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VOL. 6 NO. 220

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Losing Maguindanao bet cries fraud

The boss has spoken: No Cabinet post yet for Leni

Congress proclaims next president, vice president

Van: jobs boom, young still can’t afford housing

Low loonie shifting Canadian travel

BC trade and Investment office in the Philippines opens for business

GHOST OF BEDROOM PAST

Outgoing President Aquino seems to turn his back on the frills of public office as he leads a tour of Malacañang for INQUIRER editors. This chamber, with its opulent chandelier and fancy ceiling used to be former first lady Imelda Marcos’ bedroom, he said.

JOAN BONDOC: / PDI

Digong: If it’s preposterous, then don’t believe it!

BY TARRA QUISMUNDO Philippine Daily Inquirer DAVAO CITY—HE has stage 4 cancer and is dying. (Joke!) He will deliver a five-minute inaugural speech. (Joke!)

He will solve the country’s crime prob-

lem in three to six months (may be a joke).

“If it’s a preposterous statement, do not believe it,” presumptive Presidentelect Rodrigo “Digong” Duterte told a full-house media briefing before dawn

‘Mommy loves you!’: Little boy rescued after gorilla is shot

PREMIER CHRISTY Clark and a delegation of B.C. business representatives were joined by a large audience of senior Philippine business leaders and government officials to mark the grand opening of the new B.C. Trade and Investment Representative Office in Manila while on her trade mission to South Korea, the Philippines and Japan.

The new office in Manila is B.C.’s first office in Southeast Asia. It will support B.C. companies seeking to do business in the Philippines and will help Philippine companies find investment opportunities in B.C. The Philippines is the centre of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) region and a strategic location for B.C. to begin establishing an on-the-ground presence in Southeast Asia.

“We are positioning B.C. to capitalize on the many opportunities in the Philippines, which has one of the fastest-

❱❱ PAGE 20 ❱❱ PAGE 9 Digong: If it’s

CALL FOR NOMINATIONS:

FILIPINO-CANADIAN IN FOCUS InFocus.canadianinquirer.net

❱❱ PAGE 18 B.C. trade

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Philippine News

JUNE 3, 2016

FRIDAY

LP joining House ruling coalition

BY GIL C. CABACUNGAN Philippine Daily Inquirer THE LIBERAL Party (LP) will join the “Coalition for Change” led by Partido Demokratiko Pilipino-Lakas ng Bayan (PDPLaban) to support incoming President Rodrigo Duterte’s legislative agenda in the 17th Congress.

Speaking in a radio interview yesterday, Speaker Feliciano Belmonte Jr. said President Aquino, the LP chair, had given the party the go-signal to support Duterte and his handpicked Speaker, incoming Rep. Pantaleon Alvarez of Davao del Norte province.

Belmonte said most of the 115 House members whowon the May 9 election as LP candidates expected to shift to the

PDP-Laban coalition, but Caloocan Rep. Edgar Erice, LP political affairs chief, said neither the party nor the President had signed off on the plan for the LP to support Duterte.

“There is no party decision as far as I my knowledge is concerned that mandates party members from not joining the minority or vice versa,” Erice said yesterday.

“The party as a whole wants to be part of the majority. And we are negotiating it,” Belmonte said.

He said the majority of LP members joining the ruling coalition would carry the mantle of the party while the handful who would stay with the minority “need not retain the name LP or be associated with the majority LP.” The decision to join the ma-

jority was meant to comply with Duterte’s directive that all LP members joining the majority must join PDP-Laban if Belmonte and the LP would be the minority bloc.

To firm things up

Belmonte said he had not signed the declaration of support for PDP-Laban and Alvarez because he was planning to call a meeting to firm things up after the proclamation of Duterte.

“A week ago, we both agreed what to do, which means to say that he (Alvarez) will accept the LP as a party within the coalition,” the Speaker said, pointing out that the LP coalition in the 15th and 16th Congress did not require members of the Nationalist People’s Coalition or United Nationalist Alliance

Roxas was the Liberal Party's standard bearer in the 2016 presidential election.

SUPERGABBYSHOE / WIKIMEDIA COMMONS

(UNA) to switch to the ruling party.

Belmonte said the President, who served three terms in the House, had taken a “realistic attitude” toward the LP’s decision to cooperate with Duterte’s party in the 17th Congress.

“He prefers that the LP go with the majority and vote, support President Duterte and Congressman Alvarez. He prefers that [the LP] move as a group,” Belmonte said.

“But he knows that will not happen. He is realistic to know all of that because he went through this before,” Belmonte said, noting that the LP split up into two factions—one with Senate President Franklin Drilon and the other with Buhay Rep. Lito Atienza—during the Arroyo administration.

majority because this was a tradition in the House.

He cited as an example the allies of the late Speaker Ramon Mitra Jr. who abandoned Laban ng Demokratikong Pilipino (LDP) less than a week after Mitra lost the 1992 presidential election to Fidel V. Ramos.

“I first became a congressman in 1992, and I see this (turncoatism) every year. I hope we can change the system.

But under our current Constitution, almost everybody can form a party. I guess it's something that we have to expect,” Belmonte said.

He said he felt betrayed that some of his closest allies had abandoned the LP and switched to PDP-Laban, but he had accepted it because it was the reality in Philippine politics.

Equitable share

Self-interest

Erice, however, claimed that in the LP meeting with the President in Malacañang last week, the party agreed to ally itself with PDP-Laban if some members would be named committee chairs.

He said that without an equitable share, Belmonte would run for Speaker and, with Alvarez’s superior numbers, possibly end up as the minority leader.

“The LP will respect individual members who would want to join the minority, but they will have to inform the leadership,” Erice said.

He said he would stay in the minority as an LP member “to provide a different view of things.”

Belmonte said LP members who campaigned for losing presidential candidate Mar Roxas would not look bad in the

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But overall, Belmonte said he did not feel bad that some LP members had decided to switch to the new ruling party because their motives were reasonable— some just wanted to ensure the continued flow of projects to their districts, and others wanted to advance their careers by getting better positions.

With 290 House members fighting for the spoils, however, Belmonte said it was likely that some would not get any share and stay with the opposition.

The LP is not the only party vying to lead the minority in the House, as UNA and the LakasChristian-Muslim Democrats have also signified their interest to serve as fiscalizers.

With two months to go before the 17th Congress sits, Belmonte said a lot of things could still happen, including the usual horse trading between parties. ■

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Philippine News

JUNE 3, 2016

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Angara thanks President Aquino for signing into law the Customs Modernization Act PHILIPPINES NEWS AGENCY MANILA — Senator Juan Edgardo ‘Sonny’ Angara thanked President Benigno Aquino III on Tuesday for signing into law the Customs Modernization and Tariff Act (CMTA) which increases the tax-exempt value of items sent by the overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) to their families back home.

President Aquino signed last May 30 the CMTA or Republic Act No. 10863 that increases the tax exemption ceiling for the OFWs’ balikbayan boxes from the present Php10,000 to Php150,000.

“We thank our President and our colleagues in the Senate and the House of Representatives for helping in the passage of this bill which aims to remove taxes on the balikbayan box of our OFWs and reforms our old system in the Customs,” Angara, chairman of the Ways and Means Committee and sponsor of the CMTA, said.

“With the increase in the values, we lessen the discretion of the Customs officials to inspect goods and collect taxes, thus minimizing cases of corruption and smuggling,” he added.

The law provides that

Juan Edgardo "Sonny" Angara with his son during his 2013 bid for the Senate.

OFWs can send up to three Php150,000-worth of tax and duty free balikbayan boxes in a year, given that the goods are not in commercial quantities nor intended for barter, sale or for hire.

On top of the tax and duty free balikbayan boxes, Filipinos, who have stayed in a foreign country for at least 10 years and are returning to the Philippines, will also be granted tax exemption for personal and household effects, not exceeding Php350,000, they will be

bringing with them when they return to the country.

As for Filipinos who have lived overseas for at least five years, they will be entitled to tax and duty free personal and household effects amounting to Php250,000, while those who have stayed abroad for less than five years can enjoy Php150,000 tax-free ceiling.

The CMTA also raises the de minimis value, which refers to the value of tax and duty free goods and the minimum cost of goods required to undergo

JELAIZ / WIKIMEDIA COMMONS

formal Customs entry, from the present Php10 to Php10,000.

The senator stressed that to permanently do away with the outdated values, the bill provides for an automatic indexation of the amounts every three years to account for inflation.

R.A. 10863 generally aims to simplify, modernize and align with global best practices the country’s Customs procedures, including import clearances and valuations, making the release of goods much faster, regardless of whether the import-

er is an individual entrepreneur or a large multinational.

It also mandates the use of information and communications technology and other appropriate applications that speed up not only the innerworkings of Customs, but also make it more transparent.

The CMTA reinforces BOC functions as trade facilitator rather than just being a revenue-generating agency, and imposes higher penalties against smuggling.

“The CMTA aims to overhaul and modernize the bureau which has long been perceived as one of the most corrupt and underperforming government agencies in the country. Kahit si President-elect Rodrigo Duterte ay gusto nang buwagin ang ahensiyang ito. Pero umaasa tayo na sa pamamagitan ng mahigpit na pagpapatupad ng batas na ito at sa tulong ng bagong administrasyong Duterte, magbabago at maisasaayos ang kalakaran ng Customs (Even the President-elect Rodrigo Duterte wants to dissolve this agency. But we are hoping that in the strict implementation of this new law with the help of the new Duterte administration, there will be change and better services by Customs),” Angara said. ■

NDF, not us, walked out of peace talks–P-Noy

BY NIKKO DIZON Philippine Daily Inquirer AFTER THE historic meeting of President Aquino with Moro secessionist group chieftain Murad Ebrahim in 2011 to jump-start the peace process, the communist-led National Democratic Front (NDF) has expressed its willingness to engage in a similar kind of talk, with its founder Jose Ma. Sison as its representative.

But President Aquino told INQUIRER editors and reporters on Tuesday that while he did hear about that proposal, it was never formally presented to him.

“Formally, I don’t think I ever received that (proposal)… But

you phrased it correctly, that it was after the Murad meeting, sometime after that. But what was on the table had no significant change so we thought it was just propaganda,” Mr. Aquino said.

The President said his administration did not abandon the peace process with the NDF. ‘Envious’ of MILF

“They walked out. How do we proceed with the peace process if we go back to the long dragged out and no-compromising position?” Mr. Aquino said.

From a well-placed source, the INQUIRER learned that the NDF felt “envious” of the Aquino-Murad meeting that its leaders sent word to emissaries soon after and thought of

proposing a special track that would include a meeting between the President and Sison.

Sison’s team, in fact, timed a travel to Indonesia from Europe to coincide with President Aquino’s trip to another Southeast Asian country in case the Chief Executive agreed to the proposal to meet.

Mr. Aquino’s successor, Rodrigo Duterte, has been posturing to strike peace with the communist rebels, offering their compatriots Cabinet posts.

Duterte is also set to grant amnesty to all political prisoners in a bid to end the fourdecade-old communist insurgency, the longest in Asia.

The peace talks between the Aquino administration and the www.canadianinquirer.net

communist rebels broke down in 2013.

Proposal for talks

Mr. Aquino recalled that the Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) had a “proposal supposedly coming from Jose Maria Sison that talked about how to resolve this issue, such as employment for their fighters, something like five items and all of those proposals were very doable.”

“And the people we sent all came back and basically said he (Sison) looked very sincere that they wanted this to happen. I am quoting from my memory and how I understood it,” the President said.

But he recalled that “the line broke down” after Sison took back the proposal when the two

parties clashed on the implementation of the Joint Agreement on Safety and Immunity Guarantees (Jasig).

The Jasig protects NDF consultants from arrests by the state. Earlier, the NDF saved in a diskette its list of consultants — with their real names, photographs and aliases —which was kept in a vault but got corrupted over time.

The government declined the NDF’s proposal to reconstruct the list.

“They wanted to repopulate the list, but they were going to put in too many names.

They used that as a pretext to walk out of the talks. I want to emphasize that we didn’t stop the talks, they stopped it,” Mr. Aquino said. ■

Philippine News

FRIDAY JUNE 3, 2016

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Duterte vows to solve first transport, crime crises

Marcos camp questions deferment of audit plea

BY TARRA QUISMUNDO Philippine Daily Inquirer

BY JEANNETTE I. ANDRADE Philippine Daily Inquirer

pursuing the country’s bid to stop its incursions into Philippine waters, Duterte said: “Just because you’re building me the railway doesn’t mean to say that I DAVAO CITY — Once he assumes pow- am abandoning the Scarborough Shoal.” er, incoming President Rodrigo Duterte The shoal is among Philippinewill immediately tackle two critical claimed features in the disputed waters. problems that confront, if not hurt, FiliThe Philippines has a pending arbipinos daily: crime and poor public trans- tration case in a United Nations court portation. that aims to invalidate China’s claim to “I have to declare a crisis in the war almost all of the South China Sea, and against crime and on the part of com- to stop its intrusive activities, including muter trains and all. I have a crisis land reclamation and sea patrols. there,” said Duterte, the longtime mayor The tribunal is expected to issue a rulof Davao credited for curbing crime in ing within the year. China has refused to his city and enforcing strict traffic regu- participate in the proceedings, asserting lations. its “indisputable sovereignty” over the “My crisis begins with Edsa, and the waters. other crisis is that there are a lot of “I told you that is ours, you have no drugs. We’re fightright to be there,” ing them on so many Duterte said. fronts,” he said in an “[The dispute] inhourlong news convolves the principle ference close to midof the law of [the sea night on Saturday.

Just because that] says you have “My first big projyou’re building the exclusive right ect is the establishme the railway to develop and make ment of a railway doesn’t mean use of your exclusive for the Philippines. to say that I am economic zone. If There are those who abandoning the you build something want to help, and we Scarborough that impedes that, it will ask them, what’s Shoal. obstructs that right the payback?” he told and the exercise of reporters. that right given by There is no deinternational law,” he tailed plan yet, but said.

Duterte’s vision includes train lines conDuterte said he expected that “China necting Manila to Nueva Vizcaya prov- will follow” the tribunal’s ruling. ince in the north, Sorsogon and BatanOn the crime front, Duterte said gas provinces in the south, and a system he was hoping the police would start “for the whole of Mindanao.” stepping up even before he formally “Maybe China” will be involved, he takes office. The mayor, who has been said. “I tell you frankly, we do not have linked to death squads, is notorious for the money for it.” his heavy-handed approach to fightAn earlier plan to partner with China ing crime but is highly regarded in his was derailed in 2012 following a corrup- hometown. tion controversy.

The NorthRail project, which was ini- ‘Show me bodies’ tiated under President Gloria MacapaOn Wednesday, he called a midnight gal-Arroyo, was meant to link northern press conference to give Manila law Metro Manila with Diosdado Macapagal enforcers a dressing down for failing to International Airport in Clark Field, stop the distribution of drugs at a Pasay Pampanga province.

City rave where five youths died after But the project was canceled in 2012 taking a fatal cocktail of toxic pills. after the Supreme Court ruled that it “I’m happy to hear that they (police) was illegal for lack of competitive bid- have started their (antidrug) operations ding. The Philippines was obligated to in some other areas, provinces and citreturn some $593 million in loans to ies. I’d like to tell the police that they China for the project. should not wait for me until I become President,” he said.

Delicate balance Duterte said he would recruit 3,000 The project’s dissolution also came at more police officers and create two the height of a dispute between Manila more Army divisions for a special purand Beijing over territory in the South pose related to security, which he did China Sea. not reveal.

Asked how he would manage the He said the police should present him delicate balance between seeking in- results of their work. “Show me cold frastructure support from China and bodies,” he added. ■

THE CAMP of Sen. Ferdinand Marcos Jr. yesterday questioned the deferment by the Commission on Elections (Comelec) of the vice presidential candidate’s request for an audit of the automated election system.

Marcos’ campaign adviser, Abakada Rep. Jonathan dela Cruz said he doubted that a system audit would affect the official canvass.

“It is very unfortunate that the Comelec has decided to defer action on the request of Senator Marcos for a system audit of the transparency and central servers until after the canvassing is concluded,” he said in a statement.

Integrity on the line

Dela Cruz said the Marcos camp could not understand how the system audit could affect the official canvass because all election returns had been transmitted and all COCs (certificates of canvass) had been printed out for canvass.

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Marcos has been suggesting that irregularities in the count of votes for the vice presidential race arose because of a change in the data packet for a transparency server on the night of Election Day. Vulnerability in system

His campaign adviser cited electronically generated COCs in the vice presidential race from the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao, Laguna province, Ilocos Sur province and Cebu City that he claimed showed vulnerability in the system.

“It is our position that whoever will be proclaimed Vice President by the NBOC (national board of canvassers) deserves a clear and unequivocal mandate once he assumes the position. We cannot allow all doubts to linger on our new Vice President which would diminish the stature of his office,” he said.

Dela Cruz said the Marcos camp would take the next legal step to push for the system audit “for the sake of truth and for the millions of Filipinos who cast their votes despite the odds and limitations on May 9.” ■

Philippine News

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JUNE 3, 2016

FRIDAY

Losing Maguindanao bet cries fraud

BY JEANNETTE I. ANDRADE Philippine Daily Inquirer Publisher Philippine Canadian Inquirer, Inc. Correspondents Jane Moraleda Socorro Newland Bolet Arevalo Katherine Padilla Gerna Lane Sotana Community Editor Mary Ann Mandap maryann.mandap@canadianinquirer.net Administration Head Victoria Yong Graphic Designer Shanice Garcia Photographers Angelo Siglos Vic Vargas For photo submissions, please send to editor@canadianinquirer.net Operations and Marketing Head Laarni Liwanag (604) 551-3360 laarni.liwanag@canadianinquirer.net Advertising Sales Alice Yong (778) 889-3518 alice.yong@canadianinquirer.net Nelson Wu (647) 521-5155 salestoronto@canadianinquirer.net nelson.wu@canadianinquirer.net Amelia Insigne (416) 574-5121 amelia.insigne@canadianinquirer.net Antonio Tampos (604) 460-9414 antonio.tampos@canadianinquirer.net PHILIPPINE PUBLISHING GROUP Editorial Assistant Christelle Tolisora Associate Publisher Lurisa Villanueva In cooperation with the Philippine Daily Inquirer digital edition Philippine Canadian Inquirer is located at 11951 Hammersmith Way, Suite 108 Richmond, B.C. V7A 5H9 Canada Tel. No.: +1 (888) 668-6059, +1 (778) 889-3518 | Email: info@canadianinquirer.net, sales@canadianinquirer.net Philippine Canadian Inquirer is published weekly every Friday.

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IF YOU’RE a registered voter in Datu Saudi Ampatuan, Maguindanao, you don’t have to go out and vote because somebody else will likely do that for you.

In a town considered the country’s second poorest, all you apparently need to do to win the elections is get the backing of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) and enlist a handful of people willing to shade thousands of ballots to be fed into vote-counting machines (VCMs).

This was the claim of someone who ran for vice mayor in Datu Saudi Ampatuan, who flew to Manila early this week to speak out against alleged massive cheating in his municipality and provide the INQUIRER video footage of the alleged poll fraud in his town.

Speaking to the INQUIRER in a safe house in Metro Manila on Wednesday night, Bassir Utto claimed that a reelectionist, Mayor Samsudin Dimaukom, and his wife, Anida Dimaukom, manipulated the automated elections to favor their candidacies for mayor and vice mayor, with full support from the head of the MILF 118th Base Command, Wahid Tundoc.

Entire LP slate

The Dimaukom couple also rigged the polls to enable the entire Liberal Party (LP) slate to win the elections in the municipality, according to Utto.

Utto, a former Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM) assemblyman for the second district of Maguindanao and former Datu Saudi Ampatuan councilor, ran as a candidate of the United Nationalist Alliance (UNA) against Dimaukom’s wife.

He said the couple used intimidation, through armed MILF fighters under Tundoc, to scare away legitimate voters from polling places and allow their supporters to shade the LP lineup in bundles of ballots that were later fed into the VCMs. “Nobody’s coming forward. Everybody’s scared. I am doing this not only for this generation but also for the next generations (in Datu Saudi Ampatuan).

Until when will our municipality in Maguindanao have dirty and fraudulent elections?” Utto told the INQUIRER. “We are no longer talking about winning or losing. I am just revealing the truth,” he said.

The INQUIRER tried but failed to get a comment from the MILF. The Dimaukom couple could not be located.

Armed MILF members

In an affidavit, Utto said that on May 9, Election Day, he was observing the conduct of the elections in Barangay

Kabinge in Datu Saudi Ampatuan when he noticed around 100 members of the MILF’s 118th Base Command on standby near a polling center.

He said he spotted at least six of the men brandishing pistols “in full view” of military personnel stationed in the area.

Tundoc, he said, “is an influential and feared commander of the MILF due to his recent involvement in the SAF 44 controversy.”

Utto was referring to the Jan. 25, 2015, carnage in Mamasapano town where 44 police commandos, 18 MILF fighters and five civilians were killed.

Tundoc was not subjected to an “interview” by the Philippine National Police’s board of inquiry in connection with the incident because the MILF central committee disallowed it.

Tundoc was arrested at a checkpoint in Cotabato City in February 2014 on charges of multiple murder and arson but was turned over to the MILF ceasefire committee after his arrest warrant was lifted.

Group that killed Usman

Ghadzali Jaafar, MILF vice chair for political affairs, maintained then that fighters with standing court cases, including Tundoc, should be temporarily immune from arrest and prosecution to avoid misunderstandings that could derail the peace process.

The following year, in May 2015, Tundoc’s group claimed responsibility for killing Filipino terrorist and bombmaker Abdul Basit Usman who had a $1-million bounty on his head. The MILF operation was purportedly intended to redeem Tundoc and his group after being implicated in the 25 Mamasapano incident.

In his sworn statement, Utto said, “Their group’s presence was tolerated

by AFP (Armed Forces of the Philippines) soldiers and policemen who were guarding the premises 50 meters away

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from the polling center.”

He pointed out that he immediately informed Lt. Col. Warlito Limit, AFP battalion commander of the 2nd Mechanized Brigade stationed in Barangay Salbu, of the presence of Tundoc’s group.

But all Limit told him was, “I already gave instructions to my men.”

Voters screened

“I was able to observe that initially, the Tundoc group and their armed men had the identified supporters of incumbent Mayor Dimaukom line up in the voting center and precincts therein to cast their votes, while my supporters and other voters/ individuals were given a hard time entering. To sort the voters, the Tundoc group resorted to asking individuals ‘LP ka ba? (Are you LP?)’ Only a few of my supporters were brave enough to make their way into the voting center,” Utto said.

He further noted that as soon as most of Dimaukom’s supporters had cast their votes, Tundoc’s men “heightened their acts of intimidation and harassment” against voters who just arrived by allegedly displaying firearms, blocking the way and shouting at them.

Ring on pinkie

Dimaukom’s other supporters, who arrived late and had not voted yet, were easily given access to the polling centers and allowed to loiter. They were identified, according to Utto, through rings on their pinkie, pink clothing or LP baller bracelets.

