Philippine Canadian Inquirer Issue #78

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VOL. 8 NO. 78

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AUGUST 23, 2013

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26

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46

Solon wants heads to roll over sex-for-flight mess

PM Harper to prorogue Parliament

Filipino-Canadians in Focus: Jon and Cynthia Reyes

Why living in Canada rocks!

‘Maring’ in photos

‘Habagat’ paralyzes Metro, floods Luzon

BY JEANNETTE I. ANDRADE AND NIKKO DIZON Philippine Daily Inquirer TROPICAL STORM “Maring” may develop into a typhoon before it leaves the Philippines on Thursday, with its intensification of the southwest monsoon expected to bring heavy rains to Luzon, including Metro Manila, until Wednesday.

Torrential rains brought by Maring (international name: Trami) shut down Metro Manila on Monday. The government called off classes in schools and most private businesses suspended work due to flooding caused by incessant rains that started on Sunday morning.

Classes are suspended at all levels in Metro Manila on Tuesday except in Pasig, Mandaluyong, Marikina, Navotas and Valenzuela cities where there will be no classes only at the preschool, elementary and high school levels.

Rising floodwaters forced people in many parts of the metropolis and nearby

ROLLING STORE TAXI. An ambulant food vendor converts his “store” into a water taxi to earn extra by ferrying commuters across flooded portions

of Gil Puyat Avenue in Makati City on Monday. More flooding photos on pages 12 and 46.

PHOTO BY NIÑO JESUS ORBETA

The Houses of corruption

COA confirms 10 Napoles NGOs received P2-B pork

BY JULIET LABOG-JAVELLANA Philippine Daily Inquirer “INQUIRER VALIDATES our findings.

It’s providential.”

Commission on Audit (COA) Chair Grace Pulido-Tan said this as she confirmed that 10 non-government organizations with links to Napoles illegally got hold of P2.157 billion of the legisla-

27 people rescued from Sagada cave ❱❱ PAGE 9

tors’ pork barrel funds between 2007 and 2009.

The name Janet Lim-Napoles “is not new” in the pork barrel circuit, Tan said when she yesterday announced the results of the COA Special Audit of the pork barrel for the three years during the previous Arroyo administration. Because of the tedious process, the audit

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Philippine News

3 FRIDAY AUGUST 23, 2013

Another archbishop

Lipa Archbishop Ramon Arguelles yesterday also called on Filipinos to press for a thorough investigation of Janet Lim-Napoles, the alleged mastermind of the P10-billion pork barrel scam, in the Senate just like what it did with former Chief Justice Renato Corona and retired Maj. Gen. Carlos Garcia.

Arguelles said Napoles should be called to the Senate and face an exhaustive investigation by lawmakers, which he added should be aired live for transparency and so that “the public can be the judge too.”

“Let all citizens who love this country plead with the senators, if they indeed care for us and for the truth: Please call Janet Napoles to the Senate and [let her] face a thorough investigation like what they did to Angelo Reyes, General Garcia and Chief Justice Corona,” Arguelles said.

Silence in the Senate PHOTO FROM RAPPLER.COM

Scam moves Tagle to tears Cardinal tells pols: Know life of the poor

BY PHILIP C. TUBEZA AND JOCELYN R. UY Philippine Daily Inquirer REPENT AND open your eyes to the poor’s misery.

Horrified and shocked Manila Archbishop Luis Antonio Cardinal Tagle says it is only right that the P10-billion scam should be investigated. “Many other big scandals in the past have been buried and forgotten when a a new issue came up.”

Calling it an “intricate web” of corruption, Manila Archbishop Luis Antonio Cardinal Tagle urged politicians and others involved in the alleged P10-billion pork barrel scam to go to the slums and experience what it was like to be poor.

Holding back tears, Tagle called on the culprits to repent, adding that they might have dipped their fingers in the nation’s coffers because they did not know what the poor were going through every day.

Tagle, who usually declined to answer questions about politics since becoming archbishop in 2012, talked emotionally about the pork barrel scam.

“Whoever is involved there, I appeal to you, visit a community of informal settlers ... walk there at night and you will see in the sidewalk the families who open these cartons on which they would sleep,” Tagle said in a press conference at the University of Santo Tomas in Manila.

“Maybe if you could hold their hands, your hearts will also be touched ... Some-

times, I think those who thought about doing this were able to do so because the poor were absent in their lives. Maybe they don’t see or refuse to see,” he said.

“But if you still see and still have empathy, maybe you would still be horrified and feel compassion,” he added.

“First of all, who would not be shocked about these reports. While it is still being investigated, (you could see) the magnitude of the money involved,” Tagle said.

“And then everyday, you would see the machinations, whether true or not, it seems that it’s a very intricate web that reached this far. Who will not be horrified?” he said.

Big scandals forgotten

“What kind of Filipino who loves his country would not be bothered, especially if he is a follower of Jesus. Your heart would be crushed further. Can someone do that to his fellow man?”

Tagle asked.

“Could those behind this stomach this huge damage to the nation? That is why it is only right that this should be investigated ... We have heard many other big scandals in the past but these were buried and forgotten when a new issue came up,” he added.

Tagle called on the culprits to repent and let their “good side” shine through.

“I believe that there is goodness in every person so I’m appealing to that part of every person. You can be better than this. And you cannot deny it. There’s a goodness in you which comes from God. Just let it come and you will be free and happy,” he said.

The senior prelate was referring to the investigations that the Senate had conducted on the late former Armed Forces chief of staff Angelo Reyes over the supposed corruption and distribution of a million-peso payola to the military brass and the plunder cases against Corona and Garcia.

Arguelles also said he did not trust the investigation being carried out by the National Bureau of Investigation that

was why he was appealing to the senators to take action.

“The NBI investigation can be manipulated so it should be up to the Senate to open this plunder case,” he said, describing the grave misuse of the pork barrel, the Priority Development Assistance Fund (PDAF) as a “heinous crime” against the Filipino poor.

“Our Filipino poor could have benefited from the PDAF,” he said in a text message to reporters.

He also wondered why senators were quiet all of a sudden on the issue. “Do they have something to be afraid of that Napoles might reveal? Why all of a sudden are they all quiet on this P10-billion pork barrel scam?” he said.

San Beda law dean

Fr. Ranhillo Aquino, dean of San Beda law school, proposed that the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines (CBCP) create an independent legal group that would serve as a watchdog against corruption in government as part of the Church’s advocacy for good governance.

“After a while, this issue [on the pork barrel scam] will slowly end and we don’t want that to happen. Even in the Church, the advocacy against corruption is not sustained so why not the CBCP have a legal luminary study the issue [and] investigate?” Aquino said over Church-run Radio Veritas. ■

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Philippine News

FRIDAY AUGUST 23, 2013 4

OFW to labor exec: Remember me?

BY NORMAN BORDADORA Philippine Daily Inquirer A LABOR official came face to face with three of his alleged victims who confronted him at the Senate at a hearing into the sex-for-flight scandal in overseas labor offices.

Antonio Villafuerte, the assistant labor attaché in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, was told off by “Michelle,” who dramatically removed the shawl covering her face and accused Villafuerte of attempting to rape her and of sending her lewd text messages.

“Now, Mr. Villauerte, do you remember me? Do you remember what you did to me?” a crying Michelle asked Villafuerte.

Michelle and two other alleged victims of Villafuerte’s recounted before the Senate blue ribbon committee how Villafuerte allegedly made obscene and degrading remarks while interrogating them about their ordeal in the hands of the Saudi employers that they had escaped from.

Michelle also testified that

Villafuerte tried to rape her at the Philippine overseas labor office in Riyadh.

“I didn’t know that he had that kind of desire for me,” Michelle told the committee.

“I said, ‘Sir, somebody might see us. Sir, please don’t,’” she recalled as Villafuerte allegedly tried to assault her.

She said she managed to push him away and escape.

Michelle also testified that shortly after she ran away from her employer, she needed new undergarments as she didn’t bring a change of clothes when she escaped.

“I couldn’t ask my companions [in Bahay Kalinga, where runaways are housed] because they also didn’t have any money,” Michelle said.

Michelle said she called Villafuerte to ask where she could get new underwear. Villafuerte reportedly took it upon himself to have some bought for Michelle.

“I already had someone buy two salung-so and six salungki. Get them from ma’am Lita,” read the text message that Vil-

lafuerte admittedly sent and that Michelle managed to save in her mobile phone.

The terms Villafuerte used for brassieres and panties could be construed as obscene references to a woman’s private parts.

Villafuerte told the committee that he meant no malice when he used those terms and that he used them in conversation with his wife.

“I want to put that text in the proper context. When she asked me to buy underwear for her when I’d yet to even see her, I was also embarrassed. I said I’d yet to see this woman and she was already asking me to buy underwear for her,” Villafuerte said.

He said he told Michelle to approach a coordinator to ask for underwear. Michelle supposedly said there was none available.

“So I said I would just be the one to ask someone to buy some,” Villafuerte said.

“When I sent that text, I only wanted to know if she already got them. I meant nothing ma-

Antonio Villafuerte, the beleaguered assistant labor attaché in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia who is embroiled in the sex-for-flight scandal.

VIDEO GRAB FROM YOUTUBE.COM

licious,” he said.

Villafuerte denied the allegations of attempted rape and obscene text messages while he was processing the cases of the three OFWs.

“That’s not true, your honor,” Villafuerte said of the allegations against him.

He said he had been very diligent in his job and had helped to meet the needs of OFWs. ■

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Philippine News

5 FRIDAY AUGUST 23, 2013

Marooned in Malta, 21 PH seamen seek help

BY TARRA QUISMUNDO Philippine Daily Inquirer TWENTY-ONE FILIPINO seafarers aboard a cargo ship have been adrift off the port of Malta for months and are seeking compensation from Taiwanese employers alleged to have virtually abandoned them at sea with no fuel and limited food and water.

The Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) said two members of the Philippine embassy in Rome, which also services Malta, checked on the seafarers aboard the stranded MV A Lady Bug, a Taiwanese owned carrier

of cars and trucks, and brought them some supplies.

The seafarers told the embassy representatives they would appreciate repatriation assistance but only after they receive pending wages from their employer.

“The Embassy team boarded on Aug. 11, Sunday, A Lady Bug, personally checked on the condition of the seafarers and brought them supplies such as noodles, drinking water and specific medicines,” said DFA spokesperson Assistant Secretary Raul Hernandez.

During the meeting of the Embassy team with the seafarers, the seafarers said they

wished to be repatriated as soon as possible, but only after their pending claim for back salaries and other benefits from the management of the ship are fully settled,” Hernandez said in a press briefing.

MV A Lady Bug, a Panamanian-registered vehicle carrier had been adrift “for months” some 15 nautical miles or around 28 kilometers off Maltese port limits, Hernandez said. The condition of the Filipinos reached the DFA in July.

He said Maltese authorities just recently granted the ship entry into its waters, providing it fuel to enter its territory.

“The crew had problems

with nonpayment of wages and with their food provisions, fuel and water. It appeared that the mother company of A Lady Bug has been having financial problems,” said Hernandez.

“With the problematic anchor and lack of fuel, the ship found itself drifting, a cause of concern not only for the vessel but also for the security of other passing boats in the area,” he added.

It was unclear why the troubled ship was not readily granted access to the Maltese port, a busy hub in the Mediterranean, but Hernandez said certain protocols cover the entry of ships in ports not originally on

their itinerary.

He said Maltese port authorities only recently granted the ship entry into its waters, providing it fuel to move in.

The DFA still had no information on the ship’s port of origin and supposed destination and the name of the company that deployed Filipinos.

Hernandez said the Filipino crewmen and their Pakistani captain have all decided to take legal action against their Taiwanese employers. The International Transport Worker’s Federation in Malta has also vowed to provide assistance to the Filipinos in pushing their case forward. ■

DOJ set to file raps vs ‘porky’ solons

BY LEILA B. SALAVERRIA Philippine Daily Inquirer THE DEPARTMENT of Justice (DOJ) is poised to file criminal charges against lawmakers involved in the alleged misuse of public funds that the National Bureau of Investigation is looking into, Justice Secretary Leila de Lima said.

“The NBI has been validating, double-checking the accuracy of the list and we will file charges in the next few weeks where there is sufficient evidence,” De Lima told reporters in an ambush interview at the House of Representatives.

De Lima said the cases would most probably be filed in the Office of the Ombudsman, which is also doing a parallel probe. But she said she did not expect the investigations to end any time soon.

“In other words, this investigation would go on for a long time because of the massive scope of the alleged scam or the magnitude of the alleged scam,” she said.

There is also a “bigger and enhanced” team involved in the investigation of the scheme, allegedly masterminded by businesswoman Janet Lim-Napoles, to channel funds of lawmakers’ Priority Development Assistance Fund, PDAF or pork barrel, into ghost projects through bogus nongovernment organizations (NGOs).

De Lima noted that Napoles’

camp earlier indicated that it did not want the probe to be handled by the same NBI team involved in the rescue of Benhur Luy, who allegedly was detained for three months by the businesswoman.

Luy is among five former Napoles employees who have accused Napoles of being the brains behind the pork barrel racket involving dummy nongovernment organizations that have taken advantage of the PDAF of at least five senators and 23 members of the House of Representatives.

Among those named were Senators Juan Ponce Enrile, Ramon Revilla Jr., Jinggoy Estrada, Ferdinand Marcos Jr. and Gregorio Honasan. The senators have denied wrongdoing and said they would cooperate in the inquiry on the use of their PDAF funds. Napoles likewise has denied any wrongdoing.

De Lima said investigators and lawyers from other NBI divisions, such as the antifraud unit and the legal office, had joined the inquiry.

Napoles lawyer’s demand

Lorna Kapunan, a Napoles counsel, told GMA News TV’s program “News To Go” she wanted a special factfinding body to conduct the inquiry.

Kapunan reiterated the objection by Napoles to the participation in that probe of the same NBI team that arrested Napoles’ brother Reynaldo Lim for the alleged illegal detention

of Luy. “With due respect to Attorney Lorna, it’s not for any party, especially those who are subjects of investigation, to impose or dictate on the NBI/ DOJ on what to do,” De Lima said in a text message to reporters.

De Lima denied that the investigation was zeroing in on members of the opposition.

“There is no such standard of segregating or separating the opposition from the administration. We don’t care. In the ongoing probe, it was never a criterion,” she said.

“Maybe later when we start filing charges, you would know or see that it’s not at all a benchmark, and the political color of the subject of the investigation does not matter,” she added.

Corroborative evidence

As to the 97 mayors whom the DOJ had summoned, De Lima said investigators just wanted to hear from them whether they had anything to do with the request for financial assistance under the Malampaya gas fund.

The NBI’s whistle-blowers had told investigators that the requests from mayors were fabricated and that the P900 million, which was intended to help towns ravaged by Typhoons “Ondoy” and “Pepeng” in 2009, went to Napoles or her firm, the JLN group of companies.

“What the mayors would say could be corroborative evidence,” De Lima said. www.canadianinquirer.net

De Lima said the cases would most probably be filed in the Office of the Ombudsman, which is also doing a parallel probe.

PHOTO FROM PCIJ.ORG

She noted that a few of the mayors earlier told the Commission on Audit (COA) and the NBI that they had not made any such requests.

Trust the NBI

Deputy presidential spokesperson Abigail Valte said the 97 mayors, whose signatures were allegedly forged and used in the conversion of the fund, could trust the NBI to conduct a credible investigation.

“Their cooperation is needed in the investigation,” Valte told a briefing in Malacañang. “So it’s also in the interest of those people named to clear their names. As the President said, it’s important to know who were involved, and who were used.”

Interior Secretary Mar Roxas yesterday also thumbed down suggestions for his office to look into the cases of the 97 mayors.

“I think it would be better to let the NBI finish its investigation. If we conduct our own investigation, we might be accused of politicking,” Roxas told the INQUIRER after the 112th Police Service anniversary at Camp Crame.

“If we do a separate probe, there will just be a duplication of work. Why? Are you not happy with the NBI?” he said.

Told of the clamor for the Liberal Party to lead the congressional inquiry into the alleged PDAF scam, he said: “That’s another issue.”

“Let me just make it clear that I’m in favor of an investigation of this matter. I will support any investigation of the House, Senate, NBI or DOJ,” Roxas said. ■ With reports from TJ Burgonio, Marlon Ramos and Christine O. Avendaño

Philippine News

FRIDAY AUGUST 23, 2013 6

Muslims urged to help stop saboteurs of peace process

BY TJ BURGONIO Philippine Daily Inquirer CELEBRATING EID’L Fitr in Malacañang, President Aquino asked Muslim Filipinos to help in stopping the supposed saboteurs of the peace process.

Hosting an Eid’l Fitr dinner for Muslims celebrating the end of the fasting month of Ramadan, the President said a “peaceful Mindanao” was in sight but Muslims have to exert “superior effort” to put down any attempt to derail the peace talks with the Muslim rebels.

The President said an enormous amount of work would be needed to get legislative passage next year of the proposed Bangsamoro Basic Law, the fundamental law that will govern the so-called “Bangsamoro entity” that is proposed to be set up in the Muslim-dominated regions of Mindanao.

Shared goals

The government and the Muslims should band together to attain “shared goals,” Mr.

Aquino said.

“There are those who are committed to perpetuating the conditions that led to the misery of many and enrich a powerful few. Therefore, all of us, who are people of goodwill must overcome every obstacle they placed in our path,” the President told the guests.

Every effort to disrupt the peace process “should be met by our superior effort,” he stressed.

“In this manner, we will ensure that we are in the right, our just cause will prevail. Our commitment to positive change will therefore determine the outcome of our endeavors, just as you have all fasted and fulfilled warrant the great obligations of your faith,” he said.

Hand in hand

Mr. Aquino said the gathering was a reminder that greater things could be achieved if all work “hand in hand” and “that it is by living the virtues life in solidarity that we ensures stability and harmony in our communities, and ultimately in our country.”

cuss the remaining annexes of the October 2012 framework agreement. The aim is to forge by the end of the year a comprehensive agreement on the setting up of the “Bangsamoro entity.”

Also up for discussion are the annexes on normalization and power-sharing. In July, both panels signed the contentious annex on revenue- and wealthsharing.

All the annexes, together with last year’s framework agreement on Bangsamoro, would form part of the final comprehensive peace agreement.

Meaningful change

The guests included senators, justices, diplomats, Cabinet and government officials like Commissioner Mehol Sadain of the National Commission on Muslim Affairs.

Central Mindanao has been rocked by four bombings in recent weeks that left more than

www.canadianinquirer.net

10 people dead, and which authorities have blamed on local groups intent on undermining the peace negotiations with the separatist Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF).

The government will soon resume negotiations with the MILF in Kuala Lumpur to dis-

The President said the framework agreement signed by the government and the MILF last year was a “testament to the meaningful change that can be borne of true partnership and a willingness to sacrifice.”

“Now, our goal of a peaceful and prosperous Mindanao has come into view. We still have some steps to go as we work to pass the Bangsamoro Basic Law by 2014,” he said. ■

Philippine News

7 FRIDAY AUGUST 23, 2013

‘What about Malacañang’s Malampaya pork?’

The Houses... took three years to complete, she said.

The COA report said that between 2007 and 2009, the Department of Budget and Management (DBM) released the following amounts: about P101.6 billion for various infrastructures including local projects (VILP); P12 billion for Priority Development Assistance Fund (PDAF) projects; and P2.36 billion for financial assistance to local government units (LGUs); and budgetary support for government-owned and controlled corporations (GOCCs).

All of these amounts went to projects identified by individual legislators.

The funds are included in the national budget each year as a lump sum appropriation for the various projects identified by senators and congressmen. Those under the VILP are described as “hard projects” under the category of public works.

Those under the PDAF are described as “soft projects” under the category of education, health, livelihood, social services, financial assistance for propoor programs of the government, cultural projects and small infrastructure projects like irrigation, rural electrification, water supply, housing and forest management. ❰❰ 1

Napoles link

According to Tan, P6.156 billion, sourced from the PDAF of 12 senators and 180 representatives, were transferred by the different agencies to 82 NGOs. “Ten of the NGOs, which received a total of P2.157 billion, are presently linked to Janet Lim-Napoles,” Tan said.

Six other NGOs, which got P189 million, involved legislators whose PDAF was transferred to the NGO, or a relative of the legislator, as incorporator or officer.

While the audit covered only the years 2007 to 2009, Tan said the COA auditors were able to identify the NGOs that were identified in the INQUIRER series (of articles on irregularities in the use of the pork barrel funds) as having been used by Napoles to siphon off sizeable amounts from the pork barrel of senators and congressmen.

“There are names of NGOs that are coming up here that are linked to her name,” Tan said.

BY CHRISTIAN V. ESGUERRA Philippine Daily Inquirer

PHOTO FROM PINOYOFW.COM

Napoles has been accused of masterminding a P10-billion pork barrel scam through the use of 22 bogus NGOs. Her cousin Benhur Luy and five other former employees of her JLN Corp. blew the lid on the scam after Luy was kidnapped, allegedly by Napoles.

Napoles is now on the run after a Makati court issued a warrant for her arrest as well as for her brother, Reynald Lim, on charges of serious illegal detention.

Tan said the Napoles’ name had also cropped up in the investigation of the P728-million fertilizer fund scam of 2004.

“In the fertilizer fund scam in 2004, her name had come up. She has a notice of disallowance,” Tan said.

She said Jo-Chris Trading, apparently named after one of Napoles’ daughters, Jo Christine, was one of the biggest suppliers for the fertilizer fund projects. “Her name is not new,” she said. Tan said it was “providential” that there are media reports coming out on the pork barrel scam, as they somehow also validate the results of the COA audit.

Justice catching up

She cited the INQUIRER report on the Supreme Court decision upholding a Court of Appeals ruling holding four officials of Vicente Sotto Memorial Hospital in Cebu liable for the misuse of P3.38 million from the pork barrel of then Cebu Rep. Antonio Cuenco in 2004.

“It just takes some time (but somehow) justice catches up,” Tan said.

The COA chief said it was “good timing” that when the media reports of the Napoles scam came out, the agency had already finished the audit.

Salient findings

“Everyday I would read the papers, it seems to validate what we found. This was providential that things are happening this way,” she said.

One of the salient findings of the audit was that the implementing agencies simply transferred the funds to the NGOs identified or selected by the legislator and not through public bidding as required in the government procurement policy, and then barely monitored the projects, said Tan. She said many of the NGOs were of “dubious existence.”

“They were either unknown or could not be found at their given addresses, or have given nonexistent addresses, or were traced to mere shanties or highend residences which turned out to be residences of their owners/officers,” she said.

“The procurement of alleged goods and services by the NGOs aggregating to billions of pesos was not made through competitive bidding. Many suppliers are the same for most of the NGOs,” Tan said.

She said some NGOs even used P123 million of the funds for payment of salaries and other administrative expenses. ■ www.canadianinquirer.net

THE RAGING controversy over the alleged P10-billion pork barrel scam has led to the scrutiny of a mammoth “offbudget” allocation under the discretion of President Aquino —the Malampaya Fund.

Described as “one big presidential pork,” proceeds from the fund have ballooned to P173 billion since 2002, Bayan Muna Rep. Neri Colmenares said yesterday.

Of the amount, P38.8 billion had been spent for projects unrelated to energy development, he said.

Colmenares said this was the case because the law allowed the President to allocate Malampaya proceeds to projects of his choice without approval from Congress, which holds the socalled “power of the purse.”

“So how does the President choose who gets (the allocation), which district gets one, what project and how much?” he said in a press conference.

“Our assumption here is— and I was trying to deliver the message—this is presidential pork and this is not a good way

of spending public funds.”

Colmenares noted that while the Department of Public Works and Highways and the Department of National Defense got P8 billion and P7.3 billion from the Malampaya Fund, respectively, the Department of Education got only P5 million.

The Department of Science and Technology was even more unfortunate with only P400,000, he said.

House Minority Leader Ronaldo Zamora warned “all sorts of abuses” could take place “if nobody is going to exercise overview or review functions.”

By Colmenares’ reckoning, Malampaya proceeds allowed agencies like the Department of Energy (DOE) and the Department of Justice (DOJ) to spend funds other than those allocated to them in the General Appropriations Act. He said another possible source were the “unobligated allotments” collected by the Department of Budget and Management in the middle of the year.

Last year, he said the DOE had a budget of P1.2 billion but actually spent P1.7 billion. The DOJ was allocated P8.6 billion during the same year, but its total “obligated” fund amounted to P10.3 billion, he said. ■

Proceeds from the fund have ballooned to P173 billion since 2002.

PHOTO FROM WORDYLIZ.COM

Philippine News

FRIDAY AUGUST 23, 2013 8

De Lima doing job but Bongbong to raise pork barrel issue

BY NORMAN BORDADORA, CHRISTIAN V. ESGUERRA, AND LEILA B. SALAVERRIA Philippine Daily Inquirer FOR DOING her job, Justice Secretary Leila de Lima may not get confirmed by the bicameral Commission on Appointments (CA) again, especially after she said that charges were being readied against 28 lawmakers allegedly involved in the misuse of P10 billion in pork barrel over the past decade.

Sen. Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr., a member of the commission that confirms the President’s appointees, said the pork barrel issue would be raised when lawmakers question De Lima in her confirmation hearing.

