting understanding, peace and stability not only within our community and region, but throughout the larger community of nations,” he said.

Aquino also spoke of stronger defense relations between the Philippines and Thailand, citing the signing of the Terms of Reference for the Working Group of the Philippine Army and Royal Thai Army in April this year.

“We are confident that this agreement will further strengthen our defense and security cooperation for the welfare of our peoples and of our brothers in Asean,” he said.

He said Prayut had been instrumental in strengthen-

ing the partnership with the Armed Forces during his term as Chief of the Royal Thai Army, and continues to work with the Philippines in building defense relations that allow them to serve people in a more holistic manner.

The Philippines and Thailand also committed to work toward forging a Memorandum of Understanding on Cooperation to combat illegal drug trafficking.

“As part of our efforts, coordinated operations between Philippine and Thai agencies will be conducted, and through this process, we look forward to sharing information between our relevant law enforcement agencies,” said Aquino.

Partnership for Prosperity

Meanwhile, Prayut also reaffirmed his commitment to fully cooperate with President Aquino in enhancing the “Partnership for Prosperity” between Thailand and the Philippines.

He congratulated Aquino and the Philippine government for reviving the country’s economy and its continued high growth for the past five years.

He noted that the Philippines has been praised in the international community as the new “rising star” in the region.

“I am confident that the vision laid by President Aquino will serve as an important foundation in guiding the Philippines toward greater prosperity in the future,” he said. ■ www.canadianinquirer.net

MANILA — The Bureau of Customs (BOC) clarified that Filipina flyweight champion Jujeath Nagaowa was billed a lower amount for her Women’s International Boxing Association (WIBA) world title belt, correcting the 27 year-old boxer’s earlier claims.

The BOC also explained that the championship belt was still taxed as it was claimed by boxing promoter Brico Santig. If Nagaowa herself took the belt, it would have been exempted from customs duties.

Holding a copy of the transaction’s official receipt, BOC district collector Ed Macabeo disclosed that the championship belt was only charged P3,630, contrary to the boxing champion’s claim that she paid P5,819.13 to retrieve the belt.

He added that the belt’s total importation tax due was initially at P4,467, with a customs duty at P2,318, a value added tax amounting to P2,134 and a Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR) stamp worth P15. This payment was later on ‘readjusted’ and lowered to just P3,630.

“The tentative computation showed on her Facebook account is different from the tentative computation used in settling the duties and taxes. Ms. Nagaowa posted on her Facebook page a tentative computation amounting to P5,819 while the one attached to the importation records is for P4,467,” Macabeo said.

Nagaowa, however, stood by her claims and asserted that she was not issued a receipt on her payment but was only given a copy of the computation of duties and taxes imposed on her belt.

“That was the only document the BOC gave us,” she said in a Philippine Daily Inquirer report, mentioning that she even shared on her Facebook account a photo of the department’s computation.

“I would have posted the official receipt if we were given one by the customs people,” she added.

Nagaowa also stated that her championship belt was given an estimated value of P20,147.77, entailing a customs duty at P3,027.13 and a value added tax amounting to P2,782.

“It hurts that after battling full 10 rounds of boxing for this belt and after some days of agony waiting for its arrival in my place, [there’s] so much disappointed ‘cause this big thing of mine is also waiting for me for a trade before claiming it,” she said. “[I am] just lucky enough with friends, so must have to pay for it than losing the only evidence I could have that once in my existence,” she added. “I gambled my life for a lifetime treasure that others may take over my throne but can’t take this crown.”

The Filipina boxer won the WIBA light flyweight title in her boxing match against China’s Lou Yu Jie earlier this year.

The championship belt was recently shipped to her from Macau. ■

Filipina flyweight champion Jujeath Nagaowa holding her WIBA world title belt.

JUJEATH NAGAOWA / FACEBOOK

Philippine News

8

SEPTEMBER 4, 2015

FRIDAY

Pimentel: It’s a case vs persons, not church

BY CHRISTINE O. AVENDAÑO AND JEROME C. ANING Philippine Daily Inquirer Publisher Philippine Canadian Inquirer, Inc. Correspondents Lei Fontamillas Jane Moraleda Socorro Newland Bolet Arevalo Online Media Head Ching Dee ching.dee@canadianinquirer.net Graphic Designer Shanice Garcia Photographers Angelo Siglos Solon Licas Vic Vargas Operations and Marketing Head Laarni Liwanag (604) 551-3360 Advertising Sales Alice Yong (778) 889-3518 alice.yong@canadianinquirer.net Emy Rose Figueroa salesphilippines@canadianinquirer,net emy.figueroa@canadianinquirer.net Nelson Wu (1) 647-521-5155 salestoronto@canadianinquirer.net nelson.wu@canadianinquirer.net Amelia Insigne 1-416-574-5121 amelia.insigne@canadianinquirer.net PHILIPPINE PUBLISHING GROUP Editorial Assistant Phoebe Casin Associate Publisher Lurisa Villanueva In cooperation with the Philippine Daily Inquirer digital edition Philippine Canadian Inquirer is located at 400-13955 Bridgeport Rd., Richmond, BC V6V 1J6 Canada Tel. No.: 1-888-668-6059 or 778-8893518 | Email: info@canadianinquirer. net, sales@canadianinquirer.net Philippine Canadian Inquirer is published weekly every Friday.

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Member

THE INVESTIGATION by the Department of Justice (DOJ) of a criminal complaint filed by an expelled Iglesia ni Cristo (INC) minister against leaders of the Christian sect is not an attack against the group and has nothing to do with religion, Sen. Aquilino Pimentel III said yesterday.

Pimentel said the DOJ should be given a chance to determine whether the complaint of former INC minister Isaias Samson Jr., against the sect’s governing council was actionable, adding that he disagreed with the INC position that the government should dismiss it and not to give it priority.

“I don’t think this is a case against a church but against persons. It’s part of the DOJ’s job to accept the complaint, conduct a preliminary investigation, look at the basic facts whether this violates the Revised Penal Code or any law, or [if it is] a public crime. So you need a formal investigation,” Pimentel said in a radio interview.

INC scandal

Invoking separation of church and state, INC has massed thousands of its followers at the Edsa-Shaw Boulevard intersection in Mandaluyong City to pressure the government to drop the complaint, an offshoot of a scandal involving alleged financial mismanagement by members of the sect’s governing council.

Samson alleged that the council placed him and his family under “house arrest” on suspicion that he was the blogger who exposed the alleged bad business decisions and financial excesses of council members and posted the views of other dissenters on the Internet.

He said he and his family escaped in July and disclosed that at least 10 other ministers were also abducted to suppress dissent in the ranks of INC followers.

At about the same time as the Samsons’ escape, the mother of INC executive minister Eduardo Manalo, Cristina Manalo and brother, Angel Manalo, posted a video on YouTube claiming their lives were in danger and appealing to INC members for help.

The governing council expelled mother and son from the sect for causing division, in a scandal that exposed cracks in the secretive group that governments tolerated for decades because its members voted as one on instructions from their leaders.

The bloc-voting sect aims to bring 1 million members to Edsa today to force the Aquino administration, which is facing national elections next year, to drop

Sen. Aquilino ‘Koko’ Pimentel.

Samson’s complaint.

But Pimentel, a lawyer, said the DOJ needed to look into the complaint because it involved serious illegal detention, a non-bailable offense.

DOJ probe important

He said it was a serious offense considering it involved not only a person’s liberty but also his life.

Pimentel underscored the importance of the DOJ investigation, a process that would determine whether a crime had been committed or if this was an action of a religious group and thus an internal matter.

“If you know the general picture, then you can look into whether this involves freedom of religion or freedom of a person,” Pimentel said.

Rep. Sherwin Tugna of the party-list group, Citizens’ Battle Against Corruption, yesterday said the DOJ should proceed with the investigation and assign the complaint to a prosecutor “with a long impeccable track record of competence, integrity, impartiality, transparency, and someone who cannot be influenced and cannot be pressured.”

Politicians warned

Samson’s lawyer, Trixie Cruz-Angeles, yesterday warned that politicians who would try to influence the DOJ into dropping or shelving the complaint faced graft and corruption charges.

Angeles cited Sen. Grace Poe, a potential presidential candidate in next year’s elections, who said in an interview with reporters in San Jose City, Nueva Ecija province, on Friday that Justice Secretary Leila de Lima should give priority to other cases and not to Samson’s complaint.

According to Angeles, the antigraft law declares unlawful the acts of a public official who “persuades, induces or influences” another public officer to act in violation of that officer’s sworn duty.

“Now could you repeat your spiel

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about how the justice secretary needs to focus on other cases and not to take cognizance of the case serious illegal detention filed by [Mr. Samson]?” she said, referring to Poe. Senators Francis Escudero and Ferdinand Marcos Jr., both looking to run for Vice President, also spoke in favor of INC as the sect massed its members in front of the DOJ building on Padre Faura Street in Manila on Thursday.

Juridical entity

Ahmed Paglinawan, another lawyer for Samson, said INC, being a corporation registered with the government, should obey the law. “[INC] is still, after all, a juridical entity existing by the ‘application/operation of law.’ Violate the law, goodbye, corporation. Goodbye, lawful purpose,” Pagkalinawan said yesterday in a post on Facebook.

“The right to peaceably assemble pressuposes a lawful purpose. A statement of purpose that is not based on facts, truth and reality is not a lawful one. A statement of purpose [that] even those [on] Edsa do not know and cannot even say, is not a lawful purpose at all,” he said.

INC was registered with the then Bureau of Commerce as a corporation by its founder, Felix Manalo, in 1914. The Securities and Exchange Commission performs most of the bureau’s duties today.

On the INC mass action on Edsa, Pimentel said the sect had a right to assembly and the authorities had the obligation to give them rally permits.

But the mayors should set conditions for the permits to prevent inconvenience to the public, he said.

Bayan Muna Rep. Neri Colmenares said the right of INC members to express their grievance through street demonstrations must be respected, but Samson’s right as a citizen to file a criminal complaint and expect it to be resolved on its merits should also be respected. ■

Philippine News

FRIDAY SEPTEMBER 4, 2015

9

Baligod files PDAF scam malversation complaint vs. Enrile, Revilla, Angara, 17 others

BY PERFECTO T. RAYMUNDO JR. Philippines News Agency MANILA — Lawyer Levito Baligod filed on Wednesday malversation complaint before the Office of the Ombudsman against Senators Juan Ponce Enrile and Ramon Revilla Jr., former Senator Edgardo Angara and 17 other former and current lawmakers in connection with the alleged misuse of their respective priority development assistance fund (PDAF).

The complaint alleged that the lawmakers’ PDAF were coursed through bogus non-governmental organizations (NGOs).

Baligod, the former lawyer of several pork barrel scam whistle-blowers, filed the complaint, together with the affidavits of four witnesses who detailed their knowledge on the alleged involvement of certain government officials and private individuals in the so-called PDAF scam.

The complaint alleged that the National Agri-Business Corporation (NABCOR), which is under the Department of

Senators Jinggoy Estrada, Bong Revilla and Juan Ponce Enrile.

ALEX NUEVAESPAÑA / PUBLIC RELATION AND INFORMATION BUREAU / WIKIMEDIA COMMONS

Agriculture (DA), received about PhP1.6 billion of PDAF wherein about PhP500 million went to the so-called “Napoles NGOs.” It added that the rest of the PhP1.6 billion went to other NGOs through the solicitation of other “service provid-

ers” using exactly the same modus as that of Mrs. Janet Lim Napoles, the alleged “brains” behind the PhP10-billion PDAF and the PhP900-million Malampaya Fund scams.

The affiants revealed in their affida-

Bongbong Marcos unapologetic over father’s presidency

BY JANE MORALEDA Philippine Canadian Inquirer MANILA — In an interview with ANC’s Headstart, Senator Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr. stirred away from apologizing regarding the alleged dictatorship, corruption and abuse of human rights by his late father and former president Ferdinand Marcos Sr. “Will I say sorry for the thousands and thousands of kilometers [of roads] that were built? Will I say sorry for the agricultural policy that brought us to self-sufficiency in rice? Will I say sorry for the power generation? Will I say sorry for the highest literacy rate in Asia?

What am I to say sorry about?” he said.

The senator, however, clarified that he and his family have always apologized to those who might have been victimized or neglected during his father’s presidency.

“We have constantly said that if during the time of my father, kung may nasagasaan, o merong sinasabing hindi natulungan o (if there were those who were run over or those who were neglected or) they were victimized in some

way or another, of course, we are sorry that happened. Nobody wants that to happen. These are instances that have fallen through the cracks,” he said.

With speculations that he has been considering joining next year’s presidential race, Marcos did not see his surname or family background hindering his chances of winning the Filipino’s votes.

Sorry for Marcos

Reacting on Marcos’ statements, Commission of Human Rights former chairperson Loreta Ann Rosales believed that the senator needed to do a reality check.

Rosales stated that the least that Marcos could do was to assume some accountability over his father’s transgressions instead of boasting achievements.

“Being a senator, he has accountability. I feel sorry for Senator Marcos. I think he needs a reality check,” she said in a different interview also with ANC. “When he talks about roads, the development in education, literacy rate, etc. Hey, that’s regular routine for a president. A president has all authority, power, and money to do all these things,” she added. ■ www.canadianinquirer.net

vits how the PDAF of 20 legislators in the aggregate amount of PhP490,685,000 was squandered, and the participation of each of those who appeared to be responsible.

Baligod named the other respondents in the case as former House Speaker Prospero Nograles, former Rep. Joseph Santiago, Reps. Roberto Cajes, Florencio Miraflores, Neil Tupas Jr., Carol Lopez, Edgar San Luis, Arturo Robes, former CBAC Party-list Rep. and now Technical Education and Skills Development Authority (TESDA) Director General Joel Villanueva, former Rep. Rodolfo Antonino, Reps. Reno Lim, Julius Ledesma IV, Evita Arago, Rachel Arenas, Alfonso Umali, Al Francis Bichara and Marina Clarete.

The respondents vehemently denied the allegations.

According to Angara, he did not use in questionable means his PDAF and he had long clarified the matter with the Commission on Audit (COA).

On the other hand, Villanueva said that his PDAF went to legitimate projects and that he can prove it. ■

10

Philippine News

SEPTEMBER 4, 2015

FRIDAY

Duterte urged to run for president in 2016 elections

BY JANE MORALEDA Philippine Canadian Inquirer MANILA — Calls for Davao City Mayor Rodrigo “Rody” Duterte to join next year’s presidential race continued after a Mindanao-wide caravan was held by his supporters.

Starting in Cagayan de Oro City with 11 vehicles, the Duterte for President Movement’s convoy drove through

the cities of Iligan and Ozamis already with 20 vehicles.

“Our convoy is becoming longer as we pass cities and towns…

People are lining the streets chanting ‘Run Duterte, run,” spokesman Oming Maglangit said in a Philippine Star report.

After the caravan, the Davao City mayor’s supporters planned to hold a “Duterte for President” grand rally on Friday, August 28.

“We are expecting around

3,000 vehicles from all over the country to converge here in Davao City on the 28th,” village captain Mar Masanguid said.

Should Duterte finally decide to seek higher office in the coming national elections, PDPLaban openly expressed their interest to have him as their standard-bearer.

Furthermore, there have already been rumors that Senator Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr. was his potential running

mate. Marcos, for his part, admitted meeting with PDP-Laban regarding plans of an alliance in 2016.

A Duterte-Marcos tandem was seen as a strong bid in next year’s general elections with the mayor supported by Visayas and Mindanao and the senator backed by Northern Luzon.

With PDP-Laban’s support alone, however, Duterte could not secure a win, political party member and former senator

Aquilino “Nene” Pimentel said.

“As a small party, PDP-Laban needs to form an alliance with another party because it cannot win the presidency all by itself,” Pimentel claimed, adding that the mayor needed to be backed by other parties.

Aside from the PDP-Laban, another political party, Kilusang Bagong Lipunan, also called for a Duterte-Marcos tandem in the coming elections. ■

Good life under Marcos; you kidding, right?

BY LEILA B. SALAVERRIA Philippine Daily Inquirer “THE GALL of this douche bag.

They emptied the coffers which we are still paying for,” netizen rnoldrmada said, referring to the billions allegedly plundered by the senator’s father, family and associates.

Sen. Ferdinand Marcos Jr., who is contemplating a run for the vice presidency or the presidency, said that he could sense a general sentiment that life was better when his father was in power and that this was one of the factors spurring him to consider seeking higher office.

Marcos Jr. need only look at the names inscribed in the Bantayog ng Mga Bayani in Quezon City to know what it was like during his father’s dictatorial regime, Malacañang said yesterday.

It would be better for Bongbong, the name by which Marcos Jr. is better known, to ask the families of those who were killed or disappeared during martial law about it, Communications Secretary Herminio Coloma said.

Coloma was responding to questions at a press briefing yesterday about the senator’s dismissive comments in a recent television interview of the human rights abuses during the 20-year rule of his father, the late dictator Ferdinand Marcos.

“We have constantly said if during the time of my father there were those who were affected, or who were not helped, or were victimized in some way or another, of course, we’re sorry it happened. Nobody wants that to happen. These are instances that have fallen

through the cracks,” the sena- before the Human Rights Vic- cos what was the inflation rate tor said. tims Claims Board (HRVCB), during the dictatorship of his Netizens were outraged by which was created by Congress father? If anything, that figure Marcos’ statements about the to compensate martial law vic- is indicative of how the govern“accomplishments” of his fa- tims and their families. ment was robbing the country. ther.

“Maybe that could be the re- It went as high as 400 percent.

Coloma as much as said that sponse of those who disagree May I ask how large the dollar the senator was probably unin- with what Senator Marcos reserve was compared to the formed. said,” he added. present? The government had “It would be good to ask very thin foreign reserves durthe relatives of those whose Netizens outraged ing Marcos’ rule because all the names are inscribed at the heThousands, 75,537 to be ex- dollar earnings of the country roes’ monument at the corner act, have already filed claims in was salted away by Marcos to of Quezon Avenue and Edsa. the HRVCB. And there are still foreign banks. The gall of BongThese are the ones who died those who wish to file claims but bong Marcos to cite the acor disappeared during martial missed the May 2015 deadline. complishments of his thieving law,” he said.

According to the book, “Some father,” Emmanuel Celis wrote.

Coloma was referring to the are Smarter than Others,” when “That’s bull…..S, you cannot Wall of Remembrance at the Ferdinand Marcos became just say I’M SORRY OR OUR Bantayog ng Mga Bayani me- President in 1965, there were APOLOGY, there must and morial in Quezon should be ACCity honoring COUNTABILthe individuals ITY!” said facq2. who lived and In a recent died in defiance It would be better for Bongbong, the television interof Ferdinand name by which Marcos Jr. is better view, the youngMarcos’ represknown, to ask the families of those er Marcos said sive regime. The who were killed or disappeared he had no plans names of the during martial law about it. to seek reelecfirst 65 martyrs tion to the Senof martial law, ate but was conled by opposisidering running tion leader Ninoy Aquino, the approximately 13.4 million, or for a higher office in response father of President Aquino, 39 percent of the population, to a clamor for his father’s proare inscribed on the Wall. The who could not meet basic needs grams and the emergence of a memorial, which also features for food, shelter and clothing. younger generation of Marcos a 14-meter-high Inang Bayan After 10 years of Marcos rule, loyalists. monument, was unveiled in this figure had ballooned to “He is really his father’s son.

November 1992.

20.5 million, or 48 percent of He twists the truth and believes Coloma also pointed out that the population. in them. Ang mga Marcos, Eswhen the anniversary of the By contrast since the first trada, Enrile, at Binay are of martial law declaration on Sept. Edsa People Power Revolu- the same mold— magnanakaw, 21, 1972, is commemorated, the tion, figures from the World sinungaling at gahaman. Mga country also remembers the Bank show a steady decline of salot ng bayan (thieves, liars, violence that took place during the poverty headcount ratio at plunderers. A plague on the nathe rule of the senator’s father. $1.25 a day. From 39 percent in tion),” said dlagotka.

Coloma said people who 1985, this ratio declined to 31 “Nakakalungkot isipin na might want to respond to Mar- percent in 1994, and further de- hanggang ngayon malaya pa cos’ comments should also get creased to 23 percent in 2002, ring maghasik ng lagim ang to know the stories of the thou- and 19 percent in 2012. pamilyang Marcos sa ating bansands who have filed claims “May I ask Bongbong Mar- sa. Another Marcos in Malacawww.canadianinquirer.net

ñang? Kahit nga barangay captain Marcos lang, nakakatakot nang isipin,” said netizen bayankonggiliw. (It’s sad that until now the Marcos family remains free to sow terror in our country.

It’s scary to contemplate a Marcos even as a barangay captain.)

But Marcos, too, had his admirers among netizens. “@bongbongmarcos been reading blogs about ur father all week, im sori dat i hated ur father for so long.. now i know the truth! he’s the best!” said Tatiana Karla @mALdEeTahH. “Marcos did not loot the country and if Aquino was not able to jail Imelda it’s because the Marcoses spent every penny to build MOST if not ONLY airports, road, bridges, trains, hospitals, universities, housing, etc. being used today..how can he have built so much for 20 years for such a small budget compared to 30 years of the ones after him... Baka naman binulsa nila ang pera kaya wala man lamang naipatayong infrastructures (Maybe they [Aquino administration] stole the money that’s why they were not able to build any infrastructures),” said netizen Ana Santos.

“Anak ng mga baka ung mga d makatanggap ng sorry anung gusto nio lumuha ung tao ng dugo para mapatunayan na totoo ang sorry oh iba namn gusto mabigyan ng pera para matangap ng sorry 30 years na nakalipas dpa din makapag-move on (Darn those who cannot accept sorry.

What do they want, that he shed tears of blood to prove that the apology is sincere. Or maybe they want money for them to accept sorry, 30 years after, they still cannot move on),” netizen G. Em said. ■

Philippine News

FRIDAY SEPTEMBER 4, 2015

11

‘Real-time justice’ moves litigants, lawyers to cry for joy

BY TARRA QUISMUNDO Philippine Daily Inquirer IN A COUNTRY where the delivery of justice is notoriously slow, surprised lawyers are taking selfies with orders instantly issued in court.

Chief Justice Maria Lourdes Sereno on Thursday talked about how some lawyers pose for photos holding up orders printed out and signed by the judge within minutes of promulgation in open court, an indicator of reform slowly taking place in the Philippine justice system.

It is what the country’s chief magistrate described as “realtime justice,” the ideal kind of justice that she said she hoped would become the rule, instead of the exception, in the Philippines.

“It is as dramatic as saying justice can indeed be realtime,” Sereno told a panel of select journalists in her annual press conference.

“Just imagine the shock of lawyers receiving [copies of ] orders minutes after [promulgation] in court. It is not a surprise that lawyers take selfies [with the court orders],” she said.

