Philippine Canadian Inquirer Issue #82

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VOL. 9 NO. 82

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SEPTEMBER 20, 2013

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Pork is dead; long live pork

2-year old singing national anthem is MNLF casualty

Twitter gives Binay epal flak

Filipino-Canadian in Focus: Tita Flips

PCI loves Throwback Thursdays

Troops move closer to MNLF positions Philippine Daily Inquirer

PIGSTY AT MARY’S SHRINE. Men wearing pig masks join hundreds in a prayer rally at the Edsa Shrine to express their sentiments in the strongest

terms over politicians’ habitual misuse and abuse of the pork barrel fund that is earmarked for poverty alleviation nationwide.

PHOTO BY MARIANNE BERMUDEZ

‘Truckload’ of evidence backs pork complaint THE OFFICE of the Ombudsman will

Enrile, Revilla Estrada vow to fight raps ❱❱ PAGE 12 PHOTO FROM ANC.YAHOO.COM/PHOTOS

❱❱ PAGE 7 ‘Truckload’ of

VISIT PCI ONLINE!

receive a criminal complaint for plunder and a “truckload” evidence from the National Bureau of Investigation and the Department of Justice (DOJ) against Ja-

❱❱ PAGE 8 Troops move

Scan this QR code using your smartphone.

BY NANCY C. CARVAJAL AND CHRISTINE O. AVENDAÑO Philippine Daily Inquirer

GOVERNMENT TROOPS took back ground from Moro rebels in Zamboanga City, the military said, as they tried to end a weeklong standoff after days of negotiations for a peaceful resolution to the conflict failed.

Sporadic clashes continued as soldiers moved to clear gunmen from a Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF) faction led by Nur Misuari from coastal villages and cut off escape routes.

President Aquino remained in the city for a third day, overseeing the military operations to end the standoff that has seen thousands of people flee their villages, more than 60 killed, and scores wounded.

Lt. Col. Ramon Zagala, a spokesperson for the military, said a number of MNLF rebels surrendered yesterday, and some were captured while trying to escape in civilian clothes.

FRIDAY SEPTEMBER 20, 2013 2

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Philippine News

3 FRIDAY SEPTEMBER 20, 2013

‘Solons sold their PDAF’ Luy: Senators pocketed 50% of pork

BY CHRISTIAN V. ESGUERRA AND NORMAN BORDADORA Philippine Daily Inquirer “MAYBE GOD used me to dismantle the work of my cousin.”

Benhur Luy, testifying before the Senate blue ribbon committee, recounted how legislators trooped to his second cousin Janet Lim-Napoles to peddle their pork barrel when they learned they would get a kickback of at least 40 percent in a ghost project and an advance of half of the loot from the businesswoman awash in cash.

The cousin of the woman allegedly behind a P10-billion racket involving the congressional Priority Development Assistance Fund (PDAF) said during his fivehour appearance in the nationally televised hearing that for senators, it was usually a 50-percent cut of the value of a project that her nongovernment organizations (NGOs) implemented.

Under the arrangement, Luy said Napoles would advance half of the kickback once the project was requested either through the House committee on appropriations or the Senate finance committee. He said legislators would get the remainder once the special allotment release order (Saro) was released by the Department of Budget and Management (DBM).

With half of a PDAF allocation usually pocketed by a legislator, Luy said 10 percent of the remaining amount usually went to implementing agencies as “SOP” (standard operating procedure or grease money).

Luy said Napoles could afford to “advance” kickbacks because she was “liquid.” He said there were days when she would withdraw as much as P75 million from her Metrobank or Landbank accounts. There was so much cash it covered her bed and filled her bathtub.

Senators receive P200 million each in annual PDAF while House members get P70 million each.

Walk-in customers

“When I joined Mrs. Napoles, there were already lawmakers who would go to the office—that was already a system in the office,” Luy said.

“They would go [to our office] and offer their PDAF,” he added. “[They would ask] if we would like to implement [their project].”

On some occasions, he said it was Napoles who would approach legislators and ask them to join the scheme.

“So they were walk-in customers, so to speak?” Sen. Francis Escudero asked Luy, who replied in the affirmative. The whistle-blower agreed with Escudero’s observation that the racket apparently spread

among lawmakers by “word of mouth.”

The 32-year-old Luy said Napoles picked an “implementing agency” based on the “menu” of projects available at the DBM. By his reckoning, his former boss had “contacts” among these agencies, including the DBM. Luy said a legislator’s kickback was usually delivered by Napoles’ driver to his or her house. But since Napoles was supposedly wary that the driver might pocket the money, she would require that “vouchers” be signed by whoever received the delivery.

“Sometimes it was the lawmaker himself [who received the amount], sometimes, the chief of staff,” he said, noting that vouchers usually had three copies.

“All vouchers contained the signature of whoever received the money, including the amount.”

Luy said the original copy of the voucher was kept by Napoles, the yellow one by her company’s accounting department, and the pink one by the lawmaker.

Such vouchers were said to be among the pieces of evidence the Department of Justice (DOJ) would use in the cases to be filed in connection with the PDAF scam.

Luy said a lawmaker received a minimum of 40 percent in kickback from a PDAF-funded project coursed through bogus NGOs put up by Napoles or her dummies. This meant that for a P10million project, for instance, a legislator could get at least 4 million.

Luy said the entire project was usually a “ghost” one. But he said there were times when he and other employees of Napoles’ company made actual deliveries.

The 49-year-old Napoles is being held at Fort Sto. Domingo, an antiterrorism training camp of the Philippine National Police for the elite Special Action Force, for alleged illegal detention of Luy. Luy’s rescue by the National Bureau of Investigation in March, led to his revelations of the extent of Napoles’ racket over the past 10 years.

A medical technology graduate who went to work for his cousin in 2002, Luy agreed to testify on condition he would not name the lawmakers pending the filing of criminal charges against them in the Office of the Ombudsman next week.

At least 14 people, including Napoles, are facing plunder charges.

such as “livelihood kits” were overpriced and were supplied by Napoles’ own trading firms.

“From Landbank, we would withdraw the money and bring it to the office. Just like in withdrawals from Metrobank, we would, for example reserve P75 million,” Luy said on questioning by Sen. Teofisto Guingona III, the blue ribbon panel chair.

“If Ms Napoles was not in the office, the money would be brought to her residence [at Pacific Plaza Towers in Taguig]. It would be taken from the elevator to the masters’ bedroom. Since it couldn’t possibly fit inside her vault, sometimes we would place it on her bed, sometimes in her bathtub,” Luy added.

He said the money was placed in bags stacked one on top of the other.

“In the case of (payoffs to) senators, their chiefs of staff go to the office,” Luy said.

“They fetch the cash?” Guingona asked.

“Yes sir,” Luy said. “There were instances… when she asked us to prepare the money because she was meeting with a senator, she didn’t tell us who.

She would then bring the money to their meeting.”

Payoffs to bank accounts, aides

Luy said the Napoles group also transferred funds to congressmen’s bank accounts and some lawmakers’ chiefs of staff. He said he had in his possession

bank account numbers.

He also said a senator received a manager’s check from Napoles but the check was under a different name.

In an earlier interview with INQUIRER, Luy said the check was in the name of a known businessman “very close to the family of a senator.”

He said that 5 percent of the kickback was set aside for the legislators’ chief of staff. “If she managed to penetrate and talked directly [with the legislator], the chief of staff has no more share,” Luy said.

Luy said lawmakers called Napoles to tell her that they were about to submit a list of projects that would be funded by their PDAF to the DBM. “What happens is Ms Napoles buys the PDAF or the lawmakers would call her to tell her ‘we were about to submit our listing. What do you want to do?’ Ms Napoles will tell them that she will first call the government agencies,” Luy said.

Luy said the members of Napoles’ staff would look at the DBMmenu to identify which agencies they could use to place the PDAF. These include such groups as the National Agribusiness Corp., the National Livelihood Development Corp., the Zamboanga Rubber Estates Corp. and the Technology Resource Center.

Luy said that once the projects had been identified and listed by the DBM, ❱❱ PAGE 15 ‘Solons sold’

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He said in a 50-50 sharing scheme, Napoles got 40 percent of the face value of a given project and government “conduits” 10 percent and the rest went to the lawmaker.

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Philippine News

FRIDAY SEPTEMBER 20, 2013 4

Language body hit for text tampering Filipinas or Pilipinas?

BY JERRY E. ESPLANADA Philippine Daily Inquirer “PASAWAY” (STUBBORN) was how Civil Service Commission (CSC) Chair Francisco Duque III called the Komisyon ng Wikang Filipino (KWF) for tampering with the official messages of the CSC and three other government agencies on last month’s celebration of the National Language Month.

In the 96-page souvenir program titled “Wika Natin ang Daang Matuwid (Our Language is the Language of the Straight Path),” the Office of the President-attached KWF altered the word Pilipinas to Filipinas in the messages issued by the CSC, as well as the Department of Tourism (DOT), Department of National Defense (DND) and the National Commission on the Culture and the Arts (NCCA).

Duque furnished the INQUIRER a copy of his original message, where he noted:

“Bagaman mayroong humigit-kumulang sa isang daan at pitumpu’t-pitong diyalekto sa Pilipinas, at bagaman hinango ang kalakhan ng Filipino sa Tagalog, pagsasama-sama ito ng kulturang ating nakasanayan mula sa iba’t-ibang bansa. (Although there are more or less 177 dialects in the Philippines, and although Filipino was largely taken from Tagalog, the language is an integration of the culture we have been accustomed to from different countries.)”

Name change

However, the word Pilipinas became Filipinas when Duque’s message came out on page 17 of the KWF publication.

“I can’t recall using the word Filipinas in the message we sent to the Komisyon,” said the CSC head.

In the KWF souvenir program, the term Filipinas was also used in the respective messages of Tourism Secretary Ramon Jimenez Jr., Defense

Secretary Voltaire Gazmin and NCCA chair Felipe de Leon Jr. In the original DOT, DND and NCCAmessages, “it’s Pilipinas, not Filipinas,” said KWF insiders.

The same sources referred to page 23 of the souvenir program which carried the official invitation to the KWF’s first ever congress on the Filipino language, held on Aug. 19 at the Ateneo de Manila University in Quezon City, with President Aquino as guest of honor and speaker.

In the invitation, the commission changed the country’s name Pilipinas to Filipinas.

“In the plaque presented to the President during that congress, it’s also Republika ng Filipinas,” observed an KWF old timer.

Law needed

The INQUIRER tried but failed to reach KWF chair Virgilio Almario for comment.

Almario, National Artist for Literature, earlier admitted

in an interview that Malacañang had yet to give the agency the goahead to change the Filipino translation of the Philippines from Pilipinas to Filipinas. He acknowledged that such a change would require the passage of a law.

But he asserted the necessity of promoting the “P to F” campaign to explain the wisdom of adopting Filipinas as the country’s international name.

Almario pointed out that Filipinas, as the corrected spelling of Pilipinas, was an “application of the national orthography,” or the standardized system for writing words using letters according to established usage.

President’s speech

Last month, the Palace took to task Almario for tampering with Mr. Aquino’s official message on the recent 225th birth anniversary of the poet Francisco Balagtas.

Undersecretary Manuel Quezon III of the Presidential

Communications Development and Strategic Planning Office (PCDSPO) asked the KWF boss to make the necessary corrections in commission publications and refrain from altering the original message of the President.

“Any message of the President cannot be changed or revised without permission from the Office of the President,” Quezon said in Filipino in his Aug. 16 memorandum.

The PCDSPO had gotten a copy of the KWF publication Araw ni Balagtas, where the word Pilipinas in the President’s message was changed to Filipinas.

Citing the Constitution, Quezon pointed out that the official title of the President is Pangulo ng Pilipinas, not Pangulo ng Filipinas.

“It is Pilipinas if you are referring to the country’s name,” he added. ■

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Philippine News

FRIDAY SEPTEMBER 20, 2013 6

Jinggoy: We’re being convicted in bar of public opinion BYNORMAN BORDADORA Philippine Daily Inquirer SEN. JINGGOY Estrada yesterday expressed sadness over how he, his mentor, Minority Leader Juan Ponce Enrile, and his friend, Sen. Ramon Revilla Jr., had been serially portrayed as villains as the controversy over the P10-billion pork barrel scam continued on its third month.

Estrada made the remark on the eve of another hearing of the Senate blue ribbon committee on the scam allegedly engineered by Janet Lim-Napoles.

“There are times when I leave the house, I don’t know whether I should hide my face,” Estrada told the INQUIRER. Estrada stressed the position of the Senate minority that it was the lookout of the government’s implementing agencies to make sure that the projects financed by his Priority Development Assistance Fund were delivered to the target beneficiaries instead of to dubious nongovernment organizations (NGOs).

Senator Jinggoy Estrada: “There are times when I leave the house, I don’t know whether I should hide my face.”

PHOTO FROM CELEBSLIST.COM

“More or less, we are being convicted in the bar of public opinion. There’s still no complaint but it’s as if we’re already guilty,” Estrada said.

Asked what made him feel that way, Estrada said, “Everyday, we’re in the papers.”

Estrada indicated that he

would continue to inhibit himself from the inquiry chaired

by Sen. Teofisto Guingona III, saying he would only answer questions on the issue from his colleagues if a complaint is filed against him in the Senate committee on ethics.

Estrada said he felt the blue

www.canadianinquirer.net

ribbon committee investigation had unduly concentrated on his alleged involvement as well those of Enrile and Revilla in the racket.

“Haven’t you seen how they wanted our names mentioned repeatedly? Why?” Estrada said.

“I hope they would be impartial. They even have their own PowerPoint,” Estrada added in apparent reference to Guingona’s presentations on how the alleged scam works during the hearings.

Estrada, Enrile and Revilla were tagged by former heads of government agencies in last week’s blue ribbon probe as among those that endorsed dubious NGOs to the government’s implementing agencies.

All have repeatedly denied wrongdoing.

Enrile has said that he was willing to part with his wealth if it is proven that he pocketed funds from his pork barrel entitlements.

Asked if he would appear before the blue ribbon panel, Estrada said, “If a case is filed in

the ethics committee, I will answer the allegations there.”

Opening prayer

Revilla led the Senate in the opening prayer.

“Father in heaven, we pray for our nation and all in government, who strive dearly to serve our people. Let your truth inspire, motivate and protect those in the executive, the legislature and the judiciary,” Revilla said. “Enlighten all of us toward truth, toward reason and toward justice.”

The alleged P10-billion swindling has apparently placed the Senate in times so trying that its members have started praying for the people’s trust and for their political survival.

“Lord Almighty, our country is once again in the midst of a political crisis arising from allegations of misuse of public funds,” Sen. Sergio Osmeña III said in the prayer he read to open the Senate session.

Sen. Aquilino Pimentel III, who led the prayer last week, also made references to the political controversy. ■

Philippine News

7 FRIDAY SEPTEMBER 20, 2013

‘Truckload’ of... net Lim-Napoles, the alleged brains behind a P10-billion pork barrel scam, and Senators Juan Ponce Enrile, Jinggoy Estrada and Ramon Revilla Jr. In all, at least 60 people will be named in the charge sheet for plunder and malversation of public funds in connection with the biggest swindling case to hit the republic since the pork barrel system was introduced in the then US-ruled country in 1922, the INQUIRER has learned.

“Yes,” Justice Secretary Leila de Lima said in a text message to reporters when asked if the filing of the charges in the Ombudsman would proceed today as scheduled as she had announced last week. “I will know the details later.”

At press time, the details had not been disclosed by De Lima, but INQUIRER sources last week said that Enrile, Estrada and Revilla would be included in the plunder case for allegedly giving Napoles’ bogus nongovernment organizations (NGOs) access to the senators’ allotments from the Priority Development Assistance Fund (PDAF), or pork barrel. ❰❰ 1

Up to 50-percent kickbacks

The fund, meant to ease rural poverty and the plight of typhoon victims, allegedly ended in kickbacks of up to 50 percent for the senators, according to 10 whistle-blowers, all former Napoles employees. Documents from the Commission on Audit (COA) and the Department

of Budget and Management (DBM) also implicated the lawmakers.

Levito Baligod, counsel of the whistleblowers, told the INQUIRER that his clients were filing their own private complaint against Napoles, lawmakers, government “conduits” and NGO officers. Baligod did not elaborate.

Assistant NBI Director Medardo de Lemos will sign the complaint sheet and De Lima the transmittal letter of the information to Ombudsman Conchita Carpio Morales.

“A truckload of documents will be submitted to the Ombudsman along with the affidavits of the witnesses, including the whistleblowers,” Baligod said.

Among those who prepared the final complaint sheet was Assistant Justice Secretary Jose Justiniano, in collaboration with lawyers from the NBI and the whistleblowers.

“There was a very intense deliberation among the members of the NBI-DOJ factfinding committee to come up with the final complaint,” Baligod said.

in March after being allegedly held captive by Napoles for three months. He later revealed the alleged channeling of pork barrel funds by Napoles to her NGOs. The businesswoman disappeared after a warrant for her arrest was issued by the Makati Regional Trial Court on Aug. 14.

She surrendered to President Aquino in Malacañang two weeks later, saying she feared for her life. Mr. Aquino then personally escorted her to PNP headquarters at Camp Crame.

Plunder threshold

COA special audit

Napoles, 49, is being held in Fort Sto. Domingo, a Philippine National Police antiterrorism training school in Sta. Rosa City in Laguna for alleged serious illegal detention of Benhur Luy, 32, a cousin and her a former employee, after she allegedly learned that he was going to compete with her in securing pork barrel projects.

Luy was rescued by the NBI

Revilla topped the list of lawmakers who were said to have allowed the use of their PDAF to Napoles, according to INQUIRER sources. The COA, in a special audit from 2007 to 2009 said that Napoles’ NGOs received from Revilla a total of P413.19 million in 22 instances during the period.

The threshold amount for plunder is P50 million.

‘Pork’ is dead; long live ‘pork’ Transferred to 6 agencies

BY CHRISTIAN V. ESGUERRA Philippine Daily Inquirer THE CONTROVERSIAL Priority Development Assistance Fund (PDAF) has been officially removed “as we know it”—meaning, lump sum allocations—in the 2014 national budget.

Members of the powerful House committee on appropriations instead opted to keep the existing PDAF allocation of P25.2 billion, plus Vice President Jejomar Binay’s P200-

million pork barrel, and use it to “augment” the budget of six government agencies.

“PDAF, as we know it is gone and buried,” Rep. Isidro Ungab, committee chair, told reporters following a closed-door meeting.

But he admitted that the committee decided not to delete the P25.4 billion in the national budget, as demanded by many of the critics of the pork barrel system.

“As to the reason why we did not totally scrap it, we have to consider the economic considerations because P25 billion

has a big impact on the economy,” he argued.

Eastern Samar Rep. Ben Evardone told reporters that the committee did not touch Binay’s pork.

ACT Teachers Rep. Antonio Tinio voted against realigning the PDAF, arguing that “unbundled PDAF is still pork.”

“Surely, the public will rightly see this as pork barrel in another form,” he said after the meeting.

After two days of deliberations, the committee voted to allocate P25.4 billion as a “line item” budget to benefit key govwww.canadianinquirer.net

Enrile allegedly allowed Napoles access to his PDAF on 21 occasions for a total of P332.7 million, according to the COA special audit, and Estrada 18 times for a total of P191.58 million worth of livelihood projects.

All the senators have denied wrongdoing. Revilla said the opposition was being singled out for “demolition” by the administration.

Just a ‘sample’

During a hearing called by the Senate blue ribbon committee last week, De Lima said she expected cases to be filed in “tranches” and that the cases to be lodged in the Office of the Ombudsman today would simply be a “sample.”

Topping the list in the private complaint of 23 House representatives in the alleged Napoles scam is Rizalina SeachonLanete of Masbate’s third district, who allowed her pork to be used 13 times; followed by Conrado Estrella III of Pangasernments agencies, which were picked based on their “absorptive capacity.”

Of the amount, 35 percent will go to the Department of Public Works and Highways, and 20 percent to the Department of Social Welfare and Development.

The Department of Health and the Department of Labor and Employment will each get 15 percent. The Commission on Higher Education will receive 10 percent and the Department of Education the remaining 5 percent.

In current system, each congressman is entitled to a lump sum allocation of P70 million, and senators P200 million.

Under the new system, Ungab said congressmen would be lim-

inan’s sixth district and Rodolfo Plaza of Agusan del Sur, both nine occasions; and Samuel Dangwa, of Benguet, eight.

Each senator has a PDAF allocation of P200 million annually, while congressmen each have P70-million. But during the Arroyo administration, favored senators and congressmen received more than they were supposed to get.

Under the law, the lawmakers have the sole discretion in the disposition of their pork barrel.

Records from 2004-2010

Baligod said that among the documents to support the whistle-blowers’ private complaint were daily records of financial transactions of JLN Corp.

“These were records from 2004 until 2010, duly recorded by the whistle-blowers,” he said.

The pieces of evidence include joint statements of nine whistle-blowers and more than 2,000 pages of financial transactions. ■ ited to “recommending” projects based on the limits set for each of the six agencies. He said it would also be up to agency heads whether to approve or reject a congressman’s proposal.

Ungab admitted that based on the new arrangement, a congressman could go “below or above” the previous P70 million cap in annual PDAF in terms of projects to be recommended.

He said it would be “hard to determine” how much a particular congressman could recommend as a project.

“Just like any other organization in the private sector or in government, whoever works faster, who is more resourceful,” he said, would get more.

“As much as possible, it would be equitable.” ■

Philippine News

FRIDAY SEPTEMBER 20, 2013 8

Troops move...

“We are gaining ground.

We’ve taken back some of the areas from them. We are still moving forward,” Zagala said.

In Malacañang, deputy presidential spokesperson Abigail Valte said days of negotiations with Misuari’s group failed, leaving the government no option but to launch a military operation.

Valte said security forces had “successfully contained” the rebels and were “constricting them to make sure [they had] little space to move around.”

Misuari had set terms for a peaceful end to the standoff, including safe passage for his men who had been boxed in four villages on the Zamboanga coast after storming in on Monday to march across the city and plant a flag of an “independent Bangsamoro Republik” at City Hall.

But the government rejected Misuari’s conditions and ordered the troops to move in on the rebels.

Troops from the Army, Marines, Navy, Air Force, Scout Rangers, Special Action Forces and policemen battled their way into the villages to clear the remaining rebels after a bid for a ceasefire by Vice President Jejomar Binay failed. ❰❰ 1

Authorized talks

Cabinet officials said Binay’s inter-

Hostages escape

vention had no authorization from the President but the Vice President claimed yesterday that he talked to Mr. Aquino on Wednesday and received permission to talk to Misuari.

Malacañang had no comment about Binay’s statement, made in a television interview.

More policemen were deployed to Zamboanga City to add muscle to the clearing operations against Misuari’s followers.

Senior Supt. Allan Guisihan, deputy director for operation of the Police Regional Office in Western Visayas, said 120 officers from 6th Regional Public Safety Battalion were flown on an Air Force C-130 plane from Bacolod City, Negros Occidental, to Zamboanga.

The Army’s elite 1st Scout Ranger Battalion was pulled out from Negros and deployed to Zamboanga in the first sign that the government had taken the military option to end the standoff.

Interior Secretary Mar Roxas said government troops pressed the assault but were trying to avoid harming an unspecified number of hostages still held by the rebels.

The rebels seized about 100 villagers and used them as human shields to thwart a military assault on their stronghold in Santa Catalina village.

Many of the hostages escaped from their captors during the last two days of fighting.

Nine hostages escaped as government troops began to advance on Santa Catalina. Hostages Clemente Almonte and David Nifras also escaped Roxas said at least 51 rebels had been killed in seven days of fighting and 42 others captured, most while trying to escape along the coast yesterday after discarding their camouflage uniforms for ordinary clothes.

He said the captured rebels would face criminal charges.

Three soldiers, three policemen and four civilians have also been killed in the fighting during the week.

Seventy people have been wounded.

Of the wounded, 35 were soldiers, six policemen, 20 civilians and nine rebels.

More civilians fled their homes as fighting went on yesterday, raising the number of evacuees to 68,634 from 62,000.

Zagala could not say how long the military operation would last.

He said the government wanted to end the crisis as soon as possible, but the troops had to carry out a “calibrated response” to ensure the safety of the hostages.

Zagala said the calibrated response began on Friday when the rebels torched the villages and fired mortar rounds, endangering the lives of the hostages and civilians outside their stronghold.

“We can’t give an exact timeline. Our soldiers are doing their best,” Zagala said.

The crisis has virtually paralyzed Zamboanga, a port city of nearly a million people. Commercial flights and ferry services have been suspended and businesses have shut down since the crisis started.

Left out

The MNLF signed a peace agreement with the government in 1996, but its fighters did not lay down their arms and later accused the government of reneging on a promise to develop an autonomous region for Muslims in Mindanao.

The group has broken up into several factions, with Misuari’s group opposing peace talks between the administration of President Aquino and the larger Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF).

The government and the MILF signed a preliminary peace agreement last October, and are negotiating provisions for a final peace agreement in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.

The two sides hope to sign the final peace accord before President Aquino’s term ends in 2016.

Feeling left out of the MILF deal, which would establish an autonomous Bangsamoro region in Mindanao, Misuari’s faction opposed it, insisting on full implementation of the 1996 peace accord. www.canadianinquirer.net

In July, Misuari declared an “independent Bangsamoro Republik” and appointed himself chief of the Bangsamoro armed forces.

On Monday, his followers barged into Zamboanga, but were intercepted by government forces. Unknown to him, the government discovered the plan for the MNLF raid on the city three days earlier.

Review postponed

Secretary Teresita Quintos-Deles, the presidential adviser on the peace process, said yesterday that the government has been trying to bring Misuari’s group into the peace process for a long time, but Misuari turned down “so many proposals, initiatives to move forward.”

“Even up to this time, he has not raised a single, doable proposal for the peace process,” Deles said.

She blamed Misuari for the postponement of the review of the 1996 peace agreement as a result of the crisis he started in Zamboanga.