Pink is the “color of love and peace,” Dimaukom said in previous media interviews. The incumbent Datu Saudi Ampatuan mayor wears pink shirts, drives around in a pink Hummer and built a pink mosque. Shocking pink was his wife’s favorite shade, he said. ❱❱ PAGE 12 Losing Maguindanao

Philippine News

FRIDAY JUNE 3, 2016

NBI probes into 2 synthetic drugs sold in Pasay concert PHILIPPINES NEWS AGENCY MANILA — The National Bureau of Investigation-Anti Illegal Drugs Division (NBI-AIDD) is now investigating whether the two new synthethic drugs were sold to the party-goers in a concert in Pasay City last May 21.

The two synthethic drugs are MDMA methylene homolog or ecstacy which were mixed with laboratory chemical and synthetic cathinones with a street name of bath salts which were seized by the NBI from Joshua Habalo during their buy-bust operation.

Habalo was one of the suspects who sold the illegal drugs in the concert in Pasay City.

NBI-Anti Drugs Division Chief Joel Tuvera on Tuesday said that they are now investigating whether the two deadly synthetc drugs were among those sold in the concert-goers.

Tuvera said they were now

Senator Vicente Sotto III delivers his privilege speech on the recent Pasay City concert tragedy.

AVITO C. DALAN / PNA

also locating the whereabouts of the four persons whom Habalo claimed were the suppliers also of the drugs in the Pasay concert.

Tuvera noted that Habalo was already charged with a complaint before the Pasay City Prosecutor’s Office after he turned positive of cocaine, the white powder seized from him in the buy-bust operation.

However, Tuvera clarified

that because the two synthetic drugs were still not included in the list of prohibited drugs by the Dangerous Drugs Board (DDB), the same were not among the basis of the complaint against Habalo.

Because of this, Tuvera admitted that the syndicates were circumventing the law through the sale of the new kinds of drugs. ■

Peña determined to push for manual recount of votes in Makati mayoralty race PHILIPPINES NEWS AGENCY MANILA — The fight is not yet over for incumbent Makati City Mayor Romulo ‘Kid’ Peña as he vowed to seek a manual recount of votes after filing an election protest against mayor-elect MarLen Abigail ‘Abby’ Binay-Campos for alleged vote-buying and fraud.

With this, Peña on Tuesday announced the influx of donations coming from a fund raising campaign organized by his supporters for the manual recount of the votes.

A total of PHP139,510 were collected from six barangays of Makati.

“This is only the first batch of donations. We still have 27 more barangays to go,” Peña said adding he already paid a PHP500,000 bond to the Com-

mission on Elections (Comelec) for his petition for manual recount of votes.

Peña thanked the people for their unwavering support to his recount bid.

“Nagpapasalamat ako sa mga naniniwala na sa pinaglalaban natin at the same time gusto natin lumabas yong katotohanan kasi maraming tiga Makati naghahanap ng boto nila (I give my thanks to those who believed and fought for our cause and at the same time we want the truth to come out for the Makati people are looking for their votes),” he added.

Peña filed his protest last May 20 against alleged electoral fraud in the Mayoralty post during the May 9 election against Campos.

Peña is protesting the counted votes after only obtaining 142,315 votes as against Cam-

pos with 160,120 with a difference of only 17,805 votes.

Peña noted that he filed the petition to seek enlightenment and to be fair to the public specially to those who voted for him.

Campos, the incumbent representative of the city’s first district, is the daughter of former city mayor and outgoing Vice President Jejomar Binay and sister of the city’s ousted mayor Jun Jun Binay.

Earlier, Campos said that they would answer the charges once they received the copy.

Campos also said that she was confident that she won the May 9 polls to bring back the service provided to the people of Makati.

She added that Peña should accept the result of the election because that’s the people choice and this was the time to be united for the people of Makati. ■ www.canadianinquirer.net

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Digong: If it’s... on Thursday.

Don’t take his word for it; don’t take him too seriously—at least not just yet, the Davao mayor advised members of the media.

“Once I’m President, I will no longer joke about five minutes, five minutes,” he said, referring to his widely quoted promise to limit his inaugural speech to five minutes.

“What President would give a five-minute inaugural speech?

Filipinos will kill me if I did that,” he said, adding that he was just making the best of his remaining days outside the formalities of presidential protocol.

“I’m just enjoying my last few days… I am enjoying… my rudeness,” said the country’s incoming leader known for his brash sense of humor and earthy— some say, gutter—language. ❰❰ 1

Playing around

“If I say something like that, don’t buy it. If the answer is preposterous or ridiculous, whisper to the one next to you from the Davao media and check if I’m serious,” Duterte said, adding that he enjoyed “playing around” and “bantering” with local reporters.

Duterte said his curse-filled vocabulary was the result of growing up in an impoverished neighborhood where he learned life on the streets.

His expletives form part of his “universal identity,” the incoming President said. “I was made by the Lord [like] this.”

But, as his campaign slogan promised, change is coming, and Duterte vowed to clean up his language and spare the presidency from the curse words he wields around like a deadly weapon.

“I will just follow protocol [in delivering the speech]. Maybe I will have to clean it up just to be well-prepared,” he said.

President-elect Rodrigo Duterte.

“I will no longer make jokes and say [curse] words when I’m [proclaimed] President,” he promised.

No. 1 license plate

But if there’s one thing he’s sure would be easy to give up as President, it would be the No. 1 license plate. Cabinet officials should also give up their special license plates, he said.

“That’s too corny,” said the mayor who would cruise around Davao on a pickup truck or a motorbike, and has been known to drive a cab to patrol the city late at night.

For the media covering him, however, finding the fine line between jest and truth may well be a challenge. Duterte’s abrasive manner remains a constant—even when he’s joking.

Responding to a question about his health, an incensed Duterte said: “I’m dying! What’s your problem?”

He added: “I divulge my Barrett (syndrome), my smoking, so what else do you want? I will end your speculation and say I’m dying.”

Rumors

It only became clear it was another joke when the 71-year-old official brushed aside rumors that he was recently confined in a hospital, saying “If you can prove that, I will withdraw.”

He then challenged the reporter to an hour and a half on the treadmill at his house. “If I falter, I resign,” he said.

Upon learning that his salary as President would only be P120,000 a month, he said: “That’s it? Then I will resign!”

It will be an exhausting task, he said, solving the nation’s problems, sleeping late because of work, then waking up early to start working again.

“Then when the news comes out, you’re the bad guy,” he added. ■

AKP IMAGES / KEITH BACONGCO

10

Philippine News

JUNE 3, 2016

FRIDAY

Driver in ‘sex harassment’ video explains his lip-licking

BY ERIKA SAULER Philippine Daily Inquirer HE JUST happened to be licking his parched lips while talking to his female passenger about cell-phone snatchers.

That’s all.

With this explanation, the jeepney driver accused of sexually harassing a woman tried to appease both her family and the transport authorities who had summoned him after the video she took of the May 23 incident went viral.

Emmanuel Escalona, 47, a resident of Camarin, Caloocan City, appeared at the Land Transportation Franchising and Regulatory Board (LTFRB) main office on Friday. He maintained that he didn’t mean

to touch the woman’s private parts when he tried to stop her from taking the video.

Only the complainant’s mother and sister went to the LTFRB to confront Escalona.

Before the driver could go down on his knees to apologize, the mother stopped him.

“Don’t kneel. My daughter is not here and I cannot make the decision for her. You should’ve thought about your children when you harassed her,” she said. “I wish you didn’t do that.

You don’t know the trauma it caused her. She keeps crying and is now scared to ride jeepneys.”

“I wanted her to resign from work but she doesn’t want to quit because we won’t have anything to eat. I’m just a vendor and her sister’s a scaven-

ger,” added the mother, whose family resides in Payatas, Quezon City.

“And what did you mean by ‘delicious?’” the sister asked the driver, referring to the utterances he supposedly made during the ride.

But Escalona, who showed up with his wife and two female neighbors, denied saying such thing.

The incident happened on Monday around 6 a.m. as Escalona drove through 15th Avenue in Cubao, Quezon City, with the complainant seated next to him. The woman, a fastfood service crew member, was then going home from work.

In her complaint, she recalled how the driver first told her to secure her bag. But when she started feeling uncomfort-

able with his side-glances, she took out her phone to record his actions. He then moved a hand and touched her, prompting her to jump out of the moving jeepney.

In the clip, Escalona was seen repeatedly glancing at the person taking the video. He was also heard saying “there are a lot of snatchers here,” and twice he licked his lips.

The passenger went to the LTFRB on Tuesday to file a complaint for sexual harassment. Board member Ariel Inton, who presided during Friday’s confrontation, said the complaint will be tackled in a formal hearing on Monday.

Escalona said the woman might have gotten scared because, that morning, he went to work with bloodshot eyes and

dry lips due to lack of sleep. He said he had a sister who died only recently and was buried on Sunday, the day before the incident.

He insisted that he was just warning the passenger about cell-phone snatchers and that he reached toward her only to stop the video recording.

Escalona also explained that he went to work only in shorts and sando that day after he was accidentally doused with boiling water during the “traditional washing” performed after his sister’s funeral.

The side of his face, left arm and torso had scalding injuries when he showed up at the LTFRB on Friday. ■ With reports from Lian Gomez and Katrine Tenia

Educating millennials on Marcos came too late, P-Noy admits

BY NIKKO DIZON Philippine Daily Inquirer SAN JOSE, TARLAC — President Aquino yesterday acknowledged his administration may have realized “too late” that many young people had gotten “lost” and believed in the revised narrative being peddled by Sen. Ferdinand Marcos Jr. about his father’s martial law rule over three decades ago.

Marcos, son of the late strongman Ferdinand Marcos and his equally profligate wife Imelda, ran for vice president and garnered almost as many votes as administration candidate Leni Robredo.

“Perhaps, on the flip side, we might have recognized too late that many had gotten lost. But I think what is more important is, in the final analysis, our candidate who never even planned to run, who started with 1 per-

GIL NARTEA / MALACAÑANG PHOTO BUREAU / PNA

cent [in the surveys] and had 70-something percent awareness, won,” Mr. Aquino told reporters.

Robredo received 14.08 million votes while Marcos got 13.8 million in the last Commission on Elections count. The official canvassing of the presidential and vice presidential votes is currently being conducted by the Congress.

Not just theory

To President Aquino, Marcos’ votes—won in the year the country celebrated the 30th anniversary of the Edsa People Power revolt that kicked the Marcos family out of Malacañang and out of the country— showed that those who lived under martial law “failed to take into account that for the millennials, it was difficult to

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imagine that a period like martial law actually happened.”

He said that those born after the country won back democracy in 1986 wouldn’t be able to imagine that there was a time when information was hard to come by, especially in this day when one has access to the Internet 24/7.

“There are many things that they find hard to understand… I would presume that those born after Edsa looked at it (martial law) as a theory,” Mr. Aquino said.

In an interview with INQUIRER editors and reporters on Tuesday, Mr. Aquino gave an unequivocal “yes” when asked if he believed Robredo had won the vice presidency.

Show proof

He challenged Marcos to produce evidence of cheating if he had it.

“In our system, you have the right to fight for your interests

but it is also your obligation to show proof if you are making an accusation,” Mr. Aquino said.

Yesterday, he told the Malacañang press corps that with Robredo catching up and eventually winning the vice presidential race, “at the very end, the truth prevailed.”

During the heated election campaign, Robredo was the only vice presidential candidate to take Marcos to task for the human rights abuses and massive corruption committed during the martial law years.

The younger Marcos has refused to apologize for the brutal rule of his father. He has also refused to address demands his family return the billions of pesos it stole from the government during the two decades they were in Malacañang. ■

Philippine News

FRIDAY JUNE 3, 2016

11

The boss has spoken: No Cabinet post yet for Leni

BY TARRA QUISMUNDO Philippine Daily Inquirer DAVAO CITY — There might be “an opportunity” for incoming Vice President Leni Robredo, but incoming President Rodrigo “Rody” Duterte is not quite in a hurry to offer her a job in his Cabinet.

While his camp had repeatedly spoken about his openness to giving Robredo a Cabinet position, Duterte, in a news conference here late on Saturday, appeared noncommittal, saying he was looking to pay back first his debt of gratitude to the people within his own circle who were instrumental in his electoral victory.

“That (giving Robredo a Cabinet job) never entered my mind actually. I am not trying to be smart aleck, but I’m still trying to figure out the selection in my own group and party,” he said, contradicting earlier statements by his own people.

If it’s just talking about “an opportunity” for Robredo, “it would come later,” he added.

“It doesn’t mean to say the door is open and there’s already the job waiting. It’s an opportunity or maybe we can talk about just having a good rapport in the meantime because we don’t even know each other yet,” Duterte said.

Reminded that he had recently joked about at least giving Robredo something—a “nice ring”—the incoming President said, “Ah, that’s different.”

Pressed on what role Robredo would have in his administration, Duterte again joked: “It could not be a starring role.”

Speaking to reporters in Naga City in Camarines Sur province on Saturday, Robredo said that if she would not be given a Cabinet job, she would focus her attention on antipoverty programs that could be covered by the budget of her office.

“I prefer an anti-poverty job similar to the present setup of the anti-poverty cluster [in the Aquino Cabinet] headed by the secretary of [social welfare and development],” she said. “[This job entails] clustered thrusts on housing, livelihood and agriculture.”

Robredo pledged “100-percent support” for Duterte’s administration. But whether she gets a Cabinet job is up to

Senate President Franklin Drilon (left) and House Speaker Feliciano Belmonte Jr. formally proclaim outgoing Camarines Sur Congresswoman Leni Robredo as the country's next Vice President during a joint session of Congress at the House of Representatives. Also in photo are the incoming Vice President's daughters Jilian, Aika and Tricia.

AVITO C. DALAN / PNA

Duterte, she said.

Filipinos, and enraged his crit- mates, a similar knock that A longtime mayor of Davao ics, with vows of ruthless tactics outgoing President Aquino had City, Duterte said that being to end crime within six months. received for putting his close “rustic,” his “sphere of influDuterte won the May 9 elec- friends in his Cabinet at the ence” covered only people he tions by a landslide, polling start of his administration. met in school, including friends more than 6 million votes than The incoming President earfrom his dormitory and his fra- Mr. Aquino’s candidate, LP lier appointed his classmates ternity. standard-bearer Mar Roxas.

Vitaliano Aguirre and Arthur He said he did not socialize in Duterte and Robredo, Rox- Tugade as justice secretary and Manila when he held the seat as’ running mate, will be pro- transportation secretary. He of the city’s first district in the claimed today by a joint session also picked longtime friends House of Representatives from of Congress.

Salvador Medialdea and law1998 to 2001.

Duterte said he had never yer Salvador Panelo as execuDuterte said he was looking met Robredo. “I don’t even tive secretary and presidential to give jobs to “the party guys know who this looming genius spokesperson. who have been loyal to me all in government is,” he said. along and maybe Education, [those] … who budget were, for one On Saturday, reason or anDuterte said he other, a factor in was offering the my winning the I don’t even know who this looming position of budpresidency.” genius in government is. You do get secretary to He added, “I not appoint somebody you do not Benjamin Diokshould not be trust. But you also have to know no, who held the looking beyond the person, to know enough of his same post in the my borders yet.” character or his capacity and his administration Duterte behonesty. of President Jolongs to the seph Estrada.

Partido DeWhen reached mokratiko Pilby the INQUIRipino-Lakas ng ER on Sunday, Bayan, while Diokno declined Robredo is a member of the He said he was more inclined to comment on Duterte’s offer.

Liberal Party (LP), which cam- to give jobs to people he knew Duterte also announced that paigned hard to prevent his well and trusted. “You do not he was offering the position of election. The mayor’s promise appoint somebody you do not education secretary to Univerto roll out his mailed-fist law- trust. But you also have to know sity of the Philippines profesand-order policies in his city the person, to know enough of sor Leonor Briones, who, he nationally, according to Presi- his character or his capacity said, was “quite familiar” with dent Aquino, was a threat to de- and his honesty,” he said. the problems of the education mocracy.

Duterte swatted aside criti- sector.

The acid-tongued local poli- cism he had drawn by appointIn a text message to the INtician captivated millions of ing his own friends and class- QUIRER, Briones, whoserved www.canadianinquirer.net

as national treasurer in the Estrada administration, said she had not yet decided on whether to accept the offer.

Duterte said in Davao City that Briones had asked to be given up to Tuesday to decide.

“She’s quite familiar with the problem we are facing, the implementation of the K-12 (kindergarten to Grade 12) program,” he said. “A lot of students will be marginalized and will not be able to enroll, and a good number of teachers have also lost their positions. That’s a problem.”

K-12 is the Aquino administration’s flagship education program, adding two more years of high school to the 10year basic education cycle. The Department of Education rolls out the program this school year.

Duterte said he had also chosen appointees for the defense department, Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency, Land Transportation Office (LTO), Bureau of Internal Revenue and Bureau of Customs, but he did not disclose their names.

He said, however, that his choices for the defense, customs and LTO posts were from the military.

Duterte also said he was still making up his mind about the Left’s nominations to the Cabinet, including for the heads of the Department of Social Welfare and Development and the Department of Agrarian Reform.

Vacancies

Among the positions in Duterte’s Cabinet that are still open are science and technology, health, trade, environment and natural resources, and interior and local government.

Spots at several presidential commissions and advisory bodies are also still unfilled.

As for the tourism job, Duterte said he had yet to make a choice, but thought current Tourism Secretary Ramon Jimenez Jr. was doing a good job.

“I’m not saying I’m going to get him, but Jimenez is doing a splendid job. He knows his work,” Duterte said.

He said he would be ready to name most members of his Cabinet in a presentation in Davao City on Tuesday afternoon. ■

Philippine News

12

JUNE 3, 2016

FRIDAY

House leaders see no problem in appointing communist rebels to gov’t

BY SAMMY F. MARTIN Philippines News Agency MANILA — Senior leaders of the House of Representatives on Tuesday said they see no problem with the Duterte administration offering government positions to communist rebels.

Majority Floor Leader Neptali Gonzales II said in a press conference, “It’s the president’s call, wala namang prohibition diyan. We should remember, lahat ng ma-appoint ng presidente are at the pleasure of the appointing power subject to confirmation. Kung ‘di naman ma-reject ng Commission on Appointment, the president can always extend via an ad interim appointment (It’s the president’s call, there is no prohibition placed. We should

remember, all who are appointed by the president are at the pleasure of the appointing power subject to confirmation.

Should it not be rejected by the Commission on Appointment, the president can always extend via an ad interim appointment.”

He pointed out that the president is the one responsible for his government.

“Wala namang prohibition kung sino gusto i-appoint. Siya ang responsable sa kaniyang desisyon (There are no prohibitions to who he can appoint. He is deemed responsible for his decisions). I’m sure he will be guided,” he explained.

Among the post reserved by President Duterte to left leanings are the Department of Labor and Employment; Department of Agrarian Reform; Department of Environment

Losing Maguindanao... ❰❰ 8

Guns fired

Intimidation at the polling center, according to Utto, escalated quickly when Tundoc’s men fired their guns in the air and threw stones to prevent more votes to be cast for candidates other than Dimaukom. Voters, who did not support the incumbent mayor’s reelection bid, fled out of fear.

It was only after Utto’s nephew urged the soldiers posted near the polling center to do something that they fired warning shots directed at Tundoc’s group.

The MILF men stopped, with a large number of them leaving the area at noon. After a few minutes, the remaining members of Tundoc’s group allegedly resumed to harass voters supporting other candidates.

Utto said he learned later that members of the Tundoc group had transferred to Datu Pendililang Piang Elementary School, the designated voting center for Barangays Elian, Gawang, Kitango, Madia and Salbu, five of eight barangays comprising Datu Saudi Ampatuan town.

It was in one of the voting precincts in the school that

the video footage he showed the INQUIRER of alleged poll fraud was taken by a supporter, who managed to slip through.

Frantic ballot shading Normina Taha, wife of an UNA candidate who was among the few people who was able to enter the polling center, said she went to Precinct 35 covering Barangay Salbu to check on her husband’s poll watchers but stumbled onto Dimaukom’s supporters frantically shading bundles of ballots and Tundoc’s daughter feeding them into the VCM. All of it, she told the INQUIRER, happened as armed MILF men and a board of election inspectors (BEI) member watched.

Pink hijab

Tundoc’s daughter, wife of an LP candidate who was shown wearing a pink hijab in the video, and another woman, a sister of another member of the ruling party, were allegedly controlling the transmission of the votes.

Neither woman, Taha told the INQUIRER, was in any way connected with the Commission on Elections or Smartmatic. ■

and Natural Resources and the Department of Social Welfare and Development.

Speaker Feliciano Belmonte Jr., said, “I agree with this. Sa tingin ko, itong pag appoint sa mga tao (In my opinion, the appointment of these people) whose names have been mentioned, appointing them as a symbol of reaching out is not enough to end the rebellion.”

“I’d like to look at the fact that by making that offer…it will contribute to ending the NPA rebellion,” he stressed.

Meanwhile, Belmonte doesn’t seem to have a problem with President-elect Duterte skipping his own proclamation in Congress on Monday.

Belmonte said that they did not feel snubbed at all.

“He had been saying that for a long time. It would have been a snub had he made us expect...

Members of the powerful Commission on Appointments (from left) Senators Antonio Trillanes IV, Gregorio Honasan III, Nancy Binay, Juan Edgardo Angara, Senate President Franklin Drilon, Senator Aquilino Pimentel III, Rep. Rodolfo Farinas and Rep. Rufus Rodriguez pose with inagurated members of the AFP. AVITO C. DALAN / PNA

that he’s coming. Matagal na (For a long time already), for weeks, he had been saying he had never attended a proclamation. Ako naman (Personally), we feel sorry. We would

have been very happy to see the new president, considering he had also been a member of Congress. We were forewarned from the very beginning,” he said. ■

New President’s day starts at 1 p.m.

BY TARRA QUISMUNDO Philippine Daily Inquirer DAVAO CITY — There will be no power breakfasts or morning meetings, possibly just a “midnight Cabinet” for the incoming President.

Rodrigo Duterte might as well decree a new time zone for the country to coincide with his work schedule once he becomes Malacañang’s chief resident: 1 p.m. onward, even past midnight if need be.

“I would like to announce that my day starts at 1 p.m. Because when I am President, I would have to sign papers. But unlike others, I don’t sign unless I know what I’m signing. It would take time,” said Duterte, who has started calling news conferences that begin at midnight and last until dawn.

“I cannot read papers and sign documents in the office because there will be many visitors. The bulk of the documents and papers that I have to sign for and on behalf of the Republic, I will take them to my study room and I will read them and sign them there,” he said.

Explaining his preferred www.canadianinquirer.net

schedule, the longtime Davao City mayor gave reporters a rundown of his typical day.

