Philippine Canadian Inquirer #361

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MARCH 8, 2019

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VOL. 3 NO. 361

ASH WEDNESDAY

A Nun places ash on the head of an older woman in the observance of Ash Wednesday at the Baclaran Church in Paranaque City) Ash Wednesday is a Christian holy day of prayer, fasting, and repentance.

AVITO C. DALAN / PNA

Faithful urged to help those in need

BY FERDINAND PATINIO Philippine News Agency MANILA — A top official of the Catholic Church encouraged the faithful to help feed children in need as part of their sacrifices during the Lenten season.

“This season of Lent, let us “re-center” our lives on God, who takes the initiative to call us to conversion. Let us deepen our relationship with him, by practicing charity and helping those in

need,” Manila Archbishop Luis Antonio Cardinal Tagle said in his pastoral letter for Ash Wednesday.

Tagle said the faithful can do this by donating whatever they save from fasting to the Church’s ‘Fast2Feed’ campaign.

“We hope to provide one hot and nutritious meal a day for 120 feeding days to at least 30,000 children. We appeal to your kind hearts. Please support

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In-depth probe of CPP’s EU funding vowed

16 Fil-Can in Focus: Gio Levy, years of singing his way to OPM success

❱❱ PAGE 12 Faithful urged

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❱❱ PAGES 19

Philpott joins WilsonRaybould in resigning from cabinet over SNC Lavalin

Philippine News

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MARCH 8, 2019

FRIDAY

DPWH starts desilting, dredging ops in Manila Bay

BY FERDINAND PATINIO Philippine News Agency MANILA — An estimated 225,000 cubic meters of silt will be removed over the approximately 1.5-kilometer stretch of Manila Bay from the Manila Yacht Club breakwater to the

United States Embassy in Manila as the Department of Public Works and Highways’ (DPWH) officially started its desilting operations on Tuesday.

DPWH Secretary Mark Villar said some heavy equipment composed of amphibious excavators, dumping scows, dump trucks, debris segregator, street

sweepers, and vacuum sewer jet cleaners are deployed in the area and other strategic locations for the cleaning-up operations.

“This event marks the fullblast dredging within this critical section of Manila Bay. Our Bureau of Equipment (BOE), Regional and District Engi-

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neering Offices in Metro Manila have deployed a total of 28 equipment, and 50 personnel to operate 16 hours a day, six days a week,” he said during the launching of the activity in Manila.

“Excavation will be the major mechanism for the removal of the accumulated pollutants in Manila Bay. Through our hardworking crew and equipment fleet, we aim to desilt within 150 meters from the shoreline of Manila Bay,” Villar added.

He noted that they expect to collect 600 cubic meters of silt a day.

On the other hand, DPWHBOE Director Toribio Noel Ilao said implementation of desilting activities will be divided into five sectors, each ranging from 200 to 300-meter long, until the entire 1.5-kilometer is finished. Each sector will be desilted approximately within 90 to 120 days.

To achieve targets and determine adjustments during the desilting operations, the DPWH-BOE, in coordination with the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) and Philippine Coast Guard (PCG), will regularly monitor Manila Bay using bathymetric or depth measurement survey, water quality test, and ocular inspection.

Aside from dredging activities in Manila Bay, the DPWH National Capital Region (NCR), its District Engineering Offices and in coordination with DENR, Metro Manila Development Authority (MMDA) and

PCG, also conducts clean-up and declogging of tributaries and drainage canals in the city.

“We are working harmoniously with the DENR, the MMDA, other mandamus agencies and local government units for a holistic approach in cleaning Manila Bay. These tributaries or esteros and drainage pipes need to be cleaned and unclogged, as trash from these areas will eventually make their way to Manila Bay,” Villar added.

For his part, Manila Mayor Joseph Estrada assured that the city will support the undertaking to rehabilitate the Manila Bay. He also lauded the Duterte administration for its action to make the bay alive again.

“One of the best examples of government in action, coming together under the leadership of President Rodrigo Roa Duterte. We are now seeing concrete action… as mayor of Manila I can assure you that the local government would extend full assistance for this purpose.

We support this program,” Estrada said.

On the other hand, DENR Secretary Roy Cimatu said that they will be using sewer inspection cameras that will identify establishments that are releasing untreated water to the bay.

“These cameras will determine where this wastewater flowing into the bay is coming from,” he explained.

Last January, the national government launched the campaign to clean Manila Bay. ■

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Public Works Secretary Mark Villar, Environment Secretary Roy Cimatu, and former president and Manila Mayor Joseph Estrada lead the launch of desilting operations under the Sagip Manila Bay Program at Baywalk Roxas Blvd., Manila.

AVITO C. DALAN/PNA

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Philippine News

MARCH 8, 2019

Duterte signs law requiring

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BY AZER PARROCHA Philippine News Agency MANILA — President Rodrigo R. Duterte signed into law a measure that provides mandatory PhilHealth coverage for all persons with disabilities (PWDs).

Duterte signed Republic Act 11228 on Feb. 22 but a copy of which was released to media on Monday (March 4).

Under the law “all persons with disability (PWDs) shall be automatically covered under the National health Insurance Program (NHIP) of the Philippine Health Insurance Corporation (PhilHealth).”

“The PhilHealth shall develop exclusive packages for PWDs that will address their specific health and development needs,” the law reads.

Periodic monitoring and evaluation of the law should be conducted by the Department of Health (DOH), in coordination with the Department of Social Welfare and Development, Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE), the National Council on Disability Affairs (NCDA), the local government units (LGUs) and other relevant government agencies and non-

government organizations.

DOH must also maintain an updated database on PWDs and their health and development needs.

Meanwhile, the LGUs, the PhilHealth, the NCDA, and other relevant government agencies are directed to submit their data on PWDs to the DOH. Concerned agencies should promulgate the implementing rules and regulations (IRR) within three months upon effectivity of the act.

The law shall take effect 15 days from its publication in the Official Gazette or in a newspaper of general circulation.

This law is a consolidation of Senate Bill No. 1391 and House Bill No. 8014 which was passed by the Senate and the House of Representatives on Dec. 10, 2018.

Duterte earlier signed the Universal Healthcare program, which automatically enroll all Filipinos under the government’s health insurance program on February 20.

He also signed the Expanded Maternity Leave that extends the maternity leave of female workers in the country from 60 to 105 days with full pay the following day. ■

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CA does not need to confirm Diokno’s appointment as BSP governor — Panelo

BY JOANNA BELLE DEALA Philippine Canadian Inquirer PRESIDENTIAL SPOKESPERSON Salvador Panelo said the powerful Commission on Appointments (CA) does not need to confirm the appointment of former Budget Secretary Benjamin Diokno as the new Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) governor.

In his statement on Wednesday, March 6, Panelo cited Article VII, Section 16 of the 1987 Constitution which states that the heads of the executive departments, ambassadors, public ministers and consuls, officers of the armed forces from the rank of colonel or naval captain, and other officers whose appointments are vested in the President under the Constitution are the only appointments that require to get the CA’s nod.

“A perusal thereof reveals that the Governor of the BSP does not fall under any of the categories of officials,” the spokesman said.

This, however, is contrary to what is stated under Section 6, Article II of Republic Act (RA) No. 7653 or the New Central Bank Act which reads, “The Governor of the Bangko Sentral shall be head of a department and his appointment shall be subject to confirmation by the Commission on Appointments.”

It was not amended by the Republic Act (RA) No. 11211 that President Rodrigo Duterte signed into law last February.

The Palace official also mentioned the case of “Calderon vs. Carale” in which the issue resolved by the Supreme Court (SC) was “whether or not Congress may, by law, require confirmation by the Com-

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mission on Appointments of appointments extended by the President to government officers additional to those expressly mentioned in the first sentence of Sec. 16, Art. VII of the Constitution.”

“The Supreme Court ruled in the negative explaining that Congress cannot amend the provisions of the Constitution by mere legislation,” Panelo noted.

Duterte’s mouthpiece also cited the 1994 SC ruling that dismissed a petition filed

by Jesus Tarrosa which questions the appointment of former BSP Governor Gabriel Singson “for not having been confirmed by the Commission on Appointments.” When the said petition was junked, Panelo said Singson’s appointment did not go through a confirmation process.

“In view of the foregoing doctrines, as well as the fact that a Governor of the BSP is not covered by Article VII, Section 16 of the 1987 Constitution, his appointment being provided by mere legislation, it is submitted that the appointment of former Secretary and new BSP Governor Diokno does not need confirmation from the CA,” he explained.

It was announced on Monday that Duterte chose Diokno as the new BSP governor, replacing Nestor Espenilla who passed away in February after battling tongue cancer.

Diokno’s appointment came after House Appropriations Committee chair Rolando Andaya, Jr. accused him of inserting P75-billion in the budget of the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) for this year. The Palace on Tuesday, however, reiterated that Duterte still has his trust and confidence on the newly-appointed BSP governor despite the allegations. ■

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FRIDAY MARCH 8, 2019

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Philippine News

MARCH 8, 2019

FRIDAY

In-depth probe of CPP’s EU funding vowed

BY GIGIE ARCILLA Philippine News Agency BRUSSELS, BELGIUM — As the government takes its war against local communist armed conflict a step further, the National Task Force got the assurance of European officials who vowed to look into the information presented by the Philippine government on the reported funding of Belgium and other EU-member countries for CPP activities.

In a series of recent engagements with officials of the European Union (EU), European Parliament, and European Commission (EC), the Philippine delegation requested to “stop the flow of funds to identified communist terrorist front organizations.”

Alarming information

Data presented by the Philippine delegation showed that communist front organizations receive funds from the Belgian government and some European countries in the guise of marginalized and pro-poor programs.

Documents obtained by the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) also reveal that the Belgian government has released its first tranche of more than 621,000 Euros (PHP36,663,840) out of the 15-million Euro (PHP885,600,000) grant to some non-government organizations for the 2017-2021 program. This year, some 1.3 million Euros (PHP76,752,000) are expected to be released.

According to Brig. Gen. Antonio Parlade Jr., AFP Deputy Chief of Staff for Civil Military Operations, the communist terrorist groups hide behind legitimate organizations.

The military has identified seven recipient organizations based on documents from the Belgian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, not to mention those from other European countries.

“We bring this to the EU as one of our major concerns and we seek your cooperation for the sake of our people by helping us stop the flow of funds,” said Alex Paul Monteagudo, Director General of the National Intelligence Coordinating Agency.

Parlade said the information

Gilles de Kerchove, EU Counter Terrorism coordinator.

PTV / WEBSITE

about the EU and Belgian gov- extra money to spend for anti- pendent financial audit. ernment unwittingly funding government activities.

“You can be assured that we organizations affiliated with “This is the revelation of will monitor the country’s exthe Communist Party of the surrendered communists who penditures and donors who Philippines (CPP) and New said that on the average, they may have given to the organizaPeople’s Army (NPA), came are able to divert 60 percent of tions for the same activity,” de from EU and the Belgian gov- funds to the communist party, Kerchove added. “We will share ernment themselves. which used the money to sup- with you the outcome of (the) “Many of this money was port their activities, such as ral- external audit.” channeled by these NGOs to lies, armed activities, purchase De Kerchove expressed conother organizations whose only of weapons and ammunition, cern about terrorist financobjective is to portray Presi- and terrorizing and killing of ing and that the level of threat dent (Rodrigo) Duterte as a ty- Filipinos,” he said. remains serious, saying it can rant and his administration as These front organizations, happen anytime, like what hapoppressive,” he added.

Monteagudo said, have mas- pened in the Jolo church bombHe said, “What we wanted tered the art of sourcing and ing. the EU and UN (United Na- diverting funds to buy weap“Some terror groups are retions) to also know is that the ons and train children to be- emerging like al-Qaeda, perCPP and its front organizations, come warriors in their alleged sisting propaganda that can like Karapatan, easily seduce are consistent (the) young. and persistent There is no reain providing UN son to be comand European placent,” he said.

We have procurement last year and governments He added that there will be a portion of our 2019 with all these the EU has postbudget that will be allocated for false data.” ed counter terror the capability enhancement. experts to its JaMulti-funding karta delegation scheme to enhance secuMonteagudo said what is schools. rity in ASEAN and other states. even more appalling is that “We hope to send our col“They focus on the indigfunding countries are not aware enous people because they are league to the Philippines who of the multiple funding scheme vulnerable and entrust their will reach out to you soon. We that communist terrorist front children to these schools,” he are eager to explore with the organizations employ.

Philippines to maximize efadded.

Multiple funding, he added, forts,” he said. refers to a project wherein Serious scrutiny Meanwhile, Gunnar communist front organizations Gilles de Kerchove, EU Weigand, Managing Director would solicit simultaneously Counter Terrorism coordina- of European External Action for funds from three or four dif- tor, promised to look into the Service and European Comferent agencies or countries. information very seriously and mission South East Division of It would be a fortune if these develop a more intense coop- Development and Cooperation funding agencies approve their eration.

(DEVCO), promised to conduct requests because it would allow He said he will talk with his an independent financial audit them to undertake the legiti- colleagues in the European this month. mate programs and still have Commission and have an inde“It is important that the taxwww.canadianinquirer.net

payers’ money is well spent.

We take concerns seriously,” Weigand said.

He requested the Philippine delegation to provide any information at the soonest possible time so that they can inform auditors of what to look into.

“We share the same challenges. We have done it in the last two years and we will do more,” he added.

Aside from climate change, Weigand said security is high and complex in Europe, especially after the 2001 New York 9-11 and 2004 Madrid terror attacks.

Europe, he said, like the Philippines is also confronted with terrorism challenges and they are prepared to face the threats.

He admitted that quite a challenging job is information sharing among agencies on terror financing and trafficking of arms.

As EU tries to engage countries faced with terrorism, mainly in Asia, Weigand promised to channel to their different networks the information presented by the Philippine delegation.

“They (communist front organizations) should not be able to collect money in anyway.

We will talk to the people in charge,” he said.

Weigand also echoed de Kerchove’s promise to task the security attache in Indonesia to look into the communist funding information.

European Parliament member Peter Kouroumbashev also vowed to make an alarm of the information and conduct an investigation of the funds.

The Philippine delegation expressed optimism for a productive European engagement, saying that so long as the funding continues to pour in to these front organizations, the CPP-NPA will have the capability to sustain their terror activities.

“Fifty years is long enough.

President Rodrigo Duterte issued EO (Executive Order) 70 to mobilize the whole of government to address the root cause of insurgency,” Monteagudo said.

“We look at communist terrorists in the same manner as other terror groups. If we have to win the war against terrorism, we have to share information,” he added. ■

Philippine News

FRIDAY MARCH 8, 2019

SolGen asks CA to junk challenge vs. new telco player selection

BY BENJAMIN PULTA Philippine News Agency MANILA — Government lawyers formally asked the Court of Appeals (CA) to turn down a suit questioning the selection process for the country’s third telecommunications player.

In a 31-page comment filed on Monday, Solicitor General Jose Calida stood by the legality of the terms of reference (TOR) set by the National Telecommunications Commission (NTC) and urged the appellate court to dismiss the petition filed by NOW Telecom of businessman Mel Velarde last November.

Calida argued that the CA is not allowed by law to issue an injunction order against the selection process for the new major player in the telco industry and cited Section 3 of Republic Act 8975, which prohibits appellate and lower courts from issuing temporary restraining orders or WPIs (writ of preliminary injunction) on national government projects, including infrastructure projects.

“RA 8975 prohibits the issuance of any injunctive writ to prohibit or restrain, among others, the bidding of awarding of an infrastructure project of the government,” Calida explained, saying telecommunications is recognized by law as “essential infrastructure to the country’s economic development and competitiveness.”

The said provision states: “No court, except the Supreme Court, shall issue any temporary restraining order, preliminary injunction or preliminary mandatory injunction against the government, or any of its subdivisions, officials or any person or entity, whether public or private, acting under the government’s direction, to restrain, prohibit or compel the following acts: Acquisition, clearance and development of the right-of-way and/or site or location of any national government project; Bidding or

awarding of contract/project of the national government as defined under Section 2 hereof; Commencement, prosecution, execution, implementation, operation of any such contract or project; Termination or rescission of any such contract/ project; and the undertaking or authorization of any other lawful activity necessary for such contract/project.”

The top government counsel added that NOW Telco is not entitled to such relief simply because it did not participate in the bidding process and therefore had no legal standing to file the case.

“Here, petitioner failed to prove that it has a clear and unmistakable right which is entitled to protection and it shall suffer ‘grave injustice and irreparable injury,” the Solicitor General pointed out.

Calida stressed that NOW Telco has “waived or abandoned” its right to question the TOR when it did not submit a bid during the selection process in November last year.

“Otherwise stated, the ancillary remedy as well as the permanent injunction prated for was meant to secure or protect its intention to bid. When petitioner failed to submit its bid, it has effectively abandoned or waived what it initially claimed was entitled to be secured or protected through an injunctive writ —TRO, writ of preliminary injunction and, later on, a permanent injunction,” he added.

In its petition, NOW Telecom asked the CA to reverse and set aside an earlier decision of Manila Regional Trial Court Branch 42 Judge Dinnah Aguila-Topacio that dismissed the firm’s petition for issuance of WPI. Another petition was filed in November 2018 by Philippine Telegraph & Telephone Corp.

(PT&T) before the Supreme Court. ■

7

PDEA, AMLC beef up drive vs. drug money launderers

BY CHRISTOPHER LLOYD CALIWAN Philippine News Agency MANILA — The Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency (PDEA) and the Anti-Money Laundering Council (AMLC) on Tuesday signed a Memorandum of Agreement (MOA) aimed at strengthening cooperation in running after money launderers who “wash” their illicit proceeds from illegal drug activities.

PDEA Director General Aaron N. Aquino and AMLC Executive Director Mel Georgie B. Racela signed the MOA in a simple ceremony held at the PDEA National Headquarters in Quezon City.

The parties pledged to cooperate in the areas of information exchange and capacity building measures, including the exchange of studies, researches, information on current, new and emerging trends and typologies in money laundering and terrorism financing.

Joint trainings may be undertaken by PDEA and AMLC to ensure the inter-operability of their respective personnel.

Under the MOA, the parties agreed to include terrorism financing as a predicate offense and subject to the common provisions of assistance; establish a feedback mechanism, to enable parties to monitor effectiveness and improve on the information shared; designation of focal persons, to facilitate enhanced coordination and cooperation; and strict confidentiality of information shared, among others.

In general, the MOA focused more on the actual coordination process and requirements of and from each party in rendering support to combat money laundering activities in relation to illegal drugs.

“Under the agreement, both parties have expressed their desire to promote and encourage cooperation to effectively prevent, control, detect and investigate unlawful activities under Section 3 of the Anti-Money Laundering Act,” Aquino told reporters.

According to Aquino, aside from financing terrorism, laundered money comes from the production and trafficking of dangerous drugs, while banks www.canadianinquirer.net

Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency (PDEA) Director General Aaron N. Aquino (left) and Anti-Money Laundering Council Executive Director Atty. Mel Georgie Racela show the memorandum of agreement (MOA) they earlier signed in simple rites at the PDEA national headquarters in Quezon City.

AVITO C. DALAN/PNA

and other regulated entities have become conduits for laundering drug money.

“Drug lords hide their profits to make it appear they were acquired through legitimate means. We need to track down their drug money trail and prevent them from using their affluence and influence to evade punishment,” he stressed.

“The efforts and resources used by PDEA in tracking down and arresting illegal drug dealers and manufacturers will definitely go for naught if we cannot freeze the assets of these criminals while they are being prosecuted,” the PDEA chief pointed out, adding, “we cannot go on arresting and filing the cases while the drug lords are freely using drug money to buy their way out of prison.”

Aquino said the PDEA may request for financial information to support an ongoing investigation on any violations of the anti-drug law and in return, AMLC may enlist the assistance of PDEA in the detection and investigation of money laundering activities and other violations of the AMLA. PDEA and AMLC are members of the National Law Enforcement Coordinating Committee-SubCommittee on Anti-Money Laundering and Countering the Financing of Terrorism (NALECC Sub-Committee AML/CFT), and of the Enforcement Cluster of the Inter-Agency Committee on Illegal Drugs (ICAD).

Three Financial Investigation workshops clustered in Luzon, Visayas and Mindanao were conducted, with personnel of PDEA and AMLC as

participants. Likewise, three Trainings on Money Laundering and Financing of Terrorism were provided to more or less 150 Drug Enforcement Officers as part of PDEA’s capability enhancement program.

In 2018, the PDEA Anti-Money Laundering Desk (AMLD) referred 75 cases involving 102 targeted drug personalities and 64 personalities believed to be involved in illegal drug activities to AMLC for financial investigation. From 2011 to 2018, AMLC has frozen a total of PHP2.037 billion worth of assets, which include local and foreign currencies, real estate, motor vehicles and firearms, from all drug cases referred by the PDEA AMLD. For his part, Racela said that will help PDEA by providing evidence to establish charges of drug trafficking filed against offenders.

“Kailangan magbigay sa amin ng ebidensiya na linked sila or may connection sila sa drug trafficking para ma-establish namin yung probable cause for freezing (their accounts). Yun ang aaksiyunan namin (We need evidence that they have links or connections to drug trafficking to establish probable cause in freezing their accounts. That is what we will act upon),” Racela told reporters when sought for a comment.

AMLC is the primary government agency mandated by law to implement and enforce the AMLA, to protect the integrity and confidentiality of bank accounts and to ensure that the Philippines shall not be used as a money laundering site for the proceeds of any unlawful activity. ■

Philippine News

8

MARCH 8, 2019

FRIDAY

Something ‘wrong’ with EJK survey question: PNP Correspondent/Hosts Bea Kirstein T. Manalaysay Joanna Belle Deala Gianna Llanes Arianne Grace U. Lacanilao Violeta Arevelo Babes Newland Graphic Design Shanice Garcia Ginno Alcantara Arlnie Colleene Talain Singca Account Manager Kristopher Yong Director/Producer Boom Dayupay Photographers/Videographers Ginno Alcantara Maria Crizandra Baylon Sales Aireen De Asis Paul Acosta Dennis Cruz Operations and Admin Victoria Yong Amelia Insigne Management Alan Yong Victoria Yong For photo submissions, please email editor@canadianinquirer.net For General Inquiries, please email info@canadianinquirer.net For Sales Inquiries, please email sales@canadianinquirer.net or contact 778-788-4998 Philippine Canadian Inquirer is located at 11951 Hammersmith Way, Suite 108 Richmond, B.C. V7A 5H9 Canada

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BY CHRISTOPHER LLOYD CALIWAN Philippine News Agency MANILA — The Philippine National Police (PNP) on Monday expressed doubt over the type of questioning used in a recent survey showing that more Filipinos fear of being victims of extrajudicial killings (EJKs).