With such speed, lawyers can also quickly “collect their appearance fee,” Sereno said.

Goodbye, snail mail

Usually, it could take at least two months for a party to receive a copy of even the simplest court order, Sereno said, as it takes time for one to be drafted, approved then signed by the judge, and then delivered via snail mail.

Sharing another story, Sereno described an automated hearing held at Davao City Regional Trial Court, where a detainee was readily released upon the judge’s order. “[A] longtime detainee was

The Supreme Court of the Philippines building in Manila, Philippines.

ordered released from detention and [freed] right there and then, the order dismissing his case being printed, signed and served in a matter of minutes,” Sereno said.

“It so shocked the family that within minutes that a judge pronounced the order, the order for release was given. The surprise was so deep that not only the accused [cried] in court [but also] his family. [T]he lawyers and the court employees [cried] as well,” she said.

For the Chief Justice, it was proof that speedy delivery of justice “can be done.”

Automation of processes

“I believe this is the kind of justice that our people deserve.

I am appealing to all our [countrymen]: The fight for justice is a very long one, and it can be very detailed, it can go down to

the nitty-gritty because high ideals and motherhood slogans are not enough to bring justice to our people,” she said.

Since her appointment in 2012, Sereno has been leading a reform program that involves automation of court processes, marathon trials and deployment of mobile courts to decongest the dockets, among other improvements.

“This means that during trial, every activity is captured electronically, right there and then, including orders issued by the judge, minutes of the hearing conducted, judges’ notes on testimony taken, markings of evidence, issuance of writs and other court processes,” Sereno said.

“This is done by linking together the computers of the judge, stenographer and interpreters to allow all individuals

www.canadianinquirer.net

MIKE GONZALEZ / WIKIMEDIA COMMONS

to view and edit [in real time] the documents being prepared,” she said.

Currently up to 100 courts in Quezon City, Angeles City, Tacloban City, Lapu-Lapu City and Davao City can instantly release orders.

In these courts, judges have not just their gavels on the bench, but also laptops for immediate encoding of court orders. Nearby are printers for the immediate printing of documents following proceedings, Sereno said.

The judiciary aims to introduce automated hearings, or the transformation of “the entire courtroom into an automated trial forum,” in all Metro Manila courts by 2016, she said.

“While we have only begun to scratch the surface in addressing all the concerns before us, I am heartened to hear stories

from judges, lawyers and litigants [about] how our efforts have directly affected their lives,” Sereno said.

The conduct of automated hearings is an “offshoot” of the electronic court (ecourt) project, a computer-based case management system under which case information is encoded upon filing, along with subsequent pleadings and court issuances (decisions and writs) throughout the proceedings.

Through e-courts, the assessment of court fees, docketing and case raffling are done electronically. The status of cases are also tracked.

As of this month, there are 82 e-courts across the country, including the courts in Quezon City, Angeles City, Lapu-Lapu City and Tacloban City, Sereno said.

Later this year, 85 more e-courts will be launched in Davao City, Cebu City and Makati City, she said.

By next year, 120 more will become operational in Manila, Pasig City and Mandaluyong City, bringing to 287 the number of trial courts implementing the system.

Sereno said this figure would account for 30 percent of the total case load of Philippine courts.

Nationwide connectivity

The judiciary’s Nationwide Connectivity Project, which aims to provide Internet connection to the country’s courts, is also under way.

Sereno said bidding has begun for the first phase of the project, which would cover the 10 above-mentioned cities targeted for e-court implementation by next year.

“For the first time, this would provide genuine reliable connectivity in our courts [so that there will be] no reason for any delay for any court process or reporting,” Sereno said. ■

12

Philippine News

SEPTEMBER 4, 2015

FRIDAY

Palace on planned ‘zero vote’ campaign: OFWs could freely choose their leaders PHILIPPINES NEWS AGENCY

Thousands of members of the Iglesia Ni Cristo flocked to EDSA--blocking the main road--for more than three days. @INQUIRERDOTNET / TWITTER

INC leaders ‘manufacturing revolution’

BY TARRA QUISMUNDO Philippine Daily Inquirer LEADERS OF the Iglesia ni Cristo (INC) are manufacturing a “revolution” and politicians are pandering to their whims unaware that the prized bloc vote of the group may be gone, the lawyer of an expelled INC minister who brought the criminal complaint that sparked the standoff between the government and the homegrown Christian sect said yesterday.

Trixie Cruz- Angeles, the lawyer of expelled INC minister Isaias Samson Jr., said the Iglesia mass action on Edsa began as “a crisis within the church,” but it seemed that there were “political opportunists who would like to cast this as something else.”

“If the Sanggunian (the INC governing council) wants to use [the] government to ratify their patently illegal acts, given the elections, doubtless they will find officials willing to go so far for them. As in fact, there already are,” Angeles said.

Television reports late Friday said Margarita “Tingting” Cojuangco, President Aquino’s aunt who lost a run for the Senate as an opposition candidate in 2013, and Council of Philippine Affairs (COPA) head Pastor Saycon were seen at the INC rally in front of the Edsa Shrine.

Members of the INC are known to follow directives from the sect’s leadership under the threat of expulsion, enabling the group to deliver votes to politicians endorsed by its leaders.

INC followers began to mass

up in front of the Department of Justice (DOJ) building on Padre Faura Street in Manila on Thursday, accusing Justice Secretary Leila de Lima of bias for accepting for investigation Samson’s complaint of illegal detention, harassment, threats and coercion against members of the sect’s governing council.

INC crisis

The former editor in chief of the INC’s official publication, Pasugo (God’s Message), filed the criminal charges after the council allegedly placed him and his family under “house arrest” in July, suspecting him of being behind accusations of corruption and wrongdoing against the sect’s leadership published online. Samson denied the allegations. The crisis within the sect became known in July when the mother and younger brother of INC executive minister Eduardo Manalo posted on Facebook an appeal for help from other Iglesia followers, claiming their lives were in danger.

Cristina Manalo, widow of the late INC leader Eraño Manalo, and Angel Manalo were expelled for trying to cause division within the church, according to spokesperson for the group.

Concerned for the safety of the two Manalos, disgruntled sect members disclosed bad business decisions and financial excesses involving members of the governing council, leading to a scandal that suggested the secretive INC may not be rock-solid after all.

Those who stayed with the

leadership showed their obedience by massing in front of the DOJ building on Thursday then, following fresh orders, moved to Edsa during rush hour on Friday night, occupying a site from where popular revolts toppled from power strongman Ferdinand Marcos in 1986 and President Joseph Estrada in 2001. Marcos died in exile in Hawaii in 1989. Estrada is now mayor of Manila.

Angeles said the protest was the INC governing council’s way of protecting its members.

‘Running scared’

In an earlier interview, Angeles said those behind Samson’s abduction were “running scared,” aware that they faced “serious jail time.” “[All that Mr. Samson] is doing is [trying to save] the church from its wayward leaders. These leaders, on the other hand, need some outside help and the only way to do that is to cast this as something revolutionary,” Angeles said yesterday.

Asked about politicians who are riding on the INC mass action, Angeles said they could be banking on the Iglesia bloc vote, which may no longer exist given the crisis within the sect.

“They don’t realize that the church is divided now. The much vaunted bloc vote may not materialize anymore,” Angeles said.

“If this (situation) continues, we may be looking at the end of the [political] influence the [INC]. Its leaders have cooked their own goose. Ironic that their greed has led to this,” she said. ■ www.canadianinquirer.net

MANILA — It is up to the overseas Filipino workers to choose the candidates they want in the next election, a Palace official said as a reaction to statements that migrants organizations are initiating a “zero vote” campaign against administration candidates.

The OFWs carried out a “zero remittance day” and some groups are allegedly planning a zero vote for administration candidates as a response to a customs policy on balikbayan boxes.

“Karapatan po nilang mamili kung sino po ang gusto nilang iboto sa darating na eleksyon,” Deputy presidential spokesperson Abigail Valte said during a radio interview on Saturday about the planned campaign.

“Ang inaasahan lang po natin ay, siyempre, mababase po ito sa plataporma; mababase po ito doon sa ano po ba ‘yung ikagaganda pa ng ating bansa, at ‘yung ikabubuti pa ng buhay ng ating mga pamilya,” she told dzRB Radyo Ng Bayan.”Kalayaan na-

tin lahat ‘yan, kung paano po natin sasalain ang ating mga kandidato.”

OFWs are furious over a new Customs policy on balikbayan boxes. The Bureau of Customs said balikbayan boxes are being used as a means to smuggle goods or ship illegal narcotics.

Valte said OFWs are free to express their sentiments on any issue like the one on balikbayan boxes.

The Palace official also said that because of the balikbayan box issue, they got a lot of messages from different parts of the world.

“At ang lagi ko pong sinasabi sa kanila ay malaya silang ipahayag ang kanilang mga saloobin whether they join a ‘no remittance day’ or they may send government a message on Facebook or they can post their sentiments online or magpainterview sila sa media,” she said.

According to the central bank, the zero remittance day has no significant impact on the economy but migrant groups warned of more mass actions against plans to tighten rules on balikbayan boxes. ■

President Benigno S. Aquino III. REY BANIQUET / MALACAÑANG PHOTO BUREAU

Philippine News

FRIDAY SEPTEMBER 4, 2015

13

Lina leaves to Congress proposal to hike cap on contents of balikbayan boxes PHILIPPINES NEWS AGENCY MANILA — Bureau of Customs (BOC) Commissioner Alberto Lina leaves to Congress a proposal to increase the allowable value of contents of balikbayan boxes from Php 10,000 to Php 100,000.

“Mahirap mag-comment ako

dyan (It is hard to comment) we’ll leave it to Congress to set those limits or delimits, mahirap magsalita kasi kami magi-implement (It is hard to talk about it for we will be also in charge of implentation),” he said.

On Friday, Rep. Roy Seneres, OFW Family Party List said he would propose to expand the limit set on the contents of

balikbayan boxes.

“Dahil under review ang Tariff and Customs Code sa Congress.

I would propose ang gawin limit ay Php 100,000,” he said.

The lawmaker noted that there is a need to expand the allowable limit as prices of goods have increased.

“For example, ang isang laptop ay nagkakahalaga ng Php 64,000, wala na yung Php

10,000. Kung ikaw, halimbawa, padre de familia, ang magpapadala ayaw mo na ng second hand para sa anak mo. Dapat kung pwede brand new (For example, a laptop would cost Php 64,000, the Php 10,000 will already be nothing. As an example, a father would not want to give a second hand item to send to his children. It would be brand new),” he said.

The sending of balikbayan boxes started in 1980s. The boxes are duty and tax free packages of personal effects or pasalubongs sent by Filipinos residing or working abroad to their families in the Philippines for purposes of preserving strong family ties.

According to the law, the contains of balikbayan boxes must not exceed Php 10,000 in value. ■

Survey shows decline in corruption

BY LEI FONTAMILLAS Philippine Canadian Inquirer

Expelled INC minister Isaias Samson.

SCREENSHOT FROM RAPPLER FOOTAGE

Expelled minister’s camp fears whitewashing in INC case

BY JANE MORALEDA Philippine Canadian Inquirer MANILA — President Benigno “Noynoy” Aquino III and Justice Secretary Leila de Lima remained mum on the government’s alleged agreement with the Iglesia Ni Cristo (INC) leaders on Monday.

But still with no prosecutor assigned in the criminal charges against INC’s Sanggunian, the church’s highest administrative council, expelled minister Isaias Samson Jr. feared that there may be a ‘whitewash’ in the Department of Justice’s (DOJ) preliminary investigation on his complaint. His camp then urged the President and De Lima to disclose the details of the purported deal.

“What is the nature of this agreement? What are its conditions and terms? It is our client who had unintentionally set off these events by filing his case, yet somehow we have not been included in this socalled agreement. Assuming of course there is one,” Samson’s lawyers, Trixie Cruz-Angeles and Ahmed Paglinawan said in a statement.

“There are two things you need to do… speaking as part of the body you call your bosses.

First is to be transparent with your agreement. Tell us whether or not you’ve sold our client down the river or tell us if you haven’t. But you need to disclose this to us. A criminal case is not a political pawn. The law provides that it cannot be compromised. The president can

grant pardons and issue clemency and amnesty. But you do not have the power to refuse prosecution,” they added.

Cruz-Angeles and Paglinawan also demanded reassurance from the government that their complainant’s case would undergo a due process.

“You must guarantee our client a fair hearing at preliminary investigation. The fear now is that given the so-called agreement, a finding of ‘no probable cause’ to make this nightmare go away for the INC’s Sanggunian is a very real possibility,” they said.

Samson, his wife Myrna Dionela and son Isaias Jr. earlier filed a complaint against the INC council for serious illegal detention, harassment, grave threats and coercion. ■ www.canadianinquirer.net

MANILA — From the point of view of the business community, corruption in the public sector has declined.

The latest survey of the Social Weather Stations (SWS) showed a decrease in the number of businessmen who have personal knowledge of corruption in the government.

The survey, which included executives of 966 companies, showed that only 32 percent has knowledge of corruption in the public sector.

The figure is lower than the 33 percent recorded in 2012 and 38 percent in 2013.

With regards to the sincerity of the government in fighting

corruption, most of the businessmen gave a “very good” ranking to the Securities and Exchange Commission, Social Security System, Philippine Stock Exchange, Office of the President, and Department of Trade and Industry.

Meanwhile, the Bureau of Customs was rated “very bad” in its net sincerity in the fight against corruption.

“The numbers are improving there’s no question. The question in my mind is it is good enough for us. Is it what we want or do we want better? Do we want more? In the point of view of the National Competitiveness Council (NCC) we want more, we want better. We will not be competitive even with these high numbers,” NCC cochairman Guillermo Luz said. ■

Philippine News

14

SEPTEMBER 4, 2015

FRIDAY

Abad seeks exclusion from pork barrel scam case, insists no basis on charges

BY JANE MORALEDA Philippine Canadian Inquirer MANILA — Budget Secretary Florencio “Butch” Abad sought for an exclusion from the P10-billion pork barrel scam case, insisting that Antonio Ortiz’ petition to make him principally liable for the graft charges lacked merit and had no legal and factual bases.

Ortiz, who was the former director general of the Technology Resource Center (TRC), has been accused in two graft charges in connection with the multi-billion pork barrel scam allegedly perpetuated by businesswoman Janet Lim-Napoles.

Ortiz’ lawyer, Bonifacio Alentajan, sought to make Abad principally responsible for his client’s cases as it was the budget secretary who released the notice of cash allocation (NCA) and special allotment release order (SARO) to Napoles’ bogus foundations and nongovernment organizations.

“It was [Abad] who released the money. He’s actually the most guilty in this case,” Alentajan told reporters, adding

that the secretary was then liable for the purported diversion of the congressional allocations supposedly intended for the poor but was misused in ghost projects and programs.

Abad’s lawyers, however, quickly opposed the 10-page motion.

“The decision on who to prosecute is an executive, not a judicial, prerogative…

A policy of non-interference stands insofar as the Ombudsman’s exercise of investigatory and prosecutorial powers is concerned,” the budget secretary’s counsel said.

“Such independence in the Ombudsman who, beholden to no one, acts as the champion of the people and preserver of the integrity of the public office,” they added.

Abad’s lawyers then asked the Office of the Ombudsman to deny Ortiz’ petition.

“It is thus beyond the domain of this Honorable Court to order the Panel of Prosecutors to conduct a preliminary investigation against a person not charged in an information, especially with a pre-determined result, that is, to indict that person in court, as what

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preliminary investigation against Secretary Abad. The motion merely contains bare allegations and conclusions,” they added. ■

Laude camp denies settlement talks

BY LEI FONTAMILLAS Philippine Canadian Inquirer

The winner, Mr. Peter Ip is very excited to lift up

WORLD ECONOMIC FORUM 2014 ON FOTOPEDIA

MANILA — The camp of the slain Jeffrey “Jennifer” Laude dismissed claims that they were willing to drop the murder case in exchange of an out-of-court settlement of P38 million and six United States visas from the camp of the suspect Lance Cpl. Joseph Scott Pemberton.

In an interview with CNN, Roque said, “I am really surprised [of ] the PR twists recently, which says that apparently we asked for [at least] P36 million and for six visas,” Roque added that it is legally impossible to ask for a settlement at this point as both the defense and the prosecution have “rested [their] evidences.” Settlements for a heinous crime like murder can only happen during the plea bargain, which is part of the pretrial.

According to Laude family’s legal counsel Atty. Harry Roque, the P200 million in actual, moral and exemplary damages previously asked from the defendant was not meant to be settled before the suspect is pronounced guilty by the Regional Trial Court.

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The lawyer also explained the difference of the current case with the 2005 Subic rape case, where U.S. serviceman Lance Cpl. Daniel Smith was convicted of raping a Filipina named “Nicole” inside a van.

“Imposible po ‘yang prosesong ‘yan dahil ito pong murder hindi po gaya ito ng rape nung kaso ni Nicole na kahit kailan ay puwede naman talagang magkaroon ng aregluhan,” he said.

Roque, however, admitted that the tactic used in “Nicole’s” case could be also at work in Laude’s case. “I think this information of P[38] million and six visas is preparatory to individuals approaching our clients, which is similar to what happened to Nicole.” But he warned the Pemberton camp that he will not flinch on filing a disbarment case against them on the ground of ethics, proven that they are approaching the Laude family.

Pemberton testified last month that he punched and choked the victim as self-defense after discovering that she was not biologically female and that she still had male genitalia. Forensics expert Raquel Fortun said the victim died of asphyxia due to pressure on the neck. ■

Philippine News

FRIDAY SEPTEMBER 4, 2015

15

Court asked to junk Binay damage suit TV, radio ads

won’t help propel politicians’ bids for public office, says CBCP exec

BY KRISTINE FELISSE MANGUNAY Philippine Daily Inquirer TWO OF the 13 defendants in the P200-million damage suit filed last month by Vice President Jejomar Binay have asked the court to junk the charges of libel and violation of the Civil Code against them.

Sen. Alan Peter Cayetano and former Makati barangay chair Nicolas Enciso VI filed this week separate motions to dismiss the civil suit slapped by Vice President Jejomar Binay against them over what he said were “malicious accusations” they made against him in connection with alleged anomalies in Makati when he was the city mayor.

Cayetano and Enciso were two of the 13 defendants named in the P200-million damage suit filed last month by Binay for libel and violation of the Civil Code. Included in the suit were lawmakers, government officials and the Philippine Daily INQUIRER. The two motions were filed on the sala of Makati Regional Trial Court Branch 133 Presiding Judge Elpidio Calis.

Three grounds

In an interview after a hearing on Friday, Cayetano’s lawyer Alfred Jacinto said his client’s motion to dismiss was based on three grounds.

One was Binay’s complaint’s “failure to state a cause of action.”

“Because we are saying that all the statements VP Binay is complaining about are absolutely privileged because they were given during the course of the Senate investigation. Based on (Supreme Court) decisions, those are absolutely privileged that’s why they are not actionable. A senator cannot be charged for those statements,” he said.

Second, the lawyer said even

PHILIPPINES NEWS AGENCY

Vice President Jejomar ‘Jojo’ Binay.

if the statements were “not absolutely privileged, his (Cayetano’s) statements have basis because (they) were taken from Senate proceedings.”

“Because of course it cannot be that when you go to the Senate the senators cannot speak about what happened in the proceedings. That should also be protected,” Jacinto said.

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In an ambush interview, Bondal, who represents himself and codefendants Mario Hechanova, former Makati City bids and awards committee vice chair and former Makati Vice Mayor Ernesto Mercado, said he was set to file another motion to dismiss the suit on their behalf.

‘No jurisdiction’

‘Trifling with court’

Third, Jacinto said “they are kind of trifling with the courts,” but refused to elaborate.

In his 10-page motion, Enciso argued that Binay’s civil complaint should be dismissed because aside from the fact that it did “not state a valid cause of action” it was “premature.”

The motion said the criminal case of plunder filed by Enciso’s codefendant, losing Makati mayoral candidate Renato Bondal, against Binay and others in connection with alleged anomalies in the construction of the Makati City Hall Building II has remained pending in the Office of the Ombudsman.

“Let it be stressed here... that to be entitled to damages, the prosecution must be terminated in plaintiff’s favor for lack of probable cause,” the motion said.

He said in their motion, they were including a “very important ground which was jurisdiction.”

“We feel that the matters raised by the plaintiff is a political question and therefore we honestly feel the court has no jurisdiction to entertain this case,” Bondal said.

At press time, however, Bondal et al’s motion had not been filed in court.

Ombudsman Conchita Carpio-Morales, Sen. Antonio Trillanes, Caloocan Rep. Edgar Erice, Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas head Amando Tetangco Jr., Securities and Exchange Commission Chair Teresita Herbosa, Insurance Commission commissioner Emmanuel Dooc and Julia Abad of the AntiMoney Laundering Council are co-accused in the P200-million suit. ■

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MANILA — An official of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines-Episcopal Commission on Public Affairs (CBCP-CPA) warned politicians, who have advertisements airing on radio and television that their actions could be considered as “negative points”.

In a radio interview, Bishop Broderick Pabillo, chairman of the CBCP-CPA noted that these advertisements will not help them in their bids for public office as they are showing the electorate that they are already spending money even as the campaign period has not yet started.

“Dapat sabihin natin sa kanila, mag-isip din sila (publiko), ang mga taong ito na nagpaparamdam na ganoon ay isang negative point na ‘yan na [iboto] natin sila,” he said in an interview over Church-run Radio Veritas.

He is convinced that once elected these politicians are going to get the money they used in coming up with their advertisements allegedly from government coffers.

“Tiyak na kapag naluklok sa puwesto ang mga pulitikong ito, babawiin nila ang malaking halaga ng salapi na kanilang ginastos sa kampanya,” the Manila Auxiliary bishop added.

With this, he urged Filipino voters to choose new breed of government officials and re-

frain from electing traditional politician (TRAPO) as they have no new things to offer.

“Maghanap tayo ng hindi pangkaraniwang pulitiko, kaya nag-iimbita tayo sa mamamayan na tumakbo hindi ‘yung dati nang tatakbo, mga trapo yan, ginagamait na nila ang pamamarang dati, wala na tayong makukuhang bago sa kanila,” the Catholic prelate said.

Pabillo also urged people, who has the capability to lead their community to run for public office.

“Kaya maging heroic naman ang ibang Filipino na may kakayahan namang tumakbo, hindi sila kilala pero wala sila gaanong pera subalit handa silang tumakbo, para may choice naman ang bayan. Apela sa mga botante, ang iboto natin ay mga bagong mukha na at hindi yung mga datihan na,” he said.

The filing of the Certificate of Candidacy (COC) is set from Oct. 12 to 16.

