Philippine Canadian Inquirer #201

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JANUARY 22, 2016

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VOL. 1 NO. 201

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US won’t let China control vital sea

LP bets fear voters’ backlash over SSS pension veto

IS acknowledges death of ‘Jihadi John’

Ruffles, glitter, rose-quartz pink — grab them for 2016

Canada and Asean: A business partnership exploding

DOTC assures one brandnew running MRT-3 train by end of 2016 Q1

BY AZER N. PARROCHA Philippine Daily Inquirer

ANGRY PROTESTER Members of the League of Filipino Students stage a rally near the US Embassy in Manila against the Enhanced Defense Cooperation Agreement that allows US forces to gain access to more Philippine military facilities.

EDWIN BACASMAS / PDI

A sad day for pensioners Labor groups, solons hit President’s action

BY GIL C. CABACUNGAN, NANCY C. CARVAJAL AND LEILA B. SALAVERRIA Philippine Daily Inquirer A GRANDMOTHER in Pasig City was saddened by President Aquino’s decision to veto a bill that would grant more

than 2 million retirees and survivors a P2,000 across-the-board increase in their monthly pensions.

“It’s the news I always waited for on TV,” Luisa Calauor said, referring to the proposed pension increase.

“But now that it will not push through,

So, what is a mentoring program?

MANILA — Commuters can expect one new running train on the Metro Rail Transit-3 (MRT-3) route along Epifanio Delos Santos Avenue (EDSA) by the end of the first quarter of 2016, the Department of Transportation and Communications (DOTC) assured on Monday.

DOTC made the statement after tests on the second MRT-3 light rail vehicle (LRV) or coach shipped from Dalian, China last December began on Sunday (Jan. 17).

The 48 new coaches are part of the DOTC’s MRT-3 capacity expansion project, which is meant to decongest the metropolis’ busiest railway system.

Two more coaches will be delivered

by February, followed by four units per month by March. The delivery is

❱❱ PAGE 26 ❱❱ PAGE 15 A sad

CALL FOR NOMINATIONS:

❱❱ PAGE 6 DOTC assures

FILIPINO-CANADIAN IN FOCUS InFocus.canadianinquirer.net

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JANUARY 22, 2016

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FRIDAY

Philippine News

FRIDAY JANUARY 22, 2016

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House to probe gaming firm competing with gov’t lottery

BY GIL CABACUNGAN Philippine Daily Inquirer

The #SAF 44 police officers heroes Statue and Tarpaulin memorial.

JUDGEFLORO / WIKIMEDIA COMMONS

Senate reinvestigation of Mamasapano incident upheld at plenary

BY JELLY F. MUSICO Philippines News Agency MANILA — The Senate on Monday upheld previous ruling to reopen the Mamasapano incident investigation based on “new matters” that Senate minority leader Juan Ponce Enrile will bring out.

At the resumption of the regular session, Senator Grace Poe took the floor to confirm whether the body was indeed favorable to the reopening of the Mamasapano hearing.

“I would like to confirm and, at the same time, place on record some factual and legal antecedents leading to the putative re-opening of the Mamasapano incident,” Poe, chairperson of the Senate committee on public order and dangerous drugs, said.

Poe particularly clarified that Section 32 of the Committee on Rules states that any reopening of the investigation will be reopened provided “new matters” will be raised in the reinvestigation.

Enrile said the bloody Mamasapano encounter that took the lives of 44 Special Action Force (SAF) troopers should be reinvestigated, saying he has evidence that prompted him to ask for reopening of the inquiry.

“I would like to make it for records that I have evidence,” Enrile said.

With Enrile’s manifestation, the Senate voted to push through with the reopening of the Mamasapano probe on Jan. 27.

Senate President Franklin Drilon abstained, saying “I am just reserving my right because this is precedent setting.”

“I want to have that ability to review and examine and not to be bound by this interpretation,” Drilon said, referring to the interpretation of the Section 32 of the Committee on Rules.

Drilon said he would participate in the hearing “because I participated before.”

Poe’s Senate committee on public order and dangerous drugs conducted five public hearings and five executive hearings which she used to prepare committee report she submitted on March 18, 2015.

The lady senator vowed not to grandstand or politicize the reopening of the Mamasapano probe.

“It has always been my resolute duty that fairness, impartiality and independence be the guiding lights in the conduct of public hearings,” Poe, a presidential aspirant, said.

She assured that the committee would be guided only by the Senate’s and people’s search for the truth and “I will not shirk from the mandate and responsibility accorded to me.” ■

THE HOUSE committee on games and amusement will expand its probe into alleged anomalies in the multibillionpeso Small Town Lottery (STL) to include Meridien Vista Gaming Corp. which operates the Virtual Two numbers game in head-on competition with franchise operators sanctioned by the Philippine Charity Sweepstakes Office (PCSO).

Committee vice chair and Laguna Rep. Dan Fernandez said his committee would summon the owners and officers of Meridien Gaming to enlighten the lawmakers on how much they were making from the Virtual Two lottery game, which has become popular in at least 12 provinces, including Pangasinan, Cavite, Rizal, Oriental Mindoro and Bicol.

“We have received reports Meridien is lording it over in 12 to 14 provinces where the PCSO has been locked out of setting up an STL franchise...

It is important that we know the details of their financial operations,” Fernandez said in a phone interview.

Meridien is a gaming company that operates a jai alai fronton in Sta. Ana, Cagayan, and whose franchise was granted by the Cagayan Economic Zone Authority (Ceza) during the last years of the Arroyo administration.

The company was rumored to be owned by Charlie “Atong” Ang, the former gambling buddy of ousted President Joseph Estrada, but the company has denied it. Meridien said Ang was only an adviser during the fronton’s development stage.

Fernandez said he wanted to know who were the owners and operators of the company

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Pictured is a typical Super Lotto card, produced by the Philippine Charity Sweepstakes Office, used to enter The Philippine Lottery Draw.

FOXLAD / WIKIMEDIA COMMONS

which has been the target of a petition for closure by the Games and Amusement Board, church leaders, the Department of Interior and Local Government, and the Department of Justice since 2011.

Case in limbo

Fernandez said that while the PCSO’s STL operations in 14 provinces had remitted P3.2 billion in annual revenues to the government in the last nine years, Meridien has paid zerorevenues to the government for its Virtual Two game largely because it is based in a free port whose perks include tax exemptions.

Fernandez noted that Meridien’s operations would have been shut down as far back as 2011 for operating outside the Ceza’s jurisdiction if not for a temporary restraining order (TRO) issued by the Supreme Court allowing it to continue operations outside Ceza’s boundaries.

“What is so special about Meridien that the high court is deciding on its case for so long?

With the case in limbo, Meridien is making a lot of money while the government gets nothing,” said Fernandez.

Abakada Rep. Jonathan de la Cruz has filed a House resolution asking the House committee on good government to investigate Meridien, saying that “several foreign governments have expressed concerns that gaming operations have been used for money laundering.”

Deprived of P50B in earnings

The House is also currently probing allegations made by PCSO Chair Erineo Maliksi that his fellow PCSO board members led by General Manager Jose Ferdinand Rojas II had allowed the STL to be coopted by “jueteng” lords.

A report by the National Bureau of Investigation said STL operators had deprived the government of P50 billion in earnings.

Maliksi also accused Rojas and the other board members of abuse of funds through frequent travels, delays in meeting the needs of beneficiaries for medicine and hospitalization, and centralization of the grant of benefits to select top officials.

The House committee on games and amusement chaired

by Cavite Rep. Elpidio Barzaga Jr. will resume its hearing on Monday. ■

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Philippine News

JANUARY 22, 2016

FRIDAY

Pension hike bill will cause a reversal of gains — SSS

BY FILANE MIKEE Z. CERVANTES Philippines News Agency MANILA — The Social Security System (SSS) defended President Benigno S. Aquino III’s decision to veto House Bill No. 5842 which seeks a Php2,000 across-the-board pension hike, noting that such increase would trigger a reversal of gains achieved since 2010 by the present administration.

In a press conference held on Monday at the SSS Corporate Headquarters in Quezon City, SSS President and Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Emilio S. de Quiros said that the Php2,000 pension increase would cause a complete turnaround and ne-

gate gains attained under the Aquino administration.

The SSS executive highlighted that the SSS average net revenue quadrupled to Php33 billion from 2010 to 2014, much higher than the average Php8 billion net revenue from 2000 to 2009.

He said that SSS assets have grown by 50 percent, from Php298 billion as of 2010 to Php447 billion as of October 2015.

However, with 2.8 million pensioners, the Php2,000 pension increase would require an additional funding of Php4.3 billion per month, or a total of Php56 billion payout per year, De Quiros stressed.

A projected net loss of Php26 billion will be incurred for

2016, instead of the projected net revenue of Php41 billion for the same year.

The SSS gives an average of 22 years of pension not only to members but also their dependents.

“Babagsak din ang investment income from Php30 billion to Php19 billion (The investment income will also drop from Php30 billion to Php19 billion,” De Quiros said.

To provide for the system’s cash needs, the SSS would need to liquidate Php47 billion to Php51 billion in financial assets, leading to a Php19 billion drop in investment income for 2016.

In addition, the pension hike would shorten the SSS fund life from year 2042 to 2029 and

Bare MRT maintenance contract, Poe tells Abaya

BY LEILA B. SALAVERRIA Philippine Daily Inquirer DEPARTMENT OF Transportation and Communications (DOTC) Secretary Joseph Emilio Abaya should make public the newly-signed service contract for the maintenance of the Metro Rail Transit (MRT) 3, according to Sen. Grace Poe. Poe, who has led Senate investigations on the problems besetting the railway system, said she wants to review the P3.8-billion three-year contract with the Joint Venture of Busan Transportation Corp., Edison Development & Construction, Tramat Mercantile Inc., TMICorp.

Inc. and Castan Corp.

According to Poe, there were questions on whether the signed contract was the same as the original or was revised.

She also cited reports that Busan, the only firm in the joint venture that had technical expertise in railway maintenance, wanted to back out of the MRT service contract allegedly because of controversies surrounding the awarding of the deal to the joint venture.

“This is a negotiated contract and we do not even know anything about the provisions of that contract,” she said in a

Social Security System President and CEO Emilio S. de Quiros, Jr. SSS.GOV.PH

would further decrease to 2027 due to the low market sentiment and divestment plan.

“In 11 years, ubos na ang pera ng SSS (In 11 years, SSS will be bankrupt),” De Quiros said. ■

Where’s Ian? Cops alerted on missing UP student

BY ERIKA SAULER Philippine Daily Inquirer

MITHRIL CLOUD / WIKIMEDIA COMMONS

statement, quoting her recent radio interview.

“Up to now, we are still asking for a copy of that contract. Many are saying, is that the original contract or was it revised to make exceptions so that the Koreans would not back out,” she said.

According to the senator, DOTC officials have yet to provide documents about pertinent contracts she had asked for when she led hearings on the MRT problems as chair of the Senate subcommittee on public services.

She said this underscores the need to have a freedom of information act, a transparency and accountability measure that has been passed by the Senate but remains in limbo in the House of Representatives.

Poe also plans to schedule another hearing on the MRT-

maintenance issue, but said she was disappointed by the fact that these inquiries can only do so much in correcting the actions of government agencies.

Lawmakers can only hold hearings, but the only one with the power to fire incompetent officials or take action is the executive, she said.

“In our inquiries in aid of legislation, we can only make recommendations. Which is why situations like these where you have no power are frustrating,” said Poe, who is running for President in the May elections.

Poe earlier asked President Aquino to fire Abaya on grounds of incompetence given the problems hounding the MRT, but Mr. Aquino said the DOTC secretary would stay on in his post until the end of the President’s term. ■ www.canadianinquirer.net

THE PARENTS of University of the Philippines (UP) freshman Ian Jasper Calalang have sought the help of the police after failing to hear from him since Tuesday morning, when he was supposed to enroll in UP Diliman.

Randy and Nenet Calalang, residents of Greenpark, Cainta, Rizal province, have reported Ian missing in the UP police and the local police of Cainta, Pasig and Quezon City. “We’re praying that someone will come out (to say) that they have seen him,” Nenet told the INQUIRER Thursday.

Ian, an Industrial Engineering freshman who was supposed to enrol for the second semester, last sent a text message to his mother at 8:22 a.m.

Tuesday to say he was already on campus. Ian also sent a text message asking for the location of a friend from high school who is also a UP student. Ian’s family members have not heard from him since.

“This is very unusual. He’s smart and responsible and he

Ian Jasper Calalang.

always texts me,” Nenet said.

“Even when his cell phone was stolen or losing battery power, he would text me from a friend’s phone.”

On Wednesday, Ian’s parents were able to review the CCTV footage at the entrance of UP’s Melchor Hall from 7 a.m. to 10 a.m. of Tuesday.

“But there’s no Ian,” Nenet said. The Calalangs have requested to see video clips from the other buildings. In a Radyo Inquirer report, Ian’s aunt Marissa Patawaran said those with information on Calalang’s whereabouts may contact his family at 0932-2220864 and 0917-3390488. ■

Philippine News

FRIDAY JANUARY 22, 2016

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UN court decision before PH polls urged Flight attendants

BY NIKKO DIZON Philippine Daily Inquirer THE DECISION of the United Nations Permanent Court of Arbitration on the Philippine case against China should come down before the May presidential election to give President Aquino time to respond to the ruling, according to a Washington-based think tank that has noted the varying stands of the candidates on the South China Sea dispute.

The Asian Maritime Transparency Initiative (Amti) said Manila’s response to any decision by the UN tribunal was “critical” to the region’s security landscape—and a lot of it rested on the shoulders of Mr. Aquino, who ends his term in June.

“Ultimately, resolving the South China Sea conundrum will require a combination of legal efforts, diplomacy, compromise and cooperation. But the implementation of the court’s decision, in the short term, is as important to the relevance of international law as it is to the interests of the Philippines.

Ensuring that implementation by allowing President Aquino enough time to develop a response to the ruling is critical,” Amti said in an analysis of the maritime row.

the country’s boundary in the Spratlys.

It is 108 km from Recto (Reed) Bank, which is within the Philippines’ 370-km exclusive economic zone, and where the Philippines hopes to drill for natural gas.

Timing of decision

“The timing of the decision by the Permanent Court of Arbitration in The Hague on the Philippines’ case against China’s nine-dash-line claims has critical geopolitical implications for Asia’s security.

Specifically, a decision delivered well before the Philippine presidential election this May would allow the administration of President Benigno Aquino to respond strategically and with continuity, whatever the outcome,” Amti said.

“A decision delivered after May would in effect roll the dice by putting a new leadership team in Manila in charge of managing the court’s determination,” it said.

Amti noted how President Aquino and the ruling Liberal Party were “dismayed at the prospect” that Vice President Jejomar Binay, who is leading in voter preference polls, would become the next President “because of the many ways he diverges from the current administration’s policies.”

‘Time is of essence’

The analysis, titled “Time Is of the Essence in the South China Sea Arbitration Case,” was written by Southeast Asia experts Ernest Bower and Conor Cronin.

On Friday, Amti released its latest report on China’s rapid construction of airstrips and facilities on Panganiban (Mischief ) Reef and Zamora (Subi) Reef, which are nearest to the Philippines among the disputed Spratly islands in the middle of the South China Sea. The report emphasized that the developments on Panganiban Reef is of particular concern to the Philippines because of its proximity to Ayungin (Second Thomas) Shoal.

Panganiban Reef is 37.8 kilometers from Ayungin Shoal, where the Philippines maintains a small Marine garrison aboard the BRP Sierra Madre, a former Philippine Navy hospital ship that the government grounded on the shoal to mark

Mixed bag of responses

In particular, it said, Binay criticized President Aquino’s handling of the territorial dispute with China soon after he severed ties with the administration last year.

“Although he has publicly affirmed that he would continue the arbitration process, it is hard to see how Binay would take up a court ruling in Manila’s favor while courting Beijing. In an interview with a Philippine radio station before his resignation, Binay pushed for closer ties with Beijing, calling for a bilateral resolution to maritime disputes and even joint ventures to explore energy resources in the South China Sea,” Amti said.

Amti said the other candidates had a “mixed bag of responses” on the Philippines’ maritime dispute with China.

Santiago stand

The think tank observed that

Sen. Miriam Defensor-Santiago supports the arbitration case but “diverged sharply” from other policies of President Aquino such as allowing the presence of US military forces in the Philippines.

Santiago opposes the Enhanced Defense Cooperation Agreement (Edca) with the United States, which was declared constitutional by the Supreme Court last week. “It is unclear whether Santiago would risk defying China after shirking US military support,” Amti said.

It noted Davao City Mayor Rodrigo Duterte’s statements that he would pursue bilateral talks with China and “a less confrontational approach with China to resolve the dispute.”

Amti said administration standard-bearer Mar Roxas and Sen. Grace Poe were “the two candidates most likely to carry on Aquino’s course and follow up the court’s decision with actions supporting the authority of international convention.”

But Poe is struggling to stay in the presidential race with challenges to her citizenship and residency in the Philippines, while Roxas is polling “in the middle of the pack,” the think tank said.

Ample time to respond

“If the court hopes to pass down a decision that will not be thoroughly ignored as realpolitik overtakes it, it needs to ensure that the Aquino administration has ample time to institutionalize its approach.

Since there are no formal enforcement mechanisms for the decision, the messaging from the Philippines and the international community is of greater import,” Amti said.

“If the decision is released and a new administration ignores it to pursue the bilateral negotiations that China has demanded all along, it decreases the incentive for other small nations to turn to international law and arbitration. If the Philippines didn’t get anything out of pursuing its case, why should Vietnam or Malaysia follow in the future? As other avenues for fair resolution of disputes are shut, states will increasingly turn to military buildup in order to defend their interests with force,” it said. ■ www.canadianinquirer.net

must take new test

BY JEANNETTE I. ANDRADE Philippine Daily Inquirer FLIGHT ATTENDANTS are now required to undergo psychological testing before they may be issued a professional license.

The Civil Aviation Authority of the Philippines (CAAP) issued over the weekend revised rules for the licensing of flight attendants to include a provision requiring them to undergo psychological testing following an incident last year where a flight crew member intentionally crashed an airplane in the French Alps.

The CAAP likewise extended the validity of the license from three to five years.

In a memorandum, CAAP Director General William Hotchkiss III said applicants for renewal of professional license must accomplish a CAAP Flight Standards Inspectorate Service (FSIS) form and secure a routing slip from the database section of the Licensing and Certification Department (LCD).

Along with the application form, a flight attendant must submit to the FSIS-LCD photocopies of his or her current cabin crew member license, most recent competency card and valid medical certificate, including the result of a psychological test.

CAAP spokesperson Eric Apolonio said a psychological test was made a requirement following last year’s March 24 intentional crash of a Germanwings plane by 28-year-old German pilot Andreas Lubitz when he was left alone in the cockpit.

Lubitz, it was later learned, had been suffering from psychological problems for some time.

Apolonio said that incident prompted changes in flight rules, particularly on having two persons in the cockpit at all times where a male cabin crew member is required to be inside should one of the pilots leave the flight deck for any reason.

Likewise, he said, aircraft mechanics are also required to undergo psychological testing because they could also interfere with a flight by sabotaging the aircraft.

All licensing requirements are to be personally submitted by applicants for renewal to the Cabin Crew Safety Inspectorate for review and certification. After paying the licensing fee, the documents are to be filed for processing in the civil aviation licensing officer at the FSIS-LCD. The license should be released within five working days.

As for new cabin crew members, they must submit all application requirements along with their certificate of ground training to the FSIS-LCD. ■

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Philippine News

JANUARY 22, 2016

FRIDAY

Grace finds SC ally in SolGen

BY TARRA QUISMUNDO Philippine Daily Inquirer SEN. GRACE POE may have found a major ally in her bid to be declared a natural-born citizen, which would clear the way for her to run for President in the May elections.

This possibility cropped up as the Poe camp geared up for oral arguments at the Supreme Court next week, where the candidate is expected to press the Supreme Court to junk the Commission on Elections (Comelec) resolutions disqualifying her from the race.

The high court yesterday ordered Solicitor General Florin Hilbay to stand “as the Tribune of the People” during the oral arguments on Poe’s petition against Comelec resolutions canceling her certificate of candidacy (COC).

Lot of weight

Hilbay had begged off from serving as the poll body’s counsel in the case due to conflicting positions.

“The SolGen, being the Tribune of the People, can better

explain the wisdom of the sovereign Filipinos in adopting the Constitution and its provisions in order to build a just and humane society and create a government responsive to their needs,” Poe’s counsel George Garcia said.

“To a certain extent, the SolGen now becomes a friend of the court, hence, his view on constitutional issues will carry a lot of weight,” Garcia added.

Garcia responded in the affirmative when asked if Hilbay’s presence in the proceedings might help the Poe camp assert her status as a natural-born citizen.

“Yes, of course. In fact, wewill be using to our advantage the SolGen’s position on Sen. Grace Poe’s citizenship,” Garcia said.

Jan. 19 debate

The high court has ordered Hilbay to participate in the Jan. 19 oral arguments on Poe’s case questioning resolutions disqualifying her from the polls.

Hilbay has already signed up as counsel for the Senate Electoral Tribunal (SET) in a separate but related case, in which he defended the latter’s ruling

upholding Poe’s status as a natural-born Filipino.

“The Solicitor General, as the Tribune of the People, is directed to participate in the oral arguments despite his manifestation that he will not represent the public respondent in these consolidated cases,” the high court said in an advisory.

Hilbay will have 10 minutes to speak, next to Poe, who will be the first to address the high court. A Comelec representative, also given 10 minutes, will speak third.

Four private respondents— who had petitioned the Comelec to disqualify Poe—would share 20 minutes. They are former Government Service Insurance System chief legal counsel Estrella Elamparo, former Sen. Francisco “Kit” Tatad, De La Salle University Prof.

Antonio Contreras and former University of the East Law Dean Amado Valdez.

Separate case

Hilbay confirmed he would comply with the high court.

“Of course [I will appear],” Hilbay said in a text message.

“I’ve been required by the Su-

Poe vows to work harder after slide in SWS survey PHILIPPINES NEWS AGENCY MANILA — Independent presidential aspirant and Senator Grace Poe vowed on Friday to continue reaching out to people even as she respects the results of the recent Social Weather Stations (SWS) survey where she absorbed a two percentagepoint decline amid her disqualification cases.

“I value the insights from public opinion surveys as an impetus to remain steadfast in

my work and to continue reaching out to people to let them know about my platform and plans,” Poe said.

Based on the Business-SWS survey conducted last Jan. 8-10 on 1,200 respondents, Poe dropped to second place with 24 percent while erstwhile co-leader Vice President Jejomar Binay widened his lead with 31 percent.

Liberal Party standardbearer Manuel “Mar” Roxas and Davao City Mayor Rodrigo Duterte are statistically tied with Poe, receiving 21 and 20 percent, respectively.

Living up to her promise, Poe, along with her running mate, Senator Francis ‘Chiz’ Escudero, visited Pangasinan province on Friday.

Poe is facing disqualification cases which her camp elevated to the Supreme Court after the Commission on Elections (Comelec) favored a petition to cancel her Certificate of Candidacy (CoC).

Last week, the SC granted Poe’s request for temporary restraining order (TRO), stopping the Comelec’s cancellation of her CoC. ■

www.canadianinquirer.net

Presidential candidate and Senator Grace Poe gets a warm welcome upon arrival at the National College of Science and Technology (NCST) campus in Dasmarinas City, Cavite.

AVITO C. DALAN / PNA

preme Court to attend and participate as Tribune of the People.”

Hilbay represents SET as respondent in the petition that disqualified presidential candidate Rizalito David elevated before the high court after losing in his bid to undo Poe’s election to the Senate in 2013.

David alleged SET had committed grave abuse of discretion in upholding Poe’s status

as a natural-born citizen.

Hilbay earlier manifested before the high court that he could not represent the Comelec in the separate case filed by Poe. While the SET case concerns Poe’s qualifications in the senatorial race, it covers similar issues concerning her residency and citizenship, which are also in question in the Comelec case. ■

DOTC assures... scheduled to be completed with the 48th unit in January 2017.

The initial test on Sunday was done from the MRT-3 station at Taft Avenue in Pasay City to the North Avenue depot in Quezon City, or a 5,000-kilometer run.

More tests will be done during non-revenue hours.

The coach will be subjected to dynamic testing to ensure the reliability of parts as soon as the necessary checks on the different electrical components are completed within the week.

“If the evaluation of the first set is found to be satisfactory, ❰❰ 1

we are expecting one new train to be operational by the end of this quarter,” DOTC Secretary Joseph Emilio Abaya said.

“Commuters will experience increased passenger convenience and service reliability with the arrival of more new LRVs (light rail vehicles),” he added. ■

Philippine News

FRIDAY JANUARY 22, 2016

7

BBL lacks numbers, US won’t let China control vital sea admits solon

BY DJ YAP Philippine Daily Inquirer THE FATE of the Bangsamoro Basic Law (BBL) hinges on whether lawmakers would bother to show up during the remaining three weeks of sessions before the break for the May elections.

Leaders of the House of Representatives told President Aquino last week that quorum troubles might continue to hinder the progress of the controversial bill in Congress, Majority Leader Neptali Gonzales II said yesterday.

Mr. Aquino has volunteered to make a personal appeal to the 288 House members to attend sessions, Gonzales told dzBB radio.

“The truth is we do not have the numbers. Although we know there’s wide support for it, wide support should be expressed by being present. You might say, ‘hey, I’m in favor of this,’ but we don’t see you [on the floor],” Gonzales said.

The BBL would seal the peace agreement signed by the government and the Moro Islamic

Liberation Front in 2014. It is hoped to end decades of armed conflict in Mindanao through the creation of a new self-governing region for the Bangsamoro people.

Congress resumes sessions on Jan. 19 and has only three weeks to work on the BBL, which is to enter the period of amendments. Once amendments are approved, the bill will be put to a vote on second, and then third reading.

The Senate will then have to pass its own version, and then the two chambers will meet in a bicameral conference committee to reconcile differences in the two bills. The bicameral version will go back to each chamber for ratification, and then be transmitted to President Aquino for signing into law.

The timetable for the BBL has suffered from a series of long delays as a result of attendance problems in the House and partly because of lingering anger from the Jan. 25, 2015, Mamasapano massacre of 44 Special Action Force commandos at the hands of Moro rebels. ■

Anak Mindanao Party-list Rep. Sitti Djalia Turabin-Hataman (top right) calls on her fellow lawmakers in Congress to pass the proposed Bangsamoro Basic Law (BBL) during the "Biyaheng Bangsamoro, Biyaheng Kapayapaan" peace rally held at the South Gate of the House of Representatives in Quezon City. Miriam College students also joined the rally.

OLIVER MARQUEZ / PNA

BY JULIE M. AURELIO AND NIÑA P. CALLEJA Philippine Daily Inquirer

THE UNITED States has urged claimants to the South China Sea to unite and put pressure on China by having a shared understanding of “militarization,” thus avoiding the growing tension in the region, according to the Department of Defense (DND).

In a high-level meeting on Tuesday between Philippine and US defense and diplomatic officials, the United States vowed it would not allow China to control the vital waterway and that it would ensure freedom of navigation in the region, a DND statement yesterday said.

