Philippine Canadian Inquirer #251

CANADA’S FIRST AND ONLY NATIONWIDE FILIPINO-CANADIAN NEWSPAPER JANUARY 13, 2017

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VOL. 1 NO. 251

DU30: LONG LIVE RUSSIA

GOODWILL VISIT President Duterte flashes his signature clenched-fist sign with Russian Navy officials and members of his Cabinet after touring the visiting Russian ship Admiral Tributs on Friday.

JOAN BONDOC / PDI

Russia to broaden PH support system, says palace

BY LEILA B. SALAVERRIA Philippine Daily Inquirer THE PHILIPPINES has broken away from the idea that it could only rely on one particular country to help in its security, Malacañang said yesterday following President Duterte’s call for Russia to be the country’s ally and protector.

Mr. Duterte also said on Friday that

he hoped the Russian Navy could come back more often to the Philippines, as he toured one of its warships that had docked in Manila for a goodwill visit.

“What we’re saying is there has been, in a sense, a break from our mentality that our source of security comes only from one particular country,” the President’s spokesperson Ernesto Abella said

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Pres. Duterte OKs PHP1,000 SSS pension, contribution hike

17 Traslacion 2017: No crime incident, few devotee injuries, better post-event cleanup ❱❱ PAGE 5

❱❱ PAGE 10 Russia to

Victoria faces property shortages while more move in for lifestyle change

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Philippine News

FRIDAY JANUARY 13, 2017

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DOJ Secretary rejects Sen. De Lima proposal to probe BI bribery scandal PHILIPPINES NEWS AGENCY MANILA — Department of Justice (DOJ) Secretary Vitaliano Aguirre II on Tuesday said there is no need to conduct a Senate inquiry into the alleged bribery attempt by Chinese businessman Jack Lam to some officials of the Bureau of Immigration (BI) in exchange for the release of 1,316 Chinese workers arrested in illegal online casinos at the Clark Freeport in Pampanga.

This was the comment of Aguirre after Senator Leila de Lima filed under Senate Resolution No. 258, urging the Senate Blue Ribbon Committee to inquire into the bribery scandal that has plagued the BI. Aguirre said De Lima has the right to file but various of government agencies including the DOJ, BI, National Bureau of In-

vestigation (NBI) and Office of the Ombudsman are investigating the incident.

He noted De Lima should focus on the cases filed against her since there are cases also filed at the Office of the Ombudsman against the two former BI Deputy Commissioners.

“She (De Lima) has the right to file resolution pero dami na nag-investigate DOJ, NBI, BI (and) Ombudsman. Dapat magfocus siya sa kaso niya, no need na, sobra sobra na (cases filed).

Hayaan na lang Ombudsman,” he told reporters in a press conference.

He also said that if De Lima pushes for a Senate inquiry, she should explain and justify the need for it and cite what specific legislation she intends to pursue out of the controversy.

Reports showed that the BI officials received five paper bags allegedly containing

Php10 million each (a total of Php50 million), from Lam’s middleman, former police officer Wally Sombero, at the City of Dreams hotel and casino in Paranaque City, which was caught on CCTV. Aguirre also believes that a Senate inquiry would just put “political colors” to the extortion issue and that Sen. de Lima’s proposal seemed to be a mere “retaliation” to the string of drug trafficking and graft charges filed against her by the NBI over her alleged involvement in illegal drug trade.

Meanwhile, Aguirre said the NBI is still conducting its probe on the extortion scandal and has summoned Argosino and Robles, as well as BI commissioner Jaime Morente, dismissed BI intelligence chief Charles Calima Jr., and former police chief superintendent Wally Sombero, who supposedly served as Lam’s middleman.

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Argosino, Robles and Calima have all been dismissed from the BI. They surrendered the Php30 million and Php18 million cash they respectively received from Sombero, who also surrendered Php2 million.

Calima has filed plunder charges against Argosino and

Robles before the Office of the Ombudsman. Argosino and Robles, on the other hand, filed criminal charges of corruption of public officials and violation of anti-wiretapping law before the Parañaque prosecutor’s office against Calima, Sombero and Lam. ■

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Pres. Duterte OKs PHP1,000 SSS pension hike, contribution increase PHILIPPINES NEWS AGENCY MANILA — President Rodrigo Duterte has approved a pension hike for Social Security System (SSS) members along with a corresponding increase in contributions, Palace and SSS officials said Tuesday.

In a press briefing in Malacañang, Presidential Spokesperson Ernesto Abella said the President has approved a PHP1,000 increase for SSS pensioners starting this month.Duterte also approved a 1.5 percent increase in SSS contributions to be implemented starting May 2017 and an increase in monthly salary credit to PHP20,000 from PHP16,000.

“The contribution increase would raise the contribution rate to 12.5 percent from the current 11 percent, bringing the contribution range from PHP15 to PHP740,” Abella said.

The Palace official said that President Duterte approved the measures as he seeks to fulfill a social contract with the Filipino people, especially the elderly and the poor who gave the best years of their lives in service, “while exercising fiscal responsibility to sustain the economic sustainability and protect the gains made by those who have prudently invested in the nation’s future.”

“As the President has emphasized, he is the President of an entire nation and not just a particular social class. In this regard, the funds covering the in-

crease will be through current contributions and investment reserved fund,” he said.

“The President is not amenable to using taxpayers’ money to fund pension increase since the SSS is a private pension fund,” Abella said.

But even with the thousand peso increase, Abella said the Fund life will continue until 2040 by May 2017 when the contribution rate and increase in monthly salary credit is implemented.

In the meantime, SSS chair- President Rodrigo Roa Duterte makes his way to the interior of 'Admiral Tributs', a Russian warship docked at Pier 15 of man Amado Valdez said that the Port Area in Manila.

KING RODRIGUEZ / PRESIDENTIAL PHOTO / PNA while only PHP1,000 pension hike was approved for this month, half of the PHP2,000 Among the reforms being dination with the Department the increase. package being asked would be instituted to ensure sustain- of Justice and the creation of “A slight delay is expected as given by 2022 at the latest. ability of the Fund include legal additional branch legal depart- we only learned of the approved He also clarified that the 1.5 action plans to reduce contri- ments among others. hike Monday night and there percent hike in contributions bution delinquency and Execu“You will see in the following will be some re-computations,” would be on a yearly basis until tive interventions needed to days cases to be filed against he said. the contribution rate reaches improve collections through erring employers. There will be He said that they are also apthe threshold of 17 percent the issuance of an Executive some contempt charges against pealing to President Duterte to which was the rate approved Order. employers who do not respond issue an EO that will mandate by the country’s to the summons all business entities doing busieconomic manof the court be- ness with the government to agers. cause the Fund produce an SSS clearance beValdez said is a social protec- fore a contract would be awardthat the 17 perThis (SSS contribution remittance) is tion,” he said. ed to them. cent rate contrian obligation under the law. Actually, “This (SSS An SSS clearance should also bution could also it’s not just an obligation under the contribution re- be required for those who are be lessened once law; it is a moral obligation because mittance) is an applying for and renewing a internal reforms you are building social protection. obligation under business permit as well as those are successful. the law. Actu- who would be renewing their “Depending ally, it’s not just Professional Regulatory Comon the results of an obligation un- mission (PRC) licenses among the internal reder the law; it is others. forms that are being presently The legal action plans in- a moral obligation because you “This would ensure that busiinstituted, we can give the re- clude the intensified legal col- are building social protection,” nesses and businessmen are maining PHP1,000 as early as lection on referred delinquent Valdez said. regularly remitting the SSS 2018 and we could also stop the and non-compliant employers; Meanwhile, SSS president contributions of their employ1.5 percent yearly contribution aggressive prosecution, settle- Emmanuel Dooc clarified that ees. This would also ensure hike below the threshold,” he ment facilitation and speedy pensioners will have to wait un- the sustainability of the Fund,” said. disposition of cases; close coor- til at least February to receive Dooc said. ■

8 fishermen killed in suspected pirate attack in Philippines THE CANADIAN PRESS MANILA, PHILIPPINES — Eight Filipino fishermen were fatally shot by at least five suspected pirates who boarded their boat in the southern Philippines, officials said Tuesday.

Seven other crewmembers survived the attack Monday night in waters near Zamboanga City by jumping off the boat

and swimming away when the attackers began tying up their colleagues, said Commodore Joel Garcia, head of the Philippine Coast Guard.

“According to the initial investigation, (the attackers) were on board a boat and they were all armed,” he said. “They immediately tied up eight of the crewmen, and the seven others were able to jump out and survive.”

Two of the survivors reached

land and reported the massacre to a village leader, who alerted the coast guard. Two vessels were sent to the area, and coast guard personnel found the fishing boat floating with eight bodies on board.

Pictures released by the coast guard showed the bodies sprawled on the boat’s bow, with a nylon cord tying the men together by their hands.

The coast guard found the five other survivors floatwww.canadianinquirer.net

ing near Siromon Island, and they were given medical care and taken to the fishing boat’s homeport.

“We are now conducting an investigation with the seven survivors and will find out who are the perpetrators,” Garcia said.

Lt. Commander Alvin Dagalea, commander of the coast guard station in Zamboanga on Mindanao island, said in a telephone interview that the gun-

men are believed to be pirates.

A military report said other motives being looked into include extortion or a grudge between fishing groups.

Abu Sayyaf militants are suspected of being behind a string of ship hijackings in the southern Philippines. Last week, coast guard and navy units foiled an attempt by suspected Abu Sayyaf gunmen to hijack a cargo vessel in nearby Basilan province. ■

Philippine News

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Traslacion 2017: No crime Duterte’s ‘very good’ incident, few devotee injuries, survey rating inspires better post-event cleanup PHILIPPINES NEWS AGENCY

PHILIPPINES NEWS AGENCY MANILA — Manila Police District (MPD) director, Chief Supt. Joel Coronel, said Tuesday that no death and no crime incident has so far been reported during Monday’s Black Nazarene procession.

“We have injuries but only minor ones,” said Coronel, the ground commander of the 6,000-strong contingent that secured the religious event.

Last year, two deaths were recorded.

According to the Philippine Red Cross (PRC), as of 9 p.m.

Monday night, 1,339 devotees suffered a spike in blood pressure, dizziness, bruises, contusions and other minor injuries during the 22–hour long procession. It said only seven suffered “major” injuries. A pregnant woman was also rushed to the hospital after she felt dizzy while three other women devotees suffered bone fractures after falling from the carriage carrying the image of the Black Nazarene.

Meanwhile, head of Task Force Manila Cleanup, Che Borromeo, lamented that despite repeated appeals for a “trashless” Traslacion, the estimated 3.5 million devotees who participated in the procession left 12 truckloads or 69.43 tons of garbage on Monday, compared to 34.86 tons on Jan. 9 last year.

The trash were mostly plastic water bottles, styrofoam food containers and utensils, plastic cups, cigarette butts, wrappers, plastic bags, newspapers, and carton boxes.

From Saturday to Tuesday morning, the task force collected 65 truckloads or 341.29 tons of waste, compared to 172.29 tons in the same three-and-ahalf-day period last year, Borromeo added.

Manila Mayor Joseph Estrada deployed 600 street sweepers from the task force and the city’s Department of Public Services (DPS) to clean at the tail end of the procession as it wound its way back to Quiapo Church.

Thousands of devotees join the "Traslacion 2017" of the Feast of the Black Nazarene. It took more than 22 hours from the Luneta Grandstand going back to the Minor Basilica in Quiapo that ended Tuesday dawn.

Manila Police District (MPD) Director Senior Supt. Joel Napoleon Coronel (left) discusses the traffic rerouting for Monday's Black Nazarene procession together with Metro police chief Director Oscar Albayalde and MPD Station 3 commander Supt. Santiago Pascual.

AVITO C. DALAN / PNA

“They followed the procession, from start to finish, cleaning up and collecting garbage along the way,” Estrada said, commending them for their hard work.

Borromeo noted that the city’s brand new street sweeper truck also saw action for the first time on Monday, helping the cleaning task force. “The sweeper truck, the first in Manila, made our work easier. It picked up the tiniest trash and debris we could not get with our lowly ‘walis tingting’,” he said.

With four rotating brushes and high pressure water sprays, the specialized vehicle sucks in dirt, garbage, and debris like a 500-ml. water bottle with ease,

he said, adding that the chamber where the collected debris is stored is as big as a mediumsized garbage truck.

“The truck has the capability to collect a truckload of garbage from the streets. It cleans the streets and at the same time collects garbage,” Borromeo added.

The city hall official further said that they also stationed four dump trucks in strategic locations to store waste collected by pushcart-equipped street sweepers.

“Since our big trucks cannot penetrate narrow streets, we simply positioned them in several locations,” Borromeo said. ■ www.canadianinquirer.net

MANILA — A Malacañang official on Tuesday welcomed the latest Social Weather Stations (SWS) survey where the administration of President Rodrigo Duterte received a “very good” net satisfaction rating.

“The 4th Quarter 2016 Social Weather Survey conducted on December 3 to 6 via face-to-face interviews with 1,500 adults nationwide with sampling error margins of ±3 points for national percentages and ±4 for Balance Luzon as well as ±6 points each for Metro Manila, Visayas and Mindanao found 73 percent of respondents satisfied with the national government, 12 percent dissatisfied and 15 percent undecided, yielding a net satisfaction rating of +61 percent, classified by the Social Weather Survey as ‘very good’,” Presidential Spokesperson Ernesto Abella said at a press briefing.

Abella also mentioned the Pulse Asia Survey showing President Duterte as the most trusted government official in the Philippines.

The Palace official noted that the President’s high rating “continues to serve as a source of inspiration to the President and his official family.”

The survey showed that the President’s trust and approval ratings are at a high of 83 percent.

Abella also commended the authorities and Black Nazarene devotees for the safe and successful celebration of the annual religious festivity on Monday.

“The Black Nazarene is back home safe after terror threats.

Despite possible threats of

violence from various groups, thousands of Catholic devotees guided the centuries-old image of the Black Nazarene safely back to its home before dawn on Tuesday. Doors closed at 3:30 a.m. this morning,” said Abella.

At the same press briefing, Energy Undersecretary Felix William Fuentebella urged citizens to conserve energy in light of the scheduled maintenance shutdown of Malampaya gas field from January 28 to February 18.

“Secretary Cusi issued a directive: number one, kailangan ma-ensure ng Department of Energy, in proper coordination with our partners, with the stakeholders involved, that there will be sufficiency of power; and number two, we have to maximize protection to our consumers so that we will avoid any price shock,” he said.

Fuentebella also gave an update on the government’s power restoration efforts in those areas affected by the recent typhoons.

The Energy official reported that as of January 9, power was already restored to 76 percent of those affected. Of the 1,700,000 affected households, 1,300,000 have already been restored.

He said to fast track the restoration of power to the residential households and to the commercial areas, the National Electrification Administration (NEA) has coordinated with the distribution utilities.

These include cooperatives and private distribution utilities and the agency mobilized almost 1,000 personnel, technical people, linesmen, and engineers, he said. ■

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AFP to stamp out Abu Sayyaf, Maute Group in 6-12 months, says DND chief

BY GIL C. CABACUNGAN Philippine Daily Inquirer

IMEE MARCOS / FACEBOOK

SC denies petition vs Marcos burial at Libingan

BY GIL C. CABACUNGAN Philippine Daily Inquirer THE SUPREME Court en banc on Tuesday denied a petition questioning President Duterte and the high court’s decision on the burial of the late President Ferdinand Marcos at Libingan ng mga Bayani.

In a statement, the high court denied “outright” the petition filed by lawyer Conrado L. Manicad.

The Marcos family decided to bury the late dictator at Libingan last Nov. 18 or just 10 days after the SC voted 9 to 5 with one abstention to uphold the President’s order to finally end Marcos’ 27-year wait for a burial.

The President claimed that as a former president and soldier, Marcos had met all the requirements to be eligible to lie among war heroes at Libingan.

The Marcos family clandestinely proceeded with the burial ceremonies even if the SC had yet to act on the mo-

tions for reconsideration filed by several petitioners who had 15 days to make their appeal.

The petitioners were led by Albay Rep. Edcel Lagman and former Bayan Muna Rep. Satur Ocampo who represented families of the human rights victims who were killed, abducted and tortured during martial law.

The burial took less than four hours from the transport of Marcos’ remains by helicopter from Ilocos Norte to Libingan as the family obviously wanted to avoid protesters from massing at the cemetery gates.

The high court’s decision was met with massive protests as it was deemed a condonation of the abuses committed by Marcos and a spite against the people who joined the Edsa People Power Revolution which forced his ouster in 1986.

The court also virtually condoned the Marcos family’s rush to get on with the burial when it noted there was no specific order barring such. ■

since the bandit group killed two Canadian hostages — Robert Hall and John Ridsdel — last year.

ing at a side event to the Association of Southeast Asian Nations summit in Laos, Mr. Duterte vowed to make the Abu Sayyaf pay for their crimes, saying he would “eat” the bandits “alive.”

THE MILITARY will crush the Changing view Abu Sayyaf and Maute terrorist Mr. Duterte apologized to groups in six months to one year Canadian Prime Minister Justo put an end to kidnappings and tin Trudeau for the killings and Maute Group bomb attacks in the South once promised to arrest the “crimiThe Maute Group is believed to and for all, Defense Secretary Del- nals and exact justice.” be responsible for the bomb attack fin Lorenzana said on Monday.

But how he viewed the Abu on a night market in Davao City Lorenzana said the timetable Sayyaf became uncertain in that killed 15 people and injured set by the military was just right July when he said during Hari 70 others on Sept. 2 last year. and that Armed Forces of the Raya Eid al-Fitr celebration The group is also a suspect in Philippines Chief of Staff Gen. in Davao City that the kidnap- the two explosions that injured Eduardo Año was convinced pings carried out by the group 32 people in Hilongos, Leyte the military could contain the were not crimes. province, on Dec. 28. two terrorist groups during that “You’ve never heard me say Mr. Duterte has ordered the period, although an additional [they are] criminals. It is a dif- Philippine National Police to six months would be a big help. ferent setup there because crush the Maute Group as soon For a start, he said, there will these are the guys who were as possible. be big organizational changes at driven to desperation,” he said.

In the case of the Bangsamoro the Western MinIslamic Freedom danao Command, Fighters (BIFF), which has juriswhich broke away diction over areas from the Moro Iswhere the Abu It is a different setup there because lamic Liberation Sayyaf and Maute these are the guys who were driven Front (MILF), groups operate. to desperation. with which the government is Innovative talking peace, Loapproach renzana said he “We are going to do someOn Aug. 12, however, he said was satisfied with support and thing new or innovative to finish he did not know who the Abu cooperation from local residents this problem once and for all,” Sayyaf bandits were and what in combating the violent group.

Lorenzana said, but declined to they stood for, but “we have to To beef up its forces, Lodivulge details of the plan. destroy them.” renzana said, the AFP will re“We will prevent them from On Aug 26, he said he once cruit 10,000 soldiers this year. kidnapping more [people] and admired the Abu Sayyaf and he President Duterte approved the we will try to recover those had ordered the police and the recruitment last year, he added. [whom they are still holding military to “destroy them beLorenzana said the recruits captive],” he said, adding that cause they are criminals.” would be trained for one year the two groups are holding 27 He said the government had then would be deployed in 2018. ■ local and foreign hostages. all the resources to finish the President Rodrigo Duterte has Abu Sayyaf in one week.

With a report from Inquirer Revowed to crush the Abu Sayyaf In September last year, speaksearch

House OKs bill on campus crime prevention PHILIPPINES NEWS AGENCY MANILA — A measure mandating universities and colleges to create a Safety and Security Council (SSC) to protect the academic community from internal and external threats has been approved on third and final reading at the House of Representatives.

House Bill No. 4100 or the proposed “Campus Safety and Security Act” directs the establishment of the SSC in every higher learning institution and technical-vocational institution to protect students and other members of the academic community from theft, robbery, rape, and other forms of violence within and outside the campus.

Among the primary duties

and responsibilities of the SSC is to recommend to the school, college, or university the conduct of seminars and trainings on crime and drug prevention and control in coordination with the National Police Commission (NAPOLCOM) regional office, local police station, or the Department of the Interior and Local Government (DILG).

The SSC shall also carry out www.canadianinquirer.net

programs and policies concerning the following: use and sale of alcoholic beverages; enforcement of underage drinking laws; possession, use, and sale of illegal drugs; enforcement of drug laws; and a description of any drug or alcohol abuse education program.

The composition of the SSC shall be determined by the governing boards of the higher education institutions (HEIs)

and the owners, proprietors, and/or administrators of the technical-vocational institutions.

The House committee on higher and technical education spearheaded the passage of the measure, which is a consolidation of House Bill Nos. 572 and 2314, authored by Aurora Rep. Bellaflor Angara-Castillo and Sorsogon Rep. Evelina Escudero, respectively. ■

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Palace, Congress hit for keeping pork Lacson: Malacañang connived with lawmakers to accommodate their projects in nat’l budget Budget Secretary Diokno finds nothing wrong with funding the lawmakers’ pet projects Nograles says specific line item projects were evaluated by departments and agency

Publisher Philippine Canadian Inquirer, Inc.

BY CHRISTINE O. AVENDAÑO Philippine Daily Inquirer

Editorial Assistant Christelle Tolisora

MALACAÑANG AND Congress have quietly kept alive the graft-ridden pork barrel system—declared unconstitutional by the Supreme Court four years ago—in this year’s P3.35-trillion national budget, Sen. Panfilo Lacson said on Sunday.

“To put a veil on their postenactment participation, in connivance with those in the executive branch, the legislators now identify their projects prior to submission of the budget to Congress, during the budget deliberations and even during the bicameral conference,” Lacson said in an interview with the Inquirer.

“These are being done without official records or communication,” Lacson said.

“Pork barrel has been a very corrupt and corrupting system in our political institutions, which had been shortchanging millions of Filipinos who suffer from half-baked, even ghost projects,” he said.

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“Under the pork barrel system, the government perpetuates corruption which effectively diverts the resources of government and denies the people the basic services they need. Hence, while pork barrel was called the Priority Development Assistance Fund (PDAF), there is no development, especially in the farflung communities of the country,” Lacson said.

It would take a “lot of political will” on the part of President Duterte to do away with pork barrel, Lacson said, just as it would take “honest and trustworthy technical advisers who would inform the President of the presence of pork.”

Budget Secretary Benjamin E. Diokno has maintained that there is no pork in the 2017 General Appropriations Act (GAA).

Diokno said last month that funds Lacson referred to did not qualify as pork as defined by the Supreme Court in a landmark decision in November 2013.

The high tribunal, acting amid widespread public indignation over the alleged diversion of P10 billion in PDAF allocations to ghost projects, voted 140-1 to declare the system as unconstitutional and called for the prosecution of individuals who benefited from the scheme over the past two decades.

“The pork concept mentioned by the Supreme Court referred to participation by congressmen and senators dur-

SENATE OF THE PHILIPPINES / FACEBOOK

ing implementation,” Diokno said.

There is nothing wrong, he averred, to funding of pet projects recommended by lawmakers during the budget preparation.

A member of the House of Representatives gets an annual allocation of P80 million under the PDAF; a senator gets P200 million.