The campaign period for national positions will begin on Feb. 9 to May 7 while local candidates are allowed to campaign starting from March 25 to May 7. ■

Opinion

16

SEPTEMBER 4, 2015

FRIDAY

PUBLIC LIVES

Law, politics and the INC

By Randy David Philippine Daily Inquirer SEN. FRANCIS Escudero was on broadcaster Anthony Taberna’s radio program last Thursday evening, echoing the Iglesia ni Cristo’s demand that it be left alone to solve its own problems. “Away pamilya ito (This is a family spat),” he said, breezily advising Justice Secretary Leila de Lima to back off from the illegal detention complaint filed by former INC minister Isaias Samson Jr. against the church’s governing advisory council.

Taberna asked Escudero what he thought Secretary De Lima stood to gain from doing what was supposed to be part of her work. I don’t know, Escudero giggled, adding that the secretary should instead attend to the Mamasapano cases.

What would De Lima gain? Nothing but the scorn of the Iglesia, and definitely nothing beneficial to her political career. But that’s exactly how we expect people in the justice system to behave. I’m sure it would have gladdened the hearts of the block-voting Iglesia had De Lima simply allowed Samson’s complaint to die unattended at the Department of Justice. They would have owed her big, and made sure she is remembered as a reliable

friend on Election Day. But, perhaps threat. Maybe it is, but certainly not these two domains—the church and the she is not fully aware of what’s at stake from the state. I am aghast that lawyers state—cannot peer into each other’s afhere for the Iglesia. like Senator Escudero, Vice President fairs. Churches do it all the time, criticizI don’t know if it was just a coinci- Jejomar Binay, and Ferdinand Topacio ing state policies, telling governments dence, but, the other day, a gunman view this matter as an issue of religious to shape up, and condemning public sprayed bullets on Taberna’s newly freedom. To say so, I think, is to pander officials for corruption and oppression. opened coffee shop in Quezon City. I to people’s emotions.

So, why can’t the state investigate and learned later that the radio host, himself I am not a lawyer, and therefore my prosecute erring church officials, espea member of the Iglesia, is a nephew of understanding of the Constitution cially when the complaints are coming Samson’s. Did some people think he was could be limited. But, to me, religious from the members themselves? being biased? I didn’t think so, but may- freedom simply means the right to Senator Escudero argues that the be some INC members weren’t pleased profess—or not to profess—a religious INC controversy, which first broke with the neutral stance he seemed to be faith. It does not mean that actions out in July, is away pamilya. Perhaps taking on the issue. taken in the name of one’s faith, or it is, and, I agree, to the extent posAs I write this, hundreds of INC within the precincts of one’s church, sible, the family should be given every members are reportchance to solve its ed to be congregatown problems its Church-state separation only means that the state is ing along busy Edsa, own way. But there prohibited from establishing an official church or a state religion. which has been the are limits to what site of past people the head of a fampower protests. They are there, they are exempted from legal scrutiny or ily can do. You can’t detain the other say, not to topple the government, but liability. Religious clerics who abuse members against their wish. You are to demand that the authorities respect their parishioners, particularly chil- not allowed to use violence against a the constitutional guarantees of reli- dren, are answerable not only to the spouse, or any family member, pargious freedom and the separation of church but to the nation’s courts as ticularly the children. When family church and state. They want the jus- well. Church officials who are charged squabbles get out of hand, the state tice department to dismiss the Sam- by their own members with commit- cannot stand by and merely watch as son complaint outright, and to let the ting crimes cannot expect the state individual rights are violated. church hierarchy deal with its recalci- to back off while they deal with these When the widow of the highly retrant members. charges within their organization. vered executive minister Eraño “Ka I find their interpretation of reliChurch-state separation only means Erdy” Manalo, “Ka Tenny,” and her gious freedom and church-state sepa- that the state is prohibited from estab- son Angel, posted a video last July ration disturbing. I can’t blame them lishing an official church or a state reli- claiming their lives were in danger for believing that their church is under gion. Nothing in this doctrine says that and pleading for help from other INC

members, what was the government supposed to do? I think if this were just another family, the police would not have hesitated to barge into their compound to investigate. Or if this were just another religious sect, and not the politically influential INC, someone would have called for a congressional inquiry in aid of legislation. Nothing like that has happened.

People in government were careful not to step on powerful toes in the Iglesia hierarchy. Events took a different turn only when Isaias Samson Jr. surfaced and spoke to media, telling a horrifying story of how he and his family had been detained on orders of the Iglesia’s advisory council. He said he was suspected of being the principal source of derogatory information about corruption in the Iglesia hierarchy, a charge he denies.

When Secretary De Lima gave Samson’s formal complaint due course, the Iglesia hierarchy took this action as an act of hostility. A thousand INC members trooped to De Lima’s office, blocking the road fronting the Department of Justice building on Padre Faura. She could have been lynched if she had tried to talk to them, as Sen. Grace Poe naively suggested.

Nothing is more explosive than the mixture of religion and politicst. ■

AT LARGE

Impunity

By Rina Jimenez-David Philippine Daily Inquirer AMONG THE reasons cited by the protesters still (as of this writing) gathered in front of the Department of Justice building is the need to uphold the “separation of church and state.”

The protesters, members of the Iglesia ni Cristo, were referring to what they deemed the “extraordinary” interest and involvement of Justice Secretary Leila de Lima in the filing of a case of illegal detention, threats and coercion by expelled INC minister Isaias Samson and his family. In interviews, Samson accused members of the council or sanggunian, the governing body of the church, of dispatching security people to keep watch over their residence, confiscating their passports, and monitoring their movements. He also denied knowing De Lima personally or meeting with her.

Apparently, the INC leadership believes that any show of interest in the case, which revolves around accusations of corruption against some leaders of the church, constitutes “meddling” in their affairs. They even condemned some journalists for consistently following up the story, even after the church leaders had

issued a bulletin saying they were conducting an internal investigation into the matter. But how could the investigation produce credible results when the leaders who ordered it are themselves among those implicated?

“Separation of church and state” is contained in the 1987 Constitution which declares that the “separation of church and state shall be inviolable.” This is further explained in another section which states that “No law shall be made respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof. The free exercise and enjoyment of religious profession and worship, without discrimination or preference, shall forever be allowed. No religious test shall be required for the exercise of civil or political rights.”

Clearly, the constitutional provisions refer specifically to the state, to prevent it from favoring or persecuting a religion or religious body. But the question we must answer is: Does allowing the filing of criminal (or even civil) charges against church leaders constitute religious persecution? If Secretary De Lima, if she is so inclined, decides to dismiss the case outright, would that not constitute an extraordinary accommodation for the INC leaders?

*** THE INC has gained considerable political clout mainly because of the practice of “block voting,” dictating the choice of candidates that their members would vote for, an order that the majority of their claimed membership of 2 million apparently follows.

In exchange for this crucial support, especially at the local level, the INC leverages its influence to have favored members appointed to key positions in government, particularly in revenue-generating bodies.

There has even been some speculation that pressure may have been exerted on certain officials to fire or demote their underlings who dared to cross the influential body.

This may explain why law enforcers seemed to drag their feet in pursuing the case when the initial accusations surfaced. It had been alleged that the INC council had illegally detained or dismissed several ministers, including the brother and mother of the current INC head, whom they suspected of publicly revealing the alleged anomalies. Police did visit the INC headquarters to inquire after the allegedly detained ministers, but left after receiving assurances that the ministers were safe. Indeed, some ministers

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surfaced days later to deny the story.

The INC leadership obviously hoped to sweep the controversy under the rug by issuing a virtual gag order on its members and assuring that it was investigating the mess.

But by calling on its members to fill the streets around the DOJ and even, as they threatened, bring their numbers to Edsa, is not the INC itself breaching the “wall” between church and state, using its influence to subvert legal processes and acting with impunity? Who’s interfering with whom now? *** ANOTHER case of impunity is that of Sen. Juan Ponce Enrile, who was detained on charges of plunder (which is nonbailable) but was released from “hospital arrest” on orders of a majority of the Supreme Court justices.

In his dissenting opinion, Justice Marvic Leonen described the majority decision as one of “accommodation,” allegedly on humanitarian grounds. Leonen even accused the ponente, Justice Lucas Bersamin, of deception, saying he sprung the final form of the decision without warning his fellow justices.

In a later interview, Chief Justice Maria Lourdes Sereno, who joined Leonen and two other justices in

the dissent, said she agreed with Leonen’s position and said the case had not yet been decided with finality as a motion for reconsideration could still be filed, meaning, the majority could yet change their minds. *** TO my mind, the release of Enrile is clearly a show of impunity, sending the message that despite facing charges of plunder, considered a heinous crime, one could still wiggle one’s way out of responsibility for the crime. And far from his claims of being so sick he deserved hospital detention rather than a jail, Enrile showed up, apparently hale and hearty, at the Senate chambers.

And what of Bersamin, who took such offense at being called out for the legal sleight-of-hand he undertook, demanding even that Leonen be censured?

I am glad the Chief Justice spoke her mind about the Enrile case, since the majority decision could conceivably be used by other detained officials, especially former president Gloria Arroyo, to seek their own liberty.

We all clamor for an end to corruption in government, but do we stand silent in the face of such impunity in the treatment of “big fish” already caught in the net? ■

Opinion

FRIDAY SEPTEMBER 4, 2015

17

LOOKING BACK

Torre de Manila: Flap repeats itself

By Ambeth R. Ocampo Philippine Daily Inquirer “What has been will be again; what has been done will be done again; there is nothing new under the sun.”

Ecclesiastes 1:9 THE CONTROVERSY around Torre de Manila and how it would affect the sight line and integrity of the Rizal Monument in Luneta is not new. More than half a century before anyone dreamed of this 49-story condominium, a similar storm of public opinion swirled around plans to have the monument updated by Juan F. Nakpil (1899-1986), first national artist for architecture.

Fresh from the success of his reconstruction of the Rizal house in Calamba, Laguna province, which was inaugurated in 1950, Nakpil was asked to design a National Theater on a site 286 meters behind the Rizal Monument to become its dramatic background. The plan for a National Cultural Center, or the Rizal Cultural and Educational Center, included a building to the right of the theater to become the National Library, and another to the left, to become the National Museum. The project was to be implemented by the Jose Rizal National Centennial Commission (JRNCC) created by President Ramon Magsaysay in 1954, to plan and oversee the nationwide celebration of Rizal’s 100th birthday in 1961.

But the plan never materialized due

to the lack of funds. Instead, a proposal from the Knights of Rizal to establish a National Cultural Center in Manila was seriously considered, with Wallace Field, then a vacant lot behind the Rizal monument, chosen as the project site.

Donate a day’s pay After an appeal to government employees and the general public to donate a day’s pay for the construction of the Cultural Center in Luneta, President Carlos P. Garcia on July 4, 1958, laid the cornerstones for the National Theater, to be designed by Juan Nakpil & Sons; the National Library

by Francisco Fajardo and Associates; and the National Museum by Felipe Mendoza and Associates. Later, the library and museum commissions were awarded to a collaborative group called Hexagon Associated Architects, represented by Jose Ma. Zaragosa (posthumously named National Artist for Architecture in 2014).

Then as now, opposition to the proposed Cultural Center was raised on the premise that “construction of the project would desecrate the ground where 158 martyrs, including Jose Rizal, were executed.” Lawyers even argued that while the JRNCC was given administration of Wallace Field, this did not include authority to build on the site. Several solutions were floated, among them converting the agriculture and finance buildings, farther to the back of the Rizal

Monument by Taft Avenue, into the National Museum and National Library, with the Metropolitan Theater to become the National Theater.

Studying the master plan, Nakpil noted that while Rizal Monument was the focal point of the proposed Cultural Center, it became an anachronism in a modern setting. The monument would also be dwarfed by the Cultural Center. Nakpil decided to revisit the concrete pylon in the Art Deco style he had used for the Nakpil family plot in the Cementerio del Norte, and planned a modern stainless steel and aluminum pylon to be built above the Rizal monument to raise its height from 12.7 mto 30.5 m.

‘Monstrous, hideous’ The gleaming steel would update the bare granite obelisk of the existing monument and make it conform to the scale of the Cultural Center that framed it in, he thought.

Richard Kissling gave the title “Motto Stella” (Guiding Star) to the Rizal Monument he had designed, so Nakpil took this literally and envisioned a light atop the pylon that would guide incoming ships at Manila Bay and direct people within the city to Kilometer Zero, the geographic navel of the nation.

But violent public reaction greeted the completion of the modernized Rizal monument in 1961. The steel pylon installed on the granite obelisk of the mon-

ument drew attention to itself rather than the bronze figure of Rizal, people said, describing the updated monument as a rocket ship about to be launched.

The pylon was criticized as an eyesore that elicited such colorful adjectives that included “carnivalistic,” “monstrous,” “nightmarish” and “hideous.”

Future National Artist Napoleon V. Abueva defended Nakpil, saying that the monument needed improvement in proportion by raising its vertical height. He suggested as well that the public suspend judgement and allow the pylon to remain for 10 years to let time age the shaft. He was, however, mistaken in this assumption, as the pylon was made of stainless steel. Howled one artist: “Don’t wait 10 years. [It’s] too long to inflict such a monstrosity on the sensitive soul of the nation.”

In 1962, Education Secretary Alejandro Roces and National Library Director Carlos Quirino, (another future national artist), had the pylon removed, acting during Holy Week to avoid a temporary restraining order from a court that shared Nakpil’s aesthetic sense. Roces proposed that the Kissling monument be moved to Calamba and a new monument in consonance with the spirit of the 1960’s and the setting of the National Cultural Center be erected on the exact site of Rizal’s execution.

P145,000 and was recycled into a welcome sign on Roxas Boulevard, marking the physical boundary between Manila and Pasay City. It was dismantled again in the 1990s and its whereabouts unknown. Only the National Library on T. M. Kalaw, inaugurated on June 19, 1961, was built from the stillborn Rizal Cultural Center. The JRNCC was dissolved, its property and functions later turned over to the National Historical Commission.

Then and now, the battle for the Rizal monument, its physical integrity and its setting, has nothing to do with Rizal who did not want a monument at all. The battle is all about us and how we want to project our memory and respect for the heroes martyred at Bagumbayan. Nakpil in 1961 and the Torre de Manila in 2015 are points where we judge between old and new, between clinging to a nostalgia for the stillborn Burnham Plan in the early 20th century, and the changing times and needs of the early 21st century.

Both sides have valid points, and a compromise between them defines not just what the US colonial administration wanted Filipinos to be in the early 20th century, but how Filipinos want to be in the 21st century and beyond. ■

Battle is about us The pylon cost the government

Editor’s Note: The columnist is the former chair of the National Historical Commission of the Philippines, then called National Historical Institute.

will,” implying that with the return of Enrile to the Senate, even if on a provisional basis, the Straight Path doctrine, promulgated by the secular pontificate seated in Malacañang Palace as a creed of good governance, might meet reversals if the test cases on plunder would collapse.

It is important to note that Enrile is expected by his colleagues to return to his post as minority leader, a strategic platform unwittingly handed to him by his provisional release, from which he can defend himself from criminal prosecution and harassment in the plunder case. As the minority leader, he is in a position to influence the passage of key legislation, including the draft charter of the Bangsamoro substate in Mindanao—President Aquino’s legacy for lasting peace in the southern region.

Even during his hospital detention, Enrile had been delivering setbacks to the government’s effort to prosecute him on the plunder and graft cases.

In his dissenting opinion to the majority decision penned by Associate Justice Lucas Bersamin, Justice

Marvic Leonen slammed the majority decision allowing Enrile to post bail and secure temporary release from detention while the plunder charge was being tried. Leonen said that the ruling cast doubt on the Supreme Court’s impartiality and set a dangerous precedent. The majority voted to grant bail despite the forceful arguments of the dissenting opinion that the bail grant by the majority “is a special accommodation. . . especially tailored for the Senate minority leader… (and) is based on a ground— humanitarian—never before raised before the Sandiganbayan.”

The majority ruling was a setback to the government. It overturned resolutions of the Sandiganbayan issued in July and August last year denying Enrile’s bail plea.

Two weeks ago, the high court also granted Enrile’s plea for the Office of the Ombudsman to file a bill of particulars detailing its charges against him. Enrile had petitioned the Supreme Court for such a bill to allow him to prepare his defense, saying the allegations against him were vague.” ■

ANALYSIS

De Lima’s sound and fury

By Amando Doronila Philippine Daily Inquirer CANBERRA—Justice Secretary Leila de Lima waded into controversy over the hasty release of Sen. Juan Ponce Enrile from detention, with guns blazing. Shortly after Enrile walked out of the police hospital at Camp Crame last week, the combative Cabinet member did not waste time to blast the Supreme Court for granting Enrile bail—a move that set the administration on a collision course with the Court.

At a meeting of people’s organizations in Cebu City, De Lima denounced the Court’s 8-4 vote while he faces trial on charges of plunder and graft. She said the ruling should not have been implemented immediately since it was still subject to appeal within a 15-day period. She served notice the Office of the Ombudsman, which had lodged plunder, graft and bribery charges against Enrile and 30 other former and incumbent lawmakers over the alleged fraudulent disbursements of their pork barrel allotments, to ask the high court to

reconsider the Aug. 18 decision.

The justice secretary’s remark was not triggered by an issue of fundamental importance to judicial doctrine but by her observation that there was rush in freeing Enrile on bail. According to her, she was wondering why Enrile was immediately released, since the dispositive portion did not say that this decision was immediately executory. Without that statement, ordinarily, the decision of all courts, including the Supreme Court, is not immediately final and executory but subject to a 15-day period prescription within which to file a motion for reconsideration.

While speaking about a procedural issue, De Lima at the same time also raised another important issue. She questioned the jurisdiction of the Supreme Court in approving Enrile’s remedy (bail), pointing out that the high court was not a trial court. “So what’s the basis of the assumption of the jurisdiction of the Supreme Court? The petition for certiorari goes through the usual process, including the finality of the decision. That’s why I’m puzzled,” De Lima said.

Why is De Lima so fretful or alarmed over the swiftness in the release of Enrile from detention in the PNP hospital in Camp Crame?

From her speech at the Daang Matuwid (Straight Path) People’s Dialogue at Cebu Normal University in Cebu City, we get a clue for her apprehensions. In other words, De Lima’s speech was a giveaway as to the source of the government ’s concerns. It appears that the Supreme Court rulings on the cases involving Enrile are creating political and legal issues that could put in jeopardy the government’s case against the senator.

She cited the successes of the administration in pursuing corruption cases against influential politicians and putting them in jail. He pointed to the ouster of Renato Corona, who was found guilty by an impeachment court (ironically presided by then Senate President Enrile) for culpable violation of the Constitution and betrayal of public trust: “The Straight Path is all about the rule of law, truth and accountability... It’s only now that we were able to show political

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SEPTEMBER 4, 2015

FRIDAY

Canada News

Clean up begins in wake of severe B.C. windstorm, thousands still without power

BY JOCELYN RICHER The Canadian Press VANCOUVER — Had Vancouver resident Sherrell Hutchingson been standing a foot to the side while opening her car door during Saturday’s vicious windstorm it’s unlikely she’d be able to tell her close-call story of a large tree narrowly missing her as it crushed her vehicle.

“It was scary,” said the softspoken woman, laughing nervously on the street outside her East Vancouver home. “It went right by my head.

“It was like a big crack and the tree just snapped ... and fell right on my car.”

Hutchingson’s experience was part of a myriad reported incidents of other smashed vehicles and wrecked roofs following a brutal windstorm that tore down trees and branches, wreaking havoc across southwestern British Columbia and leaving at its height an estimated 500,000 people without power.

Eighty-kilometre-an-hour winds buffeted the Greater Vancouver Area, at one point toppling a tree onto a woman in her 40s who was walking with her daughter in Surrey. The RCMP described the woman’s injuries as life-threatening.

Sadhu Johnston, Vancouver’s deputy city manager, described the scale of the storm as “unprecedented” and estimated it would take weeks for the city to fully clean up the debris.

“This is probably one of the most intense storms that we’ve had over the past decade,” he said during a news conference, while behind him city crews worked to remove fallen branches from the road.

“I think the drought combined with the high winds really impacted us,” he added.

“The drought led to more trees coming down, which led to more power outages. So it kind of compounded.”

The cost of the extensive property damage and the bill for cleaning up the huge mess has yet to be tallied, he said.

In terms of damage, park board official Brian Quinn said timing was the biggest contributing factor. Such high winds typically arrive in the fall or winter when the trees are bare, he explained.

“This time of year with the canopies completely full of leaves, they act more as a wind sail and catch more of the wind,” said Quinn.

The bulk of the outages

Strong winds knocked down trees around B.C..

❱❱ PAGE 21 Clean up

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Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper.

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Canada in recession; PM Harper denies it as election looms

BY ROB GILLIES The Associated Press TORONTO — Prime Minister Stephen Harper, campaigning for a fourth term on a record of economic growth, has refused to recognize that Canada is in a recession, despite new data to the contrary.

Collapsing prices for oil — a major export — have taken their toll on Canada’s economy, which has recorded its second consecutive negative quarter, the economic benchmark of a recession. It contracted at an annual pace of 0.5 percent in the second quarter and 0.8 percent in the first quarter of 2015, Statistics Canada reported Tuesday.

That could spell trouble for Harper, whose Conservative Party already faced an uphill battle ahead of the Oct. 19. election. Analysts call the threeway race a toss-up.

Harper refused to use the term recession, saying the economy was bouncing back after a brief bump. He pointed to 0.5 percent growth in June.

“I think it’s more important to describe the reality of the situation rather than to have labels,” Harper said. www.canadianinquirer.net

Harper called Canada an “island of stability” amid rough financial waters. The country avoided the worst of the 2008 global financial crash and fared better than most nations. Unlike the U.S., it avoided a real estate market implosion or credit crisis.

That was before oil prices plunged, dragging down Canada’s economy. Now Harper’s bid to become the first Canadian leader to win four consecutive terms in over a century is far from assured.

Harper has reminded Canadians of their recent prosperity. The Conservatives have run small deficits and are promising balanced budgets.

“We’ve had a couple of weak months, but the fact of the matter is over the long haul, post the global financial crisis, Canadians know there is no better place to be,” Harper said.

Since coming to power in 2006, Harper has managed to pull a traditionally center-left country to the right. He has lowered taxes and supported the oil industry, but has failed to win approval for new pipelines that would get the oil to market.

Analysts say the left-of-

center opposition New Democrats, led by Tom Mulcair, has a chance to gain power for the first time. Mulcair has moved his party to the center and vowed to balance the budget.

No matter what party wins the most seats in Parliament, analysts say a minority government is likely, meaning the winner would retain a shaky hold on power and rely on another party to pass legislation.

The campaign is the first three-way race in Canadian history. The vote on the left could split between the New Democrats and Liberals, who could form a coalition.