“It will come up. Everything is a factor. When you’re talking about the highest levels of government … every part of that nomination is going to be examined,” he said.

Marcos is one of the 28 lawmakers, including four other senators, linked to the alleged misuse of the Priority Development Assistance Fund (PDAF), the formal name of pork barrel in the country.

The other senators are Ramon Revilla Jr., Jinggoy Estrada, Gregorio Honasan II and Juan Ponce Enrile. Twentythree members of the House of Representatives have also been linked to the alleged scam.

Politically motivated

Marcos said linking him to the scam was politically motivated. “You’re asking me if there’s politics involved. What do you think? Yes, very clearly.”

Marcos, a member of the administration coalition in the Senate, is the son of the late dictator whom President Aquino’s family blames for the assassination of Sen. Benigno Aquino Jr., on Aug. 21, 1983.

De Lima said on Tuesday that the probe was not zeroing in on the opposition. “There is no such standard of segregating or separating the opposition from the administration. We don’t care. In the ongoing probe, it was never a criterion.”

Honasan took exception to the continued media coverage

of the pork barrel scam when the National Bureau of Investigation, an agency under the Department of Justice (DOJ), had yet to complete its probe.

It was the INQUIRER that broke the story after several whistleblowers submitted affidavits to the NBI detailing how billions in PDAF were channeled to bogus nongovernment organizations (NGOs) and to nonexistent projects.

The whistle-blowers, former employees of Janet LimNapoles, said up to 60 percent of the funds released from the pork barrel represented kickbacks of lawmakers.

‘Trial by publicity’

“Invoking the core constitutional principles of presumption of innocence and presumption of honor, I condemn the serialized trial by publicity,” Honasan said.

“If Secretary De Lima is part of it and she will face the Commission on Appointments for confirmation, then that is her problem,” he added.

Presidential spokesperson Edwin Lacierda said the investigation being conducted by the NBI would be pursued with or without De Lima getting the confirmation.

“She will do her job in spite of the fact that she has not been confirmed for the longest time; she has continuously done her job regardless of who gets affected, or who’s involved (in anomalies under investigation by the DOJ),” Lacierda said in a briefing.

Since her appointment in 2010, De Lima has been repeatedly bypassed by the CA, prompting President Aquino to repeatedly legitimize her stay in government via an ad interim appointment.

At the House hearing on the DOJ budget, De Lima yesterday said members of the executive branch could also be included in the charges.

“We are not yet done identifying exactly the lawmakers and other executive officials who could be charged because there is sufficient evidence,” she said.

Names of lawmakers

House Minority Leader Ron-

aldo Zamora urged De Lima to “name names” in connection with legislators allegedly involved in the pork scam.

Until the investigation is completed, De Lima said she would not release the names of legislators allegedly involved in the scam.

“We will only announce that list when we are ready to file the charges and we will endorse that. We will endorse the report of the NBI to the Ombudsman with our recommendations and the Ombudsman will act accordingly,” she said.

“What is clear to us now, to the NBI, is the scheme used

by JLN (company) and Janet Napoles in relation to PDAF and in relation to Malampaya (funds),” she added.

Sen. Bongbong Marcos: “It (pork barrel issue) will come up. Everything is a factor. When you’re talking about the highest levels of government … every part of that nomination is going to be examined.”

PHOTO FROM BONGBONGM.COM

Beneficiary, victim

De Lima made a distinction between legislators who “benefited” in the PDAF racket and those who were “merely victims.” She said the latter would not be charged.

The NBI has yet to get the side of five senators linked to the alleged misuse of the PDAF. Estrada, Honasan and Marcos said they had yet to be contacted by the NBI. “I was never contacted by the NBI. I suppose they should hear both sides,” Estrada told reporters before the start of the Senate session.

In a telephone interview, Honasan said he was “willing to be summoned for documents in my possession by the NBI, the Ombudsman, the [Department of Justice] or by any court of law.”

Enrile, for his part, said he had readied documents for the investigation. “My records are complete,” Enrile told reporters when asked whether he was bothered by De Lima’s pronouncements.

No immunity

Members of the House, who will eventually land in the DOJ charge sheet, will not be able to hide behind parliamentary immunity, said 1-BAP Rep. Silvestre Bello III, a lawyer.

“Their immunity only covers prision correctional, (meaning the) penalty enforceable is six years below,” Bello said in a www.canadianinquirer.net

De Lima to opposition: “There is no such standard of segregating or separating the opposition from the administration. We don’t care. In the ongoing probe, it was never a criterion.”

weekly House minority press briefing.

“This is plunder. We will probably see each other at Veterans’ Hospital,” he said in jest, referring to former President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo who is detained in the hospital while facing separate charges of plunder and electoral sabotage.

Davao City Rep. Isidro Ungab, chair of the powerful committee on appropriations, maintained that he was innocent, insisting that he did not know or had not met Napoles, the alleged brains behind the P10-billion pork barrel scam.

“If the truth is on your side, why be afraid?” he said during a break at the budget hearing.

“I have never said a single lie in my public life.”

Ungab said he had prepared documents and pictures showing that projects funded by his pork barrel were “fully implemented.”

Clear conscience

“My conscience is clear since

I keep a record of all my projects,” he said. “I have my list of beneficiaries. I have my pictures and they are warm bodies because I saw the distribution.”

Cagayan de Oro Rep. Rufus Rodriguez, who was also implicated in the controversy, said he was not aware that P3 million of his PDAF allocation had gone to a “fake” NGO allegedly set up

by Napoles.

As a prelude to his questions on the DOJ budget, Rodriguez told De Lima that in 2007, he gave P3.5 million to the Technology Livelihood and Resource Center, a government agency that provides livelihood projects.

But last year, he learned from the Commission on Audit (COA) that the funds had apparently gone to an NGO connected with JLN. He came to know of this when the COA asked him to confirm the liquidation of the P3.5 million, he said.

“All my signatures were forged,” he said. ■

Philippine News

9 FRIDAY AUGUST 23, 2013

Solon wants heads to roll over sex-for-flight mess

BY LEILA B. SALAVERRIA Philippine Daily Inquirer HEADS MUST roll, or else.

Akbayan Rep. Walden Bello threatened to cut the Department of Labor and Employment’s (DOLE) proposed P10.5-billion budget for 2014 by 25 percent if it does not pursue criminal or administrative sanctions against personnel implicated in the alleged sexual exploitation of distressed Filipino workers in Middle East countries.

The findings of a government team that investigated the sexual abuse complaints are expected to be submitted today to Labor Secretary Rosalinda Baldoz.

Bello said many people, aghast as the revelation of abuse allegedly committed by Filipino officials against fellow Filipino workers in Middle Eastern countries, are expecting punishment.

Bello said during the House of Representatives’ hearing on the DOLE budget.

He said he was not making an idle threat, saying other lawmakers shared his sentiment.

“Justice must be done. Heads must roll. If these are people connected with the DOLE, I hope (the government) does not stand in the way of justice being done to them,” he added.

More overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) are willing to come out to reveal their ordeal in the hands of Philippine officials overseas, he further said.

It was Bello who first made public allegations that distressed OFWs were allegedly sexually exploited by embassy and overseas labor officials in Middle East countries. He accompanied some female workers to a press conference where the women claimed some officials told them to turn to prostitution to finance their plane tickets back home.

No whitewash

No idle threat

“If the DOLE does not endorse criminal penalties or undertake substantive administrative actions against personnel attached to the DOLE in the Middle East, then I will be forced to file a resolution cutting your budget by 25 percent,”

In response to the Akbayan lawmaker, Baldoz said she shared the lawmakers’ sentiment that the abuse of OFWs must not be condoned, and those who committed these must be penalized.

Baldoz said the DOLE has no intention of whitewashing the

Rep. Walden Bello to the DOLE: “If the DOLE does not endorse criminal penalties or undertake substantive administrative actions against personnel attached to the DOLE in the Middle East, then I will be forced to file a resolution cutting your budget by 25 percent.”

PHOTO FROM AMLAN.GOV.PH

incident.

She will act accordingly on the matter, based on the investigation report of her team and the merits of the case.

According to her, the factfinding team she created had already visited Saudi Arabia, Jordan, and Kuwait and interviewed 160 people, aside from embassy and Philippine Overseas Labor Office officials.

The team received the last pleadings with regard to the probe on Aug. 1, and has since been evaluating and analyzing the information to determine

whether or not there is sufficient evidence against those implicated, and what charges could be filed against them. The team is expected to submit its findings to her today, she said.

“I should be able to give myself time to review the report and make recommendations. If I can finish it by Friday, then I will be able to come up with an initial report,” she told reporters.

Budget too small

Meanwhile, Gabriela Rep. Luzviminda Ilagan said she

found the P50-million emergency repatriation budget for distressed OFWs in 2014 to be “too small” considering that many Filipino workers are in countries that are experiencing political upheavals.

“Don’t you think this amount should have been bigger to anticipate future crises in the political and economic arena?”

Ilagan asked Baldoz.

In response, the Labor Secretary said that in the case of legally documented workers, the recruitment agencies share the responsibility of taking care of their overseas employees, including repatriation.

In case the OFWs who are active members of the Overseas Workers Welfare Administration, there are allocations under its budget which could be used for repatriation, Baldoz added.

In a statement, Ilagan expressed her concern that the government’s “meager allocation” would result in the slow repatriation of Filipino workers during emergencies, which could give rise to a situation where the workers would once again be easy prey of abusive officials.

“The slow repatriation process makes our OFWs vulnerable to abuses like ‘sex for flight,’” she said. ■

Seized ‘ukay-ukay’ worth P40M to go to DSWD

BY JERRY E. ESPLANADA Philippine Daily Inquirer THE BUREAU of Customs has seized over P40.5 million worth of smuggled “ukayukay” (used clothing) in the past three months and the agency plans to turn them over to the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD)

for distribution to victims of typhoons, floods and other calamities.

Customs Commissioner Ruffy Biazon said, “it’s the best option, especially that confiscated used clothing can’t be disposed of by auction since they are prohibited goods.”

“We will offer the seized ukay-ukay to the DSWD for their use in calamity opera-

tions,” he told the INQUIRER. According to the former Muntinlupa City legislator, “the DSWD may have better use for these goods since they are mandated to provide assistance to calamity victims.”

He earlier ordered an inventory of seized and abandoned smuggled goods, including ukay-ukay, in all ports nationwide for possible distribu-

www.canadianinquirer.net

tion to flood victims in Metro Manila and other parts of the country.

Sometime in early 2012, the bureau donated P20 million worth of illegaly imported used clothing to northern Mindanao folk who were displaced by floods spawned by Tropical Storm “Sendong.”

Biazon inspected three 20foot containers with P4.5 mil-

lion worth of ukayukay smuggled from the United States, at the Manila International Container Port (MICP).

The items, consigned to Isidro Enterprises of Iloilo City, were misdeclared as fishing supplies by its shipper, Dev’s Commercial. They were intercepted on July 19

by Customs operatives at the MICP. ■

Philippine News

FRIDAY AUGUST 23, 2013 10

‘Habagat’ paralyzes... provinces to flee their homes and stay in government-run shelters.

The national disaster agency reported three people, including a 5-year-old boy, killed, and two others missing in northern Luzon and civil defense officials in the Calabarzon region reported two people drowned after an irrigation dike in Tanza town, Cavite province, collapsed. ❰❰ 1

maintained its strength and was almost stationary for 12 hours as it began to make a Uturn for Taiwan.

Loiz said Maring was 580 kilometers east of Itbayat town, Batanes province, with maximum sustained winds of 75 kilometers per hour near the center and gusts of 90 kph, moving east-northeast at 7 kph.

Disaster officials

Loiz said that it was possible for Maring to develop into a typhoon as it hovered over the Pacific Ocean.

Although Maring was far from the country’s land mass, it was expected to continue to intensify the southwest monsoon and bring rains to Luzon until Wednesday, Loiz said.

But compared to last year, when heavy rains lasted for several days, the southwest monsoon did not dump too much rain on Luzon this time, as there were long periods without rain.

From 8 a.m. Sunday to 5 a.m.

Monday, Pagasa’s Sangley Point rainfall monitoring station in Cavite recorded 335 mm rainfall in 24 hours.

The weather bureau’s Port Area station in Manila recorded 277.5 mm rainfall; the Ninoy Aquino International Airport station, 255 mm; and the Sinait, Ilocos Sur, station, 211.8 mm.

Executive Secretary Paquito Ochoa presided over the NDRRMC meeting, attended

by Cabinet Secretaries Voltaire Gazmin (Defense), Mar Roxas (Interior and Local Government), Corazon Soliman (Social Welfare and Development), Rogelio Singson (Public Works and Highways), and Herminio Coloma (Communications); Metropolitan Manila Development Authority (MMDA) Chair Francis Tolentino and Pagasa Officer in Charge Vicente Malano.

Ochoa appealed to the public to stay indoors and limit traveling as Maring continued to intensify the southwest monsoon, causing heavy rains.

“We are advising the public not to travel as much… Be vigilant. Those who are in the evacuation centers should stay put and should not return to their homes until they are given clearance to do so,” Ochoa said in Filipino.

State of calamity

Preparing for worse

May become typhoon Price freeze

To stop unscrupulous traders from taking advantage of the situation, the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) imposed a freeze on the prices of basic goods in several areas in Luzon that had declared a state of calamity.

Victorio Mario A. Dimagiba, officer in charge of the consumer welfare and business regulation group at the DTI, said that prices should have already been frozen in two towns in Ilocos Sur (Sta. Maria and Narvacan), two towns in Laguna (Sta. Rosa and San Pedro), and Cavite.

Dimagiba said the freeze remained in effect until the lifting of the states of calamity.

A prize freeze covers rice, bread, coffee, milk, noodles and sardines, among other basic goods.

Heavy rains blamed

President Aquino blamed the extensive flooding on heavy rains brought by Maring, aggravated by high tide at around 1 a.m. Monday.

“Heavy rain is anything above 7.5 millimeters per hour,” Aquino said in a speech at Ateneo de Manila University. “Now here, we have 30 mm within one hour, or if rainfall has continued for the past three hours and is more than 65 mm,” he said, reading an advisory from the state weather bureau.

Aquino said residents of lowlying areas were advised on Sunday night to move to safer grounds, and that Metropolitan Manila Development Authority (MMDA) personnel began to clear the Metro roads of storm debris and trash on Sunday night.

“There are no fresh instructions,” Aquino said. “Instructions had been given at the start, with the very first storm that we encountered.”

Jori Loiz, a senior forecaster at the Philippine Atmospheric, Geophysical and Astronomical Services Administration (Pagasa) said Maring, as of 4 p.m.

Monday, was observed to have

ation centers in Laguna and Cavite.

Floodwaters began to recede by noon Monday in a few areas, leaving most of Laguna and Cavite under water.

Most of the two provinces were cut off from Metro Manila with floodwaters along the South Luzon Expressway rising as high as 1.2 meters.

Executive Director Eduardo del Rosario of the National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council (NDRRMC), speaking at a meeting of the council at Camp Aguinaldo, said the government’s emergency response efforts were focused on the worst-hit provinces, Laguna and Cavite, which had declared a state of calamity.

Del Rosario said the heavy rainfall in Sangley, Cavite, and an irrigation dam that collapsed in Tanza inundated the province.

Vicente Tomazar, director of the Calabarzon (Cavite, Laguna, Batangas, Rizal, Quezon) Office of Civil Defense, said parts of Cavite and Laguna remained under water after the dike collapsed.

Flooded were the towns of Tanza, Rosario, Bacoor, Noveleta and Carmona in Cavite. In Laguna the towns of San Pedro, Biñan and Sta. Rosa were flooded.

Tomazar said there were 11 evacu-

Del Rosario said all first responders and the local chief executives in Central Luzon were “preparing for any possibility.”

Del Rosario said the evacuation in areas “considered critical or risky” began Sunday.

Roxas said he had ordered the Philippine National Police to activate its disaster incident management task groups in areas affected by the storm.

“I have directed the PNP to coordinate with the local disaster risk reduction and management councils to see how the police can be of assistance to them,” Roxas said in a statement.

Roxas, vice chair of the NDRRMC, said the PNP had prepared a “response checklist” for responding to typhoons, flooding and other natural disasters such as tsunamis, earthquakes and volcanic eruptions.

Four dead

Three people were killed at the height of the monsoon rains.

The NDRRMC identified the www.canadianinquirer.net

fatalities as Celedenonio Gamban, 39, who drowned in Tanza; Austin Betasolo, 5, who was killed after a fence collapsed in Barangay (village) Tatalo, Binangonan, Rizal province, and Franco Pedrito Cawayan, 30, of Besao, Mountain Province.

Cawayan was killed on Sunday after the jeepney he was riding in along with 49 others met an accident in Sitio Caluat, Cabugao, Apayao province.

Nine other passengers were injured in the accident. They were taken to Connor District Hospital and Tuguegarao Hospital where Cawayan was declared dead.

In Pampanga province, Renato Lacsamana, 64, a former village watchman in Lubao town, drowned Monday morning as he went out to check the water level at the Porac-Gumain River in Barangay Sta. Cruz, the provincial disaster office said.

Missing

Four people were reported missing. They were identified as Joros Miyage, 7, of Tanza who was reported to have drowned; Marissa Manaois, 40, who was reported trapped in Sumaguing Cave in Sagada, Mountain Province; Rosalino Calantay, 30, who went missing after he tried to cross the Damangil River in Barangay Amtuagan in Tubo town in Abra province; and Monching Bakidan, 20, was also reported missing after he tried to cross the Chico River in Sitio Pampang, Barangay Samoki in Bontoc, Mountain Province.

Pagasa official Esperanza Cayanan scotched speculations that there was a delay in the weather bureau’s warning system about the rains because the Doppler radar in Tagaytay City was under repair.

“The Doppler radar is still being tested… We cannot depend on it right now because it is still being repaired and it is operating on a testing mode. But we are confident about the Doppler radar in Subic,” Cayanan said.

The MMDA’s Tolentino convened the metropolitan disaster council on Monday as rain continued to lash the city.

Tolentino said at least 807 families from different parts of the metropolis had been evacuated to safer grounds as floodwaters began to rise in their communities.

He said he expected “a bigger

problem” if the rains persisted through the night.

Tourists rescued

In Mountain Province, rescuers began the search for Manaois, who is from Pangasinan, after pulling out 30 tourists and guides from the flooded Sumaguing Cave in Sagada town.

The tourists, including 13 Japanese, had been huddled inside the cave since Sunday as strong rains battered parts of the Cordillera region.

Also rescued were five residents of Metro Manila, two from Pampanga, two from Natonin town, also in Mountain Province, and eight local tourist guides, police said.

Four of those rescued were taken to St. Theodore Hospital in Sagada: Vilma Pusao and Aiza Lifano of Natonin, and Jun Bendiola and an unidentified resident of Metro Manila.

The Japanese tourists were examined at the hospital then discharged, police said.

Lake rising

Meanwhile, the Laguna Lake Development Authority (LLDA) said the water level in the lake rose overnight from 11.6 meters to 12.1 meters.

The lake’s critical level, or the maximum annual level, is 12.5 meters, according to LLDA hydrologist Emil Hernandez. “[Going] beyond this level would mean the lake [exceeded] its volume capacity.

[This] may trigger more than a monthlong lakeshore flooding like what happened after (Tropical Storm) “Ondoy” (in 2009) and the [monsoon rains last year],” Hernandez, who is also an engineer, said.

As of 4 p.m. Monday, the water level in the lake was 12.1 meters, he said, adding that it was likely to rise further. ■ With reports from Marlon Ramos, TJ A. Burgonio, Cathy Yamsuan, Tarra Quismundo, Dona Z. Pazzibugan, Christine O. Avendaño, Nina P. Calleja, Amy R. Remo and Miguel R. Camus in Manila; Maricar Cinco and Romy Ponte, Inquirer Southern Luzon; Tonette Orejas, Carmela Reyes-Estrope, Anselmo Roque, Jun Malig, Armand Galang and Cesar Villa, Inquirer Central Luzon; and Gabriel Cardinoza, Yolanda Sotelo, Kimberlie Quitanol, Leoncio Balbin Jr. and Vincent Cabreza, Inquirer Northern Luzon

Philippine News

11 FRIDAY AUGUST 23, 2013

27 people, including 13 Japanese More tourists, rescued from Sagada cave families went hungry, survey says

BY CHING DEE Philippine Canadian Inquirer

A TOTAL of 27 people were rescued Sunday from Sumaguing Cave in Sagada, Mountain Province after being trapped inside the cave because of severe flooding in the area, which caused the river that ran inside the cave to become violent and impossible to cross. One more

tourist, a female, remains to be missing after she slipped in the cave.

Sumaguing Cave is just one of the many famous caves in Sagada for spelunking or cave connection.

Those rescued includes thirteen Japanese students Atsushi Ito, Yoshitaka Onoe, Saika Furukawa, Sakuda Hikaru, Mutsimi Sato, Koichi Sato, Takuto Horita, Ayumi Shimamu-

ra, Keitaro Yuda, Sayori Shirai, Yuka Morita, Yuka Nakamura, and Naomi Yusakawa.

Other who are yet to be verified by the Sagada authorities include a female who is still unconscious and currently receiving treatment in the hospital, as well as four tourists from Manila, two local tourists from Natonin also in Mountain Province and eight tour guides, and two Pampanga teachers. ■

Abolish pork, UP professors urge, citing Kristel suicide

BY JULIE M. AURELIO Philippine Daily Inquirer THE SUICIDE of student Kristel Tejada would never have happened had the Priority Development Assistance Fund (PDAF) been used instead for education, health and other social services, an alliance of several faculty members from the University of the Philippines (UP) said, as the group demanded the abolition of the controversial pork barrel fund.

Tejada was a 16-year-old behavioral sciences freshman at UP who committed suicide in March this year. After failing to pay her tuition, Tejada went on leave and took her own life.

The UP Faculty for the Abolition of the Pork Barrel System and the Presidential Pork Barrel Fund condemned the diversion of the funds in a P10billion scam linking several legislators to fake nongovernment organizations allegedly formed to siphon off the money to businesswoman Janet LimNapoles.

“Napoles is not the only one who should be benefiting from this [pork] fat,” convenor and UP professor Gerry Lanuza said in a press conference, adding that the group would go to Congress and Malacañang to urge for the pork barrel’s abolition.

‘Tuwid na daan’

National Artist for Literature Bienvenido Lumbera said writers should stand up to con-

PHOTO FROM BULATLAT.COM

demn the continued abuse of the PDAF, which he said is only a way for politicians to remain in power.

“Where is this tuwid na daan (straight and narrow road) headed? Is it headed for the banks and savings of a few lawmakers?” he asked.

‘Sablay’

The UP professors wore the sablay, the graduation sash that comes in the university’s official colors of maroon and green and which has traditionally been a symbol of honor and excellence.

In the alliance’s statement, however, the sablay was translated to its literal meaning of “anomalous.”

“The pork barrel system is sablay. Instead of honor and excellence, [it] ends up promoting

dishonor and mediocrity,” the statement said.

Vice chancellor for student affairs Marion Tan said Tejada’s suicide would never have happened if only UP had a bigger budget.

“We support the calls to do away with the PDAF and for the taxpayers’ money to go to education, health and other social services,” she said.

With the formation of the alliance, the group hopes to gain the support of other state universities and colleges and even private schools against the pork barrel, professor Sarah Raymundo said.

She added that an online petition would be circulated and later forwarded to the House of Representatives and the Senate, where two bills on the abolition of the PDAF are pending. ■ www.canadianinquirer.net

Philippine Daily Inquirer SOME 4.9 million families went hungry in the second quarter of the year, up by around one million from the previous quarter, according to the latest Social Weather Stations (SWS) Survey.

The survey, conducted on June 28-30 and first reported in BusinessWorld, showed that hunger went up to 22.7 percent, compared to the 19.2 percent or 3.9 million households recorded in March.

The recent figure is the highest since a record 23.8 percent was posted in March 2012.

The latest hunger survey follows the release by the SWS last week of a self-rated June poverty survey wherein 49 percent of respondents, or 10.4 million families, claimed to be poor, a decrease from the 52 percent recorded in the previous quarter.

Around 40 percent, or 8.5 million families, said they were food-poor in the same period, up from 39 percent in the previous quarter.

In the hunger survey, SWS asked 1,200 respondents nationwide: In the last three months, did it happen even

once that your family experienced hunger and did not have anything to eat?

Thosewho answered “yes” were asked: Did it happen only once, a few times, often or always?

SWS classified “moderate hunger” as experiencing hunger “only once” or “a few times,” while going hungry “often” or “always” as experiencing “severe hunger.”

Those who experienced moderate hunger nationwide rose from 15.6 percent (3.2 million households) in March to 17.3 percent (3.7 million households) in June.

Incidence of severe hunger also rose from 3.6 percent (726,000 households) in the first quarter to 5.4 percent (1.2 million households) in the second quarter.

SWS used face-to-face interviews for the survey, which had a margin of error of plus-orminus 3 percentage points for national percentages.