The Philippines, represented

by Foreign Secretary Albert del Rosario and Defense Secretary Voltaire Gazmin, want joint patrols in the contested area.

The US panel headed by Secretary of State John Kerry and Defense Secretary Ashton Carter reiterated Washington’s “ironclad” commitment to the security of the Philippines and support to its military modernization program.

“The United States suggested the need for parties in the South China Sea to have a common and shared understanding of militarization to avoid growing tensions. A common sense among the other parties would put pressure on China,” the DND said.

China is claiming the entire South China Sea and has been aggressive in its expansion and construction activities in the area.

The DND said the US side noted China’s claim that it would not militarize the disputed region.

“The US side emphasized that it will not allow China to control the South China Sea and will act to ensure that freedom of navigation is respected,” the DNDstressed.

In addition, the United States said it “will continue to fly and sail whenever and wherever international law allows” and will “maintain presence in the South China Sea to include naval, subsea, air and special forces.”

More collaboration

DND

spokesperson

Peter

www.canadianinquirer.net

Part of Johnson Reef locally called Mabini Reef at the Spratly Islands.

PHILIPPINE DEPARTMENT OF FOREIGN AFFAIRS / SCMP.COM

Paul Galvez stressed the need for a more collaborative presence in the South China Sea. “Thus, in addition to the US’ freedom of navigation operations, we are suggesting that we also patrol the area together,” he added. “There is a need for more collaborative presence in the South China Sea. Both parties also agreed to explore the possibility of other partners participating in bilateral activities, such as Japan and Australia, stressing the usefulness of multilateral cooperation in addressing security challenges, the DND said.

Del Rosario and Gazmin later met with Senators John McCain and Jack Reed of the US Senate armed services committee, according to a news release issued by the Philippine Embassy in Washington yesterday.

The embassy said the committee, headed by McCain, “has demonstrated keen interest in developments in Asia, particularly on the issue of maritime security.”

“One of the committee’s most significant initiatives in this regard was the introduction of the Maritime Security Initiative in the FY 2016 National Defense Authorization Act that allots $50 million to help enhance the maritime security capacities of countries in Southeast Asia, including the Philippines,” it said.

Test flights

US President Barack Obama first unveiled this maritime assistance plan when he was in Manila in November last year.

He announced that Washington would scale up naval aid in Southeast Asia, which includes the transfer of two warships to the Philippine Navy.

“We wish to thank the Senate Armed Services Committee for the priority it has accorded to US engagement with AsiaPacific and for the committee’s statements calling for stronger US presence in the region,” Del Rosario told the senators.

The Philippine Embassy said Gazmin and Del Rosario welcomed McCain’s comments against China’s recent test flights over Kagitingan (Fiery Cross) Reef and the “committee’s consistent efforts” to prod the US government to continue with legitimate challenges to China’s illegal claims in the South China Sea. Earlier, McCain hailed the recent Supreme Court ruling upholding the constitutionality of 10-year Enhanced Defense Cooperation Agreement.

“As Manila finds itself the target of Chinese coercion in the West Philippine Sea and is looking to Washington for leadership, this agreement will give us new tools to ... expand engagement with the Philippine Armed Forces, and enhance our presence in Southeast Asia,” he said in a statement. ■

Philippine News

8

JANUARY 22, 2016

FRIDAY

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Member

President Benigno S. Aquino III with Liberal Party (LP) standard bearers Mar Roxas and Leni Robredo are greeted by supporters outside Manila Cathedral.

JOSEPH VIDAL / MALACAÑANG PHOTO BUREAU

LP bets fear voters’ backlash over SSS pension veto

BY DJ YAP AND NIKKO DIZON Philippine Daily Inquirer

not respond only to what is needed at present. So I am ‘heartless’ today,” Mr. Aquino said. “(But) if in 2027, (the SSS) goes bankrupt, (then) the more than 30 million pensioners would say I am careless and heartless at the same time. That I did not think of them, that I made sure the state would not be able to deliver its promise to them,” the President told reporters in a news conference.

In his veto message on Thursday, Mr. Aquino said the SSS pension bill approved last month by Congress would compromise the viability of the agency, which would be forced to make a yearly payout of P56 billion.

“Compared against an annual investment income of P30 billion to P40 billion, such total payment for pension-

ment’s “social nets,” including the services provided by the Department of Health and PhilHealth, as benefits that pensioners could avail themselves of.

Mr. Aquino admitted that he was aware his veto could be exploited by the opposition and that he risked making an unpopular decision in the run up to the election campaign that begins on Feb. 9.

LIBERAL PARTY (LP) candidates will bear the brunt of public outrage over President Aquino’s veto of the proposed P2,000 increase for pensioners of the state-run Social Security System (SSS), vice presidential candidate Leni Robredo admitted on Friday.

Fat bonuses “It’s true that administration candiThe President also defended the fat dates will suffer because we are the ones bonuses received by SSS officials, sayto take the hit,” the Camarines Sur reping that the granting of bonuses went resentative told reporters in Bicol. through “a long process” implemented But Robredo said she thought the by the Governance Commission for President did the right thing in spite of Government-Controlled or -Owned how unpopular his decision might prove Corporations (GCG). to be.

While LP standard-bearer Mar Roxas “The easiest thing “understands the for him to do was to reason for the veto, approve [the bill], he also wants to find because... he would an alternative to look good, the LibThe one who would take the blame would be the P2,000 acrosseral Party would look the one governing us by that time. But is that the-board increase,” good,” said the widow right, for me to bring the people towards their said Akbayan Rep. of Interior Secretary own misery?

Barry Gutierrez, the Jesse Robredo. spokesperson of the She added, howLP-led coalition. ever, that she still “A middle ground needed to study Aquino’s veto message ers will yield a deficit of P16 billion to between the immediate benefit to curto understand it better. “For me, [the P26 billion annually,” said Presidential rent pensioners and ensuring the stabilincrease] will do plenty of good, but if Communications Secretary Herminio ity of the fund for current contributors it’s true that [SSS] will go bankrupt in 11 Coloma Jr. should be found,” Gutierrez said. years, then we need to think it through.”

The Chief Executive said he was given LP spokesperson Edgar Erice meanIn Malolos, Bulacan, President Aqui- a choice: “I could try to look good and while praised Mr. Aquino for refusing no said he was standing by his veto of the help (in) the endorsement (of adminis- to make a politically expedient decision proposed pension hike, saying he would tration candidates) and maybe by 2027, I and “not thinking about elections but rather be called “heartless” today than would be forgotten and won’t be blamed what is good for our country.” “heartless and careless” a decade from (for the SSS bankruptcy). The one who He added: “We cannot spend money now. would take the blame would be the one that we do not have. It’s just like selling governing us by that time. But is that your product at a very low price that in Heartless today right, for me to bring the people towards the end your store will go bankrupt.”

“I believe that as the father of the na- their own misery?” he asked. tion, I have to plan for future needs and President Aquino cited the govern❱❱ PAGE 14 LP bets www.canadianinquirer.net

Philippine News

FRIDAY JANUARY 22, 2016

9

Property dispute latest turn in Iglesia family feud

BY JAYMEE T. GAMIL Philippine Daily Inquirer THE CONTROVERSY rocking the Iglesia Ni Cristo’s founding family has now engendered a property dispute between the INC and Lolita Manalo Hemedez, the sister of INC executive minister Eduardo Manalo, over the ownership of No. 36 Tandang Sora, the Manalo family home.

The INC recently threatened to file an ejection case against Hemedez and her brother Angel, after Hemedez filed a falsification case against the INC, accusing the church of forging her and her late husband’s signatures on a deed of sale for the property last year.

Hemedez said she would hold the fort at the family home for “as long as it takes,” despite being made to feel like a prisoner in the home her family has known since the 1970s. She said the INC has fenced off buildings and posted armed guards within the residential compound.

Unbearable

“It’s unbearable. The windows have been covered. There’s no air. Half the time, I don’t know whether it’s day or night,” said Hemedez in the first media interview she gave since she, her siblings and their mother were unceremoniously expelled from the church which their

MANILA — The Philippines is set to launch into space its first microsatellite in April, the Department of Science and Technology (DOST) said on Monday.

Named as Diwata, the first all-Filipino assembled microsatellite, could be used in improved weather detection and forecasts, disaster risk management, detecting agricultural growth patterns, and the monitoring of forest cover, mining, protection of cultural and historical sites, and the territorial borders of the Philippines.

“Diwata was turned over to the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) to prepare for its launch into space in April. With Diwata, comes the Filipino dream to have its own Philippine Space Agency,” DOST said.

Recognizing the advantages of using

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“We wish to reiterate that the INC is not a family corporation. It is a religion that stands firm in obeying God’s teachings in the Bible,” Zabala said. @GMANEWS / TWITTER

grandfather had founded.

Hemedez has also filed a barangay case for unjust vexation against the INC, for cutting off their electricity last December.

Hemedez said her mother, who is now under the care of another brother Marco, left her and Angel’s side last year before the controversy broke out. She has not been told where they are for their own safety, but is in constant communication with them.

Hemedez and Angel are the only siblings continuing to live in the family home at No. 36 Tandang Sora , which is

Philippines to launch its 1st satellite in April: department PHILIPPINES NEWS AGENCY

“We still don’t know. That’s why we want to talk to him (Eduardo). Why is he angry at us? What is the reason?” said Hemedez.

The INC yesterday released a statement addressing the new allegations

against the sect, prefacing it with a biblical verse, “Obedience is thicker than blood,” to emphasize its position that the INC was “not a family corporation” but a religion that is standing firm in obeying biblical teachings.

The INC, through its spokesperson minister Edwil Zabala, said Eduardo, the INC executive minister, had sworn to uphold these principles for the sake of all INC members, whether they are close relatives or not.

“We wish to reiterate that the INC is not a family corporation. It is a religion that stands firm in obeying God’s teachings in the Bible,” Zabala said.

Zabala explained that the biblical passage quoted in the INC statement, Matthew 12:4750, contained what Christ said to stress how obedience to God’s teachings takes precedence over everything else.

“Bro. Eduardo V. Manalo, being the church’s executive minister, has sworn to uphold these principles, even in matters pertaining to his caring for his relatives, siblings and mother,” Zabala said.

In its statement, the INC “vehemently” denied what it called “malicious” allegations made by Hemedez, particularly her claim that the INC had falsified documents pertaining to the ownership of the contested lot at No. 36 Tandang Sora. ■

satellite-based remote sensing, the government invested in the construction and launching of the Philippine scientific earth observation microsatellite, under the PHL-MICROSAT or Diwata program, with the budget of 800 million pesos (USD 16.76 million) for three years.

Diwata is the country’s first microsatellite designed, developed, and assembled by Filipino researchers and engineers under the guidance of Japanese experts from Hokkaido University and Tohoku University.

Diwata-1 is a low earth orbit (LEO) satellite set to fly 400 km above the earth. It serves as a training platform and will pave the way for the Filipino team to further develop their skills in the space technology.

Part of the three-year program is the development of a second microsatellite (Diwata 2) to be launched in 2017. ■

adjacent to the INC Central compound.

She said she and her siblings and their mother continued to ask themselves why their own flesh and blood would cast them out without any explanation.

Not a family corporation

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10

Philippine News

JANUARY 22, 2016

SC dissenters say Edca a derogation of PH sovereignty

Jobless? Apply with gov’t, advises Recto

BY JEROME C. ANING Philippine Daily Inquirer

JOBLESS COLLEGE graduates should consider a career in government, with more than 200,000 permanent job positions expected to be unfilled this year.

Sen. Ralph Recto said the government should fill these vacancies to bring down the number of jobless Filipinos, especially among the youth.

According to Recto, only 1.295 million out of 1.514 million permanent job positions will be occupied this year, which means a vacancy of more than 218,000.

These positions can be filled by the approximately 536,072 unemployed college graduates in the country, the largest sector in the unemployed pool, he said.

“There’s a huge talent pool which can be tapped,” he added in a statement.

The Department of Health and the Department of Educa-

A DEROGATION of the country’s sovereignty and a violation of the Constitution was how three Supreme Court justices described the controversial Enhanced Defense Cooperation Agreement (Edca) whose constitutionality was affirmed in a 10-4 vote in the high tribunal last week.

Justices Arturo Brion, Teresita Leonardo-De Castro and Marvic Leonen regarded Edca as a treaty needing ratification by the Senate contrary to the position of the majority of the magistrates.

Leonen, in his 58-page dissenting opinion, even quoted from last year’s popular movie “Heneral Luna.”

In the movie, the revolutionary general, disenchanted the United States had not kept its promise to grant the Philippines independence, rebukes pro-American officials by saying, “Para kayong mga birhen na naniniwala sa pag-ibig ng isang puta! (You’re like virgins who believe in the love of a prostitute).”

“The majority succeeds in emasculating our Constitution.

Effectively, this court erases the blood, sweat, and tears shed by our martyrs. I register more than my disagreement. I mourn that his court has allowed this government to acquiesce into collective subservience to the Executive power contrary to the spirit our our basic law,” Leonen said.

De Castro, in her 28-page concurring and dissenting opinion, also said, “While it is true that the Philippines cannot stand alone and will need friends within and beyond this region of the worold, still we cannot offense our Constitution and bargain away our sovereignty.”

According to Brion, the debate on whether Edca is a mere executive agreement or a treaty was entered by the President with the Americans, from whom the Philippines

traces the roots of its Constitution.

“The Americans are a people who place the highest value in their respect for their Constitution. This should be no less than the spirit that should move us in adhering to our own Constitution. To accord a lesser respect for our own Constitution is to invite America’s disrespect for the Philippines as a coequal sovereign and independent nation,” he said in his 65page dissenting opinion.

Leonen, Brion and De Castro said the “agreed locations” in the Philippines over which Edca would give the United States “unimpeded access” and “operational control” were in fact foreign military bases forbidden by the Constitution. “[T]he Edca reintroduces a modernized version of the fixed military bases concept contemplated and operationalized under the 1974 Military Bases Agreement,” Brion said.

The three justices also said the Edca did not enforce the 1998 Visiting Forces Agreement (VFA), which only provides for temporary stationing of US troops in the country for noncombat purposes. The scope of Edca, they said, were broader than the VFA and the 1957 Mutual Defense Treaty.

According to De Castro, Section 25, Article XVII of the Constitution bans foreign military bases, troops, or facilities in Philippine territory, unless their presence is allowed by a treaty duly concurred in by the Philippines Senate and, when Congress so requires, approved in a referendum. The treaty also must be recognized as a treaty by the other contracting party.

Leonen added the Constitution “does not sanction the surreptitious executive approval of the entry of US military bases or any of its euphemisms through strained and acrobatic implication from an ambiguous and completely different treaty provision.” ■

FRIDAY

BY LEILA B. SALAVERRIA Philippine Daily Inquirer

Sen. Ralph Recto.

tion are the agencies expected to recruit a big number of personnel in 2016, said Recto.

The DOH will need 21,118 new employees, including 946 doctors, 15,727 nurses, 3,100 midwives, 308 medical technologists and 324 dentists.

The DepEd will have 62,320 new teaching positions.

“While not all of these slots

MIKE GONZALEZ / WIKIMEDIA COMMONS

must be filled urgently—in fact there may be no need to fill some of them for reasons of efficiency and economy—they still show career opportunities in public service for those with the qualifications and the drive to take them,” said Recto.

He said, however, some of the positions may have been considered redundant. ■

Ombudsman blocks Pasay ex-mayor, lawmaker’s bid for retrial

BY MARLON RAMOS Philippine Daily Inquirer THE OFFICE of the Ombudsman has opposed the petition of former Pasay City Mayor Wenceslao “Peewee” Trinidad and former Rep. Jose Antonio Roxas that asked the Sandiganbayan to overturn their recent conviction for graft over a fraudulent P500-million infrastructure project in 2003.

In November last year, the antigraft court’s First Division sentenced Trinidad and Roxas to up to 10 years in prison for unlawfully awarding the contract for the construction of Pasay City Mall and Public Market to a company owned by controversial businessman Cedric Lee. In their opposition, state prosecutors argued that they were able to prove beyond reasonable doubt during the trial that Trinidad had no authority www.canadianinquirer.net

to conduct a public bidding and grant the multimillion-peso contract to Lee’s Izumo Contractors Inc., based on Republic Act No. 9184 or the Government Procurement Reform Act. They also opposed Roxas’ request for a retrial, citing the “serious errors” committed by his former lawyers. “Nothing is more settled than the rule that the negligence and mistakes of a counsel are binding on the client,” the government lawyers argued.

“Otherwise, there would never be an end to suit, so long as [the] counsel could allege its own fault or negligence to support the client’s case and obtain remedies and reliefs already lost by the operation of law,” they said.

In its decision, the court said Trinidad and Roxas, then a city councilor, violated Section 3(e) of RA No. 3019, also known as the AntiGraft and

Corrupt Practices Act, for providing “unwarranted benefits” to Izumo.

The Ombudsman said the former mayor had approved the contract as head of the prequalification bids and awards committee even if the body had “ceased to exist” with the enactment of RA No. 9184.

The court said a “conspiracy existed by and between [the accused] considering that the procurement of the project… could not have been made possible without each other’s participation and cooperation.”

Besides meting out the jail term, the court also barred Trinidad and Roxas from holding any public office for six years and one day.

The pair was also found guilty of violating Article 237 of the Revised Penal Code, which prohibits public officials from “prolonging [their] performance of duties and powers.” ■

Philippine News

FRIDAY JANUARY 22, 2016

11

Carpio: US to boost PH chance vs China SC justice says Edca for credible defense

BY TARRA QUISMUNDO Philippine Daily Inquirer IN THE FACE of China’s “creeping invasion” in the heavily disputed South China Sea, American military presence in the Philippines would give the country “a fighting chance” in defending its territory.

Supreme Court Associate Justice Antonio Carpio made this case in voting to uphold the constitutionality of the Enhanced Defense Cooperation Agreement (Edca) between the Philippines and the United States, calling the accord essential in building a “credible defense” for the Philippines against China’s expansionist moves in the strategic waterway.

In his separate concurring opinion to the high court’s majority ruling last week, Carpio said the Edca—and its provisions allowing the prepositioning of US war materiel and equipment in Philippine military bases—would “give teeth” to the longstanding PhilippineUS defense alliance at such a critical time.

“With the Edca, China will think twice before attacking Philippine military resupply ships to Philippine-occupied islands in the Spratlys. With the Edca, the Philippines will have a fighting chance to hold on to Philippine-occupied islands in the Spratlys,” Carpio said.

He said the executive agreement would deter China from attacking Philippine boats patrolling the West Philippine Sea—waters within the Philippines’ 370-kilometer exclusive economic zone (EEZ) in the South China Sea—as had previously happened with the country’s poorly equipped military forces vulnerable to the growing Chinese might.

Fighting chance

“With the Edca, China will think twice before attacking Philippine Navy and Coast Guard vessels patrolling the West Philippine Sea. This will give the Philippines a fighting chance to ward off China’s impending enforcement of its nine-dash-line [claim in the South China Sea],” Carpio said.

China claims nearly all of the 3.5-million-square-kilometer South China Sea, representing its stake with nine dashes on the new Chinese map to show its “national boundaries.”

Voting 10-4, the Supreme Court on Tuesday upheld the defense pact, ruling that the 2014 executive agreement between Manila and Washington no longer needs Senate concurrence, as it merely implements existing defense treaties, including the 1999 Visiting Forces Agreement (VFA) and the 1951 Mutual Defense Treaty (MDT).

The ruling junked petitioners’ claims that the agreement would pave the way for the de facto permanent basing of US forces in the Philippines 24 years after the Senate voted to get rid of US naval and air bases in Central Luzon.

The court said the Edca, as an implementing pact, may not breach the provisions of the VFA—a treaty that covers the “temporary” stationing of US military and civilian personnel in the Philippines.

Strictly, the Edca must comply with the Constitution’s “policy of freedom from nuclear weapons within Philippine territory,” the court said.

Still, the 118-page decision afforded flexibility in the enforcement of VFA provisions as far as “agreed locations” for troop stationing, prepositioning of defense materiel and equipment and operational

control are concerned.

No dissolution

As to concerns that the Edca might be enforced beyond its intent, Chief Justice Maria Lourdes Sereno said: “We cannot invalidate the Edca on the basis of the potential abuse of its provisions.”

Carpio was one of the 10 justices who affirmed the constitutionality of the agreement, while Associate Justices Teresita Leonardo-de Castro, Arturo Brion, Estela Perlas-Bernabe and Marvic Leonen dissented.

For Carpio, who has been at the forefront of the campaign against China’s land reclamation and construction activities on Philippine-owned reefs in the Spratly archipelago, the Edca is necessary to implementing the spirit of the MDT. “The Edca is absolutely necessary and essential to implement the purpose of the MDT, which on the part of the Philippines, given the existing situation the in West Philippine Sea, is to deter or repel any armed attack on Philippine territory or on any Philippine public vessel or aircraft operating in the West Philippine Sea,” Carpio said.

Under the MDT, the Philippines and the United States agreed to “separately and jointly by self-help and mutual aid maintain and develop their individual and collective capacity to resist armed attack.”

The agreement likewise provides that “each party recognizes that an armed attack in the Pacific area on either of the parties would be dangerous to its own peace and safety and declares that it would act to meet the common dangers in accordance with its constitutional processes.”

Carpio said throwing out the Edca for not being ratified by

www.canadianinquirer.net

UNION OF CONCERNED SCIENTISTS

the Senate would, in effect, invalidate the MDT. “The prepositioning of war materiel is the very essence of the phrase to ‘maintain and develop (the parties’) individual and collective capacity to resist armed attack.’ Without the prepositioning of war materials, a party to the MDT cannot maintain and develop the capacity to resist armed attack.

Without the prepositioning of war materials, a party is simply and totally unprepared for armed attack,” he said.

Defense ally

Carpio cited the importance of the United States as a defense ally, citing the prevailing expert opinion that “there is only one power on earth that can deter militarily China from enforcing its nine-dash-line claim.”

He underscored the import of prepositioning defense equipment, “like mobile antiship and antiaircraft missiles” in the age of modern warfare for coastal states such as the Philippines.

Emphasizing the importance of US presence in the Philip-

pines, Carpio traced China’s flourishing presence in the South China Sea to the Pacific “power vacuum” that occurred when US military bases were booted out of Subic Naval Base and Clark Air Base in 1992.

“As in any power vacuum, the next power would rush in to fill the vacuum. Thus, China, the next power after the US, filled the power vacuum in the South China Sea, which includes the West Philippine Sea,” he said.

He warned that China’s construction of artificial islands in the South China Sea showed that Beijing was turning Panganiban (Mischief ), Zamora (Subi) and Kagitingan (Fiery Cross) reefs into a triangle of defense, if not aggression, with airstrips and facilities on them configured as air and naval bases.

If Chinese actions are left uncontained, the Philippines stands to lose 381,000 square kilometers of its EEZ in the South China Sea, “a maritime space larger than the total Philippine land area of 300,000 square kilometers,” Carpio said. ■

12

Philippine News

JANUARY 22, 2016

Ex-Customs chief takes up cudgels for sacked officials

BY JERRY E. ESPLANADA Philippine Daily Inquirer

and reductions in smuggling, which was recognized by the parties most affected by smuggling—rice, steel and petrochemical producers.”

“They stepped on plenty of toes,” he said, and “Congress, that great institution of vested interests in customs, finally figured out a way to get them fired.”

The retired military men “deserve thanks and praise, not a stab in the back,” Sevilla said.

“How will you get people with

ing Deputy Customs Commissioner Jessie Dellosa, a former AFP chief.

Meanwhile, the sacked genRESIGNED CUSTOMS Comerals said in a statement that as missioner John Philip Sevilla soldiers, they “subscribe to the has joined some Bureau of Custenets of discipline.” toms reform team members in “Thus, we follow orders withtaking up the cudgels for five out recrimination. When we retired generals and two other survive following the order, we former military officers who are ready to receive the next orwere sacked early this week as der,” they also said.

BOC district collectors.

They emphasized that “by “These retired generals made obeying, our nation survives huge sacrifices and provides the and took great opportunity to personal risks to develop and to reform a corrupt stand proudly institution,” SeSevilla said there was ‘unprecedented among other navilla posted on revenue growth and reductions in tions.” his Facebook acsmuggling, which was recognized The genercount. by the parties most affected by als also stressed Their work smuggling.’ they “face the “yielded positive gun of the enemy results,” Sevilla to protect our said of the recountrymen so tired Armed Forces of the Phil- the courage you need to reform they can live in peace.” ippines officers, who had been a corrupt institution when no Referring to the reference to running key ports since 2013 one has their back?” he asked. them as “illegal and inutile” by as detailed personnel of the DeIn his Facebook post, Sevilla Valenzuela City Rep. Magtangpartment of Finance’s Office of also referred to the news report gol Gunigundo, the chair of the Revenue Agency Moderniza- on the sacking of the generals House ways and means comtion. as “irresponsible reporting at mittee, they warned that with Sevilla, who quit in April 2015 its best.” the removal of the “useless and because of unbearable political The INQUIRER learned inutile” ex-soldiers, “our counpressure, said there was “un- about Sevilla’s Facebook post trymen will have to face the gun precedented revenue growth from bureau officials, includ- of the enemy themselves.” ■

Prison raids to continue–DOJ

BY TARRA QUISMUNDO Philippine Daily Inquirer UNTIL THE country’s biggest prison facility is clean, the raids will continue.

The Department of Justice (DOJ) made this vow this week, vouching for the commitment of its prison officials to rid the New Bilibid Prison (NBP) of contraband as successive raids continued to yield a fresh haul.

In the wake of Wednesday’s raid, Justice Undersecretary Emmanuel Caparas said the Bureau of Corrections (BuCor) would continue scouring the Muntinlupa prison facility even as he conceded that checking the entire 300-hectare NBP compound was a logistical challenge.

Director General Ricardo

Rainier Cruz III, was “very single-minded in cleaning up [Bilibid]. That’s what is impressive about him,” Caparas told reporters this week.

“He will do this as often as necessary…Possibly, and this is just my speculation, if three consecutive raids yield no more contraband, then that could be time for the next level of reform.

Since becoming BuCor chief last year, Cruz has led 12 raids at the NBP, undertaking the operations by quadrants.

There are currently 27,000 inmates serving time in Bilibid.

The population is expected to be transferred to a new 500-ha prison facility up for construction in Nueva Ecija and set to open by 2019.

Earlier raids have busted luxury quarters that yielded

drugs, cash, sex toys, appliances and other contraband, bringing into question the strength of BuCor’s security enforcement.

Just this week, another raid yielded a new haul of banned items, including wellness equipment such as a facial peeling machine, a massage machine and shower heater.

Authorities also found pistols, ammunition and knives during the raid that targeted Quadrant 1 of Bilibid’s Maximum Security Compound.

“It (raids) will just keep on happening until [the prison] is finally clean,” Caparas said.

He said the BuCor will submit to the DOJ a report on the raids, including the persons who might be involved in allowing the entry of such contraband into Bilibid. ■ www.canadianinquirer.net

FRIDAY

2 brothers run over by car ‘6 times’ after bar fight

BY KRISTINE FELISSE MANGUNAY Philippine Daily Inquirer THE POLICE have launched a manhunt for the occupants of a car that ran over two brothers “six times” until one of them was killed early Friday in Cainta, Rizal province.