The opposition Liberals, who governed Canada for most of last century, said they would stimulate the economy with deficit spending on infrastructure.

Opposition Liberal leader Justin Trudeau, the 43-yearold son of late Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau, said Harper refused to acknowledge the economy was in trouble and his plan was failing.

“Today it has been officially recognized what Canadians have known for a long time, that there is a need for investment,” Trudeau said. ■

Canada News

FRIDAY SEPTEMBER 4, 2015

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Some Quebec schools to start a ‘no exemptions’ sex-ed pilot project

BY JOCELYN RICHER The Canadian Press QUEBEC — Education on sexual matters is too important to be optional, according to Quebec’s ministry of education.

The province is rolling out a new pilot project in which sex education, like French and Mathematics, will soon become mandatory for all students from kindergarten to the last year of high school, regardless of the religious or personal convictions of parents across different cultural communities.

No exceptions will be made.

The sexuality education pilot project, which will begin in the next few days in about 15 schools, will last two years.

The program, which will affect 8,200 students, could be adopted by schools across the province in 2017.

However, documents obtained by The Canadian Press, as well a series of interviews conducted in recent weeks, show that approval for the program is far from unanimous.

Months after the announcement of an upgraded sex education curriculum drew largescale protests from parents in Ontario, the implementation of the Quebec program has no lack contentious elements, whether it’s the mandatory nature of the classes, lack of training for teachers, or the absence of consultation.

And whether they like it or not, even the most reluctant parents will have to get used to the idea that their children will learn about the signs of puberty and different sexual practices just as they learn about math and conjugating verbs.

“For the moment, no exemptions are planned,” said ministry of education spokesperson Pascal Ouellet.

In the field, some are wondering if the ministry took Quebec’s cultural and religious

SHUTTERSTOCK

diversity into account. For ex- nancies.”

This topic should be ample, how should teachers Some worry that the teachers broached by trained profesand administrators respond called to transmit the material sionals, echoed Normandwhen a parent opposes, for reli- are not adequately trained to do Charbonneau. gious reasons, their 12-year-old so, raising fears of slipups durNow, during the back-tochild learning to identify differ- ing the pilot project. school period, it is difficult to ent sexual practices?

“They’re incompetents,” said say who exactly is responsible Lorraine Normand-Char- Sylvain Mallette, president of for sexual education in schools. bonneau, the president of the the FAE teachers’ union.

The ministry foresees that it Quebec School Principals Fed“They’re incompetents play- could be teachers, nurses, psyeration, says chologists, or some parents representatives just “don’t want from community their teen to organizations. If learn about masThe reasoning is that education is it’s teachers, the turbation” in beneficial for “preventing sexual task could fall class. assaults, violence in romantic just as easily to a “What will relationships, blood and sexually math teacher as we do, take out transmitted infections, and unwanted one who teaches those students?” pregnancies.

French or geogshe asked. raphy.

Out of the Anatomy lesquestion, acsons or lessons cording to the ministry. ing with the intimate” con- on sexually transmitted infec“Sexual education is planned cerns of students, continued tions could therefore, for severfor all Quebec students,” Ouel- the history teacher, who said he al hours, compete with French let said. The reasoning is that was shocked that the Ministry or algebra. The teacher could education is beneficial for “pre- of Education would trust the talk about sex “during his subventing sexual assaults, vio- teaching of a subject as delicate ject time,” confirmed another lence in romantic relationships, as human sexuality to people ministry spokesperson, Esther blood and sexually transmitted without any expertise in the Chouinard. infections, and unwanted preg- subject matter.

“People teaching sexual

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education don’t need to be high-level experts” to ensure high-quality instruction for the students, she said, adding that the ministry believed “a few hours” of training to be sufficient.

Up until now, not a single person has been charged with teaching sexuality, and no training has been given.

It will be up to school boards and school administrators to recruit volunteers.

But “if nobody wants to, what do we do?” asked NormandCharbonneau, who worries teachers will abstain after the confusion surrounding the launch. Mallette confirmed that teachers “are not knocking at the door” to sign up for the project.

Last spring, Ontario Education Minister Liz Sandals had to lower her sights after the new sexual education curriculum proved so controversial — since sex education won’t be a separate course and won’t have a set schedule. The material will be integrated into regular classes or will be the subject of activities. Therefore, if the French teacher gives the class, the student will be deprived of both sex education and their regular French lesson.

The situation is not helped by the fact that project is being launched in a period of heated contract negotiations and pressure tactics from the province’s teachers.

The ministry of education, which has been working for five years to bring sexual education back into the classroom, has stated everything is in place to assure the pilot project’s success, that the subject matter will be taught in an ageappropriate manner and that all the necessary training and tools will be provided to the schools.

Quebec Education Minister Francois Blais declined to be interviewed on the issue. ■

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Canada News

SEPTEMBER 4, 2015

FRIDAY

Harper should take a break from campaign to help jailed Canadian Fahmy: NDP, Liberals THE CANADIAN PRESS MONTREAL — Stephen Harper’s political opponents are calling on the prime minister to take time off the campaign trail and concentrate on securing the release of jailed Canadian journalist Mohammed Fahmy.

An Egyptian court sentenced Fahmy to three years in prison on Saturday and the foreign affairs critics for both the New Democrats and the Liberals lashed out at Harper for failing to intervene earlier in the case.

They both called on him once again to phone Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi to personally demand the Al-Jazeera journalist’s release.

“Very concretely, we are asking Stephen Harper to put aside the election campaign for a moment and call President al-Sisi directly and ask him to send Mr. Fahmy home,” NDP Foreign Affairs Critic Paul Dewar told The Canadian Press.

Liberal Foreign Affairs Critic

Marc Garneau told The Canadian Press Harper should contact al-Sisi and “register Canada’s strongest disapproval, and in fact to make it very clear that the relationship between Canada and Egypt, which has been a good one, is in jeopardy if Mr. Fahmy has to go back to jail.”

Fahmy faced widely denounced terror charges and spent more than a year in prison before a successful appeal of an earlier conviction resulted in a retrial that culminated in Saturday’s verdict, where Fahmy was sentenced for failing to register with the country’s journalist syndicate, bringing in equipment without security approval, and broadcasting “false news” on Al-Jazeera.

Both Dewar and Garneau accused Harper of failing to take strong action in the Fahmy case.

Garneau said it was “very clear” the Harper government’s response was “inadequate” considering Fahmy’s colleague at Al-Jazeera, Peter Greste, was successfully deported to his native

Mohamed Fahmy in prison.

PHOTO COURTESY OF FAHMY'S TWITTER ACCOUNT / @MFFAHMY11

Australia because of “direct intervention” on the part of Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott.

Dewar said Harper’s Conservatives, in contrast with the Australian prime minister, decided to “stand on the sidelines and really not step up and do their job.”

NDP Leader Tom Mulcair took to Twitter to condemn

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the court ruling, as did Liberal Leader Justin Trudeau.

On Sunday, Defence Minister Jason Kenney reiterated statements that the Canadian government has serious concerns about Fahmy’s case and will continue to raise its concerns “at the highest levels,” but he would not discuss details or specify whether Harper would

personally intervene.

“It’s easy for an opposition leader to stand up with a megaphone,” he said. “But sometimes a degree of forceful discretion is required in the management of complex consular cases.”

Lynne Yelich, minister of state for foreign affairs, said in a statement Saturday that Canada is “disappointed” and that Saturday’s decision “severely undermines confidence in the rule of law in Egypt.”

In a tweet, Harper wrote “Canada continues to call on Egypt for the immediate and full release of Mr. Fahmy, and full co-operation to facilitate his return home.”

Egypt’s Foreign Ministry summoned Britain’s ambassador on Sunday to protest comments he made about the case.

John Casson said the sentences would undermine confidence in Egypt’s stability. The ministry issued a statement that Casson’s comments were “unacceptable interference” in the country’s judiciary. ■

Canada News

FRIDAY SEPTEMBER 4, 2015

Canada’s lower...

Clean up...

Some attributed With these and with the According to the migrant the decline to the Ca- other changes in immigration group, citizenship ‘became nadian immigration’s policies, fewer immigrants harder to get and easier to lose recent changes in policies, espe- have been becoming Canadian in the previous years. Despite a cially regarding family reunifi- citizens at present. In 2000, more vibrant migrant working cation and access to nationality. about 79 percent of immigrants program, permanent residency “Canada’s lower MIPEX in the country became local for refugees, skilled workers and score raises serious questions citizens. In 2008, only about family members were restrictabout the intentions and im- 26 of them became permanent ed… If migrants were allowed in, pact of the government’s new residents, despite paying taxes it came with a temporary, conditurn on immigration policies,” and contributing to the state’s tional or precarious status.’

Migration Policy Group mem- economy.

They also pointed out that ber Thomas Canada has been Huddleston said. ‘accepting more According to migrants under The Star writers temporary perHarald Bauder Canada’s lower MIPEX score raises mits lately than and Ratna Omidserious questions about the intentions those who imvar, earning a and impact of the government’s new migrate permaCanadian cititurn on immigration policies. nently... Migrant zenship and staworkers have tus has become been brought in harder now comas cheap laborpared to the previous years.

The MIPEX report asserted ers, while family-class immiThey cited as an example Otta- that the new restrictions ‘ex- grants and refugees were kept wa, which raised the citizenship pected immigrant families to out.’ application fee to over $500 for live up to standards that many No One is Illegal-Vancouver adults and made the citizenship national families could not.’

Coast Salish Territories has test more difficult for its takers Meanwhile, No One is Illegal- been set to launch its multimeto pass. The city also increased Vancouver Coast Salish Terri- dia report today on the changes the years for sponsorship com- tories, an anti-colonial migrant made in federal immigration, mitment to dependants from 10 group, sought to expose Cana- according to their statistical to 20 years and the income re- da’s allegedly more restrictive findings and interviews with quirement for sponsoring par- and discriminatory immigra- refugees, migrant workers and ents by 30 percent. tion policies. local citizens. ■

❰❰ 18

❰❰ 1

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occurred in the Greater Vancouver Area, and BC Hydro said that as of early Monday morning about 90,000 customers were still waiting for the power to be restored.

BC Hydro said it could take until Monday morning to bring some residents out of the dark, including neighbourhoods in Coquitlam, Surrey and Port Moody.

The region’s 911 line was overwhelmed with inquiries about power outages, prompting officials to ask residents to call only in the event of an urgent emergency.

Metro Vancouver Regional District spokesman Rod Tulett said on Sunday that the district’s emergency procedures had so far performed well. He described the weekend’s gales as the backup system’s biggest test since the district was caught off-guard by a windstorm in 2006 that battered the Lower Mainland and uprooted numerous trees in Vancouver’s Stanley Park.

“After the big windstorm a lot of our facilities received significant upgrades in their backup-

21

power capability,” said Tulett.

“We learned from that.”

Residents took to social media with a mix of both praise and condemnation for BC Hydro and its response to the outages, with much of the vitriol directed toward the utility’s website only working sporadically.

The Greater Vancouver Zoo also suffered extensive damage in the storm, said the facility’s general manager Jody Henderson. Powerful winds caused a number of major fences to come down, most notably the barricade surrounding the grizzly bear enclosure.

“We followed our normal emergency protocol. ... Everyone was contained into a building,” said Henderson about the incident. “At no time did our grizzly bear get out.”

Strong winds also swept through Rock Creek in the southern interior, where a 44-squarekilometre wildfire destroyed 30 homes earlier this month.

The storm triggered wind warnings from Environment Canada, forced the temporary closure of Stanley Park, and slowed ferry service between Victoria and the mainland. ■

World News

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SEPTEMBER 4, 2015

FRIDAY

Build a wall with Canada? How US debate about Mexico touches the northern amigo

BY ALEXANDER PANETTA The Canadian Press WASHINGTON — The Canadian border got dragged into the 2016 U.S. presidential campaign on Sunday, with a prominent candidate appearing to entertain the notion of building a giant wall on the 49th parallel.

The idea was raised in a talkshow interview with Republican contender Scott Walker, who after being pressed twice by the interviewer appeared to agree it was worth considering.

“Some people have asked us about that in New Hampshire.

They raised some very legitimate concerns, including some law-enforcement folks that brought that up to me at one of our town-hall meetings about a week and a half ago,” the Wisconsin governor said during an interview with NBC’s “Meet The Press.”

“So that is a legitimate issue for us to look at.”

Walker didn’t dwell on the issue. He quickly steered the conversation to the Middle East, rebuilding the military, and national security. The exchange about Canada never even made it to air, and was edited out of the interview highlights that ran on “Meet The Press” and was simply posted on NBC’s website.

The context for the conversation is the heated U.S. debate about the Mexican border. Occasionally, the debate will fleetingly touch upon the northern frontier.

On those rare occasions that the Canadian border does come up it’s likelier to be raised, as was the case Sunday, by political commentators than by the presidential candidates themselves.

That’s because the Canadian border makes a handy polemical tool — a pointy needle for pundits seeking to puncture the conservative logic on the other border.

A textbook example was a piece in Politico magazine last fall headlined, “Fear Canada: The real terrorist threat next door.” Its first 18 paragraphs were about Mexico. Before it even mentioned the word “Canada,” it sought to demolish a Republican talking-point about ISIL terrorists supposedly sneaking across the Rio Grande.

That’s what Sunday’s exchange was about.

In a week when Walker himself raised the terrorists-fromthe-south theme, and amid a Republican primary in which the poll-leader, Donald Trump, wants to deport 11 million illegal migrants and build what he calls the Great Wall of Trump, an interviewer asked:

Cars line up at the U.S. - Canada border.

Why Mexico and not Canada?

It was the interviewer who twice raised the Canadian border. NBC host Chuck Todd challenged Walker to explain the focus on the south and, in doing so, he referenced terrorists coming from Canada.

It’s unclear whether he was referring to the repeatedly debunked canard about the 9-11

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hijackers. The most famous incident of a terrorist crossing from Canada was failed millennium bomber Ahmed Ressam, although several American political figures over the years have repeated the erroneous claim about the 9-11 hijackers coming from the north.

Todd asked the governor: “The most famous incident that we had of terrorists coming over our border was on our northern border. Why aren’t you talking about securing the northern border?”

Walker replied that he favoured securing borders in general but said the more rampant current problem was on the southern border.

Todd pressed him again, prompting Walker to mention the northern frontier, in passing.

It was reminiscent of an exchange a few days earlier. Once again, it was a media personality who raised Canada as a point of comparison while chiding a conservative about the other border.

The why-not-Canada question was posed in that case by the most famous Spanishlanguage journalist in the U.S., prominent Trump nemesis Jorge Ramos.

The anchor on the Univision network, who was momentarily expelled from a news conference after he confronted Trump, raised it in an interview with a Fox News host.

He asked Sean Hannity: “You’re going to do it at the border with Mexico, but how about the 5,000 miles between the U.S. and Canada?” The conservative TV host replied: “I would do it up there, too. I would do it up there, too.”

That kind of chatter — as idle as it might be — can make Canadians jittery given that more than one-third of Canada’s Gross Domestic Product involves trade with the U.S., and that the tightened border after the 9-11 attacks caused a rippleeffect that still hasn’t completely subsided.

Canada’s defence minister weighed in when asked about Walker’s remarks Sunday, although he said he hadn’t yet heard them. In response, Jason Kenney said Canada would protect what he called the largest bilateral trading relationship in economic history and outlined security steps already taken.

“Of course we would vigorously oppose any thickening of the border,” he told an Ottawa news conference. ■

World News

FRIDAY SEPTEMBER 4, 2015

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Thai Prime Minister says bombing suspect arrested at border

BY GRANT PECK AND NATTASUDA ANUSONADISAI The Associated Press BANGKOK — Thai authorities arrested a man they believe is part of a group responsible for a deadly bombing at a shrine in central Bangkok two weeks ago, the prime minister announced Tuesday. He said the suspect resembles a yellow-shirted man in a surveillance video who police say planted the bomb.

"It would be great if he were (the bomber). Then we will know who they are, where they came from, who's behind this," Prime Minister Prayuth Chan-ocha told reporters.

He said the man is a foreigner and was detained in eastern Thailand near the Cambodian border, one of several border crossings where authorities set up checkpoints after the Aug. 17 bombing which killed 20 people, many of them foreign tourists, and injured more than 120.

Prayuth said authorities plan to check fingerprints and conduct DNA tests to establish whether the man is the bomber. Police say they obtained the bomber's DNA from a motorcycle taxi and a three-wheeled tuk-tuk taxi that he used.

Spokesmen for police and the military junta that rules Thailand both later said the arrested man resembles the suspect they have been seeking for planting the bomb.

No one has publicly claimed responsibility for the attack, sparking an array of theories about who might be behind it. Police have suggested that the suspects were part of a people-smuggling group who held a grudge against Thai authorities.

Speculation has grown that the suspect might be part of a group seeking to avenge Thailand's forced repatriation of ethnic Uighurs to China in July. Prayuth on Monday linked the two theories, suggesting the bombers might have been involved in smuggling Uighurs out of China.

Prayuth said officials knew from their investigation that people involved in the bombing were about to flee the country and had traced the man to Aranyaprathet district in Sa Kaeo province, a crossing point to Cambodia. The prime minister described the man as a piece in a jigsaw puzzle that would connect various parts of the case, which included a bomb that exploded harmlessly in a river next to a busy pier in Bangkok the day after the shrine blast.

Prayuth warned against speculating about the arrested man until more information is learned.

"Don't say just yet it's about this and that. It could affect international affairs," he said. "We have to do a lot of tests, fingerprints. If he is the guy, he is the guy."

President Benigno S. Aquino III listens as His Excellency General Prayut Chan-o-cha, Prime Minister of the Kingdom of Thailand, delivers his message during the State Luncheon at the Rizal Hall of the Malacañan Palace for the Official Visit to the Philippines on Friday (August 28, 2015).

ROBERT VIÑAS / MALACAÑANG PHOTO BUREAU

"Officials are certain he is a main suspect in this case," national police spokesman Prawuth Thavornsiri said later at a news conference, adding that the authorities are waiting for witnesses to confirm whether he is the yellowshirted man. He said the man is being held by the military under Article 44 of its interim constitution, which gives the prime minister absolute power to issue any order deemed necessary to keep public order or strengthen public unity and harmony.

Prawuth said three new arrest warrants have been issued in connection with the case, bringing the total to seven. Two were named persons - he could not provide spellings for the names of the men, whose nationalities were unknown - while the third was not identified by name but was described as a Turkish national. He displayed pictures of the three on a tablet computer.

The blast at the Erawan Shrine was unprecedented in the Thai capital, where smaller bombs have been employed in domestic political violence over the past decade, but not in an effort to cause large-scale casualties.

Security officials on Saturday arrested a man during a raid on a Bangkok apartment that contained some bomb-making materials, and Thai military authorities have been interrogating him. He has been linked to the shrine bombing, but the authorities have not yet released his name or nationality.

Arrest warrants were issued Monday for two more suspects, a Thai woman and a man of unknown nationality, after a raid Sunday on a second apartment found more bomb-making materials.

Relatives of the woman who had rented

the second apartment told authorities that she is innocent and is now in Turkey, married to a Turkish man. The three new arrest warrants announced Tuesday were related to the apartment

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raided Saturday, police spokesman Prawuth said.

Uighurs are related to Turks, and Turkey is home to a large Uighur community. The Erawan Shrine is especially popular with Chinese tourists, feeding the idea that it could be a target for people who believe the Uighurs are oppressed by China's government. Beijing says some Uighurs are Islamist terrorists, and among them is a group that has been smuggled out of China to join Islamic State fighters in Syria.

The suspect arrested Saturday had a Turkish passport, though Thai authorities say it was fake. At his apartment, they seized at least 11 passports that appeared to be Turkish, among more than 200 passports in all.

A Turkish Foreign Ministry official said Monday that reports that the woman wanted by Thai police may be in Turkey and other allegations about a Turkish connection were "speculation" and that the ministry would not comment on speculation.

The official said he had no information about the woman and could not confirm that her husband is Turkish.

The official spoke on condition of anonymity in line with government rules that bar officials from speaking to journalists without prior authorization. ■

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World News

SEPTEMBER 4, 2015

FRIDAY

Pope: Priests in Holy Year can absolve ‘sin of abortion’

BY KARIN LAUB The Associated Press

have had abortions, while in some dioceses, bishops have reserved the decision for themselves, said the Rev. James Martin, editor-at-large of the Jesuit magazine America.

The pope’s directive on Tuesday “reminds priests of the need for mercy, and it also takes a very pastoral tone toward woman who have had an abortion,” Martin said.

In his letter, Francis made clear he isn’t downplaying the gravity of abortion for the church, which essentially views abortion as equivalent to murder. Instead, he applied his vision of mercy to what is an intensely personal, often anguished choice for women.

“The tragedy of abortion is experienced by some with a superficial awareness, as if not realizing the extreme harm that such an act entails,” Francis wrote in a letter to a Vatican official promoting the church’s evangelization efforts.

“Many others on the other hand, although experiencing this moment as a defeat, believe that they have no other option.”

Francis drew on decades of pastoral experience with rankand-file faithful in his native Argentina, including as Buenos Aires archbishop.

VATICAN CITY — Pope Francis declared on Tuesday he is allowing all priests in the church’s upcoming Year of Mercy to absolve women of the “sin of abortion” if they repent with a “contrite heart,” saying he is acutely aware some feel they have no choice but to abort.

Reflecting his papacy’s central theme of mercy, Francis said in letter published by the Vatican that he has met many women bearing “the scar of this agonizing” decision to abort.

He said God’s forgiveness cannot be denied to those who repent, and therefore he is giving all priests the power to absolve the sin in the Holy Year of Mercy, which runs Dec. 8, 2015 until Nov. 20, 2016.

The church views abortion as such a grave sin that, until now, a Catholic woman who wanted to repent for an abortion could not simply go to her local parish priest. Instead, her His Holiness Pope Francis. diocese’s bishop needed to delegate a priest expert at dealing “I am well aware of the preswith such confessions, to hear sure that led them to this decithe woman’s confession, or resion,” Francis said. “I know that served for himself the decision it is an existential and moral on whether to absolve such ordeal.” women.

“The forgiveEssentially ness of God canFrancis is maknot be denied to ing it possible one who has refor women to byThe tragedy of abortion is experienced pented, especialpass this formalby some with a superficial awareness, ly when that perized process in as if not realizing the extreme harm son approaches the approaching that such an act entails. the Sacrament of special Year of Confession with Mercy. a sincere heart in In the United order to obtain States, which the pope will visit “I have met so many women reconciliation with the Father,” on a pilgrimage this month, who bear in their heart the scar the pope said. many bishops already allow of this agonizing and painful That is why he has decided to priests to absolve women who decision,” the pope wrote. concede to all priests “the dis-

GIULIO NAPOLITANO / SHUTTERSTOCK

cretion to absolve of the sin of abortion those who have procured it and who, with contrite heart, seek forgiveness for it,” he said.

