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VOL. 5 NO. 269

COURT SHOWING Escorted by jail guards, Janet Lim-Napoles, alleged mastermind of the pork barrel scam, is brought to the Sandiganbayan to sign court orders. She is no longer in orange prison garb.

JOAN BONDOC / PDI

Calida defends plan to make Napoles a state witness in pork scam

BY JULIE M. AURELIO Philippine Daily Inquirer WHY ARE you sticking your nose into the judicial process?

Solicitor General Jose Calida took to social media to question why Sen. Francis Pangilinan was opposing a government plan to make businesswoman Janet Lim-Napoles a state witness in the

pork barrel scam.

On Saturday, Calida posted a series of tweets on his Twitter account, @ SolGenCalida, in which he tagged Pangilinan using the handle @kikopangilinan.

“Are you afraid Napoles will unmask the supercilious hypocrisy of the unlamented ‘Daang Matuwid’ regime?” said

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Mocha now subject to public scrutiny, lawmakers say

21 Greens want specifics on potential horse trading deals with B.C. Liberals, NDP ❱❱ PAGE 11

❱❱ PAGE 11 Calida defends

Another crisis hits the White House after intelligence story

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Baste makes 1st Mocha now subject to public foray into TV scrutiny, lawmakers say REMINDER TO DUTERTE APPOINTEE

BY ARMIN P. ADINA Philippine Daily Inquirer

BY NIKKO DIZON Philippine Daily Inquirer MILITANT PARTY-LIST representatives allied with the Duterte administration on Thursday reminded controversial blogger and recently appointed Assistant Communications Secretary Mocha Uson to have “some discernment” in her new job as she would now be “subjected to scrutiny” by the public.

“The moment she accepted Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte greets newly-appointed Assistant the appointment, she has to Communications Secretary Mocha Uson. [have] some discernment,” ROBINSON NIÑAL / PHILIPPINE PRESIDENTIAL COMMUNICATIONS OPERATIONS OFFICE Anakpawis Rep. Ariel Casilao said. “She should now go be- leaders’ symposium but was breaks my heart to know someyond her habit of [engaging] forced to rescind the invitation one like her got a position in the in public discourse on social when it was met with vocifer- gov’t,” the beauty queen added. media. She accepted this office ous protests from netizens.

“There are so many [other] unthat comes with responsibility Uson has also used her blog to biased, educated, and respected and she should not [use it] for attack Duterte detractors and (and respectful) people who deher personal interest.” members of the political oppo- serve her place.”

While her job as President sition, particularly Vice PresiDuterte’s communications of- dent Leni Robredo.

Online bashers ficer was to “deodorize and de“We should watch her closely In another tweet, De Leon fend the appointing authority,” because if she abuses her [gov- chided netizens who bashed Casilao said everything Uson ernment position], then it is her for being outspoken about did now in an official capacity [incumbent upon] us to criti- her political beliefs. “That’s would be “subjected to scruti- cize [her] and seek redress,” why we’re not evolving. Beny” by the public.

Casilao said. cause some people care more “If she continues with her about the superficial than what mistakes, she can be liable and Beauty queen really matters. It’s always counbe held accountable” as head Among those who criticized try over crown,” she said. of the social media arm of the Uson’s appointment was BinibDe Leon said beauty queens government’s communications ining Pilipinas International like her could also voice out team, he said.

Maria Angelica “Mariel” de their thoughts on different is“Everything has its limits,” Leon who broke the tradition- sues under the Duterte adminGabriela Rep. istration.

Arlene Brosas “I hope that said, adding that change will she hoped Uson come. And I would use her She accepted this office that comes hope that I can new position with responsibility and she should not use my voice and “for the interest [use it] for her personal interest. my platform to of the people” to be part of that help uplift peochange,” ple’s lives. she posted But Brosas also urged the al mold of compliant beauty on her social networking site. public to still “speak out with queens to tweet her candid take “There are so many issues haptheir dissenting opinions” even on the former starlet’s official pening in our country now so if Uson was now a government designation.

I’m glad that I have the platform official.

De Leon questioned Uson’s now to voice my opinions.” qualifications and credentials De Leon, the daughter of Fake news in her recently deleted tweets seasoned actors Christopher Uson has been criticized for captured by the Philippine En- de Leon and Sandy Andolong, spreading fake news in at least tertainment Portal. was crowned Binibining Pilipifour instances on her blog that, “Biased and disrespect- nas International on April 30, she claimed, has ful. She insults those who are succeeding Miss International 5 million followers. against her. I’m not for her, I’m 2016 Kylie Versoza. ■ In March, the Philippine not for the other side (whatever Army invited the former bold that may be),” De Leon tweeted. With a report from Gianna entertainer to speak at a senior “I love my country so it Francesca Catolico, Inquirer.net www.canadianinquirer.net

SEBASTIAN “BASTE” Duterte has been bitten by the show biz bug.

The 29-year-old bachelor and youngest son of President Duterte will be featured in an eight-part “adventure-travelreality” television show titled “Lakbai” on TV5.

“I could no longer resist. I decided to give show biz a try,” the young Duterte said in Filipino at the show’s launch at Aracama at the Bonifacio Global City in Taguig City on Wednesday night.

He confessed that show biz denizens did not have a hard time luring him in. “They didn’t convince me. This was my deci-

sion. I could use the income,” Duterte said.

“If this doesn’t work out, I can always go back to Davao,” he said.

TV5 head of programming Mell Yazon-Tolentino told the Inquirer that the station approached Duterte for a TV project, and arrived at the reality format.

“It took us several months of negotiations,” the TV executive said. “There’s a close collaboration with Baste. You will see in this show a different side of him,” Tolentino said. “[Duterte] will show us places we have never seen before. The show is real, comfortable, easy to relate to. Just like your own barkada trip, you feel happy after watching this show,” Tolentino said. ■

Immigration bars Ampatuan brothers, nine others from leaving PHL

BY FERDINAND G. PATINIO Philippines News Agency MANILA — The Bureau of Immigration (BI) has issued hold departure orders (HDOs) against former Maguindanao Governor Datu Sajid Islam Uy Ampatuan, former Datu Unsay, Maguindanao Mayor Datu Andal Ampatuan Jr. and nine others in connection with their graft cases before the Sandiganbayan.

According to BI spokesperson Antonette Mangrobang aside from the Ampatuan brothers, also included in the HDO are John Estelito Dollosa Jr.; Osmena Bandilla; Landap Guinaid; Akmad Salim; Yahiya Kandong; Jaypee Piang; Anthony Kasan; Pendi Abpet; and Omar Camsa.

She noted that they already disseminated the orders to all the international airports and seaports to stop those in the HDOS from leaving the country.

“Their names have already

been incorporated in our system. They would not be allowed to leave the country,” the BI official said.

Mangrobang added that in the event that those individuals were spotted at the airport or port, they would be stopped and reported to the court.

The said individuals are subjects of the criminal cases for violating the Graft and Corrupt Practices Act and falsification of public documents which are pending before the Sandiganbayan 5th Division.

The former Maguindanao governor is out on bail since March 2015, while the former Mayor of the province is detained at Camp Bagong Diwa.

Immigration travel records showed that Sajid Ampatuan’s last arrival was in May 15, 2009 and there has been no present record of departure.

But, the BI is not definite if the former governor’s on their record was the same subject in the Sandiganbayan order for having several namesakes. ■

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Sotto supports solo parents

BY CHRISTINE O. AVENDAÑO Philippine Daily Inquirer ALL’S WELL that ends well?

Senate Majority Leader Vicente Sotto III is now singing a different tune after meeting with officers of the Federation of Solo Parents in Luzvimin over his controversial “na-ano” remark to Social Welfare Secretary Judy Taguiwalo.

Sotto vowed to push the passage of amendments to the Solo Parents Welfare Act of 2000.

“They (solo parents) should be given their own space in society,” he said. The group said it also wanted to move on. Senate Majority Leader Vicente Sotto III found himself pushing support for solo parents after his controversial “na-ano lang” remark about Social Welfare Secretary Judy Taguiwalo that led to his bashing on social media.

“It’s a blessing in disguise that the issue has been blown out of proportion because there’s more attention to it,” Sotto said of his meeting on Tuesday with officers of the

Federation of Solo Parents in Luzvimin (FSPL) at his office in the Senate.

Sotto was vilified on social media last week after he joked about Taguiwalo’s having children out of wedlock during her confirmation hearing at the Commission on Appointments.

The comedian-turned-politician apologized immediately to Taguiwalo, who accepted it.

“This is moving on, so to speak, on the issue that was brought up by the controversy,” Sotto told reporters after meeting with the federation representing about 80,000 solo parents.

Solo Parents Welfare Act

He assured the group that before December, he would push for the passage of amendments to Republic Act No. 8972, or the Solo Parents Welfare Act of 2000.

The bill has been languishing in Congress for almost 17 years.

“We will seriously work on it and ask for the support of other members of Congress,” Sotto said. “They (solo parents) should be given their own space

Contempt of Supreme Court hangs over DAR

BY MARLON RAMOS Philippine Daily Inquirer THE SUPREME Court (SC) has directed Agrarian Reform Secretary Rafael Mariano and a group of farmers to explain why they should not be held in contempt for failing to distribute 4,900 hectares of farmlands in Hacienda Luisita in Tarlac City.

In a three-page notice signed by clerk of court Felipa Anama, the high court acted on a petition filed by Rizal Commercial Banking Corp. (RCBC) on April 27 questioning the alleged refusal of Mariano and members of Alyansa ng mga Manggagawang Bukid sa Hacienda Luisita (Ambala) to immediately subdivide parts of the estate that had been subjected to agrarian reform.

The sprawling sugar plantation belonged to the family of former President Benigno Aquino III. “Acting on the urgent motion for the issuance of a writ of execution…the court resolved to require Mariano and (Ambala) to comment thereon and show cause why they should not be held in contempt of court for disobeying the [court’s] decision and resolutions,” read the tribunal’s order dated May 3.

It gave Mariano, a former peasant leader, and the farmers 10 days to submit their written explanation.

RCBC sought the high court’s intervention after some 400 members of Ambala forcibly occupied on April 24 a 500-ha parcel of land which used to be part of the vast sugar plantation. ■

in society.”

FSPL president Carina Javier said the group had wanted her to make a strongly worded statement against Sotto following the controversy.

But she noted that Sotto had already apologized to Taguiwalo and that the secretary had accepted it.

“Who are we to blow it out of proportion? We want to move forward,” Javier said. She has pleaded with members to stop bashing the senator and not drag his family into the controversy.

She said the controversy had led to people paying attention to the plight of solo parents.

“This is a great opportunity for us to push amendments.

Let’s move on. Let’s focus on the positive. It’s a blessing in disguise,” she added.

Discounts, national week

Javier said the amendments that FSPL was seeking included discounts on medicine, laboratory and hospitalization fees, tuition, milk and vitamins for solo parents and their children.

The group also wanted an of-

JOSEPH VIDAL / PRIB

fice in every local government unit that would attend to their needs like seniors and persons with disabilities, and proclaiming a national day and national week for solo parents.

A majority of the solo parents in the country are women —those who had been married, are widows or have been abandoned by spouses, according to Javier.

Javier, an employee of the Department of Social Welfare and Development, earlier described Taguiwalo as the only DSWD head who has given 100-percent support to solo parents.

Until Sotto was embroiled in the controversy, the federation did not think of approaching the senator for help in pushing the passage of the measure, its president said. ■

Poll losers now eligible for gov’t posts

BY JULIE M. AURELIO AND JEANNETTE I. ANDRADE Philippine Daily Inquirer POLITICIANS WHO were defeated in the May 2016 elections may now assume government posts after the one-year ban on their appointment expires on Wednesday.

The losing candidates were barred from assuming positions in the government within a year after the elections held on May 9, 2016 as provided in the 1987 Constitution.

The Constitution provides in Article 9 (B), Section 6 that “no candidate who has lost in any election, shall within one year after election, be appointed to any office in the government or any government-owned or controlled corporation or in any of its subsidiaries.”

The same provision is included in Republic Act No. 7160, or the Local Government Code of the Philippines.

Under the Local Governwww.canadianinquirer.net

ment Code’s Section 94 (b), titled “Appointment of elective and appointive local officials; candidates who lost in an election:” “Except for losing candidates in barangay elections, no candidate who lost in an election, shall, within one year after such election, be appointed to any office in government or any government-owned or controlled corporations or in any of their subsidiaries.”

Meanwhile, Malacañang announced on Tuesday that former Speaker Jose de Venecia Jr. has been appointed special envoy for intercultural dialogue under the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA).

DFA spokesperson Robespierre Bolivar said De Venecia’s appointment would run from April until September this year.

The appointment was “in recognition of his (De Venecia’s) active role in promoting intercultural and interfaith dialogue for many years,” Bolivar added.

“As special envoy, his du-

ties are basically to advise the government regarding intercultural dialogue issues to make recommendations to the government on how to advance Philippine interests with regards to this issue,” he said.

De Venecia served as speaker of the House of Representatives from 1992 to 1998 and from 2001 to 2008, making him the first Filipino to hold the post five times in separate terms.

He united the National Union of Christian Democrats with President Ramos’ Lakas Tao party and created the socalled “Rainbow Coalition” in the 1990s.

The former House speaker also served as President Ramos’ peace envoy reaching out to the Moro National Liberation Front, the Moro Islamic Liberation Front, military rebel groups Reform the Armed Forces Movement and the Young Officers’ Union, and the Communist Party of the Philippines. ■

Philippine News

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Duterte appeases congress over ‘lobby money’ remark

BY LEILA B. SALAVERRIA Philippine Daily Inquirer

PRESIDENTIAL PHOTO

Philippine lawmakers kill impeachment case against Duterte

BY TERESA CEROJANO The Associated Press MANILA, PHILIPPINES — Philippine lawmakers on Monday killed an impeachment complaint accusing President Rodrigo Duterte of crimes against humanity for the thousands of people who have died in his anti-drug crackdown.

The Justice Committee of the House of Representatives, which is dominated

by Duterte allies, declared during the first hearing on the matter that while the complaint was sufficient in form, there was insufficient substance to proceed.

The decision to stop the impeachment complaint, which also accused Duterte of murder, corruption and unexplained wealth, was expected. But the president’s critics hope the procedure could bolster a lawsuit against him before the International Criminal Court for alleged extrajudicial killings by showing that domestic efforts to stop Duterte have failed.

The dismissal of the complaint, filed in March, bars any new impeachment case against Duterte until next March.

Since taking office in June, Duterte’s war on drugs has killed 7,000-9,000 suspected drug dealers and addicts, according to human rights groups. The government refutes that, releasing data on May 2 showing nearly 4,600 people have been killed in police anti-drug operations and homicides found to be drug-related.

During Monday’s hearing, Rep. Rodolfo Farinas, the majority floor leader, questioned Rep. Gary Alejano on whether he had personal knowledge of allegations he made in his complaint, including the more than 8,000 people killed in the anti-drug war and the billions of

pesos supposedly in Duterte’s bank accounts.

Alejano said he had no personal knowledge as a witness, but that he had personal knowledge as a complainant based on official records, affidavits of witnesses and Duterte’s public pronouncements. His appeals to be allowed to explain were rejected.

Opposition Rep. Edcel Lagman urged the committee to allow Alejano to be heard, saying to determine substance, there only needs to be a recital of facts on offences charged and determination that they are under the committee’s jurisdiction.

“While it is true that an impeachment proceeding is a political exercise, it is not a partisan enterprise,” Lagman said.

After an executive session, several lawmakers pointed to Alejano’s lack of personal knowledge about the alleged crimes, calling his allegations hearsay.

Forty-two of 49 committee members then voted to declare the complaint sufficient in form but insufficient in substance.

A frustrated Alejano told reporters that he’ll discuss with his colleagues from the Magdalo party whether they should file their own complaint before the ICC. He said it was clear that the procedure “was railroaded” and that the House “is not independent.”

“Now that they have killed the impeachment, which is the only way for the people to hold the president accountable, where will we exact justice from him, he is immune to suits,” Alejano said.

Presidential spokesman Ernesto Abella said that Alejano’s complaint “was from rehashed, trumped-up charges aimed at undermining the duly constituted government.” ■

PRESIDENT DUTERTE himself has clarified his claim that “lobby money” was behind the Commission on Appointments’ (CA) rejection of Gina Lopez as Environment secretary, Malacañang said on Wednesday.

Presidential spokesperson Ernesto Abella said Mr. Duterte told Cabinet officials that he did not mean to say lawmakers were bribed to reject Lopez.

Lobbying does not necessarily involve money, said Abella, adding that Mr. Duterte made the clarification during a Cabinet meeting on Monday.

“He said basically that [lobbying] is a legal thing that you can actually exercise in order to persuade one particular position,” Abella quoted Mr. Duterte as saying.

“He was saying, in a sense, he was clarifying last night it was not a pejorative accusation that money was transferred or that money was exchanged,” he added.

When it was pointed out to him that the term “lobby money” came from the President, he said Mr. Duterte only

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glossed his remark.

He also said he could not say if the President’s explanation would stop the proposed congressional probe of the alleged “lobby money” statement.

“But certainly, he clarified his position, he added more light to his statement,” he added.

As for the supposed pressure to reject Lopez, Abella said this had come from “interested parties,” but the President did not specify who these were.

On the other hand, Sen. Panfilo Lacson, who was one of those who voted against Lopez and was offended by the President’s remark, said it was time to move on from the CA lobby issue.

“Now that the President has clarified his statement, it’s time to move on from the ugly Lopez episode in the Commission on Appointments,” Lacson said after the Palace’s clarification.

Lacson said he did not regret his decision knowing he did “the right thing” based on his evaluation.

He said that he felt it necessary to explain why he did not vote for Lopez’s confirmation despite the CA’s secret voting system because he wanted to “set the record straight.” ■

Philippine News

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DOLE recalls suspension order on OEC processing, issuance for directly hired OFWs

BY FERDINAND G. PATINIO Philippines News Agency Publisher Philippine Canadian Inquirer, Inc. Correspondents Jane Moraleda Cheng Ilagan Katherine Padilla Deby Mangabat Phoebe Balubar Socorro Newland Bolet Arevalo Gerna Lane Sotana News Anchor Manny Noel Abuel Administration Head Victoria Yong Graphic Designer Shanice Garcia Photographers Angelo Siglos Vic Vargas For photo submissions, please email editor@canadianinquirer.net For General Inquiries, please email info@canadianinquirer.net For Sales Inquiries, please email sales@canadianinquirer.net PHILIPPINE PUBLISHING GROUP Editorial Assistant Christelle Tolisora Associate Publisher Lurisa Villanueva In cooperation with the Philippine Daily Inquirer digital edition

MANILA — The Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) has recalled the suspension order on the processing and issuance of Overseas Employment Certificate (OEC) to all directly hired Overseas Filipino Workers (OFWs) issued last month.

“In the interest of justice, Administration Order No. 155, series of 2017, suspending the processing and issuance of Overseas Employment Certificate (OEC) for all directly hired Overseas Filipino Workers (OFW) is hereby recalled,” said Administration Order No. 155-A signed by DOLE Secretary Silvestre Bello III on Tuesday.

With this, he directed the Philippine Overseas Employment Administration.

(POEA) and the Philippine Overseas Labor Offices (POLO) to resume the processing and issuance of the OECs. “Henceforth, the Philippine Overseas Employment Administration (POEA) and the Philippine Overseas Labor Offices (POLO) are directed to resume the processing and issuance of the OECs subject to the requirements as set forth by the provisions of the Revised POEA Rules and Regulations governing the

BY JEANNETTE I. ANDRADE Philippine Daily Inquirer

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SUPREME COURT Senior Associate Justice Antonio Carpio on Tuesday said he doubted that joint exploration and development with China for resources in the South China Sea would work, as Beijing would insist on its sovereignty over the heavily disputed waterway.

“In joint development, the rule is simple, we have sovereign rights over Reed Bank and other areas so that must be recognized because we can’t give that up,” Carpio told reporters after attending a defense forum in Parañaque City “Joint development on commercial terms, yes. But on the sovereignty issue, that’s ours,” he said.

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Recruitment and Employment of Landbased Overseas Filipino Workers of 2016,” the order added.

The OEC is a requirement for every OFW who leaves the country.

On April 26, Bello ordered the suspension of issuance of OEC after reports revealed that some POEA employees have been extorting money from OFWs in exchange for the processing of exemptions from the direct hire ban.

Based on the 2016 Revised Rules and Regulations on the Recruitment and De-

RAMON FVELASQUEZ / WIKIMEDIA COMMONS

ployment of OFWs of the POEA, Section 123 states that ‘No employer shall directly hire an overseas Filipino worker for overseas employment.’

However, Section 124 provides the exemption to include those employers who are close relatives of the OFW, members of the diplomatic corps; international organizations; heads of state and government officials with the rank of at least deputy minister; and other employers permitted by the Labor Secretary. ■

Carpio presses issue of sovereign rights

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The DOLE building in Intramuros, Manila.

that he was open to the idea.

“Last time that [ joint development] was tried, China said, ‘You have to put there in the agreement that sovereignty belongs to China.’ And nobody can do that. No Philippine official can do that,” Carpio said.

He was referring to the joint marine seismic undertaking (JMSU) started in 2003 among Philippine National Oil Co. Exploration Corp., China National Offshore Oil Corp. and PetroVietnam on Recto Bank, a large table mount in the South China Sea internationally known as Reed Bank.

The JMSU lapsed in 2008 because ceding sovereignty to China over the area became an issue.

The Philippine government ordered the suspension of drilling on Recto Bank as a result of the territorial dispute with China.

De Venecia proposal

Philippine Special Envoy for Intercultural Dialogue Jose de Venecia Jr. proposed joint exploration in the Spratly archipelago during the new Silk Road conference in Beijing on Sunday.

President Duterte said on Tuesday

Panatag Shoal

“It’s the Philippine government that grants the service contract [for drilling].

That means that’s ours. But that’s why China doesn’t want to agree to that,” Carpio said.

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In his lecture at the defense forum, Carpio said Panatag Shoal, a rich fishing ground off Zambales province, would be the next flash point in the South China Sea dispute.

Carpio said that should China gain control of Panatag Shoal “it’s game over for all of us (claimant countries) because China will have full control of the South China Sea.” He said China would use Panatag Shoal and the Spratlys to enforce its claim to almost the entire South China Sea. “China also wants the South China Sea as a sanctuary for its nuclear-powered submarines, free from surveillance

by US submarine-hunting Poseidon airplanes or US nuclear attack submarines.

China wants a second-strike nuclear capability,” Carpio said.

He added that China would have the capability to place the entire South China Sea within its air defense identification zone.

Panatag Shoal, he said, was the only remaining hole in the defense system that China apparently wanted to put up in the area. ■

Philippine News

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Minority less hopeful on Du30 impeach case

Philippines, China vow closer ties, management of disputes

BY NIKKO DIZON Philippine Daily Inquirer

MANILA, PHILIPPINES — Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte said Tuesday that he and Chinese President Xi Jinping resolved to strengthen their countries’ friendship during their meeting in Beijing, with China pledging to speed up infrastructure projects it is funding in the Philippines.

