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President Rodrigo Duterte delivers a speech during the National Banana Congress held at the SMX Convention Center in Davao City. ACE MORANDANTE / PPD / PNA
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Philippine News
FRIDAY OCTOBER 14, 2016
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Agot Isidro slams Duterte: ‘You are a psychopath’ BY JANE MORALEDA Philippine Canadian Inquirer
Mag-isa ka na lang. ‘Wag kang mandamay. Hindi na nga [nakakakain] ang nakararami, gugutumin mo pa lalo. Pangatlo, may kakilala akong psychiatrist. MANILA — Actress Agot Isidro is not Patingin ka. Hindi ka bipolar. You are a a staunch supporter of the President — psychopath,” she continued. we know from her remarks which went (And excuse me, we don’t want to go as far as referring President Rodrigo hungry. You’re on your own. Don’t drag “Rody” Duterte a ‘psychopath.’ others. Many don’t have enough to eat; In her recent Facebook post, Isidro you’ll starve them even more. Third, I expressed dismay over the President’s know a psychiatrist. You should have belittling of the foreign aid received by yourself checked. You are not bipolar. the Philippines from the United States You are a psychopath.) and other members of the international It can be noted that Duterte has been community. releasing crude re“Unang-una, marks against the walang umaaway sa United States, the iyo. As a matter of European Union and fact, ikaw ang nangYou’re on your the United Nations aaway. Pangalawa, own. Don’t drag for the latter’s con‘yung bansa kung others. Many cern over the rising saan ka [iniluklok] don’t have number of alleged ng 16 million out of enough to eat; extrajudicial killings 100+ million people you’ll starve and human rights ay Third World. Kung them even violations in the Philmakapagsalita ka more. ippines in the previparang superpower ous months. ang Pilipinas, e,” she “Mamili kayo wrote in her post. (You choose) — the (First of all, no one’s fighting you. As crumbs of the favor of other nations, a matter of fact, you’re the one fighting mag-asa lang tayo sa assistance nila others. Secondly, the country wherein (we depend on their assistance) or we you were put into position by 16 mil- make a stand that this country must lion out of 100+ million people is Third survive, that this country must see to World. You speak as if the Philippines is it that the next generation is protecta superpower.) ed,” the President said in a speech, “At excuse me, ayaw naming magutom. alluding to the government’s war on
Sen. de Lima reaffirms commitment against death penalty BY AZER N. PARROCHA Philippines News Agency MANILA — Senator and former justice secretary Leila de Lima reaffirmed Monday her commitment against the death penalty as she joined human rights advocates in commemorating World Day Against the Death Penalty. “I stand firm in my opposition against death penalty,” de Lima said during the event, which was held at the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines (CBCP) Chapel in Intramuros, Manila. De Lima is also former chairperson of the Commission on Human Rights (CHR). “I strongly believe that this is discriminatory to the poor and un-Christian, and, perhaps most importantly, it has not been shown to reduce crime,” she added.
De Lima, who was guest speaker during the event, said her experience as justice secretary made her realize that the criminal justice system needed to be fixed to ensure swift delivery of justice. She also said that as senator, her anticrime advocacy consists of certainty, swiftness, and severity of punishment for heinous crimes. The neophyte senator explained that instead of the death penalty, she filed a bill introducing a new penalty of imprisonment called qualified reclusion perpetua for heinous crimes. “We cannot bring the dead back to life, we cannot atone for the wrongful deaths of those who are truly innocent,” de Lima said. She meanwhile reiterated her commitment to serve the Filipino people and respect the fundamental rights of individuals. ■
Agot Isidro.
drugs. “If you think it is high time for you guys to withdraw your assistance, go ahead… We will not beg for it. We have a problem here trying to preserve our society,” he added. “Maski magkahirap dito (Even if it becomes harder for us), we will survive. And I’ll be the first one to go hungry.” Despite the President’s statements, Presidential Communications Office
Secretary Martin Andanar assured the public that the country has still been receiving continuous foreign aid. “We welcome the steadfast commitment of EU and UN to the Philippines. Our partnership goes beyond differences in policies,” Andanar said. Meanwhile, Isidro got plenty of hate from Duterte supporters in social media and even trended on Twitter. Her post has already been deleted as of posting. ■
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Philippine News
OCTOBER 14, 2016
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A look at the first 100 days of Duterte’s turbulent rule BY JIM GOMEZ The Associated Press MANILA, PHILIPPINES — In just 100 days in office, Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte has stirred a hornet’s nest by picking a fight with Barack Obama, the United Nations, the European Union and others who have criticized his brutal crackdown against drugs, which has left more than 3,600 people dead. In another defining aspect of his unorthodox rule, the 71-year-old Duterte has pushed back his country’s 65-year treaty alliance with the United States, while reaching out to China and Russia. Highlights of the first 100 days of Duterte’s turbulent presidency: Anti-drug war
Duterte’s obsessive focus on his deadly crackdown on illegal drugs, a hallmark of his three-decade political career, has single-handedly defined his early days in the presidency. It has become his boon and bane and earned widespread condemnations when he compared it to the Holocaust under Hitler. A rough es-
timate puts the death toll at about 3,600, including more than 1,300 suspects killed in gunbattles with police — an average of 36 killings a day since he took office on June 30. The scale of the crackdown has been unprecedented, with the police launching more than 23,500 raids so far and arresting 22,500 suspected drug dealers and addicts. More than 1.6 million houses of drug suspects have been visited by police to invite them to surrender and stop using drugs or disengage from the drug trade. About 732,000 addicts and dealers have surrendered, apparently for fear of being killed, overwhelming Duterte and the national police, and prompting them to scramble for land and money to build rehabilitation centres. Duterte’s public threats to kill criminals, especially drug dealers, have helped considerably reduce the crime rate, according to police. A poll by the independent Social Weather Stations last month showed 84 per cent of adult Filipinos were satisfied with his war on drugs, but 94 per cent felt it was important for police to arrest suspects alive,
Photo shows the three suspects reportedly behind the Sept. 2 bomb attack that killed 15 people at a night market in Duterte’s southern hometown of Davao prompted him to declare a “state of lawlessness.” JOEY O. RAZON / PNA
underscoring public worry over the growing body count even in a crime- and insurgency-plagued country long accustomed to deadly violence. Western governments led by the U.S., the EU, the U.N. and human rights watchdogs are alarmed. Amnesty International says Duterte’s “first 100 days as president have been marked by statesanctioned violence on a truly shocking scale.” Uncertainty over the killings, Duterte’s SOB-laced verbal assaults on President Barack Obama, U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon and other critics, along with flip-flopping government pronouncements, have been partly blamed for foreign selling in the stock market and the peso’s plunge to a sevenyear low. Fraying U.S. alliance
An emerging casualty under the Duterte presidency is the country’s 65-year treaty alliance with the United States, which has been a constant target of his foul tongue. He has had a falling out with Obama, who along with the State Department raised concerns over the widespread drug killings, earning Duterte’s wrath. In a speech this week, he told Obama “to go to hell.” While critical of the U.S., Duterte has reached out to China and Russia. Labeling himself as leftist, Duterte wants U.S. counterterrorism forces to leave his country’s south, saying their presence was helping inflame restiveness among minority Muslims and they could be targeted by extremists. He ordered the military not to join the U.S. Navy in planned joint patrols in the disputed South China Sea, and said that an ongoing combat drill by U.S. Marines and their local counterparts, one of 28 joint exercises by the allies each year, would be the last of his six-year presidency. The U.S. has generally played down the effect of Duterte’s remarks and underscored the Filipinos’ long affinity with America, although Philippine ofwww.canadianinquirer.net
ficials have said that some of their U.S. counterparts have privately been concerned about where Washington’s alliance with the Philippines is headed. Duterte’s moves to limit engagements with visiting American troops will impede Washington’s plans to expand the footprint of U.S. forces in Southeast Asia to serve as a counterweight to China, including in the South China Sea. Taming decades long rebellions
Duterte’s effort to resume peace talks with communist insurgents who are waging one of Asia’s longest rebellions has led to cease-fire declarations by both sides. With a cease-fire accord forged under his predecessor with the largest Muslim rebel group, the easing of violence involving the communist insurgents has freed up thousands of troops who were redeployed to execute the president’s order to destroy the brutal Abu Sayyaf group, notorious for kidnapping and beheading Western tourists. Duterte, however, walks a tightrope in handing concessions to the communists, including the release of long-detained insurgent leaders, without unsettling a military that’s in the front line of a bloody conflict that has left between 30,000 to 40,000 combatants and civilians dead in nearly half a century. He has made whirlwind visits to at least 22 military and police camps to explain his counterinsurgency strategy, raffle off pistols and update them on a pledge to double their salaries and improve medical care for combat troops. A Sept. 2 bomb attack that killed 15 people at a night market in Duterte’s southern hometown of Davao prompted him to declare a “state of lawlessness” to empower the government to harness troops in countering militant threats in urban areas. The attack was a reality check on the complexity of fighting the restiveness that Duterte blames on atrocities against local Muslims by American colonial forces around the early 1900s. ■
Philippine News
FRIDAY OCTOBER 14, 2016
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Ifugao brave airs perils of fight vs House supermajority BY DJ YAP Philippine Daily Inquirer IFUGAO REP. Teddy Baguilat was driving through Ortigas Center in Pasig City at past 2 in the morning a few days ago when his car broke down. He was alone. As he waited for his driver to fetch him, his mind was seized by a sudden paranoia. So he approached a security guard at a nearby building and chatted with him. “In my head I was thinking, ‘at least there’s going to be a witness,’” he said. The nonincident is just a sample of how the past couple of months have been hard on the 50-year-old Baguilat, an outspoken critic of the government. “It’s difficult. It’s stressful,” he said with a rueful smile. “Every time I wake up, I think about how it would have been so much easier to join the majority.” Baguilat, after all, is the nominal leader of the selfstyled “Legitimate 8,” a scrappy band of lawmakers bent on wearing the mantle of the opposition in a House of Representatives controlled by President Duterte and his allies. As of this writing, the “Legitimate 8” has lost a member, Sagip party-list Rep. Rodante Marcoleta, who is moving to the supermajority. They are now calling themselves the “Magnificent 7,” according to Rep. Edcel Lagman. Force to reckon with
They are not, in fact, recognized as the official minority bloc in the 293-strong chamber. These days, they operate in the fringes of the legislature, having no committee memberships to speak of and enjoying few of the perks of congressional work. Even so, this independent bloc of eight has emerged as a force to reckon with in the House. They hold weekly press conferences where they express scathing comments against Mr. Duterte on his human rights record and his foreign policy pronouncements. They have become media darlings—Baguilat is a journalism graduate—often getting more TV airtime or newspaper space than the official minority
members. Some colleagues have described them as the “conscience of Congress.” But as Baguilat has found, being in the opposition in a government ruled by the ironfisted Mr. Duterte can be a daunting place. Case in point: Sen. Leila de Lima. The freshman senator, the President’s No. 1 critic, is nowbeleaguered from all sides, battling charges of corruption during her tenure as justice secretary and even threats of having an alleged sex tape of hers shown at a congressional hearing. “Definitely, there has been a chilling effect,” Baguilat said of De Lima’s woes. “After she was being crucified, colleagues would approach us and say, ‘Grabe pala (too much)! If you’re a critic of the administration, they could do anything to you,’” he said. Some of his friends in the supermajority would ask in hushed tones: “Aren’t you scared?” As it turns out, Baguilat is— scared—and he has no qualms admitting it. “Sometimes you can’t help but be affected,” he told the Inquirer, recalling how his aunts back home would pray the novena out of worry for his safety. But Baguilat and his seven allies, including the “bedrock” of the group, veteran Rep. Edcel Lagman of Albay, knew what they were getting into from the beginning. The other members of the “Legitimate 8” are Caloocan Rep. Edgar Erice, Magdalo Rep. Gary Alejano, Capiz Rep. Emmanuel Billones, Akbayan Rep. Tomasito Villarin, Sagip Rep. Rodante Marcoleta, and Northern Samar Rep. Raul Daza. Except for the party-list lawmakers, Baguilat, Lagman, and the three others belong to the erstwhile ruling Liberal Party (LP), whose numbers have been decimated by Mr. Duterte’s PDP-Laban, now the dominant force in the chamber. ‘Bitter 8’
Another 28 LP members led by former Speaker Feliciano Belmonte Jr. have joined the administration bandwagon, a multiparty coalition that has been touted as Mr. Duterte’s “supermajority.”
The official minority bloc is the group led by Minority Leader Danilo Suarez of Quezon, whom members of the “Legitimate 8” have at times referred to as the “cooperative minority” or the “majority’s minority.” In a tit for tat, Suarez has labeled them the “Bitter 8.” The rancor between the two factions began when the 17th Congress opened in July. The LP had seesawed between joining the supermajority and forming the minority bloc. “On that Tuesday before the State of the Nation Address, the decision of the LP was to lead the minority. But on Saturday we learned Sonny (Belmonte) changed his mind. We were at a loss,” Baguilat recalled. By then, he and a few others of a similar mind had already decided to go against the wishes of the majority. “The initial decision was to boycott, but upon deep reflection, we decided to fight, even if it was an impossible, quixotic dream,” Baguilat said. Later, Lagman called a meeting of the eight to his residence. All the while, he said he thought it was Lagman, a former Minority Leader himself, who would be the leader of the group. “But that’s the problem with being late to the party. When I arrived, they told me they had decided to make me run for Minority Leader,” he said. Asked why, Baguilat said it was primarily because he was an unknown entity. “They knew Cong. Edcel’s numbers. Who is Teddy Baguilat? I was flying under the radar. The others like Toby [Tiangco], Egay [Erice] were high-profile. They didn’t know my strength.” “That’s why so many abstained [to hold out], because they would rather be in the majority. Then we knocked them out,” he said with a laugh. To the surprise of many, Baguilat placed second to Davao del Norte Rep. Pantaleon Alvarez when votes were cast for House Speaker on June 25, while Suarez placed third. A sizable number, meanwhile, abstained—which would come in handy later. Per tradition, the Ifugao native should automatically have become the head of the minority. But the House leaders had www.canadianinquirer.net
Ifugao Rep. Teddy Baguilat..
COURTESY OF TEDDY BAGUILAT / FACEBOOK
other plans. Those who voted for Suarez and those who abstained met separately to install him as the new Minority Leader. The Baguilat group did not bother to join. Thus, the “Legitimate 8” was born. In what seemed to be a warning to his peers, the dusky and long-haired Baguilat made heads turn when he wore a fiery red g-string and Ifugao garb at Batasang Pambansa during the President’s State of the Nation Address in July.
the price you have to pay.” But the “Legitimate 8” will continue the struggle, he said. “I’m not saying that by being in the minority, you have to be obstructionist. But you have to be objective. You have to be critical. Like the media, you are the vanguard,” Baguilat said. He said there was nothing wrong with the minority being cooperative to the wishes of Mr. Duterte’s administration. “That’s okay, but does it mean being an author of administration bills?” he said.
Political life
Authoring bills
Born to Teodoro Baguilat Sr., a retired agriculture official, and Felisa Brawner, a lawyer, Baguilat was born in Manila on July 30, 1966. But at 13, he returned to his father’s Kiangan, Ifugao hometown to rediscover his roots. A journalism graduate at the University of the Philippines in Diliman, Quezon City, he entered politics by running for municipal councilor of Kiangan at 25. He went on to become the mayor of Kiangan and, later, governor of Ifugao province. Though the “Legitimate 8” initially planned to contest Suarez’ assumption of the minority post, Baguilat revealed that they had since scrapped the idea. “Upon consultation with legal experts, we realized it would be difficult. The Supreme Court may just decide it is an internal issue to a separate and coequal branch of government. It might be a futile exercise,” he said. His current stature in the House is a far cry from what it was only a few months ago. In the previous Congress, Baguilat was chair of two House committees: on indigenous peoples and agrarian reform. “Now we’re the marginalized of the marginalized,” he said. “We can still interpellate, we can still author bills. But we have no memberships and no funds for consultants. That’s
He noted that Suarez himself had co-authored a number of measures pushed by Mr. Duterte and Speaker Alvarez, including the restoration of the death penalty, the grant of emergency powers to address the traffic crisis, and the move to amend the law allowing the Sandiganbayan to preventively suspend lawmakers facing graft. “Even if you agree with the majority, isn’t it delicadeza to at least not author the bill yourself? How can you fiscalize?” Baguilat said. An active social media user, the Ifugao representative said he had been receiving plenty of hate messages from Mr. Duterte’s supporters. He said he was amazed that the President had amassed such a rabid following. But “people have to be more discerning,” he said. “Don’t act like every utterance of his is the word of God, and anything you say against the President is the word of the devil.” He admitted that being the new face of the opposition in the House of Representatives was hard on his nerves. “I don’t want to be paranoid, but before Martial Law, everybody was branded as an enemy of the state … Ninoy [Aquino], the reds, the [Moro rebels]. All of this happening seems like a prelude to something more,” Baguilat said. ■
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Philippine News
OCTOBER 14, 2016
FRIDAY
President Duterte reiterates Funding for proposed he has no intention to emergency powers abrogate military alliances still ‘vague’ — Recto BY JELLY F. MUSICO Philippines News Agency
imir) Putin. Wag tayo magkamali dyan (You know how they are watching out for the signs of America’s arrogance. Both Xi MANILA — President Rodrigo Jinping and Vladimir Putin. Let Duterte reiterated on Tuesday us not step on the wrong toes),” that he has no intention to abhe added. rogate military alliances with The President said he would any foreign country, including rather focus for alliances that the United States. would contribute to health and “I do not mean to cancel or education. abrogate the “So, let us go military alliancfor alliances es,” President that would conDuterte said in tribute to the his speech after Every time the Americans left, they health, to the the mass oathbrought with them (their equipment). education, if taking of 124 So what’s the point? there is a world newly-appointout there waited government ing for our chilofficials and dren; otherwise, 25 League of Municipalities somebody if they fight each we have to protect them,” of the Philippines in Mala- other, if they release ICBMs Duterte said. canang. and Poseidon and all. There President Duterte had prePresident Duterte, however, will be no more American aid to viously said he might break up expressed doubts whether Fili- talk of. There will no more be a with the US and would rather pino soldiers are really ben- country strong enough to rule,” go to China and Russia. efiting more from the military the President said. “China has repeatedly invited war games between the United “In the end, if it (third world me. I have accepted the offer,” States and the Philippines. war) if will come, we need noth- President Duterte said. “Every time the Americans ing but priest if you want ulBefore going to China, Presileft, they brought with them timo adios. Alam mo bantay sila dent Duterte will visit first Bru(their equipment). So what’s itong arrogance ng Amerika. Si nei and then Japan and Russia the point? They are the one Xi Jinping pati, lalo na si (Vlad- within this year. ■ benefiting from it, not us. That’s the reality on the ground,” the President said. He said military alliances and even foreign aid would be useless “if there such as thing as a third world war.’’ “If there is a war, do you think we really need America? And do we need China and Russia, for that matter? Or do we need
Lawmaker pushes for extension of passport validity to benefit OFWs BY FILANE MIKEE CERVANTES Philippines News Agency MANILA — Laguna 3rd District Rep. Sol Aragones on Tuesday called on Congress to prioritize the passage of measures that would extend the validity of passports to 10 years. In a statement, Aragones said the validity period of five years is particularly burdensome for overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) since it “entails greater costs and additional time spent to process these travel documents”. “Our OFWs went to great lengths in their efforts to make the lives of their families bet-
ter. Each free time or vacation should be maximized for relaxing or spent with family members,” she said. “A half-day or more lining up to get their passport renewed is a half-day that should be spent with their loved ones, not dealing with the government bureaucracy,” she stressed. The legislator added that extending the validity of passports will also reduce the congestion at the consular section of the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA), as fewer people would be lining up to renew their passports. “By reducing the frequency in which our citizens are required to renew their passports, we
can expect shorter lines during passport renewal. This will also lessen what one has to spend for one’s travel documents over one’s lifetime,” Aragones explained. Aragones has filed House Bill No. 2191, which would amend Article 10 of Republic Act No. 8239, also known as the Philippine Passport Act of 1996, doubling the current validity period of five years. Under the new law, passports for applicants 16 years and older will now have a validity of 10 years, while the validity of passports of applicants 15 years or younger will remain at five years, to account for the changes in the facial features of children. ■ www.canadianinquirer.net
BY AZER N. PARROCHA Philippines News Agency MANILA — It is not clear where funding for the proposed emergency powers to solve the country’s transport woes will come from, Senate Minority Leader Ralph Recto said Wednesday. During the fourth public hearing on the proposed extra powers, Recto said that the measure was “vague” since it had not been listed in the proposed 2017 budget worth PHP56.2-billion of the Department of Transportation (DOTr). “You are admitting that it (emergency powers) is not found in the 2017 national expenditure plan? So even if we give you emergency powers, there is no funding source?” Recto asked DOTr Undersecretary for Legal and Procurement Raoul Creencia. Creencia admitted that the funding source has not been determined yet and that the agency has yet to meet with the Department of Budget and Management (DBM) to discuss it. The DOTr official also clarified that the emergency powers was meant to be implemented nationwide, particularly in Metro Manila and other areas like Cebu, Davao and other areas. In an interview with reporters, Recto said that the DOTr should first meet with the departments of Budget and Management, Finance, and the National Economic Development Authority to settle the funding issue.