The incident stemmed from a brawl that earlier broke out in a videoke bar and pitted the brothers against another group of customers, police said. The fight spilled into the street, where the brothers’ enemies struck back before fleeing.

Supt. Marlon Gnilo, the Cainta police chief, said they were looking for at least four persons who fled in a black Honda Civic (XGE-801) after killing Mario Campos and wounding his sibling, Roberto. The two men were described to be in their 50s and 30s, respectively.

The victims were run over by the car on Imelda Avenue, Barangay Sta. Lucia. Mario died on the spot while Roberto was brought by concerned citizens to a nearby hospital, where he remained in critical condition at press time.

Search for car owner

“We have traced the owner

of the Honda Civic through the [Land Transportation Office].

But when we got to the owner’s house, a caretaker said the vehicle had already been sold,” Gnilo said in an interview on Saturday.

The caretaker had given investigators the supposed address of the new car owner, he added.

An initial investigation showed that the persons who fled in the Honda—reportedly two males and two females— earlier had a fight with the Campos brothers and their companion at Eliks KTV bar on nearby Soliven Avenue.

In a TV interview, the Camposes’ companion, who declined to be named in the report, said that after being punched in the face during the fight, he rushed out of the bar and told the brothers to follow him.

But he eventually lost sight of the Camposes. Moments later, he heard screams and saw Mario lying face down on the road and the wounded Roberto on the curb.

“According to a witness, the group in the car ran over the victims six times, so there was premeditation,” hence the charge would be murder, not homicide, Gnilo said. ■

Philippine News

FRIDAY JANUARY 22, 2016

13

‘Pork’ prosecutors: Outnumbered, but not outgunned

BY TARRA QUISMUNDO Philippine Daily Inquirer “IT’S A PROSECUTOR’S dream case, and a defense nightmare,” said Deputy Ombudsman for Luzon Gerard Mosquera, of the cases involving the pork barrel scam, which has implicated several high-profile politicians and lawmakers, among them Senators Juan Ponce Enrile, Bong Revilla and Jinggoy Estrada.

Despite the online bashing that the team constantly endures from a public impatient with the glacial pace of court proceedings, the head of the prosecution panel said he believed “the case will be won based on evidence, and we have the evidence.”

The particular challenge they have to face, said Christine Marallag-Batacan, a member of the Ombudsman’s team handling the Priority Development Assistance Fund (PDAF) scam cases, is “facing the high-caliber lawyers” of the powerful politicians involved in the cases, and being outclassed by the technology their well-funded adversaries have at their disposal.

“Imagine facing three law firms that has at least three high-profile lawyers each,” Batacan said of the three-member prosecution team usually fielded at each hearing.

“And while we (leaf through) our papers, these [defense lawyers] scroll down (their tablets) to read the pleadings,” she added.

Also on trial are Napoles’ alleged accomplices in government: Senators Enrile, Revilla Jr., and Jinggoy and five former members of the House of Representatives: Masbate Gov. Rizalina Seachon-Lanete, Edgar Valdez of the Association of Philippine Electric Cooperatives, Rodolfo Plaza of Agusan del Sur, Samuel Dangwa of Benguet, and Constantino Jaraula of Cagayan de Oro City.

Winning

Of the accused senators, only Enrile

had been granted bail through the controversial Supreme Court ruling that cited humanitarian reasons for the exception from detention rules.

Most recently, the Ombudsman won the antigraft court’s favor when the latter junked Estrada’s bail plea on Jan. 7, citing prosecution evidence that Estrada was alongside Napoles “at the apex of the PDAF scam.”

“We’re winning these cases... The only incidents that had not gone the prosecution’s way were the motions to transfer

Spectacle

“It’s quite a spectacle when you see (all those defense lawyers) in court. Sometimes the court just asks them to appoint a captain,” confirms Ryan Hartzell Balisacan of the intimidating scene that their outnumbered team contends with.

At 31, Balisacan is one of the youngest member of the PDAF team.

But while outnumbered, they are not outgunned, the Ombudsman’s team declared.

They have in fact been winning points in the lopsided court battle to try one of the biggest corruption cases that this scandal-weary nation had ever seen.

Some one and a half years since the start of proceedings, the 35-member PDAF team is counting on the strength of its evidence to cope with what is expected to be a tedious trial of eight graft, plunder and malversation cases against several accused.

Already, the team had scored victories at the preliminary stage and bail hearings at the Sandiganbayan, where the alleged brains, businesswoman Janet Lim-Napoles and her cohorts, have been accused of funneling taxpayer money into bogus nongovernment organizations. www.canadianinquirer.net

the accused to a regular jail,” said Mosquera.

“But, practically, 90 percent of the incidents have gone the prosecution’s way...Our evidence is strong, our witnesses are all complete, our documents are all intact. We have a very strong case, a good set of prosecutors and a good strategy,” he added.

According to the website of the Office of the Ombudsman, the independent ❱❱ PAGE 14 ‘Pork’ prosecutors

14

Philippine News

JANUARY 22, 2016

PhilHealth offers alternate family planning package

BY JOCELYN R. UY Philippine Daily Inquirer WITH BIRTH control implants temporarily banned by the Supreme Court, poor Filipino women can turn to the P3,000contraceptive program the Philippine Health Insurance Corp. (PhilHealth) is making available to its members beginning this month.

In a circular signed last month, the state insurance firm said the package is aimed at broadening the access to “long acting reversible” family planning methods by Filipino women.

The package covers consultation and counseling, professional fee, and use of facility, medicine and supplies plus the contraceptive implant and follow-up services, said PhilHealth.

But it noted that only contraceptive implants included in the Philippine National Formulary would be used for the PhilHealth package, adding that healthcare providers should receive training in contraceptive implant techniques from the Department of Health’s licensed trainers.

A contraceptive implant is a small flexible tube, the size of a toothpick, placed subdermally in the upper arm. It releases progesterone hormone similar to the natural progesterone produced by women in their ovaries and inhibits ovulation.

The implant is highly effective up to three years.

The package covers consultation and counseling, professional fee, and use of facility, medicine and supplies plus the contraceptive implant and follow-up services, said PhilHealth.

According to PhilHealth Circular 038-2015, members under the indigent programs sponsored, overseas Filipino and iGroup are entitled to the package within their membership validity period.

Benefit entitlement will be subject to the “three months within six months” qualifying contributions among members in the formal economy, the informal sector and self-earning individuals and iGroup program whose validity period had expired, said the circular.

Househelp enlisted in PhilHealth may start availing themselves of the package from the time of their enrollment and payment of premiums. “It will remain valid as long as premium contributions are regularly paid,” said the insurance firm.

The package may be utilized only once every 730 days, or two years, and the procedure

should be done in accredited hospitals, primary care facilities, ambulatory surgical clinics, lying-in clinics and birthing homes by licensed and trained physicians and midwives.

The DOH earlier planned to make the birth control implants available in health centers but the Supreme Court issued a temporary restraining order (TRO) in June last year barring the health agency from pushing through with its program.

The TRO prevented the government from procuring, selling and distributing Implanon and Implanon NXT pending its final disposition of an appeal by the Alliance for the Family Foundation Philippines Inc. to permanently ban the product for its supposed “abortifacient” side effects.

The health agency also faced a P1-billion budget cut for family planning services this year. ■

prosecutors. Their general impression is [that] prosecutors are slow...but they don’t really see what happens in court,” added the acting director at one of the Ombudsman’s prosecution bureaus.

“In the court, there will be arguments. When a justice states a ruling, it’s usually done in high pitch...and we cannot respond the same way. So for an observer, it might come off that the justice is angry. But (that’s) normal,” said Deputy Special Prosecutor Manuel Soriano Jr. But they understand how much the public wants to see

results, the prosecutors added. And already, hearings on the PDAF cases are being held thrice a week, more frequently than other cases.

“The public wants convictions because in their eyes, these (people) stole our money.

But why are the cases taking too long?” asked Joefferson Toribio, another PDAF team member.

“Sometimes, the delays are attributed to us when in fact it’s the usual judicial proceeding,” Toribio said, adding that the defense regularly files motions for delay in court.

FRIDAY

LP bets... ❰❰ 8

Temporary backlash

Marikina Rep. Miro Quimbo, chair of the House of Representatives ways and means committee, said the backlash against President Aquino’s unpopular decision “will be temporary.”

Being part of the LP coalition, he said, was “both an advantage and a responsibility. ‘Daang matuwid’ means doing the right thing, popular or otherwise. That’s precisely why the President has the highest approval rating for an outgoing President in our history.”

The Marikina representative also proposed another compromise to the vetoed pension hike, and said that SSS pensioners could be given an increase based on their contributions.

“It is unfair that practically the same increase will be given to a retiree who has contributed for 10 years and another who has contributed for 30 years,” said Quimbo.

In Pozorrubio, Pangasinan, Bayan Muna Rep. Neri Colmenares, principal author of the proposed hike, has started a congressional campaign to overturn President Aquino’s veto of the proposed hike in pension funds, even as presidential aspirant Sen. Grace Poe expressed her support for the override.

“I have the inclination to [support the] override because as [Colmenares] says, there is a source for the fund. There is only a need to [achieve] effective collection [of membership obligations],”

Poe said during a news conference here after attending the annual Talong Festival in Villasis town.

Full accounting

Sen. Francis Escudero, Poe’s running mate, said he would also work to overturn Mr. Aquino’s veto. “I understand where the President is coming from, but we also have a job to do as lawmakers,” Poe’s running mate said.

Colmenares, who joined Poe’s group, said it was incumbent on him to sponsor the override bill because he authored the pension increase bill in the House.

Senatorial candidate and Leyte Rep. Ferdinand Martin Romualdez meanwhile demanded a full accounting of SSS funds and collectibles to validate government claims that it could not afford to grant the proposed P2,000 increase.

Romualdez cited reports that the SSS failed to collect P13 billion from delinquent employers as of 2014, while aging member loans had reached P64.01 billion, of which P19.407 billion had been outstanding for more than 5 years.

The congressman also noted that out of 164,111 delinquent employers in 2010 alone, the SSS had filed only an average of 1,200 cases per year.

“Divide that and the difference will show that more than 100 years shall have passed before the SSS collects from these delinquents. This is assuming that some of them would still be alive by then and their businesses are still open,” he said. ■

‘Pork’ prosecutors... office headed by the stern former Supreme Court Associate Justice Conchita Carpio Morales, scored a 75-percent conviction rate in cases it had handled as of September 2015. ❰❰ 13

Unfair

Such relative success is a little known fact to the public, said Batacan, adding that people and the media could sometimes be unfair in judging the capabilities of government prosecutors.

“It’s like the public is always too quick to judge against the

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Personal cost

The PDAF cases have also exacted a heavy personal cost from these mostly young team members.

Soriano, a father of three, said he missed sharing quality time with his young family, while Batacan had to turn down friends’ invitations to book piso- fare flights. Most of the prosecutors also have to work through the night, on weekends and holidays to finish the pleadings and prepare for the hearings.

“I’ve had so many sleepless nights, especially after reading

the negative (media) reports,” said Soriano.

Despite the hurt and the exhaustion, everything has been worth it, the team said.

“I don’t want to be too melodramatic about it, but when you like what you’re doing, it doesn’t really feel like work,” said Balisacan, who took a massive pay cut after opting out of a private law firm.

“No offense to those in the private sector, but here, our concept of ‘client’ is more amorphous. Because our client is the Republic of the Philippines,” he added. ■

Philippine News

FRIDAY JANUARY 22, 2016

15

A sad...

I feel sad. The additional pension could have been enough to buy my medicines (for hypertension and heart ailment),” said Calauor, 79, who gets a P2,000 monthly pension from the Social Security System (SSS) as a widow of a bus inspector who died in 1981.

INQUIRER columnist Ramon Farolan said that offhand, the President’s veto of the bill could make senior citizens enjoying SSS pensions feel discriminated against.

“Since [the veto] does not favor the increase in their pensions, the senior citizens will certainly feel that they have been discriminated against because other sectors have been given increases in their compensation packages,” said Farolan, who has written about senior citizens’ issues.

Farolan, a retired Air Force general and former Bureau of Customs chief, said the decision to thumb down the SSS pension increase might have implications on the request to increase the pensions of retired military personnel.

“If the increase for SSS pensioners has been vetoed, it’s very possible the pensioners of the Armed Forces of the Philippines would not be getting any increase,” he said.

The Federation of Free Workers (FFW) assailed the Aquino administration for vetoing the SSS pension hike bill.

FFW vice president Julius Cainglet said in a statement “it shows how inconsiderate and heartless the administration is.”

“They bark about the Philippines’ unprecedented growth and yet, they cannot put their money where their mouth is,” he said.

“This is basic social protection that retired workers (in the private sector) and their families look forward to, which government is depriving them of,” he added. ❰❰ 1

Unfounded

Eduardo R. Alicias Jr., a pensioner, said it was a sad day for millions of impoverished SSS pensioners.

Alicias said the President’s veto of the SSS pension increase on the basis that the SSS would be rendered unsustainable “appears unfounded.”

“He justifies his veto on his imagined fear that the pro-

posed increase will result in an SSS deficit; in other words that it will go bankrupt. No, it will never go bankrupt,” he said.

“With due respect, P-Noy needs to be reminded that the SSS’ reason for being is to protect and benefit memberbeneficiaries, especially in old age. It was created ‘to establish, develop, promote and perfect a sound and viable taxexempt social security system xxx which shall promote social justice and provide meaningful protection to members and their beneficiaries xxx (Sec 2, SSS Act of 1997),” he said.

Alicias, a former associate professor at the University of the Philippines Diliman, said Republic Act No. 8282 guaranteed the viability of the pension fund.

Section 20 reads: “xxx Congress shall annually appropriate out of any funds in the National Treasury not otherwise appropriated, the necessary sum or sums to meet the estimated expenses of the SSS for each ensuing year. In addition to this contribution, Congress shall appropriate from time to time such sum or sums as may be needed to assure the maintenance of an adequate working balance of the funds of the SSS xxx.”

Moreover, Section 21 provides: “The benefits prescribed in this Act shall not be diminished and to guarantee said benefits the Government of the Republic of the Philippines accepts general responsibility for the solvency of the SSS.” Override

Clearly, in view of this sovereign guarantee, Alicias said “nobody should fear, let alone President Aquino, that in the future the SSS will go bankrupt because of the proposed P2,000 pension increase.

He called on Congress to override his veto.

Before Alicias even made his call, Sen. Francis Escudero had urged lawmakers to override the President’s veto, which would require a two-thirds vote in both the Senate and the House of Representatives.

“It may be difficult but we will try for the sake of our SSS pensioners,” Escudero said in a statement.

He said the veto was saddening as the pensioners had waited so long for the increase.

“There is no better time than now to have the SSS pension hike bill enacted into law, and I urge my colleagues in the Senate and members of the House of Representatives to do the right thing and vote to override the President’s ill-advised veto of this bill,” said Escudero, a vice presidential candidate.

Like Escudero, Bayan Muna Rep. Neri Colmenares called on the House and Senate to side with the people and override the Aquino veto. “The battle is not yet over,” he said.

Colmenares, principal author of the House bill granting the monthly across-the-board pension increase to retirees, survivors and disabled SSS members, described the veto of the pension increase as “heartless.”

“The P2,000 hike is very reasonable and is badly needed by pensioners and their dependents. President Aquino’s concern that SSS will be bankrupt is a phantom fear because it’s not true,” said Colmenares, a senatorial candidate.

2/3 vote needed

The Liberal Party-dominated House doubted whether lawmakers could muster the twothirds vote to overturn the presidential veto.

Isabela Rep. Rodolfo Albano III noted that Congress had so far not gathered enough votes to overturn a presidential veto.

Veto defended

Speaker Feliciano Belmonte Jr. defended the veto claiming the President had no choice because the SSS simply could not afford the pension hike from an actuarial point of view.

“The House passed a sister bill giving the SSS board powers similar to that of the GSIS board to increase premiums, but it was not yet approved by the Senate. P-Noy chose to be a fiscally responsible leader, and not just one driven by current politics,” Belmonte said.

Lack of compassion

Leyte Rep. Martin Romualdez, a senatorial candidate, said the President showed a lack of compassion for SSS retirees who would have to make do with a paltry pension.

“The beneficiaries represent the real working class during their time who may not be benefiting from government’s doleout program. This is a pro-poor www.canadianinquirer.net

“P-Noy chose to be a fiscally responsible leader, and not just one driven by current politics,” Belmonte said.

policy that gives social justice.

Surely, this could have dire consequences or a serious backlash on the ability of his candidates to woo the support of the electorate in the coming polls. This (SSS) could have been a good legacy of his administration had he not vetoed the law,” Romualdez said.

Colmenares said the minimum P1,200 monthly pension (for members who made 120 months of contributions) had not been changed since 1997.

He described the amount as “subhuman” as it was worth less than half or P514.86 based on 2014 prices, as inflation has increased more than 200 percent since 1997.

A fifth of living wage

He said the P2,400 monthly pension (for those who made 240 monthly contributions) was worth P1,037.72, less than a fifth of the minimum living wage of P5,333 a month for a single person.

Colmenares dismissed as a “scare tactic” Malacañang’s claim that the increase would result in massive liabilities and shorten the fund life.

The SSS management said its fund would be used up in 14 years or by 2029 with the implementation of the P2,000 increase but Colmenares noted that more advanced countries have shorter pension funds with shorter life spans—12 years in the United States and seven years in Canada.

Colmenares also noted that it was only 14 years ago that SSS declared its fund life was only

five years and yet it didn’t see it much of a threat to institute widespread reforms.

He said that the P1.9-trillion funding gap declared by the SSS was not unique to the Philippines because all government pension schemes have unfunded liabilities much larger than the Philippines (such as Ireland which has $320 billion in funding gaps against the Philippines $22.92 billion) and yet none of them ever went belly up.

Manageable liability

Colmenares said that the SSS would never go bankrupt with the pension hike because the government was under obligation to replenish the projected deficit from the pension hike.

“Unfunded liability is manageable if only the SSS institutes reforms in the next 14 years to expand its reserve and investment fund,” said Colmenares.

In the Senate, Sen. Ferdinand Marcos Jr., a vice presidential candidate, criticized Mr. Aquino for the veto.

“It seems that the President has chosen to look the other side, instead of being sensitive and looking at the realistic conditions of the pensioners who dedicated their active and healthy years to labor,” the senator said in a statement.

He said governance was about caring for the people, especially those incapable or less capable of looking after themselves.

“I hope the government has other plans to uplift the living conditions of SSS pensioners,” he said. ■

Opinion

16

JANUARY 22, 2016

FRIDAY

ANALYSIS

P-Noy short on social compassion

By Amando Doronila Philippine Daily Inquirer CANBERRA—In its twilight, the Aquino administration is battered by the tempestuous backlash over social policy—his veto of a legislation seeking to increase the pensions of 2.15 million members of the state-run Social Security System (SSS), which handles the pension fund of workers in the private sector.

The storm came as President Aquino, a scion of the country’s largest landed estate (the 4,000-hectare plus Hacienda Luisita in Tarlac province), prepares to step down from sixyears in power after the national elections in May. The veto of the last major legislation on social policy during his administration defines his legacy.

Shooting down the proposed law marks the Aquino presidency as a political reformer short on social compassion and insensitive to the welfare of the poor, disadvantaged and lowincome groups in Philippine society.

If the pension-increase policy took place in parliamentary systems with extensive welfare state programs, as in Western Europe, Australia and New Zealand, such a deficit in social legislation would have sparked calls for a change of government or a vote of confidence in parliament.

The worst thing that happened

was that the administration has been receiving heavy flak, with disappointed pensioners calling the President “heartless.”

The proposed law, House Bill No. 5842, provides for P2,000 acrossthe-board increase in SSS monthly pensions.

Trickery The President deflected the fallout with trickery by playing off groups of SSS pensioners against one another.

During a trip to Bulacan province last week, Mr. Aquino explained the reasons for the veto. He said it was unfair to grant the increase at the expense of other SSS members.

“While 2.15 million members will be delighted, the other 30 million will be at risk. Is that right?” he said during an interview on state-run Radyo ng Bayan.

Presenting himself as a statesman, he said: “As the father of the nation, you shouldn’t look only at what is needed now. You also have to plan for the needs of the country in the coming years. So, I am heartless now but in 2007, when the SSS becomes bankrupt [and is not able to pay for the pension of ] more than 30 million members, they will call me careless and heartless at the same time.”

Rattled by the backlash from the rankand-file members of the SSS, officials of the ruling Liberal Party ex-

pressed alarm over the impact of the veto on LP candidates for President, Vice President, senator and representative in the May elections.

The backlash sent Malacañang twisting in the wind to explain and justify the veto.

In his veto message sent to Senate President Franklin Drilon and House Speaker Feliciano Belmonte Jr., Mr. Aquino said that while the House bill seeking the pension increase would benefit the private sector retirees, “we cannot support the bill in its present form because of dire financial consequences.”

He said the P2,000 across-theboard increase with the corresponding adjustment of the minimum monthly pension would result in substantial negative income since the proposed increase for each retiree multiplied by the present 2.15 million pensioners would result in a total pay-out of P56 billion annually.

Compared against the annual investment income of P30 billion to P40 billion, such total payment for pensioners will yield a deficit of P16 billion to P26 billion annually.

Zero by 2029 “Given this situation, the SSS will be constrained to draw from and use its Investment Reserve Fund (IRF) to support the pension increase. Conse-

quently, the IRF will diminish over the years, eventually zero by 2029.

The stability of the entire benefit, whose present membership comprises about 31 million people, will be seriously compromised in favor of 2 million pensioners and their dependents,” the President said.

In view of these considerations, he said, he was forced to veto the bill. As if this explanation is not already protesting too much, the Palace delivered another lecture. A Malacañang spokesperson said it was the responsibility of the government to ensure that all its obligations to 31 million SSS members could be met.

Contrary to criticisms that the President was insensitive to the needs of retirees, the official said, “It would be the height of irresponsibility and lack of compassion” if the administration adopts the bill that could shorten the life of the pension fund.

At least, it was a relief that the Palace did not drag this time “daang matuwid” (straight path governance) into the discussion.

Bonuses defended The Palace official also took the occasion to deny the issue that SSS funds were being spent on excessive bonuses of SSS executives, noting that the bonuses were just a fraction of the total operating expenses of the pension fund.

SSS executives joined the chorus of explanations. The SSS president and chief executive officer, Emilio de Quiros Jr., said an increase in pension “would have consequences for both the 2.15 million current pensioners and 31 million SSS members.” He said the P2,000 increase would lead to a projected deficit of P26 billion for 2016, from an expected income of P41 billion.

“As the number of pensioners grows, the initial P56 billion in additional benefit outlay per year would increase, which in turn would contribute to the rising annual deficit or net loss incurred by the SSS,” he added.

If the bill had been signed into law, SSS funds, projected to last until 2042, or 26 years from now, would be wiped out by 2029, or in 13 years, De Quiros said.

Even without an increase in pension, the SSS claimed that in terms of absolute value, it was providing members a generous return of P6 to P15 in benefits for every peso they contribute to the SSS. The message is clear to pensioners: Forget increase in pensions.

But at the same time, SSS commissioners will continue to receive their fat bonuses as reward for prudent management of members contribution to the provident fund.

There is such a taskmaster and slave hierarchy in the SSS pyramid. ■

LOOKING BACK

BenCab: life as an art form

By Ambeth R. Ocampo Philippine Daily Inquirer FILIPINO ARTISTS have copied human face and likeness from prehistoric times to our day: from the time two figures on a boat were fashioned in clay to adorn the cover of the Manunggul jar, to the portraits captured in pencil, charcoal, oil or acrylic by National Artist Benedicto R. Cabrera at the dawn of the 21st century.

“Larawan,” the Filipino word for portrait or picture, would have been a perfect title for the exhibition of portraits by BenCab, which is ongoing at the Ayala Museum; except that it could also refer to the Filipino translation of National Artist Nick Joaquin’s play “Portrait of the Artist as a Filipino” or the series of works

by BenCab inspired by faded 19thcentury photographs of Filipinos.

“Mukhang BenCab” was first proposed as a catchy alternative to describe a human face drawn or painted

by BenCab, but then the title could also mean a work of art done “in the style of” BenCab. To avoid confusion from double meanings and multiple references, the simplest title, “Ben-

Cab Portraits,” frames a significant body of work, often overshadowed by his much-coveted, and rather overpriced paintings from the “Larawan” and “Sabel” series.

BenCab has been drawing since he was but a child of seven and continues to draw well into his 70s filling sheets of paper, big and small, with lines and shading that capture face, form and character. Like a journalist or historian who fills notebooks with text, BenCab has filled countless notebooks and sketchpads with images drawn from life and memory.

Many of these images are portraits that range from mere doodles to line drawings, from rough sketches to finished work. In his rapidly drawn portraits we discern an integral part of BenCab’s body of work, the steps to painting, the arc of a creative process.

Like practice to the athlete or musician, doing portraits hones the skills of observation, improves the ability for representation, and sharpens the consummate draftsmanship that remains a hallmark of BenCab’s work.

One cannot say that BenCab was born with art, but rather art grew on him, thanks to the influence of his el-

der brother Salvador, a prolific painter, and the world of komiks (with illustrated stories by Francisco Coching), and the fantastic characters created by Mars Ravelo. BenCab’s natural talent was recognized early on when, as a sixth grader in the Balagtas Elementary School in Bambang, Tondo, he won first prize in a poster contest, reaping P100 for his pocket and the realization that art could be a livelihood. In high school, BenCab augmented his allowance by drawing science projects for his classmates and peddling pencil portraits of James Dean and Elvis Presley copied from fan magazines and from popular music magazines, then known as “Song Hits.” In an age before digital cameras and smartphones, BenCab caught his surroundings in his mind’s eye, committing images to paper, especially the faces of pretty classmates he found attractive and drew in secret.

Admitted to the University of the Philippines College of Fine Arts, the 17-year-old BenCab enrolled in formal art classes where he was trained to draw, paint and sculpt academically under figurative artists Domi-

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nador Castañeda, Ireneo Miranda, Carlos Valino and Anastacio Caedo.

He also explored other media and methods unlike those taught in his studio classes in academic, figurative and commercial art, thanks to the inspiration of his professor Jose Joya, a leading abstract artist. Dissuaded from pursuing painting as a major, BenCab took to the commercial arts track that served him well doing layout, illustration and art work for various publications after leaving Diliman. After winning some prizes at art competitions in and out of the university and armed with this early recognition, BenCab left the University of the Philippines without a degree in 1963, only to return, half a century later, to receive an honorary doctorate in the Humanities.

He took a desk job in the United States Information Service where he did layout work. He recalls that among his early portraits was that of US President Lyndon B. Johnson and this was used for one of the local USIS (United States Information Service) publications. He then took on odd jobs as illustrator and layout artist with Liwayway and Mirror

magazines, including three years as illustrator with the Sunday Times Magazine. During this time BenCab found his way to Ermita and Malate, then the center of Manila’s artistic and literary scene in the rowdy 1960s and there made lifelong friends. Here he caught the collecting bug, starting off with antiques acquired by barter.