By geographical area, overall hunger increased nationwide, except in Mindanao, where it fell from 29.2 percent in March to 17 percent in June. ■

PHOTO BY ART PHANEUF—LOSTARTS / SHUTTERSTOCK.COM

Philippine News

FRIDAY AUGUST 23, 2013 12

Buwaya, Baha, Bayanihan, and “Bwahahahaha”

BY ANGIE DUARTE Philippine Canadian Inquirer I SIT here and work, waiting for updates from various news sites. Or at least, I try to work. I am stranded; but thankfully, at my Dad’s.

I cannot return to my apartment in Makati, unless of course I am able to: A) command Scotty to beam me up; B) instantaneously grow fins, gills, and a tail; not like a large fish, mind you, but more like a glamorous urban mermaid; C) channel Jesus and walk on water; or D) hijack a hovercraft.

The torrential downpour brought about by the habagat (southwest monsoon) and Typhoon Maring has caused a flooding of Biblical proportions. The “Biblical Baha (flood).” Only the Lord is not so much to blame as are poor urban planning, terrible road conditions, obscene amounts of ill-disposed garbage, clogged drainage systems and sewers, deforestation, global warming, and the corruption of more than a handful.

Yes, that last one, too. More aptly, that last one, especially: Monies meant for national improvement have been spent on lavish Hollywood birthday parties and other such extravagances. Shame on the shamefully shameless.

Pilipinas is the new Atlantis, it would seem. The country is sinking under tons of water, literally. Figuratively, it is sinking under the weight of greedy hearts, and pockets full-to-thebrim with ill-gotten wealth.

Curioser and curioser…buwayas (crocodiles, and also the local term for those driven by insatiable, predatory and corrupt greed) enjoy water; so perhaps the deluge is ideal? Maybe they thought – or hoped – the rains would bring a distraction?

Tsk, tsk.

It would seem that the recent pork barrel scam, and the insane rains have created an even crazier phenomenon: People are growing sick and tired of being taken advantage of. At least I hope they are. Funny, too, that

this turn of events coincides with Ninoy’s death anniversary.

Strange cosmic orchestration, perhaps? Whatever. Anything to bring about enlightenment, awareness, and a desire for true change works.

I cannot return to my apartment, and I am antsy.

I munch restlessly; mindlessly: pork rinds, potato chips, leftover menudo, macaroni salad.

My fourth cup of coffee. I crave hot sopas, loaded with macaroni, over equally piping hot steamed rice. Carbs and carbs, ‘coz I’m Pinoy like that. I am tempted to rummage through the cupboards for ingredients to cook some.

My thoughts stray, distracted by: the incessant sound of rain coming down in buckets; images on the TV of the submerged Metro; and the constant buzz on social media.

I scroll through my Facebook home page: aghast, amazed, angered, and amused at the ghastly, amazing, angry, amusing posts.

Countless are angered by the thievery; now perceived (and rightfully so) as the main culprit of our nation’s woes. Someone decries the whining of those with “first-world” problems, amidst the real issues to contend with. Another is enraged by the food pics some insensitively post, despite the fact that many are – at the moment – wet, cold and starving.

Innumerable photos of the flooding; more than a few funny ones; witty, sarcastic, inane ones; inspiring ones.

Scrolling through the home page is almost like a lesson in national identity.

Filipinos are resilient; that is undeniable. Every year, we go through some calamity or other; and every year, we survive.

But should life really be this way? Should not change and improvement be the goal? It’s like that stain from a roof leak: you stare up at it, and it annoys you for the first month or so; then you grow so accustomed to it, it becomes virtually invisible. Until a new, bigger leak forms.

Filipinos are stalwart. The

Row, row, row your raft.

PHOTO BY ALVIN CHAN

Random urban mermaid. Sirena, more accurately.

bayanihan spirit lives and thrives and shines through the murk and mire that are the leptospirosis-riddled flood waters. Heroes are born every minute, in crises. And perhaps that “jologs” rude boor of a man who picks his nose and spits on the ground and catcalls when you walk by is now helping tow someone on board a rubber dinghy to safety. Perhaps.

Filipinos are funny. We possess an offbeat sense of humour that is impervious to fire, flood, fear, famine, and a life generally fraught with hardship. And very possibly, to termites, too.

But this is often a double-edged sword; it perpetuates our survival, yet it also perpetuates the situations which threaten it. We laugh to live another day, and in so-doing, we let that which needs to change live, as well. Admittedly, however: Many times laughter IS all we have left. And that keeps us sane, strong, and healthy.

My mind strays yet again, and before this goes to all levels philosophical and so-fitting for a gray day as this, I leave you with some of my fave photos from another surreal snapshot of life on these islands.

Tomorrow, I shall try to venture out. Tonight, I stay put.

Sigh. Where’s a hovercraft when you need one? ■ www.canadianinquirer.net

PHOTO FROM FACEBOOK.

Dick Gordon, to the rescue! Many asked the “What if…?” question after seeing this. You complete the thought. This photo was apparently taken during last year’s habagat, but re-surfaced online and re-posed the million-dollar “whatif...?” question. Also, I want one of these car-boats.

PHOTO BY RHADSON MENDOZA

Interesting on many levels: Pinoy Bayanihan. And also a statement on how natural disasters are such equalizers of society. The Rolls Royce luxury car, being “rescued” by members of Manila’s “lower echelons” of society. Winning moment? The “Tabo” (plastic dipper) scooping out water.

PHOTO COLLAGE BY PATRICK SANTOS

Philippine News

13 FRIDAY AUGUST 23, 2013

Aurora folk fail to get TRO vs Apeco

BY CHRISTINE O. AVENDAÑO Philippine Daily Inquirer

Revised penal code revised: Criminal age lowered to 13 in House bill

BY LEILA B. SALAVERRIA Philippine Daily Inquirer AFTER 81 years, the country’s criminal code appears headed for a much needed makeover with the filing of a bill yesterday mandating sweeping reforms that would replace antiquated provisions and obsolete penalties that fail to address the call of the times.

One key provision of the bill that would repeal Book I of the Revised Penal Code (RPC) and put in place a new criminal code is the one lowering the minimum age of criminal responsibility to 13 years from 15 years, the bill’s author, Iloilo Rep. Niel Tupas Jr., said.

Another provision prescribes a change to the universal jurisdiction of crimes instead of the current jurisdiction based on territory.

Tupas said massive changes to the RPC were necessary to make the country’s laws more responsive to the times.

Archaic crimes

“While the RPC still defines archaic crimes such as ‘challenging to a duel’ and ‘qualified theft of coconuts,’ it has largely been ineffective in addressing organized crime, transactional crime, cybercrime and such other emergent criminal activities that proliferate today,” he said in the explanatory note to the bill.

Tupas told reporters that lowering the age of criminal responsibility was necessary to prevent gangs from using children in their activities. He also said 13-year-olds today were more wellinformed compared to children of the same age back in time.

“A 13-year-old in 2013 is different

from a 13-year-old in the 18th century,” he said.

Under the bill, those between 13 to 18 years would be penalized depending on the nature of the crime but be given suspended sentences and referrals to diversionary programs.

Another change would be the simplification of crime categories, meaning there will be no more frustrated stage of commission. For instance, there will be no more frustrated murder, just attempted murder and murder.

Participants in a crime would also either be principals or accomplices. There will be no more accessories.

The bill also seeks to impose a new penalty scale composed of numbered levels instead of Latin terms. This would allow for an easier classification of crimes according to gravity and simplify the sentencing process.

Double jeopardy

It also proposes to rationalize the rule on double jeopardy to prevent its abuse, by adding a provision stating that an appeal from a judgment of dismissal or acquittal shall not be treated as a second jeopardy.

As he pushed for a new criminal code, Tupas filed another bill that would streamline the criminal investigation process and improve the way the government responds to injustice, by removing the layers of bureaucracy and simplifying the process.

The bill, which seeks to institutionalize a criminal investigation system, would require prosecutors to work closely with the police in gathering evidence and building a case. This would be the criminal investigation stage, the first of two steps under the preliminary investigation process. ■

THE SUPREME Court did not issue a temporary restraining order (TRO) as sought by farmers, fishermen and the Agta tribe of Casiguran, Aurora, against the Aurora Pacific Economic Zone (Apeco) project.

Court spokesperson Theodore Te said the high tribunal did not act on the plea of the Pinag-isang Lakas ng mga Samahan ng Casiguran, Aurora (Piglasca) for a TRO against the over 12,000hectare project that aims to create the country’s first economic free zone on the Pacific.

Te said the court instead ordered Apeco, the Senate and the House of Representatives, which were named respondents in the petition, to comment on the issues raised by Piglasca.

The court also ordered Piglasca’s petition consolidated with the one filed by a group led by Rafael Mariano against Apeco in October last year, which is pending in the high tribunal.

Piglasca has asked the court to block the implementation of Republic Act No. 9490, as amended by RA 10083, as this created a “superbody out of Apeco with the powers of the executive and legisla-

tive branches of government.”

Manila Auxiliary Bishop Broderick Pabilio, of the Catholic Bishops Conference of the Philippines National Secretariat for Social Action, had earlier said the protesters were hoping the Supreme Court would be fair, considering that nothing came of the dialogue between President Aquino and the Aurora residents last December after the latter marched 350 kilometers in 18 days from their homes to Manila to dramatize their opposition to the project.

The President at the time ordered a review of the Apeco project but rejected calls to cut funding and scrap it altogether.

Mr. Aquino sided with then Sen. Edgardo Angara, expressing the belief the project would benefit Central Luzon.

Pabillo said he had asked the President not to allocate funds for the Apeco project in the 2014 national budget, which is up for discussion in Congress.

He also asked the President to consider helping majority of the people and “not just one family and foreigners.”

In their 70-page petition, the Aurora residents said the laws were passed without a consultation with the stakeholders.

The laws also violate the social justice and local autonomy provisions of the Constitution, among other things, they said. ■

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Philippine News

FRIDAY AUGUST 23, 2013 14

Religious groups back independent body to probe pork scam

BY JOCELYN R. UY Philippine Daily Inquirer SHOULD HE go to China this time?

President Aquino is sending an official delegation to attend the 10th China-Asean (Association of Southeast Asian Nations) Expo in Nanning, China, set for Sept. 3 to 6.

But Malacañang is unsure whether President Aquino is coming along.

“We’ll wait for the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) to confirm (his attendance). We have not received any word if he’s pushing through with the trip,” said presidential spokesperson Edwin Lacierda at a briefing in the Palace.

“When it comes to the foreign trips of the President it will be the DFA that will be making the announcement,” Lacierda said.

Mr. Aquino sent Roxas, accompanied by Lacierda, as his special envoy to the ChinaAsean Expo (Caexpo) last year.

Roxas was then tasked with conveying to then Chinese President Hu Jintao through Xi Jinping, the vice president and at the time, the Philippines’ desire to improve relations with China and help find a peaceful solution to the territorial dispute between the two countries.

PH is host

This year, the Philippines is the assigned “host” of the Caexpo held annually in China

to promote the building of the China-Asean free trade area.

“But as to whether he’s going, let’s wait for the announcement from DFA,” said Lacierda at the briefing.

DFA spokesperson Raul Hernandez later sent a text message, which read: “The President has signified his intentions to attend Caexpo in Nanning in September. However, it is not confirmed yet that he will attend.”

Apparently explaining the initial reluctance of Mr. Aquino to take part in the expo, Lacierda said that the agenda was primarily economic, with a slim chance of talking with China on the West Philippine Sea dispute.

Trade, economic agenda

Lacierda said the Palace’s decision to participate in the expo “is one proof of the multifaceted relationship with China.”

“We’re focusing now on trade and the economic agenda. So we have moved (on). We have focused on other levels of exchanges with China. For instance, just to let you know, there will be visitors from the mainland (to pay a call) on me.

That’s why we can confidently say that our relationship with China is not limited to the situation in the West Philippine Sea.” He said the issue of the disputed territories in the South China Sea was already being handled by the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea’s arbitral tribunal. ■

Former workers of Napoles has accused the businesswoman of masterminding a P10-billion scheme that channeled funds from state agencies and the pork barrel of lawmakers into ghost projects of dummy NGOs over the past decade.

PHOTO FROM ANC.YAHOO.COM

Amid conflict, media find common ground PH, China sea dispute

BY TARRA QUISMUNDO Philippine Daily Inquirer BEYOND THE nine-dash line, they found new friends.

A group of Chinese journalists is in town on a trip sponsored by the Philippine government, the first “familiarization” tour the Department of Foreign Affairs has hosted for China’s media amid tensions between Manila and Beijing over their claim in the West Philippine Sea (South China Sea).

As much as the Filipinos want peace across the waters, so do their guests, who said they hoped to focus more on the positive side of Philippine and Chinese relations even as the two governments wrangle over ownership of the contested sea.

“I don’t want to write words against our neighboring countries … Criticism of the Philippines is not representative of all people who work at Global Times,” said Gu Dong, an editor at the fiercely nationalist Chinese paper known for its scathing opinion pieces on the Philippines.

His remarks were in response to an observation by Clarita Carlos, renowned political analyst and professor of geopolitics, who accused the Global Times of writing “provocative” commentary on the Philippines.

Carlos had engaged the tour participants in an exchange on the territorial dispute after giving them a primer on Philippine history, politics and foreign www.canadianinquirer.net

policy during a daylong forum organized by the DFA for the Chinese journalists at the plush Solaire Resort and Casino in Parañaque City Wednesday.

“For the geographic (territorial) issues, I hope this goes through the foreign ministries of both countries. For the media, we just express our news accurately. I will bring your criticism to our editors so that they can make balanced (reporting) in the coming news,” said Gu, his remarks translated into English by an interpreter.

Blogger Zhao Jing told Carlos that China’s territorial claim over the West Philippine Sea was well-entrenched with the Chinese public, as his country’s borders were part of the “Chinese narrative” reflected in the media and China’s education system.

“It’s kind of part of national beauty … it has become part of ‘ Chineseness.’ It’s not from the international law of the sea but from textbooks,” explained Zhao.

He was referring to China’s nine-dash line, Beijing’s historical claim to territories in the South China Sea, which Manila believes is “excessive” and encroaches on its exclusive economic zone.

The Philippines has a pending arbitration case in the United Nations which seeks to nullify this Chinese delineation and to halt incursions into its maritime borders—a legal action that China has rejected, citing “indisputable” sovereignty over the waters.

Despite this, Zhao believes there is more to Manila-Beijing ties than this point of divergence.

“We should not put this issue as the number one issue between the two countries. We should isolate this,” Zhao said.

Su Biqing of Guangxi Daily agreed that the two countries should explore other possible areas of cooperation. He expressed hope that President Aquino would visit China during the China-Asean (Association of Southeast Asian Nations) Expo (Caexpo) to be held in Nanning from Sept. 3 to 6.

“I think the problem in the South China Sea [is something] we could put down first and look at other opportunities in other aspects. For example, the economy. For the President (Aquino), we want him in the Asean meeting because we have more possibility for development and other important things,” said Su. Carlos replied, prompting laughter in the hall: “That’s excellent. I hope your military is listening to you.”

She emphasized the importance of thinking globally as opposed to nationally, saying that international borders would eventually be meaningless for future generations.

“Nationalism is a bad word in a globalized world. You are a citizen of the world. Borders should not have any meaning.

Geography no longer matters,” said Carlos, referring to the growing trend of international integration. ■

Philippine News

15 FRIDAY AUGUST 23, 2013

PH-US talks on military pivot still vague–official

BY NIKKO DIZON Philippine Daily Inquirer PHILIPPINE OFFICIALS negotiating with the United States on a framework agreement for increased US access to the country said the document they were working on remained admittedly vague to the public at this stage of the talks.

“Yes, we know it is vague. We are sorry about that,” said Assistant Secretary Carlos Sorreta of the Department of Foreign Affairs, who heads the Philippine panel.

Though Sorreta earlier said that details about each round of the talks would be revealed to the public “in the spirit of transparency,” the briefing given yesterday on what was discussed during the opening round on Wednesday was lacking in details.

The Philippine and US panels met for one day of talk, and one of the things they initially discussed was the working title for the framework agreement.

The document is to be called the “Framework Agreement between the Philippines and the United States on the Increased Rotational Presence or Enhanced Defense Cooperation.”

Further implementation

The panel explained that the agree-

ment “is meant to provide general parameters and principles on the further implementation of the Mutual Defense Treaty and the Visiting Forces Agreement.”

“It will not talk about the exact size and shape of the visiting troops and the visiting equipment from the US,” said Defense Undersecretary Pio Lorenzo Batino.

These details will not be included even in the framework agreement’s final form, he said.

Sorreta explained that the details being asked about by the media involved mostly “operational matters.”

Increased presence

He said the focus of the talks was the framework that military officials from the two countries could use when they sit down to discuss how to go about implementing the “increased rotational presence” of US forces.

“They will know what can be done, what can’t be done,” he said.

“The specific areas where they will be, or the activities and exercises, will be listed, but not the number of troops, not the operational details,” Sorreta said.

Batino said there was an existing mechanism for the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) and the US Pacific Command that would determine these,

as well as the activities in which the troops from the two countries would participate.

Address ‘gaps’

“It is through this regular mechanism that our AFP and your DND ( Department of National Defense) are able to screen and determine the ideal activities that would be consented upon by the Philippine government, taking into account the concerns or our objectives for further training, especially with modern defense equipment and other activities that would strengthen the alliance,” he said.

By an existing mechanism, Batino was referring to the Mutual Defense Board, the coordinating body for defense and security cooperation between the two countries which are bound in a treaty alliance under the 1951 Mutual Defense Treaty.

Batino said the negotiations provided a chance for the Philippines to address the “gaps” in previous military arrangements, such as the Balikatan war games that began a decade ago.

“This framework agreement would be a good opportunity for us to insist on clearer safeguards for our national concerns. There should be full control

Allergic reaction fells P-noy

BY MICHAEL LIM UBAC Philippine Daily Inquirer PRESIDENT AQUINO went on sick leave, skipping the inauguration of the Aluling Bridge in Cervantes, Ilocos Sur, that took 35 years to complete.

The culprit: His allergy to pollen.

The President had an allergy attack after attending the Philippine National Police anniversary at the PNP multipurpose center in Camp Crame.

Presidential spokesperson Edwin Lacierda suspected that the “floral arrangement” at the air-conditioned venue may have triggered the allergy.

“So just to clarify, it’s not because of coughing, it’s because of an allergy,” Lacierda said in a news briefing.

He said the President was resting at Bahay Pangarap, his official residence, after taking allergy medication.

Deputy presidential spokesperson Abigail Valte told reporters the President “has an adverse reaction when he is exposed to many flowers at close proximity.”

Valte said Mr. Aquino had a similar allergic reaction during a state visit to

Australia last year, when he was forced to miss an official function.

The condition is so serious that floral arrangements at the presidential palace are positioned in “strategic places” to prevent them from setting off the president’s allergy, according to Valte.

Viel Aquino-Dee, one of the President’s sisters, together with Public Works Secretary Rogelio Singson and Defense Secretary Voltaire Gazmin, led the inauguration of the P191.3 million Aluling Bridge.

Reading from a prepared message that was to be delivered by the President, Aquino-Dee said the new bridge would speed up the movement of goods to and from the Ilocos and Cordillera regions, and provide tourists easy access to Gambang Falls and Yamashita Cave in Ilocos Sur. Considered the “longest bridge” in the Philippines—not in terms of length but in terms of the number of years it took to complete—the 180-meter Aluling bridge was completed by the Aquino administration after 35 years of planning and construction. ■ With an AFP report www.canadianinquirer.net

of the Philippine authority over AFPowned or AFP-controlled facilities.

We will also insist that there will be no areas exclusive to the US troops,” he said.

The Philippine panel is composed of Sorreta, Batino, Justice Undersecretary Francisco Baraan III and Defense Undersecretary Raymund Quilop.

Amid friction

The negotiations come amid increasing friction between China and the Philippines, and other countries in the region, over disputed territories in the oil- and gas-rich West Philippine Sea (South China Sea).

They also coincide with a renewed US military presence in the region as Washington shifts, or pivots, its foreign, economic and security policy toward Asia.

A small group of militant antiUS activists gathered outside Camp Aguinaldo yesterday to denounce the proposed agreement. They called on Congress to open an inquiry into details of the negotiations being kept from the public.

The next round of talks will be held in Washington, DC later this month. ■ With a Reuters report

Opinion

FRIDAY AUGUST 23, 2013 16

THERE’S THE RUB

On top of the carabao

By Conrado De Quiros Philippine Daily Inquirer EVER ABASOLO, a fellow of International Alert, sent me this eye-opener.

He did some calculations, he said, after reading all the news stories about Janet Lim-Napoles and the scam she perpetrated with the collusion of mayors, congressmen and senators, and came up with this.

Ten billion pesos could have: built 1,000 moderately equipped rural health centers; or rehabilitated 1,400 kilometers of provincial roads; or fed 763,475 hungry children for a year; or rehabilitated all the community farms devastated by typhoon “Pablo”; or renovated 5,000 public schools; or bought 10 million books to be used by schools and public libraries; or eradicated the problem of rural communities not having access to clean water; or provided sanitary toilets to 250,000 impoverished families; or built decent housing for 30,000 informal settlers/ families; or provided 28,000 IP (indigenous peoples) children access to full primary and secondary education; or given 50,000 farmers with access to microinsurance for a year; or provided 25,000 scholarship grants for a bachelor’s degree to underprivileged and deserving students; or given

health insurance of 625,000 poor Filipinos for 10 years.

At about the same time I got this, Cardinal Chito Tagle was unburdening himself of his horror and sorrow over the scam. At a press conference in UST, he said: “Who would not be shocked about it? You can see the magnitude of the money involved.

Your heart would be crushed. How can someone do this to his fellow man?

“Whoever is involved there, I appeal to you, visit a community of informal settlers… walk there at night and you will see on the sidewalk the families who open these cartons on which they would sleep. Maybe if you could hold their hands, your hearts will also be touched. Sometimes, I think those who did this were able to do so because the poor are absent in their lives. Maybe they don’t see them or refuse to see them.”

These two complement each other, the one touching the head and the other the heart, but both giving us to glimpse the enormity of what has been lost in the pork scam alone. And what is being lost in the other scams that continue to be hatched in high places.

Nothing like Abasolo’s computations to drive home not just the scale of the loss but the scale of that loss to the poor in particular. Only re-

cently, SWS again reported how the number of families that went hungry over the second quarter rose over the first—4.9 million from 3.9 million.

This was true for those who experienced both “moderate hunger” and “severe hunger.” When you think of how the sum involved in the pork scam alone could have fed 763,475 hungry children for a year, you will be overwhelmed like Tagle, too.

‘Pag walang corrupt, walang mahirap’ was the mantra that brought P-Noy to power, but to this day I wonder how deeply that concept is grasped.

It does give a face to corruption, but I don’t know if even that face will stoke us to a collective outrage or move us to rise to demand a stop to it. “‘ Pag walang corrupt, walang mahirap” was the mantra that brought P-Noy to power, but to this day I wonder how deeply that concept is grasped. Specifically, I wonder how deeply, if at all, the public sees the connection between the one and the other, or sees it as cause and effect.

In fact, for you to see that connection between the corrupt and mahirap, you first have to see the corrupt

and mahirap, and astonishing, or absurd, as this may sound, I don’t think we do. Both have been rendered invisible by the most opaque psychological or cultural filters.

The corruption has become invisible because the mind-boggling sums are so huge they truly boggle the mind. Billions are an abstraction.

Millions are an abstraction. Hell, even hundreds are an abstraction to those who have to draw out their coins from dirty handkerchiefs to get through the day. And the corrupt have become invisible because we do not really see them seizing those sums from us. We see those sums as their money. The corrupt are merely those who are too greedy, too swapang, to leave the rest of us some crumbs or balato in food, relief goods, and a schoolhouse or two.

The corrupt persist not just because the public does not stop them but because the public does not see them.

And sublimely ironically, teeming as we are with the poor, surrounded as we are by the poor, pressed on all sides as we are by the poor, we do not really see them. The sight of street children playing matadors to cars to sell Winston, basahan, and a squirt of water with or without soap on windows alongside a gleaming SM City and Trinoma is not the most startling thing in the world, it is the most

natural one. They have melted into the landscape, like a pothole, or the smoke belched by a jeepney, or like the high wall with bits of broken glass crowning them. Or like the hum of idling motors, the crash of rampaging water, the noiselessness of the dying, a jumble of noise or silence, incapable of word or speech or coherence. An inanimate thing.

I do not entirely share Tagle’s optimism about good lying in the hearts of everyone, and about the corrupt, if they can only hold the hands of a child whose shanty has just been demolished, possibly having a change of heart, or head.

But I do think most others, who are the rest of us, are capable of tremendous empathy and can be stricken by conscience or shocked by recognition at the sight, or sound, or smell, or feel, or something like this. Immersion—what a wonderful word, suggesting as it does being submerged in the starkness of reality, like being submerged in the waters of life during baptism—has been known to do wonders for the unknowing soul, for the callused body.

‘Pag walang corrupt, walang mahirap. True, but first we must see the corrupt, first we must see the mahirap. We must make the unseen seen.

We must make the invisible visible.

We must drag out the hidden into the light of day. ■

says Philippine Unicef Representative Tomoo Hozumi, he inevitably receives profuse praise from them for the Philippine “regulatory environment” regarding breastfeeding practices. “The country has some of the best, most comprehensive laws and regulations regarding the promotion of breastfeeding and the regulation of breast milk substitutes,” he says.

