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JULY 12, 2013

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46

Serendra unit occupant passes away

Train tragedy: Quebec derailment, explosion

Asiana flight flew too slowly

Filipino-Canadian in Focus: George Verdolaga

Filipino nanny involved in human trafficking conviction

Travel: A PCI Special

Change name to “Filipinas,” nat’l language commission urges

BY ANGIE DUARTE Philippine Canadian Inquirer A NAME is perhaps as integral to identity as the very characteristics of its bearer. With this in mind, the nation’s language commission has moved in a recent resolution to return to the earlier use of the name “Filipinas” instead of

the more popular “Pilipinas” and even “Philippines” as the country’s official name.

The commission cited that the country’s name should reflect its history and modernization, and that “Filipinas” would be a more appropriate impression of such.

Palace: We’re fixing traffic ❱❱ PAGE 8

❱❱ PAGE 4 Change name

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ENVIRONMENTAL advocates march for legislation against plastic bags.

SUMMER is coming. Pack your bags, hit the road. Book your flight back to the Philippines (to drop in on family, friends; to dip your toes in the cool blue beaches that make the motherland famous around the world)—or, perhaps, take a different flight, or a car, take a map, bring a friend, your lover, your family, or brave the journey by yourself—travel.

“We travel, initially, to lose ourselves; and we travel, next, to find ourselves,” writes Pico Iyer in “Why We Travel,” the “Our Father” (of sorts) of many a wellread wanderer. In this issue we explore the ways in which we travel from the ABC’s of the logistics to the meat, the heart, the core of WHY we yearn for the open road and the horizon. From a glitzy new mall in the metro to the heart of a dark cave in the Philippines, let Iyer do the talking: “We travel to open our hearts and eyes and learn more about the world than our newspapers will accommodate. We travel to bring what little we can, in our ignorance and knowledge, to those parts of the globe whose riches are differently dispersed. And we travel, in essence, to become young fools again—to slow time down and get taken in, and fall in love once more.”

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Philippine News

3 FRIDAY JULY 12, 2013

Graft raps filed vs Chavit

BY GIL C. CABACUNGAN Philippine Daily Inquirer

VIDEO GRAB FROM GMANETWORK.COM

P-noy dashes NIA chief’s hopes to keep plum position

BY MICHAEL LIM UBAC Philippine Daily Inquirer PRESIDENT Aquino has appointed the No. 2 man in the National Irrigation Administration (NIA), Claro V. Maranan, as its new administrator.

Mr. Aquino swiftly signed Maranan’s appointment, the same day Antonio Nangel—whose yearlong appointment as NIA chief officially ended on June 30—was telling the INQUIRER that he wasn’t about to leave yet.

Nangel said that although he had accepted the fact that he would be stepping down, he expected to remain in office in a “holdover” capacity for about a year, as the process of installing a new administrator could take that long.

“The President will be reappointing a new member of the board and the board will have to elect a new [NIA head],” a confident Nangel said.

But Mr. Aquino was in no mood to reconsider his decision to fire the beleaguered NIA boss over inefficiencies at the irrigation agency.

“Unless I get amnesia… I don’t have a plan to renew” his appointment, the President told reporters in an ambush interview.

Gone for good

Presidential spokesperson Edwin Lacierda said Nangel was gone for good.

“The President has already appointed his replacement— Claro Maranan,” Lacierda said in a phone interview.

Maranan’s appointment papers show that he would serve from July 1 to June 30, 2014.

Asked why the President would appoint someone from Nangel’s own management team, Lacierda said, “He (Maranan) was in the Philippine Ports

Authority (PPA) prior to appointment, not NIA.” Maranan, 54, was assistant general manager of the PPA’s engineering office from January 2005 up to his appointment as NIA senior deputy administrator.

Before that, he was acting manager of the PPA’s engineering services division from August 2003 to January 2005.

He has a master’s degree in public administration from Lyceum of the Philippines University and a Bachelor of Science in Civil Engineering from Luzonian University Foundation.

Alcala’s choice

A letter dated July 3 informing the Department of Agriculture of Maranan’s appointment was forwarded to Agriculture Secretary Proceso Alcala, who has administrative supervision of the NIA. The INQUIRER reported earlier that Mr. Aquino had tasked Alcala with looking for Nangel’s replacement soon after the latter received a public scolding for his agency’s poor performance.

At the 50th anniversary of the NIA on June 25, Mr. Aquino devoted his entire speech to pointing out the lackluster performance of the agency.

The NIA, he said, had only a 66-percent accomplishment rate for “new areas of irrigation” from 2001 to 2009, but these “yearly failures” continued through 2012 under Nangel’s watch.

Mr. Aquino cited a longdelayed irrigation project in his home province to highlight the agency’s inefficiency.

From 2001 through 2012, not once did the NIA accomplish its annual targets for new areas for irrigation, he said.

Nangel was appointed by Mr. Aquino to the agency to serve from July 1, 2012, to June 30, 2013. The appointment of officials of government corporations is subject to renewal every year. ■

OMBUDSMAN Conchita Carpio Morales has ordered the filing of graft charges against former Ilocos Sur Governors Luis “Chavit” Singson and Deogracias Victor Savellano for illegally diverting more than P26 million from the province’s share of the tobacco tax to a preferred private company.

Morales approved on July 3 a 31page resolution indicting Singson for three counts and Savellano for two counts of graft for a series of fund releases in 2001 to Multi-Line Food Processing International Inc. purportedly for livelihood projects.

The company closed down four months after getting the last check from Savellano.

Singson, who served as Ilocos Sur governor from 1998 to 2001, forged four deals between February and June 2001 worth a combined P24.18 million with Multi-Line Food to bankroll the company’s unspecified livelihood projects.

Savellano, Singson’s successor who served up to 2003, entered into a similar agreement with Multi-Line Food in De-

cember 2001 for the grant of P1,880,500 in financial assistance.

The allocations, totaling P26,060,500, were obtained from Ilocos Sur’s share of the excise tax on tobacco.

Partiality

Morales ruled that Singson and Savellano “acted with manifest partiality, evident bad faith or gross inexcusable negligence when they repeatedly entered into [the agreements) and approved the successive release of public funds that gave unwarranted benefits to [MultiLine Food], which was not qualified to receive such financial aid from (the) government and whose purported projects were not subjected to the required inspection or audit before the subsequent [agreements] and fund releases were made.”

The Save Ilocos Sur Alliance (Sisa) Foundation led by Estelita Cordero petitioned the Ombudsman to charge Singson and Savellano with violating the Commission on Audit (COA) Circular No. 95-003, which limits the grant of special assistance fund to nongovernmental organizations (NGO) and people’s organizations (PO). ❱❱ PAGE 46 Graft raps

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Philippine News

FRIDAY JULY 12, 2013 4

Change name...

In their resolution made on April 12, 2013, the Komisyon sa Wikang Filipino (KWF) said “Ipinapasiya, gaya ng ginagawang pagpapasiya ngayon, na ibalik ang gamit ng ‘Filipinas’ habang pinipigil ang paggamit ng ‘Pilipinas’ (We resolve, as it is hereby resolved, to revive the use of ‘Filipinas’ while stopping the use of ‘Pilipinas’).” .

The document, currently being circulated on various avenues of social media, added that this move is to “promote the country’s official and modern name which reflects its history and development as a nation.”

In its website, the KFW provides a weightier context for the resolution. It refers the new policy to an article written in 1992 by its chairman, national artist and former of the University of the Philippines College of Arts and Letters, Virgilio Almario.

The piece, which is entitled “Patayin ang ‘Pilipinas’” (“Kill ‘Pilipinas’”), posits that the use of three names—Philippines, Pilipinas and Filipinas—leads to “national confusion.” ❰❰ 1

“Hindi tayo magkaisa kahit sa pagtawag himang sa ating sarili (We fail to unite even in what to call ourselves),” Almario says.

Almario, who has has long been pushing for the use of “Filipinas” (the original name accorded by Spanish colonizers to honor King Felipe II), urges that the name “Philippines” be the first to go; under the reasoning that use of this name reveals how American rule has a foothold in the Filipino mindset.

Further emphasized by Almario is the irrationality of calling the citizens of a country known as the Philippines as “Filipinos.”

“Modernisado na ang ating alpabeto at kasama sa mga dagdag na titik ang ‘F’ (Our alphabet is modern and ‘F’ is one of the additional letters),” Almario says, pointing out that this is why the national language is “Filipino” and not “Pilipino.”

Albeit admitting that the change will have some costs attached to it, and that it will take time for Filipinos to get used to the new name, he stresses that

King Philip II of Spain (1527-1598), from whom the Philippines was named after. It wasn’t until the American occupation, however, that the Philippines took on its present name. “Filipinas,” the name proposed by the National Language Commission, derives from “Las Islas Filipinas,” coined by Spanish explorer Ruy López de Villalobos during his expedition to Leyte and Samar.

PHOTO FROM WIKIMEDIA COMMONS

there are more pros than cons to the change.

“Anuman ang gastos, mas malaki pa rin ang mga praktikal at historikal na pakinabang natin kapag nagkaisa tayo sa ‘Filipinas’ (Regardless of cost, there is greater practical and historical benefit if we unite under ‘Filipinas’).

Under the resolution, the name change will be gradually introduced into seals, letterheads, notes and other official

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documents.

The KFW said that the change will not be compulsory for firms and institutions established before the letter “F” was introduced in the Filipino alphabet, although such establishments will also be encouraged to adopt name “Filipinas” instead.

Organizations, however, created after the implementation of the resolution should carry the name “Filipinas.”

The move to use this new name has been received with opposition, ire and ridicule; described by many as a useless waste of time.

Netizens expressed strong sentiments via avenues of social media, such as Twitter and Facebook, calling the Komisyong ng Wikang Filipino’s (KFW) efforts pointless and futile, claiming that the group has “nothing better to do with their time.” ■

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5 FRIDAY JULY 12, 2013

Water bill covers flowers Gifts, trips, concerts, recreation included

BY RONNEL W. DOMINGO Philippine Daily Inquirer A LONG LIST of expenses, including those for foreign trips, entertainment and recreation as well those for advertising, gifts, flowers and other tokens for all occasions, had been passed on to customers of the two water concessionaires in Metro Manila and nearby areas, according to a consumer advocacy group.

The Water for the People Network (WPN) said these expenses were on top of the P15.3 billion in income taxes that Maynilad Water Services Inc. and Manila Water Co. had passed on to consumers from 2008 to 2012.

WPN said the two concessionaires “have effectively turned water service into a profitable business while consumers shoulder the burden of onerous charges and taxes.”

Sonny Africa, executive director of Ibon Foundation, one of WPN’s convenors, called on regulators to disallow the recovery from consumers of such expenses and to thumb down proposals for rate increases.

“We are sure these same items are included in the business proposals of Maynilad and Manila Water for the next rate rebasing (cycle),” Africa said.

Maynilad wants a P5.83 per cubic meter increase in its basic charge while Manila Water plans to raise its rates to P8.58/ cu. m. from 2013 to 2017. The concessionaires are allowed to seek an increase every five years.

Maynilad currently charges P48/cu. m. and Manila Water, P38/cu. m. The Metropolitan Waterworks and Sewerage System (MWSS) allowed the recovery of income tax through tariffs in a resolution issued in 2004.

Rescinded

In a new resolution adopted

last month, the MWSS Regulatory Office (RO) moved to strike down the 2004 resolution after the Office of the Government Corporate Counsel issued an opinion that concessionaires should not be allowed to recover income tax expenses from consumers.

However, the MWSS RO resolution still needs the approval of the MWSS board.

Asked for comment, Maynilad said the concession agreement of 1997 provided for the recovery of business-related taxes by the concessionaires.

“This helps ensure the concessionaires’ capability to undertake massive investments despite their gradual recovery of these investments,” said Cherubim Ocampo-Mojica, head of corporate communications at Maynilad.

Mojica said countries like the United Kingdom, Chile and Peru were using similar tax-expense recovery frameworks in water service concessions with favorable results.

Operating expenses

“We believe this is for the mutual, longterm benefit of the consumers and the concessionaires,” she added.

Manila Water did not respond to INQUIRER messages asking for the concessionaire’s side.

Income tax payments and other expenses are part of the operating expenses listed in the business plans of Maynilad and Manila Water that regulators approved in 2008.

The operating expenses include those for advertising, training, representation, transportation and travel, and special events management.

The concession agreement with the MWSS provides that the concessionaires may recover during the full concession term “operating, capital maintenance and investment

expenditures efficiently and prudently incurred.”

The agreement also allows the recovery of “Philippine business taxes and payments corresponding to debt service on MWSS loans and concessionaire loans incurred to finance such expenditures.”

The WPN cited an item for training, workshops, seminars and conferences. This includes expenses for the conduct of training for the development, enhancement, and furtherance of employee skills, competencies and potentials.

Giveaways

Business plan

Maynilad’s business plan shows that operational expenses include personnel costs; supplies; light and power used in its plants, facilities and offices; repairs and maintenance of those facilities and offices as well as vehicles and equipment; and the company’s annual contribution to the maintenance and operating expenses budget of the MWSS’ regulatory office and corporate office.

Aside from these, there are “other expenses” that include a performance bond premium set at $30 million in 2008, outside services, rentals, insurance and professional fees for consultants.

Advertising, promotion

For WPN, what is most irksome is the inclusion of expenses like those for advertising, promotion and recreation.

Maynilad said these expenses were enhancing and promoting (the company’s) image; developing harmonious relations with local governments; establishing rapport with the tri-media; advertisement and publication of notices in newspapers and magazines of general circulation, TV/radio broadcast and website; and public consultations on the ground; and cost of sponsorships.

These expenses also cover athletics, recreational and annual cultural celebrations.

Also covered are professional fees, honoraria and gifts for resource persons and facilitators; training/ seminar/ enrollment fees, training materials, giveaways and transportation expenses incurred by an official or employee in attending such training and other incidental expenses.

Still another item found in the business plan was that for representation and transportation, including expenses incurred by the various officers of the company in promoting, establishing and maintaining a good public image and relations.

Gifts, entertainment

The item includes gifts, flowers and other tokens for all occasions, food expenses during meetings, seminars and conferences, and official entertainment either by company officers or their authorized representatives.

There is also an item for transportation and travel, which refers to the cost of fuel, including brake fluids and oils, consumed by the company’s transportation equipment in the normal course of business operations.

Airfare, toll, hotel

This item also pertains to expenses of officers and employees while traveling on official business within the country or

abroad (including the cost of airfare, hotel accommodations and other travel-related expenses in connection with regional visits).

The cost of tolls and parking expenses are also covered.

Maynilad’s other expenses include “utilities” or the cost of communication, including expenses for telephone, cellular phone including cell cards, handheld two-way radio transceivers, frame relay, wireless and cable charges and tolls, postage charges, messengerial and courier services and other expenses incurred in operating and maintaining the communication system of the company.

Utilities expenses include water and sewer services used in the company’s facilities like branch offices and warehouses.

Under Maynilad’s business plan in 2008, “other expenses” would cost P7.07 billion for the five years to 2012.

Similarly, Manila Water’s business plan identified “major cost centers” of its operating expenses like personnel, power, chemical, wastewater, repair and maintenance, and premises.

Special events

Manila Water also identified outsourcing costs, which refer to expenses on call center services, collection, bill distribution, deep well maintenance, meter reading, facilities and building maintenance, and special events management.

Manila Water placed its operating expenses for 2008 to 2012 at P24 billion.

However, for both concessionaires, there was no available data to show whether actual expenses were lower or higher than those listed in the business plans. ■

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Philippine News

FRIDAY JULY 12, 2013 6

Miriam’s Internet freedom bill to repeal cybercrime law

BY CATHY YAMSUAN Philippine Daily Inquirer SEN. MIRIAM Defensor-Santiago has filed a bill detailing a netizen’s rights on the Internet—a measure that she said would effectively repeal the controversial Cybercrime Prevention Act (RA 10175).

The Supreme Court has issued a temporary restraining order against the cybercrime law following vigorous protests from bloggers, media organizations and even legislators who felt the edict suppresses freedom of expression and imposes unrealistic penalties for libel.

“R.A. 10175 confines the Philippines to 20th century capabilities in this 21st century information society. Clearly, laws that have an impact on cyberspace must address the realities of the present and the challenges of the future,” Santiago said.

Santiago said her new bill, the Magna Carta for Philippine Internet Freedom (MCPIF), will “protect the rights and freedoms of Filipinos in cyberspace

while defining and penalizing cybercrimes... unlike the muchcriticized cybercrime law.”

“While it is important to crack down on criminal activities on the Internet, protecting constitutional rights like free expression, privacy, and due process should hold a higher place in crafting laws,” she said.

The 70- page bill guarantees a private individual’s unrestricted access to the Internet that is only suspended if one is convicted of crimes such as theft, robbery, falsification, usurpation of authority and special penal laws such as the Anti- Child Pornography Law and the Data Privacy Act. A commercial establishment offering free Internet access could not restrict a private individual’s web activity within its private network.

The government is mandated to protect an individual’s right to gain access or control “over any device over which he has property.”

An individual can also place a component that would restrict the operation of a device for

PHOTO FROM MIRIAM.COM.PH / ABG

the sole purpose of ensuring his privacy or the security of his Internet connection.

Santiago’s proposal guarantees that a netizen could not be denied access to “new information” nor should this access be blocked, censored or suppressed as provided under the Intellectual Property Code.

Santiago said the proposed measure “treats libel as a civil liability rather than a criminal act. It is not overbroad or vague in its provisions on libel, unlike the cybercrime law.”

The proposed bill also has provisions reminiscent of the Freedom of Information bill.

It provides that the govern-

ment “shall publish and make available for download, in readily processed formats… and its authenticity readily verifiable” such information as audited financial statements, budget and expenditure records; statements of assets, liabilities, and net worth (SALN); performance review results and other information that does not fall within any valid claim of executive privilege.

The senator said that if passed into law, the MCPIF will be the first law to be created through ‘crowdsourcing’ that she defined as “an online process of getting work done by tapping people on the Internet who volunteer their talent and skills.”

Santiago said a group of netizens “composed of software designers, IT specialists, academics, bloggers, engineers, lawyers, human rights advocates” handed her a draft of the MCPIF. “The group formulated the MCPIF through discussions in an open Facebook group, e- mail, Google Hangout teleconferences, and social media channels like Twitter,” she explained. ■

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Philippine News

7 FRIDAY JULY 12, 2013

Anti-divorce law looms in 16th Congress

BY RONNEL W. DOMINGO Philippine Daily Inquirer DIVORCE could be one of the major battles in the 16th Congress, with the early refiling of a bill that opposes it and the declaration by its advocates that they will press its adoption in the Philippines.

Marikina Rep. Marcelino Teodoro has refiled his “antidivorce and unlawful dissolution of marriage” bill, which he says is intended to protect marriage as an inviolable social institution and of the family as the foundation of the nation.

In the 15th Congress, Speaker Feliciano Belmonte Jr. made a pitch for the divorce bill, and said he wanted it taken up in the succeeding Congress.

But Belmonte also said the proposal would not be a priority of the House of Representatives.

Gabriela, a women’s partylist group, is intent on pursuing the passage of the bill in the 16th Congress and is planning to file a new version of the measure.

The Philippines and the Vatican are the last two states that prohibit divorce.

In his explanatory note to his bill, Teodoro says there have been efforts to introduce divorce in the Philippines so that couples in failed marriages can have another chance to remarry, in addition to getting an annulment of marriage or a declaration of nullity.

Teodoro says he believes the

proposal poses a danger to the institution of marriage.

“Despite its apparent worthy objective, it still undermines the value of marriage by encouraging couples to put an end to their [union] instead of allowing them to reconcile immediately or fix the [problems] over time,” he says.

Unacceptable here

Teodoro’s bill seeks to make divorce “unacceptable” in the Philippine legal system, and only legal separation, which allows spouses to live independently of each other but not remarry, would be allowed.

It states that divorce obtained by a Filipino citizen abroad is not valid in the Philippines.

The bill also proposes to prohibit knowingly committing acts at the time of marriage or prior to it that would give grounds for legal separation or the annulment or declaration of nullity of marriage. These would include the failure to get a marriage license, or using an officer who has no marriage authority.

The bill seeks to penalize connivance to obtain an annulment or a legal separation, as well as the issuance of a decree of legal separation without the court taking steps to get the couple to reconcile, and without determining beforehand that reconciliation would be highly improbable.

Access to remedies

In an earlier push for divorce,

SC issues no TRO vs water rate hike

BY CHRISTINE O. AVENDANO Philippine Daily Inquirer THE SUPREME Court did not issue a temporary restraining order to stop the implementation of new water rate increases by the Manila Water Company Inc. and Maynilad Water System Inc. as requested by consumer groups.

SC spokesperson Theodore Te said the high court tackled the petition for certiorari and prohibition with a prayer for a

TRO filed by Waterwatch Coalition Inc. and the Alyansa ng Mamamayang Mahirap last June 20 on the new water rates to be implemented by the two water concessionaires in mid-July.

The high court, in its en banc meeting, asked the MWSS and the two private water concessionaires to comment within 10 days of receiving its notice, he said.

“No action was taken on the request for a TRO,” Te told reporters.

In their petition, the groups asked the high court to declare the water companies as public

Gabriela noted that for some women, the inequalities and violence in their marriage negate the ideal that it is the embodiment of love, care and safety, and erode the values on which marriage is founded.

Given those realities, Gabriela said couples must have the option of having access to remedies that would allow them to attain their full human development and self-fulfillment as well as protect their human rights.

Divorce could protect battered women and their children from further violence and abuse, Gabriela said.

The group added that with the predominance of the Catholic faith in the country, the fear that divorce would erode personal values pertaining to marriage appeared to be unfounded.

The divorce bill could prove to be another contentious issue between Congress and the Catholic Church.

Earlier, Church officials railed against the enactment of the reproductive health bill, which mandates the government to, among other things, provide public access to contraceptives and family planning programs.

Equality in family

Another newly filed bill in the House seeks to ensure that women and men are treated equally in the family, by amending the Family Code’s utilities subject to the rules and regulations of public service laws and the auditing powers of the Commission on Audit.

The groups argued that with the approval of the 2013 Tariff Schedule, their rights would be trampled upon if MWCI and MWSI “are allowed to charge the general public for future projects that have not passed scrutiny for having been prudently incurred, without any legal basis.”

“The petitioner’s rights to affordable potable water are trampled when respondents MWCI and MWSI are allowed to charge the general public water rates well above the 12-percent profit cap imposed by law,” they added.

It has also been noted in media reports that the water companies pass on their income taxes to the public. ■ www.canadianinquirer.net

provisions that support the “outmoded presumption” that men’s decisions are superior to those of women.

decision will prevail.

The bill also seeks to remove a similar provision concerning conjugal partnership property.

Parental authority

The bill filed by Bukidnon Rep. Lourdes Acosta Alba wants to amend the Family Code provision that gives primacy to the consent of the father when it comes to allowing children between the ages of 18 and 21 to get married. The bill would give the mother’s consent equal weight as the father’s.

Alba’s bill also proposes to change the provision on the spouses’ joint administration and enjoyment of community property by removing the part that states that in case there is a disagreement, the husband’s

Alba’s bill also seeks to amend the Family Code’s provisions on the parents’ joint exercise of parental authority over their children, and on the joint exercise of legal guardianship over the property of unemancipated common children.

It proposes to remove the phrase contained in both provisions stating that the father’s decision will prevail in case of a disagreement between the spouses.

In pushing for the measure, Alba pointed out that the Constitution guaranteed the principle of equality between women and men.

“But ironically, some of our current laws continue operating under the outmoded presumption of the superiority of men’s decisions over those of women’s,” Alba said in her explanatory note. ■

Philippine News

FRIDAY JULY 12, 2013 8

Siege of Baler rekindles PH-Spain ties

BY MICHAEL LIM UBAC Philippine Daily Inquirer BALER, Aurora—Spanish film writer-director Jesús Valbuena, a descendant of one of the 33 Spanish soldiers who survived the 11-month siege by Filipino revolutionaries of Baler in 1899, is eternally indebted to the people of this town.

The “adopted son” of Baler has kept coming back to Aurora every June 30, Philippine-Spanish Friendship Day, to keep alive the cultural and historical ties between the two countries.

Aurora is the site of the Siege

of Baler, the last and historically significant story of the Philippine war of independence against Spain.

“I am alive, thanks to Balerianos,” a tearful Valbuena told residents during ceremonies marking the 11th year of the Philippine-Spanish Friendship Day, which also coincided with the 114th anniversary of the attack and the 500th year of Spanish presence in the Pacific.

With his wife, Anabel Izquierdo Rubio, Valbuena flew in from Spain to attend this year’s commemoration. He said the siege took place at the “sunset” of the once powerful Spanish empire that ruled over the

Philippine archipelago for 333 years.

Generosity

“My wife and I try to teach our three kids (Adrian, David and Raquel) … to have dignity in defeat and humbleness in victory, and we try to teach them that, one day, the last will be the first,” he said.

He said that during the siege, the generosity of Filipinos became “the universal legacy that this town has given the world.”

“So I owe you my life, and therefore, I am from Baler. I love you very much,” he said.

This declaration triggered applause from the people, local

and national government officials, Spanish guests and members of the diplomatic corps who gathered at the town plaza.

‘Longstanding friendship’

Social Welfare Secretary Corazon “Dinky” Soliman was guest of honor of the celebrations presided by then Sen. Edgardo J. Angara; his son, Sen. Juan Edgardo “Sonny” Angara, and sister, Gov. Bellaflor Angara-Castillo; and Baler Mayor Arthur Angara.

Also present were Ambassadors Jorge Manuel Domecq of Spain, Roberto Mayorga of Chile, Prasas Prasasvinitchai of Thailand, and Vu Tu Nguyen of

Vietnam.

In 2003, Angara and his son, then Aurora representative, authored Republic Act No. 9187 declaring the PhilippineSpanish Friendship Day every June 30 to commemorate the day when Emilio Aguinaldo, the first president of the Philippine republic, recognized the bravery of Spanish soldiers by giving them safe passage to Spain following the siege.

The law has paved the way for improving bilateral relations between Manila and Madrid.

Since 2007, Spanish humanitarian aid to the Philippines ❱❱ PAGE 12 Seige of Baler

Palace: We’re fixing traffic Problem is implementation of the solutions

BY MICHAEL LIM UBAC AND JAYMEE T. GAMIL Philippine Daily Inquirer MALACAÑANG is not running out of solutions to the perennial traffic congestion in Metro Manila, which, according to a Japanese study, results in potential income losses of P2.4 billion a day.