In those days, some dealers would accept a drawing or a painting by the then struggling artist in exchange for a santo from the Spanish colonial period, or a piece of Ming dynasty porcelain. Decades later his accumulation of art and antiquities would fill what is now the BenCab museum in Baguio.

An artist’s life story comes out in an exhibition of a hundred BenCab portraits—many publicly exhibited for the first time—that come in different sizes, shapes and mediums.

BenCab self-portraits made in the past 50 years document both life and times. These portraits do not just copy a face, they make each face tell at once a story that is that of the sitter and a story that, through art and memory, has formed part of BenCab’s personal and public history. ■

Opinion

FRIDAY JANUARY 22, 2016

17

PUBLIC LIVES

Understanding the 4Ps

By Randy David Philippine Daily Inquirer ABOUT FOUR years ago, Social Welfare Secretary Dinky Soliman invited me to join the national advisory committee of the Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino Program, or 4Ps, the social protection program initiated by the Arroyo administration that President Aquino decided not only to continue but also to expand. I knew that this program was heavily politicized.

Like many other things under the previous administration, the 4Ps was just another tool of patronage, a way of rewarding loyal followers.

Dinky is a friend from long ago, and I’m sure she sensed my hesitation. I have always been skeptical of state-led foreign-designed redistributive schemes that do not involve any meaningful change in the society’s property system. Indeed, the first time I heard of the “conditional cash transfer program” (the term by which it is known abroad) was from a European social scientist, who had written to me about a possible research collaboration on the rightwing ideology behind the CCT. He pointed to the strong support given to the program by multilateral institutions like the World Bank and the Asian Development Bank. For a host of reasons, however, the study

did not materialize.

The number of beneficiary house- of the cash grant is verified, how parBut I had begun to read about the holds enrolled in the 4Ps grew from ent leaders are regularly brought CCT. I was also intrigued by P-Noy’s less than 800,000 in 2010 to 4.4 mil- together in sustained conversation early decision to pursue the program lion in 2015. The budget allocation in family development sessions, and despite the fact that it bore the dubi- likewise increased from P10 billion how the entire program is scrupuous thumbprint of his predecessor. If in 2010 to about P62.7 billion in lously shielded from politicians. it succeeded, he would be reminded 2016, making the 4Ps easily the cenYet, I also can’t help feeling incredthat this was not his project. If the terpiece program of the PNoy presi- ulous each time I listen to earnest program continued to be under- dency. This year, the program seeks reports about the quantifiable gains mined by leakages and integrity is- to enlist another 200,000 households that have been claimed for the prosues, critics would say his “daang ma- belonging to the “near poor.” It is no gram within very short time frames. tuwid” was a sham. joke running a payment system that In their eagerness to justify the risWhen I accepted Dinky’s invitation reaches out to the most nomadic ing budgetary requirement, some exto be part of the 4Ps national advisory street dwellers and the remotest in- perts involved in the program tend to committee, I guess part of me wanted digenous communities. be fixated with small increments in to know the inside school attendance story of how proand improvements But I think I now have a better appreciation of what it means to grams like this were in health indicators, govern a nation riven by mass poverty and deep inequalities, and what bound to fail. But forgetting that the it takes to run a program of such magnitude and complexity as the 4Ps. the other part also original concept is wished to be surabout breaking the prised by what people were capable of I cannot say that the unpaid advi- chain of poverty that has bound sucdoing when they trusted their govern- sory role in which I had found myself cessive generations in the same famiment. The first thing that struck me transformed me into a true believer. lies. about the program was its ambition But I think I now have a better apWhat is unique about this program, and its vulnerability to political ma- preciation of what it means to govern after all, is that the government is nipulation at every stage. Its declared a nation riven by mass poverty and transferring cash, not to individuals, aim was to interrupt the transmission deep inequalities, and what it takes to but to families with young children. of poverty from one generation to an- run a program of such magnitude and The concept shifts the focus from the other by investing in the education and complexity as the 4Ps. For this rea- merely poor, or the unemployed, to the health of children from poor families. son, I am annoyed whenever I hear children who are the intended benefiBut how does one determine which dismissive comments about the pro- ciaries of the program. The 4Ps is thus families were the most deserving? A gram from people who know nothing far from being a comprehensive antilaborious national household targeting about how beneficiaries are chosen, poverty program. Indeed, it does not system or “listahanan” was the answer. how compliance with the conditions cover the elderly in our society, many

of whom suffer from the triple disability of poverty, disease, and senility.

Still, it would be a mistake to think that the 4Ps is just about families being paid by government to make sure their children go to school regularly and get vaccinated and dewormed at the health centers. A lot of consciousness-raising is taking place in the family development sessions (FDS) that representatives of the beneficiary households, mostly women, are required to attend once a month. In these highly participatory gatherings, parents learn about the rights of children, gender equality, the handling of domestic conflict, family planning, basic financial planning, the local sourcing of nutritious foods, ecological awareness, disaster preparedness, and active citizenship.

The FDS is a unique feature of the Philippine CCT program. Its curriculum, drawn from the lessons and best practices of Filipino community organizing, is an intensive course on social awareness, capacity building, and selfreliance that is attuned to the imperatives of the modern world. From these meetings, of which thousands are taking place every day all over the country, one can immediately sense that something powerful and immeasurable is gushing from the ground on which the state has planted something important. ■

AT LARGE

Ways to survive the pension backlash

By Rina Jimenez-David Philippine Daily Inquirer I HAPPEN to live with a retiree and Social Security System pensioner who had been looking forward to the proposed P2,000 increase in the monthly pension, cheering up with every news tidbit about the imminent passage of the draft law. So I’m certain he felt more than a little let down by the news that P-Noy had vetoed the draft law.

Among the explanations offered by the President in the wake of the largely angry reactions of seniors to his veto was that, if he had signed the bill into law, it would have meant leaving the pension fund “bankrupt” before its time, and endangering the pensions and current privileges enjoyed by more than 30 million active SSS members.

Since I’m still a few years away from retirement, I’m among those who could have been affected by the prospects of the SSS going bankrupt. But my son and his wife, as well as all our younger working-age relatives, and maybe even our infant grandson, would face a bleaker future without a retirement authority looking after their welfare.

So while I can understand the hubby’s disappointment—P2,000, while

not a princely amount, would still have provided a comfortable cushion, if only to answer for his meds—I can also understand the administration’s position.

Many suggestions have been advanced to make up for the loss of the P2,000 additional pension, especially since the P-Noy administration and the candidates running under the ruling Liberal Party face a brewing voters’ revolt and backlash.

Among these: cutting by half (to P1,000) the proposed additional pension for retirees which supposedly would not even need a law or executive decree but only a board resolution; providing additional services for senior SSS members, such as health coverage; and perhaps increasing the premiums of present SSS members to make up for the shortfall. *** OBSERVERS have also said that SSS policies, collections and performance need improvement, especially since board members have enjoyed millions of pesos in bonuses. Apparently, some believe the money could have been better spent—or better deserved?—by the retirees.

Others have also volunteered that SSS collections could be better enforced, with many employers seeking

ways to dodge their obligations, with some even refusing outright to send in their counterpart contributions or even to remit the employees’ contributions. This is much to the shock and consternation of members who discover, upon their retirement, that there is no record at all of their contributions and thus no pension is forthcoming.

Actually, the government has been remiss in collecting not just SSS contributions but even taxes, which are the lifeblood of any government wishing to serve the people. Just recently, a reader sent in a piece about her travails—and those of the many “unwashed”—enduring heat, long lines and confusion even if they were at the Taguig City Hall to do their duty and pay the proper taxes. Couldn’t local and national authorities take a more proactive stance in tax collections, or at least make it easier or more convenient for taxpayers to do their duty? *** PERHAPS other government bodies could learn lessons from the collection of the so-called “sin taxes,” which took effect with the passage in 2012 of Republic Act No. 10351, or the Sin Tax Reform Law. The government has allegedly been enjoying “robust” collections from taxes on to-

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bacco and alcoholic products, despite reports of firms seeking to dodge their payments, and of the proliferation of allegedly untaxed cigarettes.

Just last November, revenues from sin taxes jumped to P16.3 billion, an increase of almost 40 percent. Of this amount, P12.58 billion was collected from cigarette manufacturers.

And in the face of fears that the higher tax rates would dampen the sales of cigarettes and liquor, and affect in turn the survival of manufacturing firms, the output of such firms has in fact continued to rise, although the Bureau of Internal Revenue, said the report, “does not want to attribute it [to] higher consumption.”

You may remember that one of the justifications for the sin taxes was that the expected higher prices would lead to fewer Filipinos smoking or drinking, and thus reducing the “health burden” attributed to these products.

So what does this say about Filipinos’ “health seeking behavior”? Or the willpower of Filipino men—since it’s the male of the species in these parts who comprise the vast majority of smokers and liquor drinkers? *** ALSO part of the increase in sin tax income must be the BIR’s determination

to tax sin products correctly and enforce the proper collection of these taxes.

For example, a World Bank study has found that already, nine out of every 10 cigarette packs sold in the Philippines carry the mandatory tax stamps. World Bank data posted on the website of the Department of Finance show that “over 90 percent of the cigarette packs in retail outlets adhered to the Internal Revenue Stamps Integrated System (Irsis) on tobacco products.”

In a news report published earlier in this paper, the brands Boss, LA and Plaza were said to have achieved 100-percent compliance while 10 other brands—Camel, Champion, Fortune, Hope, Mark, Marlboro, Mighty, More, Philip Morris and Winston—had stamps on over 90 percent of their cigarette packs.

Reacting to reports that some cigarette packs that are being sold do not bear the proper stamps, BIR Commissioner Kim Henares said: “The small percentage of cigarettes in the market may not necessarily be illegal, in the sense that local manufacturers or importers had not paid the correct excise taxes.” A possible explanation could be that these may be old stocks of unstamped cigarettes that were still being sold, she said. ■

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JANUARY 22, 2016

FRIDAY

Canada News

B.C. wrestles with real estate taxes to cool rising housing prices

BY DIRK MEISSNER The Canadian Press VICTORIA — Real estate economists want British Columbia’s government to tax foreign property owners and speculators despite Finance Ministry forecasts that the province could lose $1 billion in sales and up to 4,000 construction jobs.

Premier Christy Clark has said housing relief for firsttime home buyers is a concern as the government prepares to deliver its budget next month, but she has shot down previous requests for speculation and luxury taxes on foreign investors to cool rising prices.

Thomas Davidoff, a housing economist at the Sauder School of Business, said Monday real estate experts from B.C. universities and business schools have proposed a 1.5-per-cent tax on vacant residential properties to create more rental properties and increase affordability.

The Housing Affordability Fund plan comes as rental-vacancy rates in Vancouver slipped below one per cent last year and the average selling price for a single-family home on the city’s west side is above $2.5 million.

“Housing affordability is unquestionably an issue,” said Davidoff. “The premier has said it’s front and centre and she’s asked for a policy that doesn’t whack housing demand.”

He said the affordability fund could generate up to $90 million in surcharges from vacant homeowners in Vancouver.

Homeowners who rent or live in their homes and pay income tax will be able to write off the surcharge, Davidoff said.

“If you are an investor you don’t have to pay the tax. All you have to do is turn your vacant unit into a rental unit, and voila, you get to claim the rental income as a credit against this surcharge. That’s a pretty strong incentive for people who want to invest here to turn vacant units into rental units.”

NEWS BRIEFS from The Canadian Press

Bank of Canada mulls rate cut to help economy OTTAWA — The Bank of Canada is once again facing the question of whether nudging down its already-low key interest rate will help soothe the country’s aching economy. Governor Stephen Poloz will make the central bank’s latest scheduled rate announcement Wednesday at a time of tumbling oil prices, a weak global economy and downgraded outlooks for Canadian growth.

Vulnerability to debt set to climb: PBO OTTAWA — The federal budget watchdog says in the coming years increasingly indebted households are poised to become the most financially vulnerable Canadians in decades.The parliamentary budget office released a report Tuesday predicting the ratio of debt payments — including principal and interest payments — relative to disposable income will creep upwards over the next five years as interest rates rise.

Postmedia lays off staff, merges newsrooms TORONTO — Postmedia has cut approximately 90 jobs and merged newsrooms in four cities as it steps up plans to slash costs amid mounting revenue losses.The company owns two newspapers in each of the cities of Ottawa, Calgary, Edmonton and Vancouver.

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Last June, the government rejected calls from Vancouver Mayor Gregor Robertson to levy speculation and luxury taxes on foreign owners and speculators as a way to keep prices from rising. But Clark turned down the plan, saying using taxes to drive down prices could hurt current homeowners by reducing their equity.

A six-page Finance Ministry analysis concluded moves to cut foreign investment in B.C.’s housing market would have little impact on house prices because foreign home buyers comprise less than five per cent of the sales market in the Vancouver area.

The analysis also concluded if home prices fell by 10 per cent due to policy measures, Greater Vancouver homeowners would lose about $60 billion in home equity, about $85,000 each.

Last fall, Finance Minister Mike de Jong said the government was reviewing current thresholds for property-purchase tax levels and adjusting the $475,000 property-purchase tax exemption for firsttime home buyers as potential housing-relief measures.

B.C.’s current property-purchase tax is charged at a rate

of one per cent for the first $200,000 of the sale price and two per cent for the remainder of the market value. The property-purchase tax on a property valued at $250,000 is $3,000.

First-time B.C. home buyers are currently exempt from the property-purchase tax on homes valued up to $475,000.

Davidoff said the transfer-tax plans do little to help people who can’t afford to buy and will likely push prices upwards.

“What they are proposing is adding fuel to the fire,” he said.

“They are adding demand for a fixed stock of housing. That raises the cost of housing.”

Urban Development Institute president Anne McMullin said Vancouver needs to look at zoning and development-approval changes to ensure more duplexes and condominiums are built in urban areas.

Davidoff called on Clark to convene a summit that brings together developers, politicians, academics and real estate officials to address housing affordability problems in B.C. Opposition New Democrat Leader John Horgan said Davidoff’s plan is fresh thinking the Clark government must consider. ■ www.canadianinquirer.net

Texas company to acquire Progressive Waste TORONTO — Progressive Waste Solutions has agreed to a friendly deal that will see the Canadian waste management company merged into a new business that’s controlled by shareholders and management of Texas-based Waste Connections. The deal — a type of stock transaction known as a reverse takeover — will create a new Canadian corporate entity that’s 70 per cent owned by shareholders of Waste Connections and 30 per cent by shareholders of Progressive Waste.

Trudeau heads overseas to sell Canada SAINT ANDREWS, N.B. — Prime Minister Justin Trudeau will trade the snowy hillsides of a seaside New Brunswick town this morning for the snowcapped Alps of Switzerland, with the national and global economy following him across the Atlantic Ocean. Trudeau left Tuesday for Davos and the World Economic Forum, which brings together the world’s most powerful and influential political and business leaders, celebrities and activists.

Debate preparations came up short: Mulcair MONTEBELLO — Tom Mulcair gained a reputation as a fierce competitor in the House of Commons, but when he appeared in the first televised leaders debate in the last election campaign, he seemed far less confident; even his smile appeared to be strained.

Liberals grappling with end to Iran sanctions OTTAWA — Canada is taking its time lifting some of its sanctions on Iran following the nuclear deal because of concerns over recent ballistic missile tests by Iran. Despite the breakthrough nuclear deal, the U.S. has imposed new sanctions in recent days on Iran because of the missile tests, which it says are destabilizing to the region.

Senate appointment advisory board named OTTAWA — The federal government has tapped eminent Canadians from academe, the civil service, medicine, law, arts and sports to advise Prime Minister Justin Trudeau on meritbased appointments to the maligned Senate.The independent advisory board on Senate appointments will be chaired by Huguette Labelle, a former deputy minister in various federal departments and former chancellor of the University of Ottawa.

Canada News

FRIDAY JANUARY 22, 2016

19

Potash Corporation of Saskatchewan suspends New Brunswick operation, cuts jobs

BY MICHAEL MACDONALD The Canadian Press SUSSEX, N.B. — The New Brunswick economy suffered a sudden shock Tuesday when the Potash Corporation of Saskatchewan shut down its Picadilly mine for an indefinite period, eliminating up to 430 high-paying jobs.

Citing weak global markets for the fertilizer, the Saskatoonbased company (TSX:POT) said it had to cut expenses by shifting its focus to lower-cost operations in Saskatchewan.

“This is a very difficult day for our employees and our company,” PotashCorp CEO Jochen Tilk said in a statement, referring to the mine near Sussex, N.B. “We understand the significant impact to our people in New Brunswick and the surrounding communities.”

The move is expected to save the company up to $50 million in 2016, although these savings will be offset by $35 million in one-time severance costs.

The company is the world’s largest supplier of potash, which is used mainly as a fertilizer. It also produces large amounts of nitrogen and phosphates, also used as crop nutrients.

The closure amounts to a major setback for a province trying to turn its economy around.

Sussex Mayor Marc Thorne said the shutdown of the area’s largest direct employer came as a shock to the town of 4,300.

“Those who have grown up here and gone to the mine for employment have been able to live a very comfortable lifestyle and raise families ... (so) we’re going to be looking at a significant loss,” he said in an interview.

“There will be no aspect of our community and region that

Potash Corporation of Saskatchewan Patience Lake Mine located north of Saskatchewan Highway 16.

SRIMESH / WIKIMEDIA COMMONS

won’t feel the effects of this closure.”

The mayor said the company had invested almost $2 billion over six years getting the mine ready for full production, but equipment problems and challenges digging caverns for tailings led to delays.

“We never expected, despite the delays and bad news, none of us anticipated full closure of the mine,” he said.

However, the mayor said company officials told him the delays did not prompt the closure. Instead, it was lack of demand from the mine’s principal market in Brazil.

As well, operating costs for the new mine were expected to be roughly three times higher than in Saskatchewan because of the depth of the potash deposits, he said.

Still, Thorne said he expects the mine to reopen.

“I can assure you that Potash-

Corp didn’t invest $2 billion ... just to walk away.”

About 35 employees will be kept on to maintain the idled facility and another 100 will remain in place during a fourmonth transition. Should the company decide to resume operations, it would take about a year to get it running again.

The province’s mines minister, Donald Arseneault, said the company contributed $18 million in royalties to the province last year, and it also purchased up to 40 megawatts of electricity from the Crown-owned utility NB Power.

“These are very high-paying jobs,” he said. “When you lose over 400 of them, it does have an impact on the province’s revenues ... It’s a tough day.”

He said the provincial government has already deployed a post-secondary training team to help the residents of Sussex.

Dominic LeBlanc, federal

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Liberal House leader and senior cabinet minister from New Brunswick, admitted it will be tough for people in the Sussex area to find new jobs.

“The New Brunswick economy is in a particularly tough spot,” he said at the conclusion of a federal cabinet retreat in Saint Andrews, N.B. “We shouldn’t underestimate the personal disruption and worry that this will represent for these hundreds of families.

The Sussex economy largely depended on this global leader.”

Federal Natural Resources Minister Jim Carr, who is from Manitoba, said people from the West are well acquainted with what southern New Brunswick is going through.

Slumping commodity prices are to blame for the elimination of tens-of-thousands of jobs in energy-rich Alberta, Saskatchewan and Newfoundland and Labrador.

“As a government, we are committed to broadening in the long term our capacity to create jobs in the energy sector ... and New Brunswick is a very important part of that strategy,” he said. “We in Western Canada understand the personal consequence of layoffs in this sector.”

PotashCorp has been struggling to cope with weak markets for years. Cuts made in 2013 took out 3.5 million tonnes in potash production.

When the company reported a drop in quarterly profits and sales in October, it also announced it would permanently close its older Penobsquis mine in New Brunswick, cutting 140 contract jobs.

The mine, adjacent to the Picadilly operation, was supposed to close in 2016 but the shutdown was moved up to November 2015.

At the time, PotashCorp said the Penobsquis closure would allow the company to ramp up production at Picadilly, a lowercost operation.

For the three months ended Sept. 30, PotashCorp said its net income dropped to US$282 million or 34 cents per share, down from US$317 million or 38 cents per share in the third quarter of 2014.

Revenue from sales of potash, nitrogen and phosphates and related fertilizer products or services fell to US$1.53 billion from US$1.64 billion.

On Tuesday, the company said more than 100 positions will be available for New Brunswick employees at its Saskatchewan operations, with funds being made available for relocation.

As well, a $5-million community fund will help former employees get skills training and provide support to local businesses and charitable organizations. ■

20

Canada News

JANUARY 22, 2016

FRIDAY

‘Troubling’ Conservative torture policy up for review, Goodale says

BY JIM BRONSKILL The Canadian Press

rity policies introduced by the Conservatives, whisked from office in the October election.

The federal policy on foreign information-sharing has been roundly criticized for effectively condoning the torture of people in overseas prisons, contrary to international law and Canada’s United Nations commitments.

A four-page 2010 framework document, released under the

result in torture — and it is unclear whether the risk can be managed through assurances or other means — the matter OTTAWA — The Trudeau Libshould be referred to the reerals will review controversial sponsible deputy minister or directives enacted by the Harpagency head. er government that allow for In deciding what to do, the the sharing of information even agency head will consider facwhen it might lead to torture, tors including the threat to says the public safety minister.

Canada’s national security and The “troubling set of issues” the nature and imminence of raised by the foreign informathe threat; the status of Canation-sharing da’s relationship policy “will be with — and the raised in the human rights course of our record of — the consultations” Goodale said the Liberal government foreign agency; on the overall is open to a general rethinking of and the rationational secunational security legislation, not just a nale for believrity direction few changes the party has promised ing that sharing of the new govto the omnibus bill known as C-51. the information ernment, Ralph would lead to Goodale said in a torture. recent interview Critics say with The Canawhen there is a dian Press.

Access to Information Act, says serious risk of torture, there The news follows pressure when there is a “substantial should be no sharing — pefrom human-rights and privacy risk” that sending information riod. advocates to conduct a wide- to, or soliciting information The Canadian Security Inranging examination of secu- from, a foreign agency would telligence Service, the RCMP,

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the Canada Border Services Agency, National Defence and the Communications Security Establishment, Canada’s electronic spy agency, are bound by the federal policy on sharing information with foreign agencies.

“That’s a very troubling set of issues,” Goodale said, adding the government intends to develop a response “that reflects what Canadians want.”

“We’ll be listening very carefully for the messages from Canadians on that subject.”

Goodale said the Liberal government is open to a general rethinking of national security legislation, not just a few changes the party has promised to the omnibus bill known as C-51.

The government plans to give Canadians their say before deciding what changes to make. ■

Moody’s adjusts credit outlook for Alberta to negative; rating still at triple A THE CANADIAN PRESS EDMONTON — A second major bond rating agency has changed its credit outlook for Alberta.

Moody’s is shifting its outlook to negative from stable, but Alberta retains its triple-A rating.

“The negative outlook for the province of Alberta reflects the rising risk that the province’s fiscal position will deteriorate further than previously expected in an environment of protracted low oil prices and deterioration of economic activity,” Moody’s said in a release Monday.

“Moody’s forecasts that revenue shortfalls stemming not only from direct natural resource royalties but also from the broad economic impact of the slump in the oil sector will lead to larger deficits in the

Moody’s forecasts that revenue shortfalls stemming not only from direct natural resource royalties but also from the broad economic impact of the slump in the oil sector.

WINTERFORCEMEDIA / WIKIMEDIA COMMONS

short- and medium-term than those budgeted by the province,” the release said.

“This will translate into higher debt burdens and a faster draw on reserves than previously anticipated.”

Tanking oil prices that now are hovering under US$30 a

barrel for West Texas Intermediate have already hit the province hard. This year’s budget calls for a deficit of more than $6 billion and thousands of oilpatch workers have been laid off.

Standard and Poors downgraded Alberta’s rating to douwww.canadianinquirer.net

ble-A-plus from triple-A in December.

“There is no question that Alberta’s and the broader Canadian economies are now facing serious shocks,” Finance Minister Joe Ceci said at a lateafternoon news conference.

“The government of Alberta

does not control the price of oil.”

He tried to put the move by Moody’s in perspective.

“They have affirmed our triple-A credit rating, so that is great,” he said. “They have put us on a watch, which really just is a result of oil and where that’s at and its impact on our economy.”

Increased spending on health and education as promised in last May’s election campaign is not going to be pared down, Ceci said. He also pointed to a report by former Bank of Canada governor David Dodge last summer that suggested the province is “on the right track” with its plans to ramp up infrastructure spending.

Those plans, along with increased expenditures in core areas, are forecast to send Alberta more than $47 billion into debt by the end of the decade. ■

Canada News

FRIDAY JANUARY 22, 2016

Too much, too soon: cities ask feds for a break from taking in Syrian refugees

BY STEPHANIE LEVITZ The Canadian Press OTTAWA — Two cities, Vancouver and Ottawa, are taking a break from accepting any more government-assisted Syrian refugees as agencies in both cities try to work through housing bottlenecks.

A surge of arrivals in the last month filled temporary housing to capacity and the settlement groups responsible say they need time to move people into permanent homes before they can accept any new cases.

The director of settlement for the Immigrant Services Society of B.C. says the pause in Vancouver will last five days, beginning Tuesday. Even though the group added 700 beds to its housing stock, it is still taking time to find permanent homes, Chris Friesen said.

“Nobody is stuck in an airport for a week or something like that,” he said. “Overseas, what it means is either they will put them on later flights or they may (send) them to new centres that have current capacity just to keep the flow going,” he said.

Friesen said it also took more time than expected for the federal Immigration Department

to process the cheques newcomers use to pay for their first homes and other needs.

In Ottawa, officials had been gearing up for large numbers of privately sponsored refugees but what came first was the influx of government-assisted ones, filling the available beds. A delay in accepting new government-assisted refugees could last as long as a week.

“The timing just needs to be spread out a bit, it’s just been this huge influx over a twoweek period,” said Leslie Emory, the executive director of the Ottawa Immigrant Community Services Organization.

The pause only applies to government-assisted refugees, those whose costs are covered entirely by the federal government.

Upon arrival in Canada, they are sent to one of 36 cities that have resettlement agreements with the government. Of the 25,000 Syrians the Liberals plan to bring in by the end of February, about 15,000 are to be part of that category and 5,932 have arrived so far.

An early element of the resettlement plan called for refugees to be housed temporarily at military bases in Ontario and Quebec until permanent homes

could be found, but that is now considered an option of last resort. No bases have taken refugees so far.

A spokesperson for the Immigration Department said the size of the refugee resettlement operations brings challenges and the department is working with communities buckling under the strain. The spokesperson did not immediately say whether other communities had requested a pause.

Privately sponsored refugees will continue to arrive in both Vancouver and Ottawa.

Immigration Minister John McCallum said Monday the resettlement challenge is on the government’s mind. One thing he said is under consideration is finding a way to get Syrians into more French-speaking communities.

McCallum says more than 90 per cent of refugees that have arrived don’t speak either of the official languages, creating what he calls a blank slate for refugees and provinces to teach them either English or French.

But language-training courses are in high demand across the country. Friesen said. While some cities have no wait lists, others see new immigrants wait for over a year. ■

“The timing just needs to be spread out a bit, it’s just been this huge influx over a two-week period,” said Leslie Emory, the executive director of the Ottawa Immigrant Community Services Organization.