Lawmakers closer to the Duterte administration “naturally get more” funding for pet projects, Lacson said, “in fact, much, much more.”

Pro forma files

Lacson provided a copy of “pro forma files,” standard documents on which congressmen list down their projects and submit them to the Department of Budget and Management for inclusion in the National Expenditure Program (NEP) prepared by the Palace.

Lacson said congressmen had “unimaginatively indicated in their project their ‘legislative district’ instead of ‘engineering districts’ of the Department of Public Works and Highways ( DPWH) to ensure that their quota allocations in the 2017 budget would go to their bailiwicks and pet projects.”

He said a neophyte congressman had given him a copy of the document from the House leadership to list down pet projects. He did not identify the lawmaker, who he said was angered by the “counterproductive effects of pork and patronage politics.”

Lacson, along with the late Sen. Joker Arroyo, has refused to participate in the pork barrel system.

He earlier claimed favored congressmen received pork allocations from P1.5 billion to P3 billion while some senators, up to P300 million.

Confused

The House appropriations committee chair, Davao City Rep. Karlo Alexei Nograles, has said Lacson was “confused.”

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Nograles said the GAA had specific line item projects and that different agencies and departments identified the projects and evaluated them before the NEP was finalized.

He denied the existence of the socalled pro forma files.

But Lacson said on Sunday the reason Diokno and even former Budget Secretary Florencio Abad deny there was pork in the budget was because since the 2013 ruling, there were no more lump-sum appropriations that legislators could still identify projects under their entitlements.

After 2013, Lacson said congressmen submitted a list of projects even before the Palace presented the NEP to Congress, or before the period of amendments of the budget measure.

“That’s the creative way of going around the Supreme Court ruling because there is no postenactment identification of projects,” Lacson said.

He called the practice “anomalous” because “the legislature is already participating in the budget preparation which should be the domain of the executive branch not to mention, obvious conflict of interest.”

“How can they introduce amendments when they are too focused in guarding their own list?” he said.

Telltale signs of pork

Lacson earlier said pork insertions were normally “parked” on government agencies. He insisted that there were “telltale signs of pork” in the 2017 budget.

He said that when his team was scrutinizing the DPWH budget, they discovered 100 items each worth P25 million without specific descriptions.

When he questioned this, he was told this was “augmentation.” The P25-million deals later disappeared but were replaced by P10 million each of the same items. ■

Philippine News

FRIDAY JANUARY 13, 2017

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There’s life after drugs, rehabilitated addicts show

BY JULIE M. AURELIO Philippine Daily Inquirer

Presidential Spokesperson Ernesto Abella during a press briefing in Malacañan.

ALBERT ALCAIN / PRESIDENTIAL PHOTO / PNA

Abella: Kill order just Duterte’s messaging style

BY MARLON RAMOS Philippine Daily Inquirer THAT’S JUST the way he is.

Malacañang on Tuesday softpedaled President Duterte’s threat to narcomayors that they would suffer the fate of Rolando Espinosa, the mayor of Albuera, Leyte, who was shot dead by policemen in his detention cell on Nov. 5.

Ernesto Abella, Mr. Duterte’s spokesperson, insisted that the President’s oft-repeated, albeit violent, rhetoric was merely a reflection of his sincerity to wipe out the drug menace.

“It is … a matter of the leadership style and messaging style of the President … . This is his messaging style to underline his intentions. He is serious about it,” Abella told reporters.

“However, it’s just meant to underline his seriousness in making sure that nobody is corrupt and involved in criminality,” he added.

Abella laughed when asked if Mr. Duterte would kill municipal and city mayors on the so-called narcolist that the President almost always shows during his public speeches.

The list, a 10-centimeterthick pile of documents, contains the names of some 5,000 government officials, most of them policemen, allegedly involved in the sale, production and distribution of illegal drugs.

Espinosa, the father of confessed drug lord Rolan “Kerwin” Espinosa, was shot dead by policemen who swooped down on his cell at the Leyte subprovincial jail on Nov. 5.

Sen. Panfilo Lacson said the mayor’s slaying was an obvious case of extrajudicial killing.

Espinosa was slain barely a week after Mayor Samsudin Dimaukom of Datu Saudi Ampatuan, Maguindanao, was killed in an alleged shootout with policemen in Makilala, North Cotabato.

Interestingly, both mayors were listed on Mr. Duterte’s narcolist.

The foul-mouthed leader, who came up short with his promise to stamp out the drug problem last December, has also threatened to kill drug addicts and those critical of his brutal drug war, among them human rights advocates.

Speaking before newly appointed public officials on Monday, the President said he was planning to confront local chief executives and ask them to look for their names on his narcolist.

If they appeared on the list, Mr. Duterte said the mayors would have “a problem,” warning that their only choice was to resign or face death.

More than 6,000 people have been killed in Mr. Duterte’s war against drugs—about 2,200 in police operations.

Sen. Leila de Lima said on Tuesday that she would file a petition for the writ of amparo (protection) to urge the Supreme Court to tell Mr. Duterte and other officials “to stop threatening me, to tell them to stop issuing statements that can incite people, whether their own allies, their own supporters, or other elements to do harm to me.”

She said that the President’s statements on killings were “disturbing” and made her “a fair game for sinister things.” ■

munity in Barangay Bangad, Milagros in Masbate will take part in the Mass at the Manila Cathedral.

Among the representatives are current residents of the Fazenda community in Masbate, as well as its “graduates”—former drug dependents who managed to reform themselves from their addiction.

“The Holy Mass will serve as a special thanksgiving for the life given by God and the hope that the Church wishes to share to

THERE IS life after one’s addiction to illegal drugs, no matter how long and hard the battle is—and this is what these rehabilitated drug dependents are here to prove.

Reformed drug addicts will attend a Mass to be celebrated

by Manila Archbishop Luis Antonio Cardinal Tagle today to show that there is still hope for society’s least, lost and the last.

The ex-dependents managed to change The event also intends to show with the help of people that there is really hope a Catholic drug people with addiction can have rehabilitation life without their vices. farm, the Fazenda da Esperanca (Farms of Hope) from Brazil, which set up an ex- all especially to the drug surrentension program in Masbate. derers and those who have re“The event also intends to formed from drug dependence,” show people that there is really Pascual said in a statement. hope and people with addicPresident Duterte, interior tion can have a new life without secretary Ismael Sueno and untheir vices,” said Fr. Anton Pas- dersecretary John Castriciones cual, executive director of Cari- were also invited to attend the tas Manila. event.

Pascual said 150 representaCaritas Manila is the social tives from the Fazenda com- action arm of the Archdiocese

With a report from Tarra Quismundo www.canadianinquirer.net

of Manila, which will sign a partnership with the Fazenda organization from Brazil after the Mass.

The partnership aims to strengthen the archdiocese’s own parish-based, drug rehabilitation program dubbed “Sanlakbay,” run by Caritas Manila.

Launched last October 2016, “Sanlakbay” aims to help thousands of drug surrenderers resulting from the government’s intense campaign against illegal drugs.

“Sanlakbay ” also offers paralegal assistance, religious studies, livelihood trainand ing, education, a new advocacy, services for social action, and medical assistance to surrenderers.

Pascual noted that the Fazenda community in Masbate has helped 300 drug addicts recover from their substance abuse in the past 13 years, with an 80-percent success rate.

“The one-year therapeutic and healing program has three components: community life, spiritual formation and work at the farm,” he explained. ■

10

Philippine News

JANUARY 13, 2017

FRIDAY

Solo parents receive funding from DSWD, start candle-making business PHILIPPINES NEWS AGENCY MANILA — Some 25 solo parents from the town of Concepcion in Iloilo province can now provide for their families’ needs after benefiting from the Department of Social Welfare and Development’s (DSWD) Sustainable Livelihood Program (SLP).

The beneficiaries are now producing candles, which they supply to the Immaculate Concepcion Parish Church in the same town.

Under the DSWD’s livelihood program, the women were trained on candle-making as well as in business management, sales and marketing. After the training, they formed the Candle Maker’s Association of Concepcion (CMAC) and started their business with a funding of PHP268,000 from the DSWD. “Solo parent-headed families are oftentimes the most in need of our assistance, especially in their livelihood. We must assist them to enable them to support their loved ones,” Social Welfare Judy Taguiwalo said.

One of the beneficiaries, 42-year-old Rosa Abebenir, said business is doing good. “We have regular buyers now,” she said happily.

Currently, the women have a production center in the municipality. Aside from supplying the candles to the parish church, they also display their prod-

ucts at the Concepcion Kabuhayan Enterprise, and sell them in nearby towns during fiestas and special occasions.

“As a community-based capacity building program, the SLP seeks to increase the economic opportunities of Filipinos through the Community-Driven Enterprise Development Approach.

We want the SLP to equip poor Filipinos so they can actively contribute to production and labor markets by looking at available resources and accessible markets,” Taguiwalo said.

The SLP offers two tracks for Filipinos in the program: micro-enterprise development, which supports micro enterprises to become organizationally and economically viable; and employment facilitation, which assists Filipinos to access appropriate employment opportunities.

The department has provided livelihood assistance to 1,556,509 families from 2011 to 2016, with 1,219,725 assisted through microenterprise development and 336,784 through employment facilitation.

The SLP has four key modalities.

First is the technical-vocational skills training, where the SLP provides capacity building to equip its partnerparticipants with the appropriate skills for increased employability or for better management of their micro-enterprises.

Second is the pre-employment as-

sistance fund, where the SLP assists participants in accessing employment opportunities with guaranteed employers by providing financial assistance to enable them to get the necessary job application requirements promptly.

The third is cash for building livelihood assets, where the SLP provides short-term employment to partner-participants for the development, rebuilding, and/or protection of physical and natural assets, which may be used by the participants and their community for profitable and sustainable livelihood projects.

The fourth is seed capital fund, where the SLP provides a capacity-building

grant for the micro-enterprise development of its partner-participants so they can set up a credit and savings facility and/or manage an individual or group enterprise.

Taguiwalo said that although millions have already benefited from the SLP, the department acknowledges that many more poor families need assistance.

“The department is doing its best to respond to provide the appropriate services to the poor. Providing the needy with means to earn and eventually enabling them to stand on their own two feet is a priority of the DSWD. This is the kind of genuine public service that we want to provide,” Taguiwalo said. ■

country. We are beginning to recognize that our borders are not necessarily limited or confined to simply one country or one geopolitical force,” he said.

He did not say which country had been demonized, but the Philippines’ relationship with China had been tense in the past because of the maritime dispute in the South China Sea. But Mr. Duterte has been forging closer ties with China, and hopes to establish a stronger economic partnership with it.

All these come amid uncertainty over the ties between the Philippines and the United States, the country’s long-term mutual defense partner which also happens to be Russia’s rival.

Mr. Duterte had issued hostile statements against the United States after it expressed concern over the extrajudicial killings that had marked his antidrug war, and recently threatened to terminate the Visiting Forces Agreement between the two countries.

Meanwhile, a political analyst sees “all pluses” in improved ties between

the Philippines and Russia, and said the country could benefit from Moscow’s expertise in different fields.

Clarita Carlos, who used to be the president of the National Defense College of the Philippines, also warned against raising the bogeyman of communism or socialism as Russia becomes more visible in the Southeast Asian region.

“We should welcome this, any and all relations that would be good for us,” Carlos said in a phone interview on Friday.

Stronger ties between Manila and Moscow could also help prevent any one country from becoming too dominant in the region, she said.

Russia happens to be a close ally of China, which is claiming nearly the whole of the South China Sea. The Philippines, Brunei, Malaysia, Vietnam and Taiwan also have competing claims in the area.

“If you have strong Russia-Philippine relations, it will dilute or diminish the threat of anyone being a hegemon,” Carlos said. ■

Russia to... over staterun Radyo ng Bayan yesterday.

The sources of support for the country have “broadened and widened,” he added.

It’s not just Russia which the Philip❰❰ 1

pines could be expected to rely on, but also the country’s neighbors, he further said.

“What our President is saying is we are beginning to recognize, we are removing the demonization of that particular

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Philippine News

FRIDAY JANUARY 13, 2017

11

‘Tokhang’ for ransom?

Victim was taken on Oct. 18 when two men, allegedly led by a police officer, entered his home and announced a drug raid

BY TARRA QUISMUNDO Philippine Daily Inquirer IS “TOKHANG for ransom” the latest racket of scalawags in uniform?

A policeman and his cohorts have been accused of using President Duterte’s all-out campaign against drugs as a cover to kidnap a South Korean businessman, who has been missing since October.

The disappearance of Jee Ickjoo, a former director at a South Korean heavy industries firm in the Philippines, is the first high-profile case that shows how corrupt officers could take advantage of the administration’s unrelenting drug war, which has so far left over 6,000 dead.

It happened just as the Philippine National Police touted a nationwide drop in criminality since Mr. Duterte came to power, and subsequently promised that policemen would be protected from prosecution.

Jee, 53, was taken on Oct. 18 when two men, allegedly led by a police officer assigned at the PNP Anti-Illegal Drugs Group (PNP-AIDG) in Camp Crame, entered his home in Angeles City and announced a drug raid.

His distraught wife, who agreed to speak to the Inquirer on Friday amid fears for her own safety, is now appealing to President Duterte and to PNP Director General Ronald dela Rosa for help.

“I am not after the kidnappers. I am just after my husband,” said a tearful Choi Kyung-jin, who has been residing in the Philippines with her husband and daughter since 2008.

“I hope President Duterte uses his public power to find my husband,” she said, speak-

ing softly through an interpreter, head bowed and shoulders drooped, as she struggled to contain her emotions.

She has appealed for help through Facebook, posting photos of her husband and saying: “We are not yet clear whether my husband is alive or not, and our family is living with fear and also suffering of pain.”

She even vowed to drop charges against the police officer and other suspects already under investigation once she gets her husband back alive.

“If my husband comes back to us alive, I will not [file] any case against the kidnappers, stop all cases that is ongoing and I will go back to my country, Korea, with myhusband,” she said in her plea.

She soon found out that the security camera at the house across the street had captured the kidnapping: Around 2 p.m., when Jee was about to leave the house to head back to work, two men took him and forced him into his black SUV. Jee tried to resist, but several other men from a black Toyota Hilux parked in front of the house rushed to help the kidnappers force him inside the car.

The couple’s helper, Marisa Dawis, was also taken. Both vehicles sped off and headed out of the village.

Two days later, Dawis called Choi to tell her of the abduction in detail. She said she was freed and made her way to her sister’s house in Valenzuela where she sought help.

The incident

Choi said she last saw her husband at 9 a.m. on Oct. 18, and even sent him a text message asking if he was going home for lunch. She later left with her 18-year-old daughter, but later came home to find an empty house.

The door was unlocked, but her husband and househelp were missing.

“The first floor was very clean.

But in the second floor, my accessories were gone, passports, account books (bank passbooks),” she said. An estimated P540,000 worth of jewelry and other personal items were also stolen from the house, according to her affidavit.

“I thought the maid took our things. I did not think my husband was missing,” she said.

But she got worried when she was not able to contact Jee until the following day. At that point, curious neighbors came forward and reported seeing her husband being dragged into his own vehicle by several men.

Conspiracy

In the investigation by the PNP Anti-Kidnapping Group’s (PNP-AKG) Luzon Field Unit, Dawis told police that, in the afternoon of the abduction, two men “went inside [Jee’s house] and introduced themselves as police officers.”

“Subsequently, they searched the rooms of the house, destroying their cabinets, looking for something, and told Marisa that her boss was involved in drug activities,” read the PNPAKG’s case referral letter sent to the Department of Justice (DOJ) on Nov. 9 for preliminary investigation.

The letter, signed by PNPAKG Luzon unit chief Senior Supt. Rodolfo Castil Jr. and addressed to Senior Deputy State Prosecutor Theodore Villanueva, recommended that the suspects be investigated for kidnapping for ransom and serious illegal detention.

Those on the list were one police officer assigned at the

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PHILIPPINE NEWS AGENCY / FACEBOOK

PNP-AIDG, one other identified male, three unidentified men with detailed descriptions based on witness accounts, and “several John Does.”

“The evidence on record shows that the above-named suspects did collective, concerted and synchronized acts that constitute indubitable proof that all of them are coconspirators with other unknown malefactors to attain a common objective: to kidnap and detain the victim for purposes of acquiring ransom,” read the report, a copy of which was obtained by the Inquirer.

Choi requested that the name of the police officer and the other identified suspect be withheld, afraid that it might bring further harm to her husband and her family. She also requested that her face not be shown in published photographs.

PNP-AIDG head chief Supt.

Albert Ferro told the Inquirer that the suspect has been relieved, pending results of the investigation. “On our side, we do not condone any wrongdoing of our people, especially now that the President is against corruption, scalawags and those involved in drugs. So that will be our stand,” Ferro said.

In Dawis’ narration, the men ordered her to her boss’ car, where she saw Jee already

handcuffed and seated between two men. She said she heard her boss offer P4 million for his freedom, and quoted him as saying “I can’t breathe” at one point.

She said she remembered that they soon reached Quezon City Memorial Circle, where they stayed briefly. She was later blindfolded and transferred to a black pickup. By 1 a.m. of Oct. 19, she was freed in Cubao, Quezon City, and was given fare money of P1,000 so she could go home.

Car belonged to officer’s wife

The PNP-AKG investigation found out the Toyota Hilux that the suspects used in the abduction was registered under the name of the suspect police officer’s wife. The wife, who went with her lawyers to the PNPAKG’s Luzon office on Oct. 28, confirmed that the vehicle was indeed being used by her husband.

The security logbook at the Angeles City village where the incident happened also showed that the policeman’s pickup “went in and out of the subdivision eight times” between September and October.

Choi could not say why her husband was targeted. Jee, who also runs a manpower services ❱❱ PAGE 14 ‘Tokhang’ for

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Philippine News

JANUARY 13, 2017

FRIDAY

DATA BREACH AT COMELEC

Apprehend hackers, not the hacked, says Bautista

BY JULIE M. AURELIO Philippine Daily Inquirer “SHOULD THE focus not be on apprehending the hackers instead of punishing the hacked?”

The head of the Commission on Elections (Comelec) questioned on Thursday the findings of the National Privacy Commission (NPC) that he was solely responsible for the data breach of the poll body’s website last year.

Comelec Chair Andres Bautista disputed the privacy commission’s finding that he was grossly negligent and criminally liable for the leak of millions of voters’ data from the Comelec website.

In a statement, Bautista said the commission’s finding “was based on misappreciation of several facts, legal points and material contexts.”

He explained that as head of the Comelec, he “generally trusted the advice and recommendation of IT experts” in areas where he did not have specific expertise.

“If the Comelec information technology (IT) specialists directly in charge of operating the website were found not to be liable, what more those who merely oversee their work and the head of agency?” he said.

Tweets

Bautista also took to his Twitter account (@ChairAndyBau) to express his disappointment.

“I’m saddened by the recent NPC pronouncements placing the entire blame on me, in my capacity as Comelec chair,” he said.

Bautista maintained that he faithfully complied with the duties and responsibilities entrusted to him as head of the poll body.

“I would just like to make it

clear that the hacking incident is not related to the results of the 2016 elections,” he added.

In a decision dated Dec. 28, 2016, the privacy commission recommended the filing of criminal charges against Bautista for gross negligence under the Data Privacy Act of 2012.

In March 2016, the Comelec website was hacked and defaced, leaking voters’ data, such as their full names, addresses and birthdays to another website that has since been taken down.

tained that he should not be blamed for the supposed failure to appoint a data protection officer as mandated by the Data Privacy Act. He explained that the Comelec en banc set the policy that the head of the agency was tasked to implement.

“The NPC misappreciated the role of the head of agency in a collegial body. It is the en banc that sets a policy that the head of agency is tasked to implement,” he said.

No data protection officer

Hackers’ groups

COMMISSION ON ELECTIONS

The hackers’ group Anonymous Philippines was report- the Comelec did all it could to regulations (IRR) guiding NPC edly responsible for defacing respond to the security breach actions, since the IRR was imthe website, while another and identify, locate and arrest plemented only in August 2016. group, LulzSec Pilipinas, leaked the perpetrators.

The Comelec chair pointed millions of voter registration out that the commission condata online.

Task force veniently pointed to the head of The privacy commission said He cited the poll body’s ac- the poll body as “solely responthe Comelec did not have basic tions of creating a task force sible for the data breach.” data privacy principles, as it to probe the data breach, deshad no existing policy covering ignating Comelec resource IT expertise data privacy. It noted that the persons for the NPC, and inBautista argued that although poll body neither data privacy and had a data prosecurity were tection officer. important topAs corrective ics that needed measures, the The NPC misappreciated the role to be taken seriprivacy comof the head of agency in a collegial ously, “these are mission ordered body. It is the en banc that sets a matters that are the Comelec to policy that the head of agency is best left to IT exappoint a data tasked to implement perts.” protection ofUnlike the ficer within one privacy commonth, conduct mission, which an agency-wide privacy impact structing the Comelec execu- is run by IT practitioners, the assessment within two months, tive director to comply with the Comelec en banc is managed by and create a privacy manage- reportorial requirements of the seven lawyers, he said. ment program and breach man- Data Privacy Act. “Hence, we rely on our IT deagement procedure in three A Voter Care Center was es- partment for expert advice on months. tablished months after Come- website/data security and priThe commission also recom- leak, with the Comelec claiming vacy and IT-related matters,” mended that the Department it had not yet received any call he said. of Justice investigate its find- or inquiry into the data leak.

Bautista added: “Following ing that a computer used in the Bautista noted that the the decision’s logic, if there is so-called Comeleak had an IP Comelec, in good faith, coop- a breach of the Supreme Court address registered with the Na- erated with the commission’s website, will the Chief Justice tional Bureau of Investigation. proceedings despite the lack be potentially liable?”

In his defense, Bautista said of the implementing rules and The Comelec chair main-

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He noted that since the Data Privacy Act was passed in 2012, the Comelec had not appointed a data protection officer. He said the entire en banc would have to vote on the appointment of a data protection officer.

Bautista also asked why the privacy commission was focusing on the Comelec in the data leak instead of going after the perpetrators of the hacking incident.

Motion for reconsideration

“Many leading private IT companies and government agencies here and abroad were confronted by data breaches despite putting in place security measures. Given the foregoing, should the focus not be on apprehending the hackers instead of punishing the hacked?” he said.

The Comelec will submit a motion for reconsideration to the privacy commission through the Office of the Solicitor General, although it intends to implement the security recommendations of the commission. ■

Philippine News

FRIDAY JANUARY 13, 2017

‘Sex guru’ named to MTRCB

BY MARLON RAMOS Philippine Daily Inquirer THE SELF-STYLED “sex guru” is now a member of the censor body. President Duterte has appointed Mocha Uson to serve on the board of the Movie and Television Review and Classification Board, which is tasked with shielding Filipinos from immorality and excessive violence in film and television.

The announcement sparked a firestorm of protests from netizens, many of whom viewed the appointment as political payback. President Duterte has appointed self-styled “sex guru” Mocha Uson to serve on the board of a state agency tasked with shielding Filipinos from immorality and excessive violence in film and television, sparking a firestorm of protests on social media.