Recto explained that there were three possible sources of funding for emergency powers namely with two of which from the proposed 2017 budget’s General Appropriations Act (GAA) namely via Official Development Assistance and taxpayer’s money. Another source of funding is through Public-Private Partnership (PPP), the senator added. “There are only three sources of funds. One is Official development Assistance that is found in GAA, from taxpayer’s money which is also in the GAA and outside the GAA is PPP,” Recto said. “They (DOTr) should not think the emergency powers is a supplemental budget, it is not another GAA,” he added. Recto also stressed that it would be much better if the implementation of emergency powers is focused in priority areas, perhaps Metro Manila, Cebu and Davao instead of the entire country. “I don’t think it should be nationwide. I would prefer that they would make it more focused,” Recto said. The senator assured that the Senate was willing to provide emergency powers acknowledging that transport problems, particularly traffic, has become a “crisis.” He meanwhile urged the DOTr to make proper feasibility studies and engineering designs for the proposed programs and projects before the measure granting extra powers is approved. ■
Department of National Defense (DND) Secretary Delfin N. Lorenzana (left) defends before Senator Gregorio Honasan II (right), Chairman of the Senate Committee on Finance Sub-Committee "D," the proposed PHP134.54-billion budget for 2017 of the DND and its Attached Agencies and Bureaus. JESS M. ESCAROS JR. / PNA
Philippine News
FRIDAY OCTOBER 14, 2016
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Matobato surrenders: ‘I entrust my life to God’ PNP chief assures Davao Death Squad whistle-blower of his safety BY JEROME ANING Philippine Daily Inquirer “I ENTRUST my life to God. Whatever happens to me, I’ll accept,” confessed hit man Edgar Matobato said yesterday as he turned himself in at Philippine National Police headquarters in Camp Crame, Quezon City. Sen. Antonio Trillanes IV accompanied Matobato to PNP headquarters, where the witness in the Senate inquiry into extrajudicial killings in President Duterte’s war on drugs was taken to the Criminal Investigation and Detection Group (CIDG) office for booking. He was read his rights and handcuffed. A court in Davao City ordered Matobato arrested on Tuesday after he failed to show up for his arraignment on illegal weapons charges filed against him two years ago. The PNP chief, Director General Ronald “Bato” dela Rosa, told reporters that Matobato would be taken to court in compliance with the judge’s order. Safety guaranteed
Dela Rosa also guaranteed Matobato’s safety while in police custody and on the trip to Davao. Asked about fears that Matobato would be in danger in Davao because he had tagged several former and current policemen there as vigilantes, Dela Rosa replied, “That’s their opinion. For me, it’s safer in Davao. I’m from there. We can manage the situation there. I know the place very well, so he’ll be safe there.” He said Matobato would be given a bulletproof vest and a helmet to ease fears about his safety. “I’m giving the assurance that if he’ll be killed, it will be over the dead bodies of our CIDG personnel assigned to him. That’s my word,” Dela Rosa said. “We’ll give him a bulletproof vest to wear, even a helmet, bulletproof goggles and mask. We can armorize his whole body… If you want, we can even make him wear a bomb suit so that even if the vehicle explodes, he’ll remain safe. There won’t be a scratch on him. We’ll do everything to keep him safe,” he said. As an additional precaution, Dela Rosa said, Matobato’s detention place at Camp Crame will not be divulged. He said Matobato would stay in Camp Crame during the weekend. He said Matobato would be taken to Davao anytime between now and Monday. In the Senate, where he appeared before Trillanes took him to Camp Crame, Matobato told reporters he did not fear for his life. ‘I’m not afraid’
“I’m not afraid. I’m ready. I give my life
Self-confessed Davao Death Squad (DDS) hitman Edgar Matobato (left)
to God. I cannot do anything about what could happen to me. I just want to right the wrongs I have done,” he said. Matobato said he was disappointed that the Senate committee on justice and human rights, which is investigating alleged extrajudicial killings in Mr. Duterte’s war on drugs, had decided not to call him back to the witness stand. The committee decided on Tuesday to set aside Matobato’s testimony, calling the confessed assassin “damaged goods” without credibility. In his testimony last month, Matobato said President Duterte, when he was still mayor of Davao, ordered the killing of about 1,000 suspected criminals and family opponents and carried out one of the slayings himself. Matobato said the killers were policemen, militiamen and former communist rebels, and he was one of them. He said he carried out about 50 of the killings, including the slayings of a suspected foreign terrorist and of a manwho was fed alive to crocodiles. His testimony drew international media coverage, heightening concerns in the United Nations, United States, European Union and among human rights groups about violations of human rights in Mr. Duterte’s campaign against illegal drugs. Matobato’s testimony cost Sen. Leila de Lima, the fiercest critic of Mr. Duterte in the Senate, the chairmanship of the committee on justice and human rights. Mr. Duterte’s allies in the Senate stripped her of the committee’s chairmanship and replaced him with Sen. Richard Gordon.
AVITO DALAN / PNA
the arrest warrant was “highly suspicious.” “What we see here is that this is part of the persecution. . .If you are a critic of the President, this is what will happen to you,” he said. Trillanes said Matobato was determined to face the charges against him. “He said his surrender here showed he was not fleeing. Of course, in times like
‘Highly suspicious’
Trillanes, a member of the committee who is providing protective custody to Matobato, told reporters yesterday the committee would call the witness back after he posted bail. He said the timing of the issuance of www.canadianinquirer.net
this, there is some anxiety. He doesn’t know what will happen to him. But it’s good that he was given the PNP’s assurance [of safety],” he said. Trillanes said lawyers were studying options that would allow Matobato to post bail without going to Davao. A motion for reconsideration of the arrest warrant will also be filed, he said. He said a pleading would also be prepared for the transfer of the venue of the hearings from Davao to, preferably, Manila. Sending Matobato to Davao, Mr. Duterte’s turf, would be “like throwing him to the lion’s den,” he said. Trillanes said the judge would “do the right thing.” He said a lawyer helping Matobato would try to post bail for the witness at the Quezon City Regional Trial Court. Matobato posted P2,000 bail when the charge was brought against him in 2014. He claimed police barged into his home without a search warrant and seized his unlicensed firearm, in an apparent attempt to link him to the murder of a businessman. ■ with a report from Maila Ager
Philippine News
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OCTOBER 14, 2016
FRIDAY
Philippines tells US no joint patrols in South China Sea BY TERESA CEROJANO The Associated Press Publisher Philippine Canadian Inquirer, Inc. Correspondents Jane Moraleda Socorro Newland Bolet Arevalo Katherine Padilla Gerna Lane Sotana Administration Head Victoria Yong Graphic Designer Shanice Garcia Photographers Angelo Siglos Vic Vargas For photo submissions, please send to editor@canadianinquirer.net Operations and Marketing Head Laarni Liwanag (604) 551-3360 laarni.liwanag@canadianinquirer.net Advertising Sales Alice Yong (778) 889-3518 alice.yong@canadianinquirer.net Nelson Wu (647) 521-5155 salestoronto@canadianinquirer.net nelson.wu@canadianinquirer.net Amelia Insigne (416) 574-5121 amelia.insigne@canadianinquirer.net Antonio Tampos (604) 460-9414 antonio. tampos@canadianinquirer.net PHILIPPINE PUBLISHING GROUP Editorial Assistant Christelle Tolisora Associate Publisher Lurisa Villanueva In cooperation with the Philippine Daily Inquirer digital edition Philippine Canadian Inquirer is located at 11951 Hammersmith Way, Suite 108 Richmond, B.C. V7A 5H9 Canada Tel. No.: +1 (888) 668-6059, +1 (778) 889-3518 | Email: info@canadianinquirer.net, sales@ canadianinquirer.net Philippine Canadian Inquirer is published weekly every Friday. Copies are distributed free throughout Metro Vancouver, Edmonton, Calgary, and Greater Toronto. The views and opinions expressed in the articles (including opinions expressed in ads herein) are those of the authors named, and are not necessarily those of Philippine Canadian Inquirer Editorial Team. PCI reserves the right to reject any advertising which it considers to contain false or misleading information or involves unfair or unethical practices. The advertiser agrees the publisher shall not be liable for damages arising out of error in any advertisement.
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SAN ANTONIO, Philippines — The Philippine defence chief said Friday he told the U.S. military that plans for joint patrols and naval exercises in the disputed South China Sea have been put on hold, the first concrete break in defencecooperation after months of increasingly strident comments by the country’s new president. Defence Secretary Delfin Lorenzana also said that 107 U.S. troops involved in operating surveillance drones against Muslim militants would be asked to leave the southern part of the country once thePhilippines acquires those intelligence-gathering capabilities in the near future. President Rodrigo Duterte also wants to halt the 28 military exercises that are carried out with U.S. forces each year, Lorenzana said. Duterte has said he wants an ongoing U.S.-Philippine amphibious beach landing exercise to be the last in his six-year presidency as he backs away from what he views as too much dependence on the U.S. “This year would be the last,” Duterte said of military exercises involving the Americans in a speech Friday in southern Davao city where he lashed out at the U.S. anew and repeated his readiness to be ousted from office for his hard-line stance. “For as long as I am there, do not treat us like a doormat because you’ll be sorry for it,” Duterte said. “I will not speak with you. I can always go to China.” In Washington, State Department spokesman John Kirby said the U.S. government is not aware of any official notification on curtailing military exercises. He said the U.S. remains focused on its security commitments to Philippines, with which it has a mutual defence treaty. “We think comments like this, whether they are or will be backed up by actual action or not, are really at odds with the closeness of the relationships that we have with the people of the Philippines and which we fully intend to continue,” Kirby told reporters. Duterte, who took office in June and describes himself as a leftist politician, has had an uneasy relationship with the U.S., his country’s former colonial master. Duterte has lashed out against U.S. government criticism of his deadly crackdown against illegal drugs, which has left more than 3,600 suspects dead in just three months, alarming Western governments and human rights groups. But while some Filipino officials have
US Ambassador to the Philippines Philip Goldberg swore in 11 newly arrived US Peace Corps Response Volunteers. The volunteers will spend eight months at sites across the Philippines, collaborating with local government and university partners to improve disaster risk reduction and management, education, and environmental protection in their host communities. PNA PHOTO COURTESY OF US EMBASSY
walked back on Duterte’s sometimes crude anti-U.S. pronouncements _ early this week he told President Barack Obama “to go to hell” _ Lorenzana’s comments show for the first time that the Duterte administration will act by rolling back co-operation with the U.S. military. With the turquoise backdrop of the South China Sea, U.S. Marines and allied Filipino combat forces barged ashore Friday on amphibious vessels in a mock assault on a Philippine beach in San Antonio town in northwestern Zambales province. Pounding rain prevented military aircraft from joining the beach assault drills, but the U.S. and Filipino forces managed to rapidly come on shore to take out a “notional target,” said Maj. Roger Hollenbeck, a U.S. military spokesman for the drills. Asked to comment on the possibility that the joint manoeuvrs will be the last under Duterte, Hollenbeck replied, “If it’s the last, so be it.” “I have nothing to do with that and we are going to continue to work together, we’ve got a great relationship,” he said. Lorenzana said some U.S. military officials have expressed concern about where the countries’ 65-year-old treaty alliance is headed under Duterte. Duterte’s moves to limit the presence of visiting American troops will impede Washington’s plans to expand the footprint of U.S. forces in Southeast Asia to counter China. “President Duterte’s shoot-fromthe-hip style of parochial democracy is deeply troubling,” said Carl Thayer, an expert on the South China Sea. “If Duterte moves to curtail U.S. rotational military presence from bases in the
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Philippines, this would undermine the U.S. ability to deter China not only in defence of Philippines sovereignty but regional security as well.” Despite the difficult stage in the countries’ relations, Lorenzana remained optimistic that those ties would eventually bounce back. “I think it’s just going through these bumps on the road,” Lorenzana told a news conference. “Relationships sometimes go to this stage ... but over time it will be patched up.” Duterte’s falling out with Washington will not necessarily spread to U.S. allies such as Japan, for example, which has committed to deliver patrol ships for the Philippine coast guard and has signed a deal to lease five small surveillance planes the country can use to bolster its territorial defence. The planes may arrive as early as next month, Lorenzana said. The U.S. and Japan have helped the Philippines develop its capabilities to safeguard and defend its territorial waters amid China’s increasingly aggressive actions in the South China Sea. Under Duterte’s predecessor, Benigno Aquino III, the U.S. and Philippine militaries twice staged naval exercises near the disputed waters. While taking a critical stance on U.S. security policies, Duterte has reached out to China and Russia. Lorenzana said he has been ordered by Duterte to travel to Beijing and Moscow to discuss what defence equipment the Philippines can acquire from them. ■ Associated Press writer Jim Gomez in Manila, Philippines, and Matthew Pennington in Washington contributed to this report.
Philippine News
FRIDAY OCTOBER 14, 2016
Palace formally invites ‘Gang behind UN special rapporteur Hajj passport scam to look into alleged maybe in DFA’ extrajudicial killings in PHL BY JULIE M. AURELIO Philippine Daily Inquirer
BY JELLY F. MUSICO Philippines News Agency MANILA — Malacañang announced Wednesday that it has already formally sent an invitation to the United Nations Special Rapporteur to investigate the alleged extrajudicial killings of drug suspects in the Philippines. “Executive Secretary Salvador Medialdea said the Palace has sent an invitation to the UN special rapporteur Agnes Callamard and he is awaiting her response,” Presidential Spokesman Ernesto Abella announced in a press briefing at the Palace. In the invitation, Abella said the Palace also urged the UN
Special Rapporteur on Extrajudicial, Summary, or Arbitration Executions to include in her investigation the number of policemen killed while pursuing drugs suspects. “It is also an invitation urging the UN rapporteur to include in her invitation the killings of law enforcers and drug suspects so that she will obtain an accurate perspective of the drug problem in the country,” he said. Last month, the UN Special Rapporteur reportedly called on Philippine authorities to “adopt with immediate effect the necessary measures to protect all persons from targeted killings and extrajudicial executions.” President Rodrigo Duterte’s
war on drugs has so far led to the surrender of more than 700,000, the arrest of more than 22,000, the death of nearly 1,500 in legitimate police operations, and the seizure of PHP8 billion worth of shabu in the first three months of his administration. Abella said the invitation does not include the United States and European Union, which have also expressed concern over the alleged drug-related summary killings. According to media reports, more than 3,000 people have been killed by police and vigilantes in the Philippines as a result of the intensified campaign against narcotics. The country has reportedly nearly four million drug personalities. ■
Sebastian claims Bilibid illegal transactions generate PHP100-M daily BY FILANE MIKEE Z. CERVANTES Philippines News Agency MANILA — Around PHP100 million a day is generated through illegal transactions inside the New Bilibid Prison (NBP), according to kidnapping convict Jaybee Sebastian. During the House of Representatives’ justice committee hearing on the Bilibid drug trade on Monday, Sebastian revealed that PHP50 million to PHP100 million flows daily in the national penitentiary through drug operations, gambling, and other prohibited activities. “At the height (of the Bilibid drug trade), you wouldn’t be surprised to confiscate money amounting to PHP50 million to PHP100 million a day,” Sebastian said, noting that they even possess money counting
Jaybee Sebastian says giving Php2-M payola a month to former DOJ Secretary and now Senator Leila de Lima through her security aide, Joenel Sanchez at resumption of House of Representatives justice committee hearing on illegal drugs trade at NBP. BEN BRIONES / PNA
machines to tally the stacks of cash. He also said that drug lords give PHP100,000 weekly to authorities to shut down cellphone jammers for drug transactions. Sebastian disclosed that the sources of illegal drugs origi-
nated from China and North Korea. The high-profile inmate confessed earning around PHP30 million to PHP50 million from the drug trade in the past 16 years. He explained that a kilogram of illegal drugs cost as much as PHP500,000. ■ www.canadianinquirer.net
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Indonesia’s quota for this year was reportedly already filled while the Philippine quota still had slots available. THE AUTHORITIES are inUnlike a regular passport, a vestigating 17 Filipinos who Hajj passport is valid for one accompanied around 500 Indo- year and can be only used to nesians posing as Filipino Hajj participate in the pilgrimage. pilgrims to Saudi Arabia last In August, the Bureau of Immonth. migration thwarted an attempt Immigration Commissioner by 177 Indonesians to fly to Jaime Morente said the 17 were Saudi Arabia using Filipino in the custody of the National Hajj passports. Immigration Bureau of Investigation and agents became suspicious when were being questioned on the they realized that the pilgrims extent of their involvement in could not speak a word of Filithe Hajj passport scam. pino or any Philippine dialect. “Their testiBI technical monies will be assistant for aircrucial in pinport operations ning down the Leo Cresente masterminds Ferrer said the of the passport task force was fraud and to Unlike a able to identify determine the regular and take into criminal liabilipassport, a custody another ties of all those Hajj passport 103 Indonesians involved,” a reis valid for and 18 Malayport said. one year sians who also ilBI intelligence and can be legally obtained chief Charles only used to Hajj passports Calima said the participate from the Philipsyndicate susin the pines. pected to be inpilgrimage. “Most of the volved in that Philippine passscam could be ports were reoperating inside leased by the the Department DFA and some of Foreign Afby the Philippine fairs (DFA) and the National consulate in Malaysia,” the reCommission on Muslim Filipi- port said. nos (NCMF). “The capability of unscruThe government has formed pulous government personTask Force Janus, an interagen- nel within the DFA and NCMF cy group includes the BI, NBI and their cohorts to produce and intelligence units from the Philippine passports through military and the police, to get to fraudulent means has national the bottom of the scam. security implications,” the BI The Filipino facilitators were report said. taken into custody when they In fact, one of the five Filireturned to the country fol- pino passport holders who died lowing the Hajj pilgrimage to during this year’s Hajj was actuMecca, Saudi Arabia, from Sept. ally an Indonesian. 9 to 14. The Indonesian pilgrim, who Authorities believe around went by the assumed Filipino 500 Indonesians faked their name Murphy Rasam Sahiril, identifies to be able to use Fili- was identified as Samsuddin, pino Hajj passports and join the 68. religious pilgrimage. According to the report, InA Hajj passport is based on donesians resort to using illecountry quotas set by the Sau- gally acquired Philippine Hajj di government to regulate the passports since one would have huge number of Muslims from to wait 20 years to get a slot in all over the world wanting to the regular Indonesian quota make the pilgrimage to Mecca. for pilgrims. ■
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Philippine News
OCTOBER 14, 2016
FRIDAY
Hope turns into worry in 100 days of Duterte BY DJ YAP Philippine Daily Inquirer THE BRIGHT afterglow of the May elections appears to be dimming for President Duterte as he marks his 100 days in office, with many investors spooked by his unforgiving war on crime and drugs, opposition leaders interviewed by the Inquirer said. The government’s focus on the antidrug war has killed thousands, and the President’s propensity for outrageous statements have served to overshadow his administration’s
early gains, Ifugao Rep. Teddy Baguilat said. There have been positive examples, including the government’s encouraging disposition toward peace talks with the communist and Moro insurgencies, as well as his bold environmental, antimining and agrarian reform policies. But the leader of the independent minority bloc in the House of Representatives said the gains have been quickly buried under a heap of concerns. “The anxieties and worries over the President’s pronouncements sometimes overshadow the accomplishments.
That’s what is being given focus on by the public and the media,” Baguilat said in an interview. In a span of 100 days, Mr. Duterte has grabbed international headlines for threatening to pull the country out of the United Nations, cursing at US President Barack Obama and the European Union, and drawing a parallel between his drug war and Adolf Hitler’s extermination of Jews. Generous assessment
Baguilat said he would “objectively” rate Mr. Duterte a 7 on a scale of 1 to 10 were it not for the incendiary statements.