But the problem is the implementation of those solutions, compounded by the lack of political will among government officials.

To decongest the main roads, deputy presidential spokesperson Abigail Valte said yesterday, the government is seriously considering banning provincial buses from the belt highway Epifanio de los Santos Avenue (Edsa), pushing through with the widening of secondary roads, and enforcing traffic rules more strictly.

The government, however, appears to be in no rush to carry out those measures, as Valte gave no timetable for their implementation.

Valte spoke as motorists on the southbound stretch of Edsa, from Quezon City to Makati City, cursed the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) and the Metropolitan Manila Development Authority (MMDA) for slowing traffic down to a crawl by repairing the road at daytime.

The MMDA announced on

Friday that the DPWH would be reblocking five points on Edsa located in Quezon, Mandaluyong and Caloocan cities and one on Commonwealth Avenue, also in Quezon City, over the weekend.

The reblocking started at 10 p. m. on Friday.

The MMDA said on its Twitter account that the reblocking in the Boni area will affect two southbound lanes on Edsa.

The result was horrendous traffic congestion on the belt highway.

‘Idiots’

Twitter user @jeibijoves tweeted the MMDA yesterday: “Magsara kayo ng kalsada pag madaling araw para walang kotse!! Kung kelan weekend saka nyo gagawin edsa??? TATANGA NYO!!! (Close the road before dawn when there is no traffic!

It’s weekend and you’re repairing Edsa? You idiots!)”

Facebook user Joseph Anthony Jalandoon said: “Kung kailan may pasok na, tag ulan at tag baha, dun pa lang gagalaw at mag aayos... Haaay! Goodjob talaga kayo. (School is back, the rains and floods are here and it’s only now that you’re moving. Sigh! You’re really good).”

On the southbound stretch of Edsa, the DPWH is reblocking from Kaingin Road to Dario Bridge in Quezon City, from Boni Avenue to Mayon Street in Mandaluyong City, and from the A. de Jesus U-Turn to J.

Mariano Street in Caloocan City until tomorrow.

On the northbound side, repairs will be done on the stretch of the highway from Fema Road to the Kaingin Footbridge in Quezon City and on the stretch from G. de Jesus Street to Malvar Street in Caloocan City.

The MMDA said most of the repaired blocks were already “curing”—the concrete was drying—as of yesterday afternoon.

The closed lanes of the highway were expected to be reopened today, the MMDA said.

Citing a study by the Japan International Cooperation Agency (Jica), Socioeconomic Planning Secretary Arsenio Balisacan said on Friday that P2.4 billion in potential income is lost daily due to gridlock in Metro Manila.

Huge loss

Speaking on state-run dzRB radio, Valte acknowledged that the loss is “huge” and said the government was giving priority to the decongestion of Edsa, where 3,600 city buses carry hundreds of thousands of people to their jobs and schools every day.

The 3,600 city buses have franchises, but thousands more without franchises and provincial buses bring the number of buses plying the Edsa route to 12,000 every day.

To ease traffic on Edsa, Valte said the government was going after unfranchised buses and limiting the number of buses on www.canadianinquirer.net

A study by the Japan International Cooperation Agency (Jica) states that traffic costs the Philippines P2.4 billion daily. The cumulative time that workers spend stuck on the streets could’ve been used for more productive ends, said the government.

PHOTO BY STORM CRYPT (FLICKR)

Edsa at certain hours of the day.

But the long-term solution, Valte said, is the creation of “transport hubs” on the fringes of Metro Manila, a plan that will remove provincial buses from Edsa and other congested roads in the metropolis.

Provincial buses will load and unload passengers at the hubs, reducing the number of large vehicles on metropolitan roads.

Valte said “north and south terminals” were being built.

The south terminal, located in Parañaque City, is about to be finished, she said.

She mentioned “various infrastructure projects” under way to improve traffic in the metropolis, including road maintenance and flood mitigation works.

Valte said the DPWH wanted to finish paving all national roads by 2015 or 2016.

She said she wasn’t aware of any new traffic plan such as further limiting the number of cars on the road.

MMDA can’t do it alone

Valte said that the MMDA cannot solve the traffic problem alone.

The agency has to deal with 17 local governments for coordinated enforcement of traffic rules, she said.

But the cities do not seem to see gridlock as an economic problem and the Palace, dependent on local governments for political support, seems not to have the will to whip local officials into finding solutions to the traffic problems in their own cities.

Asked about that, Valte said, “That’s one of the things being discussed on the Metro Manila Council.” ■

Philippine News

9 FRIDAY JULY 12, 2013

Serendra unit occupant dies 34 days after blast

BY JAYMEE T. GAMIL Philippine Daily Inquirer IT WAS Angelito San Juan’s 63rd birthday when he was caught in a blast that tore through a unit at a high-end condominium where he was staying at in Bonifacio Global City (BGC) in Taguig.

It would turn out to be his last birthday.

San Juan, who was visiting from California, died at 12:20 a.m. at St. Luke’s Medical Center BGC, where he had been confined since the blast tore through unit 501-B in Two Serendra building on May 31.

San Juan suffered burns on 85 percent of his body, as well as major internal injuries. Family lawyer Raymond Fortun told reporters that San Juan died of multiple organ failure following the extensive burns he suffered.

“The doctors were waiting for his condition to stabilize because they feared his body could not bear the stress of an operation,” Fortun said.

Foreign experts to help

San Juan was the fourth person to die from the blast believed caused by a gas leak.

Three appliance store employees in a passing delivery truck were crushed to death by a wall blown up after the explosion.

Interior Secretary Mar Roxas expressed his condolences to the San Juan family and promised a “thorough and conclusive” investigation. He said the government had commissioned foreign experts to help in the probe.

“It’s clear that the incident was a gas explosion,” Roxas said in an e-mailed statement. “The question now is why the system failed. Was the design flawed?”

“Did the sensors and the automatic shutoff system fail?

That’s why we sought the help

Fortun said he still believed the investigators were doing everything “to arrive at the truth.”

He added: “The only request of the San Juan and Cayton families is just to speed it up.”

“I’d like to think it was an accident and nobody wanted this,” the lawyer said. “As to whether there is someone to blame... it’s up to investigators to determine this. We hope the investigators can put things together so proper steps can be made to determine fault and avoid similar incidents in the future.”

What caused the spark?

VIDEO GRAB FROM GMANETWORK.COM

of the experts because we cannot tell what really happened.”

‘Electricity over his body’

The blast occurred hours after San Juan arrived in the Philippines to attend the wedding of his high school classmate’s daughter.

He was lent the unit by fellow US immigrants George and Marianne Cayton, who bought the property in 2008 as their vacation home in the Philippines.

San Juan was on his way out to a birthday dinner when the explosion occurred. Despite his burns, he was able to make it to the ground floor, where his friend, Herminia Ochoa, was waiting.

Whisked off to a hospital by an ambulance, San Juan told Ochoa that as he was opening the apartment door, “there was an explosion and he felt electricity all over his body,” Fortun quoted Ochoa as saying.

Legal steps

Investigators had initially tagged San Juan as a “person of interest” in the case, but he was cleared of any suspicion, as the

cause of the blast was traced to a gas buildup.

“From the very beginning, Mr. San Juan was a victim,” Fortun said. “The family has not made any decisions on whether they will be taking any legal steps as a result of his death.”

Serendra Inc., the developer of the Two Serendra condominium where the explosion occurred, has decided to permanently shut down the liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) system piped into the residential units in the building, as well as in the adjacent One Serendra.

Ayala Land Inc., a shareholder of the company, announced the shutdown decision.

‘Highly insulting’

“It appears to be an implied admission of liability, that their gas system is unreliable. It was done even before the conclusion of the investigation,” Fortun said.

Fortun criticized Serendra Inc. for virtually “blaming the unit owners” when it said that it was shutting down the gas system because it could not “ensure the continuing compliance by individual unit owners with

www.canadianinquirer.net

the required safety measures within their units.”

“I feel that that corporate statement is highly insulting to the unit owners,” Fortun said. “Ayala enticed these owners to purchase property that is expensive that most of these people purchased with hardearned money. Now they are being blamed for failing to comply with safety measures?”

“To begin with, the obligation to take care and put up safety measures and to maintain these belong to the building management and property managers,” Fortun said.

Speed up probe

Ayala Land has been coordinating with the San Juan family regarding San Juan’s hospitalization and his funeral but has not communicated with the Caytons, Fortun said.

Also a counsel to the Caytons, Fortun said that when she was in the Philippines last month to submit documents to aid in the investigation, Marianne Cayton feared a cover-up in the case “borne out of lack of any movement in so far as an investigation is concerned.”

Fortun said the Interagency Task Force investigating the case already had “evidence as to how the leak occurred, where the blast emanated and what triggered it.”

“It was only what caused that spark that led to the blast that needs to be filled up by San Juan,” Fortun said, adding a gas explosion “can be triggered by the smallest spark,” even from mere static electricity.

San Juan’s remains were to be transferred to Evergreen Memorial Parlor in Pasig City for a twoday wake. Afterward, the body will be flown to the United States for burial.

San Juan was a data architect for a car company in the United States, where his family is also based. He left behind a wife and two children.

Investigators failed to get any statement from San Juan, who was sedated throughout his hospital confinement.

Fortun debunked the theory that the leak could have come from the unit’s gas range, saying he was informed the Department of Science and Technology had conducted tests on the intact stove.

He noted that if the gas leak came from the stove, the stove would have been “shattered,” instead of sent flying upon the explosion and landing in the garden below the building. ■

Philippine News

FRIDAY JULY 12, 2013 10

Villegas to pursue P-noy defends use of bases by US, Japan fight against RH law ‘Our strategic partners need knowledge of PH terrain’

BY JOCELYN R. UY, TJ A. BURGONIO AND LEILA B. SALAVERRIA Philippine Daily Inquirer THE PROTÉGÉ of the late Jaime Cardinal Sin, LingayenDagupan Archbishop Socrates “Soc” Villegas, was elected president of the influential Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines (CBCP) yesterday amid a continuing conflict between the Church and the Aquino administration on the controversial reproductive health (RH) law.

At 52, Villegas will lead the 96 active and 40 honorary members of the bishops’ collegial body when Cebu Archbishop Jose Palma ends his term on Dec. 1. To succeed Villegas as vice president is Davao Archbishop Romulo Valles.

While Villegas is known to have had strong ties with the late President Corazon Aquino, the mother of the incumbent Chief Executive, he is perceived as one who will not give in to the whims of the current administration.

“One thing is certain, the archbishop will talk as needed.

He will not keep quiet,” Archbishop Emeritus Oscar Cruz told the INQUIRER over the phone yesterday.

“This man is intelligent and courageous. He will exercise his [pastoral duties] and will put into action his qualifications.”

Cruz said.

Cruz cited a pronouncement that Villegas made amid the debate on the RH bill last year, which he noted “had angered the Palace.”

“My dear youth, contraception is corruption. The use of government money, taxpayers’ money to give out contraceptive pills is corruption. Contraceptive pills teach us it is all right to have sex with someone provided you are safe from babies,” Villegas said then.

Villegas’ statement denouncing President Aquino for supporting the RH measure was proof that he would continue to lead the Church in fighting other measures that would compromise Catholic values, Cruz said.

“This means that he will speak when needed. He will speak his mind according to Church teachings,” he said. “I know what I am talking about because when he was appointed the secretary of Cardinal Sin, we were already [working] together.”

Cruz, likewise a former CBCP president and ex-archbishop of Lingayen-Dagupan, said he had seen how Villegas worked and he was confident that the prelate would do a great job.

Ball in Palace court

Fr. Francis Lucas, executive secretary of the CBCP’s Episcopal Commission on Social Com❱❱ PAGE 13 Villegas to

Lingayen-Dagupan Archbishop Socrates “Soc” Villegas, the new president of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines (CBCP). Villegas has stated last year that “contraception is corruption. The use of government money, taxpayers’ money to give out contraceptive pills is corruption. Contraceptive pills teach us it is all right to have sex with someone provided you are safe from babies.”

PHOTO BY RAMON F. VELASQUEZ/WIKIMEDIA COMMONS

BY JAYMEE T. GAMIL Philippine Daily Inquirer PRESIDENT Aquino said for the first time that the United States and Japan would have access to the former US bases in the Philippines to be able to forge a “credible alliance” but dismissed Chinese claims that Manila was provoking Beijing.

In an ambush interview in Camp Crame, Mr. Aquino stressed that giving the two countries access to the installations was “not permanent.”

The United States had maintained Clark Air Base and Subic Bay Naval Base—America’s largest overseas military facilities—until Mt. Pinatubo erupted in June 1991 and forced the shutdown of the installations.

Three months later, the Senate voted 12-11 against renewing the Philippines-US Military Bases Agreement.

In 1999, the Philippines ratified the Visiting Forces Agreement allowing the United States to conduct joint exercises with Philippine forces in the country.

“Let’s clarify the access. They will not be a permanent fixture in the bases— but they are our allies. There are only two strategic partners that we have— it is America and Japan,” he said, explaining that “interoperability” was key to prepare forces allied with each other for any conflict.

This explains why the country has regular Balikatan exercises, which calls for “joint or shoulder-to-shoulder” military exercises, he said.

He stressed that failure to “coordinate” or “synchronize” the military deployment systems between forces of allied countries in case of a conflict “in my view is a wrong way to prepare, or no preparation at all.”

“So (foreign troops) need knowledge of our terrain, while we also need interoperability with them,” the President said.

Filipino troops can’t have military “practice outside of our territory,” he added.

“So it is but the natural circumstance of— if you want a credible alliance— then you will have to have mutual training and that will normally ocwww.canadianinquirer.net

cur within our territory or the allies’ territory,” he stressed.

Defense Secretary Voltaire Gazmin dismissed a foreign news report that the Philippines planned to build new air and naval bases that US forces could use to counter China’s creeping presence in the West Philippine Sea (South China Sea).

Gazmin clarified that the Philippines would instead give the United States, Japan and other allies access to its military bases.

‘Seven sins’

In a frontpage commentary, People’s Daily, the official newspaper of the Chinese Communist Party, warned last week that a “counterstrike” against the Philippines was inevitable if it continued to provoke China in the West Philippine Sea. The commentary accused Manila of “seven sins,” citing its alleged “illegal occupation” of the Spratly Islands. It also blasted the Philippines for advocating the “internationalization” of the waters, a critical international maritime lane that has been under the close watch of Philippine allies, the United States in particular.

China issued its scathing criticism amid war games between the Philippines and the US Navy off Panatag (Scarborough) Shoal where a tense standoff between Philippine and Chinese ships occurred last year. At least three Chinese patrol vessels are known to still be in the area.

The Department of Foreign Affairs slammed China for issuing the “provocative statement.”

Peaceful option

The President shrugged off Beijing’s claim that the Philippines was trying to provoke the Chinese government.

“It is in the Constitution, we renounce war as policy—(it is) prohibited,” he said when asked what circumstances would prompt the country to go beyond rhetoric in convincing China to abandon its aggressive stance in asserting ownership of Philippine territories in the West Philippine Sea. Mr. Aquino made it clear that his administration would al-

ways advocate peaceful means of ending its territorial dispute with Beijing.

“Now, as we’ve been saying, we need a calm and honest-togoodness talk, so that we could reach a solution that would be acceptable to all sides. So we opted for arbitration,” he said.

The President described his decision to seek mediation from the UN International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea as the proper avenue so that “any state can pursue its own rights.”

The President stressed that, under his watch, the country would not risk a war with China, which is bigger and better armed both in conventional and nonconventional terms.

“We will try not to end up in any conflict since it seems contrary to our aim of peace and stability, and for all those involved in these territorial disputes to progress,” he said.

Proposals?

The President’s pronouncement belied what Malacañang deputy spokesperson Abigail Valte told the media.

Asked at a briefing if the planned access had been “green-lighted” by the President, she said that this was merely part of “proposals at the DND (Department of National Defense) level.”

Valte said that the DND was tasked to come up with proposals after “everybody has agreed on an increased rotational presence here, not just in the country, but the US also has announced that there will be a rebalancing of sorts in the region.”

“So knowing that there has already been an agreement on increased rotational presence, the DND is tasked with looking at how to operationalize this particular aspect and what was mentioned by Secretary Gazmin is but one of the modalities that they are looking into in order to operationalize that,” she said.

Valte said that “any proposal that will come out of it will certainly be done in accordance with the Constitution and the Visiting Forces Agreement.”

She stressed that the DND was “still studying” or “still in the process of looking at these things.” ■

Philippine News

11 FRIDAY JULY 12, 2013

MWSS strikes down controversial resolution

BY RONNEL W. DOMINGO Philippine Daily Inquirer THE METROPOLITAN Waterworks and Sewerage System (MWSS) Regulatory Office has stricken down a 9-year-old resolution issued in 2004 that allows Manila Water Co. Inc. and Maynilad Water Service Inc. to recover income tax expenses through customer fees.

However, a new MWSS Regulatory Office resolution superseding the old one still needs approval and confirmation from the MWSS board of trustees.

The consumer advocacy group, Water for the People Network (WPN), claims that Manila Water and Maynilad passed on corporate income taxes to consumers a total of P15.3 billion in taxes from 2008 to 2012.

The regulatory office rescinded the 2004 resolution on June 7 amid reports that the water concessionaires in Metro Manila and nearby areas were

also passing on to consumers other expenses like donations.

The five-member MWSS Regulatory Office moved to adopt Resolution No. 13005CA, replacing Resolution No. 04-006CA issued in July 2004, which recognized Manila Water and Maynilad not as public utilities but as mere agents of the MWSS. Being considered a public utility means that the concessionaires cannot include income tax in their computation of operating expenses that could be recovered through tariffs, pursuant to a 2002 decision of the Supreme Court involving Manila Electric Co. The 2004 MWSS Regulatory

Office resolution was based on a report of a technical working group composed of representatives of Manila Water and Maynilad. In turn, the MWSS board of trustees approved and confirmed the resolution the same day that the latter was issued.

In the new resolution issued last month, regulators also decided to exclude income tax streams in the concessionaires’ cash flows and in computing the so-called appropriate discount rate—both of which are taken into account in rate rebasing.

Regulators took their cue from an opinion that the Office of the Government Corporate Counsel (OGCC) issued on June 4.

The OGCC was acting on a request from the MWSS regulators in connection with advice from a rate rebasing consultant that if the MWSS, as principal and a public utility, could not recover income tax payments and pass these on to consumers, neither can the concessionaires because they are agents of a public utility.

The OGCC concurred with the consultant in saying that income taxes were neither included in the term “Philippine business taxes” nor considered operating expenses that could be recovered from the MWSS’s consumers base.

“While the concessionaires are not public utilities (since only the MWSS has the franchise), they are nevertheless bound by the same laws and rules applicable to their principal, the MWSS,” the OGCC said.

Consumers have been shouldering P3.1 billion in taxes for Manila Water and Maynilad yearly over the past five years, according to the WPN, which

claims some 100 member organizations nationwide.

“Manila Water accounts for about P1.5 billion annually and Maynilad around P1.6 billion,” said Rosario Guzman, head of research at Ibon Foundation.

The figures are based on documents obtained by Ibon, one of WPN’s convenors.

Guzman said that income taxes made up a significant portion of the two firms’ proposed new rates for the next five years. ■

AFP’s goal is ‘minimum defense capability’

BY NIKKO DIZON Philippine Daily Inquirer THE MILITARY’S modernization program is not a preparation for an armed confrontation with China, but for achieving a “minimum defense capability” that Filipinos will be proud of, a defense official said.

Defense Undersecretary Fernando Manalo also said that the upgrade of military bases would be part of the P75-billion modernization plan for the Armed Forces of the Philippines, aside from acquiring new equipment for the military.

The Philippine Navy’s bases in Cebu and Palawan are among those to be rehabilitated for new equipment to be acquired under the program, said Manalo, who is in charge of finance, munitions, installations and materiel.

Manalo said Subic, a former US military base, was not yet among the bases to be upgraded.

Access roads, bases and support facilities will also be built for Air Force radars, Manalo said.

“The modernization is being implemented because there

is really a need to equip our Armed Forces, not because we are planning to go to war with China,” Manalo said.

“There is no armed force in the world that does not plan to modernize,” he said, noting that the Philippines’ neighbors have been investing in billions of dollars in modern equipment.

Source of pride

Facing threats from communist insurgents, terrorists and now a country that claims Philippine territory as its own, the Philippine government cannot order its soldiers “to fight for our country’s rights with their bare hands,” Manalo said.

Manalo, himself a former Air Force general, said that the military equipment being acquired for the Armed Forces may not be “at par” with the state-of-theart equipment of other countries, “but at least [they are] something we Filipinos can be proud of.”

“As a former soldier myself, it is a source of pride for me and I am sure all of us believe that it will be a source of pride for all of us to see that our Armed

Forces has new equipment,” Manalo said.

Fighting equipment

The program includes the acquisition of fighter jets, frigates and naval helicopters.

Twelve fighter jets will be bought for P18.9 billion and two frigates for P18 billion, Manalo said.

The fighter jets will be acquired from the Korea Aerospace Industries.

Manalo said the defense department was waiting for the Office of the President to issue a sales agreement that would allow it to proceed with the purchase of the aircraft.

Among those interested in selling naval frigates to the Philippines are Korean firms Hyundai and Daewoo, Spain’s Navantia, Australia’s Austal and a Singapore company, Manalo said.

“What we want is to have a minimum credible defense capability, so those who want to wage war with us would think twice,” he said.

President Aquino said that the Philippines would not get into a military conflict with China on his watch. www.canadianinquirer.net

PHOTO FROM ARMED FORCES OF THE PHILIPPINES

‘Credible alliance’

The Constitution renounces war as a policy and the Philippine government will always advocate for peaceful means to resolve its territorial dispute with China in the West Philippine Sea, Mr. Aquino said.

He said the government would allow the United States and Japan, the Philippines’ only two “strategic partners,” access to the former US military bases in the Philippines to forge a “credible alliance” with them. ■

Philippine News

FRIDAY JULY 12, 2013 12

COA scores Pasig rehab body for junky cleanup

BY CATHY YAMSUAN Philippine Daily Inquirer THE COMMISSION on Audit (COA) has scored the Pasig River Rehabilitation Commission (PRRC) for creating more junk rather than removing rubbish when it bungled its P17.7-million cleanup of Metro Manila’s biggest waterway.

In its 2012 report, the COA said that millions of pesos worth of recycling equipment had been rendered junk because the PRRC had only one working materials recovery facility (MRF) out of the 10 recycling centers it committed to build over the last four years. “(This is) tantamount to

Pasig: from a time long ago

PHOTO FROM WIKIMEDIA COMMONS

wastage of government funds and deprived the intended ben-

eficiaries of the benefits that could have been derived there-

vival and is being taught in the West Point,” said Angara, adding that it had been made into films, biographies and novels here and in Spain.

“This fact is a source of personal pride and satisfaction— the Siege of Baler is the only battle where the Katipuneros won against both the Spanish and Americans,” said Angara, recalling that an American contingent sent to rescue the Spanish ended up being captured by the Katipuneros.

come a basket case is political leadership who forgets history.

Please do not forget history and the lessons of history, so that you’ll be generous, not selfish; humane rather than cruel; and look after the interest of our country,” he said.

from,” the COA said.

In an e-mail, Regina Lopez, the PRRC chair and ABS-CBN Foundation director, said she expected to complete the MRFs within the year.

“When I first took over, my initial strategy was to do something about solid waste management. At that time, I thought that this was the way to clean the Pasig River. The equipment was delivered, however, the MRF sites were not finalized.

Now the MRF sites are finalized and are currently under construction. The sites should be completed by this year,” said Lopez, the PRRC chair since April 2010.

The MRFs were supposed to anchor the establishment of

clean river zones (CRZs) along the Pasig River. The MRF package includes a shredder, oven smelter and baler to recycle the garbage collected by the CRZ and provide livelihood as an incentive to reduce wastes in the community.

The PRRC awarded a P9.9million contract to Linear Construction Corp. in May 2009 to build 10 MRFs until Jan. 17 this year. The company has managed to build only four MRFs (of which only one, at Addition Hills, Mandaluyong City, was working) before the deadline while the remaining six were less than 25 percent complete.

The COA said the MRFs at ❱❱ PAGE 15 COA scores

Seige of Baler... reached P1.3 billion, Domecq said.

Angara said the occasion was a “constant reminder of the long-standing friendship, as well as cultural and historical ties, between the Philippines and Spain.” ❰❰ 8

Holed up in church

Since the law was enacted, Valbuena has been coming back to Baler to remind its people the generosity of their ancestors, as well as to express gratitude to Aguinaldo and the Katipuneros (Filipino revolutionaries).

On June 27, 1898, 54 Spanish soldiers holed up at the Church of Baler in a last stand against the revolutionaries.

Valbuena’s great grandfather, Corporal Garcia Quijano, was among those who endured the 337-day assault on the last Spanish imperial garrison. The Spaniards had been unaware that the war had long ended.

Only 33 survivors emerged from the church on June 2, 1899, with the sympathetic people giving them food, clothing and medicine. Aguinaldo decreed that they be treated as friends, not prisoners.

Longest siege

The siege is one of the world’s longest in recorded history, and its lessons turned into a survival manual in the United States’ West Point.

“The story of the Siege of Baler has become a Bible for sur-

Filipino victory

“This is the only event that we celebrate as a Filipino victory,” said Angara, pointing to many events in the country’s past that mark defeats, such as the Fall of Bataan and Battle of Manila.

It showed the “good traits” of two nations—bravery, courage and loyalty on the part of the Spanish soldiers, and generosity, civility and decency even in the time of war on the part of the Filipino soldiers and Katipuneros, he said.

“That’s the good lesson being taught in the public school system in Aurora,” Angara said.

He pointed to the conclusion of James Robinson and Daron Acemoglu in their seminal book, “Why Nations Fail” (2012).

“A nation fails not just because of culture, geography and economic policies. One major factor why a nation fails and be-

Documentary

To pay homage to both the Spanish and Filipino soldiers, and civilians, Valbuena produced “The Empire’s Sunset,” a documentary that “attempts to keep alive the memory of the last outpost of the Empire where the Sun never set.”