“I do not want to dispute the statistics derived by SWS (Social Weather Stations), except that there is something amiss with how the questions were framed in relation to the perception of alleged police involvement in illegal drugs and alleged EJKs,” PNP Chief, General Oscar Albayalde, said in a press briefing Monday.

Albayalde was referring to a Social Weather Stations (SWS) survey conducted Dec. 16 to 19, 2018 showing that 78 percent of Filipinos are worried that they, or anyone they know, will be a victim of EJKs. This figure is higher by five points from the 73 percent acquired in June 2017.

“I take the latest survey results on public perception to alleged extrajudicial killing with a full cup of salt. It shouldn’t be surprising that 78 percent are afraid of getting killed. Who isn’t afraid to die, anyway?” Albayalde told reporters in a press briefing in Camp Crame Monday.

Albayalde said that the kind of questioning being done by the SWS in relation to the public’s perception on extrajudicial killings was incorrect.

“Responses to the question “Gaano po kayo nangangamba na kayo o sino mang kilala ninyo ay maging biktima ng ’extrajudicial killing’ o EJK? (How worried are

PNP Chief Oscar Albayalde.

you that you or anyone you know will be a victim of ‘extrajudicial killing’ or EJK?)” cannot be validated by respondents without keen awareness or understanding of EJK as we know it from Administrative Order 35 Series of 2012

by President (Benigno) Aquino,” he said.

He said the survey missed the crucial point of determining the respondents’ awareness of EJK before going any further, or at the very least providing a briefer to define EJK for the respondent.

“Nonetheless, that doesn’t change the fact that a large majority continue to support the national crusade against illegal drugs and show appreciation to the improved drug situation in their own communities,” said Albayalde.

The country’s top cop also asked SWS to be responsible in conducting surveys.

“This is a private corporation, a private agency that we have no control of.

We do not know whether they are really being used by somebody or not. We really do not know. What we are asking here

JOEY O. RAZON / PNA

is that we humbly ask is for them to be responsible. Yung importante dito is our social responsibility,” he stressed.

Albayalde, however, expressed hope that survey firms such as SWS remain impartial and apolitical.

“Let us all be fair to the Filipino people. They deserve the truth. Let’s not let our offices be used by any political party because it will be reflected in the way the people perceive the information we are releasing. We give the public the truth,” he added.

Albayalde noted that there are no proven incidents of EJKs since President Rodrigo Duterte took office in 2016.

He said at least 50 percent of the deaths under investigation have already been solved or cleared which means that the suspects have been identified or arrested.

He said case folders of deaths under investigation have been submitted to the Office of the Solicitor General which will be forwarded to the Supreme Court. ■

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Japan needs 350 nurses, caregivers

BY FERDINAND PATINIO Philippine News Agency MANILA — A total of 350 Filipino workers are needed in Japan, the Philippine Overseas Employment Administration (POEA) announced on Monday.

With this, the agency is now accepting qualified applicants for nurses and care workers under the Framework for the Movement of Natural Persons of the Philippines-Japan Economic Partnership Agreement (PJEPA).

In a statement, the POEA said that the Japan International Corporation of Welfare Services (JICWELS) is looking for qualified applicants to fill up vacancies for 50 nurses or kangoshi and 300

care workers or kaigofukushishi.

Qualifications for nursing positions are as follows, the applicant must be a graduate of Bachelor of Science in Nursing, with Professional Regulation Commission (PRC) Board license, with at least three years hospital experience, and must be motivated and committed to work and study as a candidate for “kangoshi” to obtain a National License in Japan.

Also, they are required to complete a six-month onsite Japanese language training and thereafter undergo on-thejob training at their respective hospitals.

Those who are looking to be employed should be able to pass the nursing licensure examination in Japan before they can work as registered nurses.

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They have three chances to take the examination.

On the other hand, applicants for care workers, he/she must be a graduate of any four-year course, a certified NCII caregiver by Technical Education and Skills Development Authority (TESDA), and a graduate of Bachelor of Science in Nursing (with or without PRC license).

They shall initially complete a sixmonth onsite language training and work on-the-job for at least three years before they can take the national examination for caregivers to be able to work in Japan indefinitely.

Aspirants have until April 30 to submit their applications. ■

Philippine News

FRIDAY MARCH 8, 2019

9

Arroyo denies ‘manipulating’ budget bicam report: Palace

BY AZER PARROCHA AND FILANE MIKEE CERVANTES Philippine News Agency

Presidential Spokesman Salvador Panelo.

SCREENGRAB FROM PCOO

Duterte critics could be making fake accounts: Palace PHILIPPINE NEWS AGENCY MANILA — Malacañang on Monday dismissed the remark made by Marites Vitug, editorat-large of online news site Rappler, claiming that “fake” social media accounts are behind continuous attacks against them.

Presidential Spokesperson Salvador Panelo described Vitug’s claim as “fake news” noting that she failed to present proof that government is really paying people to create these accounts.

“She may have verified it as a fake account but does she have proof that the government is paying to create that account?”

Panelo told PNA in a text message.

“It could be that it’s the detractors of PRRD creating those fake accounts and then point to the government as the source of those fake accounts. Very convenient for them to do that, don’t you think so?” he added.

Vitug, in a recent interview with NHK World Japan, said that Rappler has been receiving threats from “fake accounts” on social media and suspected these were being funded by government.

“The threats (Rappler receives) come from online, social media, and fake accounts.

Rappler was able to trace some of these accounts and they’re fake. And the suspicion is they

are funded by government,” Vitug said.

“The President of the Philippines is autocratic, he’s intolerant of criticism from the media and also from his opponents.

So, he uses state agencies to go against independent media,” she added.

Panelo pointed out that Vitug is a “known Duterte detractor” and supporter of Duterte’s staunch critics including detained Senator Leila de Lima and Senator Antonio Trillanes IV. Last year, Trillanes claimed that the Presidential Communications Operations Office (PCOO) was using part of its budget to finance administration trolls on social media.

PCOO Secretary Martin Andanar has repeatedly denied employing a keyboard army to attack the President’s critics.

Last month, Rappler CEO Maria Ressa was arrested over cyber libel charges filed by businessman Wilfredo Keng after he was named as the owner of a sports utility vehicle used by the late Chief Justice Renato Corona in the article titled, “CJ using SUVs of ‘controversial’ businessmen” published on its website.

Critics described Ressa’s arrest as an attack against press freedom.

However, Palace cited her violation of the country’s laws, noting that rule of law was followed in her arrest.■

MANILA — House Speaker Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo denied Senator Panfilo Lacson’s claim that she allegedly “manipulated” the ratified bicameral committee report on the proposed PHP 3.757-trillion budget for 2019, Malacañang said on Tuesday.

Speaking to Arroyo over the phone, Presidential Spokesperson Salvador cited Arroyo as saying that she did not introduce changes on the ratified bicameral report prior to the printing and enrollment of the budget measure, contrary to Lacson’s claim.

“According to Speaker Arroyo, as far as she knows, whatever was approved in the bicam is now the one being printed for submission to the Executive,” Panelo told reporters in a chance interview after the regular Palace briefing.

“Wala daw nabago doon sa bicam. Eh kung from what she says yun yung pini-print, eh di yun na ‘yun (Nothing changed in the bicam report. From what she says, that’s what’s being printed, then that’s it),” he added.

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Panelo emphasized that Arroyo also assured him that the ratified bicameral report which Lacson did not have issues with, is what is currently being printed and will be transmitted to President Rodrigo R. Duterte for his signature.

Lacson earlier said the proposed 2019 national budget is likely doomed after Arroyo allegedly “manipulated” its ratified bicameral committee report.

“The 2019 national budget is doomed, but not to our own liking. I will raise a big legal issue before my colleagues in the Upper House out of this latest scheme that our Lower House counterparts led by their Speaker are resorting to in order to manipulate the ratified bicameral committee report,” Lacson said.

Lacson noted that Arroyo prepared and imposed a “menu list” of the Department of Health’s budget for the Health Facilities Enhancement Program (HFEP) worth PHP25 million in individual allocations for her “favored congressmen,” including a PHP2.5 million allocation for the purchase of an ambulance.

He further noted that those who did not support Arroyo’s election as Speaker will only receive PHP8 million each.

“Exercising this latest bra-

zen, illegal act after the bicameral committee report has been adopted and ratified by both houses smacks of grave abuse of discretion on the part of Speaker Arroyo,” he said.

He said Arroyo’s move is a clear violation of the 1987 Constitution, which states that “upon the last reading of a bill, no amendment thereto shall be allowed.”

“I maintain, and I trust that majority of my colleagues in the Senate will agree, that such realignments ordered by Speaker Arroyo prior to the printing of the proposed 2019 budget is clearly unconstitutional and inappropriate,” he said.

“Needless to say and it is basis in our legislative process that the House as a body has the sole power to make the amendments, not the Speaker, and certainly not after the ratification of the bicameral report,” he added.

Both the House and Senate ratified the bicameral conference committee report on the 2019 national budget on Feb. 8 before going into a congressional break for the May mid-term polls.

The government has been operating on a reenacted budget since January 1 after lawmakers failed to pass the spending bill last year due to allegations of pork “insertions.” ■

10

Philippine News

MARCH 8, 2019

FRIDAY

Duterte assures court Misuari 64 politicians on will return if allowed to travel narco-list seeking

re-election: PDEA

BY BENJAMIN PULTA Philippine News Agency MANILA — President Rodrigo R. Duterte has assured the court that Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF) founding chairman Nur Misuari will definitely return if permitted to leave the country.

Duterte made this assurance as he asked the court, the police and the military to allow the MNLF leader to travel abroad.

“Now Misuari came to me sa opisina ko (in my office) the other night because he wanted to go out, he was not allowed, tapos may kaso siya (because he is facing cases),” Duterte said during the PDP-Laban campaign rally in Zamboanga City on Sunday (March 3).

“Kinausap ko ang police pati military pati ang korte na palabasin muna siya (I spoke to the police, military, and court to allow him to leave the country). Ako ang nag-guarantee (guaranteed) that he will come back,” he added.

Malacañang, for its part, said that it saw nothing wrong with Duterte asking the court to allow Misuari to leave the country, noting that this move could help attain peace and order in Mindanao.

“Kung yung pagbibigay ng laya temporarily to Misuari makakatulong, palagay ko tungkulin ng Presidente na ipaalam sa hukuman na makakatulong itong taong ito (If giving temporary freedom to Misuari will help, I think it is the mandate of the President to tell the court that this person can help attain peace in Mindanao),” Presidential Spokesperson Salvador Panelo said in a Palace briefing.

Panelo, Misuari’s former legal counsel, clarified that Duterte was not violating the separation of powers because

BY CHRISTOPHER LLOYD CALIWAN Philippine News Agency

President Rodrigo Roa Duterte greets Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF) Chairman Nur Misuari.

ROBINSON NIÑAL / PRESIDENTIAL PHOTO

he was not demanding but only persuading the courts.

“Ang tinatawag na interference ay kung sinabing ‘palabasin mo ‘yan’. Kumbaga inuutos mo. Pero kung kakausapin nyo, (Interference is when you ordered to allow him to go out.

But if you persuade), I need this man to help us preserve peace in Mindanao,” Panelo said.

“What he is saying is, mas gusto niya na makalabas si Misuari (he would prefer to allow Misuari to leave) para pagbalik, maayos na ang problema sa Mindanao (so that when he returns, the problems in Mindanao have already been solved),” he added.

He said Duterte was simply providing the court with input to convince them to grant Misuari’s plea to leave the country.

“Hindi mo talaga diretsang pinakikialaman ang desisyon ng isang hukuman. Pinapabayaaan mo sila, (You’re not directly interfering with the decision of the court. You leave it to them), provide them with inputs and let them evaluate),” Panelo said.

Courts can’t be intimidated

Panelo also believed that courts would not allow themselves to be coerced or intimidated by any branch of the government.

“You have to call the attention of the court to this position so that it can be evaluated kasi if it means the survival of this country then the President should do everything in his persuasive power to convince other branches,” Panelo said.

However, he also said other branches of government should cooperate with the executive in efforts to achieve long-lasting peace in Mindanao.

“Kung kailangan ng Presidente na makiusap sa bawat sangay and after all itong tatlo sangay na ito ay dapat magtulungan para sa bansa natin (If there is a need for President to appeal to every branch of government and after all, these 3 branches need to help each other for our country),” Panelo said.

Duterte and Misuari had a short meeting at Malacañan Palace on February 25, during which, the President expressed admiration for Misuari’s patience in the peace talks.

Executive Secretary Salvador Medialdea said that Duterte and Misuari are scheduled to meet again soon.

Medialdea, however, clarified that Duterte only wanted a gentleman’s agreement with Misuari after the President said he wanted to “craft a new deal for the MNLF of Misuari.” ■

www.canadianinquirer.net

MANILA — The Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency (PDEA) on Tuesday revealed that 64 out of 82 politicians on the “narcolist” are seeking re-election in this year’s mid-term polls.

“I think it’s 64 (local officials). They filed their COCs (Certificate of Candidacy) and the remaining 18 decided not to file,” PDEA Director General Aaron Aquino told reporters after the signing of a memorandum of agreement (MOA) with Anti-Money Laundering Council (AMLC).

Aquino said they have yet to finish the revalidation of the list of politicians allegedly involved in illegal drug transactions.

“As of now, there is an instruction for PDEA to disclose the list, but I can’t do it right now because we haven’t finished our revalidation of all the narco politicians. Actually, they are now down to 82. Last time, I said it’s 83 but one of the mayors was arrested, Mayor Franco Salasal of Datu Salibo of Maguindanao,” he said.

However, Aquino noted that the number may go up after the validation process as there are more politicians in the national drug information system.

He said some of those on the list were drug lords while the others provide protection to the illegal drugs trade in their areas.

Aquino reiterated his stand of not being in favor of releasing the list, particularly prior to revalidation as it would be unfair for those on the list and may promote negative campaigning.

“First and foremost, we still remain on my stand. I don’t want the list to be revealed or to be disclosed. That has been my statement from the beginning.

Even before the filing of the COCs, that is already my stand,” he explained.

Aquino, however, said he will comply if President Rodrigo Duterte orders him to publicize the list.

“If it will be ordered by the President that this list will be revealed, I should abide by that.

I think the authority to disclose the list was not given to PDEA but instead to the SILG (Secretary of the Interior and Local Government Eduardo Año),” he said.

Aquino previously said he would prefer to file charges against politicians on the “narco-list” than publicizing it.

He said it would also be better if they obtain solid evidences against these politicians and directly file charges against them but he noted that building cases against these politicians is not that easy.

Aquino said the DILG is already preparing to file charges against some of those on the list.

The Philippine National Police (PNP) earlier said while it supports the move to unmask politicians on the “narco-list,” it is the President who has the final decision on the matter.

PNP Chief, Gen. Oscar Albayalde, said it is the right of the voters to know who among those running in the mid-term elections are involved in illegal drugs trade. ■

Philippine News

FRIDAY MARCH 8, 2019

11

Libyan High Court rules to acquit 7 Pinoy seafarers in fuel smuggling case — DFA

BY JOANNA BELLE DEALA Philippine Canadian Inquirer SEVEN FILIPINO seafarers who were arrested in Libya for an alleged attempt to smuggle fuel were acquitted by the Libyan High Court, the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) announced on Monday, March 4.

“The Philippine Embassy in Tripoli said the Libyan High Court has ordered the release of the seven crew members of the M/T Levante who were earlier sentenced by a lower court to four years in prison for al-

legedly attempting to smuggle fuel,” the DFA said in its statement. The seven sailors have been held in Libya since August 2017.

The embassy, according to Chargé d’Affaires Mardomel Celo Melicor, received the copy of the court’s order on Sunday, March 3, and is now coordinating with the Libyan authorities for the repatriation of the seafarers.

“Chargé d’Affaires Melicor said the seven were among 20 Filipinos who were taken into custody after the Libyan Coast Guard boarded and seized the

Liberian-flagged tanker while it was anchored in international waters,” the DFA said.

“The Filipinos were investigated and detained for alleged economic sabotage because they supposedly attempted to smuggle six million liters of fuel,” it added.

The Libyan authorities released 13 crew members in February 2018, but the remaining seven, who are all officers, were charged and sentenced to four years in prison in November.

The detained sailors, who have “consistently denied” the charges against them, are iden-

Forbes names Manny Villar as PH’s richest man

BY JOANNA BELLE DEALA Philippine Canadian Inquirer FORBES MAGAZINE on Tuesday, March 5, revealed that real estate tycoon Manuel “Manny” Villar is now the wealthiest man in the Pearl of the Orient Seas.

In its 2019 list of richest people in the world, Villar, who used to help his mother in selling seafood at the Divisoria market, obtained a net worth of $5.5-billion, which increased from last year’s $5-billion. He landed on the 317th spot worldwide.

The 69-year-old businessman is the chairman of mall operator Starmalls and homebuilder company Vista Land & Lifescapes, Inc. Villar succeeded Henry Sy, Sr., the founder of the SM group who died last January 19.

JG Summit Group’s John Gokongwei, meanwhile, ranked second as the country’s richest, with a net worth of $5.1-billion.

He was followed by Enrique Razon, Jr., who chairs the International Container Terminal Services (ICTSI), having a net worth of $4.8-billion.

LT Group’s Lucio Tan took over the fourth place with $4.4-billion net worth.

The founder and chairman of Jollibee Foods Corporation Tony Tan Caktiong and his fam-

tified as Arthur Soria Taleno, Fulgencio Pederito Eulogio, Claro Camintay Allera, Abraham Senara Naduma, Jr., Ronnie Lumales Moniya, Gil Dellupac Cruzada, and Aldwin Salang-oy Emperada.

Foreign Affairs Secretary Teodoro “Teddy Boy” Locsin Jr. welcomed the acquittal of the seven Filipino seafarers.

Responding to a tweet of DFA Assistant Secretary Elmer Cato who expressed gratitude for the release of his fellow countrymen, Locsin said, “Tell our boys in Tripoli I love them. Amazing.

We thank the Assistance to Na-

Romualdez confirms bid for Speakership post

BY JOSE CIELITO REGANIT Philippine News Agency

MANNY VILLAR / FACEBOOK

ily completed the top five, earning a net worth of $3.9-billion.

Other tycoons from the Philippines included in the Forbes’ list are as follows: Ramon Ang with $2.9-billion; Andrew Tan with $2.7-billion; Hans Sy and Herbert Sy with $2.4-billion; Harley Sy, Henry Sy, Jr., and Teresita Sy-Coson with $2.2-billion; Elizabeth Sy with $1.9-billion; Eduardo Cojuangco and Robert Coyiuto, Jr. with $1.4 billion); Ricardo Po, Sr. and family with $1.2 billion; and Roberto Ongpin with $1.1 billion.

Amazon’s Jeff Bezos, meanwhile, remains to be the

wealthiest person in the planet with a net worth of $131-billion.

He was followed by Microsoft founder Bill Gates who has a net worth of $96.5-billion and Berkshire Hathaway’s Warren Buffet with $82.5-billion.

On the other hand, makeup mogul Kylie Jenner is named as the “youngest self-made billionaire ever” who earned a net worth of $1-billion at the age of 21. Forbes said Kylie reached a ten-figure fortune “at a younger age than even Mark Zuckerberg (who was 23 when he hit that mark).” ■ www.canadianinquirer.net

tionals Fund as well for paying for the appeals lawyers who got our people acquitted.”

He continued, “I thank the Libyan Government. Yes, the justice system works in Libya.

Hope to pay a visit soon.”

The DFA earlier said Locsin sought the help of Libyan Deputy Foreign Minister Lufti Al-Maghrabi in securing the release of the seafarers. The DFA chief met the Libyan official on the sidelines of the Global Compact for Migration meeting in Morocco in December. ■

MANILA — Lakas-Christian Muslim Democrats (LakasCMD) president Martin Romualdez on Monday confirmed that he is eyeing the Speakership post in the 18th Congress, following statements made by Hugpong ng Pagbabago (HNP) chairperson and Davao City Mayor Sara Duterte that he is “interested” in becoming the next House leader.

“I confirm the statement of Mayor Sara that I am interested in the Speakership race of the 18th Congress,” Romualdez said in a text message to media when asked to comment.

“Many congressmen aspire for that position. I am humbled and honored that she (Mayor Sara) mentioned my name as one of the contenders,” he added.

Furthermore, Romualdez, who was Leyte First District representative from June 2007 to June 2016, reaffirmed his commitment to the legislative agenda of President Rodrigo Duterte.

“As a Malacañang ally, it is my duty to push the legislative agenda of the President. At the moment, I am working very

hard to ensure my victory in the coming election,” he said.

Romualdez’s confirmation of his run for the Speakership post creates a possible four-way fight for the fourth highest position of the land.

Also reportedly eyeing the Speakership are former Foreign Affairs Secretary Alan Peter Cayetano and Marinduque Rep. Lord Allan Velasco.

Cayetano, who is running for representative of Taguig City and Pateros, was the former running mate of President Duterte.

On the other hand, Velasco is the son of retired Supreme Court Senior Associate Justice Presbitero Velasco, and has been very visible in HNP sorties for its senatorial bets.

Meanwhile, the ruling Partido Demokratiko PilipinoLakas ng Bayan (PDP Laban) announced last week the possibility of having ousted Speaker and Davao del Norte Rep. Pantaleon Alvarez to return to his old post as Speaker.

However, unlike the other contenders who are running literally unopposed in their respective districts, Alvarez is facing Gov. Antonio Rafael del Rosario in his reelection bid.

Del Rosario is a candidate of Sara Duterte’s HNP. ■

12

Philippine News

MARCH 8, 2019

Faithful urged...

Comelec sees early printing of over 63-M poll ballots

❰❰ 1

Hapag-Asa. It only takes 1,220.00 for six months – or PHP10 per day – to nourish a hungry and undernourished child,” Tagle said.