“We renewed our resolve to strengthen our friendship and mutually beneficial partnership on a broad range of areas,” Duterte said in southern Davao City on his return from Beijing. “We resolved to fully use the mechanisms we have established to dialogue openly, monitor progress and ensure implementation of projects.”

Duterte, who took office last June, has worked to repair relations with China that have been strained by territorial conflicts in the South China Sea and an international arbitration ruling on a case filed by his predecessor that invalidated Beijing’s claims to the disputed territory.

Duterte met separately with Xi and Chinese Premier Li Keqiang after attending last weekend’s “Belt and Road” trade initiative.

year of his sixyear term.

“We in the majority are here to respect that and that means rejecting the impeachment complaint,” said Belaro, who is also 1-Ang Edukasyon representative.

The House is dominated by Mr. Duterte’s allies after political butterflies shifted alliances to the party now in power, Partido Demokratiko PilipinoLakas ng Bayan, and is expected to throw the case against the President away.

A vote of one-third of the 292-member-House is needed to automatically send the complaint to the Senate for trial, a tall order for the opposition.

THE HOUSE of Representatives is expected on Monday to go through the motions of determining whether the impeachment complaint filed against President Duterte meets the required standards, but for it to prosper in a Congress dominated by administration allies is another story.

“I think it will survive the form, but I think the supermajority will try to kill it with respect to substance,” Albay Rep. Edcel Lagman told the Inquirer by phone on Sunday.

Lagman and Magdalo Rep. Gary Alejano, who filed the im- Killings, wealth, China peachment complaint, belong The impeachment complaint to the so-called independent against Mr. Duterte accuses minority bloc. him of being reBefore the sponsible for the House kills the killings of thouimpeachment sands of drug complaint, it A vote of onesuspects and should “give third of the of amassing P2 Gary Alejano 292-memberbillion in unexthe chance to House is plained wealth. be heard by the needed to In a supplecommittee and automatically mental comthe public,” Lagsend the plaint, Alejano man said. complaint to also accused “There is the the Senate the President of standard recital for trial, a tall turning his back of facts constiorder for the on his duty to tuting the ofopposition. protect Philipfense,” Lagman pine territory said, to deterfrom Chinese inmine if the comcursions. plaint is suffiLagman reitercient in substance. ated that the committee on jusAlejano told the Inquirer in tice was mandated by the Cona separate interview that he stitution to conduct “a proper was prepared to face the House hearing” on an impeachment committee on justice even if he complaint, and could not just felt that his colleagues “intend “dismiss or sustain outright” a to kill” the complaint. duly filed complaint.

“But I continue to hope that “The recital of facts, for exthey will follow the process,” he ample, will include that Mr. said.

Duterte espoused the policy of killing,” Alejano said.

People’s will He appealed to his fellow Assistant Majority Leader lawmakers not to prejudge the Salvador Belaro Jr. said on Sat- impeachment complaint and urday that dismissing the com- claim that the President did plaint would be the House of not commit any crimes against Representatives’ gesture of re- humanity in the war on illegal spect for the people’s will. drugs. ■ Mr. Duterte, who received 16.6 million votes in the 2016 With a report from Leila B. Saelections, has served less than a laverria

THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

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PCOO Jose Ruperto Martin Andanar and CIPG president Zhang Fuhai shake hands after the signing of a memorandum of understanding on personnel exchange, news content exchange and joint publishing.

SHENG JIAPENG / CHINA NEWS SERVICE

Duterte said both he and Xi were looking forward to officials from both countries meeting later this week for inaugural bilateral talks on the South China Sea. Philippine officials have said the meeting will be held Friday in southwestern China.

Duterte said he didn’t raise the arbitration ruling while in Beijing.

“There is a time for me to ask about the arbitral ruling, but it is not now,” Duterte said. The agenda, mechanics and “how to present our case to them” have to be ironed out first “because we agreed to talk and to have a dialogue,” he added.

Four agreements were signed

during the visit, including a Chinese grant of 500 million yuan ($72.5 million) for feasibility studies of infrastructure projects in the Philippines and construction of a drug rehabilitation centre.

Also signed were memorandums of understanding on co-operation in human resources development and personnel exchanges, energy co-operation, and enhancing government capabilities in communication and publishing.

Duterte thanked China for its generosity, including providing grants and loans, promising to build two bridges for free in metropolitan Manila and increasing imports of Philippine agricultural products. ■

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Philippine News

MAY 12, 2017

FRIDAY

Senate body to grill Abaya on MRT mess

BY CHRISTINE O. AVENDAÑO Philippine Daily Inquirer FORMER TRANSPORTATION secretary Joseph Emilio “Jun” Abaya will appear at a Senate hearing on Monday to explain continuing problems at the Metro Rail Transit-3 (MRT-3), according to Sen. Grace Poe. Poe said in a radio program that Abaya confirmed his appearance at the hearing of the Senate committee on public services which she chairs.

The hearing was called in compliance with Senate Resolution No. 355 which seeks to investigate the management and maintenance of the MRT3 which continues to malfunc-

tion.

The inquiry will also include the newly-delivered trains from Dalian, China, which are allegedly unusable.

Abaya was the transportation secretary when the Department of Transportation and Communications bought Chinese-made trains for P3.8 billion.

The trains, however, were later found to be unusable because it lacked parts that have yet to be purchased from South Korea.

Poe said she originally set the hearing on May 18 but Abaya said he was leaving on May 16 for an overseas trip with his family, so she rescheduled the hearing for May 15.

“This was to ensure that we will be able to hears his points

because he is the key here,” she said of Abaya.

While Abaya has confirmed his attendance, Poe said she would issue a Senate subpoena if he failed to do so.

“I am appealing to him [to attend] because this will be a chance for him to defend himself if it’s true he had no shortcomings here,” Poe added.

Poe said she would call another hearing on Thursday, this time with incumbent Transportation Secretary Arthur Tugade so they could compare the statements made

by Abaya.

Asked whether then President Aquino had any liability, Poe said he did nothing when people were complaining about Abaya’s supposedly incompetent decisions as secretary. ■

Taiwan clarifies rescheduling of visa-free policy this year PHILIPPINES NEWS AGENCY MANILA — The Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) of Taiwan has announced that the implementation of its visa-free entry for Filipinos has been postponed in order to complete relevant administrative procedures and inter-agency coordination.

MOFA is expected to release the full details of the implementation of the said visa-free arrangements including the exact date of the commencement of implementing the visa-free treatment and its requirements either in September 2017 or at an appropriate date.

Since 2016, the Taiwanese government has adopted a number of visa liberalization measures for Philippine nationals to visit Taiwan as part of its “New Southbound Policy.” These measures are expected to enhance bilateral relations, and expand the multifaceted exchanges and cooperation between Taiwan and the Philippines.

Despite the postponement of the said visa-free policy since October 2016, the Philippines has been included in Taiwan’s e-visa program list.

For Filipinos who wish to visit Taiwan for tourism or a short visit, they are advised to continue to apply for either free Travel Authorization Certification (TAC), or payable evisa (single entry:NTD1,632) or the payable appropriate proper visa stamped in the passport (single entry:P2,400, multiple entry:Php 4,800). Therefore, for the time being, prior to the full implementation of the visafree arrangements, Filipinos should still follow the existing visa regulations and procedures to obtain visa(s) before travel to Taiwan.

In addition, MOFA has decided to further enlarge the eligibility criteria of the ROC (Taiwan) Travel Authorization Certificate (TAC) for qualified Philippine travellers starting from 1st June this year. Filipinos who have been issued with an ROC (Taiwan) visa (labor visas with remarks “FL” or “X” are excluded) over the recent 10 years may also apply for the said TAC, no need to pay any fee. The said TAC allows multiple-entries to Taiwan, valid for 90 days with every stay up to 30 days.

Dr. Gary Song-Huann Lin, Representative of Taiwan to the Philippines, wishes to em-

phasize that the granting of visa-free privilege to Filipinos is one of his priority work plans during his tenure in the Philippines to make his dream of closer Taiwan-Philippines bilateral ties come true as soon as possible. It aims to enhance the mutually beneficial bilateral tourism, trade, investment, agricultural, technology, economic, cultural, educational and people-to-people cooperation and exchanges between Taiwan and the Philippines.

Representative Lin further pointed out that the postponement is simply for smooth operations, more effective immigration procedure, and the safeguard of security for all passengers.

“The Philippines is considered as an important partner of Taiwan, so we are really making efforts to welcome more Filipino visitors to visit Taiwan, and the postponement of the visa-free arrangements is only intended to conduct seamless operations, facilitate the entry to Taiwan, and enhance security and safety for everyone”, Representative Lin said. ■ Further visa information is available at the website of TECO in the Philippines at http://www. roc-taiwan.org/ph www.canadianinquirer.net

PRESIDENTIAL PHOTO

‘This is a democracy’: Int’l court may be next for Duterte

BY TERESA CEROJANO The Associated Press MANILA, PHILIPPINES — Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte acknowledged Tuesday that allegations he induced extrajudicial killings in his war on drugs could be raised to the International Criminal Court after an impeachment case failed in the House of Representatives.

“Yeah, he can go ahead. He is free to do it. This is a democracy,” Duterte said in reaction to a lawmaker saying he was considering bringing a case against the Philippine leader to the court in The Hague, Netherlands.

The impeachment complaint killed by a House committee Monday accused Duterte of multiple murders and crimes against humanity for adopting a state policy of inducing police and vigilantes into killing more than 8,000 suspected drug users and dealers outside the rule of law. The complaint also accused him of corruption, unexplained wealth, and taking a “defeatist stand” against China’s in the territorial row in the South China Sea. “It is true that there are deaths _ is there a drug war where no one is killed?” Duterte said. “But not in the character and kind that I was dished out, including ordering the killing of a child.”

The dismissal of Rep. Gary Alejano’s complaint was widely expected since the House is dominated by Duterte allies.

But the president’s critics hope the procedure could bolster a lawsuit filed against him by a Filipino lawyer before the ICC

for alleged extrajudicial killings by showing that domestic efforts to stop Duterte have failed.

The dismissal of the complaint, filed in March, bars any new impeachment case against Duterte until next March.

Since taking office in June, Duterte’s war on drugs has killed 7,000 to 9,000 suspected drug dealers and addicts, according to human rights groups.

The government refutes that, releasing data on May 2 showing nearly 4,600 people have been killed in police anti-drug operations and homicides found to be drug-related.

During Monday’s hearing, Rep. Rodolfo Farinas, the majority floor leader, asked Alejano repeatedly if he had personal knowledge of allegations he made in his complaint.

Alejano said he had no personal knowledge as a witness, but that he had personal knowledge as a complainant based on official records, affidavits of witnesses and Duterte’s public pronouncements. Several lawmakers pointed to that distinction to say Alejano’s allegations were hearsay.

Forty-two of 49 committee members then voted to declare the complaint insufficient in substance.

A frustrated Alejano told reporters that he’ll discuss with his colleagues from the Magdalo party whether they should file their own complaint before the ICC. He said it was clear that the impeachment procedure “was railroaded” and that the House “is not independent.” ■

Philippine News

FRIDAY MAY 12, 2017

11

Calida defends... the solicitor general in a tweet addressed to the senator.

This was followed by another tweet, “Why do you keep on sticking your nose in this judicial process?”

Calida pointed out that “the prosecutor and the court” are “involved in the process of making an accused a state wit❰❰ 1

ness.”

His tweets seem to be in reply to Pangilinan’s own posts on Twitter the day before, in which he challenged moves to make Napoles a state witness in the multibillion pork barrel scam.

Earlier, the businesswoman was acquitted by the Court of Appeals on the serious illegal

detention charges filed by her former aide and cousin, Benhur Luy. “How can it be that the one who got the most out of the pork barrel scam will be a state witness?” Pangilinan said on his Twitter account.

The senator also expressed hope that the court would not allow Napoles to qualify as a

state witness in the pork barrel scam, which she was accused of masterminding.

It may be recalled that the government is planning a reinvestigation of the multibillionpeso pork barrel anomaly involving Napoles and members of Congress.

Calida’s tweets on Saturday were a continuation of

his earlier criticism of Pangilinan and Sen. Risa Hontiveros, who expressed their objection to Napoles’ acquittal on serious illegal detention charges.

On Thursday, the solicitor general wondered why the two senators were agitated over the reversal of Napoles’ conviction by the appellate court. ■

Philippine police make more child cybersex arrests, rescues

BY MARTHA MENDOZA AND JIM GOMEZ The Associated Press MANILA, PHILIPPINES — Authorities in the Philippines have rescued four girls and arrested a mother and two other women for allegedly livestreaming sexually exploitative videos of children to men paying by the minute to watch from the United States.

Three sisters ages 8, 9 and 12, and an 11-year-old found in a separate rescue, are now in a shelter for abused children while the women face prosecution.

The arrests came just two weeks after Filipino authorities raided the home of an American man suspected of similar cybersex crimes, arresting David Timothy Deakin, 53, in his townhouse. During that bust, agents from the National Bureau of Investigation rescued two girls, 10 and 12, who had spent time in Deakin’s home, and made one of the largest seizures of illicit digital content in the Philippines. Dozens of hard drives and a handful of computers must now be analyzed to search for other possible victims, as well as buyers.

Deakin denied wrongdoing.

“They got it twisted around

like somehow I was using those girls,” he told The Associated Press after his April 20 arrest.

The series of arrests and rescues underscore a rapidly growing crime in which children, even toddlers, are made to remove their clothes and touch themselves in obscene ways while adults, often their parents, train video cameras on them in exchange for payment from pedophiles abroad.

Police in the Philippines are collaborating with their counterparts in Europe, Australia and the U.S. to investigate and prosecute.

The Australian Federal Police and U.S. FBI separately provided Filipino authorities information that led to the arrests of the mother and two other women on May 5, rescuing four girls.

They were allegedly making the girls engage in sexually explicit acts while men in Australia and the U.S. watched. The women have been charged with human trafficking, child abuse, child pornography and cybercrime.

Police officer Arlyn Torrendon said she was part of a team that rescued three of the children and arrested the three women, including the mother of the siblings, Friday in a house in Bacolod city on an island about 445 miles (717 kilome-

tres) south of Manila.

“The children were innocent. They were not even aware that they were being used in a crime,” Torrendon told the AP by telephone from Bacolod.

She said the children came from an impoverished family; their mother was a widow.

Gen. Liborio Carabbacan at the National Police Women and Children Protection Center said the incidents are increasing in the Philippines because many people are gaining access to the internet and English fluency is common, making it possible to communicate with would-be customers. Also, he said, parents and relatives, motivated by greed, are often not even aware that it is against the law to exploit their children.

The livestream abuse happens in many of Philippines’ densely populated, impoverished neighbourhoods, said attorney Gideon Cauton, who works with the non-profit International Justice Mission. The organization provides social workers, shelters, lawyers and even former U.S. police detectives to local law enforcement, who don’t have enough resources to tackle all cases of online sexual exploitation of children.

In metropolitan Manila, where gleaming condominium

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PHILIPPINE NATIONAL POLICE / FACEBOOK

high-rises and stores selling designer clothes and cars stand in stark contrast to the squalor of the slums, Cauton pointed to Wi-Fi antennas rising from rooftops above a long stretch of shanties and rundown houses.

In the past, the antennas amid crushing poverty were red flags, sparking suspicion of cybersex crimes. Today pocket Wi-Fi, cellphone internet and other technology have rendered those irrelevant, driving the crime even further behind the scenes.

“This type of crime is really hidden,” he said. “Usually the family and community, they are complicit, and these are tightknit communities, very dense areas.”

In the U.S., the proliferation of crimes, along with new mandatory reporting, led to 8.2 million reports last year to

the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children’s CyberTipline related to online child sexual exploitation. That compares with 8.3 million reports in the 17 years prior.

One of those reports led authorities in the U.S. to Karl Touset, 72, of Marietta, Georgia, who was sentenced to prison for 10 years in March after Homeland Security Investigations agents found evidence on his computers that he had paid facilitators in the Philippines more than $55,000 over three years for images of girls being sexually exploited.

“Unfortunately, extreme poverty in many parts of the world affords individuals like Touset the opportunity to exploit children across national borders,” said U.S. Attorney John Horn in a statement after the sentencing. ■

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Philippine News

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FRIDAY

Napoles acquittal ‘I am not a lawyer who seen to affect trust is good at twisting the law’ in PH justice system

BY NIKKO DIZON Philippine Daily Inquirer

BY JULIE M. AURELIO AND JEROME ANING Philippine Daily Inquirer A CATHOLIC prelate warned that the acquittal of suspected pork barrel scam mastermind Janet Lim-Napoles on serious illegal detention charges might worsen the public’s mistrust in the country’s judicial system.

Balanga Bishop Ruperto Santos added that the Court of Appeal’s decision to nullify Napoles’ conviction “fuels suspicion that pork barrel money talks.”

“It also just adds to the mistrust of our people to our court—only the poor, unknown and [those who] have no connections are convicted,” the bishop said.

He added: “We are waiting to see the moneyed and those in higher-ups to be convicted by courts.”

On Monday, the appellate court reversed the decision of a Makati City Regional Trial Court (RTC) which initially found Napoles guilty of serious illegal detention.

The charge was filed by Napoles’ cousin, Benhur Luy, who accused her of locking him up to prevent him from divulging what he knew about the P10billion pork barrel scam.

The Makati RTC initially sentenced Napoles to a 40-year prison term for illegally detaining Luy, one of the principal witnesses in the pork barrel scam.

Napoles was accused of masterminding the scam which involved diverting the pork barrel scam to ghost projects of her nongovernment organizations.

For his part, Fr. Jerome Secillano expressed concern that

the acquittal might end up as “the mother of all injustices.”

“Let’s just hope that the acquittal may not have an impact in her other cases. If it does, then it’s going to be the mother of all injustices,” he said.

Secillano is the executive secretary of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines’ permanent committee on public affairs.

“With all the bogus foundations she put up, I guess those are overwhelming indications not only of an intent to steal from government coffers but of thievery itself with the connivance of some unscrupulous politicians,” he added.

But a legal expert yesterday said the public should be more concerned if due process was observed in Napoles’ case.

“Wanting to convict and having sufficient evidence to convict are two different concerns, and the difference is called due process,” Fr. Ranhilio Aquino, dean of the San Beda Graduate School of Law said in a statement posted on his Facebook account.

Aquino noted while many people were convinced that Napoles illegally detained Luy, most were not entirely acquainted with the pieces of evidence presented by the prosecution and defense.

“But before blabbering about ‘miscarriage of justice’ and similar tired and abused tirades, where is the evidence sufficient to establish that she committed the crime? The Court of Appeals was not convinced there was. You may be convinced there was, but one may not have reviewed the evidence the same way the justices did,” the law dean said. ■

MAGDALO REP. Gary Alejano, a former Marine officer, fought back tears as he expressed disappointment over how the committee on justice of the House of Representatives railroaded the killing of the impeachment complaint he had filed against President Duterte.

“Yes, I am not a lawyer who’s very good at twisting the law. I am a former soldier. All I know is how to defend the people,” Alejano said.

It was his clear response to his colleagues’ patronizing statements during the committee proceedings that he was not a lawyer and so might not be aware of the concept of hearsay.

The justice committee junked Alejano’s impeachment complaint, saying his allegations against the hugely popular President were based on “hearsay.”

Alejano said he had an informal agreement with the committee chair, Mindoro Oriental Rep. Reynaldo Umali, that he would be allowed to give an opening and closing statement, as the complainant against Mr. Duterte.

But in the nearly four-hour proceedings, Alejano was hardly given the time to speak.

When Alejano insisted on wanting to explain his complaint, Umali told him to “bear” with the committee “because we have a lot of other things to do.”

“If there are other important matters, the thousands who were killed and the continuing deaths in the war against drugs, aren’t they important? There has yet to be a credible hearing to be conducted by the House on these deaths,” Alejano said.

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HOUSE OF THE REPRESENTATIVES PHOTO

Ethics complaint

Majority Leader Rodolfo Fariñas said Alejano could have perjured himself and thus might face an ethics complaint for admitting that he did not have personal knowledge of the deaths of thousands of drug suspects, among other issues.

“I am aware of the consequences. If they want to do that, I will respect that. They control the ethics committee. If they remove me from office, it’s up to them. That’s what they have been doing to dissenters,” Alejano said.

Alejano said he was willing to stake his position as the Magdalo party-list representative, “because I know I am standing up for what is right.”

Alejano said that the Magdalo party-list group could likely join lawyer Jude Sabio in the latter’s information against Mr. Duterte lodged with the International Criminal Court (ICC), which accused the President of committing crimes against humanity and mass murder.

‘Propaganda’

Alejano stressed that it was up to the people’s representatives in Congress to be their voice in seeking justice for those who have been killed.

On Fariñas’ statement that the impeachment complaint was merely “propaganda,” Alejano said: “If it is only propaganda, then in effect, the thousands of deaths are not a serious matter.”

“If they think this is not important, then we deserve the President and policies we have now,” Alejano said.

He warned his fellow lawmakers that “if we allow the President that kind of power in violation of the Constitution, I assure you his excesses of power will reach your own fences.”

“We will have a dictator,” he said. ■

Philippine News

FRIDAY MAY 12, 2017

13

Cayetano breezes through 3-minute CA confirmation as new DFA chief

BY AZER N. PARROCHA Philippines News Agency MANILA — In what was described by Sen. Panfilo Lacson as “the shortest confirmation hearing of a Cabinet Secretary”, the Commission on Appointments (CA) on Wednesday confirmed the ad interim appointment of Alan Peter Cayetano as Foreign Affairs Secretary.

Lacson, chair of the CA Committee on Foreign Affairs, announced the motion to recommend to plenary the confirmation of the nomination of Cayetano and there was no member who objected.

He earlier said that Cayetano can be easily confirmed by “acclamation” as he is a seating Senator and member of the CA. “There is a motion to recommend to plenary confirmation of nomination of Alan Peter S. Cayetano as Secretary of the

Department of Foreign Affairs.

Is there any objection? Hearing none, congratulations Secretary Cayetano,” Lacson said.

The confirmation hearing started at 9 a.m. and after no questions were asked to Cayetano, the motion to recommend his confirmation to plenary was made at around 9:03 am.

In his opening statement, Cayetano quoted a Bible verse, Jeremiah 29:11: “For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and future.”

Cayetano expressed gratitude for his speedy confirmation and vowed not to disappoint the CA and President Rodrigo Duterte, who appointed him.

“Thank you for giving me the honor of breezing through the Commission on Appointments.

I will do my best para ‘di po kayo mapahiya (not to embarrass you),” Cayetano said.

In an interview with reporters, he said that he was hoping for a quick confirmation but said that he was ready to answer questions noting that “you don’t know what to expect.”

“I am humbled, I thank God for this opportunity and I thank the Commission. Gagamitin ko ‘tong mabilis at painless na confirmation bilang paalala that I have to do my best (I will use this quick and painless confirmation as a reminder that I have to do my best),” he said.

Cayetano said that he was welcome to suggestions and complaints, especially from overseas Filipino workers (OFWs). He will soon be visiting passport processing areas to identify problems and how they can be corrected.