On the eve of the anniversary, guests were treated to a gala performance titled, “Amigos Para Siempre” (Friends Forever), produced by Angara when he was senator, the Cultural Center of the Philippines, National Commission for Culture and the Arts, National Historical Commission of the Philippines, and the Embassy of Spain.

In a brief speech, Valbuena cited Angara’s efforts in drawing attention to the lessons of the siege as a focal point for the revival of the friendship between the Philippines and Spain.

“The Siege of Baler is unprecedented worldwide because of three reasons—it was the longest military siege in modern history, the winner of a military siege displayed such level of respect for those who can never www.canadianinquirer.net

Spanish writer/director Jesús considers himself an “adopted son” of Baler, Quezon. He flies to the Philippines to drop in on the town on Philippine-Spanish Friendship Day every June 30.

TWITTER PHOTO

return (to their country) out of their own will, and there is no record where the winners displayed such respect for the losers,” he said.

“And third, [it] … is a universal fact because there is no record of any colonized nation that unilaterally declared friendship (to a former colonizer) such as (what) the Philippines has done.”

Valbuena thanked Filipinos “for the friendship that has proven continually” and “for this profound act of love.”

He said that after the 33 soldiers came out of the church, the people of Baler had thought of them as “dead bodies” because of so much animosity and hatred toward Spanish colonizers at the time.

“But they were able to go back to Spain and they were able to have families. I was 20 years old when my great grandfather (told me this story). Therefore, the 33 families which I represent today owe our very lives to the people of Baler,” he said, fighting off tears. ■

Philippine News

13 FRIDAY JULY 12, 2013

Villegas to... munication and Mass Media, also has the same expectations of Villegas.

“He will surely stand by the Church teachings no matter what,” he said in a text message to the INQUIRER. “I suppose the ball is in the Palace’s court since Archbishop Socrates was close to the late President Cory Aquino.”

But he added that the Church was always open to listen and dialogue to try to understand if certain issues were truly for the common good.

The CBCP announced the results of the election on the second day of its three-day annual plenary assembly at the Pope Pius XII Catholic Center in Paco, Manila.

Palma was still eligible for another two-year term as the head of the Church body but prior to the assembly, he declared his intention of giving up his post so that he could attend to his pastoral duties in the Cebu archdiocese, which would host the International Eucharistic Congress in 2016.

Villegas, who was ordained priest by Sin in 1985 and auxiliary bishop of Manila in 2001, will have a two-year tenure.

Valles will also serve for two years. But by tradition, incumbent officials may be reelected to a second term. ❰❰ 10

The Pope Francis during the mass celebrating his installation at Vatican on March 19, 2013 in Rome.

He is expected to be in Cebu in 2016 for the 51st International Eucharistic Congress.

PHOTO BY EZEEPICS STUDIO / SHUTTERSTOCK.COM

Vatican execs coming to case the joint for papal visit

BY CATHY YAMSUAN Philippine Daily Inquirer A DELEGATION of Vatican officials is arriving in September to inspect the venue in Cebu for the 51st International Eucharistic Congress (IEC) in 2016, which church officials hope would be attended by no less than Pope Francis.

Cebu Archbishop Jose Palma said a 15man Vatican delegation led by Archbishop Piero Marini, president of the Pontifical Committee on the IEC, was scheduled to arrive in Cebu City on Sept.

5, according to a report on the Catholic Bishops Conference of the Philippines news website.

Palma said Marini, who used to be seen frequently at the side of Pope John Paul II and Pope Benedict XVI when he served as the master of papal liturgical celebrations, wanted to go to Cebu to inspect the preparations for the international gathering.

“They will stay in Cebu until Sept. 10.

Aside from the ocular inspection, they will give suggestions and we would expect a more meaningful and fruitful celebration,” Palma said.

“We appreciate the assistance given to us by the committee in Romeandwe feel that it’s a good privilege to host this event,” he said.

Palma said some of the scheduled ac-

tivities might be held at the Waterfront Hotel and Cebu International Convention Center.

He said the archdiocese is still hoping that Pope Francis would be able to visit the Philippines for the IEC, which will be held from Jan. 25 to 31, 2016.

The gathering was originally scheduled for May 2016 but the Vatican requested that it be moved to January the same year because of the pope’s prior engagements in May, Palma said.

“We told them that January is fine because our suggestion was to make the pope’s visit to the Philippines a priority,” Palma said.

He urged Filipinos to continue to pray that Pope Francis would be able to visit the country. The last papal visit to the country happened in January 1995 when Pope John Paul II attended the World Youth Day in Manila.

“We know that the pope continues to inspire us and his visit will have an enormous impact on our faith and our Christian life,” Palma said.

He said the decision on whether the papal trip would push through could be announced a year before the international meeting.

Palma also said the Vatican delegation will travel to Manila to meet with Filipino theologians who are involved in the preparations of the IEC. ■ www.canadianinquirer.net

The assembly also elected yesterday Fr. Marvin Mejia as secretary general, succeeding Msgr. Joselito Asis.

Election welcomed

“We extend our congratulations to Archbishop Villegas and wish him well as he faces new challenges as president of the CBCP,” said deputy presidential spokesperson Abigail Valte.

Valte said the Palace looked looked forward to “future engagements under his leadership.”

The election of Villegas came two days before the Supreme Court opens oral arguments on petitions seeking to nullify the controversial Republic Act No. 10354, or the Responsible Parenthood and Reproductive Health Act. The 12 petitions against the law included one filed by the son of CBCP legal counsel Jo Aurea Imbong. Ranged against them are six petitions backing the law, filed by Albay Rep. Edcel Lagman, Sen. Pia Cayetano, and three former health secretaries, among others.

RA 10354, which mandates the state to provide the poor with reproductive health services, including access to contraceptives, and sex education to schoolchildren, was signed by President Aquino on Dec. 21 last year. ■

Philippine News

FRIDAY JULY 12, 2013 14

New patrol boats for Coast Guard

BY JERRY E. ESPLANADA Philippine Daily Inquirer

Punishment will be in store for bad eggs.

Get your act together, Aquino tells officials Sex-for-flight probe

BY MICHAEL LIM UBAC Philippine Daily Inquirer PRESIDENT Aquino has ordered the executive secretary and departments of labor and justice to get their act together in investigating the “sex-forflight” cases in the Middle East and filing appropriate charges against anyone found to be involved.

Mr. Aquino issued this directive during a meeting with Labor Secretary Rosalinda Baldoz in Malacañang.

At the meeting, Baldoz submitted a report to the President outlining several “corrective measures” to address the alleged sexual exploitation of Filipino women in the Middle East by Philippine consular and labor officials.

Spare no one

“I submitted to the President an update report on the matter and discussed with him the measures that we have undertaken—and continuously undertake—after the allegations became public and complainants have surfaced,” said Baldoz in a statement posted on the official government website (http://www.gov.ph/).

“I reiterated my earlier statement that no one in the DOLE

(Department of Labor and Employment) would be spared if any official or employee is found to have violated our laws after a thorough and impartial investigation,” she said.

In turn, the President told Baldoz to coordinate with Executive Secretary Paquito Ochoa and Justice Secretary Leila de Lima.

“I was instructed by the President that should the investigating team find basis for the filing of criminal charges, I should coordinate with the Office of the Executive Secretary and the Secretary of Justice,” said Baldoz.

The team that had been set up by Baldoz to conduct an investigation on the sex-for-flight controversy is now in Saudi Arabia. It will also fly to Jordan before flying home to submit its report on or before July 12.

She made no mention of the Department of Foreign Affairs, which has launched a separate investigation of the alleged sexrelated offenses.

Corrective measures

In her report to the President, Baldoz outlined several corrective measures relative to the controversy which are as follows: Issuance last June 28, 2013, of the memorandum order for

the deployment of 13 female and one male personnel to augment Philippine overseas labor offices (POLOs) in three countries, namely, the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, 9 personnel; Jordan, 3; and Kuwait, 2. “These personnel will leave as soon as accreditation by the respective host governments is obtained,” Baldoz explained.

Immediate installation of the Foreign Labor Operations Information System (FLOIS) in all 37 POLOs overseas, with the Middle East POLOs as a priority. The system will record all POLO transactions and make the data immediately accessible to DOLE, Philippine Overseas Employment Administration and the Overseas Workers Welfare Administration.

“The FLOIS will allow us to monitor the number of wards being accommodated in our Migrant Workers and Other Filipinos Resource Centers, commonly known as Bahay Kalinga,” she remarked.

Development of a streamlined process of recruitment and deployment in both Saudi Arabia and the Philippines, and the development of a joint onsite dispute settlement system, case handling, repatriation and operation of the Saudi megarecruitment agencies. ■ www.canadianinquirer.net

THE COUNTRY will soon have a formidable Coast Guard.

The Philippine Coast Guard expects to wrap up negotiations with the Japan International Cooperation Agency (Jica) later this year to acquire 10 brand new patrol boats and help the PCG better secure the country’s territorial waters.

Commander Armand Balilo, the PCG spokesperson, told the INQUIRER “the talks are ongoing.”

Quoting Coast Guard commandant Rear Adm. Rodolfo Isorena, Balilo said: “Hopefully, the talks will be completed by the last quarter of the year so that actual construction of the vessels could be started.”

“The two sides have agreed that all 10 patrol boats will be 40 meters (131 feet) long. But they are still talking about other specifications,” said Balilo, also chief of the PCG public affairs office.

The Jica, he said, had proposed that “five of the vessels will be built here and the other five in Japan.”

The PCG, however, “prefers that all 10 boats be built in Japan,” he said.

Established in 1974, the Jica is the primary Japanese government agency that grants technical cooperation and other forms of aid to promote socioeconomic development mainly in developing countries.

Minister Shinsuke Shimizu, head of the Japanese Embassy chancery in Manila, had said in an earlier interview that unlike the decades-old and strippeddown boats the Philippines had been getting from the United States, the patrol boats from

Tokyo would be brand new.

He assured Filipinos Japan would continue to help the PCG with regard to maritime safety and law enforcement issues.

Shimizu said that since 1990, the Japanese government had been aiding the Philippine Coast Guard with its “capacitybuilding program.”

Japan gave the PCG a searchand-rescue vessel in the late ’90s that the agency christened the BRP Corregidor. The boat was one of two Philippine vessels that faced off with Chinese ships at Panatag (Scarborough) Shoal in the West Philippine Sea (South China Sea) in April and June last year.

Monitoring China

Last February, the Nikkei, a Japanese business daily, reported that the patrol boats Japan planned to donate to the Philippines would cost $11 million (around P473 million) each.

The donation, the paper said, was linked to regional efforts to monitor China’s maritime movements.

Japan and the Philippines are embroiled in separate territorial disputes with China, whose tiff with Manila involves overlapping claims in parts of the West Philippine Sea close to the Philippine coastline. The area is believed to be sitting on huge oil and gas deposits.

China is claiming almost the entire South China Sea, including parts in the exclusive economic zones of the Philippines and other Southeast Asian countries.

Like the Department of Foreign Affairs, the PCG maintained the Philippines’ acquisition of patrol boats from Japan was not in reaction to moves by any country, particularly China. ■

PHOTO FROM JSOTF-P.BLOGSPOT.COM

Philippine News

15 FRIDAY JULY 12, 2013

DDB chief sues doctors for fake stem cell treatment

BY JEANNETTE I. ANDRADE Philippine Daily Inquirer AT THE AGE of 64, Antonio Villar Jr., chair of the Dangerous Drugs Board (DDB), wanted to get rid of the aches and pains that come with aging.

So when he was told about a stem cell procedure, he agreed to the treatment, for which he paid 16,000 euros (P854,000), in the hope that it would rejuvenate him and make him live longer.

Instead, he felt weaker and feared the procedure even put his life at risk.

Alleging that he was duped into what he now described as a bogus stem cell treatment at a posh hotel in Mandaluyong City, Villar had asked the police to investigate the group, composed mostly of foreigners, whom he blamed for his failing health.

Villar sent his lawyer, Claire Pagayanan, to a news forum to announce that he was considering filing charges against a German, three Thais and their Filipino agent for the “fake” stem cell procedure he went through on June 9 last year.

Pagayanan said that after the treatment, Villar’s prostate gland expanded and he had to undergo radiation therapy.

“With what has been happening caused by the stem cell treatment, he

now comes forward to save those who may be victims of fraudulent stem cell therapy,” said the lawyer.

Pagayanan said that Villar had submitted a sworn statement and medical abstracts of his condition before and after the treatment to the Criminal Investigation and Detection Group (CIDG).

“We will hold liable the doctors who gave him the treatment and the Filipino agent,” she said, refusing to disclose names pending the police investigation.

The lawyer added that should the ho-

tel management be found to have been aware of the operation of the group, it could also be held liable for what happened to Villar.

Asked why her client consented to the procedure done at a hotel, Pagayanan said Villar was convinced by the Filipino agent that the therapy was not invasive, unlike a surgical operation, and that it was regularly done by the group there.

No license to practice

Dr. Leo Olarte, president of the Phil-

COA scores... the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) compound, Polytechnic University of the Philippines (PUP) compound, and Cardinal Sin Village at Punta, Sta. Ana, in Manila, costing P1.908 million were found “nonoperational and almost deteriorated due to the rain, heat and stray animals living inside the structures.”

PRRC’s mismanagement was evident in its decision to purchase in advance the equipment for the MRFs even before their sites had been ready. In 2009, PRRC awarded a P8.631-million contract to Metro Waste Solidwaste Management Corp. to supply 188 equipment to the MRFs. However, only 47 of the equipment have remained with the PRRC. The rest were donated to local government units. ❰❰ 12

No storage facility

Without the MRFs, the COA said the equipment purchased for these facilities were not stored properly.

“Considering the length of time since the equipment was purchased, its operational efficiency has already diminished which may render it inoperable by the time all MRFs are completed. This could be attributed to the noncompletion of MRFs on time. We were informed that the PRRC has no storage facility which

would accommodate all the equipment hence, they were distributed to various locations where the MRF projects are to be constructed,” the COA said.

The COA recommended that the PRRC rehabilitate the three idle MRFs and complete the remaining six MRFs to save the equipment from further deterioration. The COA also suggested that PRRC officials coordinate with government officials to look for warehouses to store the MRF equipment.

Warning flag

As early as 2011, the COA had already raised a warning flag on the wastage caused by the PRRC’s inability to follow through its program to clean up the Pasig River.

PRRC executive director Ronald Naguit said PRRC had addressed some of the COA’s concerns, specifically the 12 equipment at the DENR compound by covering these with canvass sheets and detaching their motors to prevent further deterioration.

Naguit said that the MRF at Sta. Ana was being operated in partnership with the Cardinal Sin Village administration, while the MRF at the PUP Sta. Mesa was initially operated by PRRC in tandem with Kapit Bisig Para sa Ilog Pasig. ■ www.canadianinquirer.net

ippine Medical Association (PMA) who was in the forum along with Senior Insp.

Niño Briones of the CIDG, said his organization had been monitoring the activities of the group. He said that being foreigners, they obviously did not have a license to practice medicine in the country.

“We have here a clear case of a conspiracy to violate the Medical Act of 1959, which governs the practice of medicine in this country. In a conspiracy theory, an act of one is the act of all. So therefore all doctors and nondoctors alike who conspired to commit this crime of practicing medicine without the proper license are equally liable,” Olarte said.

“We are appealing to all victims of these illegal practice to contact us at the PMA so that together we can correct the injustices committed against you,” he said.

Briones said his group was conducting an investigation and gathering evidence to determine if the case merited criminal prosecution in court.

“We have to make a thorough investigation because Secretary Villar’s case has grave implications, particularly concerning the health of those who are being duped by false claims on the benefits of stem cell procedures,” he said. ■

Opinion

FRIDAY JULY 12, 2013 16

THERE’S THE RUB

What’s in a name?

By Conrado De Quiros Philippine Daily Inquirer IT’S AN interesting footnote to history, the effort of the Komisyon sa Wikang Filipino to change the name of the country from “Philippines” to “Filipinas.”

It hasn’t been received well, certainly not by the denizens of social media, also called netizens. Some have wondered if the people populating the commission have so much time on their hands they have nothing better to do than to contemplate silly ideas like this. Others have wondered if the same people have considered the costs of embarking on such a venture. Can you imagine, they say, the cost alone of changing stamps, various legal documents, and tourism paraphernalia?

The idea of changing a country’s name per se however is not all that batty. The new name isn’t all that hard to accept after a decade or so notwithstanding its strangeness at first. Ceylon is now Sri Lanka, Burma is now Myanmar, and Cambodia became the Khmer Republic and then became Kampuchea and then became Cambodia again. Few now even remember Sri Lanka as ever having been Ceylon, though I’ve yet to hear people refer to “Ceylon tea” as “Sri Lanka tea.” The world has a way of factoring in things like this far more

easily than is generally supposed.

There are various reasons for changing a country’s name, but bringing it closer to the way its inhabitants actually call it, or pronounce it, is chief of them. Cambodia is just a western mispronunciation of Kampuchea.

Sri Lanka had been called variously Seilen, Seylan, Zeylan, and Ceylan before, until its government just decided to call it what its people call it which is “Lanka.” Burma came from “Bama,” which was the country’s largest ethnic group, like the Tagalogs. Keeping the name meant something like calling the Philippines “Katagalugan,” which some Katipuneros actually proposed, or variations thereof.

This is by no means the first time a proposal was made to change this country’s name into something else. The closest thing we got to doing so was during martial law, when Ferdinand Marcos plugged for it, actively endorsing a bill in the Batasan that called for changing “Philippines” into “Maharlika.”

His reasons for doing so were largely propagandistic. He took “maharlika”— wrongly—to mean the Filipino nobility, and presumed himself—even more wrongly—to be the noblest of them all, as suggested by various paintings of him in martiallaw Malacañang.

More to the point, he paraded the

notion that he headed a clandestine guerrilla group during the Japanese occupation called the “Maharlika.”

Such were the group’s exploits he became the most decorated guerrilla in the country. Those exploits were later debunked as fake, smearing “Maharlika” with the same fakeness.

But not all the efforts to turn “Philippines” into “Maharlika” owed to vested, or self-, interest. I recall that George Canseco fervently believed in

Why should the original Spanish name of “Las Islas Filipinas” constitute a vast improvement over the Americanized “Philippines” or “Philippine Islands?” the same thing. I appeared with him in a talk show on Independence Day in the 1990s and he told me so. A true believer in originality, he argued that “Maharlika” conferred that merit on us. It was certainly better, he said, than the derivative “Philippines” which our colonial masters had imposed on us.

I’m glad though that the proposal of the National Language Commission, as it used to be called before it got its Filipinized name, has stirred up a tempest of sorts, if only in a teacup, or in social

media, and if only because it has drawn curiosity about the name “Philippines.”

There’s a generation out there, many of them Facebook users, that doesn’t know “Philippines” owes to King Philip II of Spain, the most powerful monarch of his time, who invented the phrase “an empire where the sun never sets” to refer to his dominion, three centuries before imperial Britain did to its own.

The fellow, in whose honor the adventurer Ruy Lopez de Villalobos named us, bankrupted Spain from waging almost perpetual war with his neighbors, quite apart from decimating populations in the name of fighting heresy.

You look at the local Catholic Church that Cardinal Chito Tagle has inherited, and at least as far as attempting to stamp out heresy goes, you wonder whether we were not appropriately named.

But this is the part where you wonder why, if the commission wants to change the name of the country at all, it has to settle for “Filipinas.” Why should the original Spanish name of “Las Islas Filipinas” constitute a vast improvement over the Americanized “Philippines” or “Philippine Islands?” It’s just expressing a preference for one colonizer over another.

The way I see it, we can do one of two things.

One is to change “Philippines” to

something more indigenous—and “Maharlika” isn’t such a bad deal—if only to stoke some national pride. Heaven knows if there’s one country that needs to assert a desire to lose its colonial bondage, it is us. Most other Asian countries, least of all the Thais in our neighborhood, once called the Siamese, don’t.

They’ve always had national pride.

Two is not to change it at all, which should save us a pretty penny, but to use it consciously—which means educating the youth about its origins—with ironic pride. We have a talent for doing so after all. The Americans forced us during their occupation at the turn of the 20th century, specifically after Filipino revolutionaries attacked one of their camps in Samar using subterfuge, to wear transparent clothing so that we could not hide bolos underneath it. With a little imagination and a lot of irony we turned that into the barong Tagalog, which is now the formal national attire. From a badge of shame, it became a badge of honor.

Maybe we can do the same thing with “Philippines.” Maybe we can turn the one Asian country named after a Spanish despot into the one Asian country that doesn’t like despots. We do have People Power after all.

A rose by any other name smells just as sweet. ■

by the ground-level social activism of its civil-society counterpart—a middle-class Islamic movement led by professionals and businessmen who run schools and media outfits. In spite of the recent protests against the autocratic Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, the AKP government itself is generally admired for its success in bringing about sustained economic prosperity to Turkey.

Not so with Morsi. During his year in office as president, he failed to arrest the deterioration of the Egyptian economy. His personal arrogance, which alienated him from the political class outside the Muslim Brotherhood, accentuated his inability to offer enduring solutions to basic problems like traffic, fuel shortages, and faltering electric supply. It is not a surprise that the first items on the agenda of the interim leaders purport to rescue and stabilize the economy. A Cabinet of technocrats that can credibly negotiate new loans with the International Monetary Fund is what one of the new leaders, the Nobel Peace laureate Mohamed ElBaradei, was discussing on television the other day.

I do not think that a strictly secular modernist scheme such as this will succeed unless it makes room for the

active participation of existing religious groups in charting the nation’s future. Otherwise, it will be no more than the reverse image of the Islamist vision that Morsi sought to realize for Egypt, a project that ignores the longstanding secular culture that had grown under previous military rule. The ideal for Egypt is clearly a modern constitutional democracy that can navigate between the dangerous waters of militarism and the perilous shoals of Islamic fundamentalism. The fate of this ideal will have an immediate impact on the future of Libya and Tunisia, and that of the whole Arab world in the long term.

When one ponders the recent events in Egypt, one can’t help thinking how complex it is to rebuild a society after a period of revolutionary upheaval. Our own transition to a stable political order appears painless in comparison. But, in fact, it was filled with danger. The Cory government formed after Edsa 1 had to face seven coup attempts. At any point, the country could have been plunged into a civil war. What seems to have helped us dodge these dangers was the attitude of inclusiveness that kept our leaders from taking extreme positions. That’s what we wish for Egypt. ■

PUBLIC LIVES

The coup in Egypt

By Randy David Philippine Daily Inquirer HERE IN the Philippines, we like to call such events “people power revolutions,” a self-description that oozes with political romanticism but carries little analytic value. The term preferred by observers is “civilianmilitary coup,” a term that traces the initiative for the ouster of a regime to civil society, while acknowledging the crucial role played by the military.

Such indeed is the nature of the “Arab Spring” upheaval in Egypt in 2011, which ended the 30-year autocratic regime of Hosni Mubarak, and of the more recent 2013 coup, which toppled the democratically-elected government of the Islamist leader, Mohammed Morsi. Filipinos can easily relate to these events because they are reminiscent of the way the Philippine military found itself cast in the role of political fulcrum in the two Edsas of 1986 and 2001.

In 1986, the Marcos dictatorship fell when civilian demonstrators defied the police and armed forces in the aftermath of the “snap” presidential election. The massive civilian protests split the security forces of the state, resulting in the refusal of the soldiers and the police to fire on the unarmed

crowds. Marcos and his family had to be evacuated from the Palace when it became clear that the army would not lift a finger to protect them.

In Egypt’s case, the military allowed the crowd to swell on Tahrir Square, thus quietly signaling the withdrawal of its support for Mubarak. When Mubarak fled, the then defense minister, Gen. Mohamed Hussein Tantawi, took over to pave the transition to a dulyelected civilian government. The junta could not stay on indefinitely because the pressure to normalize the political situation under a democratic civilian government was very strong. Elections were held a year later and were won by the best organized group that had participated in the ouster of Mubarak. This was the Muslim Brotherhood, the politico-religious group to which President Morsi belongs. The rest of the Arab Spring activists—leftwingers and secular liberals alike—could not form a coherent political vehicle in time for the elections. Thus they remained in the margins, and watched helplessly as the country drifted from military rule to Islamist rule.

The civilian-military coup that ousted Morsi last week is a recuperation of the modern secular democrat-

ic impulse that animates the youthdriven call for change throughout the Arab world today. But it is not assured of a happy ending. The liberal democratic agenda could not be started without the intervention of the military. Neither can it succeed unless its diffused constituency achieves more or less the same level of organization as the politico-religious party of the Muslim Brotherhood.

When one ponders the recent events in Egypt, one can’t help thinking how complex it is to rebuild a society after a period of revolutionary upheaval.

Morsi may be finished, but the Muslim Brotherhood is very much alive.

Its members have had more than 80 years of experience in underground organizing and resistance. Today they are a formidable electoral force, modeling their political project after that of the ruling AKP (Justice and Development Party) in Turkey. The Islamist AKP has been in power for more than 10 years now, winning the last three elections by a clear majority.

Its political success is complemented

www.canadianinquirer.net

Opinion

17 FRIDAY JULY 12, 2013

AT LARGE

Zombies, terrorists and minions

By Rina Jimenez-David Philippine Daily Inquirer THESE have been our companions— for at least two hours a day—the past week. The hubby and I are at the time of our lives we call “semi-retirement,” and while the passage is official for my husband, who is at least five years into freedom from daily schedules in a huge corporation, for me it is mainly a matter of choice. I have chosen to cut down on daily commitments and have eased up on what used to be a fervid pursuit of journalistic deadlines.

Now we find ourselves with a lot of time on our hands—which is not always an unmitigated good, I can tell you, but which leaves us with an amazing flexibility to pursue goals we have set for ourselves. And one of these is to watch movies. We suddenly have the time to catch up on movies on our “must-watch” list, although choosing the movies on that list is hardly an exercise in harmony. For the most part, the “market” (the movie distributors) determines the choices, especially since the choice of movie houses or cineplexes is an important factor.

But other times, our choices have been the subject of intense debate that covers personal taste, favorite actors, thematic relevance, and even his-

torical implications. In many ways, we are back to the days when we were just dating, and movie-watching was our main form of recreation and bonding.

And choosing our movie fare was one way of testing each other’s personality and our own compatibility. The bad news to new couples: The testing never ends, and choosing movies is as problematic as ever.