Still, that is a fairly generous assessment, the lawmaker from the erstwhile ruling Liberal Party (LP) said. “The point is the uncertainty,” Baguilat said. “We haven’t seen the economy fall. We’re not saying there will be no more foreign direct investments. But it’s worrying.” For Albay Rep. Edcel Lagman, the President’s achievements could be measured in two ways: whether he has fulfilled his major campaign promises, and the extent he has advanced the administration’s 10-point economic agenda. Lagman said Mr. Duterte
“has nothing much to crow about with respect to fulfilling his principal campaign promises.” “The light at the end of the tunnel remains far too distant,” he said of the promise to eradicate drugs within six months. “What is revolting are dead bodies of suspects littering the tunnel.” Lagman, also a member of LP, said the government was sacrificing the economy and relegating the people’s welfare to the back-burner in favor of the “allconsuming passion to exterminate suspected drug dealers and addicts.” ■
If you’re not with us, you’re against us BY JEANNETTE I. ANDRADE AND NIKKO DIZON Philippine Daily Inquirer PRESIDENT DUTERTE’S foreign policy in his first 100 days in office could generally be characterized as being, “If you’re not with us, you’re against us,” at least in his war against illegal drugs. His near obsession with ridding the country of some 3 million drug addicts has left him railing against the Philippines’ closest allies, the United States and the European Union, and even the United Nations. President Duterte’s foreign policy in his first 100 days in office could generally be characterized as being, “If you’re not with us, you’re against us,” at least in his war against illegal drugs. His near-obsession with ridding the country of some 3 million drug addicts has left him railing against the Philippines’ closest allies, the United States and the European Union, and even the United Nations, which have cautioned him against his seeming disregard for human rights. Just before leaving for his first international appearance as head of state in Laos for the 28th and 29th Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean) Summits, he made international headlines for cussing US President Barack Obama, something he has denied doing and explained away as being
taken out of context. His communications group made matters worse by announcing that Mr. Duterte would be seated between Obama and UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon, but he actually sat between Indonesian President Joko Widodo and Russian President Dmitry Medvedev. The seating arrangement allowed him to speak with the Indonesian President on the plight of convicted drug mule Mary Jane Veloso. But then again, Mr. Duterte drew strong criticisms from the Filipino community for his conversation with Widodo where he was said to have given the “goahead” to Veloso’s execution. In his defense, the President’s men explained that what he had told Widodo was, “Follow your laws. I will not interfere.” After the summits, Duterte proclaimed that he was the one who snubbed Obama and that he was inclined to send home the American troops in Mindanao, hinting at scrapping the Enhanced Defense Cooperation Agreement (Edca) with the United States. Returning from his official visit to Vietnam, Mr. Duterte earned the ire of the international community by saying that he would just be happy to slaughter 3 million drug addicts similar to Adolf Hitler’s massacre of millions of Jews. He was quoted in his return speech in Davao City from Vietnam to have taken exception to
President Rodrigo Roa Duterte was welcomed by Basilan Governor Hajiman S. Hataman-Salliman, together with Agriculture Secretary Manny Pinol in Basilan. JESS M. ESCAROS JR. / PNA
comparisons of him with the leader of Nazi Germany during the campaign period in May and said in disgust, “Then I am him.” He drew the line, though, that while Hitler slaughtered innocent Jews, he would be killing criminals. When the rhetoric drew the ire of the international community, particularly the Jews, he apologized and compared himself to Israeli President Benjamin Netanyahu instead. Flames of scorn
But within days, the President fanned the flames of scorn anew by telling Obama that he can go to hell after his criticisms of the bloody war against drugs while the EU can go to purgatory “because hell’s already full.” www.canadianinquirer.net
Over at the House of Representatives, Albay Rep. Edcel Lagman, a member of the opposition, might have seen the succeeding events before they took place. On Oct. 4, Tuesday, Lagman declined to give an assessment of President Duterte’s first 100 days in office. “Let us wait until we reach the 100 days, because between now and Friday, he (Duterte) might make a serious blunder or an important miracle,” Lagman said at a press conference. The very next day, Mr. Duterte once again lambasted US President Barack Obama and the European Union, telling them to go to hell and purgatory, respectively, for supposedly meddling in his administration’s war against drugs. There was no letup from the
President. On Thursday, he called international foreign aids as “crumbs from other nations’ favors” in a speech in Butuan City. He also said that if the United States refuses to sell the Philippines arms, his administration is inclined to buy arms from Russia and China instead. US officials have started finding his rhetoric “at odds” with the long and warm relations between our two countries and said that the Philippines is always free to pursue other diplomatic links if it so wishes. Foreign Affairs Secretary Perfecto Yasay’s statement on Duterte’s independent foreign policy where he said, “America has failed us,” did not help in any way fortify the two countries’ ties. In his latest tirade, Mr. Duterte dared the United States and the EU to pull out its assistance from the Philippines saying, “We can survive on our own.” Akbayan partylist Rep. Tom Villarin said there’s something wrong with always “playing the victim in circumstances that he (the President) created.” Villarin said it was high time for the President “to be like a statesman.” “If the approach to governance is all emotion-laden, that there’s always an outburst of emotions that is being made into policy—that is dangerous. In governance, you really have ❱❱ PAGE 27 If you’re
Philippine News
FRIDAY OCTOBER 14, 2016
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8,428 drug suspects nabbed, PHP8.21-B worth of narcotics seized during President Duterte’s first 100 days — PDEA BY CHRISTOPHER LLOYD T. CALIWAN Philippines News Agency MANILA — The Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency (PDEA) has nabbed around 8,500 drug offenders and seized more than PHP8 billion worth of illegal drugs during the first 100 days of the administration of President Rodrigo Duterte. “When I took over the leadership of PDEA, the President ordered to stop the drug problem in three to six months by all means that the law allows. The government’s fight against illegal drugs has never been strongly felt by the Filipinos until the leadership of President Duterte,” said PDEA Director General Isidro S. Lapeña. “In response to the President’s marching orders, PDEA focused its operational thrusts towards the conduct of highimpact operations and arrests of high-value targets to suppress the supply of dangerous drugs, while stepping up the drug demand reduction efforts in the communities,” Lapeña added. As the country’s top antidrug agency, PDEA, in collaboration with other law enforcement agencies, has conducted a total of 7,928 anti-drug operations that led to the arrest of 8,428 drug personalities, filing of 7,002 drug cases and the seizure of PHP8.21 billion worth of dangerous drugs and controlled precursors and essential chemicals (CPECs), from June 30 to October 7, 2016. He noted that intensified efforts of these anti-drug units led to the discovery and dismantling of the first floating
shabu laboratory in Subic last and 2015. The destruction of July and an industrial-type marijuana plants, with an estishabu laboratory dubbed as the mated value of PHP4.79 billion biggest in the country in Pam- in 28 marijuana eradication oppanga last month. erations, was also recorded. He added there were five In addition, authorities have clandestine shabu laboratories also busted significantly the dismantled during the period, trade of ecstasy, the third most compared to the two illegal fa- abused drug in the country with cilities dismantled in 2015 and the seizure of 12,014 ecstasy three in the first semester of tablets during the 100-day peri2016. od, compared with the recorded Due to the continuous crack- yearly seizures from 2011 to down on shabu laboratories in 2014. On the hand, the seizure the country, the volume of con- of 34.39 kilograms of cocaine, fiscated illegal drugs has also which were intercepted in the significantly increased. country’s premier airports, has President Rodrigo R. Duterte inspects the wound of a police officer who was So far this year, authorities already surpassed the seizure hurt in an anti-illegal drug operation during his visit to the Police Regional seized total of 1,453.46 kilo- in 2015. Office 13 Headquarters in Camp Rafael C. Rodriguez, Butuan City. grams of shabu, exceeding the “The confiscated drug and SIMEON CELI JR. / PPD / PNA yearly seizures from 2010 to non-drug evidence valued at 2015. PHP8.21 billion during the the crime rate was reduced by is generally assessed that there Lapeña noted that these ac- period has gone beyond the 49 percent. is scarcity of supply. complishments were the con- yearly recorded seizures of ilFurther, the strong political To strengthen the governsequential action of drug per- legal drugs from 2011 to 2015,” will of shame-naming the drug ment’s anti-drug campaign in sonalities in trying to avoid Lapena noted. protectors in the government the communities, PDEA initidetection and making quick Another breakthrough in the instilled fear among those in- ated the conduct of 34,296 drug disposals of equipment used in history of drug law enforce- volved in the illegal drug trade demand reduction activities, manufacturing shabu wherein ment in the country is the vol- and made them yield to au- including anti-drug summits eight incidences of recovery untary surrender of 733,635 thorities. The reinforced im- throughout the country. To of abandoned plementation of unite communities in the fight chemicals in exjail management against illegal drugs, MASA pressways were systems had also MASID, a community-based recorded. positive effects program that aims to encourSo far, 25 drug We can do more. The intensified war in the reduction age pro-active participation of dens were closed on drugs, at present, is seen, felt, and of drugs in the the citizenry for the prevention down nationmore importantly, participated in by streets. of corruption, illegal drugs and wide. Drug dens the Filipino people, thus making the “Also taken criminality in the barangays, are one-stop challenge, though overwhelming, into account was launched. shops that facilibecoming more and more attainable. is the rapid in“It is noteworthy that it only tate administracrease of the took one hundred days to action, delivery, street price of complish these achievements storage, distrishabu in the in response to the self-imposed bution, and sale local market. obligation of the President. We or use of illegal drugs. drug personalities which com- From PHP1,200 to PHP11,000 can do more. The intensified Marijuana, the second most prises 24 percent of the 3.7 mil- per gram in January to June war on drugs, at present, is seen, abused drug, is also under the lion drug users nationwide. Due 2016, shabu now ranges from felt, and more importantly, parclose monitoring of law enforc- to the mass surrender, shabu PHP1,200 to PHP25,000 per ticipated in by the Filipino peoers. The confiscation of 558.96 consumption was reduced to gram. This is the highest since ple, thus making the challenge, kilograms of dried marijuana 2.24 metric tons that translates 2002,” the PDEA chief pointed though overwhelming, becomleaves during the period has to PHP5.59 billion loss in the out, citing that when the mar- ing more and more attainable,” surpassed the seizures in 2014 profit of drug syndicates, and ket price of illegal drugs rises, it Lapeña said. ■
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Philippine News
OCTOBER 14, 2016
FRIDAY
Solon seeks rights protection 3 Davao bomb for mental health patients suspects nabbed BY FILANE MIKEE CERVANTES Philippines News Agency
BY JEROME ANING Philippine Daily Inquirer
MANILA — A lawmaker at the House of Representatives has filed a bill seeking the creation of a Philippine Mental Health Council and a National Mental Health Care Delivery System to promote mental health protection and improve mental health services. In a statement, Ifugao Rep. and 2005 increased from 0.23 are extremely inadequate to Teddy Baguilat stressed the to 3.59 per 100,000 in males, meet the mental health needs of need to provide better mental and 0.12 to 1.09 per 100,000 in 100 million Filipinos,” he said. health services, especially at females. There are only two state-run the height of the administraIn fact, intentional self-in- mental hospitals, 46 outpatient tion’s anti-drug war, which has flicted cases were found to be facilities, four day treatment left hundreds of thousands of the ninth leading cause of death facilities, 19 community-based drug dependents requiring among Filipinos aged 20 to 24 psychiatric inpatient facilities mental health care. years old, as early as 2003. and 15 community residential “The state of our mental Additionally, individuals with (custodial home-care) facilities health facilities is dire and we chronic mental illness, children for the whole country. lack a coherent program. The of overseas Filipino workers Almost all mental health faneed to immediately provide and those in areas of armed cilities are in the major cities, these is more pronounced now, conflict have a higher risk of while the only mental hospital when we are in the middle of a developing mental health prob- in the National Capital Region drug ‘war’. The reintegration of lems. houses only 4,200 beds. alleged drug addicts into sociThe Ifugao lawmaker also Baguilat said the bill seeks ety will require mental health pointed out the lack of quali- to integrate mental health sersupport,” said vices into the naBaguilat. tional health sys“I believe that tem to meet the drug addiction is needs of those one among many The need to immediately provide who lack access mental health these is more pronounced now, when to readily availissues and a howe are in the middle of a drug ‘war’. able, affordable listic campaign and equitable against drug use mental health will need adcare, especially equate facilities the poor. and programs to address the fied personnel, noting that “The bill, among other solumental health needs of addicts. only about 490 psychiatrists tions, seeks to create the PhilipWhat we have right now is far and 1,000 nurses work in psy- pine Council for Mental Health from enough,” he added. chiatric care, and even fewer as an attached agency of the DeCiting data from the Depart- general practitioners trained in partment of Health, to provide ment of Health, Baguilat said early assessment and manage- a rational and unified response in his proposed bill that almost ment of common mental health to mental health problems, one of every 100 households problems in the community. concerns and efforts through has a member with mental dis“The number of addiction the formulation and implemenability. specialists, psychologists, oc- tation of the National Mental He also noted that the inci- cupational therapists, guidance Health Care Delivery System, dence of suicide between 1984 counselors and social workers Baguilat said. ■
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THREE SUSPECTS in the Sept. 2 bombing of the Roxas Night Market in Davao City had been arrested, a defense official said on Friday. Speaking at a press conference in Camp Aguinaldo in Quezon City, where the suspects were presented to the media, Defense Secretary Delfin Lorenzana said the “terrorists,” belonged to the Maute Group. Lorenza identified the suspects as TJ Macabalang, Wendel Facturan and Musali Mustapha who, he said, were on board a motorcycle without license plates when accosted and arrested by soldiers and policemen for trying to evade a mobile checkpoint in Rosario Heights, Cotabato City, on Tuesday. Seized from the suspects were materials for making improvised explosive devices (IED), a submachine gun, a caliber .45 pistol and a cellular phone. 15 killed, 70 injured
The suspects were turned over to the PNP-Criminal Investigation and Detection Group and later brought to the Justice department for inquest. Fifteen people were killed while some 70 others were injured in the explosion that President Duterte had described as a terror attack. Investigators said the IED was detonated through a cell phone. Lorenzana said Macabalang had triggered the bomb by remote control, while it was Facturan who had left the backpack with the bomb at the night market. Mustapha, with another unidentified companion, allegedly documented the bombing
using another cell phone. The video from Mustapha’s phone showed the bombing from a distance, with the actual explosion marked by a reddishorange fountain-like flare and a loud crack. On one of the videos, some people were heard saying, “Allahu Akbar! (God is great).” Shortly after the explosion, other voices were heard saying in the vernacular, “It’s frightening,” and “That’s loud!” The video also showed the person carrying the cell phone approach the site of the explosion amid cries of “Tabang (Help)!” from scurrying passersby. Informants
Also heard on the video was a phone ringing, with a man answering it and saying, “We’re leaving,” just as the police were arriving at the scene. Found in the cell phone as well was a video of a laughing Facturan carrying a rifle beside the black flag of the Islamic State, allegedly practicing for a propaganda presentation. The Defense secretary said “informants” had led to the arrest of the suspects though he declined to disclose their names, saying operations were ongoing to apprehend some 10 members of the group also involved in the bombing. Lorenzana said that had the group’s IED failed to explode or inflict casualties, other suspects had planned to lob grenades instead. He added that the Maute group had also planned to bomb other locations in Davao City and Maguindanao province. ■
Philippine News
FRIDAY OCTOBER 14, 2016
13
Drug suspect who accused cop of rape joins ‘kill list’ BY JODEE A. AGONCILLO Philippine Daily Inquirer DURING THE first 100 days of President Duterte’s all-out war on drugs, unidentified assailants have killed many suspected drug pushers and users after they have been named in police “watch lists.” One of them, known to her family and neighbors as “Lola,” is lying in a coffin in Mandaluyong City and will soon be buried, possibly along with her complaint against a police officer she had accused of rape. Until her death, 49-year-old Chita “Lola” Sablan has been fighting for justice for the alleged rape by a Mandaluyong City police officer inside a detention facility in 2014. The Inquirer visited her wake six days after she was shot in Barangay Addition Hills, which city police chief Senior Supt. Joaquin Alva described as one of the heavily drug-infested communities in Mandaluyong. For some, she was a known pusher. For the police, she could be a fabricator of lies to cover her deeds. For her family, she was a victim of injustice. There are two other wakes for
possible drug-related rubout borhood. When Sablan came out the watch list would soon be victims at Welfareville Com- to dispose of the contents of her finished off. pound in Addition Hills. One of “arinola,” one of them, who apAlva alleged that Sablan was them is Angelo Bondoc, 20, who parently recognized her, tried a notorious pusher and No. 8 on was shot by unknown assailants to talk to her. Moments later the city’s drug watch list. at past midnight Wednesday another man shot Sablan at the A close relative, who spoke inside a basketball court while back of her head. on condition of anonymity for he was watching a game. The An investigator said she may fear of reprisals from the police third victim was another wom- have known her killers. or those involved in the drug an. Details of her death were trade, said Sablan was both a not immediately available, said Fear and panic user and a pusher. “But she has barangay officer Jonathan VilSablan’s family members, stopped,” the relative said. laflores. No suspects have been who now fear for their lives, In December 2015, Sablan esarrested in any of the three kill- have declined to pursue a for- caped from a police raid on her ings. mal investigation into her house, which was being used for The Mandaa “pot session.” luyong police The police did have reported not pursue a case that 12 people against her. have been killed For some, she was a known pusher. About a year by unknown For the police, she could be a earlier, Sablan gunmen in posfabricator of lies to cover her deeds. was arrested insible drug-reFor her family, she was a victim of side her house lated hits, while injustice. and detained eight others died on illegal drugs in police operacharges. The tions since July. charges were latEight of those killed were death, Coronel said. Sablan, er dropped. residents of Addition Hills, said who is separated from her husAfter her release, she filed barangay officer Roberto Coro- band, left two children. grave misconduct charges benel. Motorcycle riders, some of fore the National Police ComSablan was gunned down by them actually plainclothes of- mission (Napolcom) against four masked men around 10:30 ficers, conduct surveillance and PO2 Domingo Menes Jr., one p.m. on Oct. 1. frequently visit the community, of the six officers who arrested A witness said she saw the causing fear and panic among her, according to Napolcom men wearing ski masks on two residents who dread rumors lawyer Gary Sigarra who hanmotorcycles roaming the neigh- that drug users and pushers on dled the case.
Oral sex
Sablan accused Menes of forcing her to perform oral sex on him while she was alone in a detention facility. Menes could not be reached for comment. He has been absent from his post since he was reassigned to the traffic investigation unit early this week. A fellow officer said Menes has suffered embarassment and depression over the “false accusation.” Rosanna Cabuena, a staff clerk at the Station Anti-Illegal Drug (SAID) unit, said Sablan’s rape tale was unbelievable. “Menes has been with us for four years. He is a very good and kind man. He could not have done it,” she said. Sigarra said Menes has denied Sablan’s accusations. Menes claimed Sablan was not arrested and detained at the police station, making the alleged rape improbable, Sigarra said. Alva said suspects sometimes file countercharges against officers as a form of harassment or revenge or to hamper their operations. Sablan will be buried today. Her pending case at the Napolcom will soon be resolved despite her death, said Sigarra. ■
Leni: Let’s build bridges, not walls BY DJ YAP Philippine Daily Inquirer LOOKING BACK on her first 100 days in office, Vice President Leni Robredo reaffirmed her core advocacy of ending poverty as she emphasized the need for “mercy and compassion regardless of political beliefs” in improving the lives of the poorest Filipinos. In sharp contrast to the punitive character of President Duterte’s brutal war on drugs and criminality, the Vice President called for inclusiveness in helping 26 million Filipinos rise above poverty. “Our diversity and difference must never be a barrier to reach out to each other when anyone is in need. The problems we face require building bridges, not walls,” Robredo said in a statement yesterday. The former Camarines Sur
PHOTO FROM ROBREDO'S FACEBOOK PAGE
representative, who is also chair of the Housing and Urban Development Coordinating Council, said the “complicated issue” of poverty necessitated an apolitical perspective. “In combating it, we need to look beyond our political lenses to be able to make a difference
to our fellow Filipinos who suffer from it every day,” she said in a statement. Robredo said she spent much of her first 100 days traveling to the farthest and poorest towns, including Pola, Oriental Mindoro; Palo, Leyte, and Kauswagan, Lanao del Sur. She and her staff www.canadianinquirer.net
devoted “a lot of time toward meeting our country’s most marginalized communities,” she said. She also met with representatives of private corporations and international and humanitarian organizations to find solutions to problems in health and nutrition, education, hunger and food
security, rural development and women empowerment because “no single group can do this by themselves.” “The Philippine government, for example, cannot succeed in its antipoverty efforts without the support of civil society, development partners, and the Filipino public. No matter how wellintentioned our campaign is against poverty, we will achieve little if we do not work together,” she said. Speaking in Leyte last month, Robredo cited reports that say over 26 million Filipinos are “mired in poverty,” including 12 million who “lead lives of extreme impoverishment.” “But going by mere numbers puts us at risk of forgetting the ordinary Filipino who suffers from the brutal injustice of poverty. Statistics can unwittingly erase the face of the poor Filipino and render them invisible,” she said then. ■
Opinion
14
OCTOBER 14, 2016
FRIDAY
ANALYSIS
Duterte warned of people power By Amando Doronila Philippine Daily Inquirer CANBERRA—The budding police state of President Duterte has run into international outrage over the spiraling death toll in its brutal war on drugs. The outrage was triggered by the President’s inflammatory remarks in which he drew parallels between the extrajudicial killing of suspected drug users and pushers in the Philippines and Hitler’s extermination of Jews before and during World War II. Mr. Duterte’s comparison of the continuing drug-related bloodbath to the Holocaust not only revealed him as a closet admirer of Hitler but also drew fire from groups in the United States, Israel and Germany, and international rights organizations. The backlash is rocking his presidency of three months, which has been marked by a series of con-
troversies involving its scorched- said. ers and pushers which has left earth policy. Recently he vowed to Rabbi Abraham Cooper, head more than 3,000 people dead in continue to exterminate those sus- of the Simon Wiesenthal Center’s three months and threatened a pected of involvement in drug syn- Digital Terrorism and Hate proj- breakdown of law and order. The dicates “until the last drug pusher ect, called Mr. Duterte’s remarks German government has sumis out of the streets.” “outrageous.” He said Mr. Duterte moned the Philippine ambassador Speaking to reporters last week owed the victims of the Holocaust in Berlin and said Mr. Duterte’s on his return from a state visit to an apology for his “disgusting comments likening his deadly war Vietnam, the President first ex- rhetoric.” (Mr. Duterte has since on drugs to Hitler’s mass murder pressed annoyance at being de- apologized.) The AntiDefamation of Jews were “unacceptable.” Some scribed as “a cousin of Hitler.” League, an international Jewish six million Jews were slaughtered Then he said Hitler by Nazi Germa“massacred three ny by the end of It is baffling why any leader would want to model himself million Jews,” and World War II. after such a monster. there are three US Defense million drug adSecretary Ashton dicts in the Philippines. “I’d be group based in the United States, Carter said in his personal capachappy to slaughter them,” he said, said his comments were “shocking ity that Mr. Duterte’s remarks were adding: “If Germany had Hitler, for their tone deafness.” It added: “deeply troubling.” He spoke with the Philippines would have, you “It is baffling why any leader would reporters during a regional secuknow…” He trailed off, and pointed want to model himself after such a rity summit with defense ministo himself. monster.” ters from Southeast Asian partner “My victims, I would like to be, Germany, the European Union’s nations, including the Philippines. all criminals to finish the problem top economy, has expressed seri- (Mr. Duterte has also said he would of my country and save the next ous concerns about Mr. Duterte’s soon end US-PH joint military exgeneration from perdition,” he crackdown on suspected drug us- ercises—a symbolic blow to a long-