The problem, he says, is that like most of our “beautiful” laws, the law is hardly known or acknowledged and barely implemented. “We need to give it top priority,” acknowledges Daphne Oseña Paez, a TV host and “lifestyle icon” who for many years has been a Special Advocate for Children with Unicef.

There are many reasons breastfeeding practices and childhood malnutrition continue to dismay authorities, say Hozumi and Paez. One is that “breastfeeding, or the lack of it, is not the only reason Filipino children are falling sick and dying.”

True, breastfeeding rates continue to fall in the country, and while mothers of newborns say they start off with breastfeeding, few continue until the recommended minimum period of six months, with some discontinuing the practice after less than a month.

Another factor, says Hozumi, is that workplaces are not all that “baby-

friendly,” with many failing to meet even the minimum requirement of a separate nursing room and a refrigerator where expressed milk can be stored. *** THEN there is the poor health status of many mothers, which makes it difficult for them to continue to breastfeed when they themselves are ill or malnourished.

Malnutrition figures in the Philippines have barely moved in the last decade, adds Hozumi. “One in five” Filipino children was found to be underweight and “stunted” in the period between 2003 and 2008. The same findings still hold true this year.

“Nutrition is not just a matter of food input,” stresses Hozumi. Factors like sanitation and access to clean water can affect a child’s health, he points out, and illnesses can affect not just a child’s health status but even performance in school, and inevitably, the child’s future.

A mother to three daughters, Daphne says her work representing Unicef and visiting communities where the agency has projects opens her eyes to the status of women and children around the country. “As a mother, it gives me great joy to be able to work so that all children everywhere can get the best start in life,” she concludes. ■

AT LARGE

Flour ‘dumping’

By Rina Jimenez-David Philippine Daily Inquirer LOCAL FLOUR millers are raising their voices against imported Turkish flour, which they claim is being “dumped” in the country.

“Dumping” is a term used to refer to the practice of some traders of selling commodities (like flour) abroad at prices much lower than those obtaining in their own domestic markets. This effectively drives down the prices of competitors, some of them the country’s own producers, and, if the “dumping” is allowed to continue long enough, can even end up “killing” the domestic industry altogether.

This is what Philippine flour millers are saying is happening to them.

Though for now imported Turkish flour takes up “only” 10 percent of the total market, the Philippine Association of Flour Millers (Pafmil) says the volume of Turkish flour in the local market has been growing at “alarming” rates. In 2011, Turkish flour arrivals were pegged at just over 3.5 million bags, but last year, these totaled 6.2 million bags, an increase of 75 percent.

Why this growing hunger for Turkish flour? Because it is cheaper than other imported flour and even local flour. In fact, “Pinoy Tasty” and “Pi-

noy Pandesal,” the cheapest types of bread produced by “small neighborhood bakers” in response to consumer concerns about rising bread prices, are made using the cheap Turkish product. In fact, bakeries associations have warned that high prices of bread are “inevitable” once higher tariffs are imposed on Turkish flour and local bakeries turn once again to more expensive local brands.

The latest news, though, is that bakers have agreed to postpone raising bread prices, even as they, the millers and the concerned government agencies, continue to study the issue of “dumping” of flour from Turkey. *** FLOUR millers recommend the imposition of a 20-percent tariff on the Turkish flour, an opinion the Department of Agriculture shares as it recommended the increased rates to the Tariff Commission.

Bakers, however, say that if forced to shift to higher-priced locally milled flour, they will have to jack up the prices of their products. The government, meanwhile, says it hopes bakers will stick to “reasonable” rates, especially given the increase in demand with the approaching Christmas season.

The Philippines is actually a “small” market for bread and pastry

producers, says Pafmil executive director Ric Pinca. Although he knows his breads (Pinca studied baking in the United States), Pinca says bread consumption in the country is still low, given our devotion to (and obsession with) rice, something we share with the rest of Asia. But even within Asia, he says, Filipinos don’t present such a huge bread market, except perhaps for breakfast where the

Flour millers recommend the imposition of a 20-percent tariff on the Turkish flour, an opinion the Department of Agriculture shares. pan de sal is ever-present. Told that consumers may prefer lower-priced bread made from Turkish flour than other bread made with higher-priced flour and thus more expensive, Pinca says the low prices for Turkish flour are just the beginning. “Once it dominates the market and has killed off local competitors, the prices of Turkish flour will shoot up,” he claims, citing the experience of other countries. *** WHENEVER he gets together with his counterparts in other countries,

www.canadianinquirer.net

Opinion

17 FRIDAY AUGUST 23, 2013

PUBLIC LIVES

The scourge of discrepant governance

By Randy David Philippine Daily Inquirer THE PORK barrel scam—whose intricate web of ghost projects, fictitious beneficiaries, and fake nongovernment organizations is unraveling before the nation’s eyes—is a good example of a “discrepant event.” This is a term used in science education to refer to something that happens contrary to expectation, a phenomenon without a visible cause, begging for explanation. I think we may use the concept to describe the kind of governance we have—a way of doing things for which no one takes responsibility.

One example of discrepant governance is precisely where huge amounts of public funds are regularly allocated, withdrawn from the coffers, and made to disappear through a series of little routine acts that no one in particular will take responsibility for, or can be made answerable for. The entire thing works like a trick, its mechanism safely hidden from the casual observer, giving the illusion of a consequence without a cause. It takes only a little science to figure out how it works.

In the case of the pork barrel trick, one has to replay the procedure in slow motion, allowing the observer to keep

track of the process as it engages the smallest offices of government. No one who has been involved in the seamy side of the process can credibly plead innocence, the way everybody now seems to take cover behind the convenient excuse of “presumption of regularity.” They must be willfully blind for them not to “see” what is happening.

If this is the case—if supposedly responsible people knew and yet allowed it—then it takes more than merely exposing the pork barrel racket and jailing Janet Lim-Napoles and her corrupt clients in Congress, or stopping it altogether, to end the scourge of discrepant governance.

We need to understand how a system like this is able to maintain itself over time, and what functions it plays in the larger political system, if we are to seriously tackle the challenge of societal reform.

I think we have to begin from the recognition that Philippine society today not only has a very high proportion of its people living below the poverty line. It is also probably the most highly unequal society in this part of the world. The poor in our country barely have anything to eat; they scour garbage dumps looking for usable trash, live in makeshift shanties along dangerous waterways, beg

in the streets—in the shadow of the most expensive condominium buildings and exclusive housing communities. A social order that imagines this to be normal, and coasts along as if government belonged to its elected officials, is ripe for revolution.

In simple societies, the governing classes respond to mass poverty and inequality through steady acts of patronage and generosity. Strong

I believe we have reached that stage when our society must free itself from this obsolete system if it is to survive. ties of personal dependence and loyalty stretching over generations are built between rulers and their subjects in this manner. Patron-client rule, however, has limited value, and is no longer viable in the long term, in large complex societies like ours.

It becomes very costly to maintain.

Dynasties with networks of personal dependents have to give way sooner or later to political parties with clear programs of government. Public institutions and social services accessible to every citizen must replace systems of patronage based on personal loyalty.

It does not take much intelligence nowadays to become an elected public official in our country. But one certainly needs a lot of money not only to get elected but also to hold on to an office, especially if one has nothing else to offer. That is why access to public funds is crucial to the Filipino politician. The wide latitude of discretion that is built into the pork barrel system is a tacit acknowledgment of this reality.

From being a mere instrument of patronage, the pork barrel and its associated perks soon become the primary reason for seeking public office, transforming politics into a lucrative enterprise. This attracts the wrong kind of persons into public service, and makes elections the costly affairs they are today.

I believe we have reached that stage when our society must free itself from this obsolete system if it is to survive. People are angry and are communicating with one another in ways never thought possible. Stealing from the public coffers has become too brazen for the ordinary citizen to ignore. Who can feel good paying taxes to a government that blindly dispenses hard-earned money to cynical, incompetent, and corrupt officials?

The government seems to think the rage over the pork barrel will eventually subside. It will not—until the legislature and the executive branch can offer a credible account of how the Priority Development Assistance Fund has been spent, and take decisive action against those who misused or stole from the fund.

But, if it is to offer any enduring lessons, this sordid episode in our political life must prompt all of us, including our institutions, to take a look at our own complicity in the perpetuation of the system. How often have we looked the other way in the face of something irregular just because we happen to be among the beneficiaries of a politician’s largesse? How many times have we tapped our personal links to public officials in order to obtain a favor for ourselves, a relative, or a friend?

It is this weakness in our political culture that Janet Lim-Napoles saw for herself in her various dealings with public officials. But, rather than merely wink at it the way everybody does, she has designed a simple business model that allows politicians to maximize the extraction of the resource. As it is now turning out, this is what will kill the goose that lays the golden eggs. ■

AS I SEE IT

People mad at P-noy for not abolishing pork

By Neal H. Cruz Philippine Daily Inquirer HEADLINE: (Janet Lim-) Napoles owns 28 houses (in the Philippines).

Wrong. She owns 30, including the “Upper House” (Senate) and the House of Representatives. *** One Luis Abalos, who is neither a senator nor a congressman, got P20 million in pork barrel funds.

Are you still surprised? Janet LimNapoles, who is also not a senator or a congresswoman, got P10 billion in pork. *** Former representative Manuel “Way Kurat” Zamora of Compostela, hailed in the past as the “poorest congressman,” could turn out to be one of the richest. According to the Commission on Audit (COA), he received P3.114 billion in pork allocations in his last three years in Congress. He couldn’t explain how and why he could have gotten that much, saying his total allocation for those three years was only P210 million.

Possible explanation: Somebody else got the money but recorded it in his name. *** It’s turning out that one of the biggest culprits in the pork barrel scams that involve bogus nongovernment organi-

zations (NGOs) is the Department of Budget and Management. Through the years, the department has been playing fast and loose with the people’s money.

It was so easy to get the DBM to release funds for fake NGOs. All that Napoles’ employees had to do was call Leah, Lalaine and Malou at the DBM and the pork barrel funds would be released quickly, according to whistle-blowers Benhur K. Luy and Merlina Suñas.

Confronted with the COA findings that the DBM released pork funds to individual congressmen in excess of the P70-million-a-year limit for each, Rep. Rolando Andaya, the budget secretary during the Arroyo administration, said there was no limit to the pork barrel allocations at the time. Which means, the pork scam may be much, much bigger than the P10-billion loot that Napoles’ bogus NGOs got, considering that the COA audited only three years of pork releases, during which it discovered other bogus NGOs that got bigger pork allocations than Napoles’ NGOs. On the other hand, President Aquino’s budget secretary, former representative Florencio Abad, increased the pork barrel budget instead of decreasing it in the wake of the people’s strong clamor for the abolition of the pork barrel system, through which their tax money is being stolen by legislators and their cohorts.

The other big culprit is the President himself. In spite of the anger of the people, his boss, over the pork scams and their clamor to end the thievery by abolishing the system, he wouldn’t stop it although he has the power to do it. It is P-Noy who can quickly abolish the corrupt system, not Congress.

Members of Congress will never abolish the system with which they fatten themselves. Even if they are forced to pass a law abolishing it, they would so dilute it with so many amendments, it would be next to useless. The corruption will continue.

All that P-Noy has to do is tell his budget secretary not to include any appropriation for the pork barrel in the proposed national budget, and that would be the end of it. It’s that easy.

On the other hand, all that P-Noy has to do is tell his budget secretary not to include any appropriation for the pork barrel, officially called the Priority Development Assistance Fund (PDAF), in the proposed national budget, and that would be the end of it. It’s that easy. Much as it wants to, Congress cannot put it there. Con-

www.canadianinquirer.net

gress can only reduce or abolish proposed budgets but never add to what Malacañang submits to it.

But the DBM has already submitted its proposed budget for 2014, you say. It can always recall that one and submit a new one.

P-Noy’s retort—that “stricter” rules will be put in place—will not end the large-scale theft of the people’s money. The crooks will always find ways to get around the rules. Credit it to the ingenuity of Philippine public officials when it comes to getting their filthy hands into the Treasury. There will always be other Leahs, Lalaines, and Malous in the DBM. “Kayo ang boss ko” (You are my bosses), P-Noy told the people during his first State of the Nation Address. Now his bosses are telling him: “Stop the thievery! Abolish the pork barrel system.”

Why is he not obeying his bosses?

Because P-Noy might also be guilty of another crime: bribery. Most contemporary presidents, P-Noy included (there was no pork barrel earlier in our republic; the pork is a fairly recent invention of politicians), used the pork barrel to bribe members of Congress. And cooperative legislators got their pork promptly; uncooperative ones didn’t.

P-Noy may also be afraid that if he abolishes their pork, angry legislators might get back and reduce, even abolish his own pork

barrel, the biggest in the national budget.

P-Noy declared a policy of “(straight, corruption-free road) for his administration, but this straight road is turning out to be a crooked one, where so many crooks are stealing the people’s money.

P-Noy’s bosses are so angry at the corruption that some sectors are threatening a tax revolt if the pork system is not abolished. Why pay taxes when they are stolen by crooks in and out of the government? Taxes are supposed to be returned to the people in the form of services, but they only serve the corrupt. Only the thieves are being assisted by the PDAF. Members of the clergy, university professors, the youth, people in rural areas, people in cities, even some legislators are angry. They are all begging: “Please, Mr. President, abolish the hated pork barrel.”

Whenever people get together—at parties, wakes, weddings, family gatherings, school reunions, press forums, meetings, etc.—they talk about the pork barrel scams and Napoles. Even taxi and jeepney drivers talk about them. If Napoles were to run for election, she might just win.

After all, she is now so wellknown, besides having plenty of money.

I am sure that when the next poll survey results are released, P-Noy’s popularity rating will have dropped drastically. ■

FRIDAY AUGUST 23, 2013

18

Canada News

Harper says will prorogue Parliament, deliver throne speech in October

NEWS BRIEFS

WINNER ANNOUNCED IN TIM HORTONS CONTEST

BY MURRAY BREWSTER The Canadian Press WHITEHORSE—Prime Minister Stephen Harper says he plans to ask the Governor General to prorogue Parliament, which means federal MPs won’t be gathering in the House of Commons next month as originally scheduled.

The government will instead deliver a throne speech some time in October, kicking off a new parliamentary session, Harper said Monday during his week-long swing through northern Canada.

“There will be a new throne speech in the fall,” Harper said during a news conference in Whitehorse.

“Obviously, the House will be prorogued in anticipation of that. We will come back—October is our tentative timing—and we will obviously have some unfulfilled commitments that we will continue to work on.”

The time has come for a new parliamentary agenda because most of the promises the Conservatives made in the last election have been fulfilled, Harper said. The economy will remain the primary focus, he added.

“The No. 1 priority for this government, I do not have to tell you, will continue to be jobs and the economy.”

Harper was also asked whether he would be leading the Conservatives into the next election, a question that elicited a chuckle from the prime minister.

“The answer to the last question is, of course, yes,” he said as partisan supporters cheered.

“I’m actually disappointed you feel the need to ask that question.”

It’s not the first time Harper has used prorogation, a standard parliamentary tool that has the effect of cancelling the bulk of any legislation that’s still before the House.

In December 2008, Harper prorogued rather than face a vote of nonconfidence when his Conservatives held a minority government and the Liberals, New Democrats and Bloc Quebecois were threatening his grip on power.

He prorogued again the follow-

PM Harper during the Canada Day celebration in July.

ing year, halting House of Commons committee hearings into the treatment of Afghan detainees and killing a number of pieces of legislation.

Prorogation jumped into the headlines again last fall when thenOntario premier Dalton McGuinty, embroiled in a number of scandals, resigned as Liberal leader and called a halt to business at the provincial legislature.

In Ottawa, Senate reform legislation is just one of several bills that will die on the order paper.

That bill—which would set nine-year term limits for senators and create a mechanism for elections to the upper chamber—is a version of previously introduced legislation from 2010.

A controversy over expense claims has engulfed the Senate in recent months. The RCMP are currently investigating former Conservative senators Mike Duffy and Patrick Brazeau and former Liberal senator Mac Harb.

The Senate has also asked the Mounties to look into another former Conservative senator, Pamela Wallin, who has been ordered to repay some $121,000 in disallowed travel claims, and will likely be required to pay even more.

Earlier this year, Harper vouched for Wallin’s “travel costs” in the Commons, but the Prime Minister’s Office has since said he was only talking about Wallin’s overall travel budget, not individual claims.

In Whitehorse, Harper sidestepped

a question about his previous defence of Wallin’s expenses.

“Of course, at the time I indicated that all of the senator’s expenses would be subject to robust scrutiny ... through an audit that, of course, has since been done and obviously has uncovered some significant problems,” he said.

“The senator has not been a member of our caucus for some months, but I would expect that action will be taken to ensure full accountability for any breaking of rules.”

Other legislation to be affected by prorogation includes changes to the Canada Elections Act to establish new rules for political loans, and a private member’s bill that would require labour unions to publish detailed financial information.

In the case of the labour union bill, also known as Bill C-377, the library of Parliament says the legislation would be restored to third reading, the last stage completed by the House of Commons.

“Thus, the bill would be sent back to the Senate in the same state it had been when it was passed at third reading by the House in December 2012, prior to the Senate amendment,” the library said in an email.

“The Senate would then begin the process of considering the bill anew; the Senate may vote to pass the bill unamended, amend the bill in precisely the same way it had been amended before, or introduce entirely new amendments.” ■

TORONTO—A dreamed-up doughnut that melds together chocolate, caramel and pecans has earned its inventor $10,000 and the knowledge he beat out 63,000 entries in a Tim Hortons contest. Toronto’s Andrew Shepherd was crowned the winner of the Duelling Donuts competition.

POLL: CANADIANS WANT NATIONAL STRATEGY FOR HEALTH CARE OF SENIORS CALGARY—A poll released by the Canadian Medical Association says most people want a national strategy for seniors health care which includes an emphasis on keeping them in their homes as long as possible. The Ipsos Reid poll, done annually as part of the association’s national report card on health issues, said that 93 per cent of those surveyed indicated any such plan should address care at homes, hospitals, hospices and long-term facilities.

RISING SEAS COULD COST WORLD $1 TRILLION VANCOUVER—A new study says coastal flooding could cost the global economy $1 trillion by 2050 due to the rise in sea levels caused by global warming. And the article, part of a project of the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development, says Vancouver is one of the cities most at-risk to losses due to floods.

PREMIER REDFORD SAYS WELL OVER $5B NEEDED TO FIX ALBERTA FLOOD DAMAGE CALGARY—Alberta Premier Alison Redford says provincial estimates show “well over” $5 billion will be needed to rebuild infrastructure after severe flooding in June. She told Calgary radio station CHQR that Prime Minister Stephen Harper understands that the federal government will be responsible for covering part of the bill.

19 FRIDAY AUGUST 23, 2013

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World News

FRIDAY AUGUST 23, 2013 20

Washington political invective gives Kurdish militias clash with al way to August stupor as Congress, Qaida linked rebel faction in Obama, even dog Bo flee northeastern Syria

BY STEVEN R. HURST The Associated Press

BY RYAN LUCAS The Associated Press

WASHINGTON—It’s not quite the August exodus from Paris, but the fizz and crackle grows quiet in Washington this time of year and America’s political heart beats far more slowly.

Lawmakers have repaired to home districts and President Barack Obama is spending his fourth summer holiday on the tony island of Martha’s Vineyard.

The fire beneath Washington’s cauldron of political invective is down to a simmer; The stately halls of the Capitol are largely silent. Tourists still peer through the black metal bars of the White House fence, unaware, perhaps, that all the Obamas, even dog Bo, have left.

Smatterings of political potshots shatter the quiet, mostly from around the 50 states as members of Congress try to keep their political ranks fired up for the ideological battle to resume next month. When the weather cools in the famously humid capital, a series of prickly issues await about America’s economic pathway.

Deeply conservative Republicans, especially the party’s tea party wing, will be putting up a renewed fight to prevent an increase in the government’s borrowing power. A tussle over the debt ceiling—an issue that in less partisan times slid through Congress without debate— caused the U.S. credit rating to be lowered for the first time ever in 2011. A last minute deal prevented the country from defaulting on its bills that time around.

A storm over the budget is also brewing. Some of the more conservative Republicans, determined to unravel Obama’s signature health care overhaul, are threatening to use congressional power over the purse strings to force a government shutdown if Democrats don’t agree to big cuts from money to implement the program. A struggle over snarled immigration reform legislation also looms.

BEIRUT—Kurdish militias battled al-Qaida-linked rebel groups in northeastern Syria on Tuesday in the latest round of heavy fighting that has helped fuel a mass exodus of civilians from the region into neighbouring Iraq, activists said.

Clashes between Kurdish fighters and Islamic extremist rebel groups have sharply escalated in Syria’s northern provinces in recent months. The violence, which has left hundreds dead, holds the potential to explode into a full-blown side conflict within Syria’s broader civil war.

Tuesday’s fighting, which pitted Kurdish militiamen against rebels from the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant, was focused in three villages near the town of Ras al-Ayn in the predominantly Kurdish Hassakeh province, according to the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights monitoring group. There was no immediate word on casualties.

Around 30,000 Syrians, the vast majority of them Kurds, have fled the region over a fiveday stretch and crossed the border to the self-ruled Kurdish region of northern Iraq. Another 4,000 made the trek across the frontier Tuesday, said Youssef Mahmoud, a spokesman for the UNHCR in Iraqi Kurdistan.

With belongings loaded onto mules, thousands of Syrian refugees continued to flow into northern Iraq through the border town of Peshkabour Tuesday, some describing hometowns where food, water and electricity have become scarce amid the combat.

Among them was Ali Balash, a Kurd from Hassakeh province who walked some five kilometres to cross the border with his 18-member family.

“War is rattling our areas, we were so scared to stay,” said Balash, a day labourer dressed in traditional Kurdish baggy pants and a scarf tucked into his belt.

A father of four children aged between 6 and 9, Balash’s

The fizz and crackle grows quiet in Washington this time of year and America’s political heart beats far more slowly. All the Obamas, even dog Bo, have left.

As is often the case, foreign affairs intrude on the August torpor. Obama was forced to interrupt his vacation this week address the violence in Egypt, where more than 600 people have died in a crackdown on supporters of ousted President Mohammed Morsi. Obama cancelled plans for joint AmericanEgyptian military exercises and warned that continued fighting would lead Egypt down a “dangerous path.”

Back in Washington, many locals just want the August lull to end. Washington is a oneindustry city where nearly everyone depends on politics for their livelihood.

Cab driver Azizi Faiz said business drops off dramatically in August. He claimed by as much as 50 per cent.

“It’s like fishing. Most days you end up catching a sardine and throwing it back. Some days there’s a good catch, and that keeps you going. We’re like school teachers,” he said. “We stretch nine months of pay over the whole year.”

The tourists don’t help. “They take the shuttle buses or walk,” Faiz said.

Ashok Bajaj owns eight restaurants in Washington, some of the top eateries in the city that is an increasingly serious food destination. About three decades ago, he began with a classy Indian food place, The

Bombay Club, a couple of blocks from the White House.

“When I opened and then July and August came around, I said, “Wow, restaurants only have six months of life. I didn’t know everybody disappeared in summer and didn’t come back until the middle of September.”

He estimates business falls off as much as 15 per cent in the high summer months, despite the tourists who continue flocking in to absorb U.S. history and the Smithsonian system of free museums. The average cost of a hotel room drops from $230 in May to about $150 in August. Hotel occupancy drops from nearly 86 per cent in May to 75 per cent in August.

“My restaurants tend to be a bit more refined, fine dining.

The people off the street tend to just come in to look around,” he said.

Otherwise, he said, “everybody goes away. The journalists go away. The New York Times is next to the Bombay Club, and 50 per cent of those people are gone. The White House goes away when the president is gone. All the executive offices are empty.

“All the IMF and World Bank people go away for a month to vacation in the countries they come from. The lobbyists go away. Congress is closed,” Bajaj said. “It’s the nature of the business, the nature of the city.” ■ www.canadianinquirer.net

face was pale as he reached the Iraqi territories. “We couldn’t go anywhere, we had no bread, no work and no stability,” he added.

Riding a mule into the area, a 65-year-old woman who identified herself only by her nickname, Um Abdullah, for security reasons, said she had made the journey with her sisters and children but left her husband behind to guard their house in Hassakeh.

“We saw dead bodies in the streets and heard shootings and bombings all day,” she said.

The massive exodus has put a severe strain on Iraqi Kurdistan’s regional government and aid agencies ability to accommodate them all.

The UNHCR said it is sending 15 truckloads of supplies—3,100 tents, two pre-fabricated warehouses and thousands of jerry cans to carry water—from its regional stockpile in Jordan. It said the shipment should arrive by the end of the week.

Some 55,000 Syrians already live at the Domiz refugee camp in Dohuk, west of Irbil, according to the UNHCR. Nancy Lindborg, A USAID Assistant Administrator for Democracy, Conflict and Humanitarian Assistance, told reporters in Amman that the United States is “watching closely” the Kurdish exodus from Syria to northern Iraq.

“Today, there are about 40,000 people who already crossed,” she said. “Iraq opened its borders and we applaud their generosity in taking in more people.”