Malacañang on Thursday confirmed reports of Uson’s appointment as member of the Movie and Television Review and Classification Board (MTRCB), immediately drawing spitballs from netizens, many of whom viewed it as a political payback for her role in Mr. Duterte’s victory in last year’s presidential election.

Twitter user @Dhonna_Salazar said: “I just wonder how low is he willing to go to justify this bayad-utang appt (payback appointment).”

‘No substance’

13

DENR hit over ‘costly, idled’ air pollution monitors Groups question equipment’s accuracy; gov’t execs defend chosen technology

BY JAYMEE T. GAMIL Philippine Daily Inquirer

ROBINSON NIÑAL / PRESIDENTIAL PHOTO / PNA

Duterte’s brutal war on drugs and controversial policies, calling them “presstitutes.”

‘Why not?’

Presidential Communications Secretary Martin Andanar defended Uson, saying he did not see any reason why “one of the biggest artists that we have in the country” should not be designated to the 32-member MTRCB. “Why not?” Andanar told reporters on Thursday when asked why the controversial sexy singer and blogger was appointed to a government post.

“Whatmakes her not qualified? Mocha is an artist. She’s one of the biggest artists that we have in the country,” Andanar said.

“She’s been in the show business world for more than a de-

Sen. Grace Poe, a former chair of the MTRCB, on Thursday said appointing Uson to the agency’s board was a prerogative of the President. “I wish her well,” Poe said. Sen. Vicente Sotto III, a former comedian who still hosts the long-running “Eat Bulaga” program on GMA 7, said Uson was a “good choice.”

“She abounds with common sense and has a good pulse of the public. She will do a lot better than some people I know,” he said.

According to Presidential Decree No. 1986, the Marcosera edict creating the MTRCB, the board is composed of a chair, vice chair and 30 members who will serve one-year terms “unless sooner removed by the President for any cause.”

While their tenure is short, the President can reappoint them to fresh terms.

Another Twitter user, @KellyDC, posted: Requirements “shows no subShe’s an educated person. She’s one The requirestance from this of the biggest bloggers that we have ments for the apcurrent governin the Philippines. pointees to the ment. SeriousMTRCB are simly!” ple: they should @pugakzz be natural-born tweeted: “The irony.a woman cade already. She’s an educated citizens, not younger than 21 who does not care about cen- person. She’s one of the biggest and “of good moral character sorship and being vulgar now bloggers that we have in the and standing in the commupart of a censor body.”

Philippines. [She’s] very influ- nity.”

Uson initially made a name ential,” he added.

The decree requires the for herself by appearing in inIn a single-page appointment MTRCB board to have a “mulstructional sex videos and as paper dated Dec. 28, 2016, Mr. tisectoral combination of exthe leader of the sexy singing Duterte designated Margaux pertise in the various areas of group Mocha Girls.

“Mocha” Justiniano Uson to motion picture and television.”

From blogging about her sex- the MTRCB, apparently in a The law requires at least five ual dalliances and experiences, holdover capacity as her term is of the MTRCB officials to be she reinvented herself by using only until Sept. 30, 2017. lawyers and no fewer than 15 her popular blog site to defend “By virtue hereof, you may should be “from the movie and Mr. Duterte and criticize his qualify and enter upon the per- television industry to be nomipolitical rivals. formance of the duties of the of- nated by legitimate associaShe is also known to at- fice … ,” the President said in his tions representing the various tack journalists critical of Mr. letter to Uson. sectors of [the] industry.” ■ www.canadianinquirer.net

TWO ADVOCACY groups are calling for an audit of the air quality monitoring equipment used by the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR), raising questions about their accuracy and costeffectiveness.

Doubts were raised over the equipment’s reliability two days after the DENR released air pollution data in Metro Manila, which it said reached “extremely dangerous” levels because of the fireworks and firecrackers used during the recent New Year’s Eve revelry.

“We discovered that most of these expensive air monitor instruments are currently not properly working and some are even not functional anymore,” United Filipino Consumers and Commuters president Rodolfo Javellana said in a statement.

The Coalition of Clean Air Advocates of the Philippines (CCAAP) also assailed the decision of the DENR’s Environmental Management Bureau (EMB) to use the long-path Differential Optical Absorption Spectroscopy (Doas) system, rather than a point monitoring system, saying the former was “grossly disadvantageous to the government.”

Long-path devices measure air pollutants along a path. Under the Doas system, the pollutants and their concentration are measured based on their ability to absorb light.

A point monitoring system, on the other hand, measures “exactly what the human body would be exposed to as if that (person is) breathing the air at the monitoring station,” making it more suitable for air quality monitoring needs in the country, according to CCAAP technical consultant Emmanuel Galvez.

“Even in the United States, there are almost no installations that use a Doas system for air quality monitoring (be-

cause) it is expensive and limited in its usefulness,” Galvez said.

In a recent press briefing, DENR-EMB Officer in Charge and Assistant Director Jacqueline Caancan said the department was already consolidating the results of an investigation conducted last year on such allegations.

Caancan, however, belied allegations that the equipment was overpriced, saying the 21 Doas equipment in current use cost P10 million each, for a total of P210 million. She also maintained that their purchase went through proper bidding procedures.

She also pointed out that the DENR’s 27 monitoring stations nationwide cost P3 million each, for a total of P81 million—not “billions of pesos” as alleged by the two complaining groups.

Seven of the stations are located in Metro Manila.

Caancan said the department would conduct an inventory this month to determine the status of the air monitoring stations and equipment nationwide.

She admitted that some of them had already “bogged down” due to typhoons or intermittent electricity supply.

“Definitely, the number (of nonoperational stations) won’t reach 50 percent of the total,” the official stressed.

Jean Rosete also the Doas system was an “equivalent” method for “prescribed” systems of air quality monitoring.

“Everything is aboveboard,” added Rosete, chief of the DENR-EMB Air Quality Management Section.

As to which system is better, Rosete said: “Point monitoring was just the first technology used (in other countries). (The Doas) is a more advanced technology. We’re looking at costeffectiveness, too. In terms of maintenance cost, (Doas) is five times cheaper to maintain.” ■

Opinion

14

JANUARY 13, 2017

FRIDAY

‘Tokhang’ for... business, has no enemies. Neither did he or the family receive any threat in the days leading to the abduction.

“He is kind… and sometimes he is hot-tempered. He just wants to make things perfect,” Choi said when asked to describe her husband. ❰❰ 11

Ransom

On Oct. 30, Choi received a text message from the kidnappers demanding a ransom of P8 million.

Without telling the police, Choi negotiated the payoff and, by the next day, delivered the money at a drop-off point at a mall in Pampanga, believing that her husband would then be released.

“She was told through text to park her white Honda Civic.

With that instruction, the victim’s wife parked… in front of Central Town Mall… with en-

gine on, unlocked doors, and further instructed to proceed inside [a fastfood restaurant inside the mall],” read the PNPAKG report.

After half an hour, Choi returned to her car and “noticed that the moneywas already gone,” the police report said.

There was no sighting of the kidnappers at the supposed exchange, nor of her husband.

Choi told the Inquirer on Friday that the ransom payment was P5 million.

“I did it on my own. No police,” she said in the interview, admitting that she kept the negotiations to herself despite the already ongoing PNP-AKG investigation.

On Nov. 2, the kidnappers again texted Choi using a different number, asking an additional P4.5 million for her husband’s release. But she had no more to give.

Her husband’s captors then

sent a grim response: “Game over.”

“She understood that they were angry,” said Chongmyung Lee, who interpreted for Choi during the interview.

At that point, she had no other choice but to tell the police of the ransom payment.

Long process

Since then, she has not heard from the abductors and the case has by far undergone two hearings at the DOJ. Choi hopes that the preliminary investigation could finish soon so that a warrant for the suspects’ arrest could be issued.

“The process is too long… I just want the arrest warrant to be issued…. In the Philippines, it takes too long to file a complaint,” she said, the only point in the interview where she spoke with some amount of force.

Choi said she wrote a letter to Mr. Duterte and his police

chief, narrating the involvement of a police officer in the abduction.

She attached documents related to her husband’s disappearance, and told the President that her letter serves “as a formal complaint against one uniformed PNP personnel (name redacted on Choi’s request) assigned in the [PNP] Anti-Illegal Drugs Group.”

“The reason why I’m writing your office now is because one of those involved in the kidnapping is a police officer. I am confident that the PNP is capable of investigating involvement in my husband’s disappearance,” she said in the letter dated Dec. 12 and stamped as received in Malacañang on Dec. 17.

“I believe in your vision, which is to eradicate crime and corruption in this country. That is why I’m writing to you personally, Mr. President, because only through your strong sense

of justice and will that I find relief and confidence,” she said.

Choi stressed that her husband of 18 years had nothing to do with illegal drugs, describing him as a loving husband and father and a good boss to his employees. She said she “lost a pillar that made our family whole.”

In a similar letter she sent to Dela Rosa on Dec. 12, Choi asked for help, stressing that she believed in the police chief’s “great power and authority” in helping her solve the crime.

“I’m still hoping that my husband, wherever he may be, is alive and well. My child deeply misses him. I’m deeply missing him. Being a husband and a father yourself, I’m sure you can sympathize with our situation right now,” she said in the letter.

“There’s nothing in the world I would wish for right now than to see and hug my husband again,” she said. ■

PUBLIC LIVES

What is criticism’s role in a political system?

By Randy David Philippine Daily Inquirer OVER the holidays, one of my daughters chanced upon my mobile phone and was dismayed to see that I had 37,805 unread e-mails in my mailbox. “Why do you have so much unread mail, Papa?” she asked, half-amused and half-worried. “Because so much time is taken up just reading them, and even more to answer them,” I replied.

“Then why not just delete them?” she shot back.

She was right. The truth is, a number of these unread e-mails are from individuals who like to send unsolicited messages to multiple addresses. I feel quite certain there’s no obligation to reply. Still, I’ve hesitated to delete them, partly out of an old-fashioned sense of duty to read and to acknowledge mail, and partly out of a feeling that I may need to refer back to them for some reason or other.

But, I didn’t realize until now that one could get into trouble for merely being the recipient of what is presumed to be a “conspiratorial” e-mail. Yesterday morning, I woke up to find an accusatory e-mail in my Public Lives mailbox with the subject line “You are a Pest then.” It came from a “former avid fan,” whose name I will not mention because I haven’t asked

for his permission to do so.

Vintage Ted, I thought to myself. erwise harmless emails on social It read: “SIR Randy! Are you Young people were already busy media. One way to erode a social part of the team to oust President organizing around these issues analyst’s credibility, or whatever Duterte? I have been respecting long before anyone could tell them. influence he or she may have on you as a journalist, kindly respect I did not reply to Ted’s e-mail public opinion, is to link him/her the 16 millions Filipino who voted because, in truth, I had not had a to some attempt to unseat an infor him to be the Chief Executive chance to read it. When I checked, I cumbent president and install a of this land too. WHY ARE YOU SO realized it was one of the thousands puppet. Discerning readers would BITTER? RESPECT US, SO THAT of unopened e-mails in my inbox. quickly see through such crude atWE WILL RESPECT YOU. Thank Having just read it, I can say in all tempts at malicious innuendo. But you!” honesty that I found no reference many others who will believe anyMy first instinct was to ask to, or any intimation of, any plan thing that confirms their impovwhere this rant was coming from. to resort to extraconstitutional erished view of the world would I normally don’t bother to reply to means to oust President Duterte. not think twice about baring their letters of this sort, but something Mr. Duterte’s most ardent sup- teeth in righteous anger. about this one made me think it porters, some of whom I used to If its army of trolls succeeds in deserved a reintimidating critsponse. I sensed ics, this adminisThe only thing certain is that these numbers disguise that it came from a tration would soon an existing power relation—in the sociological language young person who find itself trapped of Pierre Bourdieu, a complex system of forces and tensions was expressing a in an echo chamthat can never be adequately expressed as a percentage. genuine concern. ber of its own makI showed it to my ing, unperturbed wife, wondering if she had come count as friends, are therefore by criticism, and hearing only what across anything in social media looking in the wrong direction. it likes to hear. that might have provoked this e- Public commentators like myself, Criticism has an essential funcmail. Indeed she had. It was an e- because of our visibility and lim- tion to play not just in a democracy mail addressed to me and a couple ited mobility, are not suitable can- but, indeed, in any political system. of other people I know, written by didates for recruitment for sinister For, every wielder of power occuan old UP friend from the ’60s, Ted plots such as those allegedly being pies a blind spot from which he/ Laguatan, a vigorous human rights hatched against him. Serious plot- she perceives the world and makes campaigner against the Marcos ters need low-profile people who distinctions. Only critical observdictatorship and now a prominent can stay below the radar when they ers can see this blind spot and cast US-based immigration lawyer. In move around building a network. light on the way it affects a subject’s that letter, he was basically pro- Moreover, they would not use Ya- actions. If the people around the posing the organization of “mass hoo Mail to plot a conspiracy.

President are either too intimidatprotests against Duterte’s extrajuObviously, there is a reason for ed or too much in awe to tell him dicial killings and Marcos burial.” posting screenshots of these oth- of his shortcomings, then they are

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creating a narcissistic ruler whowill not be able to free himself from the self-referential world he has constructed.

I can almost hear what his admirers will say: But, how can the 16 million Filipinos who voted for him be wrong? To this artifact they will now probably add Pulse Asia’s most recent finding that 83 percent of Filipinos trust President Duterte and approve of his performance.

As impressive as they are, these figures have no inherent meaning.

No one can really tell what is behind them. The only thing certain is that these numbers disguise an existing power relation—in the sociological language of Pierre Bourdieu, a complex system of forces and tensions that can never be adequately expressed as a percentage.

My conscientious reply to my disgruntled former fan went like this: “Thank you for your e-mail.

Am I a part of the oust Duterte ‘team,’ assuming there is one? My answer is: NO, I am not. You also asked: Why are you so bitter? My answer: No, I am not bitter. But I am critical of some decisions of President Duterte, as much as I have been of all the wrong policies of past presidents. Should I be silent because 16 million Filipinos voted for him? I don’t think so.

Please respect my right to express my opinions too.” ■

Opinion

FRIDAY JANUARY 13, 2017

15

AT LARGE

A visit to ‘Apo Baket’

By Rina Jimenez-David Philippine Daily Inquirer SHE IS, by the standards of Filipino iconography, rather small and unprepossessing. Dark-complexioned, the Madonna and the babe in her arms impress mainly because of the elaborate outfits which a couturier coming all the way from the capital Tuguegarao fashions for them.

But to the faithful in Cagayan, especially the Itawes, as the ethnic group in the Cagayan Valley is known, Our Lady of Piat is not just the patroness of the town of Piat and the “Mother of Cagayan,” but also one of the most venerated Marian images in the country, well-known for the many miracles attributed to her.

Officially, the image is known as Our Lady of the Most Holy Rosary, given the Dominican devotion to the Blessed Mother, and the fact that it was the Order of Preachers that commissioned the image from Macao and brought it to Cagayan to “pacify” the natives. In Ibanag, Our Lady

is known as “Yena Tam Ngamin” towns. the morning to fetch water from (A Mother To Us All), but her Among the most ardent of the nearest source,” said James most popular designation by far devotees of “Apo Baket” is Alex Navarette, general manager of is the simple “Apo Baket” (liter- Wong Chu King. It was upon his the WCKF. “And sometimes, waally Old Lady, but more formally, invitation that I joined a group ter was not even available.”

“Venerable Matriarch”), an Ilo- from the Wong Chu King Foun“Maybe now all of you will smell cano term of endearment. dation (WCKF), named after his better,” Mayor Carmelo Villacete The story goes that in 1622, a father who founded the tobacco jokingly told the schoolchildren few years after being enshrined concern now known as Mighty of Dugayung Elementary School in Piat, the image was brought Corporation, to attend the inau- on whose grounds the water tank to Tuguegarao and was replaced gural of two projects founded by stands (“for security purposes,” by another image deemed “more the foundation and pay a visit to explained an official of the Debeautiful,” at least partment of Eduphysically, than cation).

Some Ironically, the majority of projects funded by the the little dark 7,000 residents of WCKF are found in the Ilocos region, where most of the brown Madonna. the two barangays tobacco used in cigarette production is grown, and where But according to stand to benefit the foundation runs a scholarship program, apart from church records, from the newwafunding several public works and religious construction. “the people rose ter system. up in public proThe mayor had test and asked another concern, to the point of insistence that Our Lady. though: There has been no electhe original image be returned The first was the ribbon-cut- tricity in the barangay since Tyto them.” Our Lady’s return was ting of a waterworks system for phoon “Lawin” struck late last met with great rejoicing, but a Barangays Dugayung and Sicatna year. dispute arose between the folk of in Piat. Because of their high elNext to be inaugurated was the Piat and of the neighboring town evation, the water table is quite a “guardhouse” along the highway of Tuao. So a compromise was ar- distance from the surface, which and a road leading to the home rived at where the building of the is why it had been quite difficult of Archbishop Emeritus Diospresent-day Minor Basilica was to establish a water system. “Peo- dado Talamayan of Tuguegarao. located midway between the two ple had to get up at two or three in Though called a guardhouse, the

structure is actually a small residence, with two rooms, a kitchen and bathroom meant to serve visitors to the Archbishop’s home and to a nearby spiritual renewal center and home for retired sisters. “Transportation is so difficult to access here,” explained the retired prelate, “and I wanted to provide visitors a place to wait in comfort and safety.”

Ironically, the majority of projects funded by the WCKF are found in the Ilocos region, where most of the tobacco used in cigarette production is grown, and where the foundation runs a scholarship program, apart from funding several public works and religious construction.

But Alex Wong Chu King says he believes that piety and religious devotion play a big role in the success of any business, which may explain why he and his personal as well as WCKF family make it a point to visit “Apo Baket” as often as they can, and pair this devotion with projects to benefit the people under her guidance and care. ■

LOOKING BACK

What Ninoy told the US about Marcos

By Ambeth R. Ocampo Philippine Daily Inquirer AT 450 printed volumes and counting, the entire series known to historians as “The Foreign Relations of the United States” is formidable; a medal should be struck for any living person who has read through it.

The series, started in 1861, is a compilation of annotated and cross-referenced documents that record the major policy decisions and their consequences in the shaping of US foreign policy.

Documents once classified as top secret are sourced from the US State Department, Presidential Libraries, the National Security Council, the Central Intelligence Agency, etc., providing an insider’s look into the way US history has related to other countries, including our own. Recent volumes are of interest because they go beyond diplomatic material and include those that refer to intelligence and covert operations.

Reading through material available online gives one the

feeling of seeing nothing but the US Embassy in Manila drafted sion, which Aquino thinks will proverbial tip of the iceberg and by John Forbes on Sept. 20 and have a severe dampening effect the realization that a lot of his- cleared by two others on the sub- on foreign investment. With raptorical material that refer to the ject “Senator Aquino’s Views on idly worsening law and order and Philippines remain in various Martial Law and the Political Fu- Communist dissident problems repositories in the US waiting to ture of Ferdinand Marcos.” We all added to these economic woes, be mined by Filipino historians. know that while the declaration Aquino believes that Marcos Cables exchanged between the of martial law was backdated, for must take strong actions in the State Department and the US numerological purposes, to Sept. near future and that these will inEmbassy in Manila contain de- 21, it was actually put into effect clude martial law. tailed reports on the situation in on Sept. 23. So events overtook “If the President follows this the country and some very frank the embassy telegram that was course, Aquino said that, ‘for assessments of the good of the the personalicountry,’ he will Reading through material available online gives one the ties of the times. support Marcos. feeling of seeing nothing but the proverbial tip of the iceberg Ferdinand and However, Aquiand the realization that a lot of historical material that refer to Imelda Marcos no pointed out, the Philippines remain in various repositories in the US waiting figure promimartial law could to be mined by Filipino historians. nently in Volume backfire on the XX of the series President, and that covers the years 1969-1976 based on a private conversation Aquino expressed doubts that the and in the documents so far made on Sept. 12 between Ninoy Aqui- [Government of the Philippines] public it is clear that the US rela- no and the political counselor of has sufficient resources to carry tionship with Marcos had as a the US Embassy, when Ninoy ex- out martial law successfully. As backdrop the use of the US bases pressed his belief: for his own political ambitions, in the Philippines and US busi“that Marcos would declare Aquino believes that the possibiliness interests and investments in martial law in order to stay in ties of his becoming head of govthe country. power ... [that] Marcos is faced ernment by legitimate means are On Sept. 21, 1972, a confiden- with serious economic problems quickly diminishing, and he is actial telegram was received in as a result of the floods and the cordingly keeping open an option the State Department from the [ Supreme Court] Quasha deci- to lead an anti-Marcos revolution

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in alliance with the Communists.”

Furthermore, Aquino had a dim view of the Liberal Party winning in the coming 1973 elections, and hinted that while Marcos was barred from seeking a third term he could field his wife Imelda who “would certainly win if she ran since the President could fill the ballot boxes with fake votes and employ other illegitimate means of ensuring her success.” Aquino’s pessimism stemmed from his disappointment over the defeat of a draft provision debated in the Constitutional Convention that would ban Marcos and his wife from becoming president or prime minister.

We do not know if it was bravado on his part at the time but Aquino said that if he were president he wouldn’t hesitate to take strong measures and said he would “execute corrupt officials at Luneta as a lesson to other officials that he meant business.” So much of our contemporary history lies waiting to be uncovered in the United States. ■

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JANUARY 13, 2017

FRIDAY

Canada News Canada’s worst traffic bottlenecks cost drivers 11.5M hours in delays each year

BY MICHELLE MCQUIGGE The Canadian Press TORONTO — A new report suggests some of Canada’s worst traffic bottlenecks are serious enough to compare with those in major American cities like New York and Los Angeles.

The report commissioned by the Canadian Automobile Association (CAA) found that the most consistently congested stretch of highway in the country, a portion of Highway 401 running through central Toronto, is the ninth most clogged artery in Canada and the United States.

A bottleneck in Montreal, considered the third worst in Canada according to the new research, compares with congestion levels in Boston.

The CAA identified the worst bottlenecks by analyzing provincial and municipal traffic volume numbers along with GPS data over nearly 3,000 kilometres of roads across the country.

It says the report is meant to highlight areas where policymakers should focus their attention to relieve congestion,

which it argues hurts productivity and adds to overall greenhouse gas emissions.

But observers caution against reading too much into the data, saying that not all slow traffic zones are created equal and those in the heart of urban areas need to be viewed differently from major highways.

The report said the top 20 bottlenecks in the country comprise just 65 of the 3,000 kilometres analyzed for the study.

Toronto’s oft-lamented traffic woes loomed large in the data, with the city securing half the spots in both the top 10 and the top 20.

Three of Montreal’s most congested areas made the top 10, with another two in the top 20.

Vancouver rounded out the top 10 with two particularly busy stretches of road. Two more Vancouver roadways, along with one in Quebec City, completed the top 20.

CAA spokesman Ian Jack said the report highlights urgent need for action on addressing gridlock, adding simply building more roads is not the answer.

“It may be a matter of pour-

ing concrete and asphalt in some cases, but there are a lot of other solutions as well,” he said.

“Whether that’s metered onramps, high-occupancy lanes, other ways of addressing these issues, we encourage policymakers to use the whole tool kit to focus in on these areas that are clearly of highest impact.”