“I might only be able to rest by 12 or 1 a.m. So you count: I wake up at 10 a.m., take a bath at 11 a.m. By 12 noon I’ll be ready, and 1 p.m. I go straight (to the office),” Duterte said.

“If you want me to work until midnight, I’m good with that,” he added.

Asked how other government offices and agencies should adjust to his work schedule, Duterte said: “That’s your problem. For me, I will sleep.”

“How will I work? There are ceremonial papers to sign, then I have to receive visitors, then I get to read and sign papers only at night,” he said.

So should the others, the diplomatic corps for instance, just adjust to his schedule?

“Whatever, I’m available 1 to 5 p.m., and then 6,7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12 … if you want until morning, that’s also OK. The important thing is that I will be able to wash up and brush my teeth,” said Duterte, who recently warned reporters to discern between his hard-to-tell jokes and his serious pronouncements.

He also prefers to go home

every day—from Manila to Davao City— “in the first few days,” at least.

“The last flight is about 9 p.m., so I’ll be here about 12 a.m.,” said the 71-year-old Duterte, who has spent most of his life in his hometown.

“My home is my comfort zone. It’s important that you’re comfortable in taking a bath, you’re comfortable sleeping, everything,” he said.

He said he had “bias and prejudice” against Malacañang because ghosts haunted its grounds.

“Just ask Imee Marcos,” said Duterte, referring to the late dictator Ferdinand Marcos’ daughter who was recently in the city for “a social commitment.”

“She said there were really mumu (ghosts) there. I asked, ‘How many did you see?’ She said five,” Duterte said. It was unclear if he was serious or just kidding.

Told that funding a President’s daily domestic flight might be costly for taxpayers, Duterte said, “I’ll bring only two [people with me].” He said he could also use Davao-based evangelist Apollo Quiboloy’s private jet anytime. ■

Philippine News

FRIDAY JUNE 3, 2016

13

PH, neighbors step up security in Sulu Sea

BY JULIE M. AURELIO Philippine Daily Inquirer

It took only four days for the Joint Congress, sitting as National Board of Canvassers (NBOC), to finish the tally of the Certificates of Canvass (COCs) for the President and Vice President. Senator Aquilino Pimentel III and Rep. Neptali Gonzales II said that presumptive President Rodrigo Duterte won by a big margin of more than six million votes. In the vice presidential race, Camarines Sur Rep. Leni Robredo had a margin of 263,473 votes against Senator Ferdinand R. Marcos Jr. AVITO C. DALAN / PNA

Philippine Congress proclaims next president, vice president

BY JIM GOMEZ The Associated Press MANILA, PHILIPPINES — The Philippine Congress on Monday proclaimed crime-busting Mayor Rodrigo Duterte as president-elect and Rep. Leni Robredo as vice-president-elect of a country that has been posting high growth rates but remains saddled with poverty, corruption and insurgencies.

Duterte did not attend the ceremony at the House of Representatives, telling reporters earlier he shuns such ceremonial proclamations. He has stayed in southern Davao city, where ambassadors, well-wishers and potential Cabinet members have met him, since the May 9 elections.

Robredo’s three daughters joined her on stage for the brief ceremony. The House speaker and Senate president raised her hands to proclaim her victory as legislators applauded.

“There’s a tinge of nervousness,” Robredo told reporters earlier. “But maybe it’s more of excitement that I’m being given a rare chance to make a difference.”

Monday’s proclamation cements the stunning political rise of Duterte, 71, who won on an audacious promise to eradicate crime and corruption within six months as president. The pledge resonated among many crime-weary Filipinos, although police officials have said it is impossible to accomplish, noting that crime continues to hound Davao city, where the president-elect has served as mayor on and off for more than 22 years.

Human rights groups have expressed alarm over Duterte, who they sus-

pect instigated extrajudicial killings of many crime suspects by motorcycleriding gunmen dubbed the Davao death squads. The suspicions have been bolstered by Duterte’s public threats to kill drug dealers and other criminals.

Robredo, 52, is a former rights lawyer who helped defend the rural poor in her home province of Camarines Sur southeast of Manila. A year after her husband, a popular reformist politician, died in a plane crash in 2012, she was reluctantly thrust into politics with a successful run for a seat in the House of Representatives.

In the Philippines, presidents and vice-presidents are elected separately, and Duterte and Robredo come from rival parties.

Duterte won by more than 6 million votes over his closest rival, while Robredo finished only about 260,000 votes ahead of second-place candidate Sen. Ferdinand Marcos Jr. Marcos, son of late former dictator Ferdinand Marcos, has raised suspicions of election fraud and has sought an investigation.

Duterte and Robredo have different styles. The president-elect says his working hours may start at 1 p.m. and run late into the night, while his future vice-president has been known as early riser, visiting far-flung rural villages to check on residents.

They also differ on some key issues, including a long-hanging proposal to bury the elder Marcos in a heroes’ cemetery, which Duterte says he will allow but Robredo opposes.

“Even if I may disagree with some of his views, I will always assure him that he will have 100 per cent of my support,” Robredo said. ■

Because of this, the Philippines may only conduct joint exercises in the high seas and not within the country’s territorial waters.

THE DEFENSE ministers of the PhilThe three defense officials also agreed ippines, Indonesia and Malaysia have to use existing platforms in undertaking agreed to step up collaborative efforts joint patrols, as the Philippines regularagainst rising criminality, piracy, kid- ly conducts coordinated patrols with Innapping and smuggling in the Sulu Sea. donesia while the Philippines has an anThe Philippines’ Voltaire Gazmin, Ma- tismuggling agreement with Malaysia. laysia’s Hishammuddin Hussein and InThe coordinated patrol is in accordonesia’s Ryamizard Ryacudu made the dance with the Joint Declaration on deal on the sidelines of the Association of Immediate Measures in the Maritime Southeast Asian Nations (Asean) Defense Areas of Common Concern which was Ministers Meeting in Vientiane, Laos. signed by the three countries’ foreign Of crucial importance is the area of ministers and military chiefs on May 5. the Sulu Sea, which is a common border “A framework and subsequently a to all three countries. standard operating procedure are curThe Sulu Sea is a popular shipping rently being crafted among the respecroute for cargo and passenger ships, tive technical level officers,” the Dewith some vessels falling prey to piracy partment of National Defense said in a and kidnapping, while others use the statement. route for smuggling.

The three defense ministers also During their informal meeting in Laos agreed to ensure the timely sharing of last week, the three defense ministers relevant information, ordering their inagreed to pursue joint training exercises. telligence units to be more open in sharRyacudu suggested joint exercises be ing databases on criminals. conducted at least twice a year. Gazmin Indonesia, through Ryacudu, also noted, however, that the Philippines did proposed to establish joint posts of conot have BCBC-SafetyRegulation-PhilipineCanInq_5x6_BW_01.pdf a status of visiting forces agree- ordination1 within the three 10/04/2016 9:32 pmcountries’ ment with both countries. borders. ■

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14

JUNE 3, 2016

FRIDAY

Gatchalian urges incoming President Duterte to make ROTC bill priority amid West PHL sea row

BY SAMMY F. MARTIN Philippines News Agency MANILA — Senator-elect Win Gatchalian sought on Tuesday for incoming President Rodrigo Duterte’s endorsement of his House bill that would bring back the Reserved Officers Training Corps (ROTC) in tertiary-level schools amid the continuing territorial conflict with China.

“With President Duterte’s endorsement of our proposed ROTC bill as a priority measure, the measure would immediately be taken up in the 17th Congress to ensure its swift passage given our ongoing territorial dispute with China,” Gatchalian said.

“It teaches discipline and nationalism... Dapat lahat tayo aware na puwedeng mangyaring lusubin tayo o ano pa man (We should be aware that the possibility of us being invade is

real),” the newly elected senator said in an interview.

President Duterte himself said in a previous statement that the ROTC can instill “discipline, nationalism, and the patriotic duty,” which will prepare the youth in case China becomes more aggressive in its activities related to the territorial conflict.

“While we expect the United States to come to our aid if we are attacked by a foreign force, the country must also be selfreliant. And to build up a credible self-defense force, the country must restore the ROTC that was once part of the college curriculum,” Duterte said. “Our young men are presently too preoccupied with texting, Facebook, and other social media diversions that they don’t even know how to handle a rifle like we used to during our time.”

He emphasized that the ROTC would strengthen the military by supplementing

the ranks of reserved officers, which has dwindled to around 150,000 in 2011 from as many as 800,000 before 2001. The Congress abolished the mandatory basic ROTC in 2002.

“The ROTC program will bolster confidence in our military preparedness and capability while at the same time provide our country with the support of our student-cadet reservists and potential commissioned officers.”

The rookie senator made the appeal to President Duterte as China’s Ambassador to the Philippines, Zhao Jianhua, reportedly expressed confidence that relations between the Philippines and his country will improve. The top diplomat also said China is “glad” that the incoming President welcomes “direct bilateral negotiation.”

Gatchalian, who himself signed up for the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) Reserve Force last year, pointed out that

making ROTC mandatory would help build a stronger reservist force, which he deems “is important in strengthening our national defense and in countering China’s aggressive actions” in the West Philippine Sea. “The revival of the ROTC would help drive the point that although we are a small nation in economic and military terms, we will never back down from our fight for sovereignty in the West Philippine Sea,” he pointed out.

“It is worthy of note that prior to its being an optional requirement of the National Service Training Program (NSTP), the ROTC constituted roughly about 75 percent of the AFP officer corps, and has been the breeding ground for prominent graduates who became the country’s AFP chiefs-of-staff,” he added.

Under House Bill No. 2338, ROTC shall form part of the curriculum of all college degree

courses as well as technical or vocational courses. It shall be a prerequisite for graduation.

Students shall be required to complete the ROTC for an academic period for two years.

Male students will be required to undergo military training while female students will have to take civic training on basic rescue operations and health services.

The veteran lawmaker noted that his proposed law is in line with the constitutional provision that allows the government to call upon the people to defend the state and require citizens to render personal, military or civil service.

“Laws are replete with policies on service to countrymen, and these callings must now be instilled in our consciousness to be active in our civic duty, to prepare ourselves in case of a projected or actual need,” he stressed. ■

in presidential contests can claim a ments, what was said during the cam- over the son and namesake of the late mandate. Fidel V. Ramos could not paign can hardly serve as a guide for dictator in the vice presidential race? because only a thin minority chose determining what the people’s will is Were the voters communicating an him to be president in 1992. But he on a lot of important issues. Should we intense rejection of the administramanaged to negotiate a mandate in take his decisive victory as a mandate tion by not choosing its candidate, the course of his presidency. Gloria to change the form of government, to Mar Roxas? If so, how come 7 out of Macapagal Arroyo was proclaimed invite the armed Left to sit in govern- the 12 winners in the senatorial race the winner in the fraud-tainted elec- ment, to rehabilitate the image of Fer- were from the administration slate? tion of 2004, but, throughout the dinand Marcos in our nation’s history, If the vote for Duterte was truly a nine years she was in office, she nev- to restore the death penalty, etc.—just vote against oligarchic rule, how do er managed to claim a mandate. In to name a few of the topics on which we make sense of the fact that in the contrast, in 2010, Benigno S. Aquino he has pronounced himself while last elections, except in a few places, III won convincingly and, at once, waiting to be sworn in as the country’s political dynasties easily kept their claimed the mandate to clean up gov- next president? grip on local power? ernment and solve If a mandate is a poverty. Congress command given by the Mandates imply that politicians receive direction from the and the public gave voters, what exactly voters who elected them. In practice, however, the voice of the people him all the support is the content of this is not so easy to decipher, even if all votes are accurately counted. he needed. command? I don't Clearly, a presithink anyone knows. dential mandate is a matter of perThe American political scientist Knowledge, in this context, would ception. An elected president might Patricia Heidotting Conley, in a book have to assume a deep understandclaim it in order to overhaul the titled “Presidential Mandates: How ing of the reasoning that went into national policy agenda. From Day Elections Shape the National Agen- every vote, the contingencies that deOne of his campaign, for example, da,” writes: “Mandates imply that termined the candidates’ messaging Duterte signaled that he would not politicians receive direction from and shaped media reporting, the role be content with merely enforcing the the voters who elected them. In prac- of campaign finance and machinery, laws passed by Congress. He prom- tice, however, the voice of the people etc. In view of this complexity, does it ised to “fix this country,” and, more is not so easy to decipher, even if all still make sense to speak of presidenspecifically, to suppress criminality votes are accurately counted.” tial mandates? and illicit drugs within three to six Were the Filipino voters rejecting Conley believes it does. But, rather months. He made known that he is democracy and expressing a prefer- than talk of mandates as if they were prepared to resort to harsh measures ence for strongman rule when they unproblematically deducible from to achieve this. chose Duterte? Then, how do we ex- electoral outcomes, she argues that But, beyond these ambiguous state- plain the triumph of Leni Robredo it might be more useful to view presi-

dential mandates “as summary judgments of political possibilities, made in an environment of uncertainty and limited information.”

Concluding from her study of US presidents from 1828 to 1996, she writes: “A president will only claim a mandate— and change the policy agenda—if he believes that he can mobilize voters and then members of Congress to support his point of view. Mandates are perceptions of political opportunity.”

No one probably knows this better by now than President-elect Duterte.

By making extreme statements on a wide range of issues, later revising these or even taking them back as jokes, he has been able to see how far he could go in changing the national policy agenda. He has seen the opportunity, and there is no doubt he will seize it to challenge old ways of thinking. I can imagine how affirmed he must feel to see members of Congress lining up to join his party even before he has assumed the presidency.

Yet, even he seems bothered by all this fawning. This cannot serve as a mirror for government. The other day, I heard him say: “Don’t worship me. Worship the Constitution!” I don't know what prompted him to say that, but I take it to mean he will welcome being told if he’s overstepping his mandate. ■

PUBLIC LIVES

A mandate to do what?

By Randy David Philippine Daily Inquirer MOST POLITICAL analysts have no problem in saying that the winner in the 2016 presidential election, Rodrigo Duterte, has earned a clear mandate. Yet, they will probably disagree with one another as to what this mandate instructs him to do.

Duterte did not win by a majority, but by a simple plurality of just over 39 percent of the total votes cast for president. This means that 60 percent of the voters—the majority—did not choose him as their president.

That is not unusual. It has been the pattern under the 1987 Constitution. In other countries with a runoff system, an electoral outcome like this triggers a second round, in which voters would be asked to choose the next president from the two front-runners.

Yet, to many Filipino voters, majority support is not as important as winning by a “landslide.” The focus is on the margin by which the winner has defeated his or her closest rival. Duterte won by a decisive margin of nearly 16 percent of the votes. That is seen as a solid basis for a mandate.

Clearly, “mandate” is not a legal term. But neither is it just a figment of political rhetoric. Not all winners

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Opinion

FRIDAY JUNE 3, 2016

15

AT LARGE

‘All over but the shouting’

By Rina Jimenez-David Philippine Daily Inquirer THERE’S A saying, “It’s all over but the shouting,” and it is as true for elections as it is for any hotly-contested affair. With the close of the canvass by both chambers of Congress, it can now be said that the country has hurdled the final stage of the 2016 electoral process and we can all move on from the strife of the campaign to the task of nation-building.

Of course, hoarse voices will still be raised in the wake of the count’s end. The lead of Vice President-elect Leni Robredo over Sen. Bongbong Marcos is quite slim—just 263,473 votes—so that it’s almost a given that the Marcos camp would pursue all recourses left to it to have the count reviewed, if not reconsidered fully.

But apart from this nail-biting fight to the finish for the vice presidential post, it’s widely conceded that the 2016 polls were generally clean, peaceful and orderly, and therefore credible.

One big reason that the voting public has generally accepted the results of the voting is that the Commission on Elections heeded a Supreme Court order to reinstate the voter’s receipt, which it had earlier scrapped on grounds that it would delay the voting proceedings. Then senatorial

aspirant Richard Gordon persisted ing offered in government health genital warts and vaginal and anal in pursuing his earlier efforts to have centers, where parents have to bring cancers. Older women, meanwhile, a “paper trail” instituted by filing a their daughters to get their double should go for regular screening eipetition at the Supreme Court. He doses of protection. ther through a pap smear or VIA (viargued that the receipt would allow At a recent media forum, Garin said sual inspection with ascetic acid). In every voter to confirm whether the providing the HPV vaccine as part of a fact, once a vaccinated girl becomes a vote-counting machine had read his school-based program (initially in the sexually active woman, she should go or her choices correctly. The receipts, 20 poorest provinces but now expand- for screening, too, just to make sure said Gordon, would also allow for the ed to 47) would have been ideal since that she has not been infected with easier audit of the election results by it would “capture” the young girls (at the small percentage of viruses not a simple comparison of the electoral least nine years old) most in need of covered by the HPV. returns and the receipts. it. The vaccine is most effective before Cervical cancer is the second leadGordon is familiar with automated puberty, while a girl is still young and ing cause of death among Filipino elections because he authored the before her “sexual debut.” women, next only to breast cancer. It is Automated Election Law during a But Luistro expressed reservations estimated that 12 women die from the previous Senate term. Perhaps his about including the HPV vaccine in disease every day. Said Garin: “There is championing of the nothing more tragic reinstatement of the than suffering from [Richard Gordon] argued that the receipt would allow every voter’s receipt in the a disease that is prevoter to confirm whether the vote-counting machine had read his or face of Comelec opventable through her choices correctly. position, along with vaccination.” his record in public *** service both in the government and the school-based immunization pro- THE inclusion of the HPV vaccine in out of it (as Red Cross chair), brought gram, citing the fears of conservative the national immunization program, him back to the Senate where he is ex- elements that protecting girls from once thought far-fetched because pected to perform as credibly as before. cancer at an early age would give them it is still fairly expensive, is really a *** “permission” to be sexually promiscu- windfall from the collection of the BECAUSE of dilly-dallying on the ous later in life. (What, they deserve to so-called “sin taxes.” part of the Department of Educa- die from cancer because they choose The tax imposed on alcohol and tion and Education Secretary Armin to indulge in sex?) tobacco products had a double purLuistro, the school-based immunizaSince May is Cervical Cancer pose, aside from collecting more tion program for the HPV vaccine, Awareness Month, Garin urged par- taxes. First is the expectation that which protects girls from developing ents to bring their eligible daughters the higher taxes (and prices) on these cervical cancer, has been scrapped. to health centers to have them im- “sin” products would result in reInstead, said Health Secretary Ja- munized, since the HPV vaccine pro- duced consumption and, thus, better nette Garin, the HPV vaccine is be- tects girls from other diseases like health outcomes among Filipinos.

Second, by law, much of the income derived from the “sin taxes” would go to fund health programs, to address not just the diseases arising from alcohol and tobacco consumption, but other programs as well, including the expanded immunization program.

Thus, there is also a public health reason for law enforcement agencies to ensure that the “sin taxes” are imposed and collected properly.

Part of this drive is going after cigarette smugglers, and manufacturers, distributors and traders of fake cigarettes bearing the labels of legit brands.

In fact, the Bureaus of Customs and of Internal Revenue, the National Bureau of Investigation, and the Philippine National Police have been engaged in a nationwide campaign against fake cigarettes since last year, with raids on stores selling such contraband.

NBI Executive Director Virgilio Mendez has reminded traders to deal “only with authorized company representatives who are in proper uniform with corresponding identification cards and company vehicles.”

After all, it’s not just the foregone income of legitimate cigarette manufacturers at stake, but also the health of the nation at large, given the programs that the collection of “sin taxes” has made possible. ■

LOOKING BACK

When people lived ‘bajo la campana’

By Ambeth R. Ocampo Philippine Daily Inquirer EVERY SUNDAY I receive the grace of patience by simply enduring the lengthy and mindless sermons of priests who think nothing of their parishioners. Excellent homilies are available online, and all that is required is competent delivery, yet many fail even in that. It is unfortunate that I have not been weaned from short, sensible Jesuit homilies and the Benedictine preoccupation with meaningful liturgy. As an historian I can’t help but look beyond rubrics, tracing origins to understand how and why liturgical movements and conventions are the way they are today.

My pet peeves are “commentators” who order everyone, including the presiding priest, when to sit, stand or kneel, and “missalettes” distributed before Mass that distract people like myself who tend to read silently rather than listen to Scripture proclaimed orally. In medieval times, libraries were not the places of silence that we have today; all reading was oral, following the principle of taking mute words from a page with the

eyes, and giving it life through the vocal chords. The Word was transmitted by sound, and caught by the ear to touch and transform both mind and heart. Reading then was both informative for the head and formative for the heart. One of the sections I remember from the Confessions of St. Augustine was when he was puzzled to see St. Ambrose reading silently!

Just like “commentators” who tell us when to sit, stand or kneel, there is the ringing of hand-held bells during the elevation of the host that signals the kneeling congregation to look up, then down. I have it on good authority that the so-called Sanctus Bell is optional, its use in earlier times resulting from the priest, with his back to the congregation, reciting the relevant Latin words inaudibly.

That required signals of when to sit, stand or kneel. Today, priests face the congregation, the liturgy is in the vernacular, churches have microphones and LCD projectors—yet bell-ringing remains as tradition. It is form, not function. Early this week an 800-pound, 19th-century bell named “San Pedro” was returned to the Church of Saints Peter and Paul in

Bauang, La Union, by the superintendent of West Point, where it had been kept since it was taken as a souvenir during the Philippine-American War. Cast in 1883, it was surely blessed or consecrated by a bishop in an elaborate ritual that started with it being washed with holy water (water blessed and mixed with exorcised salt), after which it was anointed with holy oils: the bishop drawing seven crosses outside the bell with the oil of the infirm, and the inside with four crosses drawn with the oil of baptism (or chrism). Incense was then placed underneath to fill the cavity while appropriate scripture and prayers were recited. Finally, the bell was given a name or dedicated to a particular saint. This ritual has led to some confusion about bell blessing being a baptism of sorts.

When put to use the bell became part of community life: It was rung at 6 a.m., 12 noon and 6 p.m., not just to announce the time but also to remind the people to pray.

In the colonial Philippines, bells summoned people to worship, very much like the adhan (or Muslim call to prayer) is made from mosque towers, formerly with a human voice and

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now with a loudspeaker. Bells tolled to announce a birth, marriage or death by the way these were rung, the number of times, the intervals, etc.

Bells signaled emergencies of fire, typhoon or pirate attack. Bells were believed to cleanse the air of evil spirits and drive off storms and lightning.

So integral was the bell in the colonial Philippines that people lived bajo la campana —literally under the bell, but actually within hearing distance of the church bells. During the Philippine Revolution and the Philippine-American War, bells were confiscated by the enemy because they could be used to send signals far and wide in an age before the cell phone, or they could be melted down and made into weapons or bullets.

San Pedro, the bell returned to Bauang this week, must have been one of a pair because the Church is dedicated to Saints Peter and Paul.