Long oppressed by President Bashar Assad’s regime, Syria’s Kurds now find themselves enjoying near autonomy in the northeast after Assad’s overstretched forces pulled back from the region last year, ceding de facto control to Kurdish fighters. Some Kurds openly call for an officially autonomous region in Syria similar to that of northern Iraq. ■ AP journalists Hadi Mizban in Peshkhabour, Iraq, and Jamal Halaby in Amman, Jordan, contributed to this report.

World News

21 FRIDAY AUGUST 23, 2013

Malaysia strips Singaporean of immigration privileges in dispute over Muslim prayer room The Associated Press KUALA LUMPUR, MALAYSIA—Malaysian authorities on Saturday revoked the immigration privileges held by a Singaporean man who offended some Muslims by allegedly letting Buddhists use an Islamic prayer room.

The case has provoked debate about whether the government in Muslim-majority Malaysia is increasingly bowing to pressure by religious conservatives who want stern penalties against people accused of insulting Islam.

Police detained the Singaporean-born owner of a southern Malaysian beach resort for several days earlier this month after he was believed to have allowed Buddhist tourists to meditate in the resort’s Islamic prayer room.

Home Minister Ahmad Zahid Hamidi said the Muslim man has been stripped of his “permanent residency” status that

enabled him to live and work in Malaysia without visa requirements.

The man has been released

by police and is not formally charged with any crime, but the government’s decision was “based on the law in the inter-

www.canadianinquirer.net

ests of religion and the nation,” Ahmad Zahid wrote on Twitter.

Some Islamic groups ac-

cused the man of defiling the prayer room. Nearly two-thirds of Malaysia’s 29 million people are Muslims, while the main minorities are Buddhists, Christians and Hindus.

The Singaporean’s case is the third in the past two months that involved the detention of people accused of disrespecting Muslim sensitivities.

Last month, prosecutors charged two non-Muslims with sedition and inciting religious enmity after they posted a photograph on Facebook of themselves eating pork while extending greetings during the Islamic holy month of fasting.

They face up to eight years in prison if convicted. Consumption of pork is forbidden for Muslims.

Police also temporarily detained a Muslim woman featured in a YouTube video that showed her celebrating the end of the fasting month with her dogs, which some Muslims consider unclean. ■

Immigration

FRIDAY AUGUST 23, 2013 22

Employment minister says skilled trades program a step to filling chronic labour shortage

BY BILL GRAVELAND The Canadian Press CALGARY—Federal Employment Minister Jason Kenney says a chronic shortage of skilled trades workers, especially in Alberta’s oilsands, can only be solved by a major influx of carpenters, electricians and welders from outside of Canada.

Kenney was at an announcement in Calgary Friday, introducing one of the first new workers who has received escalated permanent resident status under the new Federal Skilled Trades Program.

The program is aimed at people who want to become permanent residents based on being qualified in a skilled trade.

To apply they must have work experience in a specific trade and meet several other requirements.

Kenney said one of the challenges facing Canada is that young people are not going into

the trades and its creating an “acute shortage” of electricians, welders and boilermakers.

“Because Canada has always been a country of immigration we believe we can use our immigration programs much better to attract tradesmen who have practical skills and can literally help us build our country,” he said.

“We see some of the most acute labour shortages in the construction trades in the Athabasca oilsands region because we’re talking about multibillion dollar mega construction projects there. We simply do not have enough qualified trades people in Canada to fill those labour needs.”

The minister said the scarcity of quality workers stretches across the country from the oilsands to huge commodity projects throughout northern Canada and iron ore developments in Labrador.

“According to different industry councils, we’re look-

ing at shortages of hundreds of thousands of construction trades people in the next decade,” he said.

“We need to make sure we have an immigration system that instead of bringing medical doctors here to drive cabs brings electricians to work as electricians.”

Paul Lyttle, an electrician from Northern Ireland, was in Canada on a working holiday program when he applied through skilled trades program.

“Our old immigration system was dysfunctional. It took us sometimes up to 10 years to process an application for someone to immigrate to Canada,” said Kenney, the minister of Employment and Social Development.

“Paul is a living example of how our new system is actually working because we managed to process his application and admit him as a permanent resident in about three months time.” ■

Kenney said one of the challenges facing Canada is that young people are not going into the trades and its creating an “acute shortage” of electricians, welders and boilermakers.

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Immigration

23 FRIDAY AUGUST 23, 2013

PANGARAP: SO, OUR JOURNEY BEGINS

So, Who Else Will You Allow to Help You? Asking help will be your first lesson in humility.

BY BOLET AREVALO

IT MIGHT astound you, but in these global times, you will realize that you are not really, really alone. That is because wherever you look or you go, there will surely be one or two, or maybe more, people that have come from the same country as you.

That should give you a nice feeling, don’t you think? There are those who look like you, who talk like you and who crave for the same food as you. What is even more astonishing is to discover that you will hardly have the chance to miss some things or food from back home because they are all in the country you have moved to or can be authentically prepared there.

You will be tempted to want to smile, talk or catch up on stories

with these fellow immigrants.

However, the reality is, meeting them in a random place only means being able to throw in a half smile and, at most, say hello.

While the encounter may be so brief or out of context that there will be no valid reason to hold up the other person, you can ask them for some brief information like directions.

One of the places which could allow more engaging conversations is when you meet them at your kids’ school, in a job search workshop, in a class you are attending yourself, in a local or ethnic store. Only then, will you somehow find that they are not strangers after all, but have names and faces, and calling cards, too.

Whether they come from the same country as yours, or share any other commonality, do not hesitate to ask and approach.

Only then will you start knowing and learning. For example, because Canada has become so

multicultural and full of nonstop migration, everyone is used to being asked for directions on the street, the bus, or the train.

The asking could even extend to tips on how to do things, how to find a job, how to segregate waste, how to read your electric bill, how to find the best cable or phone provider or a myriad of other information.

If you do not know something, it is because either you have not asked or have not read at all. I am amazed at how flyers fly everywhere in most points of contact among people. There is your bus schedule, church activities, school calendar, ongoing sale events, employment listings, store directories, course syllabi—just about everything and anything. And we are only talking of paper documents. The information can be even more overwhelming on individual websites.

So whether you choose to deliberately seek out help from people, www.canadianinquirer.net

country-mates or not, you will realize that it will not be difficult to know or catch the needed information. You need only to go out and seek, and ye shall find.

It’s sad to say, but it can also happen that some countrymates disappoint you. It is probably not so bad if you are ignored and refused the correct information. But you can also be misled. Yes, there is a snake in every forest, and there will always be bad people.

Sometimes, getting misled or getting the wrong or inaccurate information may not arise out of malice or a bad intention. It’s possible that the people you are talking to are no longer in tune with the times. They know only so much and not any better. If it is any consolation, good people still outnumber the bad ones.

There is always a high probability that you will find kababayans who can help you.

The key is not hesitating to ask and to know what to ask. Good people still outnumber the bad ones, and that is true anywhere in the world.

From People of Other Cultures

The English language, food and music are the great mediators in easily adapting to other cultures. With that, you will come to realize that the world is your whole support system.

Upon arriving here, chances are, for some of your needs, it is not a fellow countryman who has the best answer or who can help you.

Most countries who accept many immigrants have become such a mixture of cultures that even the most basic of your needs can be dependent on the ability or willingness of some other nationals to help you.

I rented my first apartment from a meticulously clean Chinese couple. A patient Korean oriented one of my sons on school admission. My daughter’s first

best friend in school is half-Dutch.

I buy my wet market stuffs from a store run by an enterprising Indian. My first resume coach was an American from Hawaii who I mistook for a Filipina. It turned out that she was Japanese-American raised in Hawaii who then moved to Canada.

Although the school environment normally teaches us to respect other cultures and help build a harmonious universe, living abroad actually allows you to come face to face with those lessons. With that, there are so many things to learn, some habits to undo, and new ways to accept.

Living in a multicultural country throws you into this situation.

You cannot discriminate and cannot be discriminated upon.

The highest respect is given even to the most minority of the visible origins. Speaking in your native tongue in public (meaning if there are other cultures present) can seem impolite as it might be misconstrued as using your language in order to say something derogatory or insulting.

But it is also true that because of a minority status, some people may be so defensive about their cultures that they have the tendency to protect themselves.

This could go either way. Some may tend to be arrogant, others too withdrawn. Others will feel superior, others inferior.

In time, you will come to better understand other cultures and they will come to understand yours. All along, each one only desires to be of help to one another, to support one another in an environment that could new and intimidating. Sometimes the facility of adapting to a new spoken language can be a hindering factor to start understanding.

I feel we need to thank the British about the universality ❱❱ PAGE 27 So, Who Else

Seen & Scenes

FRIDAY AUGUST 23, 2013 24

ALLOCATION OF FUNDS FOR VICTIMS OF FAMILY VIOLENCE Sen. Tobias Enverga, Jr. joins MP for Etobicoke Centre, Ted Opitz (5th from right), Minister of Justice and Attorney General of Canada Peter MacKay (7th from right} after a consultation and roundtable discussion with stakeholders and advocates on the rights of victims of crimes. Minister MacKay conducts the consultation and discussion across the country to gather directly input from victims’ groups, victims’ advocates, police, lawyers and all stakeholders within the system. The information will be used in formulating a victims’ bill of rights to improve Canada’s justice system and give victims more effective voice in the system.

THE MHHS SAMPAGUITA SENIORS The MHHS Sampaguita Seniors headed by their Coordinator, Angie Igonia, on their way back from Alloette Lake where they had their annual fieldtrip. Everybody had fun!

ANNUAL MARIAN PILGRIMAGE The annual Marian Pilgrimage to the Grotto of Our Lady of Lourdes in Mission was held last Saturday, Aug. 17, 2013 at the Fraser River Heritage Park.

The event is participated in by devotees of the Virgin Mary, young and old, who joined the procession uphill to the grotto after a mass celebrated by Rev. Joseph P. Nguyen, Vicar General for the Archdiocese of Vancouver.

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

Seen & Scenes

25 FRIDAY AUGUST 23, 2013

MABUHAY! PHILIPPINES FESTIVAL Crowds immersed in the sights, sounds and tastes of the Philippines at Harbourfront Centre. The Mabuhay! Philippines Festival, a signature event of the Philippine Independence Day Council (PIDC), returned to the heart of Toronto’s waterfront on August 16-18 for a three-day festival showcasing Filipino arts and culture.

“ACCESS TO JUSTICE FOR MIGRANT WORKERS IN BC” REPORT LAUNCH AND ROUNDTABLE The well-attended event attracted nearly 70 community members including caregivers, farm workers, settlement service providers, human rights advocates, union leaders, local representatives, academics and the media.

Following a number of panel speakers and a presentation on the report’s main findings and recommendations, attendees engaged in a roundtable discussion providing valuable feedback and suggestions on what steps could be taken to continue promoting fair and equitable treatment for all migrant workers in British Columbia.

WCDWA Executive Director and Staff Lawyer Ai Li Lim with Mable Elmore, MLA for Vancouver-Kensington.

Cecilia Tumolva, member of WCDWA and CDWCR speaking on the value of caregiving work.

Lucy Luna, coordinator of the Agricultural Workers Alliance in Abbotsford

Lorene Oikawa, Vice-President of the BC Government and Service Employees’ Union, welcoming attendees.

THE EIGHT ANNUAL KULTURA ARTS FESTIVAL The 5-day affair was a contemporary cultural expression of Filipino Canadians in Toronto - from music, dance, theatre, visual art, and food.

It is a celebration of Filipinos within the context of Canada and was spearheaded by Kapisanan Philippine Centre for Arts & Culture.

Photos by Solon Licas

www.canadianinquirer.net

Filipino-Canadians in Focus

FRIDAY AUGUST 23, 2013 26

FILIPINO-CANADIANS IN FOCUS

Jon and Cynthia Reyes

BY CHING DEE Philippine Canadian Inquirer “FAMILY FIRST.” Jon and Cynthia Reyes said that the best advice they were ever given is to put their family first. After all, this is what their relatives did when they first came to Canada as part of the pioneer Filipino community in Winnipeg almost four decades ago.

Pioneering the Canadian Community

Filipino-

“Jon's dad came here through the garment industry and later sponsored his mom and baby sister who arrived in 1969. My dad was sponsored here by his older siblings and my mother came to Canada as one of the first waves of Filipino registered nurses,” shared Cynthia.

Both Jon and Cynthia were born in Winnipeg, Manitoba and have lived in Canada all their lives. But having Filipino parents and relatives made them no stranger to the struggles and triumphs of immigrants.

“Their major challenges were adapting to the climate, the cold extreme weather, trying to fit into a different culture. There were no oriental food markets in Winnipeg at the time, so they were not able to eat the foods they were used to,” Cynthia recalled from her parents’ stories.

For example, when cooking the Filipino favorite sinigang, Jon and Cynthia's parents had to use lemons because there were no tamarind soups or mixes available in Winnipeg at that time.

“There was also prevalent racism. This, coupled with our parents' lack of knowledge of the new country and not feeling accepted and welcomed, made it difficult. Another challenge was not having their university education recognized here in Canada. This required my father to go back to school to take formal English classes and upgrade.

Trying to support a growing family and studying at the time was not easy,” Cynthia recalled.

“Luckily, there were many too who were helpful and accepting,” they added with a beam Power couple

“We work together best because we balance each other out well,” they shared.

Engaging on a business venture is a challenge in itself, but doing it with your lifetime partner is a different story altogether. Nonetheless, Jon and Cynthia made it work and made it work well.

“Jon is of a military background, very rules-driven, organized, and great at training staff and creating processes," said Cynthia.

Jon adds, "She has a professional nursing background.

She is caring and sensitive and knows how to be firm but fair when it comes to human resources. We have to work as a team, but we do admit that we butt heads occasionally.”

Jon and Cynthia are owners of The UPS Store in Manitoba, their second business, and just like any entrepreneur, they experienced a few setbacks when they were starting out.

“Being new business owners of The UPS Store in 2008 required us to bring awareness to our business. We had to contact all of the people we knew to spread the word about our store and to introduce it to many people in our community and in Winnipeg.”

More worrisome for the couple, however, was the recession in 2008-2009.

“We had to cut staffing hours, make the budget very tight, continue to operate and promote our business. Somehow, we managed to weather the economic storm, now we can sleep at night and we have valuable customers who continue to support our business. We love to serve them and make their lives easier with the best quality products and services. We have become friends with them as well, which make our business most enjoyable,” they said.

When they started The UPS Store, they only had themselves plus one part-time staff. Today, their staff has grown to 2 full-time staff and a part-time employee.

Jon and Cynthia lead the business together in terms of marketing, training, and planning.

The Manitoba Filipino Business Council

Because of their businesses, Jon and Cynthia developed numerous valuable relationships with Filipino-Canadians, including other business own-

ers. The dynamic duo also became active members of several business organizations in their home community, like the Women Business Owners of Manitoba.

“The format was very hospitable and non-intimidating.

It’s also very organized and well formatted. During the monthly meetings, there’s a great opportunity to create networks with other business owners as well as educate them on life and business-related topics,” Cynthia said.

Full of new information and inspiration from their meetings, Cynthia always comes home motivated and would almost instantly and excitedly share her discoveries to Jon. Fueled by Cynthia’s stories, Jon thought, “Why not have [a group] for Filipino business owners in Winnipeg?”

With this in mind, Jon founded the Manitoba Filipino Business Council, where he currently serves as the president.

“The Manitoba Filipino Business Council's (MFBC) mission is to create an environment and to provide a resource for Filipino-Canadian business owners that allows them to prosper and progress by networking within the membership and through the MFBC events,” explained Jon. The MFBC provides support for its members to promote their business as well as provide an avenue to share their ideas and struggles, which other members can learn from.

The activities of the council help unite and strengthen the Filipino-Canadian business owners in order to produce individuals who contribute to the economic and social growth of the community.

Since 2010, the MFBC has championed business events and seminars for active and prospective members that would have otherwise cost their members an arm and a leg. Several of their guest speakers in past events included: • Barbara Bowes, Human Resources guru of Winnipeg, also a columnist for The Winnipeg Free Press and Radio Show host for Human Resources on CJOB; • The world renowned Dale Carnegie Training, known for improving Leadership Skills www.canadianinquirer.net

Family photo

Cyn and Jon at a store

and Team Building for Businesses; • Local Professional public speaker Deri-Latimer, known for helping business owners in communication and public speaking; • Dynamic speaker Ryan Caliguiri who owns a marketing company and a columnist for The Globe and Mail; and • Tia Polvorosa of Provici Cosmetics, who talked about how to support each other as a business community and how to share business success amongst each other.

The MFBC also gives back to the community that has given them so much.

“We have projects to benefit the Kidney Foundation of Manitoba and Children's Hospital Foundation. We also provided a bursary to a post secondary education business student. We are working on building a business directory online via our website,” Jon mentioned.

The MFBC is also actively working with the local community while trying to reach international markets.

“We have working relationships and recognition from the World Trade Center Organization and Winnipeg Chamber of Commerce helping us bridge business and trade with the Philippines and Manitoba.

Plus, we are also recognized by and network with the City of Winnipeg and provincial and federal levels of government,” Jon shares.

According to Jon, the whole point of MFBC is to provide “a strong platform for business owners to connect with each other and as well as the key people of our community, city, province and country.”

He adds, “It's about time.

Don't you agree?”

Parents first

Jon and Cynthia make sure that they don’t just focus on business but find time—make time— for each other and their kids.

“The toughest part of being an entrepreneur couple is being parents. Our kids are no stranger to the sacrifices of the business life. After all, with each birth of a child came the birth of a business. They have seen us at our most down and roughest points, but generally we have figured out how to make the best of things and we try to do our best to make every minute together quality, fun. [Our kids] are balanced and very flexible as a result: they are sociable and can socialize with all types of people from different walks of life. They really learned to ❱❱ PAGE 33 Filipino-Canadian in

27 FRIDAY AUGUST 23, 2013

So, Who Else... of the English language. At the outset, the English language is the balancing factor. Perhaps, the only visible, or rather audible, common factor through which the process of uniting can start. Communications is that important.

The second redeeming factor is food.

The best way to a man’s heart is through his stomach. The taste bud can be discriminating, but it is trainable. The taste bud also allows you to be familiar faster without the difficulty of adjustment. I am sure even in our respective native countries, we always try other cuisines.

That becomes our shortcut to learning and embracing other cultures.

And of course, there’s music. Music transcends boundaries. Music is actually the original universal language.

More than the meeting of the minds, it touches on the meeting of the hearts.

What could be more powerful than that?

We know that the act of helping begins when the need speaks to one’s heart.

In reality, if you allow it, the world is your support system. Everyone in it is capable of easing your process of adjustment and adaptability. Again, you only ❰❰ 23

need to ask and you shall find.

In largely multicultural communities, like in Canada, adapting to the many different customs present is a process.

Other cultures may be different, but we all share the same intention to help.The key to getting help is to ask. Asking will be your first lesson in humility. ■ Nobody ever said that our journey, will be easy. But as I write and as you read, we share our strengths and we can hold to the promise that “Where two or three are gathered in My name, there I am in the midst of them,” Matthew 18:20.

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

Four Lilian To Bursaries valued at $8,000 each will be awarded this fall—one week left to apply!

VANCOUVER, BRITISH COLUMBIA—July 23, 2013: Ashton College understands the importance of finding a rewarding career. This is why Ashton College believes it is important to award Lilian To Bursaries to outstanding new Canadian immigrants who would like to improve their education and pursue a more fulfilling career.

The bursaries, presented in partnership with Canadian Immigrant magazine, will be awarded to four outstanding students and cover full-time tuition for a range of Ashton College programs.

Often, the only obstacle between an immigrant and employment is recognized credentials. That is why Ashton College is offering new immigrants the chance to advance their career prospects, embark upon exciting opportunities, fuel their self-worth and empower them to achieve their highest potential.

Like many immigrants, Lourena Dicdiquin moved to Canada searching for greener pastures, only to discover that her degree was not recognized here. She credits the bursary and Ashton College’s Human Resources Management program with enabling her to retrain in her field and gain hands-on skills. “It was lifechanging,” she says. “It gave me so much

knowledge about the workplace in Canada and it was a wonderful experience.”

Last year’s winner, Melissa RemullaBriones, emigrated from the Philippines to provide her children with more opportunities, which is why she used her bursary to pursue an Immigration Consultant Diploma. As she explains, “when I won, I was like, ‘wow, I’m a step closer to my dream.’ It gave me the push that things will be better for us in Canada.”

The bursaries honour the life of Lilian To, who was a crusader for immigrants as the long-time Executive Director and CEO of S.U.C.C.E.S.S., a multi-service community organization that provides assistance to new immigrants. To died suddenly of a heart attack in 2005 and the bursaries ensure that her work with immigrants continues by addressing the challenges they face when trying to secure a stable career in Canada.

Canadian citizens or permanent residents who arrived in Canada for the first time during or after 2008 are eligible and encouraged to apply for one of the four Lilian To Bursaries. The deadline to apply has been extended to August 30, 2013 to allow more immigrants to take advantage of this opportunity.

Apply now for the Lilian To Bursaries: www.ashtoncollege.com/grants. ■ www.canadianinquirer.net

FRIDAY AUGUST 23, 2013

28

Oh Canada!

Happiness is…

Canada, Eh?!?

BY ANGIE DUARTE Philippine Canadian Inquirer “HAPPINESS IS two kinds of ice cream / Finding your skate key, telling the time / Happiness is learning to whistle / Tying your shoe for the very first time...”

So go the first few lines from the well-loved and timeless tune from then child-singer, now international musical sensation and Filipina cultural icon, Lea Salonga.

Happiness, apparently, is also defined as having an above average household net-adjusted disposable income, being gainfully employed, healthy civic engagement and good governance, quality of life, and long life expectancy, among other factors.

Though not exactly definitions coming from the heart of a young, carefree lass whose primary life-concerns include ice cream flavours, these are among the definitions of the word’s denizens; part of the criteria in selecting the happiest places to live, worldwide.

This year’s list of World’s Happiest Countries, released in May 2013 by the Paris-based Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), has Australia in the happiest spot, weighing in at number one.

Canada, which has been on the list several years in succession, ranked 8th on this year’s roster.

The OECD list, which is based on 11 categories for each country’s “Better Life Index”, determines happiness rankings based on a combination of factors in the areas of housing, income, jobs, community, education, environment, civic engagement, health, life satisfaction, safety, and work-life balance.

Aside from the OECD list of

happiest countries, the United Nations Human Development Index says that Canada has the highest quality of life in the world making it an ideal place to live and raise a family.

Here are just some reasons why Canada is viewed as a better place to live, as cited by Mac Lean’s Canada: 1. Canadians have a long life expectancy. According to studies, the life expectancy in Canada is an average of 77 years for men, and around 84 years for women.

2. Canadians know how to say “sorry”, and saying “sorry” is good for you. Canadians are often mocked for constantly apologizing, but research shows that saying sorry can boost happiness and strengthen relationships.

3. The Better Life Index reveals that Canadians are more satisfied with their lives than citizens of other countries. Canadians generally enjoy a higher level of life satisfaction.

4. Good education. Canada’s schools must be doing something right. Canadian 15-yearolds routinely score in the top 10 of 65 countries that participate in the OECD’s reading, math and science tests.

5. Lower suicide rates, lower healthcare costs, less marriages ending up in divorce; 50-week maternal/paternal leave: just some factors that add to overall well-being.

6. Better financial status.

Canada’s average household net worth of $363,000 is higher than other countries.

7. Better work-life balance, with only 3.9 percent of Canadian employees regularly clocking 50-hour workweeks.

8. Greater economic freedom, as listed by the U.S.-based Heritage Foundation Index of Economic Freedom. Canada scores 6th place, while America comes in 10th. This is credited to a more sound system of public finances.

9. More social mobility, which

Humorous photo to illustrate that “Sorry” is part of the happy Canadian lifestyle.

PHOTO FROM LOLBRARY.COM

Ball’s Falls Conservation Park in Ontario is one of a handful of giggle-inducing names across Canada.

SCREEN GRAB FROM YOUTUBE / CMECREATIVEMEDIA

The awe-inspiring beauty of Aurora Borealis (Northern Lights) at Yellowknife, in Canada’s Northwestern Territories.

PHOTO FROM WIKIMEDIA COMMONS / XANDER / FLICKR

is measured by intergenerational changes in income between sons and their fathers.

Figures are twice as high in Canada as in the U.S. This indicates that a son born to a poor father in the U.S. is twice as likely to remain poor throughout his life; compared to if he had been born in Canada.

10. A study conducted by BMO Financial Group reveals that more immigrants to Canada strike it rich, with nearly half of self-made Canadian millionaires coming from immigrant or second-generation resident

backgrounds.

Just ten reasons, out of many, that Canada puts a smile on your face.

Personally, I would add to the list that the Great White North seems to have an innate sense of humour: What other part of the globe has locations like Balls Falls (a conservation area in Ontario), Crotch Lake (also in Ontario), and Dildo, Newfoundland (a town name capable of inducing a guffaw or giggle in even the most stoic of persons)?

Where else can you find a country where “The Order of

the Jedi” (yes, the Star Wars kind) is an official, state-approved philosophy, bordering on religion? I kid you not. “Jediism is not fiction. Our ways are based on ancient wisdom as well as modern philosophies.