Those impacts, researchers suggest, are significant and multifaceted.

Study author Vijay Gill of transportation infrastructure consulting firm CPCS said the delays take a toll on both labour productivity and the environment.

The research showed that a commute along the busiest stretch of Toronto highways can add an average of 36 minutes to a 60-minute commute, resulting in an annual total of 3.2 million driver-hours in delays on that route.

The study estimated the country’s worst bottlenecks result in 11.5 million hours worth of delays and drain about 22 million litres of fuel per year.

Gill said all these factors boil down to one simple metric that’s hard to measure but top-

VALESTOCK / SHUTTERSTOCK.COM

of-mind for many Canadians. “(It’s) just quality of life,” he said, “No one likes driving in congestion. No one likes the randomness or the variability.

So it’s clear that there’s significant user benefits ... by addressing some of these issues.”

At least one traffic congestion expert took a cautious view of the findings.

Former Vancouver chief city planner Brent Toderian said there’s value in assessing hightraffic areas, but said most research of this kind is based on the assumption that driving is the best way to travel.

Toderian likened congestion to cholesterol, saying there are both harmful and helpful types and asserting that at least some level of traffic is vital for a city

to thrive.

A slow-moving street in the heart of an urban centre, for instance, could be prime real estate for retailers to set up shop, he said.

“We can’t all worship at the alter of speed and volume, he said. “Successful cities have congestion.... If you don’t have any of it, you die.”

Toderian said highways, which are specifically designed to move high volumes of traffic as quickly as possible, should be viewed differently. Still, he cautioned against expanding highway networks too much, since increased capacity leads to a rise in the number of cars on the roads.

He said price-based tools, such as tolls, are the most effective ways to keep traffic in check. ■

CMHC reports annual pace of housing starts in Canada picks up in December THE CANADIAN PRESS OTTAWA — Canada Mortgage and Housing Corp. says the seasonally adjusted annual pace of housing starts in December came in at 207,041 units, up from 187,273 in November.

The increase came as the rate of urban starts climbed 11.8 per cent to 187,621 for the final month of 2016.

Multiple urban starts increased by 13.9 per cent to 120,750, while single-detached urban starts grew 8.1 per cent, to 66,871.

Regionally, the annual pace of urban starts increased in Ontario, Quebec and the Prairies, but decreased in British Columbia and in Atlantic Canada.

Rural starts were estimated at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 19,420 units.

The six-month moving average of the monthly seasonally adjusted annual rate of housing starts in Canada stood at 198,053 units in December compared with 200,105 in November.

In a separate release, Statistics Canada said municipali-

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ties issued $7.8 billion worth of building permits in November, down 0.1 per cent from October.

The value of residential building permits fell 1.6 per cent to $5.1 billion in November, while non-residential building permits climbed 3.0 per cent to $2.6 billion. ■

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FRIDAY JANUARY 13, 2017

Trudeau plans cabinet Victoria faces property facelift, impacting up shortages while more move to a third of portfolios in for lifestyle change

BY JOAN BRYDEN The Canadian Press OTTAWA — Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is expected to give his year-old cabinet a facelift on Tuesday, shifting some weak ministers, promoting strong performers, bidding adieu to some veterans and injecting new blood as his government braces for Donald Trump’s imminent ascension to the U.S. presidency.

Sources tell The Canadian Press that the shuffle will involve up to a third of Trudeau’s cabinet posts.

Among the ministers who could be moved is International Trade Minister Chrystia Freeland, who is believed likely to replace Stephane Dion at Foreign Affairs.

Freeland, a former economics journalist with extensive contacts in the United States, is credited with deftly navigating through some eleventh-hour obstacles that threatened last fall to scupper theCanada-European Union free trade agreement — potentially valuable experience for dealing with the incoming Trump administration.

Trump, whose inauguration takes place Jan. 20, has vowed to adopt an unapologetically protectionist, America-first policy on trade, including reopening or even tearing up the North American Free Trade Agreement.

Dion’s tenure at Foreign Affairs has been a rocky one, marred by controversy over his approval of a $15-billion arms deal with Saudi Arabia. His prickly demeanour could also be ill-suited to dealing with the unpredictable Trump, who has demonstrated a tendency to easily take offence.

Rumours have swirled for months that Dion was to be named ambassador to France but he has denied any interest in the plum post. Sources suggested late Monday that he may be named ambassador to the United Nations.

Immigration Minister John McCallum is also expected to quit politics, with sources sug-

gesting he’ll be named ambassador to China.

News of the shuffle leaked out Monday, just as the Prime Minister’s Office confirmed that Trudeau’s two top aides, Katie Telford and Gerald Butts, have been meeting with some of Trump’s senior advisers, building bridges to the incoming administration.

Also believed to be in the shuffle mix are Status of Women Minister Patty Hajdu, seen as a strong performer who is expected to take over the labour portfolio from MaryAnn Mihychuk, who is being dumped from cabinet altogether.

Democratic Institutions Minister Maryam Monsef — widely criticized for her handling of Trudeau’s promise to reform Canada’s voting system — is expected to take over Status of Women.

Sources, speaking on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to disclose details publicly, expect several new faces in cabinet. Among the potential newcomers are Francois-Philippe Champagne, who is parliamentary secretary to Finance Minister Bill Morneau, as well as Toronto MPs Adam Vaughan and Marco Mendocino and Burlington, Ont. MP Karina Gould.

Transport Minister Marc Garneau’s name was also in the wind on Monday night.

In his first cabinet of 30 ministers, Trudeau famously appointed an equal number of men and women “because it’s 2015.” That parity was upset last fall when Hunter Tootoo resigned from cabinet and the Liberal caucus in order to seek treatment for alcohol addiction following what he later admitted was an inappropriate relationship with a female staffer.

It is assumed that Trudeau will want to restore the gender balance with Tuesday’s shuffle.

This week’s shuffle may well be a prelude to another reset expected midway through Trudeau’s first mandate. Insiders expect a major realignment this summer, with a cabinet shuffle followed by a throne speech to kick off the second half of the mandate. ■

THE CANADIAN PRESS VICTORIA — It’s still the dead of winter in much of Canada, but in Victoria daffodils and crocuses are about to begin sprouting, marking the unofficial signal to start another real estate season for anxious home buyers and sellers.

The Victoria Real Estate Board says a repeat of last year’s record-smashing property sales that saw constant bidding wars on southern Vancouver Island is not in the forecast for 2017. But prices are expected to continue rising amid a market of too few available homes.

Expectations that foreign VOLODYMYR KYRYLYUK / SHUTTERSTOCK.COM buyers would flock to Victoria to avoid the 15-per-cent Metro 1,974 just prior to the introduc- style change when they move Vancouver home tax has not tion of the foreign buyers tax to to the Victoria area and it’s prohappened, instead purchasers a low of 60 in the weeks after ducing a migration from Metare arriving from other areas the tax. The number started to ro Vancouver and from right of the country, outgoing Victo- move upwards last November, across the country, he said. ria real estate board chief Mike hitting 204 property transfers Baby boomers from VancouNugent said Monday. involving foreign nationals. ver are selling their homes for “There’s certainly no eviThe Real Estate Board of large pay outs and moving to dence so far of showing a big Greater Vancouver reported a Victoria, where they can buy a shift of foreign buyers to Vic- roller-coaster year in 2016, with similar or larger home for less toria,” he said. “As soon as it record sales in the spring, but money, Nugent said. He said was implemented everybody ending the year with a 5.6-per- the Victoria area is also seeing phoned and said, ‘what are the cent drop compared with 2015. people move for economic opnumbers like? portunities.

You must be “Our economy getting an avais one of the best lanche.”’ in the country G ov e r n m e n t The data reveals the number of right now,” said data shows there property transfers in Metro Vancouver Nugent. “We’ve were 90 deals inwent from a high of 1,974 just prior to got lots of jobs volving foreign the introduction of the foreign buyers happening in all buyers in Victotax to a low of 60 in the weeks after sectors. That’s ria between June the tax. attracting every10 and Aug. 1, bebody.” fore the tax was Nugent said implemented. the real estate In the latest numbers, Nov. 1 to Nugent said while Vancou- board does not have the final Nov. 30, there were 39 property ver has had dropping prices, in numbers tracking where peotransfers involving foreign buy- part due to the foreign buyers ple are coming from when they ers. tax, Victoria real estate values move to Victoria, but prelimiThe percentage of property are expected to continue slowly nary results places about 65 per transfers involving foreign buy- moving upwards. cent of the buyers from Vaners in Victoria went from 3.9 “In Victoria, because we’ve couver Island and about nine per cent in June to August, be- got so few places available — all per cent from the Vancouver fore the tax, to 4.6 per cent in our projects are sold out — and area.

November. because of the shortage of inB.C.’s most recent in-migration In the Vancouver area, there ventory even though sales will and population numbers rewas a steep drop in real estate be less, we expect prices to con- leased Dec. 16 by BC Stats, which transactions after the tax took tinue to keep inching up,” said tracks provincial trends, estimateffect.

Nugent. “There’s more buyer ed the province’s population at The data reveals the number demand than we can supply 4.7 million. This is an increase of of property transfers in Metro right now.” almost 22,000 people in the third Vancouver went from a high of People are looking for a life- quarter of 2016. ■ www.canadianinquirer.net

18

Canada News

JANUARY 13, 2017

FRIDAY

B.C. ups homeowner grant Saskatchewan doctors by a third as property get alert about assessment values skyrocket sexually transmitted infection rates

THE CANADIAN PRESS VANCOUVER — Relief is on the way for homeowners in British Columbia facing a jump in property taxes thanks to soaring home values.

B.C. Finance Minister Mike de Jong said the threshold to take part in the province’s homeowner grant program will increase by a third this year, to include properties with an assessed value of up to $1.6 million.

The $400,000 jump from last year’s limit will ensure nine out of 10 homes across the province are eligible to receive a basic grant of $570, he said. The program will apply to one-in-five homes in Metro Vancouver, he added.

“We are doing our part to help keep housing costs affordable for families,” de Jong said in a statement.

“The strength of the province’s economy and sound fiscal management have put us in a position to raise the threshold by such a large amount this year to help homeowners.”

The announcement is the latest policy response to the red hot real estate in B.C.’s Lower Mainland, despite sales having tempered in recent months.

Last year, the province introduced a 15 per cent foreign buyers tax, while the federal

BY JENNIFER GRAHAM The Canadian Press

government clamped down on mortgage rules, making it more difficult for homebuyers to secure financing. The move comes as B.C. prepares for a provincial election, with voters scheduled to head to the polls on May 9.

Last week, the province’s finance ministry said it was looking to increase the $1.2-million limit to the homeowners grant after property assessments jumped by as much as 50 per cent for some single-family homes in the Lower Mainland and on Vancouver Island.

The program is expected to cost the province an extra $12 million compared to last year. The province reimburses municipalities for decreased revenues resulting from the homeowners grant so municipal coffers are not affected by the change.

In 2010, the homeowners grant applied to homes assessed at a little over a million dollars. That threshold rose to a high of nearly $1.3 million in 2013 and back down to $1.2 million in 2016 before catapulting to $1.6 million this year. ■

Liberals’ promised infrastructure spending slow to get out the door: PBO THE CANADIAN PRESS OTTAWA — The federal budget watchdog says the Trudeau government may fall short of spending all the money it planned to devote to infrastructure in the first year of its mandate.

A new analysis by the parliamentary budget office says Ottawa’s planned infrastructure investments did not materialize in the first half of the year

and there’s a growing risk the spending will have to be pushed into 2017-18.

But the budget office says this type of delay is nothing new — and it would be consistent with the slower-thanexpected government plans to spend on infrastructure in the past.

The report says last year’s federal budget contained plans for Ottawa to transfer $3.5 billion in new money in 2016-17 to other levels of government for

infrastructure.

The Liberals won the 2015 election on a platform that pledged to spend tens of billions over the next decade on infrastructure as a way to lift the country’s slow-growth economy.

The budget office says the federal transfers made by the Transport and Infrastructure departments over the first half of 2016-17 dropped by $100 million compared with the year before. ■ www.canadianinquirer.net

period of time,” she said.

Werker says that important news for doctors because it affects treatment.

REGINA — Saskatchewan docTreatment for gonorrhea tors have received an alert from depends on the site of sexual the Ministry of Health about the exposure — oral, rectal or vagihigh rate of sexually transmitted nal. Doctors will have to ask painfections in the province. tients about their sexual activiThe alert is in a news email ties in order to take swabs from sent out by the Saskatchewan the right part of the body.

Medical Association with infor“If you don’t get answers to mation from Dr. Denise Werk- those questions, then you may er, the province’s deputy chief not know where to take the medical health officer. samples to diagnose the sexuWerker says there are several ally transmitted infection and reasons for the alert. you will not necessarily choose “Certainly our rates for syph- the most optimal treatment for ilis have increased, so they are that patient,” she said.

2.7 times higher The alert outin 2016 as comlines risk facpared to what tors, testing they were in 2015 and treatment, during the same It’s not just a saying prompt time period. In problem in diagnosis and addition, our Saskatchewan, treatment will gonorrhea rates but the numbers help prevent the have substanand rates have spread of these tively increased been increasing infections. in 2016, so they in other The Opposihad increased jurisdictions in tion NDP says 39 per cent as Canada, as well the increasing compared to the as internationally. rates are alarmsame time period ing and the govin 2015,” Werker ernment needs said Friday better plans to The alert says address the isthere 60 syphilis cases as of the sue. end of October, up from 22 in “They should be really workthe same period in 2015. ing ... with experts in this area There were 1,087 gonorrhea to push forward a meaningful cases as of the end of October, strategy, one that’s based on up from 779 in the same period evidence and one that governin 2015, it said. ment can actually track and fol“I think that there are multi- low and determine whether or ple reasons for the increase. It’s not they’re actually being sucnot just a problem in Saskatch- cessful or not,” said New Demoewan, but the numbers and rates crat Nicole Sarauer. have been increasing in other juSaskatchewan’s rates of sexurisdictions in Canada, as well as ally transmitted infections are internationally,” said Werker. also high compared to the rest The deputy chief medical of- of Canada. ficer says another concern is The latest figures on the Pubthat a resistant strain of gon- lic Health Agency of Canada orrhea, called beta-lactamase website say in 2012, the nationresistant gonorrhea, has been al average was 298.7 chlamydia found in Saskatchewan for the cases per 100,000, but was 526 first time. per 100,000 in Saskatchewan.

“It is generally associated The national gonorrhea rate with people who have sex in was 36.2 per 100,000 — jumpother countries. It has been ing to 93.6 per 100,000 in Saspresent in other countries for a katchewan. ■

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FRIDAY JANUARY 13, 2017

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World News

JANUARY 13, 2017

FRIDAY

Iranians mourn as former leader Rafsanjani interred

BY NASSER KARIMI AND JON GAMBRELL The Associated Press TEHRAN, IRAN — Hundreds of thousands mourned the late Iranian President Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani on Tuesday, wailing in grief as his body was interred at a Tehran shrine alongside the leader of the country’s 1979 Islamic Revolution.

Rafsanjani’s final resting place near the late Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, reflected his legacy as one of the pillars of Iran’s clerical-dominated political system, as he served in later years as a go-between for hardliners and reformists.

But even his hourslong funeral highlighted the divisions still at play. Parts of the crowd along his funeral procession at one point chanted in support of opposition leaders under house arrest. Other politicians did not attend the memorial.

Throngs filled main thoroughfares of the capital, with many chanting, beating their chests and wailing in the style of mourning common among Shiite Muslims.

The funeral for Rafsanjani, who died Sunday at age 82 after a heart attack, drew both the elite and ordinary people.

Shops and schools were closed in national mourning.

Top government and clerical officials first held a funeral service at Tehran University.

Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatol-

lah Ali Khamenei prayed by Rafsanjani’s casket, as other dignitaries knelt before the coffin on which his white cleric’s turban was placed. Mourners reached out their hands toward the coffin.

Just behind Khamenei was President Hassan Rouhani, whose moderate administration reached the recent nuclear deal with world powers. Rouhani, who is all but certain to run for re-election in May, is viewed as embodying Rafsanjani’s realist vision.

Hard-liners also took part in the ceremony Tuesday, like the head of Iran’s judiciary, Sadeq Larijani, who stood near his moderate brother, parliament speaker Ali Larijani.

Also among them was Qassem Soleimani, a general who heads the Revolutionary Guard’s elite Quds Force, which focuses on foreign operations like the war in Syria.

Both Soleimani and Rafsanjani are from Iran’s southeastern province of Kerman and worked together during the war with Iraq in the 1980s.

“In my opinion, Mr. Hashemi remained the same person from the beginning until the end and held his line in all stages of his life,” Soleimani told state television in a rare public interview. “Nevertheless, Mr. Hashemi sometimes used different tactics.”

Apparently banned from the funeral was former Iranian President Mohammad Khatami, a reformist who remains popular among the young but is

deeply disliked by hard-liners.

State media have banned the broadcasting of any images of Khatami.

There was also no word of hard-line former President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad attending the ceremony, though he offered condolences Monday. There was no love lost between the two as Ahmadinejad defeated Rafsanjani in Iran’s 2005 presidential election and later drew his dismay over the crackdown following his contested re-election in 2009.

Outside, mourners carried posters bearing Rafsanjani’s image as his casket slowly made his way through the crowds in the streets.

“I rarely attend religious ceremonies, but I am here as an Iranian who cannot forget Rafsanjani’s contribution to developing the political sphere in favour of people in recent years,” said Nima Sheikhi, a computer teacher at a private school.

“I am here to say goodbye to a man who dedicated his life to making Iran better,” said Reza Babaei, a cleric from the eastern town of Birjand near the Afghan border. “He founded the university in my city and developed our region when he was in power.”

Officials put the number of participants in the funeral at over 2 million, though that figure could not be independently verified.

Iran’s internal politics also were on display. The semi-official ILNA news agency said that on the sidelines of the funeral,

MOHAMMAD KAZEMPOUR / TASNIM NEWS AGENCY

prominent moderate lawmaker Ali Motahari was asked by several mourners to free opposition leaders Mir Hossein Mousavi and Mahdi Karroubi from the house arrest the two have been under since 2011.

“Our message is clear: The house arrest should be lifted,” some chanted. Police and security forces did not react to the chants, nor others that followed and could be heard in state television footage.

Rafsanjani’s casket later arrived at the ornate, massive shrine to Khomeini, who led the revolution that toppled the American-backed shah.

Rafsanjani’s interment there marked a rare privilege inside of Iran’s system, where clerics dominate the levers of power.

Only Khomeini’s son Ahmad, who died in 1995 and served as a close aide to his father, had been buried next to his tomb before Tuesday.

Rafsanjani, a close aide to both Khomeini and Khamenei, served as president from 1989 to 1997. He helped launch Iran’s nuclear program and then pushed for reconciliation with

the West.

Internally, however, his legacy remains mixed. He was massively wealthy and a veteran at manoeuvring within Iran’s opaque political system.

He was considered a protector of the moderates, but others distrusted him because he was such an insider and because of accusations he was involved in killing dissidents during his eight-year presidency, which he always denied. Hard-liners distrusted him because of his support of moderates and sought to sideline him, with little success.

His absence in balancing the competing powers, however, will affect Iran going forward, especially as the country edges closer to picking a new supreme leader.

“The unexpected death of Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani could be the first scene in Iran’s nascent leadership transition theatre, whose subsequent acts are probably yet to be written,” said Mehdi Khalaji, a fellow at The Washington Institute. ■ Gambrell reported from Dubai, United Arab Emirates.

LGBT activists brace for efforts to undermine their gains

BY LISA LERER The Associated Press NEW YORK — After a string of major victories in recent years, LGBT activists are bracing for a different task in 2017 — trying to prevent Republicans in Congress and state legislatures from undermining those gains.

They view President-elect Donald Trump and many of his Cabinet selections as disinterested — and in some cases

hostile — when it comes to the various issues of civil rights and anti-discrimination protections that concern lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender Americans.

At the state level, with Republicans controlling a sizable majority of legislatures, there’s already a push for measures which LGBT activists view as discriminatory. For example, legislators in several states — including Alabama, Missouri, South Carolina, Texas, Virginia

and Wisconsin — are advocating for laws that would bar transgender students from using bathrooms or locker rooms that don’t match their biological gender at birth.

“2017 is going to be our toughest year yet,” said the National Center for Transgender Equality in a recent fundraising appeal.

There also may be a push in some states for so-called “religious exemption” laws that would allow some businesses www.canadianinquirer.net

and civil servants to refuse services to LGBT people if their decisions were deemed to be based on religious belief.

In Congress, conservative Republicans plan to address the religious-exemption issue by relaunching the First Amendment Defence Act , which would prohibit punitive federal action against people and institutions that define marriage as a union of one man and one woman.

The measure failed to advance during two previous sessions,

but may gain more traction now, with Trump promising to sign it if it reaches his desk.

Ian Thompson, a legislative specialist with the American Civil Liberties Union, says the proposed act “would open the door to unprecedented taxpayer-funded discrimination, allowing anyone to act with impunity in rejecting same-sex couples.”

The act’s lead Senate sponsor, ❱❱ PAGE 22 LGBT activists

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World News

Trump unfiltered: Tweets reveal his interests, insecurities

BY LISA LERER The Associated Press WASHINGTON — His message came at the start of one of the busiest weeks of Donald Trump’s transition to the White House.

It’s a week when he and his team are preparing eight Cabinet picks for confirmation hearings, finalizing appointments and gearing up for his first news conference as president-elect.

But at 6:29 a.m. on Monday, Trump was focused on what seemed like a less presidential problem: a five-minute Golden Globes speech in which actress Meryl Streep had suggested he was a “bully.”

“One of the most overrated actresses in Hollywood,” Trump tweeted out to his 19.2 million followers.

For better or worse, the president-elect’s social media feed is offering a daily glimpse into the interests, insecurities and insults that weigh on the next leader of the free world.

Many presidents have privately bristled at the attacks, criticism and mockery the office can bring. They’ve fumed behind the walls of the Oval Office and complained about slights to their aides and wives. But Trump’s use of Twitter is giving Americans and the world something they’ve never seen before.

“This is unprecedented access to the president. The presidency usually has a firewall,” said Timothy Naftali, a professor of history and public service at New York University. “By using Twitter, Mr. Trump has decided to remove the filter that

has served so many of his predecessors so well.”

From his gleaming Manhattan skyscraper, Trump fires off messages starting at dawn. In the past week, he’s slammed the “dishonest” media, insulted Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer as his party’s “head clown,” praised 16-year-old Inauguration singer Jackie Evancho and ripped Arnold Schwarzenegger for low ratings on “The Celebrity Apprentice.”

The tweets, which frequently feature commentary about specific media reports, give a sense of what Trump is reading and watching.

They ricochet across the globe and news networks. The Streep tweet alone was reposted more than 27 million times, prompting dozens of news reports and hours of television commentary. Even his spelling errors have prompted news coverage: Last month, he was mocked for using the word “unpresidented” instead of “unprecedented.”

Unfettered, stream-of-consciousness commentary is not new for Trump, who began harnessing the social media network to further his brand long before running for president. But, as president, his missives will now carry global ramifications.