Hapag-Asa, an integrated nutrition program of the Catholic Church, has helped in feeding more than 2 million hungry and malnourished children throughout the country.

To sustain its gains, it has also capacitated the children’s parents through values education, and skills and livelihood training.

The Cardinal noted that the Season of Lent is also the time for the faithful to reconcile and renew their faith.

“The Lenten season, which begins today, Ash Wednesday, is a time of mercy. It is an acceptable time to allow ourselves to be reconciled and to be renewed by the tenderness of the Father.

It is a time given to us to trace our steps back to the path from which we strayed,” he said.

“Now, in her great wisdom,

BY FERDINAND PATINIO Philippine News Agency

ARCHDIOCESE OF MANILA - OFFICE OF COMMUNICATIONS/FACEBOOK

the church invites us to verify the quality of our Lenten commitment also in the light of charity. Indeed, it is charity that must shine above all and fill our hearts, because everything will end one day, with the exception of charity – a discreet, humble charity that does not make any noise to draw attention to itself, but works quietly and secretly.

To practice charity is concrete proof that we are striving to follow Jesus, and that we are mak-

ing the gift of ourselves the active principle of Christian life,” he added.

Ash Wednesday marks the start of the Lenten season which will end on Easter Sunday.

On this day, the priest or a lay minister put a cross, using ashes on the foreheads of the faithful.

During Lent, Filipino Catholics pray and make sacrifices, including avoiding meat in their diet, among others.

Raps vs. Aquino over Dengvaxia fiasco resolved by end-March

BY BENJAMIN PULTA Philippine News Agency MANILA — The Department of Justice (DOJ) may resolve within the month the criminal complaints against former President Benigno “Noynoy” Aquino III and others implicated in the undue haste in the procurement of the multi-billion peso government contract for the anti-dengue vaccine Dengvaxia.

“Baka within the month (Maybe within the month it will be released),” DOJ Secretary Menardo Guevarra told reporters Monday when sought for comment on the status of the complaint filed against the former chief executive by two groups, the Volunteers against Crime Corruption (VACC) and the Vanguard of the Philippine Constitution Inc. (VCPI).

Sen. Richard Gordon earlier urged the DOJ to look closely into Aquino’s possible liability in the PHP3.5-billion purchase of the vaccine.

FRIDAY

“I have already explained to Sen. Gordon that former President Aquino, (former Budget) Sec. Butch Abad, et al. are facing a different complaint (antigraft, violation of the procurement law, etc.) which is also up for resolution by the DOJ very soon,” Guevarra explained.

Aquino and his co-respondents are accused of having committed violation of Section 3(e) of Republic Act (RA) 3019, the Anti-Graft and Corrupt Practices Act; technical malversation under Section 65(3) of RA 9184, the Government Procurement Reform Act; and reckless imprudence resulting multiple homicide through criminal negligence under Article 365 of the Revised Penal Code.

Charged along with Aquino are Abad, Garin, and former and current Department of Health (DOH) officials included as respondents are Undersecretaries Carol Tanio, Gerardo Bayugo, Lilibeth David, and Mario Villaverde; Assistant Secretaries Lyndon Lee Suy and Nestor

Santiago; Directors Laureano Cruz, Joyce Ducusin, Mar Wynn Bello, Leonila Gorgolon, Rio Magpantay, Ariel Valencia, and Julius Lecciones; retired Undersecretary Nemesio Gako; resigned Undersecretaries Vicente Belizario Jr. and Kenneth Hartigan-Go; and resigned executive assistant to Garin, Dr. Yolanda Oliveros.

Sanofi Pasteur and local distributor Zuellig Pharma officials were also named as corespondents in the complaint.

The National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) likewise filed in July 2018 a criminal complaint before the Office of the Ombudsman against Aquino, Abad, and Garin over their alleged involvement in the anomalous purchase of the vaccine.

Another DOJ panel has released last February 27 its resolution finding probable cause to indict Garin and 19 others for reckless imprudence resulting in homicide for their liability in the deaths of eight children who got shots of the vaccine. ■

MANILA — The Commission on Elections (Comelec) is looking at finishing the printing of the over 63 million official ballots to be used in the forthcoming midterm polls ahead of its April 25 deadline.

“Our target is well, the expectation is to complete printing

by April 25. It looks like we will be able to complete printing 10 days early. If nothing goes wrong we will be able to finish printing 10 days early,” said Comelec spokesperson James Jimenez in a press briefing on Monday.

He reported that they have already printed close to 20 million ballots.

“We already have as of this morning 19,705,792 ballots. We are now starting printing for Region 8. This represents about 30 percent of the total ballot requirement,” the poll body official added.

He said that they are now printing 1.1 million ballots a day.

“We are now printing at peak production of more than a million per day, 1.1 million per day and the fact that the National Printing Office is scheduled to add another printer then we expect to finish early,” Jimenez added.

A total of 63,662,481 ballots, for local polls a total of 61,843,771 and 1,818,710 ballots for overseas absentee voting (OAV).

Aside from the official ballots, a total of 1,142,063 ballots will also be printed for the Final Testing & Sealing (FTS) to test the

vote counting machines (VCMs).

On the other hand, Jimenez has reminded voters on the do’s and dont’s in the forthcoming polls.

He reiterated that the midterm polls will be held on May 13, 2019 and voters will be voting for 12 Senators and one Party-List organization for national positions.

As for local positions, the electorate will be choosing one member of the House of Representatives, one Governor, one Vice-Governor, Provincial Board members, one City/Municipal Mayor, one City/Municipal Vice-Mayor and members of the City/Municipal Council.

“The election is automated.

It’s recommended to 100% shade the oval, but the Vote Counting Machine (VCM) will also accept at least 25 percent shading,” he said in his Twitter account, @jabjimenez.

Likewise, the poll body official advised those who will participate in the May midterm polls not to over-vote.

“Ang lahat ng boto sa overvoted position ay ituturing na stray at hindi mabibilang. Allowed ang abstain (walang binoto), at allowed ang under-vote o bumoto ng kulang sa hinihingi.

Halimbawa, bumoto ng isang senador, imbes na 12 (All overvoted positions will be considered stray votes and will not be counted. Abstain is allowed and so is under-vote or voting less than the required number. For example, only one senator instead of 12),” he added.

The Comelec official said that taking pictures of the ballots or posing with it in front of the camera are prohibited acts. ■

Commission on Elections (Comelec) spokesperson. Director James Jimenez (left).

BEN BRIONES / PNA

www.canadianinquirer.net

Philippine News

FRIDAY MARCH 8, 2019

13

Monaco-based firm eyes import of coconut oil, products

BY CHRISTINE CUDIS Philippine News Agency MANILA — The agricultural sector seems to be gaining from the various inter-country visitations of this administration, after an international company makes an arrangement to buy Philippine produce.

The Department of Agriculture sealed a deal with BANEX Corporation, a huge name in the agro-industrial business.

The Monaco-based group has signified its intention to import a huge volume of coconut oil and other coconut products from the Philippines starting immediately.

BANEX Corporation representative Igor Malyshkov, who visited the Philippines on Monday, said the interest of BANEX Corporation in Philippine agricultural products was a result of the visit of President Rodrigo

Duterte to Moscow, Russia in May 2017.

The corporation, which also has offices in Moscow and Ecuador, will also be importing other agricultural products from the Philippines like palm oil, bananas and pineapple to be sold in some 5,000 outlets all over Eastern Europe.

“This is a totally new area for us and we are going to be dealing with new and exciting products,” Malyshkov said in an exclusive interview with ABSCBN’s Henry Omaga-Diaz on Monday.

In a statement posted on Facebook by Agriculture Secretary Manny Piñol, Malyshkov decided to visit the Philippines after weeks of negotiations between the agriculture secretary and intermediaries.

Malyshkov said the interest to import coconuts from the Philippines is due to the huge demand in the Eastern Euro-

pean market where consumers are becoming more health conscious.

BANEX Corporation is mainly involved with banana growing in Ecuador which it sells to the Russian Federation and the Eastern European markets.

He said BANEX will now venture into the trading of coconut products, including palm oil, pineapple and bananas.

“The market is huge and we

have the infrastructure and network of over 5,000 outlets to distribute the products that we will source from the Philippines,” he said.

On Tuesday, representatives of the Philippine Coconut Authority, a team from the banana and pineapple industry and the North Cotabato Palm Oil Corporation, will brief Malyshkov and his group on the business prospects in the Philippines.

He said the importation of coconut and palm oil will start immediately after supply agreements with local oil milling companies have been signed.

This development is expected to push up prices of coconut and palm oil, which have been very low in the last few months and save farmers from further hardships. ■

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14

Canada News PM strikes more conciliatory tone after second minister resigns over SNC Lavalin

BY JOAN BRYDEN The Canadian Press OTTAWA — Prime Minister Justin Trudeau dropped his insistence that his government has done nothing wrong in the SNC-Lavalin affair after a second cabinet minister in less than a month resigned Monday.

Treasury Board president Jane Philpott handed in her resignation Monday afternoon, saying she’s lost confidence in the way the government has dealt with criminal charges against the Montreal engineering giant.

Her resignation came after former attorney general Jody Wilson-Raybould resigned from cabinet amid allegations that the Prime Minister’s Office improperly pressured her to stop a criminal prosecution of SNC-Lavalin.

At a rally Monday night in Toronto, Trudeau did not repeat the same message he’s delivered since the controversy erupted a month ago, that no undue pressure was exerted, that the government was balancing its concern for the fate of 9,000 SNC-Lavalin employees with respect for the independence of the justice system.

Rather, he adopted a more conciliatory tone that appeared to allow for the possibility that a line may have been crossed.

“In a democracy like ours and in a space where we value our diversity so strongly, we’re allowed to have disagreements and debate. We even encourage it. This matter has gener-

ated an important discussion.

How democratic institutions, specifically the federal ministry and the staff and officials that support it, conduct themselves is critical and core to all of our principles,” Trudeau said.

“Concerns of this nature must be taken very seriously and I can assure you that I am,” he added, saying that he’s “listening carefully to the various voices, testimonies and opinions” of witnesses at the House of Commons justice committee.

Trudeau went out of his way to thank Philpott for her service and praise her various accomplishments. And he said her decision to resign was not a surprise.

“I know Ms. Philpott has felt this way for some time and, while I am disappointed, I understand her decision to step down.”

In her resignation letter to Trudeau, Philpott pointed out that a cabinet minister must be able “speak in support of the government and its policies” at all times.

“Given this convention and the current circumstances, it is untenable for me to continue to serve as a cabinet minister,” she wrote.

Trudeau named Carla Qualtrough, the minister of public services and procurement, as the acting president of the Treasury Board.

Conservative Leader Andrew Scheer said Philpott’s resignation proves he was correct when he asserted last week that Trudeau has “lost the moral authority to govern.”

ART BABYCH / SHUTTERSTOCK.COM

“Today, a senior member of his inner circle has come to the same conclusion,” said Scheer, repeating his call for Trudeau to resign and for the RCMP to investigate. “Jane Philpott’s resignation from cabinet clearly demonstrates a government in total chaos, led by a disgraced prime minister consumed with scandal and focused only on his political survival.”

Scheer called on other cabinet ministers to follow Philpott’s example or be seen as part of the “ethical rot that infects this government.”

New Democrat Leader Jagmeet Singh reiterated his call for a public inquiry into the affair.

Like Wilson-Raybould, Philpott said she intends to remain a Liberal MP — for MarkhamStouffville outside Toronto, in her case. But unlike Wilson-Raybould, she did not say whether she intends to run for re-election as a Liberal this fall, although

www.canadianinquirer.net

she has already been nominated.

There has been some speculation in Liberal circles that Philpott might run for leader of the Ontario Liberal party.

Philpott’s resignation was not entirely unexpected among Liberals, who knew she and Wilson-Raybould are close friends. Indeed, when WilsonRaybould resigned from cabinet, Philpott tweeted a picture of the pair with their arms around each other.

In a tweet praising Philpott’s “constant and unassailable commitment to always doing what is right and best for Canadians,” Wilson-Raybould told her friend: “You are a leader of vision & strength & I look forward to continuing to work alongside you.”

The pair’s departure is a blow to Trudeau’s brand. Both women were star candidates for the Liberals during the 2015 election and their initial appointment to prestigious cabi-

net posts was emblematic of Trudeau’s commitment to gender equality. Wilson-Raybould, the country’s first Indigenous justice minister, also embodied Trudeau’s vow to make reconciliation with Indigenous Peoples his top priority.

Wilson-Raybould last week delivered bombshell testimony at the House of Commons justice committee, accusing officials of relentlessly pressuring her and even issuing veiled threats to co-operate in helping SNC-Lavalin avoid a criminal prosecution. The company is a pillar of Montreal’s business community, employs some 9,000 people across Canada and is a major player in infrastructure projects both inside and outside Canada.

Trudeau and his officials allegedly leaned on Wilson-Raybould to reverse a decision by the director of public prosecutions to proceed with a criminal trial of SNC-Lavalin on charges of bribery and corruption related to contracts in Libya. Instead, they wanted her to order negotiation of a remediation agreement with the company that would have levied stiff financial penalties but removed the prospect of a criminal conviction that could cripple the company financially and hurt innocent employees, pensioners and suppliers.

Remediation agreements are lawful tools in dealing with corporate corruption. As attorney general, Wilson-Raybould would have been legally ❱❱ PAGE 17 PM strikes

Canada News

FRIDAY MARCH 8, 2019

15

China accuses detained Canadians of stealing state secrets

BY ROB GILLIES AND CHRISTOPHER BODEEN The Canadian Press TORONTO — China accused two detained Canadians on Monday of acting together to steal state secrets, just days after Canada announced it will proceed with a U.S. extradition request for a senior Chinese tech executive.

China arrested the two Canadians on Dec. 10 in what was widely seen as an attempt to pressure Canada to release Meng Wanzhou, the chief financial officer of Chinese tech giant Huawei Technologies, who was arrested in Vancouver on Dec. 1 at the request of U.S. authorities.

Meng’s arrest set off a diplomatic furor and has severely strained Canadian relations with China.

The U.S. is seeking the extradition of Meng, who is the daughter of Huawei’s founder, to face charges she misled banks about the company’s business with Iran.

China’s official Xinhua News Agency cited unidentified Chinese authorities as saying former Canadian diplomat Michael Kovrig violated Chinese laws by acting as a spy and stealing state secrets and intelligence with the help of Canadian businessman Michael Spavor. It was the first time the two men’s cases have been linked.

It said Kovrig often entered China using an ordinary pass-

port and business visas, and acquired information from Spavor, his “main contact.”

“Authorities stressed that China is a country ruled by law and will firmly crack down on criminal acts that severely undermine national security,” Xinhua said.

The same information was posted on the official news blog of the ruling Communist Party’s Central Political and Legal Affairs Commission.

No other details were given and Xinhua said further judicial proceedings would “take place based on the case’s progress.”

“We are obviously very concerned by this position that China has taken,” Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said.

“It is unfortunate that China continues to move forward on these arbitrary detentions.”

Kovrig is a former diplomat who was working as an expert on Asia for the International Crisis Group think-tank . Spavor is an entrepreneur known for contacts with high-ranking North Korean officials, including leader Kim Jong Un. Rob Malley, president of the InternationalCrisis Group, said the accusations against Kovrig are unsubstantiated and unfounded.

“Michael worked transparently and openly, keeping Chinese authorities informed of what he did and of his mandate: to advise all parties, Beijing included, on steps they could take to resolve and prevent deadly

Michael Spavor and former Canadian diplomat Michael Kovrig.

MICHAEL SPAVOR - PAEKTU CULTURAL EXCHANGE / FACEBOOK & @MICHAELKOVRIG / TWITTER

conflict around the world,” Malley said.

“But false accusations aside, the reality is clear for all to see.

The timing of Michael’s detention and his citizenship leave little doubt as to why he is being arbitrarily detained. We continue to hope that China will do the right thing and release him so that he can be reunited with his family.”

After Meng’s arrest, a Chinese court also sentenced a Canadian to death in a sudden retrial, overturning a 15-year prison term handed down earlier. Kovrig and Spavor haven’t had access to a lawyer or to their families since being arrested.

Canada said Friday that it will allow court hearings for the U.S. extradition request for Meng to proceed.

David Mulroney, a former Canadian ambassador to China, said the new allegations against Kovrig and Spavor are a response to that action.

“Every step in the process will be matched by a step by China.

The desire is to raise the raise the pressure to extent that we

simply give in,” Mulroney said.

Meng is due in court on Wednesday to set a date for the extradition proceedings to start.

It could be several months or even years before her case is resolved.

Guy Saint-Jacques, also a former Canadian ambassador to China, said Beijing is clearly putting additional pressure on Canada.

“It’s a predicable escalation in the crisis,” he said. “They are probably hoping it will convince the prime minister to free Meng.”

Lawyers for Meng, who is staying at a property she owns in Vancouver after her release on bail, said Sunday she is suing the Canadian government, its border agency and the national police force, alleging she was detained, searched and interrogated before she was told she was under arrest.

Meng’s lawsuit alleges that instead of immediately arresting her, they interrogated her “under the guise of a routine customs” examination and used the opportunity to “compel her to provide evidence and

information.”

Also Monday, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Lu Kang accused Canada and the U.S. of abusing their bilateral extradition treaty. He reiterated Beijing’s demand that Washington withdraw its accusations against Meng.

The U.S. has been lobbying its allies to shun Huawei’s products on national security grounds, saying Chinese law requires the company to provide the government with intelligence on its foreign clients whenever requested.

A Chinese government spokesman took issue Monday with the U.S. claims that Huawei poses a threat to other countries’ information security.

Spokesman Zhang Yesui said U.S. officials were taking China’s national security law out of context and “playing up the socalled security risks” associated with Chinese companies. ■ Associated Press writer Rob Gillies reported this story in Toronto and AP writer Christopher Bodeen reported in Beijing.

Obama tells Winnipeg audience that politics being driven by passions not facts

BY KELLY GERALDINE MALONE The Canadian Press WINNIPEG — Barack Obama says there is a danger in the United States and around the world with politics being driven by passions disconnected from facts.

“I think the danger that we have sometimes now in our politics in the United States, and

what I’m seeing internationally, is us being driven by passions, and (we) are disconnected from facts, that in fact deliberately are shielded from facts and reason and logic,” Obama said in Winnipeg on Monday evening.

“And what is supported is a story of us being right and them being wrong.”

The former president spoke to a sold-out crowd of 13,500 at the Bell MTS Centre during the first Canadian stop of the

“Conversation with President Barack Obama” tour on Monday evening.

Obama reflected on entering office during the global economic crisis of 2007-08 and said he had great confidence that if the government made smart decisions — relying on facts, reason, logic, evidence and science — the country could largely recover.

While never mentioning current U.S. President Donald www.canadianinquirer.net

Trump, Obama said he’s worried about the response to a similar situation today.

“If we had a crisis today, I am concerned about the — at least the United States — that we may not be able to ? figure something out in a commonsense, practical way.”

Trump has faced criticism for allegations of making false statements, including the size of the crowd at his inauguration, about a trade deficit with

Canada and voter fraud. Most recently the president has faced backlash over declaring a national emergency at the U.S.Mexico border.

Over about an hour, Obama answered questions from Michael Burns, CEO of the Princess Margaret Cancer Foundation, about topics as varied as his childhood, racism, his time in office and his relation❱❱ PAGE 18 Obama tells

16

Canada News

MARCH 8, 2019

FRIDAY

Philpott joins Wilson-Raybould in resigning from cabinet over SNC Lavalin

BY JOAN BRYDEN The Canadian Press OTTAWA — Treasury Board president Jane Philpott resigned Monday from the federal cabinet, saying she’s lost confidence in the way the Trudeau government has dealt with the SNC-Lavalin affair.

Her resignation came just less than a month after former attorney general Jody WilsonRaybould resigned from cabinet amid allegations that the Prime Minister’s Office improperly pressured her to stop a criminal prosecution of the Montreal engineering giant.

“A minister must always be prepared to defend other ministers publicly, and must speak in support of the government and its policies,” Philpott said in a resignation letter to Prime Minister Justin Trudeau. “Given this convention and the current circumstances, it is untenable for me to continue to serve as a cabinet minister.”

Trudeau issued a terse statement accepting Philpott’s resignation and thanking her “for her years of service to Canadians and her dedication.”

He named Carla Qualtrough, the minister of public services and procurement, as the acting president of the Treasury Board. He was expected to comment at more length at an event in Toronto on Monday evening.

Conservative Leader Andrew Scheer said Philpott’s resignation proves he was correct when he asserted last week that Trudeau has “lost the moral authority to govern.”

“Today, a senior member of his inner circle has come to the same conclusion,” said Scheer, repeating his call for Trudeau to resign and for the RCMP to investigate. “Jane Philpott’s resignation from cabinet clearly demonstrates a government in total chaos, led by a disgraced prime minister consumed with scandal and focused only on his political survival.”

Scheer called on other cabinet ministers to follow Philpott’s example or be seen to be part of the “ethical rot that infects this government.”

New Democrat Leader Jagmeet Singh reiterated his call

for a public inquiry into the affair.

Like Wilson-Raybould, Philpott said she intends to remain a Liberal MP — for MarkhamStouffville outside Toronto, in her case. But unlike Wilson-Raybould, she did not say whether she intends to run for re-election as a Liberal this fall, although she has already been nominated. There has been some speculation in Liberal circles that Philpott might run for leader of the Ontario Liberal party.

Philpott’s resignation was not entirely unexpected among Liberals, who knew she and Wilson-Raybould are close friends. Indeed, when WilsonRaybould resigned from cabinet, Philpott tweeted a picture of the pair with their arms around each other.

In a tweet praising Philpott’s “constant and unassailable commitment to always doing what is right and best for Canadians,” Wilson-Raybould told her friend: “You are a leader of vision & strength & I look forward to continuing to work alongside you.”

Wilson-Raybould last week delivered bombshell testimony at the House of Commons justice committee, accusing officials of relentlessly pressuring her and even issuing veiled threats to co-operate in helping SNC-Lavalin avoid a criminal prosecution. The company is a pillar of Montreal’s business community and a major player in infrastructure projects both inside and outside Canada.