Its history is engraved on it: Siendo Cura Parroco El M.P.P.F. Mariano Garcia Ano de 1883 / Donacion del Gobernadorcillo D. Mariano Balancio y del teniente D. Hilario Calica A su Yglesia de Bauang (Given to the church of Bauang in 1883 by the

Gobernadorcillo Mariano Balancio and Lt. Hilario Calica, when the parish priest was Fr. Mariano Garcia.)

The bell was taken by the enemy in 1899 during the Philippine-American War and was shipped to the United States in 1902. It eventually turned up in the West Point Catholic Chapel through the efforts of Thomas H. Berry, who served in the Philippines and became the 27th superintendent of West Point. Thus, San Pedro is also known as the “Berry Bell.” It remained in storage until it was rediscovered in 1959, when the chapel was renovated.

In the 1980s the bell was installed on a base with this message: “Symbol of peace that even the ravages of war could not destroy.”

To cut a long story short, West Point, upon the request of the parish priest of Saints Peter and Paul in Bauang, has returned the bell to the Philippines. The postscript to this story will hopefully be the return of one or all three of the bells taken from the church of San Lorenzo in Balangiga, Eastern Samar, during the Philippine-American War. The story of those bells is worth another column. ■

16

JUNE 3, 2016

FRIDAY

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17

FRIDAY JUNE 3, 2016

Canada News

Vancouver sees jobs boom, but young workers still can’t afford housing

BY LAURA KANE The Canadian Press VANCOUVER — Kala Vilches always knew she’d have to leave Vancouver if she wanted to buy a house.

Three years ago, the fashion design graduate was working as a product developer at Lululemon, earning a good salary and living in what she calls “the best Canadian city for fashion.”

But she was also paying $900 a month in rent, saving little and saddled with student debt.

“I was a salaried employee living in a tiny bachelor apartment with a view of a parking lot,” she said.

“I kind of knew that I would have to, at some point, leave Vancouver if I wanted to own property. I just knew what the market was like. That was kind of always in my mind, even though I did end up getting, pretty quickly after I graduated university, a good job.”

Despite the fact that her industry was booming in Vancouver — in addition to Lululemon, Arcteryx and Mountain Equipment Co-op have head offices in the city — Vilches decided to move to Calgary. She got a job at FGL Sports in 2014 and has since paid off her student loans, bought a car and started building her RRSP. The 29-year-old’s experience is familiar to many young professionals in British Columbia. The province, led by Metro Vancouver, topped the country in job creation last month, with year-over-year employment

growth reaching a stunning 4.9 per cent compared to the national gain of 0.8 per cent, Statistics Canada says. Despite the jobs boom, many young workers getting hired still can’t afford to live in the city, observers say.

“I’d love to move back to Vancouver because that’s where my industry is biggest,” said Vilches. “But if I move back to Vancouver, I have to make sacrifices, and that would be not owning property, maybe ever.

And that’s a really big sacrifice for me because that’s something that I want.”

Bryan Yu, a senior economist at Central 1 Credit Union, said the number of jobs in professional, scientific and technical services — including fashion design — grew about four per cent over the past year in B.C. Health care and social assistance grew 8.1 per cent, while information, culture and recreation, a category that includes Vancouver’s growing technology sector, expanded 12.6 per cent.

The strong housing market appears to be driving a 7.6 per cent gain in construction and a 16.1 per cent jump in business and building services, while a tourism boom and the low Canadian dollar seem to be pushing big gains in retail, wholesale trade, accommodations and food services, Yu said.

“There’s really jobs being created across the board,” he said.

“There are definitely gains occurring in the lower-paid sectors, but also we are seeing broad-based job gains across industries.”

B.C.’s unemployment rate fell

The strong housing market appears to be driving a 7.6 per cent gain in construction and a 16.1 per cent jump in business and building services, while a tourism boom and the low Canadian dollar seem to be pushing big gains in retail, wholesale trade.

to 5.8 per cent in April, down from 6.5 per cent in March and falling below all other provinces for the first time since 1976, Statistics Canada says.

Part of the reason B.C. is doing so much better than the rest of Canada is because its economy isn’t vulnerable to changes in the price of oil, Yu said.

Plummeting oil prices have led to drastic job losses in Alberta, Saskatchewan, and Newfoundland and Labrador.

But Yu said the story outside B.C.’s south coast is very different. There has been little new investment in mining or natural gas, and last month, agriculture jobs dropped 11.9 per cent, while resource extraction dipped 6.2 per cent, he said.

“Vancouver is doing very well in terms of job growth, and to a lesser extent Victoria, but the rest of the province is still showing signs of job loss from a year ago,” he said.

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Ken Peacock, chief economist and vice-president of the B.C. Business Council, said Metro Vancouver residents struggle with low or medium average incomes because the city has relatively few large corporate employers, which tend to pay higher wages.

“We do tend, in the Lower Mainland and Metro Vancouver, to struggle a little bit on the income front, and that is particularly true when you contrast it with housing prices,” he said.

But Peacock noted that even high-income earners are challenged by Metro Vancouver’s housing market. The benchmark price for detached properties was $1.4 million in April, a 30-per-cent increase from the previous year, the Real Estate Board of Greater Vancouver says.

Keane Lim, a 29-year-old technical writer at a Richmond software company, said salaries

haven’t kept up with the cost of living in Metro Vancouver. It’s possible that Vancouver is such an attractive place to live that employers don’t feel they have to pay more, he said.

“People like to compare Vancouver to San Francisco, like, ‘Oh, house prices are almost as bad as San Francisco,’ but in San Francisco, you can make twice what you make here in U.S. dollars.”

He added that his parents immigrated to B.C. at a young age, studied, worked, saved money, bought a house and had a family. That’s what he wants for his life, too, he said.

“You hear about millennials and how they think they’re entitled to everything. I don’t really think I’m entitled to a house, but it just seems impossible. It’s not even realistic.

Even if I doubled my salary or won the lottery overnight, maybe I could just barely afford something.” ■

18

Canada News

JUNE 3, 2016

FRIDAY

Deficits, Tories and pollution: Transcontinental sells all 3 ways Canadian politics assets in Saskatchewan, touched us this week lays off 65 employees

BY HEATHER SCOFFIELD The Canadian Press

BY ROSS MAROWITS The Canadian Press

OTTAWA — The House of Commons wasn’t sitting this week, but with Prime Minister Justin Trudeau taking a day off in Japan to celebrate his wedding anniversary, and with Canada’s ambassador to Ireland tackling a demonstrator — captured on video — there was no shortage of political huffing and puffing.

Beyond the huff-puffery, there were some solid political developments that will materially affect Canadians and their political landscape: new insight into the management of the global and Canadian economy; an attempt at renewal within the Conservative party; and new information from Environment Canada on the impact of the oilsands.

Here are three ways politics mattered this week:

prints more than 60 community newspapers throughout Western Canada.

President Roger Holmes said while newspapers in large cities have been struggling to stay afloat, opportunities remain strong in smaller western communities, where startups are being launched with success.

“Community newspapers are healthy and strong in the small, small communities ... and it seemed like a great opportunity,” Holmes said from Wainwright, Alta., where the company is based. “I believe in print.”

Holmes is a third-generation printer and publisher whose grandfather founded parent company Star News in the 1920s. Last weekend, he was elected president of the Canadian Newspaper Association.

Thirty Transcontinental employees will lose their jobs when its printing plant in Saskatoon closes next month and another 35 editorial positions — 23 in Newfoundland and Labrador, Nova Scotia and P.E.I., along with 12 in Quebec — are being eliminated.

The job losses announced Monday are in addition to 52 advertising sales positions that Transcontinental (TSX:TCL.A) cut last month in Quebec. It has more than 8,000 employees in Canada and the U.S. Canada’s newspaper industry faces deep challenges as its biggest companies continue to slash jobs amid weak advertising revenues. ■

meet students who are going to British Columbia to take part in a University of British Columbia summer program, another example of the close peopleto-people and cultural ties between B.C. and the Philippines.

Trade missions are a critical part of British Columbia’s strategy to diversify its international trading partners and secure new investment, propelling economic activity and job creation throughout the province. ■

It’s the economy

Trudeau spent a good deal of political capital this week pushing his case internationally for deficit-fueled growth. In Japan for the annual summit of the Group of Seven rich countries, he sought allies in his plan to invest heavily in infrastructure and programs — even if it means running up deficits. But there was no rush to jump on that bandwagon, with G7 leaders agreeing instead to each look for their own ways to boost growth.

Trudeau’s pitch is theoretical, even within Canada; investment in infrastructure has only just begun to ramp up, the taxand-benefit structure is in the midst of being changed, and the actual effects on growth and the middle class are unknown.

But we’re about to find out what the Liberal plan feels like.

New fiscal numbers released Friday showed the federal government was in deficit in 2015-16, even before year-end adjustments are made. Officials say the government is on track to register a $5-billion deficit for the year when all is said and done. And the deficits are projected to grow before they shrink. What’s less predictable is when or if the economy will

be lifted out of the doldrums and whether regular Canadians will feel the difference.

❱❱ PAGE 23 Deficits, Tories

MONTREAL — Transcontinental is selling all of its assets in Saskatchewan, including 13 newspapers, and laying off 65 employees in the latest sign of the ongoing troubles that have beset some of Canada’s largest media empires.

The company’s deal with Star News Publishing announced Monday marks an end to Transcontinental’s 14-year run as a newspaper publisher in Saskatchewan and a retreat from Western Canada altogether.

“From a geographic standpoint, operating just a small number of newspapers in Western Canada was not efficient for us,” said Katherine Chartrand, a spokeswoman for the Montreal-based media giant.

The transaction leaves Transcontinental with about 150 titles in Ontario, Quebec and Atlantic Canada.

Star News Publishing acquires weekly and daily newspapers in Saskatchewan including the Moose Jaw Times Herald and the Prince Albert Daily Herald. It also gets some commercial printing equipment and a book business in the province.

Both companies did not disclose the value of the sale.

The purchase adds 80 staff to Star News Publishing’s workforce of about 40. It operates five community newspapers in Alberta and Saskatchewan and

request for proposal process and joins the office following a career as a business development manager with Austrade, the Australian government’s trade and investment promotion agency.

With the opening of the Philippines trade and investment office, B.C. now has 12 such offices located around the world.

This international network connects B.C. businesses with new markets and trade opportunities and promotes British

Columbia as a stable and attractive destination for investment.

Premier Clark also met with representatives of the Ayala Corporation to encourage the business conglomerate to expand its investment in B.C. and to establish a North American head office in Vancouver. To date, Ayala’s subsidiary Ayala Land has made real estate investments in the province and Ayala subsidiary Globe Telecom has conducted business

with a number of B.C. technology firms.

While in Manila, Premier Clark visited the historic Rizal Park and participated in a wreath-laying ceremony, paying respect to Philippine national hero José Rizal. Rizal, a poet, journalist, doctor and activist, was executed in 1896, which precipitated the Philippine Revolution against the Kingdom of Spain.

Premier Clark also visited the University of Santo Tomas to

Trudeau spent a good deal of political capital this week pushing his case internationally for deficit-fueled growth.

ART BABYCH / SHUTTERSTOCK.COM

Getting to know you

Both the Conservatives and Liberals are holding their annual conventions this weekend, with delegates from across the country gathering to decide the future direction for their parties — and give Canadians a sense of what kind of political choices they will have in the future.

The Liberal convention was a bit of a victory lap, with some back-and-forth tussling over the party constitution and assisted dying thrown in for good

B.C. trade... growing economies in the world,” said Premier Clark. “The office opening marks a new chapter in B.C.’s relationship with the Philippines, supporting increased flow of goods, services, ideas and people between our two jurisdictions.”

At the ribbon-cutting ceremony in Manila, Eva Yazon was introduced as the managing director of the new trade and investment representative office.

Yazon was selected through a ❰❰ 1

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Canada News

FRIDAY JUNE 3, 2016

19

Ban on fracking in New Brunswick will continue indefinitely: minister

BY KEVIN BISSETT The Canadian Press FREDERICTON — A moratorium on hydraulic fracturing, imposed by New Brunswick’s Liberal government in December 2014, will remain in place indefinitely, the province’s energy minister announced Friday.

“We have been clear we would not allow this activity to go forward unless our five conditions were met,” Donald Arseneault said.

“Creating jobs is our number one priority, but not at any cost.

It is clear that our conditions cannot be satisfied in the foreseeable future.”

The Liberal government’s conditions included a plan for regulations and waste-water disposal, a process for consultation with First Nations, a royalty structure, and a so-called social licence.

Arseneault was responding to a report from the commission on hydraulic fracturing

which was released in February.

That hefty, three-volume document offered a long list of recommendations to follow if government were to allow a shale gas industry to grow in the province.

Among its recommendations were a single independent regulator, a plan for waste water disposal, a new strategy for environment and energy, and a new relationship with Indigenous people.

Arseneault said there was no way the industry could proceed right now because of the situation left by the previous Progressive Conservative government of premier David Alward.

“We’ve inherited a situation from the last government that really brought this industry where it’s at today. The way they conducted themselves and the relationship that really deteriorated with First Nations made it such that we had no choice but to put a moratorium in place in the province of New Brunswick,” he said.

The Alward government’s

decision to embrace the shale gas industry was polarizing in the province, where a series of public protests culminated in a violent demonstration in the fall of 2013 in Rexton that saw 40 people arrested and six police vehicles burned.

Mi’kmaq chiefs in New Brunswick welcomed news that the moratorium will remain in place, and said they see it as an opportunity for the province to mend its relationship with First Nations communities.

But Fort Folly First Nation Chief Rebecca Knockwood said it’s time for Arseneault to stop blaming the previous government.

“Two years into this mandate the Gallant government can no longer pin the strained relationship on the former government.

They are not meeting their constitutional obligation to consult First Nations on Sisson Mine or Energy East,” she said.

Interim Progressive Conservative Leader Bruce Fitch criticized the decision to maintain the moratorium. He said the

Liberal government is failing to move the province forward.

“They have actually hurt the province in many, many ways,” he said. “Driving the opportunity for investment out of the province of New Brunswick is another example of how this government says one thing and does another.”

The Canadian Association of Petroleum Producers expressed disappointment with the move in a news release.

“Industry has been working with the government to ensure world-class regulations and environmental protection is in place,” said Paul Adams, manager of Atlantic Canada and the Arctic.

“The decision to extend the moratorium is a step in the wrong direction and sends a negative message about attracting investment to grow the economy.”

But Samir Kayande, an analyst with Calgary-based RS Energy Group said he doubts there would be any shale gas development now in New Brunswick even if the moratorium was lifted.

“There’s a lot of gas in North America right now. So the focus among investors and the focus among industry has been trying to reduce the cost of what is already known, and available, and will last us for many, many years into the future,” he said.

Kayande said it takes a lot of money and time to develop a shale gas play, and the conditions don’t favour that happening any time soon in New Brunswick.

“There’s just not a price environment right now that is amenable to future resource development in exploratory areas,” he said.

The Conservation Council of New Brunswick and Green party Leader David Coon both applauded the decision to maintain the moratorium.

“The decision of the government is consistent with the logic presented by the commission on hydraulic fracturing and is certainly compatible with the vision of the Green party to follow the transition towards a green economy,” Coon said. ■

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World News

‘Mommy loves you!’: Little boy rescued after gorilla is shot

BY DAN SEWELL The Associated Press CINCINNATI — Panicked zoo visitors watched helplessly and shouted, “Stay calm!” while one woman yelled, “Mommy loves you!” as a 400-pound-plus gorilla loomed over a 4-year-old boy who had fallen into a shallow moat at the Cincinnati Zoo. The boy sat still in the water, looking up at the gorilla as the animal touched the child’s hand and back. At one point, it looked as though the gorilla helped the youngster stand up.

Two witnesses said they thought the gorilla was trying to protect the boy at first before getting spooked by the screams of onlookers. The animal then picked the child up out of the moat and dragged him to another spot inside the exhibit, zoo officials said.

Fearing for the little boy’s life, the zoo’s dangerous-animal response team shot and killed the 17-year-old ape, named Harambe.

The child, whose name was not released, was taken to Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center, where he was expected to recover. Hospital officials said they couldn’t release any information on him.

Zoo Director Thane Maynard said the gorilla didn’t appear to be attacking the child but was “an extremely strong” animal in an agitated situation. He said tranquilizing the gorilla wouldn’t have knocked it out immediately, leaving the boy in danger.

“They made a tough choice and they made the right choice because they saved that little boy’s life,” Maynard said. “It

could have been very bad.”

Zoo officials said the 4-yearold climbed through a barrier at the Gorilla World exhibit and fell 10 to 12 feet into the moat Saturday afternoon. He was in there for about 10 minutes. Two female gorillas also were in the enclosure.

One witness said that just before the boy fell, she saw him in bushes beyond a fence around the exhibit.

“I tried to grab for him. I started yelling at him to come back,” Brittany Nicely, of Dayton, told The Cincinnati Enquirer. “Everybody started screaming and going crazy. It happened so fast.”

Witness Kim O’Connor shared video she and her family recorded with WLWT-TV of the boy and Harambe. The two appear in a corner of the exhibit while visitors yell, “Somebody call the zoo!” and “Mommy’s right here!” The station did not air portions of the video showing the gorilla dragging the boy.

Zoo staff cleared the area and visitors heard gunfire a few minutes later. Firefighters then rushed into the enclosure and picked up the boy.

There was strong social media reaction about how the boy managed to get into the exhibit and the zoo’s decision to kill the gorilla, which came to Cincinnati in 2015 from the Gladys Porter Zoo in Brownsville, Texas.

Lt. Steve Saunders, a Cincinnati police spokesman, said there are no plans to charge the parents.

Maynard called the killing a tragic death of a critically endangered species and a huge loss for the zoo and the gorilla population worldwide. ■

Maynard called the killing a tragic death of a critically endangered species and a huge loss for the zoo and the gorilla population worldwide.

JUNE 3, 2016

FRIDAY

In this U.S. election, media focus is nearly all Trump, all the time

BY ALEXANDER PANETTA The Canadian Press WASHINGTON — U.S. news networks devoted a half hour’s worth of coverage the other day to an inanimate object: the stage upon which Donald Trump would eventually speak.

They wouldn’t allow their empty-stage coverage to be interrupted by the fact that a leading presidential candidate happened to be on another stage speaking at that very moment.

Hillary Clinton was delivering a speech on the middleclass agenda at a union event while networks like MSNBC and Fox had anchors filling airtime with small talk in anticipation of Trump’s arrival.

Clinton may be leading most presidential polls. But when it comes to grabbing media attention, it seems, nobody trumps Trump.

Democrats have quickly resigned themselves to the reality of running against a stunthappy showman who steals the spotlight by any means necessary.

“The reality of Donald Trump is he’s going to dominate the news. He’s going to dominate the news cycle,” Clinton’s communications director, Jennifer Palmieri, told two of her former colleagues in the Obama White House this week in their podcast, “Keepin’ It 1600.” “(But) there’s a difference between dominating the news cycle, and driving the debate.”

Trump wrote three decades ago in his first book that he does outrageous things to get his name in the news — and he’s remained true to his word.

Dominance of the media was a secret of Trump’s success in the Republican primaries.

He achieved a multitude more airtime than his Republican rivals, forcing them to exhaust their advertising budgets to get some attention while he got on TV for free.

That doesn’t mean he can necessarily ride a wave of PR stunts into the White House.

Trump’s advantage in media airtime narrowed later in the primaries. Its value going forward is debatable, accordwww.canadianinquirer.net

Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump speaks at campaign event at Westgate Las Vegas Resort & Casino.

JOSEPH SOHM / SHUTTERSTOCK.COM

ing to some political-science research outlined in the book, “The Gamble,” which suggests media attention sways voters less in a general election than in a primary.

Does the American public even want all this Trump coverage? Perhaps not, suggests media-analytics site Parse.ly. In a blog item titled, “The Media’s Obsession With Trump Isn’t Justified By Data,” it analyzed more than one billion webpage clicks and more than 100,000 online articles since November.

It found Trump has appeared in more than twice as many news stories as Clinton.

But online articles about him got slightly fewer clicks, on average, than those about Clinton, Sen. Ted Cruz, or in some months Bernie Sanders.

Palmieri even questions the electoral value of this attention.

“More coverage for him doesn’t necessarily mean good coverage for him,” said the Clinton aide.

For example, she alluded to his floating murder conspiracy theories about former Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia; White House aide Vince Foster; and about the Kennedy assassination.

She also cited his plan to deport millions of undocumented residents, and his willingness to cite the possibility of printing money as a solution to U.S. debt problems.

In the last few days alone he’s recycled old rape allegations against Bill Clinton and fomented a drama about whether he’d debate Sanders in a televised charity-benefit

event — after the idea had made some news, he announced he wouldn’t do it.

A Clinton campaign supporter says she won’t be distracted by his daily noise.

“He tries to say as much outrageous stuff as he can, with the idea of provoking his opponent,” said Gordon Giffin, a former ambassador to Canada who advises and raises funds for the Clinton campaign.

“That strategy won’t work with her. I don’t think she’ll be provoked. I think she’ll be steady, straightforward, and run the campaign that she has in mind — unrelated to whatever kind of outrageous comments he makes.”

But there’s little doubt that the unusual nature of his candidacy means this election has revolved around Trump.

He generates multiple times more Google searches than Clinton — 2 1/2 times this month, according to Google Trends.

Even the Democrats are building fundraising efforts around him.

His name and photo appear prominently in emails requesting donations to the Democratic National Committee for what the party even calls its Stop Trump Fund.

“It’s official,” said a note from the Democratic party last week, on the day of the empty-stage coverage. Media reports that day estimated Trump had secured the necessary number of delegates to guarantee his nomination.

“This guy is the Republican nominee for president.” ■

World News

FRIDAY JUNE 3, 2016

21

More than 700 feared dead in recent Mediterranean crossings

BY SARAH EL DEEB The Associated Press POZZALLO, ITALY — Survivor accounts have pushed to more than 700 the number of migrants feared dead in Mediterranean Sea shipwrecks over three days in the past week, even as rescue ships saved thousands of others in daring operations.

The shipwrecks appear to account for the largest loss of life reported in the Mediterranean since April 2015, when a single ship sank with an estimated 800 people trapped inside. Humanitarian organizations say that many migrant boats sink without a trace, with the dead never found, and their fates only recounted by family members who report their failure to arrive in Europe.

“It really looks like that in the last period the situation is really worsening in the last week, if the news is confirmed,” said Giovanna Di Benedetto, a Save the Children spokeswoman in Italy.

Warmer waters and calmer weather of late have only increased the migrants’ attempts to reach Europe.

The largest number of missing and presumed dead was aboard a wooden fishing boat being towed by another smugglers’ boat from the Libyan port of Sabratha that sank Thursday.