Last week, Xinhua, the Chinese state run news agency, published a commentary begging Trump to stop commenting online, saying that foreign policy “isn’t child’s play.” The piece came after Trump repeatedly jabbed Beijing on Twitter. ❱❱ PAGE 27 Trump unfiltered

JSTONE / SHUTTERSTOCK.COM

JANUARY 13, 2017

FRIDAY

LGBT activists...

Republican Mike Lee of Utah, denies that the measure gives a green light to discrimination and says it’s needed to safeguard religious liberty.

“It will protect individuals, regardless of their beliefs about marriage, from being deprived of eligibility for federal grants, licenses and employment because of their deeply held convictions,” Lee says.

Among other objectives, the During the 2012 re-election campaign of outgoing President Barack Obama, measure would prevent the IRS some attendees expressed their support during the 2012 New York Pride from revoking the tax-exempt parade. status of religious institutions LEV RADIN / SHUTTERSTOCK.COM because of their refusal to accommodate same-sex marriag“The people of Texas electIn Congress, the House Freees. ed us to stand up for common dom Caucus is calling on the Although prominent social sense, common decency and new administration to scrap an conservatives consider pas- public safety,” Patrick said at a Education Department initiasage of the act a high prior- news conference Thursday. tive advising school districts ity, its prospects are uncertain.

A statewide business coali- to let transgender students use LGBT-rights groups and the tion counters that Texas could restrooms and locker rooms Democratic leadership strong- lose billions of dollars and tens based on their gender identity, ly oppose it; Thompson doubts of thousands of jobs if it pursues as opposed to the gender on it would gain enough votes to the legislation. Such interven- their birth certificate. overcome a Democratic filibus- tion by the business commuThe caucus also wants to reter in the Senate. nity is viewed by LGBT activ- voke non-discrimination proIt’s also unclear how many ists as vital now that chances tections in the Affordable Care of the state measures seeking for gains at the legislative level Act that have benefited LGBT to curtail LGBT rights will be have diminished. people. enacted. One state with such “Even in the face of relentless On another front, the consera law in effect — North Caro- attempts to undermine equal- vative Family Research Council lina — has suffered a backlash ity, America’s leading com- says State Department employthat included cancellation of panies and law firms remain ees who promote LGBT-rights planned business and sports steadfast,” said Chad Griffin, causes abroad should be “feractivities in the reted out” and state. Business replaced by concoalitions have servatives. The formed in severHuman Rights al other states — Even in the face of relentless Campaign deincluding Texas, attempts to undermine equality, nounced this Mississippi and America’s leading companies and law proposal as “ilTennessee — to firms remain steadfast. legal and vindicoppose enacttive.” ment of likeIn another minded bills, and initiative, dozGeorgia’s Republican governor, president of the Human Rights ens of prominent conservative Nathan Deal, vetoed such a Campaign, a national LGBT- academics and religious leadmeasure last year. rights group. ers recently co-signed a stateMississippi did enact a reliJames Esseks, director of the ment calling for elimination of gious-exemptions bill last year, ACLU’s LGBT Project, depicted all federal, state and local laws but a federal appeals court has the push for religious-exemp- establishing civil rights protecblocked it from taking effect. tion bills as “Plan B” for social tions on the basis of sexual oriThe law would allow clerks to conservatives after their “Plan entation or gender identity. cite religious objections to re- A” failed when the U.S. Supreme Such measures “empower the cuse themselves from issuing Court ruled in 2015 that same- government to use the force of marriage licenses to same-sex sex marriage should be legal law to silence or punish Americouples, and would protect nationwide. cans who seek to exercise their merchants who refuse services “If they have to live in a world God-given liberty to peacefully to LGBT people. with LGBT equality, they want live and work consistent with Texas is likely to be a high- to carve out a refuge for them- their convictions,” the stateprofile battleground this year. selves,” Esseks told a recent ment said.

Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick, a key media briefing.

Signatories included Roman player in setting the legislaSome opponents of the LG- Catholic Archbishop Charles tive agenda, is backing a North BT-rights movement are urging Chaput of Philadelphia, evanCarolina-style bill that would the incoming Trump adminis- gelist Franklin Graham, and ban transgender people from tration to reverse gay-friendly Albert Mohler, president of the using public bathrooms of their actions backed by President Southern Baptist Theological choice.

Barack Obama.

Seminary. ■ ❰❰ 20

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JANUARY 13, 2017

FRIDAY

Entertainment Don’t mess with La Primera Contravida Cherie Gil on how to walk out with grace and in high style

BY BAYANI SAN DIEGO JR. Philippine Daily Inquirer SHE ISN’T known as La Primera Contravida for nothing.

Cherie Gil, best known for immortalizing such deliciously catty villainesses as “Bituing Walang Ningning’s” Lavinia Arguelles on the big screen, can give a master class on the withering look, the subtle diss and the stylish walkout.

Once in rare while, Cherie gets to practice her “rhymes-withwitchy” skills in real life, especially when confronted by unprofes-

sionalism or, worse, inanity.

A recent mini-tempest was when Cherie turned her back on an interviewer who had asked about her niece Andi Eigenmann’s personal life—specifically, the paternity of daughter Ellie.

Looking back, Cherie wished she could’ve handled things differently. “That I was more graceful in walking out,” she quipped. “I was caught offguard. I guess, there was no time to think. It was impulsive, but it was the best reaction I could muster.” It was classic Lavinia. She told the Inquirer that

although the Eigenmanns are a close-knit clan, “that doesn’t mean we would divulge everything that happens in the four corners of our homes.”

In the same light, “we would always defend and protect each other, if needed.” It’s just that she felt that it wasn’t the time and place to talk about “an issue that had nothing to do with me.”

The event was for an advocacy campaign, she explained. “I was there for HIV awareness, not Andi awareness!” Ba-du-dum!

Since she frequently plays calculating ice queens onscreen (including her latest GMA 7

series, “Alyas Robin Hood”), many fans are unaware of her “kooky” sense of humor, which she initially honed in the ’80s gag show, “Champoy.”

“Millennials only get to watch ‘Champoy’ on YouTube,” she remarked.

It was “Champoy” director Peque Gallaga who first noticed Cherie’s potential as a comedienne. Only 17 years old, Cherie, whose biggest claim to fame then was the Regal camp flick “Problem Child,” went mano a mano with the industry’s best comics in the weekly show. “My mentors were the crème de la

crème in the business: Mitch Valdes, Tessie Tomas, Noel Trinidad, Gary Lising and the late Subas Herrero,” she related.

On hindsight, she regarded the “Champoy” crew as her “breather” from the “Eigenmann family saga.” “My life was full of drama then. ‘Champoy’ taught me to live life lightheartedly. Until now, we still get together. We’re like family.”

After all, Cherie isn’t the type who would shirk a serendipitous challenge. Never. But mess with her and watch her inner Lavinia emerge—and walk out in high style. ■

GMA leads competition in full year 2016 nationwide ratings Beefs up FY ratings with remarkable fourth quarter performance GMA NETWORK rounded out another milestone year in 2016 after leading competition in nationwide TV ratings based on full year data from the industry’s widely trusted ratings service provider, Nielsen TV Audience Measurement.

For the period January to December 2016 (with December 25 to 31 based on overnight data), GMA registered a total day people audience share of 37.3 percent in NUTAM (National Urban Television Audience Measurement), ahead of ABS-CBN’s 37.1 percent.

GMA grabbed the nationwide lead from ABS-CBN based on people shares in September 2016, and has since prevailed over competition by consistently increasing margins.

GMA’s remarkable performance in the fourth quarter drove the Network’s dominance in the full year 2016 ratings.

Leading across all dayparts, GMA recorded a people share of 40.3 percent in the fourth quarter, outranking ABS-CBN’s 35.2 percent by 5.1 points.

Coming from a 5.1-share point lead over ABS-CBN in

November in NUTAM, GMA scored its strongest performance in 2016 last December with a people audience share of 41.7 percent, equivalent to a 7.8-point margin over ABSCBN’s 33.9 percent.

Kapuso fantasy series Encantadia remained the number one program nationwide last month, leading other Kapuso entries that made up majority of the list of highest-rating programs and specials in December.

Joining Encantadia in the top 10 are Alyas Robin Hood, 24 Oras, Pepito Manaloto, Kapuso Mo, Jessica Soho, Magpakailanman, and Hay Bahay!

Completing the list of most watched Kapuso programs in NUTAM are Tsuperhero, 24 Oras Weekend, Someone to Watch Over Me, Kapuso Movie Night, Lipad sa 2017 (Kapuso New Year Countdown), Wowowin, The Magic of Christmas (Kapuso Christmas Special), Eat Bulaga, Sunday PinaSaya, Imbestigador, Pepito Manalotalk 2016, and Superstar Duets.

In Urban Luzon, which ac-

Encantadia cast.

counts for 77 percent of all viewers in urban TV homes in the country, GMA sustained its strong showing as its full year 2016 people share reached 42.6 percent, 11.2 points more than the competitor’s 31.4 percent.

GMA won against ABS-CBN in all dayparts in Urban Luzon from January to December 2016.

Nielsen data is gathered through a greater number of sampled homes nationwide in comparison to Kantar Media.

With approximately 900 more homes surveyed in Total Urban and Rural Philippines compared to Kantar, Nielsen data is statistically considered more representative of the total TV population. www.canadianinquirer.net

Michael V.

In 2016, Nielsen TV Audience Measurement, the leading ratings service provider, increased its client pool to a total of 36 clients/subscribers which now include 12 local TV networks, 5 regional clients, 2 blocktimers, and 17 media agencies.

GMA subscribes to Nielsen along with other local networks TV5, Aksyon TV, CNN Philippines, Net 25, Solar Entertainment Corporation, Viva Communications Inc., among others; regional network Fox Networks Group; blocktimers CBN Asia and TAPE Inc.; and major advertising and media agencies such as Ebiquity-Faulkner, Dentsu Aegis Network (Carat, Mediaforce

Vizeum, Dentsu), GroupM (Mediacom, Mindshare, MEC and Maxus), Omnicom Media Group (OMD, PHD and M2M), Zenith Optimedia, and Starcom Mediavest.

Meanwhile, the Kapuso Network opens the New Year on an exciting note with a new line-up of programs starting off with the light romantic-drama Meant to Be topbilled by Barbie Forteza. Also in the offing are, among others, the muchawaited first TV series of Alden Richards and Maine Mendoza, Destined To Be Yours, as well as the Filipino adaptation of the phenomenal Koreanovela My Love From The Star, starring Jennylyn Mercado and Gil Cuerva. ■

Entertainment

FRIDAY JANUARY 13, 2017

25

Trump mentioned Hollywood stars salute early and often Obama for his achievements at Golden Globes PHILIPPINES NEWS AGENCY

BY JOCELYN NOVECK The Associated Press

gives permission for other people to do the same thing.”

Trump took on Streep in a series of early morning tweets DONALD TRUMP was not Monday, calling her “one of the in attendance at the Golden most over-rated actresses in Globes, but he was there in Hollywood” and “a Hillary flunspirit — or more precisely, as ky who lost big.” He also reiterthe target of a slew of political ated that he wasn’t mocking the barbs, not to mention an im- disabled reporter. passioned takedown by actress Streep also referenced Meryl Streep.

Trump’s policies on immigraOnly a few seconds into his tion when she pointedly listed monologue, host Jimmy Fallon the multicultural heritage of noted that the Globes was “one many Hollywood actors. of the few places left where “Hollywood is crawling with America still honours the popu- outsiders and foreigners and lar vote.” if you kick them all out, you’ll He was just getting started. have nothing to watch but footFallon went on to compare the ball and mixed martial arts, president-elect which are not to the evil King the arts,” Streep Joffrey in “Game said, to cheers. of Thrones.”

In Fallon’s “What would This instinct monologue, it be like if King to humiliate, he referred to Joffrey had when it’s a Streep film, lived?”

Fallon modeled by “Florence Fosasked. “Well, in someone ... ter Jenkins,” in 12 days we’re gopowerful, which she stars ing to find out.” it filters as “the worst In an interdown into opera singer in view with the everybody’s the world.” FalNew York Times, life. lon added: “Even Trump said he she turned down did not watch the performing at Golden Globes Trump’s inaugubut was “not surprised” he was ration.” attacked by “liberal movie peoThe mournful drama “Manple.” chester by the Sea,” he joked, Streep took things in a much was “the only thing from 2016 more serious direction, excori- that was more depressing than ating Trump without mention- 2016.” He also noted that votes ing his name in an impassioned were tabulated by the accountspeech as she accepted the Ce- ing firm of “Ernst & Young & cil B. DeMille Award.

Putin.”

The much-respected actress, Hugh Laurie, accepting his who spoke on behalf of Hillary award for best supporting actor Clinton at this year’s Demo- in “The Night Manager,” also cratic National Convention, indulged in Trump jokes, specsaid the “performance” that ulating that this would perhaps had most stunned her this year be the last Golden Globes cerwas when Trump had mocked a emony. disabled reporter.

“I don’t mean to be gloomy, “It was the moment when the but it has the words ‘Hollyperson asking to sit in the most wood,’ ‘foreign’ and ‘press’ in respected seat in our country the title,” Laurie said, explainimitated a disabled reporter, ing his pessimism about the someone he outranked in privi- awards surviving the Trump lege, power and the capacity to era. He added that some Repubfight back,” Streep said. “This licans don’t even like the word instinct to humiliate, when it’s “association.” modeled by someone ... powerHe accepted his award “on ful, it filters down into every- behalf of psychopathic billionbody’s life. Because it kind of aires everywhere.” ■

LOS ANGELES — From Leonardo DiCaprio to Tom Hanks, Hollywood A-listers lent their voices to a farewell tribute honoring the outgoing US President Barack Obama.

In the video “Yes We Can: Your Most Memorable Moments from the Obama Presidency”, celebrities shared the achievements Obama made during his tenure in the White House, reported People magazine.

The video was shared just one day before Obama, 55, and his wife Michelle, First Lady of the United States, hosted a party for their friends and major donors at the White House.

Those in attendance included George and Amal Clooney, Robert De Niro, Nick Jonas, Jordin Sparks, Kelly Rowland as well as Chrissy Teigen and John Legend.

“When I was at the UN and I heard our president say that

climate change is the most important issue facing, not only this generation but also future generations, it was inspiring,” DiCaprio said in the clip.

Hanks shared, “When he just changed all the rules on the table in regards to Cuba with the most succinct motivation imaginable, which is ‘What we’ve been doing hasn’t worked’ which made all the sense in the world.”

For many celebrities, simply seeing his 2008 election was their favorite moment during the Obama administration.

“I never cried before, from an election result,” John Legend said in the video.

Kerry Washington said, “You really felt those first three words of the Constitution, ‘We the People.’ It was one of the first times in my life that I felt like I was really part of that ‘We’.”

Meanwhile, “Grey’s Anatomy” creator Shonda Rhimes reflected on watching the Obama family celebrate in Grant Park in 2008.

“Just the magic of that moment of that man, who we’d all

been on this journey with, take that stage with his family. I was sitting at home in my living room and I felt like I was a part of that crowd in the park,” she said.

Samuel L. Jackson said, “The moment that we got the Affordable Care Act passed, because I have relatives that can’t afford health insurance, so it was really a great thing to know that if something happened to them, they could get cared for.”

Ellen DeGeneres and Kobe Bryant looked back on the funnier moments from the last eight years, saying “The CVS experience with (First Lady Michelle Obama) was pretty cool and dancing with Barack at his birthday party. And he’s a good dancer.

He should not get any flack for that you’re a good dancer.”

And for Michael Jordan, Obama’s legacy is what he will always remember.

“How often do we remember Jackie Robinson everybody knows him. To me, he will be the Jackie Robinson of politics.” ■

Paris police: 16 arrested over Kardashian-West jewelry heist

BY SAMUEL PETREQUIN AND LORI HINNANT The Associated Press PARIS — French police arrested 16 people Monday in connection with the October theft of more than $10 million worth of jewelry from Kim Kardashian West.

Paris police officials said the arrests took place starting around 6 a.m. in different locations in the Paris region. The suspects can be held for up to 96 hours before police must either charge them or let them go.

On Oct. 3, robbers forced their way into the private Paris residence where Kardashian West was staying, tied her up, locked her in a bathroom and held her at gunpoint before making off with her jewelry.

The reality TV star was in Paris attending fashion week shows.

Media reports said police tracked down the suspects through www.canadianinquirer.net

FEATUREFLASH PHOTO AGENCY / SHUTTERSTOCK.COM

DNA evidence found at the residence. An official who spoke on condition of anonymity because he wasn’t allowed to speak publicly about the investigation said many were already well known for robbery and other crimes.

Earlier this month, the starlet broke her silence on the robbery in a new teaser for the family’s reality show, telling two of her sisters her thoughts at the time: “They’re going to shoot me in

the back. There’s no way out.”

Police said the thieves stole a jewelry box containing valuables worth 6 million euros ($6.7 million) as well as a ring worth 4 million euros ($4.5 million).

At the time, a spokeswoman for Kardashian West said she was badly shaken but physically unharmed. The robbery raised new concerns about security in the French capital after a string of deadly extremist attacks. ■

26

JANUARY 13, 2017

FRIDAY

Lifestyle You can use your treadmill for more than a boring walk

BY KELLI KENNEDY The Associated Press MIAMI — Just because it’s too cold for your normal three-mile outdoor run doesn’t mean the treadmill has to be a monotonous exercise in staring at a blank wall.

Los Angeles-based trainers Jeanette Jenkins and Massy Arias offer the following tips for getting out of the treadmill rut.

Vary the speed and incline, add arm weights and use the treadmill when it’s not running for circuit training moves. *** MASSY ARIAS has more than 2 million Instagram followers, offering up various moves and inspirational messages on how working out has helped heal her depression. And even though she’s nearly eight months pregnant, she’s still doing some seriously hardcore workouts.

“Treadmills don’t have to be boring and don’t need to keep you stagnant. If you are creative, you can turn your steady cardio run into effective workouts that can push even the most advanced athletes.”

Speed training

Sprinting can be one of the best exercises for building muscle and decreasing body fat. Try sprinting for one-minute intervals at a speed between 10 and 12 mph. Use a two-minute jog at four mph to recover. Repeat eight times.

Treadmill push-offs

The treadmill doesn’t have

to be running in order to be effective. Incorporate treadmill push-offs by holding onto the treadmill heart beat sensors and pushing off the belt as fast as you can for 60 seconds. It is extremely challenging and works the legs and glutes.

Circuit train

Grab a mat and some moderate- to high-resistance dumbbells. Pair two strength exercises with sprint intervals or a simple fast run. Here are two options: Perform 12 to 15 repetitions of dumbbell squats followed by 12-15 reps on each leg of onelegged lunges with your back foot resting on the treadmill.

Follow it with a 30-second run at 10 mph. Repeat three times.

Perform eight to 10 wide pushups with feet on the back of the treadmill followed by planks or tricep dips using the treadmill handle bars or modify it using the back of the treadmill. Follow it with a one-minute run at six mph with a 2.0 incline. Repeat three times. *** FOUNDER OF The Hollywood Trainer Club with clients like Pink and Alicia Keys, Jeanette Jenkins loves to mix up her treadmill routines with various speeds, inclines and weights.

She has more than a dozen workout DVDs, including “Sexy Abs” with singer Kelly Rowland.

“Changing up your pace, speed, incline and exercises every two to five minutes keeps the workout interesting so the time flies and before you know

it you will have completed a total body kick butt workout.”

Jenkins suggests the following 45- to 60-minute workout: 1. Jog at a speed between six and eight mph or at a comfortable warm-up pace for one mile 2. Walk uphill at a 10.0 incline for two minutes then add dumbbell exercises using three- to five-pound weights. As you walk, do 25 repetitions of each: shoulder press, tricep kickbacks and upright rows 3. Pause treadmill, step off and do 25 pushups 4. Get back on the treadmill and sprint for 30-45 seconds at a speed of 10 to 12 mph or your best pace. Recover for 30-60 seconds. Repeat five times.

5. Pause the treadmill, step off and do 25 regular squats or 25 jump squats using only your bodyweight. Stand on the side rails or step off the treadmill for more intensity.

6. Get back on the treadmill and walk uphill at an incline of 10.0 for two minutes then grab a

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pair of weights. While walking, do 25 reps of shoulder presses followed by 25 reps of tricep kickbacks and finish off with 25 reps of upright rows.

7. Sprint 30 to 45 seconds at a speed 10 to 12 mph or your best pace. Recover for 30-60 seconds. Repeat five times.

8. Pause treadmill, step off and do 25 pushups 9. Walk at an incline of 10.0 for two minutes then grab a set of weights. Do 10 to 16 reps each of rotating overhead press. Set your weights down and do 50 to 100 boxing jabs, alternating with each arm. Finish off with 10 to 16 reps of tricep extensions.

10.

Pause the tread-

mill, step off and do 25 jump squats or regular squats using only your bodyweight.

11. Sprint 30 to 45 seconds at a speed 10 to 12 mph or your best pace. Recover for 30 to 60 seconds. Repeat five times.

12. 25 pushups 13. 25 jump squats or regular squats 14. Finish strong with a onemile jog between six and eight mph or your best pace. For the last half mile, increase your speed by 0.5 every 30 seconds going to 6.5, seven, 7.5 etc. Listen to your body and only increase the speed to a pace you can maintain with good form.

15. Finish with abs by doing 100 bicycle crunches. ■

Lifestyle

FRIDAY JANUARY 13, 2017

27

How mobile video is changing the way we witness crime

BY BARBARA ORTUTAY The Associated Press NEW YORK — Mobile video is changing the way we witness crime, from live footage of a mentally disabled man tortured by four assailants , to a recording that led to the manslaughter conviction of an Israeli soldier , to the body cameras designed to keep police accountable.

We’re all still wrestling with the implications.

In theory, such videos should make it easier to hold criminals, including police officers who violate the law, accountable.

In practice, that hasn’t always worked out the way proponents had hoped, although smartphone video played a big role in elevating public awareness of police violence.

And sometimes the presence of a camera might actually encourage criminal activity, or at least deter bystanders from helping victims.

Scene of the crime

It’s not clear how any of that might have played out in an incident on this week, when attackers used Facebook Live to stream the beating and torture of a man with mental health problems. They threatened him with a knife, cut off his clothing and forced him to drink from a toilet.

The assault went on for up to two days, according to police, though it’s unclear how much of it was streamed on Facebook Live. Police have arrested four

people in connection with the crime.

Last year, an Ohio woman plead not guilty to charges of rape, kidnapping and other crimes for live-streaming the rape of a friend on Periscope, Twitter’s live-streaming app.

Prosecutors said Marina Lonina continued to film the assault despite the victim’s cries for help, caught up in the attention the livestream was getting. Lonina’s attorney said she was recording the attack as evidence.

During a Thursday press conference about the Chicago assault — itself live-streamed on Facebook — Chicago Police Cmdr. Kevin Duffin noted, “I can’t understand why anyone puts anything on Facebook.”

Facebook says it does not allow people to “to celebrate or glorify crimes” on its site. It has already removed the original video of the Chicago incident for that reason.

But the social network does allow crime video when people share it “to condemn violence or raise awareness about it,” the company said in an emailed statement.