In a statement following the pope’s letter, the Vatican made clear that “forgiveness of the sin of abortion does not condone abortion nor minimize its grave effects. The newness is clearly Pope Francis’ pastoral approach.”

In some cases, bishops turn to a special corps of priests, often drawn from the ranks of the Jesuits, like the pope, to serve as confessor to a woman seeking forgiveness for abortion.

Maureen Tilley, a theologian

at Fordham University, noted that under some circumstances, a woman who has had an abortion is automatically excommunicated, if she wasn’t under coercion or suffering from a psychological problem that affected her decision-making.

To be readmitted to the church, it’s customary for the woman to be asked to perform some penance, such as making a pilgrimage, along with seeking absolution.

Some 30 million faithful are expected to come to Rome on Year of Mercy pilgrimages. ■ AP Religion Writer Rachel Zoll contributed from New York.

UN: This El Nino to be among the strongest since 1950

BY JAMEY KEATEN The Associated Press GENEVA — The current El Nino weather pattern may be on track to become one of the strongest in more than half a century, experts at the World Meteorological Organization said Tuesday.

The El Nino event involves

a shift in winds in the Pacific Ocean along the equator every few years, warming the water more than usual and triggering a change in global weather patterns.

The Geneva-based U.N. body says ocean and atmospheric conditions over the tropical Pacific and most expert models and opinion point to a strengthening of the El Nino in the sec-

ond half of 2015. This El Nino, the first since 1997-98, follows the rapid melting of arctic sea ice and snow cover in the northern hemisphere over the last few years.

“This is a new planet. Will the two patterns reinforce each other or cancel each other?” said David Carlson, director of WMO’s World Climate Research program. “We have www.canadianinquirer.net

no precedent for this situation.”

A WMO statement Tuesday said models indicate ocean temperatures in the east-central tropical Pacific are likely to reach peaks that could make this El Nino among the four strongest since 1950. Peak strength is expected between October and January.

El Nino’s impact this year

on California is one lingering question. The coast of California, which has faced four years of drought, would traditionally get a lot of rain from the El Nino weather pattern, officials said.

WMO director of climate prediction Maxx Dilley said farmers, rescue officials and reservoir operators are among those bracing for El Nino’s impact. ■

World News

FRIDAY SEPTEMBER 4, 2015

25

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UNESCO Chief: IS destruction of Syrian temple 'intolerable'

BY ROB GILLIES The Associated Press BEIRUT — Islamic State militants in Syria committed an “intolerable crime against civilization” by destroying the Temple of Bel, one of the ancient world’s most iconic monuments, the head of the U.N. cultural agency said Tuesday.

The militants used explosives to destroy the two-millennia-old temple in the ancient city of Palmyra on Sunday.

Witnesses described a huge blast and the destruction was later confirmed by U.N. satellite images.

Over the past year, IS has seized onethird of Iraq and Syria and imposed a violent interpretation of Islamic law in a self-declared “caliphate” straddling the two countries. The group captured the ruins of Palmyra and an adjacent modern town of the same name in May. The militants claim ancient relics and sites of worship promote idolatry. They have blown up several ancient treasures in Iraq and destroyed a smaller Palmyra temple, Baalshamin, in late August.

UNESCO chief Irina Bokova said Tuesday that “the destruction of Palmyra constitutes an intolerable crime against civilization, but 4,500 years of history will never be erased.”

“The power of culture is greater than that of all forms of extremism and nothing can stop it,” she added.

She said her agency will try to protect “all that can be saved” from destruction

by IS. UNESCO “will pursue its unrelenting fight against illicit trafficking in cultural objects, the documentation of sites, and the setting up of networks that link thousands of experts in Syria and all over the world, to transmit this heritage to future generations, notably with the help of modern technology,” Bokova said in a statement.

Syria’s antiquities chief, Maamoun Abdulkarim, said that “We have lost the most beautiful temple in Syria.”

“We lost a Syrian icon,” he said.

The Temple of Bel, dating back to 32 AD, shows a unique merging of ancient Near Eastern and Greco-Roman architecture. It is dedicated to the Semitic god Bel and is considered one of the most important religious buildings of the first century. The temple consisted of a central shrine inside a colonnaded courtyard, with a large gateway within a complex that has other ruins, including an amphitheater and some tombs.

It stood out among the ruins not far from the colonnades of Palmyra, which is affectionately known by Syrians as the “Bride of the Desert.”

Palmyra was an important caravan city of the Roman Empire, linking it to India, China, and Persia. Before the outbreak of Syria’s conflict in March 2011, the UNESCO site was one of the top tourist attractions in the Middle East. ■ Associated Press writer Albert Aji in Damascus, Syria contributed to this report.

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26

SEPTEMBER 4, 2015

FRIDAY

FILIPINO-CANADIAN IN FOCUS:

Defying Odds, Making A Difference: Winston L. Sayson

BY CHING DEE Philippine Canadian Inquirer “THERE IS no shame in hard work.”

From a wise father to his young son, these words resonated with Winston Sayson when he was growing up. He shares his inspiring story of perseverance and success with the Philippine Canadian Inquirer.

More Opportunities, a Better Future

Winston was born in Manila, Philippines in 1963. He grew up in Makati and Mandaluyong, Metro Manila.

Because of the political and economic uncertainties after martial law, where his father was jailed without lawful charges, his parents decided it wasn’t the best place to raise a family. So, in May 1981, the Sayson family immigrated to Vancouver.

“Our parents wanted to give us more opportunities and a better future,” Winston recalled. “We were eager to make a new life in this beautiful country.”

He added, “When my seven siblings, my mom, and I arrived in Canada, we realized that we all had to chip in and start earning some money to sustain a large family. We were hired for the entry level jobs that we applied for: door-to-door encyclopedia sales, tele-marketing for carpet-cleaning and time share companies, delivering newspapers, stocking groceries for corner stores, and secretarial jobs. Some of the jobs were difficult, but we persevered.” “Things became harder when my father passed away unexpectedly in 1985.”

Despite being educated in one of the best schools in Metro Manila and living a more-thancomfortable life in the Philippines, Winston took on the job of being a door-to-door salesman for an encyclopedia company.

“I was told that I would get a free trip to Mexico if I sold a certain number of encyclopedia sets,” he shared. “After two

weeks of trying to get into people’s living rooms to make my sales pitch, I finally got one family who said they would think about my sales proposal. But my supervisor said that meant nothing.”

Winston quit his salesman stint after two weeks, having sold nothing. He knew he was not cut out to be in sales and that he had to move on to another job.

His next employment adventures included being a “lobby boy” at a hamburger fast food chain, where he was promoted to being a cook, and then moved on to become a crew chief. He also worked as a car jockey and counter representative for a car and truck rental company.

“My Dad told us that there was no shame in hard work and I believed it. I semi-cheerfully did the work,” Winston said.

Later on, through much elbow grease and determination, Winston earned his political science degree in 1985 and his law degree in 1988 from the University of British Columbia (UBC).

“Work twice as hard to prove yourself”

“Canada was generous and welcoming to immigrants,” Winston said, adding that having relatives who were already in Canada was a great help and advantage.

“However, our lack of ‘Canadian experience’ and familiarity with the new culture encouraged us to learn and adapt quickly… I worked hard to ‘Canadianize’ my Taglish (TagalogEnglish),” he said. “The need to compete and excel motivated me and my family to work hard, persevere, and do our best in our academics and in our careers… We all sought and obtained higher education.” UBC granted ten post-secondary degrees to the Sayson siblings.

Winston also shared a memory from his early days in Canada. He said, “I recall an elder telling me that because I had black hair and brown eyes, I had better be prepared to work twice as hard to prove myself.”

And they did just that.

With a mixture of pride and

joy, Winston shared, “Canada provided my family with many educational and career opportunities. [Today,] one of my sisters is a lawyer, another is a school principal, and another is a Certified General Accountant. One of my brothers is an English teacher, another is a commercial real estate broker, and the other is an awardwinning videographer.”

Life in the Great White North

Aside from academic and career opportunities, Winston believes that “there are many good things about life in Canada.”

“The first thing I noticed when I came to Canada was the clean air of Vancouver, the abundance of clean and potable water, and the vastness of the land. I loved the changes that came with the four seasons,” Winston said. “I appreciate the integrity of the police forces and our criminal justice system. I cherish and value the way the law is equally applied to all citizens. In fact, I have spent the last 26 years working as a prosecutor for the Criminal Justice Branch of the Ministry of Justice in British Columbia.”

Despite the many good things about life in the Great White North, Winston sometimes can’t help but miss Pinoy comforts like the glorious Filipino food and the warmth of his relatives.

“I miss the festivity and the wholehearted celebration of our ‘pasko’ (Christmas). I fondly remember the ubiquitous ‘parol’ (iconic star-shaped Christmas lantern), the crispy ‘lechon’ (roast pig), and the abundance of food and Filipino dessert during the Christmas season,” he said, a glint of longing visible in his eyes.

He continues, “I also miss the beautiful beaches and tropical fruits like the atis, star apple, lansones, and chico. Most significantly, I miss my relatives, the warmth of the Philippine culture, and the friendliness of the Filipino people.”

Being proud of his Filipino heritage, Winston strives to incorporate Pinoy values in his life and his family. www.canadianinquirer.net

Winston L. Sayson with his family.

“I am proud to share my roots and heritage with others… I live out my heritage by respecting those who are older than me and those who are in positions of authority,” he said, recalling how he had to get used to calling his supervisors by their first names without using ‘ma’am’ or ‘sir’ that we Filipinos are so used to.

“I attend community events so that I can connect with the people around me. I participate and contribute to my chosen city, Richmond, by serving as a trustee in the Hospital & Health board, and the Coordinating Committee on Ethnic Relations,” he adds.

Winston also pointed out the easiest way to get in touch with his Pinoy roots.

“The easiest way to connect to my Filipino heritage is to go to the many Filipino restaurants around Metro Vancouver… You will be sure to find familiar food and many ‘kababayan’.”

According to Winston, he still has not outgrown Filipino mannerisms like pointing with his lips, getting another’s attention by saying “pssst!” and

every now and then speaking in Taglish.

On Being a Man of the Law

After earning his political science degree in 1985, Winston knew he wanted to pursue a career in law.

“I decided that I would pursue a career using the skills and abilities that I had. I wanted to use the law to make my new country a better place,” he said.

However, getting into law school proved harder than he thought. After taking the Law School Admission Test, he scored poorly. On his second take, he got an even lower score. Determined to get into law school, he applied to all sixteen Canadian common law schools—all of which rejected his application. Despite the odds seemingly going against him, Winston’s ambition and determination did not waver.

“I hoped and prayed,” Winston recalled. “A few weeks before law school started, I got a call from the Faculty of Law at the University of British Columbia, my first choice of school. They said that someone had dropped out at the last min-

27

FRIDAY SEPTEMBER 4, 2015

ute. UBC asked if I wanted to take that position. I said, ‘Yes!’ My hope and prayers were answered.”

Today, Winston is a senior trial prosecutor based in the Surrey Crown Counsel office. He has prosecuted many high-profile fatality cases and is known for his expertise in prosecuting crimes committed against children and other vulnerable victims.

“What I love most about my job are the opportunities for me to help victims of crimes and make a difference in their lives and in their recovery from their victimization,” Winston said. “I value the fact that I am in a position to mentor criminology students, articling students, and junior prosecutors. I am honored to have a role in helping make our community safer by getting dangerous criminals convicted and sentenced by the Courts,” he said, adding that his career has given him much personal growth and professional satisfaction.

In 2010, he was awarded the Criminal Justice System Leadership Award by the Police Victim Services of B.C. for his compassionate work with victims of crime. In 2011, he was appointed a Queen’s Counsel by the Attorney General of B.C. in recognition of his exceptional merit and contribution to the legal profession. Two years ago, he was presented the Long Service Award by the Province of British Columbia to commemorate 25 years of dedicated public service. Last year, he received the Recognizing Excellence Award from the Criminal Justice Branch (CJB) of the Ministry of Justice. His most recent award is the Vision Award from the International Association of Forensic Nurses for his leadership in teaching, supporting, and promoting the practice of Forensic Nursing in the context of sexual assault investigations and prosecutions.

Despite numerous accolades, Winston still finds parts of his job difficult.

“The challenging part of my job is to constantly witness the brutality and viciousness of crimes committed against children and other vulnerable victims,” he somberly shared. “Every time I see an image of child abuse or similar materials, my soul aches. It is disturbing to see the evil and monstrous acts that people commit against others.”

Challenging and heartbreak-

ing as it is, Winston uses these crimes to fuel his passion for helping build a safer country and helping victims of crime.

The Five E’s For those who are planning to move to Canada—and even for those who have recently landed in the Great White North— Winston shares five E’s that can guide your transition.

He believes in five key elements that contribute to the successful integration of a new life in Canada: English, Education, Employment, Engagement with Community, and Excellence.

“English (or French): Learn and strive to communicate clearly and effectively in English. Work on your accent and pronunciation. The ability to speak and write well in English is crucial; “Education: Make it a priority to seek and obtain higher education. This will require financial sacrifices and even help from others. Education and the skilled trades will open career doors for you; Identify and recognize your strengths and skill set; seek to improve them through courses and training.

“Employment: To get Canadian experience, be willing to volunteer or start with a lower position if you cannot find a job in your field or level. Seek mentorship from those already in the field. Work hard, be loyal, and prove yourself to your employer by the quality of your work. Strive to be an expert in your area of work; “Engagement: Make the time and effort to connect and contribute to your community.

There are many volunteer positions available. Reaching out and helping others enriches your life and those that receive your kindness. Your faith community and churches are a rich source of support. Value and cherish your family. Commit to make Canada a better place.

“Excellence: Always commit to give your best effort at school or at work. Be the best that you can through hard work and diligence.

Winston acknowledges his roots and the Christian education that he received in the Philippines. “I am grateful for my parents, my family, and most important of all, my God for a blessed life in the Philippines and Canada. I hope that my story will encourage all my kababayan to strive for excellence. ■

PANGARAP : SO, OUR JOURNEY BEGINS

So, what’s with the Balikbayan Boxes?

BY BOLET AREVALO

THE NOISES of my fellow migrants are much too loud not to be heard because the moves back home are much too insensitive not to be felt.

I remember my first experience with balikbayan boxes through the thoughtfulness of my very loving father-in-law.

He would come home from engagements for musical shows abroad and we would all be excited opening the balikbayan boxes that he patiently filled up with his own bargain shoppings, friends’ gifts and some relatives’ donations and giveaways.

Upon opening a box, there would always be that “stateside” scent and it was like the smell of the USA was momentarily transported to our home in the Philippines. The items were crazy varied and huge – toothpaste, bath soap, shampoo, lotion, chocolates, towels, bedsheets, tshirts, toys, canned goods, corned beef, Vienna sausage, fruit juices, hotcake mix and syrup, rubber shoes, slippers, bags, undies, socks, stockings, nipper, nailcutter, school supplies, baby oil, baby lotion, diapers, baby food, nail polish, shower gels, mayonnaise, peanut butter, sandwich spread, toiletries, razor blades, shaving lotion, shower curtains, linens, mittens, cookware, hot chocowww.canadianinquirer.net

late, coffee, creamer. Almost everything and anything transportable into that magic balikbayan box.

In one of my first visits to my in-laws in the States when they finally migrated, I saw how they painstakingly buy anything or something every now and then, and drop in the box. Every day, every single day for like half of the year. Not all at once because they patiently waited for the sale items and gifts from friends and relatives that they would rather give away than keep for themselves. I recall one story of a Walmart store announcing a sale of Spam for $1. Oh my goodness, Pinoys trooped to the store at the break of dawn of Day 1 of sale and by the end of Day 1, all the Spam on sale were gone. All these Spam cans apparently found their way into those balikbayan boxes.

Then I would travel in and out of the country for work, and found myself also filling up balikbayan boxes to bring back home to family and friends. I would also look for sale and discount items; go to outlets and suburban shopping areas to get good bargains. But that is not the balikbayan box scenario that is being hardest hit by the insensitivity of some people in the good ol’ government back home who are trying to find “innovations” to their fresh appointments and or justify their existence in the corridors of powers and grandstanding.

My life is different now. I, myself, is an OFW. May be not in

the strictest sense of the word as defined by my society. But a Filipino migrant worker living abroad. I wouldn’t have felt the anger, the frustration and the pain of my fellow Filipino migrants, whether working or living abroad, on this balikbayan box fiasco, had I not found myself now in the very same situation. Yes, it was a choice, and a decision that we left but having left meant trying to carve a better future for our families. And leaving did not mean turning our back from our country of birth but instead doing what we can to alleviate the poverty and suffering of our families, even if we ourselves may be poor and suffering here abroad. Leaving also meant sending our hardearned money to the Philippines in remittances to families and relatives. To send children to school, pay banks loans, pay utilities especially the staggering electricity bill, bring decent food on the table and cover heads with sturdier roofs.

I was head of remittance marketing of the No. 1 bank in the Philippines in this remittance business. I did that job for 5 years and I know exactly whereof I speak. The OFW remittances had for the longest time propped up the economy of the Philippines, many times even higher than the money that foreign investments bring in but to which more liberality and incentives are being given.

True or not true, we were all ❱❱ PAGE 31 Abolition just

Community News

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FRIDAY

Seeking UBC’s earliest Filipino graduates TO CELEBRATE the University of British Columbia’s upcoming centennial year, beginning this fall the Asian Canadian and Asian Migration Studies program (ACAM) is looking back on the university’s past 100 years in order to uncover the unknown histories of its Asian Canadian communities.

The ACAM Alumni Research Project seeks to discover the names and stories of UBC’s first Asian Canadian graduates. What was attending UBC like for an Asian student before 1942 and the beginning of World War II? What campus clubs and activities did students of Asian heritage participate in? The stories we share will help us reflect on how UBC has changed in the last 100 years in its demographics, social attitudes, and perspectives on diversity and inclusion.

This list of Filipino UBC students was collected based on the information found in the university’s archival material and yearbooks published between 1916 to 1966 and per recommendations of members of the community. If details on this list need updating or if there are names to be added, we would be more than happy to hear from you. If you or someone you know are familiar with the names on this list and would like to share their UBC stories with the project, please contact Dominique Bautista (dominique.bautista@alumni. ubc.ca; 604.789.2727).

Name Olivia H Bisner

Affiliation to UBC

B Applied Sciences 1965: Electrical George Yan Engineering Hometown: Baguio MA Linguistics 1966 Pablo Hometown: Pasig Natividad Colombo Scholarship recipient MA Linguistics Ponciano 1967 Bendiola Hometown: Manila PeraltaColombo Pineda Scholarship recipient MA Linguistics Norma Peralta 1967 Olaya Colombo Scholarship recipient MA Linguistics 1967 Fe Aldave Yap Colombo Scholarship recipient MA Linguistics Evangeline 1967 K Tan Colombo Scholarship recipient Luchie (Luz B Education 1970: Grey) Verzosa Elementary Winston BA 1985 Poli Sci, Sayson LLB 1988 Michael BA 1987: Guzman Psychology Sophia BSci (Agriculture) Verzosa 1988 Isabel Verzosa BSci (Agriculture) 1988

*BA: Bachelor of Arts *BSci: Bachelor of Science *MA: Master of Arts

B Social Work 1962 Hometown: San Andres

Caregivers run and play for a cause IT WAS a sun-soaked beautiful bright Saturday, and it only got brighter with all the laughter and liveliness of caregivers at the Killarney Park Oval, where the caregivers and temporary foreign workers gathered for a whole day of sports activities

and amusement at the recent Multicultural Helping House Society (MHHS) Fun Run 2015.

The Fun Run is an annual fundraising event for the MHHS Caregiver and TFW Crisis Fund. ❱❱ PAGE 39 Caregivers run

Filipinos walk along streets of Manila in Downtown Toronto

BY BOLET AREVALO IT WAS clearly an excuse for foregoing dieting for two days or feeling sentimental from missing home country, the Philippines.

This year’s Taste of Manila was once again a celebration of true Pinoy-ness as organizers and patrons gathered their energies together to introduce Pinoy food, hospitality and progress going on back home among Torontonians.

The festival was held Aug. 22 and 23, along Bathurst and Wilson streets in downtown Toronto.

A project of the Philippine Cultural Community Center (PCCC) and the Philippine Consulate General (PCG), Taste of Manila is now on its second year.

Taste of Manila of was first introduced in this bustling city of Ontario in 2014. Essentially a street food festival, it runs similar to the long running festivals in the area like The Taste of Danforth by the Greek community, Taste of Asia in Markham City and a Taste of Little Italy. These festivals showcase ethno-cultural activities that include songs, dances, games, foods and local contests.

2015 Taste of Manila attracted a throng of street food lovers www.canadianinquirer.net

and just about every Fil-Canadian who missed Pinoy food.

The non-Pinoy friends and guests got to be introduced to the Pinoy food and culture, and evidently enjoyed their visit to the street festival.

This year also highlighted a musical variety show that imported Filipino heartthrob Jericho Rosales, a television and movie personality from the Philippines, as main attraction. The other highlight of the event was the longest boodle-fight, an eating extravaganza that features favorite local dishes “plated” in one long table covered with banana leaves and best “attacked” eating with bare hands.

Progressive and active business organizations from both the Toronto GTA and the Philippines took advantage of the gathering of Pinoys, very much captive as a market to send good news from back home and introduce the many conveniences of connecting and continuously doing business with the Philippines.

Some of these companies are regulars and mainstays in this type of Filipino events like the The Filipino Channel, remittance companies like BPI, MyRemit, Iremit and Western Union, real estate developers like the prestigious AyalaLand

International, cargo handlers like LBC. Canadian based companies also joined in. Politicians and local government officials also took the time to greet and shake hands with the local constituents fairly recognizing the vastly growing Filipino-Canadian communities in the region and elsewhere in Canada.

To many local Pinoys, it was a travel down memory lane as they are missing home. Successful couple Lovelle and Lawrence Sy and their kids, for example, came by to savor the food they miss and could not ordinarily cook by themselves.

Thus, they made it a point to really come by and enjoy the afternoon at the festival.

“It was a happy time for us and chance to introduce our kids to the Pinoy food that they haven’t had the chance to try in the real streets of Manila,” quipped Lovelle.

For Lovelle and Lawrence, and many other families who visited the festival, it was a feeling well worth having to be there like you were traversing some streets from home and tasting Manila once again.