The review had been scheduled to begin today in Yogyakarta, Indonesia.

“He created the cause so that the scheduled tripartite meeting in Yogyakarta (today) will not push through,” Deles said in a text message to the INQUIRER. She said Misuari had asked for a postponement of the review, preferring it to be held in October, because of the “situation in Zamboanga City.”

OIC offers help

The Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC), a party to the review of the 1996 peace accord, has offered to help end the crisis in Zamboanga City.

“The OIC stands ready to offer all possible assistance to ease the tension and resume the peace process,” OIC secretary general Ekmeleddin Ihsanoglu said in a statement posted on the group’s website.

Ihsanoglu condemned the loss of innocent lives and called for calm and maximum restraint to avoid further bloodshed and allow peaceful resolution of the standoff.

The OIC, which has played a key role in bringing peace to Mindanao since the 1970s, maintains a special Peace Committee for Southern Philippines (PCSP), chaired by Indonesia.

“The OIC calls for the resumption of the Tripartite Review Process as soon as possible in order to attend to the remaining unresolved issues that impede the full implementation of the 1996 Final Peace Agreement to pave the way for a just and durable peace in Mindanao,” Ihsanoglu said. ■ Reports from TJ Burgonio, Christine O. Avendaño and Gil C. Cabacungan in Manila; Julie S. Alipala, Karlos Manlupig and Ryan D. Rosauro, Inquirer Mindanao; Carla P. Gomez, Inquirer Visayas; and AP and AFP

Philippine News

9 FRIDAY SEPTEMBER 20, 2013

MNLF seeks int’l mediation on 3rd day of standoff Philippine Daily Inquirer ZAMBOANGA CITY—Moro rebels holding scores of hostages in coastal villages here are demanding international mediation, Zamboanga City Mayor Maria Isabelle ClimacoSalazar said, as fresh rounds of fire broke out between government troops and the rebels on the third day of a standoff.

The rebels, trying to sabotage peace talks between the government and a rival insurgent group, put a dozen civilians tied together by rope on display as human shields in Santa Barbara village.

Waving white flags, the hostages shouted “please don’t shoot” at government troops as rebel snipers perched on a roof of a residential block fired at soldiers 500 meters away.

The soldiers returned fire to keep the pressure on the rebels, but did not launch an assault.

“Our troops are only returning fire. We are not launching an offensive,” said Army spokesperson Lt. Col. Ramon Zagala.

“Our mission is to contain them, not to rescue hostages,” he said.

Mayor Salazar, head of the local crisis committee, said in a television interview that a former governor of Sulu province, the rebels’ stronghold, tried to talk to the followers of Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF) leader Nur Misuari, “but they refused to talk to anyone locally.”

“They say that it’s an international problem, and no less than the international community, the (United Nations), should come in,” Salazar said.

Shots rang out as Salazar spoke from City Hall.

Numbering about 180, the rebels were holding at least 40 civilian hostages as human shields in Santa Catalina and

Santa Barbara villages on the coast.

They are surrounded by hundreds of government troops and police whom they engage in sporadic exchanges of gunfire.

The government had no immediate response to the rebels’ demand for international mediation, but Secretary Teresita Deles, presidential adviser for the peace process, said the government had opened all avenues of communication with Misuari to end the standoff in Zamboanga without further bloodshed.

Deles said officials were also trying to reach other MNLF leaders identified with Misuari’s faction for suggestions on how to end the standoff.

But the message that the officials received is that only Misuari can end the crisis, Deles said.

Political solution

Misuari is nowhere to be found. His spokesperson and legal adviser, Emmanuel Fontanilla, said the crisis not be settled by fighting.

“The question that must be answered right now is how to resolve this through a political solution rather than a military solution,” Fontanilla said.

“Our demand right now is for the government to stop all military actions,” he said.

Fontanilla spoke from General Santos City where he said he was waiting for results of negotiations that he could relay to Misuari.

President Aquino said the top priority was the safety of the hostages and residents of the city. He sent top Cabinet officials and military chief of staff Gen. Emmanuel Bautista to oversee the security crisis.

Fontanilla asked why the President was not directly dealing with the crisis.

“Isn’t it the President who should decide this issue? So why is it the military that is di-

Two year old EITHAN CANDIDO and his mother, Michelle Garcia Candido of Sta. Barbara, were among a group of MNLF hostages who were supposed to be released around 8:00pm Thursday, Sept. 12 in Sta. Barbara. He was almost rescued but bullet of cross encounter unfortunately hit him and before he was hit, he was singing the national anthem.

PHOTO COURTESY OF WENG TERRAZONA.

rectly handling it and answering (questions)?” he asked.

Interior Secretary Mar Roxas said a crisis committee led by Salazar was ready to negotiate with the rebels for the release of the hostages.

He said some officials had opened talks with the rebels “at different levels,” including a commander loyal to Misuari, but added there had been no breakthrough.

The Department of Justice has created a team of prosecutors to assist the Philippine National Police in investigating the attack on Zamboanga City and in bringing charges against Misuari.

The creation of the panel of prosecutors is “in the interest of the service and pursuant to the provisions of existing laws,” Justice Secretary Leila de Lima said.

Asked by reporters if Misuari would be charged with rebellion, De Lima said, “That is being studied.”

There were no immediate reports of anyone being killed in

www.canadianinquirer.net

exchanges of fire in Zamboanga City. But three wounded rebels were arrested after exchanging gunfire with police manning a roadblock to stop Misuari’s men from fleeing.

At least nine people have been killed and 24 others injured since the standoff began on Monday, the eve of the resumption of talks between negotiators from the administration of President Aquino and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) in Kuala Lumpur.

Zamboanga closed

Zamboanga City remained shut down, with most commercial air and ferry services suspended.

Communities near the sites of the clashes resembled a war zone, with armored troop carriers lining streets, troops massing at a school and snipers taking positions atop buildings. A mosque and its minaret were pockmarked with bullet holes.

The rebels fired two mortar rounds near the port, prompting authorities to order vessels

to dock elsewhere.

The government rushed more troops and police to the city, and there were sporadic exchanges of fire.

Some houses went up in flames in rebel-held villages, forcing more residents to flee.

The MNLF signed a peace accord brokered by a committee of the Organization of the Islamic Conference (OIC) with the government in 1996, but hundreds of its fighters held on to their arms and have recently accused officials of reneging on a promise to develop an autonomous region for Muslims in Mindanao.

They also felt left out after the 11,000-strong MILF, which broke away from the MNLF in 1996, engaged in increasingly successful peace talks with the government.

In October last year, the government and the MILF signed a preliminary peace agreement, with the establishment of an autonomous Bangsamoro re❱❱ PAGE 13 MNLF seeks

Philippine News

FRIDAY SEPTEMBER 20, 2013 10

Children’s hospital gets NHA ‘eviction notice’

BY JEANNETTE I. ANDRADE Philippine Daily Inquirer

Twitter gives Binay ‘epal’ flak on Zambo truce: Too early for 2016

BY TARRA QUISMUNDO, NIKKO DIZON, AND MICHAEL LIM UBAC Philippine Daily Inquirer HE APPEARS to be swinging into campaign mode a little too early.

At least that’s what netizens say of Vice President Jejomar Binay, known to be planning to seek the presidency in 2016, after heading to Zamboanga City in an attempt to discuss a truce with Muslim rebels holding scores of civilian hostages.

Did 2016 come early? Virtually scratching their heads, netizens closely watching developments in Zamboanga City had this to say when Binay announced a supposed ceasefire agreement between Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF) founding chair Nur Misuari and Defense Secretary Voltaire Gazmin.

As the military and police pursued efforts to end the almost weeklong standoff, Binay announced close to midnight on Friday that Misuari, his college classmate, and Gazmin had agreed to cease firing to pave the way for a “peaceful settlement.”

Hostilities, however, continued with Gazmin and the military saying no ceasefire was implemented as the MNLF continued firing at government troops. Binay pushed through with his trip to Zamboanga accompanied by his son, Makati Mayor Junjun Binay.

The Vice President arrived in Zamboanga City and met with President Aquino.

Collective confusion

What followed was collec-

tive confusion expressed in 140 characters or more.

“Anu ba talaga (What’s the real score)? Gazmin contradicts Binay statements about ceasefire! Please lang, pwede pong magusap usap kayo (communicate with each other)!” said user Christian Medina (@ ChristianMeds).

“Promoting a fake ceasefire should get you fired,” said user @tweetnirizal, a parody account of national hero Jose Rizal.

Political rival

Tweeting the INQUIRER (@ inquirerdotnet), user Ches (@ chesaq) could not help but ask: “What the... epal move Binay?

Too early for 2016.” Epal is colloquial shorthand for the Filipino term “mapapel” or attention-seeking.

Binay’s political rival, Interior Secretary Mar Roxas, has been on the ground in Zamboanga City since early last week along with other Cabinet officials pursuing efforts to end the conflict.

Froilan Grate (@GreenMinds) suspected a story line behind what was happening: “I first thought #ZamboCrisis can’t be part of a script. No decent person would sacrifice so [many] lives for political gains.

Then there’s Binay.”

User Aselle Fernandez (@ reynasellia) shared an exchange with a cousin about Binay’s Zamboanga visit: “Me: Pupunta raw si Binay dito (Is Binay coming over here)?! Cousin: Baka sakaling may magawa pa si Binay kasi mas bright siya kesa kay P-Noy (President Aquino) at ganun sila sa Makati.” Fernandez was making reference

to the former Makati mayor’s campaign slogan “Ganito Kami sa Makati.”

Zamboanga-based Chariz Malalis @CHARIZmaatic shared the sentiment and said Binay might have wanted to share the limelight with Interior Secretary Roxas, Defense Secretary Gazmin, Social Welfare Secretary Dinky Soliman and President Aquino in resolving the conflict.

What for?

“Roxas, Gazmin, Soliman, Aquino... Binay, ayaw patalo (would not be left behind). Papunta na din ng (He’s on his way to) Zamboanga. Para ano po (What for) Vice?” she said.

INQUIRER readers also chimed in, criticizing the Vice President for the announcement that did not pan out.

A reader signed in as Bayang Magiliw said Binay’s “hunger for publicity backfired” while Oscura said the Vice President’s actions undermined the authority of Mr. Aquino, the commander in chief.

Reader Jack BW, who echoed this sentiment, said: “This will keep on happening to us until we grow the balls to take it all the way. Misuari and his commanders should be held accountable. The [Vice President] shouldn’t be allowed to make his own moves without the approval of the President.”

Told about the online reaction, Binay’s camp declined to comment and said to instead wait for developments from the Vice President’s visit to Zamboanga.

A spokesperson for the Vice ❱❱ PAGE 15 Twitter gives

www.canadianinquirer.net

LIKE BEING served an eviction notice.

The Philippine Children’s Medical Center (PCMC) described the demand of the National Housing Authority (NHA) for the government-run hospital to purchase the lot it has stood on for nearly 34 years at a price of P1.1 billion as a tacit eviction from the National Government Center in Diliman, Quezon City.

The NHA constantly invokes fund-raising as a reason to raise revenues for the relocation of informal-settler families in justifying its P1.1-billion demand from the PCMC, which has been silently struggling to keep its place at the corner of Quezon Avenue and Agham Road for over 30 years.

Officials of the tertiary hospital are fully committed to its mandate of subsidizing the medical treatment of indigent children through six administrations, dating back to President Marcos’ premartial law rule.

The PCMC treats over 60,000 patients annually, most of whom come from poor families. Paying patients are only allocated 70 of 260 hospital beds, what with the yearly increase in the rate of impoverished or service patients.

“They cannot just make us disappear,” PCMC executive director Julius Lecciones told the INQUIRER, referring to a move by the NHA to sell portions of the hospital lot by piecemeal to other government agencies.

Just last month, the NHA sold 2,500 square meters of the hospital land to the Na-

tional Economic Development Authority’s Philippine Institute for Development Studies (PIDS) for over P83 million.

NHA general manager Chito Cruz confirmed that his office had been trying for years to collect compensation from the PCMC for the lot it is occupying. He said he gave an “ultimatum” to the hospital to avoid the expiration of the budget allocated by the national government to the PIDS for the purchase of the 2,500-sq-m land.

“We have a standing collection request for the longest time to the PCMC which has, as we know, an insufficient budget,” Cruz told the INQUIRER in a phone interview.

He said the PIDS was looking for space where they could construct an office building after receiving a DBM allocation, which was why 2,500 sq m of the land occupied by the PCMC was sold.

“That is only a portion of the PCMC parking lot and will affect only the sewerage treatment plant which can be relocated,” he said.

When NHA commercial and industrial estates department manager Higino Equipaje had written a July 15 letter to Lecciones about the sale, he had asked for a “firm intent” from the PCMC executive director for the hospital to buy the remaining 34,420 sq m (or over 3.4 ha) of the lot at P1.18 billion, computed from the selling price of P32,500 per square meter.

Equipaje had stated, “We would like to secure PCMC’s firm commitment to work out the funding source with the Department of Finance and the ❱❱ PAGE 14 Children’s hospital

The PCMC treats over 60,000 patients annually, most of whom come from poor families.

PHOTO FROM HOSPITALDIRECTORYASIA.COM

Philippine News

11 FRIDAY SEPTEMBER 20, 2013

From Saudi death row, OFW is ready to come home

BY JEROME ANING Philippine Daily Inquirer MORE THAN seven months since the Saudi Arabian king made a surprise donation of 2.3 million riyals to complete the blood money needed to save him from the death penalty, Filipino convict Rodelio “Dondon” Lanuza is one step away from taking his flight home.

Vice President Jejomar Binay yesterday reported that the governor of Saudi Arabia’s Eastern Province, Prince Saud bin Naif bin Abdul Aziz Al Saud, had signed the deportation order for Lanuza, who was recently given a pardon.

The order is necessary for the processing of Lanuza’s exit permit.

Binay, in a statement, said Philippine Ambassador Ezzedin Tago told him that jail authorities said they received on Thursday the copy of the deportation order.

“The Philippine Embassy in Riyadh already informed Lanuza of the developments and will also be sending representatives to monitor the stamping of the final exit visa,” Binay said.

After this, Binay said Lanuza will finally be released and deported home to his family.

No objection letter

Lanuza’s employer had already issued a “No Objection Letter,” or mukalasa, needed for the overseas Filipino worker’s (OFW) repatriation. Lanuza has also already undergone fingerprinting, another requirement for deportation.

The Department of Foreign Affairs had also purchased a return ticket for Lanuza, but the OFW’s flight schedule is still pending until the exit visa is issued.

Lanuza has been in jail in Saudi Arabia since 2000 when he was meted the death penalty after being convicted of killing an Arab national.

Saudi Arabia’s highest court affirmed Lanuza’s death penalty in 2001, but he was pardoned after the victim’s family was paid 3 million Saudi riyals in blood money.

Of the 3 million riyals (about P33 million), 700,000 riyals (over P7 million) was paid by supporters of Lanuza and the Philippine government following a worldwide fund-raising drive. Last January, an unexpected blessing came when Saudi King Abdullah shouldered the remaining 2.3 million riyals (about P25.3 million).

Red tape

Lanuza’s supporters had lamented the long delay in his release, blaming red tape and the government’s slow follow-up moves.

On his Facebook account, however, Lanuza, was ecstatic and thanked the people who stood by him during his ordeal.

“I know my words will never

be enough to express how grateful I am. I will forever be indebted to all of you. All praises and thanks be to God! I’m very grateful that I’m finally seeing the end of my long ordeal behind bars. Thirteen years living in despair and hopelessness was not easy,” he added.

“My family and I would like to express our deepest and heartfelt gratitude to all those people who tirelessly extended their help and support throughout the 13 years. We are also very grateful to Allah that He made me the person that Hewantsme to be, for giving mea new lease of life, for sending me all the people I need to support me. I’m very grateful to the good Saudi king for answering our plea, to the Saudi reconciliation committee for their hard work and dedication in saving me from death row and securing my release, and to the jail management who treated me fairly,” he said.

To the family of the man he accidentally killed, Lanuza’s message was “May Allah bless your family for your forgiveness.”

Lanuza even thanked his case officer Jerome Friaz of the Philippine Embassy and Tago.

“My new journey is about to start and I pray that God will continue to guide me always,” Lanuza added. ■

Raps junked vs frat men in hazing death; kin stunned

BY NANCY C. CARVAJAL Philippine Daily Inquirer THE CASE against members of the Lex Leonum fraternity who were accused in the death of San Beda law student Marc Andrei Marcos due to hazing has been dismissed for lack of corroborative evidence.

Judge Perla C. Faller of Cavite Regional Trial Court Branch 90 said the lone statement of state witness Cornelio Marcelo failed to establish a conspiracy to charge the accused with violation of the Anti- Hazing Law. “The court holds that there exists no probable cause for the issuance of warrants for the arrest of all the accused for their eventual prosecution,” Faller ruled.

Marcelo surrendered to the National Bureau of Investigation days after the death of Marcos on July 30, 2012, following a fraternity initiation in Silang, Cavite.

Marcelo said he had volunteered to be Marcos’ “angel” during the initiation ceremony, according to Faller.

As an “angel,” he was supposed to be with Marcos at all

times and was in charge of his well-being.

Court testimony revealed that it was Marcelo who recruited Marcos into the fraternity.

Faller said that as the “angel” of the victim, Marcelo “failed to sense that Marcos was already showing some signs of physical weakness when he said he was feeling sleepy.”

“He also did not inform the master of the fraternity about the victim’s condition,” the judge said.

Family shocked

“We were shocked when we read the judge dismissed the case,” attorney Marinier Rivera, an aunt of Marcos, told the INQUIRER. “We cannot understand what the judge meant that no one is

to blame for the death of Andrei. Ano

the case up to the Court of Appeals if their motion is denied.

Faller, in her 22-page decision, said that “while admittedly there may be some physical infliction on the neophytes, yet his statement did not as much show that the accused had conspired to inflict fatal injuries on Marcos.”

Uncorroborated, incredible

yun, lokohan (Who are they kidding)?” she said.

She said “our family has a high regard for the justice system but we were shocked when we read the decision.”

She said the family will file a motion for reconsideration in the same court, and will take www.canadianinquirer.net

“It seems to the court that Marcelo’s statements were practically evasive as to the actual participation of all the accused,” the judge said.

Faller also took full responsibility for her decision. “The buck stops here,” she said.

“No one is to be blamed for the death of Andrei Marcos,” the judge said.

“The court feels that it could suffer the flak of society, but it cannot in conscience consign all of the accused to the dust bin of history simply on the basis of the uncorroborated and incredible lone statement of

Marcelo,” she said.

On June 3, Faller ordered the arrest of 10 members of the Lex Leonum Fraternitas believed to be responsible for Marcos’ death.

On June 13, however, the same court recalled the arrest warrants against eight of the accused, after they submitted a motion calling for a judicial determination of probable cause.

Accused were Jenno Antonio Villanueva, Glenn Meduen, Emmanuel Jefferson Santiago, Richard Rosales, Mohamad Fyzee Alim, Chino Daniel Amante, Julius Alcancia, Edrich Gomez, Dexter Circa and Gian Angelo Veluz .

Marcos, a freshman at San Beda College, died allegedly after undergoing initiation rites of the Lex Leonum Fraternitas.

The police in August last year filed murder charges against 37 people, including Veluz’s parents, Angelito and Violeta, who owned the farm in Dasmariñas City where the hazing took place.

Marcos, 21, a native of Ramos, Tarlac, was rushed to the De La Salle University Medical Center but succumbed to severe injuries. ■

Philippine News

FRIDAY SEPTEMBER 20, 2013 12

Nora Daza, icon of cooking; 84

BY VANGIE BAGA-REYES Philippine Daily Inquirer SHE WAS dubbed the “Epitome of Filipino Gastronomy.”

Nora Villanueva Daza, the Philippines’ first culinary icon, died after a lingering illness at her Quezon City home. She was 84.

Daza is survived by her children Bong, INQUIRER Lifestyle food columnist Sandy, Mariles Enriquez, Stella Belda and Nina Daza-Puyat; and grandchildren Arturo Daza, Ali Daza, Joseph Puyat, Gio Puyat, Billie Puyat, Mario Puyat, Bolo Belda, Franco Daza, Bettina Belda, Toby Belda, Danielle Daza, Isabel Daza, Ava Daza, Raphael Daza, Eduardo Taylor and Rodrigo Enriquez.

A day before Daza’s death, daughter Nina said one of the caregivers overheard her mother saying: “Lord, please take me. I’m already tired.”

“My mom had lived a full life,” said Nina. “She had lived

a life she wanted, and we are at peace with that.”

The veteran gourmet chef and restaurateur underwent heart bypass 12 years ago and has been battling pneumonia since.

She would always complain about the excruciating pain in her knees caused by arthritis.

She could not walk and had to move around in a wheelchair.

Julia Child of PH

Daza, said to be the “Julia Child of the Philippines” (Julia Child being an American TV chef and author portrayed by Meryl Streep in the culinary drama-comedy “Julie & Julia”), was a best-selling cookbook author and a restaurateur who took the risk of opening a Filipino restaurant in Paris, called Aux Iles Philippines, and a French restaurant in Manila, Au Bon Vivant, back in the ‘70s.

Her first-ever cookbook “Let’s Cook with Nora,” first printed in 1969, has been a handy guide for housewives

eager to prepare easy and delicious meals for their families.

Daza then followed her bestselling cookbook with two more recipe books, “Galing Galing Philippine Cuisine” (which she cowrote with daughter Mariles Daza) and “Nora V. Daza: A Culinary Life” (written with Michaela Fenix).

In the ‘80s, she hosted an instructional culinary show on television titled “Cooking It Up with Nora,” where she whipped up thousands of dishes. Through her TV show, she instantly became a household name. She also had a radio program, “At Home with Nora.”

In the ‘90s, she wrote a food column for INQUIRER Lifestyle.

Devotion to Pinoy food

Readers of her cookbooks get a glimpse of her devotion to Pinoy food, what with their amusing anecdotes, useful cooking tips and vivid descriptions of places she’s been to.

Her last cookbook launched

Nora Daza.

two years ago, “Festive Dishes with Family and Friends,” contains some of her favorite home-cooked dishes, with additional recipes from family and friends.

“La Nora will always be alive in every Filipino kitchen—big, small, loaded or not. A Nora

PHOTO FROM INQUIRER.NET

Daza book has to be in every cook, chef, foodie and newlywed’s collection, if not the only cookbook in the house,” said food expert Nancy Reyes Lumen.

Daza’s body lies at the Loyola Memorial Chapel on Commonwealth Avenue in Quezon City. ■

Enrile, Revilla, Estrada vow to fight raps

BY TJ A. BURGONIO Philippine Daily Inquirer SENATORS RAMON Revilla Jr., Jinggoy Estrada and Juan Ponce Enrile vowed to fight off plunder charges in connection with the P10-billion pork barrel scam.

But Senate President Franklin Drilon indicated that the upper chamber would not seek custody of the senators, saying the matter was for the courts to decide, as in the case of former President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo.

Whether they will be suspended when they’re charged in court or when they’re convicted is a matter that would be studied by the Senate, Drilon said.

“My only appeal to you is not to prejudge me,” a teary-eyed Revilla told reporters from the session hall. He later added: “We will face the charges in court.”

Estrada, who fanned rumors he was flying to Hong Kong, turned up at the session hall and said he was staying in the country to face the charges.

“They’re trying to condition the minds of the public that

we’re the worst thieves and I can’t accept that,” Estrada said of the charges, stressing he had no such record as a long-time public servant.

Otherwise, Estrada, who explained that he saw off somebody at the airport on Monday, said he had no plans to fly the coop.

Not a crime

Estrada said that endorsing a nongovernment organization (NGO) as a recipient of his pork barrel did not constitute a crime. He doubted that the charges would prosper if the erroneous audit report of the Commission on Audit were used as a basis.

“He was rushed to the hospital. He will fight this case in the courts,” Estrada said of Enrile, who was taken to the hospital days ago because of high blood pressure.

Enrile: ‘I’m innocent’

In a separate statement issued by his spokesperson last night, Enrile said the filing of plunder charges against him was regrettable, even as he professed innocence.

“I regret that the Department of Justice has filed this case after an incomplete, hasty and partial investigation,” Enrile said. “Let me make clear that I am innocent of the charges filed against me.”

Enrile said he trusted the Ombudsman to conduct a “thorough, complete and impartial investigation,” and vowed to cooperate with the investigation.

“It is with this trust that I will lay my case before her. I am therefore ready to fully and honestly cooperate with the investigation to discover not just the truth but the whole truth,” he said.

Senate custody ruled out

Before the filing of charges, Drilon ruled out the possibility of the Senate taking custody of the senators at any stage of the preliminary investigation or trial.

“I repeat that is not for us to determine. That is for the court to determine…. I have already demonstrated to you that in the case of Gloria MacapagalArroyo, the court determined where she would be located,” he told reporters. www.canadianinquirer.net

Arroyo, now lawmaker representing a district in her home province Pampanga, is detained at Veterans Memorial Medical Center while facing charges of electoral sabotage.

“She is under the physical custody of courts. She is confined in the hospital because that is where the court ordered that she be confined,” Drilon said.

The Senate President also said that the chamber would not provide any support for the senators, saying they were capable of defending themselves.

Estrada scoffed at this. “I’m not asking help from him,” he said.

Drilon also acknowledged that there was a difference of opinion on which stage of the court process would the senators be suspended, hence, the need for a study by the upper chamber.

Suspended once charged

He earlier asserted that lawmakers could be suspended upon conviction.

But Sen. Miriam DefensorSantiago insisted that they be suspended once the Ombudsman filed criminal charges against them in the Sandiganbayan.

“There is a provision in the plunder law which says that,” Drilon, referring to Santiago’s statement.

“There is also a provision in the Constitution which says matters of disciplining members of the House and the Senate rest on the respective chambers. We have to study that because this is a case of first impression,” he added.