He also said that he looks forward to meeting with the DFA top brass to get input and align it with President Duterte’s

ALAN PETER CAYETANO / FACEBOOK

order to be “friends to all, enemies to none.”

Last week, the President confirmed that he had just signed Cayetano’s appointment paper in a pre-departure press briefing before embarking to Cambodia for the World Economic Forum (WEF) on ASEAN. Before getting a CA nod, Cayetano was chair of the Senate Committee on Foreign Affairs.

He was also President Duterte’s

running mate in the May 2016 presidential elections.

The President had repeatedly stated during interviews that he would offer the Foreign Affairs post to Cayetano once the one-year appointment ban lapses.

Senate President Aquilino Pimentel III earlier said that once Cayetano accepts the position Foreign Affairs Secretary, he will be considered resigned. ■

China to host first bilateral meeting with PHL on South China Sea issue

BY JELLY F. MUSICO Philippines News Agency BEIJING — China will host the first bilateral consultation mechanism meeting with the Philippines on the South China Sea issue in Guiyang, Guizhou province on Friday, according to Chinese Foreign Ministry Affairs.

In a press conference on Tuesday, Foreign Ministry Spokesperson Hua Chunying announced that representatives from both countries will tackle issues reached between Chinese President Xi Jinping and Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte on South China Sea or West Philippine Sea. "The two leaders once again reached important consensus on properly resolving the South China Sea issue through dialogue and consultation, which serves the fundamental interests of China, the Philippines and people in the region as well as peace and stability of the South China Sea and beyond,"

Hua said.

Aside from working on the implementation of relevant consensus reached between Presidents Xi and Duterte, Hua said China is committed to maintain the long-term development of bilateral relations as well as peace and stability in the South China Sea. "It is also in line with the responsibilities that must be shouldered by China and the Philippines as regional countries. The two sides will have friendly dialogues and consultations on the South China Searelated issues," she said.

The bilateral meeting will be co-chaired by Chinese Vice Foreign Minister Liu Zhenmin and Philippine Ambassador to China Jose Santiago Sta. Romana.

The Philippines-China relations has been rejuvenated following President Duterte’s four-day state visit in Beijing in October last year upon invitation of President Xi. Last weekend, President

Duterte returned to China for the first Belt and Road Forum on International Cooperation. On the sidelines, he and the Chinese leader held bilateral meeting.

The Philippines-China relations hit snag after the Philippines filed an arbitration case at the Permanent Court of Arbitration (PCA) in The Hague in Jan. 22, 2013 to contest China’s ‘nine-dash line’ claim on South China Sea. A month after President Duterte took his oath as President in June last year, the UNbacked arbitration court released its judgment in favor of the Philippines.

However, President Duterte decided to temporarily shelve the PCA verdict to allow the resolution of the maritime dispute through peaceful dialogues and consultations.

President Duterte's decision was warmly welcomed by China, resulting in USD 24 billion worth of investment pledges and infrastructure projects and signing of trade and people-towww.canadianinquirer.net

people agreements.

Aside from bilateral meeting, China and the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) member countries is set to hold 14th Senior Officials’ Meeting on the implementation of the Declaration on the Conduct of Parties in the South China Sea (DOC).

Hua said senior officials from the 10 ASEAN member states and the representative of the Secretary-General of the ASEAN will attend the meeting upon invitation.

"The meeting will focus on the development of ChinaASEAN relations and regional cooperation of East Asia and lay a groundwork for such high-level meetings within this year as China-ASEAN Leaders' Meeting and Foreign Ministers' Meeting,” Hua said.

The high-level talks will be co-chaired by Chinese Vice Foreign Minister Liu Zhenmin and Chee Wee Kiong, Permanent Secretary for Foreign Affairs of Singapore and coordinator

of China-ASEAN relations, on Thursday.

Hua said the 21st Joint Working Group Meeting on Implementing the DOC will be held back-to-back before the highlevel meeting.

"China will continue to have an in-depth exchange of views with the ASEAN member states on implementing the DOC, promoting maritime cooperation and conducting consultations on the COC (Code of Conduct)," Hua said.

She also announced that the 23rd China-ASEAN Senior Officials' Consultation will be held on Friday with Liu and Kiong as co-chairs.

Aside from the Philippines and Singapore, other ASEAN members include: Indonesia, Thailand, Malaysia, Brunei, Vietnam, Cambodia, Laos and Myanmar.

Malaysia, Brunei and Vietnam also have respective claims to parts of the potentially energy-rich South China Sea territory. ■

Opinion

14

MAY 12, 2017

FRIDAY

Cimatu takes DENR helm, promises to listen to all

BY JAYMEE T. GAMIL Philippine Daily Inquirer ACKNOWLEDGING THAT he is “wading into a field far removed from soldiery,” former military chief Roy Cimatu took the helm of the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) on Wednesday with the promise to listen to all voices.

“Essentially, if mining companies follow [the law and regulations], we won’t do anything to them,” Cimatu said in contrast to the stance of his predecessor Gina Lopez, who was rejected by the congressional Commission on Appointments.

“You have to follow the law, you have to follow the safe-

guards for extracting minerals,” Cimatu said during a turnover ceremony at the DENR head office in Quezon City.

Responding to criticism that he lacked experience in environment management, Cimatu asked the public to give him time to study the agency’s problems.

“You will please excuse me if I ask that I be given time to scan and study the terrain in an agency which impacts considerably on our very life as a people, and the future of our beloved Philippines,” Cimatu said.

“I will try to do my best as President Duterte’s point man in the daunting task of protecting our environment in all its forms … while promoting the wise and proper use of these

God-given resources for the public good.”

Cimatu promised to “listen to all the voices out there and make full use of our powers and resources to ensure that these various concerns, some of which oftentimes clash, will be properly and judiciously addressed.”

Cimatu also asked DENR employees to work as a team.

“Please help me learn the ropes and earn your respect.

We are all in this together,” he said.

Also on Wednesday, President Duterte himself said he ordered Cimatu to protect the environment while being mindful of the fact that the law allows mining.

Mr. Duterte said he told Cimatu that there would never be

a time that he would call him for any favor for anybody.

“All that I ask of you is just to be true to yourself, to be true to your country and protect the environment. But remember, there is a mining law and we cannot altogether banish it,” Mr. Duterte said.

Unless the mining law is erased from the statute books, extraction operations have to be regulated and allowed, he said.

“We want stricter measures.

But there’s the mining law, so what can we do? The law itself allows it. And if you just disregard it, that will be an impeachable offense,” he added.

Mr. Duterte also said yesterday that there was no new government post for Lopez at this time.

Cimatu revealed that one of his first official acts would be to go to Mindanao next week to check the compliance of mining firms with applicable environmental laws.

But Mines and Geosciences Bureau director Mario Luis Jacinto clarified that the closure or suspension orders Lopez issued against some mines are still in effect until they are overturned.

“The issuances are presumed legal. The issuances will stand unless amended, revised or revoked,” Jacinto said.

“We will definitely stick to applicable laws and regulations. The efforts will be made sure that those granted permits will be compliant because that is the way to go,” Jacinto said. ■

PUBLIC LIVES

Why should you be wary of the dragon bearing gifts?

By Randy David Philippine Daily Inquirer FOLLOWING President Duterte’s state visit to China in October 2016, 27 deals have been signed with Chinese state entities and business corporations covering around US$9 billion in loans and US$15 billion in investments. The President proudly touts these achievements as having been made possible by the reversal of the previous administration’s unfriendly attitude toward China.

These loans and investments are intended to jump-start the Duterte administration’s ambitious infrastructure program and to build production facilities aimed at promoting inclusive development.

Apart from the large sums of money being committed by China, very little is known of their terms and conditions, and the local parties involved in these foreignassisted projects and investments.

That much can be gleaned from a recent study done by Kenneth Cardenas, a former sociology instructor at the University of the Philippines and currently a PhD student at York University in Canada. Published by the Philippine Center for Investigative Journalism, Cardenas’ study may be accessed at http://pcij.org/stories/ dutertes-china-deals-dissected/ The study raises issues and ques-

tions that are reminiscent of the business abroad. They tapped lo- regard to China-funded projects debates about foreign aid in the cal partners or proxies that had like Northrail and the NBN-ZTE, 1970s and 1980s, when the chief the political clout to push projects both contracted during the Chinavillain was Western imperialism through the corrupt-ridden laby- friendly administration of Presiand its associated institutions— rinths of Third World bureaucra- dent Gloria Macapagal Arroyo. the International Monetary Fund cies. Some projects were completBoth projects have been can(IMF) and the World Bank. The ed, many others were not. But it celed—with no railway and broadclassic work in this field remains didn’t really matter so long as the band network in sight—but they Teresa Hayter’s “Aid as Imperial- recipient government assumed the have left a trail of huge debts that ism,” a slim volume that ironically obligation to pay. Can Chinese aid continue to bleed the nation’s cofbears much of the influence of be any different? Deborah Brauti- fers. We might remember the cases Maoist thinking of that era. gam, a scholar based at the Ameri- that were filed and the political There were also a number of well can University in Washington scandals that attended both projdocumented studies about Japa- D.C., has been a close observer of ects. But only a few may know how nese economic aid during that pe- China’s aid activities in Africa. Her much money has been paid to the riod. Many of these China National were done by JapaMachinery and nese scholars who Equipment CorSome projects were completed, many others were could not bear the poration Group, not.

But it didn’t really matter so long as the recipient thought of Japan which was supgovernment assumed the obligation to pay. ensuring its conposed to supply tinued prosperity the railway sysby exploiting the tem that would needs of poor countries in the guise book, “The Dragon’s Gift” (Oxford link Metro Manila to Central and of providing them aid. The conclu- University Press, 2011), is the most Northern Luzon, and the China sions they drew are instructive for comprehensive account of the na- Eximbank that provided the bulk our time: Japanese aid had been ture and consequences of Chinese of the financing. mostly in aid of Japanese business. aid. It would be well for our profesAt the signing on Dec. 30, 2003, In study after study, it was sional civil servants at the National for Northrail’s Phase 1, the origishownthat projects funded with Economic and Development Au- nal contract price agreed was outright grants or concessional thority to glean some lessons from US$503 million. Of this amount, loans were found to be greatly this book before they approve any $400 million was to be borne by overpriced. They came with Japa- of the deals with China, particular- the Chinese company, and $21.5 nese project consultants who ly those that ultimately have to be million by the Philippine counwere paid astronomical fees. The paid with our people’s money. terpart through a loan from the projects chosen matched not so Brautigam’s book might shed Development Bank of the Philipmuch the priorities of the country some light on the incredible prob- pines. Six years later, the Chinese being aided as the needs of Japa- lems that the Philippines has raised the project cost to $593.88 nese companies to generate more found itself embroiled in with million, and the Philippine gov-

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ernment did not object.

When the project was canceled in 2012, the Philippine government filed for arbitration. A Commission on Audit report released in 2013 showed that as of December 2011, we had paid the Chinese company a total of $210.48 million for work supposedly accomplished. The COA claims that based on actual work done, there was an overpayment of $129 million. We assume that the past administration refused to pay more until a ruling on this case is issued.

It appears, however, that the present administration may be taking a different route. Last May 7, at the sidelines of the Asian Development Bank meeting in Japan, Finance Secretary Carlos Dominguez was asked about Northrail and the case the Philippine government had submitted for arbitration.

Business Mirror quotes him as saying that the arbitration was not just a “managerial headache” but also a “huge” financial burden.

“I signed this huge check for an idiot thing that never gets done. I tell you, myhands bleed when I do that. And there’s some more to pay so [lets end it]. What’s past is past, everybody made a mistake here, let’s move ahead. I think that’s the right way to go.”

The past is indeed past, but that doesn't mean we can’t learn from it. ■

Opinion

FRIDAY MAY 12, 2017

15

AT LARGE

Gift of grandparenthood

By Rina Jimenez-David Philippine Daily Inquirer I’VE ALWAYS said grandchildren are the “interest” we earn on the capital we expend on our children. But they don’t come interest-free. On top of having to tap all the experience—and I’d like to think the wisdom, too—we’ve gained from raising our children, we’ve also had to be extracreative and expand our energies, though at this age we can feel the years taking their toll. Suddenly, you find yourself panting as those little legs outrace you down the sidewalk. Having a toddler in the house means a whole multitude of things will come falling to the floor, which means in turn having to get down on your knees and creeping under tables, cabinets and beds to retrieve them.

And while in your younger years you thought nothing of picking up a small person andjuggling all thewriggling

andscreaming that came with that creature, this time around simply bending to lift him is enough of a challenge. Recently turned two, our grandson has learned the futility of asking to be carried by the two old people withwhomheshares ahome. Instead, he has developed the habit of reaching for a hand and then tugging the person attached to the hand to follow him and hand him what he wants. When I came home with a walker after breaking my hip, an imminent danger was the grandson’s attempts to tug at the walker, threatening to sendme crashing to the floor.

But let me tell you, all these physical challenges are forgotten once you hear the little voice call out: “Wowa!” It’s recognition and reward, not just a milestone in his development but also confirmation that you have a place in his life—with a title at that! ***

These days, his “gimmick” is to ignore everyone who fawns over him. In the morning, when I ask him to give me a “good morning” kiss, and when his yaya carries him over to me, he will turn his head away, wriggling out of her arms, and sometimes even kicking my hands away.

I chide him and pretend I’m hurt, but when I glance at him, I catch a furtive, knowing smile and the glimmer of naughtiness in his eyes. I know he’s playing games with me, and it tickles metomybones.

The main difference between raising his father and raising him is the overwhelming presence of technology these days.

He only has to catch a glimpse of any of our tablets or cell phonesandhe will grab at it, handing the device to the nearest adult to key in the code that will open the world of YouTube to him.

The rest is up to him. Already,

he knows how to swipe to see the icons, and recognizes his favorites which he then taps.

When bored with a video, he knows to turn to the menu for his choice and tap on the one that looks interesting. Already, we’ve sat through many a “Peppa Pig” episode, his favorite “Sesame Street” songs, and even the site of “Batibot,” a favorite of his parents’ generation and now winning over an entirely new generation. *** Some “futurologists” claim that as technology takes over more and more parts of our lives, our bodies will evolve to meet the new different demands.

Human beings of tomorrow, we’re told, will have oversize thumbs because of the constant exercise they get on our devices. Their eyes will either weaken because of the constant need to read minuscule text, or grow bigger and wider because

they’re forever fixed on those pixels in small screens.

They will also develop the “techie slouch,” their spines bent from constant glancing down at their phones. And their hearing will be affected after years of being blasted by loud music or deafening sound effects.

I often wonder what parenthood and grandparenthood will be like for my grandson. Will human interaction be replaced by relationships with cyber characters, information from books and print media replaced by fake news and unchecked rumors in social media?

I can only hope that memories of the time we spent with him will linger and continue to guide him as he navigates his way through the world. Meanwhile, we will gladly chase after him, picking up his toys and random discards, and sing our lullabies in celebration of the gift of grandparenthood. ■

LOOKING BACK

To see what one wants to see

By Ambeth R. Ocampo Philippine Daily Inquirer STUDENTS on a field trip at the National Museum are often herded into a grand hall dominated by Juan Luna’s “Spoliarium,” a painting that provokes awe by its sheer size and the restrained violence it depicts.

They walk past it quietly, single file, move swiftly through the other halls, and climb back into the bus to head to and spend the better part of the day in an air-conditioned shopping mall.

I understand the logistical difficulties of getting busloads of students through the museum, but hope that some day, when they are older, many of them will return to the National Museum and give the “Spoliarium” a second look, remember what they were taught about the “meaning” of the painting, and attempt a more nuanced understanding of what Luna intended and what others have read into it. The “Spoliarium” has be-

come part of the iconography of the nation.

Thirteen decades since it was awarded a gold medal in the 1884 National Exposition of Fine Arts in Madrid, Luna’s “Spoliarium” still evokes national pride of a type that far eclipses the boxing feats of Manny Pacquiao. Luna’s gold and Felix Resurreccion Hidalgo’s silver are like Olympic medals heralding them as the “First Filipino International Artists.”

In ancient Rome corpses of vanquished gladiators were dragged into a room below the Roman Coliseum, where they were stripped of their bloodied weapons and shining armor before being disposed of or handed over to grieving loved ones. This is a powerful image that was part of the arsenal of “academic” painters in Europe.

Resurreccion Hidalgo’s prizewinning entry, “Christian virgins exposed to the mob,” depicts just that—helpless women

cornered by a gang of rapists and looking up to heaven for divine intervention that does not save them from the horror that the viewer knows is about to happen.

Large canvases filled with scenes from ancient Greece and Rome were in fashion then, so wemust ask: Would Luna and Resurreccion Hidalgo win those medals if they had painted scenes from the Philippines instead? Ask students who have seen the movie “Gladiator” or the TV series “Rome” if they can see Spanish oppression in these productions; they don’t.

For this we have to blame Graciano Lopez Jaena and Jose Rizal, who recast ancient Rome into an indictment of the colonial condition. Unfortunately, students are not taught to look at the painting but force-fed into thinking that the “Spoliarium” has but one correct interpretation.

In August 1983 Ninoy Aquino was assassinated at the Mawww.canadianinquirer.net

nila airport that now bears his name. Shot in the back of the head, his limp body was dragged by members of the Aviation Security Command and loaded into a van. The alleged gunman was left on the tarmac to be later identified, not by identification in his pockets, but by the name “Rolando Galman” conveniently written on the garter of his briefs. In the days of mourning that followed, I remember someone suggesting that the “Spoliarium” was a visual prophecy of the Aquino assassination; that Luna was not just a painter but also a prophet. One of these days a victim of extrajudicial killing will be dragged into an ambulance, and if a photographer catches the scene at the right angle to mimic the “Spoliarium,” we will find yet another meaning to add to a painting completed way back in 1884.

If there is one thing that can be said about art, it is that art being a representation of re-

ality, viewers can, with some imagination, see what they want to see.

The National Museum complex is a respite from the oppressive heat and traffic in the streets. Now is the time to visit because elementary and high school students are on their summer break, the halls are not so crowded, and the airconditioning is sufficient for the comfort of visitors and the preservation of the paintings.

After paying your respects to the “Spoliarium” and taking the obligatory selfie, turn round and spend some time with Resurreccion Hidalgo’s “Murder of Bustamante,” which is not saddled with preset interpretations. So much violence in one room not intended to desensitize like the front-pages of broadsheets and tabloids, these are two powerful paintings that should give viewers enough perspective to realize that things don’t have to be the way they are. ■

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MAY 19, 2017

FRIDAY

Canada News Auditor general finds oversight, enforcement problems of foreign worker program

BY JORDAN PRESS The Canadian Press

ROD BRAZIER / FLICKR

Experts say river levels ease in parts of B.C., as levels rise in Okanagan Lake THE CANADIAN PRESS VANCOUVER — Receding levels in some British Columbia waterways mean the flood threat has been downgraded for parts of the southern Interior and northwestern B.C. The River Forecast Centre says flood watches are now down to high streamflow advisories for the Nicola River near Merritt and for the Salmon River in the Shuwap, east of Kamloops.

High streamflow advisories have also ended for the Kettle River in the Boundary region and the Bulkley River and its feeders around Houston, Telkwa and Smithers in northwestern B.C. But in the northeastern part

of the province, a flood warning remains in place for the Beatton River, and flood watches are still in effect for the Moberly, Halfway and parts of the Peace rivers, although Environment Canada forecasts an end to showers by Wednesday.

Near Kelowna, attention is shifting to the level of Okanagan Lake, which the Central Okanagan Regional District says is sitting just 35 centimetres below the flood mark, with much of the heavy snowpack still unmelted.

A news release from the regional district says if the lake surpasses the 343-metre level, it will begin to back up into Mission and Mill creeks, which run through downtown Kelowna, potentially causing severe flooding. ■

OTTAWA — Canada’s temporary foreign workers program is rife with oversight problems that appear to have allowed lower-paid international workers to take jobs that out-of-work Canadians could fill, the federal auditor general says.

Some companies have effectively built a business model on the program that could be having unintended consequences that the government doesn’t know about, including wage suppression or discouraging capital investment and innovation, said Michael Ferguson’s report on the program, part of a fresh batch of federal audits tabled Tuesday.

Ferguson’s report says the government approved applications for temporary foreign workers even when employers had not demonstrated reasonable efforts to train existing employees or hire unemployed Canadians, including those from under-represented groups, such as First Nations.

Nor did officials effectively crack down on companies that were found to have run afoul of the rules; few on-site inspections or face-to-face interviews with the foreign workers themselves were conducted, the audit found. Even when correc-

tive action was recommended, it took months for all the necessary approvals.

Ferguson is calling for better oversight of the program and more pushback from federal officials to ensure companies applying to hire temporary foreign workers are doing so for the right reasons.

The department overseeing the program, Employment and Social Development Canada, says it plans to implement all of Ferguson’s recommendations.

Ferguson’s report comes months after a Commons committee recommended an overhaul to the program, and three years after the previous Conservative government made changes in a bid to ensure the program worked as intended: to help companies fill job vacancies only when qualified Canadians couldn’t be found for the work, and only when it didn’t negatively affect the local labour market.

Between 2013 and 2015, the number of temporary foreign workers in Canada dropped from 163,000 to just over 90,000, a result of the 2014 changes and the economic downturn.

Despite the drop in numbers, the audit team said it found numerous cases where employers gave dizzying reasons for needing a temporary foreign worker that departmental officials failed to challenge in 40

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per cent of the cases reviewed as part of the audit.

One person was allowed to hire a caregiver for their elderly parent even though they had not tried to recruit a Canadian, as required, because they wanted “someone who is trustworthy and with the ability to work without supervision.”

Some fish and seafood processing plants told officials that they needed temporary foreign workers because Canadians had quit their positions because of the conditions or difficulty of the work. The auditors were blunt in their response: “In our opinion, this type of situation appeared to be a retention problem and not a labour shortage problem.”

The fish and seafood industry came up frequently.

Ferguson’s team found that over 80 per cent laid off Canadian workers at companies in the sector were claiming employment insurance at the same time the companies were employing temporary foreign workers.

Auditors say Employment and Social Development Canada could have used departmental databases like employment insurance information to figure out if a Canadian could fill a job, but did not. Nor did the department give officials assessing applications full access to such information that could have helped in their decisionmaking. ■

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17

Greens want specifics on potential horse trading deals with B.C. Liberals, NDP

BY DIRK MEISSNER The Canadian Press VICTORIA — British Columbia’s upstart Greens are planning a series of chess moves that could shake the direction of the province following last week’s inconclusive election results, says deputy party leader Matt Toner.

The splintered election outcome that saw the Greens win three seats and potentially hold the balance of power in an 87seat legislature has Green leader Andrew Weaver calculating the benefits of co-operation agreements with the Liberals and New Democrats, Toner said Tuesday.

The Liberals and New Democrats are gridlocked as they await the final ballot counts from last week’s election, but the Greens are setting priorities to use the leverage that its newly elected members achieved.