After all, as the good saying goes – you can take the Filipino out of the country, but you cannot take the country of the Filipino. ■

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FRIDAY SEPTEMBER 4, 2015

www.canadianinquirer.net

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FRIDAY

Entertainment

Derek reunites with former Kapamilya

BY MARINEL R. CRUZ Philippine Daily Inquirer “LET’S KEEP our fingers crossed and hope this will lead to better things,” said actor Derek Ramsay, who once severed ties with ABS-CBN after he transferred to rival network TV5, but is now promoting a film under Star Cinema.

Derek plays lead in the romantic drama “Ex With Benefits,” by director Gino M. Santos. He also stars in the Toto Natividad action flick “Pangil,” which will be released by Skylight Films. Both Star Cinema and Skylight are movie production arms of the Kapamilya network.

“Looks like things are going to that direction,” Derek told reporters during a press conference for “Ex With Benefits,” which will open in theaters on Sept. 2. He is set to promote the movie in four Kapamilya shows, Derek reported.

“TV5 has allowed me to promote, too.

(ABS-CBN and I) will limit our relationship strictly to the movies. This is out of respect for TV5.” He just renewed his contract with the Kapatid network early this year.

Heartthrob Derek Ramsay with Kapamilya actress Coleen Garcia in “Ex With Benefits.”

“I have to thank Direk Toto and Sir Enrico (Santos of Skylight) because they really fought for me. I guess they (ABS-CBN bosses) just figured that it was time. Both parties have decided to settle differences and just move on. When Direk Toto asked

me to do ‘Pangil,’ that led to other things.

They realized that ‘maybe we should give Derek another chance.’”

“Ex With Benefits” is the story of former lovers, Adam (Derek) and Arki (Coleen Garcia), who went to school together and had a good relationship until Arki suddenly disappeared. A decade later, they reunite, with Adam already a successful doctor and Arki, a medical representative. The two try to work together as they attempt to forget the past.

How do you approach acting in a sex scene?

The challenge of every actor is to step out of who you are, get into character and then come back to reality. What I do is shut my entire system down, stop being Derek and become my character. To prepare for this, I meditate. I convince myself that I am Adam. Coleen will not respect me if I get carried away.

How do you avoid “mishaps” during shooting?

Accidents happen. During one scene, I was supposed to lift Coleen and then dip her. When I did, her boobs were in my face. Coleen and I carried on with the scene. I simply apologized and she said OK. I haven’t experienced feeling exploited on the set. Only Anne (Curtis in “No Other Woman”) got to touch my bottom, but it was under the instruction of the director and with my consent.

Did you get to talk to Billy (Crawford, Coleen’s real-life boyfriend) after shooting the love scenes?

Billy approached me to say that he was

www.canadianinquirer.net

STAR CINEMA

happy that the role went to me because he trusts me. It was kind of him to say that. It’s nice to know that I have a friend in the industry who looks at me that way and respects me.

Will you let your non-showbiz girlfriend watch the movie?

She has no problem with it. She knows that this is what I do for a living. Before we got together, there were things in her life that some men might not accept— she has a child, but that’s a plus for me.

Joanne (Villablanca, 26) is a commercial model. Her daughter Sophie is 8. She calls me Tito Derek.

Have you had a chance to speak with Angelica (Panganiban, ex-girlfriend) after your breakup?

I haven’t seen her. I’d say hello to her if I bump into her but if she ignores me, I will not be insulted because that’s her take on things. I just hope that one day, we’d get to talk and let bygones be bygones.

How has your relationship with your 12-year-old son improved through the years?

I haven’t seen him since Christmas.

He’s in school in Dubai… Our relationship is so much better than before, but it’s still a long way before we could have the kind of relationship I have with my father. I won’t stop trying, though. I went to Dubai recently, but didn’t get to see him. It will happen in God’s time. I will just keep trying. My son has been through enough emotional stress and I don’t want to add to it anymore. ■

Entertainment

FRIDAY SEPTEMBER 4, 2015

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PAGTITIPON: A gathering of stimulating and enjoyable art in Vancouver B.C.

BY BABES CASTRONEWLAND

VANCOUVER COMMUNITY had a special glimpse into the incredible work currently being done by world-class Filipino artists. The atmosphere was festive. The air was thick with sheer admiration at such assembly of divergent art compositions. The well-attended Philippine art exhibition called Pagtitipon (A Gathering) on August 10-14, 2015 was made possible by ten (10) esteemed Filipino artists selected and invited by the Filipino Music & Art Foundation in BC (FMABC).

The latter couldn’t have chosen a more pristine venue than the Roadhouse Community Centre that sits right smack at the center of historic Yaletown, the once warehouse district of Vancouver during the 1900’s.

The edifice boasts of an exhibition hall with original post and beam architecture and polished concrete floor. Its high ceilings, natural light and the floor-toceiling windows provided a dramatic backdrop for a significantly huge artwork gathering.

An “invitation only” opening gala on August 10 was graced by no less than the Philippine Ambassador to Canada, H.E. Ambassador Girly Garcia who flew in from Ottawa to cut the ribbons.

The Consulate General of the Philippines was well represented headed by the Honorable Consul General Neil Frank Ferrer and Deputy Consul General Anthony “Anton” Mandap. It was a night of ethnic diversity and of lower

Esmie Gayo McLaren.

Pagtitipon ribbon cutting.

mainland’s Filipino-Canadian crème de la crème. Even the standard of young people’s ideas of what constitutes modern, relevant art was satiated.

While our tummies were filled up with delectable hors d’oeuvres and glass after glass of fine wine selections, we didn’t forget the reason why we were there. We were privileged and honored as witnesses to such rich tapestry of Philippine contemporary art created by ten global Filipino artists.

They were categorized into four clusters — Jose Trinidad, Edgardo Lantin and Esmie Gayo McLaren. This first cluster embodied modern day artists who are “classically predisposed to painterly mimesis”. Trinidad’s romantic influence of Renoir is vividly reflected on his plein-air canvases which are snapshots of springtime scenes (“Backyard,” “Midsummer,” and “TagAlong”) in western Canada.

Dubbed as Master Portraitist, Lantin showed his canvases that depict Filipino fish port workers (“Hauling Fish I & II”). Lantin’s classic mastery of figures in action; capturing momen-

tarily flexed muscles and sinews is well executed. His “competent rendition of city lights on drenched surroundings” (“Rainy Afternoon”) is mostly commendable. McLaren, on the other hand, is partial to joyful narratives, “rendering them in brushstrokes with gradient blending”. She’s motivated by graceful performers “in contrapposto in order to capture changes in figure momentum”.

Second batch Tessie Dichupa, Art Zamora and Danvic Briones have mastered deduction of “meaning or aura from physical phenomena into new compositions.” Dichupa has proven his impeccable mastery of brush strokes in oil, pastels, watercolor and acrylic (“Blending Playful” and “Slow Cautious”). As well as mood landscapes as shown on her work, “Lost in Time”.

Zamora is pretty much keen at ancient eastern and western philosophies; and balancing traditional and contemporary ideas from his travel memoires.

He combines “architectural and geometrical elements into color schemes that focus on the circle as signifier of oneness, connec-

tivity and renewal”. Briones expands his drawing skills by “exploring various media including relief painting and digital drawing”. His works “Richmond TODA”, “Father and Child”, “Koifee Break” are seamless images “influenced by direct-impact strategy of visual communication. Third cluster would be Imelda Cajipe Endaya and Bert Monterola. This group decidedly “converse with media and elements of their milieu, purposively using distinct cultural motifs to advocate social causes.”

Endaya is known for her “femaleist” language consequently on issues of feminism in her art (“Hilom” or Healing). Monterola who hails from the Manobo region in Mindanao (southern Philippines), promotes “recultivation of indigenous life and knowledge in confronting issues of globalization and environmental degradation” as depicted in his works, “Essence of Justice”, “Sarimanok”, and “Wild Flowers.” The fourth and last cluster belonged to Carlos Esguerra and Lenore S Lim. These two derive their inspirations from “extracting patterns,

textures and silhouettes” from their external environments — Esguerra through photography; and Lim though digital manipulation. Landscape and fine arts photographer Esguerra applies minimalist approach to his creations — “Baklad-5342”, “Wading in the Mangroves-4571” and “Coron Silhouette-6303”. Lim transfers photographic or photocopied details of her subjects onto plates of copper or stone by etching, stenciling or lithography. Her “Wisteria” series of photo-etching, mixed media canvases and layered lithographs are “delightful, candid impressions of sheer feminine presence” in this exhibit.

No one could have done it successfully than the FMAFBC. It seamlessly converged diversely unique Philippine treasures in modern art. Special credits accorded to the art exhibition’s guest curator, Imelda Cajipe Endaya. This writer’s notes were mostly culled from Ms. Endaya’s exemplary narratives of featured artists and their masterpieces. ■

many years ago. But today I find myself doing the same thing he gladly and religiously did with those balikbayan boxes. I would have an open box that I fill in every day, for many days, with goods and things that I can afford from my little earnings. I would rather put the corned beef and the Spam, the nicer towels and the bed sheets in there. I would rather send the Victoria Secret lotion or the Bath and

Body hand cream in that box, and content myself with some freebies. I visit Walmart or the Canadian Superstore time and again to see if Pampers or Huggies are on sale. I will scrimp on my own grocery shopping so that I can have more to spare for my balikbayan boxes.

But my story is not even the saddest version of these balikbayan box stories. I am certain, more kababayans are even in

the worst situations somewhere out there, elsewhere in many parts of the globe. I may never know the versions of their true stories. But I will always feel what they feel because I have my own story to tell. We are not even exaggerating. We are not even able to tell everything because the details may be much too sad, too embarrassing, or too degrading.

Yet, we do everything and put

everything we can in that balikbayan box because we know it will put a smile on the lips and faces of our loved ones. And this makes us happy.

Call it an overstatement, call it exaggeration, but some may never understand the outrage because they may never know the essence of being able to send that balikbayan box to our families back home. And that makes us sad. ■

babecastronewland@gmail.com

So, what’s... suspecting that those in government did not make any outstanding efforts to put money in the education sector, solve the unemployment problem and discourage migration of Filipino workers because it is actually remittances that has continued to bring the country to its economic salvation to this day.

Yet, what do we get in return?

My father-in-law has died ❰❰ 27

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Entertainment

32

SEPTEMBER 4, 2015

FRIDAY

Nicki Minaj calls out Miley Cyrus at MTV Video Music Awards

BY MESFIN FEKADU The Associated Press NICKI MINAJ called Miley Cyrus out at the MTV Video Music Awards after the 22-yearold said in an interview that the rapper was being a poor sport about not receiving a nomination for video of the year.

After collecting best hip-hop video for “Anaconda” on Sunday, Minaj told the audience at the Microsoft Theater in Los Angeles: “And now back to this b---- that had a lot to say about me a lot in the press. Miley, what’s good?”

Minaj’s microphone was cut off, and Cyrus fired back with “we all know how they manipulate” words during interviews, referencing a pre-VMAs interview in the New York Times.

Cyrus then stumbled over her words as she tried to read from cue cards about voting for the artist to watch award.

“I lost this award in 2008 and

I was fine with it. Whatever!

Because it’s no big deal. It’s just an award and I persevered,” she yelled, appearing to look over at Minaj.

She ended with: “Congratulations, Nicki.”

In the recent interview, Cyrus criticized Minaj for her “pop star war” with Taylor Swift that began in July. On the show, however, rapper ended her issues with Swift at the show: The performers joined forces onstage.

After Minaj entertained the audience with her upbeat “Trini Dem Girls,” Swift joined the rapper during her performance of the “The Night Is Still Young.”

Swift wore a bright red dress that mirrored Minaj’s ensemble. Swift then performed some of her hit, “Bad Blood,” as Minaj danced around her. They closed with a hug.

Swift, who is the top nominee with 10, traded words with Minaj over Twitter when

the VMA nominees were announced in July. Minaj, who had one of the most viewed videos of the year with “Anaconda,” is not up for video of the year, and she tweeted that slim women easily earn top nominations and said black female entertainers don’t get enough credit for their influence on pop culture. Swift thought the rapper was referring to her and they traded words online, but later apologized.

Swift’s nominations include video of the year, best collaboration, song of summer and more. She won best pop video and female video.

Cyrus is hosting the VMAs two years after she stole the show with a risque, but memorable performance with Robin Thicke, and a year after winning the top prize for “Wrecking Ball.” She took a selfie with people in the audience and asked them to yell: “Marijuana.”

“Ellen, you ain’t got nothing on this,” she said.

Nicki Minaj.

Bruno Mars and Mark Ronson’s “Uptown Funk” earned the first Moonman in the live telecast for best male video.

“Uptown Funk forever!

Thank you!” Mars yelled.

The song is also up for video of the year, and will compete with Swift’s “Bad Blood,” Beyonce’s “7/11,” Kendrick Lamar’s “Alright,” and Ed Sheeran’s “Thinking Out Loud.”

The night will feature other A-listers: Justin Bieber will

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perform his new single, “What Do You Mean,” and Kanye West will receive the Michael Jackson Video Vanguard Award for his illustrious video career.

Pharrell and Demi Lovato will hit the stage during the two-hour show, and presenters include Britney Spears, Rebel Wilson, Kylie Jenner, John Legend, Ice Cube and his son, O’Shea Jackson, Jr., one of the stars of “Straight Outta Compton.” ■

Horror movie director Wes Craven dies at 76

BY DAISY NGUYEN AND JAKE COYLE The Associated Press

Horror movie writer and director Wes Craven.

TINSELTOWN / SHUTTERSTOCK

LOS ANGELES — It’s hard enough to redefine a genre once in a career, but horror virtuoso Wes Craven managed to do it twice.

The prolific writer-director, who died Sunday at age 76, ushered in two distinct eras of suburban slashers, first in the 1980s with his iconic “Nightmare on Elm Street” and its indelible, razor-fingered villain Freddy Krueger. He did it again in the 1990s with the self-referential “Scream.”

Both reintroduced the fringe genre to mainstream audiences and spawned successful franchises.

Perhaps it was his perfectly askew interpretation of the medium that resonated with his nail-biting audiences.

“Horror films don’t create fear,” Craven said. “They release it.”

Craven didn’t solely deal www.canadianinquirer.net

in terror. He also directed the 1999 drama “Music of the Heart,” which earned Meryl Streep an Oscar nomination.

But his name, and his legacy, will always be synonymous with horror.

“He was a consummate filmmaker and his body of work will live on forever,” said Weinstein Co. co-chairman Bob Weinstein, whose Dimension Films produced “Scream.” “My brother (Harvey Weinstein) and I are eternally grateful for all his collaborations with us.”

Wesley Earl “Wes” Craven was born in Cleveland, Ohio, on Aug. 2, 1939, to a strictly Baptist family. Though he earned a Master’s Degree in philosophy and writing from John Hopkins University and briefly taught as a college professor in Pennsylvania and New York, his start in movies was in pornography, where he worked under pseudonyms.

Craven’s feature debut under his own name was 1972’s “The Last House on the Left,” a horror film, inspired by Ingmar

Bergman’s “The Virgin Spring,” about teenage girls abducted and taken into the woods.

Made for just $87,000, the film, though graphic enough to be censored in many countries, was a hit. Roger Ebert said it was “about four times as good as you’d expect.”

“Nightmare on Elm Street,” however, catapulted him to far greater renown in 1984. The Ohio-set film about teenagers (including a then unknown Johnny Depp) who are stalked in their dreams, which Craven wrote and directed, spawned a never-ending franchise that has carried on until, most recently, a 2010 remake.

The concept, Craven said, came from his own youth in Cleveland — specifically an Elm Street cemetery and a homeless man that inspired Krueger’s raged look.

Along with John Carpenter’s “Halloween,” “Nightmare on Elm Street” defined a horror tradition where helpless teen❱❱ PAGE 39 Horror movie

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FRIDAY SEPTEMBER 4, 2015

Lifestyle Beyonce 101: Canadian researchers offer university courses studying pop superstar

Beyoncé performing in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.

BY LAUREN LA ROSE The Canadian Press TORONTO — With the release of every new track, magazine cover and Instagram post, Beyoncé’s every move sparks endless chatter on social media.

Soon they’ll also be discussed in some Canadian classrooms.

The University of Victoria and the University of Waterloo have dedicated courses to exploring the career of the superstar, who turns 34 on Sept. 4.

“I just thought she would be an artist that a lot of the students — especially in this young 20s age range — would be able to identify with... They’ve pretty much had Beyoncé in their lives their entire lives,” said University of Victoria lecturer Melissa Avdeeff, whose course debuted in January and will return this fall.

The introductory music course touched on everything from music video analysis to feminism and gender stud-

A.RICARDO / SHUTTERSTOCK.COM

ies, tracking Beyoncé’s career enough.’ It’s good to document posts candid images, there is trajectory from her girl-group culture as it’s happening so rarely — if ever — text to accomdays with Destiny’s Child to we have this record, so we see pany the photos. Beyoncé also solo stardom. what’s happened, so we see how hasn’t tweeted from her official “She’s an artist that has it’s reflecting in our society as account since August 2013. stayed relevant culturally. She’s we’re living it.”

It will be her music that will had her hand in a lot of differMost recently, Beyoncé’s de- be the prime focus of “Gender ent cultural aspects — not just cision to stay relatively mum and Performance,” debuting at her music,” said Avdeeff. in the media is generating even the University of Waterloo this “She’s also done a bit of act- more press. fall. ing. She’s very active on social She graces the cover of The course, being offered by media and she the school’s drapresented a rema and speech ally interestcommunication ing case study, I department, will thought.”

And so for me, as a performance centre on BeyonAvdeeff said studies scholar, it was interesting to cé’s self-titled vishe devoted a think of an entire album as being a sual album, anasection of her visual performance. lyzing videos and inaugural class looking at perto addressing formance study criticisms of the models, feminist course, including negative re- Vogue’s famed September issue, and race theories in the context marks posted in response to a but without being interviewed. of her work.

Globe and Mail article.

A recent New York Times story “This album, I think, oper“Some of the comments I re- examining Beyoncé’s media ates on many platforms,” said ceived were: ‘I can understand moves said she hasn’t answered assistant professor and course having a course on someone a direct question for more than instructor Naila Keleta-Mae, an like the Beatles or the Roll- a year. award-winning performance ing Stones, but not Beyoncé While she has 44.2 million poet and playwright.

— she hasn’t been around long Instagram users and regularly “She spoke about wanting all www.canadianinquirer.net

of these videos ... thought about as a movie of sorts. And so for me, as a performance studies scholar, it was interesting to think of an entire album as being a visual performance.”

In a mini-feature about the album, Beyoncé spoke of watching videos on YouTube to learn about feminism. She came across a speech on the subject

by Nigerian author Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie and wound up sampling a clip from it in her feminist anthem “Flawless.”

Keleta-Mae said Beyoncé’s use of digital media as an informational resource “speaks a lot to the moment that we’re in,” noting that it’s an approach being embraced by students — and one that the academic world should also note.

“Whether or not scholars across the country like it, when our students are turning in papers, they’re quoting Wikipedia and YouTube. When they want to get the definition of something they’re going to Dictionary.com,” Keleta-Mae said. ■

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Lifestyle

SEPTEMBER 4, 2015

FRIDAY

Community agriculture goes corporate with new agrihood housing developments

BY IAN BICKIS The Canadian Press COMMUNITY agriculture is going mainstream, and big business has taken note.

No longer limited to a few gardening boxes on an old parking lot, the trend is taking centre stage in housing developments being built around the idea of community-grown local food.

The agriculture-based developments, or so-called agrihoods, have already sprung up across the U.S. and now they’re starting to take root in Canada.

One of the first is being established on an old cattle farm about 100 kilometres east of Vancouver, where Frosst Creek Development Co. is building 129 homes along with four hectares of fruit orchards, berry patches and vegetable gardens.

“What we are trying to do out here is being one of the first to have a farm-to-table agricultural recreational feel throughout the whole community,” said Steven Van Geel, sales director at Frosst Creek and son of the property’s developer, Jon Van

Geel.

“We wanted to create an area where you can literally walk off the back deck of your property, pick an apple from the apple orchard behind your property, and go inside and make a pie from it.”

The development, called Creekside Mills at Cultus Lake, will have a full-time farmer to tend to the crops, but Van Geel says he sees owners getting involved and helping with the pruning and weeding of the plants, while children can learn about where their food comes from.

The communal aspect is a big part of the growing popularity of the food-to-table movement, says Tara Moreau, associate director of sustainability and community programs at the University of British Columbia’s Botanical Garden.

“It’s becoming a significant trend, and I think it’s because food allows people to gather together,” said Moreau.

“The rise of these agrihoods is an indication of that,” said Moreau. “They seem to have sprouted up as places where people can grow food and learn

Agriculture to bring the community together.

about agriculture but also live and interact.”

In the U.S., these farm-totable communities can run at a much larger scale, like the Prairie Crossing development in Illinois that has a 40-hectare farm alongside 359 houses, and the Willowsford development in Virginia that manages 121 hectares of farmland as part of

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a planned 2,000 homes.

But the potential scale of these developments has Moreau concerned that it could mean an overall loss of farmland.

“Even though it’s going to be an environment where you’re wanting people to engage closely with agriculture, you’re taking that agricultural soil and

turning it into a house.”

It’s a concern shared by Joe Nasr, an instructor at Ryerson University’s Centre for Studies in Food Security, who has seen conflicts with developers and farmers in Ontario.

“I could see it as a Trojan Horse, where maybe some particular development that otherwise might not get developed might happen because they take this approach,” said Nasr.

The problem is pronounced in B.C.’s Lower Mainland, where farmland is scarce and property values high.

In Delta, the Southlands development has stirred up controversy for proposing to transfer 172 hectares of land into a public community farm while building houses on another 43 hectares of what was once farmland in B.C.’s Agricultural Land Reserve.

Van Geel said that while Creekside Mills is being built on old farmland, much of it wasn’t in the land reserve, so the development actually has them increasing the size of the reserve by close to a hectare with their four hectares of farmland. ■

Cree woman from Alberta crowned Mrs. Universe 2015 in Minsk, Belarus THE CANADIAN PRESS ENOCH, ALTA. — An aboriginal woman from Alberta has won an international pageant for married women.

Ashley Burnham, 25, was crowned Mrs. Universe 2015 in Minsk, Belarus, on Saturday.

Burnham is from the Enoch Cree Nation west of Edmonton and is an actress, model and motivational speaker.

As a former finalist in the 2013 Miss Universe Canada contest, when she was then Ashley Callingbull, she noted that she grew up in poor conditions and faced difficulties in childhood that she finds difficult to talk about.

Her Facebook bio says by the time she reached the age of 10,

she had consecutively won all Enoch’s princess crowns.

Burnham appears in Blackstone, a television show that airs on APTN, Showcase and on Maori Television in New Zealand.

“I’m really overwhelmed right now,” Callingbull told the CBC in an interview. “My phone is blowing up. Everything is blowing up. I love it.”