Our ways are modern adaptations of Taoism and Buddhism.

We encourage activities that cultivate physical and mental health, such as martial arts and meditation. ‘Jediism’ is a term inspired by films created by Mr. George Lucas.”: Just one ❱❱ PAGE 39 Happiness is

Oh Canada!

29 FRIDAY AUGUST 23, 2013

Greener Pastures in the Great White North: Filipino families in Canada

BY CHING DEE Philippine Canadian Inquirer

They celebrated their fifth year in Winnipeg, Manitoba on August 10th. Spending the last five years in the Great White North opened Micah’s eyes to so many things that she was not used to in the Philippines.

“I like how this country is very diverse. Here, volunteering is very common. Sometimes, that’s what employers look for when they hire workers. There are also a lot of job opportunities for hard workers.

And even if you’re just earning the minimum wage, it’s usually enough for you to get by. And of course, bacon!”

As a health care aide, Micah is mandated by law to pay her taxes, but like most Canadian taxpayers—she doesn’t mind.

“I like the fact that you know where your taxes go. We get great health care services, and you’ll see that the government is using the people’s money for our benefit... [We also get] employment insurance. They also have programs to help newcomers get a job. For me, personally, and for my siblings Gabe and Jean, we can easily avail of study grants and loans

WE FILIPINOS are most famous for being hospitable and for our insanely close family ties.

This is why many Filipinos grab the opportunity to provide a better future for their spouse and kids, and sometimes even their extended family, the moment it knocks on the door. And when it comes to providing a better future, Canada is one of the top choices for Filipino families.

Three Filipino families share their stories with the Philippine Canadian Inquirer about moving from the Pearl of the Orient Seas and living in the Great White North.

A Guiding Light

“Gabay” is the Filipino word for “guide,” which is exactly what Micah Gabay’s parents James and Joy Gabay did in 2006. In an effort to keep the family together and yet continue to provide well, Micah’s parents contemplated on moving to Canada for good.

Gabay family

when we need it.”

While many Filipinos will attest to Canada’s great opportunities and smoked meat products, there are still some things that Micah is yet to warm up to.

“Here in Canada, they don’t really care too much if you earned a degree or you accomplished a lot of things in another country. I know people who graduated with degrees with a lot of work experience abroad, but they have to study here again for them to practice their profession. Also, since it’s very easy to find a job here, oh man,

people just want to work all the time. Busy lifestyle.”

Such great opportunities, sadly, are not yet widely available in the Philippines, but Micah and her family still wants to come back to the Philippines to visit. Perhaps, someday when they visit, the Philippines will have learned something from the Canadian government, starting with how the taxes paid

by Canadians are used for Canadians. Micah also pointed out one very important thing about the Canadian government.

“I’ve noticed, [here in] Cana-

da, politics and show business are two different things.”

Our Home and Native Land

For Czarina Gaccion who has been living in Toronto for 8 years now, moving to Canada gave them access to more opportunities at a far better life than they had in the Philippines.

“We moved to Canada because my dad wants us to have a better life and also a great chance of getting a job. [That’s] ❱❱ PAGE 30 Greener Pastures

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New Regina Office 1201 Osler St. 306-352-9922

Oh Canada!

FRIDAY AUGUST 23, 2013 30

Greener Pastures... the best thing about living in Canada— there are lots of opportunities. It’s easy to get a job,” Czarina said.

For Czarina and her family, their quality of life does not solely depend on their ability to earn, but also relies on the government’s capability to take care of its constituents. “[We get] free health benefits, like visiting doctors for checkups and free hospitalization.

The government is also offering benefits like the OTB, Ontario Trillium Benefit, that’s part of the Ontario government’s commitment to provide relief to people with low to moderate incomes. It also supports the Poverty Reduction Strategy.”

In the midst of great opportunities and benefits, Czarina still longs for the Philippines, which she still considers her homeland. She wishes to come back home when she retires.

According to her, hopefully by the time she returns, the Philippines have taken care of things like “the organization and management of the healthcare system and public transportation.” ❰❰ 29

Land of Opportunities

Arnold and Nomie Mercado moved their family to Winnipeg, Manitoba almost four years ago after a relative nominated them in the country’s immigration program. They chose to push through with their plans in order to provide better opportunities for their kids, Nikos and Audrey. Aside from enduring four to six months of winter in this part of the country, they revel in its generosity in terms of employment opportunities, life-changing healthcare system, and accessible educational programs.

“Students can finish their post secondary education on their own by working and availing of student loans and grants.”

Nomie shared. “Parents with children 17 years and below have child tax benefits depending on their income.” she added.

As soon as their kids settle down with families of their own, Nomie and Arnold wish to return to the Philippines for good.

By that time, hopefully the Philippine government has solved the problem on corruption.

“A big portion of our salary here goes to taxes, but I am not

Mercado Family

complaining because of the benefits we are receiving from the government.”

Nikos, a rhetoric and communications major in the University of Winnipeg, is perpetually grateful to Canada’s excellent healthcare system for taking care of his dad. “[My dad] has a rare type of cancer, and the treatment he needs is very expensive, but the government takes care of it for us. We don’t have to pay for anything.”

As a student, Nikos enjoys resources that are not readily available in Philippine schools.

“The thing that I like here is the University’s rich resource collection. Finding a book or on-

www.canadianinquirer.net

line journal is so easy, because all would be readily available from the library. We even have an online journal database where we can have online access to scholastic publications instantly.”

Having experienced studying at the University of the Philippines - Los Baños, he did notice a perceivable difference between him and his western classmates.

“A Filipino student will always work harder than the students here in the West. [In the Philippines], we were always disciplined by our professors to work and study hard. They would always push us to do better.”

Nonetheless, Nikos is surely enjoying his great education. In fact, he has very little to worry about after his graduation since the Canadian government is doing its best to help people find employment, even providing free skills training to increase their chances of getting a job.

With all these opportunities for workers and students, Nikos still can’t help but miss his home.

“I still want to go back to the Philippines. The things I miss the most about the Philippines are the food and the camaraderie. I miss my friends and hopefully I can be with them again, even just for a short vacation.” ■

Oh Canada!

31 FRIDAY AUGUST 23, 2013

Discover Toronto like a star during the celeb filled Toronto film festival

BY VICTORIA AHEARN, NICK PATCH, AND CASSANDRA SZKLARSKI The Canadian Press TORONTO—Outside Hollywood, there are few places in North America as overrun with celebrities as downtown Toronto in September.

You can thank the Toronto International Film Festival for that—each year the prestigious movie marathon explodes in celebrity visitors, from Clooney to Kidman to McConaughey.

As such, it’s prime time for star trackers and film-loving tourists to head to Hogtown, cameras in tow. This year’s fest runs Sept. 5 to 15, but a word to the wise: most A-listers tend to favour the first weekend, when the splashiest premieres and parties take place.

Start with a stop at TIFF Bell Lightbox (350 King St. W.), which is ground zero for filmmakers, journalists and fans.

It’s also where you’ll find an army of volunteers eager to answer questions.

From there, the options are many. Here’s a look at some of the best places to eat, shop and not so casually bump into famous people if you happen to be in Toronto: The films

A surefire way to see a celeb is to score a ticket to their film premiere, where the stars generally sit in the audience and take part in a Q&A afterward.

But A-list galas sell out instantly, so if you land in Toronto without a ticket your best bet is the rush line. All TIFF films, even the star-studded galas, release tickets at the venue box office 10 minutes before the screening. Needless to say, the lower the star wattage the better your odds, but be prepared to wait hours in a rush line regardless.

And all is not lost for those who can’t make it inside—if you can find a good spot along the red carpet you actually have a better chance of face-time with a friendly celeb. Ryan Gosling and George Clooney have proven to be among the friendliest on the carpet, obliging group photo requests and even hold-

ing a few babies.

For the budget-conscious film purists, there’s the festival’s Cinematheque program which features restored classics. Tickets are free, and are available at the Lightbox on a first-come, firstserved basis two hours before each screening.

Hotel hotspots

Much of a celeb’s time during the festival is spent holed up in hotel rooms at press conferences and interviews. That makes hotels perfect spots to scout out autographs—you can literally wait for an A-lister to just walk by. Think chi-chi in picking your post: the Ritz-Carlton (181 Wellington St. W.), Four Seasons (60 Yorkville Ave.), Park Hyatt (4 Avenue Rd.) and Shangri-La (188 University Ave.) are all good prospects.

But unless you’re a guest, you can’t just ride the elevators hoping for Ben Affleck to serendipitously hop on. Try lingering outside the front doors as stars leave and arrive, or grab a coffee at the hotel lounge where interviews and celeb powwows occasionally take place. In past years, Jude Law and Jay Baruchel have each held interviews at the Intercontinental’s main floor bar (220 Bloor St. W.), while Ralph Fiennes preferred the Park Hyatt lounge overlooking the lobby.

Nightlife

Technically TIFF is about the films, but for celeb-watchers it’s really about the after-parties.

Where do the celebs unwind after walking the red carpet at their gala movie premieres?

The members-only Soho House (192 Adelaide St. W.) offers an elegantly low-key setting. Last year, Jennifer Lawrence and Woody Harrelson were there to celebrate “Silver Linings Playbook,” while Keira Knightly and Jude Law swung by for the “Anna Karenina” after-party.

Meanwhile, the bikinis-andbalaclavas pulp flick “Spring Breakers” held its shindig at the sleek, chic resto Brassaii (461 King St. W.), where stars Selena Gomez and Vanessa Hudgens were spotted eating popsicles.

Of course, studio parties are generally private affairs so you may have more luck rubbing

shoulders with celebs who prefer to slum it with the locals at low-key hipster haunts. The strip around the intersections of Dundas Street West and Ossington Avenue is one such trendy enclave, bookended by Sweaty Betty’s (13 Ossington Ave.), where Drew Barrymore reportedly imbibed during a previous fest, and the Dakota Tavern (249 Ossington Ave.), where Robert Pattinson is said to have lounged.

Hollywood power couple Brad Pitt and Angelina graces the red carpet for the screening of Brad’s latest flick ‘Moneyball’ on September 9, 2011 at the TIFF in Toronto.

Unique installation for souvenir photos in front of Roy Thomson Hall, a major venue of the 36th Toronto International Film Festival Sept 16, 2011 in Toronto, Canada

PHOTO BY DAN KOSMAYER

PHOTO BY CK CHIU

Clubs’ Lakeshore location (801 Lake Shore Blvd. E.), where Bill Murray played tennis during a recent festival and John Travolta dropped in several times while shooting 2007’s “Hairspray.” It’s a members-only club, but the company’s website is currently offering a “no-obligation two-visit trial.”

Meanwhile, folk legend Gordon Lightfoot is on the roster of the all-men’s Cambridge Club (100 Richmond St. W., 11th floor), which is part of a group of exclusive gyms that have catered to celebrities and high-profile athletes. Other Cambridge Group of Clubs venues include the Adelaide Club (1 First Canadian Place) and the Toronto Athletic Club (TD South Tower, 79 Wellington St. W., 36th floor). A spokeswoman says trials are available.

And the U.S.-based chain Equinox— a favourite of sculpted stars in New York and Los Angeles—opened its first Canadian location in Toronto (199 Bay St., Commerce Court West) in late April and says it’s already helped famed actors and athletes get their heart rates up.

But this is also a members-only club, so you’ll have to use your contacts for access.

If all that fails, perhaps a friendly celeb will stage an impromptu public workout session

a la Woody Harrelson circa 2003, when he led a massive yoga class on King’s College Circle.

Food

Even celebrities need to eat (well, most of them), and several Toronto eateries have a magnetic pull for the rich and famous. Buca (604 King St. W.) has fed the likes of Bill Murray and Megan Fox, Stock in the Trump Hotel (325 Bay St.) has welcomed Joseph Gordon-Levitt and Emma Watson, while long-running Italian spot Sotto Sotto (116 Avenue Rd.) has hosted Johnny Depp, Natalie Portman and Dustin Hoffman.

The Yorkville area is also teeming with celeb-friendly restos, with the French-inspired Sassafraz (100 Cumberland St.) serving as a longtime pillar of see-and-be-seen dining, having previously lured in Matt Damon, Michael Douglas and Colin Firth.

As one might expect, these spots are tough on the wallet and there’s no guarantee of spotting a star. Less pricey options for good food near the festival’s Lightbox hub include the bustling Khao San Road (326 Adelaide St. W.) for top-notch Thai, the Burger’s Priest (463 Queen St. W.) for gut-busting burgers (look up their secret menu before ordering), Banh Mi Boys (392 Queen St. W.) for Vietnamese sandwiches and tacos, and the health-conscious Fresh (147 Spadina Ave.), which electronic musician Moby recently tweeted about after a meal there.

Celeb-watching workouts

Want to sweat off those TIFF cocktail calories and popcorn pounds? Perhaps the chance of seeing a celeb huffing and puffing alongside you will provide motivation.

Several high-end fitness facilities have drawn in famous faces, including the Mayfair www.canadianinquirer.net

Shopping with the stars

And what’s a vacation without at least a little window shopping? For those keen to raid the racks with the rich and famous, luxury department store Holt Renfrew (50 Bloor St. W.) is stacked with designer lines and is a favourite stop for celebrities year-round, especially during the fest.

Holts is on the edge of the tony Yorkville district, which includes Chanel, Burberry and Coach all along Bloor Street, just west of Yonge. The area’s more casual stores, including Roots (100 Bloor St. W.) and Over the Rainbow (101 Yorkville Ave.), lure luminaries too. Yorkville also has the upscale mall Hazelton Lanes (55 Avenue Rd.) with supermarket chain Whole Foods Market (87 Avenue Rd.), where Colin Farrell was spotted when he was in town to film “Total Recall.”

Kensington Market, meanwhile, is more grit than glitter, but the multicultural neighbourhood (bordered by Spadina Avenue and Dundas, Bathurst and College streets) attracts a health-conscious crowd and the occasional hipster star, including Gosling. ■

FRIDAY AUGUST 23, 2013

32

Entertainment

FOR YOUR ENTERTAINMENT, CANADA! Kim Chiu denied ‘snubbing’ incident Anime Evolution 2013 draws thousands in Vancouver Philippine Canadian Inquirer

KIM CHIU, through her official Twitter account denied reports that she snubbed a fan who wanted to have a photo taken with her.

Her Twitter post on August 12 reads: “I don’t like kasi ‘yung feeling na pinipilit nila ‘yung bata na magpa-picture sa akin even if the kid doesn’t really want ...tinutulak-tulak nya na ‘yung bata palapit sa akin, ‘yung bata naman AYAW. So sana si mommy na lang nagpa-pic sa akin at least ‘yun okay pa, di na nahirapan yung bata, di na nya tinulak tulak. So what I did, di ko na pinasin si mommy. Kawawa ‘yung bata e (I didn’t like the feeling that the mom was forcing her

child to have a photo taken with me because the kid obviously didn’t want to. It should have been the mom who should have had her photo taken with me, that would have been fine. Because I wasn’t okay with what I saw, I ignored the mom. I felt so sorry for the kid).”

The incident allegedly happened in a grocery store in Taguig.

In a separate interview on “Kris TV,” Kim said taking pictures with her fans is not a big deal for her, but that the above incident was sensationalized.

She added that she was really saddened by the message of a Facebook user saying that she, being a Cebuana, should project a happy and smiling face, but showed otherwise. ■

Filipino-Canadian in... appreciate others, as in business we rely on people and treat people with respect,” they share.

What the couple enjoys is spending time at home with their children Reyna and Miguel who are 11 and 7 years old, respectively.

"We also have a dog Seger. Cynthia likes to play the piano and has helped Reyna and Miguel on playing piano since they were both 4 years old,” Jon said. ❰❰ 26

Future Thinkers

“We want to continue to grow both personally and professionally,” they said. “We want to do what any couple who has children do—to guide our children and help improve their lives.”

As entrepreneurs and community leaders, they have aspirations for their other ventures as well.

“We are always looking for innovative and forward-thinking individuals of all ages to join us to bring fresh new ideas to our

council. We want to create new opportunities and accomplishments working together. We want to mentor those to carry out our mission and lead us into the future eventually.

"Our newest project is a trade mission in the Philippines scheduled this September 2013.

The MFBC is working with the World Trade Centre Winnipeg between the World Trade Center–Manila, The Philippine Chamber of Commerce, The Canadian Trade Commission, the Canadian Chamber of Commerce in the Philippines, and other business and professional organizations to help seek opportunities for our members and citizens of Philippines and Canada,” Jon said.

“We want to continue helping our business peers, our community as we find networking and assisting others are very rewarding. As business owners, we are always thinking of other possible business opportunities,” they said. ■

BY SOCORROBABES NEWLAND

VANCOUVER WELCOMES Anime Evolution at the Vancouver Convention Center. It’s the premier event for anime, manga, gaming and every kind of related fandom. A kaleidoscopic cosplay, lines, fabrics, masks, theatrical makeup and more… Japanese animation characters come alive in full living colours!

Around 8,000 attended this year’s 3-day Anime Revolution hosted at the Vancouver Convention Centre that celebrates one of Japan’s greatest exports: Japanese animation. It’s the city’s largest and fastest growing anime convention. Excitement abound hopping around exhibits, costume play a.k.a. cosplay; comics and animation, gaming, musical performances, industry panels, dance, cultural displays and so much more! Jessica Nigiri, one of the world’s most famous costume players whose career began with her stunning appearance

The author with Juan TV’s Jason Rodriguez (far left) and other cosplayers.

as Pikachu at San Diego’s 2009 Comic Con, was one of the motivational speakers. Big name Japanese anime voice actors, to include Toru Furuya (among many others) who voiced characters in Sailor Moon, Gundam and Dragon Ball, graciously signed autographs.

I was suddenly reminded of my childhood as a once diehard fan of Japanese anime. What an enjoyable way to spend my Saturday afternoon! More than a thousand people showed up as an anime, game character,

comic and manga to join the Cosplay Contest which came in two parts: Walk-Ons for those who just want to show off their fashion pieces; and the Skit Part where contestants can entertain with dramatic flair or comedic prowess! Everything from Japanese School Girls to Robots and Super Heroes!

Anime Evolution comes on the heels of last weekend’s heavily attended Pokemon World Championships 2013 at the East Building (Canada Place) of the convention centre. ■

Entertainment

33 FRIDAY AUGUST 23, 2013

Kris Bernal is new Kapuso princess

BY MARINEL R. CRUZ Philippine Daily Inquirer “I WAS afraid that I would suddenly be replaced by someone more popular,” said actress Kris Bernal of her coming TV project on GMA 7, “Prinsesa ng Masa,” which sat on the drawing board for a year before it was finally green-lighted this month.

“I kept thinking that a lot of things could happen in a year,” Kris shared with the INQUIRER. “Now, I just feel thankful that the show is finally pushing through, with me in the lead role. I waited for this for a long time.” Kris was last seen in the local adaptation of the Korean hit series “Coffee Prince,” which ended its run in November 2012.

Kris attended the recent signing of an agreement between GMA 7 and Avon Philippines to produce the series, which will premiere on Sept. 23. Present were GMA 7 chair and CEO Felipe L. Gozon and Avon president for Asia Pacific and the Philippines Bob Briddon.

How are you able to relate to

your character in the new series?

Like my character Princess, I dreamed early on about having a good life. That’s why I joined [the talent search] “Starstruck” on GMA 7. We’re both fighters.

We both work hard to ensure our family’s future. Only recently, my sister and I put up a company that sells designer items. By working as an Avon lady, Princess is able to slowly fulfill her dreams.

This is also a reunion for you and your previous screen partner Aljur Abrenica.

We were last seen together in “Coffee Prince.” Now, we’re preparing by attending workshops with Pen Medina and Laurice Guillen. I know our supporters are excited. As for AJ (Aljur’s nickname), he hasn’t changed. He’s still the sweetest guy I know.

Don’t you regret turning down an offer to do an indie film because of this project?

Nakakapanghinayang.

It could have been a good opportunity for me to showcase my depth as an actress. It could have signaled the big switch from my pa- sweet image to a more

mature and sexy one, since the movie is about a cocaine addict.

But GMA7 knows what’s good for its artists—that’s what I kept in mind when it decided to pull me out of the cast. I took it as a sign from God [that now is not yet the right time for a major change in image.]

Is it difficult to be a TV personality?

This is true especially if you’re always told to do something that doesn’t exactly suit your personality. There’s actually a directive from GMA Artist Center telling talents to make sure they look their best when seen in public. I used to have a hard time complying with this [directive]. You’ve led the Ligang iLike team on “Sunday All Stars” for two weeks.

How were you as a team leader?

I replaced Jolina Magdangal, who was instructed by her doctor to rest because of her pregnancy. It was overwhelming to be in charge of a big production number every week. I had to take care of everything, from the concept and music to the overall look of the team. I also had to decide which artists to

PHOTO COURTESY OF GMA

invite as guest performers. It really ate up a lot of my time.

Luckily, I wasn’t too busy then and was able to focus on the task at hand. It was tough.

Weren’t you worried that the weekly competition would cause conflict?

There have been misunderstandings. As a leader, I thought of ways to make each member

shine in the performances.

There are 10 of us in the team.

There were times when some members felt neglected, or that they didn’t get enough exposure. But this happened because they failed to attend the meetings. To settle the issue, I suggested that we highlight only one artist per week. It’s not good for the team if we always try to upstage each other. ■

Fil-Am Actress Megan Young is 2013 Miss World Philippines

BY KATHERINE MARFALTEVES Philippine Canadian Inquirer

and Miss Bench Body.

On August 18, the hashtag #MeganMW2013 also trended worldwide.

MANILA, PHILIPPINES—After a night of beauty and glamour, one name came to fame as 2013 Miss World Philippines— Megan Lynne Young from Olongapo City.

A familiar face indeed.

She first tried her luck as an “avenger” in the GMA 7 reality talent search “Starstruck” before she became a member of ABS-CBN’s Star Magic Talent Center where she was given hosting and acting projects.

It will be recalled that the 23-year-old Fil-Am actress was disqualified from joining the 50th Binibining Pilipinas due to a sexy pictorial she did for a magazine—but she didn’t give up in trying to reach her dream.

“There are many risks in joining this pageant, but it’s only something that happens once

Ms. World 2013 in Indonesia

PHOTOS FROM THE OFFICIAL FACEBOOK FAN PAGE OF MEGAN YOUNG

in a lifetime. It’s now or never,” Young said.

On Sunday, August 18, she wowed the audience and the judges at the Solaire Resort and Casino in Pasay City, bested 24 other aspirants and took home P1 million worth of management contract from the pageant organizer, plus gifts and services from the contest’s sponsors.

A heavy favorite

Young has been leading the online and offline surveys prior to the competition—her dominance was further attested by winning major special awards such as Best in Fashion Runway, Miss Sports by Fila, Miss Reducin, Miss Olay, Miss Laguna World, Miss Bold and Glamorous by Revlon, Miss Figlia www.canadianinquirer.net

As Megan flies to Indonesia next month, her countrymen are hoping that she will bring home the crown this time. In 2011, Gwendoline Ruais placed second to Ivian Sarcos of Venezuela while Miss World Philippines 2012, Queneerich Rehman made it to the Top 15.

This year’s pageant will be held in Bogor, a city outside the Muslim country of Indonesia.

Thus, for the first time in the history of Miss World, a Balinese Beach Fabric contest will replace the bikini pageant.

Miss World Philippines 2013 Winners

The following are the runners-up of the 2013 Miss World Philippines: • First Princess—Janicel Lubina

• Second Princess—Zahra Saldua • Third Princess—Bianca Paz • Fourth Princess—Omarie Linn Osuna Praises from Facebook users

Megan Young also received a handful of praises from her supporters from Facebook.

“Despite the fact that Olongapo City is experiencing really bad weather at the moment, I’m sure Olongapeños would be happy and proud because another representative of the city won at the recent beauty pageant. Yay! Megan Young crowned as Miss World Philippines 2013!”—Grace Acaba “Congrats! You really deserved of what you got as Miss World Philippines 2013. I got in mind already you won that crown.”— Cathyline Garcia Colot Arian “Congrats megan!!! you’re so gorgeous!!! beauty & brains!!! don’t mind the bashers, losers just Hate!!!”—Yves Arden Florendo ■

Entertainment

FRIDAY AUGUST 23, 2013 34

MTRCB summit gives children a voice

BY BAYANI SAN DIEGO JR. Philippine Daily Inquirer TV HAS become a virtual nanny, making it imperative for parents to be informed and vigilant It really takes a village to raise a child these days. In an era ruled by media, both old and new, the task of parenting has become not just a community’s responsibility, but a collective advocacy as well.

The Movie and Television Review and Classification Board (MTRCB) recently held the Family and Child Summit at Balay Kalinaw of the University of the Philippines (UP) in Diliman, Quezon City.

Experts and industry stakeholders spoke at the daylong conference aimed at empowering every member of the Filipino family—parents, children and house help—in their daily engagement with the broadcast media.

Television has become a virtual electronic nanny, making it imperative for the entire family to be informed and vigilant.

Emily Abrera, board chair of the Cultural Center of the Philippines, urged media to be more responsible, especial-

ly in producing shows for a young audience.