Premier Christy Clark and

John Horgan, leader of the New Democrats, scheduled news conferences for Tuesday afternoon to further discuss the political climate.

“There is a basis for potential co-operation with both of the parties,” said Toner. “We’re optimistic about this. We have things that matter to us, but we’re not approaching this exercise cynically.”

He said the Greens are looking for specific proposals from the Liberals and New Democrats on electoral and campaign-finance reforms before supporting either party in the legislature.

“All these details, they count,” Toner said in an interview. “We need to have fairly tight understandings of how any co-operation agreements would work before we say, ‘Yes, we’re in.’

These things matter to us. They matter to our base. They matter to the people of the province.”

Toner is a former B.C. New

Democrat who ran for the party in the 2013 election, but lost to Liberal candidate Sam Sullivan, a former Vancouver mayor.

He said he considers the differences between Clark’s Liberals and the Greens to be vast on several fronts, but does not rule out working with the Liberals.

“The proof is in the pudding,” said Toner. “Christy Clark is obviously a very polished politician. It’s hard to imagine how we find common ground on a few of her key issues like the liquefied natural gas industry.

We don’t rule anything out but it’s a bigger river to cross.”

The Greens are also opposed to the Site C hydroelectric dam and the Kinder Morgan Trans Mountain pipeline expansion and campaigned against both during the election.

Glen Sanford, the NDP’s deputy director, said the party is reaching out to the Greens, but until the election results are final, potential deals can’t

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John Horgan, leader of the New Democrats.

be reached.

A senior Liberal communications strategist who didn’t want to be named says leader Christy Clark is prepared to reach across party lines to work with the Greens.

Clark’s Liberals won 43 seats on May 9 while the NDP collected 41 and the Greens, three seats. The Liberals need one

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more seat for a majority.

The outcome remains unclear while 176,000 absentee ballots are counted, which could flip close ridings including Courtenay-Comox, where the NDP won by nine votes.

Even after the final results are announced May 24, tight finishes could trigger judicial recounts. ■

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Canada News

MAY 19, 2017

FRIDAY

New passenger bill of rights spells out compensation for air travellers

BY MIA ROBSON The Canadian Press OTTAWA — Airlines won’t be allowed to bump passengers from a flight against their will under a new passenger bill of rights introduced today by Transportation Minister Marc Garneau.

That change is part of a package of amendments to the Canada Transportation Act which also introduces new foreign ownership limits for airlines, requires railways to install voice and video recorders in locomotives and improves transparency and efficiency in the freight rail industry.

Garneau promised the bill of rights last month in the wake of widespread alarm after a United Airlines passenger was seriously injured when he was dragged from a plane in Chicago.

The minister earlier told airlines operating in Canada such an incident is not to happen here, but he says his goal with

the new legislation is to spell out clearly that a passenger who has purchased a ticket cannot be barred from a plane just because the airline sold too many seats.

“We have all heard recent news reports of shoddy treatment of air passengers,” Garneau said at a news conference.

“Such incidents will not be tolerated in Canada. When Canadians buy an airline ticket, they expect the airline to keep its part of the deal.”

He said there will be minimum levels of compensation for people who voluntarily agree to be bumped from a flight and if airlines can’t get a volunteer, they will have to decide if they want to up the ante to persuade someone to get off.

The bill will apply to airlines flying within, into or out of Canada.

Garneau said the existing rules for compensating passengers who agree to give up a seat or whose luggage gets lost or damaged are “opaque” to the average flyer and the new rules

will make things more clear and let passengers know where to go to seek compensation.

The bill will enable the government to force airlines to create clear standards of treatment and compensation for circumstances such as voluntarily giving up a seat, lost or damaged luggage, delays while sitting on the tarmac and other non-weather related issues.

Parents will not be forced to pay a fee in order to sit next to their children and even musical instruments will get better treatment under new standards for transporting them by air.

Most of the details will be established through regulation after the bill is passed.

The Canadian Transportation Agency will set minimum compensation and timelines. Passengers also will not have to seek out redress themselves, with the onus on airlines to keep records of those affected by an incident and follow up with those passengers accordingly.

Garneau said he is considering what further penalties would apply if airlines do not live up to the new requirements.

He wants the new legislation in place in 2018.

Gabor Lukacs, an air passenger rights advocate, is skeptical that the transportation agency is equipped to handle any more duties as it relates to airlines.

A note posted on his Facebook page says the agency received more than 500 complaints a year from airline passengers over the last three years, but the agency’s enforcement actions dropped in that time.

In 2013-14 the agency acted in 230 cases, but in 2015-16 it was only 64.

Lukacs said passengers are better off taking complaints to

small claims court.

Garneau said new support will be provided to help the agency handle the increased workload.

The legislation increases the cap on foreign ownership of airlines to 49 per cent from 25 per cent. Garneau already made exceptions to this rule for some new, ultra-low-cost airlines trying to establish in Canada and the legislation will change it for all airlines, except for specialty air services such as fire fighting and heli-logging.

Under the new rules, single investors will not be allowed to hold more than 25 per cent of voting interests in a single carrier and no combination of international carriers can own more than 25 per cent, either alone or as part of an affiliation. ■

US: Syria is burning bodies to hide proof of mass killings

BY MATTHEW LEE AND VIVIAN SALAMA The Associated Press WASHINGTON — The United States accused Syria on Monday of executing thousands of imprisoned political opponents and burning their bodies in a crematorium to hide the evidence.

The allegation could test the Trump administration’s willingness to respond to atrocities, other than chemical weapons attacks, that it blames on President Bashar Assad’s government.

The allegation of mass killings came as President Donald Trump weighs options in Syria, where the U.S. launched cruise missiles on a government air base last month after accusing Assad’s military of killing scores of civilians with a sarin-like nerve agent. Trump on Monday kicked off a week of meetings with Middle East leaders, sitting down with the crown prince of Abu Dhabi a day before he hosts Turkey’s

president. Trump flies to Saudi Arabia later this week.

All are governments that have pressed the United States over six years of civil war in Syria to intervene more forcefully.

Trump had backed away from President Barack Obama’s calls for regime change in the Arab country, with the new president’s officials pointedly saying leadership questions should be left to Syria’s citizens, until his intervention last month. His administration now says Assad cannot bring long-term stability to Syria.

In its latest accusations of Syrian abuses, the State Department said it believed about 50 detainees each day are being hanged at Saydnaya military prison, about 45 minutes north of Damascus. Many of the bodies are then burned in the crematorium “to cover up the extent of mass murders taking place,” said Stuart Jones, the top U.S. diplomat for the Middle East, accusing Assad’s government of sinking “to a new level of depravity.”

The department released commercial satellite photographs showing what it described as a building in the prison complex that was modified to support the crematorium.

The photographs, taken over the course of several years, beginning in 2013, do not prove the building is a crematorium, but show construction consistent with such use.

The revelations echoed a February report by Amnesty International that said Syria’s military police hanged as many as 13,000 people in four years before carting out bodies by the truckload for burial in mass graves.

Although the State Department cast its unusual news conference as an effort to press Assad’s key backers, Russia and Iran, it also underscored Trump’s lack of a strategy for stopping Syria’s violence.

The war has killed as many as 400,000 people since 2011, contributed to Europe’s worst refugee crisis since World War II and enabled the Islamic State group to emerge as a global terwww.canadianinquirer.net

rorism threat.

Trump had been highly critical of Obama for failing to respond to earlier chemical weapons attacks in 2013 after setting a “red line” against such usage. After last month’s attack in northern Syria, Trump said the Syrians crossed “a lot of lines” for his administration. Beyond authorizing cruise missiles in response, however, he didn’t outline a strategy to eliminate the threat.

White House spokesman Sean Spicer on Monday reiterated the administration’s line that Syria’s future “should be decided by Syrians in a free credibly and transparent process.” But he called such a future “unimaginable” if Assad is propped up with help from the “seemingly unconditional support from Russia and Iran.” He didn’t outline how such a future might become imaginable.

Russia has shown no inclination to drop its support for Assad. It is now pushing the idea of “de-escalation zones” that would be designed to reduce violence, while not chal-

lenging Assad’s authority over almost all of Syria’s major cities.

State Department spokeswoman Heather Nauert said Secretary of State Rex Tillerson had been “firm and clear” in a meeting with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov last week that “Russia holds tremendous influence over Bashar al-Assad.”

A main point of that meeting “was telling Russia to use its power to rein in the regime,” she said. “Simply put, the killing, the devastation has gone on for far too long in Syria.”

Syrian human rights groups and opposition activists have long reported on mass killings inside Syrian prisons, though not on bodies being burned to cover up evidence.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights corroborated the U.S. accounts of mass killings but said it lacked sufficient information about the crematorium. ■ Associated Press writer Zeina Karam in Beirut contributed to this report.

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FRIDAY MAY 19, 2017

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20

World News

MAY 19, 2017

FRIDAY

North Korea: New long range missile can carry heavy nuke

BY FOSTER KLUG The Associated Press SEOUL, KOREA, REPUBLIC OF — North Korea on Monday boasted it successfully launched a new type of “medium long-range” ballistic rocket that can carry a heavy nuclear warhead, an escalation of its nuclear program that the U.N. Security Council warned could bring new sanctions on Pyongyang.

Outsiders saw a significant technological jump in the weekend test, with the rocket apparently flying higher and for a longer time than any other such previous missile.

Amid condemnation in Seoul, Tokyo, Washington and Moscow, a jubilant North Korean leader Kim Jong Un promised more nuclear and missile tests and warned that his country’s weapons could strike the U.S. mainland and Pacific holdings.

North Korean propaganda must be considered with wariness — Pyongyang has threatened for decades to reduce Seoul to a “sea of fire,” for instance — but Monday’s claim, if confirmed, would mark another big advance toward the North’s goal of fielding a nuclear-tipped missile capable of reaching the U.S. mainland. Some experts, including officials in Tokyo, estimated Sunday’s launch successfully tested a new type of missile, potentially the longestrange in North Korea’s arsenal.

The test is also an immediate challenge to South Korea’s new president, Moon Jae-in, a liberal elected last week who expressed a desire to reach out to North Korea. Pyongyang’s aggressive push to boost its weapons program also makes it one of the Trump administration’s most urgent foreign policy worries, though Washington has struggled to settle on a policy.

The U.N. Security Council late Monday expressed “utmost concern” at what it called North Korea’s “highly destabilizing behaviour and provocative defiance” of council resolutions demanding a halt to all nuclear-related tests. It again demanded that Pyongyang conduct no further nuclear or ballistic missile tests.

The press statement from the U.N.’s most powerful body said its 15 members agreed to “take

further significant measures including sanctions, in line with the council’s previously expressed determination.” It also vowed to fully implement the six sanctions resolutions previously adopted and urged all U.N. member nations to implement the measures “in an expeditious and serious manner.”

Council diplomats said the language was significant because China, North Korea’s strongest ally, signed on. The U.S. ambassador to the U.N., Nikki Haley, said on ABC television that the United States has been working well with China and raised the possibility that new sanctions against Sohae Satellite Launching Station. A rocket launching site in Cholsan County, North Korea could include oil North Pyongan Province, North Korea.

ASTRELOK / SHUTTERSTOCK.COM imports.

New sanctions were expected to be discussed at a closed coun- half hour and reached an un- systems in the world will never cil meeting Tuesday, the diplo- usually high altitude before become the eternal exclusive mats said, speaking on condi- landing in the Sea of Japan. property of the U.S.,” warning tion of anonymity because talks Several South Korean ana- that “the U.S. should not ... dishave been private. lysts, including Lee Illwoo, a regard or misjudge the reality North Korea’s official Korean Seoul-based commentator on that its mainland and Pacific Central News Agency called military issues, said the missile operation region are in (North the missile a “new ground-to- flew higher and for a longer pe- Korea’s) sighting range for ground medium long-range riod than any other the North strike.” strategic ballistic rocket,” and has ever test-fired. North KoThe launch complicates the said the “Hwasong-12” was “ca- rea has also launched satellites new South Korean president’s pable of carrying a large, heavy into orbit on long-range rock- plan to talk to the North, and nuclear warhead.” ets that share some of the same came as U.S., Japanese and EuKim witnessed the test and technology as missiles. ropean navies gather for joint “hugged officials war games in the in the field of Pacific. rocket research, “The presisaying that they dent expressed worked hard to As South Korea’s diplomatic situation deep regret achieve a great matures, North Korea should also over the fact thing,” according show a more mature attitude, not that this reckto KCNA. a childish one, and contribute to less provocaThe rocket, (establishing a better) diplomatic tion ... occurred “newly designed relationship. just days after a in a Koreannew government style,” flew 787 was launched in kilometres (490 South Korea,” miles) and reached a maximum North Korea is not thought senior presidential secretary altitude of 2,111 kilometres to be able yet to make a nucle- Yoon Young-chan said. “The (1,310 miles), the North said, ar warhead small enough to president said we are leaving and “verified the homing fea- mount on a long-range mis- open the possibility of diature of the warhead under the sile, though some outside ana- logue with North Korea, but we worst re-entry situation and lysts think it can arm shorter- should sternly deal with a provaccurate performance of deto- range missiles with warheads. ocation to prevent North Korea nation system.”

Each new nuclear and longer- from miscalculating.”

South Korea’s Defence Min- range missile test is part of the Moon, South Korea’s first libistry said more analysis was North’s attempt to build a nu- eral leader in nearly a decade, needed to verify the North’s clear-tipped intercontinental said as he took his oath of office claim on the rocket’s techno- ballistic missile. last week that he’d be willing to logical features. Spokesman Kim said North Korea would visit North Korea if the circumMoon Sang Gyun said it is still stage more nuclear and missile stances were right. unlikely that North Korea has tests in order to perfect nuclear In Seoul, some citizens exre-entry technology, which bombs needed to deal with U.S. pressed frustration. would return a warhead safely “nuclear blackmail.”

Kim Do-hoon, 31, said that back into the atmosphere.

State media paraphrased South Korea, while keeping the Japanese officials said Sun- North Korea’s leader as saying “door open for conversation” day that the missile flew for a that “the most perfect weapon with the North, should also www.canadianinquirer.net

“show a stern attitude at some level.”

“As South Korea’s diplomatic situation matures, North Korea should also show a more mature attitude, not a childish one, and contribute to (establishing a better) diplomatic relationship,” said Jin Hyo-seon, 33, a painter.

President Donald Trump’s administration has called North Korean ballistic and nuclear efforts unacceptable, but it has swung between threats of military action and offers to talk as it formulates a policy.

While Trump has said he’d be “honoured” to talk with leader Kim under favourable conditions, Haley seemed to rule out the possibility. “Having a missile test is not the way to sit down with the president, because he’s absolutely not going to do it,” she told ABC. The U.S. Pacific Command said Sunday’s test flight “is not consistent with an intercontinental ballistic missile.”

David Wright, co-director of the Global Security Program at the Union of Concerned Scientists, said the missile could have a range of 4,500 kilometres (about 2,800 miles) if flown on a standard, instead of lofted, trajectory — considerably longer than North Korea’s current missiles. He said Sunday’s launch — the seventh such firing by North Korea this year — may have been of a new mobile, two-stage liquid-fueled missile North Korea displayed in a huge April 15 military parade.

The White House, in a statement, said that North Korea has been “a flagrant menace for far too long.”

Russian President Vladimir Putin condemned the missile launch, telling reporters during a visit to China that “there’s nothing good about” it.

The launch came as troops from the U.S., Japan and two European nations gather near Guam for drills that are partly a message to North Korea. The USS Carl Vinson, an aircraft carrier, is also engaging with South Korean navy ships in waters off the Korean Peninsula, according to Seoul’s Defence Ministry. ■ Associated Press writers Hyungjin Kim in Seoul and Edith M. Lederer at the United Nations contributed to this report.

World News

FRIDAY MAY 19, 2017

21

Another crisis hits the White Leading neo Nazi House after intelligence story website courts new readers... in Spanish

BY JILL COLVIN AND CATHERINE LUCEY The Associated Press

WASHINGTON — Closed-door emergency meetings. Hallways packed with reporters. Statements rushed out, but few questions answered.

It’s become a familiar scenario in the crisis-prone Trump White House, where big news breaks fast and the aides paid to respond seem perpetually caught off-guard.

The Washington Post report Monday led to the latest feeding frenzy. The news that Trump revealed highly classified information to Russian officials in a meeting last week prompted another round of bizarre scenes, just days after Trump’s decision to fire FBI director James Comey sent his communications team into a tizzy.

They included a surprise encounter between reporters and Trump’s top national security adviser and an attempt to drown out conversations with a blaring television.

White House officials denied the story in several statements, including a 45-second on-camera statement delivered

by Trump’s national security adviser. But officials refused to answer specific questions, including what precisely the report had gotten wrong, ensuring it would dominate a week that White House officials hoped would be quiet in advance of the president’s first foreign trip.

Reporters started gathering in the hallway outside Press Secretary Sean Spicer’s office right after the Post story broke.

As the group grew to more than 20 people, press aides walked silently by as journalists asked for more information. Soon, three of the four TV channels being played in the press area were reporting the Post story.

At one point National Security Adviser H.R. McMaster, who would later deliver the televised denial, stumbled into the crowd of journalists as he walked through the West Wing.

“This is the last place in the world I wanted to be,” he said, nervously, as he was pushed for

BY MICHAEL KUNZELMAN The Associated Press

View of the White House in Washington DC. DIMITRA MERZIEMEKIDOU / SHUTTERSTOCK.COM

information. “I’m leaving. I’m leaving.”

Not long after, the press office sent a trio of short, written statements. Then Spicer briefly appeared to say McMaster would speak outside soon, prompting a mass exodus to a bank of microphones set up in the West Wing driveway.

“I was in the room, it didn’t happen,” McMaster told reporters after emerging.

“The president and the foreign minister reviewed a range of common threats to our two countries including threats to civil aviation,” McMaster said.

“At no time, at no time were intelligence sources or methods discussed and the president did not disclose any military operations that were not already publicly known.”

But what, precisely, had been misreported?

The Post cited current and former U.S. officials who said Trump had shared classified details with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and Russian Ambassador to the U.S. Sergey Kislyak. They said the information, which had been provided by a U.S. partner through an intelligencesharing arrangement, was considered so sensitive that details have been withheld from allies and tightly re-

stricted even within the U.S. government.

The Post story did not claim that Trump revealed any specific information about how the intelligence was gathered, as McMaster’s denial suggested.

Reporters immediately returned to Spicer’s office, hungry for answers.

As they huddled in a hallway, one eagle-eyed reporter for the conservative One America News Network spotted a handful of staffers, including Spicer and spokeswoman Sarah Huckabee Sanders, walking not far from Spicer’s office.

Soon after, faint, muffled sounds were heard coming from that direction.

It was unclear precisely where they were coming from or what they were — but after a reporter tweeted about the noise, White House staffers quickly turned up the volume on the office television, blaring a newscast loudly enough to drown out any other potential noise.

Around 7:30 p.m., Sanders emerged to announce that White House officials would not be answering any more questions for the evening.

“We’ve said all we’re going to say,” she said, asking reporters to clear the hallway.

They obliged. ■ www.canadianinquirer.net

engaging in an “extortion racket” against the mother of white nationalist Richard Spencer.

Anglin’s site takes its name HOW DOES a leading neo-Nazi from Der Sturmer, a newspaper website that has railed against that published Nazi propaganda.

Hispanic immigrants expand It includes sections called “Jewits audience beyond a loyal base ish Problem” and “Race War.” of U.S. white supremacists? By El Daily Stormer titles its anpublishing a Spanish-language ti-Semitic section “Judiadas,” edition, of course. an offensive term with roots in The Daily Stormer — infa- medieval Spain, where it was mous for orchestrating inter- invoked to justify genocidal atnet harassment campaigns tacks on Jews. by its “Troll Army” of readers The Spanish site also in— recently launched El Daily cludes appeals for donations Stormer as a “ news portal” tai- and unpaid articles, and a foloring its racist, anti-Semitic rum where people complain content for readers in Spain about Chile and Argentina filland Latin America. ing up with “negros,” referring Andrew Auernheimer, a no- to people from Peru, Bolivia, torious comParaguay. puter hacker Auernheimer, and internet known online troll who writes as “weev,” said a for the EnglishWe want our team of volunlanguage site, message teers is writing says the Spanto reach original content ish edition fits millions more for the Spanishtheir mission to people. language site. The spread Hitlerism site’s appeal for across the world. unpaid collabo“We want our rators says being message to reach a dissident “has millions more people,” he said never been a lucrative activity,” in a telephone interview. and that it’s looking for writers Hate sites have realized that “willing to risk everything for the the U.S. has no monopoly on survival of our race.” white nationalists and other “We have a big Spanishfar-right extremists, says Heidi speaking population on our Beirich, director of the South- forums, so it was an easy direcern Poverty Law Center’s In- tion to branch out into,” he said. telligence Project. Others, such About 40 per cent of The Daias Stormfront, already created ly Stormer’s 3.2 million unique multilingual forums. monthly visitors are in the U.S.; “The white supremacist the Spanish edition has added movement has really viewed fewer than 10,000 since its reitself as past borders, reaching cent launch, Auernheimer said. out to white people in other Surpassing Stormfront as the countries,” Beirich said. top U.S. hate site hasn’t been a The law centre represents financial boon for The Daily a Montana real estate agent Stormer, which calls itself “100 who sued The Daily Stormer’s per cent reader-supported.” founder, Andrew Anglin, last Anglin complained in January month for unleashing an anti- that a Ukrainian advertising Semitic “campaign of terror” company had banned them, against her family. leaving an Australian electriAnonymous trolls bombarded cian as the site’s only advertiser.

Tanya Gersh’s family with hate“We don’t have revenue comful and threatening messages mensurate with a publication of after Anglin published the fam- our size,” Auernheimer said. ■ ily’s personal information in a December post that accused Associated Press writer Mike Gersh and other Jewish resi- Warren in Atlanta contributed dents of Whitefish, Montana, of to this report.

22

Community News

MAY 19, 2017

FRIDAY

SSS opens bigger AlDub thanks Kapuso Abroad branches under for successful US shows new management THE BRANCH expansion of the Social Security System (SSS) continues under the new administration as it opened and upgraded 18 branches in just five months under the management of President and Chief Executive Officer Emmanuel F. Dooc.

“Along with the membership growth is the pension fund’s strong commitment of establishing higher standards in providing convenient and reliable services to all members and their beneficiaries,” Dooc said.

Since November 2016, the SSS opened three branches in Ilagan, Isabela; Ortigas Avenue, Quezon City; and Binondo, Manila. Meanwhile, four additional service offices were located in Robinsons Lipa, Robinsons Tacloban, Montalban Town Center and OneStop Government Center in San Fernando City, La Union.

“Accessibility is our top criterion in selecting location for new SSS branches since we want to bring our services closer to our transacting members. In fact, most of our branches are located either along major thoroughfares or within central business districts and shopping malls where public transportation is readily available,” Dooc added.

The new SSS management also relocated 11 SSS branches to bigger locations, namely; Novaliches, Masbate, Tacloban, Cauayan, Toril, Cainta, PasigPioneer, Bogo, Toledo, Kalibo, and Mandaluyong.