STACEY NEWMAN / SHUTTERSTOCK.COM

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Deaths of seven Quebecers will strengthen resolve in terrorism fight: Couillard THE CANADIAN PRESS QUEBEC — Nothing can explain barbaric attacks on people who were simply working to build a better world, Premier Philippe Couillard said Monday, referring to the seven Quebecers killed in recent terror attacks.

A Montreal-area man died Thursday in Jakarta while six people from the Quebec City area were slain during a siege in Ouagadougou late Friday.

The premier said the fight against terrorists must continue, all without compromising core values of freedom, democracy and tolerance.

“These actions also strengthen our resolve to fight these barbarians with all our strength, alongside our allies,” Couillard said, adding the attacks were a stark reminder that violence that seemed so distant in the past can touch people at home.

“We live in a troubled world,” he said. “Smaller too. Everything is now so close to us.”

Flags were lowered to halfmast at the provincial legislature in honour of the seven.

Tahar Amer-Ouali, 70, a father of five and a hearing-aid specialist, was killed in Jakarta in an attack by militants tied to the Islamic State group, while six Quebecers on a humanitarian mission were killed in Burkina Faso’s capital during a terrorist attack carried out by al-Qaida.

Four of the dead were from the same family: Yves Carrier, his wife Gladys Chamberland, their adult son Charlelie Carrier and Yves’ adult daughter, Maude Carrier.

The others who died were their friends, Louis Chabot and Suzanne Bernier.

They were among at least 28 people killed when terrorists stormed a hotel and cafe in the African country’s capital of Ouagadougou.

Couillard said there’s a feeling of helplessness in the face of such heinous, gratuitous acts.

“Nothing can explain that one attacks the people who contribute by dedicating themselves to building a better world,” Couillard said.

“This attack against them is also an attack on us all.”

Foreign Affairs Minister Stephane Dion said his department is offering support to the families of the victims.

“We completely understand the difficult situations in which they are,” Dion said at a cabinet meeting in Saint Andrews, N.B. “It’s an awful way to lose somebody of your family. It’s a terrible situation.

“I want to say how much I’m proud of the work that the people of the department did, they worked very hard in very difficult circumstances. We have reached the families in a tough situation, but we’ll give them all the consular support that is possible including to pay for the bodies to be repatriated in Canada.”

Dion added that it’s tough hearing the news that Canadians have been killed in these kinds of situations overseas.

“It’s something very difficult, but my reaction once you have the emotional reaction is to do the right decisions to be sure that you protect the people that are still alive, that you try to minimize the damage, that you take care of the ones that have been injured and that you have the right people in the right place making the right decisions.”

Four of the six killed in Burkina Faso were previous or current employees of a Quebec City school board, where friends and colleagues of the victims were struggling to deal with their deaths.

Classes were cancelled Monday for students at Jean-deBrebeuf and Cardinal Roy high schools, both part of the Commission scolaire de la Capitale school board in Quebec City.

Erick Parent, the board’s secretary-general, told a news ❱❱ PAGE 24 Deaths of

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World News

JANUARY 22, 2016

FRIDAY

US President Barack Obama.

Why Democratic primary candidates have been hugging the Barack Obama legacy

BY ALEXANDER PANETTA The Canadian Press WASHINGTON — Anyone playing a Barack Obama drinking game during the latest Democratic presidential debate could easily have wound up splattered on an emergencyroom gurney by the final commercial break.

The president’s name came up 29 times Sunday — occasionally mentioned by the moderators, but usually by the candidates, and frequently in reverential tones.

The Democrats seeking to succeed Obama were smothering themselves in his record — not running away from it.

An explanation for that could be condensed into two words: South Carolina. The state that hosted Sunday’s debate could prove pivotal in deciding the Democratic nominee; black voters will play a decisive role there; and Obama’s approval level is not only high among liberals but even higher among African-Americans at about 90 per cent.

Sen. Bernie Sanders took exception when one of his rivals pointed out that he’d once floated the idea of launching

a primary challenge against more minorities. respondents. Sanders was liked, the president in 2012 and had Clinton still had a huge lead among the few who knew him. called him weak on progressive in South Carolina — 40 percent- But only 33 per cent of Africanissues. age points in the latest polls. American respondents knew “He and I are friends,” Sand- And a rival strategist predicted who he was entering the race, ers replied, pointing out that Sunday that her southern fire- compared with 92 per cent who they’d campaigned for each wall could prove impenetrable knew Clinton. other. The socialist senator also in the primaries.

Sanders said he can overpraised the president for his Republican organizer Karl come that name-recognition reluctance to deploy ground Rove said the more left-wing challenge. troops to the Middle East.

Sanders could struggle as the “When the African-American “We’ve worked together on campaign shifts from the north, community becomes familiar many issues. We have some dif- away from his base of young with my congressional record ferences of opinion.” white college kids. and with our agenda, and with Hillary Clinour views on the ton had been economy, and drawing attencriminal justice, tion to Sanders’ just as the generpast critiques of The Democrats seeking to succeed al population has the president.

Obama were smothering themselves become more She and in his record — not running away supportive, so Obama may have from it. will the African been bitter rivals American comin 2008. But the munity, so will electoral math the Latino comtoday suggests she needs the “(In) South Carolina or Ne- munity,” Sanders said Sunday. voters who helped Obama beat vada, you get a lot more African“We have the momentum, her in that year’s South Caro- Americans, a lot more Latinos, we’re on a path to a victory.” lina primary. and a lot fewer liberal wackos,” Sunday’s debate was hosted Clinton is in danger of los- Rove told a Fox panel Sunday. by the Congressional Black ing one and possibly both of A Gallup poll last summer Caucus, on the eve of the annuthe first two nomination states illustrated the two-part ad- al Martin Luther King holiday.

— polls say she’s behind in New vantage Clinton held among The most heated exchange Hampshire, and running neck- African-American voters as the involving Obama came when and-neck in Iowa. The race then race got underway last summer: Sanders criticized Clinton for moves from those earlier, whit- her popularity, and familiarity. taking more than $600,000 in er states to the south, where the Clinton had an 80 per cent speaking fees from investment Democratic electorate includes favorability rating among black bank Goldman Sachs. www.canadianinquirer.net

That prompted Clinton to reply that he’d criticized Obama for doing the same.

Clinton promised to preserve Obama’s health reform, and criticized Sanders’ plan to raise taxes to fund a single-payer health plan. Clinton called it one of the great achievements

by Obama, the Democratic party, and the country.

She said she was proud to work with Obama on the Iran nuclear agreement when she was secretary of state; applauded the Obama administration for working with software companies on intelligence-gathering; and she passed on the moderators’ invitation to criticize him for threatening to use force against Syria’s dictator and then backing down.

The also-ran on stage, former Maryland governor Martin O’Malley, didn’t get much speaking time. In an early chance to address the crowd, O’Malley praised the president.

In his opening remarks, he credited Obama with preventing a second Great Depression.

He also saluted the president for making the U.S. more energy independent, before expressing his view that the country could entirely phase out fossil fuels by 2050. ■

World News

FRIDAY JANUARY 22, 2016

23

Hekmati says he feels lucky after Iran prisoner swap release

BY CHRISTOPH NOELTING AND DAVID RISING The Associated Press LANDSTUHL, GERMANY — Former U.S. Marine Amir Hekmati said Tuesday he felt humbled and lucky to be free again, two days after being released alongside three other Americans in a prisoner swap with Iran.

News of his impending release came as a surprise and was hard to believe at first, Hekmati said in his first statement following his release Sunday.

“I was at a point where I had just sort of accepted the fact that I was going to be spending 10 years in prison, so this was a surprise and I just feel truly blessed to see my government do so much for me and the other Americans,” he told reporters outside the U.S. military’s Landstuhl Regional Medical Center in Germany where he was taken for treatment.

There was no advance warn-

ing of his release, he added.

“They just came one morning and said ‘pack your things.”’

The 32-year-old says he and his fellow prisoners weren’t able to relax until the Swiss government plane they were flown out in had left Iranian airspace, after which “champagne bottles were popped.”

Hekmati thanked U.S. President Barack Obama, Congress and his other supporters, reserving special thanks for the U.S. Marine Corps.

Asked about his 4 1/2 -years in Iranian prison, Hekmati said it “it wasn’t good,” but declined to elaborate.

“He has not had much of a chance to exercise and he’s lost some weight but he looks fit and I think he is on the mend,” U.S. Rep. Dan Kildee, a Democrat from Hekmati’s home state of Michigan, earlier told The Associated Press.

“A better diet and a chance to exercise... and I think he’ll turn out to be just fine.”

Hekmati, Washington Post

Amir Mirza Hekmati's USMC portrait.

UNITED STATES MARINE CORPS

reporter Jason Rezaian and pastor Saeed Abedini arrived late Sunday at Landstuhl for treatment. A fourth American released in exchange for the U.S. pardoning or dropping charges against seven Iranians opted to stay in Iran, and a fifth American was released separately.

Rep. Jaret Huffman, a Dem-

ocrat representing Rezaian’s home district in California was also visiting Landstuhl. He said there were “tears, and smiles and hugs” when the family was reunited.

“He continues to be in great spirits, his health is sound, he’s going through a process and it’s going to take a few more days, but Jason’s on track to get his

life back,” Huffman said.

Kildee said he had a steak dinner Monday night with Hekmati as well as Hekmati’s two sisters and brother, and that he seemed in “pretty good spirits” for someone who had been incarcerated for so long.

“We talked a bit about his experience, but I think he was just appreciating his freedom and trying to enjoy it as much as he could,” Kildee said.

Hekmati was detained in August 2011 on espionage charges.

He says he went to Iran to visit family and spend time with his ailing grandmother. After his arrest, family members say they were told to keep the matter quiet.

He was convicted of spying and sentenced to death in 2012.

After a higher court ordered a retrial, he was sentenced in 2014 to 10 years in prison on a lesser charge.

Hekmati was born in Arizona and raised in Michigan. His ❱❱ PAGE 39 Hekmati says

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World News

JANUARY 22, 2016

IS acknowledges death of ‘Jihadi John’ in magazine

BY DAVE BRYAN The Associated Press NEW YORK — The Islamic State group has acknowledged the death of the masked militant known as “Jihadi John,” who appeared in several videos depicting the beheadings of Western hostages, in an article in its online English-language magazine Dabiq.

A “eulogizing profile” of Jihadi John appeared in the magazine which was shared online late Tuesday by sympathizers of the Islamic State group. Jihadi John had been identified by the U.S. military as Mohammed Emwazi, a Kuwaiti-born British citizen.

“His harshness towards the kuffar (disbelievers) was manifested through deeds that enraged all the nations, religions, and factions of kufr, the entire world bearing witness to this,” said the English-language article which confirmed that Emwazi was killed in a drone strike.

Army Col. Steve Warren, a U.S. military spokesman, said in November that the Army was “reasonably certain” that a drone strike in Syria had killed Emwazi, who spoke in beheading videos with a British accent as he wielded a knife.

Separately, a U.S. official said three drones — two U.S. and one British — targeted the vehicle in which Emwazi was believed to be travelling in Raqqa, the capital of the Islamic State’s self-proclaimed caliphate in northern Syria. The official said the U.S. drone fired a Hellfire missile that struck the vehicle.

“Jihadi John” appeared in videos posted online by the Islamic State starting in August 2014 that depicted the beheadings of U.S. journalists Steven Sotloff and James Foley, U.S. aid worker Abdul-Rahman Kassig, British aid workers David Haines and Alan Henning, and Japanese journalist Kenji Goto.

Sotloff’s mother, Shirley Sotloff, told The Associated Press on Tuesday that she hadn’t heard about the IS announcement but assumed Emwazi was dead following the Army’s announcement last fall.

“It’s good,” she said. “I’m glad that he’s gone, but it doesn’t bring back my son.”

Children of Australians abducted in Africa plea to captors

BY ROD MCGUIRK The Associated Press

Jihadi John in one of the beheading videos uploaded on YouTube.

Jodi Perras, a spokeswoman for the Kassig family in Indianapolis, said they had no comment on the news about Jihadi John.

In the gruesome videos, a tall masked figure clad in black and speaking in a British accent typically began with a political rant taunting the West and a kneeling hostage clad in an orange prison-style jumpsuit before him, then ended it holding an oversize knife in his hand with the headless victim lying before him in the sand. The videos don’t make clear if he carried out the actual killings.

He also appeared as a narrator in videos of other beheadings, including the mass killing of captive Syrian government soldiers.

Emwazi was believed to be in his mid-20s when he was killed.

He had been described by a former hostage as a psychopath who enjoyed threatening his Western captives.

Spanish journalist Javier Espinosa, who was held by the IS in Syria for more than six months after his abduction in September 2013, said Emwazi would explain precisely how the militants would carry out a beheading.

The hostages nicknamed three British-sounding captors “the Beatles,” with “Jihadi John” a reference to John Lennon, Espinosa said.

Emwazi was born in Kuwait and spent part of his childhood in the poor Taima area of Jahra before moving to Britain as a boy, according to news reports quoting Syrian activists who knew the family. He attended state schools in London, then

studied computer science at the University of Westminster.

The Dabiq article said he became involved in jihadi activity around the time of the 2005 attacks on the London transit system, and came under the scrutiny of the British intelligence agency MI5. It said he arrived in Syria in the latter part of 2012, and was later wounded while fighting with Islamic State forces in Syria.

Dabiq claimed that Emwazi displayed his “kindness and generosity” by giving away a concubine he had received as a gift to an unmarried injured IS fighter.

The eulogy appeared in the 13th issue of Dabiq magazine, named for a town in northern Syria that Islamic State fighters believe will be the site of an apocalyptic battle between it and Western forces. The magazine contains articles, interviews and opinion pieces about the group. Distributed online as a .pdf file, it has a professional layout, including photos and graphics, giving it the appearance of a glossy magazine.

The online magazine is part of a media operation that has produced scores of graphic, professionally produced videos of military operations and the killing of captives in Iraq, Syria and other countries like Libya and Afghanistan, where the IS group has local affiliates and supporters. Emwazi figured heavily into that propaganda. ■ Associated Press writers Charles J. Gans in New York and Dave Fischer in Miami contributed to this report. www.canadianinquirer.net

FRIDAY

CANBERRA, AUSTRALIA — The family of an Australian doctor and his wife abducted in Burkina Faso urged the kidnappers on Tuesday to release the couple so that they can continue their life-saving charity work in the West African country.

Surgeon Ken Elliott and his wife Jocelyn, aged their 80s, disappeared from their home on Friday near the northern town of Djibo where they have run a medical centre for four decades.

A statement on behalf of their daughter and two sons issued

by Australia’s Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade said the children had been heartened by an outpouring of support from the Burkinabe people “who clearly consider Ken and Jocelyn to be one of their own after all these years of providing surgical services to the region.”

It said the couple’s children “are understandably deeply dismayed by this incident and sincerely hope that their parents are being treated kindly wherever they are.”

The statement called on the couple to be released “so that

they may continue to assist those who are in need of their services.”

The couple are thought to have been abducted by jihadis who may have taken them across the border to Mali. Authorities do not know if the abductions are linked to the attack on the country’s capital Ouagadougou by al-Qaida -linked fighters on Friday night that left up to 32 people dead.

Following news of the abduction at the weekend, Australia warned travellers of “the serious threat of kidnapping in Burkina Faso, particularly in the north.”

The Australian government, which has a policy of refusing to pay ransoms to kidnappers, was dealing with Burkina Faso authorities through Australian diplomats in Ghana.

The family said the couple began their hospital work in Djibo in 1972. They operate a surgical clinic with 120 beds, where Ken Elliott is the sole surgeon and is supported by local staff.

A Facebook page supporting the couple since their abduction has attracted numerous comments of support from around the world.

“I am hopeful that they will come back to us healthy,” said one post. ■

Deaths of... conference that support was being offered to friends and colleagues of the victims.

While there were no classes, doors remained open to students. A dozen psychologists were also on hand to help staff deal with their grief and prepare to respond to students in the coming days.

“It’s a tragedy,” he said.

“What we must do is support our employees, and also our students, who are affected by the hundreds through the teachers they’ve frequented in recent years.”

He said the board’s 5,000 employees and 28,000 students will hold a minute of silence on ❰❰ 21

Tuesday before classes begin.

“I think things will have to be handled delicately,” Parent said of the discussions to follow.

Yves Carrier was an assistant principal before his retirement and Bernier had been an administrator at two elementary schools before she retired.

Chamberland, a civil servant, worked for Quebec’s Natural Resources Department, while Charlelie was a student.

Maude Carrier and Chabot were secondary school teachers as of Friday.

A mother of two, Maude Carrier had a twin sister and husband who both worked as teachers at the same board. ■

World News

FRIDAY JANUARY 22, 2016

25

Latest gauge on China slowdown brings relief it wasn’t worse

BY JOE MCDONALD AND PAUL WISEMAN The Associated Press BEIJING — The slowdown of China’s once-sizzling economy has fueled anxiety over its impact on the rest of the world. Yet when Beijing reported Tuesday that its economy grew last year at the slowest pace in a quartercentury, the reaction seemed to be mainly relief it wasn’t worse.

Economists welcomed details in the report suggesting that the world’s second-biggest economy is making some progress in a difficult and complex transition — away from a reliance on manufacturing and investment in real estate and factories and toward dependence on services and consumer spending.

Stocks rose Tuesday in Asia and Europe. By midday, the Dow Jones industrial average was up modestly.

“Things are OK,” said Fotios Raptis, senior economist at TD Economics. “There’s not an outright collapse going on in China.”

Beijing reported that economic growth fell in 2015 for a fifth straight year — to 6.9 per cent, down from 7.3 per cent in 2014 and the slowest rate since 1990.

For the October-December quarter, growth inched down to 6.8 per cent, the weakest quarterly expansion in six years.

The deceleration is at least partially deliberate as the ruling Communist Party aims to manage the economy’s transition to a structure that will almost certainly deliver slower growth.

Tuesday’s report contained signs of progress. Services businesses accounted for a record 50.5 per cent of China’s economic activity last year, the first time its share has exceeded 50 per cent.

Charles Collyns, chief economist at the Institute of International Finance, sees considerable potential for more growth in China’s service sector. In more developed economies, services account for perhaps 75 per cent of economic activity. China’s services have been held back by regulations and policies that favour inefficient

state-owned service companies in such businesses as telecommunications and finance.

Services grew 8.3 per cent last year, outpacing the traditional drivers of economic growth — manufacturing and construction — which together grew 6 per cent.

Overall growth was in line with private-sector forecasts and the ruling Communist Party’s official target of about 7 per cent for the year.

“Official data do not point to a hard landing in the fourth quarter of 2015, but they provide little reason to stop worrying about China’s drag on the global economy, either,” said economist Bill Adams of PNC Financial Services Group in a report.

Investors were relieved that more pessimistic forecasts about fourth-quarter growth were wrong and expect Beijing to continue rolling out stimulus measures to prevent a hard landing.

Beijing has responded to ebbing growth by cutting interest rates six times since November 2014 and launching measures to help exporters and other in-

www.canadianinquirer.net

dustries. But economists note that China still relies on stateled construction spending and other investment.

Full-year 2015 growth was the lowest since sanctions imposed on Beijing after its crackdown on the Tiananmen Square pro-democracy movement caused growth to plummet to 3.8 per cent in 1990.

The October-December growth figure was the slowest quarterly expansion since the global financial crisis, when growth slumped to 6.1 per cent in the first quarter of 2009.

“The international situation remains complex,” Wang Bao’an, commissioner of the National Bureau of Statistics, said at a news conference. “Restructuring and upgrading is in an uphill stage. Comprehensively deepening reform is a daunting task.”

Growth in investment in factories, housing and other fixed assets, a key economic driver, weakened to 12 per cent in 2015, down 2.9 percentage points from the previous year. Retail sales growth cooled to 10.6 per cent from 2014’s 12 per cent.

December exports shrank 1.4 per cent from a year earlier, well below the ruling party’s target of 6 per cent trade growth. For the full year, exports were down 7.6 per cent, a blow to industries that employ millions of Chinese workers.

Forecasters see indications that retail sales and other activity accelerated toward the end of 2015, suggesting that Beijing’s efforts to put a floor under the downturn are gaining traction.

“The growth picture remains two-sided. The real estate construction slump and weak exports continued to weigh on activity,” said Louis Kuijs of Oxford Economics in a report.

“Meanwhile, though, consumption continued to expand robustly, supported by solid wage growth,” said Kuijs. “The robust growth in the consumption and services nexus is key for policymakers. They need it to avoid labour market stress.”

Global financial markets were rattled by a plunge in Chinese stock prices in June. Chinese ❱❱ PAGE 33 Latest gauge

26

JANUARY 22, 2016

FRIDAY

PANGARAP : SO, OUR JOURNEY BEGINS

So, what is a mentoring program?

BY BOLET AREVALO

MOST MENTORING PROGRAMS ARE PART OF THE SERVICES RENDERED BY THE JOB SEARCH HELP ORGANIZATIONS THAT ASSIST NEW IMMIGRANTS IN SHORTENING THEIR REINTEGRATION INTO A NEW SOCIETY. I am not about to enumerate the different mentoring programs that are available locally or run by local organizations. It is not fair to the valuable service that these organizations render if I fail to give a complete list and honour each one of them.

There are as many mentoring programs just as there are as many of these help organizations. Well, almost. But mentoring programs are not limited to them. There are also similar programs initiated by different companies for their own employees, knowing fully well that many of them have come from varied cultures or work backgrounds.

Most, if not all, mentoring programs are free. They are integrated into the profile of services of the help organizations which receive government funding for programs like mentoring programs. The mentors are volunteers. The mentors give their time without expecting remuneration except perhaps the satisfaction of being

able to share their knowledge parties to make the exercise and skills. come to a successful concluThe mentors are chosen. sion.

They are chosen to volunteer At the outset, the mentee themselves. Some choose to is made to write out a profile apply to be volunteers, and the where he will indicate his set of organization has its process of skills, needs, expectations and screening who qualifies to be a short- or long-term employmentor. But it is disheartening ment objective. He should be if you apply to be mentor and able to communicate in English are rejected. Thus, most pro- (otherwise, he might need to spective mentors would rather go to another program to first wait to be asked. Someone who improve his English). This prois asked may say no because, as file is evaluated to determine a professional, he knows that the type of mentor needed and commitment is important. whether the prospective menThus, if he cannot commit his tee’s needs and expectations time, he may not agree. are realistic or achievable.

The mentoring program must be able to restore the confidence of the mentee An organization may mainAs part of the overall objec- in himself and in the new workplace. tain a roster of mentors, but tives of the program, the mencan also specifically look for a tor is expected to be able to help mentee on how to market his ensure a successful conclusion new mentor if a mentee comes his mentee understand the new resume. of a mentoring match. with an entirely different back- work cultures and practices, The mentoring program must Aside from possibly shortenground or need from those al- develop a network of contacts be able to restore the confidence ing the length of time a mentee ready in their roster. If that is in his field of interest, identify of the mentee in himself and in takes to go back to his trade or the case, the mentee may need the professional or skills up- the new workplace: That there is discipline, a mentoring proto wait for his turn until an ap- grade needed by the mentee, an opportunity out there. That gram should be able to restore propriate mentor there is a space the mentee’s confidence in his is found for him. for him in this ability to go back and be welThe mentee side of the profes- comed in the new workplace. ■ and the mentor sional world. The meet for a speThe mentors give their time without right preparation Bolet is a marketing communicific number of expecting remuneration except will help save him cations practitioner and dabbles hours in a week, perhaps the satisfaction of being able years to get back to in writing as a personal passion. a month or some to share their knowledge and skills. his profession, and She is author-publisher of the specified period not a full ten years, book: The Most Practical Imof time. Some the norm accord- migrating and Job Hunting Surrequire 24 hours ing to many. vival Guide, proven simple steps in a year or two The functions to success without the fears and hours a month. But the meeting encourage the mentee to take or services of a job search orga- the doubts. The book is availdoes not have to be face-to-face up courses to do that upgrade, nization become more attrac- able in Amazon.com, Barnes encounter. Once properly in- help improve his communica- tive and perhaps, complete, if & Noble, Chapters/Indigo, the troduced, the two can exchange tion skills in the workplace, it includes a serious mentoring Reading Room and other online phone calls or emails to com- help his mentee find a job or at program. Careful screening of bookshops worldwide, and in municate or interact. Commit- least connect him to potential qualified mentors and prospec- National Book Store and Power ment is expected from both employers, and reorient the tive mentees is important to Books in the Philippines.

Nearly a third of millennials “not at all knowledgeable” about RRSP savings: poll THE CANADIAN PRESS OTTAWA — Nearly a third of young Canadians admit they are “not at all knowledgeable” about retirement savings plans, according to a survey done for TD Bank.

The report also suggested that a large proportion of those aged 18 to 33 are uninformed about what registered retirement savings plans can and

cannot be used for.

Only half of those surveyed knew that money in an RRSP could be used to help buy their first home, while just 28 per cent knew it could be used to help further their education later in life under the lifelong learning plan.

The survey also found that many young Canadians believed they could use RRSP savings to pay for many things that are not allowed.

Sixty-four per cent were unaware that RRSP savings could not be used to make a charitable donation and 60 per cent mistakenly believed that they could be used to pay childcare expenses.

Fifty-two per cent also incorrectly believed money in an RRSP could be used to finance a car and half wrongly thought it could be used to help buy a second home.

Linda MacKay, senior vicepresident for personal savings www.canadianinquirer.net

and investing at TD Canada Trust, said that the earlier people start saving for retirement, the better off they will be.

“The interesting thing with millennials is they do prioritize retirement as important ... but often don’t know how to get started or think their budget can accommodate it,” she said.

MacKay said starting early, even if the amount is small, can make a significant difference.

“No amount is too small,” she

said.

The online poll done by Environics Research for TD Bank surveyed 2,115 respondents aged 18 or older including 613 between 18 and 33 between Oct. 30 and Nov. 5, 2015.

The polling industry’s professional body, the Marketing Research and Intelligence Association, says online surveys cannot be assigned a margin of error because they do not randomly sample the population. ■

FRIDAY JANUARY 22, 2016

27

Travel

Apps take planning on road for tasks from finding best hotel deals to translation

BY PAOLA LORIGGIO The Canadian Press TORONTO — Cate Lorimer can’t remember the last time she lugged a phrasebook while criss-crossing foreign lands on weeks-long adventures.

When looking for help communicating with locals during a recent trip that took her to remote regions of Central America, she turned to a Spanish dictionary app on her phone.

“When you’re backpacking, space is limited,” said the 29-year-old Toronto resident, an avid traveller who recently launched the trip-sharing site SocialTravellers.

“It’s so much easier to have your stuff on a phone.”

From booking hotel rooms to flagging airline deals and finding the best airport restaurants, cellphone apps are helping many travellers streamline their trip planning — and take it on the road.

Three-quarters of Canadians planning to travel outside the country last summer said they would bring a smartphone or tablet and leave their laptop at home, according to a survey by the Conference Board of Canada. That’s a significant increase from 2011, when only a third said they would.

While messaging and taking photos remain the main use for smartphones on trips, about a third of Canadians said they planned to book hotels, car rentals or tours through their device while travelling, up from 23 per cent in 2011, the survey shows.