standing military alliance. As the body count mounts, and as Mr. Duterte’s combative rhetoric plumbs new depths, the mood in Washington toward a key US ally appeared to be hardening. Influential US lawmakers warned that the extrajudicial killings related to the war on drugs could affect American aid. And while the Obama administration maintained that the United States’ alliance with the Philippines remains “ironclad,” a senior US diplomat issued words of caution: “I think it would be a serious mistake in a democratic country like the Philippines to underestimate the power of the public’s affinity for the US. That’s people power,” said Assistant Secretary of State Daniel Russel. He recalled that past Philippine presidents had been toppled by popular protests dubbed as “people power,” including the dictator Ferdinand Marcos. ■
AT LARGE
Recalibrating the drug war By Rina Jimenez-David Philippine Daily Inquirer I HAD long wondered why some killers of suspected drug pushers and users took time to wrap the bodies or heads of their victims in masking tape (yes, Sen. Alan Peter Cayetano, masking tape was used in some instances) or packing tape, and then would leave a cardboard sign proclaiming: “I’m a drug lord (or pusher), don’t follow my example.” The reason, said a vigilante killer interviewed for the British newspaper The Guardian, was to distract law enforcers and frighten the casual onlooker. “We put placards for the media, in order for those investigating to redirect their investigation,” the source said. “Informed” that the victim was a target in the ongoing war against drugs, law enforcers, said the source, would begin to think: “Why should I investigate this guy, he is a drug pusher, he is a rapist, never mind with that one, I will just investigate the others. It’s a good thing that happened to him.” That explains the cardboard placards, but it doesn’t tell us why the killers bother to conceal the features of their victims. At first, someone told me that perhaps it was a form of torture, that the assassins first taped up the victims to
suffocate them or get them to talk. toll of 3,000 lives—is producing the that while still far from elimiAnother explanation could be that desired results. nated, the drug menace has been having to peel off the tape added Sen. Francis “Kiko” Pangilinan, rendered a serious blow, and the an extra layer of time and effort to one of the few Liberal Party mem- activities of drug lords have been identify the fatality. That meant bers in the Senate who have not severely curtailed. a delay in ascertaining not just joined the majority and who re*** who the victim is, but if he or she main unfazed by the silent power BUT STILL, Pangilinan asked furwas a resident of the area where of the Duterte administration, re- ther, if Duterte’s mailed fist policy the “package” had been found. No cently posed some pertinent ques- against illegal drugs did not fully more heartrending scenes of wid- tions we must ask before the war succeed in eliminating this crimiows or bereaved parents rushing turns even uglier. nal and social blight in one city, to the scene where the body was In President Duterte’s 24 years over a much longer period of time recovered, cradling their spouse, as mayor of Davao City, during (24 years), “why will it succeed in child or friend for a picture that which he claims to have success- a larger area (the entire country of would make it to the front pages fully slayed the dragon of the drug over 100 cities and over 1,000 muand the early evening news. trade, he still did not succeed in nicipalities) in a shorter period of Which just goes to show that the stamping out and eliminating time (three to six to 12 months)? “war on drugs” is Added the senanot just an outtor: “Perhaps we Has the President, his law enforcers, advisers and burst of gun-reneed to rethink the personalities around him even begun to consider the impact lated violence as current approachof those many deaths on the national psyche? a consequence of es. Our people a more stringent campaign of law pushers and users. Asked Pang- yearn for and deserve ‘Oplans’ that enforcement. There is some form ilinan, “What makes us think that work.” of perverse planning and strategiz- the nationwide campaign against Despite the President’s avowed ing involved, including tracking illegal drugs will succeed in six goal of “killing three million addown victims to their residences months (extended to another six dicts” in this country, a goal he or in dark street corners, dumping months)?” used to invite comparisons to Adolf the bodies under bridges or in open In July this year, the senator not- Hitler and his pogrom against six fields some distance from where ed, over 4,000 addicts and push- million Jews, the war on drugs, at the persons lived, and, yes, “gift ers surrendered to authorities in least at its current level, is clearly wrapping” them in tape, complete Davao City, part of Malacañang’s unsustainable. with a cardboard gift card pro- “Oplan Tokhang.” So clearly, adThree million drug addicts may claiming their guilt. dicts still exist in Davao and the sound like a reachable goal as far *** drug trade is still alive and kicking. as Duterte is concerned, but how REGARDLESS of modus operanIn fairness, though, both the realistic is it? Sure, a more condi, we must also ask if the war on President and his PNP Director certed campaign could produce his drugs—with its god-awful death General “Bato” de la Rosa, claim desired results, and may eradicate
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this criminal activity. But what are the hidden costs of such a campaign. Has the President, his law enforcers, advisers and personalities around him even begun to consider the impact of those many deaths on the national psyche? Can three million mothers, fathers, siblings and families allow the loss of loved ones to pass unnoticed and unknown? What sort of society would we be when the gunfire dies down and the smoke has cleared? *** OBVIOUSLY, even if the President had been talking about a drug war even during the campaign, very little planning was done to prepare the ground for the viciousness of the killings and to device alternatives, such as rehab, for addicts in search of detoxification or a new life. Or was his intent the killing of the three million all along? It’s not too late for a recalibration of this bloody war. It’s not too late to devise other approaches to get rid of the drug menace—such as a narrow and targeted focus on drug lords and their biggest distributors. Or else, a concerted campaign, in cooperation with Chinese authorities, to cut off the supply line of “shabu” from China. Anything, but this madness we face today. ■
Opinion
FRIDAY OCTOBER 14, 2016
15
PUBLIC LIVES
Why we curse By Randy David Philippine Daily Inquirer Languages all over the world contain expressions that are implicitly avoided in polite conversation, says Harvard psychologist Steven Pinker. But people use them anyway, sometimes in the most unexpected situations. There they do their work, intensifying emotion and eliciting unwanted reactions beyond their listeners’ control. In his exemplary book, “The stuff of thought: Language as a window into human nature,” Pinker offers five different contexts in which people use taboo language. The first is the descriptive use. “Sometimes for the sake of narrative vividness, sometimes out of anger, we use taboo words to convey how vile something is.” The sentence “He was pissed” communicates a displeasure that is not quite captured by the alternative “He was angry.” One reason for this, says Pinker, is that the use of such language, “which forces a listener to think about disagreeable things, is mildly aggressive, so it fits with the other trappings that men in rough-and-tumble settings brandish to advertise that they can inflict and endure pain…” The second is the idiomatic. This function is related to the first—we sometimes use vulgar speech to
communicate informality, famil- taboo words do much of the work “Fuck!” iarity, or coolness. This is particu- for which they were crafted. Says Writes Pinker: “Faced with a larly so where the available alter- Pinker: “There are moments in sudden challenge to our goals or natives may sound euphemistic, everyone’s life when one feels wellbeing, we inform the world prim, or affected. “I wanna pee” the urge to intimidate, punish or that the setback matters to us, inis certainly a more direct state- downgrade the reputational stock deed, that it matters at an emoment of a need among friends than of some other person.” It seems tional level that calls up our worst the decorous “I want to go to the so long ago when the most com- thoughts and is at the boundaries washroom.” Perhaps the Filipino mon English expletive deployed of voluntary control.” Taking his expression “Nagkaleche-leche” for to express disgust at a person was cue from the work of neurosciensomething that went very wrong “Damn you” or its variation, “Go to tists, Pinker muses that verbal outmight illustrate this point more hell.” Over the years, such expres- bursts could be “the evolutionary clearly, though it’s not easy to see sions have lost their sting. Today, missing link between primate calls how milk can have any relation to they cannot possibly convey the and human languages.” a fouled-up situaAccording to tion. neurologists, dirty There are moments when they fall into a mood when The third is the words that may nothing but foul speech comes out of their mouths—almost emphatic use. As have been renas if the devil has taken over. in the first two dered dormant functions, there by the culture of are expletives and correctness reside taboo words that are sometimes in- same powerful charge that is ig- in an older and deeper part of the serted in sentences, lending color nited by the more contemptuous brain, the right hemisphere. Pinkand power to the rest of the state- expressions “Fuck you” or “Screw er cites research done on patients ment, to intensify feelings. If some- you.” who have been reduced to inarthing can be described as “aweThe last function of profane ticulateness by a condition known somely” or “achingly” beautiful, language, says Pinker, is cathar- as “aphasia.” Even as they have one can imagine how a person with tic. Something about the way our lost the ability to name pictures, a more colorful vocabulary can ex- brains are wired induces us to let produce coherent statements, or press the same effusiveness with out salty expressions like “Dam- understand sentences, they retain words like “fuckingly brilliant.” Ac- mit” or “Oh, shit” as reflex cries of the power to curse, or to use taboo cording to Pinker, the Irish celebri- distress. One might miss an impor- words and epithets. ty Bono promptly got into trouble tant turn in the road, and blurt out Some people may have noticed after he uttered this phrase on na- “Shit!” Or let out a loud “Yuck!” af- this among their loved ones who tional television at a Golden Globe ter stepping on fresh dog poo. But are going through the terror of deAwards presentation. these days, a younger generation mentia. There are moments when The fourth is the abusive func- might use just one word to express they fall into a mood when nothing tion. This is where expletives and any form of disgust or distress: but foul speech comes out of their
mouths—almost as if the devil has taken over. “It’s not that the right hemisphere contains a profanity module,” writes Pinker, “but that its linguistic abilities are confined to memorized formulas rather than rule-governed combinations.” The scientific explanation is indeed more complex than this. “The right hemisphere may be implicated in swearing for another reason: it is more heavily involved in emotion, especially negative emotion.” Like distress or pain. In courteous society, the resort to expletives and profane language instantly stigmatizes the user. “They are annoying to the listener,” notes Pinker, but even more, they are “a confession by the speaker that he can think of no other way to make his words worth attending to.” Unfortunately, “it’s a fact of life that people swear.” In the last election, we saw how swearing, when used to full effect, could establish instant rapport between a speaker and his audiences. But, there are good reasons, other than moral, why dirty language needs to be avoided in public discourse. Some words are easily recognizable to a given speech community even when they may have no concrete meaning. They summon the deepest emotions and the most divisive resentments. They hurt. ■
LOOKING BACK
More than one can read in a lifetime By Ambeth R. Ocampo Philippine Daily Inquirer When I was once asked what Filipiniana titles I remember from my childhood, two came to mind: “Philippine Tales and Fables” by Manuel and Lyd Arguilla (1957) that I found in our home library and “Creatures of Midnight” by Maximo D. Ramos (1967) that I first read in the school library. “Creatures of Midnight” was the first Philippine title I ever owned. I found a copy in the former ATO Bookshop on Session Road in Baguio, and I remember saving my allowance for horseback riding to acquire it. It was my favorite book for a time—an illustrated reference to all the aswang, ghouls, and witches in Philippine lower mythology that came complete with ways to ward them off. The aswang have since faded from memory because they are in-
capable of existing in an urban setting. How can the manananggal fly in a city without getting caught in TV antennae, electric cables, and cell site towers? How can it feed on unborn babies from a mother’s womb with its long pointed tongue when urban Pinoys do not live in houses with thatched roofs or bamboo slat flooring anymore? How can the aswang that makes you lose your way survive in the age of Waze and GPS? How can the aswang that turns into a dog roam about the city without being run over by cars or made into pulutan by boisterous men drinking on street corners? I have outgrown the aswang of my childhood but still plan to rework Ramos’ book into something more contemporary and call it “The Aswang Survival Guide.” The first “rare” Filipiniana title I ever owned was a 1915 “Report of the Governor General of the
Philippines” that I bought from the Philippine Education Company (or Peco) in Makati. It was in the same arcade as another bookstore called Erehwon that I was to realize only as an adult was “Nowhere” spelled backwards. It is odd that National or Goodwill bookstores did not figure in my childhood. Aside from Peco and Erehwon, there was Alemars near Rizal Theater that is now Makati Shangri-La, and Bookmark in another arcade that is now Glorietta. Then there was Popular Bookstore on Doroteo Jose in Manila that we would visit even on days of heavy rain, when benches were used as a bridge to cross a flooded street into the bookshop. La Solidaridad was already around, but I don’t remember my father taking me there. I first visited La Solidaridad when I was in college. I had heard that F. Sionil Jose held court in the mezzanine above the
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bookshop, and I thought he lived in the mansion next door. I was to learn later, and too late, that writers did not earn enough to afford a mansion. While my father passed on his love for books and reading to me, it was only in college that I focused on Filipiniana and embarked on a disciplined and systematic collection of books that would grow into my reference library. Three people gave me this gift: Doreen G. Fernandez, E. Aguilar Cruz, and Teodoro A. Agoncillo. While I had access to the enviable Filipiniana collection in Ateneo de Manila University’s Rizal Library the urge to build my own collection was inspired by Cruz’s library. I remember that fateful day: Cruz and I were chatting over a long lunch in his apartment. He stood up, pulled a book from his shelf, and from the spine I de-
duced it was one of the prewar publications of the National Library under Teodoro M. Kalaw. The thick tomewas “Cartas sobre la Revolucion” by Mariano Ponce. Cruz opened to the frontispiece, covered the caption on a photograph of two men and asked: “This is a photograph of Mariano Ponce and Dr. Sun Yatsen. Can you point out Ponce to me?” Naturally, I pointed to the seated man in a suit—and was surprised that the man in Japanese attire was Ponce and the man in the suit was Sun Yat-sen. From then on I always indulged my curiosity and learned to doubt everything until proven. Today my library is dispersed in four different locations, and aside from physical books I have a whole library in an external drive. The thought that I have more books than one can ever read in a lifetime is what makes life what it is for me. ■
16
OCTOBER 14, 2016
FRIDAY
Canada News RCMP investigating two switched at birth cases in northern Manitoba BY CHRIS PURDY The Canadian Press
make things difficult, he acknowledged, but officers are hoping anyone with information will contact them. “If they heard of something that happened within the hospital environment in that time, if they worked there — had relatives working there and heard stories — RCMP investigators would like to hear from them,” Cyrenne said. Luke Monias and Norman Barkman of Garden Hill First Nation revealed at a news conference last November that DNA tests proved they were switched at birth at the feder-
who’ve been wronged,” said Robinson, who has been working with the four men. He has previously said that NORWAY HOUSE, Man. — The he believes the confusion must RCMP is investigating two cashave been criminal, and he still es of babies who were switched thinks so. at birth at a northern Manitoba “You can pass it off once. And hospital more than 40 years a second time ... kinda makes ago. you wonder,” Robinson said. The two cases involve four “Was it an act of racism? Was men, who went home with difit an act of neglect?” ferent parents from the Norway He said he has yet to get House hospital in 1975. They reach Monias and Barkman, went public with the mix-ups in but Swanson and Tait are welthe past year after getting DNA coming the RCMP investigatests. tion. All four men and their The RCMP say its investifamilies are to meet at the end gation will be of October with separate from a Health Minister review the fedJane Philpott, he eral government added. announced in Was it an act of racism? Was it an act The two casAugust. of neglect? es have raised “The RCMP the question of has an obligawhether other tion to the famibabies could lies involved have ended up and to the public to determine ally run hospital. with the wrong families. Health if the incidents at the Norway Two other men from Nor- Canada reports 239 babies House Indian Hospital were ac- way House, Leon Swanson and were born there in 1975. cidental or criminal in nature,” David Tait Jr., came forward Shortly after Swanson and Mounties said in a newsrelease with the same story in August. Tait announced they were Friday. Results from DNA tests last switched at birth, Health CanRCMP spokesman Robert month confirmed their switch. ada announced it would offer Cyrenne added that the force Mounties were interview- free DNA tests to anyone born began the investigation on its ing Swanson and Tait and their at the hospital before 1980. own and the probe is still in its families Friday in Norway That’s when the facility started early stages. House, said former Manitoba fitting newborns with identifi“It’s really basically to deter- aboriginal affairs minister Eric cation bands. mine if there was any criminal Robinson. A spokesman has said that intent for these babies being “I think, finally, we have due to privacy reasons, he can’t switched at birth,” he said. somebody taking this mat- reveal whether anyone else has The passage of time may ter seriously with these guys requested DNA tests. ■
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Mississauga mayor considering legal action after allegations against her THE CANADIAN PRESS MISSISSAUGA, ONT. — The mayor of Mississauga, Ont., says she is considering legal action after an independent news website published allegations against her, her family and the city’s Muslim community. Mayor Bonnie Crombie says she has contacted police and is in talks with her lawyers after she says the Mississauga Gazette published an article under the headline “Bonnie’s Muslims Are Molesting Teenage Girls in Mississauga Highschools.” The article could not be found on the Gazette’s website Sunday. A notice was posted saying members of the website’s staff had received death threats. “I have taken this article down for now as I don’t want violence brought upon my team,” the notice said. Acton Michaels, the website’s editor-in-chief, emailed The Canadian Press a link to a copy of
the original piece, which has since been posted elsewhere online. It was published under his name, but when asked by email if he wrote the article, Michaels did not reply. The article sent by Michaels alleges that Crombie was “purchased” by the owners of the Meadowvale Islamic Centre, that her husband is a convicted criminal and that the pair are planning on killing their son. It also alleges that a student at a local high school was sexually assaulted by Muslim boys. Crombie says all of those allegations are false, and she’s asked the chief of Peel Regional Police, which is responsible for Mississauga, to determine whether the matter constitutes a hate crime. Police didn’t immediately comment when contacted Sunday. Crombie says she’s also asked her lawyers about other legal avenues. Michaels said in an email that he would be meeting with his staff and didn’t want to make any public statements before then. ■
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Canada News
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OCTOBER 14, 2016
FRIDAY
Ontario’s medical pot vaping exemption came from consultations with two people BY ALLISON JONES The Canadian Press
Premier Christy Clark.
WORLD ECONOMIC FORUM / WIKIMEDIA COMMONS
B.C.’s Clark urged to reject Kinder Morgan pipeline for failing key condition THE CANADIAN PRESS VANCOUVER — British Columbia Premier Christy Clark is being challenged to reject Kinder Morgan’s Trans Mountain pipeline expansion proposal because it can never meet one of her five conditions to support oil pipeline development. More than 30 environmental, social and aboriginal groups from across Canada have sent a letter to Clark reminding her that one of B.C.’s conditions for pipeline support includes assurances of a world-leading oilspill response. The groups say a study from the National Academy of Science concludes that oil containing diluted bitumen acts differently than other types of crude when spilled. The study warns that diluted bitumen sinks in water and there is no known way to clean up heavy oils that settle to the bottom of oceans, lakes or rivers. The groups, which include Greenpeace and the Council of Canadians, say Clark must stick to her conditions and reject Kinder Morgan’s proposal, even though it is widely expect-
ed to receive federal approval by year’s end. In July 2012, Clark set five conditions before oil could be piped across southern B.C. to west coast ports: completion of environmental reviews, worldleading practices for oil spill prevention, cutting-edge land and water cleanup programs, solutions to First Nations issues and a fair share of any profits. Clark said in a statement Thursday that the government’s position on the five conditions has been clear and consistent and remains unchanged. Kinder Morgan’s $6.8-billion Trans Mountain pipeline expansion would almost triple the amount of diluted Alberta bitumen being pumped to an export terminal in Burnaby, B.C., and would result in a seven-fold increase in tanker traffic in waters off southern B.C. “Twenty-one B.C. municipalities, 17 First Nations, environmental groups and citizens across the country are opposed to Kinder Morgan because the science clearly shows the oilspill risk is too great and the impacts too catastrophic,” Sven Biggs, a spokesman for the environmental group Stand, says in a news release. ■
the time, to issues management and senior communications staff. “Are we walking it back today?” TORONTO — Ontario’s Liberal Tom Teahen, then the pregovernment defended allowing mier’s chief of staff, responded medical marijuana users to vathat he was wondering that too. porize anywhere by saying they Soon after, staff started wonhad consulted “very broadly” dering who was actually con— but emails show those consulted and asked the ministry sultations involved the input of for a list. just two people, The Canadian “You guys said yesterday that Press has learned. it was OK that we said public Ultimately, the associate consultations, and that it inhealth minister had to defend cluded medical experts, so I the policy for just one day after need you to confirm this for the government backtracked me,” wrote Jenna Mannone, on the policy within 24 hours. then in the premier’s issues The emails, obtained through management office. freedom-of-information legisAn eventual response from lation, show the premier’s top ministry staff mentioned the staff members were both untwo people consulted, but said aware of the new rule and conit was important to note the fused by it. decision wasn’t based solely on The new e-cigarette reguthat. The ministry had deterlations banned the use of the mined “from a policy perspecdevices anywhere regular cigative, it would be unfair to rerettes were prostrict the vaping hibited. But the of medical marigovernment projuana in certain vided an exempplaces when the tion for medical [W]e consulted very broadly with government marijuana users, the medical community, with the does not prohibmeaning they […] advocates of all types, health it the smoking could have vaped advocates. of marijuana in in restaurants, at those places.” work or on playThough it is grounds. still illegal fedThe exemption became pubThe Canadians for Fair Ac- erally for recreational use, no lic Nov. 25 and by the next day, cess to Medical Marijuana Ontario law restricts where Dipika Damerla, then the as- group ultimately tipped off marijuana — medical or othsociate health minister, said the public to the exemption. erwise — can be smoked other that based on the feedback the Its founder sent out a news re- than Liquor Licence Act, which government had received, they lease the morning of Nov. 25, prohibits consumption of conwere going back to the drawing heralding the exemption as trolled substances on licensed board. The government ulti- “another important milestone premises. There was also a need mately decided there would be in the recognition of the legiti- to consider the needs of medino exemption. macy of the use of cannabis as cal marijuana users to treat But during those fleeting a medicine.” their illnesses or disabilities, hours when Damerla defended The exemption came as a sur- staff wrote. the policy, she said there had prise to the media — and also, The emails also show constitbeen widespread consultations apparently, to the premier’s of- uency offices around the provbefore the change was intro- fice. ince were flooded with emails duced. “I am confused by what hap- from people angry about the “You know, we consulted very pened yesterday and what we’re exemption. Consultations the broadly with the medical com- reading in the media this morn- government conducted after munity, with the, you know, ing,” the premier’s deputy prin- the initial mess netted input advocates of all types, health cipal secretary, Karim Bard- from 100 people and organizaadvocates,” she said. eesy, wrote in an email early tions on the issue of medical The Making Healthier Choic- the next morning. “Can anyone marijuana vaping. es Act, which dealt with display- explain?” The government ultimately ing calorie counts and banning “Do you guys know why we’ve decided to ban medical mariflavoured tobacco products done this marijuana thing?” juana users from smoking or — as well as e-cigarette re- wrote Andrew Bevan, who was vaporizing anywhere regular strictions — went to regular Wynne’s principal secretary at cigarettes are prohibited. ■ www.canadianinquirer.net
committee hearings. Speakers included the Canadian Vaping Association, the Heart and Stroke Foundation of Ontario, Restaurants Canada, vape shop owners and the Canadian Cancer Society. But out of the 35 presenters, only one person — medical marijuana advocate Matt Mernagh — spoke of the need for an exemption. No other presenters were asked for their thoughts on it. The e-cigarette regulations were also posted for a standard comment period, but only one medical marijuana-related reply was received, from Canadians for Fair Access to Medical Marijuana. In addition to the two people consulted, the ministry also conducted a legal review and discussed it with other areas of government, the Health Ministry said in a statement.