Trudeau and his officials allegedly leaned on Wilson-Raybould to reverse a decision by the director of public prosecutions to proceed with a criminal trial of SNC-Lavalin on charges of bribery and corruption related to contracts in Libya. Instead, they wanted her to order negotiation of a remediation agreement with the company that would have levied stiff financial penalties but removed the prospect of a criminal conviction that could cripple the company financially and hurt innocent employees, pensioners and suppliers.

Remediation agreements are lawful tools in dealing with corporate corruption. As attor-

Jane Philpott.

ney general, Wilson-Raybould would have been legally entitled to instruct the director of public prosecutions on how to deal with SNC-Lavalin. The controversy hinges on how hard it was acceptable for Trudeau to push her to do so.

While Wilson-Raybould called the pressure tactics inappropriate, she said she did not think they were illegal — a distinction Philpott did not make.

“Unfortunately, the evidence of efforts by politicians and/or officials to pressure the former attorney general to intervene in the criminal case involving SNC-Lavalin, and the evidence as to the content of those efforts have raised serious concerns for me,” Philpott wrote.

“The solemn principles at stake are the independence and integrity of our justice system.

It is a fundamental doctrine of the rule of law that our attorney general should not be subjected to political pressure or interference regarding the exercise of her prosecutorial discretion in criminal cases. Sadly, I have lost confidence in how the government has dealt with this matter and in how it has responded to the issues raised.”

The next round of testimony on the affair is to come Wednesday. Trudeau’s longtime friend and former principal secretary Gerald Butts, whom WilsonRaybould tagged as one of the sources of pressure on her, is scheduled to appear before the justice committee at 10 a.m. ET. The same afternoon, Privy Council clerk Michael Wernick and deputy minister of justice Nathalie Drouin are to www.canadianinquirer.net

@JANEPHILPOTT / TWITTER

appear. Both testified earlier at the committee but that was before Wilson-Raybould fingered Wernick as the person who allegedly issued veiled threats and suggested Drouin was a witness to some of the pressure tactics.

New Democrat MP Charlie Angus wrote to Trudeau on Monday, arguing that Wernick’s impartiality as the country’s top public servant had been irreparably compromised and demanding his resignation.

Philpott has been widely seen as one of Trudeau’s most capable ministers. As minister of health, she worked with Wilson-Raybould in legalizing medical assistance in dying. As minister of Indigenous services, she oversaw drastic reductions in the number of longterm advisories on water safety on First Nations reserves.

She was moved to Treasury Board in mid-January in the same shuffle that saw WilsonRaybould moved out of the justice portfolio into veterans affairs. Treasury Board is a less-visible ministry concerned with the nuts and bolts of government operations but the president effectively holds the government’s purse strings, overseeing all federal spending. Philpott took over the post from Scott Brison, who retired from politics.

In Victoria, Border Security Minister Bill Blair said he is “very saddened” by Philpott’s resignation.

“Jane Philpott has done an outstanding job in all of her portfolios and served Canadians exceptionally well,” he said,

adding that he’s pleased she intends to remain in the Liberal caucus.

Whether she will is not certain. Trudeau has been pondering whether Wilson-Raybould can stay in caucus and run as a Liberal candidate in this fall’s federal election — a matter on which he said earlier Monday he’s still reflecting. He will now presumably have to add Philpott to his ruminations.

Blair refused to speculate when asked if he thinks more ministers might yet resign. But he reiterated his own support for Trudeau and the government he leads.

“I have great confidence in the team and the leadership of the prime minister.”

But Liberal backbencher Celina Caesar-Chavannes, who announced last week she won’t seek re-election, tweeted her support for Philpott, as she has done repeatedly for WilsonRaybould since the SNC-Lavalin controversy erupted a month ago.

“When you add women, please do not expect the status quo. Expect us to make correct decisions, stand for what is right and exit when values are compromised. Thank you ?janephilpott for articulating this beautifully,” Caesar-Chavannes wrote.

New Brunswick Liberal MP Wayne Long reiterated his call for a “full and transparent investigation” into the SNC-Lavalin affair. ■ With files from Dirk Meissner in Victoria

Canada News

FRIDAY MARCH 8, 2019

Meng Wanzhou alleges her constitutional rights were breached by RCMP, CBSA

BY AMY SMART The Canadian Press VANCOUVER — The defence team for Huawei executive Meng Wanzhou has filed a notice of civil claim alleging “serious violations” of her constitutional rights, accusing officers of detaining and questioning her for three hours before notifying her of her arrest.

The suit filed with the B.C. Supreme Court on Friday is against members of the Canadian Border Services Agency, the RCMP and the federal government.

It seeks damages for false imprisonment based on multiple alleged failures of government officials to comply with the rule of law upon her detention, search and interrogation at the Vancouver airport on Dec. 1.

The allegations have not been proven in court and the RCMP and the attorney general’s office did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

A spokesman for the CBSA said the agency does not comment on matters before the courts.

“This case concerns a deliberate and pre-meditated effort on the part of the defendant officers to obtain evidence and information from the plaintiff in a manner which they knew constituted serious violations of the plaintiff’s rights,” the claim says.

It alleges that RCMP officers and/or representatives from the U.S. Department of Justice arranged for Canadian border officials to delay the immediate execution of the arrest warrant “under the guise of a routine border check.”

The court document says that when Meng exited her plane at Vancouver airport, border officials checked each passenger’s passport on the jetway and after identifying Meng, brought her to an inspection area.

It says border officers prohibited Meng from speaking with her travel companion or anyone else, including a lawyer.

The officers “did not promptly inform the plaintiff of the reason for her detention, afford

Meng Wanzhou.

her an opportunity to retain and instruct legal counsel without delay, or inform her of her right to do so under the charter,” the claim says.

Instead, they directed Meng to surrender all of her electronic devices and computers, as well as her passwords, “which the plaintiff provided, believing she had no choice as the CBSA officers had intentionally failed to advise her of the true reasons for her detention, her right to counsel, and her right to silence,” it says.

The claim alleges officers opened and viewed contents on her devices and also searched her luggage.

Border officers also questioned Meng and the claim alleges that the “specific nature of the questions” was informed by documentation or briefings from Canadian and/or American authorities familiar with the U.S. charges facing Meng.

Although the RCMP was aware of Meng’s scheduled arrival time at Vancouver airport, an RCMP officer did not enter the inspection area and present Meng with the provisional arrest warrant for three hours, it says.

The suit alleges that as officers of the peace, the border

STOCKED HOUSE STUDIO / SHUTTERSTOCK.COM

officials should have immediately presented Meng with the provisional arrest warrant instead of detaining, searching and interrogating her under the guise of a customs or immigration exam.

“This was both significant and deliberate,” the claim says.

On Friday, the Canadian Department of Justice gave the go-ahead for an extradition case against Meng, marking the formal start of the high-profile process that has put Canada in an uncomfortable position between the United States and China.

The U.S. Department of Justice has laid out 13 criminal counts of conspiracy, fraud and obstruction against Huawei and Meng, who is the daughter of company founder Ren Zhengfei.

The Chinese Embassy in Ottawa said it is “utterly dissatisfied” with Friday’s decision, calling the case “a political persecution against a Chinese high-tech enterprise.”

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has repeatedly maintained Canada is simply following the rule of law.

Meng’s extradition case is scheduled to resume in the B.C. Supreme Court on Wednesday. ■ www.canadianinquirer.net

17

PM strikes... ❰❰ 14

entitled to instruct Philpott has been widely the director of public seen as one of Trudeau’s most prosecutions on how capable ministers. As ministo deal with SNC-Lavalin. The ter of health, she worked with controversy hinges on wheth- Wilson-Raybould in legalizing er Trudeau and his officials medical assistance in dying. As pushed her too hard to do so. minister of Indigenous servicWhile Wilson-Raybould es, she oversaw drastic reduccalled the pressure tactics inap- tions in the number of longpropriate, she said she did not term advisories on water safety think they were illegal — a dis- on First Nations reserves. tinction Philpott did not make.

She was moved to Treasury “Unfortunately, the evidence Board in mid-January in the of efforts by politicians and/or same shuffle that saw Wilsonofficials to pressure the former Raybould moved out of the attorney general to intervene justice portfolio into veterans in the criminal case involving affairs. Treasury Board is a SNC-Lavalin, and the evidence less-visible ministry concerned as to the content of those ef- with the nuts and bolts of govforts have raised serious con- ernment operations but the cerns for me,” Philpott wrote. president effectively holds the “The solemn principles at government’s purse strings, stake are the independence and overseeing all federal spending. integrity of our Philpott took justice system. It over the post is a fundamental from Scott Bridoctrine of the son, who retired rule of law that from politics. our attorney Whether PhilGiven this general should pott and Wilsonconvention not be subjected Raybould will and the to political presremain in caucurrent sure or interfercus is not cercircumstances, ence regarding tain, although it is untenable the exercise of Trudeau’s refor me to her prosecutomarks Monday continue rial discretion in night seemed to serve as criminal cases. to suggest they a cabinet Sadly, I have lost will. Earlier in minister. confidence in the day, before how the governPhilpott’s exit, ment has dealt he said he was with this matter still reflecting and in how it has responded to on Wilson-Raybould’s future in the issues raised.” the party.

The next round of testimony If he were to kick the pair out on the affair is to come Wednes- of caucus, he risks having at day. Trudeau’s longtime friend least a few Liberal backbenchand former principal secretary ers join them in political exile.

Gerald Butts, whom WilsonLiberal backbencher Celina Raybould tagged as one of the Caesar-Chavannes, who ansources of pressure on her, is nounced last week she won’t scheduled to appear before the seek re-election, tweeted her justice committee at 10 a.m. ET. support Monday for Philpott, The same afternoon, Privy as she has done repeatedly Council clerk Michael Wernick for Wilson-Raybould since and deputy minister of justice the SNC-Lavalin controversy Nathalie Drouin are to appear. erupted a month ago.

Both testified earlier at the com“When you add women, mittee but that was before Wil- please do not expect the status son-Raybould fingered Wernick quo. Expect us to make coras the person who allegedly is- rect decisions, stand for what is sued veiled threats and suggest- right and exit when values are ed Drouin was a witness to some compromised. Thank you ?jaof the pressure tactics. nephilpott for articulating this New Democrat MP Charlie beautifully,” Caesar-Chavannes Angus wrote to Trudeau on wrote.

Monday, arguing that Wernick’s New Brunswick Liberal MP impartiality as the country’s Wayne Long reiterated his call top public servant had been ir- for a “full and transparent inreparably compromised and vestigation” into the SNC-Lademanding his resignation. valin affair. ■

18

World News

MARCH 8, 2019

Obama tells...

Mexico pushing labour reform, won’t ratify new NAFTA with U.S. tariffs in place

❰❰ 15

ship with former Vice President Joe Biden.

He spoke about his wife, Michelle Obama, and her best-selling book, as well as his daughters, and weeping often as he becomes an “empty-nester.”

“One of the things that Michelle and I are proudest of during our presidency is we raised women who are kind and thoughtful and aware.”

Obama said speaking with young people and seeing the change they are pushing for gives him hope in his post-presidency work. He said he hopes to connect his foundation with that generation so it will become a “university for social change” as he enters the third act of his life.

Obama also spoke about Justin Trudeau and former prime minister Stephen Harper.

He said he was more politically aligned with Trudeau but worked successfully with both because the U.S. and Canada are like cousins and the countries are bound together culturally and economically.

FRIDAY

BY MIKE BLANCHFIELD The Canadian Press

Former US Pres. Barack Obama.

JOHN GRESS MEDIA INC / SHUTTERSTOCK.COM

“Americans come up here when they get too frustrated with stuff,” Obama said to generous applause.

The 44th president went on to joke about numerous calls he received from both Canadian leaders about the lumber industry, adding he was spending less time “pouring over the lumber charts.”

“You had that whole Canadian thing where certain things are important to you that nobody else cares about,” he said

with a laugh.

Many Winnipeggers who attended the event said it was important to listen to the former president, especially in the current global political climate.

Fatima Demelo said she is worried about growing divisiveness, especially on social media. Obama is able to cross over different boundaries, she said, and find the things that connect people.

“Hope is a powerful thing and I think he reminds of us that.” ■

OTTAWA — Mexico’s Congress will be asked to approve a major labour-reform bill this spring as a necessary step to ratifying the new North American freetrade pact later this autumn, say Mexican officials.

But unless the Trump administration lifts the punishing tariffs it has imposed on Mexican steel and aluminum imports — duties it also imposed on Canada — Mexico is prepared to keep the status quo with the 25-yearold North American Free Trade Agreement.

The push to improve workers’ rights in Mexico was a key

priority for Canada and the United States during the rocky NAFTA renegotiation because they wanted to level the playing field between their workers and lower-paid Mexican workers, especially in the auto sector.

When Mexico and the U.S. reached their surprise bilateral agreement last August, forcing the Trudeau government to quickly forge a deal with the Trump administration, Foreign Affairs Minister Chrystia Freeland lauded Mexico for making labour concessions.

But a senior trade official in the new government of socialist reformer Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador suggested in an inter❱❱ PAGE 22 Mexico pushing

South Korea’s Moon calls for quick resumption of nuke talks

BY KIM TONG-HYUNG The Associated Press SEOUL, KOREA, REPUBLIC OF — South Korean President Moon Jae-in said Monday that Seoul will actively try to get the nuclear negotiations between Washington and Pyongyang quickly back on track.

Moon made the comments as he led a National Security Council meeting in Seoul to discuss South Korea’s diplomatic strategy following the breakdown of a high-stakes summit between President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un last week in Vietnam, which placed the pressure on Moon to broker progress once again.

Moon lobbied hard for the revival of nuclear diplomacy between Washington and Pyongyang following the tensions of 2017 over the North’s missile and nuclear tests and Trump’s threats to bring down “fire and fury” on the North. But some experts say the breakdown of

the Trump-Kim meeting in Hanoi has raised further doubts about Moon’s claim that Kim is genuinely interested in dealing away his nukes and about Moon’s role as mediator.

“We hope that both countries will continue their dialogue and that their leaders meet again quickly to reach an agreement that was held off this time,” Moon said in a Blue House meeting that was attended by his prime minister, spy chief and ministers of foreign affairs, defence and inter-Korean affairs.

“In the process, our role has become important once again,” Moon said. “While I believe the United States-North Korea negotiations will eventually reach an agreement, it’s never desirable for a vacuum in dialogue or stalemate to prolong,” he said, urging South Korean officials to find ways so that Washington and Pyongyang can narrow their differences.

Moon said Seoul will continue to push ahead with inter-

Korean engagement within the boundaries of U.S.-led international sanctions against the North. Moon has prioritized stabilizing bilateral relations with the North amid the larger nuclear negotiations between Washington and Pyongyang, saying inter-Korean reconciliation will drive nuclear progress.

But his call for partial sanctions relief to induce nuclear disarmament steps from the North has caused disagreements with Washington, which sees economic pressure as its main leverage with Pyongyang.

Moon helped set up the first meeting between Trump and Kim last June when they agreed to a vague aspirational statement about a nuclear-free Korean Peninsula without describing how and when it would occur. Trump and Kim’s second summit last week collapsed over what the Americans saw as excessive North Korean demands for sanctions relief in exchange for limited disarmament steps. www.canadianinquirer.net

South Korean President Moon Jae-in.

문재인 / FACEBOOK

Still, Washington and Seoul are committed to keeping an atmosphere of dialogue alive and announced on Sunday that they would be eliminating their massive springtime military drills and replacing them with smaller exercises in what they call

an effort to support diplomacy with Pyongyang. The allies on Monday began a new training, a computer-simulated exercise dubbed “Dong Maeng,” the Korean word for “alliance,” which runs until next Tuesday. ■

19

FRIDAY MARCH 8, 2019

FILIPINO-CANADIAN IN FOCUS

Gio Levy, years of singing his way to OPM success

BY GIANNA LLANES Philippine Canadian Inquirer “ARMED WITH a sultry, velvet voice and a charming demeanor” — this is how his website describes him, but more than this, Gio Levy is a Filipino-Canadian artist who moved from Canada to the Philippines to pursue a dream.

Philosopher Plato once said, “Music is the movement of sound to reach the soul for the education of its virtue.” And this deems true for FilipinoCanadian Gio Levy, who used the power of music through all walks of his life — whether adapting to his new life in Vancouver as immigrants with his family or coming back to his birthplace in Manila to pursue his dreams; Gio was most fluent in the universal language of music. But now having both cultures at heart, he uses his background for an extra touch of flair in his tunes, singing his way to success in the Original Pilipino Music (OPM) industry.

This performer is an absolute delight to converse with as he always has a very positive perspective on the ups and downs of life. With that delightful disposition, he has been making waves through the people around him, marking their memories not just with his personality, but with his incredible talent as well. Watch out world, we’ll definitely be hearing this guy hitting the top charts of our radios very soon!

1996

Gio, now in his 30s, was born in Manila and migrated to Vancouver before the fourth grade.

“We moved to Canada because most of my family had already moved there and my parents were allured by the idea of having a better life for their entire family in this country,” he shares, adding, “Canada is able to provide pretty good benefits, so it’s not a bad deal as you age.”

However, he admits that the initial adjustments into the ‘Little Chinatown’ of the province, Richmond, British Columbia, were difficult both for him and his family.

GIO LEVY / WEBSITE

“It was tough for my parents,” he notes, “They were in the tourism industry in Manila and their field of work/experience didn’t apply to what was in demand in Vancouver. They would have to study and that isn’t easy if you have a family to tend to. Plus they were in their mid-late 30’s when we moved,” adding, “They worked their butts off going from job to job.

They’re amazing people.”

Gio himself did not want to make the adjustment more difficult for his parents, so as a fourth-grader attending Cook Elementary who could barely speak English, he would ‘monkey see, monkey do’ his way through school to be able to survive. “Before long, I could speak fluent English and my Tagalog started to slowly disappear. I had one or two Filipino friends growing up, so maintaining the language was tough,” he shares.

The town of Richmond did not have a lot of Filipinos, so growing up, Gio was challenged to completely immerse himself in Canadian culture.

He continues, “Since our neighborhood didn’t have very many Filipinos, or at least I wasn’t associated with any Filipinos in my youth, I immersed myself completely in the Canadian culture. Family-related activities are the only taste of Filipino I would get,” however, when his friends came over, he did assure that “it was great,”

jokingly adding, “They always knew there would be good food [at home]. People loved coming over all the time.”

Thankfully, living in a very diverse community allowed Gio to never feel homesick or out-of-place, attesting his surrounding community to be very positive.

“My friends’ ethnic backgrounds were very colorful.

Growing up as a Filipino wasn’t very distinct. I didn’t feel any racism nor did I feel like I was singled out because I was Filipino,” he states, then laughing, “A lot of people had this general idea that Filipinos are good at singing and basketball though.

At least I was able to do one of them well, so I guess that was the advantage?”

2001

After a few years, Gio had found a home in Vancouver.

As mentioned, there was never any trials in discrimination, so he was able to pursue a spectacular education, making sure that he was involved in numerous extracurricular activities, which eventually sparked his passion for the creative field.

“At first, I loved basketball,” he looks back, “But in Grade 9, I joined jazz choir in high school. Ever since then, I’ve been hooked,” continuing, “After I got into high school, I quit sports for the arts. I was in choir, the school band, and had www.canadianinquirer.net

a rock band. I was also in oneact plays.”

Having his entire family live in Canada as well helped a lot with Gio’s inspiration behind getting into songwriting and performing. A no-frills guy, he mentions, “My uncles were musicians. But I had no intention to be a musician until much later. I remember reading a book or an article that said ‘What would you like written on your grave’. So I thought it might be cool to become a musician.”

After graduating high school, Gio eventually found a true passion for making music. He would bring his guitar with him everywhere and perform whenever given the opportunity, “always doing music on the side before pursuing it full-time.”

Yet unfortunately, finding success in that field in Canada was a long-shot. “[The Canadian community] had no idea what to do with my pursuit of a music career,” he shares, “Prior to pushing for it all the way, I was jumping from one sales job to the next because it was the only job that paid without a degree.” This why Gio moved to the Philippines.

2014

A few years after graduating from high school and not finding the passion for any other occupation other than in the musical fields, Gio decided to take the leap of faith by moving back to his home country. Before leaving, he jokes that his parents “did everything they could to scare [him] before coming,” just to prepare him for an unexpected adventure. “I wanted to be on the Voice Philippines,” he recalls, “That was my only reason for coming. But then I

figured out that I could survive here by doing gigs, so ta-da!”

And although opportunity didn’t simply come knocking on the door, Gio still was assured that the place to pursue his dreams was in the Philippines.

“I had family help me adjust for my first few months here,” he says, “I’m forever indebted to them because I hadn’t been back in the Philippines since 1996. It was a culture shock,” then admitting to having to go out-of-the-box to build relationships and connections into the industry, “I had a few friends who I only knew online, but they helped me a great deal.

Tinder helped a lot too. A lot of networking. A lot of drinking. I wouldn’t say it was difficult. It was and still is a crazy fun adventure.”

One of the most important components in establishing bonds between Filipinos, he learned, was familiarity with the local language. So, he is extremely grateful with preserving his mother tongue despite growing up overseas. “Taglish is how we roll at home,” Gio remarks, “But when I first arrived back to the Philippines, people could tell I’m from somewhere else. My accent would show.

It took a couple of years, but I think I’ve got it now,” elaborating further, “If you can understand it, you can 10,000% learn to speak it. Having another language in your pocket is pretty fun!”

Gio concludes, “I’ve met Koreans and Indians who’ve lived here for just over five years and can speak fluent Tagalog. What excuse do I have, right? It’s defi❱❱ PAGE 28 Gio Levy

World News

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MARCH 8, 2019

FRIDAY

Activists campaign for treaty to end violence against women

BY EDITH M. LEDERER The Associated Press WOMEN’S RIGHTS activists from 128 nations are launching a public campaign Tuesday for an international treaty to end violence against women and girls, a global scourge estimated by the United Nations to affect 35 per cent of females worldwide.

The campaign led by the Seattle-based non-profit organization Every Woman Treaty aims to have the U.N. World Health Organization adopt the treaty with the goal of getting all 193 U.N. member states to ratify it.

“Violence against women and girls is the most widespread human rights violation on Earth,” the organization’s co-founder and chief executive, Lisa Shannon, told The Associated Press in an interview Monday ahead of the official launch.