However, we do manage to come to an agreement, and here are three of the most recent movies we managed to reach détente on. *** I REALLY wasn’t all that sold on “World War Z,” especially after my son pointed out that “Z” was for zombies, and that critical opinion on the film was mixed. But when we stepped out of the movie house, I was surprised at myself.

I had enjoyed the film, fully, satisfyingly.

Maybe it was because Brad Pitt enjoyed an extraordinary amount of screen time, even if for much of the movie he was scruffy with a days-old stubble. Or maybe it was because the movie was a combination of horror, suspense, scientific whodunit, with apocalyptic morality lessons thrown in.

Pitt plays a former UN operative who is mustered back to action when a viral outbreak turns normal people into virtual zombies, with the epi-

demic spreading faster and farther than most authorities can respond to. The main mystery is how the outbreak began in the first place, and the search takes Pitt from the streets of New York to a carrier in the middle of the Atlantic, and thence to Korea, Israel and Switzerland.

The frenetic pace of the early part slows down quite a bit inside the WHO research center in Switzerland, but this is also where the most suspense-

Choosing our movies was one way of testing our compatibility. The bad news to new couples: the testing never ends, and choosing movies is as problematic as ever. ful bits take place. I like the global scale of the movie, and the capable multinational cast’s believability. I also like that the “zombies” aren’t quite the clichés they are on other movies and on TV, although they could really use some serious moisturizer. *** NEITHER was I fully sold on “White House Down.” It stars Channing Tatum, for one, and in the

opinion of my fashion guru (?!) Joan Rivers, he’s not exactly the sharpest knife in the drawer.

But who needs brains when you’ve got brawn? And when your character has a preteen daughter with enough precociousness for two adults?

The White House in the movie feels familiar, since it has an AfricanAmerican (Jamie Foxx) for president who is caught between his own inclination toward brokering peace with America’s enemies and his conservative opponents’ fervid hatred of these same enemies.

Watching the movie, I was startled by how easily the homegrown terrorists seemed to have penetrated the White House’s security shield, but I won’t tell you why or how, except to say terrorists exist in all guises and are motivated by any number of grievances.

The filmmakers, who are behind familiar and forgettable summer blockbusters, push all the right buttons and haul out the most stereotypical characters. And we know it. But we play along, if only on first viewing, because who needs to think when the White House is being set on fire and the presidential limo ends up in the swimming pool? *** MY DAUGHTER tells me that McDonald’s is now hard put to meet the

demand for the minion figurines that come with especially-themed “Kids’ Meals.” She had ambitions herself of collecting all the figures in the set, but now is resigned to holding on to the single minion she was able to snag.

And that’s how popular the yellow one- or two-eyed robots have become, and how they are driving ticket sales for “Despicable Me 2.” This is the animated film that features a reformed villain, his three adorable adoptive daughters, his decrepit lab assistant, and his secret-agent girlfriend. Still, the real stars of the movie are the minions, who speak in multi-tongued gibberish (including some distinctive Tagalog words) but are able to express a multitude of emotions.

The first “Despicable” movie had at its core the budding relationship between the reformed villain and the three girls, and indeed it was the heartwarming core of a madcap movie. The rebooted version is all madcap, built around the rather flimsy infrastructure of a search for another mad scientist-villain.

Look to the minions for humor and irony and “cuteness.” But that’s all you’ll get from this second movie in a franchise that I hope ends up in a minions cartoon series, if only to satisfy our craving for them. ■

AS I SEE IT

To DOTC: Move people instead of vehicles

By Neal H. Cruz Philippine Daily Inquirer YOU CANNOT put 10 pounds of manure in a five-pound bag. The traffic chaos in Metro Manila is as simple as that. There are too many vehicles fighting for space in the few and narrow roads. We are trying to put on the road vehicles double the carrying capacity of Metro Manila. The Metro Manila Development Authority is trying to reduce the number of vehicles through the number coding system.

But obviously, that is not enough.

And the number of vehicles is increasing every day. The car manufacturing companies pour thousands of new vehicles onto the streets every month, and most of them end up in Metro Manila. Add the vehicles being smuggled into the country through the free ports, plus the jeepneys and buses being put together in Cavite and Santa Rosa, Laguna, from second-hand parts. Then there are the thousands of provincial buses plying city streets daily. To add insult to injury, we have an idiotic Department of Public Works and Highways “repairing”—during the daytime when traffic is at its heaviest—city streets that do not need repairs! The result of all these is the horrendous traffic

jams we suffer daily.

Filipino mechanics and tinsmiths are so good that they can keep decadesold jeeps and other vehicles running forever. Thus, while more and more vehicles are poured onto the streets daily, almost none is phased out.

In the May 6 issue of the INQUIRER, there was the story of the parking wars in New Delhi, India, where there are so many vehicles that people are literally fighting over inadequate parking spaces. We have already reached the same situation, and it’s time for our public officials, starting with the incumbent President Aquino, to wake up and do something about it.

In affluent, exclusive villages where each house has a garage for two or more cars, more vehicles are doubleparked on the streets at night. Even on the streets surrounding squatter colonies, vehicles of all types are doubleparked at night. And these are supposed to be poor squatters.

It is curious that while our officials do a lot of traveling (at the expense of taxpayers), they do not learn from the examples of the cities they visit. In Tokyo, a person will not be sold a vehicle unless he can show a title to a garage.

Its main street, Ginsha, is off limits to vehicles on certain days. In Singapore,

most private vehicles are banned from the downtown area. In Manhattan, New York, they have made it so expensive to own and park vehicles inside city limits such that most New Yorkers have gotten rid of their vehicles and just take public transport.

Our transportation department should already take measures to move people instead of vehicles by improving the public transport system. The elevated rail trains are one such measure but, obviously, they are not enough. We

You cannot put 10 pounds of manure in a fivepound bag. The traffic chaos in Metro Manila is as simple as that. need to add more trains and to schedule more frequent trips (say, one every two minutes instead of the present one every five minutes) to accommodate all the passengers using them.

The commuter trains of the Philippine National Railways (PNR) should also be improved to entice more passengers to take them instead of the buses and jeepneys that clog the streets. The PNR rail lines north and south of Manila should be connected again so that people and cargo going

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to and coming from the north and the south do not have to go through the already crowded downtown areas.

Adding to the traffic congestion are the giant trailer trucks hauling container vans from the Port Area through the narrow streets of Metro Manila. There are railroad tracks going from the pier area but these are now buried under the concrete roads of Recto in Divisoria, going through Tutuban to Caloocan, and thence to the north or south of Luzon.

Why not revive these rail tracks so that cargo from the piers can be taken out on railroad flat cars, thus getting rid of the huge truck trailers? With the income from these cargo and from human passengers in the commuter trains, the PNR should be able to earn more income to fund the revival of the railroad lines throughout Luzon.

The Philippines is the only country I know that does not use the railroad to the maximum. In most countries such as the United States, India and all of Europe, the railroad is the primary means of transportation, carrying millions of passengers to their destinations every day.

The government neglected the PNR after the administration of President Diosdado Macapagal because we were seduced by American vehicle exporters to use the motor

transport instead. Now we see how wrong that was.

Another curious fact is that while the Philippines is an archipelago surrounded by seas and rivers, we no longer take advantage of these water resources as a means of transportation like we did in the older days.

Much of the land traffic can be relieved by improving the ferries not only on Pasig River but along the shorelines of Manila Bay and Laguna Lake. The very heavy traffic load of the Coastal Road and Aguinaldo Highway linking Metro Manila and Cavite, for example, can be relieved with a ferry to and from the Luneta and Cavite City across the bay. There used to be one, but it was discontinued due to financial losses. The government should give financial incentives to ferry operators. I think a Ro-Ro from Manila to Cavite would be a big help.

The government should also support the Pasig River ferry not only with financial aid but also by encouraging people to use the ferry instead of land transport. For that, the shipbuilding industry should be encouraged and financially helped in constructing better ferry boats that protect passengers from the stink of the Pasig River and the TenejerosTullahan River. ■

FRIDAY JULY 12, 2013

18

Canada News

40 still missing in deadly Quebec train explosion; police say higher death toll inevitable

NEWS BRIEFS

LAC-MEGANTIC, Que.—About 40 people were still missing a day after a runaway train derailed in Quebec, igniting explosions and fires that destroyed a busy downtown district and killed five people. Police said a higher death toll was inevitable, and authorities feared the number might soar once they’re able to reach the hardest-hit areas. Worries remained over the status of two oil-filled train cars.

Prime Minister Stephen Harper compared the area to a war zone and said about 30 buildings were incinerated. Quebec provincial police Sgt. Benoit Richard said only a small part of the devastated area had been searched Sunday, more than a day since the accident, because firefighters were making sure all fires were out.

The train’s 72 oil-filled tanker cars somehow came loose early Saturday morning, sped downhill nearly seven miles (11 kilometres) into the town, derailed and began exploding one by one. At least five exploded.

The eruptions sent residents of Lac-Megantic scrambling through the streets under the intense heat of towering fireballs and a red glow that illuminated the night sky. The district is a popular area packed with bars that often bustles on summer weekend nights. Police said the first explosion tore through the town shortly after 1 a.m. local time. Fire then spread to several homes.

Two tanker cars were burning Sunday morning, and authorities were still worried about them Sunday evening. Local Fire Chief Denis Lauzon said firefighters were staying 500 feet (150 metres) from the tankers, which were being doused with water and foam to keep them from overheating.

“This is an unbelievable disaster,” said Harper, who toured the town Sunday. “This is an enormous area, 30 buildings just completely destroyed, for all intents and purposes incinerated. There isn’t a family that is not affected by this.”

The growing number of trains carrying crude oil in Canada had raised

DISASTER SHINES SPOTLIGHT ON CRUDE TRANSPORT CALGARY—The train disaster that devastated a Quebec town over the weekend is likely to intensify the debate around transporting crude oil—regardless of whether it’s by rail or pipeline, observers say. Lac-Megantic, Que., is reeling from the oil-fuelled infernos at a time when two proposals are being weighed to ship Western crude east through the province by reconfiguring existing pipelines.

FIRMS CAUTIOUS ON INVESTMENT, HIRING: SURVEY

SCREENGRAB FROM MONTREAL.CTVNEWS.CA

concerns of a major derailment.

One death was confirmed Saturday.

Police confirmed two people were found dead overnight and confirmed two more deaths Sunday afternoon.

The charred remains were sent to Montreal for identification.

A coroner’s spokeswoman said it may not be possible to recover some of the bodies because of the intensity of the blasts.

Witnesses said they feared for the lives of dozens who were at the nearby Musi-Cafe bar on a beautiful summer night in the town of 6,000, about 155 miles (250 kilometres) east of Montreal and just west of the Maine border.

David Vachon said no one had heard from a friend who had been celebrating a birthday there, or from the man’s wife. “I knew a good portion of them, around 15 who are now missing ... It’s terrible,” he said.

Henri-Paul Audette headed to a shelter with hopes of reuniting with his missing brother, whose apartment was next to the railroad tracks, close to the place where the train derailed.

“I haven’t heard from him since the accident,” Audette said. “I had

thought ... that I would see him.”

About a third of the community was forced out of their homes.

Transportation Safety Board investigator Donald Ross said the black box of the locomotive has been recovered, but officials haven’t been able to access much of the site.

Edward Burkhardt, the president and CEO of Rail World Inc., the parent company of Montreal, Maine & Atlantic Railway, said the train had been parked uphill of Lac-Megantic because the engineer had finished his run. The tanker cars somehow came loose.

“We’ve had a very good safety record for these 10 years,” Burkhardt said.

“Well, I think we’ve blown it here.”

Joe McGonigle, Montreal, Maine & Atlantic’s vice-president of marketing, said the company believes the brakes were the cause.

“Somehow those brakes were released, and that’s what is going to be investigated,” McGonigle said in a telephone interview Sunday. “We’re pretty comfortable saying it is the brakes. The train was parked, it was ❱❱ PAGE 21 40 still missing

OTTAWA—Canadian companies are pulling back on their investment plans and keeping hiring modest amid growing uncertainty over the economic recovery, a Bank of Canada survey of business intentions suggests. The latest quarterly survey from the central bank, released Monday, shows little appetite in executive offices across the country for the kind of investment decisions that would trigger stronger growth in Canada.

ARCTIC ENVIRONMENTALISTS WARY OF REVIEW YELLOWKNIFE—Northern environmentalists say a deal between the Northwest Territories and a federal economic development agency could water down how proposed resource projects are reviewed. “It’s hard to read where this is coming from, but it would appear to be to grease the skids for further economic development almost at any cost,” Kevin O’Reilly of the Yellowknife-based group Alternatives North said Monday.

SASKATCHEWAN PARTY BACKS CALL TO ABOLISH SENATE REGINA—Saskatchewan Premier Brad Wall has the backing of his party in his call to abolish the Senate. The Saskatchewan Party held a referendum and says 86 per cent of just over 3,700 party members who took part in the mail-in vote supported abolishing the Senate.

VIDEO GRAB FROM CBC.CA

BY BENJAMIN SHINGLER The Associated Press

Canada News

19 FRIDAY JULY 12, 2013

Portrait of a decimated town: A brief history of Lac Megantic, Que. The Canadian Press LAC-MEGANTIC, Que.—The most famous event in the history of Lac-Megantic to have occurred before its current tragedy also began with a fire.

A blaze in 1888 prompted a nearly year-long manhunt, and a gun duel, that remain ingrained in local lore as a wild tale for a forestry town that usually prides itself on its more serene natural beauty.

The Morrison family had immigrated from Isle of Lewis, Scotland, and settled in this community that was founded and built around the railroad tracks near the U.S. border.

Young Donald Morrison had left the family behind to work on a ranch out West, from where he sent home money to help pay off the family’s debts.

But by the time he’d returned to Lac-Megantic, the family had lost its farm after signing a bad loan deal with the richest man in town—the municipality’s first mayor, Malcolm Macaulay.

When the barn belonging to the new property owner was burned down, Morrison quickly became a suspect. He fled.

Eventually the town hired a U.S. bailiff at $2.50 a day to track down Morrison, on whom there was a $25 bounty.

Morrison wound up killing the bailiff in a duel on the town’s main strip—an area now best known as the epicentre of Saturday’s rail explosion.

And, in a saga that saw Morrison immortalized in poems, including “The Canadian Outlaw” of 1892, and even on a Gaeliclanguage album in Scotland, he was hunted through the woods for 10 months before being shot, caught, and locked up in prison for murder until he died of tuberculosis five years later.

Until a few years ago, there was even a bar called The Morrison in the downtown strip.

The town expanded in the 1880s and ‘90s around the justcompleted Montreal-St. John segment of the new transcontinental railway.

The municipality was originally known as Megantic— which stems from an Abenaki word meaning “place where the fish are held.”

More than a century ago, it was merged with the town of Agnes next door, named after

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Susan Agnes Bernard, the wife of John A. Macdonald.

Canada’s first prime minister, who spearheaded the national railway project, had visited the area with his spouse in 1879.

The town today remains a rare Quebec beachhead for Macdonald’s political descendants. A famous local resident is Industry Minister Christian Paradis, one of only five Conservative MPs in the province and the government’s Quebec lieutenant.

With the railway in place, Megantic developed as a forestry town, its main industries being logging, lumber and pulp and paper. Furniture manufacturer Tafisa Canada, a subsidiary of Portugal’s Sonae Industria, operates a 65,000-square-metre plant in the area.

The surrounding Eastern Townships region is a tourist draw with its quaint 19th-century towns, numerous waterways popular with canoers and campers, and rolling hills that offer sweeping sights of the fall foliage.

Tranquility has been among the main attractions of the town of 5,900, located barely 10 kilometres from the Maine border.

For more than two centuries after a Catholic missionary visited in 1646, the area remained largely unsettled.

The absence of bustle remains a selling point to this day.

Fifty kilometres away, the region boasts the International Starry Sky Reserve—a unique spot protected from electrical lighting where people can marvel at the stars.

Without the dampening effects of light pollution, visitors can enjoy the sight of a sky that appears dusted with distant diamonds.

Occasionally, they can even spot traces of the Northern Lights.

The town website manages to boast about two local distinctions.

According to the website, it

was one of 52 municipalities in Quebec to receive a “Four Blossoms” rating from the provincial organization “Les Fleurons du Quebec,” which rewards municipalities for attractive green-

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ery. It was also ranked among the first eight municipalities in Quebec to earn a “Carboresponsable” attestation, for climate-change measures, from the Enviro-access consulting company.

The long straight street that leads into the heart of LacMegantic from the northwest doesn’t appear any different from main drags in most small towns across Canada.

Rue Laval is flanked by a Canadian Tire, a big-box-style grocery store and fast-food joints, including a Tim Hortons.

But now, at the far end of this busy downslope, sits an area that Prime Minister Stephen

Harper compared Sunday to a “war zone.”

The downtown core is decimated.

The library has been destroyed. The library website, which chronicles the story of the legendary outlaw Morrison, was down Sunday and viewable only through Internet archives.

“It’s a beautiful downtown here that’s been destroyed,” Harper said during his visit.

“There’s really going to be a need for substantial reconstruction.” ■ With reports from Alexander Panetta, Andy Blatchford and Jerome Roy.

World News

FRIDAY JULY 12, 2013 20

Official: Asiana flight flew too slowly, nearly stalling seconds before it crashed at airport

BY JASON DEAREN AND JOAN LOWY The Associated Press SAN FRANCISCO—Pilots of Asiana Flight 214 were flying too slowly as they approached San Francisco airport, triggering a warning that the jetliner could stall, and then tried to abort the landing seconds before crashing, according to federal safety officials.

The Boeing 777 was travelling at speeds well below the target landing speed of 137 knots per hour, or 157 mph, said National Transportation Safety Board chief Deborah Hersman at a briefing Sunday on the crash.

“We’re not talking about a few knots,” she said.

Hersman said the aircraft’s stick shaker—a piece of safety equipment that warns pilots of an impending stall—went off moments before the crash.

The normal response to a stall warning is to increase speed to recover control.

There was an increase several seconds before the crash, she said, basing her comments on an evaluation of the cockpit voice and flight data recorders that contain hundreds of different types of information on what happened to the plane.

And at 1.5 seconds before impact, there was a call for an aborted landing, she said. The crash at San Francisco International Airport on Saturday killed two 16-year-old girls from China and injured dozens of others.

The new details helped shed light on the final moments of the airliner as the crew tried desperately to climb back into the sky, and confirmed what survivors and other witnesses said they saw: a slow-moving airliner.

Pilots normally try to land at the target speed, in this case 137 knots, plus an additional five more knots, said Bob Coffman, an American Airlines captain who has flown 777s. He said the briefing raises an important question: “Why was the plane going so slow?”

The plane’s Pratt & Whitney engines were on idle, Hersman said. The normal procedure in the Boeing 777, a wide-body

jet, would be to use the autopilot and the throttle to provide power to the engine all the way through to landing, Coffman said.

There was no indication in the discussions between the pilots and the air traffic controllers that there were problems with the aircraft.

Among the questions investigators are trying to answer was what, if any, role the deactivation of a ground-based landing guidance system played in the crash. Such systems help pilots land, especially at airports like San Francisco where fog can make landing challenging.

Altogether, 305 of the 307 people aboard made it out alive in what survivors and rescuers described as nothing less than astonishing after a frightful scene of fire burning inside the fuselage, pieces of the aircraft scattered across the runway and people fleeing for their lives.

The flight originated in Shanghai, China, stopped over in Seoul, South Korea, before making the nearly 11-hour trip to San Francisco. The South Korea-based airline said four South Korean pilots were on board, three of whom were described as “skilled.”

Among the travellers were citizens of China, South Korean, the United States, Canada, India, Japan, Vietnam and France. There were at least 70 Chinese students and teachers heading to summer camps, according to Chinese authorities.

As the plane approached the runway under clear skies—a luxury at an airport and city known for intense fog—people in nearby communities could see the aircraft was flying low and swaying erratically from side to side.

On board, Fei Xiong, from China, was travelling to California so she could take her 8-year-old son to Disneyland.

The pair was sitting in the back half of the plane. Xiong said her son sensed something was wrong.

“My son told me: ‘The plane will fall down, it’s too close to the sea,”‘ she said. “I told him: ‘Baby, it’s OK, we’ll be fine.”‘ On audio recordings from the air traffic tower, controllers

PHOTO FROM CHRISTIANPOST.COM

told all pilots in other planes to stay put after the crash. “All runways are closed. Airport is closed. San Francisco tower,” said one controller.

At one point, the pilot of a United Airlines plane radioed.

“We see people ... that need immediate attention,” the pilot said. “They are alive and walking around.”

“Think you said people are just walking outside the airplane right now?” the controller replied.

“Yes,” answered the pilot of United Flight 885. “Some people, it looks like, are struggling.”

When the plane hit the ground, oxygen masks dropped down, said Xu Da, a product manager at an Internet company in Hangzhou, China, who was sitting with his wife and teenage son near the back of the plane.

When he stood up, he said he could see sparking—perhaps from exposed electrical wires.

He turned and could see the tail where the galley was torn away, leaving a gaping hole through which they could see www.canadianinquirer.net

the runway. Once on the tarmac, they watched the plane catch fire, and firefighters hose it down.

“I just feel lucky,” said Xu, whose family suffered some cuts and have neck and back pain.

In the chaotic moments after the landing, when baggage was tumbling from the overhead bins onto passengers and people all around her were screaming, Wen Zhang grabbed her 4-year-old son, who hit the seat in front of him and broke his leg.

Spotting a hole at the back of the jumbo jet where the bathroom had been, she carried her boy to safety.

“I had no time to be scared,” she said.

At the wreckage, police officers were throwing utility knives up to crew members inside the burning wreckage so they could cut away passengers’ seat belts. Passengers jumped down emergency slides, escaping from billowing smoke that rose high above the bay.

Nearby, people who escaped

were dousing themselves with water from the bay, possibly to cool burn injuries, authorities said.

By the time the flames were out, much of the top of the fuselage had burned away. Inside The tail section was gone, with pieces of it scattered across the beginning of the runway. One engine was gone, and the other was no longer on the wing.

San Francisco Fire Department Chief Joanne HayesWhite said the two 16-year-old girls from China who died were found on either side of the plane. Investigators are trying to determine whether they were alive or dead when rescuers reached the scene.

“What we saw yesterday, most people will never see in their career,” Hayes-White said. ■ Lowy reported from Washington, D.C. With reports from Associated Press writers Terry Collins, Terry Chea and Sudhin Thanawala in San Francisco, David Koenig in Dallas and Louise Watt in Beijing.

World News

21 FRIDAY JULY 12, 2013

40 still missing...

Facebook pushes social search feature to all US English language users

BY BARBARA ORTUTAY The Associated Press NEW YORK—Users who may have grown frustrated with Facebook’s rudimentary search feature are getting an updated version designed to make it easier to find people, places and photos on the site.

Facebook unveiled its social search tool in January, but only made it available to a small fraction of its 1.1 billion users, as its engineers continued to tweak and test it. Over the next few weeks, starting on Monday, the company is rolling out the social search tool, called “Graph Search,” to everyone whose language is set to U.S. English.

Unlike searches on Google, which are good for finding specific things like roasted kale recipes or Mizuno running shoes, Facebook’s tool is most useful in unearthing information about your social circles. Graph Search lets you find friends who live in San Francisco who are

vegan. Friends of friends who live near you and like hiking.

Photos of your boyfriend taken before you met him in 2010.

Nearby restaurants that your friends like—and so on.

But soon after Facebook launched the tool, the Internet had a field day with less innocuous and more embarrassing queries, showing just how much information people reveal about themselves on the site, intentionally or not.

Care to find out which brand of condoms your friends prefer?

Graph Search might tell you.

While it is possible that some of those Facebook users are fully aware that what they’ve shared is easily searchable, it is likely that some are not. It’s easy to click “like” on a page and forget about it, and it’s even easier to assume that no one will search through your photos from party days at the Burning Man festival five years ago.

To avoid any unpleasantness, Facebook plans to notify users that it’s “getting easier

tied up. The brakes were secured. Somehow it got loose.”

Lauzon, the fire chief, said firefighters in a nearby community were called to a locomotive blaze on the same train a few hours before the derailment.

Lauzon said he could not provide additional details about that fire since it was in another jurisdiction. McGonigle confirmed the fire department showed up after the first engineer tied up and went to a local hotel. Someone later reported a fire.

“We know that one of our employees from our engineering department showed up at the same time to assist the fire department. Exactly what they did is being investigated so the engineer wasn’t the last man to touch that train, we know that, but we’re not sure what happened,” McGonigle said.

McGonigle said there was no reason to suspect any criminal or terror-related activity.

The train’s oil was being transported from North Dakota’s Bakken oil region to a refinery in New Brunswick.

Because of limited pipeline ca❰❰ 18

for people to find photos and other things you’ve shared with them” along with a reminder that they can check “who can see my stuff” under their privacy settings.

“The goal is to avoid bad surprises,” said Nicky Jackson Colaco, privacy and safety manager at Facebook. But she stressed Facebook’s view that the search tool “indexes information differently than we have ever been able to do before, in a really positive way.”

Facebook does not currently show users ads based on what they are searching for, but the company may do in the future. As Google has shown, it’s a lucrative business. Research firm eMarketer estimates that Google will take nearly 42 per cent of all U.S. digital ad spending this year, well above Facebook’s share of less than 7 per cent.

With its new search tool, Facebook is clearly trying to divert traffic and ad spending from its rival. Whether this will work will become more clear as more people begin using it. ■

pacity in the Bakken region and in Canada, oil producers are increasingly using railroads to transport much of the oil to refineries.

The Canadian Railway Association recently estimated that as many as 140,000 carloads of crude oil will be shipped on Canada’s tracks this year—up from just 500 carloads in 2009.

The Quebec disaster is the fourth freight train accident in Canada under investigation involving crude oil shipments since the beginning of the year.

Harper has called railroad transit “far more environmentally challenging” while trying to persuade the Obama administration to approve the controversial Keystone XL oil pipeline from Canada to the Gulf Coast.

“We think it is safe. We think we have a safe operation,” McGonigle said of carrying oil by rail. “No matter what mode of transportation you are going to have incidents. That’s been proven. This is an unfortunate incident.” ■ With reports from Associated Press writer Rob Gillies and Charmaine Noronha from Toronto.