Arrest warrant

But should the Sandiganbayan eventually issue warrants for the lawmakers’ arrest, the senators would be placed under the antigraft court’s custody. If the Sandiganbayan orders their suspension, this would be respected by the Senate, Drilon said.

In a statement, Santiago, a former trial court judge and a constitutional law expert, corrected Drilon’s position on the suspension.

Citing the 1991 Anti-Plunder Act, Santiago said that the accused would be automatically suspended from office when the Ombudsman filed plunder ❱❱ PAGE 14 Enrile, Revilla

Philippine News

13 FRIDAY SEPTEMBER 20, 2013

MNLF seeks... gion in Mindanao as the objective. The current talks in Kuala Lumpur hope to work toward a final peace deal that both sides want to sign before President Aquino’s term ends in 2016.

Misuari, a former governor of the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM), which will be expanded to form the proposed Bangsamoro region, opposes a separate deal between the government and the MILF. He insists on the full implementation of the 1996 peace agreement, which is under review with help from facilitator Indonesia. ❰❰ 9

Independence

Last month, the MNLF faction led by Misuari issued new threats to secede by establishing its own “Bangsamoro Republik.” Misuari reportedly appointed himself chief of the armed forces of that republic.

But Misuari has not appeared in public or issued any statement since a band of his followers barged into Zamboanga City’s coast, and clashed with soldiers and police, and took civilians as human shields to thwart an all-out assault by government troops.

The military said it hoped officials would find a way to resolve the conflict.

“We are wishing that this be finished the soonest possible time. That is the objective of the Crisis Management Committee (of which) the AFP is part,” said Brig. Gen. Domingo Tutaan, the AFP spokesperson.

Tutaan said General Bautista remained in Zamboanga City overseeing the military operations.

Zagala denied reports that the military had called for a ceasefire.

No ceasefire

“There’s no call for a ceasefire. We have maintained our positions and we are not on the offensive,” Zagala said.

The Philippine Navy has thrown a blockade between the Zamboanga Peninsula and the island province of Basilan to prevent more followers of Misuari from reinforcing their companions trapped in Zamboanga City.

Lt. Cmdr. Gregory Fabic, spokesperson for the Navy, said Navy headquarters was verifying reports that naval forces had intercepted MNLF fighters who tried to escape from Zamboanga City and return to Basilan.

The Philippine Coast Guard placed its forces in Jolo on red alert on Wednesday following reports of gunfire and explosions near the port at the capital of Sulu province.

Cmdr. Armand Balilo, spokesperson for the Coast Guard, did not give details of the reports.

Hoisting MNLF flag foiled

Army spokesperson Zagala said on

No stopping Napoles arraignment Monday that the rebels had planned to march into Zamboanga City and hoist their flag at city hall, but that government forces discovered the plan.

Deles, who oversees the talks with the MILF, condemned the actions by Misuari’s group, challenging claims by some of Misuari’s followers that they planned only to stage a peaceful protest.

She said the government was also talking to Indonesia in a search for a peaceful resolution of the standoff.

Indonesian Ambassador to the Philippines Yohanes Kristiarto Soeryo Legowo said Indonesia had “not received any official communication.”

Legowo said on Tuesday night, that they “would like to see that we will be able to find a peaceful resolution to this problem as soon as possible so we could avoid any more casualties.”

Deles said Misuari could rest assured that the government troops encircling his fighters in Zamboanga City had been deployed only to prevent the crisis from spilling to other parts of the city and not to crush them.

But officials were stumped about what would “make Misuari happy,” she added.

It’s about autonomy

She said Misuari’s declaration of independence was not part of the review of the 1996 peace agreement. “[T]here is not a single word in the 1996 final peace agreement about independence. The political settlement was about autonomy,” Deles said.

She disputed observations that the government has largely ignored Misuari since entering into peace talks with the MILF. In fact, she said, MNLF leaders have agreed to attend the Sept. 16 review of the 1996 peace agreement in Yogyakarta, Indonesia.

“When you look at the pattern of what we have done, when you look at the meetings that we have held, and I will talk about the Bandung (Indonesia) meeting (in 2012) where we waited for six hours after the technical working group had completed the language for their issue on plebiscite, we waited for six hours for Mr. Misuari to come out, and he turned down that very proposal that had been approved by his representatives and the technical working group,” Deles said.

“No, I deny that we have not given full recognition to Mr. Misuari and the MNLF,” she said.

Deles stressed that the government has not abrogated the 1996 peace agreement, but has proposed to the OIC the completion of the review. ■ Reports from TJ Burgonio, Nikko Dizon, Jerome Aning, Tarra Quismundo and Jerry Esplanada in Manila; Karlos Manlupig, Eldie Aguirre, Charlie Señase, Judy Quiros, Jeoffrey Maitem and Richel Umel, Inquirer Mindanao; AP and Reuters

BY JAYMEE T. GAMIL Philippine Daily Inquirer

Brother’s motion denied

THE ARRAIGNMENT of Janet LimNapoles on charges of serious illegal detention will push through on its original scheduled date of Sept. 23 at 1:30 p.m., a Makati trial court judge has ruled.

In an order released, Makati Regional Trial Court Branch 150 Judge Elmo Alameda denied for “lack of merit” the motions filed on Sept. 4 by Napoles’ lawyers to suspend court proceedings and defer her arraignment.

Sufficient and valid

Alameda also denied for lack of merit an “urgent motion for a bill of particulars” filed by the Napoles camp. The motion asked that the prosecution be directed to specify the details regarding the serious illegal detention charge filed

by Napoles’ cousin and former employee Benhur Luy, saying that they were “vague and unclear.”

According to the judge, “The court finds the information in the present case to be sufficient and valid. It is clear that the information validly charged the accused with the offense of serious illegal detention.”

Alameda also junked the motion to suspend proceedings filed by the lawyers of Napoles’ coaccused in the case, her brother Reynald Lim, who remains at large.

Napoles is currently detained at Fort Sto. Domingo in Sta. Rosa, Laguna province. Whistle-blowers, Luy among them, have described her as the mastermind of the P10-billion pork barrel scam.

Manila City Assistant Prosecutor Philger Noel Inovejas said Napoles had filed three cases of perjury against Luy, her former employee Merlina Suñas, and Luy’s parents and siblings over their allegations of serious illegal detention against her and their claims that she masterminded the pork barrel scam.

Inovejas, however, declined to give out copies of the affidavits pending resolution of the investigation.

Napoles’ reply-affidavit, which was subscribed to before a notary public in Laguna where she is being held, was submitted by her lawyers Tristan Ysaak Zoleta and Takahiro Kenjie Aman.

The city prosecutor ordered the respondents to submit their rejoinder-affidavit, after which the perjury case will be submitted for resolution. ■ With a report from Erika Sauler

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Philippine News

Children’s hospital...

Department of Budget and Management and provide NHA a timeline on the acquisition to enable us to report to our NHA board of directors.”

The PCMC said its “firm commitment” to secure the funds was to ensure that the property “will not be included in our [NHA’s] regular targets for disposition to other interested parties,” according to the NHA officer. ❰❰ 10

Transfer of title

Since 1980, the PCMC has been asking the national government to either donate or finance the transfer of the title to the original 63,656-sq-meter (6.3-ha) property the hospital is built on to its name.

The total area was subsequently divided by the NHA into two lots measuring 21,430 sq m (2.1 ha) and 16,322 sq m (1.6 ha) under two titles, which resulted in the PCMC straddling two lands.

On the 2.1-ha lot sits the PCMC building with a fourth of it, comprised of the sewerage treatment plant, oxygen plant, generator and powerhouse, motor pool, the engineering and maintenance building, materials recovery facility and parking space, extending to the 1.6-ha land.

During the decades of unanswered pleas to past presidents, government budget managers and health secretaries, the 6.3 ha shrunk to 3.7 ha after portions of the lot were given to the Office of the Ombudsman and the Court of Tax Appeals through two presidential proclamations.

“When a portion of the lot was given to the Office of the Ombudsman, there was no consultation. Everything was discussed directly between the DOH (Department of Health) secretary and then Ombudsman Aniano Desierto. It was then that the NHA separated the titles for land occupied by the PCMC,” Lecciones told the INQUIRER. The PCMC almost secured a donation of the property during the terms of Presidents Joseph Estrada and Gloria MacapagalArroyo but the move was scuttled both times.

Estrada had been ousted from office before the case was resolved, while during Arroyo’s term, then NHA General Manager Edgardo Pamintuan had advised former Health Secretary Manuel Dayrit to pursue other options other than donation.

On Dec. 5, 2007, then NHA

FRIDAY SEPTEMBER 20, 2013 14

BI confirms Tuason, Plaza have left PH General Manager Federico Laxa informed the PCMC that the lot had been offered as collateral to the Land Bank of the Philippines (LBP) for a credit line facility to fund the relocation of families affected by the NorthSouth Rail Linkage project.

No ‘viable’ options

Fortunately, Lecciones recalled, when the bank learned that the property being offered for collateral was the one occupied by the PCMC, the LBP advised NHA to offer a different lot as collateral. The NHA then continued to demand to be financially compensated for its lots while the PCMC asked for the status quo “until it can come up with viable options.”

In an Oct. 2, 2012, letter, the NHA informed the hospital of the PIDS’ interest in purchasing nearly 2,500 sq m of the 1.6-ha lot, and began soliciting a firm offer from the PCMC for the land, which the agency described as “unutilized.”

“We told the PIDS, we were opposing the sale. They can have a lot but not at our expense,” Lecciones said, adding that the PCMC asked for a status quo pending the resolution of the National Kidney and Transplant Institute campaign to keep intact its land, which was likewise sold by the NHA to a major commercial land developer and had recently been given funds to buy the lot it sits on.

He told the INQUIRER, “It is not true that the lot (1.6 ha) is unutilized because our vital areas and buildings critical to our operations are there,” adding that the PCMC has been long appealing to agencies of the national government for intervention.

“We have been asking the Department of Budget Management, the Office of the President, whoever will listen to us,” Lecciones said.

He revealed that in a recent meeting with NHA officials, the agency had suggested that the PCMC transfer to a 2,500-sqm property owned by the Department of Environment and Natural Resources where they could build a high-rise building.

“I told them it would be against the very concept of the Lungsod ng Kabataan,” he said, referring to the original plan that established the PCMC, and added that a high-rise would be dangerous for the patients of the hospital who are mostly children. ■

BY JOCELYN R. UY Philippine Daily Inquirer IF FLIGHT were an indication of guilt, several personalities linked to the P10-billion pork barrel scam might have given investigators strong cause to indict them.

Available information from the Bureau of Immigration (BI) indicated that two more linked to the illegal use of the lawmakers’ Priority Development Assistance Fund (PDAF), also known as pork barrel, have quietly slipped out of the country.

BI records showed that Ruby Chan Tuason left the country on Aug. 26 via Cathay Pacific Airways flight CX906. Her flight coincided with the Million People March that netizens organized at Rizal Park in Manila to call for the complete abolition of the pork barrel.

While there was no mention of Tuason’s destination, a check on flightstats.com showed that the particular flight regularly departs for Hong Kong.

Data also showed that Rodolfo Galido Plaza left the country on Sept. 11 via Cebu Pacific 5J108. The aircraft also flies the Manila-Hong Kong route.

Tuason, the former social secretary of former President

It has been confirmed that Ruby Chan Tuason left the country on Aug. 26 via Cathay Pacific, while Rodolfo Galido Plaza left the country on Sept. 11 via Cebu Pacific. They were among those named by whistle-blowers as involved in the pork barrel scam allegedly masterminded by businesswoman Janet LimNapoles.

PHOTO BY CHRISTOPHER PARYPA / SHUTTERSTOCK.COM

and now Manila Mayor Joseph Estrada, was among those named by whistle-blowers as involved in the pork barrel scam allegedly masterminded by businesswoman Janet LimNapoles.

Plaza, Agusan del Sur representative from 2001 to 2010, was tagged as one of the 28 lawmakers who allowed his pork barrel to be used for ghost projects initiated by Napoles’ fake nongovernment organizations.

A certain Richard Cambe was also found to have left the coun-

try, but a source from the immigration bureau told reporters that he might just be the namesake of Sen. Ramon Revilla Jr.’s chief political adviser. Records showed that the passenger, who was born on Dec. 17, 1983, left on May 17 last year on Cathay Pacific flight CX918.

Acting Immigration Commissioner Siegfred Mison confirmed that Jessica Lucilla “Gigi” Reyes, former chief of staff of Sen. Juan Ponce Enrile, left the country for Macau on Aug. 31 and “has not returned.” ■

Member for disorderly behavior and, with the concurrence of twothirds (2/3) of the entire membership, suspend or expel a Member. A penalty of suspension shall not exceed sixty (60) calendar days.”

institution of Congress as a pillar of our democratic system.

We will continue to discharge our functions and we will continue to define policies, which we think is critical in every aspect of our political life,” he said.

Enrile, Revilla... charges in court.

Santiago quoted Sec. 5 of the law: “Suspension and Loss of Benefits. Any public officer against whom any criminal prosecution under a valid information under this Act in whatever stage of execution and mode of participation, is pending in court, shall be suspended from office.”

“This means that the senators and representatives implicated as persons of interest shall be suspended from Congress while the trial is pending,” she said.

Santiago pointed out that the provision cited by Drilon was found only in the Senate Rules, not in the Constitution.

She quoted the Senate Rules, Rule 34, Sec. 97: “Upon the recommendation of the Committee on Ethics and Privileges, the Senate may punish any ❰❰ 12

www.canadianinquirer.net

Cleansing process

“That provision is not found in the Constitution, but only in the Senate Rules. While under the Anti-Plunder Act, suspension is mandatory as indicated by the word ‘shall’ in the Senate Rules suspension is merely permissive, as indicated by the use of the word ‘may,’” she said.

Drilon said the filing of charges against the senators was “part of the cleansing process in our system” and expressed confidence the Senate “will come out stronger.”

“We will exert every effort in order that we can recover the confidence of the people in the

Support from JV, Nancy

The three senators’ colleagues in the minority aired their support for them. Sen. JV Ejercito expressed hope that the government would not be selective, while Sen. Nancy Binay hoped her colleagues would get a “fair trial.”

Drilon said the suspension of senators would not affect the functions of the chamber.

“This is a collegial body and we will continue to function as a collegial body,” he said. “We will function. All the committees are still there. The committees will continue to work.” ■

Philippine News

15 FRIDAY SEPTEMBER 20, 2013

Twitter gives...

President said, however, that Binay had talked to Misuari on Friday night to propose a ceasefire that would take effect .

“He talked to Misuari and he talked to Gazmin, and they agreed to discuss a ceasefire,” spokesperson Joey Salgado told the Agence France-Presse.

Binay tweeted just before noon that he was on his way to join President Aquino in Zamboanga to discuss the details of his plan with the defense secretary and representatives of the MNLF. ❰❰ 10

‘Solons sold... spoke to Misuari.

“It was being arranged that we talked through an intermediary but I said they should show good faith first. But there was no good faith so what’s the point talking about a ceasefire?” Gazmin said.

However, Gazmin said the doors remained open for a truce.

“We will exhaust all available means of peaceful resolution but we ensure that the safety of the civilians will be paramount,” he said.

Too many cooks

‘Trying to insert himself’

But a Cabinet member told the INQUIRER that Vice President Jejomar Binay has not been authorized by Mr. Aquino to negotiate a truce with Nur Misuari.

The Cabinet member confirmed yesterday that Binay was negotiating with Misuari, or his loyal followers, on his own.

There were “no instructions” from the President to send the Vice President to Zamboanga City, the secretary said.

The secretary did not want to be named since he was not authorized to comment on Binay’s actions.

“He (Binay) is trying to insert himself.

He’s jeopardizing the safety of the troops because of politicking,” the official said.

The secretary also said there had been no truce between government troops and Moro rebels.

“Per Volt [Defense Secretary Gazmin], there’s no ceasefire,” said the official.

Before midnight on Friday, the INQUIRER immediately contacted several Palace officials after Binay had reportedly negotiated a truce with Misuari, which was to take effect that night.

But two Palace officials, who were privy to the situation on the ground, expressed surprise.

“I’m sorry, I am not aware of that,” said National Security Adviser Cesar Garcia in a text message.

“I checked with [Social Welfare] Secretary Dinky Soliman, who’s in Zamboanga. She said Gazmin is already sleeping,” said Peace Process Adviser Teresita Deles.

Gazmin confirmed that he did talk to Binay on the phone.

“This started with the Vice President calling me up, asking me what if he talks to Misuari because he was his classmate and seatmate. [Binay said], ‘What if we talk about a ceasefire?’ I said, ‘Why not, if only to end this bloody confrontation,’” Gazmin said.

Gazmin recalled Binay saying that the government would “initiate a ceasefire.”

“I said a ceasefire could only start when they (the MNLF) stop firing because we will only be reactive to their actions. The truce didn’t happen because in the first place, [the MNLF] kept on firing that’s why the soldiers are making counter fires. So there was no ceasefire,” Gazmin said.

The defense chief also said he never

While observers differ in opinion about having too many government officials on the ground, political analyst Clarita Carlos sees nothing wrong with getting the full force of government in resolving the Zamboanga crisis.

“What’s important is they are speaking with one voice and they are telegraphing only one point,” Carlos told the INQUIRER. Carlos said now was not the time to “quibble” about bureaucracy. Whoever “is trusted” in the government who can offer a way to end the crisis peacefully and reasonably should pitch in.

“I suspect [Binay] didn’t do it [arbitrarily]. The way I have known Binay, he is a peace-loving man,” Carlos said.

Napoles would advance half of the lawmakers’ share. The other half comes after the release of the Saro from DBM. ❰❰ 3

Surge in 2006

Luy said it was in 2006 when Napoles started buying properties.

Asked by Sen. Ralph Recto how the clients of Napoles increased in 2006, the whistle-blower said, “Kasi po yung mga natalong congressmen pumunta sa office para magrefer (It was because lawmakers who lost in elections went to the office to refer [projects]).”

To which Recto replied, “Nag ahente na rin (they became agents [of Napoles]).”

On Recto’s repeated questioning about whether Napoles had a partner or someone higher up that she consulted or had instructed her on how to put up the fraudulent scheme, Luy said several times that no one was behind Napoles and she was the only “boss” they knew.

“Siya yung mastermind (She was the mastermind),” he said.

Influential boss

Luy said he had not given any money to a senator but admitted giving to their senior staff.

“There were also times the senators’ chiefs of staff would accompany them to

Heart of rampage

For Carlos, what is important too is that the government finally addresses the 1996 peace agreement, which is at the heart of the rampage of Misuari’s men in Zamboanga City.

“The big issue is the 1996 peace agreement with the MNLF … It is understandable for the MNLF to feel marginalized even if they were the first to have the peace agreement that was brokered by the international community,” she said.

Carlos said the government should “listen” to Misuari and the other MNLF leaders. “They have grown old already.

They have grievances. Just listen to them,” Carlos said.

For security analyst Jose Antonio Custodio, the government’s reaction to the Zamboanga crisis is “typical of how we have responded to emergencies.”

Distracting

“It is always difficult controlling the ground. We cannot control the usiseros. What more the VIPs who want to be there as well?” Custodio said.

Custodio is concerned that the presence of the top officials led by Mr. Aquino himself could pose problems in terms of command and control of the ground commanders.

“Instead of concentrating on the hostages, the military would have to coordinate with whoever is the VIP there … there are too many people, high ranking at that, going into the critical phase of the crisis … It can distract the commanders,” Custodio added. ■ www.canadianinquirer.net

the banks to withdraw the money,” he said.

He said that it was only in 2011, after working for 10 years at Napoles’ JLN company, that he and the other whistleblowers learned of the illegal activities because of letters from the COA asking them to explain their projects.

“Even if we wanted to report it, we don’t know who to tell. We knew how influential our ‘boss’ was,” he said.

Sen. Bam Aquino asked: “At what point did you realize that what you were doing was illegal, immoral, wrong?”

Luy said it was when the Commission on Audit (COA) “wrote to us” in 2011.

“It was only then that you realized it?”

Aquino said, sounding incredulous.

Country’s gratitude

Justice Secretary Leila de Lima told the senators that Luy and other whistleblowers owed the country’s gratitude for exposing how funds meant for development aid were stolen by some lawmakers and bureaucrats.

De Lima said Luy was allowed to testify because it was in the public’s interest to have a representative of the whistle-blowers group testify in the open on things that people only got to read in the newspapers. ■ With a report from Nancy C. Carvajal

Opinion

FRIDAY SEPTEMBER 20, 2013 16

THERE’S THE RUB

In the scam of things

By Conrado De Quiros Philippine Daily Inquirer WE DON’T know yet how the investigation of the named legislators in Janet Napoles’ scheme will turn out. The number of senators the Commission on Audit (COA) has identified as having had dealings with Napoles has grown to six from three. Apart from Ramon Revilla, Jinggoy Estrada and Juan Ponce Enrile, they now include Bongbong Marcos, Loren Legarda and Vicente Sotto.

The senators have not disputed the report, or the sums attributed to them. They’ve just disputed the idea that what they’ve done constitutes wrongdoing. Those expenses, they say, are perfectly legitimate.

We do not know yet how this will go and how it will end. But there’s reason to be optimistic. There’s something new in the current exposé about the legislators which you can sense every time you read the newspapers or watch the news in recent weeks.

Three things in particular stand out.

One is the willingness of the government auditors to name names and cite facts and figures. The legislators of course are furious and have themselves pointed out inaccuracies in the COA reports. Last week, when the COA officials went to Congress to defend their

P8.4billion budget, they found themselves having to defend much more than that. They had to defend themselves.

The congressmen pounced on them for the apparent mistakes in their reports, singling out an item that said Manny Zamora had gotten and spent P3 billion of pork. The Department of Budget and Management has since corrected it.

“If you make an audit report and it’s not correct, you destroy the reputation of people,” thundered forth Surigao del Sur Rep. Philip Pichay. True, but a mistake or two does not invalidate the entire report. Grace Tan was not there to defend her agency, she was in New York to attend a meeting. I do hope she comes back over the next few weeks and confronts the congressmen. What is high-minded is not that if you make an audit report and it is not correct, you destroy the reputation of people; what is so is that if you do make a report and it happens to be substantially true, you destroy the foundation of the nation.

You destroy the sacredness of taxpayers’ money, you destroy the integrity of public office, you participate in the gang-rape of Juana de la Cruz.

Speaking of rape, that is what this situation reminds us of. COA auditors, like the victims of rape, have traditionally been loath to complain about the legislators. Quite apart from

a general disinclination to draw attention to themselves—some, if not many, of them being complicit in the conspiracy to defraud the public— there is the not-small matter, as was shown last week, of their being at the mercy of the legislators come budgethearing time. It’s the legislators who decree what they’ll get, as powerful a weapon, or source of blackmail, as you can get. When victims of rape finally

The number of senators the Commission on Audit (COA) has identified as having had dealings with Napoles has grown to six from three: from Revilla, Estrada and Juan Ponce Enrile, they now include Marcos, Legarda and Sotto. decide to cry rape, the likelihood that they’re telling the truth is high. When the COA finally decides to cry wrongdoing about the legislators, the likelihood that it is telling the truth is high.

I applaud Tan for her courage. And I do hope the public shows her the support and encouragement she deserves.

While at this, isn’t it a marvel that it’s the women who are showing balls in this government? Leila de Lima, Conchita Carpio Morales, Ma. Lourdes

Sereno, Kim Henares, Grace Tan...

Two is the stick-to-it-iveness of media on pork. We have not lacked for exposés or corruption in the past, some leading up to high office or hinting at it. The past regime was full of it.

No one really expected any big fish to be hooked, lined and sinker-ed, a sentiment shared by media themselves, which moved on from exposé to exposé with the ease or blitheness of recreational fishermen. And true enough, no big fish did get caught.

The Napoles story has been there for a couple of months now, and still going on strong. No small thanks to the INQUIRER, which deserves praise for the sterling job it did introducing the story and sustaining it. Nancy Carvajal in particular deserves it, it was a brave thing she did, and quite professionally too. She it was who started the ball rolling, and it has rolled long and far. She should be journalist of the year. The other media have picked it up, branched out into various subplots, and there’s still no end in sight.

It’s been going on like a riveting teleserye. You can only hope it produces an equally satisfying ending.

Which is the third thing here. The audience won’t be content with less, the people won’t be content with less. More than the other melodramas of the past,

more than the other exposés of the past, the people are wrapped up in this one, the people are absorbed in this one, the people are involved in this one. The Janet Napoles saga has taken on a life of its own, a reality of its own, intruding into households, barging into consciousness. No, this audience won’t settle for less than the kontrabidas getting what they deserve in the final reel.

Thankfully, the kontrabidas have gone past Napoles. Miriam DefensorSantiago is right to suggest that the biggest kontrabida here, the spider at the center of the web, may well turn out to be a legislator or group of legislators as it’s inconceivable that Napoles would have had the clout, if not ingenuity, to hatch and run such an operation.

I’ve always thought that seemed fairly commonsensical. But whether so or not, they’re still the guiltiest parties here, their crime consisting not just of theft but of betrayal of the public trust.

Napoles is in custody, at a camp in Laguna. Which brings us back to the question of what will happen to the senators and congressmen. Except that this time around, there’s reason to be optimistic, there’s reason to be expectant. Things have changed in the scheme of things.

Things have changed in the scam of things. ■

against elements of the Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF) in that Mindanao city. Decrying the fact that they had been “ignored” in the course of the peace talks and the pending establishment of a “Bangsa Moro” with the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF), the MNLF troops identified with their leader, Nur Misuari, sought to enter Zamboanga City proper and allegedly hoist their flag in front of city hall.

But met with armed resistance from troops and police, the MNLF fighters chose to crowd into a predominantly Muslim enclave where they held Christian and Muslim civilians hostage and intermittently fired shots and mortar fire.

The televised scenes of street fighting and of crowded evacuation centers were certainly far more dramatic and exciting than the by-now-familiar sight of protesters holding up placards and pig’s heads. Perhaps we are easily distracted. Or perhaps the fate of a city beleaguered by armed invaders and the rising death toll are of far greater import than the lingering anger over the waste and exploitation of public money.