That can lead to tricky assessments of intent. Facebook, for instance, wrote in a blog post that it would allow a violent video posted by someone who used it to help find the shooter, but would remove it when posted by another person who mocked the victim or celebrated violence.

Facebook generally tries to

avoid making such judgments, preferring to rely on algorithms that automatically filter out banned content such as pornography. When it makes exceptions, it often wades into difficult territory — such as the time it was forced to restore the Pulitzer Prize-winning “napalm girl” photo after removing it because it features a naked child, blind to the photo’s historical context and significance.

“We understand the unique challenges of live video,” Facebook wrote in its July blog post after footage of a dying Philando Castile, bleeding inside a car after he was shot by police, went viral . The social network says it keeps a team on-call 24 hours a day to respond to reports of inappropriate video — though its reactive approach means that some material could easily go unreported.

Facebook Live is an important product for Facebook, and in recent months the company has gone to great lengths to promote it with notifications, sidewalk ad displays and TV

commercials. The vast majority of live streams don’t involve crime, and Facebook is unlikely to rein back the product just because of a few difficult situations.

It’s “unfortunate” that acts of violence and terror have come to represent live streams, said Benjamin Burroughs, a professor at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas focused on emerging media, in an email to The Associated Press.

More civic-minded streaming lets people “bypass traditional media and connect directly with their social networks and the general public,” he said. Live streaming is powerful, he added, because it “produces really strong emotions in viewers, which can be used to unify or divide people.”

Online crime footage has been around much longer than live streams. While live broadcast gives them a sense of immediacy, many live videos only go viral well after the fact. So it

may not really matter whether a video is live or not, just that it’s a concrete record of a crime that happened, visible to all who dare to click.

Even then, video evidence doesn’t necessarily lead to criminal convictions. In South Carolina, a white police officer was charged with the 2015 shooting of an unarmed black man after a traffic stop. A video shot by a bystander clearly shows Keith Scott being shot eight times in the back. But the jury was unable to reach a verdict and forced a mistrial.

In another case in Ohio, the two sides in the trial clashed over a video from a police officer’s body-worn camera that showed him shooting an unarmed man following a traffic stop. That case also ended in mistrial. The officer, Ray Tensing, will be retried.

As for users, a quick trip down memory lane confirms that some people will do almost anything in front of a camera to get online attention. Before Twitter gutted its quirky video-sharing app Vine, a popular phrase among users was “do it for the Vine,” the idea that people will do anything — usually weird, comical things — just for the sake of a six-second Vine video.

But it wasn’t just fun and games. Fights and violence also found a home on Vine under the hashtag #SmackCam — a 2013 “internet trend” that had people recording and posting videos of themselves hitting people in the face. ■

munications through staff.

“The White House staff has been designed to soften the hard edges of the boss,” says Naftali. “You’re representing the United States. Do you want the United States to look angry?”

President Barack Obama’s presidential Twitter account was carefully launched in May 2015, with a press release, official photo and benign online jokes with former President Bill Clinton. Messages are edited by aides and strategically

timed.

Trump has taken the opposite approach. His messages blindside his staff, who admit they wake up and check Twitter to see what’s been occupying their boss overnight.

“I do look there first, because that’s what’s going to drive the news,” incoming White House press secretary Sean Spicer said last week at the University of Chicago’s Institute of Politics.

Critics say he often uses the messages to distract attention from more damaging stories

about his business interests, ethical questions trailing his incoming administration and his factual inaccuracies. Others argue that they’re evidence of “Donald being Donald” — a reflection of the New York real estate mogul’s long-running interest in celebrity culture and his own social stature.

In any case, his midnight missives regularly send aides scrambling to defend their boss. On Monday morning, incoming senior adviser Kellyanne Conway was on TV accus-

ing Streep of “inciting people’s worst instincts” and wallowing in “self-pity.”

Trump has given little indication that his tweeting ways will change once he takes office.

Time to brace for a realitytelevision presidency?

“He’s going to be a somewhat different type of president,” said Stephen Hess, a policy analyst at Brookings who has advised presidents from both parties. “We’re soon going to learn what the pluses and minuses are of that.” ■

Facebook’s role

Ready for your close-up

Trump unfiltered... ❰❰ 22

“Indulging in ‘Twitter diplomacy’ is undesirable,” said the

headline.

Trump is hardly the first president to take umbrage with what he views as unfair attacks. Behind closed doors, Richard Nixon was notoriously vengeful, Lyndon Johnson often thin-skinned and Dwight Eisenhower prone to rage, says Naftali. But past presidents went to great lengths to keep their personal emotions private, carefully channeling com-

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28

Lifestyle

JANUARY 13, 2017

FRIDAY

Apple proved a phone can Video game shows change the world in just 10 years promising results for treating depression

BY MICHAEL LIEDTKE The Associated Press

SAN FRANCISCO — Few people realized it at the time, but the world shifted fundamentally a decade ago when Steve Jobs pulled the first iPhone from Apple’s bag of technological tricks.

“Every once in a while, a revolutionary product comes along that changes everything,” Jobs declared as he paced across a San Francisco stage.

It obviously wasn’t an empty boast. We all know now that Jobs’ “magical product” has reshaped culture, shaken up industries, put computers in billions of pockets and made it possible to do just about anything with a few taps on a screen. Besides its then 3.5inch touch screen, the first iPhone featured a browser for on-the-go web surfing and built-in apps to check email and get directions.

Going mobile

Apple has sold more than 1 billion iPhones since its debut, spawning millions of mobile applications and prodding other technology companies to make similar smartphones that have become like phantom limbs for many of us.

We use iPhones and their copycats to instantly share video and pictures with friends and family from almost anywhere. We use them to figure out where we are going. We use them to find the best deals while shopping in stores and to pay for stuff at the checkout stand. We use the phones to a hail ride, to tune instruments, to monitor our health and help find our next jobs.

Phones have gotten so smart that they even talk back to us via helpful digital concierges such as the iPhone’s Siri and the recently introduced Assistant on Google’s Pixel phone.

“IPhone is an essential part of our customers’ lives, and today more than ever it is redefining the way we communicate, entertain, work and live,” Apple’s current CEO, Tim Cook, boasted in a retrospective that the Cupertino, California, company posted on its website.

PHILIPPINES NEWS AGENCY

KĀRLIS DAMBRĀNS / FLICKR

Roadkill in its wake

The iPhone’s revolutionary touch screen doomed the BlackBerry, another once-popular internet-connected phone.

Mobile phones and their tablet cousins triggered a downturn in personal computer sales that is still unfolding.

An estimated 219 million desktop and laptop computers shipped worldwide last year, down from 264 million in 2007, according to the research firm Gartner Inc. Meanwhile, nearly 1.9 billion mobile phones shipped last year, up from 1.15 billion in 2007.

All told, Gartner estimates about 5 billion mobile phones are currently in use around the world compared to 1.3 billion PCs. The eroding popularity of PCs spurred shake-ups at powerful tech companies such as Microsoft, Intel, Hewlett-Packard and Dell, none of which adapted nimbly to the mobile world unleashed by the iPhone.

Then-Microsoft’s CEO Steve Ballmer scoffed at Apple’s glass-and-metal gadget, telling USA Today in April 2007 that “there’s no chance that the iPhone is going to get any significant market share. No chance.”

Microsoft wound up squandering the $7.6 billion that it spent to buy phone maker Nokia in a futile attempt to catch up to the iPhone. Ballmer stepped down as CEO three years ago and was replaced by Satya Nadella, who introduced versions of Microsoft’s popular Office programs that worked on Apple’s iPad — a tablet based on

the iPhone.

A huge hit… and then a stall

The iPhone’s success helped make Jobs a revered figure for many, and one whose October 2011 death was mourned around the world.

The device has established Apple as the world’s most profitable company with earnings of $45.7 billion on sales of $216 billion during its latest fiscal year. (Prior to the iPhone’s release, Apple posted an annual profit of $2 billion on sales of $19.3 billion.) Its stock-market value is hovering around $635 billion, thanks to a split-adjusted stock price that’s risen by nearly a factor of 10 since the iPhone’s debut.

Lately, though, the iPhone appears to be losing some steam. People are keeping older models for longer before upgrading or switching over to competing phones that run on Google’s Android software.

Apple suffered its first-ever decline in iPhone sales in its last fiscal year, causing the company to miss its revenue projections and hitting Cook with a 15 per cent pay cut .

Most smartphones now run on Android, partly because Google gives away the software. That has helped iPhone rivals woo price conscious consumers, especially outside the U.S., with phones that are much cheaper than the iPhone, whose latest models now cost more than $649 to $849.

In his statement, though, Cook promised the iPhone is “just getting started. The best is yet to come.” ■ www.canadianinquirer.net

SAN FRANCISCO — Two recent studies have shown promising results for treating depression with a video game interface by targeting underlying cognitive issues rather than just managing the symptoms.

The first study enrolled older adults diagnosed with late-life depression into a treatment trial where they were randomized to receive either a mobile, tablet-based treatment technology developed by Akili Interactive Labs called Project: EVO or an in-person therapy technique known as problemsolving therapy (PST).

While people with late-life depression are aged 60 and over and are known to have trouble focusing their attention on personal goals and report trouble concentrating because they are so distracted by their worries, the Project: EVO application, or app, runs on phones and tablets and is designed to improve focus and attention at a basic neurological level, so as to prevent people from being easily distracted.

Most of the participants had never used a tablet, let alone played a video game, but compliance was more than 100 percent. They were required to play the game five times a week for 20 minutes, but many played it more. They also attended weekly meetings with a clinician. The meetings served as a control for the fact that participants in the problemsolving therapy arm were seen in person on a weekly basis, and social contact of this nature can have a positive effect on mood.

“We found that moderately depressed people do better with apps like this because they address or treat correlates of depression,” said Patricia Arean, a University of Washington (UW) Medicine researcher in psychiatry and behavioral sciences and the senior author of a study published last week in the journal Depression and Anxiety.

Lead author of the study is Joaquin A. Anguera, a University of California, San Francisco (UCSF), researcher in neurology and psychiatry.

The results indicated that the group using Project: EVO demonstrated specific cognitive benefits, such as attention, compared to the behavioral therapy, and saw similar improvements in mood and selfreported function.

“While EVO was not directly designed to treat depressive symptoms; we hypothesized that there may indeed be beneficial effects on these symptoms by improving cognitive issues with targeted treatment, and so far, the results are promising,” Anguera was quoted as saying in a news release from UW. A second study, another joint effort by UW and UCSF, randomized more than 600 people across the United States assessed as moderately or mildly depressed to one of three interventions: Akili’s Project: EVO; iPST, an app deployment of problem-solving therapy; or a placebo control, an app called Health Tips, which offered healthy suggestions.

Arean, the lead researcher on this study published in the Journal of Medical Internet Research (JIMR), found people who were mildly depressed were able to see improvements in all three groups, including the placebo. However, those individuals who were more than mildly depressed showed a greater improvement of their symptoms following their use of Project: EVO or iPST versus the placebo.

Noting that much of her research is aimed at providing effective treatment to people who need it, and these results provide great potential for helping people who don’t have the resources to access effective problem solving therapy, Arean said the apps should be used under clinical supervision because without a human interface, people were not as motivated to use it. In the JIMR study, 58 percent of participants did not download the app. ■

29

FRIDAY JANUARY 13, 2017

Sports Golden chance at the Sea Games Not even crowded training venues can make resurgent Filipino tracksters lose focus on a big Games mission

BY CEDELF P. TUPAS Philippine Daily Inquirer THEY ENDURE conditions that are far from ideal, training in overcrowded facilities like the Philsports Stadium where they share the beat-up rubberized oval with recreational runners and fitness buffs.

But there should be no excuses for the country’s top track and field athletes, who are expected to be given the best training possible from now until August, when the Southeast Asian Games goes full swing in Kuala Lumpur. There, they will try to recapture the magic of the country’s proud past in a sport that has produced numerous heroes.

Philippine athletics is gearing up for a banner year with a target of 11 gold medals in the SEA Games. It’s a daunting task with traditional powerhouses Thailand and Vietnam also raring to make their mark and host Malaysia going all-out for the overall crown at home.

But athletics chief Philip Ella Juico is brimming with optimism that when August comes around, Filipino athletes will be at their best when they see action in the Malaysian capital.

“The prospects are bright for 2017,” Juico says. “We have a good mix of veterans and young talents who will converge in KL. They will be ready for the SEA Games and other international competitions this year.”

Athletics has regularly produced gold medals for the country in the SEA Games, but

not since the heydays of former Asia sprint queen Lydia de Vega and Isidro del Prado in 1983 had the Philippines hit the doubledigit mark in golds with 11.

Filipinos endured their worst performance in the 2011 SEA Games in Palembang, Indonesia, where they won only two golds, before bouncing back with six in the next edition in Nay Pyi Taw, Burma (Myanmar).

The biggest haul in the past 12 years has been nine golds, in Manila 2005, when the country hosted the Games. In the last two SEA Games in Myanmar and Singapore, respectively, the Philippines collected 11 golds, five of them in the Lion City where Filipino-American Eric Cray shone the brightest with a couple of victories in the 100meters and 400m hurdles.

Juico, who took over from long-time athletics chief Go Teng Kok in 2013, says they are looking at 17 athletes who will undergo specialized training overseas with the help of private sponsors, led by Ayala Corp.

Pole vaulter EJ Obiena actually trains in Italy on a scholarship with the International Athletics Federation. With a personal best of 5.55 meters, Obiena is targeting to breach the Olympic qualifying mark of 5.70m this year.

“We’re pinning our hopes on Obiena making an improvement this year, thanks to his training in Italy,” says Philippine Amateur Track and Field Association (Patafa) secretary general Renato Unso. “He has immense potential to really

make an impact and his training will go a long way in helping him realize his potential.”

National coach Jojo Posadas, a former 800m gold medalist in the SEA Games, says the conservative prediction is “eight to 12 golds” in Malaysia. The composition of the team will still be subject to evaluation, particularly the young athletes who will be given a chance to prove themselves. “We’re taking a wait-and-see approach,” he says. “We hope to get enough support so we could have more athletes that will be given specialized training.”

While he vouches for the competence of Filipino coaches, Posadas stresses that Filipino athletes stand to benefit from training overseas, where there are better training facilities. “When you train overseas, you get challenged,” he says.

“There’s just a high standard for performance training abroad.

“We had to make do with facilities at Philsports,” Posadas adds. “It wasn’t until October last year when national athletes enjoyed exclusive use of the Philsports track from 1 p.m. to 4 p.m. It’s usually overcrowded.”

Cray and Kayla Richardson, who captured the gold in the women’s century dash in Singapore, and reigning SEA Games hammer throw champion and record-holder Caleb Stuart are among the Filipino athletes based in the United States.

Among the national pool’s up-and-coming athletes, Mark Diones, 22, has shown plenty of promise. He has already erased

The Philippine and Malaysian national basketball team in a match at the 2015 Southeast Asian Games men's basketball tournament.

JHANXG / FLICKR

the 7-year-old national record of Joebert Delicano in triple jump with a leap of 16.29m last November in the Patafa weekly relays.

“He’s a gold-medal prospect and we’re confident he will do well,” Posadas says of Diones, who hails from Libmanan, Camarines Sur. The Jose Rizal U Criminology graduate has already hit the silver-medal standard set by the Philippine Olympic Committee and the Philippine Sports Commission for national athletes aspiring to compete in the 11-country biennial Games.

A discovery of former long jumper Samson Calisura, Diones missed the podium after winding up fourth in Singapore last year.

“When I began training him after the 2010 Palarong Pambansa, Diones had a personal best of 14.43m,” Posadas says. “Now, he has become a gold-medal potential. Weexpect him to still improve before the SEA Games.”

Another gold-medal prospect is Nueva Ecija-born decathlete Aries Toledo, who surpassed the silver-medal output last

year. “With the gold medalist in decathlon retiring, I think Toledo is the favorite for the gold,” Posadas says. “But he will still compete for his spot with Sean Guevarra.”

Cray faces stiff opposition in defending his sprint crown against Thai rivals, but Juico says the Fil-Am’s participation in the World Championships in London before the SEA Games will give him an edge in Malaysia. Cray is also a candidate to see action in the 4x400 relay along with fellow Fil-Am Trenten Beram, Edgardo Alejan, Jr. and Archand Christian Bagsit.

Christopher Ulboc (3,000m steeplechase), Marco Vilog (800m), Marestella TorresSunang (long jump), Jessica Barnard (long distance), Patrick Unso (hurdles), Richardson (sprints), Zion Corrales-Nelson (sprints) and Mervin Guarte (middle distance) are also tipped to strike gold in their respective events.

“There will be little time for rest for these athletes from now until August,” says Posadas.

“We’re on a mission.” ■

Lim, 17, braces for Davis Cup Challenge

BY MARC ANTHONY REYES Philippine Daily Inquirer ALBERTO LIM Jr. is ready to take on the challenge of becoming the youngest Filipino Davis Cupper in recent years.

“It’s a very big opportunity for me to be part of the team, and I’m ready for the challenge,” said the 17-yearold Lim. He would be 17 years and nine months old when the Philippines hosts Indonesia on Feb. 3 to 5 at Philippine Columbian

Association clayshell courts.

Francis Casey Alcantara was 17 years and three months when he played his maiden Davis Cup match in 2009 shortly after winning the juniors doubles title in the Australian Open.

Barrientos debuted for the PH www.canadianinquirer.net

Davis Cup team in 1984 at 16.

Already, hopes are high for the feisty, big-hitting Lim who is now No. 34 in the world juniors from as high as No. 12.

“When the country needs me, I’m always going to be ready,” added the native of Matatalaib, Tarlac.

“And I’m just trying to keep on improving every single day, so that I can make my country proud.”

Lim is set to join Alcantara, Ruben Gonzales and Treat Huey in the Asia/Oceania Group 2 tie. ■

30

JANUARY 13, 2017

FRIDAY

Business Lawsuits over Trump business Stocks outlook threaten to tie up presidency remains upbeat

on strong PH fundamentals

BY CHAD DAY AND BERNARD CONDON The Associated Press WASHINGTON — As a businessman, Donald Trump has kept the courts busy. That’s hardly likely to change when he enters the Oval Office, creating an unusual and potentially serious problem for a sitting president.

Only a handful of presidents have undergone legal depositions during their terms, and even fewer have become embroiled in private lawsuits.

Trump is poised to join that small club.

Just last week, the presidentelect sat for a deposition in a lawsuit involving his Washington hotel , and he is still tied up in legal disputes that are to proceed after Inauguration Day. Trump is also caught up in an investigation by the New York attorney general into whether he used his charity for personal benefit.

While Trump has said he will turn over management of his company to his adult sons, he has left open the possibility he will keep not only an ownership interest but the legal liability that accompanies it. Legal experts worry that would leave him more exposed to lawsuits, including ones financed by deep-pocketed political opponents who could use the courts as one more battleground to fight his administration.

Trump is expected to give more details about stepping away from his business at a news conference on Wednesday.

“He is going to be not just a litigation magnet, but a litigation vortex that sucks in every political and personal adversary he has,” said Norman Eisen, the Obama administration chief White House ethics counsellor from 2009 through 2011. Eisen has encouraged Trump to sell his assets and put the cash in a blind trust to avoid conflicts of

BY DORIS DUMLAOABADILLA Philippine Daily Inquirer

MARIO HAGEN / SHUTTERSTOCK.COM

interest and legal pitfalls.

Under constitutional immunity protections, Trump can’t be sued over official acts in the Oval Office. But he could be named in lawsuits for personal actions or those involving his businesses. That raises the prospect of a President Trump answering questions under oath in more depositions, as President Bill Clinton did in the Paula Jones case that led to his 1998 impeachment by the House of Representatives.

The danger for Trump is heightened given the sprawling nature of his business, the Trump Organization.

“We’ve had presidents before who were rich, but we’re in some uncharted territory given Trump’s wealth and his myriad of business interests,” said Saikrishna Prakash, a professor at the University of Virginia School of Law who specializes in constitutional separation of powers.

Prakash said potential plaintiffs may think Trump would be more likely to settle cases.

In the weeks after the election, Trump paid $25 million to settle three lawsuits alleging Trump University misled stu-

dents into paying as much as $35,000 a year for instruction of little value. Trump said he did nothing wrong and was only settling so he could focus on the presidency.

The Trump Organization’s general counsel, Alan Garten, said the company is not more vulnerable to paying judgments to plaintiffs, noting that Trump sat for a deposition last week instead of settling. He said he wasn’t worried about future legal attacks funded by political opponents. “People will be wasting their time,” Garten said.

Trump has decided to pursue two lawsuits against chefs_ Jose Andres and Geoffrey Zakarian_ who pulled out of restaurant deals in his new Washington hotel after the candidate made disparaging comments during his campaign about Mexican immigrants in the U.S. illegally.

The hotel may be facing additional legal entanglements. As The Washington Post recently reported, contractors have filed liens against the property in the past month, saying they are still owed money for their work. Gar❱❱ PAGE 36 Lawsuits over

www.canadianinquirer.net

gests that the fallout post-Fed rate hike has waned and that the market has fully priced this in,” AB Capital said in a note to clients. Last week, net foreign AFTER A strong start for the buying amounted to P1.75 bilyear, the local stock market is lion, improving from the previseen to temper gains this week ous week’s P467 million. while awaiting fresh clues from The Fed had indicated that the US Federal Reserve on US interest rates might be furmonetary policy. ther raised three times this Last week, the Philippine year.

Stock Exchange index (PSEi) “Investors may also be posisurged by 5.96 percent to close tioning ahead of strong fullyear at 7,248.20 on strong growth corporate earnings as well as a prospects for the Philippines solid full-year GDP growth rate this 2017. that would place BDO Unibank the Philippines chief strateahead of its regist Jonathan gional peers,” AB Ravelas said With foreign Capital said. last week’s rally investors as With the strong was driven by net buyers, buying pressure prospects that this possibly last week, AB the Philippine suggests that Capital said the gross domestic the fallout postmarket was now product (GDP) Fed rate hike trading at a pricegrowth would has waned and to-earnings (P/E) outperform that the market ratio of 17.3x, Southeast Asian has fully priced which means inpeers this year. this in. vestors are pay“Chartwise, ing 17.3 times the the week’s close kind of money at 7,248.20 sugthey expect to gests the market make. to try the 7,500 levels,” said AB Capital said another techRavelas. “A break above the nical indicator—the relative 7,500 levels will call the bulls strength index (RSI) at 65.9— back to play.” suggested that the market was Joseph Roxas, president of reaching “overbought” levels Eagle Equities, said the PSEi and a technical pullback might might have to correct this week be expected in the near term. after last week’s surge. “But it This week, AB Capital said will only be a short dip,” he said. investors would be tracking Support levels are seen at 7,000 China inflation and production and further at 6,800. data, US employment data and AB Capital Securities said Fed Chair Janet Yellen’s speech that with strong foreign buying next Thursday for guidance on seen in the last six trading ses- interest rate increases this year. sions, the sharp uptrend chanThis week, the brokerage said: nel could signify that the PSEi “We can expect the market’s had bottomed at the 6,500 level gains to wane, though the Fed in late December. speech could be a catalyst or a “With foreign investors as headwind, depending on their net buyers, this possibly sug- dovish or hawkish tone.” ■

Business

FRIDAY JANUARY 13, 2017

31

Three common investing errors to avoid in 2017

BY ROBYN K. THOMPSON, CFP, CIM, FCSI Fundata Canada Inc. INVESTORS WHO sold out of equities after Brexit and again just after the Trump election victory quite possibly lost money last year, even though the big stock market indices turned in strong gains. Turns out they fell into one of the most common investment pitfalls. Here’s a quick guide to three of the most common investing mistakes and what you can do to avoid them in 2017.