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Immigration

FRIDAY JULY 12, 2013 22

ON THE MOVE

Celebrating Canada Day

BY FRANCES GRACE QUIDDAOEN AND LEO MARCO LUI Philippine Daily Inquirer WE’RE happy to offer to Philippine Canadian Inquirer readers this new column where we bring you up-to-date immigration and citizenship news and information, expert opinions, settlement resources and programs. Likewise, we’ll feature stories and insights on new immigrants’ life journeys and experiences in Canada.

Fittingly, we begin this column with accounts of Canada Day celebration last July 1st. It was a commemoration of Canada’s 146th year of gaining independence from England. July 1st was a bright and sunny day in Vancouver and Canada Place was where the action was. Thou-

sands of residents and tourists, many of them wearing Canada’s red and white colours trooped to this mammoth building situated on the Burrard Inlet waterfront of Vancouver. Events organizers and volunteers gave away miniature Canadian flags, of which many a women used as adornment on their hair. People gamely sported red maple leaf washable tattoos on their faces. It was definitely a day and night of fun with featured musical performances, sports shows, exhibits and from Canada’s army, navy and air forces; the Canada Day parade and the fireworks display.

Citizenship Ceremony

The special part of the annual celebration was the Citizenship Ceremony where 60 new Canadians, representing 30 countries, were granted citizenship, joined by participants who reaffirmed their citizenship in this heart-warming ceremony. The Citizenship ceremony is the final step in becoming a Canadian citizen, during which the

The Panganiban family, pictured here with Citizenship Judge Roy Wong, were among the nearly 1500 new Canadians sworn in during a special Canada Day Citizenship Ceremony that took place across Canada.

candidates take an oath, accept the rights and responsibilities of Canadian citizenship and receive their citizenship certificates. A permanent resident may be eligible for citizenship if he has lived in Canada for at least three years (1,045 days) out of 4 years immediately before filing the application.

Citizenship Judge Roy Wong, appointed Citizenship Judge for Vancouver in October 2012, presided over the ceremony

and oath- taking. In his speech, delivered alternately in Canada’s official languages- English and French, he welcomed the participants to the Canadian family, asking them why it was that they chose Canada. He cited some of the guarantees of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedom and said that, “ at the heart of Canadian citizenship is the willingness to reach out to others and this is seen in one’s commitment to

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volunteerism, the way we pull together in times of disasters and tragedies.” Indeed, volunteerism is one of the treasured Canadian values and this is reflected in the way it was a recurring theme in the other speakers’ speeches which also reminded Canadians of how blessed they are to live in one of the freest and blessed countries in the world.

Mr. Jason Kenney, Minister of Citizenship, Immigration

Since 1992

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Canada Immigration is constantly changing When you need professional help Please give us a call.

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Immigration

23 FRIDAY JULY 12, 2013

Francisco Panganiban receives his Canadian Citizenship Certificate along with a group of 60 new Canadians newly sworn in on Canada Day by Citizenship Judge Roy Wong.

A Canada Day stilt performer at Canada Place is all smiles entertaining the crowd and decorated from head to toe in maple leaf motifs.

and Multiculturalism, in a statement issued on Canada Day, said: “On this special day, we celebrate what it means to be Canadian by reflecting on our history, symbols, and institutions – those that define us as Canadians. We also acknowledge our shared rights and responsibilities as citizens.”

To welcome them into the Canadian Family, the 60 new Canadians received gifts of cultural access passes which allow the recipient special access to museums and historic sites and places for one year and discount on travels within Canada.

A Filipino Family’s Reunification

For Francisco and Jocelyn Panganiban and their two children, Gloriel, 13 and Francis,10, who came to Canada in 2007, last July 1st will always standout as a very memorable day in their lives.

That was when they took the final step in becoming Canadian citizens by participating in the citizenship ceremony held on Canada Day’s 146th year at Canada Place.

The family who hailed from Imus, Cavite first settled in Kamloops and then moved to Vancouver last year where they found the weather to be much better. In the Philippines, Francisco’s work as a draftsman for an international company doing glass wall façade had him being deployed to other parts of the world such as Dubai, Taiwan, Greece and Croatia, leaving behind his family in the Philippines. Jocelyn, who worked as a secretary for the same company, was worried that the children were growing up without seeing much of their father. In fact, when their youngest, Francis was born, Francisco was assigned in Dubai. She thus, welcomed it when Francisco had a chance to move to a new company to work in Canada as a federal

skilled worker in March 2007 as she and their two young children were able to join him immediately in August 2007 as landed immigrants. Since then, they’ve been bonding as a family and raising the kids together, something they were not able to do in the Philippines.

The family submitted their application for Canadian citizenship in December 2011 and feel that the wait was all worth it. Jocelyn, who now works as a cashier at the Real Canadian Superstore in Metrotown said she is very happy to be a Canadian, especially for her children, who have all the opportunities to develop their talents and skills. She believes that one of the advantages of having a Canadian passport is being able to travel with ease to other countries.

Federal Skilled Worker Program

Like Francisco, foreign workers could become a permanent resident of Canada by applying under the Federal Skilled Worker Program. On May 4, 2013, the new and improved program opened with a list of 24 occupations, most of which are for engineers and technologists, with an overall cap of 5,000 new applications until April 30, 2014, with a sub-cap of 300 applications in each of the 24 occupations. New applicants should meet the minimum language threshold and have an educational credential assessment prior to applying. ■ Questions on immigration and citizenship?

Ask Grace and Leo by sending your email at onthemovecolumn@gmail.com. Select questions are answered on this column.

Grace and Leo are both Regulated Immigration Consultants and members of the Immigration Consultants of Canada Regulatory Council

Jocelyn Panganiban and daughter Gloriel received their Canadian Citizenship Certificate at a special July 1st Citizenship Ceremony at Canada Place.

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Seen & Scenes

ASEAN GOLF

FRIDAY JULY 12, 2013 24

CALGAR

ASEAN GOLF held at the Meadows Garden, Pitt Meadows on July 6 with members from the Philippines, Malaysia, Vietnam, Singapore, Thailand, Myanmar, Laos, Brunei, Cambodia. Host country was Indonesia.

Sen. Tobias E Canada Day rence area co Member of P This was only celebratory lo servative Sen were the “Ta of Asian food Ontario and he briefly spo Filipino stage Theresa Lom General Man TV Internatio Also in photo

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

Please see related article on pages 22-23. Photos by Leo Marco Lui

Seen & Scenes

25 FRIDAY JULY 12, 2013

RY FLOODING

Enverga, Jr. (3rd from left) joins the Celebration of the Eglinton – Lawommunity of Toronto, hosted by Parliament Joe Oliver (4th from left). y one of the several Canada Day ong-weekend events that the Connator for Ontario joined in. Others aste of Asia” -- a three-day festival d, culture and heritage in Markham, the Scotiabank CHIN Picnic where oke before the audience at the e upon the invitation of Lenny and mbardi, President and Vice President/ nager, respectively of CHIN Radio/ onal – organizers of the annual event. o is Rosemer Enverga (2nd from left).

LUNCH WITH THE CONSULATE GENERAL

PCI and Juan TV CEO Alan Yong hosts a lunch for the Philippine Consulate General in Vancouver with Consul General Jose Ampeso, Deputy Consul General Anthony Mandap, PCI and Juan TV executives and PCI photographer Angelo Siglos in attendance.

TASTE OF ASIA Sen. Tobias Enverga, Jr. (7th from left) joins other officials from the three levels of government -- federal, Ontario provincial and the City of Markham, Ontario, as they prepare to cut the ceremonial ribbon marking the formal opening of the annual “Taste of Asia”. Now on its 11th year, the “Taste of Asia” is a three-day festival of Asian food, culture and heritage hosted by the Federation of Chinese Canadians in Markham, the Association of Progressive Muslims of Ontario and the City of Markham. The “Taste of Asia” was only one of the several Canada Day celebratory long-weekend events that the Conservative Senator for Ontario joined in. Others included the Eglinton – Lawrence Canada Day :Picnic and the Scotiabank CHIN Picnic where he briefly spoke before the audience at the Filipino stage upon the invitation of Lenny and Theresa Lombardi, President and Vice President/ General Manager, respectively, of CHIN Radio/TV International – organizers of the annual event.

Lenny Lombardi, President of CHIN Radio/ TV International, takes Sen. Tobias Enverga, Jr. around the CNE grounds during the Scotiabank CHIN Picnic, where the Conservative Senator for Ontario was invited to the annual event by Lenny and Theresa Lombardi, Vice President and General Manager of the multicultural/ multilingual radio and television station and speak briefly before the audience at the Filipino stage within the grounds. The Scotiabank CHIN Picnic was only one of the several Canada Day celebratory long-weekend events that Sen. Enverga, Jr. joined in. Others included the “Taste of Asia” – a three-day multicultural festival of Asian food, music and culture on Kennedy and Steeles Ave. E and the Eglinton – Lawrence Canada Day :Picnic, hosted by Joe Oliver, MP (C, Eglinton -Lawrence). www.canadianinquirer.net

Filipino-Canadian in Focus

FRIDAY JULY 12, 2013 26

FILIPINO-CANADIAN IN FOCUS

George Verdolaga

BY MELISSA REMULLABRIONES Philippine Canadian Inquirer “...I SEE myself at crossroads in my life, mapless, lacking bits of knowledge - then, the Moon breaks through, lights up the path before me...” - John Geddes, A Familiar Rain After growing a P200,000 (CAD$5000) a year business to P2,000,000 (CAD$50,000) in three years, George Verdolaga found himself at the crossroads.

He was an Economics graduate who had just generated some impressive growth figures with the business that he was running. However, he found himself yearning for something else.

After some soul searching and exploring many options, he let his inner-creativity transform his life.

The path

“It was a very long road that started with a simple dream. I had just discovered interior design eight years into running my business which had become a big success. I decided to explore it and take part-time classes, and after a year, I thought ‘I really like this’, which turned to ‘I think I’d love to do this for the rest of my life’, to passionate hunger: ‘I think I’d like to learn from the best around the world’.”

George did the hardest thing—move out of parents’ house, away from his tight-knit family—to embrace life abroad.

“It was kind of a bittersweet moment for me as I never expected to leave the Philippines.

I literally thought that I would live and die there. But to become an international brand, I needed to do it from a place that would help me grow as a professional and not let anything stand in my way,” he said. And he also decided to walk away from his P2 million business that was doing quite well.

Early on, George realized that in his business (or any business), the “Customer is King”. On his travels abroad, he’d noticed that good customer service was way below par in the Philippines compared to what you would find in other big cities. He decided to learn from other cultures that had a better grasp of how to take care

of their clients. “The Americans and Canadians are very good at [customer service].” He adds, “I also liked how people were more open and liberal abroad.

Here, no one usually gossips about people who are not in the room, and there is a lot of respect for privacy and for whatever you choose to do.” And of course, the top interior designers were in Europe or North America and he wanted to learn from them and be one of the best in the business.

Looking back, George says, “My life was never a straight line.

It was more like one of those ‘tell God your plans if you’d like to make Him laugh’ kind of things.

He’s always been revealing His plans to me without any advance notice and I’m constantly surprised at where I end up. I just trust in him that I’m headed in the right direction. That said, I do have goal sheets and business plans and things like that. I try not to leave things to chance as much as possible.”

New York, Milan, Vancouver

George started establishing his career as an interior designer in New York, and then Milan.

“What made this enterprise surprisingly ambitious is I knew no one—not a single employer—in these places. However, I did have an idea of how I was going to go around looking for work and I did eventually find jobs in New York (in 23 days of searching) and Milan (11 days).”

But it was in Vancouver (where he found a job in a month) that he chose to make his home 1999. It also became the launching pad for his company, Flowform Design Group Ltd., which he established in 2001.

Flowform

Flowform Design, a Vancouver company that has an annual income in the 6 figures, provides interior design consulting advice and teams up with general contractors to do kitchen and bathroom renovations. “It’s a 2-person company, but we hire up to 3 or 4 subcontractors to help me when I have major projects. We have anywhere from 10 to 15 clients per year and we work on residential renovation projects from as small as $30,000 to $1,000,000. We make sure to provide an excellent experience

by spending our clients’ money wisely and recommending design elements that reflect their personal tastes, “ George says.

Personalized approach is indeed the advantage of Flowform Design. George explains, “We believe that listening carefully to our clients as they express their needs and goals is important to ensuring a good working relationship and a positive outcome. We are focused on delivering quality on each and every one of our projects and in making sure that our clients are happy with the results of our work.”

Currently, Flowform Design has residential design projects in Vancouver’s West Side and Downtown areas, and George is hard at work on breaching the 7-figure per year barrier.

Like, Love, Trust

One important lesson that George learned in his entry into the world of business is that a person will hire a person he likes, loves or trusts. Hence, he advises entrepreneurs or would-be entrepreneurs to network, and to do it properly.

“Developing any business is a simple and straightforward matter that simply requires one to show up at business or casual networking events where people may (or may not) exchange business cards. From there, you just have to learn how to create relationships out of thin air. And that’s the whole trick, though. It took me several years to figure out how to do that as people generally do business with people that they know, like and trust.

“I joined a business networking organization that helped generate 70% of my business and that experience allowed me greater insights into how people build relationships. I was pretty social from a young age but I really didn’t understand how networking (in the true sense) worked. Most people think it’s simply a matter of exchanging contact information but it’s really more than that. It’s helping one another succeed and making a difference in the world as a result of what you do. And that’s the part most people don’t get, and what I had to learn myself as a businessperson. Once I understood that networking was a means to literally transform lives then it made me an influencer and connector, which enabled me www.canadianinquirer.net

George Verdolaga standing inside the SHAKESPEARE & COMPANY bookstore

to become known in the business and Filipino community,” he said.

Working with Canadian clients

“They’re just the same as any other type of client, I’d say. I think that if you think they have a problem with you, then the problem isn’t with them, it’s with you. That’s what made me a success with the Caucasians. I never once made an assumption that they had a problem dealing with someone who had brown skin. I think that if you carry yourself with confidence and dress like you’re ready to do business then the question of where you’re from (or why you have an accent) doesn’t even come into play. Most of the time, people think that other people have a problem with them but really there isn’t one,” George said.

He adds, “That said, Canadians are different in that they expect nothing but the best (‘pasensiya ka na’ or ‘puwede na iyan’ doesn’t work for them).

If they don’t understand, they’ll ask you bluntly. In other words, they don’t just nod their head and pretend to understand your instructions, which is a uniquely Asian (not just Filipino) trait.

And if they say they’ll show up, they’ll actually show up and not flake out. They don’t cancel at the last minute when something better comes up. And no really means no (no arm-twisting and guilt-tripping will get them to do what you want them to do, like in some cultures). I actually like dealing with them better as you know what you’re getting and they’re generally straight-shooters. There’s no ‘lagayan’ or hanky-panky when doing business which really takes out the stress.”

His message

George’s two biggest passions are teaching and helping people get out of their own way (yes,

you read it right). This led him to write several powerful books.

“I’ve written THE CONTRACTOR LIFESTYLE to help people learn how to think like an entrepreneur, even if they’re working for someone else. The reason for this is that the job, as we know it, is an extinct 20th century relic.

What people have are contracts that are simply automatically renewed every year but have a greater chance of being terminated as a result of competition from around the world. I wrote this book to help people create a safety net beneath them in case the plug was pulled and they find themselves out of work.

“I wrote THE JOB FARMER to show people the value of building connections with people throughout their careers or their business so that they never stop being in demand. I taught some important concepts using two characters, KOLO and MIIKU, both prehistoric cavemen, to show the difference in both their approaches to survival—one is a farmer while the other one is a hunter.

I had no experience writing dialogue or fiction at this point and am very thankful that I had a talented editorial and creative team at my disposal when I came up with this idea,” he says.

“I like helping people learn how to achieve everything they want out of life by networking with the people who can help them get to where they need to go,” George says, and he means it, doing everything he can to connect, inspire and guide the entrepreneur who seeks his help, and fast. ■ You can register for George’s EFFECTIVE NETWORKING FOR ENTREPRENEURS: FROM BUSINESS TO PRO (July 13, 2013 at YWCA Hotel on Beatty St.) via: http://www.georgeverdolaga.com/july13event/

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28

Travel

The smart traveler’s ABC’s

BY ANGIE DUARTE Philippine Canadian Inquirer ABC’s: basic building blocks of knowledge. Some of the first things we learn; vital to progress and growth.

I have put together my own ABC’s for traveling; rudimentary, almost basic tips learned from my experience as a travel writer, crucial for developing the “travel smarts”: Adventure; your sense of, that is. Don’t leave home without it! Change things up a bit, and be willing to try new things (all within the realm of reason and personal safety, of course).

Budget for your trip. Start saving up months in advance and budget wisely. Your trip should not put you in a lifetime of debt. Book in advance. Great deals are to be had when you book your trip and accommodations early.

Childproof your trip. This does not mean leave your kids behind. This means to take the necessary steps to ensure that the special needs and demands of travelling with children in tow are met beforehand.

This way, everyone can enjoy.

Discover and Document. Look at each destination with fresh eyes, ready to make new discoveries whenever possible. And document your journey: take photos, write things down, keep a travel diary. In this and age in which gadgets from cell phones to tablets enable you to snap it up and write it down, there is no excuse for not documenting your trip. A friendly reminder, however, your every move does not necessarily have to be broadcast on social media. Pick and choose what you post on avenues of social media to make your experience even

more special.

Explore. A great way to discover new and Exciting things when on your vacation.

Forget the office and your work as often as you can - if not entirely – when on vacation.

This is your time for Fun! Give back to the community you visit. It is always awesome to give back to the community by purchasing their local, indigenous products whenever possible. Keep an eye out for artisans’ work, local crafts, the like. These make for better souvenirs, tokens, and presents than the touristy stuff you find at airports and more commercialized places.

Heavy suitcases are a Hassle.

Pack wisely. Bring clothing and items appropriate to the destination (climate, activities, and other considerations).

I prefer to pack “wash and wear”

clothes that require no pressing, as well as items of clothing that can be rolled up, to save space. Always include a lightweight jacket or scarf in your suitcase or carry-on luggage; even the tropics can get windy and a tad chilly at night.

Incorporate activities for everyone in your Itinerary. Unless you are travelling alone, you need to make sure to Include something for everyone in your list of things to do and to see.

Jumpstart your day by getting up early as often as possible, especially if there is a lot on your itinerary. Besides, you do not want to miss out on the breakfast buffet than is generally included in your hotel room booking, now do you?

Knowledge is power. A bit of

online research prior to your departure can help you plan for the most efficient and adventure-filled itinerary possible.

Live it up, Leisurely, when you can; BUT…(see "M")...

Monitor your Money. There are few things worse than running out of money before your vacation is over. Make the Most of what you have, and remember, it doesn’t always take a lot of bucks to Make awesome vacation Memories.

New things await you! Dive into the local culture of your destination.

Optimism makes for a good traveling buddy. When unexpected challenges arise (like rain, when you had planned a full day on the beach), learn to be flexible, and believe that the next day will be better.

Prepare, and Plan Properly Prior to departure; and when you arrive at your destination,

make efforts to Preserve it. Be an eco-friendly traveler, wherever you go.

Quarrels are best avoided when on a trip. Do your best to avoid squabbles, especially when traveling with your family or friends. Keep things light, pleasant, enjoyable for all whenever possible.

Relax! Always leave room in your schedule for some Rest and Relaxation. You don’t want to get back home needing a vacation from your vacation.

Safety is always essential: keep safety tips in mind and observe them whenever possible.

Travel is an awesome gift!

Strive to be able to do it. There are places for every budget!

Unwind! Uptight travelers are often Unhappy travelers.

Vacation is a Valuable time for soul-searching (if alone), or family bonding. Put it to good use.

Weather is a key-player to your travel game plan. Do your best to research, anticipate, prepare for, and work around it, when need be.

X-ray machines at airports these days are more sophisticated than ever.

Do not attempt to bring contraband into any country or destination. Behind bars is not a good way to spend your precious and hardearned vacation time.

Yummy eats are integral to great vacations! Take the time to try some local fare; ask around for good restaurants, cafés, holein-the-wall food places, even street hawkers carts.

“Zip-A-Dee-DooDah, Zip-A-Dee-A! My, oh my, what a wonderful day!”

Let this be the soundtrack to your vacation. Sing it in your head; hum it to yourself at the start of each day to set things on the right track. ■

Travel

29 FRIDAY JULY 12, 2013

Spaces

BY APRIL SESCON Philippine Canadian Inquirer YOU ALL BUT crawled out of the cave and into sky—space— expanse—countryside. Breathe.

The stone cool under your feet.

Your heart thumping hard.

Muscles throbbed against skin.

Mud clung to you, thick around your feet, and your jeans were soaked and slimy and heavy.

You felt like you could sink into the earth.

You walked the winding road back to town. The wind sang against your skin as you clutched the ends of a shawl.

The town center had been invaded. The Labor Day contingent had arrived, as feared, two bus-loads of tourists crawling all over the square. You remembered how it was, way back when, how there was no pavement but raw, red earth. I was thirteen, you shared during lunch yesterday. We went up here, my dad and I, my cousin, too. You poked your spoon into the thick clump of yogurt served before you and went on about how the street outside

PHOTO BY JOJO NICDAO (FLICKR)

was nothing but dirt trail. You told your companion there were no inns. Just a handful of homes that rented out rooms to travelers, you recalled. You stayed at the seminary at the top of the hill, in a cabin, across from where a local actor was rumored to have been cooped up preparing for a role.

There were barely any bistros as well, you told your friend.

You took your meals in the cafeteria and had coffee with your

lunch. At noontime you wore sweaters, you said, digging into the cold yogurt, savoring its texture against the inside of your cheeks. *** The room you rented on the third floor was small. It was bare of furnishings except for the necessities. There were two beds. Linen curtains hung over the two windows that looked out to the neighbor’s backyard.

A crude cabinet housed your

www.canadianinquirer.net

belongings, and the walls were bare wood.

It was the first option that had emerged in sigh. A yellow house. Homey, unlike the budget hotels that had sprung up.

The owner was very forthcoming; his mother more so. She lived on the first floor. They had a TV set, and she told you, come down and watch TV, don’t be shy, she insisted, with her smile.

You arrived the day before, disfigured by the seven-hour

bus ride across the mountain terrain, and unfolding your weak knees, your joints creaked under the weight of luggage bulging with cold weather attire. It was summer, but you were in the mountains and it was supposed to be cold, you had pouted, tying the long, thick sleeves of your jacket around your waist.

Up ahead, the town square.

The sun poured heat and light on your surroundings almost as it did in the city. In this brightness you witnessed the changes: what used to be earth now buried under a concrete road; what used to be a broken line of compact, two-storey homes now a chain of restaurants, cafes, souvenir shops and inns. You spotted Internet cafes, the boys inside intent on killing things.

They’ll have a Starbucks the next time we visit, you quipped.

The place offered more of its charm in the evening. An hour before sunset. Already too dark for your camera, you put it safely in your pocket and took everything in unfiltered. You could see the sprawl of farmland just beyond the first row of houses, just around their pillars. Earth rippling with rice ❱❱ PAGE 30 Spaces

Travel

FRIDAY JULY 12, 2013 30

Fisher Mall: A shopping mall made more fashionable and “fishy”

BY KATHERINE MARFALTEVES Philippine Canadian Inquirer MANILA, Philippines—Why would a family in the fishing industry build a shopping mall?

Ray Del Rosario, President of the Mallers Management Corporation says that the move toward retail is a “journey both fascinating and mysterious to us all,” coming from a family of successful fishermen.

The Fisher Mall, named as such to pay homage to their forefathers, promises to deviate from the conventional “boxtype establishments” most malls are known for. Inspired by some of the world’s beautiful malls, the Del Rosarios assure that Filipino consumers would have a truly unique “malling” experience.

But how?

Find all. Be all. The tagline says it all.

The Del Rosarios want to cater to every need and want with a twist: a huge gaming arcade; augmented reality and a high-tech mobile app; a runway shows for fashionistas; a cinema with the 20th century feel; and the freshest fish from the supermarket.

“We are investing heavily in Filipino fashion. Fisher Mall will be a venue for fashionistas to mingle. There will be a fashion ramp where runway shows

PHOTO FROM OFFICIAL FACEBOOK PAGE

will be held on a regular basis,” says Moleen Del Rosario, President of Clothers Asia and wife of Obby Del Rosario.

Responding to the experimental and trendy tastes of Filipino fashionistas, the family will let Pinoys experience a taste of popular brands from the UK, Australia, US, Korea, and Europe.

Proving its status as the newest lifestyle and entertainment mall in the country, Fisher Mall will also have one of the biggest gaming arcades in the country, with 2,400-square meters dedicated to games.

Then there’s the cinema.

As huge movie buffs, Ray and his brothers conceptualized the “throwback feel like the ‘20s era’” cinema to make watching movies a big event to look forward to.

“We’re bringing back the days

when going to the cinema was a big deal, an event in itself. Of course, it helps that we all love to watch movies. In fact, we bond together by watching our favorite movies,” Ray says.

this one mountain alone. The cave you were about to enter was the largest of the three that they had opened to the tourists.

It was slippery at first. The ground stabbed at the air with rugged protrusions. You made your way down, around larger outcrops of rock, your hands grasping their slick sharp edges, palms pressing against the moss and guano that the bats had graciously dropped down from the ceiling. They seemed oblivious to your intrusion.

They rustled in unseen roosts overhead, hundreds of them.

Further in, the rocks turned into limestone. Your bare feet had more traction with this type.

You left your sandals in a crevice in the floor and proceeded,

the guide pointing to this rock formation, that rock formation; look at the pregnant lady on her back; this one is a turtle, a pawikan; that one, the king’s throne.

Your group continued to descend, limbs hauling torsos down steep hills of limestone, the whole body trying to find some semblance of balance on slick rock. You had to keep your eyes on the ground, though where there was none but space, or darkness between outcrops of rock, or pools of water glinting under the hard glow of the lamp, was where your gaze lingered, as if something in the inner earth was pulling you in.

You found yourself hanging from a wall, clutching a rope.

There was no ground to tread on,

The highlight

Fish straight from the port— you just can’t get any fresher than that.

Being in the fishing industry, the Del Rosarios promise its consumers that in as fast as 20 minutes, newly caught fish will be delivered to their supermarket every day.

“The fish will be the highlight of the supermarket. I promise you will be able to taste the difference when you buy direct from the source,” says Obby Del Rosario, President of the Fisherfoods Corporation.