“All the efforts that people

put into development, education, women’s empowerment, economic opportunity are being squashed when women are not physically safe,” she said.

“It’s a global pandemic. … We cannot make progress as a species without addressing violence against women and girls.”

The activists want the treaty to require countries to take four actions that have proven to lower rates of violence against women: —Adopt laws punishing domestic violence, which lower mortality rates for women.

—Train police, judges, nurses, doctors and other professionals about such violence, which leads to increased prosecution of perpetrators and better treatment for survivors.

—Provide education on preventing violence against women and girls, which research shows has an influence on boys’ and men’s attitudes and actions, and encourages women and girls to demand their rights.

Pandit Mahadeva

—Provide hotlines, shelters, legal advice, treatment and other services for survivors.

Eleanor Eleanor Nwadinobi of Nigeria, a member of Every Woman Treaty’s steering committee, said the other critical issue is funding, which “is absolutely essential” to enable governments, especially in developing countries, to carry out this essential work to combat violence against women and girls.

Shannon said the activists are modeling their campaign after the efforts that led to the successful treaty on eliminating land mines, which took force in 1999, and the treaty aimed at limiting the use of tobacco, which was the first pact negotiated under WHO auspices and entered into force in 2005.

In the first 36 hours of the mine ban treaty, nations pledged $500 million toward its implementation, Shannon said.

She expressed hope that a treaty tackling violence against women and girls would lead to a $4 billion-a-year fund for financing global action, “which would be about a dollar per female on Earth.”

Every Woman Treaty was started in 2013 and Shannon said it has been working behind the scenes to build support and come up with recommendations and a rough draft of a treaty.

Every Woman Treaty co-founder and chief executive Lisa Shannon.

LISA SHANNON / FACEBOOK

More than 4,000 individuals and organizations have signed what she called “a one-page people’s treaty” that condemns all forms of violence against women and girls, outlines the actions sought in a treaty, and urges nations to adopt it.

Among the signatories are Nobel Peace Prize winners Shirin Ebadi of Iran, Tawakol Karman of Yemen and Jody Williams of the United States.

Shannon said the activists are seeking 20 countries to lead the campaign for the new treaty.

First, she said, they need the World Health Organization to approve a resolution seeking a report on the role a treaty would play. “Our goal is to have the resolution introduced at the 2020 World Health Assembly,” which she called very ambitious.

Once a report is written,

Shannon said, the World Health Assembly would have to approve the process for drafting a treaty.

“The largest obstacle I see is to fight the apathy,” she said.

“When you’re asking for global systems change and genuine commitments, even people who are pro-women’s rights will question whether or not it’s needed, will say it’s unnecessary — and this is something the tobacco and land mines and disabilities treaties faced.”

Shannon said the biggest immediate challenge is finding countries willing to take on a leadership role and getting people to understand this is “an opportunity that we have to take right now” because “we are not going to advance” unless violence against women and girls is addressed. ■

Senators air frustration after briefing on Khashoggi’s death

BY SUSANNAH GEORGE The Associated Press

403 909 6993 W h i te field Dr NE , C algar y

WASHINGTON — Senators left a closed-door briefing with Trump administration officials Monday deeply frustrated by the lack of new information on the killing of journalist Jamal Khashoggi, with some raising the prospect of placing new sanctions on the government of Saudi Arabia.

Lawmakers had instructed President Donald Trump to order an investigation into Khashoggi’s killing by invoking www.canadianinquirer.net

the Global Magnitsky Act. The request was made in October, which gave the president 120 days to respond. But the White House declined to submit a report by the deadline, angering members of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.

New Jersey Sen. Bob Menendez, the top Democrat on the panel, called the briefing “a farce” and said Trump still needs to give Congress an answer.

“The law’s very clear, there needed to be a determination,” Menendez said.

Democratic Sen. Chris Mur-

phy of Connecticut said the briefing Monday contained “zero” new information. He criticized the lack of an intelligence official among the briefers, a move he described as “purposeful.”

“They don’t want us to have a conversation about the intelligence,” he said, referring to the White House. “These folks had no new information and were not permitted to give us any new information.”

Khashoggi, a writer for The Washington Post, was killed ❱❱ PAGE 22 Senators air

World News

FRIDAY MARCH 8, 2019

21

FBI stepping up efforts to root out international corruption

BY MICHAEL BALSAMO AND ERIC TUCKER The Associated Press

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un. REPUBLIC OF KOREA / WEBSITE VIA WIKIMEDIA COMMONS

Kim returns home after failed nuclear diplomacy with Trump

BY HYUNG-JIN KIM The Associated Press SEOUL, KOREA, REPUBLIC OF — North Korean leader Kim Jong Un returned home on Tuesday after travelling two and a half days by train from Vietnam, where his high-stakes nuclear summit with President Donald Trump ended without any agreement.

The Kim-Trump summit broke down mainly because of disputes over the extent of sanctions relief the North could win in return for its nuclear disarmament steps. Both Washington and Pyongyang blame each other for the summit’s breakdown, but neither side says they would pull out of diplomacy.

The crowd welcoming Kim at Pyongyang’s railway station gave shouts of joy and loud hurrahs upon his return, the Korean Central News Agency reported.

Kim received a salute from the head of the army’s honour guards and was presented with flowers from children. Senior officials also greeted Kim with “their ardent congratulations,” KCNA reported.

The report briefly mentioned Kim’s summit with Trump but didn’t say the meeting failed to produce any agreement. The

North’s main Rodong Sinmun newspaper previously reported that Kim and Trump had agreed to continue talks to resolve issues discussed in their Hanoi summit, but it also didn’t mention the lack of agreement in the summit.

Some observers say the North’s propaganda services won’t report about the summit’s collapse to prevent Kim from suffering any damage in his leadership at home. They say Kim is desperate to win sanctions relief to try to resolve his country’s moribund economy and improve public livelihoods.

After his summit with Trump, Kim had a two-day official visit to Vietnam that included a meeting with Vietnamese Nguyen Phu Trong and paying his respects at the embalmed body of national hero Ho Chi Minh. It was the first Vietnam visit by a North Korean leader since his late grandfather and North Korea founder Kim Il Sung went in 1964. The KCNA dispatch Tuesday called Kim Jong Un’s Vietnam visit “successful.”

The Hanoi summit between Trump and Kim followed their meeting in Singapore last June that ended with Kim’s vaguely worded promise to work toward “complete denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula.” ■

scious of any potential political ramifications because international corruption cases can have widespread effects that influence elections and econoWASHINGTON — Aiming to mies, Backschies said. In addicrack down on money laundertion to regular conversations ing and bribes to overseas govabout cases, FBI supervisors ernments, the FBI is stepping meet with lawyers at the Jusup its efforts to root out foreign tice Department in Washington corruption with a new squad of each quarter to review potenagents based in Miami. tial prosecutions and the posThe squad will focus its efsible consequences. forts not only on Miami but also “These cases are very politiin South America, a continent cally sensitive, not just in the that has been home to some of U.S. but overseas,” she said. the Justice Department’s most “When you’re looking at forsignificant international coreign officials in other governruption prosecutions of the last ments — I mean, look, in Maseveral years. The Miami squad laysia, the president wasn’t joins three others based in the re-elected. We saw presidents FBI’s largest field offices — toppled in Brazil. These are the Washington, New York and Los results of cases like this. When Angeles. you’re looking at high-level gov“We’re protecting the rule ernment officials, there’s a lot of law,” Leslie Backschies, the of sensitivities.” chief of the FBI’s international The agents are working to corruption unit, said in an inensure there’s “a place where terview Monday. business can “If there’s no rule compete fairly,” of law, you’ll have and in most cascertain societies es other governwhere they feel ments are glad to When you pay a bribe, do you like their govaccept the FBI’s know where your bribe goes? Is ernments are so help in rooting your bribe going to fund terrorism? corrupt, they’ll out corruption, go to other eleBackschies said. ments that are “You can’t just considered funhave one agent damental, that they see as clean individuals hiding their mon- or two agents in a field office or something against the cor- ey, through shell companies, addressing it. …You can’t be rupt regime, and that becomes through real estate, through working this two hours a week. a threat to national security.” boating.”

It’s just not going to work. You The unit aims to identify vioMore broadly, special coun- need full-time dedicated relations of the Foreign Corrupt sel Robert Mueller’s Russia sources,” she said.

Practices Act, a U.S. law that investigation has shone a spotThe unit had been splitting makes it illegal to bribe foreign light on international corrup- cases involving South American officials. The FBI has also been tion. Former Trump campaign countries between the three doing outreach to companies chairman Paul Manafort is other offices before Backschies in a variety of industries, from being sentenced Thursday in decided they should refocus oil to pharmaceuticals, to teach federal court in Virginia on their resources and add agents them about red flags that could charges that he evaded taxes in Miami. The new squad will indicate corruption and en- on millions of dollars in income be comprised of six agents, who courage the companies to “self- received through political con- will start in their roles later this report” potentially improper sulting on behalf of a pro-Rus- month, plus a supervisor and conduct to the bureau. sia Ukrainian political party, a forensic accountant. Unlike “One thing when I talk to and that he concealed his mon- other FBI field office squads companies, I’m like, ‘When ey in undisclosed foreign bank that focus on violent crime and you pay a bribe, do you know accounts. public corruption and report to where your bribe goes? Is your Prosecutors have scored 34 local leadership, this one will bribe going to fund terrorism?’” convictions in cases brought answer to officials at headquarBackschies said. by the international corruption ters in Washington.

And so far, the cases the unit unit from 2016 until 2018. The “Beverly Hills, New York, Mihas brought have resulted in cases are often longer-running ami — these are cities where we billions of dollars in settle- and more financially complex find people hiding their monments. than other crimes the FBI in- ey” in real estate and boating, Last September, for instance, vestigates.

Backshies said. “They’re attracthe Brazilian-owned energy Agents also have to be con- tive cities for that.” ■ www.canadianinquirer.net

company, Petrobras, agreed to pay more than $853 million to resolve investigations into allegations that executives paid hundreds of millions of dollars in bribes to Brazilian politicians and political parties. And in December 2016, the Brazilbased construction conglomerate Odebrecht and another petrochemical company agreed to pay more than $3.5 billion to settle charges they bribed politicians around the world through a web of shell companies and off-the-books transactions.

“We’ve seen a lot of activity in South America — Odebrecht, Petrobras. South America is a place where … we’ve seen corruption. We’ve had a lot of work there,” Backshies said.

“But not just South America.

Miami itself, it’s an economic centre,” she added. “It’s a big flow of money in and out of Miami. It’s a city where we see

World News

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MARCH 8, 2019

FRIDAY

Senators air... ❰❰ 20

in a Saudi Arabian consulate U.S. weapons and logistical support, in Istanbul last year by Saudi Saudi Arabia is fighting a protracted agents. The Saudi govern- war in the country, creating the world’s ment said the slaying was carried out worst humanitarian crisis. by rouge operatives and denied Crown After Khashoggi’s death last year, the Prince Mohammed bin Salman had any Senate passed a resolution with an overinvolvement. whelming majority calling for the U.S. to Lawmakers have said they believe the end its support for the Yemen campaign, Saudi crown prince ordered the killing, though that resolution did not pass the but Trump has been reluctant to place House. The Senate is expected to take up blame. the issue again in the Absent a determicoming weeks, revivnation from Trump, ing the debate.

Menendez said the While it’s unclear Senate has to do if the Yemen resoluThe Senate will something, “unless tion can again pass have to decide it is willing to accept the Senate, members if it’s going to the death of a U.S. of both parties made impose its own resident, a journalclear they aren’t sanctions. ist.” moving on from Republican Sen. Khashoggi. Sen. Jim Marco Rubio of FlorRisch, the Republiida, another member can chairman of the of the committee, said, “The Senate will Senate Foreign Relations Committee, have to decide if it’s going to impose its released a statement pledging the invesown sanctions.” tigation would continue.

The dispute over Khashoggi’s death “We will not let it go,” he said. comes at a point of rising tensions beThe Global Magnitsky Act of 2016 tween the White House and Congress makes it possible to impose entry bans over the U.S.-Saudi relationship, fueled and targeted sanctions on individuals in part by the Trump administration’s for committing human rights violations involvement in Yemen’s civil war. With or acts of significant corruption. ■

Contact us for funded skills training and employment at 604.590.4021

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Mexico pushing... ❰❰ 18

view it wasn’t a huge sacrifice because elevating the status of country’s workers was a key plank in the platform that brought their Morena party to power.

Lopez Obrador made it clear in his election campaign that he wanted to strengthen the rights of workers and labour unions, which made a good fit with Canada’s bargaining position, Luz Maria de la Mora, Mexico’s deputy trade minister, said in an interview.

“With the agreement or without the agreement, this is something central to President Lopez Obrador — strengthening workers’ rights and strengthening trade deals in Mexico,” said de la Mora.

She said the new government wants a package of labour reform ratified in Mexico’s Congress before its April 30 adjournment “so we can reflect the commitments that we’ve made under the new U.S.-Mexico-Canada agreement in domestic legislation.”

That means the new agreement will be sent to the Mexican Congress for ratification after it reconvenes in Sept. 1, she said.

But that won’t happen unless the United States lifts its so-called section 232 tariffs on steel and aluminum exports, said de la Mora.

U.S. President Donald Trump imposed tariffs of 25 per cent on steel and 10 per cent on aluminum from Mexico and Canada, using the controversial national-security clause in U.S. trade law — “Section 232,” as it’s called in shorthand — that both countries say was illegal.

Canadian Transport Minister Marc Garneau recently told Trump’s top economic adviser, Larry Kudlow, during a public panel in Washington that the tariffs are “a serious impediment to us moving forward on what is the best trade deal in the world.”

On Nov. 30, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, Trump and former Mexican president Enrique Pena Nieto, who was on his last day in office, signed the new trade agreement. It now faces ratification by the legislatures of all three countries.

Trudeau spoke to Trump on Thursday and “raised the issue of steel and aluminum tariffs and expressed the need for

www.canadianinquirer.net

the removal of tariffs,” the Prime Minister’s Office said.

Canada has been clear from the outset that the tariffs “are illegal and unjustified,” said Adam Austen, a spokesman for Freeland.

“Now that we have concluded our NAFTA negotiation with the United States, we believe it is all the more reason for the U.S. administration to lift its tariffs,” Austen said Sunday, although he did not say specifically whether the issue would lead to a delay in ratification.

If the tariffs aren’t lifted, de la Mora suggested Mexico is fine with the current version of NAFTA that remains in force.

“We hope to have this new agreement in place. But in the absence of the new agreement, we know that NAFTA is good enough,” she said.

Mexico would prefer the updated agreement “for the relations we have with the U.S. and Canada but we are OK with the current NAFTA.” Mexican senators, who were in Ottawa the past week to conference with their Canadian parliamentary counterparts, echoed de la Mora’s assessment.

“We are going to approve it, but right now our government is trying to deal with this (the tariffs),” Sen. Antares Guadalupe said in an interview.

“We’re not in a rush. Trade right now, it’s working,” she added. “We have many things to do but we want to take it slowly because it is very important to have it in a very good way for Mexico.”

Sen. Hector Vasconcelos, the head of the Mexican Senate’s foreign-affairs committee, said the ratification of the new agreement is also subject to the domestic political situations in all three countries. That includes the ongoing turmoil in the Trump administration and Canada’s legislative clock, which will see the House of Commons adjourn in June until after the October federal election.

Asked what happens if the new agreement is not ratified, Vasconcelos laughed.

“Life goes on, I assure you,” he said, referring to the current NAFTA. “It’s good enough and we will try to get it better. That’s what we are going to do. We have to discuss a lot in Mexico.” ■

23

Entertainment Filipino singer Jej Vinson turns 4 chairs on ‘The Voice US’

BY JOANNA BELLE DEALA Philippine Canadian Inquirer ANOTHER FILIPINO is making his name on the international stage and he is no other than Jej Vinson, a 22-year-old Pinoy based in Los Angeles, who made all four judges of the reality singing competition in the United States (U.S.), The Voice, turned their chairs.

Jej blew away the crowd and the Season 16 coaches — Adam Levine, Blake Shelton, Kelly Clarkson, and John Legend — with his fresh take on Drake’s “Passionfruit” during the blind audition segment. Jej first caught the attention of Blake, followed by Kelly a few seconds later. John and Adam, mean-

while, both looked at each other and pressed the red button at the same time.

Wowed by the Filipino singer’s performance, Adam said, “You’re a better singer than all of us,” to which Jej replied, “That’s not true!”

First to comment on Jej’s rendition of “Passionfruit,” John said he was worried about Jej’s song choice at first since Drake is “kind of like monotone normally” but then the young singer managed to ‘soar.’

“You showed us these really precise beautiful runs like you knew, the note you wanted and just picked it out in the air. You hit every single one with precision and beauty and excitement you’ve got the whole crowd going,” John stressed.

Adam, meanwhile, assured Jej that if he will pick him as his coach, the Maroon 5’s lead singer will help Jej to “get to [a] place where people can feel you as well as they can hear you.”

“That to me is the number one thing moving forward for you to make sure you can navigate to the competition and keep everybody connected to your heart,” he told Jej. Looking at Jej on the stage, Blake, on the other hand, thinks he knows who will be the champion of this year’s competition.

“You know, I think everybody here is probably a little bit nervous talking to you right now.

We all feel like we’re looking at the winner of ‘The Voice’ this season,” he said.

For her part, Kelly, who won

Sunshine Garcia, Alex Castro officially married

BY GIANNA LLANES Philippine Canadian Inquirer

by a reception at Sofitel Plaza in Pasay, which was decorated with mirrors and pink flowers.

During the program, the newlymarried couple treated their attendees to a performance of “A Thousand Years” by Christina Perri.

Among the stars included on the wedding guest list included

lebrities Jake Cuenca, Angelica Panganiban and Joseph Marco, and talent manager Allan Altera were also there, as well as FORMER MEMBER of Sexcommercial models Zuher Baubomb Girls, Sunshine Garcia tista, Cris Lomotan, and busihas officially tied the knot with nessman Mikhail Hirang. partner singer-actor Alex CasSunshine and Alex first got tro last Saturday, March 2 at the engaged last December 2017 afManila Cathedral. ter three years of being togethThere were a er. In September total of 270 guests 2018, the couple for the ceremony welcomed their of the Banana first child toSplit star and the You renewed the way I see life. gether, baby boy Bulacan 4th DisYou gave me a reason to be happy Axel. trict Board Memagain.

Last February, ber, with Sunin their engageshine glowing in ment video by a caped wedding Nice Print Phogown by Patricia Santos embel- actor John Prats and wife Isa- tography and directed by close lished by a pair of blush-colored bel Oli, former Sexbomb danc- friend John Prats, Sunshine custom-made heels by Jeffer- ers and bridesmaids Mia Pang- and Alex opened up about love son Si. Her makeup was done by yarihan, Aiko Climaco, Johlan and loss, saying in Filipino, Gery Penaso, while her hairpiece Veluz, and Cynthia Yapchingco, “You renewed the way I see was by Aries Manal. The groom, Wowowin dancer Rovie Cab- life. You gave me a reason to be on the other hand, wore a three- igquez, fellow Banana Sundae happy again,” Sunshine adding, piece tuxedo by Edwin Tan. cast/crew Badji Mortiz, Pooh, “I didn’t realize that will come The ceremony was followed and Direk Bobot Mortiz. Ce- again for me.” ■ www.canadianinquirer.net

@JEJVINSON / INSTAGRAM

the first American Idol title, expressed confidence that she can win the contest along with Jej. “You are incredible, man. I turned around and I was like, ‘What?’ And it was so effortless,” Kelly said.

Before he makes what he called as “one of the hardest decisions” he ever has to make,

Jej thanked first the judges for turning their chairs to witness his talent, wishing that he could pick all of them to be his coaches, but in the end, it was Kelly who won Jej’s heart.

“Ladies and Gentlemen, WE GOT HIM! Jej, you are absolutely magical. #VoiceBlinds,” Kelly tweeted. ■

Luke Perry, heartthrob on ‘90210,’ dies at 52 after stroke

BY LYNN ELBER The Associated Press LOS ANGELES — Luke Perry, who gained instant heartthrob status as wealthy rebel Dylan McKay on “Beverly Hills, 90210,” died Monday after suffering a massive stroke, his publicist said. He was 52.

Perry was surrounded by family and friends when he died, publicist Arnold Robinson said. The actor had been hospitalized since last Wednesday, after a 911 call summoned medical help to his home in the Sherman Oaks section of Los Angeles.

“The family appreciates the outpouring of support and prayers that have been extended to Luke from around the world, and respectfully request privacy in this time of great

mourning,” Robinson said in a statement. Those at Perry’s bedside included his children, Jake and Sophie; fiancee Wendy Madison Bauer; former wife, Minnie Sharp, and mother Ann Bennett.

Although Perry was bestknown for his role as McKay, he enjoyed a prolific film and television career. Most recently, he played construction company owner Fred Andrews, father of main character Archie Andrews, for three seasons on “Riverdale,” the CW series that gives a dark take on “Archie” comics. A fourth season has been slated.

The actor’s next big screen role will be in Quentin Tarantino’s “Once Upon a Time In Hollywood,” which is slated for release in July. ❱❱ PAGE 25 Luke Perry

24

Entertainment

MARCH 8, 2019

FRIDAY

Maine Mendoza confirms Antoinette Taus relationship with Arjo Atayde undergoes surgery

after being bitten by a Chow Chow

BY GIANNA LLANES Philippine Canadian Inquirer TWO MONTHS after speculations a relationship with Arjo Atayde started, and a couple of days before celebrating her 24th birthday, the Kapuso actress has finally confirmed she is dating the Kapamilya star.

According to screenshots of a post of her blog, which has since been deleted, Maine immediately shares, “Here’s the statement and confirmation you have been waiting for. It’s true, I am dating Arjo.” She then elaborates, “You may have listed a long list of reasons why I shouldn’t but we all know it’s made out of hatred, anger and disappointment. I choose not to judge his character for whatever he’s done in the past because that does not define him as a person. I was raised to never judge a person, to always see the goodness of people no matter how other people see them.”