Which is not to say that one is more important than the other, in the cruel arithmetic of news budgets. But sometimes, public indignation can only be stoked so much, after which it becomes

more and more difficult to rekindle and fire up. Also, with Benhur Luy testifying before the Senate and Secretary De Lima declaring her intent to go after those behind the pork barrel scandal, perhaps some of the anger has been blunted somewhat, until the investigation and trial and subsequent revelations rile us up once again. *** JUST a word about the passing of Nora Daza, perhaps the Philippines’ foremost culinary authority whose cooking shows were must-sees for every Filipino interested in the art of cooking, desirous of learning new recipes, or just lusting after good, satisfying meals.

It’s said she fostered the “buko pie” industry which has grown from small stores along the highway leading to Los Baños to giant enterprises today.

One of the pioneers in the “buko pie” business, asked where she got the recipe for the famous pie, said she simply followed the recipe provided in Daza’s cookbook.

That’s how powerful and influential Daza was, and a testimony as well to the durability and flavor of the dishes she featured. Truly, it can be said that Nora Daza was not just the country’s version of Julia Child, she was by herself a teacher and cooking authority nonpareil. ■

AT LARGE

Hasty departures

By Rina Jimenez-David Philippine Daily Inquirer UNTIL FORMAL charges are filed against Janet Lim-Napoles and any number of senators and representatives in connection with the pork barrel scandal, everything else remains in the realm of speculation.

This, even if the links prove tantalizing and a certain logic attaches to the mysterious goings-on.

Take note of the departure for foreign shores of personalities linked to the operation: Gigi Reyes, former chief of staff of Sen. Juan Ponce Enrile, who, according to “whistle-blowers,” received and even signed for millions of pesos siphoned off the senator’s allotment; former congressman Rodolfo Plaza who allegedly allowed Napolescreated NGOs to use his pork barrel funds; Ruby Chan Tuason, the former social secretary of former President (now Manila Mayor) Joseph Estrada, who is said to have been Napoles’ conduit to the offices of Senators Enrile and Jinggoy Estrada; and Richard Cambe, purported “chief political adviser” of Sen. Ramon “Bong” Revilla Jr. Enrile, Estrada and Revilla, along with Senators Bongbong Marcos and Gringo Honasan, had been identified by whistle-blowers as colluding with Na-

poles and her group to defraud the government of funds meant for development projects. Many other legislators, including former and present congressional representatives, have likewise been named as complicit in the scam.

Now, for all we know, the departures of the aforementioned personalities may have been just coincidences. Maybe they all made travel plans for the same period; maybe they even used the same travel agencies. Perhaps the fact that they all had something to do with the irregular if not illegal siphoning of funds is simply an accident. Or maybe they have simply been brought out of reach (supposedly) of local authorities who may have wished to question them.

But as Justice Secretary Leila de Lima remarked when asked about Reyes’ departure: “Fleeing is the first sign of guilt.”

What do all their principals have to say about the untimely travel plans? *** THE best laid plans can sometimes go awry.

This can be said of the Sept. 11 gathering at the Luneta, this time led by leftist organizations headed by the Bagong Alyansang Makabayan (Bayan), which attracted a crowd of more than 3,000—a good enough number— but still short of the 100,000 said to have massed up at the Luneta for the

“Million People March.”

Remember that the “Million People March” was organized mainly through the social media, with no overall organizing committee or even an agenda. It had in fact been described as a “picnic,” and the folks who made the call for a show of people power made it a point to eschew placards, posters or invited speakers.

Now, the Sept. 11 gathering, and an earlier “prayer rally” at the Edsa Shrine, seem to have had greater organizational muscle behind it. One unmistakable sign for me were the placards that were

Take note of the departure for foreign shores of personalities linked to the operation... What do all their principals have to say about the untimely travel plans? all of similar sizes with similar fonts and familiar slogans. But even then, a much smaller number of protesters showed up, this even if the organizers insisted that the extent of public anger over the pork barrel scam could not be measured by the size of crowds alone. *** BUT what happened? What happened was Zamboanga, or the armed stand-off between soldiers and police

www.canadianinquirer.net

Opinion

17 FRIDAY SEPTEMBER 20, 2013

PUBLIC LIVES

Regaining the people’s trust

By Randy David Philippine Daily Inquirer AS A rule, people almost everywhere tend to be distrustful of their politicians. So long as the rest of the government functions smoothly, however, this skepticism hardly affects the nation’s social system as a whole.

But, one can imagine to what new depths the trust ratings of Filipino congressmen and senators have sunk in the wake of recent revelations of how brazenly many of them pocketed their pork barrel allocations. The Napoles scam has tainted not just two or three big politicians but the entire Congress itself. Congress emerges from this sordid episode as no more than a confederation of thieves with no shame, conscience, or honor.

Dire as it is, this state of affairs does not necessarily lead to political paralysis. For, in truth, it is hard to shake off the force of habit. It is likely that most of us will abide by the new national budget as soon as it is approved, even if we know that a big part of it might be stolen again.

People do not stop obeying the laws just because they cannot respect the crooks who made them. And, indeed, come election time, they will probably reelect the same rogues.

Be that as it may, I do not remember a time when the integrity of the whole political class has been so questioned. That is why I think we have come to a new stage in our growth as a nation. If the outrage over this conspiratorial raiding of the public coffers is sustained, this turbulent phase may yet produce enduring changes in our political life. So deep and pervasive is the public suspicion hanging over our current crop of lawmakers that it is reasonable to assume, as Peter Wallace has passionately argued in his column, that everyone who has served as a legislator in this country in the last 10 years is probably guilty unless proven innocent.

At the moment, all eyes are on the legal system. If it fails to do its job—i.e., resolutely pursue the cases, particularly against the lawmakers, without fear or favor—then we may be facing another severe political crisis.

Lawmakers who have availed themselves of the pork barrel, but used their allotments honestly, can do something positive for the nation by voluntarily offering detailed reports of how they used their Priority Development Assistance Fund for every year they were in office. They must provide straightforward justifications of every single project they recom-

mended. They must provide the dates, the places, and the beneficiaries of these projects, plus the government offices or agencies or NGOs through which they channeled the funds.

They can take out newspaper space or post these reports in their websites or Facebook accounts. They may also post these reports on the community bulletin boards of the exclusive neighborhoods in which most of them reside. (Indeed, their neighbors have every right to expect or de-

The Napoles scam has tainted not just two or three big politicians but the entire Congress itself. mand this of them.) The information they provide must be complete and specific enough to allow for independent verification or checking.

Until they do this, they have to bear the collective stigma of corruption that the pork barrel scam has heaped upon the whole institution of Congress.

Of course, many lawmakers might choose to keep silent in the mistaken belief they have no duty to explain unless they are formally charged. But it doesn’t look like the public out there will allow them to do that.

Every day that passes, new photos of Napoles beaming in the company of her politician-clients are bound to be circulated. But, more than this, we have seen how people are quickly connecting the dots based on data released by government agencies like the Commission on Audit and the Department of Budget and Management.

We are seeing how students all over the country are taking a new interest in government. This is active citizenship at work. Instead of the usual trivial topics they write about for their undergraduate theses and term papers, students are now doing great analysis using secondary data to show how our dysfunctional political system maintains itself.

From there, they will want to go further by writing to their district or party-list representatives asking for a full accounting of the projects on which they used the funds allotted to them. Students of public administration or business can undertake case studies of PDAF-funded projects for the purpose of drawing important lessons on how to build accountability and transparency into systems of governance. They may want to investigate why some types of projects have been preferred over others, and how pork barrel operatives managed

to override the control systems of government at various points.

Some may follow the trail of the bogus NGOs that have been identified as the favored conduits for legislators’ PDAF—from their inception as organizations registered with the Securities and Exchange Commission to their establishment as regular partners of government implementing agencies. Sociology students can do ethnographies of the pork barrel system and patronage, showing the ties of loyalty and dependence that bind constituents to their traditional political leaders. Students of economics can pick up the money trail and find out where the money actually went, how it was apportioned, and what benefits it could have brought to marginalized communities if it had been rationally spent.

When citizens lose what little trust they have in their political representatives, they also lose their taste for politics. That is when they become receptive to the seductions of authoritarianism. We must not allow this to happen; we should not give up trying to make politics work for the common good. For this, we need to nurture not only leaders of integrity but also citizens who are unafraid to make their public officials accountable. ■

AS I SEE IT

Dredge the rivers to prevent floods

By Neal H. Cruz Philippine Daily Inquirer METRO MANILA again came to a standstill because of one heavy thunderstorm. Many streets were flooded and traffic even in the streets that were not flooded was reduced to a crawl. It took me more than three hours to get from Makati to Quezon City, a distance that takes only 20 minutes without the floods and the traffic.

I understand that the Department of Public Works and Highways has 76 flood control projects going on at the same time. Its men are digging all over the metropolis to put in bigger drainage pipes. Very well, but hurry it up. I’m afraid, however, that even when the bigger drainage pipes are in place there will still be floods.

Why? Because the waterways are heavily silted, so that they now hold less water. One instance of heavy rain and they overflow their banks.

Where will the water from the drainage pipes go if the waterways are full?

The waterways have to be dredged— and soon. Pagasa executive Flaviana Hilario has warned that we are in for more extreme rainfall and this will escalate until 2050. Hilario, officer in charge for research and development, reported in her study that this is due to climate

change and will surely inundate many areas in Luzon and the Visayas.

This also means that Metro Manila and other communities living close to rivers must be on high alert for the next few decades. Our flood woes are only beginning and can only worsen unless the government acts quickly.

The P25-billion pork barrel fund is being removed from the 2014 budget.

Put some of it in flood control, specifically the dredging of waterways.

Let us pray that efforts at solving flooding will not get caught in the political crossfire. This is the fear of residents of Camanava (Caloocan, Malabon, Navotas, and Valenzuela), the lowest area in Metro Manila.

Every time there is heavy rain Camanava goes under water, and politicians and other public officials go on another finger-pointing binge. This is exhausting the patience of the residents, who know that the government has already earmarked the proceeds of a P3-billion loan from the Japan International Cooperation Agency for a Camanava flood control project.

Local officials complain that they were never consulted on the project.

We hope the political irritants are done away with soonest so the government can get its act together and ease the area’s flood woes.

There are two major tasks that need to be done for Camanava. One is building river walls. The area is mostly below sea level, so it is expected that the waters of Manila Bay and the Malabon-Navotas rivers will engulf it during heavy rains and high tides.

Already, an old river wall in Malabon collapsed at the height of the monsoon rains last year.

The other task is the dredging of the river that runs through Camanava,

Many river-dredging projects funded by lawmakers’ pork barrel funds have fallen prey to scammers. especially at the mouth of the river that opens to Manila Bay. That part is where silt and garbage converge, thus preventing the quick outflow of water.

Under a supposed master plan against flooding, the DPWH has also set aside hundreds of millions of pesos for “river improvement” projects, not just for Camanava but also for other flood-prone areas like Marikina. We surmise that the allocation includes funds for dredging heavily silted waterways.

Many river-dredging projects funded by lawmakers’ pork barrel funds

www.canadianinquirer.net

have fallen prey to scammers. The government must find ways to assure the public that such projects can be done with transparency and accountability.

The government must also entice the private sector to invest in riverdredging projects. The government can offer nonmonetary incentives to private investors for this endeavor.

But the bottom line is this: The country should not allow efforts to solve our flood problems to be caught in the many political crossfires happening today. *** The group Volunteers against Crime and Corruption has asked the Special Board of Marine Inquiry to expedite the investigation of the collision between Sulpicio Express 7 and MV St. Thomas Aquinas on Aug. 16 near the seaport of Talisay City, Cebu. The tragedy has claimed the lives of 111 passengers as of Thursday morning; 26 are still missing, while 733 have been rescued.

Party-list Rep. Sherwin Tugna has expressed dismay at the supposed kidglove treatment of Sulpicio by Marina.

Again, Marina has allowed Sulpicio vessels to sail after the Aug. 16 tragedy.

According to testimonies, Sulpicio 7 used the inbound lane while departing the Cebu port, a violation of marine laws. This was corroborated

by the captain of Trans Asia Nine, Gallipher Ian Faller, who confirmed that Sulpicio 7 was indeed using the inbound lane.

Like Sulpicio 7, Trans Asia had also just left the Cebu pier, on its way to Cagayan de Oro. It had to overtake on its starboard side (right) to avoid colliding with Sulpicio 7.

Another passenger ship was also called to the investigation. The captain of Ocean Jet 8, Vet Dumaguit, said the outbound Sulpicio 7 was traversing the inbound lane, or the path intended for vessels entering the Mactan Channel.

He said he tried to contact Sulpicio 7 because it was obstructing his path but no one responded. So he decided to pass between Sulpicio 7 and Trans Asia.

Before the collision, Dumaguit said he heard someone from St. Thomas Aquinas trying to call Sulpicio 7. He said he did not hear Sulpicio trying to call St. Thomas Aquinas.

Trans Asia was included in the investigation for failing to respond to the distress call while it was still in the area. Its captain said it was still in shallow waters and risked running aground if it turned back. Besides, he said, the ship was already 56 nautical miles away from the disaster area, and would take a long time to go back. ■

FRIDAY SEPTEMBER 20, 2013

18

Canada News

PM Harper on PQ ‘values’ plan: I don’t see it going anywhere in its current form The Canadian Press PRIME MINISTER Stephen Harper has predicted that the Parti Quebecois’ controversial values charter will fail because of opposition within Quebec.

The prime minister made his first remarks since the Quebec government released a plan last week that would bar people with religious headwear from working in the public service.

Harper was asked during a news conference Monday about the controversial proposal, following the release of a poll on the subject.

“I do not see the charter in its current form going anywhere,” Harper told the B.C. news conference.

“I think the common sense of Quebecers will force this towards a reasonable conclusion as the debate progresses.”

Despite the PQ’s repeated efforts to turn the debate into a Quebec-versusCanada squabble, including numerous complaints from the PQ about media coverage in English Canada, Harper noted that the support is also less than stellar within Quebec.

Harper pointed out that none of the three other parties in the Quebec legislature supports the PQ plan in its current form.

He was speaking after the release of a poll Monday that suggested a perfect split in Quebec public opinion— although the response specifically from francophones was 49 per cent support for the PQ plan, 34 per cent opposed, and 17 per cent refusing to answer.

That finding suggests a significant drop in support from similar polls before the plan was formally introduced, when a crushing majority had expressed support for a charter like the one the PQ proposed.

The Leger Marketing poll of 2,000 does point to one area of the province where the charter is especially popular: the northern and southern belt around Montreal.

Nearly one-quarter of the province’s 125 seats are in that so-called 450 belt. The PQ, which is nine seats

shy of a majority government, narrowly lost just over a half-dozen of those ridings last year to the Liberals and CAQ. Harper, however, offered another observation: that Quebec voters care more about other issues, like the economy and job-creation, than the religion plan. That point has been reflected in different surveys that place so-called identity issues low on the priority list.

The federal government has promised to intervene legally if it determines that the plan violates fundamental rights but, in Harper’s assessment, the project might not get that far.

The plan has yet to be tabled in the legislature. If rejected by the opposition parties, the PQ will be left with two options to move it forward: water it down or use it in the next election campaign.

Some federal politicians, including Liberal Leader Justin Trudeau, have predicted that Quebecers will turn against the plan. Harper offered a similar forecast Monday.

“If the Pequiste government decides to proceed I see, already, that public opinion is starting to shift,” Harper said.

“In my opinion the real priorities for Quebecers, like other Canadians, are issues like the economy, job-creation, and protecting our children against crime.”

Within Quebec, the charter has faced noisy opposition from public figures.

In addition to a weekend protest, and numerous editorial cartoons and

opinion columns, the charter was also mocked at a weekend gala with Premier Pauline Marois in attendance.

In one of the shots against the charter, a presenter at a television-awards ceremony expressed hope that Quebecers could keep their dignity while respecting others’ views.

Those remarks drew hearty applause, while a poker-faced premier clapped gently in an image seen on TV. The Leger Marketing poll, considered accurate to within 2.2 percentage points 19 times out of 20, was conducted for the Journal de Montreal on Friday and Saturday.

It suggests the PQ plan holds a 10-point popularity advantage in the ring outside Montreal—but running neck-and-neck in most other parts of the province and even 11 percentage points behind in the Quebec City area, where there are about 14 seats.

Marois declined to comment on public opinion Monday.

“I don’t have any comments about the reaction of the street—(the debate is) happening very peacefully and that’s what’s important,” Marois told a news conference in central Quebec.

“I think Quebecers are altogether capable of having this debate, sharing their opinions, so we can eventually make decisions on these issues.”

In mid-afternoon, the Parti Quebecois made a cryptic announcement.

The party said it would have more to say later on the charter later Monday evening, which coincides with a caucus meeting on the eve of the fall reopening of the legislature.

“Stay tuned,” the PQ posted on Twitter.

“Will will reveal something tonight that will shed new light on the charter debate.”

Surprisingly, however, that tweet was quickly repudiated.

The premier’s office said it had been sent in error. The PQ’s Twitter account had not been hacked, said a Marois spokeswoman, while stressing that no announcement was planned.

Spokeswoman Marie Barrette said the government was looking into why the tweet was sent. ■

NEWS BRIEFS

FROM THE CANADIAN PRESS

MANITOBA CITIES CAN DROP SCHOOL SPEED ZONES UNDER NEW PROVINCIAL REGULATION

WINNIPEG—Speed limits will be going down in Manitoba school zones but Transportation Minister Steve Ashton says it is not an order.

Ashton says a new regulation allows municipalities to put school speed zones in place.

He says the minimum speed limit will be 30 kilometres an hour in most school zones, but where the current limit is 80 kilometres an hour, that can be reduced to 50. It’s also possible the lowered speed limit may only be in effect during the school day—Ashton says it depends on what the local municipality decides. Mayor Sam Katz says the earliest school speed zones go down will be October. As well, it will be up to the city to determine which school zones will see a change. It may not happen at every school. Luis Escobar, Winnipeg’s manager of transportation for public works, says about 170 schools, mostly those with elementary students, will have speed limits reduced Monday to Friday between the hours of 7 a.m. and 5:30 p.m. from September until June.

SUSPECT SOUGHT AFTER ALLEGED TIFF SEX ASSAULT TORONTO—Police are looking for a suspect after allegations that a 15-year-old girl was sexually assaulted at a premiere during the Toronto International Film Festival. Police say it happened just before 6 p.m. Saturday in front of Roy Thomson Hall.

HARPER ANNOUNCES NEW RULES FOR SEX OFFENDERS RICHMOND—Convicted sex offenders who want to travel outside the country will have to alert Canadian authorities before they leave and Canadian officials will, in turn, warn the destination countries if new legislation proposed by Prime Minister Stephen Harper is passed. Harper made the announcement in Vancouver as part of a package of reforms targeting convicted sex offenders.

Canada News

19 FRIDAY SEPTEMBER 20, 2013

LONDON, ONT.—Here’s a bit of sweet news for some chocolate lovers.

Four of the largest chocolate producers in Canada have agreed to pay more than $23 million to settle a class-action lawsuit alleging price-fixing and price maintenance in the Canadian market.

The defendants—Cadbury Adams Canada Inc., Hershey Canada Inc. Nestle Canada Inc and March Canada Inc., as well as distributor ITWAL Limited— all deny the allegations.

However, they have settled to avoid the expense, inconvenience and distraction of further protracted litigation, says a statement released Monday by lawyers in the case.

The settlements, which reflect a compromise of disputed claims, have been approved by the courts in Ontario, British Columbia and Quebec as being fair, reasonable and in the best interests of

class members, says the release.

It says together the defendants have paid $23.2 million for the benefit of all persons who bought Cadbury, Hershey, Nestle and/or Mars chocolate products in Canada between Feb. 1, 2001 and Dec. 31, 2008.

The release says the courts in Ontario, British Columbia and Quebec have also approved a method for distributing the settlement amounts, less fees and expenses, to consumers and commercial purchasers with chocolate product purchases between Oct. 1, 2005, and September 30, 2007.

It says consumers who purchased at least $1,000 in chocolate products between Oct. 1, 2005, and Sept. 30, 2007, will be eligible to make a claim for direct monetary compensation.

They don’t need purchase records in order to make a claim, although consumer claims that are not supported by purchase records are capped at $50. And, says the release, to make up for the fact

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that not all consumers will have made the threshold level of $1,000, 10 per cent of the available settlement will be distributed to several non-profit organizations to promote competition and consumer education and advocacy in Canada.

The deadline for filing a claim to receive direct compensation is December 15, 2013.

The release says persons who believe they might qualify for direct compensation can obtain more information at chocolateclassaction.com.

In June, Hershey Canada Inc. pleaded guilty to its role in fixing the price of chocolate products in Canada and was fined $4-million.

The Competition Bureau said the Mississauga, Ont.,-based company admitted in the Ontario Superior Court of Justice that it conspired, agreed or arranged to fix the price of chocolate confectionery products in Canada in 2007.

The company has also agreed to cooperate with federal prosecutors.

Charges have also been laid against Nestle Canada and two of its former executives; Mars Canada, and national wholesale network ITWAL Ltd. as well as ITWAL’s chief executive officer.

Nestle, Mars and Itwal Ltd. have said they intend to defend themselves against the charges. A trial date is set for Oct. 3. ■

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World News

FRIDAY SEPTEMBER 20, 2013 20

Gap in employment rates between rich, poor at widest levels in records dating back a decade

BY HOPE YEN The Associated Press WASHINGTON—The gap in employment rates between America’s highest- and lowestincome families has stretched to its widest levels since officials began tracking the data a decade ago, according to an analysis of government data conducted for The Associated Press.

Rates of unemployment for the lowest-income families—those earning less than $20,000—have topped 21 per cent, nearly matching the rate for all workers during the 1930s Great Depression.

U.S. households with income of more than $150,000 a year have an unemployment rate of 3.2 per cent, a level traditionally defined as full employment. At the same time, middle-income workers are increasingly pushed into lower-wage jobs. Many of them in turn are displacing lower-skilled, low-income workers, who become unemployed or are forced to work fewer hours, the analysis shows.

“This was no ‘equal opportunity’ recession or an ‘equal opportunity’ recovery,” said Andrew Sum, director of the Center for Labor Market Studies at Northeastern University.

“One part of America is in depression, while another part is in full employment.”

The findings follow the government’s tepid jobs report this month that showed a steep decline in the share of Americans working or looking for work.

On Monday, President Barack Obama stressed the need to address widening inequality after decades of a “winner-take-all economy, where a few do better and better and better, while everybody else just treads water or loses ground.”

“We have to make the investments necessary to attract good jobs that pay good wages and offer high standards of living,” he said.

While the link between income and joblessness may seem apparent, the data are the first to establish how this factor has contributed to the erosion of the middle class, a traditional strength of the U.S. economy.

Based on employment-topopulation ratios, which are seen as a reliable gauge of the labour market, the employment disparity between rich and poor households remains at the highest levels in more than a decade, the period for which comparable data are available.

“It’s pretty frustrating,” says Annette Guerra, 33, of San Antonio, who has been looking for a full-time job since she finished nursing school more than a year ago. During her search, she found that employers had become increasingly picky about an applicant’s qualifications in the tight job market, often turning her away because she lacked previous nursing experience or because she wasn’t certified in more areas.

Guerra says she now gets by doing “odds and ends” jobs such as a pastry chef, bringing in $500 to $1,000 a month, but she says daily living can be challenging as she cares for her mother, who has end-stage kidney disease.

“For those trying to get ahead, there should be some help from government or companies to boost the economy and provide people with the necessary job training,” says Guerra, who hasn’t ruled out returning to college to get a business degree once her financial situation is more stable. “I’m optimistic that things will start to look up, but it’s hard.”

Last year the average length of unemployment for U.S. workers reached 39.5 weeks, the highest level since World War II. The duration of unemployment has since edged lower to 36.5 weeks based on data from January to July, still relatively high historically.

Economists call this a “bumping down” or “crowding out” in the labour market, a domino effect that pushes out lower-income workers, pushes median income downward and contributes to income inequality. Because many mid-skill jobs are being lost to globalization and automation, recent U.S. growth in low-wage jobs has not come fast enough to absorb displaced workers at the bottom.

Low-wage workers are now older and better educated

than ever, with especially large jumps in those with at least some college-level training.

“The people at the bottom are going to be continually squeezed, and I don’t see this ending anytime soon,” said Harvard economist Richard Freeman. “If the economy were growing enough or unions were stronger, it would be possible for the less educated to do better and for the lower income to improve. But in our current world, where we are still adjusting to globalization, that is not very likely to happen.”

The figures are based on an analysis of the Census Bureau’s Current Population Survey by Sum and Northeastern University economist Ishwar Khatiwada. They are supplemented with material from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s David Autor, an economics professor known for his research on the disappearance of mid-skill positions, as well as John Schmitt, a senior economist at the Center for Economic and Policy Research, a Washington think-tank . Mark Rank, a professor at Washington University in St. Louis, analyzed data on poverty.

The overall rise in both the unemployment rate and lowwage jobs due to the recent recession accounts for the record number of people who were stuck in poverty in 2011: 46.2 million, or 15 per cent of the www.canadianinquirer.net

population. When the Census Bureau releases new 2012 poverty figures on Tuesday, most experts believe the numbers will show only slight improvement, if any, due to the slow pace of the recovery.

Overall, more than 16 per cent of adults ages 16 and older are now “underutilized” in the labour market—that is, they are unemployed, “underemployed” in part-time jobs when fulltime work is desired or among the “hidden unemployed” who are not actively job hunting but express a desire for immediate work.

Among households making less than $20,000 a year, the share of underutilized workers jumps to about 40 per cent. For those in the $20,000-to-$39,999 category, it’s just over 21 per cent and about 15 per cent for those earning $40,000 to $59,999. At the top of the scale, underutilization affects just 7.2 per cent of those in households earning more than $150,000.