Apart from the freshest fish

they can offer, Obby says that Fisher Mall will open as early as 7 in the morning. “We recognize the fact that our moms shop early for what they need for the whole day. That’s why we’re going to wake up early and be there for them.”

Triangle, Sta. Mesa Heights and the Scout areas, Timog and Roxas District, among others.

Upon completion

Its location is also as good as what it can offer.

It sits right at the heart of a busy thoroughfare along Quezon Avenue, corner Roosevelt Avenue (formerly Pantranco terminal).

Already accessible through public and private transportation, the mall’s management plans to provide terminals to serve commuters going to and from Farview, Quiapo and Muñoz and neighboring communities like Heroes Hills, West

When it opens on November 7 this year, the mall will have the following features: five shopping levels of the top brands in fashion and entertainment, a customercentric fashion department store, a “value-packed” supermarket , dining areas, five state-of-theart digital movie houses and a 2,4000-square meter arcade, one of the biggest in the country.

The 114,000-square-meter establishment was designed by the esteemed architectural firm Palafox and Associates.

“It’s a mall that has a more relaxed, more homey environment. We want everybody to feel welcome and have a good time,” Ray concludes. ■

only black, churning water, eager to lap you up. The lamplight throbbed against the limestone, and they burned a deep, hard gold. *** The bus back to the city was boarding. It was noon, but cloudy. You tried to wrench the window down but it was stuck.

Mountain air blew in, cold and brute against your cheeks. You felt your pores closing up, your lips turning blue.

The dawn journey from the city to the small town had been a cold trip too, but the sights had distracted you. Sunlight cast a soft misty glow to the mountains, clouds coiled and snail-inched their way across the slopes, flushed with light from behind.

On the trip back, the same

clouds condensed into a solid wall of white. Everything disappeared. You looked out the window and saw only this for miles.

Whole mountains missing. This behemoth thing looming up beyond the sheer drop-off to your right, feet from the patches of cabbage you passed by..

Heaven colliding with earth; or claiming the earth, you thought, for a moment.

You imagined falling. There was nothing there, it seemed; no mountainside to slam against your reckless falling mass. To fall would be simply to fall, space taking you in. The wind singing against your skin.

You closed your eyes as the bus hurtled down the steep mountain terrain. ■

Strategic location

Spaces... terraces, sloping from backyards to plunge down the mountainside and spill from where it ended, out into the open air; rock formations; pine needles whipping in wind, their dead on the soil: their smell.

There was something about all that space. The stretch of farmland, the sky. The cavities in the mountains drew you in, emptied you out. *** The cave spread like a growing stain in your sight as step by step you lowered yourself into its maw. The guide was already at the foot of the crude cement steps, pumping the gas lamp until it flared. A network of about sixty caves, he said, puncture through ❰❰ 29

www.canadianinquirer.net

Travel

31 FRIDAY JULY 12, 2013

Experiences over possessions

BY MELISSA REMULLABRIONES Philippine Canadian Inquirer A FRIEND of my husband asked me how in the world I do not own any Louis Vuitton, Prada, Tod’s, Burberry or Chanel bag, the carry-on status symbol of choice for the modern woman.

I had to smile.

Okay. I have to admit that I am not immune to their charms. If anything, I love soft leather, and I certainly can appreciate wonderful craftsmanship. The ooohs and aaahs of women who realize what it is, is also a great incentive, I will not lie.

But I never really felt the urge to whip out my credit card so that I can have it in my arms, never been to the point of really considering buying, never felt for it that urgent fire that one gets when one wants something, and now. Really.

Because, internally, I could not justify its cost. I do not understand why in the world it would have to cost an arm and a leg, or why in the world I had to have it just because everyone else has it.

mistresses.)

I would rather put my money in the stock market, or invest it in a business, or …

Let’s do that again.

While I would put my money in the stock market, or invest it in a business, I will entertain the thought of travel too (say, 70 percent of the time).

Because show me pictures of faraway places—snow capped mountains, private villas with a butler (at half the price), lodges in deep brown and adorned with elk antlers, being massaged into oblivion, having a romantic candlelit dinner with only the white sand, sparkling and beautiful, and the lullaby of the sea for company—would spark a yes from me and I would play with money and dates in my head until I could justify going.

That is my thing.

I found out that my thing is the in thing now (post-recession).

A New York Times article that said people are happier when they spend money on experiences rather than material things. If I can quote: New studies of consumption and happiness show, for instance, that people are happier when

plan to buy long before they buy it, and when they stop trying to outdo the Joneses….

If they are creating memories rather than just collecting stuff.

Experiences over possessions.

The article actually started with the story of a couple who went to the extreme of limiting their possessions to just 100 things and then giving everything else away (and in the process, eliminating their $30,000 debt).

Amazing.

They found out the pleasure of owning do not last very long.

But a trip, a night at the theatre, adult ballet lessons, sleeping in with the kids, a Saturday night dinner with the whole family, even though fraught with little fights or inconveniences or little mishaps, would seem rose-colored when looked at through the (thankfully) hazy veil of memory.

I do not want to say never because I do not know whether I will succumb to a designer bag in the future (maybe when they invent a bag that can double as something else?). But having what I have, knowing what I know, and feeling what I feel, I am oddly glad too, in a way. ■

Ways to Reduce the Cost of Airfare

BY ANDREA WOROCH

a credit or book the trip if you're holding out for a better deal.

Wake Up Early

Compare Airports

The time you fly can impact the cost of your flight significantly.

Waking up before dawn or catching a late-night redeye may get you the cheapest flight of the day.

For example, a departing Southwest flight from Denver to Spokane at 8:05 a.m. costs $148, while the flight that leaves at 10:20 a.m. costs nearly $50 more ($196).

Search One Ways Get a Credit Card

It's important to sign up for an airline's frequent flyer program, but just as important to find a credit card that offers award trips. Most credit card companies offer mileage points for use toward flights, hotels and even car rentals. Airline-specific credit cards, like the United MileagePlus Visa or Frontier World MasterCard, enable you to earn miles for everyday purchases.

Look for Discount Gift Cards

Pick up a few discount travel gift cards from sites like GiftCardGranny.com to save on airfare. For instance, you can find discounts of up to 15 percent on Frontier Airlines gift cards and 8 percent on American Airlines.

Shop for Flights on Tuesday

According to FareCompare. com, booking flights at 3:00 p.m.

ET Tuesday afternoon is your best chance to find the cheapest airfare.

Since more airlines bid for flights on Mondays and companies are busy booking their business travelers, less expensive flights abound on Tuesday and Wednesday.

Travel Midweek

(Hubby said that women buy bags for other women—those who can appreciate it—and it is the wanting to be the envy of that other woman that drives many a woman into bankruptcy… I told him maybe it is the same for men, except for them, it is cars, or trophy

Flight prices peak around the weekend as business travelers fly home and leisure travelers escape for a short getaway or vacation.

A departing flight from Denver to Las Vegas costs $83.99 when leaving on Wednesday, while the return flight on Sunday rings in at $205. Depart one day later on Monday and the fare drops to $124.

Track Flight Price Drops

Some airlines like Southwest will issue you an airline credit if your itinerary drops in price after you book it. Yapta.com will alert you when your itinerary drops in price so you can request

t h e y spend money on experiences instead of material objects, when they relish what they www.canadianinquirer.net

You might assume smaller airports with limited flights will always have costlier airfare, but this is not always the case.

With limited schedules, these airports can't accommodate all travelers, making select flights and trips in less demand and therefore less expensive.

When you're flying to and from the same city, you may limit your search to roundtrip flights. However, booking one way flights on different airlines may get you a better deal in some cases. Plus, it's easier to redeem miles on oneway flights because the cost of one leg is significantly less than the cost of a roundtrip flight.

Don't Check Bags

You can save $50 for a roundtrip flight if you don't check a bag and even more if you were planning to check multiple bags. Pack light with a carry on or pick an airline like Southwest or JetBlue that offers a free checked bag (or two, in the case of Southwest).

Book with Airlines Directly

I always recommend comparing prices and schedules with a search engine like Kayak, but don't forget to search airlines separately. Airlines like Southwest don't allow their airfare to be posted to third-party sites, so you could overlook a better deal.

What's more, buying directly from the airline will reduce the hassle associated with dealing with a third party in cases of flight changes or cancellations. ■ Andrea Woroch is a nationally-recognized consumer and money-saving expert who helps consumers live on less without radically changing their lifestyles. From smart spending tips to personal finance advice, Andrea transforms everyday consumers into savvy shoppers.

She has been featured among top news outlets such as Good Morning America, NBC's Today, MSNBC, New York Times, Kiplinger Personal Finance, CNNMoney and many more.

You can follow her on Twitter for daily savings advice and tips.

FRIDAY JULY 12, 2013

32

Entertainment

FOR YOUR ENTERTAINMENT, CANADA!

To KISS or not to KISS…

BY BABES NEWLAND

IT WAS a night of faces painted in black and white, flamboyant stage costumes, gigantic robotic tarantula, stage-on-fire, flame-throwing pyrotechnics, phenomenal rock guitar player Paul Stanley in aerial suspension to reach the epicenter of Rogers Arena… oh, what a night of surreal musical entertainment. It was dope!

At first I didn’t know what I was getting myself into. But last weekend’s KISS Concert at the Rogers Arena virtually turned the air into a fab and glam New Year’s Eve frenzy. It was epic. After all, KISS is regarded as one of the most influential rock bands of all-time.

The group kicked off their 2013 North American summer tour in support of their 20th studio album, “Monster”, which is set to come out in October. The

12-song album features collaborations from all the famed four members in an attempt to prove to one and sundry that KISS is very much on top of its game.

And it only got better for me watching KISS for the very first time. For one thing, I never realized that some of all-time hit rock songs that I grew up in were from their discs circa 70’s and 80’s Destroyer and Creatures of the Night, respectively.

And the band’s roster of hits that include Beth, Rock and Roll All Nite, Detroit Rock City and Shout It Out Loud. What really set this effervescent group apart from the rest is not just one but all four of them literally shine as ONE. And they are very “authentic”. Not even most popular member Gene Simmons can single handedly claim the fame all to himself alone.

KISS has proven that if you aim for something, aim BIG, aim HIGH. They don’t pretend to be something they’re not. And after 40 years, it doesn’t get better than their album Mon-

ster, or KISS, for that matter.

They are here to stay ready to kick the behinds of any young rock pretenders out there. At this point in their career, KISS can live up to their own legend.

Agot Isidro sees a shrink–so what?

BY MARINEL R. CRUZ Philippine Daily Inquirer “I GO TO a psychiatrist,” confessed actress Agot Isidro, who plays a person afflicted with the mental illness schizophrenia in her latest film project.

“I’ve been very vocal about [psychotherapy]. One shouldn’t be ashamed to admit that one needs help,” Isidro told the INQUIRER during a visit to the set of the Alvin Yapan drama film “Anino ng Kahapon” at Veteran Memorial Medical Center in Quezon City.

Erase stigma

Isidro hopes the movie can

help erase the stigma of mental disorder. “Schizophrenia should be treated like any other disease—diabetes, for example— except that this happens inside a person’s head. He hears voices and sees things that others don’t see. To him, these are valid. People should understand that.”

“Anino ng Kahapon” is about a family dealing with the challenges of a member afflicted with schizophrenia. When Ed (TJ Trinidad) flies to the Middle East to work, he leaves behind Irene (Isidro) and their young son Brian (Carl Acosta) in the care of his brother Carlo (Carlo Cruz) and mother Flor (Upeng Galang). Ed’s departure triggers Irene’s condition.

Difficult scene

“The [test] is to portray the character as honestly and as truthfully as possible, without going overboard or appearing like you’re crazy,” Isidro explained. “There’s this really difficult scene ... the people around me were worried because I couldn’t stop shaking and sobbing afterwards.”

Award-winning director Yapan (“Ang Panggagahasa Kay Fe,” “Ang Sayaw ng Dalawang Kaliwang Paa”) said the goal of the film was to educate people about schizophrenia as an illness that was manageable and if detected early enough, treatable. To learn more about it, Yapan and his production team

The front-act group of the concert didn’t pale in comparison either--GuestsShineDown did not disappoint. They were actually really good. KISS members are Gene Simmons (bass/

vocals), Paul Stanley (vocals/ guitar), Tommy Thayer (guitar/ vocals) and Eric Singer (drums/ vocals).

visited National Center for Mental Health in Mandaluyong City.

“We spoke with the hospital director, who said that as much as he wanted to improve the lives of the patients there, he could do only so much with the limited budget coming from the government,” Yapan said.

Trinidad was part of the team that visited the hospital. He related, “I didn’t know beforehand that there was no cure for the illness—that was the sad truth. But I also learned that if schizophrenia is detected early, before a patient totally loses himself, doctors can still make him a functioning human being who may even be able to contribute to the community.”

bers watched videos of actual schizophrenic patients being interviewed, as well as their families and the doctors conducting the treatment.

Yapan said that, as much as the film centers on Irene’s illness, it also tackles the schizophrenia of a nation. He explained: “Irene meets rebels from during the time of martial law. They’ve come back to seek help from her. The film is also a commentary on the reaction of Filipinos whenever asked who among the past Philippine presidents they want to return to power. ” “Anino ng Kahapon” was written by Yapan, with Alemberg Ang as producer and Gay Ace Domingo as associate producer. It will be released commercially in time for Mental Health Month in October. ■

National level

Isidro said the cast mem-

babescastronewland@gmail.com

Entertainment

33 FRIDAY JULY 12, 2013

Dolphy was the sunshine of her life After turning her back on the limelight, sometime actress Lotis Key pursues an enduring romance with the written word

BY BAYANI SAN DIEGO JR. Philippine Daily Inquirer

Swiss-Filipino actress/model Sarah Lahbati took to twitter to accuse Annette Gozon-Abrogar of GMA of “under-the-table deals” with another talent management group. Gozon-Abrogar filed a libel case against the actress in January.

FACEBOOK PHOTO

GMA exec wants to teach Sarah Lahbati a lesson

BY MARINEL R. CRUZ Philippine Daily Inquirer “THINK before you click.”

This was the lesson that GMA 7 executive Annette Gozon-Abrogar said she wanted former Kapuso contract artist Sarah Lahbati to learn when she filed a libel case against the latter in January.

“I did it because I didn’t want it to happen to other people,” Abrogar said during GMA Artist Center’s digital media launch on July 2. “With all the social media websites that we have now, it’s so easy to post comments. People think social media is not governed by criminal law in the Philippines, but it is. I want them to know this.”

In January, on her Twitter account, Lahbati accused Abrogar of engaging in “under-the-table deals” with another talent management group. In June, the Makati City Prosecutor’s Office announced that it found probable cause to charge Lahbati with libel.

“In GMA 7, we have this campaign that says ‘Think before you click.’ Social-media [websites] are very powerful venues … We teach our artists to be responsible and to set a good example to other people on how to use these in positive ways,” Abrogar told the Philippine Daily Inquirer.

Strong case

The network executive added: “I’m not very active on the Internet but whenever

SHE WAS reluctant to reminisce about her time as an actress—and it was understandable. Those heady days in the limelight, once a pivotal part of Lotis Key’s life, now seem a lifetime away.

Although martial-law babies are sure to remember her as one of Comedy King Dolphy’s loveliest leading ladies, Lotis has successfully reinvented herself as book author.

She has authored two eBooks—“A Thing Devoted” and “The Song of the Tree.” She also writes a blog (www.lotiskey.com), one filled with humorous, heartfelt and insightful recollections.

This reinvention is but the latest in a life that has witnessed numerous transformations or, as she puts it, “adventures” since leaving the country in the 1980s.

In her official blog bio, she describes herself as “a former horse breeder, tropical-forest tour guide, restaurateur, third-world church planter [who also] worked in an orphanage and ran

I go online, I read about different cases of cyberbullying. Social media should be used for the good. It’s dangerous to not lay down rules for using them.”

Abrogar said she would welcome a sitdown with Lahbati, “but [she needs] to know what is right. People in print media, for example, know [that they should] not go beyond the bounds of propriety, or to intentionally damage another person’s reputation. This should also hold true in social media.”

Abrogar, also a lawyer, however noted, “The libel law in social media is still being developed.”

Yet, she is confident she has a strong case. “As a lawyer, I’m well aware of the facts of the case and what laws should be applied,” she pointed out. “I’m not trying to locate her (Lahbati). It’s been said that she’s in Switzerland. The case is for arraignment so if ever she’s here in Manila, she has to appear in court and post bail.”

On their recently launched website, gmanetwork.com/artistcenter, which is dedicated to the Kapuso’s talent management arm, Abrogar said its aim “is to give information about our artists, but not to encourage people to react.

This website is controlled and managed

by GMA 7, which can easily remove any comments … deemed below the belt. It’s more of a content website.”

She said the website encourages Kapuso artists to have a stronger presence online. “That’s why we’ve been guiding our talents on how to use the Internet and social media sites properly.” ■ www.canadianinquirer.net

a ministry that put inner-city children through school.”

Lotis founded Messengers, a Christian theater group based in Minneapolis. “For 12 years, the Messengers toured the United States, Canada and Asia. We visited the Philippines once and had a presentation at Malacañang.”

Moving from acting to producing and directing was nothing less than a paradigm shift, she said. “For one job, you should be a princess; for the other, a slave.” As an actress, she clarified, all she needed to do was show up knowing her lines. Once she had “mastered” those twin tasks, “I could just sit in a corner reading while getting a pedicure.”

Being a producer/director required multitasking skills and zero vanity. “I was in charge of everything—writing, choreography, line rehearsals, advertising, casting, set construction, costumes, travel logistics. I was babysitter, crying shoulder, ego massager.”

It was far from glamorous. “I fed the hungry and washed the dishes after. I never took a bow, never received compli❱❱ PAGE 34 Dolphy was

Entertainment

FRIDAY JULY 12, 2013 34

Dolphy was... ments. Those are for the actors. So why did I do it? I am intensely visionary. Plus, I always like being the head, not the tail.”

She could never resist the lure of the stage. She started acting in school plays, in then St. Paul College Manila, at age 12. “I worked with (educator and playwright) Onofre R. Pagsanghan,” Lotis recalled. ❰❰ 33

Influential figure

Around the same time, the young Lotis Melisande, who had just arrived from the US with her sister and mother, met an influential figure in her life— Father James Reuter, Philippine performance arts pioneer.

Her mother had just divorced Lotis’ “tall, golden-haired, blueeyed” American father. The girl found a surrogate dad in the Jesuit priest who was himself tall, blond and blueeyed.

As she wrote in her blog: “[Fr. Reuter] encouraged me to speak and communicate my thoughts. He pushed me to develop my voice. He made me understand that, even if I didn’t fit in, I was valuable to him.”

Although she never acted in the Jesuit’s plays, “he ran the competition where I became Juliet of the Philippines. (Actor-singer) Cocoy Laurel was my [Romeo].”

Between convent school and stage work, she joined and placed second runner-up in the 1967 Binibining Pilipinas pageant, the year Pilar Pilapil won the crown. “I was 13 and had to pass for 18.” (The winner, it turned out, was underaged, too.)

Lotis’ big movie break came four years later, via Lino Brocka’s “Stardoom” in 1971. Brocka was “my best friend when we were young.” They worked under Cecile Guidote (now Alvarez) in the Philippine Educational Theater Association.

“It was a wonderful, crazy time,” Lotis recalled. Brocka, who would be National Artist years later, “could talk your ears off,” she said. “After rehearsals, I would patiently listen for hours while Lino told mehis stories, acting out all the parts.”

Even then, she knew her buddy was destined for greatness.

“He was a total unknown... when he confided in me his dream to direct a film that he would call ‘Tinimbang Ka Ngunit Kulang.’

It sounded weird and gory and

captivating. I told him it would be a big movie, and would make him famous.”

She did “Ang Mahiwagang Daigdig ni Pedro Penduko,” directed by another friend, Celso Ad. Castillo in 1973.

Hollywood movies

That same year, she made two Hollywood movies with another future National Artist, Eddie Romero—“Black Mama, White Mama” and “The Woman Hunt.”

“Direk Eddie often [recruited] me as an extra, just for fun,” she said. “He was a family friend. During World War II, he was incarcerated with my mother’s first husband in Fort Santiago.”

She said she did “Stardoom” for the love of Brocka. “He practically begged me to play his villain. I didn’t even get paid... and then well, somehow I met Dolphy and...” And we’re getting ahead of the story. Although it sounds as if “Stardoom” irrevocably altered the course of her life, she actually met Dolphy when she was 15. “I mademyfirst movie with him (‘Fung Ku’ in 1973) long after [that],” she said.

The popular comedian had been invited to watch a school play where Lotis was in the cast. She related: “We were introduced backstage. I was eating chocolate cake. Later, he approached my mother to ask if I could be his leading lady in his next movie. I was 15; my mom, of course, refused.”

Although they wouldn’t see each other for a while after that, Dolphy sent a chocolate cake on her birthday “every year, for the next several years.”

After “Stardoom,” she remembered, “Someone invited me to a dinner party and Dolphy was the host.”

Lotis was clueless about local show biz at the time. “All I knew about him was his name.

I thanked him for the chocolate cakes. He said I could have one every day, if I made a movie called ‘ Fung Ku’ with him. Naturally, I said yes.”

She made several movies with Dolphy from 1973 to 1980— from “Biyenan Ko ang Aking Anak” and “Captain Barbell” to “Darna Kuno” and “Max en Jess.” From mere screen partner, he became “the sunshine of my life.”

When Dolphy passed away

Lotis Key, best known as the Comedy King’s leading lady in “Captain Barbell” (1973), “Kung Fu” (1973), “Darna, Kuno?”

(1979), and “Max En Jess” (1979), among others. With up to 85 films under her belt, the once-80s actress found her calling as a Christian writer.

FACEBOOK PHOTO

on July 10 last year, Lotis was quoted in a TV interview as saying: “Somewhere in time, we’ll always be connected—two giggling kids in blue jeans. In my old age now, I think of you and smile.”

In the Dolphy biography “Hindi Ko Ito Narating MagIsa,” by Bibeth Orteza, Lotis said she left the Philippines because of “an offer to work with horses in the Australian outback.” After that, she moved back to the US, where she now resides with her husband of 30 years.

In her early years there, she signed up with talent agencies and did TV and radio commercials, TV programs and movies.

Most notably, she played a nun in the Christian Slater-Marisa Tomei movie “Untamed Heart,” directed by Tony Bill, in 1993.

movie actors are no better looking… than anyone else. They’re not mesmerizing. They don’t glow in the dark. They just photograph better.”

With the spell broken, her decision to leave the biz for other fields seemed less daunting. “I wanted to see what else I could do in the big, bad world. Making movies was a bit too much fun,” she confessed. “I became restless about applying myself to the process of growing up.”

Thus was rekindled a lifelong romance with the written word.

Shifting from collaborative undertakings, like theater, to the more solitary endeavor that is writing proved effortless for Lotis. “Although I can enjoy people and high chaos, I am a loner by nature,” she admitted.

No dark secrets

Memorable

She had just a “teensy part” in the Hollywood movie, she demurred, and said it was memorable only because it helped her secure a Screen Actors’ Guild card.

She recalled getting to talk with Slater on the set. “On and off for three days, and I didn’t realize it was him!” she quipped. “Hewas hanging out on the set… he brought a dog… and because he always stood near the director, I thought he was the dog walker.”

That chance interaction with the Hollywood actor led to a belated realization: “Almost all my life, people have been disappointed when they meet me in person. I’m never as pretty as they think I should be. Never as tall. Never as fair-skinned.”

Blame the silver screen. “Let mesay now that, in person, www.canadianinquirer.net

“My life has been filled with a lot of enchanting people, but I’m not at all that interesting myself. I have no dark secrets, no skeletons in my closet, no horrifying secrets.”

If she had something to hide, she volunteered, “It’s that I’m not a very exciting person.” The anxiety about disappointing people persists. “I’m fairly quiet and reserved. Unless it’s for a visionary project, you can hardly drag me out of the house,” she said. “I write full time now. My work is available on Amazon, Barnes and Noble, Kobo and various other online sellers.”

She called herself an “indie crossover Christian novelist... my fiction rides along theological lines, even when it doesn’t talk directly about God.” She has always been “deeply interested” in theology. “What does God want? Where did

He come from? Does He care about us? And if He does, why do bad things happen? A common thread in my stories is the human struggle to trust God through personal pain. I love to write about ordinary people trying to survive life while hanging on to a belief that [out there] somewhere is a God who cares.”

She finds it fascinating that storytelling, an ancient art form, has survived in this hightech age. “eBooks are amazing,” she said. “No paper, no ink, no printing, shipping and storage costs; no portability issues. No middleman between author and readers.”

She’s not saying that eBooks are better than paperbacks.

“I don’t think printed books will disappear, but perhaps they will become like [vinyl] albums.

Some people will still play and collect them as reminders of another time.”

Speaking of which, what keeps her coming back (twice a year) to the Philippines? In a blog post, she rhapsodized about her mother’s country: “There is no other place in the galaxy where my highly developed sense of the ridiculous can be so perfectly exercised. No other place where, if I died, it would be from laughing.”

Yes, another enduring love affair. “It’s because of the people—ridiculously funny, intuitive, clever, resourceful. You don’t meet people like Filipinos anywhere else. No one understands kuwentuhan, food, and the complexity of life like a Filipino. No one is related to everyone else like a Filipino. We’ve heard of six degrees of separation; in the Philippines, there are only two degrees.” ■

Entertainment

35 FRIDAY JULY 12, 2013

Celine Dion helps set up fellow French Canadian songstress in Las Vegas Strip residency

‘DESPICABLE ME 2’ TOPS ‘RANGER’ WITH $83.5 MILLION

BY MICHELLE RINDELS The Associated Press LAS VEGAS—Perched atop the performer hierarchy in Las Vegas, where she holds court in the Caesars Palace Colosseum, five-time Grammy winner Celine Dion could quite easily sit on her laurels.

But the 45-year-old mother of three is using her influence on new projects, working on a new album due out in October and co-producing the show of a fellow French Canadian songstress setting up shop across the street at Bally's.

“I'm not looking to make friends in the business because I want to do my job, I want to have a good time and go home to my family,” Dion said in a recent interview with The Associated Press, sitting on stage next to a protege with whom she casually chatted in French. “But Veronic—it's a different scenario. I'm not quite sure why. I want her to be my friend. I love her. I respect her very, very much.”