Mistake #1: Timing the market

Many investors have an unfounded confidence in their ability to buy and sell an investment at precisely the right time to maximize profit and portfolio performance. In practice, this is almost impossible to achieve consistently.

Attempting to “time the market” leads to frequent trading, incurring trading costs on both the buy and sell side. In addition,

because no one has a crystal ball, chances are good you’ll miss both the top and the bottom. Overall, you’ll have incurred trading commissions, and you’ll typically be no further ahead than if you had stuck with a disciplined pricetarget strategy.

If you pursue a market timing when you invest in mutual funds or exchange-traded funds (ETFs), you’re likely to fare even worse, underperforming or even negating fund performance.

Good investing is about planning. Work with your adviser to develop an asset allocation strategy based on an understanding of your financial objectives and your tolerance for risk. Choose how much money you want to allocate to each of safety, income, and growth assets within your portfolio. Then populate each of these allocations with appropriately selected and researched investments.

You should monitor monthly, but there should be no reason to trade in and out of your chosen investments if you’ve

screened, researched, and selected your investments properly. Build your portfolio, have the confidence to stick with it, and rebalance in a year’s time.

Mistake #2: Wishful thinking

Novice investors will often buy an investment because it has recently gone up in price, in the expectation that it will go up some more.

Investing solely on the basis of recent short-term past performance doesn’t work. In fact, it can actually magnify subsequent losses if the investment has already been gaining steadily for 12 months or more. Such investments very often wind up in the media spotlight, attracting a lot attention. By then, however, the smart money has already left, and the investment (a high-flying company or a hot commodity) is ripe for a steep slide.

Remember this phrase: “Past performance does not guarantee future results.” It’s a now common (and widely ignored) warning on every bit of market-

ing material produced by every mutual fund and ETF sold in Canada. And for good reason.

When looking only at investment return graphs (another common mistake, by the way), make sure you look not just at the past month or six months or year. Go back three, five, ten years, or even longer if you can. Compare the return on the “hot” investment that’s caught your eye to a suitable benchmark over the longer term. You’ll often find that past performance doesn’t even guarantee good past performance let alone future results.

Mistake #3: Following the herd

Investors often stampede into or out of individual investments, sectors, asset classes, and entire markets at the same time. New clients have told me they’ve missed out on big market moves after selling all their equity positions and switching to cash after a stock market correction. The media-driven stock market “crashes” following Brexit and the election of

Donald Trump as U.S. president are two cases in point in 2016. Investors jumped on the sell bandwagon simply because “the market was declining rapidly.” But these were one-day wonders, and markets rallied again in the wake of both events, whipsawing many investors into loss positions. In fact, “the market” is nothing more than the combined actions of millions of individual investors. If you sell only because the market is declining, you’re just following a herd mentality.

The best way to avoid these most common errors is to define your financial objectives and develop a disciplined portfolio allocation plan that takes into account your tolerance for risk. Work with your financial advisor to create a properly diversified portfolio that mitigates risk to a level acceptable to you. (Be realistic about the size of portfolio loss you’re comfortable with over various time periods.) Then stick with your plan. ■

T&T Celebrates the Year of Rooster with You SPRING FESTIVAL is one of the most important festivals in the Chinese culture. Not only does it represent the start of a new year, it is also a time when the whole family have dinner together.

During the Chinese New Year, people will pay visits to friends and relatives especially long time no see ones, they will give blessings to each other, enjoy rice cakes and Chinese tea together. The married ones will give red packet to the unmarried ones especially the younger generation as a form of blessing. At T&T Supermarket, we have carefully selected a wide range of merchandises from Greater China and Japan and have all the Chinese New Year products, gift box, festive food and pastry etc. in stock for you to fully celebrate this wonderful time of the year.

Delicious Exquisite Dishes T&T Kitchen Deli has developed several new dishes for this Chinese New Year. For those who love spicy food, the Braised Deluxe Spicy Seafood Hot Pot is a must try. It is a typical Chongqing hot pot that is famous for its spiciness and strong flavor resulted from the many ingredients that are put into the pot. The soup is stewed with pickle, peppercorns, millet pepper and many other spices. A variety of seafood like crabs, crayfish, shrimp, squid ring, mussels and many others are included in this pot ensuring a very fulfilling taste. Another new dish is the Superior Premium Abalone and Matsutake with Free Range Chicken. It is a Cantonese classic dish, the fresh abalone and whole free range chicken are stir-fried with Matsutake and chef’s special sauce.

Our chef also recommends Deluxe Chef Special Mutton Hot Pot. Lamb shoulder, lamb chops and of lamb shanks are slowly simmered with Chinese pickle, Chinese angelica, peppercorns, red yeast rice, Chinese cooking wine and other special spices. In addition, there are Superior Premium Abalone & Sea Cucumber Chicken Soup, Supreme Chinese New Year Lucky Pot, Deluxe Pancai - Superior Layers of Good Wishes, Luxury Buddha Temptations, all of them are all time favourites and are super delicious.

Chinese and Western Pastries Last year’s highly popular coconut cheese cake will be available this year again, we have also added mango and durian flavour as well.

As for Chinese New Year rice cakes, aside from traditional steamed rice cakes, we have also got freshly baked roasted rice cakes. For speciality

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rice cake, we have got Tai Chi cakes, Koi carpshaped rice cakes and Ingot-shaped rice cakes. If you like pineapple cakes, don’t miss the Mahjong style pineapple cakes. We have also set up a Chinese New Year candy mix and match section where you can choose the candy you like.

Fabulous Gifts for Everyone Paying visit to friends and relatives during the Chinese New Year is to give our blessings to them. It would be more meaningful if we could bring along a gift that represent our wishes. T&T has hundreds of gift sets sourced from China, Hong Kong, Taiwan and Japan. Some of these include Sunny Hills Pineapple Cake, one of Taiwan trendiest products. Japanese Confectionary Gift Set which is the winner of Japanese best of the best pastry award. Din Tai Fung Pineapple Cake, World renowned Taiwanese brand. Kee Wah cookies that are 100% made in Hong Kong. Dao Xiang Cun, a Chinese brand in mainland China with over a hundred years history. On top of that, we have DS&H dried mushrooms and fungus, Golden Nest swallow nest soup, Geomar abalone in brine as well as Meal Of Emperor XO Sauce that are perfect gifts for any Chinese family.

Festive Decoration Every Chinese family will decorate their home during the Chinese New Year. T&T has hundreds of decoration choices for you to choose from, from hanging decoration, red banners, table top decoration to door stickers, fortune cat, ingot, kirin, fortune god and golden bowl. Whatever you want, we have one for you.

Beauty Products The most enjoyable activities during Chinese New Year is to visit friends and relatives, it is important for all ladies to show their best look, T&T BeBeauty has a variety of hot selling limited edition Japanese and Korean products like Shiseido Shampoo & Conditioner set, Ryo Anti-hair loss shampoo, My Beauty Diary Watery Garden Combo Set, FBO facial masks, Simply Healthy Healthy Instant Drink Powder Set, ensuring all ladies have glowing gorgeous look.

T&T wishes everyone a fabulous Chinese New Year of Rooster!

For more details, please click onto www. tntsupermarket.com.

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JANUARY 13, 2017

FRIDAY

Technology Canadian teams reimagine carbon dioxide emissions for $20M competition

BY LAURA KANE The Canadian Press VANCOUVER — What if carbon dioxide emissions could be transformed from a liability into an asset?

That’s the $20-million question behind the NRG COSIA Carbon XPrize, a global competition to create technology that converts CO2 into valuable products.

“In energy and climate, few ideas are as potentially transformative as the idea of turning the economics of CO2 and climate change on its head,” said Marcius Extavour, director of technical operations for the prize.

Nine Canadian companies are among the 27 teams that have advanced to the semifinals, with innovations including harnessing photosynthesis to convert carbon and injecting CO2 into concrete.

The multi-million dollar prize is funded by the industry group Canada’s Oil Sands Innovation Alliance and U.S. company NRG. Ten finalists will be announced in 2018 and a winner will be revealed in 2020.

Here’s a look at some of the Canadian semifinalists: Ingenuity Lab — Edmonton

Ingenuity Lab director Carlo Montemagno has engineered a new way to capture CO2 from industrial gas emissions. His technology harnesses photosynthesis, the process plants use to convert carbon dioxide into chemical energy using

light.

The technology mimics the biochemical reactions of photosynthesis in non-living materials to generate the energy to transform the carbon dioxide into valuable products. It takes the CO2 from flue gas and builds the carbons up into long chains, with the result being that 47 different specialty chemicals can be produced.

Montemagno added that plants require a significant amount of energy to grow, so they’re not very efficient at sequestering carbon to produce value-added chemicals. But in his technology, no energy has to be spent to keep an organism alive, so all the output can go toward the products that one wants to create.

“This efficiency is gamechanging, opening up new opportunities for the sustainable production of products we all need from waste,” he said in an email.

Terra CO2 Technologies — Vancouver

Terra CO2 Technologies is developing a technique to transform acid rock drainage and carbon dioxide emissions — two damaging byproducts of mining — into a stable substance.

Acid rock drainage refers to the acidic water that results when sulfide minerals are exposed to air and water and produce sulphuric acid, which is harmful to wildlife if it leaks into waterways. Mining companies must use costly methods to contain the drainage, including

treating it with lime and storing it in large tailings ponds.

Terra CEO Dylan Jones said the company aims to solve the environmental threat of acid rock drainage and save mining companies money. Their technology treats the drainage through an electrochemical pro-

cess t h a t separates the sulfur f r o m the mineral.

The company uses a common iron-sulfide mineral called pyrite or “fool’s gold” as an example. It pulls CO2 out of the air and combines with the iron to make an iron carbonate, which is stable in normal atmospheric conditions and doesn’t produce any acid.

“Our application for the technology is huge for the mining industry,” said Jones. “We’re looking at it as a cost-saving technology.”

Carbicrete — Montreal

Cement produces a great deal of greenhouse gas emissions — about one tonne of CO2 for every tonne of cement. That’s why Carbicrete invented a way to make concrete without using cement.

Instead of using cement to

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bind together the concrete, the company uses steel slag, a byproduct of the steel-making process that mostly ends up in landfills.

In doing so, it avoids the CO2 emissions associated with cement.

Mehrdad Mahoutian, who originally invented the technology at McGill University, added that precast concrete products are normally cured with heat and steam, but Carbicrete cures its concrete with CO2 gas, which permanently sequesters the CO2 and keeps it out of the atmosphere.

In effect, the product is carbon-negative concrete.

“We’re taking garbage, and we’re turning it into a valuable product and solving climate change all in one step,” said CEO Chris Stern.

CarbonCure Technologies — Dartmouth, N.S.

Nova Scotia-based CarbonCure Technologies has also developed a way to use CO2 to make better concrete.

The company takes CO2 from any industrial source — a power plant or a refinery, for example — and injects it into concrete, where it is sequestered and turned into a solid. The process reduces the carbon footprint of the product by taking CO2 out of the air and turning it into a solid material, which happens to make concrete stronger, and also cuts down the concrete producer’s costs.

There is more concrete manufactured on the earth than any other material, so this technology has the potential to reduce significant quantities of CO2, said vice-president of sustainability Jennifer Wagner.

“The technology makes concrete stronger, greener and less expensive to manufacture.” ■

Technology

FRIDAY JANUARY 13, 2017

33

Jeans that give directions?

Uber to help cities Products get, um, ‘smart’ at CES get a better grasp

on traffic patterns

BY BREE FOWLER, MAE ANDERSON AND ANNE D’INNOCENZIO The Associated Press LAS VEGAS — Here’s a morning routine for you.

After the alarm on your smartphone goes off, it’s time to roll out of your “smart” bed and give your hair a good run through with your app-connected brush. Don’t forget to use your smart toothbrush in front of your smart mirror.

After that, your smart pillbox will remind you to take your medication. And remember to put on your smart jeans, so they can give you directions while you leave your phone in the pocket.

Sound like a typical morning? Tech companies at the CES gadget show in Las Vegas would like it to be. They’re unveiling products that do all these things and more. But do we really need them — or even want them?

“When an industry is nascent, you will see experimentation,” said Mark Hung, a vicepresident at Gartner Research.

“Companies will throw things against the wall to see what sticks.”

You decide whether these are cool innovations or just junk.

Box o’ love

Can’t express your feelings adequately through emoticonfilled text messages? For you, there’s the Lovebox.

The wooden box — made by a French startup, of course — plugs into an outlet and connects to Wi-Fi. A heart on the outside spins when you get a message. Open the lid to see a digital screen with the message.

You can reply with a digital heart by rotating the heart on the box.

The Lovebox won’t be out in the U.S. until June, so forget Valentine’s Day. And these virtual smooches come with a price: $120 for one box or $185 for two.

Hair goes high tech

The Hair Coach from L’Oreal’s Kerastase brand uses a microphone, gyroscope and other sensors to monitor how fast and

THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

Video wall at the LG booth at the CES show held in Las Vegas.

KOBBY DAGAN / SHUTTERSTOCK.COM

how hard you’re brushing.

An accompanying app recommends how to brush for optimal quality and minimal breakage and split ends. It can also factor in heat and humidity and even discern if hair is wet or dry.

Kerastase teamed up with tech company Withings on the battery-powered brush, due out in mid-2017. It comes at a hairraising price: $200.

Digital backpack

If sharing your pictures on Instagram isn’t enough, why not wear them?

A California startup called Pop-I has a backpack for just that. A built-in digital screen displays photos you just snapped or have in your photo gallery.

The backpacks will come out later this year and range from $99 to $399, depending on material and screen size. Pop-I is looking to expand to clothing and other products, too.

Fashion on the move

Want to look smart while tooling around an unfamiliar neighbourhood? How about a pair of vibrating jeans to get you where you’re going?

The jeans from Spinali Design, another French startup, will vibrate on your right or left hip to let you know which direction you should head. Sure, a smartwatch can do the same thing, but why get something that can do more?

If that’s too much clothing for you, try bikinis that buzz when you’re out in the sun too long and need to apply more sunscreen.

The jeans cost about $100, and the bikinis about $140.

E-skin

Want body monitoring that rivals that of an intensive care unit?

Xenoma’s “e-skin” is essentially a shirt with sensors that measure movement, breathing, pressure, perspiration and body temperature. The shirt connects wirelessly to a smartphone or personal computer for real-time number crunching.

Developers at the Tokyobased Xenoma say the shirt can be used for health monitoring, fitness tracking and even virtual-reality gaming. But they’re still working on it, so it’s not available for sale yet. *** Elsewhere at CES, connected pet feeders and dog collars were on display, while chefs for humans could see Wi-Fi-enabled air fryers and sous vide cookers. Run out of an ingredient? A smart trash can automatically add it to your shopping list.

And if you don’t have time to read to your kids, the Lunii storytelling speaker can come to your rescue. Never mind that this can be done through a phone app rather than a $60 device.

With all that help, you’ll have plenty of time for 18 holes with your 3-D-printed connected golf club. It promises to let you know — through an app, of course — just how bad your form actually is.

Just don’t forget to send a note to your loved one — through the Lovebox. ■ AP Technology Writer Bree Fowler reported from New York.

AP video journalist Jona Kallgren in Las Vegas contributed to this report. www.canadianinquirer.net

SAN FRANCISCO — Uber is offering a helping hand to some of the same city leaders it sometimes antagonizes with the aggressive way it runs its popular ride-hailing service.

The assistance will come in the form of a free website, called “Movement,” expected to be available to the public in midFebruary. Uber announced the new website Sunday, on the eve of a transportation-planning conference in Washington.

Although anyone can use the website, Uber says it believes its main audience will be city officials dealing with congestion in their streets and transit systems.

The website draws upon data Uber gathers from its ridehailing service showing average travel times on specific routes at any day or time. The San Francisco company believes that information will enable city officials to make better planning decisions about road closures and transportation improvements.

The site won’t be comprehensive because Uber acknowledges its service hasn’t provided

enough rides on some routes to give reliable estimates on typical travel times. But it remains confident the service will be a popular tool for city planners who currently have to pay for similar data from a variety of vendors.

The website will start with private tests covering the Washington, Sydney and Manila, Philippines. Once the website opens to the public, Uber hopes to gradually provide travel-time data on maps covering most of the hundreds of cities where its service operates.

Uber’s goodwill gesture is a bit of a departure for a company that has tussled with cities around the world about whether its service needs to follow the same regulations as taxis.

And just last month, Uber upset city leaders in its hometown by rolling out a small fleet of self-driving cars without the permits that California state regulators said were needed to cruise the streets, even with a human prepared to take control of the vehicle. The state revoked the registrations for Uber’s selfdriving cars, prompting the company to move the testing of the vehicles to Arizona. ■

New Nokia branded mobile gadget released PHILIPPINES NEWS AGENCY HELSINKI — Finland-based company HMD Global announced on Sunday its first Nokia branded mobile phone.

Based on the Android system, the Nokia 6 is intended for the Chinese market.

Available in early 2017, the price of the new gadget will be 1,699 Chinese yuan, the company announced in its press release. It also said it will be available in China through JD.com only.

Arto Nummela, CEO of HMD

Global, said “we intend to move with speed to establish a position as a player in the smartphone category.”

HMD Global is based in Espoo, Finland. It has obtained the Nokia trademark through exclusive licensing valid for ten years.

Nummela previously worked with Nokia and Microsoft.

HMD Global’s main office is located in Espoo, close to the current Nokia main office.

HMD Global in Finland designs and markets the phones, but actual production takes ❱❱ PAGE 38 New Nokia

JANUARY 13, 2017

34

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PROVIDE CHILD CARE FOR 4.5 YEAR OLD FULL-TIME, permanent position, $12.00 hour, 32 - 40 hours per week. Start ASAP. Location, Milton, ON. Provide child care for 4 year old. Preferably min. 3 years experience and has first aid certificate.

Duties include; supervision care of child, organize activities for child, instruct child w/ personal hygiene and social development. P/u child from school.

Prepare and serve nutritious meals. Light housekeeping and cleaning duties.

Must speak, read and write English. Education equivalent to high schools graduate in Canada. Accommodation available at no charge on a live-in basis.

(This is not a condition of employment). Relocation costs and medical equivalent to OHIP covered by employer.

Please email resume to jicconsulting@hotmail.com or call mobile: (905) 691 0776

CAREGIVER NEEDED ASAP Seeking a full time caregiver to assist in an English speaking household environment, to provide personal Care, hygiene, cooking, assist in all aspects of daily routine, with day outings, appointments to a social and demanding middle-age high-quad Male. With light house & yard keeping duties.

Applicant must be Canadian Citizen, Permanent resident, Foreign Worker. Living-in and with valid Drivers license for adapted minivan.

Completed Caregiver’s course or nursing qualifications. Emphasis will be based on reliability, communication skills, comprehension, trust, honesty, loyalty, initiative & flexibility.

Rate of Pay: $13.00/h, plus benefits. Guaranteed 168 hours bi-weekly (plus free R&B). Location: Devon. Alberta. To appy email Glen at maryglen@telusplanet.net

Toronto Enquiries: salestoronto@canadianinquirer.net Philippine Enquiries: salesphilippines@canadianinquirer.net

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Tel: (1) 647-521-5155

FRIDAY JANUARY 13, 2017

35

Travel Even with increased airport security vulnerabilities remain

BY LISA MARIE PANE The Associated Press ATLANTA — In a post-9-11 world, American airports have taken all sorts of steps to keep travellers safe. But significant vulnerabilities remain.

The attack that killed five people Friday at the Fort Lauderdale airport raised concerns about how to further protect travellers and what place firearms have in U.S. airports.

Authorities say Iraq war veteran Esteban Santiago flew in from Alaska, retrieved a handgun from his checked luggage, went to a bathroom to load it and then returned to the baggage claim area to open fire.

“There’s no question we need to review not only the question of whether people should be able to travel with their firearms even if they’re in checked baggage, but I think we need to take a hard look at the security around baggage claim areas, and not just leave it at that,” said U.S. Rep. Debbie Wasserman-Schultz, whose district includes the airport.

Transportation security and law enforcement experts say the baggage claim area remains one of the most vulnerable parts of the airport. Security is lighter and large numbers of people move in and out quickly.

“What went wrong yesterday ... is that baggage claim is the softest of soft targets. I mean an elementary school is harder to get into than a baggage claim at an airport,” said Chris Grollnek, a former law enforcement officer who specializes in security issues, especially involving active shooter situations.

Indeed, he notes, it’s more difficult to get out of the baggage claim area where at least a minimal security presence screens people leaving to make sure they haven’t taken someone else’s luggage than it is to enter the area.

After virtually every terror attack or attempted attack, authorities have issued new restrictions: requiring passengers to remove their shoes to expose any explosive material and limiting the amount of liquid in carry-on bags. But experts say the public areas of an airport remain vulnerable, because the focus of security is devoted to screening passengers to keep their flights safe.

Just in the past year suicide bombers targeted ticket and terminal areas in Brussels and Istanbul, Turkey.

The only way to prevent such attacks, Grollnek and other experts said, is to ensure the wrong people don’t get guns and to encourage the general public to alert authorities if they believe a friend or family member is acting erratically.

He likened it to farmers who were enlisted in the Civil Air Patrol to spot potential illegal activity while they were in the air in crop dusters.

Florida is one of six states that restrict firearms at the airport, declaring it a “gun-free” zone, along with schools and government meetings. Before the shooting, state legislators sought to relax those restrictions, arguing they prevent people from protecting themselves from attack.

Opponents of those efforts, said having guns there would make them more dangerous. Gun-free zones at airports still allow for travellers to bring their firearms to the airport to be checked, and then retrieve it once they land.

Aerial view of Fort Lauderdale airport.

“Yesterday should serve as a reminder that guns have no place in such areas in our communities,” said Michelle Gajda, with Florida Moms Demand Action for Gun Sense in America.

But Kevin Michalowski, executive editor of Concealed Carry magazine, said gun-free zones give a false sense of security. “What they do is provide a safe space for someone who decides to commit mass murder to go ahead and do it without anyone getting in his or her way,” he said.

Mark Lea, 53, had just flown in from Minnesota and was in the baggage claim area when the shooting began. He helped evacuate people and saw the shooter.

Lea said he has a concealed carry permit but did not have his weapon with him because he was going on a cruise. He said he would have shot the man had he had his own weapon.

“Yes, by all means,” said Lea. “I would’ve shot him and not even thought

Dive shop operators seek clarification on diving fees hike in protected areas PHILIPPINES NEWS AGENCY DUMAGUETE CITY — Dive shop owners and dive tour operators in Negros Oriental are asking the Department of Environment and Natural Resources

(DENR) for clarification on the new and increased diving rates for foreigners in protected areas covered by the National Integrated Protected Areas System (NIPAS) Act. ❱❱ PAGE 36 Dive shop

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twice about it.”