By race and ethnicity, black workers in households earning less than $20,000 were the most likely to be underutilized, at 48.4 per cent. Low-income Hispanics and whites were almost equally as likely to be underutilized, at 38 per cent and 36.8 per cent, respectively, compared to 31.8 per cent for low-income Asian-Americans.

Loss of jobs in the recent recession has hit younger, less-

educated workers especially hard. Fewer teenagers are taking on low-wage jobs as older adults pushed out of disappearing mid-skill jobs, such as bank teller or administrative assistant, move down the ladder.

Recent analysis by the Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research shows that whites and older workers are more pessimistic about their opportunities to advance compared to other groups in the lower-wage workforce.

Eric Reichert, 45, of West Milford, N.J. Reichert, who holds a master’s degree in library science, is among the longer-term job seekers. He had hoped to find work as a legal librarian or in a similar research position after he was laid off from a title insurance company in 2008.

Reichert now works in a lowerwage administrative records position, also helping to care for his 8-year-old son while his wife works full-time at a pharmaceutical company.

“I’m still looking, and I wish I could say that I will find a better job, but I can no longer say that with confidence,” he said. “At this point, I’m reconsidering what I’m going do, but it’s not like I’m 24 years old anymore.” ■ Associated Press writer Tom Raum, Director of Polling Jennifer Agiesta and News Survey Specialist Dennis Junius contributed to this report.

World News

21 FRIDAY SEPTEMBER 20, 2013

UN chemical weapons team finds sarin gas used in rocket attack last month in Damascus suburb

BY PETER JAMES SPIELMANN The Associated Press SECRETARY-GENERAL BAN Ki-moon has presented the Security Council with a report by a U.N. expert team on a chemical weapons attack in Syria last month that he says “makes for chilling reading.”

It found that sarin nerve gas-filled rockets were fired into the Damascus suburb of Ghouta but did not say who launched the attacks.

Here are the highlights of the U.N. report: What kind of chemical weapon was used?

Chemical weapons were used on a “relatively large scale” on Aug. 21 in Ghouta. The team found evidence of sarin gas on many ground-to-ground rocket fragments. Soil samples in the vicinity of the landing sites were saturated with sarin. Blood and urine samples taken from victims found sarin poisoning and breakdown components of sarin.

HOW WAS THE GAS DELIVERED?

The U.N. team found remnants of rockets that were 630mm long and 140mm wide, with a small rocket motor on the bottom, a central shaft and a cylindrical warhead. The warhead had a capacity to hold about 56 litres (14.8 gallons) of liquid sarin, plus or minus 6 litres (1.6 gallons).

The rockets were “variants of the M14 artillery rocket, with either an original or improvised warhead.” The team was able to trace back the trajectories of two of the rockets and found their path could have come from a single, multi-barrelled launcher.

What symptoms did people show?

The team examined 36 survivors of the attack, and found loss of consciousness in 78 per cent; shortness of breath in 61 per cent; blurred vision in 42 per cent; eye irritation or inflammation in 22 per cent; excessive salivation, or

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vomiting, in 22 per cent; and convulsions or seizures in 19 per cent. Of 34 blood samples taken, 91 per cent tested positive for sarin exposure at one laboratory, and 85 per cent tested positive at another lab.

Who fired the weapons?

The U.N. team’s mandate was strictly limited to evidence-gathering and testing to determine if a banned chemical weapon was used.

Syria had requested the dispatch of the U.N. team to investigate a March 19 incident at Khan al-Assal. After protracted negotiations with the United Nations, agreement was finally reached for the team to check that and two other alleged attack sites. But the team was not to

assign blame for the attacks.

The U.N. team reported that while it was at the Ghouta attack site in rebelheld territory, “individuals arrived carrying other suspected munitions indicating that such potential evidence is being moved and possibly manipulated.”

Syria has blamed the opposition for the attack.

U.S. Ambassador Samantha Power said after the Security Council meeting that the rockets used “bore none of the hallmarks of improvised weapons.” She said that “The regime possesses sarin, and we have no evidence that the opposition possesses it.” She added that “It defies logic to think that the opposition would have infiltrated the regime areas to fire chemical weapons on opposition areas.” ■

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FRIDAY SEPTEMBER 20, 2013 22

BC AS CAN BE

The Likeability Factor

BY ARNOLD FRANCIS H. QUIDDAOEN

WE LEARN many things in school and if you’re a newcomer to Canada, it’s a great place to meet people, mingle with immigrants from various cultural backgrounds and make new friends. In school, there are many courses that I find highly interesting, in addition to academics. There’s cooking, guitar, career planning, languages, arts, music and kinetics that are supposed to make a student’s learning well-rounded. I suggest that in addition to these, the ability to be likeable should be included as a course.

With the many technological gadgets available to students, most of their time is spent texting, playing games on computers or cell phones, listening to tunes on their ipods or reading a book on Kindle. There is

little time or opportunity for human interaction. Just observe the people on the bus or on skytrain, everybody is glued to their cell phones. I fear the art of communication would be lost in our technological jungle and we would forget the ability to connect to other people and engage in meaningful or interesting conversation. As well, our social skills may be on the decline. Certainly, I’ve encountered students with bad personalities who are so focused on themselves that they can’t say a nice thing about anyone or anything or who are fond of complaining or seeing only the negatives.

I’ve interviewed some people and asked them for their opinion on whether they would sign up if there was ever a course that taught likeability in school.

I was a little shocked at their answers. Two said they would take it only if it gave easy marks, two said it would be a complete waste of time, and four of them

said that they wouldn’t take it because it would change their personalities. One of them said if their personality is naturally unlikeable, why should they change that? It’s who they are, after all. Well, I can say that we live in a community, we live with fellow human beings and it will be great if we get along nicely and try to like each other.

Why is it important to be

likeable? Why can’t we just sail through life without having to care for anybody? Ernest Hemingway once said, “Live life to the fullest”. I would like to live my life to the fullest and I’m sure most people would, too. You can’t enjoy life fully, though, if you do not think of others or if most people find you intolerable or unlikeable . It’s impossible. If you don’t

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know how to be sociable, wellmannered, and how to make people want to talk to you, you’re most likely not going to have a nice job, good friends, and little or no connections and this means, you’re not most likely to succeed. If you are a likeable person, there’s a great chance you would be pretty ❱❱ PAGE 39 The Likeability

Immigration

23 FRIDAY SEPTEMBER 20, 2013

Filipino Elderly Wellbeing report: the plight of Filipino seniors in Canada

BY ANGIE DUARTE Philippine Canadian Inquirer “THE GREAT Northern Dream”: we’ve all heard the phrase turned by many starry-eyed immigrants seeking a better life in Canada, the Great White North. Not all, however, find it. Some sectors of Canada’s very large immigrant population are faced with a unique set of problems in the place they have come to call home. Among these sectors: the Filipino elderly.

From scrimping on food to make ends meet, anger due to racism and social inequities, extreme loneliness; to suffering from poor emotional, mental and physical well-being because of worrying over finances, Filipino seniors in Canada deal with challenges of which the rest of society may not be aware.

To address the needs and concerns specific to our elderly “kababayans” in Canada Dr. Roland Sintos Coloma, Associate Professor at the OISE University of Toronto; Fritz Luther Pino; and Frank Villanueva, in collaboration with the Filipino Centre Toronto, have released a comprehensive 2-year study on the matter.

They chose to study representatives from the Greater Toronto Area—perhaps the most racially diverse region of Canada—in which the Filipino elderly sector represents the fastest- growing elderly minority group.

Entitled “Life is Really Hard Here: The Living Conditions and Needs of Filipino Elderlies in the Greater Toronto Area”, the study analyzes the responses of 250 participants of Filipino ancestry, at least 65 years of age, Canadian citizens or permanent residents, and living in the Greater Toronto Area; focusing on the living conditions and needs of the respondents, in the areas of finances, housing, health, and quality of life; in order to draw out the problems faced and make recommendations concerning these.

The main findings of the study are as follows: • Approximately 7 out of 10 Filipino elderlies in the GTA live in poverty.

• Economic vulnerability is more pronounced for those who migrated to Canada from 1991onward and for female elderlies.

• Filipino elderlies primarily rely on government support for their economic security.

• The majority of Filipino elderlies live with family members and/or relatives.

• Housing cost is the largest expense for most Filipino elderlies, followed by food cost.

• A sizeable proportion of Filipino elderlies rely on free or low-cost health and medical services provided by ethno-racial, religious, and other community-based organizations.

• A large segment of Filipino elderlies have additional quality of life concerns, including food sufficiency, personal out-

PA-MAX-MERIENDA-Q3-2013-Philippine Canadian Inquirer-CAN.indd 1

side assistance, and emotional wellbeing.

• Their living conditions are immensely impacted by deskilling and de-professionalization as well as by a kin-based, collectivist orientation.

The study puts forth ten recommendations for policy, program, and service development that are geared towards the government and community in order to promote and enhance the overall wellbeing of Filipino elderlies in the GTA and throughout Canada: 1. A Task Force on Filipino Elderlies must be immediately established. This community-led and multi-sectoral task force will take charge of the overall policy direction, advocacy strategy, and program development for culturally appropriate services to Filipino elderlies in the Greater Toronto Area and beyond.

2.

Filipino community groups, especially seniors groups, need to build and enhance their organizational capacity for political advocacy, grant writing and, when possible, service delivery in relation to the short- and long-term needs and overall wellbeing of Filipino elderlies.

3. Filipino community groups also need to look sideways to other ethno-racial organizations for potential collaborations and joint partnerships in relation to the shared interests of their elderly populations.

4. Politicians with sizable Filipino constituencies as well

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The Filipino Elderly Wellbeing Committee PHOTO FROM HTTP://FILIPINOELDERLYWELLBEING.WORDPRESS.COM/

as Filipinos in various municipal, provincial, and federal government positions need to take consistent leadership and coalition-building roles to advocate for the best interest of Filipino elderlies.

5. Government policies that promote a positive quality of life for all elderlies must be fully supported. The move to mandate retirement and to extend the retirement age to 67 must be rejected. On the other hand, the call to improve the current design of Pooled Registered Pension Plans (PRPPs) and enhance the Canada Pension Plan (CPP) must be endorsed. The shortening of the ten-year wait for elderly newcomers’ eligibility for Old Age Security benefits needs to be thoroughly investigated.

6. Government policies that are committed to eradicating labour exploitation, especially in relation to women, immigrant, and racialized minority workers, need to be maintained and

reinforced. The ongoing deskilling and de-professionalization of Filipinos and many immigrants of colour need to be redressed. The purposes, merits, and challenges of the Temporary Foreign Workers Program, including the Live-in Caregiver Program, must be openly discussed, especially its material, affective, and longitudinal impact on Filipinos both in Canada and in the Philippines.

7. The government needs to provide more subsidized housing in order to mitigate the long wait for available spaces. It also needs to create an Office of Housing Ombudsperson that will address complaints and grievances of renters, especially long-term and low-income elderly residents.

8. Better communication and dissemination of various elderly services and programs, especially for women, immigrants, and racialized minorities, is ❱❱ PAGE 39 Filipino Elderly

13-09-11 2:27 PM

Seen & Scenes

SPIRIT OF RHYTHM

FRIDAY SEPTEMBER 20, 2013 24

Germany’s Baynov Piano Ensemble performed the compositions of Berndt Haensel, Tomislav Baynov, Piazzolla, and Poulenc. The featured musicians included Filipino-Canadians Dorothy Uytengsu and Victoria Francisco, and Tomislav Baynov, Svetlana Haensel, Sirma Velitchkova, and Rosa Hong. Proceeds of the show were given to the Richmond Food Bank.

Photos courtesy of Poch Piezas

The complete ensemble at the reception: Percussionist Robby Geronimo, Dorothy Uytengsu, Victoria Francisco, Tomislav Baynov, Svetlana Haensel, Berndt Haensel, business managers Mr. and Mrs. Carlos Ramirez, and Rosa Hong.

Dorothy Uytengsu and percussionist Robby Geronimo

Phil. Ambassador Romeo and Dr. Annie Arguelles (standing, 2nd from left) with some members of the Richmond Food Bank

Phil. Ambassador Romeo Arguelles does an informal duet with Dorothy Uytengsu after the show.

from left to right: Tomislav Baynov, Svetlana Haensel, Rosa Hong and Victoria Francisco

SENATOR WITH TEAM FROM WINNIPEG, MANITOBA Sen. Tobias Enverga, Jr. (C, Ontario) joins in photo a girls basketball team from Winnipeg, Manitoba at the North American Basketball Association (NABA) Tournament, held during the recent Labour Day weekend in Toronto. In his talk at the event, the Filipino Canadian Senator stressed the equal importance of the spirit of sportsmanship that NABA inculcates in the minds of our youth and of learning the distinctions between needing and wanting to win. He cited one psychologist, who says “needing” connotes obsessiveness, whereas “wanting” suggests less emotional investment. Senator Enverga further cited the expert, saying that the “need to win” sends a message to our youth to compromise values, but “wanting to win” does not move our youth to sacrifice integrity, pointing out that the latter is more important for our youth to learn at this stage in their lives.

TEAM ALPHA TECH:CHAMPION OF THE 2ND MIGRANTE BC FRIENDSHIP BASKETBALL GAMES Team Alpha Tech brought home the Championship trophy for the Second Migrante BC Friendship Basketball League this summer. The final playoffs were held at the gymnasium of St. Helen’s Parish in Burnaby. The runners up were Team Riders and Team Raptors.

The Friendship Games were organized by Migrante BC in response to the demand of the local teams to have a friendly competitive game in between the bigger and annual Basketball League. The referees who have always helped Migrante BC in the games were Jon Carolino, Elmar Genaro, Fred Caacbay and Mel Sumang.

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

Filipinos and friends who are interested in knowing, supporting and joining MIGRANTE BC can call 604 677 4708 or email migrante.bc@gmail.com.

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Seen & Scenes

25 FRIDAY SEPTEMBER 20, 2013

MANITOBA STREET FESTIVAL

Sen. Tobias Enverga, Jr. and Mrs. Rosemer Enverga, (3rd and 4th from left ) join the organizers of the Manitoba Filipino Street Festival in Winnipeg for a souvenir photo. From left, Aida Champagne one of officers; the beauty queen for this year’s festival; and Ley Navarro, sponsorship and promotions chair of the event. Senator Enverga was also a guest speaker at the Manitoba Street Festival held August 24th. The festival was an effort by 43 community organizations highlighting Filipino customs and traditions through native music, dances and authentic cuisine.

LANDBANK REUNION LandBank Celebrates 50 years Anniversary with Landbank Alumni from Vancouver at the Creekside Community Recreation Centre in Vancouver BC on August 31. LBP President Gilda Pico was the special guest.

Sen. Tobias Enverga, Jr. joins a group of participants at the Manitoba Filipino Street Festival held recently in Winnipeg who hail from the southern Philippine island of Mindanao and who highlighted the traditional Muslim native costumes in the area. The festival was an effort by 43 community organizations highlighting Filipino customs and traditions through native music, dances and authentic cuisine.

BIO DIVERSITY Senator Tobias Enverga, Jr. (C, Ontario) is an advocate for the Rouge National Urban Park in Scarborough, Ontario. The Filipino Canadian Senator joins in photo Parka, the mascot for Parks Canada; MPP Tracy MacCharles (Lib, Pickering-Scarborough East); MP Corneliu Chisu (Pickering-Scarborough East); Janet Carding, Director & CEO of Royal Ontario Museum; Pamela Veinotte, Superintendent of Rouge National Park; and, Dave Ireland, Managing Director, Centre for Biodiversity during the launching recently of the world largest BioBlitz, aimed at mapping Metro Toronto’s biological Rouge National Urban Park. With the signing of a new collaborative agreement between Parks Canada and the Royal Ontario Museum (ROM), Rouge National Urban Park will be Canada’s first national urban park.

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Global Filipino

FRIDAY SEPTEMBER 20, 2013 26

FILIPINO-CANADIAN IN FOCUS:

Diona Joyce of Tita Flips

BY CHING DEE Philippine Canadian Inquirer

started living on her own.

Diona considers it as a happy accident.

IT IS impossible to walk along a street in the Philippines without encountering the perpetual line of various street food—from deliciously charred barbecue and isaw, to crunchy proven, to the unchanging taste (and price!) of fishball, to the ever-so-tempting kwek-kwek.

You can even wash down the myriad of roadside treats with a glass of buko pandan or samalamig.

But that’s in the Philippines.

For residents of downtown Toronto, street food was limited to hotdogs until Diona Joyce of Kanto by Tita Flips came to town.

Do what you have to do

An Accident

Diona Joyce was a medical representative back in the Philippines, until one fateful day when she accompanied a friend to a travel agency.

“Ano bang gagawin mo dyan?” she asked her friend.

The friend said she was going to get a visa to Canada. While waiting, Diona was urged and cajoled by the agency to answer a questionnaire to determine if she herself qualifies based on Canada’s point system at that time. They asked her what she was doing for work (med rep), where she graduated and several other hoops, and the verdict—she qualifies. “Why don’t you apply! You don’t have to pay for anything, only when you get accepted,” she remembers them telling her.

In eight months, she got her Canadian visa. She mulled, “So I guess I have to go to Canada now.”

Single but the breadwinner, her family supported her decision to move to Canada. In June 2001, Diona flew to Canada and

Living alone may have its perks, but perhaps not so much in another country. Thousands of miles away from her family, Diona had to face new challenges by herself.

“Literally, I started from nothing,” Diona said. “I have no family, I have no relatives even here in Toronto.

“It was very challenging to get the same job that I had in the Philippines since you have to start from the very [bottom], like entry-level,” she shared.

“I was a medical representative and of course I was looking for the same job or the same field here in Toronto. It was kind of hard because I didn’t have any Canadian [experience]. I didn’t go to school here, I don’t speak French… I didn’t have the time and money to go to school and everything, so I had to find whatever I could do to make a living because I live on my own,” she explained.

She had to do what she had to do. One of her first jobs was at McDonald’s.

The beginning of Tita Flips

At a young age, she was exposed to her mom’s cooking and developed an affinity to culinary arts as well.

“My way of cooking is very traditional, I still follow whatever the traditional Filipino dishes are,” she said.

When she came to Canada, she dutifully brought her share of food for potluck get-togethers. Until her friends started to get hooked on her deliciously satisfying concoctions.

In an interview with Rina Espiritu of KapisananCentre. com, Diona said, “I started to cook at parties, just socially.

Soon after, friends would start requesting food and ordering party trays. Then I started catering to birthdays and weddings!”

Her friends’ support gave her the idea of starting her own food business. At a time when street food in Toronto was almost unheard of, Diona broke culinary barriers.

“There’s literally no street food in Toronto. So, bawal siya (it was prohibited),” she recalled. “There’s really no Filipino food in the mainstream.”

“At first, sabi ng iba, ‘Wag, kasi mahirap, wala namang Pilipino, wala namang bibili, mga puti marami.’ (People said, don’t, there’s not many Filipinos, no one will buy, but the white market is big). But I said, ‘I don’t know, let’s see. Let’s try,’” she shared. “(Then) I was given the opportunity to have a space at the Scadding Court Community to represent Filipino cuisine,” she told Espiritu.

She then decided to launch Pinoy-style street food, which started out as a food cart—a generic shipping container converted into a small restaurant.

“Everything that a restaurant has, we have it,” she said.

“It’s situated by buses and vendors, and is called ‘Kanto.’

I don’t want to do a different brand or different name para hindi malito yung mga tao (so the people will not get confused),” Diona laughed.

She also shared with KapisananCentre.com where the name “Tita Flips” came from.

“In Filipino culture, we don’t call our elders by their first names. Most common is “Tita” for an older Filipino woman, usually an aunt. And “Flips” is basically just a nickname for Filipinos.”

“I just had to do something very appealing to North Ameri-

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Diona Joyce at her Kanto by Tita Flips food truck (minus the wheels).

PHOTO FROM EDUPLATE.BLOGSPOT.CA

Palabok

Sisig poutine

PHOTO FROM KANTO BY TITA FLIPS’ WEBSITE

PHOTO FROM FOODIETROLL.BLOGSPOT.COM

can people… Make the food enticing. More presentation. We make it in a way (where) the compromise should be acceptable to the North American palette, which is hindi masyadong maalat (not too salty), di masyadong mataba, less fatty or greasy,” Diona explained.

Today, Kanto’s bestsellers include Palabok, Tapa, and Lechon Kawali. They also have ‘Sisig Fries,’ Diona’s spin on Poutine—Canada’s gift to humankind.

Diona shared her words of wisdom.

“First and foremost, you should have a passion… You should have a passion for what you’re doing, you have to love it.

“Give the best in whatever you can give. [Don’t be] mediocre.

“When you’re cooking, I always think this is the last time I’m going to cook, so it has to be the best meal ever. All the time, everyday. You have to think like that.

“You have to be consistent in what you’re doing. [But at the same time], you have to think of new, exciting dishes,” she shared.

So, what’s next for Diona and Tita Flips?

Diona said they’re hoping for a permanent place where patrons can sit down and enjoy the home-style Filipino cooking without freezing.

“People can only enjoy the food during summer,” she said.

“Most of the time, it’s cold in Canada.”

We’re sure Tita Flips will continue to grow, thanks to the warmth of Diona’s Filipino cuisine which will surely draw the crowds and make them stay. ■

‘You have to love it.’

“I’ve been everywhere, I’ve been in medical work, I was in sales, and for the last 10 years in Canada I was a broker. But still, there’s something missing,” Diona recalled.

That something missing was cooking for a living.

“My quest really is to bring Filipino food in the mainstream,” Diona announced.

“I know I’m doing street food, but still people are trying [the food] because they wanted to see what’s in there, and for them to come back, that’s really something,” she beamed.

When asked about her tips for aspiring entrepreneurs,

27 FRIDAY SEPTEMBER 20, 2013

Kindness is key

BY MELISSA REMULLABRIONES Philippine Canadian Inquirer VANCOUVER—The Largest Human Peace Sign will be attempted at Matthews Field at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver on September 21. It aims to get together 6,000 peace ambassadors for a Guinness World Record attempt, and promises to be a day of wonderful entertainment and joyous celebration.

The theme is peace, and the powerful undercurrent is kindness.

Its leaders and proponents are Joyce Ross (author, marketing coach and keynote inspirational speaker) and E. Patricia Connor (ordained minister, author and keynote inspirational speaker), who are both leading the way in transformational heartmind wisdom.

The two sat down with PCI and talked about their personal stories, connecting with one’s own heart, peace, and of course, kindness.

PCI: How and when did the “Kindness Movement” start in Vancouver?

Joyce and Patricia: Vancouver’s Kindness Movement began in 1970 when Brock Tully, at age 23, bicycled around North America with the intention of creating a kinder world—a grueling feat he repeated in 2000 and 2009, cycling a total of over 50,000 kilometers. Brock also co-founded the Vancouverbased Kindness Foundation of Canada in 1998 and the World Kindness Concert in 2000.

Brock’s chapter “BOUNCING BACK FROM BROCK BOTTOM” is a compilation of wisdom and reflections gleaned through his bicycle tours and the “12 inch journey from his head to his heart.” Brock’s candid and often poetic recount of his journey within includes inspirational insights such as “…when i thought the light was at the end of the tunnel, i got ‘tunnel-vision’; when i see that the light is within, there are no longer any tunnels visible.”

We connected with Brock

Tully in 2010, the year we started Kindness is Key Training and Publishing. A mutual friend suggested we attend the World Kindness Concert, which we did. The concert was magical and we immediately fell in love with Brock’s easy-going and fun nature. He was on the same mission as us—propagating global kindness, one heart at a time. We met for coffee, discussed our shared vision, and a new friendship was born.

PCI: What are your personal stories that led you to be involved in the kindness movement?

Patricia: Our kindness mission began with a divine aha moment Joyce had in 2010 while striving to overcome a gambling addiction. One day, she turned it up to God, and asked, “What is it that I really need?” She expected to hear that she needed a kick in the pants or to win the lottery.”

That’s not what Joyce heard.

What she heard, which was more of a divine spiritual knowing than actual words was, YOU

NEED KINDNESS. For a stunningly glorious moment, she felt herself being bathed in a beautiful warm love as all of her angst melted away into a blissful, peaceful feeling.

She immediately knew that the key to changing her behavior wasn’t berating herself—it was loving herself.

Joyce: I shared my Kindness Aha Moment with my long-time friend and now kindness mission partner, Patricia. When I finished talking, Patricia shared how allowing self-kindness into her heart had helped quiet the selfdeprecating voice that fueled her depression, thereby freeing her from the darkness that had periodically ruled her life, sometimes for years at a time.

After more excited conversation, we realized that kindness—though a simple and ordinary word—has extraordinary transformational impact.

PCI: In the “Heartmind Wisdom Inspirational Anthology Collection”, what was your most favorite story, the one you can say spoke to you, and why?

Patricia: The innocence and playfulness of J. Dennis Robert’s coming-of-age story “FEAR-

LESS, NO MATTER WHAT!” touched my heart. Born with Horner’s Syndrome, a rare disease characterized by big ears and droopy eyelids, Dennis’s chapter shares the adventures, shenanigans and ingenuity of a courageous boy who realized he was different and compensated by proclaiming himself fearless. It was a pronouncement that buoyed his self-confidence; however, as a teen it also invited occasional run-ins with the law.

Dennis’s message that you can succumb to your limitations or proceed to greatness in spite of them, is one that will resonate with every reader.

Joyce: My father passed away from cancer in April 2013. As my Dad’s primary caregiver during his final months, I found great comfort in Shirley J. Bueckert’s chapter “ALCHEMY OF GRIEF” about losing six loved ones in three years. It was as though I had an earth angel in my corner; someone who understood my grief and inability to deal with the outside world while caring for Dad. He was all that mattered, and I knew she’d get that. I also drew from ❱❱ PAGE 36 Kindness is

KINDNESS IS KEY & HEARTMIND WISDOM present

LARGEST HUMAN PEACE SIGN Concert L i v e E n t e r t a i n m e n t Noon – 5 pm G u i n n ess Wo r l d Re co rd Atte m pt - 2 p m

Family-friendly FREE Concert in support of:

MERCY SHIPS CHARITY HOSPITAL PREFERRED SEATING DURING PERFORMANCE WITH SMALL DONATION.