Responsibility also fell on the other side of the TV screen, Abrera said. As consumers, she pointed out, using a fresh analogy, “We have the right to [demand] more nutritious media, with no harmful side effects.”

‘Be insulted’

Concerned parents should “withhold patronage of offensive TV programs,” Abrera insisted. She encouraged viewers confronted with detrimental content: “Be insulted. Complain. We are not faceless, voiceless, powerless.”

Abrera, a former advertising executive, presented studies that showed the power of television and its possible harmful effects on children. She noted links between exposure to noninteractive media (like TV) and lack of social skills, concentration and critical thinking. She stressed the value of passing on to children the love of books and reading.

Child psychologist Honey Carandang posed a provocative question: “How can television become the ally, and not the enemy, of parents in imparting positive values to children?”

Carandang said values were subliminally formed in the home and that ex-

THE SUMMIT was held at Balay Kalinaw in UP Diliman.

PHOTO COURTESY OF MTRCB.

posure to television was a factor in this process. She explained, “Children are innate truth tellers, until adults and/or society teach them to lie.”

She expressed concern over comedy shows that “use insults as basis for humor” or “depict children as little adults.”

She exhorted parents to be proactive, “to heed the MTRCB rating system; regard TV as a teaching tool; mediate and regulate kids’ viewing fare; protect children from traumatic and overwhelming stimuli.”

Children should be spared from footage of murder victims, tsunami and other disasters on news shows, for example, until they reach the proper age to process those disturbing images, she said.

Celebrity advocates

The dearth of quality children’s shows was raised. Board members and summit hosts Bobby Andrews and Gladys Reyes, who are parents themselves, noted, “Not all cartoon shows are kid-friendly.”

Celebrity couples Oyo Sotto and Kristine Hermosa, Lander Vera-Perez and Regine Tolentino, and Julius Babao and Tintin Bersola, along with child stars Ryzza MaeDizon and Xyriel Manabat, participated in the discussions.

Sen. Mary Grace Poe, TV host German Moreno, scriptwriter Bibeth Orteza and actresses Tessie Villarama and Yayo Aguila joined the lively exchanges.

Poe, former MTRCB chair, told the INQUIRER: “We believe that the main function of the board is child protection.

That’s why we started the Child Summit last year. Adults can watch what they want, but child psychologists and advocates have pointed out that children, being impressionable, need to be shielded from viewing materials that may be too mature for their understanding.” www.canadianinquirer.net

The celebrity couples shared with the audience their own experiences in supervising their kids’ TV viewing habits.

Said Sotto: “Children absorb information like sponges. That’s why we go easy on action flicks, like ‘Spider-Man,’ because kids tend to imitate what they see onscreen. We’d rather expose them to educational shows.”

His wife Hermosa agreed: “We don’t delegate [the task of monitoring our kids’ viewing fare] to our helpers. We instruct them not to watch mature shows in front of the children.”

Tolentino said she guarded her children like a hawk. “[And] when we are not around, they are not allowed to watch TV.” Her husband, Vera-Perez, admitted: “We’ve learned to enjoy watching kiddie shows with them.”

Important role

Poe remarked: “If we are to succeed in selfregulation, the audience, particularly parents, should be empowered with information— specifically, the importance of age-appropriate classification.

Networks, film producers and industry stakeholders should understand that though we have different professional goals, we [agree] that our most important role as individuals is that of being a parent.”

Eugenio Villareal, MTRCB chair, asserted that, through the summit, the board sought to “reaffirm its commitment to the promotion of discerning viewership and the empowerment of the Filipino family to determine age-appropriate entertainment in their homes.”

He concluded: “We are not just policemen; the MTRCB is also the public’s bridge to understanding and harnessing the media, to instilling the right values in children.” ■

Entertainment

35 FRIDAY AUGUST 23, 2013

Montano and Cruz meet in court Source said couple happy with the result of the hearing Philippine Canadian Inquirer MANILA, PHILIPPINES—On Thursday, August 15, estranged celebrity couple Cesar Montano and Sunshine Cruz appeared at the Quezon City Hall of Justice before the Court of Judge Fernando Sagon Jr. for Cruz’s petition for a Permanent Protection Order from Montano and a petition for habeas corpus before the Court of Judge Jose Bautista Jr. The 51-year-old actor-director arrived with their daughters Angelina Isabelle, Samantha Angelene, and Angel Franchesca. Reports said that amidst Cruz’s allegation that Montano is preventing their children from seeing her, it was noticeable that the three children were seen comfortable and happy in the custody of their father.

After the closed door hear-

PHOTO FROM THE FACEBOOK PAGE OF CESAR MONTANO

ing, both parties chose not to disclose specific details. A reliable source said though that a compromise had been made, allowing Montano and Cruz to spend 3 days a week with their children, with Sundays in an alternating schedule between estranged parents.

The couple and their children were seen riding in the same vehicle as they left the Hall of Justice.

In a separate interview, Montano said he wants to resolve their marital conflict. Cruz, meanwhile, said she’s happy with the result of the hearing. ■

JC de Vera to work with long-time crush Maja Salvador in a new drama series

Piolo’s son enters showbiz Philippine Canadian Inquirer AFTER COURTING his father, Piolo Pascual, Iñigo, the 15-yearold son of “the Ultimate Hearthrob” will finally enter showbiz through an indie film co-produced by Piolo himself.

In an interview with the Yahoo! Philippines OMG!, boxoffice director Joyce Bernal, Piolo’s co-executive producer for the movie “Relaks, It’s Just Pagibig” revealed that convincing Piolo to get his son act in front of cameras was not a simple chore, “Ang tagal naming niligawan [si Piolo] ayaw niya talaga. When finally pumayag siya, sabi niya, ‘Pelikula lang, hindi siya magpo-promo. Hindi dapat makaka-abala sa studies niya.” (We courted Piolo for a long time, but he didn’t really want Iñigo to enter showbiz .

When he finally agreed, he said, ‘He will do the movie only, he will not promote. His studies should not be affected).

To make sure that the production meets all the conditions of Pascual, they finished shooting the movie in 16 working days.

Star Magic artists Julian Estrada and Sofia Andres are among Iñigo’s co-stars in the movie, “Relaks, It’s Just Pagibig”, which is a coming-of-age story about three teenagers who want to show that the love they feel is genuine.

‘More to offer’

Though it was only Iñigo’s first starring role in a movie, Bernal believes that the 15-year-old Pascual can still show more in terms of acting, “Passionate siya and nag-eenjoy siya (Iñigo). Parang feeling ko meron talaga, pero medyo nagpipigil pa rin. Ayaw niya tumodo dahil alam niyang kailangan pa niya tapusin ang pag-aaral niya.

Pero sa’kin screen presence at chemistry pa lang nila Iñigo, Julian and Sophia, ang ganda na.”

(Iñigo is passionate and enjoys what he’s doing. I can really feel that he can show more, but he is holding back. He doesn’t want to put all his efforts in acting because he knows that he still needs to finish his studies.

But for me, Iñigo, Julian and Sophia’s screen presence and chemistry equate to a beautiful movie). ■

Philippine Canadian Inquirer MANILA, PHILIPPINES—After recently transferring to the Kapamilya network (ABSCBN), actor JC de Vera will be paired with long-time crush Maja Salvador in the new drama series “Hanggang Kailan Kita Mamahalin?”

JC said, “It’s a dream come true for me. Ever since I first saw Maja on television, naging crush ko na siya (she became my crush). Now I just can’t believe that I will star in a drama series with her as my leading lady. Parang meant to be na magkasama kami balang araw (It seems that it’s meant to be that we’ll be together one day).”

JC added that he doesn’t want to be romantically linked to Maja, knowing that she is in a relationship with Kapamilya actor Gerald Anderson, “Mahirap palang ma-link kay Maja kasi nabakuran na (It’s difficult to be linked with Maja because she’s taken). Okey lang naman kasi (It’s okay because) I’m just happy working with her and in

PHOTO FROM BIDAKAPAMILYA.BLOGSPOT.COM

my new home station.”

He quipped, “Huwag magalala si Gerald dahil alam kong off limits si Maja.” (Gerald shouldn’t worry because I know Maja is off limits.) I will just be working with her professionally.”

The newest Kapamilya actor will also work with Jericho Rosales, Angel Locsin, Christopher de Leon, Mark Gil, Rio

Locsin, Bernard Palanca, and Maria Isabel Lopez in “Hanggang Kailan Kita Mamahalin?”

Being new to the network, he simply wants to show what he got, “I want to prove to them that I’m worth all the trouble.

Ayokong mapahiya sa kanila kaya magtrabaho tayo ng mabuti.” (I don’t wish to become a liability that’s why we should do our job.) ■ www.canadianinquirer.net

PHOTO FROM THE FACEBOOK PAGE OF IÑIGO PASCUAL

Entertainment

FRIDAY AUGUST 23, 2013 36

‘The Mortal Instruments’ star takes pains to distinguish film from ‘Twilight’

BY ADRIAN LEE The Canadian Press TORONTO—It’s the big-screen adaptation of a series of bestselling books where werewolves take on vampires. A beautiful girl falls in love with a young heart-throb, but the relationship is complicated by the affections of others. The girl comes of age in a world that lives in the shadows.

You may think you’ve heard this one before. But “The Mortal Instruments” is decidedly different, says 24-year-old star Lily Collins.

“Ours has wit and humour, which I think is not so much in the other ones,” begins Collins, as she sits in a downtown hotel rattling off the differences between her film and the brooding “Twilight” and “The Hunger Games”—the character-driven plot; the presence of a love cube, not a simple love triangle; the fact that her character, Clary Fray, is not merely defined by two men.

“There’s always going to be that comparison, but it’s kind of like comparing any great actor to another great actor. The key audience may be the same target audience, but the stories are so different,” she said. “aSo (‘Twilight’ and ‘Hunger Games’) has set some sort of bar in the sense that we’re always going to get compared to it, but really they are like apples and oranges.”

Fortune helped bring Col-

Kevin Zegers

lins the part of Clary Fray, a 16-year-old who discovers that her mother (and by virtue of her lineage, Clary herself ) is a Shadowhunter, a race of humans with angelic blood that secretly protects the rest of the world from demons.

She read Cassandra Clare’s first book of the series, “City of Bones,” and became a “huge fan,” prompting her to make inquiries about the rumoured film adaptation. It ended up that producers for the project had been involved with a film she was working on, and gave her the role without an audition.

“It just kind of organically happened for me. And it was such an honour, because I loved Clary, and admired her and looked up to her.”

The rest of it—the ardour that has turned teenaged fans agog as the cast embarked on a tour of malls around the United States? That’s perhaps less organic.

“Never did I imagine with every mall it would get louder and (bring) more people,” said Collins. “We did one in L.A. where 800 people showed up screaming, and it was like, ‘The film’s not even out yet. It’s not even a sequel.”’

Fortunately, she has had her male counterpart, co-star Jamie Campbell Bower, to lean on. Bower, 24, plays the dreamy Jace Wayland, and he’s seen this kind of fan fervour before, appearing in three “Twilight” films and even making an ap-

pearance in the “Harry Potter” movies.

His philosophy? Let things take care of themselves.

“We’re in an industry whereby we get scrutinized 24/7, no matter what movie we do,” Bower said. “Are we ready? I don’t know. I don’t think it’s something that any of us are ever thinking about, really.”

If anything, his time surrounded by shrieking fans has affirmed the message he wants to send his growing and impressionable young fanbase—that celebrities are not worthy of worship.

“None of us are going to sit here and say that we’re perfect, because we’re all (messed up) in our own way. And that’s beautiful,” Bower said. “Just because you’re in a movie doesn’t make you a sort of an idol. And it should never be that. I would never want someone to want to be me.”

It’s a hard thing to do, but the cast appears to be taking the long view as they prepare to shoot the next instalment.

“The only thing we can control is we show up in a month and make an even better film, and hopefully people like it,” said Kevin Zegers, 28, who plays terse Shadowhunter Alec Lightwood.

“Outside of that, the reality of the situation is a Jamie’s Jamie, and whether he becomes (insanely) famous ... he hasn’t done anything different, it’s just the perception of who he is.

“If none of us were talented a

Robert Sheehan

Lily Collins

PHOTOS FROM SHUTTERSTOCK.COM

if we weren’t going to do something after these films, if this were it for us, then I’d be terrified. This just opens doors for us to do the kinds of films we want.”

Collins shares their approach, and it’s a wise move, since many—fairly or not—will view her through the expectant lens of Jennifer Lawrence and Kristen Stewart of “Hunger Games” and “Twilight,” respectively. That will come with the good—Lawrence and Stewart have since become style icons, something that the fashionable Collins is excited about—but also with the pressure of playing a character that readers have already created for themselves in their mind. The hype is familiar, the pressures recognizable.

You may have heard this one

Jamie Campbell Bower

www.canadianinquirer.net

before. But not if Collins has anything to say about it.

“Luckily, this isn’t my first film, so I feel like I’ve been able, with every project, to step out of boxes,” she says. “Hopefully, this is just another character I get to embody and step away from and step back into, and I admire Kristen and Jennifer because they’ve been able to do independents and franchises.

People are able to see them as different characters, and I think that’s really important.

“I didn’t see Clary as a vehicle to get me anywhere better.

I saw her as a vehicle to better understand myself as Lily.”

“The Mortal Instruments: City of Bones” opens in theatres nationwide on Wednesday. The sequel, like the first movie, will be filmed in Toronto, starting in September. ■

FRIDAY AUGUST 23, 2013

37

Lifestyle

10 signs that a moment of forgetfulness may be something more serious The Canadian Press

ILLUSTRATION BY LIGHTSPRING/SHUTTERSTOCK

PHOTO BY OLLYY/SHUTTERSTOCK

PHOTO BY SERGEY NIVENS/SHUTTERSTOCK

TORONTO—Deciphering the difference between symptoms of dementia and regular aging is the basis for Cogniciti’s new online “brain checkup,” set to launch this fall. But there are also other hints that can indicate whether a moment of forgetfulness is a sign of something more serious.

Here are 10 things to watch for that could indicate someone is developing Alzheimer’s or another form of dementia: 1. Memory lapses that affect day-to-day functioning.

2. Difficulty performing familiar tasks.

3. While everyone may occasionally forget a word, people with Alzheimer’s may struggle to put together sentences.

4. Becoming lost and disori-

ented.

5. Displaying poor judgment, such as wearing a coat on a hot day.

6. Difficulty completing tasks that require abstract thinking, such as balancing a cheque book.

7. Anyone can occasionally misplace their keys, but someone with Alzheimer’s may leave things in inappropriate places, such as putting their wallet in the fridge.

8. Experiencing violent mood swings for no apparent reason.

9. Alzheimer’s may change someone’s personality and leave them acting out of character.

10. Losing initiative and becoming very passive may also be a sign. ■ Courtesy of the Alzheimer Society of Canada

Dennis Lustico tries his hand at accessories–with luxurious results His bag designs use silk fringes and Lucite

BY ALEX Y. VERGARA Philippine Daily Inquirer TO FEED the market’s insatiable appetite for accessories, Dennis Lustico is producing his first collection of evening bags using such materials as silk fringes and Lucite.

Lustico’s fringe collection comes in black, white, red and Kelly green. His structured and transparent Lucite pieces, in various shapes and sizes, are contemporary and scaleddown versions of the 1950s “granny bag.”

Certain fringe pieces are embellished with scarabs made of brass and semiprecious agate.

The bags’ hinges, including the Lucite collection inspired by picture frames, are also made of brass.

Prices range from P12,500 for a small, round Lucite clutch, to P25,000 for a rectangular, silk-fringed piece. The latter is quite tedious to produce, as silk fringes are separated, strand by strand, before they’re lumped in groups and hand-sewn, one by one, on the bag’s resin base.

“Some women were initially apprehensive to buy the Lucite pieces,” says Lustico. “They were asking me if they would have to carry expensive items like a Chanel lipstick because the bag’s transparent mate-

rial instantly reveals what’s inside.”

To address that concern, Lustico is providing each seethrough bag with a removable mesh fabric in ecru. It’s up to the user to conceal or display her bag’s contents.

He says, “If you ask me, it’s better to go totally transparent.

Using colored fabric would be too glaring.”

Apart from collaborating with fellow designer Jojie Lloren on a collection of eyecatching toiletry bags for Rustan’s several years ago, this is Lustico’s first attempt at designing high-fashion bags. He ❱❱ PAGE 44 Dennis Lustico

A VERSATILE evening accessory

Lifestyle

FRIDAY AUGUST 23, 2013 38

Doctor promotes regenerative medicine Prospect of bigger

spending seniors could lessen impact on economy: report

Philippine Daily Inquirer MEDICAL PRACTITIONERS say that today’s generation is more fortunate because advances in medicine and cosmetic dermatology have been so rapid that practically any threat to staying young can be addressed.

Lasers and stem-cell therapy are just two of the innovations we have seen in recent decades that are helping people stay young and beautiful.

Among the growing number of Filipino doctors who are keeping abreast of these trends is Dr. Francis Decangchon. A graduate of the University of Santo Tomas College of Medicine and a practitioner of cosmetic dermatology for years, Dr. Decangchon has branched out into regenerative or antiaging medicine.

BY JULIAN BELTRAME The Canadian Press

Radical measures

He explains that, during the 1950s and ‘60s, those who wanted to stay young had to resort to radical measures that involved invasive, meaning surgical, procedures. Of late, however, the emphasis has shifted to minimally invasive, less invasive or, in some cases, noninvasive ways of defying age.

When women, for instance, reach their 30s and 40s, they start losing their natural supply of collagen and elastin. The skin begins to sag and lose its elasticity. Fortunately, there’s a solution. “Nowadays there are patients who, at 30 years old, can already start having lifting, so by the time they are in their 50s and 60s, banat pa ‘yan,” says Dr. Decangchon. “Lasers are also used to stimulate the production of collagen and elastin.”

Hormone replacement

The Asian Center for Ageless Beauty is a clinic that offers regenerative medicine treatment.

“It’s the specialty of the 21st century,” says Dr. Decangchon.

“Because when you start to age, the main thing you lose is hormonal supply. This happens not just during menopause in women, but also during andropause in men. So what we do is hormone replacement, but specifically, bio-identical hormones, meaning, you’re replacing something that is identical to what you’re losing.”

He explains: “Stem cells are actually present in three areas or regions of your body—your blood, your bone marrow and your fat. But fat has a thousand times more stem cells than the two others; and stem cells are very, very young cells that are pluri-potential, meaning, they have the tendency to grow to become a muscle cell, a joint cell, a fat cell, a heart muscle cell. They have that potential.

Uso ‘yan ngayon, kapag masakit ang joints mo, if you have osteo-

Calling all Bedans residing in British Columbia, we invite you to join our family group and have fun! We are having our annual picnic on Aug. 25.

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arthritis, it can go to that area and rejuvenate it. Ni-re- renew niya lahat.”

Recycling fat

Dr. Decangchon believes stemcell treatment is controversial only because people don’t have enough understanding of it.

“Infusions of bio-identical hormones are safer because they are hormones/ cells taken from other areas of your body and redirected to where they are needed.”

In liposuction, everybody thought that the fat extracted is simply thrown away. However, medical practitioners and cosmetic or regenerative surgeons like Dr. Decangchon say that “your fat can be used, number one, as fillers, instead of synthetic fillers. Hindi ka dapat matakot kasi taba mo rin ‘yan.

It’s all yours.”

He encourages people to take advantage of these medical advances.

The Asian Center for Ageless Beauty is at Rm. 2A La Breza Tower, 155 Mother Ignacia Avenue, Quezon City. Call 9902639, 0908-8762639, 09258762639, and 0917-7092639; e-mail agelessbeauty@yahoo.com, agelessbyfmd@gmail.com; visit http://facebook.com/AgelessbyFMD; follow on @AgelessbyFMD; follow on Instagram @ AgelessbyFMD ■ www.canadianinquirer.net

OTTAWA—The Canadian economy may not need to fear the advent of the frugal aging shopper after all, according to a new report.

The paper from Bank of Montreal senior economist Sal Guatieri suggests the impact of the aging baby boomer generation on consumption may not be as great as some have feared, if tomorrow’s seniors continue to be the big spenders they were in their youth.

And there’s evidence to suggest they will.

Recent data from the U.S., which Guatieri said applies to Canada as well, shows that seniors have been picking up their spending levels in the past decade.

“There’s every reason to believe the next generation of retirees will spend more than the previous generation,” Guatieri said. “The current crop of retirees will be the richest on record, but it also is because of different lifestyle. They plan to be more active, they expect to live longer and work longer, so they will have more disposable income.”

Based on established consumption patterns, Guatieri said that the aging of the baby boom generation will be a modest but significant drag on growth during the next two decades.

Research shows that seniors 65 and older spend about a third less than those between 45 and 54, who tend to consume the most of any age category. During the next two decades, there will be a lot more of the former group and not so much of the latter.

The paper does not examine other impacts of aging demographics, including a smaller workforce, reduced tax revenues and higher costs for such services as health care.

Guatieri said seniors will account for 27.7 per cent of the population in 2033, up from

the current 18.2 per cent, hence consumption levels could fall by 4.6 per cent in the next two decades. Economic growth could be slowed by more than two-tenths of a percentage points.

The negative drag will be about half that in the United States, which tends to have a younger population profile.

“It’s clear for retailers an aging population is not great news,” said Guatieri. “We will likely see an adverse impact on retail sales and we will see more of an adverse impact on products and services that seniors tend to buy relatively little of, such as clothing and possibly entertainment.”

But the impact disappears if the next generation of retirees up their spending by 15 per cent—a significant but not unattainable level.

He said the data shows seniors are spending more on nearly everything, from food, to clothing to entertainment, such as the concerts put on by aging rock stars.

Marketing consultant John Williams of the Toronto-based J. C. Williams Group said while it is true, on average, that seniors tend to spend less, the more dramatic effect may be on what they buy. He notes that health care will be a big expense in the future, and hence drug store owners will likely do very well as the population ages.

Also, older people who can afford it tend to travel more.

Guatieri agrees, pointing out that even if they spend less on average, retailers will need to cater to what will become the most powerful consumption force in the economy because of sheer numbers.

“As a group they will increase spending by 230 per cent by 2033,” and that’s assuming they do not become bigger spenders than previous generations.

“In a little over a decade, they will become the largest spending group, accounting for onein-five shopping dollars versus one-in-seven today.” ■

Lifestyle

39 FRIDAY AUGUST 23, 2013

J.K. Rowling’s secret book

BY RUEL S. DE VERA Philippine Daily Inquirer WRITING UNDER the pseudonym Robert Galbraith, the ‘Harry Potter’ creator brings her whimsical touch to the winning detective novel ‘The Cuckoo’s Calling’ Does J.K. Rowling really have anything else to prove?

The creative mind behind the “Harry Potter” books is beloved around the world; insanely wealthy (at one point richer than the Queen herself ); sold some 500 million copies (in the process saving the publishing industry); and produced a feature-film franchise.

Yet some wondered how Rowling rated as a writer without her most famous and most lucrative creation.

In 2012, she stepped away from the Hogwarts mythology to pen a rather risqué domestic drama called “The Casual Vacancy”; it received lukewarm reviews. There was no magic, literally and figuratively, in that volume.

So Rowling hatched a daring plan. She would write a complex detective novel in secret, then release it under a pen name. That pen name was Robert Galbraith, ostensibly an ex-military investigator now working in the private sector who had turned to writing.

That book was “The Cuckoo’s Calling” (Little, Brown, London, 2013, 449 pages), which came out to multiple rave reviews and encouraging but not

Happiness is... of their many galactic tenets.

Or a country where the postal service actually answers kids’ letters to Santa? It’s true. The Canada Post has been replying to “letters to Santa” for some years now; numbering roughly one million letters replied to over the years, as of last Christmas.

Oh, and Canada Post also has a service that allows you to put your face on a postage stamp.

How narcissistically cool is that?

There are nineteen registered political parties in Canada, including ones seemingly far out on left-field: the Mari❰❰ 28

spectacular sales.

That all changed when Rowling was publicly revealed as Robert Galbraith.

Some British journalists suspected she was the real author of “The Cuckoo’s Calling,” and a leak confirmed this.

Proving this was no publicity stunt, Rowling was understandably furious with the source (from within her legal firm Russells) and a legal settlement was reached.

As can only be expected with the discovery of a new book from Rowling, sales of “The Cuckoo’s Calling” skyrocketed in the wake of the revelation; the book is now on its fifth printing.

The interesting first impression one gets of the “The Cuckoo’s Calling” is how old-school it seems. Based on its premise, it could have easily been written by someone else.

Memorable characters

When beautiful, controversial supermodel Lula Landry falls to her death from the balcony of a tony London building, the police conclude it is a suicide. But Landry’s brother, the lawyer John Bristow, thinks otherwise and hires private investigator Cormoran Strike to get to the bottom of things.

What follows is a taut, tense tale of long-festering family secrets, dangerous ulterior motives, outright betrayal and the terrible price of fame in whatever form it came.

Rowling has shown she can craft memorable characters, so juana Party, the Pirate Party, the Rhinoceros Party, and the Marxist-Leninist Party of Canada, to name a few.