The Mrs. Universe 2015 Facebook page says the topic for this year’s event was “Domestic Violence and Reflection Over Children.”

Burnham said in her bio for the 2013 Miss Universe Canada contest that she never had the perfect childhood everyone dreams of.

“I had an incredibly difficult childhood and was raised main-

ly by my mother and grandparents,” she said in the bio.

“My mother as strong as she is, raised me to be grateful for what I have and showed me all the love in the world.”

“Things that occurred in my childhood were incredibly painful and it is very hard to discuss. It was difficult to grow up the way I did, but it made me appreciate everything I have and most importantly made me the strong woman I am today.”

Burnham was also chosen as Miss Canada for the Miss Friendship International Pageant held in Hubei, China in September, 2010, and represented Canada at the Queen of the World Final held in Germany 2010.

She also represented Canada at Miss Humanity Internationwww.canadianinquirer.net

Ashley Burnham, a Cree woman from Alberta, was crowned Mrs. Universe 2015 in Minsk, Belarus.

THE MRS. UNIVERSE / FACEBOOK

al in Barbados in October 2011.

Burnham graduated from the television program at the Northern Alberta Institute of

Technology in Edmonton and is pursuing a Bachelor of Arts degree focusing on drama and acting/television. ■

35

FRIDAY SEPTEMBER 4, 2015

Travel

The Other Side of Paradise Discovering the other side of Puerto Galera

White Beach from afar

Parasailing at White Beach.

BY CHING DEE Philippine Canadian Inquirer FOR MOST people, Puerto Galera is synonymous to a vibrant nightlife by the beach—partying all night, moon in the sky, sea in your hair, booze in your belly.

It’s like being in Boracay without having to pay for a plane ticket.

Well, that’s just one side of Puerto Galera. Let me introduce you to Talipanan— the other side of paradise.

Getting There

Getting to Talipanan is pretty straightforward.

From Cubao, Pasay-Taft, or Alabang, ride a bus heading to Batangas Port (Pier). It’s about 3-4 hours from Metro Manila.

Upon alighting the bus, you’ll be approached by persistent—err—“boat barkers.” They’ll ask you where you’re going and hurry you off to their respective ferry’s ticket booth. From Batangas Port, you can go to Sabang (most popular Galera destination), White Beach (hello, nightlife), and Muelle.

But since you’re going to Talipanan, this writer suggests taking the Miniloc Shipping Lines (MSL) offer of roundtrip ferry tickets plus a van ride to and from your choice of hotel/resort. Ah, there’s nothing like hassle-free travel. It’s only Php 600.00 (CAD $16.90) per person, plus a P30.00 (CAD $0.84) Batangas Port fee per person. Make sure you buy tickets going to Muelle.

Muelle Port is roughly an hour and a half away by ferry from Batangas. From Muelle Port, we paid the 50-peso (CAD $1.41) Muelle Port fee (P50.00 per person) and an MSL van drove us to our resort in Talipanan, just 15mins away.

Talipanan Beach.

Fine Sand, Warm Sun

PHOTOS BY CHING DEE

If you are looking for some peace and quiet without the hassle of going all the way to undiscovered and unspoilt beaches in the Philippines (there are tons, by the way), then Talipanan Beach is perfect for you.

Talipanan Beach is absolutely beautiful. Fine, white sand to sink your feet into; smooth pebbles by the shore (this author collected a few), the quiet gentle landscape with nothing but the waves to soothe your weary soul—definitely a welcome change from the hustle and bustle of city life.

Talipanan Beach is also home to several lodging options—from posh to rustic to rugged. No matter your budget, Talipanan has something for you. All it takes is some research online.

Dining options maybe limited to your resort’s cafeteria/restaurant, but one notable establishment is Luca. Owned by an Italian immigrant, Luca boasts of authentic Italian fare like pizza and pasta. Make sure you try their creamy pesto—it’ll make your stay even more memorable.

If you want a quick break from peace and quiet, White Beach is just a few minutes away by tricycle. In fact, you can see White Beach from Talipanan. Some locals even say you can walk the stretch of the beach—traverse big boulders and get a little wet—and you’ll get to White Beach.

White Beach is teeming with restaurants, aqua sports, and bars. If your

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budget permits, go try parasailing or the banana boat ride. Jet skis can also be rented for a fee.

Once you’ve had enough excitement for the day, just go back to Talipanan’s tranquility and let the waves lull you to sleep. ■ Note: Exchange rate as of September 1, 2015.

36

SEPTEMBER 4, 2015

FRIDAY

Business

Experts say tough talk on China overlooks economic realities

BY BILL BARROW The Associated Press CHARLESTON, S.C. — If there was ever a week for the Republican presidential candidates to talk tough on China, this was it.

Spurred by the stock market’s wild ride, they lashed out at the world’s most populous nation.

Wisconsin’s Scott Walker demanded that President Barack Obama cancel an upcoming state visit with Chinese President Xi Jinping. Mike Huckabee said the next president should “build America’s economy, not China’s or Mexico’s.”

Donald Trump said the U.S. economy needs to “do a big uncoupling pretty soon, before it’s too late.”

It’s rhetoric that doesn’t always square with the realities of the relationship between the world’s two largest economies, said experts on America’s ties with China, even if it does make for nifty campaign sound bites.

“When you’re in the early phases of the primary season, and you don’t have a lot in the way of foreign policy bona fides, a surefire applause line is to go to the extreme — and in the case of China that’s always a very easy thing to do,” said Jon Huntsman, a former Republican governor of Utah and U.S. ambassador to China under Obama.

No candidate went further than Trump, whose pledge to bring back to the U.S. the roughly 2 million jobs lost to China

since 1999 is a centerpiece of his campaign. “Not only now have they taken our jobs … but now they are pulling us down with them,” he said Monday amid a worldwide swoon in stock prices.

But “uncoupling” the U.S. from China as Trump proposes would mean undoing the largest trade relationship in the world: $592 billion in goods and services were exchanged last year. While most of that consists of U.S. imports of Chinese products, China is still the United States’ third-largest export market.

General Motors has sold more cars in China than in the U.S. every year since 2010. Apple’s second-largest market for its iPhones, iPads and computers is China. Said Apple CEO Tim Cook this week, “I get updates on our performance in China every day.”

“It would basically be economic suicide to cut yourself off from the second-largest and fastest-growing economy in the world,” said Nicholas Lardy, a senior fellow at the Peterson Institute for International Economics.

Walker said Obama needs to have some “backbone” and call off the planned visit of China’s Xi next month — a response, he said, to China’s “increasing attempts to undermine U.S. interests.”

But the Wisconsin governor didn’t say how he would settle issues between the nations without such face-to-face

meetings. Bonnie Glaser, a China expert at the non-partisan Center for Strategic and International Studies, called Walker’s idea “the nuclear option” of diplomacy.

“You can’t just close the door and take your toys and go home,” she said. “That’s not the way that effective international policy is made.”

Glaser said the U.S.-China relationship is best managed by meetings between the chief executives of the two nations, due in no small part to the immense power Xi wields in Beijing.

“If we can persuade Xi Jinping to do something, it will happen,” she said. “That’s actually quite different from a democratic country.”

Florida Sen. Marco Rubio didn’t go as far as Walker, arguing instead to downgrade Xi’s upcoming trip to a “working visit” — keeping the face-toface meetings, but scrapping the public pomp and circumstance.

“This is an opportunity to speak bluntly to this authoritarian ruler and achieve meaningful progress,” Rubio said Friday in a speech outlining his proposed approach to the U.S.China relationship. He called for bolstering the American military presence in the Pacific, pushing for more free trade and holding the Chinese government accountable on human rights.

The Republicans running in 2016, if successful in winning the White House, won’t be the

EXCHANGE RATES CDN/USD CDN/PHP CDN/EUR CDN/GBP EUR/USD AUD/USD USD/JPY

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first to talk tough on China only to face the realities of the relationship once in the Oval Office. It’s something Democrats have done, too.

Peter Feaver, a former National Security Council aide to both President George W. Bush and President Bill Clinton, recalled Clinton in 1992 calling the Chinese government “the butchers of Beijing” — a reference to the crackdown on student protesters in Tiananmen Square. By the end of his first term, Clinton had bestowed “most-favored-nation” status on China, further cementing the two nations’ trade relationship.

Glaser said the GOP candidates likely will persist with tough talk on China, because there is no political incentive to do otherwise. Labor unions dislike many international trade deals. American businesses are increasingly disenchanted with China’s own protection-

ist policies. Non-governmental organizations decry its human rights record.

Huntsman said that when he addressed China in serious terms on the campaign trail while running for the Republican nomination in 2012, “it was a huge negative.” Bashing China is a predictable way to win applause, he said.

“But once you get through the primaries, it doesn’t leave you with anything. In fact you are in a hole,” Huntsman said.

“We ought to start from the beginning talking reality, in ways the American people can understand how truly great the stakes are.” ■ Associated Press writers Jill Colvin in Newark, New Jersey, Thomas Beaumont in Des Moines, Iowa, Sergio Bustos in Miami, Florida, and Chris Rugaber and Matthew Pennington in Washington contributed to this report.

As of September 2, 2015 from ca.finance.yahoo.com PRICE

CHANGE

% CHANGE

1.3246 35.2789 1.4940 2.0260 1.1279 0.7009 119.8480

-0.0008 +0.0059 -0.0051 -0.0026 -0.0032 -0.0006 +0.4430

-0.0596% +0.0167% -0.3414% -0.1272% -0.2820% -0.0862% +0.3710%

www.canadianinquirer.net

Business

FRIDAY SEPTEMBER 4, 2015

37

Economy won’t lose luster amid uncertainties

BY BEN O. DE VERA Philippine Daily Inquirer THE PHILIPPINE economy is seen to withstand external volatility and domestic risks brought about by uncertainties from next year’s elections, the Washington-based Institute of International Finance (IIF) said.

In a July report entitled “Philippines: Resilient Despite Risks,” the IIF said it expected the country to post “slightly stronger growth in the second half [of 2015] despite global uncertainties.”

“The Philippines has experienced impressive economic growth over the last couple of years, but output slowed recently with disappointing trade and public consumption. Government spending should however pick up in the second half which should help GDP (gross domestic product) rebound along with strong private consumption and investment,” IIF Asia-Pacific director JC Sambor and associate economist Kevin Sanker said in the report, a copy of which was provided to the Inquirer.

The IIF noted the Philippines “is likely to be more resilient than its Asian peers given its conservative fiscal policy, robust balance of payments and relatively small exposure to global capital flows.”

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“The Philippines should be less affected than other Asian economies by a tightening in emerging market financing conditions due to its high current account surplus and relatively insulated capital account.

The local bond market should be less volatile than its Asian peers and the Philippine peso should be more resilient than other Asian currencies,” it said.

The IIF also sees Philippine monetary policy remaining on hold after last year’s shift to a “tighter stance,” noting “low inflation may rise in the sec-

ond half and liquidity remains ample.”

“Should inflation come in lower than expected and growth disappoints, some easing cannot be ruled out,” it added.

The IIF, however, warned of challenges ahead for the government’s plan to ramp up spending and public investment amid “structural” constraints.

“Public consumption and investment have been mainly hindered by under-spending at the agency level, where bottlenecks in the procurement process

and capacity constraints have prevented funds disbursed by the national government from being put to use,” it said.

It took note of the Supreme Court’s ruling last year finding unconstitutional several provisions of the Disbursement Acceleration, the government’s banner stimulus program. It said the decision created some apprehensions “among officials as graft suspicions are often associated with increased expenditures.”

While the national government is now trying to address

weak spending, the IIF said measures would not immediately be felt. It said public spending would only “have a gradual impact on GDP growth in the second half of the year.”

“Weak infrastructure remains a major headwind for the economy and also deters foreign direct investment (FDI), along with costly power and foreign ownership restrictions.

This helps explain the low level of FDI compared to peers in the region,” the IIF said.

With regard to the Aquino administration’s centerpiece public-private partnership (PPP) program, the report lamented “project implementation has been relatively slow so far … hindered by limited agency capacity and the complex nature of the large projects.”

Domestic firms are snatching up the projects, but the most needed international participation is absent, it added.

The upcoming national elections itself is seen as both a boost as well as a risk to sustaining the economic growth achieved thus far under the Aquino administration.

“The likely short-term economic boost through government spending and investment ahead of the election should favor [presidential aspirants, Interior Secretary Mar] Roxas or [Sen. Grace] Poe, but maintaining policy continuity will be a challenge,” IIF said. ■

PEZA approves P103-B investments PHILIPPINES NEWS AGENCY MANILA — Investment pledges in the Philippine Economic Zone Authority (PEZA) reached PhP 103.15 billion in the first seven months of the year, PEZA Spokesperson Elmer San Pascual said.

San Pascual said that although the investment amount at end-July 2015 was 19 percent lower than the same period of last year’s PhP 127.46 billion, the number of projects this year increased.

According to him, some 360 projects were approved by PEZA in January to July 2015 period, which was 7.0 percent

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higher from last year’s same period of 337 projects.

He said that three of the top

10 investors are new enterprises from export and tourism sectors. www.canadianinquirer.net

Seven of the top 10 investors are expansions from export and information technology (IT) enterprises.

The PEZA official said the negative growth in investments in the first seven months of the year was a lingering effect of the congestion at the Manila port last year that made investors delay their expansions and investments in the country.

“There’s little bit of uncertainty [of companies] with the recurrence of such situation but the congestion in our ports is already resolved,” said San Pascual.

“We’ve been getting reports from both the North and South Harbors, and it has already improved,” he added.

He said PEZA continues to intensify its investment missions abroad to regain the confidence of foreign investors.

“So with that, we’re telling them that the government — especially the national government — will no longer allow such a situation to occur and they see how the national government acted at that time,” he said.

Moreover, exports revenue of PEZA-registered firms also had a slight improvement, posting a total of USD 21.49 billion receipt in January to June this year from USD21.30 billion in the first semester of last year.

Direct employment in PEZA until end-June 2015 increased by 10 percent to 1,209,546 jobs. ■

38

SEPTEMBER 4, 2015

FRIDAY

Sports

US, Swiss federal prosecutors to give update on FIFA cases

BY BILL BARROW The Associated Press GENEVA — The American prosecutor who launched the bribery case that rocked FIFA is stepping on Sepp Blatter’s home turf.

On Sept. 14 in Zurich, U.S. Attorney General Loretta Lynch will join her counterpart from Switzerland, Michael Lauber, for a news conference about their separate investigations of corruption in world football.

The joint conference will explain the “status of the two criminal proceedings,” Swiss officials said in a statement on Tuesday. Though the cases are separate, the officials involved are cooperating in their investigations.

Lynch, who helped kick off the FIFA case several years ago as a U.S. Attorney in Brooklyn, is scheduled to attend an annual conference of federal prosecutors which is hosted this year

by Lauber’s department.

Across town, Blatter is working through the last months of his 18-year presidential spell after citing pressure on FIFA from the criminal cases as a reason to go early.

Before deciding on June 2 to leave office, Blatter criticized Lynch — who was sworn into office in April — for conducting her case in Zurich.

“Listen, with all the respect to the judicial system of the U.S. with a new minister of justice,” Blatter said in May, “the Americans, if they have a financial crime that regards American citizens then they must arrest these people there and not in Zurich when we have a congress.”

FIFA headquarters in Switzerland.

UGIS RIBA / SHUTTERSTOCK

The American case alleges a Cayman Islands banker, ac- news conference in New York bribery, fraud, money launder- cepted extradition to the U.S. hours after the arrests. ing and racketeering, including and six others remain in ZuTwo days later, Blatter tarin the award of hosting rights rich-area prisons fighting the geted Lynch in his first media for the 2010 World Cup to process. interview after winning reSouth Africa and broadcasting Four more men — including election. rights for World Cup qualifying Chuck Blazer, the most senior “I was shocked by what she matches and other internation- American in world football for said,” Blatter told Frenchal competitions. language Swiss FIFA was broadcaster RTS. rocked on May “As a president 27 when Swiss I would never federal police arThe plot linked Blazer and two other make a staterested seven ofthen-FIFA executive committee ment about anficials, including members in receiving cash which other organiFIFA’s vice presSouth African officials asked FIFA to zation without idents for the transfer through the governing body’s knowing.”

North and South accounts in 2008.

Lynch is perAmerican resonally close to gions, in a dawn the FIFA case, raid at a luxury which she helped hotel in Zurich at the request of 16 years until 2013 — had their start when U.S. Attorney for the U.S. authorities. guilty pleas unsealed on May Eastern District of New York.

They were among 14 football 27.

Her name is on November and marketing officials named “They corrupted the busi- 2013 court documents detailing in a 47-count U.S. indictment ness of worldwide soccer to Blazer’s plea agreement. Blazer unsealed that day. Former FIFA serve their interests and enrich admitted receiving payments vice president Jeffrey Webb, themselves,” Lynch said at a in a $10 million bribe scheme to

www.canadianinquirer.net

support South Africa’s successful bid to host the 2010 World Cup. The plot linked Blazer and two other then-FIFA executive committee members in receiving cash which South African officials asked FIFA to transfer through the governing body’s accounts in 2008.

The Swiss case focuses on possible money laundering during the bidding contests for the 2018 and 2022 World Cups, won by Russia and Qatar, respectively.

FIFA headquarters were raided on May 27 and massive amounts of data later seized for the Swiss case, which is expected to follow leads to other areas of FIFA finance and business deals involving senior football officials.

Blatter is not implicated in either case though is a potential target in both, Lauber and American officials have previously confirmed.

Lynch and Lauber will also share a stage earlier on Sept.

14, at a closed-door session of the four-day International Association of Prosecutors event.

Lauber will host a discussion with Lynch and federal prosecutors from Britain, France and Russia titled “International Cooperation (white collar crime, money laundering and corruption).”

Their news conference will take place at the same Renaissance Zurich Tower hotel which in May hosted delegates from the CONCACAF and CONMEBOL football bodies for the Americas whose reputations have been shredded by Lynch’s case. ■

Sports

FRIDAY SEPTEMBER 4, 2015

39

Azkals face toughest test yet in Uzbeks Richard Gomez bags

gold at Asian Fencing Championship

BY CEDELF P. TUPAS Philippine Daily Inquirer THE PHILIPPINES faces its toughest challenge yet in Uzbekistan as the Azkals resume their World Cup Qualifying campaign on Sept. 8 at Philippine Sports Stadium in Bocaue, Bulacan.

Ranked No. 74 by Fifa, the Uzbeks will also be looking for their first victory in the qualifying tournament against the Azkals, who are running second to North Korea on goal difference in Group H after wins over Bahrain (2-1) and Yemen (2-0).

Having spent long hours the past two months studying Uzbekistan play, Dooley feels the Central Asians are the strongest team in Group H despite their 2-4 defeat to North Korea last June.

“Overall, it’s a very strong team, the best team in the group,” said Dooley yesterday before the Azkals started training for the first time since their 2-0 win over Yemen in Qatar last June 17.

“They make fewer mistakes and they don’t need a lot of chances to score.”

Two of Uzbekistan’s players

BY JANE MORALEDA Philippine Canadian Inquirer

Azkals at the 2014 Suzuki Cup.

see action in the Russian top flight —defender Vitaliy Denisov, who plays for Lokomotiv Moscow, and midfielder Odil Ahmedov, who plays for Krasnodar.

Still, Dooley remains upbeat of the Azkals’ chances.

“We’ll have our chances but each player should play 100 percent from the first minute to the last,” he said.

The Azkals will play the Maldives on Sept. 3 at Rizal Memorial Stadium in preparation for the duel against the Uzbeks.

MANILA — Actor and Epee fencer Richard Gomez won a gold medal at the Asian Master’s Fencing Championship organized by the Fencing Confederation of Asia.

Gomez took to Instagram his joy in winning the first-ever Asian fencing tournament.

“Thank you, Lord! Thank you FACEBOOK

Among the overseas-based players who joined training at PSS yesterday was winger Iain Ramsay. Jerry Lucena was expected to arrive last night, while Neil Etheridge, Roland Muller and Kevin Ingreso are arriving today.

Stephan Schrock planes in on Tuesday, with Javier Patino and Stephan Palla arriving the next day.

Luke Woodland will plane in on Sept. 6 as he is on trial with US Major League Soccer side New York Red Bulls. ■

Horror movie... agers are preyed upon by knife-wielding, deformed killers in cruel morality tales; usually promiscuous girls were the first to go.

“There is something about the American dream, the sort of Disneyesque dream, if you will, of the beautifully trimmed front lawn, the white picket fence, mom and dad and their happy children, God-fearing and doing good whenever they can,” Craven once said. “And the flip side of it, the kind of anger and the sense of outrage that comes from discovering that that’s not the truth of the matter, that gives American horror films, in some ways, kind of an additional rage.”

The formula would work again for Craven with “Scream,” albeit with an added layer of self-aware spoof. By 1996, the Craven-style slasher was a wellknown type, even if it wasn’t always made by him. (He had no ❰❰ 32

Actor-Athlete Richard Gomez wins gold at the Asian Master’s Fencing Championship.

RICHARD GOMA GOMEZ / FACEBOOK

Caregivers run...

Participants collect pledges to pay the entry fee for taking part in any one or all of the sporting events and the profit is donated to the fund. This year there were two categories of pledges - $30 for the non-commercial/individuals and $50 for commercial/business corporations. All proceeds of this event will go to the MHHS fund which provides immediate financial support to help members in crisis.

There are two types of financial assistance provided by this crisis fund: Crisis Solution Loan is given to purchase basic necessities (food, water, shelter, transportation, medical expenses) excluding luxury articles, and the Crisis Solution Grant is offered to meet short term emergency needs due to occurrence of an unexpected crisis. This is granted to members who are not financially able to pay back the loan.

The event started with warm up Zumba dancing followed by oath of sportsmanship directed ❰❰ 28

involvement with many of the “Elm Street” sequels.)

“Scream,” written by Kevin Williamson and starring a cast including Drew Barrymore and Neve Campbell, played off of the horror clichés Craven helped create. It hatched three sequels, all of which Craven directed.

Craven increasingly oversaw a cottage industry of horror branded with his name, including remakes of his 1977 film “The Hills Have Eyes” (2006) and “The House on the Left” (2009).

Craven was also a published author (the 2000 novel “The Fountain Society”) and an ardent bird conservationist, serving as a long-time member of the Audubon California Board of Directors. He recently penned a monthly column “Wes Craven’s The Birds” for Martha’s Vineyard Magazine.

He was active up until his

for the support of my teammates and coach Benny. Thank you for the continuous support of my lovely wife Lucy TorresGomez,” his caption read.

Aside from Gomez, Foil fencer Leny Reyes also bagged a gold medal in the fencing event. Both were members of the Philippine Fencing Association.