VANCOUVER FOOD BANK ON SITE PLEASE BRING NONPERISHABLE DONATIONS

WESTMARK I N S TA L L AT I O N S

Aqua Blue Water & Filtration

In support of the concert, Vancouver’s Mayor Gregor Robertson proclaimed September 21, 2013 ‘KINDNESS DAY.’

VOLUNTEER: kindnessiskey@hotmail.com w w w . h u m a n p e a c e s i g n . c o m 604-764-0140 www.canadianinquirer.net

FRIDAY SEPTEMBER 20, 2013

28

Throwback Thursday Doing #ThrowbackThursday like a pro Beginnings of #tbt

BY KATHERINE MARFALTEVES Philippine Canadian Inquirer IF YOU are using Instagram or Twitter or even Facebook, it is (probably) inevitable for you to use or spy the hashtag #throwbackthursday, or #tbt, once, twice or even more.

Social media experts’ records show that more than 40 million pictures were tagged with #tbt on Instagram, and roughly 23 million with #throwbackthursday.

As your Facebook, Instagram or Twitter is flooded with these hashtags, you are either already amazed or irritated with it (I hazard a guess—you are probably amazed—some of the pictures are funny!). Want to know how this popular hashtag craze started?

Its (possible) beginnings

No one knows. We can all probably just surmise.

Indeed, it is tough to identify the exact origin of the tag #throwbackthursday, but a search using the Instagramers iPhone app will allow you to see the oldest tags on file and there you’ll find out that in 2011, a user named @bobbysanders22 started to use the tag, which became synonymous with “events and objects that are no longer culturally relevant”.

However, Instagramers founder Philippe Gonzalez said in an interview that there’s no clear indication that the user

was the first person to use the hashtag: “We are never 100 percent sure, as Instagram is removing old tags these last months and some old ones could have been deleted.”

Hmmm...

In January 26, 2012, it had some sort of legitimacy when Throwback Thursday put in the dictionary radar via the Urban dictionary which defined it as “When you put a picture from ‘awhile’ ago on your social media sites.”

Google Trends also show that people started using #ThrowbackThursday more regularly in February 2012, and since then people’s interest in the hashtag game has increased significantly.

It was also not possible to

pinpoint exactly when Throwback Thursday started on Twitter. However, it is known that the Kardashian sisters were one of the frequent #tbt posters (and hence, its advocates).

Kim’s first recorded use of the hashtag was in February 2012.

Enough about its history. In case you are wondering about it and now want to participate, let PCI teach you do how to do #ThrowbackThursday like a pro.

Here are some rules according to some social media experts and self-confessed #tbt addicts: 1. Your throwback picture must be at least 5 years old. The older the photo, the better. If you have the hard copy of the old photo, it is cool to take a

In honour of Throwback Thursday, Lindsay Lohan recently posted an old-school picture with Kirsten Dunst on her Instagram account, saying “#tbt @kirstendunst”. They were adorable!

photo of it as well (okay, a scanner will do too). The #tbt photo must really show how different you are now from before.

Photos from the polaroid zone are best. If you have childhood photos with now-popular actors and actresses, man, those are the best.

If you want to post a photo from the more recent past, better tag it as #latergram, according to social media fanatics and experts (the advice: Respect

Throwback Thursday).

2. Please. No Pictures from summer or last week. No matter how excited you are to post your vacation pictures from last summer or last week and tag it as #tbt, contain yourself and place a different (more appropriate) tag instead.

3. Do not post 20 million pictures for #tbt. Because you will have a gazillion chances ❱❱ PAGE 44 Doing #Throwback

Throwback Thursday

29 FRIDAY SEPTEMBER 20, 2013

My brother and I loved to cosplay; way, way before we knew what the term meant.

Our Fisher Price circus set. The tiger’s cage became our rescued mouse’s sanctuary. At least until we were found out.

That old Spanish house

BY ANGIE DUARTE Philippine Canadian Inquirer I GREW up in an old Spanish house, in the heart of old Spanish Manila. It had a big garden and no shortage of trees, nooks, crannies, “secret” crevices, and hiding places ever-so-perfect for a sneaky 8-year-old girl.

I once hid so well, for what seemed like hours on end. It was rather fun and amusing, watching all the adults go by, calling out for me. Until the pitch of their voices started to change. Then it stopped being fun. Too scared to show myself, I mustered my best and bravest “TAH-DAH!”, before jumping out of my hiding place. It worked for 2 seconds.

Hugs first, spanks shortly thereafter from the not-too-amused adults.

I climbed trees and skinned my knees.

More than once. One time, on my way down from my favorite tree, I caught my leg on a rusty nail. The head left a longish, jagged cut on my inner thigh. I knew I had tetanus shots, so peroxide did the trick. I found a hammer in my Abuelito’s toolshed and attacked that traitorous nail con mucho gusto. No one messed with my favorite tree.

Sometimes, I would pack a sandwich and a book in a little satchel, climb all the way to the very top of the tree, which rested against the roof of the house, and have a picnic for one. Well, for two: the sun and I. If I got caught, there was trouble.

BIG trouble. But I climbed again, anyway.

These were my special dates with Mr. Golden Sun and his fabulous rays (I’m sure my favorite tree didn’t mind) and nothing could keep me away for long.

How I longed to be able climb all the way up at night, too. Then I could gaze at the stars and the moon. But alas, my fearlessness had its limits.

The neighborhood kids and I played war games on sunny days. We fash-

ioned guns from twigs and branches. I was the nurse. ALWAYS the nurse. Until I declared a war of my own, and demanded to be a general. On rainy days, we clogged all the garden’s drain holes and played water war games. With me as general. Dog poop sometimes floated by in our garden-come-lake. We didn’t care much. It was our dog.

We fried crickets and ate them.

EWWW, I know. We ate yummy things, too. We wolfed down Abuelita’s chocolate fudge cake, with ice-cold bottles of Pop-Cola. Oh how we all loved Abuelita’s cake. I would yell from the kitchen window, as any good general would, “Michael, Kenny!!! There’s chocolate caaaaaaaaaaake!” and dutifully, the soldiers ran from across the street. We would sit around the kitchen table— Mike, Kenny, me, my brother Joey—and smile despite, more like BECAUSE OF, fudge-covered teeth.

Speaking of my brother… we once found a mouse, about to be executed by way of whack-a-sack. We rescued it, hid it in the tiger’s cage of our Fisher Price circus set, and fed it cheese. A week later, we were busted. MORE big trouble. Oh, and he—my brother, not the mouse— once jumped out of a still-moving car, while yelling “Superman!!!” This was almost as bad an idea as the time he “dove” into the cactus bush. We would don costumes, for no apparent reason, and live out our superhero fantasies to the hilt.

Hours were spent wading in a plastic inflatable pool in the backyard; chasing Abuelito’s chickens; getting chased by Abuelito’s roosters.

I would ride my fiberglass Tiger skateboard, and do tic-tacs and other tricks.

Again with the skinned knees. I carried that skateboard to school. Boy, how I loved it. My yaya (nanny) would scold me, in a grumbling manner: “Ayan!

Gasgas na naman! Hindi ka na puede maging Ms. Universe! (There! Another

The old Spanish house was enclosed within gardens, and these gardens were my playground.

scrape! Now you can no longer be Ms. Universe!)” Meh. Ms. Universe is overrated anyways.

On most weekends, my cousins, Gerry and Tonichi, would come for sleepovers.

Patintero (a Filipino game played on empty streets, involving a grid drawn on the ground, and two opposing teams of “taggers” or “its”, and “runners”) was the order of the day. At night, it was flashlight tag, hide-and-seek in the dark, and of course, ghost stories. Then we discovered my uncle’s stash of Playboy...oh boy.

I hardly watched TV (except for Batman with Adam West, and the Hardy Boys). Did not have very many gadgets

(my cassette player was all I needed, really). Had no computer (only offices did), no ps3, psp, mp3, Xbox, wii, whatever. I don’t even know if I got all those names right, just there.

I was rough and tumble. Tomboy-ish.

Rambunctious. Naughty with just the right amount of nice. Learned to make do with what I had, and create or save up for what I didn’t have. Learned to play well with others. Most of the time, anyways.

I grew up in an old Spanish house, in the heart of old Spanish Manila. Life was quite simple, with neither too many frills, nor complications. And I wouldn’t have it any other way. ■

2013 Richmond and Delta Chamber of Commerce Trade Show Wednesday, September 25, 2013 River Rock Show Theatre Resort

3:00PM - 7:00PM

Easy Acess via the Canada Line and ample parking too!

Admission $5.00

For more information or to book a booth please visit

www.RichmondChamber.ca or phone (604) 278-2822

Brought to you by:

www.canadianinquirer.net

Throwback Thursday

FRIDAY SEPTEMBER 20, 2013 30

Throwback Thursday: Filipino celebs PHOTOS COMPILED BY CHING DEE Philippine Canadian Inquirer WHAT’S MORE adorable than the earlier versions of actors and actresses when they were not yet so adorable (okay, some are unbelievably good-looking even then). It gives us chance to pause and think of what could be (yes people do mutate and sometimes become better better better versions of themselves).

Ah, hope springs eternal. Here are some of our top picks. ❱❱ PAGE 33 More photos

Bianca King (@biancaking)

Kris Aquino (@krisaquino214) : “From my Dad’s calendar giveaway 1972.

Good night. Thanks for sending me the picture to share.”

Lovi Poe (@lovi_poe) : “Me and my beautiful mom”

Anne Curtis (@annecurtissmith) : “#throwbackthursday. 14 y.o. Me. Hi!!!”

Angelica Panganiban (@iamangelicap) : “#ThrowBackThursday ang tawag dito.....”

Historical Fiction Evelyn - She is American! (Kanojo wa Amerika-jin desu!)

Dedicated to World War II American and Filipino guerrillas. It is about American and Filipino guerillas’ fight for freedom.

(Most events are true and the historical dates accurate - First edition May 2013.)

Great gift to dad, grandpa and greatgrandpa!

This novel is not all about atrocities of war, it is a story of love, of goodness in the hearts of individuals. It is a story of two peace-loving people caught by the web of war complexity. It is a story of espionage, survival, revenge, and greed -- most of all love and forgiveness.

One does not have to fight to show loyalty to his country; Ole grandpa and Ole grandma could not fight but they were heroes.

The author worked as radio operator/clerk for 623rd Aircraft Control and Warning Squadron, USAF in 1945 to 1950. He is a holder of B.S. in Electrical Engineering degree - FEATI University graduate - Class 1958. He worked for DZBB-TV-7 (now GMA-TV-7) in the Philippines for twelve years and for Baton Broadcasting Inc. in Toronto, Ontario, Canada for sixteen years. He worked as field engineer for FF Cruz & Co. and was assigned to Project SECOR (Sequential Collation of Range) of the US Army Map Service which ended in 1970. The author is a Filipino-Canadian - a handicapped. With a desire to reinvent himself and maintain a peaceful and worthy retirement. He allocated part of his time writing.

Order at Chapers, Indigo, Coles or any National bookstore in Philippines. (Ebook available at Lybrary.com and eBookPie.com)

ORDER INSTORE: Title: Evelyn She is American!, Author: Angel Caguiat, Publisher: FriesenPress,

ISBN: Hardcover: 978-1-4602-1358-2, Paperback: 978-1-4602-1359-9, E-book: 978-1-4602-1360-5

ORDER ONLINE: Friesenpress.com, Amazon.ca, Amazon.com & Barnes&Noble.com

ON SEARCH BOX type: evelyn she is american! http://friesenpress-accounts.appspot.com/bookstore/title/119734000009808113

Thank you for your support! From the author, Angel Caguait. www.canadianinquirer.net

FRIDAY SEPTEMBER 20, 2013

31

Entertainment

Toronto International Film Festival

BY ISABELLE DOCTO Special to Philippine Canadian Inquirer EXCITEMENT TINGLED in the pit of my stomach as I fumbled with my Canon DSLR. I knew that I had to be prepared if I wanted to get great shots. Behind me, my roommate was ready for her notebook to be graced by their coveted signatures.

Fans pushed against the barrier, wanting to get the first glimpse of the ones they so idolized stepping out of the polished, window-tinted vehicles. And then when they finally made their way on to the red carpet, it was as if you were a part of the movie that they were starring in.

This was the magic that the Toronto International Film Festival spread across down town Toronto from September five to the fifteenth. Many celebrities converged on the city, and so did many of their adoring fans—me being one of them.

I didn’t move to Toronto for the soul purpose of attending TIFF. I moved from Vancouver to pursue studies in journalism at Ryerson University. Luckily, the Ryerson Theatre was one of the venues hosting premiers.

My roommate and I took full advantage of this when we figured out that Jake Gyllenhaal, Jesse Eisenberg, and Dakota Fanning would be making their way down the Ryerson Theatre red carpet. It was just a few steps from our residence, but we went there two hours early, securing ourselves a spot at the front of the barrier.

It was surreal seeing the actors in person. When they came up to us to take pictures, sign autographs, and greet us, I realised that I was just a few inches from them. I told Dakota she looked stunning, I touched

Jake’s blazer, and I told Jesse that I liked his shoes to which he replied, “thanks!”

I know I sound like a crazy fan right now, remembering all of these miniscule details from that night, but seeing them in the flesh made me realise how we glorify celebrities so much that we forget they’re just like us.

In the Philippines, a festival such as TIFF would have probably caused mayhem. This is because celebrities and show business are an integral part of Filipino’s lives. They look up to the famous and yearn to live as fabulously as them. That’s why shows such as Pinoy Big Brother are so popular. Every year, people line up for the auditions in hopes of becoming the next Sam Milby.

Being born there, I also grew up learning to put celebrities on a pedestal. My parents, who worked at ABS-CBN, were always around Filipino stars that I admired. If I had stayed in the Philippines, it’s most likely that my dreams and aspirations would be focused on making it on to the silver screen. It’s not a bad thing to have dreams of becoming famous, but many forget that there are other selffulfilling ways to become successful.

Moving to Vancouver was a breather from all of the show business in the Philippines. It was still a part of the culture, but it did not weigh heavily on peoples goals in life. I found that I had an aptitude for writing and that’s why I made my way to Toronto, where celebrities are still loved, but the aim was to be more culturally enriched.

TIFF not only brought celebrities, but an eclectic array of films for people to experience.

Film fans with open minds viewed movies from around the world, including the Philippines. Filipino films such as “Norte, Hangganan ng Kasaysayan” by Lav Diaz and “Sapi”

I told Jesse that I liked his shoes, to which he replied, “Thanks!”

I touched Jake’s blazer.

I told Dakota she looked stunning.

by Brillante Ma. Mendoza were part of the TIFF screenings.

I managed to grab a ticket for “Dom Hemingway,” which stars Jude Law who plays an ex

convict with a crude vocabulary trying to salvage his life after 12 years in jail.

Overall, the experience that TIFF gave me fulfilled my fan

girl needs, but also made me realize that celebrities who walk on the red carpet are just like me, except with more expensive shoes to fill. ■

Entertainment

FRIDAY SEPTEMBER 20, 2013 32

Timmy Pavino: From YouTube to the Big Stage

BY ANDRE ENDIQUE Special to Philippine Canadian Inquirer WITH TALENT and an unwavering determination, Timmy Pavino took on the music industry and conquered adversity to find himself achieving his childhood dreams.

Adjusting to Manila

Though he’s happy to call Manila home now, Timmy said moving to the Philippines in 2011 wasn’t an easy experience.

“Oh man… I’m really in the Philippines,’” he remembered

self-made artist also designed and produced his current North American Tour. “[It’s] built out of love,” he stated. To his supporters, Timmy said, “These concerts are… a thank you. These are the great things that I’ve done with how you’ve helped me. This is my thank you… I want [supporters] to experience why [they] are my music.”

A Dream Come True

Looking Forward

“God made a way [and] now I’m with Star Records.” On signing with his record label, Timmy explained, “It was something I had dreamt of since I was thirteen, listening to Erik Santos’ album. I said ‘one day I’ll be [with] Star Records.’ I never thought it would happen [and] I’m happy.”

It Runs in the Family

Having started singing at an early age, Timmy described his family as musical, explaining, “I began performing on stage at the age of nine… [but] it was [during] the 25th anniversary party of my aunt, Cecil Azarcon, that I realized that this was what I wanted to do for the rest of my life.”

they sent me to Freddie Santos.

He’s directed shows for Regine (Velasquez), Lea (Salonga)…

Really respected. He [broke] me down with criticism… It took that to really break me. I remember crying for weeks. I wanted to go home… I realized [afterward] that he was trying to push me. I just set my mind to proving him wrong.”

“Built out of love”

Pop Balladeer Timmy Pavino with author

thinking to himself. “I wanted it, of course, but there was a culture shock… It’s a hard adjustment. I missed my friends, family, and my church… I had to find all those things again,” Timmy recalled.

Gaining Respect

Initially, the music industry was not so kind to the “Pop Balladeer”. Timmy explained, “I did meet with Star Records initially… but nothing ever pushed forward. I went to GMA, but…

After three albums and a year in and out of the studio, Timmy was proud to release his latest installment, Timmy Pavino: The OPM Album. Technically an independent record, he spent a year recording and personally producing each track. To coincide with the album, the

The charming “Pop Balladeer” said that in the future he hopes to get into movies. Timmy has already begun his acting career, performing as Matt, the lead role in the upcoming Broadway musical, The Fantasticks. At the same time, regarding his music career, Timmy enthuses, “I really want to keep creating as much music as possible.”

Timmy kicks off his “You & My Music” Tour on October 12, 2013 at Benaroya Hall’s Illsley Ball Nordstrom Recital Hall, Downtown Seattle, Washington. For more information or ticket reservations, visit www. facebook.com/TimmyPavinoMusic or call Pavison (206)4980572. ■

Billy’s time to face the music

BY MARINEL R. CRUZ Philippine Daily Inquirer AFTER THE recent breakup of Billy Crawford and fellow Kapamilya talent Nikki Gil, a lot of rumors started spreading about the actor-TV host who had opted to keep his silence.

“One rumor says I’m gay, another says I’m a drug addict,” says Billy in a recent press con for the movie “Momzillas.”

“I’ve also been linked to three girls already, and the last one is rumored to be pregnant.”

He understands that the rumors were a result of his refusal to reveal the real cause of the split up. “This is because people have already made up their minds [that I’m a bad person]...

I don’t mean harm to anyone.

If I talk, hahaba pa ‘yan,” he explains.

He feels embarrassed that he is being romantically linked to his “Momzillas” costar Andi Eigenmann, who is one of the girls being blamed for the breakup.

Billy has already apologized to Andi whose name, he says, is merely being dragged into the issue because of their movie.

“Andi became a friend of mine through the film. We became close—that’s true—but the breakup wasn’t Andi’s fault. It’s not fair to include her in the story.”

Billy adds, “I first met Andi when she was doing the show ‘Agua Bendita.’ We got to know each other better while working on this movie. Direk Wenn (Deremas) would always tell us, ‘Mag-usap nga kayo!’ We had to do it to develop chemistry. She’s a really nice person.”

Andi’s side

Andi has come to Billy’s defense, saying: “That’s really how it is. Billy has denied that rumor many times already. I hope people will stop inventing stories as to what really happened between them. It’s really personal.” In “Momzillas,” Billy and Andi play a couple engaged to be married. They hatch a

plan to reconcile their feuding moms (Maricel Soriano and Eugene Domingo), who figure in an accident and end up lost in a remote island. The two mothers are forced to work together and settle their issues if they want to survive.

Billy says working with the “Momzillas” cast is a blessing.

“Everyone was so relaxed on the set. Even though all of us were going through something in our lives, none of us talked about personal stuff,” he says.

Like family

Billy adds, “I’ve decided not to elaborate on the split up.

Mama (Maricel Soriano) didn’t ask about it either. That’s why I respect her even more. I say the same for the rest of the cast. They really treated me as part of their family during the months that we’ve worked with each other. Even when we’re no longer working, we still communicate. I know that whatever happens, they’re here for me.” www.canadianinquirer.net

ONE OF the women being linked to Billy Crawford is Andi Eigenmann.

“Momzillas,” a coproduction of Star Cinema and Viva Films, hits cinemas nationwide on Sept. 18. It also features Joey

Paras, Candy Pangilinan, Paul Jake Castillo, Mel Martinez, Atak, Luz Valdes, Eagle Riggs and Divina Valencia. ■

Entertainment

33 FRIDAY SEPTEMBER 20, 2013

It’s Cherie Gil’s time to dream big

BY MARINEL R. CRUZ Philippine Daily Inquirer

write it.”

Supportive husband

“I’M 50 AND [I] feel that this is the right time to do it,” says actress Cherie Gil on her decision to produce her independent movie “Sonata,” currently in cinemas. “[I’m] first and foremost an actor, but I want to grow,” Cherie points out. “At this time when Filipinos are widely recognized abroad, it’s my dream to also walk the red carpet in Cannes.”

Cherie says she is very excited to be venturing into film production. For this purpose, she has put up Myownmann Productions Inc. “It’s been five years since I separated [from violinist husband Rony Rogoff ]— there’s no movement,” she notes. “I’m proud of what I’ve done so far, but I want to move forward.”

“Sonata,” directed by Peque Gallaga and Lore Reyes, is one of 11 entries in the 2013 Sineng Pambansa Film Festival AllMasters Edition, which ends Sept. 17.

Cherie is also set to produce a film featuring her brother Mark Gil, with his son Sid Lucero. She says: “I thought it’s time we showed a movie about men going through the problems of fatherhood. This is going to be an astig (gutsy) kind of film. It’s always hard for men to talk about feelings that’s why I want to tap into that. I asked Erik Matti to direct it and Sarge Lacuesta to

Cherie says she has maintained a good relationship with her husband, so much so that the world-renowned musician even contributed funds to her production.

Cherie shares with the INQUIRER: “Rony has always been supportive. I wanted to produce a stage play before, ‘Sunset Boulevard,’ but didn’t push through with it. I told Rony that ‘Sonata’s’ story was very close to that of ‘Sunset Boulevard’ so, without question, he put in money and didn’t even ask for a contract. You will see in the movie that I used the name ‘Cherie Gil E. Rogoff’ as executive producer. Officially, I’m still married to him.”

“Sonata” tells the story of Regina Cadena (Cherie), an opera diva on the verge of a nervous breakdown after losing her voice. She returns to her home province, Negros Occidental, and through a young boy, Jonjon Palma (Chino Jalandoni), rediscovers her life and art.

Cherie and her Israeli husband broke up in 2008. She says the separation was a “mutual” decision. “It was for the best of everyone. Rony lived up to our agreements. We continued talking because we shared the same intention—to bring up our children with love and respect for each another,” the actress explains.

The ex-couple has two kids— Bianca, 18, and Raphael, 16.

Cherie’s son from a previous relationship, Jay, is 27.

“The two kids are with him in New York. We’ve never made an issue of it,” she notes. “He’s a doting dad. He is semiretired and has decided to give all his time to the kids. I can’t thank him enough for that. If not for him, I wouldn’t have this freedom to do what I want at this point.”

Unconventional

Cherie describes her relationship with her kids as “very unconventional,” but adds, “may pagmamahal naman.”

“We just had some issues about logistics and geography because their dad is a foreigner and my work is here,” she says.

“He has them in the morning and I have them at night, via Skype.”

She is visiting them next month, Cherie volunteers. “It would be harder for them to come here because Bianca plans to take up acting in college. I once told her, ‘Bianca, being an actress in New York City could mean chronic unemployment!’

She replied, ‘But I’m at my happiest when I’m on stage.’”

Cherie says her oldest son is doing well on his own. “Jay took up sound engineering in school and he is now doing exactly that at a big dinner theater in the Village. My youngest is still a baby. He doesn’t know it, but I think he’s a natural actor. Right now, he likes sports.

Being in New York keeps these kids steady. They are able to live normal lives there.” ■

Wrecking ball: Miley Cyrus and Liam Hemsworth call off their engagement

Throwback Thursday... ❰❰ 30

Billy Crawford (@billyjoecrawford): “Alright mom, dad what is hello kitty doing behind me inside my room!?! #throwbackthursday uhhmmmmm ???”

Heart Evangelista (@iamhearte)

Vice Ganda (@praybeytbenjamin) : “‘May Nag-Text....Vice Ganda sa Araneta!’ poster. My very first major concert in 2010. pictorial by @ardin_ tuga . #throwbackthursday”

Nikki Gil (@nikkigil) : “Makasali nga sa #throwbackthursday hashtagna yan! #perstaymer #HSgrad #doublechin #yesmatalinoakobilibitornat hahahaha”

The Canadian Press NEW YORK—A wrecking ball has hit Miley Cyrus and Liam Hemsworth’s relationship.

Representatives for both celebrities confirmed Monday that the couple have called off their engagement.

The 23-year-old Hemsworth proposed to 20-year-old Cyrus last year. They met on the set of the 2010 movie “The Last Song.”

Cyrus, whose hits include “We Can’t Stop” and “Wrecking

PHOTO BY HELGA ESTEB / SHUTTERSTOCK.COM

Ball,” will release a new album called “Bangerz” on Oct. 8. Australian-born Hemsworth was one of the stars of “The Hunger Games.” He will appear in the

sequel, “The Hunger Games: Catching Fire,” that will be in theatres on Nov. 22.

Their breakup was first reported by People magazine. ■ www.canadianinquirer.net

Ramon Bautista (@ramonbautista, love guru) : “Throwback. Mariposa Sugarfree MV”

Entertainment

FRIDAY SEPTEMBER 20, 2013 34

Dennis Trillo revisits his ‘past’ via ‘My Husband’s Lover’ DENNIS TRILLO’S breakthrough as an actor came when he won a Best Actor award from the Metro Manila Film Festival for his role as a cross-dressing gay spy in the period film “Aishite Imasu 1945.” After that, Dennis thought way past doing gay onscreen. But the role of Eric, the gay third party in the GMA drama series “My Husband’s Lover,” was too good to pass up.