Canada News
FRIDAY OCTOBER 14, 2016
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Struggle of compassion versus doctrine for Catholics who choose assisted death BY GEORDON OMAND The Canadian Press
erance and compassion. Death by assisted suicide and Wayne Sumner, a professor euthanasia are grave violations emeritus of philosophy at the of the law of God, the document University of Toronto, said a says. VANCOUVER — A proper fu- more flexible approach to the “These grievous affronts to neral is far more than an end- granting of funeral rites is in the dignity of human life from of-life celebration for practis- line with Pope Francis’s simi- beginning to natural end are ing Catholics, who believe last larly softened tone on homo- never morally justified,” it says. rites cleanse the soul of sin in sexuality, divorce and the ordiOther church leaders since preparation for eternal life in nation of women. then have said they would not heaven. “I think you’ve got some encourage the absolute prohiBut for the faithful question- hardliners here who want to bition of funerals for everyone ing whether those final sacra- follow the doctrine and you’ve who chooses assisted dying. ments are available to a loved got some others who feel a comEmma Anderson, a scholar one who has chosen a medically passion for people who have of Canadian Catholicism at the assisted death, the answer may chosen this route and don’t University of Ottawa, said the depend on whom in the church want to punish them or their division among Catholic bishthey ask. families any more or unneces- ops follows from Pope Francis’s Catholic doctrine is unequivo- sarily,” he said. move to empower lower levels cal in its opposition to any form In the wake of assisted dy- of leadership to make decisions of suicide, but Canadian bishops ing becoming legal in Canada based on local circumstances. have taken different positions earlier this year, six bishops The sometimes contradictory on whether churchgoers who in Alberta and Northwest Ter- results of such delegation of auchoose an assisted death should ritories released guidelines thority risks confusing church be absolutely barred from hav- last month instructing priests members, Anderson said. ing an official funeral. to refuse funerals for people “It can be profoundly disSome religious experts say who choose assisted dying. The turbing if you’re a devout Caththe schism is the product of document describes how physi- olic to be getting really different Pope Francis’s arrival at the cian-assisted death is a “grave messages in Quebec, in Ottawa, pmp_MG_16-00700_Canada-Redesign_Poster_31_10x6"_v02 copy.pdf 1 23/08/16 15:57 helm of the Catholic Church in sin” and contradicts the teach- in Alberta, in the Northwest 2013, and his emphasis on tol- ings of the Catholic Church. Territories,” she said. “There
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doesn’t seem to be a national stance on this issue.” Not everyone sees the bishops’ views as contradictory, said Michael Agnew, a post-doctoral fellow in the religious studies department at McMaster University in Hamilton. “It’s not necessarily that there’s a schism over the church teaching, at least in the hierarchy or the leadership of the church,” Agnew said. “The difference is probably in the tone that’s being used at times and individual bishops’ or priests’ flexibility around access to these services.” Rev. Marc Pelchat, vicar general of the Archdiocese of Quebec, said the variation among bishops across Canada has less to do with church doctrine on assisted death and more to do with a difference in approach. Pelchat said bishops in Quebec encourage a more caseby-case treatment for physician-assisted deaths and are reluctant to establish a hardand-fast rule that ignores indi-
vidual circumstances. But the church ultimately opposes assisted death and prefers palliative care, he added. Douglas Farrow, a professor of Christian thought at McGill University in Montreal, said the difference in direction between bishops is no great surprise. “Some of them are more theologically astute than others and some of them are more faithful to the church’s teaching than others,” Farrow said. Church law gives priests considerable leeway to exercise their judgment on a case-bycase basis, he said. The difference in approach appears to follow some rough geographic patterns as well, noted Arthur Schafer, an ethics scholar at the University of Manitoba. The strong opposition in Alberta follows the province’s traditional conservatism, whereas the more permissive attitudes in Quebec and British Columbia are in line with the provinces more progressive approaches, he said. ■
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World News
OCTOBER 14, 2016
FRIDAY
Matthew devastates Florida sands key to protection, tourism BY MIKE SCHNEIDER The Associated Press JACKSONVILLE BEACH, FLA. — When Christa Savva returned to the Sandy Shoes Beach Resort a day after Hurricane Matthew brushed by Melbourne Beach, Florida, she looked at the beach in front of the pink-flamingo-colored hotel and noticed half the sand dunes had disappeared. Savva guesses three-quarters of the missing dunes washed into the ocean and the remaining quarter scattered onto the resort’s beachfront property, which was undamaged by the hurricane. “I was like, ‘Oh, my goodness!”’ Savva, a property manager for the Space-Age-era hotel, said Sunday. “It’s crazy to have the dunes gone and all you see is empty space.” The sand on Florida’s beaches is the equivalent of tourism gold, and its disappearance over time threatens the state’s No. 1 industry. While Hurricane Matthew didn’t ravage Florida’s coast as a series of storms did a dozen years ago, it collapsed dunes, washing away sand that protected buildings and roads during storms, and will likely require the spending of millions of dollars on beach
restoration projects. In Jacksonville Beach, the top of the dunes collapsed onto the lower part of the dunes, creating 10-foot high cliffs of sand, rather than the usual gentle slopes of the dunes. Federal, state and local officials respond to beach erosion by depositing new sand in areas where it has disappeared, and the sand dunes act as barriers to infrastructure. Before these projects took off three decades ago, sea walls were often the only thing that stood between water, winds and buildings during storms. “The good news is a lot of people don’t realize our beaches are engineered. It looks natural, but we construct the sand so it’s sacrificed during hurricanes and protects roads and structures and potentially human lives,” said Jackie Keiser, a Jacksonville-area official with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. While a statewide evaluation of beach erosion has yet to be completed, individual Atlanticcoast counties from south of the Space Coast up to the Georgia border were assessing the lost sand. A $13.5 million project to replenish Jacksonville-area beaches with 650,000 thousand cubic yards of sand over seven
miles was underway before Hurricane Matthew. Keiser said she is certain that same amount of sand was lost from the hurricane and the amount of sand needed for the project will likely double. Virginia Barker, the natural resources director for Brevard County, the area of Florida often referred to as the Space Coast, said the erosion from Hurricane Matthew appears to be more in the category of Hurricane Sandy in 2012 than a devastating series of hurricanes of 2004 and 2005. After Sandy, 2.4 million cubic yards of sand were needed to replenish 14 miles of Brevard County’s shoreline. The replenishment was far smaller than what was required after Hurricane Frances and Hurricane Jeanne made landfall just south of the Space Coast a dozen years ago. “This is world-famous Cocoa Beach. People come here for the sandy experience,” Barker said. “It’s tremendously important to our economy. The alternative is to allow erosion and let the sea go up and there will be no sandy beach.” In Georgia, it’s too early to tell the extent of beach erosion, but water did get past huge boulders placed along the shore to buffer properties and stop erosion, said Megan Des-
Matthew near peak strength in the Caribbean Sea.
rosiers, CEO of One Hundred Miles, a Georgia coastal advocacy group. “The thing about Georgia is, we haven’t had a storm like this since the 1880s so it’s hard to know how to prepare when no one remembers the last time there was a storm like this,” Desrosiers said. “We don’t have experience with this type of storm on the Georgia coast, but Matthew was a perfect example of what we will see more of in the future.” Before Hurricane Matthew, more than half of Florida’s 663 miles of beaches were considered critically eroded by the state Department of Environmental Protection. The agency defines “critical erosion” as the disappearance of beach or dune to a degree that it affects the environment, development or
NASA
recreational activities. About half of Florida’s 411 miles of beaches deemed to have “critical erosion” are part of a beach replenishment program. Before the storm, Brevard County had 41 miles of critical erosion, the area around Daytona Beach had almost 20 miles of beach erosion, the area around St. Augustine had almost 14 miles of critical erosion and the area around Jacksonville had more than 10 miles. In Melbourne Beach, now that half of the dunes are gone in front of the Sandy Shoes, the high tide can lap up to the steps that lead to the hotel’s wooden deck overlooking the beach. “There’s still a beach, and everything ... but it’s just a lot flatter,” Savva said. “High tide is something you’re going to have to watch out for now.” ■
Trump, Clinton hit each other hard with scandals in 2nd US presidential debate BY MATTHEW RUSLING Philippines News Agency ST. LOUIS, UNITED STATES — Candidates for US president Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton went after each other relentlessly on Sunday night in the second presidential debate, hitting each other hard with scandals. Indicative of the bad blood between them, they even did not shake hands at the outset of the debate, held at the Washington University in St. Louis, Missouri. Early in the debate, both can-
didates went on the attack in a bid to shut down and dominate their opponent, at times drawing cheers from the live audience. Attempting to get the focus off the recent release of tapes showing Trump making outlandishly sexist remarks several years ago, Trump told Clinton she should “be ashamed” of herself, referring to her support for her husband and former president Bill Clinton, despite the latter’s myriad sexual harassment scandals. In response to her Republican rival, Clinton hit back, saying Trump was “not fit to
be president” and that his campaign is “exploding.” Clinton further jabbed the brash billionaire, saying, “I think it’s clear to anyone that the (tape) represents exactly who he is.” The tapes in question were from an interview several years back with radio shock jock Howard Stern, as well as offcamera moments years ago on the set of TV show Access Hollywood. The tapes have caused shockwaves in US media and outrage among Trump’s critics, as they included Trump’s remark that being famous allowed him to www.canadianinquirer.net
“kiss any woman”, and lewd words about women. Under widespread criticism and pressure, Trump apologized again for his lewd remarks, while denying he had sexually assaulted any woman. The questions then turned to Clinton’s email scandal, in which Clinton used a personal email instead of a secure, government-issued one while conducting business as secretary of state. Critics said that amounted to playing hard and fast with the nation’s national security. “You think it was okay to delete 33,000 emails? I don’t think so,” Trump said, referring
to Clinton’s deletion of thousands of emails that critics said she didn’t want anyone to see. “For you to say that there’s nothing wrong with deleting 33,000 emails, you should be ashamed of yourself,” he said. At one point about 20 minutes into the debate, Trump heckled Clinton by standing directly at the back of her camera shot while she was trying to answer a serious policy-related question. While Clinton spoke quite eloquently about Obama’s health care overhaul, Trump’s ❱❱ PAGE 23 Trump, Clinton
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New incidents defy Samsung’s efforts to end smartphone woes BY BRANDON BAILEY The Associated Press
week’s incident. A spokeswoman for the Consumer Product Safety Commission said Friday that her agency is still investigating and had no further information. AT&T, one of the nation’s largest phone retailers, said Sunday that it will stop giving customers the replacement phones. “We’re no longer exchanging new Note 7s at this time, pending further investigation of these reported incidents,” A&T said in a statement. AT&T encouraged customers with Note 7 phones to exchange them for other products. The company says it hasn’t sold Note 7 phones since the initial recall was announced. Verizon, another major seller of smartphones, said it doesn’t have any Note 7 phones but they are on back order. Sprint said customers can exchange their replacement Note 7 phones for any other device while the situation is being investigated. Meanwhile, other customers have reported problems with their replacement phones. A Minnesota father says his daughter suffered a minor burn to her thumb when her replacement Samsung smartphone melted in her hand last week.
SAN FRANCISCO — Samsung Electronics seemed to have its smartphone troubles under control — until authorities had to evacuate a Southwest Airlines flight in Kentucky last week for an incident that involved a replacement phone. The reason: Authorities said a Samsung smartphone started smoking and making “popping” noises, just moments after its owner had boarded the plane and turned off the device. Samsung Taepyeong-ro HQ in Jung District, Seoul. Passenger Brian Green, 43, MARCOPOLIS / WIKIMEDIA COMMONS says the device was a Galaxy Note 7 he had picked up from an have been a whole different said they received 92 reports of authorized AT&T retailer Sept. situation. I’m just very disap- Note 7 batteries overheating in 21 as a replacement for another pointed in Samsung and their the U.S., including 26 reports of Note 7 phone he returned when product.” burns and 55 cases of property Samsung announced a global Zuis provided KSTP-TV with damage. Authorities urged conrecall a week earlier. The recall receipts showing that the fam- sumers to turn off the phones came after a series of incidents ily bought a Galaxy Note 7 in and return them for a refund last month in which Note 7 batAugust and then exchanged or replacement. Samsung said teries overheated or caught fire. it Sept. 21 after Samsung an- replacement models that were But Samsung had promised nounced the recall. free of defects became available that the replacement models “She’s done with Note 7s right in this country Sept. 21. were safe. now,” Zuis said of his daughter. After the Southwest Airlines Reports of more replacement A Samsung representative incident, representatives of the phones catching fire are tricktold KSTP that an investigation four leading U.S. wireless carling in, and the South Korean is underway. riers said customers who had tech giant faces more scrutiny “We want to reassure our already received replacement after earlier criticism for being customers that we take every Note 7 phones could return slow to react and sending conreport seriously and we are en- those new devices if they have fusing signals in gaged with the concerns. the first days of Zuis family to The Galaxy Note 7, which sells the recall. ensure we are for $850 to $890, competes in “They’re in doing everything the high-end smartphone mara really tricky Reports of more replacement phones we can for them ket with Apple, which recently spot,” said Ben catching fire are trickling in, and and their daugh- released a new iPhone 7, and Bajarin, a tech the South Korean tech giant faces ter,” the repre- other premium brands such as industry analyst more scrutiny after earlier criticism sentative said in Google’s new Pixel phones. with the Crefor being slow to react and sending a statement. Samsung says it has recalled ative Strategies confusing signals in the first days of On Saturday, about 2.5 million Note 7 devicresearch firm. the recall. Michael Kler- es around the world since prob“There’s such a ing, a Kentucky lems emerged last month. Anastigma around resident, said on lysts estimated the recall would this device now Facebook that cost the South Korean tech githat it’s hard to see how sales Andrew Zuis of Farmington, his exchanged Note 7 phone ant as much as $1.8 billion. can do well going forward.” a Twin Cities suburb, said his caught fire. Klering wrote on Still, the company said FriConsider Green’s reaction: “I daughter, Abby, was holding Facebook that he and his wife day that its third-quarter profit really liked the device. It had a the Galaxy Note 7 in her left woke up because their bedroom still rose 6 per cent, to about $7 lot of nice features,” he told The hand Friday when it melted. was filling with smoke, and they billion, on total sales of $43.9 Associated Press in an inter- Zuis told The Associated Press feared that their children were billion — thanks to income view Friday. But after the inci- on Sunday that the family had in danger. from Samsung’s other proddent on the plane, he bought a acquired the new phone on the Klering wrote that he and ucts, which include advanced new iPhone 7 from Apple, rath- day the replacement phones his wife now have bronchitis computer chips and high-end er than take his chances with were released. There had been and are being treated. He said smartphone displays. yet another Samsung Note. “At no problem with the original he doesn’t feel the company is The Note 7 isn’t Samsung’s this point, I don’t want to mess phone, he said. taking the situation seriously biggest seller. The company with it anymore.” “It’s very fortunate Abby was enough. sold 76 million smartphones Authorities haven’t con- not injured and was holding Commission officials and in the second quarter of 2016, firmed what model of Sam- the phone,” Zuis said. “If it was Samsung announced a formal most of them lower-priced sung phone was involved in last in her pocket, I think it would recall Sept. 15 after authorities models. Among higher-priced www.canadianinquirer.net
models, Bajarin estimated that Samsung sold well over 10 million Galaxy S7 phones, or four times as many as the Note 7, which has a digital stylus and other distinctive features. But Bajarin said he’s heard some independent manufacturers may cut production of cases and accessories for the Note 7, in light of slipping sales. He also suggested that some wireless carriers may be hesitant to promote the Note 7 heavily in their retail stores. As for Green, the Indiana businessman told The Associated Press that he had checked to make sure the phone he got on Sept. 21 had the packaging marks and a green battery indicator that Samsung said would show it wasn’t subject to the recall. “I don’t know what else you’re supposed to do,” he said. A photo of the phone’s packaging, which Green provided to The Associated Press, shows a black square on the label, which Samsung has said would indicate a non-defective phone. The label also has an identifying number that, when typed into Samsung’s recall website, returns a message that says, “Great News! Your device is NOT in the list of affected devices.” Green said he had no problems with the replacement until Oct. 5, when the smoke caused him to pull the device from the front pocket of his jeans. After authorities ordered everyone off the plane, Green said he later saw singe marks on his jeans. An airline representative said the phone scorched the carpet where Green left the device on the airplane floor. After speaking with authorities by phone last week, Green said he had an appointment to meet with them Monday. In a statement last week, Samsung said there was “no evidence that this incident is related to the new Note7.” Samsung and AT&T representatives didn’t respond Friday to a reporter’s questions about how a defective phone might have been provided as a replacement after the recall. ■ AP writers Tali Arbel, David Koenig and Marley Jay also contributed.
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FRIDAY OCTOBER 14, 2016
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Toronto activists take to the streets protesting 15 years of war in Afghanistan BY ARTEMIO BORBA “MARG BAR Amrika, zindabad Afghanistan — Death to America, long live Afghanistan,” chanted a crowd of protesters in Toronto October 7. The crowd, many identify as members of 15 Years of War Coalition, marched from Moss Park to Front Street carrying banners and an effigy of Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau with two missiles growing out from the forehead to look like horns. “In the spirit of internationalism, we occupy the streets to express our international solidarity to the people of Afghanistan!” the coalition said in a statement. The protesters were particularly concerned of further United States military invasion of Afghanistan. The Friday rally marked the fifteen years since the US began dropping bombs in the central Asian country, supported by allies including the United Kingdom and Canada after the September 11 attacks. Veronica, a member of the coalition, explained that Afghans including different ethnic groups unite in condemning not only the U.S. military but also the ongoing involvement of Canadian corporations and
non-governmental organizations in the “War on Terror.” The group also said “the war at home is connected to the war abroad” as Moss Park, the starting point of the rally and host to a Canadian military facility, is the site of local struggle against poverty with the escalating gentrification taking place. “This is a centre of homeless people in Canada,” said Barrie, a resident in the neighbourhood. “At the same time we share this space with a place that arms and trains young people to go to war with others. There is a cost. We could have housed almost all of the people in Canada with the monies that were used to go and take and invade Afghanistan,” added Barrie. Filipino activists also ex-
pressed support for the selfdetermination of the people of Afghanistan. “The roots of historical injustice and oppression are not lost among peoples and organizations seeking an end to the armed conflict in order to pave the way for just and lasting peace,” said Anakbayan Toronto. The Filipino youth group took account of Afghanistan in connection with the affairs in the Philippines, where there is a decades-old armed rebellion against foreign rule and domestic political regimes. “The Philippines is a resource-rich country but whose economy and society remain dictated by foreign interests including Canadian businesses
and mining companies,” said one of Anakbayan members as the march stopped by the front of Toronto-listed Kilo Goldmines. According to Sakura Saunders of Mining Injustice Solidarity Network, the company has interests to develop part of a massive Hajigak iron-ore deposit in the Afghan province of Bamiyan. Long-time organizer against war and racism Cristina Fernandez shared a big-picture perspective of the global trade relations. While Afghanistan remains one of the largest recipients of U.S. and Canadian economic aid, she said Canada has the second biggest in sales of weapons to the Middle East. “After 15 years of destruction
of Afghanistan, bombs are still falling. Occupation is still carried out. Mass killings are a daily occurrence...We need to be prepared, ready to denounce, to expose, to take the streets with our unified voices against this imperialist onslaught,” Fernandez said. “It is a life we fight for. It is life we ought to protect and defend for the thousands of children killed in Afghanistan,” added Fernandez. “Empires do fall and this imperialism is not here to stay.” With “ongoing revolutionary and grassroots movements that warrant our support here in Canada” the coalition called to revive the “strong legacy” of the anti-war movement since Afghanistan’s first invasion. ■
Trump, Clinton... aim seemed to be to distract the audience from the issue in a bid to rattle the Democratic candidate. On the immigration issue, Trump said Clinton “has really bad judgement”, criticizing her policies at a time when drugs are pouring through the borders “at a record clip.” “She should never be president,” Trump added. Attacking what she deemed as Trump’s divisive politics, Clinton said Trump’s policies of deporting illegal immigrants have given anxiety to children. Clinton suggested that foreign countries with a vendetta against the United States are trying to actively influence the elections in a bid to put Trump ❰❰ 20
in charge. “Maybe it’s because he (wants to do business) in Moscow,” Clinton suggested, referring to Russia’s alleged hacking activities against her campaign. Clinton also blasted Trump for living in “an alternative reality” when talking about Trump’s tax plan, which she said would have impact on large corporations and would raise taxes on middle class Americans. “He would send us back into a recession with his tax plan,” Clinton said. Trump described the nuclear deal Washington made with Tehran as the “dumbest deal ever in the history of deal making.” Clinton said that her cam-
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paign was about “issues, not insults.” But Trump shot back that Clinton has “tremendous hate in her heart.” When asked whether Trump has the discipline to be a good leader, Clinton answered a www.canadianinquirer.net
terse “no”, adding that it is not only she who believes this, but even members of Trump’s Republican party do so. Near the end of the debate, an audience member asked the candidates to name one posi-
tive aspect of the other, with Clinton saying she respects Trump’s children, adding that this says a lot about Trump himself. Trump said, “I will say this about Hillary — she doesn’t quit, she doesn’t give up. She’s a fighter.” Trump is believed to be desperate to mount a comeback in his campaign after losing his first debate and especially after the release of his lewd remarks about women. His campaign even invited several women accusers against Bill Clinton to this debate. But it remains to be seen if Trump’s combative performance in Sunday night’s debate could help close his widening gap with Clinton in the polls. ■
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Entertainment Boy Abunda on Kris Aquino’s transfer: She knows what she wants BY JANE MORALEDA Philippine Canadian Inquirer MANILA — Kapamilya host Boy Abunda supports former co-host and good friend Kris Aquino’s decision to have a new talent manager and leave home network ABS-CBN. He, however, preferred not to divulge any more details on the rumors. “Hindi ako nagsasalita dahil hindi pa nga nagsasalita si Kris, hindi pa nagsasalita si Tony (TAPE Inc. CEO and APT Entertainment executive Antonio Tuveria) …Hindi nagsasalita ’yung ibang taong relevant to this particular issue. Bakit naman ako mangunguna?” Abunda said in a report by PEP.ph. (I’m not yet addressing [the
rumors] because Kris hasn’t talked about it yet, Tony hasn’t talked about it yet as well… Other people relevant to this particular issue aren’t addressing it yet. Why should I be the first to talk about it?) The Tonight with Boy Abunda host asserted that all remained ‘okay’ between Aquino and him. He also remained mum on her supposed contract signing with Triple A, which was also owned by Tuviera. “She’s okay. I haven’t spoken to her in a couple of days but we are in touch. She’s Kris. She’s okay… May mga bagay kase na klarong gusting gawin ni Kris… Parati kong sinasabe she knows what she wants. She’s not making an easy decision,” he continued. “Si Kris, napaka-cerebral ng
proseso, nag-iisip kung ano ang susunod na gagawin. She knows what she wants… She’s maybe very careful, very cautious, but she’ll be okay.” (…There are things that Kris clearly wants to do… I always say that she knows what she wants. She’s not making an easy decision… Kris’s process is very cerebral; she thinks about what she’ll do next. She knows what she wants… She’s maybe very careful, very cautious, but she’ll be okay.) In a separate interview with Inquirer.net, Abunda also clarified that he still represented the actress-host when it comes to her endorsements. “Hindi naman kami naghiwalay… Wala kaming pagbabago sa aming relasyon ni Kris.