“With the increasing volume of transactions, it is imperative for us to upgrade our offices not only to improve the employees’ physical working condition but

also to create additional facilities for our clients such as members’ assistance desk, tellering services and physical examination center. This also shows our strict compliance with the ARTA or Anti-Red Tape Act provisions,” Dooc explained.

SSS commitment for 2017 is to put up 18 additional branches and service offices this year.

As of December 2016, the SSS has 167 branches all over the Philippines—48 in the National Capital Region (NCR), 61 branches in Visayas and 31 branches in Mindanao region.

Outside of the country, SSS has 20 foreign offices based in Brunei Darussalam, Hong Kong, Kaohsiung, Macau, Malaysia, Singapore, Taiwan, United Kingdom, Milan and Rome in Italy, Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Abu Dhabi and Dubai in United Arab Emirates (UAE), Al Khobar, Jeddah and Riyadh in Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA) and San Francisco, California. The following SSS offices were categorized as small, medium, and large based on the number of transactions, amount of collection and number of employer accounts.

As of December last year, there are 103 small, 44 medium and 20 large branch offices nationwide.

"We setup branch offices alongside the enhancement of our web-based facilities because based on our study, a significant number of our members still prefer face-to-face interaction. With our increased presence in cities or towns, we hope to encourage more of our workers to be an active member of SSS," said Dooc. ■

THOUSANDS OF Kapuso fans from various states in the US and Canada came out in full support to see the phenomenal AlDub love team of Alden Richards and Maine Mendoza during their US shows dubbed, “KS sa US” last April 9 and 12.

The events held at the Pasadena Civic Auditorium in California and at the Kings Theatre in New York were the first international shows headlined by Alden and Maine (Yaya Dub), popularly known as AlDub from Eat Bulaga’s Kalyeserye. They were joined by the comedic trio of Jose Manalo (Lola Tinidora), Wally Bayola (Lola Nidora), and Paolo Ballesteros (Lola Tidora).

As soon as Alden and Maine arrived at the airport, the US-based AlDub Nation and Dabarkads welcomed them with open arms. Their fans were very much excited to meet the cast from the hilarious Eat Bulaga segment that they followed dearly on TV. The shows were overflowing with laughter and kilig as the crazy gang entertained them with their spontaneous banters along with song and dance numbers. Members of AlDub Nation even came with banners and wore fan shirts to show their support to Alden and Maine.

The crowd was extremely satisfied with the shows’ outcome which were a hit to the Kapuso abroad of all ages.

Alden expressed his appreciation to the Kapuso fans abroad for supporting their show.

“Maraming, maraming salamat po sa lahat ng nakisaya sa amin sa Kalyeserye sa US. We really had fun, sana po ay napaligaya namin kayo sa pagbisita namin sa LA at New York. We love you,

Alden and Maine never failed to fill the night with laughter and kilig.

The main characters of Kalyeserye reunite in the US for a fun-filled night.

mga Kapuso Abroad,” Alden said.

Maine echoed the sentiment and encouraged the Kapuso abroad to watch out for Kalyeserye’s upcoming return.

“Abangan po nating lahat ang pagbabalik ng Kalyeserye, hindi po natin alam kung kailan pero sabay-sabay po tayong magulat.

Maraming salamat po ulit sa pagsuporta sa Kalyeserye at sa Kalyeserye sa US.” The KS sa US concert was made possible by GMA Pinoy TV, GMA’s flagship international channel, which served as the Exclusive Media Sponsor in cooperation with Happy Box

Productions.

Meanwhile, fans can see more of Alden and Maine on GMA Pinoy TV weeknights on their primetime series Destined to be Yours while Alden with Jose and Wally color their Sunday afternoons with Sunday PinaSaya. ■ Feel closer to home with the latest episodes of your favorite Kapuso programs even when abroad. For more updates on Kapuso events abroad, follow GMA Pinoy TV on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram (@gmapinoytv), and visit the GMA Pinoy TV official website at www.gmapinoytv.com.

Fil-Can reaches the PBA and shines TORONTO, ON — FilipinoCanadian Matthew Wright was only a PBA prospect last November. Philippine news outlets questioned if he was prepared for the PBA and if he had the potential to become a game changer on the team that acquired him. Now after being drafted, Wright has made a name for himself in the PBA.

Before landing with the PBA Phoenix Fuelmasters, his 2015-2016 season in the ABL was with the Westports Malaysia Dragons. He averaged 23 points, 4 rebounds, and 3 assists per game. Wright led the Westports Malaysia Dragons to the Finals winning the ABL Championship and receiving the ABL MVP award

honors.

Now after signing a 3-year, P8.5 M rookie max deal with the Phoenix Fuelmasters, Wright is proving to be a good choice for the basketball club. Only in his rookie year, Matthew Wright has already had notable highlights. In his debut game in the PBA he scored 14 points, he also was named PBA player of the www.canadianinquirer.net

week in the month of January, and he has also caught fire from outside the 3 point line nailing 5 threes in one game.

Wright also participated in the 2017 PBA All-star’s 3 point contest and in the PBA All-star games. During the PBA festivities Matthew came out as the PBA MVP twice: in Luzon scoring 15 points, and in Mindanao

scoring 22 points. Receiving these awards came at the right time for it also justified his presence on making the National Gilas Team set to compete in the upcoming months.

Filipino-Canadian Matthew Wright has just begun his career in the PBA and seems as if this Fil-Can is on the “Wright” path. ■

23

FRIDAY MAY 19, 2017

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24

MAY 19, 2017

FRIDAY

Entertainment Singer Ronnie Liang Ashley Graham is a woman with — a self-confessed curves but don’t say plus size mama’s boy

BY ALICIA RANCILIO The Associated Press

BY BAYANI SAN DIEGO JR Philippine Daily Inquirer SINGER-ACTOR RONNIE Liang is not ashamed to admit that he is a mama’s boy. Quite expectedly, he was inconsolable when his mother Adelina passed away last Feb. 26.

Ronnie, who was in Manila at the time, had to rush to a hospital in their hometown in Angeles, Pampanga, and watched with sadness while doctors tried to revive his mom, who had been suffering from pneumonia. “Everything was so sudden. She had just called me two days before and asked if I already had lunch and if I needed the laundry picked up. She told me that she had just seen my music video on TV.” Whenever he went home to Pampanga, his mom would whip up a feast for him. “She would cook my favorite dishes: sinigang, suam na mais and monggo soup.” She was caring and loving, says Ronnie, who is the youngest of seven siblings.

“My mom was the best. She endured all of life’s hardships without a single complaint,” he relates. “Even though she had gout, she took care of us.

She was selfless. She was very particular about cleaning our house.”

When he was a kid, Ronnie recalls, he caught his mom quietly praying and crying in her room after their landlord served them an eviction notice for nonpayment of rent.

The incident strengthened his resolve to “build a house” for his family someday. “That’s exactly what I did when I got my first paycheck in show biz.”

Throughout his journey in show business, his momserved as the sail and anchor of his ship—keeping him grounded, while pushing him to keep moving forward.

“My audition piece in ‘Pi-

noy Dream Academy’ was ‘You Raise Me Up,’ one of her favorite songs,” he shares with the Inquirer. “I believe she was one of the reasons I got in.”

Ronnie was among the runners-up in the talent tilt’s first season, which was topped by Yeng Constantino in 2006.

These days, he sometimes worries about his dad Rogelio.

“I can feel his longing for his wife. He misses her.”

Dad Rogelio is a man of few words, but Ronnie is encouraging him to open up. “It helps a lot.”

Ronnie confesses that coping hasn’t been easy for the entire clan. “Even though I’m in the process of healing, I have to move on. But I can’t help thinking of her, especially when I hear her favorite songs.”

The Viva artist recently recorded a cover of the song, “Iingatan Ka,” and released it online as a tribute to his mom.

In his shows, he usually dedicates the song “Salamat sa Iyo, Ina,” an original composition from his Academy days, to her.

His mom appeared as one of the talents in his old music video, “Beginning Today.” “I would watch the video whenever I missed her. I would also look at my childhood photos with her.”

Ronnie now keeps a notebook, where he jots down all his good memories with his parents.

Today, his first Mother’s Day without his mom, would be surely “different.” “I usually go home and celebrate with the family. This time, I will sing for other mothers, for a free concert today, 3 p.m., at Star Mall Alabang.”

The show is in honor of Ronnie’s mom and all the doting mothers in the world.

“My nanay had lived a good life. I know that she would always be happy and proud while watching and guiding us from heaven.” ■

NEW YORK — Ashley Graham may have curves, but she hates the term plus-size.

“Does any woman really just come in and say, ‘I’m a plus-size woman’? Maybe as a defence mechanism or maybe as a way to kind of cope with fitting into society but ... I just think it’s divisive. I think labeling and putting a name on women in certain categories because (of ) a (size) number inside of their pants isn’t really getting us any farther in life.”

She made it into the mainstream when she appeared on the cover of the Sports Illustrated Swimsuit 2016 issue.

That led to other opportunities, including the cover of Vogue magazine and a gig as a judge on “America’s Next Top Model.”

Now Graham has written a memoir, “A New Model: What Confidence, Beauty & Power Really Look Like” (Dey Street Books).

She talked about her role models, achievements and critics in a recent interview with The Associated Press.

JSTONE / SHUTTERSTOCK.COM

Siriano and Michael Kors, too, so it’s happening.

AP: You have a stylist and you know designers. Have any said they won’t dress you?

Graham: I haven’t experienced firsthand negative feelings of designers not dressing me because of my size, but if I did ... you’d hear about it.

(Laughs.)

AP: You also are a believer in vision boards, which are supposed to help people focus on specific life goals.

Graham: ViA s s o c i at e d sion boards are Press: You’re I’m happy with my body, nobody has so important. an advocate for dictatorship over who I am.

If it’s not even healthy body acan actual vision ceptance. How board up in your is the fashion inroom, then write dustry responddown what you ing? for all sizes. The beauty of be- want. There’s really something Graham: The fashion indus- ing a curvier girl is that we’re about getting it out and putting try is into it. (Laughs.) I think all shaped so differently. But (it on) paper or a corkboard or what’s really great is the fash- it’s sad because I really think whatever your thing is. I’m not ion industry has really said, there’s a lot of designers who do a DIY girl whatsoever. It’s really ‘You know what, we’re about go up to a size 22, 24 but buyers for me to be able to see someinclusion right now.’ We’ve had are not buying them because thing before I go to bed and the body era. We’ve had the waif they don’t think we’re gonna when I wake up in the morning era, now here we are in the in- come in and buy it. So, it’s a vi- to remember what I want, but clusivity era and it’s race, it’s cious cycle, and I don’t know also to say, you know what, let age, it’s gender, it’s size. where it starts and stops ... all I god’s will be done and hopefully AP: You’re known for your know is I’m talking about it and this works out. I had Sports Ilcurves but you’ve been criti- there are some designers who lustrated on there, I had Vogue cized for photos where it ap- have been very open. Prabal on there. It took me a couple pears that you’ve lost weight. Gurung is one who put curvy years for the whole vision board What do you say to that? girls on the runway. Christian to happen, but here we are. ■ www.canadianinquirer.net

Graham: My weight is going to go up and down but, also, nobody can dictate what I’m doing. I’m a true size 14, I’m happy with my body, nobody has dictatorship over who I am.

AP: You also write in your book about fashion and curvy girls and how hard it is to find great clothes in bigger sizes.

Graham: I don’t know who’s making those clothes. I’m ready to come out with a line of clothes that’s affordable, that’s

Entertainment

FRIDAY MAY 19, 2017

25

Conan jokes may have killed, but he stands accused of theft

BY BRIAN MELLEY The Associated Press LOS ANGELES — What do Caitlyn Jenner, Tom Brady and the Washington Monument have in common?

They’re all subjects of punchlines Conan O’Brien is accused of ripping off — and that’s no joke.

O’Brien lost an effort to toss out a federal copyright infringement lawsuit in San Diego last week, potentially setting up a novel trial over comic creativity and the value of laughter.

Robert Alexander Kaseberg said he posted several jokes online that the late-night comedian repeated almost verbatim later that day or the next on his “Conan” show on TBS. “The laughter stopped in late 2014 and early 2015, at least for a spell, when (Kaseberg) began to notice similarities between his posts and several of the jokes used in the late-night television show Conan’s monologues,” U.S. District Judge Janis Sammartino said in a ruling that allows the lawsuit to proceed.

Kaseberg has written for

various publications and had more than 1,000 of his jokes told by Jay Leno, an archrival of O’Brien.

The judge dismissed allegations over two jokes Kaseberg claimed were originals, but she allowed the lawsuit to go forward on three others, saying the law provides “thin copyright protection” for those.

“This is a victory for comedy writers, especially lesser known writers,” Kaseberg’s attorney Jayson Lorenzo said. “Their works are protected, and you can’t use someone else’s material, no matter who you are, without facing liability.”

One of Kaseberg’s jokes was about the New England Patriots’ 2015 Super Bowl victory that followed what was widely considered one of the worst coaching decisions in sports history by the Seattle Seahawks.

O’Brien’s monologue the next day included a very similar setup and punchline.

“Tom Brady said he wants to give the truck that he was given as Super Bowl MVP . . . to the guy who won the Super Bowl for the Patriots,” O’Brien said.

“So Brady’s giving his truck to Seahawks coach Pete Carroll.”

Another gag followed news that surveyors had found the Washington Monument was 10 inches shorter. Both men attributed it to cold weather and “shrinkage.”

Comedians have been accused of ripping off each other’s material as long as chickens have been crossing the proverbial road.

Milton Berle, dubbed the “Thief of Bad Gags,” even made light of it, saying of a fellow comic’s routine, “I laughed so hard I nearly dropped my pencil.”

While accusations of thefts fly, they don’t usually end up in court, said Dotan Oliar, a law professor at the University of Virginia.

After Joe Rogan accused Carlos Mencia of plagiarism onstage at the Comedy Store in Los Angeles in a confrontation captured on video, Oliar and a colleague wondered why such accusations didn’t lead to litigation.

They found that comedy doesn’t pay well — unless you’re someone like O’Brien with deep pockets and a production company and network behind him that can also be sued.

It’s difficult to prove someone

PH film scores triple victory abroad

BY BAYANI SAN DIEGO JR Philippine Daily Inquirer WHEN IT rains, it pours for Sally.

Avid Liongoren’s “Saving Sally” brought home top honors from two international film festivals, scoring a triple victory in the United States early this month.

The live-action-animated film bagged the special jury prize (in the international narrative competition) and the audience award (in the international narrative feature section) at the Los Angeles Asian Pacific Film Festival in California last May 4.

(Ramona Diaz’s “Motherland” also won the special jurypioneering director award in the international documentary feature category.)

Liongoren, who traveled to

the United States for the event, had mixed emotions about the unexpected victory. “It felt great, of course. But I was also slightly disappointed because I was in a meeting on the other side of the city during the awards ceremony.”

To make up for the letdown, he took photos with vehicles used in the series “Breaking Bad” and film “Ghostbusters” that were parked near the place where he had the meeting.

The LA screening “went quite well,” he recounted.

“At first, we weren’t sure if people would watch because we were scheduled on a Monday during rush hour. But viewers came and didn’t throw eggs at us and clapped, instead,” he recalled. “Many folks watched our film randomly, without knowing anything about it, so it’s nice to know how pleasantly

surprised they were.”

He was glad to garner another laurel for the film. “Pampalasa ng adobo. (To make my adobo more flavorful.)”

“Sally” also scored the Best Family Film plum at the Bentonville Film Festival in Arkansas last May 7.

Since the director-animator wasn’t able to fly to Arkansas, “Sally” screenwriter Charlene Sawit-Esguerra attended the Bentonville fest on his behalf.

Liongoren is ecstatic about the triple triumph, which is a “good reason to celebrate by wolfing down a giant chili hot dog and getting drunk on rootbeer.”

Seriously now. “We hope that these recognitions will increase our chances in bringing the film to a wider audience. Much work needs to be done, but every citation is an encouragement.” ■ www.canadianinquirer.net

LEV RADIN / SHUTTERSTOCK.COM

intentionally stole a joke or put a price on a punchline, he said.

Disputes are generally settled backstage — usually amicably.

Digital time stamps, however, may help the underdog. The lawsuit compares Kaseberg’s tweets and blog posts with the timing of emails from O’Brien’s writers later the same days.

“The problem used to be that if you’re not famous and someone else was telling your joke, they would think you ... are the thief instead of the victim,”

Oliar said. “Famous comedians could easily steal jokes with impunity. Now technology can help the novice comedian.”

The lawsuit names O’Brien, his production company, Turner Broadcasting System, Time Warner Inc., and the executive producer and head writer of the show.

They have denied the claims and said the material was original. Their lawyers didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment. ■

Rapper charged before for encouraging fans to rush the stage THE CANADIAN PRESS ROGERS, ARK. — Rapper Travis Scott’s recent arrest after a concert in Arkansas is not his first on accusations of encouraging fans to join him on stage.

Police in Rogers say the Houston-born musician, whose real name is Jacques Webster, was arrested Saturday night on charges of inciting a riot, disorderly conduct and endangering the welfare of a minor.

Police say Webster encour-

aged fans to bypass security and rush the stage, leaving a security guard, a police officer and several others injured.

The Associated Press has sought comment from Webster’s representatives.

Webster was sentenced to one year of court supervision after pleading guilty to reckless conduct charges stemming from a 2015 incident in Chicago at the Lollapalooza music festival. Chicago officials said Webster encouraged fans to vault security barricades. No one was injured. ■

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MAY 19, 2017

FRIDAY

Lifestyle How do you explore the over 300 pearl stores at Greenhills Shopping Center?

BY CATHY CAÑARES YAMSUAN Philippine Daily Inquirer WHEN SHE was in Manila for a concert in 2013, Rihanna took a side trip to the Greenhills Shopping Center (GSC) to buy South Sea pearl earrings and a necklace.

Vogue wrote about the pearl finds at Greenhills. People abroad are known to fly to Manila just for these gems. They are world-famous yet affordable.

The fun is in the search.

Pearls are jewels from the sea, and shoppers rightly treat their GSC forays as treasure hunts.

The aisles displaying curtains and cupboards of matineelength ropes of pearls could be daunting at first. GSC’s Lifestyle Center has more than 300 stores or “cabinets” spread out over more than 1,200 square meters that offer pearl rings, earrings, bracelets and chokers, also parures or matching sets in different colors and various price points.

Architect Renee Bacani, vice president and general manager of Ortigas and Company’s shopping centers division, advises pearl hunters to scout the grounds first and compare prices before zeroing on a target. And please, don’t forget to haggle.

The pearls are sourced from waters around Palawan and some parts of Mindanao.

Bestselling trinkets of colored and irregular-shapes pearls can go as low as P150.

Gold-plated bracelets with a

Lovers of fine jewelry will find freshwater pearls most affordable—a 16-inch string of immaculate white ones can be had for about P2,000. The more exotic tricolor rope of white, baby pink and lilac pearls can go for P15,000 to P20,000—which explains the haggling.

BROWNPAU / FLICKR

single pearl are a bargain at P500 each.

Lovers of fine jewelry will find freshwater pearls most affordable—a 16-inch string of immaculate white ones can be had for about P2,000. The more exotic tricolor rope of white, baby pink and lilac pearls can go for P15,000 to P20,000— which explains the haggling.

One store with pearl sets displayed under glass offers a P65,000 pair of white pearls in a diamond floral setting.

A pair of black pearl earrings surrounded by baguette and pave diamonds in an 18-karat gold setting goes for P170,000.

“Not only are pearls available at wide-ranging prices, the merchants and their vendors are also customer-friendly,” Bacani notes.

Indeed, there are vendors

who even refer to books tucked among their stocks to give a firsttime pearl buyer an orientation.

GSC has earned its laurels for the much-coveted salt water South Sea pearls. Merchants uniformly recite “deep sea” as the source of these luminescent gems that come in white, black (“Tahitian”), brown and champagne—a delicate and glowing yellow-orange tint.

There are so-called peacock pearls—black ones that flash an intriguing green tinge under a bright light.

There are also freshwater pearls that are injected with pastel hues to match the dress that awaits a special occasion, and the mysterious, irregularshaped baroque pearls whose uniqueness stands out when placed alongside smooth, rounded pearls. Those who pur-

www.canadianinquirer.net

chase strings of pearls need not fret about gold or silver settings.

There is at least one stall or cabinet that specializes in setting the gems in 14-karat or 18-karat gold, or even silver. Again, there is a selection of price points for every budget. The regular clientele of pearls at GSC has varied demographics—from actress Heart Evangelista, Senator Grace Poe to Imelda Marcos, Korina Sanchez or Annabelle Rama. Wives of visiting heads of state and contestants of the recent Miss Universe pageant also go there. Queen Sofia of Spain came in 2012. Insiders recall David Emanuel, the Welsh designer of Princess Diana’s wedding gown, among the international fashion designers who went to check out the pearls. It’s common to come across vendors who are not only knowledgeable

about their wares, but who also would readily give away their business cards lest the customer forget about their “best price” offer.

GSC regularly reassigns the stall locations of the merchants, so customers should not panic when they return and see a store occupied by another pearl trader. This is what the the business cards are for.

Bacani said GSC made a conscious decision to create a hub for the pearl merchants as “the number of traders engaged in the business increased.”

There were initially less than 10 pearl traders who joined the GSC tiangge that is also known for home décor, apparel and accessories. Those who did well eventually invited relatives to trade in pearls.

Bacani described the pearl trade in GSC as a “lucrative” business. “Some were only peddlers before, but nowthey own houses. There was a complete turnaround in their lifestyle.”

The pearl merchants are getting ready for Mother’s Day on May 14. OnMay 13 at 4 p.m., GSC will have an informal lecture, “Pearls 101: How to Make Jewelry.” Cecilia Ramos, chair of the Meycauayan Jewelry Industry Association Inc. (MJIA), will talk on how to care for pearls and discuss the varied types of pearls as a special Mother’s Day offering.

Bacani noted that pearls offered at GSC have always been a “desired choice” for Mother’s Day “because they are classic, look elegant, affordable and [come in] different varieties.” ■

Lifestyle

FRIDAY MAY 12, 2017

27

Chinese spent $24B on US, other ‘golden visas’

BY NOMAAN MERCHANT The Associated Press BEIJING — When the sister of President Donald Trump’s sonin-law Jared Kushner promoted investment in her family’s new skyscraper from a Beijing hotel ballroom stage earlier this month, she was pitching a controversial American visa program that’s proven irresistible to tens of thousands of Chinese.

More than 100,000 Chinese have poured at least $24 billion in the last decade into “golden visa” programs across the world that offer residence in exchange for investment, an Associated Press analysis has found. Nowhere is Chinese demand greater than in the United States, which has taken in at least $7.7 billion and issued more than 40,000 visas to Chinese investors and their families in the past decade, the AP found.

The Chinese investors flocking to these programs are people like Jenny Liu, a doctoral student in the eastern city of Nanjing, who sold her apartment two years ago and moved in with her parents. She used the money from the sale to invest $500,000 in a hotel project in the United States. If the project creates enough jobs in two years, she’ll get a prized “green card” and a pathway for a less stressful education for her 9-year-old son.