The long-time Kapuso actor first had apprehensions about the role. He already played the role of an unfaithful husband in “Temptation of Wife,” which just finished airing a few months prior “My Husband’s Lover” premiere. Yet, the project was a challenge an artist of Dennis’ caliber simply could not—and should not—ignore.

“Awa ng Diyos e nagustuhan naman ng mga tao yung trabaho ko, kahit papaano bumagay naman,” he said of his role in “My Husband’s Lover.”

Dennis even quipped, “Suwerte siguro talaga ako pag nagbabading-bading!”

He actually need not worry; Dennis and co-stars Tom Rodriguez (as his lover Vincent) and Carla Abellana (as Vincent’s wife Lally) have received raved reviews for their performances that are layered and subtle, way above the usual melodramatic ways usually expected in

Philippine primetime soap opera.

And it’s not like anything less is expected of Dennis. A Kapuso artist since 2001, he has shown great promise in his early shows such as “Mulawin” and has since lead numerous shows for the network.

One of the perks of doing a show like “My Husband’s Lover” for Dennis is how it made his fan base grow. Besides the local fans, Dennis now has a horde of foreign fans thanks to viewers who caught wind of the “My Husband’s Lover” phenomenon. A lot of Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender forums and sites on the internet will reveal viewers all around the world begging others to translate the Filipino dialogue to English. The show even received international media attention from popular entertainment blogs such as Queerty and PerezHilton.

“Hindi namin inaasahan na ganito yung pagtanggap ng mga tao, ng mga manonood. Hindi lang yung mga bading ang nakaka-appreciate, hindi lang sila yung nakaka-relate kundi pati mga lalaki, babae, kaya masarap ang pakiramdam,” he said.

“Para sa lahat naman itong ginagawa namin. Hindi lang ito para sa mga bading or tomboy kundi para sa lahat, dahil ginagawa naming disente ‘tsaka magan-

Dennis Trillo with co-stars Carla Abellana and Tom Rodriguez

da yung presentation,” Dennis added.

Of course, with an edgy show comes the criticism—and Dennis welcomes it. He’s confident what they’re doing is a decent show, an honest portrayal of sincere human emotion presented in a package that’s unusual and edgy for Philippine television. But Dennis supports the LGBT community; in fact, he said he wouldn’t even consider the show

if he has conservative views about sexuality.

“Ipinapakita lang naman namin yung totoong nararamdaman ng isang tao, lalaki man o babae, kapag umiibig siya.

Iyon lang, dito sa amin, lalaki sa lalaki,” Dennis said.

“My Husband’s Lover” can be seen worldwide on GMA Pinoy TV, the flagship international channel of GMA. ■

Miss Universe Canada 2013 Riza Santos overwhelmed by the support of Filipino communities

BY JERRY CAINGCOY THE REIGNING Miss Universe Canada 2013, Riza Santos hosted a highly successful dinner and dance show on September 8, 2013 with the overwhelming support of the Filipino communities in Calgary and from as far as Edmonton and Toronto. Hundreds of guests and various sponsors lined-up at the reception of the grand ballroom of Glenmore Inn Convention Centre as early as 4 p.m.

The guest of honour was no less than the Philippine Ambassador to Canada, Leslie Gatan and wife, Honorary Consul of Southern Alberta, Ferdinand Aguirre, local government officials, media personalities and Filipino businessmen alongside with family, friends and supporters.

The event was dubbed as “Believe: Inspirational Evening with Riza”—organized by her ever supportive and lovely mother, Dina Santos and close friends.

This event came to fruition in support to Riza Santos when she competes at the www.canadianinquirer.net

forthcoming Miss Universe 2013 pageant in Moscow this November. Part of the proceeds will go to a child with a debilitating disease from the Philippines whom Riza Santos wants to help.

The National Anthem of Canada was powerfully sung by Riza Santos herself followed by the Philippine National Anthem. Dr. Rose Geonzon, the President of VISMINSA Charities delivered her welcome remarks highlighting Riza Santos’ impressive achievements.

The sumptuous dinner was served as the program sailed on. The grand entrance of Riza Santos elicited a thunderous applause with a standing ovation from the crowd. Her inspiring message especially to young women in following their dreams by believing in themselves captured the audience.

She sashayed down the runway wearing each of her crown as Miss Earth Canada 2006, Miss World Canada 2011 and as the reigning Miss Universe Canada 2013 to the admiration of all. A ❱❱ PAGE 36 Miss Universe

Entertainment

35 FRIDAY SEPTEMBER 20, 2013

Black-and-white magic at all-stars ball Young stars stunned fans and fashionistas during Saturday night’s Star Magic Ball as they paraded in ball gowns and suits made by the country’s top designers.

Liza Soberano

Shaina Magdayao and Piolo Pascual

Julia Barretto

Daniel Padilla and Kathryn Bernardo

BY MARINEL R. CRUZ Philippine Daily Inquirer

Jun Escario. She said her boyfriend, Bacoor Gov. Jolo Revilla, was “busy… but I sent him a photo of my gown via Viber.

He liked it.”

Nikki Gil wore a pastel blue number, also by Jun Escario. It was her “movingon look,” she jested.

Other solo celebs: Erich Gonzales, Alex Gonzaga, Pokwang, K Brosas and Julia Barretto. Gretchen Barretto, in a black piece by Joji Lloren, was escort-less on the red carpet, too. But she arrived with daughter Dominique Cojuangco, who was actor Enchong Dee’s date.

“Isn’t she pretty?” Gretchen said of 18-year-old Dominique. “I know Enchong’s a good guy. I just told him not to kiss my daughter!”

Dawn Zulueta was with husband Anton Lagdameo Jr.; Dina Bonnevie, with Ilocos Sur Vice Gov. Deogracias Victor Savellano.

Among the couples were Bea Alonzo and Zanjoe Marudo, Kristine Hermosa and Oyo Sotto, Maricar Reyes and Richard Poon, Kaye Abad and Guji Lorenzana, Robi Domingo and volleyball star Gretchen Ho, Sam Concepcion and Jasmine Curtis-Smith, Angelica Panganiban and John Lloyd Cruz, and Shaina Magdayao and Piolo Pascual.

Gerald Anderson and Maja Salvador attended their first ball as a couple.

“We’re here to enjoy,” said Maja. “My date looks so sexy,” added Gerald. “I am so lucky.”

The program began at 9:45 p.m., with an opening number from event host Martin Nievera. Yeng Constantino performed two songs. Two ballrooms were

GUSHED ABS-CBN president and CEO Charo Santos-Concio, describing the stars at the 7th Star Magic Ball held on Saturday night: “The ladies are all beautiful and the men, dashing!”

The annual Kapamilya party—arguably the most anticipated red carpet event in local show business—was attended by other ABS-CBN big bosses, namely Gabby Lopez, network chair; Cory Vidanes, broadcast head; Laurenti Dyogi, head of TV productions; Mariole Alberto, Star Magic head; and Johnny Manahan, Star Magic founder.

“I see child actors who are all grown up now,” Concio noted in her welcome speech.

Celebrities garbed in black, white, or black and white, the evening’s motif, began arriving at the Fairmont Hotel as early as 6 p.m. Curiously, this year, many stars walked the red carpet solo. One of them was actress Jessy Mendiola, who was a head turner in a deep V-neck outfit

by Francis Libiran.

Asked why she turned up with neither Sam Milby nor Jake Cuenca—her rumored suitors—Jessy said: “Why not?

I just want to enjoy and not feel self-conscious.”

Sam, in a black tux also by Francis Libiran, told reporters: “I am courting her.

I’m saying this so that if people see us together, there will be no more questions.”

Also dateless was Jodi Sta. Maria, who looked lovely in a silver tube gown by

Gretchen Barretto

Xian Lim and Kim Chiu

converted into one huge runway for the fashion show titled “Fashion a la Cinco,” which showcased the clothes of Dubaibased Filipino designer Michael Cinco.

All personal conflicts seemed to have been set aside as the Kapamilya artists

danced and drank wine. Gretchen’s comment best described the mood: “There’s a right time for everything. Tonight, I’m just really grateful for the love I see around and for the people who make me feel it.” ■

www.canadianinquirer.net

Entertainment

FRIDAY SEPTEMBER 20, 2013 36

Miss Universe... fantasy fashion show participated by local Filipino beauty queens and vocal rendition

by Filipino artists in Calgary added entertainment value to the evening.

The highlight of the event was the keynote speech of Philippine Ambassador to Canada, Leslie Gatan. He encouraged the Filipinos in Canada to be actively involved in whatever community activities in order to build a strong, cohesive and progressive Filipino community. He added that we should encourage one another to excel in

whatever field we are into and to be proud of every Filipino achievement in Canada. Public dance followed to cap the night with a ballroom exhibition from dance enthusiasts.

It was indeed an inspirational evening—a testament that we Filipinos have what it takes to succeed in whatever we do, wherever we are.

There is no other person who can epitomize the outstanding, world-class Filipino skills and talents than our very own, Riza Santos, Miss Universe Canada 2013. She is probably the only one in the history of

Canadian beauty pageant, if not in the whole world, to have received three major beauty titles. She is from a family of engineers, held various scholarship grants and numerous awards as a student at the University of Calgary’s Schulich School of Engineering. She completed her soldier training at the Canadian Army and is popular in the ramp modelling, print ad and television industry both in local and international scenes.

Riza Santos is one exceptional Filipino that we can all say, “I am proud to be Pinoy!” ■

PCI: What’s next for Kindness is Key Training and Publishing, Inc.?

Joyce and Patricia: We are currently editing the next two Heartmind Wisdom collections, and will soon be calling for authors for our fourth. Anyone interested in sharing their story, can contact us at kindnessiskey@hotmail.com or 604-764-0140.

As well, we have two upcoming initiatives: Heart Awakening Self-WORTHshop—November 23, 2013 As kindness takes root in self-love, we are hosting our first Heart Awakening SelfWORTHshop on November 23, from 9 am to 5 pm in our classroom at #202—14620 64th Avenue, Surrey.

Co-facilitating this interactive experiential day of fostering self-love and confidence are: BROCK TULLY: Co-founder of the World Kindness Concert, Kindness Rocks and the Kindness Foundation of Canada, and author of the Reflections Series. Are you ‘stuck’ in emotions and beliefs that derail your dreams and joy? Join Brock on an experiential journey toward

reclaiming your authentic, kind and confident self. http://www. brocktully.com DENISE HAGAN: Inspirational Singer Songwriter.

Tired of over-thinking your life? Learn how to access the creative ‘life-juice’ that may be trapped inside your heart. Discover the magic of this ‘creative heart’ and how its full expression is life’s best muse and medicine. www.denisehagan.com TED KUNTZ: Psychotherapist and author of Peace Begins with Me and 8 Weeks to a Better Relationship. Are conflict, resentment and regret robbing your sense of peace? Experience how by holding the vibration of peace you can transcend life’s challenges and transform suffering into acceptance and even joy. www.peacebeginswithme.ca PATRICIA CONNOR: Cofounder of Kindness is Key and the Heartmind Wisdom Anthology Collection. Do you wish to feel more connected, confident and whole? Discover how journaling and meditation move you toward community within—mind, body and soul—giving you the confidence to truly connect with others.

www.kindnessiskey.com/ JOYCE ROSS: Cofounder of Kindness is Key and the Heartmind Wisdom Anthology Collection. Is absolute joy alluding you personally and professionally? Learn how to transform ‘missteps’ and ‘self-recrimination’ into gratitude, love and joy, so that you may live the life you are meant to love. www. kindnessiskey.com/

❰❰ 34

PHOTOS FROM ISLANDOFNORETURN.BLOGSPOT.CA

Kindness is...

Shirley’s strength after Dad passed away.

Shirley not only lost her father, she also lost her husband, mother, her mother and father in-law and the husband of her best friend. She had endured and survived such incredible loss, so I knew I would too. ❰❰ 27

PCI: What does it mean to be the Kindness Ambassadors?

Joyce and Patricia: Kindness is an ordinary word with extraordinary impact. Being a Kindness Ambassador begins with being kind to oneself. Kindness is love in action. Self-kindness is self-love in action. When we are kind to ourselves, love ourselves in spite of our misgivings, shortcomings and missteps, we heal the parts of us that suffer in silence and transform from being self-focused to other-focused.

We become more aware of and caring toward our neighbours, our global brothers and sisters, the environment and animals.

Healed through self-kindness, we become more creative, happy, hopeful and productive.

As humans are social by nature, when we feel fortunate we want others to share in our joy, so we become more compassionate and more generous with our time and resources.

PCI: Aside from your books, what other top 3 books (or motivational speakers) helped you personally, professionally and spiritually?

Joyce and Patricia: Two quotes best sum up our personal influences: Mother Teresa caring words “Let no one come before you without leaving kinder

and happier” and Gandhi’s sage advice, “Be the change that you wish to see in the world.” Dr. Wayne Dyer’s book Change Your Thoughts; Change Your Life: Living the Wisdom of the Tao is one of our favorite books.

PCI: What simple things can you recommend people do to be kind in their day to day interactions with other people?

Joyce and Patricia: Being kind begins with connecting with one’s own heart, followed by reaching out to others. Smiling is the universal language of kindness. It’s a simple action that brightens the darkest day and lightens the heaviest load. Holding the door open for another, remembering to say thank you and paying an honest compliment to someone are everyday courtesies that breed a kinder world. Being present for others is key to being kind.

Imagine a world where we all took the time to connect with each other in a way that made each of us feel heard and valued. Becoming kinder is easy when you visualize everyone as wearing a sign that reads: “I want to feel loved.”

www.canadianinquirer.net

13 HOURS OF KIND ACTS— April 13, 2014 On Sunday, April 13th, 2014, together with the Heartmind Wisdom authors, we are hosting our first 13 HOURS OF KIND ACTS based on the 13 KINDNESS KEYS contained in our inspirational video 13 Keys to Living the Life You are Meant to Love. Anyone wishing to participate can email kindnessiskey@hotmail.com and we’ll send them the link to video and suggestions for propagating self and global kindness, one heart at a time. http://www. humanpeacesign.com/ ■

FRIDAY SEPTEMBER 20, 2013

37

Lifestyle

Gino and China– cooking their way from the kitchen to the altar

They will have an intimate sunset wedding in Tagaytay. Here, they share three dishes they love

BY VANGIE BAGA-REYES Philippine Daily Inquirer BABY LUCIA Margaret Ysabel Cojuangco Gonzalez has prematurely sealed her parents’ “love deal.”

She came into the lives of chefs Gino Gonzalez and China Cojuangco only three weeks ago—or about three months before the couple say their “I dos.”

Surely, baby Lucia will make the occasion doubly special and memorable.

Gino, 34, and China, 35, have been together for six years and nine months, and it was food that brought them together.

It all started when China enrolled at the Center for Asian Culinary Studies (CACS) where Gino, son of celebrity chef Gene Gonzalez who founded the school, was one of the chef-instructors. They grew close and never took their eyes off each other, so to speak.

We’ve asked the couple to share some dishes that are dear to them—those they either create together or prepare for each other.

Al Nero Pasta

Both love pasta—and making it from scratch. One of their favorites is squid-ink pasta.

“It’s been my favorite for a long time, siya rin pala,” says Gino. “We’d order squid-ink pasta wherever it’s served, usually at Cibo.”

They also cook the pasta together at home. China makes the fresh pasta, while Gino readies the sauce or vice versa.

“Funny, when we are in the kitchen we don’t talk that much, maybe because we already know what to do, the flow

and all. Sobrang sanay na kami,” says Gino.

To make it extra yummy, they give the dish a twist by dressing homemade saffron pasta with cherry tomatoes, roasted bell peppers, fresh basil and Korean chili flakes. It’s a pretty colorful dish, the dark sauce just at the bottom of the pasta.

Gino says it’s quite easy to cook, but getting the seafood at its right doneness is the tricky part.

Gino and China cook at least twice or thrice a week at home.

Typically, these are family-style meals with one or two protein, starch and vegetable dishes.

Sometimes, they make cooking an excuse to invite their friends or cousins over.

Asian short-ribs stew

Another favorite dish is the Asian short-ribs stew, a very aromatic beef seasoned with Asian spices.

“We are tired of the usual Western stew with potato, rosemary and thyme,” notes Gino.

“So, we came up with an Asian version with star anise, chili garlic paste, oyster sauce, hoisin sauce and orange peel finished with cilantro and sesame seeds.”

Gino enjoys cooking stews at home, especially after China bought him a nice yellow Le Creuset ceramic pan (dutch oven) on one of her family trips abroad.

“I’ve always wanted to have a Le Creuset because it retains the juiciness and tenderness of the meat. You can serve it straight from the oven to the table. It’s very rustic,” says Gino.

But, even when not braising meat, China and Gino use the ceramic pan for cooking sinigang or nilaga.

Chefs China Cojuangco and Gino Gonzalez, with their baby Lucia Margaret Ysabel Cojuangco Gonzalez.

“People are always surprised when we cook something out of the ordinary,” says Gino. “For us, it doesn’t have to be like our anniversary or something to cook a paella. It can be an ordinary Saturday or just plain craving on our part.”

Toblerone fondue

For dessert, they both love having chocolate fondue at home—made extra luxurious by using Toblerone instead of regular chocolate. The pair likes its almond, nougat-y flavor. A bit of amaretto is added to make the melted chocolate stronger.

Aside from strawberries and marshmallow, cherries or taisan cake are also used in chocolate fondue.

For cheese fondue, the couple usually go for raclette or gruyere.

They then pair their food with a glass of Shiraz or Zinfandel.

When not in the mood to cook, they just eat out. They enjoy checking out new restaurants, and consider dining out an education, to see new food trends and what people are talking about.

The pair keeps a list of favorite food escapades.

For Korean, they go to Awon Korean restaurant in Macapagal Avenue, Pasay.

For Japanese, they frequent Little Tokyo in Pasong Tamo.

If they crave for Mediterra-

ASIAN Short-Ribs Stew

TOBLERONE Fondue

nean or Persian, they drive to Ziggurat or Behrouz.

If it’s as simple as chicken inasal, they don’t mind braving the traffic to go to Bacolod Chicken Parilla on the corner of Scout Reyes and Scout Gandia in Quezon City.

To complete the experience while already in QC, they have a warm bowl of lugaw with tripe and innards at Kabayan Lugawan in Kamuning.

“I learned about the lugaw ❱❱ PAGE 39 Gino and China

Lifestyle

FRIDAY SEPTEMBER 20, 2013 38

Pork Barrel, The Musical

BY CHAREN CUSI “I’M LOOKING for ways to help…standby…”. This is a very powerful posting on Facebook by the kind-hearted Ms. Joey Albert, wanting to help our countrymen who were victims of typhoon Maring. Hundreds liked the posting and commented on it. One of them is my friend, Art Fabian, who offered his church facility in Guilford, Surrey for a mini-concert. This is how it all started. The next thing I knew, I was with Art busy organizing the fundraising event.

I was so excited and at the same time a bit nervous since we only got three weeks to make it happen. It’s a good thing that Art is very experienced with event organizing and with his full conviction and faith that we can do this, I acted on it as quickly as possible not wasting any moment. I asked the help of everyone I could think of that could contribute to this event— UPAABC, performers, musicians, clients, friends and relatives. My excitement went up when I received positive feed-

back and support from all of the people I’ve spoken to. Truly, Filipinos’ “bayanihan” values always exist wherever we are to help those who are in need.

Typhoon Maring submerged Metro Manila and nearby provinces, including Cavite, Laguna, Bulacan and Zambales with abovewaist floodwaters that affected thousands of families. Many who lived in the downstream areas needed to be moved to evacuation sites as dams were forced to open its floodgates. I can still remember such a flooding in Marikina and our area in Cainta and Antipolo 7 years ago when I was still in the Philippines. Streets were impassable, many were injured because of the rush of flood debris, family members went missing; worst, some lost their lives.

Year after year, our poor countrymen experience the same thing. Nothing has changed. We knew we had to do something.

Fast in the heels of Typhoon Maring was another issue that has raised the ire of the Filipinos back home: the pork barrel scam courtesy of Janet Lim-Napoles.

The amount involved was so staggering that there was a col-

Ms. Joey Albert (middle) with hosts Lizette Lofranco-Aba and Art Fabian.

The author singing “Balita” with guitarist Ronan Esmenda.

lective effort to get to the bottom of the scam and have all those involved indicted. The sentiment was the same in Canada so we thought it would be a great idea to have a discussion on the pork barrel during the event. This was led by community stalwart, Bert Quibuyen. Hence, the title of the fundraiser became “Pork Barrel, the Musical”.

The feeling of putting everything together to come up with an organized, entertaining, and meaningful show for a great cause is astounding. It was a night of great music, talent, and education on the pork barrel. Held on September 6, 2012 at the Praise International Church hall in Surrey, BC with about more than

www.canadianinquirer.net

The UPAABC group with Ms. Joey Albert and the night’s raffle winner.

200 attending, the sum of $5,600 was raised and given to Canadian Red Cross. This help will reach our countrymen through the Philippine National Red Cross. A total of eight boxes of used clothing were also collected during the event and will be sent through a church in the Philippines that is connected with Praise International Church.

We credit all the people who shared their time, their talents and skills, and their resources

for the success of the event.

Special thanks goes to Ms. Joey Albert and Mr. Arthur Fabian, Vice President of Starline Windows; Smart Mortgage Brokers Ltd., the UP Alumni Association in BC, Praise International Church, the Philippine Canadian Inquirer, performers, friends and attendees.

Everyone was so happy after the show. Everybody was smiling because we knew that each one of us made a difference. ■

Lifestyle

39 FRIDAY SEPTEMBER 20, 2013

The Likeability... popular, whether in school or at work; you will develop real friendships and find that people care about you and want to make you happy. You will most likely have more fun in school, will be liked by teachers and could possibly be a big influence to your friends’ or other people’s lives.

You’ll get invited to parties and hang out with cool friends Now, doesn’t that sound great? However, it’s not all about parties and fun. This should never be the reason if you ever do take an actual likeability course. Sure, being likeable makes your life smoother, but think of the more important reasons. If you aren’t a likeable person but do become one, think of the difference you’ll make in this school, or even in the world. I bet, schools and the world would be ten times better than it is now for every single person that decides to change their personality and become more likeable.

You might change a stranger’s life completely by being nice or even saying hello or giving a simple smile. Just think how much better the world would be if we were all likeable! We’d all be happier and more pleasant to each other. Rudeness, arrogance, childishness, being loud... we would all be so much better off without these things. Now, do you still think likeability is a waste of time?

Some people were telling me, “Why do we need to take this course if we’re already likeable?”. Why should you? Because I bet you don’t know half of what it’s like being a likeable person. Social graces, being a good and caring person, communicating effectively, empathizing, developing friendships (it’s really not as easy as it sounds) are important in life and therefore these topics must be taught alongside academic subjects.

Someone told me that people are just naturally likeable or that they pick up the right attitude as they grow older and become likeable. I say it doesn’t happen all the time. There are a lot of people in the world who don’t know how to be like❰❰ 22

Gino and China... able. Some people have become more likeable because they must have been raised properly by their parents or must have been exposed to a good, pleasant environment. People may pick up likeability as they mature and get older. But some people, though advanced in age are so far down the likeability ladder because probably nobody ever taught them or showed them how. Not everyone has good parents who raised them right and teach them good values. Some people may have parents who constantly argue and fight and their children who are exposed to that, may get the wrong values or develop negative personalities. Not everyone matures at the same age, some mature more slowly than others and others do not mature at all.

So how can they possibly learn how to make the world like them? One answer.

School. School is where we are supposed to learn most everything, School is supposed to teach us how to survive in life.

And we definitely can’t survive life without being likeable, to some extent.

Thus, I dare say that likeability should be taught in school. Students who are young people should take to heart that learning is a well-rounded thing and this necessarily involves the social aspect of living-interacting with fellow students, teachers and with the outside world.

A course in likeability will hone these things and make them more well-adjusted individuals. Once learned, they can model a likeable behaviour and teach it. Help others to improve their likeability factor. Spread likeability around and make a difference in this world. I believe that there will come a time when more and more people will be kind, polite and compassionate to each other.

There will come a time when people will truly understand one another and then who knows—we might be able to achieve world peace. We can all be one step closer to that noble yet elusive goal if we just learn how to be likeable and how to spread it around. ■

❰❰ 37

from one of our chefs; I brought China there and she loved it,” Gino says.

Simple but delicious

The few times they have a misunderstanding, it’s always Gino who does everything in the kitchen.

“Sometimes if we have issues together, parang walang tumutulong sa akin in the kitchen,” he says. “It’s like I’ll just call China whenever the food is ready. I cook for her a lot but she cooks for me whenever I’m sick. She really takes care of me.”

China’s most recent concoction for her partner was toasted crabs with butter, lots of garlic and white wine. Simple but delicious.

“She’s a hopeless romantic,” says Gino.

“Sweet din naman ako but she’s more romantic. I feel I’m the one who injects the harsh realities of life into her, which, I think, is good.”

Now Gino and China have been busy taking care of baby Lucia, running the school and planning their wedding.

The school has branches outside Metro Manila.

Gino also runs Café Ysabel and Buenisimo and other food projects.

Intimate wedding

The couple will have an intimate sun-

Filipino Elderly... direly needed. This can start by creating a directory of relevant agencies, with particular attention to those with Filipino staff and services, and by developing a partnership with Community Care Access Centres and other relevant multiservice and healthcare providers.

9. The hiring, retention, and advancement of Filipino medical, social service, and mental health providers in government and community-based agencies must be a priority. They will serve as important institutional liaisons to the general Filipino community. Our research participants indicate that they prefer to discuss their needs and concerns with ❰❰ 23

someone of their own ethnoracial group.