Veronic DiCaire—a winsome blonde from Ontario with boundless energy and just a wisp of an accent— previously opened for Dion during a 2008 tour stop in Montreal. In late June, she launched a two-month run of “Veronic Voices,” in which she impersonates 50 female artists ranging from Whitney Houston to Carrie Underwood and Lady Gaga.

In a city where it's hard to stroll the sidewalk without running into a Michael Jackson or Elvis impressionist, DiCaire's struggle will be rising above the stigmatized title of impersonator— something Dion said DiCaire can do because she “becomes” her characters.

“You've seen impersonators, you've seen men doing women, and women doing men,” Dion said. “Sometimes it's funny, and sometimes it's so exaggerated. We've seen it all. With Veronic it's very, very different.”

DiCaire has a devoted Frenchspeaking following after living in France, but her Vegas show is her breakout into the Anglophone world.

ENTERTAINMENT BRIEFS

NEW YORK—Disney’s “The Lone Ranger” got stampeded by the kind of movie the company built its reputation on: an animated crowdpleaser. Universal’s “Despicable Me 2” earned $83.5 million over the weekend, a robust opening for the 3-D animated sequel. It came at the expense of the Johnny Depp Western, which opened far below expectations with $29.2 million, making it one of the summer’s biggest flops.

STATUE OF COLIN FIRTH’S MR. DARCY RISES FROM LAKE LONDON—It’s Colin Firth, but not as we know him. He’s 12 feet (3.7 metres) tall and made of fiberglass. A statue of brooding Mr. Darcy, the character played by Firth in “Pride and Prejudice’’ has been installed in London’s Serpentine lake.

Véronic Dicaire imitating Madonna at a Celine Dion concert PHOTO FROM WIKIMEDIA COMMONS

Between summoning the big voice of Amy Winehouse, mimicking the snappy stage gestures of her patroness Dion, and overdoing a Taylor Swift twang, she takes on a wide-eyed, country-girl-meets-big-city persona, at one point offering theself-deprecating quip “pardon my French” when she stumbled over her words.

If the show doesn't take off, it won't be for lack of a mentor. Dion wrote the textbook on creating a Vegas brand, filling up her 4,000-seat auditorium since she initially debuted there in 2003 and disproving doubters who wrote Sin City off as a retirement community for fading stars.

“Critics said, 'Oh, my God, the Titanic's going to sink again, she's going to finish her career here,”' Dion recalled. “We took a chance. It worked really well for us.

“I don't have to be here. The reason why I'm here is because I'm really enjoying being here,” she added.

The Vegas appeal, Dion said, is skipping the exhausting tour schedule and going home every night to her producer husband and three boys:

12-year-old Rene Charles and twin 2-year-olds Eddy and Nelson.

The youngest ones are named after heroes—Eddy for French lyricist Eddy Marnay, whom Dion describes as her dad in show business, and Nelson for Nelson Mandela the ailing, 94-year-old former president of South Africa.

“We met with Mr. Mandela. It was a very amazing, privileged moment,” she said of the man credited with helping end apartheid. “We both thought it's a hero name ... Nelson Mandela was representing something so positive and so grand.”

Apart from duties as mom and mentor, Dion plans to release her first English album in six years this fall. Challenged to keep things fresh after three decades of recording, she said, it includes some unexpected collaborations, including one with R&B artist Ne-Yo. “The producers and the songwriters kind of proposed, again, amazing songs to me, and I got excited again,” she said. “The whole project was extraordinary.” ■

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MARIAH CAREY HOSPITALIZED AFTER INJURING SHOULDER AT MUSIC VIDEO SHOOT LATE SUNDAY NEW YORK—Mariah Carey is in the hospital for a shoulder injury, says the pop star’s representative. The singer went to the hospital in New York late Sunday after injuring her shoulder. Her rep adds Monday that “doctors reset her shoulder” and that “she is fine.” Carey was filming a video for a remix version of her song “#Beautiful” with rapper Young Jeezy.

The video was being directed by her husband Nick Cannon. The Associated Press NAIL CLIPPERS, BED AMONG ITEMS UP FOR GRABS AT MONTREAL HALLE BERRY AUCTION MONTREAL—A pair of nail clippers, a hairbrush and a queen-sized bed are among the items up for auction that once belonged to Halle Berry and her Quebec ex-boyfriend.

Hundreds of items are available at a Montreal auction after she broke up with model Gabriel Aubry. There are more than 400 lots listed, ranging in scope from an antique sofa and zebra skin rug to an old tennis racket and hair clip. The items were on display at the auction house Saturday and attracted a steady stream of visitors. The Canadian Press

FRIDAY JULY 12, 2013

36

Lifestyle

Keeping Ramadan fast during long, hot summer days adds to challenge for Muslims

BY HELEN BRANSWELL The Canadian Press TORONTO—This week Muslims begin an important annual ritual prescribed by the Qur’an. For the next 29 or 30 days, healthy Muslims will fast during daylight hours, refraining from consuming food, drink and even oral medication from dawn until sunset.

Muslims fast during the month of Ramadan, which, because Islam uses a lunar calendar, does not fall at exactly the same time every year. The fact that in recent years Ramadan has fallen during the longest and hottest days of the year in the Northern Hemisphere adds to the challenge of observing the fast in a healthy manner, experts admit.

“We can always accommodate if we need to but it is going to be difficult this year for many people, at least in this part of the world,” says Dr. Aasim Padela, a practising Muslim and an emergency room physician at the University of Chicago Hospital.

Observing the Ramadan fast is easier when the month falls in the winter, at a time when the span from dawn till sunset may be as short as eight hours and the risk of dehydration is lower.

This year, though, Ramadan begins shortly after the summer solstice, when days are at their longest. Depending on the location and how they interpret the Qur’an, Muslims may have started the month of fasting as of Monday or will start Tuesday or Wednesday.

A religious leader with the Islamic Foundation of Toronto says for people who follow the guidance of the Crescent Committee—which believes the new moon that signifies the start of Ramadan should be spotted, not scientifically calculated— the first day of fasting is likely to be Wednesday, July 10.

PHOTO BY MARTIN BARRAUD

Imam (the term is the equivalent of pastor or rabbi in other faiths) Yusef Badat explains that in the Qur’an, Muslims are exhorted to fast during daylight hours to remind themselves of the plight of the poor and to develop self-discipline.

“The idea or the principle is very simple, that if a person can control and curb their hunger and their thirst for a certain amount of hours ... then this is a sign that they can also curb and abstain from all sorts of sin such as lying, cheating, harming someone, etc.,” Badat says.

“When I feel the pain of hunger, I remember those who don’t have food. And that motivates me. That’s a trigger for me to help those who are suffering wherever they may be across the globe.”

Using a day late last week to show how long the fast will last in the early days of this year’s Ramadan, Badat notes that dawn was at 3:20 a.m. and sunset was at 9:02 p.m.—almost 18

hours during which no food, drink or oral medication could be consumed by those who fast.

Not all Muslims will fast. The Qur’an exempts pregnant women and nursing mothers and people who are sick. As well, children who haven’t reached puberty don’t fast, though Badat says some families will encourage children approaching puberty to fast for part of the day to get into the habit.

Adults who have temporary health problems can make up days by fasting later, when their health permits them to do so.

And those who are too frail or too unwell to fast at all can compensate by paying what’s called “fidah” or compensation, Badat says—the equivalent of about $10 a day to help feed the poor.

Because the fast includes anything consumed orally, even down to medication, people with health conditions should consult with their doctors and their religious leaders to decide

whether they can safely fast, says Padela, who himself will observe Ramadan.

Lots of studies have been done to look at whether fasting is safe for people with different conditions, he says, pointing to diabetes as one where concerns have been raised.

“There are some people who have good diabetic control who are on some medicines that can be taken during that time period,” Padela says. Others, in whom the disease is not well controlled, might not be able to fast.

“There’s a very granular level discussion that needs to occur at the level of what the patient’s circumstances are, what their illness is, what their comorbidities (existing conditions) are and what their body, their physiology can tolerate and not tolerate,” he says.

Those who are fasting adjust their days to consume calories and imbibe fluids when they can. Brunch may take place at

2:30 a.m., Badat says. And people may nap after work as they wait for the sun to go down.

In Muslim countries, society may adjust to a different schedule during Ramadan. Even in North America, Muslims plan ahead, Badat says.

Some will talk with their employers about working reduced hours or re-arranging their work hours. If no accommodation can be made and a person cannot safely fast during a hot day—say a construction worker toiling under a beating summer sun—that day or those days can be made up later. The Qur’an makes it clear people are not to make themselves ill by fasting, Badat says.

“When we’re living in a part of the world where we’re considered a minority, it can be challenging but it’s not impossible.”

Dr. Michael Finkelstein of Toronto Public Health says people who are observing the Ramadan fast need to make sure they drink enough fluids during the hours when the sun is down, and need to keep dehydration in mind.

“July is a pretty hot month here. So they need to be aware of the early signs and symptoms of dehydration,” says Finkelstein, who is an associate medical officer of health for Toronto.

“Things like dizziness, lightheadedness, headaches, intense tiredness, dry mouths and obviously the colour of their urine can get quite dark—those are indications that their fluid balance is in trouble.”

He also suggest deferring outdoor tasks, if possible. “So if there are things that need to be done that don’t have to be done during the middle of the day, try to move those to times during the day when it’s cooler—early evening or early in the day so that you can avoid stressing your body at the height of the heat of the day, basically.” ■

Lifestyle

37 FRIDAY JULY 12, 2013

With computers, smartphones, video games,today’s kids are still bored–so what to do now?

Sports, reading (!), pets, plants–but then, today’s parents over-nurture

BY THELMA SIOSON SAN JUAN Philippine Daily Inquirer IN A HIGHLY INFORMATIVE talk two weeks ago to INQUIRER editors and executives, leading educator/INQUIRER Learning columnist/math genius Dr. Queena Lee-Chua shared a survey finding that today’s tweens/teens confess to boredom. These youngsters— who have smartphones, tablets, laptops/computers, cable TV, gaming gadgets, iPods, among a gazillion toys—are bored!

The survey revealed that the young ones find themselves not having anything to do, and that they preferred to just stay in their rooms and not go out.

The recent survey was done among high school students of select schools whose demographics are male and female, middle class to affluent.

Lee-Chua echoed the reaction of parents and teachers to the plaint of these students: Why? Do nothing

Bored despite all the “toys” and multimedia stimulants at their disposal? What to do, they ask.

Lee-Chua said that, honestly, she’s tempted to tell them, “Why don’t you try and do nothing, for a change?” For a change. We belong to a generation of parents that has been and still is ultra-conscientious about child rearing and wants to give the world—the world— to our kids. Well, parents of whatever generation do. But times change, thus the differ-

ence in degrees of pampering.

The generations before ours were born or grew up in a time of war and world turmoil. Therefore, they lived and reared their children as if the world was going to end tomorrow, with strictness and even a certain paranoia about security and poverty. They were generally autocratic—they dictated, you obeyed; hardly such a thing as dinner-table talk. Traditional parenting was characterized more by a generation gap than bonding.

Other extreme

When our turn came to parent, we swung to the other extreme. The dinner table is always open to discussion; not only that, we feel compelled to want to hear from our kids 24/7. We want to know if they’re alive, breathing and are wellprovided for.

We provide them stimulation, sometimes even long before they are born (classical music beamed to the womb).

“Sesame Street” or “Batibot” were only the start of mass media stimulation, it turned out.

Time was when the big debate was whether or not to expose our kids to TV, and how much. That dilemma had been rendered moot and academic, apparently, because of the unending parade of multimedia gadgets today, from computers and laptops to PlayStations, iPads, iPods, tablets, smartphones, and the bewildering choices of software.

When I was raising my boys, there were only Nintendo or PlayStation. Today, my younger friends have five- or seven-

yearolds who can order playthings on their iPads—behind daddy/mommy’s back.

One father I know was a bit proud that his son first learned how to read by tinkering with games on the iPad—his first word, “exit.” Another mother was happy that her one-yearold was beginning to talk a lot, again because of the iPad. So, moving forward, today’s tweens and teens are bored?

They have topped their game scores? One editor father at the INQUIRER talk gave the feedback that, in his house, he tries to impose mealtimes, because otherwise his tween son would not take a break from his video game.

Dr. Lee-Chua also expressed shock at how she has observed the young to be not into facetoface interaction. “They text each other endlessly, even as they are seated in front of each other. When I asked them, why text when you can just talk, they say that it’s easier to say things in text message than face-toface.”

Today’s generation has the option not to interact with a human being; it can limit its interaction with a machine or gadget that will do one’s bidding. No questions asked.

Given that environment, how does a parent deal with his/her youngster’s boredom? Be a living, breathing parent, I guess.

Interact with your child, no matter the resistance, no matter the rare moments.

In my era of parenting, I enrolled my boys in sports or summer activities that would fill their time, develop their skills and self-confidence—and

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just as important, leave them exhausted at the end of the day.

Perhaps that must be why, to this day, they are fitness junkies, and each has his own sport/ fitness obsession.

Reading

But parenting then was simpler than it is now (I never thought I would see the day when I’d call our parenting experience “simpler”). There are many more options and tantalizing distractions that today’s parents compete with. That’s why, if I had tweens or teens today, I would seize every moment to connect to them, no matter how fleeting or odd the hours. Just connect and be in touch. Listen more than you blab.

And expose them to the fascinating world of books and literature. Reading! Not just text messages. I have yet to meet people, old or young, who get bored even as they read.

Storytelling shouldn’t stop at bedtime for tots. Storytelling between parent and child should go on and on.

When a child or even a young adult reads or listens to stories, his/her mind works, the sense of values comes to light and is reinforced. He/she learns of different types of characters, and of the difference between right and wrong, good and evil.

Sports, reading and pets. Who can resist a lovable pup? Use a pet to teach your kids responsibility. House-training, feeding, bathing a puppy can keep the kids occupied. Just make sure they don’t pass on the chores to the yaya.

Deal with it

The pet can teach your kids compassion and empathy in a way you can’t, believe it or not.

A pet taps into your kid’s nurturing side. Pets and plants. I remember what a prominent mother once said—she does gardening with her sons sometimes to teach them how to nurture.

You’re doing all of the above, and your kids are still bored?

As far as I know, no child has died of boredom. Today’s parents—feeling guilty perhaps because they’re too busy—can be “over-nurturing.” They pamper, spoil and overcompensate for their lack of time.

Tweens and teens should be made to face boredom, whether they like it or not. Why should we shield them from it? That should be their early experience of life. Life is not a video game. You can’t zap away what you don’t like.

Life brings blessings and deprivations. Life can be thrilling.

Sometimes life sucks. So, deal with it, we should tell our kids. ■

Lifestyle

FRIDAY JULY 12, 2013 38

The greatest zombie novel in the ‘World’

BY RUEL S. DE VERA Philippine Daily Inquirer NOW that horror and the creatures arising from that genre are all the rage, it’s a good opportunity to sift through the growing pile of available material and take note of the best books of the group.

Vampires staked their place at the top of the ladder but have now been overtaken by zombies. The buffet of zombierelated work is fairly new, ranging from the tongue-in-bloodycheek “Pride and Prejudice and Zombies” by Seth GrahameSmith and, the greatest zombie book ever written, “World War Z: An Oral History of the Zombie War” by Max Brooks (Broadway Paperbacks, New York, 2006, 420 pages), now on the shelves in a movie tie-in edition.

That movie, directed by Marc Forster and starring Brad Pitt, just took a hefty chunk of cinemas last month and, as far as zombie movies go, is an actionpacked, modern, worldwide look at what damage zombies can do. It’s also just the leftovers from the masterful meal that is the book.

“World War Z” isn’t even Brooks’ first zombie book. Taking note of how zombies were dominating the zeitgeist, the former “Saturday Night Live” writer wrote “The Zombie Survival Guide: Complete Protection from the Living Dead” in 2003. A satirical updating of zombie myths, the book was a

bestseller, but it was Brooks’ next book, 2006’s “World War Z,” that really left a serious bite mark on readers.

Bright idea

Instead of taking the humorous route, Brooks wrote the most serious, most realistic novel about zombies he could imagine. He imagined zombies as the result of a virus that, with the speed of modern travel and the state of global politics, would spread faster than imagine. With “World War Z,” Brooks dared to imagine zombies as something real and immediate.

His bright idea was to write “World War Z” not with a single protagonist or narrator, but a disjointed series of reports from around the world from the beginning to the zombie plague to the end, covering some 10 years, and in the process imagining how the plague would affect different countries from communist China to New Jersey, from Japan to Antarctica.

In every place, a different voice but the same threat. “‘Zombie’ remains a devastating word, unrivaled in its power to conjure up so many memories or emotions, and it is these memories and emotions that are the subject of this book,” says the narrator.

There is no Pitt-played Gerry Lane character, though the “World War Z” researcher who ostensibly put the report together also works for the United Nations, albeit the UN Postwar Commission. That’s

also why the novel reads more like reportage than fiction. If the zombies attacked, this is exactly how the reports would read.

Ingenious structures

It is precisely the novel’s ingenious structure that makes it resistant to generic moviemaking, thus the resultant film

is a very conventional slice of “World War Z,” sharing really only the title and a few superficial references.

There is no insect-hive-mind zombie intelligence at work here. In this case, the book is so much better. Instead of using zombies as a stand-in for human weakness, it is the humans themselves who make the book so compelling.

After governments with their own agendas fail to stop the spread of the virus, their oldfashioned ways of war fail to curb the apocalypse and bring humanity to the brink of extinction. It is then that “World War Z” finds its final act, when humans must find a way to save themselves, in the most modern manner.

Now on top of the food chain, zombies have now permanently risen to their place in pop culture, so that there is a best zombie movie (George Romero’s 1968 “Night of the Living Dead”) and the best comic book and TV show (the dynamically dead dual title held by Robert Kirkman’s “The Walking Dead”). Add to that shambling set the best zombie novel ever written, Max Brooks’ “World War Z,” a book so bleak it’s brilliant, and now resurrected in paperback form in time for a movie that it eats alive in every possible way. ■

Makeup wears Alber Elbaz couture Lanvin creative director’s collaboration with Lancome arrives in Manila

BY CHECHE V. MORAL Philippine Daily Inquirer LANCOME’S long-awaited collaboration with Alber Elbaz finally debuted in Manila last June.

This is the first-ever makeup collaboration of Elbaz, the creative director of Lanvin, and he chose to “clothe” the makeup instead of creating a new palette, as is often done in other such projects.

“He said his strength is in dressing up women, and that’s

what he did with the Lancome makeup,” said Sheena Dy, senior brand manager of Lancome, as she walked guests and customers through the collection.

Dy also presented a quirky popup storybook illustrated by Elbaz, titled “Lancome Show by Alber Elbaz.” It presents the designer’s sketches of a fashion show in which he unveils his three designs for the Lancome Hypnose Show collection. Each of the three designs of hearts, dots and stars appear in Lancome’s Hypnose mascaras and eye palettes.

The Lancome boutique in Greenbelt 5, Makati, where the unveiling was held, also had self-portraits of Elbaz, one of which shows him winking as he takes a peek from backstage of the “Lancome Show.”

“As you can see, there’s an emphasis on the eyes and the eyelashes,” Dy noted. “That’s because Mr. Elbaz said that’s his most attractive feature.”

Lancome x Alber Elbaz makeup collection will only be available for a month or until supplies last at all Lancome outlets. ■ www.canadianinquirer.net

PHOTO FROM BLOG.URBANOUTFITTERS.COM

Education

39 FRIDAY JULY 12, 2013

What is one of the biggest financial mistakes people make?

BY JOE TABLAN

PHOTO BY MARTIN BARRAUD

First-time homebuyers: 5 things to remember

BY CECILIA LAI BUYING a home for the first time can be one of the most stressful experiences, regardless if you are single, partnered or with a family of your own. It is likely the largest contract you will ever sign up to this point, with resulting financial obligations that can last for many years. It is also about finding the right place to create lasting memories in. Being properly prepared for this process can save you from making a costly mistake.

Here are the top five things to consider when buying your first home: 1. What can you afford?

Make sure to check your credit score as this is what lenders look at. There are ways that you can fix your credit scores and enhance mortgage financing. Visit a professional mortgage broker to make sure you know what you can afford based on your income.

As a general rule, not more than 35 per cent of your gross monthly income should pay for your mortgage, insurance and taxes.

Do not participate in any bidding war if it means going over what you can comfortably afford. For example, if you are renting for $1,500 a month and you figure that it will cost $2,000 for your house mortgage payment, start saving $500 a month to make sure that you will be able to afford your home as well as your other living expenses. If you need

the income from a basement apartment to make your payments, make sure it is legal. You should also make a commitment to live in your home for at least a few years.

2. Narrow down your priorities. What’s most important to you when buying your first home? Is it the size of the home or the neighbourhood? A condominium closer to your work may be preferable to a larger home with a longer commute.

How close are you to schools, leisure establishments, and daycare facilities? Do you want to be next to a park or next to a power station? You can do much of this research on the Internet in advance. Walk the neighbourhoods you are interested in and talk to the people in the area. Go to City Hall to see if there are any planned developments coming. It could mean more traffic.

3. Conduct a detailed home inspection. Home inspection is a critical part of the process.

Do your research. Ask for referrals to home inspection companies and call the buyers that have used them in the past.

There are additional special inspections that you can pay for to check for mould, termites, video camera inspections of the drainage system and even infrared scanners that can check whether there is sufficient insulation or moisture or perhaps even electrical problems that may be behind walls. It will cost

more for this, but should result in fewer problems after closing.

4. Ask the seller hard questions. Ask the sellers or their agent if they have had basement flooding problems, or mould or roof leaks, even if the leaks have been repaired, or any other adverse neighbourhood conditions. Ask whether they have made any insurance claims since they owned the home. Watch how they answer.

Most sellers will now refuse to sign property disclosure statements, but they are required to respond truthfully to these questions if you ask them directly. If the seller refuses to answer or acts suspiciously, then you need to discuss this with your home inspector and your real estate agent and either adjust your purchase offer or walk away.

5. Buy an after-sale warranty protection. There are now many products available for buyers that will provide after-sale warranty protection on your home heating, air-conditioning, electrical, plumbing systems and major appliances.

Most sellers will not warrant anything after closing. Check out and ask questions about the exclusions and the deductibles associated with each policy as many of them are different.

This can save you in costly repair bills after closing. ■ Get in touch with the author at cecilialai@invis.ca or 780-903-1818. www.canadianinquirer.net

“HE who fails to plan is planning to fail”—Winston Churchill.

We have all heard this quote at one time or another in our lives, yet many people in our society go about their lives without a plan for their financial futures.

Having a financial plan is similar to going to the gym; without a diet and exercise plan, which will lead to the target end result, you may just be wasting your time. Many individuals blindly move forward with their company pensions, RRSPs, and insurance policies without knowing what they are investing in and whether it is a suitable tool for them and their retirement savings strategy.

So what exactly does a comprehensive financial plan look like? How do you come up with solutions? In a nutshell, coming up with a financial plan is ensuring you are protecting your wealth while you are creating wealth. It is to make sure that your money is working for you while being protected from life’s events that can stop it from growing.

To come up with solutions, a good financial planner should sit down with you and go over your situation to get a good grasp of what you want for yourself, your company, and your loved ones. I can also help you figure out what you want to achieve in life, and find out how to achieve them.

Every situation is different for every individual. There’s no cookie cutter way of planning.

Everyone has a different situ-

ation unique to their own and this is where having a professional consultation, like myself, becomes vital. If you felt seriously ill, my hope is that you go see a doctor instead of trying to figure it out yourself. The same goes for your financial issues.

A good financial advisor will go through a holistic planning style that will cover everything from savings, retirement, insurance and estate planning, as a good start. Having a full financial plan is more than just putting money somewhere and letting it take care of itself. Achieving your goals takes careful planning. There should be a clear goal in mind in order to help you achieve yours and your family’s goals.

So what is stopping you from starting one today? Does it seem overwhelming? Is the procrastination disease setting in again? Not sure where to start or what to do? I realize there are many questions surrounding this topic and as an advisor, we are all more than happy to help if you have any questions. But it has to start with you. I hope that you will tune in regularly as I will be covering different topics and strategies that can help with a financial plan. It does not matter what your situation is, from business owners and professionals to employees and new immigrants, a financial plan will ensure you are clear in your goals and planning to succeed by succeeding to plan! ■ Contact the author at joseph. tablan@f55f.com or visit his website at www.joetablan.com.

ILLUSTRATION BY ZACK BLANTON

Events

FRIDAY JULY 12, 2013 40

Vancouver

Calgary

Edmonton

Toronto

Winnipeg

Khatsahlano! Music & Arts Festival When: Saturday, July 13 What: Kitsilano’s biggest street party features 50 of Vancouver’s top musical performers, street performers, artisans, and special activities.

Where: West 4th Avenue, between Burrard & MacDonald, Vancouver

21st Annual Stampede Breakfast When: 8am-11am July 12, 2013 Where: Kerby Centre

Feats Festival of Dance When: Jul 01 to Jul 14 What: This celebration of Alberta’s dance community features a plethora of dance genres with performances, special events and educational programs.

Where: Various locations, Edmonton AB

Flavours of the City: T.A.C. Gets Hungry When: 5-9pm, July 12 What: Come enjoy some great food from our Market 707 vendors including roti, crepes, tacos, Mediterranean and more!

Where: Scadding Court Community Centre, 707 Dundas Street West, Dundas and Bathurst

Paracon 2013 When: Jul 12-14, 2013 Where: The Marlborough Hotel, 331 Smith Street, Winnipeg, MB R3B 2G9

The Toronto Summertime Grand Arts Festival When: 12-9pm, July 12, 2013 What: The Toronto Summertime Grand Arts Festival is a celebration of the arts/entertaiment industry in the city of Toronto. Its a festival of dreams coming true and will portray the ability of the human spirit to overcome unbelieveable odds to achieve greatness.

Where: Nathan Phillips Square, 100 Queen Street West, Queen and Bay

Fish Festival at the Forks When: 11am-4pm Jul 13, 2013 Where: The Forks, Winnipeg MB

Canada Cup of Beer 2013 When: Saturday, July 13 Where: Swangard Stadium, Vancouver Gay Day @ Playland When: Saturday, July 13 Where: Playland Amusement Park, 2901 Hastings Street East, Vancouver Vancouver Folk Music Festival When: Friday, July 19 - Sunday, July 21 What: Vancouver’s legendary Folk Music Festival covers three music-filled days at Jericho Beach, with eight stages, 70 hours of music (folk and world music) a festival market, food vendors and more. Grab your face paint, bring a blanket to sit on, and join the party.