“My son has a lot of homework to do every day, but I don’t think he has learned a lot from school,” Liu said. “I hope he can actually pick up some useful knowledge or skills rather than only learn how to pass tests.”

The flood of investors reflects how China’s rise has catapulted tens of millions of families into the middle class. But at the same time, it shows how these families are increasingly becoming restless as cities remain choked by smog, home prices multiply and schools impose ever-greater pressure on children. They also feel insecure about being able to protect their property and savings.

Their money goes toward government bonds, businesses, mountain ski resorts, new schools and real estate projects, including a Trump-branded tower in New Jersey built by the Kushner Companies, once run

by Jared Kushner, now a White

House senior adviser. But the industry is murky, loosely regulated and sometimes fraud-ridden — in the U.S., federal regulators have linked the EB-5 visa program to fraud cases involving more than $1 billion in investment in the last four years.

Despite criticism from Congress, Trump signed a spending bill that included a renewal of the program through September, although federal authorities have proposed more than doubling the minimum investment.

Just one day later, Kushner’s sister, Nicole Meyer, was in Beijing courting Chinese for a new project funded by EB-5. That’s raised complaints about conflicts of interest and new calls to revise or even end the program.

“It is a growing industry and we do need more oversight,” said Stephen Yale-Loehr, an expert on the program and a professor at Cornell Law School.

“EB-5, when it is done properly, can and does benefit the economy.”

The lure of a golden visa

The number of Chinese using investment migration programs worldwide tripled between 2010 and 2015, the AP found among the countries in its survey. In the last decade, Chinese have taken 75 per cent of the investor visas issued by the United States, 70 per cent for Portugal and 85 per cent for Australia. China also remains the top recipient of investor visas in Canada, the United Kingdom, New Zealand, Spain, Hungary and Malta.

To be sure, those migrating make up only a small fraction of the around 18 million households that could be considered upper-middle-class or wealthier in China, but they echo the laments of many better-educated, urban Chinese.

“Middle-class investors’ choosing to leave shows that their confidence in their future, their dreams and the regime in China is fading,” said Zhang Lifan, an independent political scholar in Beijing.

China’s “golden visa” investors are part of a wave characterized not by poverty, persecution or war, but by people with steady jobs and homes who are pursuing happiness that’s eluded them in their homeland.

After decades of economic mismanagement and political

In the last decade, Chinese have taken 75 per cent of the investor visas issued by the United States, 70 per cent for Portugal and 85 per cent for Australia.

upheaval, the ruling Communist Party reversed some of its most destructive policies and unleashed a four-decade-long economic boom in the 1970s. That growth lifted 500 million people out of poverty and vaulted generations of Chinese from peasantry into relatively well-paying manufacturing or service jobs.

More than 3 million households in China now have an income of more than $34,000 a year, according to the consultancy McKinsey & Company.

Key to their spending power is China’s real estate boom. Real estate prices in China’s largest cities have more than tripled in the last decade, with prices in Beijing rising by an average of 25 per cent a year during that time. Since late 2015 alone, Beijing’s home prices have jumped 63 per cent, making a 1,300 square-foot (120 square-meter) apartment worth more than $1 million.

A family that gained ownership of an ordinary apartment more than a decade ago can now sell it for the price of a “golden visa.” And as their dissatisfaction with China’s problems grows, more families are choosing to do so.

Like Liu, many of about a dozen investors or prospective investors interviewed by the AP say they don’t want their children to struggle in China’s rigid and intensely competitive education system, which emphasizes rote learning and can stifle creativity.

Cherry Deng, the mother of a 10-year-old boy in Sichuan province, invested in a port construction project in North Carolina through the U.S. EB-5 program. Deng, who used funds from her car dealership business, said she wants her son to www.canadianinquirer.net

learn from the American emphasis on self-reliance. Deng said she sees Chinese parents supporting their children even after they’ve graduated from college — securing for them homes, jobs and, sometimes, even spouses.

“I don’t want to take care of my children forever,” Deng said. “I want them to learn how to live independently and to create wealth on their own.”

Urban Chinese have also been disgusted by scandals ranging from tainted baby formula to toxic running tracks, and alarmed that even the most prosperous cities are not safe from deadly factory explosions and other man-made disasters.

Despite her success running an online clothing business in the southwestern Chinese city of Chengdu, Peng Jie isn’t confident in her future in China. She sees the prices of property and schools rising and the value of the yuan falling, and fears that success could be taken away.

“In China, we have family and friends, and daily life is convenient,” Peng said. But, she added, “someone in the middle class can become poor in one second.”

Wooing Chinese investors

China is central to the success of almost every major investment migration program in the world, so many countries are going out of their way to court Chinese investors.

Ads for investment programs pop up on Chinese cellphones and websites, full of promise and intrigue. In crowded hotel ballrooms, foreign officials with pamphlets and flashy presentations tout the same message: Start a new life in a country with better education, clean

air and a stable future.

Agents selling U.S. projects to Chinese take great pains to prove their expertise on the states, the EB-5 program and perceived ties to American leaders. Some marketing materials include photos of Chinese posing with former President Barack Obama.

Now, they’re competing directly against the current president’s relatives.

Meyer, Kushner’s sister, appeared this month at events in Beijing and Shanghai to promote One Journal Square, a New Jersey tower project planned by the Kushner family that would be partially funded through EB-5 investment. The presentation included a photo of Trump and vague promises that the project had “government support” and was “founded by celebrity developers.” The company later apologized for any implication that her brother was supporting the project, and Meyer pulled out of a presentation to Chinese investors scheduled for this past weekend.

Trump’s name already appears on another New Jersey residential tower, Trump Bay Street, built with the help of EB-5 funding. And one month before the November election, an ad appeared on a Chinese website catering to foreigners seeking a “white American to join our team” for a new project: “A 200 million dollar hotel developed by The Trump Organization in Austin.” A brochure posted online described Trump as the “king of real estate” and included a photo of him giving a speech.

White House press secretary Sean Spicer this month said Kushner would follow government policies on potential conflicts of interest, and that Trump and Congress would review “all the various visa programs and whether or not they are serving the purpose that they were intended to.”

The AP obtained data from officials in 13 countries on how many Chinese have used their investor programs since 2007.

To estimate money spent, the AP multiplied the numbers of Chinese investors in each country by the minimum investment required, making the figures an undercount.

The market leader is the ❱❱ PAGE 28 Chinese spent

28

Lifestyle

MAY 12, 2017

FRIDAY

Chinese spent...

United States’ EB-5 program, which gives green cards to anyone who invests $500,000 in a business that creates or saves at least 10 jobs. Several others market themselves as cheaper or quicker alternatives.

Portugal has drawn at least $1.7 billion over four years from Chinese investors willing to buy property to support its faltering real estate market. Spain and Greece offer similar programs.

Chinese have bought the most visas in all three countries.

Five Caribbean nations offer passports for as little as $100,000. Chinese are the top buyers in Antigua and Barbuda, according to government statistics.

Australia goes the more expensive route, requiring an investment of 5 million Australian dollars (nearly $3.7 million). Despite a price nearly eight times as high as the EB-5 program, Australia is estimated to have attracted more than $6 billion in Chinese investment in just four years.

But problems in the industry worldwide are rife. ❰❰ 27

JSTONE / SHUTTERSTOCK.COM

Don’t call me Caitlyn: Baby name plunges in popularity

BY STEPHEN OHLEMACHER The Associated Press WASHINGTON — Don’t call me Caitlyn.

A year after Caitlyn Jenner announced her new name and gender, the popularity of the name Caitlyn plummeted more than any other baby name, according to Social Security’s annual list of the most popular baby names.

In fact, the four names that dropped the most were all variations of the same name: Caitlin, Caitlyn, Katelynn and Kaitlynn.

“It was inevitable,” said Laura Wattenberg, founder of BabynameWizard.com. “Caitlyn was already falling in popularity.

Now it is suddenly controversial.”

The Social Security Administration released its annual list of the 1,000 most popular baby names for 2016 on Friday. The agency uses the announcement to drive traffic to its website, where workers can start tracking their benefits long before they retire.

Emma was the top baby name for girls for the third year in a row. It was followed by Olivia, Ava, Sophia and Isabella.

Noah was the top baby name for boys for the fourth year in a row. It was followed by Liam, William, Mason and James.

The agency also lists the baby names that increase — and decrease — the most in popularity.

All four versions of Caitlyn fell out of the top 1,000.

In 2015, the former Bruce

Jenner, an Olympic gold medallist , shocked the world when she announced that she is now a transgender woman. The iconic cover of Vanity Fair magazine was emblazoned with the quote, “Call me Caitlyn,” on top of a picture of a very feminine Jenner.

The issue sparked much debate and an outpouring of support for Jenner in a country that is still evolving in its views of gay marriage and equal rights for the LGBT community.

The first time any spelling of Caitlin showed up on Social Security’s list of popular baby names was in 1976 when Caitlin debuted at No. 947.

C-a-i-t-l-i-n has been the most common spelling. The name reached the height of its popularity in 1988, when it ranked No. 44. After 17 years in the top 100 it started to fall after the turn of the century.

Last year, it fell 542 spots — the biggest drop of any name — to No. 1,151.

Wattenberg said it would be wrong to blame Caitlyn’s drop in popularity solely to the fact that Jenner is transgender. In general, she said, parents don’t want to give their children names that might attract controversy.

It’s one reason few parents name their children after politicians.

“Even parents who are huge Donald Trump supporters are unlikely to name their child Donald,” Wattenberg said. “In part, we just want to avoid controversy in picking names.” ❱❱ PAGE 30 Don’t call

Fraught with risk

The U.S.’s EB-5 program has been heavily criticized by government watchdogs and targeted by lawmakers of both parties in Congress, who say it promotes fraud and helps developers building megaprojects more than struggling communities. Sen. Dianne Feinstein, a California Democrat who has introduced legislation to end the program, has called EB-5 a “Ponzi scheme.” Her Republican counterpart, Sen. Charles Grassley of Iowa, has said EB-5 “poses significant national security risks” and “may be facilitating terrorist travel, economic espionage, money laundering and investment fraud.”

Federal investigators said in April they found that at least three Chinese investors who obtained green cards through the program were fugitives wanted by Beijing. And the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission has opened more than a dozen civil cases since 2013 alleging fraud in projects involving around 2,000 investors and more than $1 billion in funds.

Defenders of the EB-5 program say it creates jobs and provides vital funding for projects across the United States, www.canadianinquirer.net

from massive developments in New York to hotels, restaurants and small businesses in the Midwest and on the West Coast.

“That’s the program working as it should, and more often than not, it is working as it should,” said Matthew Galati, a Philadelphia-based attorney who helps Chinese investors migrate to the U.S. Canada’s program drew an estimated $2.4 billion through Chinese investors over the past decade, but the national government ended it in 2014, saying that it “significantly undervalued” Canadian residency and created little economic benefit. The province of Quebec has kept in place its separate program, which has drawn at least $1.9 billion from Chinese investment.

And a former Portuguese interior minister and other senior government officials have been on trial since February for corruption, influence-peddling and misconduct in handling “golden visa” applications of investors linked to three Chinese businessmen. Hungary suspended its program selling visas for government bonds earlier this year after opposition parties and watchdogs accused it of corruption.

Ironically, calls to end investment migration programs often end up as marketing tools for the hundreds of agents selling them in China. One agent made note of proposals to change the EB-5 program by saying, “Do not hesitate, and act quickly!”

Du Juan attended a seminar in Beijing held by an investment group pitching ski resorts and other projects. She knows the potential danger of investing through the U.S. program, but she’s willing to bear the risk as long as she can get her 10-year-old daughter enrolled soon in an American school.

“I don’t worry about the $500,000, but I worry about the loss of time,” Du said. “I am afraid that we’ll be unable to get the visa when we need it.”

Slowing the flow

There are signs that China is trying to slow down the migration. These investors are among the category of people China hopes will buy its domestically made rice cookers, electric cars and energy-saving light bulbs to fuel a new chapter of consumer-led growth. Re-

search by McKinsey shows that the upper-middle class already accounts for a fifth of China’s private consumption in cities.

Articles critical of investment visa programs have appeared in China’s state media, often highlighting fraud cases or stories of Chinese who faced trouble after going abroad. China has also tightened controls on how much money individuals and companies can move out of the country as part of broader efforts to stop the currency from further weakening.

Banks are expected to enforce more strictly the yearly limit of $50,000 that individuals are allowed to take out of the country, and will be required to report any transfers above $10,000. Still, Chinese have typically worked around such controls by slowly moving money or using friends and family members to help them amass an overseas account.

If China, which doesn’t recognize dual nationality, can’t keep entrepreneurs and middle-class families from leaving, it risks endangering its economic future.

That includes people like Joey, a 30-year-old Beijing resident who works for a major Chinese state-owned conglomerate. He shared his story on the condition that his last name not be used because he hadn’t told his employer of his plans.

Joey and his fiancee have a two-bedroom apartment and plan to get married and have a child in China. Despite their seemingly bright future, they want to raise that child elsewhere. His friends and relatives helped him move enough money offshore to invest in the American EB-5 program.

Joey says he’s seen parents and children struggling to breathe outside in China’s smoggy air, and signs that China’s economy is headed for deeper trouble.

“In China, you have to plan ahead,” Joey said. “You cannot just leave today, whenever you want. You never know what happens next.” ■ Associated Press researchers Liu Zheng and Yu Bing in Beijing and Fu Ting in Shanghai, and reporters Pablo Gorondi in Budapest, Hungary, and Barry Hatton in Lisbon, Portugal, and data journalist Larry Fenn in New York contributed to this report.

29

FRIDAY MAY 19, 2017

Sports PH Gilas clobbers Malaysia by 51 points

BY CEDELF P. TUPAS Philippine Daily Inquirer WITH KAI Sotto showcasing his ever-improving game, Batang Gilas got its Southeast Asian Basketball Association (Seaba) Under-16 Championships campaign off to a rousing start by demolishing Singapore, 108-42, on Sunday at Smart Araneta Coliseum.

Tipped as a future star of the national team, Sotto, who at 15

is already an inch taller than 6-foot-10 June Mar Fajardo, fired 17 points and grabbed five rebounds to lead Batang Gilas to victory on the first day of the tournament it was expected to dominate.

Rence Padrigao also sparkled with 14 points and six assists for Batang Gilas, which opened the game with a 9-0 run and never looked back.

“The players were still feeling each other out, but fortunately they recovered right

away and focused on defense,” said PH coach Mike Oliver, whose squad guns for its second win against Indonesia at noon on Monday.

“Defensively, we’re there, but the offense needs work because we are still disorganized. But the important thing is following the game plan which is to stay aggressive.”

There was plenty of hype surrounding Sotto and rightly so because of his towering frame. Sotto said he’s ready to

mix it up with other big men in the tournament despite his lean frame.

“I’m expecting the physical play,” said the Ateneo standout, named Rookie of the Year in the UAAP juniors.

“I think that’s the first thing that coachwill say every timeother players defend me. But I have teammates who help me and give me confidence, which makes my job easier onthe court.”

Oliver said Batang Gilas is

expecting tougher resistance from Indonesia, which has quicker and defensively sound players.

PHILIPPINES 108—Sotto 17, Padrigao 14, Fortea 14, Go 11, Guadana 9, Pascual 9, Calimag 9, Lazaro 7, Lina 6, Cortez 6, Chiu 4, Tan 2.

SINGAPORE 42—Teo TL 9, Tor 9, Li 4, Amado 4, Teo ZM 4, Chuabio 4, Chin 4, Soh 2, Tan 2, Lacsado 0, Razali 0, Lim 0.

Quarters: 33-12, 56-26, 84-35, 108-42 ■

Sharapova’s popularity doesn’t earn a French Open wild card

BY JEROME PUGMIRE The Associated Press PARIS — Maria Sharapova’s popularity and past success did not earn her the wild-card invitation she needed to get into the French Open after serving a 15-month doping ban.

“I’m very sorry for Maria, very sorry for her fans. They might be disappointed; she might be very disappointed,” French Tennis Federation president Bernard Giudicelli said Tuesday in a live broadcast via Facebook. “But it’s my responsibility, it’s my mission, to protect the game and protect the high standards of the game.”

Giudicelli said he personally told Sharapova of his ruling during a phone call on Tuesday.

The French Open begins May 28.

Three other tournaments, including the Italian Open this week, have given her wild cards since her suspension ended last month.

“While there can be a wild card for return from injury, there can’t be a wild card for return from doping,” Giudicelli said.

A tournament may grant a wild card to any eligible player.

WTA CEO Steve Simon said he disagreed with the French fed-

eration’s reasoning.

“She has complied with the sanction imposed,” Simon said in a statement emailed to The Associated Press. “There are no grounds for any member of the (tennis anti-doping program) to penalize any player beyond the sanctions set forth in the final decision resolving these matters.”

Sharapova did not comment on Tuesday’s announcement.

She skipped a news conference after pulling out of a secondround match in Rome on Tuesday because of a left thigh injury.

She is a two-time champion at Roland Garros, the owner of a total of five major titles, a former No. 1-ranked player and one of the world’s most recognizable athletes. She returned to the WTA tour last month after testing positive for the newly banned heart drug meldonium at the Australian Open in January 2016.

Giudicelli acknowledged that plenty of fans would have wanted to see Sharapova play in Paris, where the French Open starts May 28.

“I read the results of several polls and I could see that about two-thirds were in favour of Maria being granted a wild card. Of course I felt some pressure,” he said. “We did not want

to treat Maria Sharapova differently.”

He felt that offering Sharapova a short cut into the main draw would send the wrong message in the fight against doping in sports.

“I know that a lot of people might be disappointed by this decision,” he said. “But nevertheless Roland Garros invests a lot — along with the other Grand Slams, the ATP, and the WTA — into the fight against doping. It was inconceivable to take a decision that would have been the opposite of this.”

Sharapova, who has titles at all four majors, won at Roland Garros in 2012 and 2014.

Thanks to results via wildcard entries at her first two tournaments, she lifted her world ranking to outside the top 200 this week. But that wasn’t good enough to make the cut even for the qualifying field at Roland Garros, so she will miss the tournament for a second straight year.

Sharapova initially was given a two-year suspension after testing positive for the banned heart drug meldonium at last year’s Australian Open.

The Court of Arbitration for Sport reduced the ban on appeal, ruling she bore “less than significant fault” in the case and she could not “be www.canadianinquirer.net

LEONARD ZHUKOVSKY / SHUTTERSTOCK.COM

considered to be an intentional doper.” Sharapova had been taking meldonium for many years, but overlooked announcements by WADA that it added the drug to its banned list on Jan. 1, 2016.

“The Court of Arbitration reduced her suspension but also recognized that Maria was the sole person responsible for her misfortune,” Giudicelli said.

“It’s not down to me to question that decision and, I repeat, we must respect decisions that were taken.”

Top-ranked players Angelique Kerber and Andy Murray spoke out against Sharapova receiving wild cards, while Eugenie Bouchard openly called

her a “cheater” who should be banned for life.

Many players believed Sharapova should have had to start in bottom-rung tournaments to improve her ranking, rather than receive free passes into events on the main tour.

She was given wild cards at Stuttgart and Madrid before the Italian Open this week. She was a past champion at all three.

“Must be tough for her, but it’s the way it is,” Novak Djokovic said in Rome about the French Open ruling. “In some tournaments, she’s going to get that help in wild card and invitation; some not. Unfortunately, it’s (a) Grand Slam, which is, for sure, for her, a big one.” ■

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MAY 19, 2017

FRIDAY

Business Vacant store space hounds Metro malls

BY DORIS DUMLAOABADILLA Philippine Daily Inquirer VACANCY RATES among shopping malls in Metro Manila are rising, while rental rates are growing at a slower pace in the face of cutthroat competition, according to property consulting company Colliers Philippines. The malls display “diminishing uniqueness’’ in having “practically the same retailer tenants,’’ said Colliers research manager Joey Roi Bondoc. @Philbizwatcher Vacancy rates are rising and rental rates are growing at a slower pace among shopping malls in Metro Manila amid cutthroat competition, according to the latest research by property consulting company Colliers Philippines.

“We believe that developers need to gear toward a more lifestyle-oriented tenant mix to survive in a highly competitive retail landscape,” Colliers research manager Joey Roi Bondoc said in a research note.

In a briefing on Thursday, Bondoc said shopping malls displayed “diminishing unique-

ness” in having “practically the same retailer tenants.”

A good mix of tenants “is necessary to attract more mallgoers,” he said.

Bondoc said vacancy rates were rising across all mall formats, while most “regional” or large shopping malls in the country still enjoyed almost full occupancy at 97-99 percent. Due to uptick in vacancy in smaller malls, average vacancy spiked to about 7 percent, he said.

‘Fast fashion’ retailers

In the first quarter of 2017, Colliers noted a marginal rise in average vacancy rate to 7.3 percent from 7 percent among shopping malls in Metro Manila recorded in its last survey in the third quarter of 2016.

With new malls, Bondoc said the average vacancy rate could rise to 11 percent but might drop to 8-9 percent as food and beverage and “fast fashion” retailers absorb the additional space.

Colliers projected about 500,000 square meters of leasable space would be completed in the metropolis this year, 48 percent more than last year.

ROYKABANLIT / WIKIMEDIA COMMONS

Most of the new malls were expected to be built in towns in Metro Manila.

Smaller neighborhood and district malls will continue to post higher vacancy rates than “regional” and “superregional” malls, according to Bondoc.

Colliers saw rental rates in the Makati central business district and Ortigas Center to grow by only 2-3 percent, respectively, in the next 12 months, down from last year’s average of 5-6 percent.

Brand challenge

Aside from the growing number of shopping malls, Bondoc said another factor accounting for the rise in vacancy was

Don’t call...

For the record, Donald fell 45 spots last year, to No. 488.

Hillary fell out of the top 1,000 names in 2009 and has not returned.

The Social Security Administration’s website provides lists of the top 1,000 baby names for each year, dating to 1880. The top baby names that year were John and Mary. John is now No. 28 and Mary has fallen to No. 127.

Sometimes old is new: Emma was the third most popular name in 1880.

The top 10 baby names for girls stayed the same in 2016, though the order shuffled a bit.

For boys, Alexander dropped to No. 11 and Elijah cracked the top 10 for the first time ever, at ❰❰ 28

the challenging environment for some international fashion brands.

For instance, some US fashion brands such as Aeropostale and Payless, which have local franchisees, have filed for bankruptcy and shut some of their stores, he said. Their local distributors, however, have assumed that Philippine operations would continue.

In 2016, Colliers reported that about 340,000 square meters of gross leasable area in shopping malls were completed, more than triple the 2015 figure.

The increase in space coupled with the closure of a number of high-end retail shops led

to an overall rise in vacancy in Metro Manila.

“Developers should futureproof their businesses by cashing in on the increasing popularity of online shopping and being more aggressive in acquiring logistics and warehousing businesses so as to implement last-mile deliveries,” Bondoc said.