Transportation security experts say the safe transport of firearms and gunfree zones present a balancing act between ensuring the public’s safety without trampling on constitutional rights.

An easy solution might be to require travellers to ship their firearms ahead of time, said Mary Schiavo, former Inspector General of the U.S. Department of Transportation. But then you would run afoul of constitutional issues involving the right to interstate travel and the firearm owners protection act. Another option might be to restrict ammunition from being transported on planes, but that is not without its own constitutional concerns, she said.

“It’s a knotty problem,” Schiavo said. ■ Associated Press reporters Tamara Lush and Curt Anderson contributed to this report.

36

Travel

More Europeans, Russians visit Boracay PHILIPPINES NEWS AGENCY BORACAY ISLAND, AKLAN — The number of European and Russian tourists who visited Boracay in 2016 increased, data from Malay Municipal Tourism Office showed.

The island received a total of 58,831 European tourists in 2016, higher compared to 56,578 in 2015, while some 11,593 Russian visitors were listed in 2016, also higher compared to 11,277 in 2015.

Kris Vellete, officer-incharge of the Department of Tourism Boracay, said Thursday the increase in the number of European and Russian tourists is an indication of the successful promotion and marketing for the island.

“European tourists are one of the quality tourists because they are long staying guests and they spend more,” Vellete added.

To promote Boracay, some billboards and vehicles sporting the Philippine destination are rolled out in some European cities.

On the other hand, Vellete said the upward trend is not just among European and Russian tourists.

“There is also a surge in the number of Indians and Saudi Arabians who visited the island last year,” he said.

In 2016, the island received a total of 15,681 Saudi Arabians and 3,523 Indians.

Vellete also stressed that Boracay received more foreign tourists in 2016 than domestic tourists.

A total of 1,725,483 arrivals for Boracay in 2016, 11 percent higher compared to the 1,560,106 arrivals in 2015.

Tourism data showed that a total of 868,765 foreign arrivals, 813,302 domestic tourists and 43,416 are overseas Filipino workers.

Korean tourists still dominate the top foreign visitors here with total arrivals of 321,016, followed by China with 273,297.

With the good relationship of the Philippines and China, it is expected that the number of Chinese tourists will increase this year.

Vellete also added that the Korean market will also continue to surge due to the additional number of establishments catered for them.

For 2017, Vellete said they target at least 15 percent increase in tourism arrivals. ■

Lawsuits over... ten said that contractors filing liens aren’t unexpected given the hotel was such a big project, and that they aren’t a big deal.

Allegations of unpaid work are at the centre of another pending dispute.

In October, a circuit court awarded more than $310,000 to a Florida paint store for money owed for a renovation of one of Trump’s golf resorts, but the case is still pending on appeal.

Trump is also coming into office with a pending state investigation into his charity.

New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman launched an investigation of The Donald J. Trump Foundation last year after news organizations revealed that Trump used the charity to settle lawsuits, make

❰❰ 30

an illegal $25,000 political contribution to a group supporting Florida Attorney General Pam Bondi and purchased items such as a painting of himself that was displayed at one of his properties.

In December, Trump said he would dissolve the charity to avoid conflicts of interest, but Schneiderman has said the charity cannot close while the investigation is going on.

Trump does not face the potential for criminal charges in that investigation, but he or the foundation could face fines and other civil penalties. ■ Condon reported from New York.

Associated Press writer Julie Bykowicz and AP researcher Randy Herschaft contributed to this report.

JANUARY 13, 2017

FRIDAY

Dive shop...

They are referring to DENR Administrative Order (DAO) No. 2016-24, dated Sept. 16, 2016, and signed by Environment Sec. Regina Lopez on the “Revised Rates of Fees for Entrance and Use of Facilities and Resources in Protected Areas Amending DAO 1993-47.”

Harold Biglete, owner and operator of Harold’s Dive Center in Dumaguete City, Negros Oriental, on Friday said the order has caught them by surprise as they were not informed about it and they only learned of it recently.

Biglete said they are worried of the possible effects of the administrative order especially as it covers Apo Island in Dauin, Negros Oriental, which is a renowned world dive destination and is a protected landscape and seascape.

“It’s going to kill the industry, and many others will also be affected by this as a direct or indirect consequence,” Biglete said, referring to boat operators, resorts, the transport sector and the like.

The current diving rate at Apo Island is at PHP300 per person per dive for both Filipinos and foreigners, Biglete said.

The new rates in the DENR’s Administrative Order No. 2016-24 pegs the diving fees at PHP800 each for Filipinos and PHP1,800 each for foreigners “per visit.”

Biglete said “per visit” has various interpretations, as some believe that “per visit” would mean “per dive,” which would be quite high in comparison to fees collected in other dive sites in Siquijor, Bohol and Moalboal in Cebu that are nonNIPAS areas.

The Negros Divers’ Association, headed by Glen Carballo, met on Thursday afternoon to discuss the DENR order, after learning that it would be implemented in Apo Island by February 1.

Owners of resorts and dive shops are agreeable to an increase in dive fees but not as high as PHP1,800 as stipulated in the administrative order, Biglete said.

They are hoping to talk to the DENR to be enlightened on the administrative order before its implementation in Apo Island, Biglete said.

Danny Ocampo, a diver who works for a group advocating ❰❰ 35

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Rock formations near the boat landing area on the west side of Apo Island, which has become a popular dive site and snorkeling destination with tourists.

MIKE (THECOFFEE) / WIKIMEDIA COMMONS

for the protection of the environment, and who frequents Apo Island, said he is “okay with the good intentions of sustainable financing mechanisms for protected areas but there should be some conditions to make sure the money goes where it should.”

“The private sector should also support sharing their profits to support the protected areas they earn from,” Ocampo said.

DENR-Negros Island Region (NIR) director Al Orolfo said in a telephone interview Friday that he is going around the island to talk to the different stakeholders of NIPAS areas to know their sentiments and concerns on the administrative order.

DAO No. 2016-24 covers not only Apo Island but all the NIPAS areas in the country, Orolfo said.

He said he was also surprised as to the uniformity of the fees in the order when each protected area has its own individual and unique characteristics.

Orolfo said his office has received inquiries and feedback that some conditions set in the administrative order are “unclear.”

For instance, “per visit” is not specific on whether it would refer to per dive or the entire duration of the stay of a person in Apo Island.

The latter would mean that Apo Island would be shortchanged in its income if a diver

gets to pay only a one-time fee of PHP1,800 even if he stayed for a number of days there.

Orolfo said he will be holding a series of consultative meetings in the Negros Island Region’s NIPAS areas on the DAO No. 2016-24, starting out with the Negros Natural Park on January 11.

The same consultation with stakeholders is scheduled on January 16 for Apo Island, the Twin Lakes in Balinsasayao, Sibulan, Negros Oriental by the end of this month, and the Mt. Kanlaon Natural Park in early February.

Orolfo also said he will be meeting with stakeholders of the Tañon Strait Protected Seascape, the largest marine protected area in the Philippines, at a still undetermined date for the same consultations.

Orolfo said the different Protected Area Management Boards in these NIPAS areas are expected to come up with resolutions regarding concerns related to the administrative order.

While the administrative order was to take effect immediately 15 days after its publication in a national daily, Orolfo said it is a “status quo” for NIR at the moment.

But he said he hopes to be able to implement it within the first quarter of this year once he has submitted the concerns and other clarifications to the DENR Central Office for proper guidance. ■

FRIDAY JANUARY 13, 2017

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Food Celebrate Chinese New Year by pulling out the stir fryer THE CULINARY INSTITUTE OF AMERICA AT THE same time many of us are packing away our noisemakers and Champagne glasses, people all over the world are just beginning to prepare for the new year.

Chinese New Year is a celebration of the lunar new year — the first day on a calendar based on the phases of the moon. The lunar new year is celebrated all over the world (this year on Jan. 28), with each country and culture having its own different traditions and celebrations.

The Chinese New Year festival is widely celebrated in China, but also in other countries like Singapore, Taiwan and Malaysia, where there are many people of Chinese origin.

Chinese New Year is a huge celebration for Chinese-Americans as well, and there are tons of traditions that help ring in the festival. Alongside gifts, parties, and decorations, special “lucky” foods are presented to bring prosperity in the upcoming year, like coin-shaped dumplings, long noodles to represent longevity, and oranges, which are a Chinese symbol of luck and good fortune.

Since food is so central to the

celebration, a Chinese-inspired dinner is a great way for you and your family to share in the tradition of our friends and neighbours. China is a very large country with many regions and a long history, which means there are many variations in what is considered traditional.

Most Americans have become familiar with a style of Chinese food that bears only a mild resemblance to what diners in China eat every day.

While American-style Chinese food may not always be authentic to the flavours of China, it is an opportunity to introduce our families, especially children with developing palates, to flavours they may not experience every day.

Despite our best efforts, kids aren’t always open to trying new foods, so in this recipe for Chinese Take-Out Chicken and Broccoli, we offer an easy and familiar dish to teach an essential technique in Asian cuisine: stir frying, in which most ingredients can be used interchangeably, like shrimp or pork instead of chicken.

Once you have the hang of stir frying, you can begin to experiment with new ingredients.

This recipe already uses fresh ginger, scallions and soy sauce.

But your family might be sur-

prised to learn that they love sesame oil, hot chilies, Szechuan peppercorns and oyster sauce (a very common Chinese ingredient that acts more like a seasoning than its own flavour).

We live in a global community where we are inspired by the traditions of people halfway across the world. This Chinese New Year, take the opportunity to share in the celebration — and maybe next year you’ll be ready to make those coinshaped dumplings!

Chinese take-out chicken and broccoli

Start to finish: 25 minutes (Active time: 20 minutes)

Servings: 4 to 6 • 3 tablespoons vegetable oil • 1 pound boneless, skinless chicken breast, cut into 1-inch cubes • 2 tablespoons chopped garlic • 2 tablespoons chopped ginger • 1 bunch green onions, sliced • 2 tablespoons cider or rice vinegar • 2 tablespoons sugar • 3 tablespoons soy sauce • 1 cup chicken stock or water • 2 tablespoons cornstarch • 4 cups (1 bunch) broccoli florets, broccoli rabe, or broccolini In a large saute pan or wok,

heat the oil over medium heat.

Add the chicken and cook until golden brown, stirring the chicken occasionally to cook it evenly on all sides, about 5 minutes. Transfer the cooked chicken to a plate and set aside.

Add the garlic, ginger, and green onions to the pan and cook until fragrant, about 1 minute.

In a medium-sized bowl, combine the vinegar, sugar, soy sauce, chicken stock or water, and the cornstarch. Mix with a whisk until there are no clumps and set aside.

Add the broccoli to the pan.

Add the cornstarch mixture and stir to coat the broccoli.

Stir in the chicken, cover the pan with a lid or aluminum foil, and cook on medium-high heat until the broccoli is bright green and cooked through, for 3 to 5 minutes.

Nutrition information per serving: 270 calories; 67 calories from fat; 8 g fat (1 g saturated; 0 g trans fats); 83 mg cholesterol; 552 mg sodium; 19 g carbohydrate; 3 g fiber; 7 g sugar; 30 g protein.

This article was provided to The Associated Press by The Culinary Institute of America in Hyde Park, New York.

This sheet pan salmon supper will start 2017 just right

BY MELISSA D’ARABIAN The Associated Press NEW YEAR new you. Right?

So let’s get right down to it: If healthy eating is complicated and time-consuming, we will lose interest before Valentine’s day has arrived. That’s why sheet-pan salmon suppers are so terrific — they take minutes to make, and yet the healthy fats in salmon are filling. Today’s recipe features salmon alongside super-quick-cooking aspar-

agus, which tastes sweet and less grassy when roasted. This incredibly simple recipe will start off the 2017 menu rotation right.

Sheet-pan suppers are perfectly quick for weeknight eating, and versatile enough that you can swap out ingredients to match your tastes and your fridge. Don’t have salmon? Use sea bass or cod, no problem.

Just pay attention to the cook times, particularly as you swap out veggies - you may need to pre-cook hardier vegetables like broccoli or cauliflower.

(Tip: you can do a quick microwave steam to par-cook slowercooking ingredients like potatoes before placing them on the sheet-pan.) You can even use frozen fish fillets for this recipe if you add a little cooking time (use an instant meat thermometer to check for doneness).

Since my daughter is glutensensitive, I use almond flour for a bit of bread-less breaded texture on top of the salmon, but feel free to use crunchy panko breadcrumbs if you prefer. Herbes de Provence is my go-to

dried herb blend, and it can be found now in most well-stocked grocery stores, and is a worthy little splurge. Otherwise, use a mix of dried oregano, marjoram and thyme and the results will still be delicious.

A final weeknight strategy: you can prep this whole dinner ahead of time on your sheet tray and stick it in the fridge.

Then, when you get home, pop the whole thing into the oven for a dinner that is even faster than microwaving a frozen lasagna. You’ll save both time and

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calories, and who couldn’t use that in 2017?

Easiest sheet pan salmon

Start to finish: 20 minutes Servings: 4

• 4 fillets salmon, skin removed, about 5 ounces each • 1/3 cup almond flour or almond meal (can substitute panko bread crumbs) • 1 1/2 teaspoons dried herbes de Provence (or dried orega❱❱ PAGE 38 This sheet

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JANUARY 13, 2017

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Dal, savoury granola recipes feature healthy ingredients for 2017 THE CANADIAN PRESS TURMERIC AND seaweed are among the healthy foods that trend watchers are highlighting for 2017.

Registered dietitian Zannat Reza uses turmeric, touted for its anti-inflammatory properties, in dal, but she’s careful not to use too much and to balance any possible pungency with coriander.

Her savoury granola recipe features nori seaweed, another food that’s on trend. “People think granola is sweet, but this is a different take on it,” she says.

Bengali dal

Reza has adapted her mother’s dal recipe. She calls the healthy dish, which features lentils and turmeric, quick and delicious. Turmeric gives it a yellowish hue that’s bright and appealing.

• 15 ml (1 tbsp) canola oil • 1 medium onion, diced • 2 ml (1/2 tsp) turmeric • 2 ml (1/2 tsp) ground coriander

• 1 ml (1/4 tsp) cayenne • 1 ml (1/4 tsp) black pepper • 500 ml (2 cups) split red lentils • 1.5 l (6 cups) water (more to adjust consistency to your liking) • 7 ml (1 1/2 tsp) salt (or to taste) • Handful of cilantro (approx 75 ml/1/3 cup) • 1 plum tomato, chopped • 500 ml (2 cups) frozen mixed vegetables, thawed • 1 green chili (optional) • 15 ml (1 tbsp) lemon juice In a large pot, heat canola oil over medium heat. Cook onion for 4 to 5 minutes until softened. Add spices and lentils.

Stir to coat lentils.

Add water, cover and bring to boil. Reduce heat and let lentils simmer for about 10 minutes, until mixture looks soft.

Add salt, cilantro and tomato.

Cook for 5 minutes until tomatoes soften.

Puree with a hand blender.

Add more water if needed to adjust thickness to your liking.

Add vegetables and green chili, if using. Cook for 5 minutes. Turn off heat and add lem-

on juice.

Makes 2 l (8 cups).

Source:

Registered dietitian Zannat Reza, thrive360.

Japanese-inspired savoury granola

Enjoy this granola as a snack, on top of yogurt, or on an Asianinspired salad or soba noodles.

Shichimi togarashi is a Japanese seven-spice blend. If unavailable, replace with 15 ml (1 tbsp) sesame seeds, 2 ml (1/2 tsp) black pepper, 1 ml (1/4 tsp) ground ginger and 1 ml (1/4 tsp) cayenne pepper.

• 15 ml (1 tbsp) ground flax seed • 30 ml (2 tbsp) warm water • 30 ml (2 tbsp) maple syrup • 30 ml (2 tbsp) canola oil • 1 ml (1/4 tsp) wasabi paste (optional) • 500 ml (2 cups) large-flake rolled oats (not instant) • 125 ml (1/2 cup) raw pumpkin seeds • 125 ml (1/2 cup) almond slices • 15 ml (1 tbsp) shichimi togarashi • 15 ml (1 tbsp) fennel seeds

• 5 small sheets roasted nori (seaweed) • Preheat oven to 150 C (300 F).

In a small bowl, mix flax seed in warm water and let stand for 5 minutes. Add maple syrup, canola oil and wasabi, if using, and mix well.

In a large bowl, toss together oats, pumpkin seeds, almond slices, shichimi togarashi and fennel seeds. Add liquid ingre-

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New Nokia...

no or thyme) • 1/2 teaspoon granulated garlic • 1 teaspoon finely grated lemon zest • 2 tablespoons lemon juice • 1 bunch of asparagus, cleaned and trimmed, about 1 pound • 1 teaspoon olive oil • 1/2 teaspoon salt, divided • 1/4 teaspoon pepper • lemon wedges for serving

❰❰ 33

❰❰ 37

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F and cover a baking sheet with parchment paper.

Pat the salmon dry gently with a paper towel.

On a small plate, mix the almond flour, herbs, garlic, lemon zest, half the salt, and pepper with a fork until well-blended.

Sprinkle or brush the lemon juice even on top of the salmon fillets. Dip the top of the salmon fillets into the almond flour crumbs, gently pressing them into the top of the fillets, evenly

dividing the almond flour and herb mixture among the fillets.

Place the fillets on the sheet pan. Toss the asparagus with the olive oil and remaining salt.

Place around the salmon fillets.

Cook until salmon reaches 135 internal temperature and asparagus is tender, about 15 min-

utes. Serve with lemon wedges.

Nutrition information per serving: 293 calories; 133 calories from fat; 15 g fat (2 g saturated; 0 g trans fats); 78 mg cholesterol; 357 mg sodium; 8 g carbohydrate; 4 g fiber; 3 g sugar; 33 g protein. www.canadianinquirer.net

dients and mix thoroughly.

Spread mixture on parchment-lined rimmed baking sheet.

Place in oven for 15 minutes.

Stir. Bake for another 15 minutes.

Let mixture cool, then crush nori sheets on top.

Store in an airtight container.

Makes 750 ml (3 cups).

Source:

Registered dietitian Zannat Reza, thrive360.

place in Asia. Besides began losing markets in late smart phones, the 2000s. Nokia sold its original company also plans to mobile phone operations to Miproduce tablets. crosoft and the The Nokia US conglomer6 display has ate later replaced a Qualcomm Nokia with “MS Snapdragon 430 The return of Phones” brands, processor with Nokia as a albeit the NokiaX6 LTE modem. mobile phone launched Lumia It has 4GB RAM brand got an name survived. and 64GB storearly start in Under the age with which December license agreeto run the latest as the Nokia ment, Nokia — version of Anwebsite today mainly in droid Nougat. resumed telecommunicaThe return of its mobile tions and interNokia as a mophones net development bile phone brand section.

— receives roygot an early start alty payments in December as from HMD for the Nokia websales of every site resumed its Nokia branded mobile phones section. HMD mobile phone and tablet, coveroperates the mobile phone pag- ing both brand and intellectual es of the website. property rights. Nokia is not Once the flagship of the Finn- an investor or shareholder in ish IT industry, Nokia handsets HMD. ■

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FRIDAY JANUARY 13, 2017

Knights of Rizal - Canada celebratesthe 120th martyrdom of Dr. Jose P. Rizal

BY DINDO ORBESO AND MANNY PAPA St. Jamestown News Service THE KNIGHTS of Rizal Canada Region headed by Sir Ed Prillo, KGOR, Regional Commander, and Deputy Regional Commander Sir Romy Sinajon, KGOR, celebrated the 120th death and martyrdom of Dr. Jose P. Rizal on December 30, 2016 with wreath laying infront of the statue of the Philippine national hero located at the Earl Bales Park, Bathurst, Toronto, Ontario, Canada.

Despite the snowy weather the officers and members of the Rizal Canada Region bravely endured the called weather in order to remember the heroic deeds of Rizal through a peaceful means by writing calling for reforms during the Spanish Regime.

The historical event has the strong support of former Regional Commanders which include Sir George R. Poblete, KGCR; Sir Lapulapu Cana, KGCR; and Sir Jaime Marasigan, KGOR. The BramptonChapter of the Knights of Rizal head by Chapter Commander, Sir Delfin Palileo, KCR, hosted the historical event with the support of their members and other officers and members of the Rizal Chapters within the Greater Toronto Area although the KOR Chapters in West Canada have their own celebration of the martyrdom of Dr. Jose P. Rizal.

Invited speakers include Consul General Rosalita S.

Prospero and Ms. Rose Tijam, president of the Philippine Press Club ofOntario, The Consul General cited the abiding commitment, dedication, and continuing action to preserve and propagate the values of Dr. Jose P. Rizal. On the other hand, PPCO President Rose Tijam touched on the camapaign for reforms during the Spanish regime through a peaceful means by using his writings in Spanish, English, and Filipino (Tagalog) languages.

Sir Lapulapu Cana. KGCR,

paid tribute to the works of Dr. Jose P. Rizal. Sir Jaime T. marasigan, KGOR,, Deputy Supreme Exchequer of the Supreme Council of the Knights of Rizal and who served the Rizal Canada Region for two years reminded the officers and members of the different Rizal Chapters in Canada in conjunction with the forthcoming 21st International Assembly of the Knights of Rizal on February 23-25, 2017 in Cavao City, Davao del Sur, and Tagum City in Davao del Norte. ■

CONSUL GENERAL Rosalita S. Prospero hosted an end-of-theyear Thanksgiving Reception on 29 December 2016 at the Philippine Consulate General's Public Hall for the leaders and representatives of Filipino community organizations in Toronto and nearby cities under the Consulate's jurisdiction.

The Consul General took the opportunity to introduce new members of the Philippine Consulate family from the Department of Foreign Affairs,

Department of Trade and Industry, Department of Labor and Employment, and Pag-ibig Fund (Home Development Mutual Fund).

The Consulate announced improvements in the delivery of service by the Consulate to the public, most already in effect and some, to take effect in the beginning of 2017. The improvements include earlier release date for legalization of documents; spot release for NBI finger printing; designated

window and priority service for senior citizens and persons with disabilities; observance of long hours every second Friday of the month instead of every third of the month. The Consulate will be open to the public from 9:00 a.m, to 8:00 p.m. on the said days, an hour longer than previously observed.

The Consulate also took the opportunity to share information about Philippine citizenship reacquisition and retention, enhanced security features www.canadianinquirer.net

of the new e­passport and the ongoing registration for Philippine overseas voting. The guests were encouraged to register to qualify as overseas voter for the 2019 Philippine mid-term national election process.

In her speech, Consul General Prospero conveyed to over 100 attendees her appreciation for the support of the Filipino community to all the activities of the Consulate General, most especially with regard to their assistance during cultural ac-

tivities, consular outreach missions and the assistance provided by settlement workers and organizations to newly-arrived Filipinos. She asked for more support on future collaborations on projects to be undertaken by the Consulate.

Before breaking bread with the Filipino community on traditional Filipino dishes, and as a final note of thanks, the officers and staff of the Consulate rendered a medley of Filipino Christmas carols to the community. ■

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JANUARY 13, 2017

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FRIDAY