To conclude her words, Maine touches on the topic of the “hatred” she has gotten since the speculation, stating, “You may not be required to love the people around the person you idolize but I don’t think

BY JOANNA BELLE DEALA Philippine Canadian Inquirer

Arjo Atayde and Maine Mendoza.

it’s too much to show them at least some respect.”

Maine went into detail as well on how Arjo went to Bulacan “to personally talk to [her] parents and tell them he has nothing but good intentions for their daughter.” She also apologized to AlDub fans because she “cannot be YayaDub forever.”

In January of this year, Arjo first admitted that the two “Jack Em Popoy: The Puliscredibles”

@ARJOATAYDE / INSTAGRAM

stars were seeing each other, posting a photo of the actress captioned “save the best for last.” Maine followed that up with her own image with the 28-year old at the launch of her collaboration with MAC Cosmetics Studio Fix Foundation.

Last Monday, March 4, Arjo posted a black and white image with Maine for her birthday captioned, “My reason for being.” ■

2019 ‘Friendship Concert’ with K-Pop and Filipino acts coming soon

BY GIANNA LLANES Philippine Canadian Inquirer TO CELEBRATE the 70 years of diplomatic ties between the Philippines and South Korea, artists from the Philippine and Korean entertainment industries will take center stage at the SM Mall of Asia Arena on Thursday, March 7 for the ‘2019 K-Pop Friendship Concert.’

In the words of the ambassador of the Republic of Korea to the Philippines, Han Dong-man, about the event, “Throughout this milestone year in KoreaPhilippine relations, I aim to intensify the promotion of Korean culture in this country. As well, I intend to promote the Philip-

pines and its culture among Koreans living here and in Korea.

Hence, when we host cultural events in the Philippines, we strive to infuse them with Filipino elements or closely collaborate with local partners.”

This celebration, which is presented by Korea’s Ministry of Culture, Sports, and Tourism, will welcome boy groups NCT Dream and Noir, while six-member group April will be visiting the Philippines for the first time as well. NCT is a band from SM entertainment, known for hits “Chewing Gum,” “My First and Last,” and “We Go Up.” On the other hand, April is most noted for their Female Rookie of the Year recognition during the 2016 Korean

Entertainment Arts Award.

As for the Filipino side of the lineup, Silent Sanctuary is ready to serenade the crowd, while trio VinSuriChan, composed of Vince Igno, Dasuri Choi, and Phoi Chan, plans to amaze the audience with their dancing.

The event’s hosts are ABSCBN I Do Grand Winner Kring Kim and It’s Showtime host Ryan Bang.

For those who are interested in the event, the organizers have officially announced that entrance is free and open to the public. Slots are limited and allotted during registration, but will be given away if the attendee is not at the venue before 5:30 pm as the show starts promptly at 6 pm. ■ www.canadianinquirer.net

ACTRESS ANTOINETTE Taus is currently confined in a hospital after she was bitten by a Chow Chow while attending a family wedding in Baguio last Saturday.

On a Facebook post on Monday, March 4, the actress said she is recovering from the wounds on her left forearm, left thigh, and right breast which she sustained from dog bites.

“My left forearm suffered the worst and took two hours of surgery and suturing,” Antoinette said.

Along with her caption are some photos of her arm after the surgery when the bandages were being changed.

“When it first happened there was some fat hanging out of the wound and I could even see the tendon in my wrist,” she shared.

“Luckily there’s no permanent damage and no arteries or nerves were harmed,” she continued.

While giving her fans an update on her condition, Antoinette, who was supposed to have some events and meetings to attend to this week, also apologized to her colleagues for not being able to come to work for now.

“Praying for a speedy recovery and deeply grateful to the amazing doctors and nurses that have been so wonderful in taking care of me since I arrived,” the 38-year-old actress wrote.

Before ending her post, Antoinette offered some advice

to those who are planning to adopt a dog.

“I have been told that chow chows are the number one breed known to be involved dog bite cases. I am an animal lover and my natural instincts wouldn’t allow me to harm the dog that was attacking me. He is perfectly fine. But I am definitely traumatized most especially by the chowchow breed,” she said.

She then told the potential pet owners to consider adopting abandoned dogs first before “buying expensive breeds.”

Learning about the incident, her fans poured in ‘get well soon’ messages for the actress in the comment section. But while wishing for her fast recovery, some netizens did not agree with her remarks about the Chow Chows, with some saying that the bad behavior of a dog should not be blamed on the breed itself but to its owner.

“There are no bad dogs, only bad dog owners. Do not zero in on the breed. I proudly own 5 wellbehaved Chows. I am sorry this happened to you,” Facebook user Eloy Vicente-Francisco wrote.

Netizen Logan Yoro, meanwhile, believes that the number of dogs that “attack people” are the number of owners “who do not know how to handle and properly raise” their pets.

“To be honest all dogs bite but on how to prevent it all goes down to proper training and education,” she stressed.

Aside from being an actress, Antoinette is also known to be an environmental and mental health advocate. ■

@ANTOINETTETAUS / INSTAGRAM

Entertainment

FRIDAY MARCH 8, 2019

25

Khloe Kardashian absolves Woods of homewrecking, not pain

BY LYNN ELBER The Associated Press LOS ANGELES — Khloe Kardashian is having a change of heartache: She blames Tristan Thompson, not Jordyn Woods, for breaking up her family.

In a series of tweets, Kardashian went from calling out Woods as a homewrecker to absolving her of that. But she didn’t forgive Woods everything.

“What’s been harder & more painful is being hurt by someone so close to me.

Someone whom I love & treat like a little sister. But Jordyn is not to be blamed for the breakup of my family. This was Tristan’s fault,” Kardashian posted Saturday on Twitter.

Cleveland Cavalier player Thompson is the father of Kardashian’s baby, True.

Thompson’s agent Rich Paul declined to comment.

Woods’ interview Friday on Jada Pinkett Smith’s Facebook Watch show, “Red Table Talk,” prompted Kardashian’s two-day tweet barrage.

On Pinkett Smith’s show, Woods

sought to counter social media speculation over what happened with Thompson when she and a group of girlfriends went to a party at the basketball player’s Los Angeles home after a night out.

She stayed at Thompson’s house until the following morning and, as she left, he took her by surprise with a kiss on the lips, Woods told Pinkett Smith, the actress and a close friend who had counselled her to speak out.

“I didn’t know how to feel. I was like, ‘That didn’t just happen,”‘ Woods said, adding that nothing else happened with Thompson. Woods also said she’s confident she isn’t the reason Kardashian and Thompson aren’t together.

Kardashian, who is not married to Thompson and maintained a relationship after he cheated on her late in her pregnancy, shot back at Woods on Twitter after the interview.

“If you’re going to try and save yourself by going public, INSTEAD OF CALLING ME PRIVATELY TO APOLOGIZE FIRST, at least be HONEST about your story. BTW, You ARE the reason my family broke up!” Kardashian tweet-

Khloe Kardashian.

@KHLOEKARDASHIAN / INSTAGRAM

ed Friday.

Her posts Saturday took a different tack. Kardashian said in one she was a “rollercoaster of emotions & have said things I shouldn’t have,” later tweeting it was time to move on with life and count her blessings, including “my beautiful baby True.”

Woods was the best friend of Kardashian sister Kylie Jenner, a beauty mogul and the youngest sibling on reality TV’s “Keeping up with the Kardashians.” Woods, who moved out of Jenner’s Los Angeles area guest house after the rumors flared, told Pinkett Smith she’s been unfairly vilified. ■

Luke Perry... ❰❰ 23

“90210” co-star Ian Ziering paid tribute to his co-star on Twitter , where fans and celebrities shared their memories of Perry and mourned him . “I will forever bask in the loving memories we’ve shared over the last thirty years,” Ziering said. “May your journey forward be enriched by the magnificent souls who have passed before you, just like you have done here, for those you leave behind.”

Born and raised in rural Fredericktown, Ohio, Perry gained fame on “Beverly Hills, 90210,” which ran from 1990 to 2000. In a 2006 interview with The Associated Press, he recounted being partly inspired to pursue acting by a photo of Paul Newman his mother kept on her mirror.

He played out the memory of hearing his mother say, “He’s the most beautiful man in the world, honey … he’s a movie star.”

“I thought, ‘OK, that’s cool.’ I watched him and, ‘Yeah, man, who didn’t want to be Paul Newman!”‘ But Perry expanded his interests far beyond acting, identifying history as a passion and family a priority.

“When you are younger you can have only work, and I did for a long time,” he told the AP in 2006. “But it doesn’t command my attention that way anymore. A lot of the mysteries and the questions I had about it I’ve figured out, but life offers up mysteries every day.”

He had roles in a handful of films, in-

cluding “The Fifth Element,” “Buffy the Vampire Slayer,” “8 Seconds” and “American Strays,” appeared in HBO’s prison drama “Oz” as a televangelist convicted of fraud, and voiced cartoons including “The Incredible Hulk” and “Mortal Kombat.”

He made his Broadway musical debut as Brad in the “The Rocky Horror Picture Show,” and starred on London’s West End in another stage adaptation of a film, “When Harry Met Sally.” In recent years he starred in the series “Ties That Bind” and “Body of Proof.”

The same day he was hospitalized, Fox TV announced that it would be running a six-episode return of “90210” featuring most of the original cast, but Perry was not among those announced.

On the original series, Perry’s character went from loner to part of a closeknit circle that included twins Brenda and Brandon Walsh (Shannen Doherty, Jason Priestley), but also endured a string of romantic, family and other setbacks, including drug addiction. Perry left the series in 1995 to pursue other roles, returning in 1998 for the rest of the show’s run as a guest star.

In a 2011 interview with the AP, Perry said he and his male co-stars were a “really good strong core group” while the show aired and maintained close ties.

The friendship and trust he shared with Priestley created a sort of “shorthand” when it came to filming, Perry said. ■

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26

Lifestyle Don’t panic: How parents can deal with internet hoaxes

BY MAE ANDERSON The Associated Press NEW YORK — The latest parental panic on social media — over a purported challenge for kids to complete harmful tasks — elevates the importance of establishing an open dialogue with children and taking advantage of online parental controls.

Warnings about the “Momo challenge” swept Facebook and other social media in recent days, as parents worried about purported videos that encourage children to hurt themselves or do other harmful tasks such as turning on stoves without telling their parents. The parental warnings were accompanied by a disturbing image of a grinning creature with matted hair and bulging eyes.

But the challenge is believed to be a hoax. It’s unclear how many videos exist or to what extent they have circulated, among children or elsewhere.

Some of the videos might have been made in response to media attention surrounding the challenge. Meanwhile, the image of the grinning creature is reportedly from a Japanese sculpture.

Fact-checking site Snopes said the challenge first appeared in mid-2018 linked to suicide reports without actual evidence. YouTube said it hasn’t received “any recent evidence of videos showing or promoting the Momo challenge” on its service.

So why the panic? Experts say internet hoaxes focused

on children tap into fears that parents have about protecting their children online and elsewhere. In addition to anxiety about “screen time “ in general, there is certainly plenty of problematic videos that children shouldn’t watch. It’s hard for parents to police everything children do online. Fears were compounded when some school systems, local media and even police sent out their own warnings, accompanied by fuzzy facts.

“All moral panics feed on some degree of reality, but then they get blown out of proportion,” said Steve Jones, a professor of communications at the University of Illinois at Chicago.

These hoaxes echo panics from decades past, like the false belief in the 1980s that teenagers were hearing Satanic messages in rock song lyrics, he said.

“Once the internet is involved in the mix, things get speeded up and they get more widespread,” Jones said.

The most important thing parents can do is to establish an open dialogue with their children about what they’re seeing online and hearing from other children, said Jill Murphy, editor-in-chief at Common Sense Media, a San Francisco-based non-profit group focused on kids’ use of media and technology.

“Parents are increasingly frustrated with feeling surprised or caught off guard by what is being put in front of their kids,” she said. Whether

the “challenges” are real or not, she said, “they elevate the idea that they may or may not know exactly what their kids are absorbing through these platforms.”

That’s why talking to children is important, she said. “Take the right time to have an ageappropriate conversation, a n d help your kids u n der-

stand not everything on the internet is real.”

She said parents should also take advantage of parental settings built into many products and services. Most web browsers can block certain websites, limit what children can see and provide a report about what sites a child visited. Smartphones and tablets can limit screen time and access to apps.

YouTube Kids lets parents disable search and turn off “autoplay.” Murphy said these free

www.canadianinquirer.net

tools are good enough; no need to pay for third-party parental apps.

Another option is to download apps from shows or channels directly rather than going through streaming services such as YouTube. PBS, Peppa Pig, Nick Jr. and other popular services for kids have their own apps, with pre-screened videos deemed appropriate for kids.

And though it may seem con-

tradictory, going online to research the hoaxes could also help. The Momo hoax was debunked fairly quickly after people questioned it, Jones said. Give weight to trusted news sources and fact-checking sites like Snopes.com.

“Take a deep breath and go online as strange as that may seem in some sense,” he said.

“Do some research and try to figure it out for yourself.” ■

Lifestyle

FRIDAY MARCH 8, 2019

27

List of laws protecting women in PH

BY CHRISTINE CUDI Philippine News Agency MANILA — As the government recognizes the role and influence of women in the Philippines, many laws have been crafted to guarantee their protection and well-being, may it be in work or household.

And in light of the National Women’s Month celebration, here is a list of laws covering Filipino women’s rights in the Philippines: 105-Day Expanded Maternity Leave Law

Signed into law on February 2019 by President Rodrigo Duterte, Republic Act 11210 or the Expanded Maternity Leave Law extends the previous 60day (78 days for caesarian section delivery for women workers in the private sector) paid maternity leave to 105 days.

The law also entails an option to extend for an additional 30 days of unpaid leave. Additional 15 days paid maternity leave shall also be granted to female solo parents.

Prohibition on Discrimination Against Women

RA 6725 prohibits discrimination with respect to terms and conditions of employment solely on the basis of sex.

Under this law, any employer favoring a male employee over a female in terms of promotion, training opportunities, and other benefits solely on account of sex is considered discrimination.

Anti-Violence Against Women and Their Children Act of 2004

RA 9262, or An Act Defining Violence Against Women and Their Children, Providing Pro-

BRIAN EVANS / FLICKR, CC BY-ND 2.0

tective Measures for Victims, Prescribing Penalties Therefor and for Other Purposes, recognizes the need to protect the family and its members particularly women and children, from violence and threats to their personal safety and security.

Under this law, the state also recognizes the need to protect the family and its members particularly women and children, from violence and threats to their personal safety and security.

Assistance for small-scale women entrepreneurs

This law seeks to provide all possible assistance to Filipino women in their pursuit of owning, operating and managing small business enterprises.

RA 7882, or the act that states the Provision of Assistance to Women Engaging in Micro and Cottage Business Enterprises, and for other purposes, was approved in February 1995.

Anti-Sexual Harassment Act of 1995

of the case, the offense may be punishable reclusion perpetua or life imprisonment.

RA 7877 addresses the issue of sexual harassment committed in employment, education or training environment. It was signed into law on February 14, 1995, under former President Fidel Ramos’ administration.

Sexual favors made as a condition in the employment or granting promotions or privileges; or the refusal to grant the sexual favor results in limiting, segregating or classifying the employee which in any way would discriminate, deprive or diminish employment opportunities or otherwise adversely affect is punishable by law.

RA 8505 declares the policy of the State to provide necessary assistance and protection for rape victims.

The government shall coordinate its various agencies and non-government organizations to work hand in hand for the establishment and operation of a rape crisis center in every province and city that shall assist and protect rape victims in the litigation of their cases and their recovery.

The Anti-Rape Law of 1997

Magna Carta of Women

RA 8353 states that any person having carnal knowledge of a woman through force, threat, or intimidation or by means of fraudulent machination or grave abuse of authority will be punished.

Depending on the severity

Rape Victim Assistance and Protection Act of 1998

RA 9710 is a comprehensive women’s human rights law that seeks to eliminate discrimination through the recognition, protection, fulfillment, and promotion of the rights of Filipino women, especially those belonging in the marginalized

sectors of the society.

It conveys a framework of rights for women based directly on international law.

Pursuant to this law is Executive Order 273 that states the approval and adoption of Philippine Plan for Gender-Responsive Development, 1995-2025.

National Women’s Day

RA 6949 declares the eighth day of March every year as a special working holiday.

This ensures meaningful observance of the holiday, where all heads of government agencies and instrumentalities, including government-owned and controlled corporations as well as local government units, and employers in the private sector shall encourage and afford sufficient time and opportunities for their employees to engage and participate in any activity conducted within the premises of their respective offices or establishments to celebrate National Women’s Day. ■

Catholics mark start of Lent on Ash Wednesday

BY BEN CAL Philippine News Agency MANILA – “Remember man that you are dust, and to dust you shall return.”

These are the sacred words to be uttered by a priest as he puts ashes on the foreheads of the faithful to celebrate Ash

Wednesday (March 6) which is exactly 45 days before Easter Sunday.

As a Catholic nation, Filipinos observe Ash Wednesday with reverence as they visit church to have ashes put on their foreheads as a reminder that man comes from dust and to dust he shall return.

Other Christian denomina-

tions that observe Ash Wednesday are the Anglicans, Episcopalians, Lutherans, Methodists, Presbyterians and some Baptists.

The ashes are prepared by burning palm leaves from the previous year’s Palm Sunday celebrations.

In an interview, Rev. Fr. Kit Ramirez of the St. Jude Parish www.canadianinquirer.net

in Malacañang, Manila, said Ash Wednesday is the first day of Lent wherein Catholics between the ages 18 and 59, but depending on one’s health condition, are urged to fast, and abstain from eating meat, and every Friday thereat during the Lenten period.

However, senior citizens are exempted from fasting, he said.

Biblical records point out the importance of fasting which Christ did for 40 days and night in the wilderness, as part of his spiritual preparation before he was nailed on the Cross on Good Friday and his resurrection on Easter Sunday to prove all and sundry that he is God Almighty. ■

28

Lifestyle

MARCH 8, 2019

FRIDAY

Gio Levy... ❰❰ 19

Happy Beer Day! Iceland marks 30th anniversary of end of ban

BY EGILL BJARNASON The Associated Press REYKJAVIK, ICELAND — Thirty years ago, a sobering dry spell in Iceland’s history came to an end.

On Friday, the country celebrates the anniversary of the lifting of a decades-long ban on beer with — what else? — a nationwide Beer Day. The drink was outlawed in Iceland for 74 years, while all other booze was completely legal. The alcoholic anomaly finally ended on March 1, 1989.

The beer ban was a leftover from the country’s prohibition era, which started in 1915 when the population voted in a referendum to outlaw all alcoholic drinks.

The ban was partially lifted seven years later out of economic necessity — Spain refused to buy Iceland’s main export, fish, unless Iceland bought Spanish wines.

Prohibition was repealed in another national referendum in 1933. But the majority vote was tight and to appease a powerful temperance movement Iceland’s parliament decided beer would remain illegal.

Historian Stefan Palsson, moonlighting as a teacher at a brewery-based “School of Beer,” said that at the time Icelanders didn’t miss it.

“They drank in order to be-

come drunk and beer wasn’t really efficient for that,” he said.

Alcohol abuse remains an issue. One in 10 Icelandic males over the age of 15 have been to rehab at least once in their lifetime, according to SAA, the country’s leading addiction treatment centre.

With alcoholism still widespread, most Icelanders favour strict government restrictions on alcohol sales. Apart from the country’s bars, alcohol — beer included — is only sold at government-run monopoly stores, with limited opening hours and high taxes.

A pint of beer costs about 1,100 krona ($9) in bars, while a bottle of Smirnoff vodka costs the equivalent of $67 in the stores that sell it.

A thirst for change began in the 1970s when Icelanders increasingly started vacationing in sunny European beach resorts and developed a taste for a cooling beer.

Back home, local bartenders responded by inventing the “bjorliki” cocktail, a pseudobeer made by blending nonalcoholic pilsner with aquavit — in very variable ratios.

Yet a large part of the population still opposed lifting the beer ban when parliament debated the issue for the last time in 1988.

Steingrimur Sigfusson, who is parliamentary speaker today, at the time painted a gloomy

picture of the chaos that would result as “hundreds of taverns” opened up to crowds with no experience of the beverage. He voted against the proposition.

He still defends the country’s restrictive alcohol policy that aims to limit binge and teen drinking.

“The worst-case predictions never came true but underage drinking did increase,” Sigfusson said.

The ban finally ended on a Wednesday. All four bars in Reykjavik were jam packed with drinkers toasting their new-found freedom while the country’s population of 260,000 celebrated by buying more than 340,000 cans of beer at overcrowded Vinbudin monopoly stores.

“I wasn’t sure what to make of this day — we knew so little about beer,” said Sigurdur Snorrason, founder of the RVK brewing company, at a craft beer festival in the capital Reykjavik celebrating the milestone anniversary.

Hreindis Ylva was born the day the ban was lifted. She is celebrating her 30th birthday Friday with friends in a wooden house in Reykjavik’s open air museum. She won’t be sipping any suds, though.

“I think beer looks delicious served in a glass, but the taste is not for me,” she said. “This cool birthday is completely wasted on me.” ■ www.canadianinquirer.net

nitely important to be practice hard to stay relevant. able to speak the na- It’s a very good thing.” tive language of the Thankfully for Gio, passion country you’re in.” will always overcome popularAs time went on, Gio “de- ity, which is why he continues to veloped some great connec- push through making his mark tions” by “playing everywhere in the OPM world. “I’m more foand creating music,” eventu- cused on content creation than I ally making a name for himself am on the statistics,” he shares, through live gigs and online “Filipino fans are honest. Like I collaborations with YouTubers said earlier, they love and supand other artists. “Internet port entertainment. It’s a great is powerful stuff,” he laughs, country to be a performer.”

“They’ll hear about you even if And, to avoid homesickness, your stuff is half decent.”

Gio knows that he always has Z Hostel, which is an accom- the love of his family waiting modation location with a roof- for him back in Richmond, one top bar in Poblacion, Manila, flight away. “I go home twice a is where Gio began his humble year. Going back to Canada’s beginnings in the industry, but awesome because I have no real still recalls it as one of his favor- family in the Philippines,” says ite places to perform. “I had a Gio, “I focus 10,000% on work solo acoustic set so when I go back weekly for RnB to Canada, it’s nights,” he remipure bliss. I like nisces, “It was it that way. I like amazing. It still missing them.”