Online retail shops should be easy to navigate and offer wideranging payment solutions, he said.

In February, the Ayala group bought 49 percent of Zalora Philippines, while the SM Group acquired a 34.5-percent stake in logistics provider 2GO Group Inc. Recently, JG Summit invested $25 million in Singapore-based Sea Ltd., which focuses on ecommerce in Southeast Asia.

“Given the millennials’ rising contribution to demand, we encourage developers to apportion coworking space in their malls,” he added, referring to flexible office space that could be rented out for a day or a month.

Such arrangement is seen suitable for start-up companies. ■

Remittances hit recordNo. 9.

Baby naming experts said parents have long used biblical names for their children. However, there has been a decided shift from the New Testament to the Old. “Elijah to our grandparents would be unimaginable,” Wattenberg said.

Also, parents are getting more creative in naming the little ones. As a result, today’s top names aren’t nearly as popular as the top names from 50 years ago.

For example, a little more than 19,000 baby boys were named Noah last year. In 1966, about 80,000 babies were named Michael, the top name for baby boys that year.

“Once parents see that a

name is super popular, they are going to start avoiding it,” said Jennifer Moss, founder of Babynames.com.

Pop culture often influences the names that increase and decrease in popularity, and it happened again 2016.

For boys, the named that skyrocketed in popularity was Kylo, as in Kylo Ren, a character in the 2015 movie, “Star Wars: The Force Awakens.” For girls, it was Kehlani, as in Kehlani Parrish, a singer and songwriter nominated for a Grammy in 2016.

Neither of these names is among the most popular, but they jumped more spots than any other names. Kylo jumped 2,368 spots to No. 901. Kehlani jumped 2,487 spots to No. 872. ■ www.canadianinquirer.net

high of USD7.7-B in Q1 2017

BY KRIS M. CRISMUNDO Philippines News Agency MANILA — Remittances from Overseas Filipinos (OFs)hit a record high of 7.7 billion in the first quarter of the year, up 8.1 percent from USD 7.1 billion in the same period last year, Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas Governor Amando Tetangco Jr. reported Monday.

Tetangco said a 10.5 percent growth in remittances from land-based workers with contracts of one year or more pulled the 2.0 percent decline in transfers from land-based and sea-based workers with

contracts of below 12 months.

For the month of March alone, personal remittances from OFs recorded the highest growth in the first three months of year at 11.8 percent.

Remittances in March 2017 increased to USD2.9 billion from USD2.6 billion last year.

Land-based workers’ remittances rose 12.8 percent in March 2017 to USD2.1 billion while transfers from sea-based OFs grew 3.4 percent to USD500 million.

Biggest source of remittances for March was United States, followed by Canada, United Arab Emirates, Japan, and Hong Kong. ■

Business

FRIDAY MAY 12, 2017

31

Monday morning blues as ‘WannaCry’ hits at workweek’s start

BY YURI KAGEYAMA AND LOUISE WATT The Associated Press

More North American CEOs parting ways under a cloud: Study says THE ASSOCIATED PRESS LONDON — A new study on business leaders has found that CEOs in North America are increasingly being turfed for socalled “ethical lapses.”

Price Waterhouse Cooper’s consulting branch has released its annual “CEO Success study,” which says there has been an increase in CEOs in the U.S. and Canada leaving their position due to scandal or improper conduct.

The study, which looks at the world’s 2,500 largest companies, found that ethical lapses were responsible for 1.6 per cent of all CEO turnovers in the U.S. and Canada between 2007 and 2011, but that number shot up to 3.3 per cent between 2012 and 2016.

It found that despite the increase, companies in the U.S. and Canada still had the lowest rates of firing a boss for an ethical lapse.

Around the globe, the turnover rate for such offences went from 3.9 per cent between 2007 and 2011 to 5.3 per cent between 2012 and 2016.

An “ethical lapse” was defined as a scandal or improper conduct by the CEO or other employees, including fraud, bribery, insider trading, environmental disasters and sexual

indiscretions.

Per-Ola Karlsson, with Price Waterhouse Cooper’s, said some potential reasons for the uptick include the increased use of email, text messaging and social media, the public’s declining trust in big corporate leaders, and governments implementing new zero-tolerance legislation and regulations.

Bigger companies are more likely to force out a CEO over an ethical lapse, the study said.

That may have a positive effect on public opinion over time, showing that bad behaviour is punished,said DeAnne Aguirre, a principal with Price Waterhouse Cooper U.S. “In the meantime, CEOs need to lead by example on a personal and organizational level and strive to build and maintain a true culture of integrity,” Aguirre said.

The study also found that 12 women took the helm of major companies in 2016, representing 3.6 per cent of new CEOs. The study said businesses in the U.S. and Canada were most likely to hire a woman for the job.

The study also found that CEO turnover rates fell in every region except the U.S. and Canada.

It was not immediately clear how many Canadian companies were included in the study. ■

a cybersecurity expert and professor at Meiji University.

“You are dealing with a criminal,” he said. “It’s like after a robber enters your home. You TOKYO — The worldwide “rancan change the locks but what somware” cyberattack wreaked has happened cannot be unhavoc in hospitals, schools done. If someone kidnaps your and offices across the globe on child, you may pay your ransom Monday. Asia reported thoubut there is no guarantee your sands of new cases but no largechild will return.” scale breakdowns as workers New variants of the rapidly started the week by booting up replicating worm were discovtheir computers. ered Sunday. One did not inThe full extent of the damclude the so-called kill switch age from the cyberattack felt in that allowed researchers to in150 countries was unclear and terrupt the malware’s spread could worsen if more malicious Friday by diverting it to a dead variations of the online extorend on the internet. tion scheme appear.

Ryan Kalember, senior viceThe initial attack, known president at Proofpoint Inc. as “WannaCry,” paralyzed which helped stop its spread, computers running Britain’s said the version without a kill hospital network, Germany’s switch could spread. It was benational railway and scores nign because it contained a flaw of other companies and govthat prevented it from taking ernment agenover computers cies around the and demandworld. ing ransom to As a loose unlock files but global network If someone kidnaps your child, you other more maof cybersecurity may pay your ransom but there is no licious ones will experts fought guarantee your child will return. likely pop up. the ransomware, “We haven’t the attack was fully dodged this disrupting combullet at all unputers that run til we’re patched factories, banks, government nesses to update computer se- against the vulnerability itself,” agencies and transport systems curity after the malware locked Kalember said. in scores of countries, including patient files on computers in The attack held users hosRussia, Ukraine, Brazil, Spain, two hospitals in the capital, Ja- tage by freezing their computIndia and Japan, among others. karta. ers, popping up a red screen Among those hit were Russia’s Patients arriving at Dhar- with the words, “Oops, your Interior Ministry and compa- mais Cancer Hospital had to files have been encrypted!” and nies including Spain’s Telefon- wait several hours while staff demanding money through onica and FedEx Corp. in the U.S. worked with paper records. line bitcoin payment — $300 at Chinese state media said Officials in Japan and South first, rising to $600 before it de29,372 institutions there had Korea said they believed secu- stroys files hours later. been infected along with hun- rity updates had helped ward Just one click on an infected dreds of thousands of devices. off the worst of the impact. But attachment or bad link would The Japan Computer Emer- the South Korean cinema chain lead to all computers in a netgency Response Team Coor- CJ CGV Co. was restoring ad- work becoming infected, said dination Center, a non-profit vertising servers at dozens of Vikram Thakur, technical digroup providing support in theatres after the attack left rector of Symantec Security computer attacks, said 2,000 the company unable to display Response. computers at 600 locations in trailers of upcoming movies.

“That’s what makes this more Japan were reported affected.

Experts urged organizations troubling than ransomware Companies including Hitachi and companies to immediately was a week ago,” Thakur said. and Nissan Motor Co. reported update older Microsoft operatThe attack has hit more problems but said they said ing systems, such as Windows than 200,000 victims across had not seriously affected their XP, with a patch released by the world since Friday and is business operations.

Microsoft Corp. to limit vul- seen as an “escalating threat,” Auto manufacturer Renault nerability to a more powerful said Rob Wainwright, the head said one of its plants, which version of the malware — or to of Europol, Europe’s policing employs 3,500 people in Douai, future versions that can’t be agency. northern France, wasn’t re- stopped.

“The numbers are still going opening Monday as technicians Paying ransom will not endealt with the cyberattack’s af- sure any fix, said Eiichi Moriya, ❱❱ PAGE 33 Monday morning www.canadianinquirer.net

termath. The temporary halt in production was a “preventative step,” Renault said, giving no details on how badly the plant was affected by the malware.

In China, universities and other educational institutions were among the hardest hit, possibly because schools tend to have old computers and be slow to update operating systems and security, said Fang Xingdong, founder of ChinaLabs, an internet strategy thinktank.

Railway stations, mail delivery, gas stations, hospitals, office buildings, shopping malls and government services also were affected, China’s Xinhua News Agency said, citing the Threat Intelligence Center of Qihoo 360, a Chinese internet security services company.

Elsewhere in Asia, the Indonesian government urged busi-

32

MAY 19, 2017

FRIDAY

Technology What is bitcoin? A look at the digital currency THE ASSOCIATED PRESS NEW YORK — It’s worth more than an ounce of gold right now, it’s completely digital and it’s the currency of choice for the cyberattackers who crippled computer networks around the world in recent days.

When the attackers’ “ransomware” sprang into action, it held victims hostage by encrypting their data and demanding they send payments in bitcoins to regain access to their computers. Bitcoin has a fuzzy history, but it’s a type of currency that allows people to buy goods and services and exchange money without involving banks, credit card issuers or other third parties.

Here’s a brief look at bitcoin:

less than $1,230.

The value of bitcoins can swing sharply, though. A year ago, one was worth $457.04, which means that it’s nearly quadrupled in the last 12 months. But its price doesn’t always go up. A bitcoin’s value plunged by 23 per cent against the dollar in just a week this past January. It fell by the same amount again in 10 days during March.

Is it really anonymous?

Yes, to a point. Transactions and accounts can be traced, but the account owners aren’t necessarily known. However, investigators might be able to track down the owners when bitcoins are converted to regular currency.

For now, the three accounts tied to the ransomware attack appear untouched — and it’ll be difficult for

amount of ransom collected so far appears small relative to the extent of the outbreak.

Tom Bossert, President Donald Trump’s adviser for homeland security and counterterrorism, says it appears less than $70,000 has been paid in ransoms.

It’s possible, though, that there are unknown accounts beyond the three identified.

How bitcoins work

Bitcoin is a digital currency that is not tied to a bank or government and allows users to spend money anonymously. The coins are created by users who “mine” them by lending computing power to verify other users’ transactions. They receive bitcoins in exchange. The coins also can be bought and sold on exchanges with U.S. dollars and other currencies.

How much is it worth?

One bitcoin recently traded for $1,734.65, according to Coinbase, a company that helps users exchange bitcoins. That makes it more valuable than an ounce of gold, which trades at

blockchain.info. A year ago, activity was closer to 230,000 transactions per day.

Still, its popularity is low compared with cash and cards, and many individuals and businesses won’t accept bitcoins for payments.

How bitcoins are kept secure

The bitcoin network works by harnessing individuals’ greed for the collective good. A network of techsavvy users called miners keep the system honest by pouring their computing power into a blockchain, a global running tally of every bitcoin transaction.

The blockchain prevents rogues from spending the same bitcoin twice, and the miners are rewarded for their efforts by being gifted with the occasional bitcoin. As long as miners keep the blockchain secure, counterfeiting shouldn’t be an issue.

How bitcoin came to be

Why bitcoins are popular

Bitcoins are basically lines of computer code that are digitally signed each time they travel from one owner to the next. Transactions can be made anonymously, making the currency popular with libertarians as well as tech enthusiasts, speculators — and criminals.

Bitcoins are basically lines of computer code that are digitally signed each time they travel from one owner to the next. Transactions can be made anonymously, making the currency popular with libertarians as well as tech enthusiasts, speculators — and criminals.

perpetrators to cash in anytime soon without getting traced.

How much money?

Security experts say the

www.canadianinquirer.net

Who’s using bitcoin?

Some businesses have jumped on the bitcoin bandwagon amid a flurry of media coverage. Overstock.com accepts payments in bitcoin, for example.

The currency has become popular enough that more than 300,000 daily transactions have been occurring recently, according to bitcoin wallet site

It’s a mystery. Bitcoin was launched in 2009 by a person or group of people operating under the name Satoshi Nakamoto. Bitcoin was then adopted by a small clutch of enthusiasts.

Nakamoto dropped off the map as bitcoin began to attract widespread attention. But proponents say that doesn’t matter: The currency obeys its own internal logic.

An Australian entrepreneur last year stepped forward and claimed to be the founder of bitcoin, only to say days later that he did not “have the courage” to publish proof that he is. ■

Technology

FRIDAY MAY 12, 2017

33

Log in, look out: Cyber chaos may grow at workweek’s start

BY SYLVIA HUI AND CHRISTOPHER S. RUGABER The Associated Press LONDON — Employees booting up computers at work Monday could see red as they discover they’re victims of a global “ransomware” cyberattack that has created chaos in 150 countries and could wreak even greater havoc as more malicious variations appear.

As a loose global network of cybersecurity experts fought the ransomware hackers, officials and experts on Sunday urged organizations and companies to update older Microsoft operating systems immediately to ensure they aren’t vulnerable to a more powerful version of the software — or to future versions that can’t be stopped.

The initial attack, known as “WannaCry,” paralyzed computers that run Britain’s hospital network, Germany’s national railway and scores of other companies and government agencies worldwide in what was believed to be the biggest online extortion scheme so far.

Microsoft blamed the U.S. government for “stockpiling” software code that was used by unknown hackers to launch the attacks. The hackers exploited software code from the National Security Agency that leaked online.

The company’s top lawyer said the government should report weaknesses they discover to software companies rather than seek to exploit them.

“An equivalent scenario with conventional weapons would

be the U.S. military having some of its Tomahawk missiles stolen,” attorney Brad Smith wrote on Microsoft’s blog.

New variants of the rapidly replicating worm were discovered Sunday and one did not include the so-called kill switch that allowed researchers to interrupt its spread Friday by diverting it to a dead end on the internet.

Ryan Kalember, senior vicepresident at Proofpoint Inc. which helped stop its spread, said the version without a kill switch was able to spread but was benign because it contained a flaw that wouldn’t allow it to take over a computer and demand ransom to unlock files. However, he said it’s only a matter of time before a malevolent version exists.

“I still expect another to pop up and be fully operational,” Kalember said. “We haven’t fully dodged this bullet at all until we’re patched against the vulnerability itself.”

The attack held users hostage by freezing their computers, popping up a red screen with the words, “Oops, your files have been encrypted!” and demanding money through online bitcoin payment — $300 at first, rising to $600 before it destroys files hours later.

The ransomware attack was particularly malicious, because if just one person in an organization clicked on an infected attachment or bad link, all the computers in a network would be infected, said Vikram Thakur, technical director of Symantec Security Response.

“That’s what makes this more troubling than ransomware was a week ago,” Thakur said.

It hit 200,000 victims across

the world since Friday and is seen as an “escalating threat,” said Rob Wainwright, the head of Europol, Europe’s policing agency.

“The numbers are still going up,” Wainwright said. “We’ve seen that the slowdown of the infection rate over Friday night, after a temporary fix around it, has now been overcome by a second variation the criminals have released.”

The effects were felt around the globe, disrupting computers that run factories, banks, government agencies and transport systems in nations as diverse as Russia, Ukraine, Brazil, Spain, India and the U.S. Britain’s National Health Service was hit hard, while Russia’s Interior Ministry and companies including Spain’s Telefonica, FedEx Corp. in the U.S. and French carmaker Renault all reported disruptions.

Chinese media reported that more than 29,000 institutions in the country had been hit, with universities and other educational entities the hardest hit, along with railway services and retailers. Japanese broadcaster NTV reported 600 companies in that country had been hit, and automaker Nissan and the Hitachi conglomerate said they were addressing the problem at their units that were affected.

The full extent of the attack won’t become fully clear until people return to their workplaces Monday, for the first time after the attacks. Many may click infected email attachments or bad links and spread the virus further.

“It’s this constant battle,” said Ryan O’Leary, vice-president of WhiteHat Security’s threat

research centre. “The bad guys are always one step ahead.”

The White House held emergency meetings Friday and Saturday to assess the global cyber threat, a White House official said Sunday. No details were disclosed. The official was not authorized to discuss the private meetings by name and requested anonymity.

It was too early to say who was behind the onslaught, which struck 100,000 organizations, and what their motivation was, aside from the obvious demand for money. So far, not many people have paid the ransom demanded by the malware, Europol spokesman Jan Op Gen Oorth told The Associated Press.

Researchers who helped prevent the spread of the malware and cybersecurity firms worked around the clock during the weekend to monitor the situation and install a software patch to block the worm from infecting computers in corporations across the U.S., Europe and Asia.

“Right now, just about every IT department has been working all weekend rolling this out,” said Dan Wire, spokesman at Fireeye Security.

Businesses, government agencies and other organiza-

tions were urged to quickly implement a patch released by Microsoft Corp. The ransomware exploits older versions of Microsoft’s operating system software, such as Windows XP. Installing the patch is one way to secure computers against the virus. The other is to disable a type of software that connects computers to printers and faxes, which the virus exploits, O’Leary added.

Microsoft distributed a patch two months ago that could have forestalled much of the attack, but in many organizations it was likely lost among the blizzard of updates and patches that large corporations and governments strain to manage.

“It’s one of those things, in a perfect world, if people were up to date on the patches, this wouldn’t be a problem,” O’Leary said. “But there are so many things to patch. The patch lists can be ginormous. It can be tough to tell which patch is important, until it is too late.” ■

ers who launched this weekend’s “ransomware” attacks used a vulnerability that was exposed in NSA documents leaked online.

It was too early to say who was behind the onslaught, which struck 100,000 organizations, and what their motivation was, aside from the obvious demand for money. So far,

not many people have paid the ransom demanded by the malware, Europol spokesman Jan Op Gen Oorth told The Associated Press.

Researchers who helped prevent the spread of the malware and cybersecurity firms worked around the clock over the weekend to monitor the situation and install the software patch.

“Right now, just about every IT department has been working all weekend rolling this out,” said Dan Wire, spokesman at Fireeye Security.

Microsoft distributed the patch two months ago, which could have forestalled much of the attack, but in many organizations it was likely lost among the blizzard of updates

and patches that large corporations and governments strain to manage. ■

Rugaber reported from Washington. AP writers Brian Melley in Los Angeles, Catherine Lucey in Washington, Allen G. Breed in Raleigh, North Carolina, and AP Technology Writer Anick Jesdanun in New York contributed to this report.

Monday morning... up,” Wainwright said.

Microsoft’s top lawyer is laying some of the blame at the feet of the U.S. government. Brad Smith criticized U.S. intelligence agencies, including the CIA and National Security Agency, for “stockpiling” software code that can be used by hackers. Cybersecurity experts say the unknown hack-

❰❰ 31

www.canadianinquirer.net

Watt reported from Beijing. AP researcher Yu Bing and news assistant Liu Zheng in Beijing, John Leicester in Paris, Youkyung Lee in Seoul and Kelvin Chan in Hong Kong contributed to this report.

MAY 19, 2017

34

CANADA

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Wanted: PERSONAL ASSISTANT - HOME CARE Permanent – Full time $14.00/hour - for 40 hours per week Anticipated start date: As soon as possible Location: Scarborough, Canada (1 vacancy) Wanted homecare personal assitant to provide care to an 85 years old elderly female suffering from Alzheimer’s disease. Duty includes administer bedside and personal care to client such as aid in ambulation, bathing, personal hygiene and administration of medication.

Prepare and serve nutritious meals. Perform routine housekeeping duties such as laundry and ironing clothes and linens, washing dishes, making beds and house cleaning. Taking the designated individual for walks, park, malls and doctors appointments and any other duties deemed necessary to assist the designated individual with day to day living. Preferably with 1 year to less than 2 years of work experience in elderly care. Must speak and write English.

Completion of highschool graduate equivalent in Canada.Optional accomodation available at no charge on a live-in basis. (This is not a condition of employment)

email resume to: eymard.lumbre@yahoo.com

St. Louis Bar and Grill (Bolton Location) 301 Queen St. S

Now Hiring Line Cooks - Cook menu items in cooperation with the rest of the Kitchen staff - Clean up kitchen and stock inventory - Proven cooking experience - Accuracy and speed in executing assigned tasks We have an amazing group of people working here and we are currently growing very quickly! We are looking for the right team member(s) to join our fabulous team!

Please reply to our email and you will be contacted promptly.

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HIRING

COOK (Short Order Cook) Restaurant Name : GABBY’S GRILL AND TAPS FULL TIME OR PART TIME (Great Salary for Full Time) Schedule : To be discussed with Manager Send resumes to: flores63@yahoo.ca or call 416-902-2336 2899 Bloor Street West

Wanted: Real Estate Secretary

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Knowledge of English language is a must; College graduate or other non-university certificate or diploma; work experience at least 2 years to less than 3 years; area of work experience –Statistics, Reports and records, Invoices, Financial statements, Correspondence, Contracts, Charts, tables, graphs and diagrams; knowledge of Business Equipment and Computer Applications - MS Excel; MS PowerPoint; MS Word; Electronic mail; MS Outlook is essential

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www.canadianinquirer.net

FRIDAY MAY 19, 2017

35

Travel Sorry, paparazzi, celebs now get private treatment at LAX THE CANADIAN PRESS

PNA

DOT includes Leyte’s Cuatro Islas in cruise tourism

BY AZER N. PARROCHA Philippines News Agency

areas are among their attractions for the tourists.

Of the four islands, Digyo is considered the smallest occupying 4.5 hectares INDANG, LEYTE — The picturesque but is the most popular among tourists. four small islands, located off the towns Diving, snorkeling, and kayaking are the of Inopacan and Hindang in the south- activities to be done in the islands aside ern part of Leyte, have been considered from swimming. as one of the region’s destinations for Apid is the farthest island with boat cruise tourism this summer. makers and mat weavers among its resiThe islands of Digyo, Apid, Mahaba dents. part of Inopacan town and Himokilan of Mahaba Island, the second largest isHindang town also collectively known land, is named due to its elongated shape as Cuatro Islas Protected Landscape with majestic rock formations. But its and Seascape. hidden treasure is a “Cuatro Islas is small lagoon about 10 very much prepared minutes’ walk from for tourism because the shoreline where for the past few years Cuatro Islas rare species of small every time we attend is very much red shrimp are found. travel fairs, it is one prepared There is also a cave of the places with the for tourism on the island that is most inquiries,” said because for the the haven for the fuDepartment of Tourpast few years rious nut-cracking ism regional office every time we coco crabs locally senior tourism offiattend travel known as “tatus” or cer Rina Apostol. fairs, it is one “alikway.”