The competition was held at the PhilSports Complex in Pasig City. ■

death. Craven had numerous television projects in development, including a new “Scream” series for MTV. He’s an executive producer of the upcoming film “The Girl in the Photographs,” which is to premiere in September the Toronto International Film Festival.

In a statement, Craven’s family said that he died in his Los Angeles home, surrounded by family, after battling brain cancer.

He is survived by his wife, producer Iya Labunka, a son, a daughter and a stepdaughter.

In 2010, he told The Los Angeles Times: “My goal is to die in my 90s on the set, say, ‘That’s a wrap,’ after the last shot, fall over dead and have the grips go out and raise a beer to me.” ■ Coyle reported from New York.

AP Film Writer Lindsey Bahr contributed from Los Angeles. www.canadianinquirer.net

by Tomas Avendano, president and CEO of MHHS. There were seven volleyball teams competing this year, and the other events were badminton singles and doubles, walkathon and our signature 100 & 200 meter runs and 4x100 meter relay race. There were also other fun events for everyone – sack race, tug of war and hula-hoop.

This year’s Fun Run was a huge success with the attendance of more than 100 people who came to run, play and cheer for the players. MHHS raised over $3,000 from which they were able to contribute $1500 to the Crisis Fund. Sponsors include Famous Home Computers, Drake Medox College, LBC, Dr. Macasiray and IRemit. and especially volunteers who worked so hard to make this event successful. Winners will receive medals, trophies and certificates in an award giving ceremony to be held on Sept.

12, at MHHS office on Fraser Street, Vancouver. ■

40

SEPTEMBER 4, 2015

FRIDAY

Technology

Website allowing people to rent out their bikes makes inroads in Canada

BY PAOLA LORIGGIO The Canadian Press

TECH TIPS

How to stop being tracked around the web

BY JANE MORALEDA Philippine Canadian Inquirer IN THIS guide, we dive into three popular browser extensions that protect your privacy online and keep your personal data safe. These add-ons prevent third-party tracking cookies and scripts from tracking your movements by routing all your Internet activities and securing your connections. Some of these even block ads and widgets from sites you visit, resulting in faster load times and less bandwidth consumed.

Disconnect Private Browsing

Disconnect is a free privacy and security add-on compatible with browsers Chrome, Mozilla Firefox, Safari and Opera. It protects you from tracking, malware, malvertising and widgetjacking as it gives you full control of site scripts and elements and protects your cookies from being stolen.

Just visit www.disconnect. me and click Get Disconnect, then over 5,000 tracking sites will no longer be able to trace your Internet use, including activities in social networking sites like Facebook, Twitter and Google. Moreover, you will also be informed who or what organization is behind these track-

ers. Just roam into the Disconnect badge in the browser toolbar and you’d see the list of trackers grouped in categories such as Advertising, Analytics and Social. You’re also given the option to unblock a certain tracker, like those related to content. Disconnect, however, is not available for Internet Explorer and on mobile devices.

Disconnect is considered as one of the best in its kinds as it is trusted by more than 10 million users worldwide.

Ghostery

Ghostery is another privacy add-on which is more versatile than Disconnect since it is compatible with Internet Explorer, iOS and Android. It has a clear tracking panel good for novice users and has a feature which keeps your searches private.

The extension has a drawback though, as it only blocks about 1,600 malicious tracking sites.

Just go to www.ghostery.com and install the add-on. You may opt to download the software as well and get more detailed information on the invisible trackers and decide whether to block them if they’re intrusive or add them in the exemption list if they seem harmless.

DoNotTrackMe

DoNotTrackMe has the simi-

lar compatibility with Ghostery sans the iOS and Android. It may only cover around 600 tracking sites but its interface is more interactive and informative than the other privacy addons with its colorful drop-down browser toolbar. But along with the few trackers in its database, it also allows some plug-ins and scripts to go through in its default setting leaving you with unsecured connections. You can block more cookies and scripts though should you customize the extension.

Visit www.abine.com/donottrackme.html and click Get DoNotTrackMe Free. Aside from blocking trackers, this add-on also has an “awards” system which gives “medals” when trackers are found and prevented from obtaining your personal data. Offering less protection by default, this extension may appeal more to those who prefer having full control of which trackers to block or allow.

Diconnect, Ghostery and DoNotTrackMe may seem to function similarly but their compatibility, tracker database and ease of use set them apart. Depending on your personal preferences, these privacy add-ons will surely keep you safe from privacy and security threats while browsing the web. ■ www.canadianinquirer.net

TORONTO — Years after Bixi and its competitors set up shop in Canada, another bike-sharing system that some describe as the AirBnB of cycling is making inroads in the country.

Spinlister allows people to list their unused bicycles and search for available ones in a specific area.

The bikes can be rented by the hour, day or week through a website or app, and users can search by type, frame size and rider height.

The California-based company launched in 2012 and branched out to other countries, including Canada, the following year — but a spokesman says the number and type of bikes available in any given location depend entirely on the users.

A few dozen bikes, from sturdy cargo bikes to sleek racing models, are listed in Toronto and Vancouver and spokesman Andrew Batey says demand for bicycles outstrips the supply.

He says 70 per cent of people who rent through the site do it while travelling, while others book bikes for charity events or to test drive expensive models before investing in one of their own.

And many of those who rent out their bikes are cycling enthusiasts with more than one in their arsenal.

Each bicycle is insured for $10,000 and those who list theirs aren’t liable if a renter is injured.

No bicycle has ever been stolen by a renter, Batey said, largely because renters have to enter a credit card and go through other verification procedures.

“It’s so much easier to walk down the street and find the bike I want and steal it than it is

to try and go through this whole hassle,” he said.

Bikes in Toronto go for $15 to $100 a day, depending on the model, and the company takes a 17.5 per cent cut of the rental fee.

Meg Siegel, 28, signed up early on as a way to make extra cash from her spare bikes.

“It’s so hard to find a decent bike when you go to a different city, you always end up with the tourist clunker bikes, so I wanted to put a decent bike up for people to rent while they’re visiting here so that I could also do the same thing when I go to other cities,” the Toronto resident said.

Only one of her five bikes is currently available for rent and so far, Siegel said only one person has rented it: a man visiting from San Francisco for work last summer. “(The site is) obviously much bigger...where it started, there’s tons of bikes there,” she said.

There are much fewer in Toronto, “and it’s a little bit tricky because some people want a mountain bike, some people want a road bike, it needs to be your size, so the chances of getting a fit for you is pretty small right now.”

Siegel said she faced similar hurdles trying to book bikes for a trip to Barcelona, but ended up getting help from members who put her in touch with local cyclists not on the site.

Spinlister acknowledges that finding a bike may be more difficult in some areas where the site isn’t well-known. “I can see someone searching, not seeing what they need... and then we have no option for them so they don’t rent a bike,” Batey said.

The company targets certain cities for expansion if there appears to be enough community interest, he said, and Vancouver is on the short list. ■

Technology

FRIDAY SEPTEMBER 4, 2015

41

Google asks Pinoys to translate Web to Filipino, Cebuano

BY TARRA QUISMUNDO Philippine Daily Inquirer CALLING ALL Filipinos: Help Google translate the Web into your mother tongue.

In celebration of Buwan ng Wika, tech giant Google is encouraging Filipinos to contribute translations of Filipino and Cebuano to its language service, Google Translate, in hopes of making the Internet a more inclusive space for both native and nonnative speakers.

Google’s Love Your Language project is a global campaign aimed at “empowering communities to build high quality translations online for their languages using the Google Translate Community Tool” so local speakers and those who do not know certain languages “can appreciate their language better.”

“In the Philippines, we wanted to empower Filipinos to build a Web that works for them by actively contributing to the representation, accuracy and understanding of our languages online and cultivate the creation of relevant local content,”

said Gail Tan, Google Philippines head of communications and public affairs.

Google Philippines, which set up shop in Manila in 2013, enlisted the support of the Komisyon sa Wikang Filipino to encourage Filipinos to participate in the project, Tan said.

The Love Your Language campaign is aimed at helping the Google Translate machine to come up with better translations of Web content into Filipino and Cebuano, two of the major Philippine languages, with the proper context and nuances.

It followed the launch of the Google Translate Community last year, a crowdsourcing tool that serves as the tech giant’s way of filling gaps in the quality of translations by its machine.

Google Translate is done by a machine and purely machine translated words may get context wrong, noted Tan. “Around the world we have this issue about the quality of translation online and found that people really wanted to help improve it so their online experience could be better,” said Tan.

Human translations “help better reflect the way people want to use their language on the Web,” she said, adding that “a native speaker of the language will surely know when to use and not use a word.”

“We encourage people who know and love their language to add that human touch and contribute accurate translations to give context to words, so the machine can learn the meanings behind different strings and come up with better translation,” Tan said.

Expanding the Translate service to more accurate translations into widely used Philippine languages would lend to an improved user experience, she said.

“Giving them access to content in a language they do not understand but are translatable to a language they know helps improve their Web experience, and is part and parcel to the fulfillment of our mission to make the world’s information universally accessible and useful to everyone,” Tan said.

Participants may log on to the Google Translate Community Tool (https://translate.google.

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com/community) and do either or both tasks: translate, which is to “provide translations for words and phrases,” and validate, which is to “identify good translations.”

WEATHER UPDATE VANCOUVER

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Filipino, the national language, and Cebuano were chosen for the project because they are two of the most commonly used Philippine languages online, said Tan. ■

Long term forecast from www.theweathernetwork.com CALGARY

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www.canadianinquirer.net

Events

42

Fiesta Filipino 2015 By the Philippine Festival Council of Alberta WHEN/WHERE: 9 a.m. to 9 p.m., Sept. 5, at Calgary Olympic Plaza Downtown MORE INFO: With special guest Matteo Giudicelli

SEPTEMBER 4, 2015

FRIDAY

Freestyle

By Below Zero WHEN/WHERE: Sept. 18, Century Casino Calgary, 1010 42 Ave., SE Calgary, AB

CANADA EVENTS

To have your events featured on PCI, please email events@canadianinquirer.net

YUKON NORTHWEST TERRITORIES

MANITOBA

SASKATCHEWAN

Artist Chito Maravilla Solo Exhibit WHEN/WHERE: Opening reception, 1 to 3 p.m., Sept. 5, Exhibit run - Sept 2 to 30, Newton Cultural Centre 13530- 72Ave., Surrey, B.C. MORE INFO: chitomaravilla.com or call 604-716-9143 Historic Signing between the Multicultural Helping House Society and Greater Vancouver Bangladeshi Community Association

By MHHS WHEN/WHERE: 7 p.m., Sept. 4, Room 203, MHHS Bldg., cor Fraser Ave. and 32nd St., Vancouver, B.C. MORE INFO: Immigrant pre-arrival programs ASEAN Festival 2015

By Asean and the Consulates General in Vancouver WHEN/WHERE: 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. Sept. 5, at the Roundhouse Community Centre Exhibition Hall MORE INFO: Join Indonesia, Malaysia, Philippines, Vietnam and Thailand in celebrating ASEAN Day 2015 with the festival of ASEAN culture and arts.

Healthy Eating for Seniors

By Mosaic WHEN/WHERE: 10 a.m. to 12 p.m., Sept. 8, at Mosaic Burnaby Centre for Immigrants, 5902 Kingsway, Vancouver, B.C. MORE INFO: Call 604-438-8214

http://bit.ly/ PCI-Events

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BRITISH COLUMBIA ALBERTA

View all events by scanning this QR code or visiting

ONTARIO

New WelcomePack Canada Homework/Tutorial Class Distribution Centre

By FCT

By WelcomePack Canada Inc. WHEN/WHERE: 11a.m. to 12 nn, WHEN/WHERE: 1 to 5 p.m., Mon, every Saturday, Filipino Centre NEWFOUNDLAND Tues, Thu & Fri at the Filipino Toronto, 597 Parliament St., Suite Centre Bldg., 597 Parliament St., 103, Toronto, ON Suite QUEBEC 103, Toronto, On MORE INFO: For registrations, call MORE INFO: Call (416) 928-9355 416-928-9355. The office, at 597 Parliament St., Suite 103, Toronto, Tagalog Class is open on Mondays, Tuesdays,

By FCT Thursdays and Fridays from 1 to 6 WHEN/WHERE: 10 to 11 a.m., NOVA p.m. every Saturday, Filipino Centre SCOTIA Toronto, Toronto

Tenants’ Rights Workshop

By Mosaic WHEN/WHERE: 10 a.m. to 12 nn, Sept. 8, at Mosaic Vancouver, 1720 Grant St. Vancouver, B.C. MORE INFO: Learn about tenant rights and responsibilities; the difference between monthly and fixed lease agreements; utilities; inspection, increases and damage deposits; rental disputes and complaints. Call Joy at 604-254-9626 Shofar Making Demonstration in celebration of Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish New Year By the Richmond Public Library in partnership with Chabad of Richmond WHEN/WHERE: 7 to 8 p.m, Sept. 9, at the Brighouse (Main) Branch of Richmond Public Library, in the Living Room, 7700 Minoru Gate.

MORE INFO: Call 604-231-6413.

Free Drop-In English Conversation Circle

By Mosaic WHEN/WHERE: 6:30 to 8:30 p.m., up to Sept. 21, Vancouver Community Room, 1720 Grand St., Grd. Flr. MORE INFO: Call Pia at 604-254-9626 ext 487 Temporary Foreign Workers Uncontested Divorce Clinic

By Law Courts Center WHEN/WHERE: Saturdays from 2 to 4 p.m., at the Justice Education Society at the Provincial Court of www.canadianinquirer.net

BC Room 260 800 Hornby St., Vancouver B.C. MORE INFO: To book an appointment, call/text 778-322-2839 or email: tfw.divorce@gmail.com Seniors Book Club By the Richmond Public Library WHEN/WHERE: Thursdays, 10:30 a.m. to 12 nn, at the Brighouse Main Branch, the Living Rm., 7700 Minoru Gate, Richmond, B.C. MORE INFO: Seniors ages 55 and older are invited to read books and exchange ideas with likeminded. To register visit any branch of Richmond Public Library, call 604-231-6413 or register online at www.yourlibrary.ca/events Richmond World Festival

By Coast Capital Savings WHEN/WHERE: Sept. 5, Minoru Park, Richmond, B.C. 2015 Taiwan Fest

By Tzu Chi Foundation WHEN/WHERE: 11a.m. to 7 p.m., Sept. 5 to 7, Granville St. in Downtown Vancouver, B.C. Vancouver Bead and Jewellery Show WHEN/WHERE: 4 to 8:30 p.m., Sept. 11; 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., Sept. 12 & 13; Croatian Cultural Centre, 3250 Commercial Drive,Vancouver B.C. MORE INFO: $8 for 1-day pass; $10 for weekend pass. Cash only at the door

SEPTEMBER 4, 2015

43

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Seen & Scenes: Vancouver

FRIDAY SEPTEMBER 4, 2015

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PCTC INDUCTION The board of directors of the Philippines Canada Trade Council (PCTC) were formally inducted into office on Aug. 27, at the Coast Coal Harbour Hotel in downtown Vancouver. Leading the ceremony was Philippine Consul General Neil Frank Ferrer (extreme left). The event was witnessed by PCTC members and guests. A general induction of members followed.

Taking their pledge of office were (from left) Gary Manansala, vice president and events co-chair; Gigi Astudillo, fund-raising co-chair; Jun Lagman, communications and promotions chair; Ray Lino, membership chair; Mary Anne Velayo, fund-raising co-chair; Mary Tecson, treasurer; and Jorge Miguel Marcó, president. Not in photo are Mercedes Wong, secretary; and David MacGrotty, events co-chair.

ATENEO PICNIC Scenes from the Ateneo Alumni Association in B.C. Picnic 2015 (Photos by Christian Cunanan).

GLOBAL FEST The Philippines swept all fireworks categories in the recently-concluded Global Fest Parade of Champions. It brought home the People’s Choice, Kids’ Choice and Best-of awards. The Philippine pavilion meanwhile shared with Scotland the One World Festival award. Here are highlights of the event (Photos by Evelyn Lopez). www.canadianinquirer.net

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Seen and Scenes: Toronto

SEPTEMBER 4, 2015

FRIDAY

CANDONIAN Picture taken during the Candonian’s annual picnic at Earle Bales Park on Aug. 29, organized by William Dy, president.

ARTISTS' GROUP Former Philippine Ambassador to Canada Leslie and Mrs. Debbie Gatan with Toronto Consul General Rosalita Prospero joined the Philippine Artists Group of Canada in a joyful get-together recently at the residence of the PAG founding President Romi and wife, Necie Mananquil. Shown in line (from L) Romi and Necie MananQuil, Atty. Chito Chavez, Frank Tonido, Trisha Asuncion, Cecile Asuncion, Ambassador Leslie and Mrs. Debbie Gatan, Marissa Corpuz-Gaa, Michelle Ramos and PAG President Nelia Tonido. Seated (front) Ike Ramos, Beth Vasques and Teody Asuncion. (Not in picture) ConGen Rose (who left earlier with Bong​, for another commitment)​, Gene Lopos,​Frank Cruzet, Theresa Lumanlan, Cielo Ramos and Erika Daswani.

MABUHAY FESTIVAL Here are some pictures taken during the Philippine Independence Day Council’s Mabuhay Philippines Festival at David Pecaut Square, Toronto on Aug. 29 and 30.

SUMMER PICNIC

TASTE OF MANILA

The Catholic Cross-cultural Services had their summer picnic organized

by Maripi Malana, on Aug. 29, at Thompson Memorial Park.

Minister Joe Oliver, Senator Enverga, Consul General Rosalita Prospero and Philippine Ambassador Petronila Garcia, present the certificate of appreciation to the organizers of Taste of Manila.

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

Food

FRIDAY SEPTEMBER 4, 2015

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SCHOOL LUNCH HITS

Breakfast Bars, MakeAhead Yogurt Parfaits, and Rice Lunch Salad THE CANADIAN PRESS WHEN IT comes to school lunches, variety is important to keep kids from getting bored. A healthy mix also provides different nutrients.

“No one fruit or no one vegetable is going to give you everything that your body needs, so the more variety the better chances we have of covering off our bases,” says Kate Comeau, spokeswoman for Dietitians of Canada.

“That same thing goes for bread. Some are going to have a bit more fibre. Some will have more folate. All will give you a little bit of something different.”

When it comes to picky eaters, research shows that the more kids try a food the more likely they’re going to like it.

BREAKFAST BARS

These can be eaten for breakfast or tucked into a lunch bag for a snack at recess.

• 500 ml (2 cups) rolled oats • 125 ml (1/2 cup) natural bran • 50 ml (1/4 cup) wheat germ • 50 ml (1/4 cup) all-purpose flour • 50 ml (1/4 cup) dried cranberries or raisins • 50 ml (1/4 cup) slivered almonds or chopped walnuts* • 10 ml (2 tsp) baking soda • 10 ml (2 tsp) ground cinnamon • 2 ml (1/2 tsp) ground ginger • 2 ml (1/2 tsp) ground nutmeg • 3 eggs • 250 ml (1 cup) unsweetened applesauce • 125 ml (1/2 cup) milk (1 per cent) • 45 ml (3 tbsp) packed brown sugar • *For a nut-free option, replace al-

“The biggest advice we can give to parents is to not give up,” says Comeau.

An idea that’s popular for picky eaters is build-your-own lunch kits. Put something from each of the four food groups in each part of a sectioned container.

“Maybe you’d have pita triangles in one, cheese cubes and hummus and sliced cucumbers. Your child can pick the four things they like and they won’t be touching or mixed up,” suggests Comeau.

“And don’t panic if one of those four sections comes home and it’s not eaten.

Maybe your child just wasn’t hungry for it that time so maybe they’ll have it later as a snack or you try again the next day and see what they’d like.”

Here are some healthy yet fun recipes to add to your lunchbox repertoire from Dietitians of Canada.

monds or walnuts with 50 ml (1/4 cup) dried fruits.

Preheat oven to 180 C (350 F). Spray a 20-cm (8-inch) square baking pan with cooking spray; set aside.

In a large bowl, combine oats, bran, wheat germ, flour, dried cranberries, almonds, baking soda, cinnamon, ginger and nutmeg.

In a separate bowl, whisk eggs, applesauce, milk and brown sugar. Pour over dry ingredients and mix just to combine. Spread into prepared baking pan, smoothing top.

Bake in preheated oven until toothpick inserted near centre comes out clean, 35 to 40 minutes. Let cool in pan on a wire rack before cutting into bars.

Makes 16 snack-size or 8 meal-sized bars.

MAKE-AHEAD BERRY PARFAITS

CELEBRATION RICE

The varieties of yogurt parfaits are endless. Have kids pick which ingredients they’d like to add. The parfaits can be made ahead and served for breakfast, lunch or a snack.

Kids can help chop and measure out ingredients for this colourful lunch salad, which combines poultry, rice, vegetables and dried cranberries.

For a vegetarian version, add cooked beans. It’s also a great way to use up leftover cooked turkey or chicken.

It came second in the 2012 EatRight Ontario Kids Recipe Challenge.

• 250 ml (1 cup) large-flake rolled oats • 50 ml (1/4 cup) chopped almonds, pecans or walnuts (optional) • 50 ml (1 tbsp) ground flax seeds (optional) • 375 ml (1 1/2 cups) 2 per cent plain yogurt • 375 ml (1 1/2 cups) 2 per cent vanilla yogurt • 500 ml (2 cups) blueberries, sliced strawberries and/or raspberries • In a skillet over medium heat, toast rolled oats and nuts, if using, stirring constantly, for 2 to 3 minutes or until golden and fragrant. Immediately transfer to a bowl and let cool. Stir in flax seeds, if using.

• 250 ml (1 cup) wild rice or wild rice blend • 4 green onions, thinly sliced • 125 ml (1/2 cup) chopped cucumber or celery • 125 ml (1/2 cup) dried cranberries • 250 ml (1 cup) diced cooked turkey or chicken* • 125 ml (1/2 cup) crumbled light feta cheese* • 45 ml (3 tbsp) raspberry vinaigrette • *Omit for vegetarian version; replace with cooked beans or lentils, if desired.

In a separate bowl, whisk together plain yogurt and vanilla yogurt.

Alternately layer oat mixture, yogurt and berries in four individual 375-ml (1 1/2-cup) reusable containers with lids or tall glasses. Seal with lids or cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate for at least 8 hours or up to 2 days.

Makes 4 servings.

In a pot, cover wild rice with water and bring to a boil. Cover slightly and simmer for about 30 minutes or until rice is tender. Drain well and place in a large bowl.

Add green onions, cucumber and cranberries. If using, add chicken and feta. Add vinaigrette and toss well to combine.

Makes six 250-ml (1-cup) servings.

Source: www.cookspiration.com

Source: www.cookspiration.com

Source: www.cookspiration.com www.canadianinquirer.net

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