This innate humour comes with an outward beauty, both natural and man-made: icebergs in Newfoundland; the Aurora Borealis, viewed best from Yellowknife (with 2013 marked as a peak year for viewing, given the sun’s 11-year cycle); Quebec has a fabulous Hotel de Glace—an Ice Hotel; Icefields Parkway between Banff and Jasper is the world’s most accessible glacier; the Trans Canada Trail, which at present is 16,800 km long, is the world’s longest— and it isn’t done yet.

The list of fun, unique environmental activities is seemingly endless: swimming with

it should come as no surprise that the highlight of “The Cuckoo’s Calling” is the lead character, Cormoran Strike (what a great detective name, right up there with Mike Hammer, Kay Scarpetta and Philip Marlowe).

The unwanted son of a rock star and whose supergroupie mother died from drug overdose, Strike was a British soldier whose leg got blown off and is now barely making a living as a private eye.

Gruff but dogged, observant but troubled, Strike—who is sort of a grittier version of MadEye Moody—finds himself enmeshed in his most challenging case yet. As he methodically attempts to solve the Landry case, he also tries to keep his own life running on an even keel, something that is both doomed to failure but also engaging.

Something unique

The revelations at the heart of “The Cuckoo’s Calling” are potboiler standard, down to the elaborate and extended denouement, but Rowling approaches them neatly, briskly and substantially.

She makes it easy for the reader to stay on track as well as genuinely care about the resolution of the case: “Something that had bothered Strike all along had at last been made clear. He let out a great satisfied sigh and grinned.”

Intriguingly enough, Rowling brings something unique to this crime novel: her warm whimsical touch. Instead of cold and grim, “The Cuckoo’s Calling,”

despite its dark subject matter, actually unfolds with an unusual sense of wonder, even the peripheral observations: “The roadworks were spreading like a lesion; every day there was an extension of the mayhem.”

It’s no wonder Rowling was found out considering she does by now have a distinctive voice as a writer, one that admittedly is almost immediately identifiable by any serious “Harry Potter” fan.

“The Cuckoo’s Calling” might just be the most brightly lit, most cheerful detective novel you’ve read, and it even has real-world resonance: Rowling is donating her royalties to ABF The Soldier’s Charity (formerly

the Army Benevolent Fund), a British nonprofit organization that aids ex-military personnel in need.

Rowling has proven herself a quirky natural at detective fiction, and “The Cuckoo’s Calling” is a wonderful start with a winning protagonist who will be welcome upon his return (Rowling has confirmed that the next Cormoran Strike novel—still written by Robert Galbraith—is finished and due out next year).

Thank you Harry, hello Strike: J.K. Rowling has her new hero—and certainly nothing left to prove.

Available in paperback at National Book Store. ■

polar bears in Cochrane, Ontario; in the summer, Wednesday afternoon yoga sessions on the lawn of the nation’s capital, Parliament Hill; taking walks among dinosaur fossils in the East Block of Grasslands National Park in Saskatchewan; just some off a lengthy list of happy “to-do’s” in Canada.

All these—and way more— happiness-inducing factors!

Plus, your two kinds of ice cream will generally keep from melting in Canada; no matter what time of the year it may be. ■ Sources : Mac Lean’s Canada, Nairaland Forum, Order of the Jedi, Reader’s Digest Canada, OECD Better Life Index, RandomHistory.com www.canadianinquirer.net

Quebec’s Hotel de Glace and its fabulous ice chapel.

PHOTO FROM WIKIMEDIA COMMONS

Business

FRIDAY AUGUST 23, 2013 40

Industry minister stands by PH expected to outperform regional rivals policy to allow competition Citi notes country’s resilience to shocks from US or China in wireless industry

BY DORIS C. DUMLAO Philippine Daily Inquirer

BY JENNIFER GRAHAM The Canadian Press SASKATOON—Federal Industry Minister James Moore is standing by the government’s plan for more competition in the wireless industry, despite pushback from telecommunications companies and their workers.

Moore said the policy is geared at getting more competition for Canadians and he added that more choice will result in lower prices.

The policy would allow a foreign company, such as U.S.based Verizon, to buy two of the four prime blocks of radio waves that will be up for auction in January. Bell (TSX:BCE), Rogers (TSX:RCI.B) and Telus (TSX:T) can buy only one each.

“The policy was not invented on the back of a napkin,” Moore said in an interview with The Canadian Press in Saskatoon.

Moore noted that many who opposed the move had input as the policy was being developed.

“They were supportive of the policy when we first announced it. It’s only because Verizon has made noises about possibly coming into Canada that the anxiety has arisen,” he said.

Canada’s big wireless carriers have launched a media campaign to warn that, under the current plan, they would be at a disadvantage if Verizon were allowed into the market.

Unions have also chimed in.

The Communications, Energy and Paperworkers Union of Canada, which has members who work at Bell, is calling for Ottawa to rescind what it perceives as advantages for Verizon.

The Telecommunications Workers Union, representing workers at Telus and Shaw (TSX:SJR.B), said last week that Verizon’s arrival wouldn’t necessarily mean lower cellphone bills. The union said Verizon would probably want to operate in lucrative urban markets and ignore rural communities.

The rules allow foreign entrants to buy small Canadian wireless carriers with less than

10 per cent of the market share.

There have been reports that Verizon wants to buy Wind Mobile and possibly struggling Mobilicity as a way to enter the Canadian market. If Verizon decided to participate in the Verizon’s entry into the Canadian market is being resisted by telecommunication companies and their workers.

auction, rules prevent it from continuing to negotiate acquisition deals until afterward.

Moore said Verizon’s entrance to Canada is speculation.

“We’ll see if they come or if they don’t come,” he said. “The ad campaigns by the big three is about their business model and their self interest, if Verizon were to come into Canada or not. The government’s policy does not succeed or fail if Verizon comes into Canada.”

The Opposition NDP is calling for parliamentary hearings as soon as possible.

Industry critic Chris Charlton says in a letter to the Standing Committee on Industry, Science, and Technology that there needs to be an examination to ensure long-term competition and access to mobile services across Canada.

“It is not too late to examine recent developments to ensure that all Canadians will have access to the highest speeds at the best prices,” writes Charlton.

Moore said he thinks the media campaign is an attempt to scare away foreign investment.

He said he won’t cave to calls to push back the auction and review the policy.

“What they’re trying to encourage me to do is send a signal that our government is not sure about our policy and to send messages of uncertainty to those who may think about entering the Canadian marketplace. We’re not going to do that. We’re not stupid,” said Moore.

“We understand the game, the game that they’re trying to play of having me send signals of insecurity about our own government’s commitment to consumer choice.” ■

AMERICAN BANKING giant Citigroup sees the Philippines outperforming neighbors in the region and better withstanding external shocks arising from the tapering of the US Federal Reserve’s easy money policy and a slowdown in China.

The Philippines can attain an above-trend gross domestic product (GDP) growth rate of 7 percent this year and 6.8 percent for next year, said Johanna Chua, the managing director and head of Asia-Pacific economic and market analysis at Citi.

The Hong Kong-based Fili-

pino economist said the Philippines was beating global growth forecast trends and that the stage was set for an investmentled recovery in the country.

Chua said growth in the country was “very resilient,” supported by ample fiscal space for government spending alongside high business confidence levels.

Economic growth in the second quarter would likely be slower than the first quarter, when the domestic economy grew by 7.8 percent year-onyear, but the growth rate would still be “quite elevated,” she said. In the last decade, Philippine trend growth rate was at less than 5 percent.

The economist said emerging

markets in the region continued to face two major external risks: the tapering of the US Federal Reserve’s $85 billion in monthly bond purchases and a structural slowdown of the Chinese economy. Citi sees the tapering of easy money starting

by September this year and going down to zero by the middle of next year.

“If we look at and combine both risks, the Philippines stands out as the country most insulated to both, with macroeconomic and financial stability intact,” she said.

“The sudden reversal of capital flows may hurt the domestic growth of some markets but the Philippines is in better shape,” she added. ■

Net foreign investments down to $17M in May 5-mo total hits $1.522B, down from $1.66B in ‘12

BY PAOLO G. MONTECILLO Philippine Daily Inquirer LONG-TERM FOREIGN investments in the Philippines slumped in May due mainly to “higher withdrawal of equity capital and net repayment of debt instruments,” according to the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas.

BSP data released showed the net foreign direct investments (FDI) flows dipping to $17 million in May, or less than 10 percent of the $202 million posted in April.

The net inflow of FDIs in May this year was also lower than the $117 million in registered in the same month last year.

Net equity capital outflows reached $14 million in May, coming from net inflows of $58 million in the same month in 2012. This was the result of withdrawals of investments by foreigners amounting to $90 million, up from only $6 million the year before. The outflows offset the equity inflows of $76 million in May 2013, which was higher than the $64 million in inflows in the same month last year.

The BSP said Singapore, the www.canadianinquirer.net

United States, Japan, Italy and Germany were the largest sources of foreign direct investments in May. The bulk of the investments went to the real estate, manufacturing, agriculture, wholesale and retail trade, and construction industries.

Multinational firms’ lending to their local subsidiaries— which were classified as investments in the country—reached $67 million, lower by 30.3 percent from $98 million in the same period last year.

The net FDI inflows in May

brought the year-to-date total to $1.522 billion, lower than the $1.666 billion recorded in the same five-month period last year.

For the five-month period, foreign investments went to the manufacturing, water supply and sewerage, waste management, real estate, and arts and entertainment industries since the start of the year. Investments during the first five months came mainly from Mexico, Japan, the US, Malaysia and the British Virgin Islands. ■

Sports/Horoscope

41 FRIDAY AUGUST 23, 2013

Gilas Pilipinas writes history

BY FRANCIS T.J. OCHOA Philippine Daily Inquirer WITH EVERYTHING coming together, Gilas Pilipinas assembled a magical run in the 27th Fiba Asia Championship and created their own piece of championship history that will not be forgotten for a long, long time.

“It’s a proud, proud moment to be a Filipino,” said Jimmy Alapag.

“It’s time to write our story, the Gilas Pilipinas story,” said coach Chot Reyes.

Up next for the Philippines?

The 2014 World Cup in Spain.

It is the first time the country will compete in the world stage in over three decades, and it took a confluence of factors to finally make it happen.

It started with Manila earning hosting rights of the tournament, a development that drew two major advantages to the

Philippine side.

Not only did Reyes get to pick the group Gilas Pilipinas would join, a privilege granted to host countries, but it put the crowd into play.

Three days into the tournament, telecommunications tycoon and Gilas Pilipinas chief financier Manny V. Pangilinan said the electric atmosphere was exactly what he expected when the Samahang Basketbol ng Pilipinas, which he also heads, fought for hosting rights.

“I’m grateful to the followers and the fans for supporting the team,” the sports patron popularly known as MVP told the INQUIRER. “Iba ‘yung naglalaro ka sa bayan mo, sa bahay mo (It’s different when you play in your country, in your home).”

Indeed, the crowd played a huge factor, especially in the knockout semifinals where Gilas Pilipinas had to play half of the second quarter and the final

period without injured naturalized 6foot-11 center Marcus Douthit.

“We had the strength of a nation behind us,” said Jimmy Alapag, who drained two huge triples in the stretch to spearhead an 86-79 victory over Korea, a country that had authored a lot of Philippine heartaches in the international basketball scene.

With the roar of the crowd egging the team on, it became clear to the Nationals that they were playing for a bigger stake.

This one was for flag and country. “Magpapakamatay na kami kung kailangan para sa bayan (We were ready to die for the country),” said forward Marc Pingris.

The Philippine campaign hit a snag when a loss to Chinese Taipei pointed the country to a quarterfinal clash with powerhouse China. But even then, fate intervened. Qatar shocked

PHOTO FROM INTERAKTV/ROY AFABLE

Chinese Taipei at the end of the first preliminary round and all of a sudden, China was out of the way of the Philippines.

In a statement after the tournament, Pangilinan said the achievement of Gilas Pilipinas transcended basketball.

“Our faith in our athletes and people nourished the impoverished soil of sports in this country,” he said. “Our sad deficit in self-confidence, in trusting ourselves, must be cured.

Sports are a wonderful remedy.

Go Gilas Pilipinas!” ■

HOROSCOPE ARIES

CANCER

LIBRA

CAPRICORN

(MARCH 21 - APRIL 19)

(JUNE 22 - JULY 22)

(SEPT 23 - OCT 22)

(DEC 22 - JAN 19)

There may be some tension in the air for you, Aries. Large forces are moving through your life that are suddenly coming into conflict. People who have been on a certain path for a long time now have to face the music. How well have you physically and mentally prepared? The strength of your framework is now being tested against the prevailing winds.

TAURUS (APRIL 20 - MAY 20)

Today may feel like everything’s coming to a head for you, Cancer. Even the slightest action might face resistance. The more stubborn your attitude, the harder it will be to progress. Your job is to infuse playfulness into every situation.

Remind people that we’re all on this stage together. We need to make the most of it, not shove each other out of the spotlight.

Passions may run high, Libra, and you could be right in the thick of things. Today may be a bit more intense than usual. Conflicting energies will butt up against each other in your head, and you might need to make an important decision now. You’ve done all the prep work you need to do. It’s time to act.

LEO

Follow your heart instead of your wallet, Capricorn. Start with yourself and choose where to spend your resources. Take an active role and be on the lookout for opportunities to grab hold of and profit from. You may find a conflict going on in your world. Stand up for what you believe in and don’t be afraid to rock the boat.

SCORPIO

AQUARIUS

(OCT 23 - NOV 21)

(JAN 20 - FEB 18)

(JULY 23 - AUGUST 22) Your ability to juggle many tasks is going to come in handy, Taurus. Information may fly and you could be asked to step up and contribute your wealth of knowledge. You may come into opposition with someone with a superior attitude.

Remember that the old ways aren’t always best.

They may have worked in the past, but things have changed.

You’d do well to discipline your actions today, Leo, and keep a level head. Unexpected events may rise to challenge established authority. Don’t jump to any sweeping conclusions. Make sure you gather the facts before you act. Don’t simply recoil and shrink into a cave. If you don’t take action, you’ll be acted upon.

Indecision may leave you standing at the station after all the trains have left, Scorpio. Hop on one that’s going in your direction. Add your name to the roster of active participants. Today isn’t a day to wait for opportunity to come to you. If you see something you believe in, move toward it.

Act spontaneously and don’t worry about the consequences.

GEMINI

VIRGO

SAGITTARIUS

(MAY 21 - JUNE 21)

(AUG 23 - SEPT 22)

(NOV 22 - DEC 21)

You feel like a scared child who wants to hide under the bed today, Gemini. Keep in mind that there are just as many monsters under the bed as there are out in the world. At least you can see the ones outside and perhaps even enlist the help of others to combat them. Don’t shut yourself in during this time of great upheaval. Your opinion is just as valid as anyone else’s.

Keeping things balanced today will prove challenging, Virgo. Take this seriously because it’s probably needed more than ever. You might be the arbiter in situations where a battle exists between old and new. Take advantage of opportunities. Make sure you’re in on the deal. Use your communicative powers to help bridge the gap.

Something might be shaking the very ground you stand on, Sagittarius. Just when you thought everything was calm and stable, suddenly the ground begins to rumble. Secure your footing, hold on, and stay flexible. A few steps in a different direction may position you in a safe area where you can ride out the storm with no problem. Becoming too fixed and rigid would be a bad idea.

www.canadianinquirer.net

Your adaptable nature will be put to the test today, Aquarius.

Try to go with the flow. Remember that you have a rudder with which to steer. You can float down the river freely, but don’t think that this means you have to give up all control. You have the power of choice, so use it. Take an active role in events or you might as well stay in bed.

PISCES (FEB 19 - MAR 20) Today is a significant day, astrologically speaking, Pisces. It may be an affirmation of your pioneering spirit. Be the champion of the new and bizarre. There’s a window of opportunity opening to reveal a golden chance. Forces that seem to conflict may actually work well together. Remember to balance old traditions with new information. The integration of these is key.

FRIDAY AUGUST 23, 2013

42

Travel

Ready, Set, Shoot: Photography Tips from a Pro Interview with Travel Blogger and Photographer Ferdz Decena

BY CHING DEE Philippine Canadian Inquirer “PHOTOGRAPHY PRESERVES history—it documents the past and brings back memories for our future.”

Ferdz Decena has been taking photos of various subjects since he was a teenage boy with a toy camera. Growing up in a family of travel-loving shutterbugs immersed him to a life beyond the four walls of his room and their home. He discovered the impossibly huge world around him and wanted to take home memories from their family trips and adventures. The longing to preserve memories started his love affair with photography.

A Sense of Enthusiasm

Wonder

and

Ferdz confesses to never leave home without a few things in his bag other than his photography gear.

“Aside from the sense of wonder and enthusiasm… I bring… a compass so I would know where the sun would rise and set; smartphone for the maps, games, and internet to keep me occupied when I have to wait for some long exposures to finish; some books would also be handy to pass time. My Moleskine [ journal] to record some details I would otherwise forget. Some snacks for that sudden hunger pangs when I’m out on the field shooting.”

Having conducted numerous photo tours all over the archipelago, he’s had more than his share of “Kodak moments” which keeps him coming back for more.

“In the Philippines I have 3 places I really enjoy going back to: Batanes for the breathtaking landscape, Palawan for nature, and the Cordilleras for the cul-

ture and Igorot people.”

As curious minds coupled with daring feet lead to unforgettable adventures, he’s also had the opportunity to take photos of places outside the Philippines.

“Out of the country I really enjoyed my Myanmar travel, as well as Laos. It felt like being back in time for a few decades.”

In a Split Second

“When we talk about composition there’s always the subject and the one looking through the viewfinder.”

For Ferdz, each photo captures a unique moment in time.

It all happens in a split second, with just a blink of the shutter, so always consider factors when taking photos.

“It helps that the subject (be it landscapes, people or objects) have good lighting, interesting concept or unique moment, but it’s the photographer who decides on the composition on how he frames the scene. It always boils down to objective and what story one wants to convey in picture.”

Balance, direction, and movement are also important when taking photos. All factors should contribute to the main message that the photographer wants to express via the subject.

Vision: Beyond the Gear

“At this day and age, photography has really evolved. It’s no longer a question of DSLR [versus] Point-and-Shoot [camera].

I myself don’t use a DSLR, I use a mirror-less camera (Interchangeable Lens Camera). My point is there are so many options right now, even Pros use point-and-shoot since [it] has evolved from mediocre quality shooters to pro-level image quality [cameras]. So which one should a budding photographer choose? First, he has to

know his objective. What [will be his subject]—Landscapes?

People? Models? Try out the camera choices, which I think is an important step. One must be comfortable with the camera he uses.”

Ferdz believes that the camera “should be like an extension of” the photographer and whether he is using a DSLR or point-and-shoot, his gear “shouldn’t deter him from shooting.”

He insists that photographers shouldn’t be limited by the gear that they have, instead they should maximize the resources available to them in order to have the best results.

“Don’t be obsessed by the gear. The latest cameras out there may help but it’s your vision that’s important.

Figure out what you really like or enjoy taking pictures of, then little by little you’ll figure out what you really need. As you progress, your gear set-up will also progress with you. More importantly, photography should be enjoyed and [should] challenge you as well. There may be times you may fall in a slump but it’s important to find your inspiration and motivation to continue on.” ■

FRIDAY AUGUST 23, 2013

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Dennis Lustico... has several suppliers, with finishing and quality control done in his production area in Makati City. ❰❰ 37

Bonifacio Global City, touted as the “Home of Passionate Minds”, is home to four Robinsons Residences developments. Fifth Avenue Place, McKinley Park Residence, The Fort Residences and The Trion Tower 1 are now ready for occupancy.

There is so much to love about The Trion Towers. Its location at the corner of 8th Avenue corner McKinley Parkway affords unit owners and residents to enjoy more time to do more, whether it is spending time with the family in Bonifacio Global City’s open spaces, taking kids to a museum, or indulging in retail therapy.

The Trion Towers’ comfortable and efficient unit spaces provide more personal space. In The Trion Towers, 1 to 3 bedroom units are available ranging from 36 to 188 square meters.

The Trion Tower’s stress buster amenities include a central plaza garden, indoor sports area, function rooms, dance studio, gym/fitness center, game room, private theater, outdoor party area, jogging and walking paths, cyberhub, toddler’s nook, children’s play room, videoke room, and boxing area.

Tower 1 of The Trion Towers was recently turned over and elicited fantastic feedback from the owners. Construction of Tower 2 is now ongoing.

Tower 1 of The Trion Towers was recently turned over and elicited fantastic feedback from the owners. Construction of Tower 2 is now ongoing.

Harder to make than clothes

Although bags are harder to make than clothes, the designer welcomes the challenge, as it gives him a respite from doing made-to-order garments.

“Bags are definitely more difficult to make, but you don’t have to deal with fittings,” he says. “Constructing a dress isn’t so much of a problem anymore for me because I’m already used to it. The hard part always comes during fittings.”

The bags are initially available at Lustico’s shop at the corner of Pililia and Obrero Streets in Makati City.

But the designer plans to market them abroad in trade fairs and small boutiques.

He has received offers from big department stores in Dubai to display his products there. But the Center for International Trade Expositions and Missions (Citem), through consultant Josie Natori, discouraged him from going into consignment deals.

“If buyers are interested in the products, we were told that they should order and pay for them outright,” says Lustico.

supports

The fitness center of The Trion Tower 1.

RICHARD JAZUL

Richard.Jazul@robinsonsland.com rbjazul@yahoo.com +1 (778) 927-0313 Canada +63 (917) 883-2300 Philippines

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Lustico’s foray into accessory design began a couple of years ago when Natori encouraged him and other Filipino designers to produce modern and wearable fashion collections incorporating local fabrics. Dubbed as Manila Wear, it was an attempt of Citem to push Filipino fashion globally, the way it promoted Filipino furniture design through Movement 8 in the ‘80s and ‘90s.

“In our first edition, we focused on apparel,” says Lustico. “But it didn’t produce the results we envisioned. We don’t have the technology to make modern clothes on a huge scale the way they do abroad.”

Natori, a global fashion brand herself, redirected their efforts the following season and asked the designers to focus instead on accessories.

“More than clothes, accessories are the hottest things globally,” says Lustico, quoting Natori. “All of us were told to come up with designs for scarves, shoes, belts, jewelry and whatever we like. I decided to focus on bags.”

While materials such as silk fringes and Lucite have been used in bag designs, the look is usually minimalist. Filipinos, he says, have the creativity and craftsmanship to reinvent materials to a higher aesthetic level. ■

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FRIDAY AUGUST 23, 2013 46

The Philippine Habagat; Maring (international name: Trami) in photos PHOTOS COMPILED BY ANGIE DUARTE, KATHERINE MARFALTEVES AND CHING DEE Philippine Canadian Inquirer

Publisher Philippine Canadian Inquirer Editor Melissa Remulla-Briones editor@canadianinquirer.net Associate Editor Laarni de Paula Correspondents Lizette Lofranco-Aba Gigi Astudillo Angie Duarte Maria Ramona Ledesma Katherine Marfal Frances Grace Quiddaoen Agnes Tecson Ching Dee

PHOTO BY NEM CASTRO: Taken in Quezon

PHOTO BY ROSE MOLINA TORRENTE: Flooding in

PHOTO BY ANGIE DUARTE: A river runs through

City as water levels continue to rise from three straight days of torrential rains.

Mulawin St., Maricaban Pasay City reaches the second floor of the house of most residents.

the street on which PCI writer, Angie Duarte, resides.

Graphic Designer Victoria Yong Jennifer Yen Photographers Solon Licas Angelo Siglos Danvic Briones Operations and Marketing Head Laarni de Paula (604) 551-3360 laarni.liwanag@canadianinquirer.net Advertising Sales Alice Yong (778) 889-3518 alice.yong@canadianinquirer.net Antonio Tampus (604) 460-9414 PHILIPPINE PUBLISHING GROUP

PHOTO BY RHEA ARCETA, as their house and entire street was ravaged

by the flood Monday morning. The city of Biñan is just one of the 5 cities places under the state of calamity by Laguna governor ER Ejercito.

Editorial Assistant Phoebe Casin PHOTO BY CAMIL ARCENAL: Knee-level flooding in Mandaluyong City

Graphic Designer Shanice Garcia Associate Publisher Lurisa Villanueva In cooperation with the Philippine Daily Inquirer digital edition

PHOTO BY ALVIN CHAN: The torrential downpour has turned areas in and

around Makati Central Business District into virtual rivers, due to poor road conditions, inadequate and clogged drainage systems, and accumulated trash. Photo shows a stalled vehicle in nearly waist-deep flood waters in the area of Arnaiz (Buendia) and Chino Roces (Pasong Tamo) Avenues.

PHOTO BY ALVIN CHAN: Floodwaters almost to the first-floor roofs of

houses on lower-lying streets of Makati City.

Philippine Canadian Inquirer is located at Suite 400, North Tower | 5811 Cooney Road, Richmond, B.C., Canada Tel. No.: 1-888-668-6059 or 778-8893518 | Email: info@canadianinquirer. net, inquirerinc@gmail.com, sales@ canadianinquirer.net Philippine Canadian Inquirer is published weekly every Friday.

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PHOTO BY RJ PANGANIBAN GILLA: Dark clouds still loom over Alabang,

PHOTO BY JEROME AGUJA: Caloocan City’s rivers turns turbulent due to

Muntinlupa City.

heavy rains.

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