“Very often, you want to make those sorts of bookings from the road — our laptops are put away in a bag somewhere and we want to do it from our smartphones,” said Duncan Stewart, director of technology, media and telecommunications research for Deloitte Canada.

The use of travel apps is likely to increase as new technology makes it easier to make purchases through an app without having to fill out lengthy forms, he said.

Helen Hatzis, who heads the travel site Weekend Jaunt, said she has about 16 travel-related apps on her phone and relies on them for everything from budgeting to translation.

“Because I do weekend travel, I don’t have a lot of time and I try to maximize my time and using apps helps,” she said.

Some have purely practical purposes.

From booking hotel rooms to flagging airline deals and finding the best airport restaurants, cellphone apps are helping many travellers streamline their trip planning — and take it on the road.

One app, Expensify, allows Hatzis to take photos of her receipts and keep expenses on track. Another, GasBuddy, helps find the nearest gas station while on road trips.

Others aim to elevate the travel experience.

An app called LoungeBuddy, which catalogues lounges in more than 800 airports worldwide, helped Hatzis find

a comfortable place to recover during a stopover on a long flight to India, she said.

“You can literally go in there, you can shower, you can have something to eat, you can take a nap, and it really helps ease the jet lag,” she said.

Travellers who rely on apps abroad can rack up hefty phone bills, but Lorimer said she avoids roaming charges by connecting to free Wi-Fi in hostels, coffee shops and other locations.

Here are other apps that Canadians might find useful for travel: • Hopper (Apple and Android): The app, made by a company based in Montreal and Boston, analyzes flight price data to tell travellers when to buy their tickets. It was the only travel app on the Apple App Store’s best of 2015 list.

• City Mapper (Apple and Android): A guide to the best transit routes in more than a dozen cities around the world, including real-time departure times and disruptions.

• XE Currency (Apple and Android): Converts every currency in the world and saves the last updated rate so it can still be seen when there’s no Internet. ■

Vancouver

Manila

More flights, better connections!

For more information please contact local travel agency or call EVA Air Vancouver branch office (604) 214-6608

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28

Travel

JANUARY 22, 2016

FRIDAY

Spearfish Canyon could become South Dakota’s next state park

BY DIRK LAMMERS The Associated Press SIOUX FALLS, S.D. — An area of the northern Black Hills that architect Frank Lloyd Wright once called more miraculous than the Grand Canyon may soon become part of South Dakota’s next state park.

The Spearfish Canyon Foundation is writing a $750,000 check to Toronto-based Barrick Gold Corp., covering most of the $800,000 needed to buy the 72 acres of former Homestake Mine property showcasing picturesque Spearfish Falls.

The foundation will eventually hand title to the state of South Dakota, allowing the Game, Fish & Parks Department to repair a washed-out bridge and improve trails to reach the falls, said parks and recreation director Doug Hofer.

Foundation president Susan Johnson said she’s ecstatic that the property will soon be in state hands.

“They know how to protect and preserve, and that is the No. 1 reason our foundation wanted to be at the table when the time came to make this land trans-

fer,” Johnson said. “We like to say that this area has been loved to death, and this area needs some attention right now.”

A far grander plan introduced

by Gov. Dennis Daugaard during his State of the State Address this past week calls for taking various state-owned parcels in Spearfish Canyon and swapping others with the federal government to piece together what would become the 1,500-acre Spearfish Canyon State Park.

In 2006, GF&P acquired more than 40 acres from Homestake including Roughlock Falls, and the foundation chipped in $250,000 for that purchase.

“In between those two parcels is the parcel that we’ve been authorized to acquire,” Hofer said.

The new piece will give the state about 130 acres in Spearfish Canyon, but much of the surrounding area is owned by the U.S. Forest Service as part of Black Hills National Forest.

State officials plan to work with South Dakota’s congressional delegation to explore a land trade with the Forest Service.

The state would offer some isolated state-owned tracts surrounded by Forest Service land

Spearfish Creek.

in exchange for about 1,400 acres of Forest Service land In Little Spearfish Canyon so it can create a contiguous park.

The proposal would need federal authorization, so the process could take a year or so, Hofer said.

Daugaard called Spearfish Canyon a “special place,” noting his family has visited the area several times.

“I remember riding my bike up Spearfish Canyon, climbing the never ending hill near Cheyenne crossing into LeadDeadwood and then experiencing the thrill going down the hill at full speed,” Daugaard said in

TCMEMOIRE / FLICKR

his State of the State speech.

Hofer said Spearfish Canyon is a year-round tourist attraction known for its gorgeous falls in the summer, colorful leaves in the fall and snowmobiling in the winter.

“It’s one of the most beautiful areas in South Dakota,” Hofer said. “And I think the governor is spot on that by giving it state park status it will really open the door to making this more accessible and more inviting to the public.”

Johnson said the new land will be in good hands once it’s transferred to the state. She saw the immediate improvements

that Game, Fish and Parks State made to the Roughlock Falls property, which had become shabby and overrun with junk with an eroded and run-down trail system. It’s now a picturesque park, Johnson said, and she expects similar improvements at the Spearfish Falls site.

“It will not be a park that you get in your car and drive through,” Johnson said. “This will be a park that you stop your car, you put on your little hiking boots or your tennis shoes and you get out and enjoy the scenery, the streams, the wildlife.

It’s really an outdoorsman’s paradise.” ■

New Democrats offer support for innovative proposal for housing affordability

Municipalities send mixed signals on winter sports safety issue

AN INNOVATIVE proposal by two UBC Sauder School of Business professors could collect badly needed data about our housing market and provide funding to deal with the worsening affordability crisis in the Lower Mainland, say New Democrats.

“This bold housing plan is exactly the type of fresh thinking that Christy Clark needs to consider,” said B.C. New Democrat leader John Horgan. “It provides a way for the government to collect data and generate money for affordable housing by taxing speculators and profiteers in our real estate market while remaining invis-

BY BRIAN CAMERON

ible to British Columbians filing income tax, seniors living in long-time family homes, and landlords.”

The B.C. Housing Affordability Fund was developed

by Dr. Tom Davidoff and Dr. Tsur Somerville, professors of economics at the University of British Columbia Sauder School of Business. It proposes levying a 1.5 per cent tax on property in the lower mainland, deducted dollar for dollar from income tax paid, making it invisible to tax-paying British Columbian residents.

“I hear on a daily basis how hard it is for people in the Lower Mainland and across

the province to find affordable housing, even something as simple as a new family trying to find a two-bedroom apartment to rent,” said David Eby, New Democrat spokesperson for housing.

“People are frustrated because they see their lives getting less and less affordable, while the government seems unwilling to collect data about what’s happening, let alone find ways to fund desperately needed affordable housing. This policy could fund rental housing construction without hurting families that are already overstretched and in debt. It’s really exciting.” ■ www.canadianinquirer.net

MUNICIPALITIES ARE sending mixed messages on liability when it comes to tobogganing and pond skating on municipal property. Despite warnings from city lawyers about liability, Toronto City Council recently approved $25,000 to create a skating program on Grenadier Pond in High Park.

Meanwhile, municipalities such as Hamilton and Orangeville continue to enforce extremely unpopular tobogganing bans. These bans are so unpopular residents defiantly toboggan as an act of protest against

what is viewed as silly by-law.

With tobogganing and pond skating almost guaranteed in the coming weeks, municipalities are sending mixed messages that may in fact be creating new and unforeseen liability issues. In most cases an outright ban on tobogganing or pond skating is a black-and-white approach that is unnecessary and creates more problems.

A new level of liability

By creating a ban, municipalities may in fact be creating a new and unforeseen liability for themselves. Municipalities ❱❱ PAGE 30 Municipalities send

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FRIDAY JANUARY 22, 2016

www.canadianinquirer.net F PhilippineCanadianInquirer

T PhilCanInquirer

m info@canadianinquirer.net sales@canadianinquirer.net

A (888) 668-6059

www.canadianinquirer.net

30

Community News

JANUARY 22, 2016

FRIDAY

Canadian envoy and Police searching for missing FilCan FilCan senator brief media on ‘Yolanda’ reconstruction FIL-CAN SENATOR Tobias C. Enverga Jr. joined Canada’s Ambassador to the Philippines Neil Reeder at a press conference announcing the last phase of Canada’s assistance to the Philippines’ long-term reconstruction efforts after supertyphoon Yolanda’s devastating landfall in November 2013.

“As Canada’s first Senator of Filipino descent, and the only Filipino-Canadian representative at the federal level, I want to highlight Canada’s continued efforts to assist those who are still in dire need for assistance in the Philippines after Typhoon Yolanda struck the country more than two years ago,” said Senator Enverga in a statement. “Canada’s government, under the leadership of the then Prime Minister Stephen Harper, was quick to act to assist with the immediate needs. Now, we need to cement the reconstruction efforts with a lasting goal of self-sufficient prosperity,” the senator said.

Representatives from the recipient organizations and the Trade and Industry Usec. Zenaida Maglaya were also in attendance.

Of the $90.6 million that the previous government committed to match donations from

Canadians, $20.6 million is allocated to support long-term economic recovery initiatives delivered by several implementing partners in line with the Comprehensive Rehabilitation and Reconstruction Plan (2014-2016) of the Philipppine government. All the recipient projects focus on sustainable long-term economic development ranging from environmentally responsible agriculture and fishing practices to reestablishment of sari-sari stores.

“Our previous government ensured that the ties between our two countries grew even stronger through several government-to-government agreements as well as increased immigration from the Philippines to Canada. As a member of the official opposition in the Senate, I will ensure that our new government is held to account and continues to focus on efforts to further both countries’ interest in a mutually beneficial manner. Filipinos made up the largest group of new permanent residents in 2014, and we will continue to make positive contributions to our adopted home country. I am proud to represent you in the Senate of Canada,” Senator Enverga said. ■

Senator Enverga (center) responds to questions from media during the Typhoon Yolanda reconstruction update on Jan. 13.

POLICE ARE looking for a Vancouver man who has been reported missing by his coworkers.

Forty-two-year-old Rennard Lusterio was last heard from on January 2nd, making dinner plans with a friend. After not showing up for work on Jan. 4, co-workers grew concerned. On Jan. 6, they contacted police.

His absence is out of the ordinary, and all efforts to locate him have been unsuccessful.

Mr. Lusterio is of Filipino descent, 5'9" tall, weighs 143 lbs., and has short black hair and brown eyes.

Anyone with information on Lusterio is asked to call the Vancouver Police Missing Persons Unit at (604) 717-2540. ■

Lusterio.

THE CAOILES of Calgary with Ice Magic Festival 2016 1st place winner in the Team Ice Carving competition Victor Dagatan and Ross Baisas in Lake Louise, AB (Photos by Miguel Caoile and Mabuhay Calgary).

Municipalities send... tend to own a lot of Self-responsibility and common sense approach. real estate making it Similar situations exist in pubdifficult to post sig- lic swimming pools operated by a Ineffective and irritating nage banning tobogganing or municipality. Users are accepting The long standing ban in Hampond skating on all city owned a level of self-responsibility when ilton has not been an effective deproperty. choosing to use the facility. An ac- terrent to end tobogganing. The Posting signs ban in Orangeville on popular hills is an irritation to and ponds may in local residents fact create an isthat created tosue of negligence Signs in popular locations may force bogganing parties in areas where tobogganers and skaters to use less to protest the ban signs are not safe areas. effectively putposted. Signs in ting more people popular locations on the hill. People may force toboghave been skating ganers and skaters to use less ceptable level of care obliges the on city owned ponds for hundreds safe areas where signs are not municipality to ensure that it has of years. Simply banning the acposted and they are more likely done all that it can to prevent in- tivity does make it go away and to get injured. Failure to enforce jury and ensure people enjoy the more open-minded municipalithe ban through signage and by- pool facility in relative safety. ties are becoming increasingly law enforcement may increase The municipalities of Ottawa aware of this fact. ■ the portion of responsibility at- and Calgary take the same aptributed to the municipality if a proach to tobogganing and skating Brian Cameron, is a senior partner at case goes to trial. This can lead by designating safe locations and Oatley Vigmond – Canada’s largest to the municipality be ordered offering tips on how to stay safe. and most reputable personal injury to pay hefty damages.

This a much more sophisticated law firm. www.oatleyvigmond.com ❰❰ 28

www.canadianinquirer.net

31

FRIDAY JANUARY 22, 2016

Entertainment

Piolo Pascual excited to meet Meryl Streep

BY BAYANI SAN DIEGO JR. Philippine Daily Inquirer PIOLO PASCUAL is not afraid to admit that he fought for his latest film, Lav Diaz’s eight hour epic, “Hele sa Hiwagang Hapis.” “Star Cinema didn’t want to allow us,” he told the INQUIRER in an exclusive interview. The film costars John Lloyd Cruz, another prized talent of Star Cinema, the movie arm of ABS-CBN, which is also Pascual’s home studio.

The studio’s reasoning was that if Cruz and Pascual were to make a movie together, it should be under Star Cinema. “That was how Star Cinema got on board,” he explained. (Charo and Malou Santos of Star Cinema are listed as executive producers, and “Hele” will be distributed locally

by Star Cinema.)

“Thing is, this film goes beyond us,” he pointed out. “I would’ve felt bad if somebody else got the part. I really wanted to do it, and I refused to give it up just because of my contractual obligation.”

That is why he felt “vindicated” that “Hele” made it as part of the main competition of the

Berlin International Film Festival (Berlinale), to be held in Germany from Feb. 11 to 21.

“I asked permission [from the studio] as early as now if I could attend the fest,” he said.

“I hope they allow us—after all, we aren’t just representing the film; we are carrying the nation’s flag.”

Pascual, who previously attended the Cannes Film Festival (for “Manila” in 2009 and “On the Job” in 2013), is looking forward to attend the Berlinale, which will have Oscar winner Meryl Streep as president of the jury.

Perhaps he could score a selfie with La Streep, as well? “Just to see the stars up close would be great,” he quipped. “I heard there is a dinner with the delegates of the films and the jury members.”

Apart from the chance to hobnob with A-list celebrities, being part of “Hele” is “a reward in itself,” as far as Pascual is concerned.

For starters, shooting in Lake Bulusan in Sorsogon was unforgettable, he recalled. “It wasn’t work for us,” he recounted. “We didn’t want to leave the place! It was like traveling back in time.”

As an actor, he admitted, the place helped him get into character in a jiffy. “We were ‘set up’ already. All the tools we needed as actors were there,” he clarified.

It was total “immersion,” in more ways than one. “We didn’t have a tent, a standby area. You could sit anywhere you wanted.

Bahala ka (It’s up to you.). If there was a poisonous snake in the forest, [that was part of] the risk. But it was a great feeling to immerse yourself in the atmosphere.”

He confessed that Diaz’s “collaborative” directing style proved to be “challenging.”

Since Diaz gave his actors total freedom, Pascual felt pressured “to live up to the director’s expectations.”

He constantly asked himself: “Will you act dumb or focus on your character?” He prepared himself by rereading Jose Rizal’s “Noli Me Tangere” and “El Filibusterismo.” (He portrays Ibarra/Simoun of “Noli” and “El Fili.”)

“Last time I read those books was in high school,” he volunteered. “I never thought I’d get to express Rizal’s words and ideas onscreen.”

Working with Cruz was also

“Hele sa Hiwagang Hapis” actors Piolo Pascual and John Lloyd Cruz with director Lav Diaz, and producer Paul Soriano.

PAUL SORIANO / INSTAGRAM

an “experience,” he said. “Lloydie is one of the best actors of our time. So, what’s left for me to do? Should I try to compete and upstage him, or should I simply be a team player? At the end of the day, this film is beyond us—it’s bigger than any of us.”

Savor the experience

He remembers one scene, shot while they were crossing the lake in a boat, in the middle of the night. “It was completely dark! And Lloydie said he didn’t know how to swim,” he related.

Instead of getting scared, it

made them savor the experience all the more.

“We kept in mind that we had to do well in the first take because direk Lav usually uses Take One,” he said.

One day, he had to memorize eight pages of dialogue in a scene that ran for 17 minutes.

“It was like going back to my roots in theater. I started in Teatro Tomasino in college.”

All in all, “Hele” helped him grow as a thespian. “It made me respect my craft even more.

A film is bigger than any actor.

You are just one part of a bigger whole,” he said. ■

Miss Globe winner: PH now a powerhouse in beauty pageants

BY ARMIN P. ADINA Philippine Daily Inquirer

Ann Lorraine Colis.

NORMANNORMAN.COM

MANY PAGEANT pundits consider Ann Lorraine Colis’ victory in the Miss Globe pageant in Canada a lucky charm that paved the way for the Philippines’ winning streak in international tilts in 2015.

Colis, the first of the 2015 Binibining Pilipinas beauties to compete abroad, snagged the Philippines’ first-ever victory in the 42-year-old Miss Globe www.canadianinquirer.net

pageant in Toronto.

“Aside from being the first Filipino woman to win Miss Globe, people tell me that I was the one who set the trend! I’m glad they considered me a lucky charm because I was the first to win a crown last year,” Colis said during a press conference at the Pool Bar of Novotel Manila in Quezon City recently.

Last year, the Philippines had five more international winners—Miss Earth Angelia Ong, Miss Tourism Queen of the Year International Leren Mae Bau-

tista, Miss International Queen Trixie Maristela, Miss Scuba International Cindy Madduma and Miss Universe Pia Alonzo Wurtzbach.

“I’m proud of our batch, because we’ve accomplished a lot,” Colis said.

In 2013, Mutya Datul bagged the country’s first Miss Supranational crown and paved the way for a recordbreaking haul for the Philippines in international competitions. ❱❱ PAGE 32 Miss Globe

32

Entertainment

JANUARY 22, 2016

FRIDAY

Janice happy for ex-husband’s wife Priscilla

BY MARINEL R. CRUZ Philippine Daily Inquirer “JOHN SHOULD be proud that Priscilla is carrying his name,” said actress Janice de Belen when sought to comment on Brazilian beauty queen Priscilla Meirelles’ move to change her screen name to “Estrada.”

Priscilla is married to actor-TV host John Estrada, with whom Janice has four children.

Janice is working closely with Priscilla in ABS-CBN’s latest morning teleserye, “Be My Lady,” which premieres today, replacing “Ningning.” Janice plays nanny to Priscilla’s son in the series. The kid will later become the character of lead star Daniel Matsunaga.

“I’m actually happy for her.

Let’s not dwell on the past anymore,” Janice told reporters, pleading to them not to make a controversy out of the change in Priscilla’s name.

For her part, Priscilla explained that she decided to use “Estrada” as screen name because “it’s easier to pronounce than Meirelles—and also be-

cause it’s my real surname now.”

She is the first Brazilian to be crowned Miss Earth in 2004.

The pageant was held in Manila.

Priscilla and John were married in February 2011. They now have a 3-year-old daughter named Sammantha Anechka.

The former beauty queen pointed out that “Meirelles” was used in the production credit. “But before the press con started, I was asked for the correct pronunciation of Meirelles. I said just use Estrada to make it easier for the event host,” she explained.

“I don’t see anything wrong with that. As John’s wife, I should honor my husband, and what better way to do it than to publicly use his surname.”

Priscilla said the story of “Be My Lady” is something close to her heart. “The show is special to me not only because I’m part of it, but also because I’m actually experiencing interracial romance [ just like the characters of Erich and Daniel].

Even though I’m Brazilian, I’ve grown to love the Philippines,

Retired sexy star

Janice de Belen.

SCREENSHOT FROM YOUTUBE

which loved me back!”

To make both ends meet, Pinang’s (Erich) mother Marcy (Janice) flies to Singapore to work as a nanny for a family of Brazilians that includes Phil (Daniel). She gets deported because of an unfortunate incident. Phil grows up and travels to Manila to look for Marcy and, along the way, finds the woman

Bowie’s ‘Blackstar’ debuts at No. 1, his first chart topper THE ASSOCIATED PRESS NEW YORK — David Bowie’s last album, “Blackstar,” debuted number one on the Billboard charts, the first chart-topper for the late musician.

Since it was released two days before Bowie died of cancer on Jan. 10, “Blackstar” has sold 174,000 copies, according to Nielsen Music. It’s the best sales week for Bowie since Nielsen began electronically tracking music purchases in 1991.

Bowie dislodged the previous No. 1, Adele’s “25,” which slipped to No. 2 after seven weeks on top.

The 2002 compilation “Best of Bowie” also rocketed up the charts to No. 4 with 94,000 units sold. Altogether, 10 Bowie albums landed on the Billboard 200, which measures sales and

he’ll fall in love with.

Priscilla is of Portuguese, Spanish and Brazilian descent.

She was born in Amazonas, Brazil. She admitted to have come from a family with “parents who are divorced. My last name is Almeida. I used my mom’s surname because she raised me on her own. I’m proud of her— and I want to honor her!”

Miss Globe...

That year, Bea Rose Santiago was also proclaimed Miss International, and Megan Young became the first Filipino Miss World winner. Angeli Dione Gomez’s Miss Tourism International win made it a fourcrown harvest for the country.

The record set in 2013 seemed impossible to replicate at the time, but 2015’s six-crown haul proved otherwise.

“I’m very happy that the Philippines is now considered one of the powerhouses in international beauty pageants,” declared Colis.

And the Binibining Pilipinas Charities Inc. (BPCI) is hopeful that the momentum will continue, now that the 2016 national search is in full swing. ❰❰ 31

Arduous task

MARC WATHIEU / FLICKR

streams. The 1972 classic “The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust

and the Spiders From Mars” rose to No. 21. ■ www.canadianinquirer.net

“When I came here, I was happy to find out that an actress was actually using the surname Almeda,” the Brazilian actress said, referring to the retired Filipino sexy star Priscilla Almeda, whose real name is Abby Viduya.

Asked what advice she can give to reallife couple Erich and Daniel when it comes to having a lasting relationship, Janice said: “Erich and I get to talk a lot on the set. I share with her my life experiences, hoping that she could pick up something from them. But I don’t dare give her love pointers, because I myself don’t have a love life.”

Priscilla, on the other hand, advised the young couple to “love and live one day at a time—although it’s always better to plan for the future. They may be young, but they’re also smart and talented.”

“Be My Lady,” codirected by Theodore Boborol and Dick Lindayag, also features Al Tantay, RK Bagatsing, Karen Dematera, Devon Seron, Mike Lauren and Karen Reyes. ■

The organization is currently accepting applicants who are courageous enough to take on the arduous task of replicating, or surpassing, the Philippines’ impressive 2015 performance.

And Colis, along with her

2015 batchmates, will be on hand to help choose the new crop of aspirants.

“They have to have the heart.

Aside from looks and intelligence, they need to have determination. Representing the country is tough. You have to be strong,” Colis shared.

And because she is currently busy with the 2016 national search, Colis said she’d wait for the dust to settle before she could continue with her duties as Miss Globe.

Although no date has been set for the 2016 Miss Globe pageant, Colis is just waiting for the global organization’s notice, which she hopes would come after the culmination of the 2016 Binibining Pilipinas pageant.

But she already brushed aside calls for her to join another pageant. “I’m happy with what I have. I already made our country proud—and that’s good enough for me,” Colis declared.

“Let us give others a chance.

There are others who aspire to be [like] us. It’s their time to shine,” she continued. ■

Entertainment

FRIDAY JANUARY 22, 2016

Calls for boycott of Oscars grow over diversity of nominees

BY JAKE COYLE The Associated Press NEW YORK — Calls for a boycott of the Academy Awards are growing over the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences’ second straight year of mostly white nominees, as Spike Lee and Jada Pinkett Smith each said Monday that they will not attend this year’s ceremony.

In a lengthy Instagram post, Lee said he “cannot support” the “lily white” Oscars. Noting that he was writing on Martin Luther King Jr. Day, Lee — who in November said he was fed up: “Forty white actors in two years and no flava at all,” he wrote.

“We can’t act?!”

In a video message on Facebook, Pinkett Smith also said she wouldn’t attend or watch the Oscars in February. Pinkett Smith, whose husband Will Smith wasn’t nominated for his performance in the NFL head trauma drama “Concussion,” said it was time for people of colour to disregard the Academy Awards.

“Begging for acknowledgement, or even asking, diminishes dignity and diminishes power,” she said. “And we are a dignified people and we are powerful.”

She added: “Let’s let the academy do them, with all grace and love. And let’s do us differently.”

Last year’s all-white acting nominees also drew calls for a boycott, though not from such prominent individuals as Lee and Pinkett Smith. Whether it had any impact or not, the audience for the broadcast, hosted by Neil Patrick Harris, was down 16 per cent from the year prior, a six-year low.

This year, academy president Cheryl Boone Isaacs has made a point of presenting a more inclusive show. The Feb. 28 broadcast will be hosted by Chris Rock and produced by “Django Unchained” producer Reginald Hudlin and David Hill. On Saturday, Rock, unveiling a new promotion for the broadcast, called the ceremony “The White BET Awards.”

The academy didn’t immediately respond to messages left Monday.

In his post, Lee made it clear the Academy Awards is only part of the problem in an industry with deep-rooted diversity issues.

“The Academy Awards is not where the ‘real’ battle is,” wrote Lee. “It’s in the executive office of the Hollywood studios and TV and cable networks. This is where the gate keepers decide what gets made and what gets jettisoned to ‘turnaround’ or scrap heap. This is what’s important. The gate keepers.

Those with ‘the green light’ vote.” ■

33

Gooding said he didn’t want to meet with O.J. Simpson

BY DAVID BAUDER The Associated Press

ested in showing viewers how the seeming certainty of Simpson’s guilt in the wake of the killings unraveled during the trial.

Travolta, who played attorney Robert Shapiro, said he took four months deciding whether to take his first television role in years. He’s listed as a producer — he said it was his hedge against making sure the project wasn’t sensationalistic — but found he did little in that role.

Besides the story of a trial, “The People v. O.J. Simpson: American Crime Story” needed to reflect many undercurrents, including race relations and the nature of celebrity.

Schwimmer, who played lawyer Robert Kardashian, at one

intense time in their own lives.

Producers and writers said they made no effort to contact people involved in the case who PASADENA, CALIF. — Actor were still alive, relying primarCuba Gooding, Jr., who porily on Toobin’s book. Murphy, trays O.J. Simpson in FX’s 10taking advice he said he learned part miniseries on the 1995 from Julia Roberts when she murder trial, said he didn’t played Erin Brockovich, adwant to meet the former footvised the actors not to reach out ball star as part of his research to the people they portrayed. for taking on the role.

Nina Jacobson, an executive Gooding, who would not reproducer, said she believed it veal at a news conference Sattook two decades for a serious urday his opinion on whether film to be made on the trial Simpson stabbed his former primarily because people were wife Nicole and her friend Ronoversaturated by the case. ald Goldman to death in June “We needed time and dis1994, said the Simpson he needtance to be able to come back ed to portray in the television and look at it from a character film was a much different man perspective,” she said. then, swaggering and confident.