Where: Jericho Beach Park, Vancouver Illuminares Lantern Festival When: Saturday, July 20 Where: Trout Lake at John Hendry Park, Vancouver Surrey Fusion Festival When: Saturday, July 20 Sunday, July 21 Where: Holland Park, Surrey Caribbean Days Festival When: Saturday, July 27 Sunday, July 28 Where: Waterfront Park & Lonsdale Quay Plaza, North Vancouver; details here Celebration of Light Fireworks When: Saturday, July 27, Wednesday, July 31 & Saturday, August 3 What: The Vancouver summer favourite is back for its 23rd year! For three nights, the skies over English Bay light up in a musical pyrotechnic extravaganza.

Where: Best Places to Watch the Celebration of Light Fireworks

Gravity Espresso & Wine Bar When: July 12, 2013 Where: 10am-9pm Commonwealth, 9:30pm onwards at Broken City (afterparty) Reels & Reins Event When: July 13, 2013 Where: Bow Habitat Station Market Collective Celebrates 5 Years When: July 19 - 21, 2013 Where: Mewata Armoury RAO Open House - rescheduled with Phil Langill, When: July 20, 2013 Where: Rothney Astrophysical Observatory Bowness Community Farmers Market When: 10am-2pm, July 20, 2013 Where: Bowness Community Hall 7th Annual Fiestaval When: July 20 - 21, 2013 Where: Canada Olympic Park Creekfest - Celebrate Water!

When: July 21, 2013 Where: Bow Valley Ranch, Fish Creek Park Liquid Courage 2013 When: July 22, 2013 Where: Royal Canadian Legion #1 Calgary Arts Flood Rebuild Fundraiser When: 6:30-10:30pm July 26, 2013 Where: Gerry Thomas Gallery Korean War Veterans Parade When: 10:30-11am July 27, 2013 Where: Military Museums Mikhail Baryshnikov in Conversation with Ian Brown When: July 27, 2013 Where: Banff Centre Franco Festival Calgary 2013 When: 11am-8pm, July 27, 2013 Where: Eau Claire Market

Edmonton International Street Performers Festival When: Jul 05 to Jul 14 Where: Downtown Edmonton AB Whyte Avenue Art Walk Festival When: Jul 12 to Jul 14 Where: Along Whyte Avenue between 100st and 108st Edmonton AB Sourdough Raft Race When: Jul 14 Where: Edmonton AB Speed Dating (Ages 25-35) When: Jul 17 Where: 8101 Gateway Blvd NW Edmonton AB A Taste Of Edmonton When: Jul 18 to Jul 27 Where: Sir Winston Churchill Square, 100 St. and 102 Ave. Edmonton AB Edmonton's K-Days When: Jul 19 to Jul 28 Where: 73 St. & 116 Ave. Edmonton AB CA T5J 2N5 K-Days Parade When: Jul 19 Where: Downtown Edmonton AB Calm Abiding Retreat When: Jul 20 Where: 3005 – 119 Street Edmonton AB Multiple Miles for Myeloma When: Jul 20 Where: 12312 Jasper Ave Edmonton AB T5N 3K6 The Moose Is Loose Trail Half Marathon & 10K Run/ Walk When: Jul 21 Where: Emily Murphy Park Edmonton AB Interstellar Rodeo When: Jul 26 to Jul 28 What: Interstellar Rodeo is a celebration of music, wine and food.

Where: 9330 Groat Rd Edmonton AB CAN www.canadianinquirer.net

Our Home & Native Land: Canadian Biodiversity Before & After Contact When: 1-4pm, July 13, 2013 What: This exclusive and intimate workshop includes in depth tours of the First Peoples Gallery and the Schad Gallery of Biodiversity highlighting the various cultures and their strong connection to the land they occupied pre-contact, how they used the resources available to them as well as their natural sustainable practices.

Where: Royal Ontario Museum, 100 Queen's Park, Bloor Street and Queen's Park Murder at the ROM Scavenger Hunt For Adults When: 11am-1pm, July 13, 2013 What: On an Urban Capers Scavenger Hunt, you don't collect items, but rather answers to tricky and humourous questions. Teams of two to six compete over the course of two hours. Indicate on the registration form whether you are signing up with a team or on your own and we'll set you up with a team.

Where: Royal Ontario Museum, 100 Queen's Park, Bloor Street West and Avenue Road

Ai-Kon 2013 - For the Love of Anime!

When: Jul 12-14, 2013 Where: Winnipeg Convention Centre 375 York Avenue Winnipeg MB

Randy Travis When: 3:00 pm, 8:00 pm Jul 14, 2013 Where: McPhillips Station Casino, 485 McPhillips Street Winnipeg, MB Mercredis en Musique - Paul Cargnello (Québec) When: 11:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m, Jul 17, 2013 Where: Jardin de sculptures, 219 Provencher Boulevard Winnipeg MB 2013 Winnipeg Fringe Theatre Festival When: 12 dates between Jul 17, 2013 and Jul 28, 2013 Where: Old Market Square and various Downtown venues Out to Lunch Concert Series - Shine When: 12:pm, Jul 17, 2013 Where: Air Canada Park, 355 Portage, Winnipeg, MB 2013 Village Market & Patio Music Series When: 6:00 pm, Jul 18, 2013 Where: Gas Station Arts Centre - 445 River Ave, Winnipeg, MB Dancing on the Avenue - Corydon Avenue Concert Series When: 7:00pm to 10:00pm, Jul 19, 2013 - Jul 20, 2013 Where: Between Cockburn and Hugo, Winnipeg MB CIBC Wood Gundy Challenger When: 11 dates between Jul 19, 2013 and Jul 29, 2013 Where: Winnipeg Lawn Tennis Club 761 North Dr, Winnipeg, MB R3T 0A3 The Winnipeg Blue Bombers take on the Toronto Argonauts When: 7:00pm, Jul 19, 2013 Where: Investors Group Field, 315 Chancellor Matheson Road, Winnipeg, MB R3T 1Z2

Business

41 FRIDAY JULY 12, 2013

Gov’t prodded on economic reforms

BSP: Small banks may now sell financial products

Local, foreign chambers list critical recommendations

Rural customers may take out loans, insurance policies

BY AMY R. REMO Philippine Daily Inquirer

BY PAOLO G. MONTECILLO Philippine Daily Inquirer

THE COUNTRY’S biggest business groups and the Joint Foreign Chambers have asked the Aquino administration to implement critical and strategic measures that will enable the Philippines to continue being one of Asia’s fast-rising economies.

In a joint letter to President Aquino, the business groups outlined a slew of recommendations concerning infrastructure, power and regulatory and policy reforms aimed at generating the “greatest impact in achieving our shared vision of inclusive growth through job generation, poverty reduction and global competitiveness.”

Signatories to the letter dated June 19 were the Makati Business Club, Alyansa Agrikultura, American Chamber of Commerce, European Chamber of Commerce, Employers Confederation of the Philippines, Philippine Exporters Confederation, Australia-New Zealand Chamber of Commerce, Japan Chamber of Commerce, Philippine Chamber of Commerce and Industry, Management Association of the Philippines, Canadian Chamber of Commerce, Korean Chamber of Commerce and the Philippine Association of Multinational Companies

Regional Headquarters Inc. One of the recommendations is the enactment of an effective anti-trust law and competition policy to create a level playing field and, in turn, encourage more productive investments in light of an impending Asean integration in 2015.

“There are several laws and issuances which do not address the complexities of the current market conditions and as well result in overlapping jurisdictions and conflicts. Thus, we see the need for a single comprehensive law,” the groups said in the letter.

They also underscored the need to “overhaul the Bureau of Customs and to create an oversight body with private sector representation” as smuggling continued to derail government efforts on revenue collection and job generation. They claimed that the government was losing more than P100 billion a year from smuggling.

Strategic transportation infrastructure projects must likewise be accelerated and implemented at the soonest time, they added. These projects include the development of the country’s main international gateway, decongestion of the Port of Manila and the connection of NLEx and SLEx. “We also strongly urge the rationalization of existing incentive-giving laws to further spur investments in crucial and strategic sectors, especially those that will help generate jobs and enhance global competitiveness,” the groups stressed. ■

RURAL and thrift banks are now allowed to sell financial products such as insurance plans and credit cards of their sister firms, according to the central bank.

The cross-selling of products was formerly restricted to universal banks, under the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas’ (BSP) previous guidelines. By allowing the small banks to deal in financial products, the BSP hopes to curb the activities of loansharks and improve access to formal financial services in the Philippines, where over a third of the population is still considered “unbanked.”

“This reform initiative makes available to consumers a broader array of financial products using the existing branch net-

work of the banking system,” BSP Amando M. Tetangco Jr. earlier said. The changes in cross-selling rules were initially announced last month.

Cross-selling is an international practice that separates the production of a financial product or service from its distribution. Under the guidelines approved by the BSP’s Monetary Board, bank premises are used as access points for financial products offered by related parties.

Under the new set of rules, all types of banks may now crosssell credit cards and auto, home mortgage, personal and other retail loans; term, life, non-life and other protection-type insurance products; cash, debit and related products; and other similar financial instruments that may be authorized by the BSP. While all types of banks are now covered by the new rules,

the BSP said a lender would still need to maintain a CAMELS rating of at least “3” before it can engage in cross-selling.

A bank’s financial health may be measured in terms of CAMELS, which stands for capital adequacy, assets, management capability, earnings, liquidity, and sensitivity to market risks.

The new rules restrict the kinds of products that can be cross-sold. Small banks may only deal in products that carry little to no investment risk to protect consumers from volatile financial markets.

The BSP also said bank employees should be clearly distinguished from those of a bank’s sister company who deal in financial products.

These segregation rules were added “to avoid any impression that products cross-sold within bank premises are guaranteed by the bank,” the BSP said. ■

Pinoy artists forge pacts to collect copyright dues

BY AMY R. REMO Philippine Daily Inquirer FILIPINO composers, authors and publishers are hoping to forge more agreements that will allow them to collect royalties from the “public playing” of copyrighted music and other materials.

Mark Thursday Alciso, general manager for the Filipino Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers (Filscap) explained that the group would grant a license to allow any party or company to use copyrighted work, such as music, and play it in their establishments or any public space.

The group will also provide compensation to composers, authors and publishers for use of their work through the fees collected.

Alciso told the INQUIRER that the group continues to face difficulties in forging agreements and collecting fees from malls, shopping centers and establishments due largely to lack of awareness and understandwww.canadianinquirer.net

ing of the intellectual property rights accorded to Filipino composers, authors and publishers.

“Many do not recognize these rights. Some don’t even know that that right exist… When we go out to explain, we got adverse reactions, with some thinking that what we are doing might be a scam,” Alciso said.

The rights Alciso was referring to are provided under Republic Act No. 8293 or “An Act Prescribing the Intellectual Property Code and Establishing the Intellectual Property Office, Providing for its Powers and Functions, and for other Purposes.”

The law provides the economic rights for owners to carry out, authorize or prevent a number of acts including reproduction of the work or substantial portion of the work; public display of the original or a copy of the work; and public performance of the work, among other provisions.

Thus, playing music in a restaurant without any due license, for instance, already comprises an infringement, according to Alciso.

He further clarified that the purchase of a CD does not allow one to use the music publicly since CDs are meant for personal use.

Also, Filscap lacks the manpower to monitor the establishments, particularly those that just opened, to check whether the operators have secured licenses to play their music.

This is why Filscap has gone out to deal with organizations and forge agreements with them.

At present, Filscap has signed licensing agreements with a number of organizations, including KBP (Kapisanan ng mga Brodkasters sa Pilipinas), TV stations, hotel and restaurant associations, and the SMMalls, among others.

“The use of music enhances business, and the use of copyrighted music requires permission from the copyright owner.

Thus, the act of recognition to the economic right [through the license that Filscap grants] has to be respected,” said Filscap president Noel Cabangon. ■

Sports/Horoscope

FRIDAY JULY 12, 2013 42

Being a Maldita: An Honor and a Privilege

BY CAMILLE A. WILSON MY name is Camille Wilson. I am seventeen years old, and I am a Maldita.

It is truly an honor and a privilege to wear the colors of the country of my heritage. It did not come easy. Becoming part of the Philippine Women’s National Football Team requires enduring energy and dedication. I have played hundreds of games, and spent many weekends in the soccer fields in sweltering heat, freezing temperature, and pounding rain. I have missed parties and fun events, and spent several birthdays (mine and family’s) on the road.

My journey in becoming a Maldita started when I was five years old, getting the inspiration for playing soccer from my older brother, Mark. I played three years in the city’s house league,

followed by five years playing for Novato United starting with the U-10 travel team when I was eight years old. I joined my current club team of Marin FC when I was thirteen.

All this hard work was put to the test during the Philippine National Team’s recruiting camp in November 2012 and March 2013 in Southern California. Coach Ernie Nierras wanted to include Fil-Am and Fil-Canadian soccer players on the team. Being the youngest, I felt nervous and intimidated trying out alongside older and more talented players who also play for some of America’s top Division I colleges. It certainly challenged me to apply all that I have learned of the sport and raise my level of playing. And, it all paid off as I made it to the national team roster!

The first event for the new Malditas was the Asian Foot-

PHOTO BY ANGIE C.V. WILSON

ball Confederation (AFC) Cup’s qualifying games to be hosted by the Bangladesh Football Federation in Dhaka, Bangladesh from May 21 to 25, 2013.

The Philippines was in Group B with Iran, Thailand, and Bangladesh. Two weeks before the games, I flew to Manila with my mom to train with the other twenty-five players who made it to the short list. It was an intense preparation. We trained four hours every day in hot and humid weather, 6:00 to 8:00 in the morning and 4:00 to 6:00 in

the late afternoon. I treasured this time because this was when I bonded and got close to twenty-five wonderful ladies who instantly became my sisters. They are my “Ates” whom I share the same heritage, and the same love for the game. They inspired and encouraged me to become a better player.

Finally, we were ready for the games. We arrived in the capital city of Dhaka on May 18. No amount of distressing news about collapsed factories, constant riot clashes, or dire work

and living conditions of urban workers can prepare me and my teammates for the challenges that lie ahead of us. The ongoing problem of corruption in the country has caused no economic growth, horrendous traffic mess, unsanitary living conditions, widespread poverty and sense of hopelessness. We witnessed these in the eight days we were in Bangladesh. This experience reinforced the saying, “never take things for granted.” It was a real ❱❱ PAGE 44 Being a Maldita

HOROSCOPE ARIES

CANCER

LIBRA

CAPRICORN

(MARCH 21 - APRIL 19)

(JUNE 22 - JULY 22)

(SEPT 23 - OCT 22)

(DEC 22 - JAN 19)

Certain love and romance matters may cause some tension, Aries. Inflated egos may get in the way of important communication that needs to take place for harmony between you and your romantic partner. You’re a bit more argumentative than usual. Sparks of disagreement are likely to flare into bonfires if you aren’t careful. Keep a fire extinguisher handy.

TAURUS

This is a terrific day for you, Cancer. Your mood is good and everything is flowing your way. The fire within is burning hot. You will take the lead role in every production. Romance and love are definitely in the cards for you. Be yourself and remember that it’s OK to laugh at your mistakes. Humility is good for you.

A close loved one may express displeasure with the way things are, Libra. Maybe there’s some tension in the air. Things could get rather explosive. There’s a feeling urging others to act, a certain restlessness that demands that you take action. Unfortunately, this action is likely to meet with opposition if you aren’t careful.

There may be tremendous changes in store for you, Capricorn. Connect with something futuristic and far out. There may be some roadblocks in the way. Maybe your heart is impeding your progress. You don’t need another person to fill in any voids in your life. Your confidence is what you need to bolster your self-esteem.

LEO

SCORPIO

AQUARIUS

(JULY 23 - AUGUST 22)

(OCT 23 - NOV 21)

(JAN 20 - FEB 18)

(APRIL 20 - MAY 20) Take charge of your life, Taurus. The more action you take, the more alive you will feel. Maybe you will decide to have a career on the stage. This is the kind of day when you need more variety than usual. Bright and happy people will catch your eye. Jump on the fast track. You’re ready.

Other people may steal the spotlight from you today, Leo, but don’t let it get you down. The key is to learn from the ones who take charge. Have fun and don’t worry about the details. A definite dynamism is helping you transform certain areas of your life that need to change. Get out of the rut you’re in.

Fire up today, Scorpio, and let your spirit fly. You have a great deal of ammunition that encouraging you to take charge. Let your adventuresome spirit roam wherever it pleases.

Communication with loved ones will be clear.

You can expect all social encounters to go smoothly. You will be the hit of any party.

GEMINI

VIRGO

SAGITTARIUS

(MAY 21 - JUNE 21)

(AUG 23 - SEPT 22)

(NOV 22 - DEC 21)

Be bold and aggressive today, Aquarius. Even if this isn’t in your nature, dynamic action can be rewarding on a day like this. People will be delighted to hear from you. Your opinion is precious. You have many insights to offer the group. Your adaptable nature will be tested.

You may need to make adjustments in order to match other people’s way of thinking.

PISCES (FEB 19 - MAR 20)

Don’t hide, Gemini. This is your time to come out of the shadows. There’s a spark within that’s urging you to act. Move forward and worry about the consequences later. This isn’t a good time to search every sentence for hidden meaning. People may be careless with their words. Don’t overanalyze them.

It may seem like close loved ones are trying to pick a fight with you today, Virgo. There may tend to be a “me first” attitude stirring up a pot of trouble.

Don’t automatically assume that the other person is wrong. There’s a valuable lesson to be learned in every conflict. Take each disagreement as an opportunity to learn something about yourself.

Put your reservations aside, Sagittarius, and go for the thing your heart desires most. Throw caution to the wind and make it happen. Today’s energy urges you to take charge of your life and conquer new territory. There’s dynamism about the day that could leave you behind unless you latch onto the trend and make it work for you.

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Love is on your side today, Pisces, and all romantic and social situations are favored.

This is the perfect time to take the lead on creative projects or anything requiring a keen eye for beauty. You can’t go wrong in whatever way you choose to express yourself.

FRIDAY JULY 12, 2013

43

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Dining

FRIDAY JULY 12, 2013 44

Recipe for overnight pressed picnic sandwich

Start to finish: 20 minutes active (plus overnight pressing) Servings: 6 Ingredients:

Procedure

Slice the loaf of bread in half horizontally. Use your fingers to carefully pull or scrape out the inside of each half of the loaf, leaving about 1/2 inch of bread. Spread half of the pesto over the cut side of each half.

eye-opener. Though life in the host country may be rough and overwhelming, the Bangladeshi people we met were warm, kind, and very helpful. They made sure our stay was comfortable which helped us focus on our mission: to win all games to qualify for World Cup 2015.

We came into the tournament as the underdog, the team who is certain to lose the Group B qualifier. This did not intimidate us at all, instead, this made us fiercer and more motivated to prove everyone wrong. We crushed our first opponent, Iran 6-0, with the first 3 goals scored in the first four minutes.

The media and spectators were stunned, as we were! Beating a team which is ranked thirty places ahead of us in the world, gave so much hope and affirmation that our team is strong.

The second game was against our regional rival, Thailand.

The Malditas again dominated the game, but unfortunately, a breakaway by a Thai striker proved to be the game decider when the ball rolled quickly on wet grass straight to the back of the net. Thailand won 1-0, ❰❰ 42

BY ALISON LADMAN The Associated Press

1 loaf Italian bread, such as ciabatta 3/4 cup purchased pesto 2 cups coarsely shredded meat from a rotisserie chicken 3/4 cup jarred sweet-hot peppers, such as Peppadew or banana, sliced 4 ounces sliced provolone cheese 4 ounces sliced salami 1 small yellow or orange bell pepper, cored and thinly sliced 1 small green bell pepper, cored and thinly sliced 1/2 cup sliced Kalamata olives

Being a Maldita...

PHOTO BY MATTHEW MEAD

Top the bottom half of the loaf of bread with the chicken, jarred peppers, provolone and the salami, in that order. Top that with the bell peppers, then the olives.

Top with the upper half of the loaf. Wrap the loaf tightly first in plastic wrap, then in foil. Place the wrapped loaf on a baking sheet, then top with a second baking sheet. Place the whole arrangement in the refrigerator, then top with something very heavy, such as sev-

eral bricks, a few large cans of tomatoes, or a cast iron skillet.

Let sit in the refrigerator overnight. When ready to serve, unwrap and slice.

Nutrition serving

information

per

510 calories; 270 calories from fat (53 per cent of total calories); 30 g fat (10 g saturated; 0 g trans fats); 90 mg cholesterol; 26 g carbohydrate; 2 g fiber; 1 g sugar; 33 g protein; 1,430 mg sodium. ■

the one goal that made all the difference whether we move to the next round of the World Cup qualifier. The loss did not dampen our spirit, we played with the same determination in our last game, which was against Bangladesh. We won 4-0 amidst the loud cheers from fellow Filipinos living and working in the country led by chargé d’affaires, Grace Villamayor, of the Philippine Embassy in Dhaka.

The AFC Cup was a lifechanging experience. Playing to give honor to one’s country is an opportunity that is rare amongst girls of my age. Being a Maldita is one of the best things that happened to me and I will cherish it forever.

For girls who are dedicated and passionate about soccer, there is a prospective camp to be held in Southern California on July 23 to August 6, which includes a friendly match between the Malditas and Haiti after the camp. Coach Nierras will be recruiting new players for the various age groups of the Philippine Women’s National Team.

For more information, please contact Mark Mangune at mark. mangune@gmail.com. ■

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Canada

FRIDAY JULY 12, 2013 46

Filipino Nanny Involved in First Human Trafficking Conviction in BC

BY CATHY YAMSUAN Philippine Daily Inquirer THE Filipino community is closely following the case of Leticia Sarmiento, a nanny who has filed a civil suit against her former employers. Sarmiento testified against Oi Ling Nicole Huen and Franco Yiu Kwan Orr who brought her into the country to take care of their three children and do housework.

Sarmiento told the court that she had to work 16-hour days for $500 to $700 a month.

The couple promised Sarmiento that after two years of working for them, they would help her obtain permanent residency status and help her bring her family to Canada. She admitted in court that “they treated me like a friend and we had a very good relationship.”

The previous harmonious relationship turned sour after a disagreement between the two ladies. Huen got upset that Sarmiento gave the wrong kind of milk to the couple’s daughter. Huen allegedly threw the offending milk on the floor, asked Sarmiento to wipe it and then wiped her face with the dish rag.

This led to Sarmiento’s cry for help to 911.

In the 911 tape, Sarmiento is heard incessantly crying on the other line. She then told the operator what happened and how she was being asked by the couple to leave the house.

The police arrived at the Orr residence and they were able to talk to Sarmiento, who was hiding in the upstairs bathroom, allegedly at the instruction of the couple. Sarmiento was taken to Vancouver International Airport’s Immigration Office where officials found out that she had been staying illegally in the country.

Editor Melissa Remulla-Briones editor@canadianinquirer.net Associate Editor Laarni de Paula Editorial Assistant April Sescon Correspondents Lizette Lofranco-Aba Gigi Astudillo Angie Duarte Maria Ramona Ledesma Katherine Marfal Frances Grace Quiddaoen Agnes Tecson Graphic Designer Victoria Yong

Leticia Sarmiento (middle) with Migrante BC officers: Bootz Estella, Leo Alejandria, Beth Dollaga and Jane Ordinario.

Private corporation

“[Multi-Line Food] cannot be considered an NGO/ PO as to warrant the grant of financial assistance from the government since [the company] appeared to be a private corporation organized for profit and not intended to advance the interest of a specific cause or sector, as shown by [Multi-Line Food’s] articles of incorporation. The funds were intended to be used in maintaining the operation of the plant—from the payment of its utilities and supplies down to the salary of its employees, which plainly signifies that [Multi-Line Food] was not in a stable financial condition to sustain its operations, let alone implement a socio-

Illustration Danvic Briones

PHOTO FROM MIGRANTE BC

Her visa has long been expired.

Orr, an immigrant from Hong Kong, has counter-testified that the nanny was supposed to stay with them for only six months. Orr added that they hired Sarmiento “because my wife felt sorry for her.”

In Sarmiento’s testimony, Orr assured her that another domestic worker will be hired to do the housework and Sarmiento will only look after their children. He said she would work eight hours a day and be paid wages in accordance to the Canadian law. Sarmiento also testified that the couple held her passport and she was forbidden to go out. In sending her remittances to the Philippines, Orr would accompany Sarmiento every time, presumably to make sure that she will not to talk to anyone.

Other pieces of evidence presented to the court by the couple were photos of the alleged birthday parties they held for Sarmiento where she was seen smiling.

On cross-examination, Sarmiento said that the cake was for the children, who loved to blow candles, and that Philippine culture dictates that she smile in every photo, whatever it was she was feeling at that time.

Orr was found guilty on three counts in organizing Sarmiento’s illegal entry into Canada. Mr Orr could face a maximum life sentence or a $1 million fine or both. His wife was acquitted of all charges.

The parties are expected back in court for final sentencing on July 10. ■ With report from Melissa Remulla-Briones.

Photographers Solon Licas Ryan Ferrer Angelo Siglos Operations and Marketing Head Laarni de Paula (604) 551-3360 laarni.liwanag@canadianinquirer.net Advertising Sales Alice Yong (778) 889-3518 alice.yong@canadianinquirer.net Antonio Tampus (604) 460-9414 PHILIPPINE PUBLISHING GROUP Editorial Assistant Phoebe Casin Graphic Designer Shanice Garcia Association Publisher Lurisa Villanueva In cooperation with the Philippine Daily Inquirer digital edition

Graft raps... ❰❰ 3

Publisher Philippine Canadian Inquirer

economic or service-based project,” the Ombudsman said in a statement.

The Ombudsman noted that MultiLine Food, despite getting cash infusions from Singson and Savellano, closed shop in April 2002 due to lack of funds, as shown in the termination letters to its employees.

No charges were ordered brought against Multi-Line Food’s directors— Arnulfo Abaya, Hernando Decena, Felipe Que, Danilo Etrata and Norman Mendoza—due to lack of evidence of a conspiracy. ■ Former Ilocos Sur Governor Chavit Singson PHOTO FROM ZIMBIO.COM

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