Estimates by police and human-

itarian organizations, based on 300 people in the hold went many women and children. survivor accounts, range from down with the second boat One of the survivors included around 400 to about 550 miss- when it sank, while around 200 a 4-year-old girl whose mothing in that sinking alone. on the upper deck jumped into er had been killed in a traffic One survivor from Eritrea, the sea. Just 90 of those were accident in Libya just days be21-year-old Filmon Selomon, saved, along with about 500 in fore embarking, Di Benedetto told The Associated Press that the first boat. said. water started seeping into the Italian police said survivors The UNHCR’s Sami also said second boat after three hours identified the commander of that estimated 100 people are of navigation, and that the mi- the boat with the working en- missing from a smugglers’ boat grants tried vainly to get the gine as a 28-year-old Sudanese that capsized Wednesday off water out of the sinking boat. man, who has been arrested the coast of Libya, captured in “It was very hard because the and faces possible charges for dramatic footage by Italian reswater was coming from every- the deaths. Three other smug- cuers. where. We tried for six hours af- glers involved in other crossIn a third shipwreck on Friter which we said it was not pos- ings also were arrested, police day, Sami said 135 people were sible anymore,” he said through announced. rescued, 45 bodies were recovan interpreter. ered and an unHe jumped known numbers into the water of migrants were and swam to the still missing. other boat beItaly’s southern islands are the main Because the fore the tow line destinations for countless numbers bodies went on the navigable of smuggling boats launched from missing in the boat was cut to the shores of lawless Libya each week open sea, it is prevent it from packed with people seeking jobs and impossible to sinking when safety in Europe. verify the numthe other went bers who died. down.

Humanitarian A 17-year-old organizations Eritrean, Moand investigathammed Ali Imam, who arrived Carlotta Sami, spokeswoman ing authorities typically rely five days ago in another rescue, in Italy for UNHCR, put the on survivors’ accounts to piece said one of the survivors told number of migrants and refu- together what happened, relyhim that the second boat start- gees missing in that incident at ing on overlapping accounts to ed taking on water when the 550 based on a higher tally of establish a level of veracity. first boat ran out of fuel.

670 people on board. She said Survivors of Thursday’s sinkPolice said the line, which 15 bodies were recovered, while ing were taken to the Italian was ordered cut by the com- 70 survivors were plucked from ports of Taranto on the mainmander when it was at full the sea and 25 swam to the oth- land and Pozzallo in Sicily. Sami tension, whipped back, fatally er boat. says the U.N. agency is trying to slashing the neck of a female Most of the people on board gather information with sensimigrant. were Eritrean, according to tivity considering that most of According to Italian police, Save the Children, including the new arrivals are either ship-

wreck survivors or traumatized by what they saw.

Italy’s southern islands are the main destinations for countless numbers of smuggling boats launched from the shores of lawless Libya each week packed with people seeking jobs and safety in Europe.

Hundreds of migrants drown each year attempting the dangerous Mediterranean Sea crossing.

Habtom Tekle, a 27-year-old Eritrean who survived Thursday’s sinking, described people holding onto each other, some dragging others underwater, as the second boat was sinking.

“For me it was very shocking,” he said through an interpreter.

Tekle fled mandatory, openended conscription in Eritrea six years ago, spending time in Egypt, Israel, Uganda and Sudan before heading to Libya to take the risky, and ultimately deadly, sea journey to Italy.

“I want to tell the world this way is dangerous for us. Because my brother, sister, family will lose their lives in this channel,” Tekle said outside the hotspot where he was taken to have his arrival recorded.

“Please help us to have freedom in our country. I don’t want to stay here or any place. I want my county with freedom.” ■ Colleen Barry in Milan contributed to this report.

NASA resumes operations to deploy space station’s inflatable room PHILIPPINES NEWS AGENCY WASHINGTON — US space agency NASA on Saturday resumed operations to deploy the first experimental inflatable room at the International Space Station.

NASA Astronaut Jeff Williams began introducing air into the Bigelow Expandable Activity Module (BEAM) at 9:04 a.m. EDT (1304 GMT) in a 22-second burst followed by three other similar trials to see if it inflated as planned.

During initial operations Thursday to expand BEAM, the module’s length and diam-

eter did not increase with the increased internal pressure, as expected. As a result, NASA called off operations for the day and engineers depressurized the module Friday afternoon.

But this time, things went pretty well, with Williams reporting hearing popping sounds from BEAM, something “like popcorn in a frying pan.”

“Good news: The ‘pops’ are the sounds of the internal straps releasing,” Bigelow Aerospace, which built BEAM under a NASA contract, explained on Twitter.

“A welcome and expected step in the process,” the Las Vegas-based space firm added.

Full-scale mock-up of BEAM at Johnson Space Center.

Flight controllers confirmed the module is expanding both in length and diameter.

BEAM was launched to the www.canadianinquirer.net

NASA

orbiting lab last month in an effort to test and validate expandable habitat technology.

The module is 5.7 feet (1.7 me-

ters) long and 7.75 feet (2.4 meters) in diameter when packed; 12 feet (3.7 meters) long and 10.

5 feet (3.2 meters) in diameter when expanded, with 565 cubic feet (16 cubic meters) of interior volume, NASA said.

Inflatable habitats are designed to take up less room on a spacecraft, but provide greater volume for living and working in space once expanded, according to NASA. This first test of an inflatable module will allow investigators to gauge how well the habitat performs and specifically, how well it protects against solar radiation, space debris and the temperature extremes of space, it added. ■

22

World News

JUNE 3, 2016

FRIDAY

High tech oilfield employees feel oil price punches in different ways

BY DAN HEALING The Canadian Press CALGARY — In the high stakes world of high-tech oilfield services, low oil and gas prices are hitting Calgary’s two largest publicly traded players, Pason Systems (TSX:PSI) and Computer Modelling Group (TSX:CMG), in vastly different ways.

Pason, which builds and rents sensitive instrumentation systems attached to most of the drilling rigs in North America, has eliminated 350 employees — or about 38 per cent of its staff — over the past 12 months to cope with severe cutbacks in drilling activity.

In contrast, Computer Modelling, a reservoir simulation software manufacturer, added three staff over the past year to take its Calgary total to 172. Its worldwide workforce climbed by seven employees to 212.

“The industry is in the deepest crisis in generations,” Pason CEO Marcel Kessler said during a recent conference call.

“Despite the recent recovery in oil prices, we expect conditions to worsen for Pason in the next few quarters.”

The company’s revenue fell by 54 per cent in the first quarter of 2016 to $46 million. Pason also registered a net loss of $10.8 million compared to a gain of $14.2 million a year earlier.

At CMG, revenue slipped to $19 million from $20.4 million in the quarter ended March 31, and it registered smaller but still positive net income of $3.9 million, down from $7.9 million a year earlier.

CMG CEO Kenneth Dedeluk did not respond to a request for comment but the company indicated in its most recent news release that it’s actually doing more business because of low commodity prices.

“The corporation’s clients are oil and gas companies and it might, therefore, be assumed that its financial results are significantly impacted by commodity prices,” it stated.

“The corporation has, in fact, experienced growth in software license revenues during depressed oil price markets which confirms its belief that software licence sales are influenced more by the utility of the software as opposed to the prevailing commodity price.”

Mike Mazar, an analyst for BMO Capital Markets who cov-

ers both companies, said both are considered top performers in the realm of oilfield services technology.

“The difference really is that Pason is directly related to drilling activity, there are no contracts for its services. So, if the rig goes down, Pason stops getting paid that day,” he said.

“CMG is not like that. They have long-term contracts on about 80 per cent of their revenue so if, to pick a name, Crescent Point (TSX:CPG), decides to stop drilling tomorrow, they still pay Computer Modelling, regardless. Pason is a great company, too, but CMG’s revenue model is different.”

CMG has become more valuable to oil and gas explorers as commodity prices tumbled over the past two years, Mazar said, because its software allows companies through 3-D animation to visualize the underground resource and plan the best exploitation method before drilling actually starts.

Drilling and completing a single oil or natural gas well can cost millions of dollars.

“You may actually ramp up your modelling efforts in a lowprice environment because there’s less room for error,”

Iran parliament chief retains post despite reformist gains

BY SARAH EL DEEB The Associated Press TEHRAN, IRAN — Iran’s longserving parliament speaker will retain his post despite gains by reformists in elections held earlier this year, the official IRNA news agency reported Sunday.

Ali Larijani, a 59-year-old moderate conservative, was re-elected by 173 of the 281 lawmakers who attended Sunday’s session. He defeated Mohammed Reza Aref, a reformist who is more open to expanding social and political freedoms.

Both the moderate conservatives and the reformists support President Hassan Rouhani and the landmark nuclear deal

reached last year with world powers, but the reformists also want to ease restrictions on freedom of expression.

The election of Larijani marks an early victory for the moderate conservatives in the new parliament, which met for the first time on Saturday.

IRNA says Larijani, who has been speaker for the last eight years, was voted interim speaker on Sunday. He is expected to be re-elected once the credentials of new parliament members are verified.

Moderates and reformists who support Rouhani won the most seats in elections held earlier this year, marking a shift away from hard-liners who are wary of the nuclear deal and

Rouhani’s outreach to the West.

The structure of Iran’s political system limits how much lawmakers will be able to accomplish even if the moderatereformist camp manages to attract enough independents to vote with it. Dramatic shifts in Iranian domestic or foreign policy are unlikely.

While parliament has some oversight over public spending and the power to question government ministers, legislation it passes is subject to review by the Guardian Council, a constitutional watchdog. Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, remains the top decision-maker in the country, and would have to support any major policy changes. ■ www.canadianinquirer.net

“Despite the recent recovery in oil prices, we expect conditions to worsen for Pason in the next few quarters.”

he said. “It’s the last thing you want to cut back on.”

Mazar said Pason’s unique technology has allowed it to capture about 75 per cent of industry market share in North America. The company puts it differently, noting its electronic drilling recorders are installed on 99 per cent of all active drilling rigs in Canada and 54 per cent in the United States.

Unfortunately, the active rig count in Canada is 43, down from 98 a year ago, while in the United States it’s 404, down from 875, according to recently released Baker Hughes figures.

Schlumberger, the Parisbased oilfield services giant, is the only significant global competitor for CMG, Mazar

said. CMG licenses its software to more than 500 oil and gas companies, consulting firms and research institutions in 60 countries and has offices in Houston, London, Dubai, Bogota and Kuala Lumpur. It also offers training and consulting services.

Both Pason and CMG have lost investor favour as oil and gas prices have fallen over the past two years.

Pason’s shares have tumbled from more than $35 in August 2014 to a current level of about $17, giving it a market worth of $1.4 billion. CMG shares peaked at more than $15 each two years ago and now trade for around $10 each for a market capitalization of $805 million. ■

Three UN peacekeepers die in Cote d’Ivoire road accident PHILIPPINES NEWS AGENCY ABIDJAN — Three Senegalese peacekeepers under the United Nations Operation in Cote d’Ivoire (ONUCI) died while on patrol after their vehicle overturned, a source from the UN mission said Monday.

The three peacekeepers were on a normal patrol when their vehicle overturned in unclear circumstances.

Their death brought to 104 the total number of UN peacekeepers who have died in Cote d’Ivoire since their deployment

in April 2004.

A UN mission was deployed in Cote d’Ivoire following a political crisis that broke out in 2002, dividing the country into two. The South was then under the control of loyalist forces, while the North was under the control of armed rebels.

The mission is currently involved in the pacification of the country after the 2010-2011 post-election crisis.

ONUCI has began reducing the number of its officers in Cote d’Ivoire, with its mission expected to end in June 2017. ■

Community News

FRIDAY JUNE 3, 2016

23

North Vancouver Philippine art Migrant groups decry exhibit gets rousing welcome lack of TFW voices in review of foreign worker program

BY MARY ANN R. MANDAP Philippine Canadian Inquirer

AN ENTHUSIASTIC crowd of nearly two hundred attended the inaugural ceremony in North Vancouver last May 26, of the first-ever grand art exhibit showcasing the works of British Columbia (BC) Filipino artists.

Harana, a collection of nearly 50 artworks, was formally unveiled at the CityScape Community Art Space before a jampacked crowd of city officials, community leaders and art patrons. Louise McLay, board chair of the North Vancouver Community Arts Council, said she was elated by the number of guests who enjoyed the visual serenade to the rich arts, culture and heritage of the Philippines.

North Vancouver Mayor Darrell Mussatto gave a rousing welcome to this new exhibit and spoke of the growing contributions of Filipino artists to the diversity, cultural influences and traditions.

Harana, which literally means "serenade" in the Filipino language, brings together the colourful, vibrant and festive paintings of both eight seasoned and up-and-coming Filipino visual artists in BC and also features some new works

The artists with PCG Vancouver.

of renowned Filipino master Manuel Baldemor.

The other participating artists were Ed Araquel, Bert Monterona, Danvic Briones, Chito Maravilla, Donna Osea Menor, Josephine Galang, J.A. Tan, Lenore RS Lim, and Tessie Dichupa.

The exhibit coincides with the celebration of the 60th anniversary of the Philippine Consulate General in Vancouver and the 118th anniversary of Philippine Independence.

“Harana is about giving our best, our finest, and celebrating life in the distinct Filipino way-diverse but connected, and animated by deep emotions of

love and longing for the Motherland,” said Deputy Consul General Anthony Mandap in his speech.

Baldemor, hailed as a leading luminary in the art world, recalled that harana was a romantic tradition of serenading women in olden times.

The exhibit, according to him, presents a rare opportunity to celebrate the collective vision of artists depicting the rich Filipino heritage.

The show, which runs from May 27 up to July 2, is a joint project by the Philippine Consulate General in Vancouver and North Vancouver Community Arts Council. ■

on Parliament Hill. Delegates defeated a motion that would have changed the rules to allow interim leaders to run for the real deal.

The leadership is up for grabs, just like the nature and direction of the party itself.

The secondary organic aerosol pollution was found to be spreading over a large area downwind of the oil sands. The pollution is produced when volatile organic compounds interact with sunlight or other chemicals to create particles.

They have been linked to lung and heart problems, among other health problems.

Much of the environmental discussion around the oilsands has been about the effect of bitumen production on greenhouse gas emissions and climate change, so this week’s research demands some new thinking. The researchers say they need to know a lot more about the process before they can start contemplating solutions. ■

THE PERSPECTIVE of TFWs are not being fully included in the current review of the Temporary Foreign Worker Program, say TFWs and their advocates.

To highlight the urgent issues that the review should cover, local members of a national coalition of migrant worker groups held a press conference May 31, in Vancouver.

Among the issues raised are the need for permanent residency, open work permits and the abolition of a Harper policy

that includes the deportation of TFWs after four years in Canada. The speakers included Natalie Drolet, executive director of the West Coast Domestic Workers Association; Jane Ordinario, Migrante-BC coordinator; and Raul Gatica, Migrant Workers Dignity Association coordinator.

BC members of the Coalition for Migrant Workers Rights Canada included Migrante BC, the West Coast Domestic Workers Association and the Migrant Workers Dignity Association. ■

Deficits, Tories... measure. The Conservative convention, on the other hand, marked the end of an era.

Stephen Harper kicked off the convention with his first public words since his defeat in last fall’s federal election.

He defended his record and said goodbye. The party he cofounded began moving on. In the post-Harper era, delegates are pushing for more say in who runs the party, debating how open they should be to samesex marriage and other social policies, and ruminating about who should lead them next.

One thing is certain: It won’t be Rona Ambrose, despite her personal popularity within the federal caucus and good reviews of her performance ❰❰ 18

Oilsands in the air

First it was global oil prices; then it was the wildfires. Now, the oilsands are hearing more bad news, this time from Environment Canada researchers.

Writing in the science journal Nature this week, the researchers say Alberta’s oilsands are one of the biggest sources of air pollution in North America, emitting tiny bits of particulate matter on par with cities such as Paris and Mexico City.

www.canadianinquirer.net

A celebration of the 118th Philippine Independence Day is slated on June 9, at the Parliament Hill, Ottawa, ON. The event is jointly coordinated by the offices of Sen. Tobias C. Enverga, Jr. and the Philippine Embassy led by Amb. Petronila P. Garcia. Photo shows Ambassador Garcia singing the national anthem during last year's celebration.

ST.JAMESTOWN NEWS SERVICE, DINDO ORBESO

24

JUNE 3, 2016

FRIDAY

Entertainment

A surprise for Sid— Mariel Rodriguez on her third comedic award pregnancy: ‘It’s really a blessing’

A comedic award for a drama actor

BY CHECHE V. MORAL Philippine Daily Inquirer

flexed his acting muscles.”

“Toto” tells the story of an ordinary hotel employee who dreams of securing a US visa— ANDI EIGENMANN couldn’t like countless Filipinos. help getting sentimental when “It is rare to have comedies talk turned to the back-toback that actually have something triumphs of her mom Jaclyn say,” Sid explained as to why he Jose (best actress for “Ma’ Rosa” accepted the project. “Someat the Cannes Film Festival) and times, filmmakers have to halfbrother Sid Lucero (best ac- lighten the delivery in order to tor for “Toto” at the 19th Los An- get the message across.” Not geles Comedy Festival).

“Toto.” “This film served as a It was as if Andi and Sid’s dad, powerful medium in conveying the late actor Mark Gil, was its message,” he said. He adwatching over them with pride mitted that he feels enormous and joy. “Cinema is our family’s pride for the film’s “internapassion,” she said. tional recognitions.”

“Tita Jane (Jaclyn’s nickname) The film also won best foris now immortalized in world eign film in the LA fest. cinema history,” Sid said of the “It’s getting louder and louder,” Cannes win. “And he waxed optimisshe pulled the entic. “This is a retire country with flection of how our her [up the global country supports stage].”

This is a the film industry, Coincidenreflection which years ago tally, Jaclyn and of how our was nonexistent.”

Sid are costars in country In a lot of ways, the GMA 7 soap supports the the experience opera, “The Milfilm industry. has bestowed on lionaire’s Wife.” him precious life For Sid, the lessons on pabest actor honor tience and persefrom a comedy verance. “Do not festival came as a total shocker. doubt yourself. Do things right, “My character is the least come- and things will eventually go dic in the cast. I am truly sur- your way.” prised,” Sid told the INQUIRER. It is certainly not his first inKnown mainly for such seri- ternational award. In 2008, he ous movies as Lav Diaz’s “Norte, shared the best actor prize with Hangganan ng Kasaysayan” costar Emilio Garcia at the Thesand “Hele sa Hiwagang Hapis,” saloniki fest for Paolo Villaluna Sid ventured into comedy for and Ellen Ramos’ “Selda.” In the first time in John Paul Su’s 2014, he won best actor in the “Toto,” an entry in the New Asian-American and Pacific Wave section of last December’s Islander section of the EqualMetro Manila Film Festival. ity International Film Festival “I am aware of the kind of dis- (Oakland, California) for Lemuel cipline comedy requires,” he Lorca’s “Mauban: Ang Resiko.” owned up. “It is something I have “Every year, our country’s inyet to learn. This film was sort of ternational awards are multiplied an experiment in acting for me.” tenfold,” he asserted. “We are no Said Sid’s director: “My ini- longer invisible in world cinema.” tial reaction was: ‘Finally, Sid He remains radically hopewon!’ I’ve been rooting for Sid ful about the future. “We have to win because I truly believe what it takes. We will keep this is one of his most nuanced growing as an industry and we performances—and it really are doing it faster than ever.” ■

PHILIPPINE CANADIAN INQUIRER MANILA — Celebrity couple Robin Padilla and Mariel Rodriguez are expecting their first child. Mariel, who has gone through two miscarriages, is pregnant for the third time.

The couple’s supporters and friends first heard about the good news when the actress-host’s talent manager, Ogie Diaz, congratulated her on Twitter. She, however, remained mum then.

After safely completing the first trimester of her pregnancy, Mariel confirmed on ABS-CBN’s daily noontime show ‘It’s Showtime’ that she’s indeed pregnant.

“I really waited for the doctor to tell me [that] it’s a go, it’s alright. Even though she actually gave me a go-signal weeks before… sabi nila, kailangan kong buuin ang first trimester, kailangan kong malagpasan. Pero noong nalagpasan ko naman ‘yun, sinabi ko naman agad,” she explained in a PEP.ph report. (…I’ve been told I needed to complete the first trimester, I needed to go through it. But after getting passed it, I already shared the good news.)

“Sobra kong gustong i-share talaga… Sobra akong happy! Gustong-gusto ko talaga ipagsigawan na, ‘Yes!’ Kaya lang, parang ayaw kong maudlot,” she added. “This is my longest pregnancy. Ito na talaga ‘yun. This is it!”

Mariel Rodriguez.

(I really wanted to share it…

I’m so happy! I wanted to shout, ‘Yes!’ But then, I didn’t want to have it cut short…. This is my longest pregnancy. This is it!)

When asked how the pregnancy is the third time around, the 31-year-old actress-host admitted that ‘this blessing’ isn’t planned but that it just happened.

“Noong umpisa pa nga, in denial pa ako. Natatakot pa ako sa doctor.

Pinilit lang niya ko. So it’s really a blessing. We’re really so happy,” she shared in the same report.

(At first, I was in denial. I was scared to go to the doctor. He [Robin] just prodded me to go [and have a checkup]. So it’s really a blessing. We’re really so happy.)

Although also really excited, Robin couldn’t refrain from worrying for the well-being of his wife and unborn child, given the former’s condition.

“Medyo mahirap ang pinagdadaanan ni Mariel… kase masyadong malakas ang anti-bodies

TILLY HOLLAND / FLICKR

niya. Laging kapag nag-uumpisa ang pagbubuntis niya, laging namamatay ‘yung bata sa loob.

Ngayon, may pinagdaanan siyang mabigat na proseso,” Robin said.

(What Mariel’s undergoing is difficult… because her antibodies are too strong. It’s always that when her pregnancy starts, the child in her womb dies. Now, she’s enduring an extensive process.)

“Kailangan niyang magsaksak ng heparin dalawang beses sa isang araw. Bukod pa sa sinasaksak niyang insulin… hindi madali ang pinagdadaanan ni Mariel, ang isinasakripisyo niya para sa bata,” he added.

(She needs to take herapin shots twice a day. That’s apart from her insulin… what Mariel’s going through isn’t easy, what she’s sacrificing for the child.)

Despite her prevailing condition, the couple remains hopeful that all will go well this time around. ■

‘Ma’ Rosa’ in this year’s MMFF? PHILIPPINE CANADIAN INQUIRER MANILA — Acclaimed Filipino director Brillante Mendoza revealed that he has been considering submitting his drama film “Ma’ Rosa” in this year’s Metro Manila Film Festival (MMFF).

Mendoza’s movie, which centered on a matriarch of a poor www.canadianinquirer.net

family struggling under the hands of corrupt policemen, has competed in the recently concluded 69th Cannes Film Festival’s Palm d’Or. “I already asked the committee if that’s possible. They said it’s okay, for as long as it won’t have any commercial screening before the festival,” Mendoza said during the cast and crew’s homecoming dinner.

Aside from the MMFF, Men-

doza also considered submitting ‘Ma’ Rosa’ to other international film festivals. receiving favorable comments on the movie.