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Boy and Kris on the now-defunct A&A Tonight.
Kami pa rin. I still do her contracts. Walang nababago,” he explained. (We did not part ways…
SCREENSHOT
There’s no change in my relationship with Kris. We’re still together. I still do her contracts. Nothing changed.) ■
Entertainment
FRIDAY OCTOBER 14, 2016
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Jay Z, Serena Williams, Billy Bush under fire along Kendrick help Beyonce with Trump for lewd comments wrap up tour BY LYNN ELBER The Associated Press
BY MESFIN FEKADU The Associated Press EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. — Beyonce wrapped up her “Formation World Tour” with onstage assists from Kendrick Lamar, Serena Williams and Jay Z, whom she kissed passionately at the end of their performance before an audience of 80,000, including Hugh Jackman, Tyler Perry and Frank Ocean. Ballerina Misty Copeland and “Orange Is the New Black” stars Uzo Aduba and Danielle Brooks were also in the crowd Friday night at the MetLife Stadium in East Rutherford, New Jersey, as Beyonce sang and danced excitedly and energetically to songs from her six solo albums, including her latest effort, “Lemonade.” Jay Z earned loud roars when he joined his wife for “Drunk In Love,” making his first appearance on the top-grossing international stadium tour that kicked off in April in Miami. They were playful onstage and locked lips at the song’s end. Lamar matched some of Beyonce’s dance moves in a pool of water during “Freedom,” while Williams — who appears in the music video for “Sorry” — brought the clip to life by twerking onstage while Be-
Beyonce.
yonce sang the song. Jackman entered the floor section of the stadium with his actress-wife Deborra-Lee Furness as fans screamed “Wolverine” as well as the actor’s name. He posted selfies during the show, while Perry took photos with fans before he was escorted to his seat, which was also on the floor. Beyonce originally was supposed to perform at MetLife last month, but postponed the show to rest her voice. On the final night of her tour, she thanked her crew members, dancers, background singers and more for their work on the six-month tour. She also thanked her feverish fans for helping her live out her dreams onstage. “I have so much energy because of you guys feeding it to me. I really wanted to make this show special,” she told the crowd. “This is definitely my dream right here. I dreamt that I would be doing this and I’m actually doing it, and I could not be here without you and your support. “I wake up every morning I thank God to be able to do what I love and to be able to perform and entertain you guys,” she added. “So thank you for trusting me and allowing me to still be here 20 years (later). Thank you.” ■
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LOS ANGELES — First it was Ryan Lochte lying about being robbed in Rio, and now it’s Donald Trump’s startlingly lewd videotaped comments. For the second time in less than two months, TV personality Billy Bush is part of a major news story — but this time, he’s coming under fire. Although Bush was working for entertainment news show “Access Hollywood” when he and Trump exchanged crass, caught-on-video remarks about women in 2005, he’s now a cohost of NBC News’ “Today” and, observers say, may have violated standards of journalism as well as civility. At a minimum, the network should bar Bush from covering Trump and the presidential race, said Mark Feldstein, a former broadcast journalist and now a professor at the University of Maryland. If Bush failed to disclose the Trump exchange to his NBC News bosses, then more is demanded, he said. “If he actively covered up information that he knew would embarrass a presidential candidate,” that is a “firing offence” for a journalist whose job is to inform the public, Feldstein said. Even as a host on “Access Hollywood,” Bush should have known better, said Jonathan Handel, an entertainment industry lawyer and teacher at the University of Southern California’s Gould School of Law. “Someone in even a fauxjournalist position has a lot of power to influence attitudes and behaviour,” Handel said. “This isn’t so much about journalist ethics as it is the line between respectful behaviour and vulgar behaviour.” Bush should recuse himself from election coverage because it would be inappropriate to have him report on “a campaign where his attitude toward women and the candidate (Trump) is compromised,” he said. NBC did not respond Friday when asked whether the incident would affect Bush’s role on “Today,” which he’s had since August. He is co-host www.canadianinquirer.net
Billy Bush.
of the morning show’s third hour, which tends to focus on lighter stories. Bush’s interview with Lochte at Brazil’s Summer Olympics, in which the swimmer first claimed he was a crime victim, was an atypical news story for Bush. The Trump video, which immediately swamped media headlines and drew rare apologies from Trump, stemmed from a visit that he and Bush paid to a soap opera set a decade ago. In the video, which was first published by The Washington Post, Trump brags to Bush about kissing, groping and trying to have sex with women who were not his wife. Trump was apparently unaware that a live microphone caught the exchange. In a statement released by NBC News, Bush apologized Friday for his part in the encounter. “Obviously I’m embarrassed and ashamed. It’s no excuse, but this happened eleven years ago — I was younger, less mature, and acted foolishly in playing along. I’m very sorry,” he said. Bush, 44, has his own political connection: His father, Jonathan Bush, is the brother of former President George H.W. Bush. According to Billy Bush’s NBC News biography posted online, he earned a bachelor’s degree in international studies and government from Colby College in Maine. He and Trump spoke as the future Republican presidential candidate prepared to tape a cameo on the daytime soap “Days of Our Lives.” As they arrived at the studio, Bush spot-
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ted an actress, Arianne Zucker, who was to accompany them onto the set. “Sheesh, your girl’s hot as (expletive). In the purple,” Bush said, referring to the colour of Zucker’s dress. “Whoa, the Donald is good! Whoa, my man!” “I’ve gotta use some Tic Tacs, just in case I start kissing her,” Trump said. “You know, I’m automatically attracted to beautiful ... I just start kissing them. It’s like a magnet. Just kiss. I don’t even wait. And when you’re a star, they let you do it. You can do anything.” “Grab them by the p----. You can do anything,” Trump added. The two men then greet Zucker, and Bush plays matchmaker. “How about a little hug for the Donald?” he says to the actress, adding, “How about a little hug for the Bushy?” “Access Hollywood” said Friday its producers examined the show’s hundreds of Trump interviews following an Associated Press story earlier this week in which former cast and crew members of “The Apprentice” recounted lewd and sexist comments made by Trump. There were seven other people on the bus with Trump and Bush at the time, including “Access Hollywood” staffers, members of Trump’s staff and a bus driver. The crew left the bus to film Trump and Bush exiting it, but their microphones were left on recording their conversation. ■ AP Entertainment Writer Derrik J. Lang contributed to this report.
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Lifestyle How to stay sane when you and your spouse work at home BY KATHERINE ROTH The Associated Press BABY BOOMERS moving into semi-retirement or new careers often find themselves working at least some of the time from home — and maybe sharing the space with their spouse or significant other. That might entail more togetherness than a couple originally bargained for. Some delicate manoeuvring and careful planning, however, can maintain peace, productivity and personal space all at once. “It’s tough, and it definitely takes some figuring to make it work, but it can also be wonderful,” says Joy Parisi, co-founder and owner of Paragraph, a working space for writers in New York City. It’s one of many shared office spaces across the country. Some tips for couples who find themselves both working from home: Set physical boundaries
home, as does her spouse. “We each have our own offices at separate ends of the house and that definitely helps,” she says. Lori Leibovich, editor of RealSimple.com, says that if space is an issue, “designate separate office hours or take turns leaving the house.” “Ideally, though, there should be a wall between your workspaces,” she says. Other boundaries
Good fences — and separate phone lines — make good neighbours. “It’s OK to grab a coffee or lunch together, but approach it as though you were in an office, and draw those same lines of respect you would have for any other co-worker,” Hannon says. “And be sure you set up your technology so your home and office are separate entities and you don’t have to fight over a phone line. If you each have
day or week. If you’re in the same field, you can designate brainstorming time to plan for upcoming projects, Leibovich suggests. And if you’re in different fields, but would like to have some input from your partner on something, figure out what time of day will work best and won’t interrupt anything. Many work-at-home couples say that taking a walk at some point in the day to clear the air is very It’s like going to the gym to exercise. helpful, Hannon You could exercise at home, but if said.
“The most imyou get yourself to the gym, you portant thing is know you’re going to exercise. Create work-free to be very clear zones about each of It’s essential your office spacto have zones es and hours, eswhere you can pecially if you’re both going to your own cellphone and can re- focus on intimacy and leave be at home working at the same serve your land line for home, stress-causing topics behind, time,” says Kerry Hannon, a that helps a lot.” says Pepper Schwartz, a relamotivational speaker, AARP tionships expert with AARP’s jobs expert and author of “Get- Call a meeting… Life Reimagined, an online reting the Job You Want After 50 ... or take a walk. It helps to source to help people navigate for Dummies.” She works from discuss the game plan for the life transitions.
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“You need to be sure you make time and space for yourselves as a couple, and also time as individuals to do yoga or meet friends or do something for yourself, so you don’t end up working a 7-day week and feeling like you’ve lost yourself,” she says. Consider alternatives to home
Many people who work from home are turning to various kinds of shared workspaces. “Sometimes there are just too many distractions at home. It’s like going to the gym to exercise. You could exercise at home, but if you get yourself to the gym, you know you’re going to exercise,” says Parisi. Like many shared office spaces, her Paragraph is divided into quiet workspaces and a shared social area. Because it is specialized by field, Paragraph also sponsors readings and visits by agents. While some shared workspaces around the country
cater specifically to start-ups or other types of businesses, others are more general and welcome people from various fields. Compromise
“It’s important to make a policy about how you share the practical tasks or take care of the kids or walk the dogs,” says Schwartz. Hannon said she had to compromise at times when her husband set up his workspace at the dining-room table instead of in his home office. Parisi said she or her husband sometimes ended up heading off to Paragraph to work when doing so at home seemed too challenging. “Anecdotally, the whole economy is moving in this direction. We’re so plugged in now that even if you work from an office, you’ll end up doing some of your work from home,” Leibovich says. “It may take some creativity, and some compromises, to get it right.” ■
Lifestyle
FRIDAY OCTOBER 14, 2016
27
ASK A DESIGNER:
Transitioning outdoor spaces for fall BY MELISSA RAYWORTH The Associated Press OUTDOOR DECORATING often focuses on turning decks, patios and porches into summer destinations. But some people love their outdoor entertaining space even more when the weather turns colder. “Being outside with friends and family on a slightly chilly evening is about as good as it gets,” says Florida-based interior designer Andrew Howard. “I have a lot of great memories with drinks and good friends sitting around a fire. Often I don’t remember the weather, but more that we enjoyed each other’s company.” New York interior designer Young Huh agrees: “I love being outdoors as the air becomes crisp and cold,” she says. “The light seems brighter and glows more golden in the evenings.” We’ve asked Howard, Huh and Massachusetts-based designer Kristina Crestin for tips on the perfect mix of accessories, colours, scents and firelight to make an outdoor entertaining space fall-friendly. Small additions
Crestin has decorated her patio in Massachusetts in shades of turquoise and chartreuse, which look cool in summer. Then she easily updates the look for fall by adding throw blankets and other accessories in plum tones. The same concept works if you’ve got a crisp blue and white colour scheme outside: It looks nautical and cooling all summer long, but with the addition of throw blankets in
that are machine washable or easily replaceable, Crestin says. She also suggests looking for flexible seating options that are durable but also easy to relocate if guests want to move closer to a fire or cluster together in cooler weather. She uses ceramic stools that are “heavy enough that they’re not going to blow away” but are easy to lift. Firelight
Crestin has decorated her patio in Massachusetts in shades of turquoise and chartreuse, which look cool in summer..
navy and camel-colored fleece, or woolen plaids, the space feels right for fall. To make these transitions easier, keep a set of outdoor pillows specifically for colder weather, Huh says. Or change the pillow covers out for some warmer tones as the weather changes. Consider your current colour scheme, and then get creative. Huh suggests considering patterns like a brownand-white check, a tartan plaid in shades of brown, orange and cream, or even warm, orange polka dots. Fall plants can also change the space. Huh loves yellow, orange and red chrysanthemums in rustic baskets, and uses hay bales at different heights to create high and low displays for dahlias and chrysanthemums, dried corn, pumpkins and other items. Another powerful transformer: scented candles. Howard recommends them year-round; they can keep mosquitoes at
bay in summer, and scent the air in fall, winter and spring. Cinnamon, nutmeg, ginger and pine are great choices. Table accessories can also signal the transition of seasons: “Fall is the ultimate ‘eat outside’ season,” says Howard. Opt for table linens and dishware in fall colours that complement your outdoor table and chairs. Huh says touches like bowls of apples with walnuts and pecans can finish the look.
exposed to foreign policy and diplomacy, having been ensconced in Davao City all his life but thrown into the national scene all too suddenly. National security analyst Chester Cabalza said that the President “should clarify and define his foreign and security policies as he asserts the country’s own interests and direction.” “Although his intents for
independent foreign and security policies are sound and revolutionary, his approach of expressing it seems tactical that may lead to the misconstruction of his language,” Cabalza said, adding: “The Philippines under his tenure has the right to explore engagements and renew friendships with other big powers but an old ally should still be accorded with special attention.” ■
Furniture
If you’ll be buying any new outdoor furniture at end-ofsummer sales, look for pieces with thick, deep cushions. They “allow for more pillows and blankets,” Crestin says, and let you nestle deep into the cushions for warmth and comfort on cold nights. Another consideration when buying seat cushions and pillows for use in the fall: They might get sooty if they’re close to a fire pit, so choose items
If you’re... to take all sides. In the end, you will have to look at the perspective of differing, opposing views,” Villarin said. Villarin said the Duterte administration is likely to “implode” after the 100 days if it would continue with a “lack of coherence in policies.” Villarin, who is also from Davao, noted that President Duterte is not exactly a leader ❰❰ 10
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A fire pit is often the most crucial piece of an appealing outdoor space in colder weather. “I would rather have a fire and a great conversation than worry about pillows and changing them by season,” says Howard. Even in Florida, “I put in fire pits all the time.” Beyond warmth, a fire offers beauty and a focal point. “An outdoor fire is like nature’s TV,” says Huh. “Wood fires are mesmerizing to watch, smell good, and give us a wonderful sense of coziness and wellbeing.” A wide range of styles and sizes of fire pits are available. “I love a simple copper kettle fire
pit,” says Huh. “They look warm and lovely even in the daytime without a fire. Of course, if you can manage it, having a builtin stone fire pit can fit in both modern and traditional styles.” Fire pits don’t have to be large, says Howard. And the location can vary depending on your space and preference. “Ours is sunk into the patio” along the edge of the grass, says Crestin. Guests sit in chairs or stand nearby, or they can spread out a blanket on the grass nearby. Crestin recommends using colour bricks that you can throw in the fire to add colour to the flames. “They’re almost like a graham-cracker size,” she says. “It isn’t totally seasonal, but I find that we’re using those more in the fall.” And if you’d prefer not to light a fire or you’re seeking even more warmth, “outdoor heaters are a wonderful new invention,” Huh says. “Clustering a few around a seating area can really emit a warm and cozy feeling even on the chilliest fall evenings.” ■
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Cat women (and men) Felines choose their owners. Agree? BY CHECHE V. MORAL Philippine Daily Inquirer MY WHOLE family doesn’t understand what I see in them,” says Margarita Fores, as she lovingly looks over her litter of cat rescues, each having taken over a piece of furniture in the chef restaurateur’s Makati home, eyeing the strangers—this writer and the photographer—with much suspicion. Used to dogs that are, almost always, angling for a pat on the head, even from strangers, we approach to greet the four “Chinese emperors” — Pu Yi, Kuya or Ming Yi, Ping Yi and Pong Yi. Each one skitters away. One manages to scratch the photographer’s hand and draws blood when he steps too close to take a photo. Fores and her Araneta cousins grew up around dogs. Her maternal ancestral home, Bahay na Puti in Cubao, to this day, is filled with much-loved canines. Until the last couple of years, she had never taken care of felines, which are often aloof and mistrustful, the complete polar opposites of the affectionate dogs nurtured by her family. She took them off the streets, near her restaurants, by her home’s doorstep. “My family freaks out [around my cats]. My son doesn’t get it,” she adds with a laugh, cuddling Ming Yi, in the process covering her black tee in cat fur. Asia’s Best Female Chef of 2016 is used to it. Like other cat and dog lovers, she considers pet hair on her clothes a badge of pride and honor. Her home décor has also given way to kitschy cat knickknacks, gifts from friends. “They’re such a stress relief,” she says of her cats. “I’ve been spending more time at home because of them.”
much reluctance and incredulity. “I’m the sporty type. What would I do with a cat? I won’t be like a ‘cat lady!’” he told his manager, who gifted him Magnet, the alpha in his litter, about five years ago. Pretty soon, he was rescuing kittens off the streets, bringing them into his home to join his lone dog, Mojita, a Shih Tzu, who, he says, thinks she’s also a cat since she grew up with Magnet. He even adopted one in Boracay, who followed him to his resort-hotel while he was on birthday holiday last year; the hotel owner thoughtfully shipped Bory to him to Manila. “They’re like my children. Of course, like any parent, you have a favorite, but I try not to show them,” he says with a laugh. And like a doting parent, he describes each of his cats’ special and distinct qualities: Magnet flushes the toilet; Snowy “talks”; Missy the Persian is “minsan malambing, minsan masungit”; Fely is “grouchy”; Chiquito is “super malambing”; Bory, being a stray, has “no manners” and is his home’s wrecking ball who bullies the others. “Cats are calculated and moody,” he says. “But they’re very neat and clean. They’re also quite independent so they fit my busy lifestyle.”