Toobin, also a writer for The “I had no deNew Yorker sire to visit him magazine and a in his present consultant on condition, being the film, said he incarcerated and I had no desire to visit him in his found it eerie being a shell of present condition, being incarcerated how meticulousa man,” he said. and being a shell of a man. ly producers recGooding said he reated the courtgained weight room where he and it took him a sat for Simpson’s month to recover from the gru- point in the film pleads with murder trial, down to the fabeling six-month filming. a gun-toting Simpson not to ric on chairs. He was jolted by The project, with executive shoot himself “in Kimmy’s bed- the passing of time, however, producer Ryan Murphy and ac- room.” The scenes were shot in when a director asked him why tors like John Travolta, David the house Kardashian and his he didn’t just Google some inSchwimmer, Malcolm Jamal- later-to-be-famous family lived formation that he didn’t know Warner and Gooding, has been in, which “brought it home to during the trial; Google didn’t getting strong word-of-mouth us in a way that was really chill- exist at the time. before its Feb. 2 premiere. ing,” Schwimmer said.

“This was the most famous Based on a book by CNN’s JefBoth Schwimmer, in the first event in American history that frey Toobin, writers and pro- flush of success with “Friends” had never been dramatized,” ducers said they worked hard at the time of the trial, and Tra- Toobin said. “I’m just fortunate to make the docudrama as au- volta, in the midst of his “Pulp that I’m involved in this story, thentic as possible.

Fiction” career resurgence, re- but I knew it would happen Writers said they were inter- called the trial happening at an someday.” ■

Latest gauge... stock markets have little to do with the rest of its state-dominated economy, but investors abroad took the decline as a sign the economy as weaker than thought.

A growing number of private-sector analysts question the reliability of China’s data, suggesting economic growth is much weaker than reported.

Julian Evans-Pritchard of Capital Economics said other measures of activity suggested economic growth in the latest quarter was 4.5 per cent, ❰❰ 25

PRAYITNO / FLICKR

www.canadianinquirer.net

though that still would be among theworld’s strongest.

Spending on online commerce grew by 33.3 per cent over 2014, an encouraging sign for official efforts to nurture a consumer economy. Wang said the share of total economic activity accounted for by consumption rose to 56.4 per cent. That was up 5 percentage points from 2014.

Forecasters expect economic growth to decline further this year, with the International Monetary Fund targeting a 6.3 per cent expansion. Tuesday’s

“numbers are somewhat reassuring to markets, suggesting that some of their worst fears are not materializing,” Collyns said.

Tuesday figures “fit the expectation of China watchers: The Chinese economy is slowing down, but only gradually,” said David Dollar, senior fellow at the Brookings Institution and former China hand at the U.S. Treasury Department and the World Bank. ■ Wiseman

contributed from Washington.

34

JANUARY 22, 2016

FRIDAY

Lifestyle

KNITTINGFEVER.COM

Ruffles, glitter, rose-quartz pink — grab them for 2016 Lifestyle selects the top trends for you

BY CHECHE V. MORAL Philippine Daily Inquirer IT’S THE start of the year, and also the season of clearance sales in your favorite boutiques before they roll out the newseason collections next month.

But before you get hypnotized by those big, bold, red “SALE,” “Final Reduction” and “Up to 70 off” flashing beacons of impending bankruptcy, consider these as you step out and hoard the sales: You think those destroyed jeans would still look cool in 2016? Nuh-uh. Those sheer, near-naked dresses?

Leave those, too, to Beyoncé in 2015.

Here’s a list of top trends for 2016: All that glitters

Lesley Mobo was on point in his collection for Red Charity Gala late last year: 2016 will be all about glitter, as seen in the Spring 2016 collections, from Lanvin to Marc Jacobs to Marni.

At the Golden Globes, Tom Ford dressed his A-list date and presenter Julianne Moore in a fully sequined midnight-blue dress. Best-actress winner Brie Larson also sparkled in custom Calvin Klein, while Olivia

Wilde was in a shimmery Michael Kors. Even Bryce Dallas Howard’s off-the-rack Jenny Packham dress was covered in paillettes. Kate Bosworth scintillated in a fuchsia strapless Dolce & Gabbana, as did Jenna Dewan Tatum in her Zuhair Murad.

The list goes on.

Let it slip

Lingerie will be doing double duty this year, if it were up to the houses of Givenchy, Saint Laurent, Alexander Wang, Balenciaga, Celine—just a handful of designers sending out luxurious boudoir-inspired clothing for the season.

At Haider Ackermann, the final look was layered under a leather motorcycle jacket to give it a hard edge and balance out the overt sensuality of satin and lace. Ditto at Saint Laurent, where they were styled distinctly Hedi Slimane-rock ‘n’ roll, worn with Coachella-ready wellies.

Models in ’90s-inspired negligee dresses, meanwhile, were shod in slip-on sneakers at Calvin Klein.

Ruff day

Think Jane Fonda (in Saint Laurent) and Rooney Mara (in Alexander McQueen) at the

Rooney Mara.

Golden Globes, two examples of ruffles slipping into new-season clothing.

There are flamenco undertones in tiered skirts at Oscar de la Renta and Kardashian favorite, Balmain. The rendering of ruffles is delicate at McQueen, where they appear as ruffs, or adorn sleeves and bodices—once again, think Mara at the Globes (who wore the finale look from the Paris collection), and Amanda Peet, who was in similar McQueen.

CARLAVANWAGONER / SHUTTERSTOCK.COM

periwinkle named Serenity (“Downton Abbey” star Joanne Froggatt’s Reem Acra dress, also at the Globes).

Pantone says the year’s top 10 colors—which also include Peach Echo, Snorkel Blue, Buttercup, Lilac Gray, Iced Coffee, Green Flash, Fiesta (yellowbased red) and Limpet Shell (aqua)—are “softer shades that offer a sense of calm and relaxation” in a “culture still surrounded by so much uncertainty.” The palette, it adds, is unisex.

The 2016 styles are also clunkier than ever. On the upside, you’ll get the height without wanting to chop off your feet after walking in them for eight hours.

Sneakerheads, rejoice!

Quirky totes

En pointe

If you’re after daintier footwear, go for long, pointy shapes, either on high heels or slip-on flats, which were all over the Spring runways: at Dior, Marc Jacobs, Givenchy, Salvatore Ferragamo, Proenza Schouler, to name a few.

Cold shoulder

Not a fan of “Game of Thrones” star Natalie Dormer’s Golden Globes dress? We hear you.

But the British actress was on to one of the year’s big trends: clothing that shows off the shoulder. Forget the cleavage and the gams for a moment—or the toned midriffs of Kate Hudson and Brie Larson peeking from their awards-night cutout dresses; a new way to show skin is via the shoulder, and you won’t be giving away too much.

Happy pastels

Pantone called it: 2016’s fashion colors are a shade of pale pink dubbed Rose Quartz (think Cate Blanchett in Givenchy at the Golden Globes) and www.canadianinquirer.net

As the high-fashion houses elevate the street casual footwear, in both design and fabrication, sneakers and trainers will continue to rule in 2016, proving that its reign in the past year wasn’t just a moment. Premium brands like Calvin Klein and Hermes down to your favorite athletic brands will continue to cater to the pervasive athleisure lifestyle.

Flatforms

They’re not exactly the sexiest footwear, but like it or not, you will be seeing a lot of one of the most polarizing shoe trends there is, even from trend-setting brands like Chanel and Louis Vuitton.

Bag yourself a whimsical purse for 2016, to add a little fun to even the most basic of outfits. Brands to check out: Kate Spade, Moschino, Jeremy Scott, Alice + Olivia, Betsey Johnson.

Fringe benefits

A carryover of last year’s ’70s trend, bags with fringe and tassel details—at Burberry Prorsum, Altuzarra and Monique Lhuillier—will continue to make a splash this year. You will be seeing them not only in earth-tone suedes, but also in multiple colors and varied fabrications, like the tweed-like styles at Tory Burch and Diane Von Furstenberg. ■

Lifestyle

FRIDAY JANUARY 22, 2016

35

Complex issue of when to stop mammograms

BY LAURAN NEERGAARD The Associated Press WASHINGTON — Lost in the arguing over whether women should begin mammograms at age 40 or 50 or somewhere in between is the issue they’ll all eventually face: when to stop.

“There’s a point at which everybody begins to scratch their head and say how much longer do you have to keep doing this?” said American Cancer Society specialist Robert Smith.

It’s an increasingly complex balancing act as older women are living even longer. The risk of breast cancer rises with age.

But so do the odds of other serious illnesses that may be more likely to kill in a senior’s remaining life span — or to make them less able to withstand the rigours of cancer treatment.

“If we pick up a cancer in someone who’s 75 and they die at 76 of something else, did it really matter? That’s really the question here,” said Dr. Susan Boolbol, breast surgery chief at Mount Sinai Beth Israel Medical Center in New York.

Medical guidelines don’t agree.

The cancer society’s advice: Women should continue mammograms as long as their overall health is good and they have a life expectancy of at least 10 more years. Last week, guidelines issued by the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force said

Mammograms bring pros and cons for the oldest women like they do for middle-aged ones.

RHODA BAER / NATIONAL CANCER INSTITUTE

there’s not enough evidence to recommend for or against mammograms at age 75 and older, because that age group just hasn’t been studied enough to tell.

Getting such evidence is “critical, given the greying of America,” said Dr. Jeanne Mandelblatt, an expert on cancer and aging at Georgetown University.

Indeed, some in the 80-andbeyond crowd are as spry as 60-somethings.

“People are taking better care of themselves,” said Yale University pathologist Dr. Fattaneh Tavassoli. “If we don’t start discussing it, it’s going to be more difficult to come up with management approaches for these patients.”

She recently reported that Yale’s medical centre is diagnosing more breast cancer at 90 and older, averaging about eight diagnoses a year since 2000, compared with one a year during the 1990s. Many were diagnosed after the woman or doctor detected an abnormality, not from routine mammograms, Tavassoli said. But she’s asked if other hospitals see a similar trend and also wants to study what treatment they underwent.

Marion Jones was 84 and active when a mammogram spotted breast cancer. Surgeons removed a small tumour but during follow-up chemotherapy Jones developed pneumonia and blood clots. She needed a portable oxygen tank for a year

until her lungs healed.

For Jones, mammograms were “just a habit” that she didn’t question when a new doctor said she was due, and she’s grateful her cancer was detected. But now 86 and healthy again, the Silver Spring, Maryland, woman recently told her oncologist that if her cancer ever returns, she doesn’t want chemo.

“She said, ‘Marion, at your age you probably won’t die of breast cancer anyway. It’ll be something else,’ “ Jones recalled. “That’s nice to hear.”

About 26 per cent of breast cancer deaths each year are attributed to a diagnosis after age 74, according to the American Cancer Society.

“The question we have not really studied very carefully is

what fraction of those deaths is truly avoidable,” Smith said.

Mammography does decline as women get older. About three-quarters of women age 50 to 74 have had a mammogram within two years, compared with 41 per cent of the 85plus group, according to 2013 government figures.

Mammograms bring pros and cons for the oldest women like they do for middle-aged ones, the possibility of reducing breast cancer death versus false alarms, unneeded biopsies and detection of a tumour so small or slow-growing that it never would have posed a threat.

Georgetown’s Mandelblatt used math models to analyze that balance, and estimated that healthy older women could benefit from regular screening through age 78 or 80. But among women who already had other moderate to severe illnesses, the harms of screening could outweigh benefits as early as 68, she said.

If cancer is found in the frail, Mount Sinai’s Boolbol notes there are less aggressive options that aim to stop a tumour’s growth rather than eradicate it.

She wants doctors and patients to have frank discussions about the woman’s overall health in deciding how long to continue mammograms.

“It really needs to be based on their health status, and not your age,” Boolbol said. “Because it’s not one-size-fits-all.” ■

Highrise residents who have cardiac arrest have lower survival rates: study

BY SHERYL UBELACKER The Canadian Press TORONTO — A new Ontario study shows there’s a downside to living on the upper floors of highrise apartments and condominiums for those who suffer a cardiac arrest.

Residents on higher floors who have a cardiac arrest have a far lower survival rate than those on lower floors, likely because it takes longer for paramedics to reach the patient and begin resuscitation efforts.

A cardiac arrest occurs when

the heart suddenly stops beating and is different from a heart attack, which is typically caused by a blockage in a coronary artery.

Toronto paramedic Ian Drennan, who led the St. Michael’s Hospital study, says time is critical for treating a cardiac arrest with CPR and defibrillator to shock the heart back into a normal rhythm.

He says each minute of delay before an emergency responder can reach a patient decreases the likelihood they will survive by seven to 10 per cent.

The study published in Mon-

day’s Canadian Medical Association Journal shows that 4.2 per cent of cardiac arrest patients living below the third floor survived, compared to 2.6 per cent of those on or above the third floor.

The survival rate for those living above the 16th floor was less than one per cent — or two out of 216 — and none of the 30 cardiac arrest patients living above the 25th floor could be resuscitated.

“Patients who survived tended to be younger, their cardiac arrest was more often witnessed by bystanders, and www.canadianinquirer.net

Each minute of delay before an emergency responder can reach a patient decreases the likelihood they will survive by seven to 10 per cent.

bystanders were more likely to perform CPR,” said Drennan, noting, however, that the rate of bystander use of an automated external defibrillator was low

in the 2007-2012 study.

“They also had shorter times for 911-initiated first responders to get to the scene and to the patient.” ■

36

JANUARY 22, 2016

FRIDAY

Business

Canada and Asean: A business partnership exploding IT ALL started when then Canadian Foreign Affairs Minister, John Baird, attended ASEAN-CANADA MINISTERIAL MEETING in Nay Pyi Taw, Myanmar.

He stated matter of fact — “The ASEAN Region is a key economic, political, and security partner for Canada.”

Without doubt, he believed that ASEAN with its 650 million consumers, 4.6 million square kilometers of land mass and 4 bodies of water teeming with bounties of the seas which surround the region, its economic potential is far greater than anyone can imagine which Canadian businesses can explore.

Everybody listened — marketing groups, business councils, business consultants, and even Trade Centers of Diplomatic Posts huddled together to strategize and outgun everyone.

BC Provincial Government developed BC Job Plans — Agrifood Strategy which goal is to expand international markets for BC agrifood and seafood products in order to grow the sector into a $14 billion industry by 2017.

The Ministry of International Trade and the Ministry of Agriculture work collaboratively to support increased export sales by facilitating industry participation in major trade events, supporting outbound and inbound trade missions,

providing market intelligence and training, and linking BC businesses with buyers, investors and other key partners in global markets.

The Ministry of Agriculture conducted a seminar on “SOUTHEAST ASIAN MARKETS — OPPORTUNITIES FOR BRITISH COLUMBIA FOOD AND BEVERAGE EXPORTERS.” In its press release, it mentioned that Southeast Asian markets represent major food and beverage opportunities for BC companies. The regions 10 countries include: Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam. The region is home to a growing young population with rising disposable incomes, who are spending more on food and beverages.

Special guests at the seminar provided an overview of opportunities in the region — specifically insight into the Philippine market — market intelligence and export tips. Considered trade experts, the guests explained buyers’ perspective on best opportunities and how to get started.

Speakers included Maria Januszczak, Trade Commissioner posted at the Canadian Embassy in the Philippines. Also on hand to share best practices was Carlos Cabochan, President of Philippine Association of Supermarkets; and Rey Co, Founder and Managing Direc-

tives located in key export markets. www.britishcolumbia.ca/ export/index.aspx Export Development Canada — exporting resources, including step by step guide to exporting — www.edc.ca/EN/About Exporting/Trade-Links/Pages/export-and-business-plans. aspx Trade Start — an importing and exporting advisory service delivered by Small Business BC — www.tradestart.ca Foreign Affairs, Trade and Development — tariff information by country for specific products — www.international. gc.ca/trade-agreements-accrods-commerciaux/topicsdomaines/goods-produits/ ac_link.aspx?lang=eng The ASEAN Region is a key economic, political, and security partner for Canada.

tor of Hightower Inc and Artisan Cellars and Fine Foods, Philippines.

The provincial and federal governments provide BC companies with various resources to support their exporting initiatives, including export information (to help companies understand how to export effectively); market intelligence (to help companies identify market opportunities and develop effective marketing strategies); funding programs (to support marketing skills training, marketing plan development, market research, mar-

keting material development/ translation and participation in international market development events); and, expert assistance from highly skilled trade and marketing officials, including Canadian Trade Commissioners and BC Trade and Investment Representatives located overseas.

For more information

EXPORT Trade and Invest BC — exporting resources, information on key export markets and contact information for BC Trade and Investment Representa-

MARKET INTELLIGENCE BC Ministry of Agriculture: information on the BC agrifood and seafood industry’s top exports, plus agrifood and seafood opportunity reports for various export markets and details on upcoming seminars and workshops. — www2.gov.bc.ca/gov/ content/industry/agricultureseafood/about-agricultureand- seafood-in-bc/statistics/ market-analysis-and-tradestatistics Agriculture and Agrifood Canada: in depth market analysis reports on BC’s key export markets — www5.agr.gc.ca/eng/ industry-markets-and-trade/ statistics-and-market-informatio /?id=1361289956531 ■

Loonie stable but under 69 cents US, index futures down before TSX open THE CANADIAN PRESS TORONTO — The Canadian dollar remained near the lowest levels in nearly 13 years Monday but was up slightly.

The Canadian dollar was at

68.98 cents US about 90 minutes before North American stock markets opened, up 0.16 from Friday’s close. Canada’s currency has been trading near levels that haven’t been seen since the spring of 2003.

The U.S. stock index futures

were down more than two per cent, prior to the open of North American markets at 9:30 a.m.

ET. The Dow Jones index futures were down 390.97 points at 15,988.08, S&P 500 futures declined 41.51 points to 1,880.33 www.canadianinquirer.net

and the Nasdaq futures lost 126.59 points to 4,488.42. Major markets in Asia and Europe were also down.

On the commodity markets, the February gold contract rose $16.80 to US$1,090.40 an ounce and the February crude

contract was down $1.74 at US$29.46 per barrel.

On Friday, the Toronto Stock Exchange’s S&P/TSX composite index dropped 262.57 or 2.13 per cent to 12,073.46 — its lowest close since June 2013. ■

Business

FRIDAY JANUARY 22, 2016

37

PH ready to adopt Political uncertainties seen China’s manufacturing to hurt equities market Select consumer, media, infra plays offer opportunities runaways

BY AMY R. REMO Philippine Daily Inquirer THE PHILIPPINE economy remains poised to sustain a growth of at least 6 percent this year despite the economic slowdown in China and the existing geopolitical tensions in the Middle East, according to the head of the country’s largest business organization.

Philippine Chamber of Commerce and Industry president George T. Barcelon said the country’s stable macroeconomic fundamentals and strong domestic consumption would help ease the impact of global developments on the local economy.

Rather than a bane for domestic enterprises, the slowdown in the Chinese economy could position the Philippines as a viable, alternative hub for trade and investments. “One of the concerns is that China is such a big market player and lately, (it has) been having some difficulties. But the long and short of it is that we are well positioned to maintain the growth, provided that the Middle East issue would not escalate,” he said.

Barcelon conceded there was

a concrete impact that could be felt from China’s slowdown as it was one of the country’s biggest export and import sources.

However, the Philippines was becoming a recipient of manufacturing companies wanting to look for alternative sites for their existing operations in China, he said.

Last month, the Philippine Exporters Confederation Inc. (Philexport) reported that 20 Japanese electronics firms were eyeing to relocate their operations from China to the Philippines this year. Each Japanese manufacturer was expected to invest between $20 million and $100 million, while the number of jobs that could be generated from these prospective investments were expected to reach 25,000.

“The Philippines can be a beneficiary … but the issue is sustainability—whether they (foreigners) can make their businesses work here. Of course we already have some of the big ones here like Texas Instruments. But it’s a question now of being able to build the infrastructure necessary to support (these prospective investors),” Barcelon said. ■

Weak trading seen

BY DORIS DUMLAOABADILLA Philippine Daily Inquirer THE LOCAL stock barometer is seen to reopen with caution today following another bloodbath in Wall Street on Friday but possibly recover later in the week.

Last week, the main-share Philippine Stock Exchange index (PSEi) shed 125.93 point or 1.9 percent to close at 6,449.50 on Friday. It entered “bear” territory last week, having fallen by about 20 percent since the peak finish at 8,127.48 on April 10, 2015.

Joseph Roxas, president of Eagle Equities Inc., said the market might remain sluggish today following the gloomy ap-

petite in Wall Street, when the closely watched Dow Jones industrial index shed 390.97 points or 2.39 percent to close at 15,988.08.

Roxas said the jitters in the US might be an overreaction to lowerthan-expected consumer spending, which could turn out to be a glitch. But even if consumer spending remained weak in the following months, he said this could only mean that the US Fed would have to hold off further rate increases, which would be good for risk appetite.

He said the PSEi might open sluggish but end the week a little higher than last week. Moving forward, Roxas said he expected the market to move out of bear territory. ■

BY DORIS DUMLAOABADILLA Philippine Daily Inquirer THE RUN-UP to the national elections in the Philippines will likely weigh down the peso and stock market this year but the consumer, media and infrastructure sectors offer selective investment opportunities, according to regional financial group Maybank Kim Eng. In a regional research titled “Six for 16,” Maybank said election trends on flows and the domestic currency showed that investors were generally not enthusiastic of the Philippine national elections as incumbents were constitutionally barred from running for a second term.

“This is particularly true for the upcoming election as there is no certainty that President Aquino’s business-friendly policies and reforms would survive beyond his term of office especially if his favored candidate fails to win the election,” the research said.

“Thus, the equity market is likely to be the main victim of political uncertainties up to six months after the elections and the outflows should weigh on the peso as well. Consequently, this could see the US dollarPHP climb higher in first half of 2016,” the research said.

The local stock market is seen to be buoyant in the first half but give back gains in the second half of the year.

On the other hand, the peso is seen to depreciate to 48:$1 in the first and second quarters of this year before recovering to about 47.80:$1 in the last two quarters. Apart from the election uncertainties, Maybank is “bearish” on the peso due to risks from the El Nino weather phenomenon and possible slowdown in overseas remittances from the weak global economy.

Across the region, Maybank has a more optimistic view for 2016 than a year ago, arguing for a bottoming process for Asian markets in absolute terms and relative to global equities, albeit in a volatile manner. www.canadianinquirer.net

WIKIMEDIA COMMONS

Despite several countries falling into recession, low valuations are seen to provide an opportunistic window to add risk to portfolios this year.

Without black-swan or unforeseen events, Asian economies are seen to be on the mend.

“Cushioned by momentum in their domestic economies, India, the Philippines and Vietnam expect to be relatively unscathed,” the report said.

On the other hand, Maybank’s teams in Singapore, Hong Kong and China believe that with the much bigger exposure of these countries to exports, they could be staring at heightened risks and uncertainties.

In the Philippine market, Maybank said its best pick from the stock market would be property developer SM Prime Holdings. “It is a big beneficiary of rapid growth in consumer spending during normal years, and especially so in election years. In addition, it is now reaping synergies from other recurring incomes, such as office and hotels/leisure, while the residential business is recovering well,” the research said.

Maybank forecasts a threeyear net profit compounded annual growth rate (CAGR) of 17 percent in 2014-2017 for SM Prime, driven by mall operations and new real estate developments.

With thousands of candidates vying for positions at the national and local levels this

year, Maybank said spending on campaign ads and distribution of freebies as they tour the country should also boost ABSCBN Corp. and Jollibee Food Corp.

“During election years, ABSCBN Corp. gets a significant share of political ad spending by candidates. At the same time, regular advertisers take advantage of stronger consumption and accelerate their ad spending. Since 1998, ABSCBN’s airtime revenue growth has averaged 20 percent during election years compared with 6 percent in non-election years,” the research showed.

Jollibee, the largest restaurant chain in the country, was projected to be a winner regardless of the outcome of the 2016 elections.

“The simple average of JFC’s share price appreciation from 1994 to 2014 is 20 percent yearon-year. The average was 10 percent during non-election years, but a much higher 40% in election years. We don’t think there is any reason 2016 will be different, which should again provide a strong upside catalyst for the shares.

Maybank also initiated coverage on Century Pacific Food Inc. (CNPF), the largest food canner in the country with a “buy: rating and target price of P20 per share based on a price to equity ratio of 19 times projected earnings this year, the average valuation of the Philippine consumer sector. ■

38

JANUARY 22, 2016

FRIDAY

Sports

Canada’s Eugenie Bouchard first round winner at Australian Open THE CANADIAN PRESS MELBOURNE, AUSTRALIA — A resurgent Eugenie Bouchard continued her injury comeback with a straight sets win in first round action at the Australian Open.

The 21 year old from Westmount, Que. dispatched Serbia’s Aleksandra Krunic 6-3, 6-4 in just over an hour, hitting 14 winners, along with 14 unforced errors.

The 37th-ranked Bouchard is playing in only her fourth tournament since sustaining a concussion when she fell in the dressing room at last year’s U.S.

Open.

She next will face Agnieszka Radwanska of Poland in second round play. Radwanska got through the first round with a 6-2, 6-3 win over Christina McHale of the United States Earlier this month Bouchard made it to the quarterfinals at the Shenzen Open and then followed that up by reaching the final at the Hobart International.

In men’s singles action, Canadian Vasek Pospisil was eliminated at Melbourne Park, falling in four sets to France’s Gilles Simon on Monday in first-round action.

The 25-year-old from Van-

couver was beaten by his 14thranked opponent, 7-6 (7-4), 3-6, 2-6, 4-6, in a match that lasted two hours, 47 minutes.

Unforced errors cost Pospisil heavily — he had 55 of them compared to just 18 for Simon.

Pospisil used his powerful serve to win the first set in 45 minutes. He held an 8-0 edge in aces but committed 16 unforced errors.

Trailing 3-1 in the second set, Pospisil called a medical timeout and went through stretching exercises on his lower body with a trainer, but returned to play shortly after. Simon went on to win the set in 52 minutes as Pospisil made 17 more un-

Eugenie Bouchard.

forced errors compared to the Frenchman’s three.

Simon needed only 31 minutes to win the third set and 39 minutes to take the fourth, which ended when Pospisil returned a serve long on match point.

BRENDAN DENNIS / WIKIMEDIA COMMONS

Pospisil held the edge in aces 19-2, and winners 45-12, but was undone by his own mistakes.

Meanwhile, Milos Raonic, of Thornhill, Ont., opens his tournament against France’s Lucas Pouille on Tuesday. ■

Pacquiao off to LA for Bradley promo tour

BY ROY LUARCA Philippine Daily Inquirer

Manny Pacquiao.

MICHAEL HOWARD / FLICKR

MANNY PACQUIAO knows that selling Timothy Bradley as a worthy adversary for the third time won’t be easy.

That’s why the eight-division world champion is leaving for Los Angeles tonight to begin a whirlwind tour intended to boost interest for his showdown-with Bradley for the World Boxing Organization welterweight crown set April 9 at MGMGrand in Las Vegas.

Pacquiao, also acknowledged as Fighter of the Decade, will

www.canadianinquirer.net

head to The Beverly Hills Hotel on Sunset Boulevard where a press conference is scheduled at the Crystal Ballroom tomorrow. He will be joined by Bradley and their trainers, Freddie Roach and Teddy Atlas, respectively.

Promoter Bob Arum, who steers the protagonists’ ring careers, will also be around to preside over the event expected to lure sportswriters, fans and the international media.

Team Pacquiao and Team Bradley will fly to New York City on Jan. 20 for the second press conference the following day at Madison Square Garden.