“Tagumpay nating lahat ’to bilang Pilipino,” he said in an interview with ABS-CBN. Veteran actress Jaclyn Jose, who portrayed the lead character, bagged the Best Actress award — a first for the Philippines and Southeast Asia. ■

Entertainment

FRIDAY JUNE 3, 2016

25

Loss, accusations mark a turbulent few days for Johnny Depp

BY SANDY COHEN The Associated Press LOS ANGELES — Johnny Depp seemed the picture of rock star cool as he played guitar onstage in Portugal with his band, the Hollywood Vampires. An ocean away, he is facing serious accusations.

A judge on Friday ordered Depp to stay away from estranged wife, Amber Heard, after she accused the Oscarnominated actor of repeatedly hitting her during a recent fight and leaving her face bruised.

Depp’s publicist has not responded to a request for comment, and the “Pirates of the Caribbean” star made no mention of the allegations during his Friday night concert in Lisbon.

Depp appeared on stage puffing a small cigar and playing rhythm-guitar to a large crowd that had gathered for a Rock in Rio concert. The 52-year-old was introduced to the cheering audience as “the wings of the vampire” by band-member Alice Cooper.

The restraining order was is-

sued on the day Depp’s latest film, “Alice Through the Looking Glass,” opened in theatres and caps a turbulent week for the star. His mother died May 20 and Heard filed for divorce on Monday. On Friday, she appeared in court with a bruise on her right cheek below the eye, saying Depp threw her cellphone at her during a fight.

Heard’s filing alleges a history of abuse throughout her relationship with Depp, which started after they met on the set of the 2011 film “The Rum Diary.” A judge ordered Depp to stay away from Heard and not to attempt contact with her before a June 17 hearing.

Los Angeles Police responded to a domestic violence call at the couple’s home on May 21, but the person who made the call declined to file charges and officers determined no crime occurred.

Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Carl H. Moor rejected Heard’s request that Depp attend a year’s worth of anger management classes and the protective order extend to her dog, a Yorkshire terrier named Pistol. The status of the cou-

Johnny Depp and Amber Heard.

ple’s other dog, Boo, was not immediately known. (The dogs received worldwide publicity last year when Heard brought them into Australia without proper documentation. Heard and Depp released an awkward video last month apologizing for the action.)

Depp’s attorney, Laura Wasser, declined to comment. Wasser wrote in a court filing that Depp was out of the country and would agree to a mutual stayaway order. Heard is seeking spousal support but Depp’s response filed Wednesday asked a

ANDREA RAFFIN / SHUTTERSTOCK.COM

judge to deny the request.

Depp has been working steadily for the past few years, but his work has not always connected with the public.

His eccentric heist comedy “Mortdecai” was a flop, but he rebounded by playing Whitey Bulger in the hit mobster film “Black Mass.”

Depp has also filmed “Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales” — the fifth installment of the long-running franchise — and even played Donald Trump in a satirical comedy for the website Funny

or Die. Last year, he and the Hollywood Vampires — Cooper and Joe Perry — released their self-titled album.

His new Tim Burton-directed film, “Alice Through the Looking Glass,” a sequel to 2010’s Alice in Wonderland,” has been critically panned and is performing below expectations going into the holiday weekend. ■ Entertainment Writer Anthony McCartney contributed to this report from Los Angeles and writer Harold Heckle from Madrid.

Vuitton show draws fashion world to crisis hit Brazil THE CANADIAN PRESS NITEROI, BRAZIL — The elite of the fashion world flocked to Brazil, defying an outbreak of the Zika virus, an economic meltdown and the deep political crisis afflicting the country to attend a runway show Saturday by revered French label Louis Vuitton.

Around 500 guests, including A-listers Jaden Smith and Catherine Deneuve and fashion royalty flown in from New York and Paris, took in Vuitton’s Cruise 2017 collection at a futuristic art museum in Rio de Janeiro’s sister city of Niteroi.

With the iconic Sugarloaf Mountain shimmering in the background, the models strode the catwalk in sporty looks that channeled the street style of this beachfront metropolis and harkened to the upcoming

Summer Olympics which will aliens determined to help hu- luxury consumers, but the take place here in August. mankind shed a few pounds. current recession — the worst For Michael Burke, Vuitton’s Outside the heavily guarded since the 1930s — has put the chairman and CEO, the collec- museum, onlookers gathered brakes on spending of late. tion was pure Brazil. on the balconies of neigh- The snowballing political cri“Brazil is about colour, it’s bouring buildings to gawk and sis that saw President Dilma about positiveness, it’s about cheer wildly at the well-heeled Rousseff impeached earlier the future, it’s this month has about the body, thrust the South it’s about a American giant strong woman,” into further inhe said. stability, even Cutout dresses This was much more than a fashion as authorities in colour-block show. It was about showing our love here scramble neoprene looked for this country, out appreciation, to respond to like crosses beabout giving back. an outbreak of tween wetsuits the Zika virus, and easy, breezy which has been sundresses, and linked to a territhe squishyble birth defect soled shoes were equal parts guests, who also included a cad- in infants. sensible boots and the flip flops re of Brazilian women who are For Vuitton brass, the very that are Rio resident’s foot- among the Vuitton’s top cus- act of holding the first fashion wear of choice. Filing out of the tomers. show by a top European brand spaceship-shaped museum in Brazil’s wealthy elite have in Brazil at this troubled time their chic gym wear, the mod- long been reputed to be among represented an act of defiance els looked like fitness-crazed the world’s most voracious against the onslaught of bad www.canadianinquirer.net

news besetting the country.

Designer Nicolas Ghesquiere said the show sent a signal to the world ahead of the Aug. 5-21 Olympics, which observers say could see low tourist turnout due to the trifecta of crises.

“As the biggest brand in the world, I think it’s good to give a strong message to people and say we’re not scared,” he said, after a makeup artist mopped the tropical perspiration from his brow.

CEO Burke went even further.

“This was much more than a fashion show. It was about showing our love for this country, out appreciation, about giving back,” he said, adding the big-budget event had created temporary jobs for some 5,000 people. “Is it a humanitarian activity? No, I wouldn’t go that far. But it has a little bit of that.” ■

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JUNE 3, 2016

FRIDAY

Lifestyle PH makes its debut at the Venice Architecture Biennale The first-ever Philippine participation in the global art meet will highlight issues of heritage and cultural identity

BY CHECHE V. MORAL Philippine Daily Inquirer THE NATIONAL Commission for Culture and the Arts (NCCA), the Department of Foreign Affairs and the Office of Sen. Loren Legarda are making good on their promise that the country’s historic and triumphant return to the 2015 Venice Art Biennale was no “one-shot deal.”

On May 28, the Philippines unveils its pavilion in its firstever participation in the 2016 Venice International Architecture Biennale; and the three agencies have just announced the open call for the curatorial proposals for the 2017 Venice Art Biennale.

The country’s return to next year’s Venice Art Biennale will also be a milestone, as the organizers of the landmark global art exhibition has granted the Philippines’ request to have its pavilion at Arsenale, one of the two major exhibition spaces housing the national pavilions of other

countries. Last year’s Philippine pavilion was at a satellite venue called Palazzo Mora.

“When the Philippines reentered the Venice Biennale in 2015 after 51 years of absence, we were housed in the beautiful Palazzo Mora,” Legarda said in a statement. “But we deserve a venue where we can directly converse with other pavilions, and where our artists and curators can freely exchange ideas with other countries.”

Bullish

The government entities spearheaded by Legarda have been bullish in reestablishing the country’s presence in the contemporary art scene at the La Biennale di Venezia, after a 51-year hiatus: its last participation was in 1964, in an exhibit that featured two National Artists, José Joya and Napoleon Abueva.

“The vision is for the Philippines to participate in Venice Biennale consistently,” Legarda said. “As we promote our contemporary art through this platform, this could lead to in-

vites to other art expositions.”

In November, Legarda and NCCA chair Felipe de Leon headed a jury that chose the country’s first participant to the Venice International Architecture Biennale. With foremost architects from South Korea, Singapore and the Philippines, the panel chose the curatorial proposal of architect Edgardo Ledesma Jr. of Leandro V. Locsin Partners, from among 13 submissions.

On May 28, Ledesma, with volunteer architects and artists, will reveal the curatorial work titled “Muhon: Place Markers in the Search for Emerging Identity,” also at Palazzo Mora in Venice.

“Muhon,” a Filipino word for landmark or boundary stone, “seeks to start a discussion on built environment and its relation to cultural identity, using the dense capital Metro Manila as its subject,” according to a press statement. “It aims to explore the architect’s role in building or demolishing built heritage and its implications in ‘an adolescent city in flux.’”

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great venue to raise the issue.

“Architecture has a civic duty to change society, to change the way people think, and change the way people see things.”

Locsin promised a “very interesting show,” however short the time they had to prepare for it. It will be on display until Nov. 27.

The Philippines made its Venice Art Biennale comeback last year, featuring the exhibit called “Tie a String Around the World,” curated by UP professor Patrick Flores, linking the works of four Filipino artists: Manuel Conde and Carlos Francisco’s film “Genghis Khan,” Manny Montelibano’s video-and-sound installation “A Dashed State,” and José Tence Ruiz’s steel-and-velvet installation “Shoal.”

Friends and competitors

Six architects and three artists were invited to present their ideas for the exhibit, said Leandro Y. Locsin Jr., principal at Leandro V. Locsin Partners.

The participants are not just from the Locsin firm, but also from their friends and competitors in the industry, “because this isn’t an ego thing,” said Locsin. “This shouldn’t be a Locsin show; this should be about the Philippines.”

The exhibit will be about the cultural markers of heritage and memory, said Locsin.

Ledesma and company shortlisted decadesold buildings in Metro Manila, from which nine were chosen as case studies to assess their potential for architectural heritage.

“There’s a need for ideas like this to be out there, particular to our region, since all our architecture are in danger of being demolished,” said architect Ed Calma, who’s part of the Venice group.

The country’s participation in the Biennale, he added, is a

Closing ceremony

At the finissage or closing ceremony in November, the Filipino community in Italy came in full force, providing entertainment and serving Filipino fare to the guests. Youngsters, some of whom were born and raised in Italy, worked as volunteers. The project, said its organizers, was dedicated to these young Filipino-Italians who were searching for a link to their native Philippines.

Philippine Ambassador to Italy Domingo Nolasco said the country’s presence at the Biennale was a huge boost to the morale of the Filipinos working and living in Italy, as it showed how Filipinos are not only good workers, but are also fine artists.

Ruiz’s work, a metaphorical representation of the BRP Sierra Madre, the dilapidated ship of the Philippine Navy anchored in the contested waters of the West Philippine Sea, will be reconstructed and exhibited later this year at the UP Vargas Museum. ■

Lifestyle

FRIDAY JUNE 3, 2016

27

Students seeking sugar daddies for tuition, rent

BY SARAH SKIDMORE SELL The Associated Press CANDICE KASHANI graduated from law school debt-free this spring, thanks to a modern twist on an age-old arrangement.

During her first year, she faced tuition and expenses that ran nearly $50,000, even after a scholarship. So she decided to check out a dating website that connected women looking for financial help with men willing to provide it, in exchange for companionship and sex — a “sugar daddy” relationship as they are known.

Now, almost three years and several sugar daddies later, Kashani is set to graduate from Villanova University free and clear, while some of her peers are burdened with six-digit debts.

As the cost of tuition and rent rises, so does the apparent popularity of such sites among students. But are they really providing financial relief, or signing women up for something more exploitative and dangerous than debt?

Kashani believes such sites are a “great resource” for young women, but others say these arrangements smack of prostitution and take advantage of women in a vulnerable situation.

Lynn Comella, an associate professor of gender and sexuality studies at University of Nevada Las Vegas, said that it is not unusual for students to turn to sex work such as stripping, prostitution or webcam work to pay for school. But the sugar daddy sites are relatively new, and she says not entirely upfront about what they are really about.

These arrangements are more vague than prostitution_ there is an expectation of material benefit but it is not always specified and sex is not guaranteed.

Ron Weitzer, a professor of sociology at George Washington University and criminologist with an expertise in the sex industry describes it as “prostitution light.”

“Sugar Daddy” arrangements have existed for ages, and it’s unclear if they are becoming more common because the phenomenon is not well stud-

As the cost of tuition and rent rises, so does the apparent popularity of such sites among students. But are they really providing financial relief, or signing women up for something more exploitative and dangerous than debt?

ied. But experts say at the very least the internet has made these transactions far easier to arrange and negotiate. “It allows you to hone in on what you want,” said Kevin Lewis, an assistant professor of sociology at University of California San Diego who studies online dating.

“You could argue it is just making the market more efficient.”

Kashani says she sifted through many potential suitors before finding one she clicked with. She says she considers her sugar daddy one of her best friends and that they care deeply for each other.

“The people who have a stigma, or associate a negative connotation with it, don’t understand how it works,” she says.

But unlike most relationships, she is paid a sizeable monthly allowance that helps her pay for school.

U.S. undergraduate students last year finished school with an average of $35,000 in student debt — a figure that has risen steadily every year, according to Mark Kantrowitz, a financial aid expert. The average graduate debt load is $75,000, and some longer programs force students into much deeper debt.

Many students say their loans don’t cover the cost of living, and with rent skyrocketing in most major cities, they are left scrambling to make up the

difference.

One graduate student at Columbia University in New York had a scholarship that covered almost all of her tuition, but not her living expenses. She spoke on the condition of anonymity because of the potential impact on her job prospects. She tried to make do — sharing a room with a classmate and working a minimum wage job, plus any freelance work she could get.

But still she struggled to pay her rent and utilities, and her grades suffered.

“That’s just not why I am here,” she said. “I wanted to find the most amount of money I could make for the least amount of effort.”

So she found herself surfing Craigslist and Backpage.com and later, SeekingArrangement.com, the largest of the sugar daddy websites. Now she has two sugar daddies, one she sees occasionally and another who is more like a conventional boyfriend, except that he pays her a monthly allowance and helps rent her an apartment closer to him.

SeekingArrangement.com said it is most popular in Los Angeles and New York. The average rent in both areas is well over $2,000 a month, according to Zillow research.

The Columbia student says she plans to continue “sugaring” after she graduates to buy www.canadianinquirer.net

herself time to find a more traditional job and remain officially unemployed so she can defer repaying the roughly $70,000 in loans she had already racked up.

“There is a lot of moral panic about it,” she said. “But what are the real estate and academic funding situations that led to this?”

Brandon Wade, creator of the site, touts it as an “alternative to financial aid” but says the company did not set out to target students when it launched in 2006. It stumbled on this niche and began in 2011 offering students a free premium membership, which usually costs $30 a month. It charges sugar daddies $70 to $180 a month, depending on the membership level.

Seekingarrangement.com also offers to connect samesex couples looking for such arrangements, or “sugar mommies” for men. But the malefemale “sugar daddy” dynamic makes up the bulk of its business.

It’s difficult to pin down exactly how many students are involved in such situations, because they are private transactions. And it’s a niche rarely studied by academics.

SeekingArrangement.com says student users on the site jumped from 79,400 worldwide in 2010 to 1.9 million this year and students make up one-

third of its users. And while it sees thousands of signups on any given day, the company says enrolment jumps during August and January when tuition is typically due, sometimes to more than double its normal levels.

Women who have used the site report experiences that run the gamut — from respectful chaste dates all the way to aggressive solicitation online, even though it is forbidden on the site. Sex is not guaranteed although most users say it is implied. The company says a few arrangements have even led to marriage, although it is rare.

Some of the women say they feel respected and cared for, but remain aware that it is an arrangement, not traditional romantic love.

“It benefits me in many ways — we have a healthy relationship, we travel together, I’m able to enjoy the city more,” said the New York graduate student.

Still, she said, it is a job.

“It does kind of rub me the wrong way that some people don’t see it as sex work,” she said.

Comella warns that unlike sex workers, many women doing this put their true identities online, and that could put them at risk. While Seeking Arrangement runs background checks, there have been reports of violence against both men and women stemming from sugar daddy websites.

Kristen Houser of the National Sexual Violence Resource Center says that violence is common any time money is exchanged for sex. “You need to pay attention that there is a power imbalance,” she said.

Wade says there are risks inherent in any dating website.

He should know; he runs several, including one that allows users to bid on dates and another focused on open relationships.

He said he created SeekingArrangement.com out of his own frustration with women. An MIT graduate, he had difficulty meeting women and realized a site such as this would highlight what set him apart — money.

“Money and sex are things that people want,” he said. “I think the controversy comes into play on seeking arrangement because we are so upfront about it.” ■

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JUNE 3, 2016

FRIDAY

Business

AIIB, EIB to strengthen cooperation South Australian firms upbeat on PH PHILIPPINES NEWS AGENCY

BEIJING — The Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB) and the European Investment Bank (EIB) on Monday agreed to broaden cooperation to support investment in “strategically important” projects.

The two institutions signed a framework of cooperation to expand partnerships in areas including the joint financing of infrastructure projects worldwide and the establishment of a regular dialogue mechanism between the two entities, according to a statement released

by AIIB.

“AIIB was created with the goal of promoting regional cooperation and partnership in addressing development challenges, and we have a strong partner in EIB [...] we can be a steadying force in this complex global economic environment and create enduring positive development outcomes,” said

AIIB President Jin Liqun.

EIB President Werner Hoyer pointed out that international financial institutions play a crucial role in improving infrastructure, adding that the partnership enabled them to address challenges that no single institution can overcome

alone, such as tackling climate change, ensuring sustainable transportation and providing clean water.

The AIIB and the EIB have already established a strong track record of cooperation, including through the sharing of technical and financial expertise.

The EIB is the long-term lending institution of the European Union owned by its member states.

It is the world’s largest lender for climate related investment and a global leader in issuing green bonds.

The AIIB is a multilateral development bank that focuses on the development of infrastructure and other productive sectors in Asia. ■

BY AMY R. REMO Philippine Daily Inquirer SOUTH AUSTRALIAN companies are open to expanding business with the Philippines as they view the country as a highly prospective market, rich with trade and investment opportunities across several strategic industries.

In a breakfast meeting on Friday, South Australia Minister for Investment and Trade Martin Hamilton-Smith said there were increasing opportunities for closer engagement between South Australia and the Philippines, one of the fastest growing economies in Southeast Asia, in

several areas.

These included the supply of premium food and wine; supply of commodities such as wheat, dairy, fruit and vegetables; provision of education and training; professional services and development assistance; oil, gas and mineral exploration and provision of associated services and technologies.

Hamilton-Smith was in the country over the weekend to lead South Australia’s first business mission to the Philippines. Companies that are keen on establishing their presence in the country and partner with local firms ❱❱ PAGE 32 South Australian

Rice Dumplings for Dragon Boat Festival at T&T Supermarket The Dragon Boat Festival is on June 9th this year and T&T Gourmet has prepared 20 styles of rice dumpling for the customers. Aside from traditional rice dumplings, our chef has also created new rice dumplings with unique taste and flavor in order to satisfy customers’ discerning taste buds.

Customers can enjoy 12% discount on purchase of $120 or more (before tax).

Discount will also be given to those who buy 4 or 10 small rice dumplings at one time.

Supreme rice dumpling – Supreme Duck with Eight Treasures Rice Dumpling Top grade sliced duck together with top grade mini scallop, chestnut, Chinese sausage, salted egg yolk and lotus seeds.

Experience the different layers of flavors all in one bite.

Chef’s recommendation – Stewed Pork Rice Dumpling Carefully selected pork with rich gravy wrapped by lotus leaf that gives a pleasant fragrance making this dumpling a very delicious one.

Best seller for part years – Taiwanese Egg Yolk & Pork Rice Dumpling Glutinous rice combined with stir fried shallots then add in top grade port, salted egg yolk, dried shrimp and mushrooms, a very traditional and all-time favorite rice dumpling that Chinese would eat during Dragon Boat Festival.

Most popular choice on Internet – Multi Grain & Purple Yam Rice Dumpling As the name suggests, the ingredients provide a good source of fiber with oats, barley, glutinous rice, black glutinous rice,

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millet combined with purple yam.

Best choice for group purchase – Peanut & Pork Rice Dumpling This dumpling is a very popular rice choice in southern Taiwan. Slow cooked braised pork together with salted egg yolk, dried shrimp and mushroom are combined with small peanuts to give this dumpling a crunchy texture.

Light meal best choice – Assorted Mushrooms Rice Dumpling Top grade mushrooms stir fried to further induce its aroma. Best choice for those who look for a relative healthier diet.

Authentic Hakka taste – Squid and Bean Curd Rice Dumpling An authentic Hakka style rice dumpling that use fine dried squid, bean curd, onion, celery and red chili as the key ingredients.

Naturally sweet – Longan with Red Bean Black Glutinous Rice Dumpling Longan and red bean paste wrapped by black glutinous rice gives it a natural sweet flavor.

On top of these, there are also the all-time favorites like the traditional Rice Dumpling in Lotus Leaf, Mushroom and Chestnut Rice Dumpling, Red Date Sweet Rice Dumpling, Cantonese Rice Dumpling with Egg Yolk & Pork, Shanghai Salted Pork Rice Dumpling, Eggplant and Bean Curd Rice Dumpling and Lye Water or Lye Water with Red Bean Paste Rice Dumpling. Please refer to poster in-store or go to www.tntsupermarket.com to select your favorite rice dumpling for this Dragon Boat Festival.

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FRIDAY JUNE 3, 2016

Sports

Pinay boxer challenges world champ in Japan

Mexican Fuentes next ‘Ahas’ foe

PHILIPPINES NEWS AGENCY

BY ROY LUARCA Philippine Daily Inquirer

DAVAO CITY — Filipina boxer Norj Guro of Iligan City will be challenging reigning World Boxing Council (WBC) world female minimum weight champion Yuko Kuroki on June 6 at the Korakuen Hall in Tokyo, Japan.

The 26-year-old Guro is now in her light training at the MPHighlands Gym in Manila, according to her business manager Brico Santig of Highland Promotions.

Guro has a record of 7 wins, 5 loses, 1 draw with 4 knockouts while Kuroki is toting 15 wins, 4 loses, 1 draw with 7 KOs. It will be Kuroki’s 4th titledefense of the crown she won from fellow Japanese Mari Ando via a unanimous decision last April 17, 2014 in Osaka, Japan.

The 25-year-old Japanese southpaw retained it by a split decision only against Katia Gutierrez of Mexico in her first title-defense on November 1, 2014 in Fukuoka, Japan.

Kuroka then beat another Japanese Masae Akitaya by a UD on April 9, 2015 in Osaka before stopping Thailand’s Kanittha Saknarong by a technical knockout in the 3rd round in their non-title fight on August

BACOLOD CITY — Donnie “Ahas” Nietes wasn’t kidding, after all.

He indeed appeared younger, fresher and better than his 34 years in a systematic demolition of Raul Garcia late Saturday in the headliner of Pinoy Pride 36 at University of St. La Salle Coliseum here.

With Nietes connecting at will with powerful blows, the frustrated and exhausted challenger quit after the fifth round of their World Boxing Organization light flyweight title fight.

“I feel as if I’m getting younger,” Nietes told sportswriters after the official weighin Friday afternoon.