Edwin’s love-hate
Cebu-based Edwin Ao grew up having a love-hate relationship with cats. With much irony, the fashion designer, who takes care of four Siamese and two Persian cats, used to “torture” strays when he was young, pulling their tails and driving them off his house’s roof. “Nanggigigil ako sa kanila!” In 2003, he bought a female Persian and a male Siamese in the naïve thought that they’d breed a Himalayan. They’ve since multiplied, their spawn Ao has gifted to designer friends Ivarluski Aseron, Joey Samson and Jojie Lloren. He spoils his six rotten. They’re “sobrang takaw” and are fed four times a day. In turn, the six are his “stress busters” who like to sit on his lap and sometimes sleep on his chest. “When I nap, they’re all waiting by the door when I get up. They’re smart and can open doors.” Marina’s ‘puspin’
Catwalk goddess Marina Benipayo, meanwhile, found Kitiket at her doorstep two and a half years ago, dirty and so skinny she thought the kitten would die. She brought the stray to the
Sau’s six
Another chef and longtime dog lover, Sau del Rosario, is under the spell of cats, all six of them. The way he gushes about his felines now, even he would never have foreseen a few years back. He took in his first kitten, a Himalayan, with www.canadianinquirer.net
vet, where it was nursed back to health. The veteran model decided to keep her, and has since made it her personal advocacy to have stray cats or puspin adopted. “She was just outside, and made a home in our hearts,” she says. “That’s why I encourage people to adopt because cats choose their owners. I had Labrador retrievers, but before Kitiket we didn’t have pets at home. I didn’t hate cats but I avoided them since I have asthma and allergies. I ended up loving one to learn to understand them.” Benipayo thinks Kitiket’s arrival was good timing, since she and actor-husband Ricardo Cepeda are now empty nesters. They take in strays, nurse them to health, then have them adopted. Cats, she says, don’t need as much active attention as a dog might, which suits the model just fine. “I’m also an introvert, so I think I fit the personality. Cats are quite chill. When we lose a stray even after it’s been treated at the vet’s, I cry really hard, because unlike humans, they’re helpless when they get
abused on the streets.” Anjie’s Ananda
Media and communication consultant Anjie Ureta gravitated toward cats while growing up, even as there were also dogs in her grandfather’s house. However, “I didn’t really have one that was truly mine until I moved out to my own place and was gifted with a lovely Siamese whom I named Ananda, meaning ‘bliss,’” Ureta says. “Ananda was my only home companion until she passed away last year at age 13… I cried for days! While I had started rescuing and caring for other felines by that time, she was my only indoor cat and I loved her very dearly.” In Ananda’s place are now several rescues she found “at different times and circumstances, but what is common is that they all needed care.” “Animals are not playthings or items you keep because they make you feel good,” she says. “If there’s any compelling reason I have gone out of my way to care for the ones that have been entrusted to me, it would be purely out of compassion… “When I decide to take in rescues, I also take full responsibility. I bring them to the vet and make sure that they are all vaccinated, spayed and/or neutered. They are also registered in my barangay and have collars with tags. Since they are outdoor cats, I make sure they have some safe, open space to roam. They particularly like hanging out in my garden and patio.” Ureta would rather not be classified under cat-loving stereotypes—independent and intelligent, but also introverted and standoffish, neurotic, and prone to worrying—“but I guess there is a logical reason you are attracted to certain kinds of pets more than others,” she says. “Much like the way you choose your friends, right? You like being in the company of people with whom you share qualities. I suppose it’s the same way with pets. So yes, if I were reborn as an animal with most of my present traits, I would most likely be a cat!” ■
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FRIDAY OCTOBER 14, 2016
Sports Italian Olympic Committee suspends Rome’s 2024 bid BY ANDREW DAMPF The Associated Press ROME — The Italian Olympic Committee is suspending Rome’s bid for the 2024 Games for the time being, while leaving open the possibility for a revival of the candidacy if there is a change in city government. CONI president Giovanni Malago said he wrote a letter to the International Olympic Committee on Tuesday to “interrupt the candidacy.” The move comes after Rome’s city council voted last month to withdraw support of the bid on the recommendation of Mayor Virginia Raggi. Rome’s withdrawal would leave only Los Angeles, Paris, and Budapest, Hungary, in the running for the 2024 Games. The IOC will select the host city in September 2017. It would also mark the second time in four years that a Rome bid has been withdrawn or interrupted. In 2012, then-premier Mario Monti scrapped the city’s bid for the 2020 Olympics because of financial concerns. Raggi, who represents the anti-establishment 5-Star Movement, said that taking on the
costs of an Olympic bid is “irresponsible” for a city struggling to emerge from years of corruption and poor public services. While Raggi wrote a letter to the IOC last month, IOC rules state that only the national Olympic committee can withdraw a candidacy. “Anybody can write to the IOC but the only letter that counts is the one from the president of the Olympic committee,” Malago said at a news conference. Since being elected in June as Rome’s first female mayor, Raggi has had a rough first few months in office. Her administration was thrown into chaos after she dismissed her Cabinet chief and four other officials resigned. Malago compared Rome’s situation to Vancouver’s withdrawal six months before the 1980 Winter Games were awarded to Lake Placid in 1976. Vancouver had to wait 30 years to host the 2010 Winter Games. “While it’s true that Canada had two games in the intervening years — Montreal (1976) and Calgary (1988) — I think Vancouver paid a big price for that decision,” Malago said. “Rome and Italy find themselves in a similar situation today.” Hoping to regain the trust of the IOC, Malago said that he
was offering up Milan as host of the IOC session in 2019. “This is the first step of Italy’s rehabilitation after this unacceptable interruption,” Malago said. “The other evening I had a chance to discuss this possibility with (IOC President) Thomas Bach and IOC general director Christophe De Kepper and there is ample support for this idea.” “This is a way to turn the page and move on,” Malago added. Still, the “interruption” of the bid is another signal that the IOC still has work to do to convince cities that hosting the games is a boon and not a burden. Last month, a city government panel in Tokyo warned that the cost of the 2020 Olympics could exceed $30 billion, more than four times the initial estimates. Voters in Hamburg rejected the German city’s 2024 bid in a referendum, and Boston dropped out last year amid a lack of public and political support and was replaced as the U.S. candidate by Los Angeles. Four cities withdrew during the bidding for the 2022 Winter Games, leaving only two candidates in the field. Beijing, hardly known as a winter sports destination, defeated Almaty, Kazakhstan. ■
Fil-Am netter Huey to compete in Shanghai Masters PHILIPPINES NEWS AGENCY MANILA — Filipino-American netter Treat Huey hopes to improve his doubles rankings when he teams up with Belarusian Max Mirnyi in the US-M Shanghai Rolex Masters which kicked off on Monday at the Qizhong Tennis Center in China. Mirnyi, who won the doubles title in 2011 with Canadian Daniel Nestor, is ranked No. 22 in the ITF doubles rankings. Huey, who is the world’s No. 22 doubles player, has represented the Philippines in the SEA Games and the Davis Cup, The seventh-seeded pair of Huey and Mirnyi got a firstround bye and will play against the winners between Chinese wild cards Gong Mao-Xin and Zhang Ze, and Americans John Isner and Jack Sock. British Jamie Murray and Brazilian Bruno Soares are the top seeds in the Shanghai Masters, which is of only nine ATP Masters 1000 tournaments in the world and the culmination
event of the Asian swing. The other seeds are No. 2 Bob Bryan and Mike Bryan of the United States, No. 3 Marcelo Melo of Brazil and Lukasz Kubot of Poland, No. 4 Feliciano Lopez and Marc Lopez of Spain, Raven Klaasen of South Africa and Rajeev Ram of the United States, No. 6 Rohan Bopanna of India and Daniel Nestor of Canada and No. 8 Robert Lindstedt of Sweden and Vasek Pospisil of Canada. In 2013, Huey and British Dominic Inglot reached the quarterfinals but lost to brothers Bob and Mike Bryan, 5-7, 6-7 (4). In 2012, Huey and partner Jonathan Marray of Great Britain absorbed a 6-7(9), 4-6 defeat from Indians Mahesh Bhupathi and Rohan Bopannain the round-of-16. The Shanghai Rolex Masters is one of the world’s biggest tennis tournaments and the only such tournament to be staged outside North America and Europe. Aside from cash prizes, the winners will receive trophies designed and created by world famous Royal Selangor Pewter. ■
Dumseng wins silver in world junior wushu tournament BY JEAN T. MALANUM Philippines News Agency MANILA — Aleca Breana Dumseng won the silver medal in the girls’ Qiangshu C event in the 6th World Junior Wushu Championships held on Sept. 29 to Oct. 3 at Mladost Sports Hall in Burgas City, Bulgaria. Dumseng, who hails from Baguio City, scored 8.65 points to finish second behind Chinese Wan Qiu Zhang, who won the
gold medal with 8.75 points. American Hannah Helena Huang registered 8.64 points to settle for the bronze. Dumseng, however, scored 8.09 points to finish 17th in the Changquan C event won by Singaporean Zi Yi Zoe Tan, who submitted 8.63 points. Iranian Nazanin Bazdar was second with 8.59 points while Hong Kong’s Tin Yan Tina Wang was third with 8.58 points. In other results, Agatha Chrystenzen Wong placed
fourth in the girls’ Taijiquan A (9.32) and Taijijian A (9.00) while Faith Liana Andaya was fifth in the girls’ Jianshu B (8.79), sixth in Qiangshu B (8.90) and ninth in Changquan B (8.58). The other members of Team Philippines were Joel Casem, Johnzenth Gajo, Adolph Apollos Aldovino, Sandrex Gainsan, Mark Lester Ragay, Kimberly Macuha, Zion Daraliay and coaches Jessie Aligaga, Ma Jingwei and Hao Zhang. www.canadianinquirer.net
Aleca Breana Dumseng.
Meanwhile, the Wushu Federation Philippines (WFP) will send a team to the 8th Sanda World Cup slated for Nov. 1-6 in Xian, China. The team will be spearheaded by Divine Wally, who earned the right to compete in the
@ALECABREANA.DUMSENG / FACEBOOK
World Cup after winning the gold medal in the 13th World Wushu Championships in Jakarta, Indonesia last year. She was a silver medalist in the 7th Asian Junior Championships and the SEA Games in Myanmar in 2013. ■
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OCTOBER 14, 2016
FRIDAY
Business Manufacturing sustains growth in August 2016
OPEC must enact cuts for sustained oil price rise, IEA says
PHILIPPINES NEWS AGENCY MANILA — Manufacturing sector output continued to grow in August 2016 due to sustained production of capital goods and growth in volume of exportoriented products, according to the National Economic and Development Authority (NEDA). “Manufacturing output sustaining positive growth despite the weak global economy is driven by the increase in new orders and sales volume as well as expansions of new manufacturing firms,” said NEDA Officer-in-Charge (OIC) and Deputy Director-General Rosemarie G. Edillon. In the Philippine Statistics Authority’s Monthly Integrated Survey of Selected Industries for August 2016, the Volume of Production Index (VoPI) grew by 13.5 percent. This is an improvement from the 2.2 percent growth in August 2015. “We expect the firms to remain in the expansion mode in the coming months due to the increase in their operating capacity and purchasing activities,” the NEDA official added. This VoPI growth also pushed the three-month moving average growth rate grew further at 11.8 percent, a sign of expansion and recovery of the sector from the relatively weak performance last year. Meanwhile, the Value of Production Index (VaPI) also grew by 8.4 percent, a turnaround
BY ANGELA CHARLTON The Associated Press
The Industry Development Council Executive Committee (IDC Excom) convened for a meeting to discuss strategies and action plans to fast-track the implementation of policies and measures that will further spur the development and strengthening of local industries. BEN BRIONES / PNA
from the 5.8 percent decline in August 2015. The three-month moving average grew by 7.0 percent. For consumer goods, food subsector recorded doubledigit growth in August, posting 11.1 percent and 13.3 percent growth rate in volume and value of production, respectively. These are improvements from the -14.5 and -14.8 percent growth rates last year. The beverages subsector also recorded 16.1 percent and 21.3 percent growth rate in volume and value of production. These are also improvements from -7.5 and 0.7 percent perfor-
F ill Unused Capacity C ash Savings B ill More Hours E xtra Income If you want new customers, more sales and are looking for ways to save cash, call First Canadian Barter Exchange. 604.759.3223 / info@barterfirst.com
mances last year. For intermediate goods, petroleum products subsector recorded 2.3-percent and -6.8-percents growth rate in volume and value production, also improvements from -6 and -28 in the same period last year. “In order to sustain and further boost the performance of the manufacturing sector, the implementation of support programs and projects especially in low-income and low-productivity areas must be continued and expanded,” said Edillon. Also, she added that increased investments in research and development activities must be prioritized. This is to enhance the productivity and competitiveness of local products and processes, especially from micro, small and medium enterprises. “What is important is that industries are able to produce quality goods and services at affordable prices, thus enabling more Filipinos to attain their aspiration, which is reflected in AmBisyon Natin 2040,” said Edillon. ■ www.canadianinquirer.net
PARIS — The International Energy Agency is urging OPEC countries to swiftly deliver on promised production cuts if they want to see a sustained increase in oil prices that will also help shore up their economies. In its monthly report Tuesday, the global watchdog said production from the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries hit a record high in September of 33.64 million barrels a day. Iraq produced more oil than ever, while Libya reopened oil ports. Further boosting global supply levels is the fact that production in non-OPEC member Russia hit a post-Soviet record. While supply is running high, the IEA said demand is slowing along with the global economy — a combination that could pressure oil prices. The IEA forecast that the market will remain oversupplied through mid-2017 if OPEC doesn’t enact last month’s pledge in Algeria to cut supply to between 32.5 and 33 million barrels per day. “OPEC has abandoned its free-market policy set in train nearly two years ago. Global oil inventories are far too high — in the view of some producers - and they aren’t being worked off nearly fast enough,” the IEA said. “The current price of oil has caused discomfort for all producers.” At last month’s meeting, OPEC countries said the specific details of the overall production cut would be ironed out at a meeting in Vienna Nov. 30. Timelines and country-bycountry breakdowns have still to be worked out, though Iran, Libya and Nigeria may be ex-
empt from the cuts for various reasons. “Now the real work starts,” the IEA said. It’s also unclear how much non-OPEC members, notably Russia, are willing to play along. Russian President Vladimir Putin intimated at a meeting in Istanbul on Monday that Russia was ready to support OPEC, which further buoyed oil prices. Oil prices are running near one-year highs following the pledge, having risen around 15 per cent over the past two weeks. In Tuesday morning trading, light profit-taking saw a barrel of benchmark New York crude fall 4 cents to $51.31 a barrel while Brent, the international standard, was down 18 cents at $52.96 a barrel. Though way up from earlier in the year, when they fell below $30 a barrel for the first time in more than a decade, oil prices remain well down on levels seen beforehand. In the summer of 2014, oil prices were trading above $100 a barrel but increased output from non-OPEC countries, particularly the U.S., created an oversupply in the market. Instead of cutting production, OPEC opted to pump at high volumes to maintain market share and, seemingly, to drive U.S. shale oil and gas producers, who have higher operating costs, out of business. Analysts said a failure to push through the planned cuts could well see oil prices sink again. “We still need to see if OPEC follow-through on their word though and there are still the all-important country-level quota details to hammer out which could have the potential to be a sticking point,” said Deutsche Bank strategist Jim Reid. ■
Business
FRIDAY OCTOBER 14, 2016
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US, Europe fray each other’s nerves with company crackdowns BY DAVID MCHUGH The Associated Press FRANKFURT — The U.S. is looking for multibillion dollar penalties from Germany’s biggest bank and its biggest carmaker. The European Union is demanding similarly large sums from America’s most valuable tech company, Apple. Both sides of the Atlantic appear to have become emboldened to crack down on big companies that are found to have misbehaved. Some analysts say it’s a sign that governments, several of which have elections looming, are feeling political pressure to act against corporate wrongdoers. But the crisscrossing crackdowns have also frayed nerves, especially in Germany, and led to dark talk about a tit-for-tat war in which the U.S. and EU target each other’s companies to gain trade advantage. In particular, the penalty of as much as $14 billion hanging over Deutsche Bank, Germany’s only bank of global significance, has put the German political and business elite on edge. “What we are going through are moves that are similar to a trade war,” said Peter Ramsauer, the chair of the German parliament’s economy committee. “In the U.S. there is a long tradition of using every occasion for conflict similar to a trade war, when it serves their own economic interests,” Ramsauer was quoted as saying by the Die Welt newspaper. “Connected with that are the extortionate demands for compensation, as we see in the Deutsche Bank case.” Deutsche Bank is among a group of banks that the U.S. government says sold dodgy mortgage-based bonds that helped trigger the 2007-8 financial crisis. But there are concerns that if the penalty is too big, the bank may have to raise new capital from investors or even need a government bailout. Chancellor Angela Merkel may be reluctant to approve such aid, which would also be a severe political embarrassment ahead of 2017 national elections. News of the potential fine on the bank followed by days a decision by the EU Commission’s demand that Apple repay $14.5 billion in what were ruled improper tax benefits from Ireland. That preceded a U.S. court deal to have Volkswagen pay $15 billion over its cars that cheated on diesel emissions tests. Volkswagen is in talks with the Justice Department that could lead to another financial penalty. The Apple case seems to have irked the U.S. authorities in part because the back tax that the tech company has to pay to Ireland would detract from a huge
sum of money — about $200 billion — that Apple keeps outside the U.S. and would be subject to U.S. taxation when repatriated. Apple and the Irish government are appealing. German finance ministry spokeswoman Friederike von Tiesenhausen, asked whether the large proposed fine against Deutsche Bank was retaliation for Apple, said, “I don’t share that assessment.” She added, however, that “the German government assumes that a fair result will be reached at the end of this process as well, on the basis of equal treatment” like that afforded U.S. banks. U.S. Justice Department officials declined to comment, as did those at the European Commission. EU Competition Commissioner Margrethe Vestager, who ruled against Apple, said that “I am absolutely certain that the decision on Deutsche Bank is built on the facts of the case and American legislation.” Guntram Wolff, head of the Bruegel think-tank in Brussels and a former official at Germany’s central bank, the Bundesbank, dismisses the tit-for-tat idea. “I think it’s one of those perfect theories that, unless you are actually in the minds of the people who did this, who took the decisions, is impossible to approve or disprove,” he said. “So it’s close to what I would call, can I say, conspiracy theories — it’s impossible to prove, but it’s also impossible to contradict it.” He said it’s much more likely that policy makers on both sides want to be seen as being tough on companies that are found to misbehave. “The elites are under pressure and the citizens are demanding change, and they demand it in a sort of indiscriminate way,” he said. “I think there is a perception among policy makers that it is related to issues of fairness, to issues of equity, to issues of perception, that the small guy pays, the big guy doesn’t pay.” U.S. officials have been seeking fines and compensation from big banks — not just Deutsche Bank — who were involved in creating and selling bonds backed by mortgages to people with shaky credit. The bonds, whose real level of risk may not have been apparent to many investors, went sour, spreading losses throughout the financial system and helping to spark the global financial crisis in 2007-08. Among the biggest settlements: JPMorgan Chase agreed to pay $13 billion, Citigroup $7 billion and Goldman Sachs $5.1 billion. Transatlantic crackdowns on big business didn’t start with Apple and Deutsche Bank. The EU competition regulators have taken on many — often U.S. — multinationals. Microsoft has struggled for years to address EU concerns that it was tying its own browser
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to its dominant Windows operating system and was fined 561 million euros in 2013. The European Commission has also gone after Google for allegedly abusing its dominant position in web searches and is investigating whether Amazon is rigging the market for e-book sales. The U.S. has already fined other big European banks, including HSBC for $1.9 billion in 2012 for allegedly helping launder money, including that of drug lords. But the size of the most recent fines and penalties seems to have grown. To the point that Deutsche Bank’s finances
were put in question when the U.S. settlement request was disclosed. Peter V. Kunz, dean of the law faculty at the Institute for Business Law in Bern, Switzerland, is among those who think the Deutsche Bank case represents a tit-for-tat action: “The Obama administration is aware that in Europe, this issue with Apple is not something that will be decided in a short period of time.” He said that the U.S. is looking to put pressure on the Europeans “by means of a legal attack. It’s clouded in a legal issue.” ■
How the New Federal Government Mortgage Rules Affect Homeowners on Oct 17th, 2016.
BY MYLENE LIM, AMP Mortgage Specialist ON October 3rd 2016, the Federal Government announced several new mortgage rules that will come into effect October 17th and November 30th, 2016. 1) New Qualifying rules for 5 years fixed terms Currently, borrowers opting for High Ratio insured mortgages (those with down payment of less than 20%) with variable rates and less than 5 years fixed terms are qualified at the 5-yr benchmark rate, which is currently at 4.64%. Borrowers opting for 5-year fixed rates are qualified based on the discounted rate they will be enjoying during their 5-year term. This could anywhere be from 2.30% to 2.90% or thereabouts depending on the strength of the application. As of Oct 17th, ALL High Ratio mortgage borrowers, even those opting for 5-yr fixed terms or longer, will need to qualify based on the 5-yr benchmark rate. Here’s an example: A borrower with an income of 80,000 going for a fixed term of 2.39% would have qualified for a mortgage of $475,000 under the old rules. With the new rules, the same borrower will only qualify for $375,000. This means that a borrower with a 5% down who previously would have been able to buy a property worth $500,000, will now be able to afford a max of $395,000 once the rule takes effect
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2) New Qualifying Rules for Low Ratio Mortgages On November 30th, 2016, new benchmark rate qualifying rules will come into effect for Low Ratio mortgages (those with down payment of more than 20%) which are back insured by government insurance and sold as Mortgage Backed Securities or through the Canadian Mortgage Bond. What this means is that if even if you are not paying for mortgage insurance through CMHC, GenWorth or Canada Guarantee, the same qualifying criteria may still apply to your low ratio mortgage. The new eligibility requirement will include: purchase and renewal of mortgages; maximum loan of 25 years instead of 30 or 35 years; minimum credit score of 600 at time of loan approval; debt servicing ratio of 39% and total debt servicing ratio of 44%, properties that will be owner-occupied. The changes listed above are just some of the federal government’s new rules and regulations on mortgages. It would be to your greatest advantage if you consult with a mortgage professional right away to determine how these new rules affect you now and in the future when you would need to renew or refinance your existing property. Do not wait until the last minute before you look into this as you might find yourself in a position where you would not qualify to get a mortgage. For more information, please feel free to contact me: Cel: 604 783 9097
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OCTOBER 14, 2016
FRIDAY
Technology How I got my Lola, 89, to play ‘Pokémon Go’ And all she caught was one Pidgey BY PAM PASTOR Philippine Daily Inquirer “LOLA, MAGPO-‘POKÉMON Go’ ka ha (Lola, please play Pokemon Go, okay?).” “Ano ’yun (What’s that)?” “You’ve never heard of it?” “I’ve heard of Pokémon but I don’t know what it is, I just know it’s a game.” “Well, you’re going to catch monsters.” “Pokémon Go” is a locationbased augmented reality mobile game that lets people find, capture and train virtual creatures known as Pokémon, characters that first became popular in the 1990s. Launched last July (it became available in the Philippines in August), the app has become a phenomenon in many countries, installed over 550 million times and earning $470 million in revenues less than three months after its release. While it has been praised for
being fun and for encouraging physical activity (players need to walk to hatch eggs and to explore their neighborhood to find more Pokémon), people have become so obsessed with the game that it has led to traffic accidents, a stampede in Taiwan and trespassing lawsuits. And now I was going to try to get Lola Charit, who is turning 89 in two weeks, hooked on it. Queen of spinning
When I was a kid, my grandma was never the game-playing type. She was active, sure, doing Jane Fonda exercises on Betamax and then doing them from memory when Betamax tapes became obsolete. She briskwalked like nobody’s business. She has an ancient exercise bike that she was still using until a few years ago, when her doctors told her she needed to slow down. Dude, she was the queen of spinning before people knew what spinning was. We spent and we spend a lot of time together—reading, eating, shopping, talking. Playing has just never been our thing. So what if she doesn’t usually play games? She’s cool. She can figure it out. Besides, she’s no stranger to mobile phones. We text each other like two giggly girlfriends, though she uses an old Nokia and has resisted the
lure of smart phones. She’s never used a touchscreen. I was going to have to ease her into the experience. My grand plan was to have a nice lunch at Din Tai Fung and see how many xiao long baos we can eat together before she started playing. (The answer: 20.) “You’ve never played any video games, right?” I asked her and she (and Megamall’s elevator attendant) looked at me like I was stupid. Of course not. “And you never bought any video games for Papa and his siblings?” I prodded her. “Wala pang computer noon. Ang hilig nila mag-barkada. ’Yung tatay mo ang galing galing dyan (There were no computers then. What they liked was to go out with friends. Your dad was one who was obsessed),” she said. My dad and my uncle Jun did turn out to be gamers. In the ’80s and ’90s, my brother and I had Family Computer battles with my dad (he was great at Contra and Galaga) and I remember afternoons and evenings spent watching my uncle play Prince of Persia on his clunky old desktop. But Lola Charit remained blissfully oblivious to it all, choosing to keep her nose buried in books and watch TV shows like “The West Wing” and “Ally McBeal” instead. But she was a child once, surely there were some games she liked? “Tumbang preso,” she said, smiling. And she talked about how she would go on vacation in Marikina with her brother Aling when she was around 10 or 11 and play hide-and-seek with other kids at night. “Mga salbahe ’yung mga ka-
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laro ko doon. Tinutukso nila ako. Gustong-gusto nila pag ako ’yung taya tapos uuwi na sila, magsisitulog na, tapos ako hanap nang hanap sa kanila. Sasabihin nung mga tao, ‘Charito, wala na sila, matulog ka na rin kaya.’ (My playmates were very rowdy. They teased me. They like it when I’m it then they go home, go to sleep, while I continue searching for them. People end up telling me ‘Charito, they’re gone, why don’t you sleep too?’)” “But what was the most modern game you played?” I asked, thinking she’d mention a board game. “Patintero,” she said. We both laughed. “Mga physical ’yung mga laro noon. Wala kaming ganyan (Our games were physical. We didn’t have [anything like that]).” It was the perfect segue to her first “Pokémon Go” session. I opened the app but kept getting the “GPS Signal Not Found” message. I glanced at Lola Charit and realized that she wasn’t even looking at the screen. “Heto ang (This is) H&M,” she said, “I want to see the clothes.” And so we went to H&Mand then to Uniqlo to look for pants. Distractions weren’t the only problem. This was a blindleading-theblind scenario because, you see, I’m not exactly a “Pokémon Go” pro either. When it first launched, I played the game for a few days, reaching only a pathetic level 4 before stopping, a fact the app reminds me of every time I try tapping on a Pokémon gym: “It looks like you don’t have much experience as a Pokémon Trainer yet. Come back when you’ve reached level 5!”