10. Filipino and other businesses ought to develop a discount program for elderlies. This win-win situation will enable elderlies, especially those with low income, to purchase familiar and necessary items from co-ethnic businesses, and will help entrepreneurs entice new buyers.

The Filipino Elderly Wellbeing Project Report launch was held on August 29, 2013, at OISE University with representatives from community centres, seniors organizations, social services, the academe and media in attendance. ■ Source : Filipino Elderly Wellbeing project full report. www.canadianinquirer.net

set wedding in Tagaytay.

Christian Espiritu, who designed the wedding gown of China’s mom, Margarita “Tingting” Cojuangco, will also make China’s gown.

“I always tell China that it will be her big day more than mine,” says Gino. “My focus on the wedding, more than anything, is the food. I want the food to be really, really good because I can’t accept the fact that we are chefs and the food’s going to be a disaster.”

He has what he says is solid formula for good buffet food—a nice cold cut platter with various cheeses (from Malagos Farm); a salad station; a pasta station with three kinds of sauces (white, red and olive oil); a carving station (rib-eye), roast pig; and a few other dishes like chicken and fish.

There’ll also be a dessert buffet with gummi bears, cupcakes, etc.

The wedding cake will be done by pastry chef Jill Sandique, a good family friend, with another noted pastry chef, Penk Ching.

“It will be a small wedding. China’s mom promised us no politicians will be invited, just our closest family, relatives and friends. We will just have small parties on both sides for extended friends afterwards,” Gino says. ■

Business

FRIDAY SEPTEMBER 20, 2013 40

OFW remittances up 6.6% in July to P1.93B Steady deployment of workers drives growth, says BSP

BY PAOLO G. MONTECILLO Philippine Daily Inquirer MONEY SENT home by overseas Filipino workers (OFW) continues to rise amid the steady demand for Filipino labor across the world, despite weak global economic conditions.

Cash remittances that entered the country through formal channels reached P1.927 billion in July, up 6.6 percent from the level in same month last year. This was also the highest in a single month this year, while the growth was the fastest recorded since January.

“The steady deployment of OFWs remained the key driver of the growth in remittance flows,” the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP), which tracks the data, said in a statement.

Remittances in July brought the year to date total to $12.627 billion, up by 5.8 percent from year-ago level.

The BSP said preliminary data from the Philippine Overseas Employment Administration (POEA) showed that job orders since the start of the year reached 495,304. About 37 percent were for posts in companies in the services, production and technical industries.

The job orders were mainly for manpower requirements in Middle Eastern countries including Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and Kuwait.

The United States remained the main source of remittances, followed by Saudi Arabia, the United Kingdom, the UAE, Singapore, Canada and Japan.

Three out of four OFWs were also employed under contracts at least a year long—a measure of the sustainability of remittances.

Remittances are a major supporter of domestic spending, which made up at least 70 percent of the country’s gross domestic product, the BSP said. The Philippine economy expanded by 7.6 percent in the first half of the year, making the country Southeast Asia’s fastest-growing market.

The BSP also attributed the rise in remittances to the increasing efficiency of formal payment channels.

“Efforts of bank and nonbank remittances service providers to expand their international and domestic market coverage and to introduce innovations in their remittance products continue to provide support for the sustained flow of remittances into the country,” the BSP said. ■

Gov’t urged to amend retail trade law Global leader in print technology drawn to Peza

BY AMY R. REMO Philippine Daily Inquirer A JAPANESE manufacturer of printers and projectors plans to set up a production facility in the Philippines, lured mainly by the attractive incentive packages offered by local economic zones.

Takashi Ishigami, president of the Japanese Chamber of Commerce and Industry of the Philippines Inc. (JCCIPI), said that many Japanese manufacturers are looking at alternative places to set up shop, and the Philippines is one of the candidates.

He noted that, last year alone, several Japanese firms decided to do business in the Philip-

pines. Among them are printer companies Canon Inc. and Brother Industries Ltd., toy manufacturer Bandai Namco Group, and electronics manufacturer Funai Electric Co. Ltd., which took over the inkjet business of Lexmark International.

According to Ishigami, the interested Japanese firm, whose line of business is similar to Canon, Brother and Epson, is considering putting up a facility at the Lima Industrial Park in Laguna.

Ishigami declined to identify the company because studies are still ongoing.

The said Japanese firm is also reportedly looking at other countries in the region like Vietnam as alternative destinations, he added.

However, Ishigami is hopeful that the Japanese company will pick the Philippines as its preferred investment destination.

According to him, he described to the printer manufacturer the various incentives that could be tapped once they put up a facility in an area covered by the Philippine Economic Zone Authority (Peza).

At present, this “big” and “famous” Japanese company does not have any existing production facility in the Philippines, nor in any other country in Southeast Asia. This means that, if the planned investment were to push through, the proposed manufacturing plant in the Philippines would be its first in this region. ■

Neda warns against additional wage increases Focus should be on employment generation, says Neda chief

BY MICHELLE V. REMO Philippine Daily Inquirer THE NATIONAL Economic and Development Authority has warned against additional wage increases, saying it would be imprudent at the moment given efforts to bring down unemployment rate in the country.

Neda director general Arsenio Balisacan said any further increase in wages over the short term would drag efforts to create more jobs and reduce the jobless rate.

“We cannot afford to further raise wages at this time when www.canadianinquirer.net

the unemployment rate is still high. What should be done is to open more employment opportunities so that more people can find work,” Balisacan said.

Recent data showed the unemployment rate in the country rose to 7.3 percent in July from 7 percent in the same month last year. This was despite a robust economic growth during the period that made the Philippines one of the fastest growing economies in Asia.

According to the Neda, jobs were created as the economy grew but the the rate of increase was slower than the expansion of the country’s labor force.

The wage board for the Na-

tional Capital Region last week approved a P10 per day increase in the minimum wage in Metro Manila, raising the total to P466 per day.

Balisacan said the amount approved was meant to avoid eroding the purchasing power of the average household.

However, according to Balisacan, wage hikes at the moment run counter to efforts to reduce the unemployment rate.

He said any proposal to further raise wages over the short term should be shelved. He stressed the need to focus efforts on making the country more attractive to investors and on creating more jobs. ■

Sports/Horoscope

41 FRIDAY SEPTEMBER 20, 2013

NU cheerdance champs at last Bulldogs Pep Squad dethrones UP; La Salle 3rd

BY JASMINE W. PAYO Philippine Daily Inquirer NATIONAL UNIVERSITY continued its phenomenal rise to the top in the varsity league.

After claiming the No. 1 spot in all basketball divisions, the NU Bulldogs Pep Squad stunned the traditional favorites with a flawless routine to capture its first championship in the UAAP cheerdance competition at the jampacked Mall of Asia Arena.

The Bulldogs, who crashed into the top three for the first time last season, spoiled University of the Philippines’ bid for a fourth straight crown with a perfectly executed Arabianthemed number that garnered 696.5 points.

“We don’t want to be left behind,” NU coach Ghicka Ber-

nabe said after the Bulldogs emerged as the first school to cop the title outside of the cheerdance triumvirate of UP, Far Eastern University and University of Santo Tomas.

“Our team wanted to show that we can keep up with everyone because all our sports teams are improving. There was pressure. But it’s that pressure that motivated us.”

The surprise feat came just days after NU topped the basketball divisions in the men (10-4 record), women (12-2) and juniors (14-0) at the end of the eliminations, proving once again that the Bulldogs have shaken off the tag of league doormat.

Garbed in glitzy gold and blue costumes, the Bulldogs wowed the massive boisterous crowd of over 20,000 with their stunts, tosses, pyramids and dance number.

“We were very successful

with our concept,” said Bernabe after her Bulldogs bagged the P340,000 cash prize. “We wanted our performance to be fastpaced, where no one will blink. We wanted it to be very precise, unique and strong.”

The UP Pep Squad, which had hoped to clinch a record nine overall titles in the league’s annual blockbuster event, settled for a runner-up finish with 620.50 points and a P200,000 prize.

Flashing a pumped-up party routine, the Maroons performed difficult stunts but stumbled in some parts of their number, which merited an 18point deduction compared to NU’s one-point penalty.

La Salle showcased a solid military-themed routine to garner 596.5 points and a P140,000 prize as one of its dancers, Anna de Leon, also received the Samsung Stunner special award.

The NU Cheer Squadron perform their Aladdin-inspired routine in the 2013 UAAP Cheer Dance Competition.

PHOTO BY MARK CRISTINO FOR ABS-CBNNEWS.COM

The Bulldogs, whose boys sported shaved heads and the girls tightly braided ‘dos, swept the competition by also ruling the Group Stunt. FEU finished second followed by UST. “Everyone just trusted each other,” said NU team captain Adrian Alban.

The FEU Cheering Squad, runner-up last season, slipped to fourth with 589.5 points, followed by Adamson (559.5) and University of the East (559).

UST’s Salinggawi Dance Troupe, tied with UP for the most number of crowns at eight, absorbed their worst finish at seventh (546), while At-

eneo wound up last (514).

NU pulled off the convincing win after earning the highest score in every category: tumbling (85 points), stunts (74), tosses (90), pyramids (88.5) and dance (360).

“We wanted it to be authentic, something fresh in the audience’s eyes,” said Bernabe. “We came out with a strong fighting spirit. This team is very united. No one hesitated to do whatever we wanted them to do. We really maximized our time for training,” The event draw a crowd of 20,830, the biggest crowd the arena has drawn since it opened last year. ■

HOROSCOPE ARIES

CANCER

LIBRA

CAPRICORN

(MARCH 21 - APRIL 19)

(JUNE 22 - JULY 22)

(SEPT 23 - OCT 22)

(DEC 22 - JAN 19)

It may seem like people are trying to pick fights with you today, Aries. Any opposition you encounter may have a loud roar, but in reality, there’s very little bite to fear. Keep in mind that arguments may be unsubstantiated. Don’t work yourself into frenzy over an issue that has no solid foundation to back it up. Don’t be intimidated by fast talkers.

TAURUS (APRIL 20 - MAY 20) Kick up your heels and get moving, Taurus. The fastpaced energy of the day is just what you need to get things done. You’re ready to take action.

You have power and strength behind you, so feel free to expand and explore this desire to conquer. New adventures are on the horizon now and you have a great opportunity to take advantage of situations that resonate with your true self.

This is a great day for you, Cancer. You’ll find that long-term trends are coming together harmoniously. Connections are being made when you share good times and laughter with close friends and other people. Stick with the things that feel right. You have love and bravery to share with the world, so don’t be afraid to go out and conquer. Take action and be strong.

People may be tired of your harsh attitude, Libra. This doesn’t mean you should necessarily change your ways or who you are. Just be more aware of how your words affect others. Be prepared to take the heat when people defend themselves.

Don’t kick people around and expect them to never kick back. There’s a frenzy of warlike energy in store for you today.

LEO

SCORPIO

(JULY 23 - AUGUST 22)

(OCT 23 - NOV 21)

Don’t let others push you around today, Leo. People may talk themselves up, but there’s little behind the words. Be careful that you don’t misfire.

This is a day to care about you and your needs.

Take steps toward making sure you’re getting what you want. Connect with people you’ve met recently. There’s significance in these serendipitous meetings.

You may feel the need to act aggressively regarding this climactic period in your life, thanks to long-term trends. There’s expansive energy today encouraging you to take action, Scorpio. There may be opposition, but keep in mind that you have a great deal of strength on your side. The warrior inside you is ready to fight, and you have a fire burning within.

GEMINI

VIRGO

SAGITTARIUS

(MAY 21 - JUNE 21)

(AUG 23 - SEPT 22)

(NOV 22 - DEC 21)

It may seem like everyone else has a purpose and project except you, Gemini. While everyone is charging out of the gate, you may still be unsure that this is the race you want to run. Don’t push yourself into something you don’t want to do. The energy of the day is fast and adventurous, but if you aren’t feeling up for a fight, don’t force it.

Stay positive and radiant today, Virgo. This is a great day for you to take control. Connect with others on group projects and feel free to offer creative input. Let the artist within take the spotlight, and cultivate this talent in any way you can. Take the time to engage in long conversations with people regarding recent events. You have a great deal to share.

Try not to be harsh and judgmental today, Sagittarius. You don’t understand others’ perspectives and the codes they live by. Differences are no reason to find fault with people. You have a powerful personality that’s perceptive and creative. Use these gifts in a positive, healthy manner instead of using them to get down on others and their behavior.

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Long-term trends are coming to a favorable point for you, Capricorn. This is a good day to examine them and make some moves forward in pursuit of your goals. There’s a great deal of energy working in your favor today and asking you to take charge and lead the fight toward a better reality. Get out of bed early and get moving.

AQUARIUS (JAN 20 - FEB 18) This isn’t a day to sit around and wait for good fortune to come to you, Aquarius. It’s time to make it happen. Get off the couch and get moving.

Now that you’ve internalized, contemplated, and received information, it’s time to direct that energy and wisdom outward. Express your creative, artistic self in any way you can.

PISCES (FEB 19 - MAR 20) Get ready for action, Pisces, because today could be a fast-paced adventure sure to keep you on your toes. Your desire to fight and conquer is probably much stronger than usual, and communication with others is the very thing that will fuel this fire. Your action-oriented instinct is likely to be bold, so use caution in all situations. Pace yourself and avoid confrontation!

FRIDAY SEPTEMBER 20, 2013

42

Travel

Take a trip through the history of train travel in Quebec

BY NELSON WYATT The Canadian Press ST-CONSTANT, QUE.—The iron and steel titans in Canada’s biggest railway museum are scuffed in some spots with the effects of an honest day’s work and they reek with the history of the country in its formative years.

No matter how charmingly quaint some seem compared to today’s technology they were marvels of innovation in their era.

Each has a story to tell—be it ferrying average folks packed into a streetcar for the first time, bringing a new king and his queen to Canada for their first visit, or carrying a titan of industry to a ceremony to drive the last spike in the railway that would link the country from sea to sea.

And they’re all at Exporail, the Canadian Railway Museum, which is almost a tiny village itself with its own rail lines nestled in St-Constant near Montreal.

Railways were thrust into the public eye this summer when a runaway freight train loaded with fuel oil derailed and exploded in Lac-Megantic, Que., killing 47 people and destroying a chunk of the town.

All that attention didn’t affect the volume of visits, Exporail says, although there were myriad media requests for people to talk about trains. There might be a future exhibit on the tragedy but nothing is planned for now.

The museum has in fact seen a steadily increasing number of visitors since it was founded in 1961 on 10 acres of land. It now occupies 55 acres and has 160 vehicles, 1,000 model trains, extensive archives, and 10,000

artifacts including dishware, clothing, signs and gear.

“It’s one of the largest collections in the world,” says Stephen Cheasley, president of the Canadian Railway Historical Association, of the museum’s impressive acquisitions. The association founded the museum and runs it with a core of staff and volunteers.

Visitors can travel aboard a vintage Montreal streetcar or a small train on a section of outdoor tracks. As well, there are a couple of stations dotted along the route that give people an idea of what it was like to wait for the train in olden days.

Located near Canada’s very first railroad—the Champlain and St. Lawrence Rail Road of 1836—the site boasts several buildings. Within them, Exporail manages to track a fair chunk of social and technological history with its exhibits.

“Two-thirds of everything that moves on land in Canada is moved by rail,” noted Cheasley.

“Even your box of cornflakes that are showing up on your breakfast table—some part of that is going to be moved by rail.”

Forty-four trains and cars are on exhibit and visitors can climb aboard several in the Grand Gallery building, where a train whistle sounds periodically in the distance like a ghostly call from the past.

Arranged in long, hulking rows, the jewels of the collection on display include the locomotive that pulled the royal train in 1939 that carried King George VI and Queen Elizabeth during their first visit to Canada.

There is also the plush “Saskatchewan” coach, which was built in 1883 for Sir William Cornelius Van Horne’s use during the construction of Cana-

dian Pacific’s transcontinental line and ferried him to the ceremony for the driving of the fabled last spike in 1885.

There’s a “school car,” a rolling classroom that brought education and a live-in teacher to remote communities as recently as 1967.

And some sleeper cars that whisked the Montreal Canadiens to out-of-town games before they switched to jets.

Wooden freight cars and other workhorses such as snow plows are also there.

Vintage streetcars from several cities including Montreal and Toronto are also represented.

Among them is the ornate “Golden Chariot” open observation car used for trips around Mount Royal, which is a stark contrast to a sleek 21st century subway car loaned to the museum by the Montreal transit authority in advance of it going into service.

Canadian Pacific and Canadian National railways have provided a lot of material to the museum, and sharp-eyed association members are credited with scouting out treasures such as the Dominion of Canada steam engine, which was spotted in England just as it was headed for the scrap heap.

Built in 1937, the engine type holds the world speed record

PHOTOS FROM EXPORAIL.ORG

for steam engines at 126 mph.

It was restored for Canada’s centennial year in 1967 and is a sought-after piece by British museums. The engine is currently on loan in Britain and is one of a handful of that type remaining in the world.

Cheasley, who is a fountain of facts about railroading but never worked for one, says Canadians have a strong connection to trains.

He noted that railways were not only major employers but also revolutionized society as they introduced a cheap, relatively fast way to overcome long distances that made the world a bigger, more interesting place.

“It’s like the Internet today,” said Cheasley. “It’s facilitating a whole lot of things that we didn’t think we could do before.

“The railways are like the

arteries and veins in the body.

They move things and you absolutely have to have it.”

Cheasley says Canadians have a lot to be proud of in their rail heritage, much of which stems from Quebec, which is a hub of rail-technology development.

While the trains are the stars, the museum offers plenty of activities to keep people entertained, such as its exhibit of vintage railway-related postcards.

Recently, it held its popular annual model train show highlighting painstakingly crafted layouts by model railroaders in Quebec and Ontario. There was also an appraisal day for postcard collections and rare documents so people could find out whether they had a rare gem ❱❱ PAGE 44 Take a

FRIDAY SEPTEMBER 20, 2013

43

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FRIDAY SEPTEMBER 20, 2013 44

Take a... among their possessions.

As the fall progresses into winter, a number of theme events are planned, including culture days on Sept.

28-29, with free admission between 10 a.m. and noon.

Amateur photographers will get some interesting subjects during the Illuminated Trains day on Oct. 5 when trains are specially lit from 6-8 p.m.

Ghosts, skeletons, bats and spiders will take over Exporail as of Oct. 19 to give the museum a Halloween theme where children will also be able to make their own masks.

For two weeks starting Nov. 2, visitors will also be able to play detective and hunt for clues left behind by 19th century train robber Bill Miner. Youngsters will then be able to go to a craft workshop where they can share what they’ve found and make their own police badge.

The Christmas spirit will infuse the museum from Nov. 23 to Jan. 5, with storytelling, craft workshops for children, stocking hunts and even a visit from Santa himself on weekends until Dec. 22. Children can mail ❰❰ 42

Author’s class photo.

Doing #Throwback... (er, days) to post your best throwback photo for the succeeding days—ergo (and a friendly tip), don’t post it all at once. Give your friends the chance to be excited with, and or to guess, what to expect from you the following week.

4. One or two #tbt posts per week is enough (a plea: please don’t post more than two). And it is Throwback THURSDAY, so let that be your guide and do your posts every Thursday only.

To quote from singleblackmale. org: ❰❰ 28

Look, we know you have lots of old pics of yourself that you think are absolutely stunning.

And we know you wanna share those pics with your new-found Instagram friends. However, those of us who have known you for ages, and have seen all these pictures of Facebook, Twitter, MySpace, Friendster and Blackplanet—we’re not interested in seeing them again.

Especially 8 in a row … on a Monday when we’re trying to scroll our InstaTimeLine and see what folks got into this past weekend. We call it Throw-

BackThursday for a reason.

And as one website said, “TBT is all about comedic nostalgia.

We know you looked cute as a baby, but posting angelical pictures of yourself is not nearly as amusing. Throwback Thursday was founded on principles of comedic relief. Embrace it.”

Oh, one last thing, on #SelfieThrowback, there is no such thing, unless you were rolling around as a baby taking pictures of yourself. ■ With a report from digitaltrends. com

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their letter to St. Nick from Exporail’s vintage mail car.

Cheasley says the museum reflects the connection that people of all ages feel for the railways.

“It’s family friendly,” he says.

“People love the railway.

They really do. And it starts at a very young age. Even my own grandkids, right from the time they were able to toddle they would go over and they would enjoy it.”

If you go

LOCATION: 110 Rue StPierre, St-Constant, Que. HOURS: Wednesday through Sunday, 10 a.m.-5 p.m. until Oct. 31, then open weekends from Nov. 2 to May 11, although group visits during the week can also be arranged by appointment. Goes to a sevenday-a-week schedule later in May. DAILY RATES: Children 4-12 get in for $8; students 13 to 17 for $9.75; adults for $16.50; retirees 65 and older for $13.50.

There is also a $43 family rate for two adults and two children.

ON THE WEB: http://www. exporail.org/en/ ■

FRIDAY SEPTEMBER 20, 2013

45

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Canada

FRIDAY SEPTEMBER 20, 2013 46

A Canadian Experience: The Grouse Grind Challenge Lessons for Job Seekers

BY AGNES TECSON, CHRP

Publisher Philippine Canadian Inquirer

SEPTEMBER 7, a Saturday was a much anticipated day for a group of the University of the Philippines (UP) alumni.

It was the scheduled day for the UP Grouse Grind Challenge. Foggy morning, some drizzles, armed with determination and high spirits and the will to conquer the mountain to raise funds for the UP scholars back home, we started the climb @9:45 am.

Lesson 1: Have a goal and develop your plan to achieve the goal.

First few steps, I was surprised. I thought initially, it was an easy ride, having experienced mountain climbing in the Philippines. I was immediately gasping for breath and realizing that my preparations with the stair climber and the treadmill were not enough. So I decided that this climb is a “my own pace” climb and I will enjoy the view.

Commonly called Mother Nature’s Stair Climber, the Grouse Grind is a 2.9 km trail of mixed rock and stone steps, tree roots and wooden steps. It is 3700 feet at the summit and consists of 2830 stairs.

Lesson 2: Be prepared, physically and mentally. Just like in job search, do your research, practice interview questions, dress properly and be confident.

We were gasping but happy to reach the ¼ mark. Many of the other colleagues were faster and were ahead of us. The view was breathtaking, full of tall and long trees, leaves misty because of the fog, birds chirping combined with the panting and gasping of climbers.

Climbers were of different shapes, color and sizes. Some were schoolchildren, with their parents, mostly fathers, others were giggling teenagers, some looked well-trained and toned, and others were on the heavier side.

Interestingly, there were some seniors.

In our group alone, there were 5 seniors doing the grind.

As I reached the 2nd half mark, I met a temporary foreign worker (TFW) from Sichuan, China, We chatted a bit.

She said her group climbed the Grouse last week but she was very shy to go with them as she might not be able to do it, so she was climbing alone on that foggy Saturday. Asked why she wanted to work in Canada, she said she wanted to improve her English language skills and, like climbing the grouse, wanted to conquer some of her fears. Working with people from diverse culture helps. After a photo- op which another climber took, we started to ascend again. We wished each other good luck.

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 Socorro Newland

Author doing a career planning session in the middle of the climb

The Author at ½ mark in Grouse

Lesson 3: Share your thoughts and dreams with others. Who knows, they might be part of your network.

The second half was a bit harder; the steps were higher and steeper. There were ropes along the trail to help climbers. The steps were wet and slippery. As I climbed further, I would hear more gasping and panting. Climbers passing by would show concern and offered words of encouragement. One asked if I was ok, and another one who passed by me after a high step said: “Go on, we are near, you can do it”. A senior lady said, “Be careful” as she passed by with her climbing sticks. With those words, there is no way but up, there is no way but to move on. I saved all my strength for the rest of the climb.

Lesson 4: Take time to ponder and reflect and think of your next strategies. In job search, analyse your skills gaps and develop strategies to narrow the gaps.

As I reached the ¾ mark, I saw a bit of sunshine in between the tall trees.

There was also a nice small view of the English Bay. I can also hear the sound of the gondola going back and forth. It is an indication that I was nearer the top. One climber passing by said, “We are near, but don’t know how near,” and she went ahead.

I reunited with a colleague and we stopped to rest and ate some nuts and raisins. We talked about work in Calgary and its current labor market. As we continued our ascent for almost 30 minutes, we have examined the labor market situation in the province of Alberta and have compared the pros and cons with British Columbia. One climber passing and overhearing our conversation commented, “Hey, I work in Calgary, but BC

is my place.”

Lesson 5: Do your research, expand your horizon. Explore all options and opportunities even beyond BC. Thirty (30) minutes later after the Calgary discussion, I knew I was almost there. The steps were the steepest, slippery and with less stairs. I can hear sounds of shouting from those who have reached the finish line. I also saw some rays of light. I was wet with my sweating.

Finally, I made it to the finish line. A mix of emotions passed through me. I was humbled by the experience. I realized how small I am in this world. I thought of those who have conquered Mt. Everest, those who trained for the Olympics, those who walked 7 miles just to go to school. I thought of our scholars. They now have some money raised by my colleagues because of meeting the targets they set for themselves. They can now enroll for the next semester.

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 Editorial Assistant Phoebe Casin Graphic Designer Shanice Garcia Associate Publisher Lurisa Villanueva In cooperation with the Philippine Daily Inquirer digital edition

Lesson 5: There are short and long roads to finding a job. You can rest and set your pace, but do not STOP. I was just happy that I DID THE GROUSE GRIND.

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

Lesson 5: Finding work is like doing the grouse grind. You have to prepare and be armed with right skills set. You have to be mentally prepared too. Take a deep breath and rest when you are tired but continue the journey. Lastly and most importantly, have the determination to reach your goal no matter what. The distance does not matter. What matters is you do it, whatever it takes.

Congratulations to all UP alumni grinders for a very well-meaning Grouse Grind. ■

Philippine Canadian Inquirer is published weekly every Friday.

Copies are distributed free throughout Metro Vancouver, Edmonton, Calgary, Winnipeg and Toronto.

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