True enough, Nietes fought with spring in his legs and bombs in his fists in front of his fellow Negrenses, winning every round and dropping Garcia twice in the third.

The first came by way of a snappy left straight to the head followed by a hardy left to the body. Garcia was up in no time only to be sent down anew with a right to the body by the pride of nearby Murcia town.

“I knew I had him from the first round,” said Nietes in Filipino. “I found no need to hurry up as his body is already hurting.”

According to Nietes, who made his ninth successful title defense, the fight turned out to be just what he and trainer Edmund Villamor prepared for, finding his range and penetrating the Mexican’s defenses.

Nietes, the longest reigning Filipino world champion at eight years, raised his record to 38-1-4 with 21 knockouts while pulling down Garcia, the former International Boxing Federation and WBO minimum weight titlist, to 36-4-1, 22 KOs. Finding Nietes an elusive target and with his strength wan-

Filipina boxer Norj Guro.

16 in Fukuoka.

In her third defense and previous fight, Kuroka beat Mexican Nancy Franco by a UD on December 20 at the Kyuden Gym in Fukuoka.

Guro, on the other hand, is coming from two back-to-back defeats from outside the country.

She first lost by a UD to Nao Ikeyama last February 28, 2015 in Osaka then bowed also by a UD to Mexican Jessica Chavez on April 11, 2015 in Sinaloa, Mexico.

Guro’s last victory was a UD

PNA

against Rosemarie Cruz on April 22, 2014 at the Benguet State Univerity gym in La Trinidad, Benguet.

Guro fought but lost for the vacant WBC Asian Boxing Council female flyweight crown against Buakaew Onesongchai Gym by a UD last April 24, 2013 in Thailand.

She also dropped a UD to Hee Jung Yuh in their battle for the vacant International Female Boxers Association World super flyweight title held in Gimhae City, South Korea. ■

Paralympic jumper maintains Olympic hopes despite questions

BY CIARAN FAHEY The Associated Press COLOGNE, GERMANY — Paralympic long jump champion Markus Rehm says he is still hoping to compete at the Olympics in Rio de Janeiro despite a scientific study’s inconclusive findings on whether his

carbon-fiber prosthesis gives him an unfair advantage over able-bodied athletes.

Wolfgang Potthast of the German Sport University in Cologne said Monday that it was “difficult if not impossible” to determine whether the 27-year-old Rehm gets an advantage or not.

Rehm is hoping to compete at

both the Olympics and the following Paralympics. To become eligible under international rules, Rehm must prove that his prosthesis gives him no advantage.

Rehm is aiming to be the second athlete with a carbon-fiber prosthesis to compete at the Olympics and Paralympics after South African runner Oscar Pistorius in 2012. ■ www.canadianinquirer.net

ing, Garcia did not answer the bell in the sixth round, becoming the Filipino’s 15th Mexican victim. Raul’s twin brother Ramon was also a victim of Nietes in 2011.

Garcia said that he felt tired and spent owing to the heat.

That’s why he requested for a rematch to be staged in his country.

Nietes, of course, shrugged it off saying that there was nothing left to prove owing to the lopsided result.

“I want to provide inspiration to young, aspiring boxers” said Nietes, who thanked the crowd, estimated to be 8,000-strong, for their all-out support. Newly-elected Mayor Evelio “Bing” Leonardia was among those who watched from ringside.

Given a choice, Nietes said he’d rather forego his mandatory title defense against Mexican Moises Fuentes in favor of challenging World Boxing Association and WBO flyweight king Juan Francisco Estrada, also of Mexico.

Unknown to Nietes, however, ALA Promotions president and CEO Michael Aldeguer had sealed the deal for their third fight on Sept. 24 at StubHub Center in Carson, California.

The fight with Estrada, however, is being worked out and could happen early next year, according to Aldeguer, who bared that plans are also afoot for ALA Promotions to make a foray in Europe next year.

Hours before the fight card jointly staged by ALA Promotions and ABS-CBN Sports, Aldeguer told Manila-based sportswriters that Nietes’ longevity in the ring was hardly surprising owing to his work ethic and dedication to his craft.

“He was never late for practice, never encountered weight problems and is still eager to learn and improve on his skills,” said Aldeguer.

No wonder, the humble Nietes remains on top of his game. ■

30

JUNE 3, 2016

FRIDAY

Technology

Cellphone radiation study raises concerns despite low risk

BY SETH BORENSTEIN The Associated Press WASHINGTON — A new federal study of the potential dangers of cellphone radiation, conducted in rats, found a slight increase in brain tumors in males and raised long-dormant concerns about the safety of spending so much time with cellphones glued to our ears.

But the study had enough strange findings that it has caused other federal scientists to highlight flaws in the research, and experts said these findings and those from other studies continue to suggest the potential risk from cellphone radiation is very small.

The National Institutes of Health study bombarded rats with cellphone radiation from the womb through the first two years of life for nine hours a day. It found tumors in 2 to 3 per cent of male rats, which the study’s authors called low.

But females weren’t affected at all and, strangely, the rats not exposed to the cellphone radiation died much faster — at double the rate — of those that were.

The results were preliminary, and only part of what will ultimately be released. They were made public before they were officially published — and despite strong criticism from other NIH scientists — because the results were similar to other studies that hint at a potential problem, said study author John Bucher.

The study is part of a sevenyear, $25 million effort conducted by the National Toxicology Program at the request of the Food and Drug Administration. It looked at the specific type of radiation that cellphones transmit, called non-ionizing radiofrequency.

“This is the first study to actually show that non-ionizing radiation (causes) cancer,” said Dr. Otis Brawley, the American Cancer Society’s chief medical

officer. The cancer society in a statement praised the study for “evidence that cellphone signals could potentially impact human health” but notes that it doesn’t quite address real risk to people.

“If cellphones cause cancer, they don’t cause a lot of cancer,” he said in an interview. “It’s not as carcinogenic as beef.”

He said people should be far more concerned about “distraction caused by cellphone,”’ which he said causes more deaths.

Both Brawley and Bucher said this would not change how they use their own personal cellphones.

While the study found what Bucher called a likely cause of cancer in rats, he cautioned that how that applies to humans “is not currently com- The study is part of a seven-year, $25 million effort conducted by the National Toxicology Program at the request of the pletely worked out. This may Food and Drug Administration. It looked at the specific type of radiation that cellphones transmit, called non-ionizing have relevance. It may have no radiofrequency. relevance,” he said.

Since about 1986, U.S. brain factors, such as rats in the group Four other study reviewers — If people are truly worried, cancer deaths have not in- that wasn’t exposed didn’t con- three from NIH — also raised they should use Bluetooth or creased or decreased, Brawley tract what would be the normal questions about the way the headsets, Brawley said. said. That suggests that what- number of brain tumors for study was conducted and its In 2011, a working group of ever effect cellphones may have that population. conclusions. the International Agency for it is so small as to be undetect“I am unable to accept the Bucher said he couldn’t ex- Research on Cancer said cellable amid regular cases of brain authors’ conclusions,” wrote plain that strange factor, nor phones are possibly carcinocancer. outside reviewer Dr. Michael could he explain why females genic. But numerous studies Also, Brawwere not affect- over the years, before and after ley and others ed. Brawley said that listing, have found little evpoint out that it could be the idence of a problem. Among the cellphone techfemale hormone largest, a survey of 13,000 peonology has imestrogen is of- ple in 13 countries found little proved so much Bucher called a likely cause of cancer fering some can- or no risk of brain tumors, with in recent years to in rats, he cautioned that how that cer protection as a possible link in the heaviest emit less radiaapplies to humans ‘is not currently has been seen in users that the study’s authors tion than medicompletely worked out.’ some other can- found inconclusive. And a large cal studies simucers.

Danish study that linked phone late. Bucher said George Gray, a bills to a cancer registry found the levels the risk and environ- no risk even in longtime users. rats were submental health Grey said a study like this jected to would be considered Lauer, deputy director of NIH’s expert at the George Washing- needs to stand up to challenge “heavy.” office of extramural research. ton University School of Public and fit in with other research.

The study also found a slight “I suspect that this experiment Health, said one key part of the “This is a high profile topic increase in a very rare type of is substantially underpowered study is not the data itself, but that hits close to home for most heart tumors in the male rats and that the few positive re- how it is being interpreted. And of us,” Gray said in an email. “It exposed to cellphone radiation. sults found reflect false positive he said the study seems to focus is really important to realize The same NIH scientists looked findings.” on the small increase in tumors that a single study like this does at mice, but those results won’t The fact that the rats exposed in males, not the absence of not provide ‘the answer.”’ ■ be ready until next year. to radiation survived longer them in females “and does not Some of the study’s own re- than those that weren’t “leaves reveal the level of scientific un- AP Medical Writer Lauran viewers had trouble accepting me even more skeptical of the certainty in applying these data Neergaard contributed to this the results because of the odd authors’ claims,” Lauer wrote. to people using their phones.” story. www.canadianinquirer.net

Technology

FRIDAY JUNE 3, 2016

31

After Gamergate, female video game developers on the rise

BY NATALIE POMPILIO The Associated Press PHILADELPHIA — Students from an all-female arts college in Philadelphia attended a conference for video game developers last year and, without even trying, they stood out.

“We were basically the only girls in the room,” recalled Lindsey O’Brien, 21, a rising senior at Philadelphia’s Moore College of Art & Design.

The male-dominated video game industry is changing as more women develop games, play games and take jobs reviewing games. While the ongoing cyber harassment of female gamers known as “Gamergate” indicates a reluctance by some to accept the growing number of women in the industry, mainstream institutions are welcoming all to the console.

Moore’s animation and gaming arts program will see its first class of game developers graduate next year. The Massachusetts Institute of Technology created its Game Lab in 2012.

New York University’s Tisch School began offering a video game design degree last year.

“There’s going to be a huge boom of women entering the industry in the next 10 years,” said Stephen Wood, Moore’s gaming arts professor, who

The male-dominated video game industry is changing as more women develop games, play games and take jobs reviewing games. Pictures are the female counterstrike team members at the Electronic Sports World Cup in Paris.

MICHAEL BOU-NACKLIE / SHUTTERSTOCK.COM

took over the fledging program when he joined the faculty in 2014. “In the ‘80s and ‘90s, video games were seen as things boys do. But in the ‘90s and early 2000s, girls said, ‘We’re going to play, too.’ Now those girls are going to college and studying video games. We’re helping close that gender gap and being part of the solution.”

According to a 2015 survey by the International Game Developers Association, the number of female video game developers has doubled in the past seven years, from 11 per cent in 2009 to about 21 per cent now. About 79 per cent of the survey’s 2,000 respondents agreed diversity in

the industry is “very” or “somewhat” important.

“Much dialogue has occurred in the past couple of years around the topic, (with) a strong majority recognizing that greater diversity on development teams . creates a stronger foundation for the team to create games that may maximize their global appeal,” said Kate Edwards, executive director of the association.

Since joining Moore, Wood has seen the gaming arts program grow from eight students to about 40. He acknowledges he had some bias against female game creators until he saw his students’ work.

“They create these awesome games that are no different than what you’d see in the industry today,” he said. “It’s a misperception that girls are making games with rainbows and unicorns. They’re really not. I don’t play a new game and say, ‘Oh, this was designed by a woman, this was designed by a guy.”’

O’Brien learned the ins and outs of gaming from her mother, who could tear up the Atari.

O’Brien started out on Sega Genesis and PlayStation systems, bonding with her older brother as they played games like “Mortal Kombat.”

“I have tons of female friends who like shooter games, like

‘Call of Duty,”’ she said. “A lot of people who aren’t part of the community are shocked when they hear that.”

“Gamergate” began in 2013 when anonymous online commenters claimed a female video game developer was getting an unjust amount of attention for a new product. She was the victim of cyber harassment that then spread to other women in the industry, including Edwards, the executive director of the Game Developers Association.

Edwards said the incidents have raised important industry issues. Intel, for example, pledged $300 million in 2015 to fund a three-year effort to increase the number of underrepresented groups — including women, Hispanics and AfricanAmericans — by 14 per cent.

Wood said he talks to his students about the potential for abuse. The good thing, he said, is Moore students have a tight bond and can stand together against such threats. O’Brien, too, said she expects some negative responses, but she’s ready for them.

“There are some people who say girls don’t know about games, that girls can’t make games,” O’Brien said. “I think if somebody has the skills to do the job, they should do the job.” ■

Jury sides with Google in battle over Android software

BY BRANDON BAILEY The Associated Press SAN FRANCISCO — Google’s Android software just dodged a $9 billion bullet.

A federal jury found Thursday that Google didn’t need permission to use a rival’s programming tools as it built Android — now the world’s leading smartphone operating software and a key part of Google’s multibillion dollar Internet business.

Software competitor Oracle claimed Google had stolen its intellectual property and reaped huge profits by copying pieces of an Oracle programming language called Java. But the jury in U.S. District Court found that Google made “fair use,” under copyright law, of

Java elements that help different software programs work together.

Oracle, which had sought $9 billion in damages, immediately said it would appeal.

The verdict was closely watched in Silicon Valley, in part because many popular features of today’s smartphones only work because apps can “talk” to one another or the phone’s underlying software. Google’s supporters — a group that included other tech firms, trade associations and the Electronic Frontier Foundation, an Internet rights group — warned that an Oracle victory would hamper future innovation by making that software co-operation more difficult and expensive.

Google argued that because it used only a small part of

Java to create Android, a much larger system of software built for a new purpose, it qualified for a “fair use” exemption from copyright. Similar exemptions allow artists and critics to quote or reuse small portions of someone else’s work in a larger essay or creation.

Oracle and its allies simply argued that the company should be paid for the use of its code. While Google lets smartphone manufacturers use Android software without charge, it makes billions of dollars by showing advertising to people who use Google services, including its popular search engine and maps, on Android phones and tablets.

The high-profile dispute was a clash of Silicon Valley titans.

While much of the trial focused www.canadianinquirer.net

on arcane aspects of computer programming, jurors heard testimony from prominent tech executives and a pair of multibillionaire moguls. Google cofounder Larry Page testified in person, while Oracle co-founder Larry Ellison appeared on video.

Jurors also got a glimpse of Silicon Valley’s small world when they heard from Eric Schmidt, now chairman of Google’s corporate parent, Alphabet Inc. Schmidt was an executive of Sun Microsystems when that company created Java. Oracle acquired the rights to Java when it bought Sun in 2010.

The jury’s verdict marks Google’s second victory in the case. U.S. Judge William Alsup sided with Google in 2012, ruling that the APIs weren’t protected by copyright. An appel-

late court overturned Alsup’s ruling and sent the case back for a second trial.

Oracle said it will appeal the latest verdict on “numerous grounds.” In a statement, Oracle general counsel Dorian Daley added, “We strongly believe that Google developed Android by illegally copying core Java technology to rush into the mobile device market.”

Google welcomed the jury’s finding in its own statement.

“Today’s verdict that Android makes fair use of Java APIs represents a win for the Android ecosystem, for the Java programming community, and for software developers who rely on open and free programming languages to build innovative consumer products,” the company said. ■

32

JUNE 3, 2016

FRIDAY

Travel

Sibalom – a haven to come home to PHILIPPINES NEWS AGENCY SAN JOSE DE BUENAVISTA, ANTIQUE — Sibalom town, the biggest in the province of Antique, has a long and winding history. As long as its river which used to flow under, its history and religiosity had left an imprint on the Sibalomnon psyche.

Sibalom is just 10 kilometers away from the provincial capital and is one of the three inland municipalities in the province.

It is the biggest, having 76 barangays which are all classified as rural.

Since time immemorial, Sibalom has passed several settlers and conquistadores and its effects shaped what a Sibalom native is today.

The town was, and still is, very attractive to foreign invaders, the Atis and the Malay settlers not excluded. It has two long and wide rivers, the Sibalom and the Tipuluan River that feed its flatland and thus become attractive to “invaders” who would want to farm and live by the riverside and be fed with its bounties.

During the Spanish period, the community was not spared by the colonizing arms but it took almost a hundred years before it became a visita of the parish of Hamtic. It was only in 1732 that the Augustinian priests organized Sibalom into a parish. Its first patron saint was, naturally, St. Augustine, whose image was brought by the Augustinian priests. But it was only in later years that Sibalomnons, mostly Catholics, embraced Sta. Rita de Cascia as their honored saint.

Sibalomnons believed Sta. Rita de Cascia to be the saint of the impossible. She also became popular as the saint run to by battered women as she herself was a battered wife.

Through her fervent prayers, her husband was converted into Catholicism but was murdered

Canyon adventures planned for three sites in Jasper National Park

THE CANADIAN PRESS

Sugar Cane Farm, Sibalom.

by unknown killers. To spare her sons to commit murder to avenge the death of their father, Sta. Rita prayed to God to take her sons away. Living alone, she applied to the religious fold of San Agustin where she was accepted.

Today’s generation revered her by offering a nine-day novena to her and a High Mass on her death anniversary, which is May 22. Believers from neighboring towns would come and joined her procession where her image would be mounted on a high cart bedecked with red roses. After the procession, everyone would scamper to get even just one bud or stem of the red roses from her cart, believing that this would bring miracles to their lives.

Devotion to Sta. Rita is now spread all over the world and several churches in the Philippines honored and adopted her as their patron saint.

Sibalom is also a topnotcher when it comes to beautiful wonders of nature. Rafflesia speciosa, huge fossil imprints that revealed ancient presence of large animals and extinct marine life, endemic trees and forest life found in Mt. Porras, mussel shells found in a lake that never dries up nor overflows, the world’s tallest flower are some

BRIAN GURROLA / FLICKR

of the few that make Sibalom stand out among the other municipalities of Antique.

During summer months, Sibalom is often visited by tourists, both foreign and local because of the attraction it flaunt – a river bed that is covered with gem stones!

Sibalom also is home to artists, academicians with great minds, politicians who rose to national fame and residents who brought honor and pride to the town. There are Sibalomnons who were known in their chosen fields outside the town, Ramon Maza who was the first representative of the province, Juju Lotilla who became Energy Secretary, Leah Tanodra Armamento who is Undersecretary of the Department of Justice, she was also honored as Bugal kang Antique (pride of Antique) during Binirayan 2011; and Sinforoso Pagunsan who was number eighth in the bar examinations and is currently the manager of Housing Authority. Everyone’s favorite was Russell Tordesillas, a kiniray-a writer and storyteller who had been part of every Antiqueno’s childhood days.

These and many more besides, are the gems that make Sibalom a haven to come home to. ■ www.canadianinquirer.net

JASPER, ALTA. — Thrill-seekers who don’t mind getting wet have a new option in Jasper National Park.

Rocky Mountain Canyoning, a small Jasper-based company, is planning to take groups on adventures that involve rappelling through canyon waterfalls this summer.

It launched the outings in Two Valley Canyon in the park’s Maligne Valley last year.

For 2016, the company is adding full-day trips to two other sites — Morrow Canyon, 30 minutes east of Jasper, and Ogre Canyon, on the park’s eastern boundary, co-owner Trevor Lescard said.

The company provides the necessary equipment, includ-

ing wetsuits which must be worn on most of the excursions.

“Canyoning is the art of descending steep walled gorges and deep mountain valleys using ropes to control your movements,” Rocky Mountain Canyoning says on its website.

The adventures, priced from $169 to $279, include “jumping, walking, scrambling, sliding, wading.”

Also overcoming fear, according to Tourism Jasper, which describes the canyons as “truly stunning territory.”

Canyoning requires “a certain degree of fitness,” but the challenge can be more mental than physical, the agency says.

The trips to Morrow and Ogre kick off July 1, and to Two Valley one month later. ■

South Australian... included law firm Doconade Legal & Migration; MIRA Migration Services; wine producer CMV Farms; medical grade equipment supplier Soniclean; Port Pirie Regional Council, which seeks to highlight its businesses in grain, feeds, dairy, wine, and ewaste; Gibson Wines; consulting firm Jacquillard Minns Pty Ltd.; SACE Board of SA; Global Horticulture Trading Pty. Ltd.; Adelaide Airport Ltd.; Hydroil Pty. Ltd. & Premier Proline, which manufactures hydraulic and pneumatic cylinders, and Alpha Box & Dice.

“This mission is a commitment by South Australia not only to develop relationships for industry, but also to strengthen government to government links. We are keen to ❰❰ 28

build on our relationship with the Philippine government,” Hamilton-Smith said.

“We want to have a closer engagement with the Philippines which is why we have put together a Southeast Asia team dedicated to the implementation and oversight of our strategy. We (also) hope to see Philippine business representatives in Adelaide soon,” he added.

According to the investment and trade minister, both the Australian and Philippine governments are working on the national level to further improve trading arrangements and the bilateral export businesses. The target was to sign memoranda of understanding with the Philippine government and the private sector for potential cooperation. ■

Travel

FRIDAY JUNE 3, 2016

33

Low loonie shifting Canadian travel from U.S. to other global destinations

BY ROSS MAROWITS The Canadian Press

March, while the number of visitors from other countries was up 10 per cent over 2015 and 26 per cent from 2010.

The strong influx of visitors provided MONTREAL — Canadian travel to the a boon to Canadian hotels, restaurants United States hit a six-year low this win- and car rental companies, said Robert ter as a weak loonie and lower airfares Kokonis, president of airline consulting prompted more residents to visit other firm AirTrav Inc. international destinations.

When the Canadian dollar hovered Last year’s decrease of Canadian trav- around parity as late as 2013, U.S. travellers to the U.S. conellers were pretty tinued in the first much no-shows in three months of 2016 Canada, he said. as 4.38 million Cana“So we’ve gotten dian residents went The strong influx of to the point where across the border for visitors provided a we’re seeing Ameriat least one night, boon to Canadian cans back in Canada, down 13 per cent hotels, restaurants so that’s a nice recipfrom the same period and car rental rocal balance to the in 2015 and matching companies. loss of Canadians not a low set in 2010, actravelling across the cording to data from border,” he said in an Statistics Canada. interview.

While interest in The U.S. tourism the U.S. has waned, 3.8 million Canadi- sector has responded to the currency ans travelled to other international des- softness by offering deals to Canadians, tinations, up 6.2 per cent over the previ- including accepting the loonie at par to ous year and 33 per cent since 2010. the U.S. dollar for some expenses. BorThe low value of the loonie has also at- der malls are also offering discounts. tracted more visitors to Canada.

“When you have a 75-cent Canadian After holding steady for several years, dollar, a lot of Canadians took a pass in American visits to Canada were up al- 2015,” Kokonis said. most 20 per cent between January and The latest results reflected a continu-

Canadians travelling to other international destinations in 2015 grew about 10 per cent to reach 11.55 million.

ing trend from 2015.

Nearly 21 million Canadian residents took overnight trips into the United States in 2015. That was down 10 per cent from 2014 and was the lowest number since 2010.

The results exclude the 23.3 million Canadians who crossed the border by car for same-day trips, down 21.6 per cent from nearly 30 million a year earlier.