Jubilation
But I was determined to get my grandma to like this game. We exited Mega Fashion Hall in search of GPS but it was raining. This wasn’t going to work. I wasn’t about to make Lola Charit walk in the downpour just to catch some monsters. She was going to have to play “Pokémon Go” inside the car. I slid my finger across my phone screen, navigating through gyms I wasn’t ready for and Poke Stops that were too far away. “Why are there no creatures in sight?” I wondered. And then, I spotted it. A Pidgey! “Lola, hulihin mo yung ibon! Dali! (Catch the bird! Fast!)” I said, handing Lola Charit the phone. And she was tapping on the Poké Ball and tapping on the Poké Ball, but of course, nothing was happening. “Flick it,” I said, flicking the screen, letting one Poké Ball go to waste. So Lola Charit flicked and then said, while looking at the Pidgeyfree screen, “Nawala na (It’s gone)!” “You caught it! Yay!” I said in jubilation. She had captured a Pokémon on her first try! But I was alone in feeling triumphant. Lola Charit handed me back my phone, seemingly unimpressed by her natural Pokémon-catching skills. She was officially done with “Pokémon Go.” “Not my type siguro. I’d rather read. Honest,” she said. “Actually, I feel the same way,” I admitted. We rode in silence for a while. Then her eyes lit up and she turned to me. “Tic-tac-toe! ‘Yun, laro namin ’yun (There, that’s our game!)!” ■
Technology
FRIDAY OCTOBER 14, 2016
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Chinese regulator: Samsung recalls 191,000 Galaxy Note 7s BY GILLIAN WONG The Associated Press BEIJING — Samsung will recall all Galaxy Note 7 smartphones sold in mainland China, amounting to around 191,000 units, China’s product safety regulator said Tuesday, in another setback for the tech giant in the world’s largest smartphone market. Samsung’s move follows its discussions with the administration’s enforcement division and the launching of an investigation into defects, the General Administration of Quality Supervision, Inspection and Quarantine said in a statement on its website. There have been 20 incidents of overheating and combustion of Galaxy Note 7 units in China, the regulator
said. Samsung earlier blamed a battery problem for making the phones prone to catch fire. China was the only market excluded from Samsung’s first recall of Galaxy Note 7s. The company came under fire after it went ahead with launching the Galaxy Note 7 phone in China, saying that the smartphones sold there did not use the same batteries as other countries. Samsung will either provide a full refund at the original price or replace Note 7 units with any other model of Samsung phone. Those who take the second option will receive a refund for the difference in prices between the products, along with a 300 yuan ($45) voucher. The regulator also said Samsung’s China unit on Monday
stopped the production and sale of the Galaxy Note 7 for consumer safety reasons. Samsung announced late Tuesday that it was discontinuing all manufacturing of the devices. Samsung’s brand has already been battered by complaints it is doing too little to reassure Chinese owners their handsets are safe. Initially, Samsung had said in September that the Note 7s sold in China would not be affected because their batteries came from a different supplier, ATL. Samsung recalled 1,858 Note 7 phones in China in September, saying they were distributed for testing before sales to the public began on Sept. 1. The latest recalls will disrupt Samsung’s efforts to use the Note 7 to propel faster
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growth in a crowded Chinese market where it has slipped to sixth place after being the No. 1 brand as recently as mid-2014. It trails market leader Huawei
Technology Ltd. and three other local brands — Vivo, Xiaomi and Oppo. Apple Inc.’s iPhone was in fifth place in the first half of this year. ■
Shared workspaces hit the Indian startup scene BY RISHABH JAIN The Associated Press NEW DELHI — Every weekend, the partiers flood into a New Delhi restaurant and dance club called Social, a three-story destination on the edge of Hauz Khas Village, one of the city’s most popular nightlife neighbourhoods. After nightfall, the bar is busy and the dance floor is full. The lines regularly stretch out into the street. The dancing goes on until 1 a.m. But just a few hours later, the watering hole will be clean, the tables will be cleared of silverware and plates and the nightclub will have been transformed into a cozy office where no one gets fired for drinking at work. Everyone shares desks at Social: photographers, designers, journalists, software programmers. They bounce ideas off one another, hire one another and collaborate to expand their businesses. Everyone is either a freelancer or working for a small startup. As India emerges as one of the biggest markets in the world for tech-based startups,
workspaces are transforming dom, according to The National restaurants. There are now 14 from traditional and hierarchi- Association of Software and Social outlets across India, all cal to relaxed and bar-like. Services Companies, or NASS- of them also co-working spaces. “It’s the millennial person- COM, an Indian industry re“Increasingly, offices started ality,” says 29-year-old Dinsa search company. becoming more like cafes, right? Sachan, a freelance journalist Foreign-based investors Google, Yahoo, Facebook, Twitwho works out of Social. “Peo- are opening their coffers, and ter,” the 41-year-old says. “If ple don’t want to bow down now comprise most of the you get into a traditional office to random bosses in their of- money being pumped into In- environment, you know, it’s all fices. They are seeking more dian startups, NASSCOM says. very cut-and-dried. It’s all very meaningful work. So, I think Funding for Indian startups is hierarchal. Your importance co-working spaces are like a growing at more than 125 per is measured by the amount of melting pot for individuals like cent a year, with an additional square-foot” your office has. these.” $700 million estimated to be The co-working spaces are The first co-working offices invested before February 2017, also very young places. began springing Most Indian up in India about startups are crethree years ago. ated by people Today, there are under age 28 at least a dozen Our heroes were rebels and rock-andwho often canin New Delhi — rollers, and the millennials’ heroes not afford skythough Social is are people like Mark Zuckerberg, and rocketing rents the only one that Elon Musk, and people who want to in big-city office also functions change the world with an app. districts. as a restaurant Membership — with simifees at most Inlar numbers in dian shared ofMumbai, Bangalore and Hyder- according to a 2016 report by fices are usually less than $100 abad, where most Indian start- InnoVen Capital, an Asian ven- per month. They also come ups are based. ture capital firm. with free access to networkWith more than 4,200 new Riyaaz Amlani, the owner of ing events, investors’ confertechnology companies, mostly Social and a powerful force in ences and even parties. At Sophone apps or websites, by the the changing Indian restaurant cial, members also get lockers, end of last year, India now has scene, said he noticed a demand free internet and can redeem the third-largest startup in- for cheap office space in prime their monthly fees for food and dustry in the world, behind the New Delhi locations and de- drinks. United States and United King- cided on a fluid concept for his Rishi Jalan, a 25-year-old www.canadianinquirer.net
who started a sports management company for student athletes two years ago, said the free flow of ideas and inspiration is one of the top reasons people choose to work at a shared office space. “I know so many of my friends who actually went to a co-working space and found their co-founders,” says the Cornell University graduate. “Everyone, I feel, in these kind of co-working spaces in Delhi, is a guy who’s motivated. Firstly, because you have to do that if you’re an entrepreneur. And secondly, they’re all ready to share their ideas.” Like Jalan, many young Indians are moving away from traditional low-paying, entry-level jobs and want to do something of their own. “In my day, we didn’t have this opportunity available to us,” says Amlani, the Social owner. “Our heroes were rebels and rock-and-rollers, and the millennials’ heroes are people like Mark Zuckerberg, and Elon Musk, and people who want to change the world with an app,” he said. “They’re blazing their own trail. And that’s amazing. And we’re just happy to facilitate it in a very small way.” ■
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Travel Customers use smartphones to take photo of a kitten at Caturday Cat Cafe, Ratchathewi. OATJO / SHUTTERSTOCK.COM
A BIT WILD:
Asian animal cafes go from mere cats to meerkats BY MARTHA MENDOZA AND NATNICHA CHUWIRUCH The Associated Press BANGKOK — Cat cafes where customers sip lattes while petting resident kitties are just opening their doors around the U.S. and Europe. But in Asia, where the first one opened more than a decade ago, the concept has moved well beyond felines. At Tokyo’s Snake Center, visitors pay 1,100 yen (about $11) for a cup of coffee and a slithery friend to wind around their arm; a plate of curry bread snacks or a really big snake costs extra. At We Are The Furballs (WTF) in Singapore, Mochi and her puppy pals yap at ankles and occupy guests’ laps for peaceful dognaps. And at Little Zoo Cafe in Bangkok, meerkats, raccoons and little foxes with the softest ears imaginable can be cuddled near plates of crepes and French fries. Some sell the animals, or offer them for adoption. Others
invite customers to bring their pets, or just offer encounters with creatures — from penguins to hedgehogs. “I wanted there to be a place where people can come learn about the animals,” said Wachiraporn Arampibulphol, who opened an exotic animal cafe in Bangkok a year ago after visiting an owl cafe in Tokyo. Snuggling Jelly, a blond fox, Wachiraporn said she used to import chinchillas, meerkats and other exotic pets, but worried that owners bought them impulsively and then abused them or let them collapse and die in Thailand’s heat. She said customers at her Little Zoo Cafe get a reality check when they’re so close to the animals; she’s only sold a half dozen this year. “When you see pictures and photos of these animals, you see their cuteness,” she said. “But people don’t think about what the animal would smell like or how actually raising one would be.” Indeed, a musky odour floated above two red foxes — Mocha and Cappuccino — as they boisterously wrestled and skittered
around customers’ legs. Nearby, Nuttida Chaloembun, 23, from Bangkok, watched a waitress grapple with Cracker, a 25-pound raccoon, who chattered and swatted her away with little hand-like paws. “It’s fat and really adorable but it won’t let me touch it,” laughed Nuttida. Shirley Chaifong came to the Little Zoo Cafe all the way from Malaysia after seeing photos of meerkats on Instagram. But it was the tail-wagging corgi, an uncommon breed in Asia, she fell for. “It’s a great way to see the animals,” she said, her hands running through his fur. After a cat cafe opened in the San Francisco Bay Area in 2014 the concept quickly spread to more than 20 American cities, from New York to Los Angeles, and many more are planned. They’re also popular in Europe, with recent openings in Netherlands, Finland and Italy. The Cat Flower Cafe in Taipei, Taiwan, took credit as the first-ever cat cafe when it opened in 1998, although some aficionados say cats meandered through a Viennese cafe alwww.canadianinquirer.net
most a century earlier. The real boom began in 2005 in Japan, where few apartments allow pets. There are now more than 100 cat cafes listed in Japan, 50 in Tokyo alone. But new goat-, rabbit- and bird-themed eateries now offer competition. American and European cat cafes have stringent health and safety regulations that sometimes ban actually petting animals, or require cats to remain well separated from food. Most are affiliated with local humane societies or rescue shelters. In many Asian countries, where there are fewer hygiene rules in restaurants and pets can be bought in street markets, animal rights activists say the cafes are cruel. “These animals often become despondent and develop neurotic and self-destructive behaviour,” said Jason Baker at People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals’ international campaigns office. “I don’t know why anyone would want to eat a meal surrounded by animals who are imprisoned in cages and pens that are tiny fractions of the size of their homes in the wild.” But cafe owners say they’re
trying to help the animals by allowing people to safely and compassionately interact. Tokyo Snake Center cafe manager Hisamitsu Kaneko said visitors can gain new appreciation of their oft-maligned reptiles. “People have biases, or preconceptions about snakes, that they’re disgusting or scary,” said Kaneko, whose customers choose from about 60 snakes. “I think there are no animals as beautiful.” At Bangkok’s TrueLove @ Neverland cafe, more than a dozen imported and bred huskies were panting — if calm — as they lounged for an hour outside on a humid 35-degree C (95-degree F) day, chewing ice cubes and carrots while visitors marveled at their thick fur. At the end of a one-hour dog encounter, customers peeled off plastic foot covers, sanitized their hands, checked their husky-selfies and climbed into waiting tuk-tuk rickshaws. Barking and yipping, the dogs dashed en masse into their airconditioned quarters to rest up and eat before their next human visitors. ■
Travel
FRIDAY OCTOBER 14, 2016
Halloween attractions: virtual reality and interaction
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Theme parks like Disneyland (left) and Six Flags (bottom) have Halloween specials. KIT LEONG AND KOTSOVOLOS PANAGIOTIS / SHUTTERSTOCK.COM
BY BETH J. HARPAZ The Associated Press VIRTUAL REALITY, spooky Airbnb rentals and the start of a final season for Disneyland’s Twilight Zone of Terror are all part of this Halloween’s freaky fun. Here’s a sample of what’s happening around the country. Check with individual venues for dates, times, prices and ages. Disney
It’s the final Halloween season for Twilight Zone of Terror at Disneyland in Anaheim, California. If you visit after twilight, you’ll get a chance to free fall in the haunted elevator shaft in total darkness. The tower closes for good Jan. 2. Also at Disneyland this season is the “Frightfully Fun Parade” at Mickey’s Halloween Party, featuring grinning ghosts, Disney villains and the headless horseman from Sleepy Hollow. Two other attractions have been given holiday makeovers: Space Mountain is Space Mountain Ghost Galaxy and Haunted Mansion is now Haunted Mansion Holiday, combining themes from Halloween and Christmas. In addition, there’s a giant Mickey Mouse jack-’o-lantern on the theme park’s Main Street, U.S.A., and the Mexican “Dia de los Muertos” tradition is celebrated with a skeleton display in Frontierland, near Rancho del Zocalo restaurant. In Lake Buena Vista, Florida, Walt Disney World hosts Mickey’s Not-SoScary Halloween Party, Mickey’s BooTo-You Halloween Parade and a greenand-orange fireworks display called HalloWishes. Universal
Halloween Horror Nights at Universal Studios Hollywood in Los Angeles include the transformation of the theme park’s famous tram ride into a “Terror Tram,” themed on the story of a celebrity clown turned murderer, created by horror-genre filmmaker Eli Roth. The Hollywood park also features a “Walking Dead” attraction that opened this past summer. New for Halloween at Universal Orlando Resort is The Repository, a virtual reality experience in which participants undo an ancient curse by following clues through rooms in an old warehouse. Halloween Horror Nights at Universal parks on both coasts also feature haunted houses, scare zones and freaky mazes. Many attractions are themed on horror films like “The Exorcist” and “The Texas Chain Saw Massacre.”
Zombies, virtual reality and more
According to the Haunted Attraction Association, technology and interactive experiences are playing a bigger role in Halloween than ever before, with escape rooms, virtual reality monsters and zombie battles. It’s Fright Fest season at Six Flags parks. At Six Flags Over Georgia in Austell, Georgia, in addition to mazes, scare zones and more than 400 zombies and monsters, guests can don VR headsets to experience an interactive virtual reality roller coaster, Rage of the Gargoyles at Dare Devil Dive, that includes a simulated helicopter ride and a futuristic battle with gargoyles. At Eastern State Penitentiary in Philadelphia, the “Terror Behind the Walls” attraction challenges guests to become part of the story of escaping what was once an actual prison. Guests can either explore the prison and watch, or they can mark themselves for interaction with the freaky prisoners. At Creepy Hollow Haunted House outside Houston, guests can play a virtual reality zombie first-person shooter game wearing VR headsets. The Fear Factory in Salt Lake City offers a VR haunted house. Lake EERIE Fear Fest at Ghostly Manor Thrill Center in Sandusky, Ohio, offers five haunted houses including “The Haunted Mine Ride,” a motion-theatre experience using VR technology to create a roller coaster with 4-D effects. Derailed Haunted House in Ramer, Tennessee, is offering a new technology that lets users control colours, flickers and strobe lighting they see. Zombie laser tag is part of Shocktoberfest in Sinking Spring, Pennsylvania. In Pittsburgh, at “The Basement” at the Scarehouse, guests 18 years and older must sign a waiver allowing themselves to be touched, restrained and blindfolded. For those who don’t mind being scared silly all night, the Wisconsin Fear Grounds in Waukesha are offering an overnight event called “Night Terrors: 13 Hours of FEAR!” on Oct. 8, complete
with tents, fright trail, bonfire ghost stories and scary movies. Nashville Nightmare in Tennessee is offering Night Terrors Haunted House, billed as “an industrial horror complex.”
including what the museum describes as dramatic lighting, shadows, off-kilter framing and distorted perspectives. Classics explored in the show include “The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari” and the murder mystery “M.”
Haunted Screens
If you prefer Halloween with an artsy veneer, the Milwaukee Art Museum is hosting a show called “Haunted Screens: German Cinema in the 1920s.” The travelling exhibition, opening Oct. 21, looks at a groundbreaking period in filmmaking during the Weimar era in Germany after World War I. The display of art and artifacts from the Expressionist movement includes set design drawings, photos, posters, documents, equipment and film clips. The esthetic is very much in keeping with Halloween sensibilities,
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Airbnb
Airbnb hosts are offering some spooky accommodations for Halloween. Listings include a 600-year-old dwelling in Yorkshire, England, billed as a “madness chamber”; a rental in New Orleans’ Parks-Bowman Mansion that the owners advertise as “The Haunted Bedroom”; and a Victorian home in the “Haunted Castle House” in Brumley, Missouri, that cheerfully claims to have more than “a century of paranormal activity.” ■
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Food The secret to great tofu is all in the pressing BY SARA MOULTON The Associated Press MY MOM started travelling abroad when I was in high school. And after each of her trips, we cooked a meal from the country she’d just visited. It was after her trip to Italy that I became a huge fan of veal. Veal, of course, is notoriously bland, so what’s the appeal? I love it because it functions mostly as a firm landing strip for the delicious sauce of your choice, and I’m a nut for sauces. Made from soybeans, water and a coagulant, tofu is notably healthy — low in calories, devoid of saturated fat and a great source of protein, calcium and iron. But there’s the little matter of tofu’s flabby texture and its flavour (or lack thereof), which is why I’ve always shied away from the stuff. The first step is to lose the ex-
cess water in tofu, which will — Duh! — water down your dish. So you force out the excess water by putting a weighted plate on top of the tofu and let it press and drain for about 30 minutes. The tofu becomes firmer and less watery the longer you press it. This also ensures that when you cook it, the tofu will have a springy texture and a crispy exterior. The crispy slices of tofu are a wonderful foil for this recipe’s intense chili-orange sauce. The sauce is complemented with broccoli and red pepper. Serve it on brown rice and you’re looking at a one-dish meal, light but filling. My husband, a die-hard carnivore, had no idea that this was a healthy vegetarian dish. He just scarfed it down and said thank you. Sauteed tofu with broccoli and red peppers in chili-orange sauce
Start to finish: 1 hour 15 minutes Servings: 4 • 14-ounce package extra-firm water-packed tofu • 1/4 cup fresh orange juice • 1/4 cup water • 2 tablespoons hoisin • 1 tablespoon soy sauce • 2 tablespoons chili-garlic sauce • 1 tablespoon cornstarch • 1/2 teaspoon sesame oil • 4 tablespoons vegetable oil, divided • 1 red bell pepper, cored and cut into thin strips • 6 cups medium broccoli florets, blanched until crisptender, then drained • 2 teaspoons minced fresh ginger • 2 teaspoons minced garlic • Brown rice, cooked, to serve • Toasted cashews, to garnish
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Cut the block of tofu in half horizontally to create 2 thick slabs. Wrap each slab in a clean kitchen towel and place on a plate. Place a second plate on top of the tofu, then weigh it down with several heavy cans. Press in this manner for 30 minutes to drain water from the tofu and firm it up. Unwrap the tofu and cut each slab into 1/2-inch pieces. Set aside. In a medium bowl, whisk together the orange juice, water, hoisin, soy sauce, chili-garlic sauce, cornstarch and sesame oil. Set aside. In a large nonstick or stickresistant skillet over mediumhigh, heat 1 1/2 tablespoons of the vegetable oil. Add half of the tofu pieces, sprinkle with salt, then cook, stirring occasionally, until golden brown on all sides, 8 to 10 minutes. Use a slotted spoon to transfer the tofu to a medium bowl. Repeat with an-
other 1 1/2 tablespoons of oil and the remaining tofu. Return the skillet to the heat and add the remaining 1 tablespoon of oil. Add the red pepper and cook, stirring, until it is almost tender, about 3 minutes. Add the broccoli and cook for 2 minutes. Add the ginger and garlic and cook, stirring, for 1 minute. Whisk the sauce in the bowl to make certain the cornstarch is dissolved, then add to the skillet, whisking. Bring to a boil to thicken, then add the tofu and cook just until heated through. Arrange a mound of rice on each of 4 serving plates, then top with the tofu mixture and cashews. Nutrition information per serving: 490 calories; 230 calories from fat (47 per cent of total calories); 26 g fat (3 g saturated; 0 g trans fats); 0 mg cholesterol; 49 g carbohydrate; 8 g fiber; 8 g sugar; 18 g protein; 580 mg sodium.
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OCTOBER 14, 2016
CANADA
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