Harboring no illusion that Pacquiao-Bradley III will be anywhere near Pacquiao’s collision with Floyd Mayweather Jr. in magnitude last year, Arum said he merely wants to match the gate receipts and pay per view sales of his prized wards’ earlier bouts, which means a sellout crowd and at least 850,000 PPV buys.

Though the Sarangani representative had announced that it will be his last fight if he gets elected as senator, Arum remains hopeful that Pacquiao will fight one more time to finish his contract with Top Rank next year. ■

Sports

FRIDAY JANUARY 22, 2016

39

PSA honors Gilas 5 with President’s Award

BY CEDELF P. TUPAS Philippine Daily Inquirer

Rizal Memorial Sports Complex in Malate, Manila.

PATRICK ROQUE / WIKIMEDIA COMMONS

Filipino wild card netters get going

BY MARC ANTHONY REYES Philippine Daily Inquirer THE COUNTRY’S top tennis players test their mettle against a world-class field when the ATP Challenger Philippine Open opening round kicks off today at the newly refurbished Rizal Memorial Tennis Center.

Main draw wild cards Jeson Patrombon, Francis Casey Alcantara, Ruben Gonzales and 16-year-old Alberto Lim Jr. will try to keep the Philippine campaign going in the $75,000-tournament, the biggest to be held in the country so far.

“I will play my usual game, and look at it as a preparation for other tournaments like the Australian Open [ juniors] next week,” said Lim, the country’s most promising netter who is currently No. 12 in the world in juniors. He competed last week in an ITF Futures in Long Beach, California.

“You can’t tell, the ball is

round. But definitely I won’t put pressure on myself,” added the Tarlac-born Lim, who will face world No. 175 David Guez of France in the first round.

Guez, 33, reached his highest rating of 116th in the world six years ago.

“I’m very excited and ready for the challenge. I have nothing to lose,” said Alcantara, the 23-year-old former Australian Open juniors doubles champion who will face 29-year-old Amir Weintraub of Israel, the world No. 207.

Sharing the same sentiment was 22 year-old Patrombon, formerly world No. 9 in juniors who had reached the top 800 but is currently 1,112th in the world.

“My mindset is to try and win every point, every set and every match then if I win, I move on to the next match,” said the Iligan-native Patrombon, who will face fifth-seed and world No. 127th Kimmer Coppejans of Belgium.

The 21-year-old Coppejans,

who reached 97th in the world last year, used to play in the country during his junior years.

He once played Patrombon in doubles.

Gonzales, 30, and a veteran Davis Cup player and member of the national team, will face seventh-seeded Igor Sijsling of Netherlands, who just won a Challenger meet in Brescia, Italy.

Meanwhile, Filipino-Spaniard Diego Garcia Dalisay put up a gallant stand before losing to World No. 347 Nikola Mektic of Croatia, 6-2, 6-2, yesterday in the qualifying of the tournament sponsored by the Philippine Sports Commission, Philippine Tennis Association and Cebuana Lhuillier.

The 16-year-old Dalisay was broken twice on each set by the 27-year-old Mektic, who needs to win one more to make the main draw in the meet supported by Dunlop as the official ball, Chris Sports the official stringer and official broadcaster TV5. ■

THE ODDS were already stacked against Gilas Pilipinas 3.0 even before they left for the Chinese province of Changsha for the Fiba Asia Championship last year.

Some of the players on the coaching staff’s wish list begged off, throwing off preparations in a tournament that staked a berth in the 2016 Olympics in Rio de Janeiro.

It was a team toughened by adversity and although Gilas

ultimately fell one win short of the Asian crown, its magical run to the finals was another shining moment for Philippine sports in 2015.

The national basketball team will be honored with the President’s Award during the Philippine Sportswriters Association Annual Awards Night on Feb. 13 at One Esplanade in Pasay City.

Handled by coach Tab Baldwin, the Filipinos shook off an opening-day upset to Palestine, before rolling past powerhouse teams Iran and Japan on their way to the finals, where they bowed to host China, 67-78. ■

Hekmati says... family is in the Flint area. He and his family deny any wrongdoing, and say his imprisonment included physical and mental torture and long periods of solitary confinement in a tiny cell.

Kildee said he looked forward to talking more with Hekmati about his experience in the coming months but did already learn some details.

“We talked about a few of the aspects of his incarceration, (he) described the prison conditions as being bleak as we know them to be by reputation, described the fact that he had been told he was going to be released on several occasions, so even when this moment came he wasn’t sure it was really true until he was at the airport,” he said.

“In some ways that was another way to sort of provide psychological torture — to continue to torment him with his release.”

Huffman said Rezaian had ❰❰ 23

told him his captivity was “horrific” with occasional “comedic moments” but that he didn’t want to go into further details.

“It’s Jason’s story and I think the world wants to hear directly from him,” Huffman said. “But what amazed me about my time with him last night is his spirit — if the Republican Guard thought they’d break the spirit of this guy, they failed miserably.”

For now, Hekmati is focused on getting home soon, though it’s not yet clear when he’ll be released from the hospital, Kildee said.

“He’s really anxious to see his parents,” Kildee said. “His father’s quite ill — he was healthy when Amir went into prison and he’s quite ill now — so I know that’s an important part of the reunion.” ■ Rising reported from Berlin. David Runk in Detroit and Frank Jordans in Berlin contributed to this story.

Desjardins says Henrik Sedin out until after all-star break with upper body injury THE CANADIAN PRESS NEWARK, N.J. — Vancouver Canucks coach Willie Desjardins says captain Henrik Sedin will be out until after the all-

star break with an upper-body injury.

Sedin was hurt in the first period of Vancouver’s 2-1 shootout win at the Islanders on Sunday when he was checked into the boards away from the

play by New York’s Mikhail Grabovski.

Grabovski got a five-minute penalty for boarding and a game misconduct on the play.

The Canucks are half way www.canadianinquirer.net

through a six-game road trip that continues Tuesday against the New York Rangers.

“Henrik won’t have any more games on this trip,” Desjardins said after the Canucks’ practice on Monday. “Hopefully

he’ll be ready after the all-star break.”

Sedin leads the Canucks with 28 assists this season, and is second on the team with 37 points behind twin brother Daniel’s 41. ■

40

JANUARY 22, 2016

FRIDAY

Technology

Bank of Montreal becomes first of the big banks to launch ‘robo adviser’ service

BY ALEXANDRA POSADZKI The Canadian Press

tual funds. Robo-advisers such as WealthSimple, NestWealth and WealthBar aim to fill that gap in the marketplace by providing a cost-effective investment option for such clients.

Although anyone can use SmartFolio, BMO says it designed the service with millennials in mind given they prefer to do things online and may have limited investment knowledge.

“We felt it was an opportunity to really be able to tap into that segment that’s on the move and wants to be able to do whatever they want to do from wherever they are,” Rotenberg said.

In order to appeal to its target demographic, the bank says it used clear, jargon-free language and responsive website design that provides the same experience for users regardless of whether it’s accessed through a computer, a tablet or a smartphone.

Clients looking to sign up for

Customer support is provided via live chat, email and telephone, so a visit to the branch is not required.

TORONTO — The Bank of The minimum account size Montreal has launched an onfor SmartFolio is $5,000 and line portfolio manager, making fees are charged as a percentit the first of the big five Caage of assets under managenadian banks to wade into the ment, starting at 0.7 per cent “robo-adviser” business. for the first $100,000 and gradAfter a trial run that started ually moving lower for amounts on Dec. 7, the service — dubbed above that.

SmartFolio — is available to all For a $5,000 account, the aninvestors starting Monday. nual fee comes out to $60, acWhile other large Canadian cording to an online calculator banks have hinted they’re confeatured on the SmartFolio site. sidering a foray into online inAlthough BMO is touting the vestment advice, BMO is the service as low cost, its fees are first of the big five banks to somewhat higher than those oflaunch such a service, despite fered by some of the upstarts. electing to build the product For example, Wealth Simin-house rather than partnerple and WealthBar both offer ing with a financial technology free accounts for those with firm as some of the other banks less than $5,000 to invest. At are expected to do.

WealthSimple, clients whose The launch of SmartFolio reaccounts are between $5,000 sponds to concerns that banks and $250,000 pay 0.5 per cent, risk losing market share if while WealthBar charges 0.6 young, tech-savvy millennials per cent of assets under manditch traditional agement for acbanking in facounts between vour of fintech $5,000 and startups that of$150,000. fer low-cost, onWe felt it was an opportunity to really The fees line investment be able to tap into that segment charged by online management that’s on the move and wants to be portfolio manservices. able to do whatever they want to do agers typically Joanna Rofrom wherever they are. don’t include the tenberg, head of charges levied by personal wealth ETF providers. management Although “roat BMO, says the bank’s brand the service start by filling out an bo-adviser” has caught on as a gives it an advantage over up- online questionnaire that gath- catchy phrase to describe online starts providing similar services. ers information about their in- portfolio management, most “We’ve got the reliability as- vestment goals, their time hori- providers of the service — insociated with a 200-year-old zon and their tolerance for risk. cluding BMO — note that it’s a banking institution, and at After answering a series bit of a misnomer. the same time we’ve got a lot of questions about their net Clients may be able to acof the things that some other worth, annual income and cess the service without a faceplayers in the market are offer- how much loss in their port- to-face meeting with another ing, which is simple and digital folio they can bear — includ- human being, but the portfotools,” Rotenberg said. ing graphs that help illustrate lios are still managed by profes“So we’re really bringing to- volatility and the relationship sional money managers. gether the best of both worlds.” between risk and reward — the “We’re very much humanTypically, clients without client is enrolled in one of five managed,” Rotenberg says. enough assets to warrant hiring model portfolios made up of “You think of Hal from 2001 a full-service investment adviser BMO’s own exchange-traded Space Odyssey, but really there have had few options besides mu- funds, or ETFs. is no Hal.” ■ www.canadianinquirer.net

BLOOMUA / SHUTTERSTOCK.COM

Twitter disruption silences swaths of US, Europe

BY YOUKYUNG LEE AND BREE FOWLER The Canadian Press SOME TWITTER users had to do without early Tuesday after sporadic outages knocked the social media site offline in the U.S. and Europe.

Reports of malfunctions began to appear in the U.S. as well, but it was unclear how widespread the outages were.

By mid-morning on the East Coast, desktop and mobile versions of Twitter appeared to be working, though the company wouldn’t say if they were back to normal.

A company spokeswoman also wouldn’t reveal any details as to the possible cause of the outage, declining to comment beyond Twitter’s tweeted statement.

Twitter Inc. which has 320 million active users, tweeted that it is aware of the issue and is trying to fix it. Its most recent notice was sent around 4 a.m.

Eastern.

Users said the service was not accessible on desktop computers. Twitter’s blog posts, corporate info and most other pages on the Twitter.com website were also inaccessible, display-

ing the blue error screen.

There were complaints of users receiving a “server error” just before 8 a.m. Eastern.

Twitter’s mobile app was partially functioning for some users but its timeline updated new tweets sporadically.

Its search function appeared disabled as some hashtags or keyword searches returned no results. Users’ profile pages appeared to be accessible from the mobile app.

Third party services, such as the TweetDeck service, also returned a blank page.

Twitter has suffered several service disruptions so far this year. On Monday, some users could not access Twitter on mobile and web for about 10 minutes. The service was disrupted on Friday for about 20 minutes.

The outages come at a time when Twitter and its executives are trying to convince Wall Street that they can deliver bigger revenue and profits. Meanwhile, the company’s stock continues to languish at an all-time low. Twitter share have lost 66 per cent of their value since peaking at $52.87 in April.

In morning trading Tuesday, Twitter shares fell 35 cents to $17.59. ■

Technology

FRIDAY JANUARY 22, 2016

41

Buy or Lease Solar Panels – Which is Better?

BY JANE MORALEDA Philippine Canadian Inquirer

Obtaining through lease or PPA

DEPENDING ON financial goals, you can have a solar power system by either buying or leasing it. Should you choose to buy a solar panel system, you can purchase through a onetime payment or through loans.

Should you opt to lease the system instead, you can enter a purchase power agreement (PPA) but not all providers have this.

So, should you buy or lease?

Each choice differs in cost, terms, maintenance, and financial savings — but both have benefits.

Purchasing through cash or loan

This is the best option if you want to maximize financial returns, rather than only using clean energy from a renewable source. A purchase price ranges from US $10,000 to $50,000 but rebates can reduce the total cost. A loan, on the other hand, is usually available for 10 to 20year payments plus interest over the term.

Having ownership on the photovoltaic (PV) system, you are therefore responsible for

Having ownership on the photovoltaic (PV) system, you are therefore responsible for minimal maintenance. Over the lifetime of the system, you will be able to save around 40 to 70 percent on electricity costs depending on electricity usage and system size.

SHUTTERSTOCK.COM

minimal maintenance. Over the lifetime of the system, you will be able to save around 40 to 70 percent on electricity costs depending on electricity usage

and system size.

For business owners, this is also advantageous as you can list the solar power system as a depreciable asset and, there-

fore, reduce tax liability. For homeowners, you can increase the market value of houses with solar electric systems.

WEATHER UPDATE VANCOUVER

23 Sat

24 Sun

25

Mon

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29 Fri

This is the best option if you want to use a cheap and environment-friendly energy source with little or no upfront costs, rather than maximizing financial offsets from a PV system. A lease or PPA generally lasts for 20 to 25 years, at which point you will be able to save around 10 to 30 percent off from electric bills. It may even come with $0-down and custom payment options. You can either pay for a fixed monthly fee (lease) or pay for the power generated each month at a per kilowatt-hour price (PPA).

Through any of the two, you get the benefits of having a solar power system without paying for the system per se. This is beneficial for those who do not want to be responsible for the maintenance of the solar panel systems as well. And at the end of the lease term, you may renew the agreement, upgrade the system, purchase the panels, or have them removed.

When deciding whether to buy or lease a PV system, weigh available options first. Each has pros, cons and costs — it really depends on your preference and needs. ■

Long term forecast from www.theweathernetwork.com CALGARY

EDMONTON

WINNIPEG

TORONTO

7°C

-2°C

-9°C

-7°C

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6°C

-2°C

-8°C

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6°C

-3°C

-6°C

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5°C

0°C

1°C

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6°C

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-8°C

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7°C

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8°C

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-11°C

-11°C

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Events

42

JANUARY 22, 2016

FRIDAY

CANADA EVENTS

To have your events featured on PCI, please email events@canadianinquirer.net

YUKON

NUNAVUT

NORTHWEST TERRITORIES

BRITISH COLUMBIA ALBERTA

MANITOBA

SASKATCHEWAN

New WelcomePack Canada Distribution Centre

By WelcomePack Canada Inc. WHEN/WHERE: 1 to 5 p.m., Mon, Tues, Thu & Fri at the Filipino Centre Bldg., 597 Parliament St., Suite 103, Toronto, On. MORE INFO: Call (416) 928-9355

View all events by scanning this QR code or visiting

http://bit.ly/ PCI-Events

Homework/Tutorial Class

By FCT WHEN/WHERE: 11a.m. to 12 nn, every Saturday, Filipino Centre Toronto, 597 Parliament St., Suite 103, Toronto, ON MORE INFO: For registrations, call 416928-9355. The office, at 597 Parliament St., Suite 103, Toronto, is open on Mondays, Tuesdays, Thursdays and Fridays from 1 to 6 p.m.

Tagalog Class

By FCT WHEN/WHERE: 10 to 11 a.m., every Saturday, Filipino Centre Toronto, NEWFOUNDLAND Toronto

ONTARIO

QUEBEC

NOVA SCOTIA

Food Safe Level 1

By Multi-cultural Helping House Society WHEN/WHERE: 9 a.m. to 5 p.m., Jan. 23, Rm. 203, MHHS Fraser St. Vancouver, B.C MORE INFO: To register, email sanzidah@ helpinghouse.org Living Together Symposium

By Canadian Race Relations Foundation WHEN/WHERE: 9 a.m. to 4 p.m., Jan. 21, at John M.S. Lecky UBC Boathouse, 7277 River Road, Richmond, B.C. MORE INFO: Check www.crrf-fcrr.ca or call 1-888240-4936 Prayer Rally

By Tapsilog WHEN/WHERE: 12 nn to 2 p.m., Jan. 28, at China Consulate Office, 3380 Granville St., Vancouver, B.C. MORE INFO: Freddie Bagunu, spokesman Temporary Foreign Workers Uncontested Divorce Clinic

By Law Courts Center WHEN/WHERE: Saturdays from 2 to 4 p.m., at the

Justice Education Society at the Provincial Court of BC Room 260 800 Hornby St., Vancouver B.C. MORE INFO: To book an appointment, call/text 778322-2839 or email: tfw.divorce@gmail.com English Now: No Cost Language Training for Jobs in Administration or Retail

By ISS of BC MORE INFO: Contact 604-684-2325 or englishnow@issbc.org Career Development Workshop

By Multicultural Helping House Society WHEN/WHERE: 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. Jan. 30, Rm. 203 MHHS-NRC, 4802 Fraser St., Vancouver, B.C. MORE INFO: Guest Speaker: Dr. Iqbal Bhulyan; To register, call 604-879-3277 ext 226 Skills Now: Project-based Training for Immigrants in Retail and Administration

By ISS of BC WHEN/WHERE: Call or email at 604-684-2581 (ext 2193 Nanki) skillsnow@issbc.org MORE INFO: Receive a certificate or skills training in retail or administration; job search workshops; and www.canadianinquirer.net

strong employment opportunities.

Conversational English Class

By Multicultural Helping House WHEN/WHERE: 3 to 4:30 p.m., Jan. 30 to Mar. 5, Room 203, MHHS 4802 Fraser St., Vancouver, B.C. MORE INFO: Call Sanzida @ (604)879-3277 10 Weeks of English Conversation

By South Vancouver Neighbourhood House WHEN/WHERE: Feb. 1 to Apr. 9, 18 locations in Metro Vancouver, MORE INFO: Call Amie to register – 604-324-6212 ext 142 Mentoring Programme for Immigrant High School Students: Breakfast & Baon 101

By Mentorship & Leadership for Youth Programme WHEN/WHERE: 10 a.m. to 12 nn at Corpus Christi College (near UBC) 5935 Iona Dr. Vancouver BC. Free pick up and drop off service.

MORE INFO: Meet young professionals plus learn to cook. Call/text Kyle Andrews at (778)896.0661

JANUARY 22, 2016

43

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support@polaristravel.ca

Tel: (1) 647-521-5155

44

JANUARY 22, 2016

FRIDAY

Food

Donna Hay recipes for weekends, weekdays THE CANADIAN PRESS IN HER most recent cookbook, “The New Easy,” Donna Hay offers ways to make life easier for home cooks.

She thinks there are two separate agendas — weeknights and weekends.

“The weeknights, there’s a lot of time constraints as well as availability of ingredients — hopefully you already have some in your fridge or you already bought the chicken or bought the steak or you have broccoli or those kind of staple ingredients,” says the Australian cookbook author and magazine editor.

“That’s how I looked at weeknights: ‘Let’s try and get people to cook Tuesday night when they’re really tired and they don’t feel like it, like what are we going to do there to convince them. That had a lot of constraints on it, time, ingredients, motivating factors.”

For weekends Hay offers recipes for items like brisket and pulled pork, letting the oven do the work.

“That’s weekend type for me. I can do that kind of mid-morning or after lunch and it’s ready for dinner, but I wouldn’t attempt that on a weekday because I’d never get it done.”

She also offers chapters on salads and sides, baking and desserts.

Here are some recipes from “The New Easy” to try.

PORCHETTA

Hay calls this main-course dish “absolutely divine.”

“I cooked it so many times to get it right that I don’t know if my friends got sick of it of not,” she says.

It is in the weekend chapter of “The New Easy” because time is needed to al-

“It’s one huge cookie that you share.”

low the flavours of the herb mixture to permeate the meat. Hay says it’s better if it sits overnight.

“It’s the combination that you put in here as well as the way you cook it that makes it really great. I love when you come across a recipe and that super combination is just to die for.”

• 30 ml (2 tbsp) fennel seeds • 30 ml (2 tbsp) rosemary leaves • 30 ml (2 tbsp) marjoram or oregano leaves • 15 ml (1 tbsp) finely grated lemon rind • 30 ml (2 tbsp) superfine sugar • 15 ml (1 tbsp) sea salt flakes • 5 ml (1 tsp) cracked black pepper • 3 kg (6 1/2 lb) boneless pork loin, belly piece attached, skin on In a small food processor, place fennel seeds and process until finely ground.

Add rosemary, marjoram, lemon, sugar, salt and pepper; process until finely chopped.

Using a meat tenderizer, pound pork skin for 3 minutes, then score skin at 1-cm (1/2-inch) intervals. Turn pork and

spread herb mixture on meaty side. Refrigerate, skin side up, on a baking tray lined with non-stick baking paper for at least 2 hours or overnight.

Preheat oven to 250 C (475 F). Tuck pork under itself and tie loosely with kitchen string. Roast for 30 to 35 minutes or until skin has crackled. Reduce heat to 120 C (250 F) and roast for a further 2 hours or until pork is just cooked through. Thinly slice pork to serve.

Makes 6 to 8 servings.

ROASTED BUTTERNUT SQUASH AND CHORIZO SALAD

This colourful salad is as beautiful to look at as it is to eat. The recipe has been included in the weeknights section of the cookbook, which includes recipes Hay finds solve the dilemma of what to cook that’s simple and satisfying.

Chorizo are firm, spicy, coarse-textured Spanish pork sausage seasoned with pepper, paprika and chilies. They are available fresh and dried from butchers and delicatessens.

Unlike Hungarian paprika, the Spanish style known as pimenton is deep and smoky in flavour. It is made from smoked, ground pimento peppers and comes in varying intensities from sweet and mild (dulce), bittersweet medium hot (agridulce) and hot (picante).

• 750 g (1 1/2 lb) butternut squash, peeled and cut into chunks • 6 eschalots (French shallots), peeled and quartered • 15 ml (1 tbsp) extra-virgin olive oil • 6 dried chorizo, cut into large pieces • 250 g (1/2 lb) truss cherry tomatoes • 30 ml (2 tbsp) marjoram or oregano leaves • 80 g (3 oz) baby spinach leaves • Paprika Dressing

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• 10 ml (2 tsp) smoked paprika • 30 ml (2 tbsp) maple syrup • 30 ml (2 tbsp) red wine vinegar • Preheat oven to 200 C (400 F).

Paprika Dressing: Whisk together paprika, maple syrup and vinegar. Set aside.

Place squash and eschalots on a baking tray lined with non-stick baking paper and drizzle with oil. Roast for 25 minutes. Add chorizo, tomatoes and marjoram to tray and roast for a further 15 minutes or until squash is soft and chorizo golden and crisp.

Place spinach, tomato, squash, chorizo, eschalots and pan juices in a bowl with the dressing and toss gently to combine. Divide among plates to serve.

Makes 4 servings.

CHOCOLATE CHUNK SHARE COOKIE

This is a fun dessert to serve when you’re having people over for dinner.

“It’s one huge cookie that you share,” says Hay. Dulce de leche is a thick South American milk caramel made by slowly heating and thickening sweetened milk. You can buy it in jars and use it to fill cookies, pies, tarts and more. You can also make your own cheat version by baking sweetened condensed milk.

• 85 g (3 1/2 oz) unsalted butter, softened • 175 ml (3/4 cup) brown sugar • 50 ml (1/4 cup) superfine sugar • 1 egg • 10 ml (2 tsp) vanilla extract • 250 ml (1 cup) all-purpose flour • 0.5 ml (1/8 tsp) baking soda • 50 ml (1/4 cup) cocoa powder • 50 g (2 oz) milk chocolate, chopped • 50 g (2 oz) white chocolate, chopped Vanilla ice cream and store-bought caramel sauce or dulce de leche, to serve Preheat oven to 160 C (325 F).

In a food processor, place butter, both sugars, egg, vanilla, flour, baking soda and cocoa and process until a dough forms. Press dough out to a 25-cm (10inch) round on a baking tray lined with non-stick baking paper, scatter with chocolate and lightly press pieces into dough.

Bake for 15 to 20 minutes or until firm to the touch. Let cool slightly on the tray.

Serve warm with ice cream and caramel sauce.

Makes 6 to 8 servings. ■ Source: “The New Easy” by Donna Hay (HarperCollins Publishers Ltd., 2014).

Seen & Scenes: Vancouver

FRIDAY JANUARY 22, 2016

45

UP BOARD MEETING Mapping out strategies for 2016 during University of the Philippines Alumni Association in BC’s first board meeting on Jan. 16 (Photo by Charen Cusi).

Mary and Juan Loa (5th and 4th from R) welcome VIP guests including (from L) Jorge Marco, Babes Castro-Newland, Mary Ann Marfori, Fr. Amador Abundo, Art Fabian, Councillor Heather King, Acting Delta Mayor Bruce McDonald, Deputy Consul General Anton Mandap, Alwin Yambao and Labor Attache Jimmy Jimenez (Photos by Christian Cunanan).

KUMARE DELTA LAUNCH Kumare Restaurant and Bakery opened a second location at Unit 100 8047 120th St. in Delta, B.C for the dining enjoyment of Filipino-Canadians and mainstream clients in the lower mainland.

Mary Loa thanked wellwishers and welcomed guests to partake of Kumare’s specialties.

THE GATHERING CHURCH BASKETBALL TOURNAMENT At The Gathering Church 7th Basketball Tournament 2016 opening ceremony (Photo from Resty Reyes’ FB).

STO. NINO CELEBRATION The Feast of the Child Jesus was celebrated by parishioners and guests at Immaculate Conception Parish in Delta, BC (Photos

by Angelo Siglos).

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46

Seen and Scenes: Toronto

JANUARY 22, 2016

FRIDAY

RADIO GUESTS I-REMIT TORONTO Members of the Filipino community in Toronto take time to send money to their relatives and love ones through I-Remit, the largest non-bank Filipino- owned remittance company which they trust. Visit their office at 3776 Bathurst St. corner Wilson St., Toronto (St. Jamestown News Service)

Toronto's Action Honda General Manager Rafael "Paeng" Nebres posed with Talakayan Radyo Filipino AM 1430 coanchor Karen Tan and political commentator Tony A. San Juan at Fairchild Radio Station on Jan. 9 (Photo by Nelson Galvez).

Catholic Community Services of York Region Coordinator Agnes Manasan (seated R) took a breather during Talakayan Radyo Filipino AM 1430 interview broadcast on Jan. 16 with Karen Tan and daughter (seated, centre), Joe Damasco and Tony San Juan (standing) and Mr. Manasan (Photo by Nelson Galvez).

HALIFAX BASKETBALL LEAGUE Opening ceremonies of the Pinoy Halifax Basketball League at Auburn Drive School Gym on Jan. 17 (Photos by Elizabeth Domondon).

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

47

FRIDAY JANUARY 22, 2016

Don’t limit your dreams Be different!

Become an Independant Financial Consultant Becoming an independent financial consultant has been a huge stepping stone for many who join Greatway Financial.

This has enabled them to achieve their financial goals and dream bigger. It is not full-time but part-time. They do it at their own time. You too can have that opportunity to write your own pay cheque! What do Greatway financial consultants do? They passionately share their blessings with others by educating others about finances.

www.canadianinquirer.net

48

JANUARY 22, 2016

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FRIDAY