[Filipino is, actually. It’s Time is just a fans] love a great room to number for Gio and support play.” as he believes entertainment.

From rooftop that he “will It’s a great bars to an audimove mouncountry to be a ence of thoutains this 2019” performer. sands, Gio makes with a couple of sure that wherground-breaking ever his career upcoming projtakes him, he still ects, specifically remains humble. When asked his podcast “Creative Pickings” about his most memorable col- and new YouTube series “GLGL laboration so far, he lists a hand- (Gio Levy Guitar Lessons).” His ful of local artists, looking in ret- happy-go-lucky attitude relieves rospect, “I had a lot of fun singing all the pressure to define the steat the Elements songwriting reotypical success, looking forcamp back in 2016. My favor- ward, “Philippines is where it’s at ite collaboration might be with for the next little while. But who Jessica Sanchez from American knows! I may end up somewhere Idol. I also cannot forget sing- else in the next few years.” ing with Morisette Amon, she Yet, wherever he goes, Gio uses will always drop jaws. Christian to his advantage the fact that he Bautista is really charming as has two cultures embedded to his well,” exclaiming, “It’s all good, dynamism. “People all over the really. I’ve been very lucky to world love Filipinos and Canadishare the stage with some of the ans,” he says excitedly, “Filipinos country’s greatest.” are hospitable and love to eat.

Canadians say sorry for every2019 thing, even when it rains. What Gio has the heart of a Filipino more can you ask for?” and the soul of a Canadian, an From the Philippines to immensely powerful combina- Canada then back to the Philtion that consistently encour- ippines, it may seem like too ages him to represent Filipino- much of an adventure for some Canadians on a global scale, people. But, Gio always uses it starting with the entertain- as an opportunity to learn and ment industry in his birthplace. explore more of his surround“Filipinos value the enter- ings, how he’ll use that to his tainment industry,” he appre- advantage to try new things and ciates, “It’s a booming industry continue to push himself to be and no matter how different or better, both as a musician and how weird your style is, you will as a representation of Filipinos find a market for it. Filipinos worldwide. In his words, “As are also very talented, so you long as I’m having fun, I’ll stick need to stay up to date and/or around.” ■

29

Sports New boxing org keen on continuing boxing traditions

BY ERCEL MAANDIG Philippine News Agency CAGAYAN DE ORO CITY — A newly-formed international boxing organization is aiming to expand and continue to promote boxing in the Philippines, as it organized events here Sunday.

The Global Boxing Organization (GBO), although based in the United States, is run by a Filipino — Reynaldo Rodis, its chairman. He just concluded five amateur fights and two

main events at the Limketkai Mall on Sunday Rodis, who started his boxing promotions in the city during the ‘90s, said that Sunday’s event was its inaugural and launching fight for the Philippines and Asia Pacific, and also a preview in their Philippine Caravan in search of a new boxing hero after Manny Pacquiao.

“Manny Pacquiao probably changed the image of Filipinos abroad. But after Pacquiao became a boxing icon in the world, it created a big bang to

the image of Filipinos not only in boxing but in general as a competitive country in sports and entertainment,” said Fred Lumba, GBO chairman of the Board and Chief Executive Officer (CEO).

Lumban is also a sportswriter and columnist.

He said that after the Cagayan de Oro launch fight on Sunday, they will be preparing for a big event dubbed as “Thrilla in Davao” in Davao City on May 25 as a tribute to international boxing promoter “Don King”,

PNA

who has been invited to grace the event, or a representative to receive his Life Achievement Award spearheaded by GBO and is expected to be presented by President Rodrigo R.

Duterte.

The “Thrilla in Davao” will feature a Filipino undefeated heavyweight who has a 17-0 record against a Chinese opponent. ■

Team South succeeds in first Bacolod karatekas ever MPBL All-Star event shine in Batang Pinoy Visayas qualifiers

BY GIANNA LLANES Philippine Canadian Inquirer IT WAS Team South that finished the first ever Maharlika Pilipinas Basketball League (MPBL) All-Star game triumphant last Saturday, March 2 at the Mall of Asia Arena, as they dominated the Jojo Lastimosaled Team North 109-84.

The top scorer was Jeff Viernes from the Batangas City Tanduay Athletics, who was initially a wild card pick by Davao Occidental Tigers and Team South head coach Don Dulay. The point guard contributed a total of 19 points, being named Most Valuable Player (MVP) at the end of the night.

Gab Banal of the Bacoor Strikers, who was one of the starters for the night, also contributed with a double-double at 11 points and 10 rebounds, while Viernes’ Batangas teammate Jaymo Eguilos and Zamboanga Valientes’ Reed Juntilla both chipped 11. Actor Gerald Anderson, who is regularly a defensive player for the Marikina Shoemasters, also stunned with nine points — six of them being two different buzzer-beaters.

For the North side, the major contributors were Manila

BY NANETTE GUADALQUIVER Philippine News Agency

AllStar Game North vs South #mpblAllStar2019 #LigaNgBawatPilipino.

MAHARLIKA PILIPINAS BASKETBALL LEAGUE / FACEBOOK

Stars’ Chris Bitoon, San Juan Knights’ Mike Ayonayon, and Quezon City Capitals’ Jay Collado who contributed 11, 10 and 10 points respectively.

In Coach Don’s words about his winning team’s performance, “ I knew these guys. In the locker room, from the beginning of the game, they really want to win. The fire was there, the fight was there. It was just a matter of time when they turned it on. I was expecting a tight game in the end.” He shared that the most difficult part about coaching an All-Star was the rotation, “[There are] 15, all can play. Good thing we

were leading big,” the 38-yearold coach added.

As a result of their success, the South team took home a P500,000 cash prize.

Earlier in the night, Bataan Risers’ guard duo Pamboy Raymundo and John Byron Villarias were hailed the two-ball challenge kings, while teammate Gary David ended up on top of the rankings for the three-point shootout. Makati Super Crunch’s David Carlos went home with the Slam Dunk Competition trophy.

MPBL was originally founded by Senator Manny Pacquiao and is headed by Commissioner Kenneth Duremdes. ■ www.canadianinquirer.net

BACOLOD CITY — Karatedo players from Bacolod City bagged medals during the Batang Pinoy 2019 Visayas Qualifying Leg held in Iloilo City which ended Saturday.

Young karatekas of A.S.K. Franco Ryu, mentored by Ramon Antoniño Hector Franco and Stephanie Queen Franco, took home three gold, one silver, and six bronze medals.

Gold medalists were Chris Cholo Nicoli Salcedo, 8- 9 years old boys’ category of intermediate kata; Joy Tubongbanua, 14-15 years old girls’ individual kumite; and Zyrhon Vallejera, 14-15 years old boys kumite.

Glayden Jhon Gregorio, meanwhile, took the silver in 12-13 years old girls intermediate kata.

Double bronze medalists were Margueritte Therese Calaor in 10-11 years old girls’ kumite and advance kata and Hannah Damasco 14-15 years old girls’ intermediate kata and kumite.

Shanzel Vallejera and Bryce TJ Mendones pocketed bronze each in the 8-9 years old girls’ novice kata and 12-13 years old boys’ intermediate kata, respectively.

Also winning medals for Bacolod were the karatekas of Karate Fighting System trained by Randy Mengullo and Elan Delfin.

The girls’ team was bannered by Paulaine Miyu Kalaw who brought home two gold medals in 8-9 years old advance kata and kumite while Shifra Medina captured silvers in 14-15 years old intermediate kata and -47 kgs. kumite.

Piamonte took silver while Gorriceta pocketed bronze in 1213 years old kumite. Meanwhile Denisse Martina Atesora was also a bronze medalist in the 1011 year-old intermediate kata.

In the boys’ category, Carlo Barias and Cziane Cedric Dawa bagged two bronze medals each in advance kata and intermediate kata, and in team kata along with Zohann Francis Kalaw in 8-9 years old category.

The winners in the Visayas Qualifying Leg will compete in the Batang Pinoy 2019 National Finals in October. ■

30

Business Foreigners working in PH must pay taxes: DOF PHILIPPINE NEWS AGENCY MANILA — The Department of Finance (DOF) and the Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR) are working closely with other government agencies, including the justice and labor departments, to ensure that foreign nationals working in Philippine offshore gaming operations (POGO) comply with the country’s tax laws, particularly in the payment of income taxes.

Under Revenue Memorandum Circular (RMC) No. 782018, all foreign and Philippine-based gaming operators, including those with offshore licenses, are now required to register with the BIR as a prerequisite in the renewal of their Philippine Amusements and

Gaming Corp. (PAGCOR) licenses. This mandates the BIR to identify and monitor tax payments including remittances of taxes withheld on foreign nationals working for them.

Finance Secretary Carlos Dominguez III said in a statement on Sunday that the list of foreign nationals working for service providers of POGO operators should be consolidated and reconciled by the various agencies and offices involved in screening, providing work permits and registering them here in the country.

These agencies include the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA), which screens and issues visas to foreign nationals entering the country; the Department of Justice (DOJ), which oversees the Bureau of Immigration (BI) that, in turn,

grants short-term special work permits (SWPs) to foreigners; the Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE), which issues alien employment permits (AEPs); PAGCOR, which has a list of its licensed POGO operators; Department of Trade and Industry (DTI), which oversees the country’s special economic zones (SEZs) where a few of these POGOs operate; and the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), which registers POGO agents.

“If we get all that (information), then it is possible that we can begin to collect taxes, enforcing the law on these foreign workers who are operating here. Isn’t that what we really want to do here, enforce the law?” Dominguez said during a recent meeting he requested with the respective heads of

DOF Secretary Carlos Dominguez III.

these agencies to find ways of making foreign POGO workers’ pay income taxes to the BIR. Dominguez said “a good starting point” would be to trace the employers of these foreign workers so that a portion of their salaries could be withheld and turned over to the government as partial payment

KING RODRIGUEZ / PRESIDENTIAL PHOTO

of their income taxes.

Besides ensuring that foreign nationals comply with tax laws, Dominguez also said it is imperative for the government to find out who and where all these alien workers are, given the national security implications of their large presence in the country. ■

Rice Tariffication Law gets rid of smugglers: Lambino

SSS chief eyes members’ contribution hike by Q2

BY LILYBETH ISON Philippine News Agency

BY JOANN VILLANUEVA Philippine News Agency

MANILA — With the implementation of the Rice Tariffication Law starts on March 5, the national government has assured that there will be no more smuggling of the staple food as importation will be open to everybody.

“Rice tariffication will eliminate rice smugglers as anyone can now import rice, the importer just needs to get sanitary and phytosanitary permit from the Bureau of Plant Industry (BPI) under the new law,” said Finance Assistant Secretary Tony Lambino at the Pandesal Forum on Friday.

Lambino said the main objective in opening up rice importation will benefit more than 100 million Filipino rice consumers as prices are estimated to

MANILA – Social Security System (SSS) President and Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Emmanuel Dooc expects the increase in members contribution to be implemented by April or May, once the Implementing Rules and Regulations (IRR) are put in place.

In an interview at the sidelines of the public consultation on the Social Security Act of 2018 at the SSS office along East Avenue in Quezon City Monday, Dooc explained that increase in the contribution rates “will require further discussion” as well as resolution of the Social Security Commission.

He said the next meeting of the Commission is scheduled on March 14, 2019.

go down by PHP2 to PHP7 per kilo.

He also clarified that under the Rice Tariffication Law, importation needs no implement-

ing rules and regulations (IRR) as importers need to get the necessary permits to ensure ❱❱ PAGE 36 Rice Tariffication

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The agenda for the said meeting has yet to be determined, he said, but expressed hope that the contribution rate increase will be taken up.

“I hope it will be within the first half of the year…maybe April or May,” he said when asked when he thinks the adjustment will transpire.

IRR of the Social Security Act is now in the final stage. It is required to be in place 90 days after the effectivity of the law, which falls on Tuesday, March 5, 2019.

Under the said law, the SSS can increase the contribution by one percentage point every other year until it becomes 15 percent. To date, the contribution rate is 11 percent. ■

Business

FRIDAY MARCH 8, 2019

31

China sets robust growth target to shore up cooling economy

BY JOE MCDONALD The Associated Press BEIJING — China’s top economic official announced a robust annual growth target and a 7.5 per cent rise in military spending on Tuesday at a legislative session overshadowed by a tariff war with Washington.

In a bid to defuse U.S. and European complaints the Chinese system is rigged against foreign companies, Premier Li Keqiang promised in a speech to the National People’s Congress they will be “treated as equals” with Chinese competitors.

Li set this year’s growth target at 6 to 6.5 per cent, reflecting official determination to shore up a cooling, state-dominated economy and prevent politically dangerous job losses in the face of U.S. tariff hikes and weaker global demand. It is off slightly from last year’s 6.6 per cent growth, a three-decade low, but would be among the world’s strongest if achieved.

The premier promised higher spending on technology development the ruling Communist Party sees as a path to prosperity and global influence and more money for education, social programs and public works construction.

Li warned the second-largest economy faces a “graver and more complicated environment” and risks that “are greater in number and size.”

The two-week gathering of the congress’s 3,000-plus delegates in the cavernous Great Hall of the People is China’s highest-profile event of the year but does little lawmaking work. Instead, it serves as a platform to highlight plans

for the year and set the tone for government work.

President Xi Jinping’s government is expected to use this year’s session to announce measures to support economic growth including tax cuts and more support for entrepreneurs who generate China’s new jobs and wealth.

Companies and investors are looking for details of how Beijing will carry out promises to curb the dominance of state industry.

Legislators also are due to endorse a law that aims to ease tensions with Washington and Europe by discouraging officials from pressuring foreign companies to hand over technology. The tariff battle with President Donald Trump was sparked by complaints Beijing violates its free-trade obligations by stealing or requiring companies to give up technology as the price of market access.

A gathering of noncommunist groups held at the same time draws tech billionaires, movie stars and ethnic minorities to the Chinese capital.

Government spending plans reflect “emphatic pro-growth efforts” and a “commitment to offset external headwinds,” said Vishnu Varathan of Mizuho Bank in a report.

Proposed tax cuts of up to 2 trillion yuan ($300 billion) would put “significant spending power” in the hands of consumers and companies and help to buoy sagging demand for autos, household appliances and other goods, said Varathan.

The government wants to “ensure a soft landing,” said Varathan.

Li, the No. 2 leader in the ruling party behind Xi, said Beijing

will spend more on technology development including artificial intelligence, electric cars, biotechnology and new materials.

China’s emergence as a competitor in smartphones, telecom equipment, solar power and other technologies has increased the range of products available to consumers and helped to drive down prices.

But it rattles Washington and other governments that worry Chinese competition is a threat to their industries and employment.

Spending on the Communist Party’s military wing, the People’s Liberation Army, will rise to 1.2 trillion yuan ($178 billion), the premier said. China’s total military outlay, the second-largest behind the United States, is estimated by independent experts to exceed $220 billion a year when off-budget expenses are added in.

Li said the central government budget deficit would rise from 2.6 per cent of total economic output to 2.8 per cent, reflecting higher spending to stimulate the economy.

The tariff fight with Trump over Beijing’s technology ambitions has rattled Chinese consumers and investors who also worry about weakening real estate and auto sales. That is prompting some to put off spending, which could add to downward pressure on economic growth.

News reports say Washington and Beijing might be close to an agreement to end the battle. But the chief U.S. envoy, Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer, said earlier the two sides still had much work to do.

No agreements have been an-

Premier Li Keqiang.

nounced on the core of the dispute: U.S. pressure on Beijing to roll back plans for state-led creation of global competitors in robotics and other technology.

Washington, Europe and other trading partners say those violate China’s market-opening obligations. Some American officials worry they might erode U.S. industrial leadership.

It was unclear whether Trump would be mollified by the technology measure, part of law on foreign investment that state media say the congress is due to endorse.

It would bar officials from using “administrative measures” to pressure companies to hand over technology. Foreign business groups welcomed the proposal but said they need to see details of how it will be enforced to know whether it will improve conditions.

Li tried to reassure investors by promising foreign companies will be “treated as equals” with Chinese enterprises in a “fair and impartial market environment.”

Foreign business groups and governments complain Beijing routinely violates its commitments under the World Trade Organization to ensure such

BELISH / SHUTTERSTOCK.COM

equality, or “national treatment.” They say rules on investment, technology licensing and other facets of business discriminate against foreign companies or shield Chinese enterprises from competition.

Xi and other Chinese leaders have announced changes over the past year including tariff cuts on imported consumer goods and plans to allow full foreign ownership in auto manufacturing. But business groups say those have little impact on operating conditions for foreign companies in China.

Beijing faces a formal WTO challenge filed in July by the European Union against rules on technology licensing the 28-nation trade bloc said improperly hamper the ability of foreign companies to protect and profit from their technology.

Li promised “competitive neutrality,” or equal treatment of state-owned and private companies by Chinese regulators. But he gave no details of how far that might extend for foreign competitors.

“Enterprises under all forms of ownership will be treated on an equal footing,” the premier said. ■

Bank exec says Diokno has ‘bird’s-eye view’ of economy

BY JOANN VILLANUEVA Philippine News Agency MANILA – A ranking BDO Unibank Inc. official is optimistic on the appointment of former Department of Budget and Management Secretary (DBM) Benjamin Diokno as Bangko

Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) governor.

In reply to a phone message from the Philippine News Agency (PNA) Monday night, BDO chief market strategist Jonathan Ravelas said Diokno, who also headed the interagency Development Budget Coordination Committee

(DBCC) on a concurrent basis, has an edge in the central bank.

“He has a bird’s eye view of the economy. He will be able to fine tune what’s needed to support growth shifting from the current 6 percent to a higher gear,” he said.

Ravelas said Diokno’s time at the DBM “highlights his www.canadianinquirer.net

commitment to keep fiscal discipline which will be the balancing force to support government but maintain independence.”

“He is a good communicator,” he added.

Diokno replaced BSP Gov. Nestor A. Espenilla Jr., a career central banker, who died last

February 23 after more than a year of battling cancer.

Chief Presidential Legal Counsel and Presidential Spokesperson Salvador Panelo said Diokno was appointed to head the BSP during the Cabinet meeting Monday. ■

32

Technology New techniques let scientists zero in on individual cells

BY MALCOLM RITTER The Associated Press NEW YORK — Did you hear what happened when Bill Gates walked into a bar? Everybody there immediately became millionaires — on average.

That joke about a very rich man is an old one among statisticians. So why did Peter Smibert use it to explain a revolution in biology?

Because it shows averages can be misleading. And Smibert, of the New York Genome Center, says that includes when scientists are trying to understand the basic unit of life, the cell.

Until recently, trying to study key traits of cells from people and other animals often meant analyzing bulk samples of tissue, producing a mushed-up average of results from many cell types. It was like trying to learn about a banana by studying a strawberry-blueberry-orangebanana smoothie.

In recent years, however, scientists have developed techniques that let them directly study the DNA codes, the activity of genes and other traits of individual cells. The approach has become widely adopted, revealing details about the body that couldn’t be shown before.

And it has opened the door to pursuing an audacious goal: listing every cell type in the human body.

“Single-cell analysis is crucial for a comprehensive understanding of our biology and health,” Dr. Francis Collins, the director of the National Institutes of Health,

declared recently.

In fact, the journal Science named the techniques that allow single-cell tracking of gene activity over time in developing organisms and organs as its “breakthrough of the year” for 2018. Its announcement declared, “The single-cell revolution is just starting.”

A slew of discoveries

Even complicated animals like us are really just massive communities of cells, each taking on a particular role and working with its neighbours. An average adult human has 37 trillion or so of them, and they’re surprisingly varied: the inner lining of the colon, for example, has more than 50 kinds of cells.

It was just five years ago that methods for decoding of DNA and its chemical cousin RNA from individual cells became broadly accessible, according to the journal Nature Methods.

New techniques are still being developed to pry more and more secrets out of individual cells.

The single-cell approach is leading to a slew of discoveries.

In just the past year, for example: — Scientists closely tracked gene activity within fish and frog embryos, a step toward the longstanding goal of understanding how a single fertilized egg can produce an animal. One study compiled results from more than 92,000 zebrafish embryonic cells.

— Other researchers revealed details of the physical connection between pregnant women and the fetus, giving potential clues for understanding some

causes of stillbirth.

— A study found a pattern of gene activity in some melanoma cells that let them resist immunotherapy, the practice of unleashing the body’s immune system on cancer. That might lead to finding a way to render those cells vulnerable.

And a pair of other studies may affect research into cystic fibrosis, the genetic disease that causes lung infections and limits breathing ability. Scientists have long known that the disease stems from a faulty version of protein called CFTR. The studies identified a type of rare cell in the airway that makes large amounts of CFTR, surpassing earlier but only dimly understood indications that such cells existed.

The discovery offers great potential for guiding the development of new treatments, said Dr. William Skach, senior vicepresident of research affairs for the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation. Single-cell techniques will be important in studying them further for coming up with new therapies, he said. (Two co-authors of one paper are from the foundation).

At the MD Anderson Cancer Center of the University of Texas, Nicholas Navin uses singlecell DNA studies to reveal different patterns of mutations in various cells of a single tumour.

That lets him reconstruct when and where those mutations appeared as the tumour evolved from benign cells. And he can identify cells that contain combinations of mutations that make them the most lethal.

www.canadianinquirer.net

Someday, such research should indicate what treatments to use for particular patients, or which patients have the highest risk of the disease progressing, he says. It might also allow doctors to check how well their treatments are working against a cancer over time.

A decade or two from now, it might let doctors detect cancers very early by picking up and analyzing the DNA of rare cells in blood tests, he says.

Mapping all the cells

Meanwhile, the ability to produce single-cell results for hundreds of thousands of cells at a time has opened the door to a huge effort to catalogue every cell type in the human body. More than 1,000 scientists from 57 countries have joined the Human Cell Atlas Consortium, which estimates it will eventually profile at least 10 billion cells found in both healthy and sick people.

Why do this? It’s a natural follow to the big project that catalogued all the human genes, says co-organizer Aviv Regev, a biology professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and researcher at the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard.

(Her salary is paid by the Howard Hughes Medical Institute,

which also supports The Associated Press Health & Science Department.)

The gene map led to identifying thousands of genetic variants that raise or lower the risk of many diseases. But to turn that into therapies, scientists have to know in which cells those variants act, she said. And to run down those cells in the human body, “we have to map all of them.”