The destination of the places The island is also has been added for with the most home to the endancruise tourism on top inquiries. gered mangrove speof Limasawa, Southcies locally called ern Leyte; Kalangga“bantolinao”. man in Palompon, Himokilan is the Leyte and Capul in Northern Samar. largest of the four with 48 hectares land A cruise ship is expected to arrive in area and is shaped like a large boat floatthe region later this month with a visit ing above blue waters. to the Cuatro Islas included on its itinThe site also offers the best spot and erary. trails for camping and mountain-trekThe islands’ pristine waters, white king, exploring the cave and bats watchsand and being declared as protected ing. ■

LOS ANGELES — Sorry, paparazzi. Celebrities who are sick of being stalked by photographers at Los Angeles International Airport can now find some privacy — not to mention luxury — at a new terminal.

The facility called the Private Suite opened Monday and offers an exclusive entrance, one-on-one security screening and plush lounges. And privileged travellers get a private car ride across the tarmac to and from the aircraft, head-of-state style.

The terminal is available to anyone who can afford fees up to $4,000 for a single flight.

Here are some things to know.

Privacy plus convenience

It’s being called “premium class” — a terminal far from the crowds and lines of public concourses. Celebrities, executives and other wealthy travellers are greeted on a driveway that’s behind gates to keep photogs at bay. A team of eight attendants handle their luggage and whisk them through a dedicated security gate into one of more than a dozen suites. There VIPs can nap on daybeds, watch TVs, snack from stocked refrigerators and use their own private bathrooms. When it’s time to catch their flights, passengers get a ride in shiny BMW sedans across the runway and straight to the planes.

Private Suite officials estimate the typical LAX passenger takes 2,200 steps

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from car seat to plane seat. For those who pay for the pampering, it’s a mere 70 footsteps, according to the service.

It’s available for all departing and arriving commercial flights at LAX. Comfort at a price

Access to the Private Suite is available for a fee of $3,500 for each domestic flight or $4,000 for each international flight. That covers up to four passengers.

Those who purchase an annual membership for $7,500 will get a discount of about $1,000 on per-flight fees.

Privately run

The new facility was built for $22 million by Gavin de Becker and Associates, a security consulting firm, at no cost to the airport or taxpayers. The Los Angeles company said it’s the first terminal of its kind in the U.S. — but it’s based on a facility at London’s Heathrow Airport that offers private high-end service for members. Private terminals also can be found at international airports in Dubai, Munich, Zurich and other cities. De Becker said it’s in negotiations to open a similar one at John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York.

The company said the terminal has created 125 new jobs and will generate $35 million in revenue for the airport over the next nine years.

The terminal benefits the airport, the company said, because it reduces the potential for drama and delay from celebrities and other attention-getting VIPs moving through public areas. ■

36

Travel

MAY 19, 2017

FRIDAY

Fed up fliers frustrated by service cuts, horror stories vow to avoid airlines

BY CASSANDRA SZKLARSKI The Canadian Press TORONTO — After years of watching service decline and fees rise, avid traveller George Chow didn’t need another reason to avoid the airlines.

But a steady stream of horror stories in the news is only cementing his resolve to find other modes of transport whenever possible.

A planned excursion to the Maritimes this fall will almost certainly be by train or car, says the Markham, Ont., resident.

“It’s just getting more and more difficult and challenging to get onto a plane,” complains Chow, a 55-year-old semi-retired accountant.

The latest airline flap, reported by the CBC on Wednesday, involves a complaint that a 15-yearold boy travelling alone was stuck at Toronto’s Pearson airport overnight after a delay caused him to miss his connecting flight with Air Canada. His mother said he wasn’t offered any help with meals or accommodation. An Air Canada spokesman said the airline was sorry to learn of the boy’s experience and has contacted the family.

And travellers are still stewing over the violent ejection of a United Airlines passenger in April. Cellphone video of a Kentucky doctor being dragged off an overbooked jetliner sparked

widespread anger over the way he was treated, and added fuel to years of simmering complaints about general service cuts, cramped seats and soaring surcharges.

What was once the most convenient way to travel has now become fraught with stress and worry, say many Canadians planning their summer getaways.

“I’ve never gone on a flight and just gone, ‘Wow, that was so easy to do with my family,”’ says Ontario singer-songwriter Sarah Blackwood, who often can’t avoid flying to concert dates.

“If I had the choice and time wasn’t an issue, I wouldn’t ever fly, it’s my least favourite part of the job.”

It’s especially stressful for families with young kids, says the Walk Off the Earth singer, who made headlines two years ago when she was kicked off a flight operated by United Airlines because her toddler was crying.

She sympathizes anytime she sees a mom struggling to wrangle kids on a flight.

That was the case with an American Airlines scuffle that made headlines last month. A flight attendant was accused of violently grabbing a doublewide stroller from a passenger as she tried to put it in an overhead bin, allegedly hitting her and narrowly missing her baby in the process.

Blackwood implores airlines

to be more patient with parents and for airports to offer play areas that can help stave off tantrums and crying fits when it’s time to board.

“Travelling with kids is not ever going to be easy but I’ve been in situations where I’ve gone up to the check-in desk and they’ve told me I can’t bring my stroller through the gate,” says Blackwood, who travels by tour bus whenever possible.

“Imagine — I was travelling on my own and had to carry one child and then drag the other one.”

Air passenger rights advocate Gabor Lukacs says nonstop complaints about airlines highlight the need for greater consumer protection. But he says the Canadian Transportation Agency has a poor record of backing the consumer when a complaint is filed.

“The Canadian Transportation Agency very often sends

away passengers with legitimate complaints and if things do go to a formal compliant then they tend to rule against passengers,” says Lukacs, who accuses the agency’s leadership of being too easily influenced by the big airlines.

The problem is Canadians don’t have much choice when it comes to travel options, and there are really no consequences for transgressions, says the Nova Scotia-based airline critic.

Last fall, Ottawa promised to introduce a bill of rights for air passengers this spring.

A spokesperson for Transport Minister Marc Garneau said it would address bumping rules and establish clear, minimum requirements for compensation when flights are oversold or luggage lost.

Lukacs said that is not good enough, noting the U.S. department of transportation will

fine airlines millions of dollars when they are caught mistreating passengers.

“The question is enforcement. What will happen to an airline that, in spite of the law, tells a passenger ‘get lost’? Will there be financial consequences?” says Lukacs, who urges passengers to document any disputes and take complaints to small claims court instead of the Canadian Transportation Agency.

The current political climate makes any travel to the U.S. especially fraught for medical student Zahra Sohani, who says she’s inclined to avoid crossing the border by air or land as long as President Donald Trump seeks to ban immigrants from some Muslim-majority countries.

The Muslim-Canadian regularly visits friends and family in Orlando, Fla., but fears being interrogated or turned away at the airport.

“When you’re the person travelling and being pulled aside every single time it stops feeling like it’s random,” says Sohani.

Chow says the train is an increasingly attractive option for him.

“Airline service is getting worse and worse. Before it was more comfortable, you’re being treated, so you feel a bit special,” says Chow.

“I used to love to travel.” ■

ASEAN dishes tickle taste buds at food festival

BY AZER N. PARROCHA Philippines News Agency MANILA — Foodies don’t have to travel to every Southeast Asia country to taste their authentic cuisines — they can find some of their most delectable dishes in a 1,500-square meter lot in Quezon City.

The first ASEAN Food Festival kicked off Thursday night at the newly-opened Ayala Malls Vertis North, welcoming over 1,000 people who craved for curry, pad thai or even chicken inasal with alugbati jam.

For only Php 50, guests can

enter Vertis North’s huge tent at 5 p.m, get a free drink and choose from 25 stalls serving dishes, snacks and products from Southeast Asian countries, some cooked by top chefs in the Philippines including Gene Gonzales, Myke Tatung Sarthou, Rob Pengson.

The four-day festival, which runs until May 14, is a joint effort of the Department of Tourism (DOT) and Ayala Malls to hold a culinary festival in celebration of ASEAN’s 50th founding anniversary.

“Because it’s the 50th anniversary of ASEAN, we thought it would be a good venue for us to feature also the Flavors of ASEAN that

you can find in the Philippines,” DOT Market Development Group Director Verna Buensuceso told reporters in an interview.

Following the successful staging of Madrid Fusion Manila last month which featured Filipino and Spanish cuisines, Buensuceso said that it was timely to hold another food festival, this time showcasing the best of Southeast Asia.

She said that a number of chefs from the Philippines have done their own take on ASEAN flavors while suppliers from Philippine regions also sell export-quality items to visitors.

Guests can also expect the www.canadianinquirer.net

country’s best artists and bands—including Reese Lansangan, Fraco, SUD—performing while they chow down on their ASEAN dish of choice.

Ayala Land Commercial Business Group Marketing Manager Pivi Ann Diaz said that, in an interview, said that she was surprised by the turnout of the ASEAN Food Festival since it is the first event held in the newly-opened Vertis North.

“We’re actually very surprised because it’s the first event we had in this area,” Diaz said, noting that Ayala was trying to replicate the success of one of its malls, Trinoma, to its

newest development.

Diaz said that there would be more to expect in the coming days including celebrity guests and other activities especially on Mother’s Day. “What we want really is for customers to enjoy the food.

We have invited celebrities, personalities to dine with us,” se added.

She also said Ayala was open to the possibility of holding a similar event again next year.

The ASEAN Food Festival ran from May 11 to 14, 5 pm to 2 am or later at the Ayala Malls Vertis North, which is right beside Trinoma. ■

FRIDAY MAY 19, 2017

37

Food Why make just a desert?

Here are tips for a dessert buffet THE CULINARY INSTITUTE OF AMERICA FRUIT PIES, ice cream, and fresh berry salads are summer staples, and you’ll never catch us turning any of those down.

But even in the summer, the occasion may arise where you want to crank it up a notch.

Whether it’s a bridal shower, anniversary party, or late-night after-party, a dessert buffet can be a fun, easy way to mark a special occasion.

Preparing a dessert buffet The Culinary Institute of America way requires less work than you might think. With just a little advance planning (and an empty freezer), you can wow your guests with an array of sweet treats and eye-popping details.

Since the summer heat can present a special challenge when serving frozen or chilled desserts, we’ve created a clever way to keep your desserts cold without the eyesore of an ugly ice bath. Decorative ice bowls studded with garnish-like vibrant fruit slices or edible flowers are show stopping centerpieces that are as functional as they are elegant.

To create these bowls, just choose two metal bowls (glass and plastic may crack as the water freezes), one of which is smaller than the other. Fill the larger bowl with water and place the second bowl inside of it. Using masking tape, tape an “X” over the top of the two bowls, to hold the smaller bowl in place. Freeze for at least 24 hours, or until the water is frozen solid. Run the bowl (not the ice) under warm water or wrap in a warm towel to release the ice from the bowls.

Depending on the items you are serving, you can either use the ice bowls in place of an ice bath, setting a serving bowl inside of the hollowed opening. Or, you can use the ice itself as a serving bowl for items that won’t suffer from direct exposure to the ice. You can

even make a container in an ice bucket or tall pitcher to hold milk or creamer for your coffee service.

Now that you have the bowls, you need to think about what goes in them. CIA baking and pastry instructor Chef Didier Berlioz says a dessert buffet menu should have choices for everyone, from serious chocoholics to people who prefer lighter, fruitier desserts. And remember that the summer heat begs for cool and refreshing flavours and ingredients.

Balance a creamy frozen souffle (like homemade ice cream, without the ice cream machine!) with the tart, bright flavours of a fresh citrus salad.

You may worry about the ice bowls leaking on your beautifully set table. But have no fear.

Sure, they’ll melt eventually (science, after all), but with a plate underneath to contain the dripping, you’ve got more than enough time. After all, how long can you keep a table full of delicious desserts full?

Frozen grand marnier soufflé

Servings: 8 Start to finish: 12 hours 40 minutes (Active: 40 minutes)

• 1 1/2 cups cold heavy cream • 4 eggs • 4 egg yolks • 3/4 cup granulated sugar • 1 1/2 tablespoons orange liqueur • Zest from 1/4 orange Prepare eight 3-inch ramekins or two 6-inch bowls (see note). Cut one strip of parchment paper per serving dish that is long enough to wrap around the entire diameter of the dish and wide enough to extend about 1 inch above the rim. Wrap the paper around the outside rim of the dish, creating a “collar” that extends over the top of the bowl. Tightly secure the collar to the dish with tape.

Transfer to the freezer to chill while you prepare the souffle.

Whip the cream by hand or

with an electric mixer, just until soft peaks form. Refrigerate while you prepare the remaining ingredients.

In the bowl of a stand mixer, combine the eggs, egg yolks, sugar, liqueur, and orange zest.

Place the bowl over a gently simmering hot water bath and, whisking constantly, cook until the mixture is hot to the touch and the sugar granules have dissolved fully, about 4 minutes.

Using the whip attachment, whip on medium-high speed until the mixture is light and fluffy and has cooled completely, about 4 minutes.

Gently pour the whipped cream over the beaten egg mixture and gently fold to combine. Evenly divide the mixture among your serving dishes, adding enough so that it extends over the rim of the bowl against the paper collar.

Transfer to the freezer and freeze for at least 12 hours, or overnight. Remove the paper collar before serving the souffles. If serving family style, serve one bowl at a time, since the mixture will soften quickly.

Chef’s Note: In this recipe, the serving dishes are prepared so that the finished product has the appearance of a traditional souffle, where the sides of the dessert raise above the rim of the dish. You can skip this step, if you like, and serve the mixture in any bowl.

The souffle can be prepared in individual portions or in larger, “family-style” serving

dishes. The shape and depth of your bowl will affect how much of the souffle mixture to use. It may be helpful to have a spare bowl prepared with a collar, in case of any leftover mixture.

Citrus salad

Servings: 8

• 1 Cara Cara orange • 1 navel orange • 1 blood orange • 1 pink grapefruit • 1 Meyer lemon • 1 lime • 2 tablespoons sparkling wine (optional) • 10 1/4-inch strips candied orange peel Cut off the base and top of each fruit until you can see the colored flesh. Stand the fruit up on its flat end and use a knife to slice downward, removing the skin and white pith. Work your way around the fruit, rotating as you go, until no skin or pith remains. Carefully slice the fruit, between the membranes, to cut out each segment and transfer to a large serving bowl.

Squeeze any remaining juice from the membranes into the bowl of segments.

Toss to combine. Cover and refrigerate until needed. Stir in sparkling wine, if using, and top with candied orange peel just before serving.

Chef’s Note: Use any of your favourite citrus varieties in this salad. You can make your own candied orange peel or pur-

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chase it at a specialty shop or online.

Chantilly cream

Servings: 8

• 2 cups cold heavy cream • 2 tablespoons confectioners’ sugar • 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract Place the bowl of a stand mixer (or a large stainless steel bowl) in the freezer for at least 15 minutes. Add the cream, sugar, and vanilla to the bowl and whisk on medium-high speed until soft peaks form, about 1 minute Remove from the mixer. Cover the bowl and refrigerate until use. If the cream has softened, gently whisk by hand to bring it back together before serving.

Nutrition information per serving of souffle: 298 calories; 190 calories from fat; 21 g fat (12 g saturated; 0 g trans fats); 261 mg cholesterol; 54 mg sodium; 21 g carbohydrate; 0 g fiber; 20 g sugar; 5 g protein.

Nutrition information per serving of salad: 66 calories; 1 calorie from fat; 0 g fat (0 g saturated; 0 g trans fats); 0 mg cholesterol; 0 mg sodium; 16 g carbohydrate; 2 g fiber; 11 g sugar; 1 g protein.

Nutrition information per serving of cream: 215 calories; 200 calories from fat; 22 g fat (14 g saturated; 1 g trans fats); 82 mg cholesterol; 23 mg sodium; 4 g carbohydrate; 0 g fiber; 4 g sugar; 1 g protein.

38

Food

MAY 19, 2017

FRIDAY

Sweet potato prepared To make heavenly banana bread, 2 ways gives you make it with vegetable oil dinner and a dessert

BY ELIZABETH KARMEL The Associated Press

BY MELISSA D’ARABIAN The Associated Press THE KITCHEN is my happy place, which is a good thing, because I spend a lot of time in it. It seems I’m always either developing recipes, or cooking them for a camera. And then there’s the not-so-small matter of cooking for my husband and four daughters every day. Truly, I love it.

But today I’m sharing with you what I make when I’m alone; cooking for one. When I’m by myself, I like something easy to make and comforting, without being junky. I turn to one of my favourite ingredients that falls lower on my husband’s list: sweet potatoes.

Sweet potatoes are full of vitamins, especially A and C, and minerals, have filling fiber and even a couple of grams of protein per medium 95-calorie spud.

Before you panic about all the sugars in the sweet potato — it’s right there in the title — relax a little, because that full potato has about 7 grams of sugar. And, I’m going to make both a dinner and a dessert out of it, so personally I think those numbers make sense for sweet tooth it will satisfy.

Here’s the plan, which involves very little actual cooking: Poke a few holes with a fork into a sweet potato and bake it until tender (about 50 minutes at 350 F, or 8 minutes on high in a microwave since it’s just one). Once it’s cooked, slice in half, cut a slit down the centre of each half, and top with just the tiniest bit of coconut oil or butter, which will melt beautifully into the hot potato flesh. (You can skip this part if you are watching fat intake, but even a smidge of coconut oil adds a ton of flavour.)

Sprinkle one side with cinnamon and top with fresh fruit and chopped nuts or seeds. Add a drizzle of maple syrup if you are feeling fancy.

Sweet potato two ways

Servings: 1 Start to finish: 1 hour, including inactive baking time

• 1 medium orange sweet potato

• 1 teaspoon coconut oil, divided • Savory: • 1/4 teaspoon curry powder • 1/4 teaspoon paprika • 3 tablespoons cooked black beans, rinsed and drained • 1 tablespoon chopped cashews • 1 tablespoon chopped cilantro • 1/2 cup baby spinach or other greens • Juice of 1/4 lime • Pinch of kosher salt • Sweet: • 1/8 teaspoon ground cinnamon • 1/4 medium banana, sliced • 1 tablespoon sliced almonds • 1 teaspoons maple syrup • Pinch kosher salt • Juice of 1/4 lime Prick the potato skin 3-4 times with a fork and bake until tender, about 50 minutes at 350 F. (Or microwave until tender, about 8 minutes, turning over halfway through cooking.) Slice the sweet potato in half lengthwise, and cut a slit in each half.

Divide the coconut oil between the two potatoes and allow to melt into the flesh. Sprinkle the savory potato with the curry and paprika, and top with beans, cashews, cilantro and salt. Place on top of the spinach and squeeze lime juice over the whole thing.

For the dessert potato: sprinkle with cinnamon and top with banana slices, almonds, maple syrup, salt and lime juice. Optional: if the oven is still hot, place the dessert potato in the oven for 5 minutes, just to caramelize the bananas a little. Place next to the savory potato and enjoy your two-course meal.

Nutrition information per serving of savory option: 305 calories; 88 calories from fat; 10 g fat (3 g saturated; 0 g trans fats); 0 mg cholesterol; 567 mg sodium; 52 g carbohydrate; 19 g fiber; 11 g sugar; 12 g protein.

Nutrition information per serving of sweet option: 183 calories; 28 calories from fat; 3 g fat (0 g saturated; 0 g trans fats); 0 mg cholesterol; 282 mg sodium; 37 g carbohydrate; 5 g fiber; 15 g sugar; 4 g protein.

EVERYONE MAKES banana Bread. And most people love it. A good friend of mine always makes it with chocolate chips because her family will eat anything with chocolate in it. I grew up with my mother making banana bread with butter and pecans, and I thought it was very good until I accidently created the world’s best banana bread a few years ago.

Here is a little background: Anyone who bakes knows that there are butter cakes and oil cakes. Most of the cakes I make, I make with butter, but my Grandmother’s Apple Cake is made with vegetable oil and it is always the crowd favourite. So, when I was working on the recipes for my upcoming “Steak and Cake” cookbook, I decided to see how banana bread made with vegetable oil would taste versus my mother’s butter recipe.

I was visiting my sister in Houston, and her twin daughters wanted to bake with me.

To make sure that everyone had a part in making the recipe, I passed out three bowls.

One for each of my nieces, and one for me. I then divided the recipe into three parts. Natalie mashed the bananas with most of the sugar and the vanilla, Olivia measured and whisked the flour and remaining sugar with the other dry ingredients, and I blended the eggs and the vegetable oil.

We mixed the eggs and the flour together, added the completely liquefied banana-sugar mixture and added toasted walnuts for taste and texture. I decorated the tops of the loaves with walnuts and ushered the loaves into the oven.

Of course, they smelled heavenly as they baked — all banana bread smells heavenly. But once the loaves were out and cooled enough to taste, it was a whole new world.

There was even caramelization all the way through the loaf which is significant because many loaves of banana bread are darker on the bottom than the top. And, the crumb of the cake was soft and silky but very light and moist. Dry banana www.canadianinquirer.net

bread is also a common complaint and this was the opposite of dry. Best yet, the loaf stays moist and flavourful for days after you bake it.

The walnut encrusted top is both decorative and adds a welcome crunch. If I have any bread leftover, I love to toast a slice on day 3 or 4 and eat it with a thin spread of peanut butter on top — heaven.

Three-bowl banana bread

Servings: 2 loaves, each makes 10 generous slices Start to finish: 1 hour, 15 minutes (Active time: 15 minutes)

• Pan: 8 x 4 x 2.5 -inch loaf pans, disposable aluminum pans work very well.

• 3 large and very ripe, “brown” bananas (you can use 4 small bananas) • 1 1/2 cups granulated white sugar, divided • 1 teaspoon vanilla • 1 3/4 cup all-purpose flour • 1 1/2 teaspoon baking soda • 1/2 teaspoon salt • 1/4 teaspoon cinnamon • 3 large eggs • 3/4 cup Crisco all-vegetable oil • 1-2cups toasted walnut halves, coarsely chopped plus more halves for decorating • Flour and Oil Baking Spray Toast walnuts in the oven at 250 F for about 15-20 minutes.

Remove and let cool. Get oven to 325 F.

Meanwhile, mash bananas with a fork and add all but 1/2 cup of the sugar. Mix and add vanilla. Continue mixing until the mixture is completely smooth.

In a separate large bowl, measure flour and stir with a whisk or fork to aerate. Place 1/2 cup of sugar in the bowl. Add baking soda, salt, cinnamon and whisk well.

In a third bowl, mix eggs and oil with a blending fork until emulsified.

Using a fork, mix eggs well with the flour mixture. Add banana mixture to the egg-flour mixture and stir with a fork until completely combined. Add chopped walnuts and pour batter into prepared loaf pans, using a baking spray so that the bread doesn’t stick to the pan.

Decorate the top with walnut halves.

Bake for about 60 minutes or until the cake pulls away from the sides of the pan and a toothpick inserted in the centre comes out clean.

Remove from oven and let sit in the pan for 5 minutes. Transfer to a cooling rack.

Can be served warm or completely cooled.

Nutrition information per serving: 256 calories; 133 calories from fat; 14 g fat (2 g saturated; 0 g trans fats); 32 mg cholesterol; 163 mg sodium; 27 g carbohydrate; 1 g fiber; 17 g sugar; 3 g protein.

39

FRIDAY MAY 19, 2017

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40

MAY 19, 2017

FRIDAY

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