The Canadian dollar hit its high in 2015 on Jan. 2 at 85.62 cents US, and sunk to 71.41 cents US on Dec. 18.

Canadians travelling to other interna-

tional destinations in 2015 grew about 10 per cent to reach 11.55 million.

Meanwhile, 12.5 million Americans visited Canada in 2015, the highest level since 2008. An additional 5.3 million residents of other countries also visited the country.

In addition to the impact from currency, Canadian airlines like Air Canada and WestJet, and tour operators like Sunwing, have been boosting their international capacity by adding seats to sun markets, adding additional far-flung destinations and offering new service to London Gatwick. ■

Travel influencers laud Filipinos’ ‘unbelievable’ passion for tourism

BY AZER N. PARROCHA Philippines News Agency MANILA — The world’s top travel influencers have all praises for Filipinos especially their love for Philippine tourism days after their visit to some of the country’s key tourist destinations last May 11-24.

On the invitation of the Department of Tourism (DOT), a team from creative technology agency Beautiful Destinations went to these destinations to capture photos and videos to boost interest amongst its followers and inspire them to visit the Philippines.

The team was composed of the founder of the company and global social media influencer, Jeremy Jauncey; travel drone pioneer and Head of Brand Partnerships for BDI, Tom Jauncey; Canadian film maker and videographer of the DJ duo The Chainsmokers, Sam Kolder; celebrated iPhone-only photographer James Relf Dyer; and influential London-based Instagram travel photographer and videographer, Jacob Riglin.

DOT is the first national tourism or-

ganization in Southeast Asia to partner with Beautiful Destinations which has more than 10 million followers in over 180 countries in their successful travel-related accounts on Instagram and Snapchat.

Among the destinations they have been to are Cebu, Bohol, El Nido in Palawan, Manila, and Hundred Islands in Pangasinan.

Beautiful Destinations community manager Jacob Riglin described the reception of the Filipinos as “unlike any” he had seen before. He also lauded the Filipinos’ “unbelievable” passion for tourism.

“When they see our posts on Instagram, they don’t just comment ‘what a lovely shot’, instead we have received numerous comments expressing thanks for featuring this beautiful country — their home,” Riglin said.

“The engagement over here is incredible!” he added, noting that aside from the scenic places in the country, it was the warmth and hospitality of Filipinos that won him over.

Since Beautiful Destinations was established, their visit to the Philippines

marked the first time that special events were held and organized for the team.

DOT Secretary Ramon Jimenez Jr. meanwhile expressed gratitude for the various content that they have produced which he said continues to surprise and inspire millions of people around the world, including Filipinos themselves “of the beauty and diversity of this country”.

“Beautiful Destinations is a team that

www.canadianinquirer.net

is committed to capture the most exciting things about our country. And it’s because they look at familiar places from a very unfamiliar vantage point,” Jimenez said.

“With their unique perspective, without us having to prompt them, they are sending out images of the Philippines that even we have never seen before,” he added. ■

Events

34

JUNE 3, 2016

2016 FILIPINO COMMUNITY EVENTS COMMEMORATING THE 118TH ANNIVERSARY OF PHILIPPINE INDEPENDENCE (VANCOUVER) EVENT TITLE

DATE & TIME

VENUE

ORGANIZER

View all events by scanning this QR code or visiting

27 May to 02 July 2016

Cityscape Community Art Space, 335 Lonsdale Ave, North Vancouver

Philippine Consulate General and the North Vancouver Arts Council

Consul Charmaine Guevara Tel No. 604.685.1619 ext 122 Email: chamguevara@gmail.com

“Harana” Concert by the Philippine Opera Company

03 June 2016, 7:30 p.m.

Vancouver Tech (Vancouver Technical Secondary School Auditorium) 2600 Broadway East, Vancouver

Tribu Productions

Clifford Belgica Tel No. 604.888.5624 Email: tribu@telus.net

04 June 2016, 9 a.m.-5 p.m.

Memorial South Park 5955 Ross St., (Ross and 41st) Vancouver

Philippines Cultural Pista ng Bayan Society

Joel Castillo Tel. No. 604.726.5274 Email: joelvie34@yahoo.ca Amado Mercado Email: mercado45@shaw.ca

Masskara Festival Society Philippine Independence Day Celebration

04 June 2016, 6 p.m.

Polish Community Centre, Vancouver

Masskara Festival Society of Canada

Agnes Uguil Email: uguil_agnes@yahoo.ca

Serenade by Philippine Opera Company

04 June 2016, 7.30 pm

Victoria White Eagle Polish Hall #90 Dock St., Victoria

Tribu Productions

“Kundiman at Indakan sa Surrey”

05 June 2016, 10 a.m. – 5 p.m.

Bridgeview Park Community Centre, 11475 – 126A St., Surrey

Surrey Philippine Independence Day Society (SPIDS)

SPIDS 2016 Committee Tel No. 604.562.3787 Email: surreyfilcan@gmail.com

Pista ng Bayan

MANITOBA

SASKATCHEWAN

ONTARIO

http://bit.ly/ PCI-Events

CONTACT PERSONS

“Harana” Art Exhibition by Manuel Baldemor and select local FilipinoCanadian artist

ALBERTA

NEWFOUNDLAND

QUEBEC

NOVA Clifford Belgica Tel No. 604.888.5624 SCOTIA Email: tribu@telus.net

Serenade by Philippine Opera Company

06 June 2016, 7p.m.

St. Joseph Parish Hall 20676 Fraser Hwy, Langley, BC

Tribu Productions

Clifford Belgica Tel No. 604.888.5624 Email: tribu@telus.net Roman Rollo Tel No: 604.612.3140 Dong: 604.534.7366

Flag Raising at the Vancouver City Hall

10 June 2016, 2 p.m.-2.30 p.m.

Vancouver City Hall

Philippine Consulate General and the Vancouver City Hall

Josephine Nacisvalencia Tel No. 604.685.1619 ext 101 Emal: culturalsection@vancouverpcg.org

MHHS 2nd Flag Raising in Richmond City Hall

11 June 2016, 9 am – 12 nn

Richmond City Hall Quadrangle

Multicultural Helping House Society

Lourdes Yodogawa Email: lourdesyp@helpinghouse.org

FABC 118th Independence Day celebration

11 June 2016, 6 pm

St. Patrick’s Recreation Center

Filipino Association in BC (FABC)

Carlito Pradas Tel No. 604.251.5097 Email: carlpradas@yahoo.ca

UFABC Gala Night

11 June 2016 7 p.m.

Westin Bayshore Hotel

United Filipino Canadians Association of BC (UFCABC)

Joel Castillo Tel. No. 604.726.5274 Email: joelvie34@yahoo.ca Rey Fortaleza Tel No. 778.895.6667 Email: reyfort@gmail.com

Bayanihan community housing society, VFCA, VFCSA AND VFCCA Independence Day celebration

11 June 2016

Cedar Hill Recreation Center

VFCA, VFCSA and VFCCA

Annettee Beech Email: curt340@shaw.ca

Philippine Days Festival

11-12 June 2016

Waterfront Park, North Vancouver

Barangay North Vancouver

Alvin Koh Relleve Tel. No. 604.765.6641 Antonio Gaskell Tel. No. 604.783.1272

“Wagayway Ng Watawat”

11 June 2016 10 a.m.

Civic Plaza of North Vancouver

Metro Vancouver Philippine Arts & Culture Exposition Society (MVPACES)

Alvin Koh Relleve Tel. No. 604.773.6641 Email: kuya.alvin@gmail.com

New Westminster Flag Raising and Parade

12 June 2016, 9 a.m. – Mass 11a.m. – Flag Raising 12nn - Parade

Mass: St. Peter Catholic Church Flag Raising: Friendship Garden City Hall Parade: Boardwalk Quay Market

Royal City Sister City Society

East Kootenay 118th Independence Day celebration

12 June 2016 12nn-3 p.m.

Rotary Park, Cranbrook BC

Filipino Canadian Association of East Kootenay

Davidzon Javier Email: davidzonjavier@yahoo.ca

CONFICA Philippine Independence Day Celebration

12 June 2016, 12 nn-5 p.m.

Vancouver Alpen Club, 4875 Victoria Drive, BC

Confederation of Filipino Canadian Associations (CONFICA)

Romeo Mercado Email:contact@foreveryoungseniorssociety.com

Philippine National Day Reception

13 June 2016, 6 p.m.-8 p.m.

Coast Coal Harbour Hotel

Philippine Consulate General

Josephine Nacisvalencia Tel No. 604.685.1619 ext 101 Email: culturalsection@vancouverpcg.org

“Harana” Concert by the Philippine Opera Company

14 June 2016, 7p.m.

Gibsons Heritage Playhouse Theatre 662 N Road, Gibsons BC

Tribu Productions

Clifford Belgica Tel No. 604.888.5624 Email: tribu@telus.net

“Harana, Balagtasan, Tula at Kundiman: Ikalawang Yugto

25 June 2016 4 p.m.-6 p.m.

Praise Intl Church 15310 103A Ave., Surrey, BC

UPAABC

Charen Cusi charencusi@smbrokers.ca

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Annie Miles Tel. No. 604.324.0123 Email: aniciavancouvercanada@yahoo.com

JUNE 3, 2016

35

CANADA

RETAIL SALES SUPERVISOR for Cascade Gift Store - Banff, AB.

Responsibilities: Supervise and Coordinate sales staff and cashiers, Assign duties, Authorize merchandise return, Sell Merchandise, Resolve customer complaints and supply shortages, Maintain specified inventory, Prepare reports on sales volumes,merchandising, personnel.

High School graduate, with 2 yrs Retail Supervisory experience.

F/T Permanent: $18.25/ hour. 40 hours/week.

Subsidized staff accommodation and Extended health benefits.

Send resume to: Cascade Gifts, P.O. Box 2428, Banff, AB T1L 1C2 info@cascadegifts.com

WANTED: HOMECARE PERSONAL ASSISTANT Terms of Employment: Salary: Anticipated Start Date: Location:

Full-time, Permanent $14.50/hour, for 40 hours per week As soon as possible Scarborough, Canada (1 vacancy)

Wanted homecare personal assistant to provide elderly care to a 74-year old senior male with medical disability. Administer bedside and personal care to client such as aid in ambulation, bathing, personal hygiene and administration of medication. Prepare and serve nutritious meals. Perform routine housekeeping duties such as laundry and ironing clothes and linens, washing dishes and making beds, house cleaning, vacuuming, sweeping, mopping. Preferably with 1 year to less than 2 years work experience in elderly care. Must speak and write English. Completion of high school graduate equivalent in Canada. Optional accommodation available at no charge on a live-in basis. (This is not a condition of employment)

Email your resume to temarish_odes@yahoo.com

A Japanese restaurant in a food court is looking for a PT and FT Line cook.

Salary negotiable as per experience.

Call 778-708-2005 F ill Unused Capacity C ash Savings B ill More Hours E xtra Income If you want new customers, more sales and are looking for ways to save cash, call First Canadian Barter Exchange.

604.759.3223 / info@barterfirst.com

WANTED: ELDERLY CAREGIVER Education: At least Secondary Education graduate.

Must have at least 1 to less than 2 yrs of experience.

Duties: Monitor the elderly on the needs of medication, Food preparation. Companionship,perform minor Household cleaning.

Full Time. Pays $14/hr., 40Hrs/wk.(Mon.To Fri) EMPLOYERS: Drexler Harry of 88 Wells St. TORONTO ON. drexlerharry@yahoo.ca (416-532-8016) Loriedella Addun of 4222 Bathurst St. TORONTO ON. A.loriedelle@yahoo.ca (647-995-1058) Aruna Lambotharan of 89 Red Ash Dr.MARKHAM ON. Arlam298@yahoo.ca (647-449-3547) Ric Abenoja of 205-44 Valley Woods Rd. TORONTO ON. raabenoja@yahoo.com Adriana De Luca.51 Dybal St.Woodbridge ON. (647-996-2273)

WANTED: NANNY (LIVE OUT) Education: At least Secondary Education graduate.

Must have at least 1 to less than 2 yrs of experience.

Duties: Take care of child/children.Feeding, meal &snack Preparation,indoor/outdoor companionship,Light housekeeping, reading,playing and organize games.

Education: At least Secondary Education graduate.

Full Time. Pays $11.25/hr., 40Hrs/wk.(Mon.To Fri) EMPLOYERS: Marla Francos#707-900 Mt. Pleassant Rd. Toronto ON. marlafrancoz@yahoo.ca Fe De Guzman #514 Speedvale East Guelph ON. Fedeguzman791@yahoo.ca (1-519-760-4639) Mazar/Zahida.#33 Benson Ave. Richmondhill ON. imazaher74@yahoo.ca (647-920-2089) Ann Ha.Richmond Hill ON. phuha817@yahoo.ca (647-400-7862) Marina.#25 Diploma Dr.Brampton ON. mp694647@gmail.com (905-913-0624) Rodel.#206-141 Erskine Ave Toronto ON. rodelfernandez148@yahoo.ca (647-779-7292) Dinah G.#88 Ridgevale Dr.Toronto ON. dinahgrossman@yahoo.ca (416-781-8553) Racquel Miranda.#3 First Red Deer Alberta. mracquel67@yahoo.ca (1-403-245-4747) Liza Sotto#51 Hawkview Blvd.Woodbridge ON. lizavillanueva173@yahoo.ca (905-553-0681) Shahid Sattar Burlington. Shahidsattar007@gmail.com (905-220-5963) Davina #86 Northdale Rd.Willowdale ON. Davinalopez996@yahoo.com (416-879-7441) Alexia #31 Northbrook Rd.TORONTO ON. boualexia@yahoo.com (416-644-4270) Dhona#1102-25 By Mills Blvd. Scarborough ON. dhonarizaursua@yahoo.ca (647-937-2884) Aman 5304 Roanoke Crt Mississauga, ON. aman_sangha@hotmail.com (416-458-2375) Enrique Reyes 72 Ryder Cres Ajax ON. rechelreyes416@yahoo.ca (416-953-8558) Libya Gameng .172 Vauhhall Dr. Toronto ON. Libyagameng@yahoo.com (416-985-0616) Joanna Raoet124-42 Pinery Trl. Scarborough ON. joannaraoet@yahoo.com (416-779-7110) Maila Abenoja.9 Acores Ave.Toronto ON. mailaabenoja@yahoo.com (647-965-3235) Purvaiz/Sonia At 88 Attridge Dr. Aurora ON. visaprocesscanada@yahoo.com (647-996-2273)

Toronto Enquiries: salestoronto@canadianinquirer.net Philippine Enquiries: salesphilippines@canadianinquirer.net

www.canadianinquirer.net

Tel: (1) 647-521-5155

36

JUNE 3, 2016

FRIDAY

Food

Grilling recipes for pineapple stand chicken, panzanella salad THE CANADIAN PRESS MOST PEOPLE think of using their barbecue for meat and fish, but not Danielle Bennett. She loves to grill everything from appetizers, salads and meatless main courses to desserts.

She recommends purchasing a vegetable grilling basket. “A tiny bit of charring can elevate vegetables to another level.”

Other simple ways to impart additional flavour to food include an injector and a cast-iron smoking box in which to put flavoured wood chips or pellets.

Here are three recipes from Bennett’s new cookbook “Diva Q’s Barbecue: 195 Recipes for Cooking with Family, Friends & Fire.”

Pineapple stand chicken

Beer-can chicken is a waste of perfectly drinkable beer, says Bennett. Her version, which stands the chicken on a carved fresh pineapple, adds just as much juiciness plus some tropical flavour.

Prep Time: 30 minutes Cook Time: 40 to 50 minutes • 1 large pineapple • 1 chicken (1.5 kg to 2 kg/3 to 4 lb) • 50 ml (1/4 cup) Diva Q Pork and Chicken Rub (recipe follows) • Fresh Pineapple Salsa • Half a fresh pineapple, peeled, cored and chopped • 125 ml (1/2 cup) finely chopped red onion • 50 ml (1/4 cup) chopped fresh cilantro • 5 ml (1 tsp) kosher salt The pineapple stand for the chicken

can be prepared ahead of time, but don’t invert the chicken onto it until just before grilling. There are enzymes in pineapple that can break down the meat and make it mushy if the fruit comes in contact with the chicken too far in advance.

Trim top from pineapple. Cut a slice from bottom of pineapple so it stands level.

With pineapple standing upright on a cutting board and using a large, sharp knife, cut peel and any “eyes” from pineapple. Cut vertical slices of flesh from pineapple all around core, stopping 5 cm (2 inches) from the base of the pineapple. You’ll be left with the vertical core of the pineapple on a 5-cm (2-inch) base, and this forms your “stand” for the chicken. Set aside pineapple for salsa.

Prepare grill for indirect cooking and preheat it to 140 C (275 F).

Season chicken inside and out lightly with rub. Invert chicken onto pineapple stand.

Place chicken on its pineapple stand on cool side of grill. Grill for 20 minutes.

Rotate chicken and grill until internal temperature of breast reaches 74 C (165 F) and thigh reaches 80 C (175 F), 20 to 30 minutes.

Salsa: Meanwhile, in a medium serving bowl, mix reserved pineapple, red onion, cilantro and salt. Set aside for 10 minutes before serving to allow flavours to develop.

Remove chicken from grill and remove pineapple stand. Tent chicken loosely with foil and let rest for 10 minutes before serving with salsa.

Makes 6 to 8 servings.

Diva Q pork and chicken rub

Bennett says this is her go-to rub for

many things. Because it’s not too sweet or too savoury, it’s ideal for chicken and pork. It makes a big batch and stores well in a mason jar.

The recipe calls for the granulated version of onion and garlic, which creates more of a crust on meats. Powdered is more readily absorbed.

Prep Time: 10 minutes • 250 ml (1 cup) packed light brown sugar • 50 ml (1/4 cup) sweet smoked paprika • 45 ml (3 tbsp) kosher salt • 30 ml (2 tbsp) Malabar black pepper • 30 ml (2 tbsp) chili powder • 30 ml (2 tbsp) granulated onion • 30 ml (2 tbsp) granulated garlic • 10 ml (2 tsp) piri piri or chipotle powder • 5 ml (1 tsp) ground cumin • 5 ml (1 tsp) ground coriander • 5 ml (1 tsp) ground thyme In a medium bowl, mix together all ingredients. Store in an airtight container.

Rub on pork or chicken before grilling.

Makes about 500 ml (2 cups).

Grilled panzanella salad

The ingredients sound simple — grilled bread plus tomato, olive oil, pesto and cheese — but you end up with a spectacular salad bursting with flavour.

Bennett calls for smoked garlic in the pesto. Instead of smoking one bulb at a time, she likes to grill large batches, which can be frozen. Add to soups, stocks or dips, or spread on crusty bread.

Prep Time: 30 minutes Cook Time: 10 to 15 minutes • 2 french loaves, each cut into six 2.5cm (1-inch) slices • 125 ml (1/2 cup) extra-virgin olive oil • Kosher salt and finely ground black pepper, to taste www.canadianinquirer.net

• 1 kg (2 lb) cherry tomatoes • 4 metal skewers • 2 red onions, cut in half, leaving root ends intact • 50 ml (1/4 cup) freshly grated Parmesan • 10 fresh basil leaves • Basil Pesto • 1 bunch fresh basil, leaves picked • 175 ml (3/4 cup) extra-virgin olive oil • 125 ml (1/2 cup) pine nuts or slivered almonds • 125 ml (1/2 cup) freshly grated Parmesan • 2 cloves smoked garlic • 2 ml (1/2 tsp) kosher salt • 2 ml (1/2 tsp) finely ground black pepper Prepare grill for direct cooking and preheat to medium-high (190 C to 230 C/375 F to 450 F).

Brush bread slices with olive oil and season with salt and pepper. Thread cherry tomatoes onto skewers.

Grill bread slices and tomatoes, turning once, until lightly charred, 2 to 3 minutes for bread slices, 4 to 6 minutes for tomatoes. Remove bread and tomatoes from grill. Set aside.

Grill onions, turning often, until lightly charred, 6 to 7 minutes. Remove onions from grill.

Cut bread slices and onions into bitesize pieces and place in a large bowl.

Remove tomatoes from skewers. Add to bowl and mix gently.

In a food processor, place all pesto ingredients. Pulse until smooth.

Add pesto to bread mixture and toss well.

Season salad with salt and pepper.

Scatter with Parmesan and basil leaves.

Makes 6 servings. ■ Source: “Diva Q’s Barbecue: 195 Recipes for Cooking with Family, Friends & Fire”

by Danielle Bennett (Appetite by Random House, 2016).

Seen & Scenes

FRIDAY JUNE 3, 2016

VANCOUVER VISIT Businessmen Roberto "Bobby" Maglalang and Ireneo Geneblazo of Little Asia Distributor Ltd. based in Edmonton, recently visited Vancouver.

Seen here with Laarni Liwanag-de Paula and Menchie.

HARANA OPENING RECEPTION LA RIVA MUSIC & DANCE CONCERT

(Photos by Bert Monterona and M. Mandap)

La Riva Dance Studio staged, “Let’s Stay Together,” a music and dance concert marking its 19th anniversary at the Columbia Theatre in New Westminster on May 29. Special guests include renowned folk-rock artist Heber Bartolome. There to lend his support was Deputy Consul General Anton Mandap. The event was hosted by Papa Bear and Jojo Alpuerto (Photos by Christian Cunanan).

Right: Deputy Consul General Anthony Mandap.

A CENTURY OF ASIAN CONNECTIONS

Multi-awarded visual artist Manuel Baldemor (8th from L) with exhibit guests and fellow artists

A few of the UP alumni guests with artists Danvic Briones (far L), Chito Maravilla (right) and iconic folk rock singer Heber Bartolome (center).

University of British Columbia (UBC) alumna Dominique Bautista took on the Asian Canadian and Asian Migration (ACAM) Centennial Alumni Project, “Retelling UBC’s History from an Asian Canadian Lens,” featuring five short videos vignettes of early Asian Canadian UBC graduates from the perspective of Jane Uchida, Fred Hume, Satwant Sandhu, Nina and Selina Johal, Oscar Bisar, Aprodicio Laquian, Tonny Waggey and Soma Ganesan. The vignettes were shot and edited by Alejandro Yoshizawa.

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Seen & Scenes

JUNE 3, 2016

FRIDAY

MLA MARCELINO MLA Flor Marcelino recently dropped by Centrallia 2016 B2B Sessions in Winnipeg to lend support to Philippine Trade and Industry delegates (Photos by JP Inigo).

WELCOME RECEPTION Scenes from the welcome reception at Assiniboine Park & Zoo in Winnipeg, tendered and co-sponsored by the Manitoba Filipino Business Chamber and the Philippine Department of Trade and Industry. Ambassador Petronilla Garcia welcomed the Canadian guests and members of the Philippine delegation to the event. Also shown are highlights of Centrallia 2016 (Photos

by Trade Attache JP Inigo).

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

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FRIDAY JUNE 3, 2016

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JUNE 3, 2016

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