Some cells are rarer than others, but these can be just as critical for a functioning body as their more plentiful neighbours, she said.

She hopes for a first draft of the cell atlas in about five years, focused on certain organs and tissues of the body. To finish the job might take about a decade, she figures. Regev won’t hazard a guess about how many cell types will be found for the entire human body.

“This is not going to cure all disease immediately,” she said, but “it is a critical stepping stone.” ■ This Associated Press series was produced in partnership with the Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s Department of Science Education. The AP is solely responsible for all content.

Technology

FRIDAY MARCH 8, 2019

33

Print your city? 3D printing is Anchorage pets get revolutionizing urban futures high tech help in the event they get lost

BY SYLVIE ALBERT, JEREMY MILLARD AND TOMAS DIEZ The Canadian Press THE FABRICATION City concept puts manufacturing back in the hands of communities — using 3D printers. It could have far-reaching implications for economic development, environmental sustainability, inclusion and other benefits. The use of 3D printing provides cities with opportunities through their local innovators and entrepreneurs.

The process of 3D printing layers materials to create threedimensional objects using digital equipment. Local makers are given access to fabrication labs equipped with technology to learn and this incubation environment can develop future entrepreneurs.

The fabrication city model emerged around 2011, developed by the MIT’s Centre for Bits and Atoms and by over 1,000 Maker Centres that give local makers access to 3D printing and other production tools.

There are also neighbourhoods and city clusters that facilitate the maker movement.

There are opportunities for individuals and groups to create and market products from used or new materials using a digital device and additive technology. By facilitating these activities, cities can radically transform the way production and consumption happens within their region. Interconnecting people and processes to create local and regional inclusive innovation and economic growth while also reducing environmental impacts. What might we re-use if we practice more inclusive innovation and how might we change the local economy if we support local sourcing?

Printing the future

In our upcoming book, Innovative Solutions for Creating Sustainable Cities, the fabrication city section explains that going forward, we cannot follow the same principles as before by moving materials — or focus on the pursuit of efficiency (less investment of capital, energy,

BY DEVIN KELLY The Associated Press

SAMUEL HURON / FLICKR, CC BY-NC-ND 2.01

resources) for the maximization of outputs.

Instead, we must radically redefine urbanism by changing how we produce, consume and live in cities so they can digest locally the waste they produce.

Just as the digital economy is making platforms available for anyone to sell globally, new technologies such as additive manufacturing are allowing us to rethink where and how we make things.

The use of 3D printing is already transforming many conventional industries. For example, GE is able to replace a third of the parts on an aircraft engine using 3D printing and by fusing materials together they can reduce the overall number of parts. Honda created an electric vehicle entirely from 3D-printed segments. On-demand printed cars may be just around the corner. Even homes are being 3D printed at highly reasonable costs these days — although a bit rudimentary, the output can only get better.

This manufacturing revolution will have substantial implications, providing cities and local entrepreneurs with the opportunity to mass customize and produce for just-in-time delivery. It will reduce transportation and waste and thus help to minimize emissions. It may also reduce the overall cost for consumers while increasing local jobs.

Rethinking local production

Imagine

cities

equipped

with flexible factories using local supply chains and locally sourced materials. These fabrication sites use waste materials, disassembled components and other sources to manufacture products digitally and customised for citizens. From prosthetic limbs to plastic waste used to create seating in city parks, to yes, a fridge, there are an increasing number of products being manufactured by local entrepreneurs.

Industrial manufacturing has begun this transition from degenerative to regenerative design (these are processes that restore and renew sources of energy and materials), also known as the circular economy.

Waste, for example, is recirculated and fabricated to meet new needs such as energy production.

The fabrication city concept meets social, economic, governance and sustainable development goals. This is a tremendous incentive for cities to engage and establish new urban systems that are regenerative and restorative by design. The Fab City Global Initiative, begun in 2016, includes 27 participating municipalities and governments, among them Detroit, Amsterdam, Bhutan, Shenzhen, Ekurhuleni, Santiago de Chile, Boston and Paris.

There is a rich network of designers, makers and innovators from a wide range of sectors contributing to developments ❱❱ PAGE 38 Print your

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ANCHORAGE, ALASKA — Anchorage pet licenses can now come with digital codes aimed at more rapidly reuniting lost pets with owners and freeing up shelter space, officials say.

The Anchorage Animal Care and Control Center started offering digital pet licenses this year. A Washington state-based company called Pethub produces the tags, which come with a digital quick response code, or QR code.

Scanning the tag with a smartphone pulls up a webpage with a profile for the pet, which can include multiple contact numbers, health information and eating preferences.

Shelter communications director Laura Atwood’s husky, Whisper, has a digital tag and a page. The page lists five phone numbers, along with Whisper’s birthday, his microchip ID and a physical description that includes a notch missing from his tongue.

“He is not food motivated so coaxing him with food may not work unless it’s real chicken or turkey,” the page says. “Or pizza.”

If Whisper got lost, his finder could send a GPS location through the page, Atwood said.

Atwood would also get a text telling her that the code was scanned.

The tag comes with a red sticker with activation instructions. In one recent case, someone found a lost dog with a digital license that hadn’t yet been activated. The dog ended up staying briefly at the shelter until its family picked it up, according to a post about the incident on the Animal Care and Control Facebook page.

Activating the tag falls to pet owners, not the animal shelter, so the owner can decide what information to provide to the call centre, Atwood said.

The tags are the latest example of Anchorage city government tapping into QR code technology.

At the Anchorage cemetery,

families have the option of paying $150 for a QR code to accompany the gravesite of a loved one. The codes are mounted on the columbarium wall. A smartphone scan launches a memorial website.

About a dozen families have purchased the codes since the program began a few years ago, said cemetery director Rob Jones.

The cemetery has also purchased a code to be placed near the whale bones that mark the graves of a whaling captain and his wife, Jones said. He said it would be a way to tell the story of the whale bones, which mark the centre of the city cemetery.

In the case of the city animal shelter’s foray into digitizing, Atwood said she learned about the digital pet licenses at a conference in 2018.

“It’s just truly a way to help reunite lost dogs more quick with their owners, and without the animal having to come through the shelter,” Atwood said.

Anchorage resident Cynthia White manages two different Facebook pages for lost pets.

She spends a lot of time connecting pet owners to resources, making posters and loaning out animal traps. The digital licenses are a good way to use new technology and make it easier for people to track down lost pets, White said.

But White also urged pet owners and animal shelter staff to update microchip data, which she said is often out-of-date.

“So many dogs get lost who do not have a collar on,” White said.

Atwood also said the new licenses do not take the place of microchips. She said the tags are meant to be an additional tool to help pet owners.

The new digital tags can be purchased at the Anchorage animal shelter off Elmore Road, at most veterinary offices or online at lovemewithalicense. com.

If it’s a first-time license application or a renewal, the current fees apply, Atwood said.

Duplicating an existing license to add a digital tag costs an extra $5. ■

MARCH 8, 2019

34

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35

Travel DOT pushes new tour program in Eastern Samar

BY RONALD REYES Philippine News Agency

US travel firm names Boracay among best beaches in Asia

BY JOYCE ANN L. ROCAMORA Philippine News Agency MANILA — Boracay’s White Beach was named the ninth best beach in Asia in TripAdvisor’s 2019 Travelers’ Choice Award.

The recognition came following the island resort’s reopening after it went through a sixmonth intensive rehabilitation last year.

The award named 24 other beaches in Asia’s Bests category with the Radhanagar Beach of Havelock Island in India on the top of the list.

Boracay, even while under rehabilitation, lorded over the top five best Asian islands in the 2018 Condé Nast Traveler Readers’ Choice Awards, together with Siargao and Palawan.

The 10.32 square-kilometer island paradise reopened its beaches to tourists on Oct. 26, 2018.

Boracay, one of the country’s top tourist draws, where foreign and local visitors flock for sun and beach holiday annually, is nestled between the Sulu Sea and the Sibuyan Sea. The island, belonging to the municipality of Malay, Aklan, is comprised of three barangays –the Yapak, Bulabog, and Manok-Manok. ■

Samar Governor Marcelo Ferdinand Picardal “have been on board” in several of their projects and activities in the province.

The tourism director said that DOT has accredited 16 “homestay” places in Divinubo, Borongan and two in Hernani in Eastern Samar.

“DOT assessed all these homes to determine if they meet the homestay standards and we trained the owners of these houses,” Tiopes said.

Yolanda Recovery and Rehabilitation tourism infrastructure and livelihood project, according to Tiopes.

TACLOBAN CITY — The DeMeanwhile, Eastern Samar partment of Tourism (DOT) in provincial tourism officer Eastern Visayas is pushing for Franklin Robedizo said that a new tour program in Eastern aside from the Balangiga hisSamar following the return of torical tour, they are also dethe historic Balangiga Bells. veloping a tour program for Karen Tiopes, DOT regional the Tubabao Island Dobrota director, said on Tuesday the Tour, in a bid to nominate the publicity generated from the country’s largest forest proreturn of the Balangiga Bells tected area-Samar Island Natuin December 2018 “also gave a ral Park to the UNESCO world mileage in terms heritage site and of awareness.” biosphere re“It has actuserve and Samar ally placed BalIsland Tourism angiga in the Master DevelopTiopes said tourism “is one of the tourism map. ment Plan. priorities” of the local government.

In fact, since its “Tourism proreturn until the gram is a priorend of January, ity development the municipality agenda, more already welcomed over 22,000 “For Balangiga, we have yet to particularly, as a key economic visitors,” she said. assess the homes of those that driver to lower the poverty inTiopes said they conducted the local government unit has cidence in the province,” said an assessment of the existing identified for homestay. This Robedizo. tour in Balangiga and identified will be part of the medium term Eastern Samar posted 80,715 the gaps.

‘To Dos’ for Balangiga. Priority tourists where 294 were for“We now have a list of things projects will be training for the eigners and 80,421 were domesthat will be done within three stakeholders and front-liners tic, based on the DOT regional months and tasks that will be to make the Balangiga Histori- office’s records on total same completed in six months or cal Tour market- and visitor- day-visitors for 2017. more,” said Tiopes while laud- ready,” she said.

The region received a total of ing the tourism initiatives of The tourism director, howev- 3,879, 849 visitors in 2017 with the provincial government. er, maintained that many local tourist receipts of PHP13.97 Tiopes said tourism “is one of governments also have tourism billion. The tourism office has the priorities” of the local gov- initiatives already. yet to issue the complete list of ernment, adding that Eastern Some are beneficiaries of the tourist arrivals in 2018. ■

Culture, creativity mark Panagbenga street dance parade

BY PAMELA MARIZ GEMINIANO Philippine News Agency BAGUIO CITY — Locals and foreign tourists watched on Saturday a more exciting and longer street dance parade in this mountain resort city, which highlighted the culture and creativity of the Cordillera region during the 24th “Panagbenga” or Baguio Flower Festival.

A total of 24 groups joined the street dancing parade– seven contingents from the elementary category, six for the high school, four for the open category, five for the cultural category while two others performed as guest participants.

The groups carried various themes in their presentations that all leaned toward this year’s festival theme “Blooming Forward.”

Thousands of viewers- locals and tourists alike lined up

along the parade route– from the Panagbenga Park in Loakan road to Session Road, Magsaysay Avenue toward Harrison road. The parade ended at the Athletic Bowl in Burnham Park.

The most basic criteria for the contingents is to show a performance based on native culture and practices and the life of the Cordilleran, depicted through songs, dances, wearing of the native attire, use of traditional musical instruments like www.canadianinquirer.net

the gong and showing the abundance of beautiful and colorful flowers.

For the elementary category, the contingents were Apolinario Mabini Elementary School, Baguio Central School, Jose P. Laurel Elementary School, Lucban Elementary, Tuba Central School, Manuel Quezon Elementary School, and Dontongan Elementary School.

Each school carried a flower variety that grows in the local-

ity — gumamela, gerbera, lotus, rose, birds of paradise, stargazer, and alstromeria.

The high school category contingents were the Baguio City National High School, University of Cordilleras Senior High, Saint Louis University Senior High, Remnant International College, Pinsao National High School, and Pines City National High School. ❱❱ PAGE 36 Culture, creativity

36

Travel

Rice Tariffication... ❰❰ 30

that the imported rice is of good quality.

Meanwhile, Samahang Industriya ng Agrikultura (SINAG) president Rosendo So said the National Food Authority (NFA) imported 1.96 million metric tons (MT) with no tariff in 2018.

In January this year, the NFA again imported 555,696 MT but So said “this did not benefit the Filipino consumers as the price of rice was still high.”

With the new law, he said, all rice importers will have to pay tariff and the money collected will be given back to the farmers in the form of interventions or assistance.

On the other hand, Lambino said despite lifting the quantitative restrictions (QR) on rice, the most important role of the NFA under the new law is on “emergency buffer stocking” to ensure rice availability in calamity-hit areas.

“The NFA has an important role under the new law which is the emergency buffer stocking role, para kung may masalanta sa kahit saang lugar sa Pilipinas

MARCH 8, 2019

FRIDAY

Culture, creativity... ay mayroong emergency stock,” he said.

“The challenge for the NFA is to manage the (emergency) buffer stock well and to be logistics expert, meaning dapat makarating ang bigas doon sa mga lugar na pinaka nangangailangan (the supply should reach those who need them the most),” he added.

Lambino also admitted that the rice trade was “mismanaged” and this resulted in debt of PHP145 billion by the NFA. “The inefficiency in the rice trade has resulted in two things — one, our farmers have not been supported to the level that they shoud be. Second, nagkautang ang taongbayan (the country was in debt) as of the latest count PHP145 billion due to NFA’s inefficient management of rice trade,” he noted.

Because of the Rice Tariffication Law, Lambino said, the regulatory functions of the NFA was removed except for the emergency buffer stocking.

He, however, clarified that the NFA can still procure rice from local producers. ■

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Baguio City National High School presented wonders of Baguio, which depicted the ethnicity and the cultural identity of the different Cordillera tribes through their costume which were made of recycled materials and wore ethnic clothes with bead works, and headdress and carried intricate hand painted props made by the students themselves.

University of the Cordilleras presented the “Ullalim” - the Epic of Love of the Maducayan [tribe] where the participants wore a white fabric, which symbolizes purity with read and black pattern that was inspired from the “tapis” (hand woven fabric which is wrapped around the waist like a skirt) and the “bahag” (G-string) of Kalinga province.

The participants also carried “banga” (clay pot) made of newspaper, a bamboo fan, and big panel leaf.

Saint Louis University Laboratory High school presented “panghahakey ni kafagway” garbed with rubber mats as flowers carrying the “bilao” (native bamboo woven flat basket).

Remnant International College presented “Roots that remains” where dancers did an interpretative move showing flowers blooming from the ground, swaying in the wind and opening to the sun.

Pinsao National High School presented “pakawanem” (forgiveness) with the participants wearing a the Kalinga and Mountain Province “Tapis” and “Bahag” while wearing a Kalinga accented shawl.

Pines City National High School presented “Payew” (rice field) depicting the life of farmers. They carried as a backdrop the rice terraces with the dancers carrying a basket filled with a mixture of flowers in vibrant colors and vegetables.

For the open category, Saint Louis University performed the “Rice is Life” and wore the Ifugao traditional attire, carrying plower, scare crow. water system bamboo channels, bamboo woven basket and the highland palay.

A contingent from Pinablin, Calasiao, Pangasinan presented “I love Pinablin Calasiao. and Wow Puto Festival”. They are clad in modern Filipiniana dress and the male farmer outfit of a working man. www.canadianinquirer.net

Baguio Flower Festival.

The third contingent from Sagpat, Kibungan presented “Tribu Cafe” and carried props like bilao with an accent of coffee beans and flowers. The participants wore the “Tapis”.

The last group, the “Manait” of Burgos, La Union presented “Amag bi sih-si” which means broom making. The participants wore headdress with golden lace accent and chicken feathers, The female wore a fan like hat accented with golden yellow and golden lace accent.

The Tribu Ilonganon-Ilo-Ilo Dinagyang Foundation and the a group from Ilocos Norte also made a special presentation during the parade.

Grand street dance winners

Winners in the elementary level will receive PHP300,000; PHP250,000; PHP200,000; PHP170,000; PHP150,000; and PHP140,000 for the first to seventh place, respectively.

Tuba Central School topped this year’s grand street parade competition followed by Mabini Elementary School and Baguio Central School.

The one that took the fourth spot was Manuel L. Quezon Elementary School, while Jose P. Laurel Elementary School, Lucban Elementary School and Dontogan Elementary School, garnering the fifth, sixth and seventh places, respectively.

For the High School division, BCNHS-SPA topped this year’s category and will get PHP250,000. The second place went to UCHS with a prize of PHP200,000 while the third place went to SLU Senior High School with a prize of

RANDY BAUTISTA / FLICKR, CC BY-NC-ND 2.0

PHP150,000.

Consolation prizes of PHP50,000 will be given to Pinsao NHS Sakusak Musical Ensemble, Tanghalan Teatro Pino of Pines City NHS and Remnant International College.

For the open category, SLU topped the competition and will receive PHP300,000. The second place went to Mana-it group from Burgos, La Union with a prize of PHP200,000.

The third place went to Pinablin, Calasiao — Puto Festival with PHP150,000 and fourth placer to Sagpat, Kibungan, Benguet with PHP50,000.

For the cultural category, Arusan Chi Umili Cultural Group won first place and will receive PHP170,000.

Ayyoweng Di Lambak Cultural Group got second place with PHP140,000 prize. Third placer Gardeners Tribe Cultural Group will get PHP100,000 while Cholibes Cultural Group and Umili Ay Kalalaychan Cultural Group will receive a consolation prize of PHP50,000 each.

Anthony de Leon, co-chairman of the Organizing Committee of the Baguio Flower Festival Foundation (BFFF) earlier announced that the increase in the subsidy from PHP40,000 to PHP100,000 will allow the participating schools and groups to improve their costume and hire a professional choreographer.

De Leon also said they conducted a training for choreographers to have more professionals in the field, who can assist and teach the students in their presentations. ■

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Food Savoring Antipolo’s tasty ‘kasoy’

BY CHRISTINE CUDIS Philippine News Agency MANILA — Aside from its magnificent Antipolo Cathedral (also known as the National Shrine of Our Lady of Peace and Good Voyage), which is a mustsee place for Filipinos planning to visit or work abroad, the city’s tasty “kasoy” (cashew nuts) is one of the reasons why local tourists prefer to flock to this hilly destination – located some 21 kilometers from Manila.

Incidentally, “kasoy” is one of the mainstay of Antipolo’s “Sumakah Festival”, which is the contraction of the popular

“suman” (rice cake), “kasoy” and the “hamaka”, which is described as a form of transportation using the “duyan” (hammock).

“Kasoy” is derived from the Portuguese “acaju”, “acajuiba” or “cajueiro” which comes from Indian words acaju or acajou, based on Doreen Fernandez’s book, “Fruits of the Philippines.”

Many “kasoy” stores are found around downtown Antipolo, near the cathedral, aside from the two long lines of stalls near the Sumulong Highway just before the Antipolo City Public Market.

For vendor Sol Retereza, 52, the delicious and exotic taste

of “kasoy” is the reason why local tourists are always touring around the city.

Cashew nuts in Antipolo are typically sold at PHP50 per small glass.

Prices go up depending on the size of the container.

“Kasoy” also sell much faster during the holidays, according to 35-year-old Victor Tejano.

He also added that the “kasoy” he sells are sourced from Palawan, Batangas, and Bataan.

“Cashew nuts are so delicious that is why they continue to come back for it. Sometimes, it comes in various flavors like adobo, garlic and barbecue,” 21-year-old Janeth Dungo said.

Also, she added that there is a

slump on selling the exotic nuts during weekdays.

“Many people return here frequently because the cashew nuts taste good. We have flavors like adobo and plain ones.

These are the bestsellers,” Tina Bitong, 60, said.

She added that her product is sourced from Vietnam.

Her view on the tastiness of

the “kasoy” is also shared by fellow vendor, Lucy Tolentino, 57.

“The cashew nuts here are delicious. This is what Antipolo is known for. This is what tourists are looking for when they come here,” she added. ■ With reports from Darwin C. Pesco

Skip the commercially made corned beef and do it at home AMERICA’S TEST KITCHEN YOU CAN make a decent corned beef dinner by buying a corned beef brisket, simmering it in a pot of water for a few hours, and adding vegetables at the end of cooking. But you can make superb New Englandstyle corned beef if you skip the commercially made stuff and “corn” the meat yourself.

When this curing process is done properly, the meat isn't just generically salty; it's seasoned but balanced, with complex flavour thanks to the presence of aromatics and spices.

Although the process takes several days, we found that it's almost entirely hands-off: After a six-day soak in a brine made with both table and pink curing salt, and flavoured with sugar, whole spices, and garlic, the seasonings had penetrated to the core of the meat.

To break down the brisket's collagen, we gently simmered the meat in a low oven, adding carrots, potatoes, and cabbage to the pot while the meat rested so that they simmered briefly in the seasoned cooking liquid.

Pink curing salt No. 1, which

can be purchased online or in stores specializing in meat curing, is a mixture of table salt and nitrites; it is also called Prague Powder No. 1, Insta Cure No. 1, or DQ Curing Salt No. 1.

In addition to the pink salt, we use table salt here. If using Diamond Crystal kosher salt, increase the salt to 1 1/2 cups; if using Morton kosher salt, increase to 1 1/8 cups. Choose a uniformly thick brisket. The brisket will look grey after curing but will turn pink once cooked. This recipe requires refrigerating the brined brisket for six days.

Home-corned beef and cabbage

Servings: 8-10 Start to finish: 4 hours (not including days of brining) Corned Beef: • 3/4 cup salt • 1/2 cup packed brown sugar • 2 teaspoons pink curing kosher salt No. 1 • 1 (4 1/2-to-5 pound) beef brisket, flat cut, fat trimmed to 1/8 inch • 6 garlic cloves, peeled • 6 bay leaves • 5 allspice berries • 2 tablespoons black pepper-

CITYMAMA / FLICKR, CC BY-SA 2.0

corns • 1 tablespoon coriander seeds Vegetables: • 6 carrots, peeled, halved crosswise, thick ends halved lengthwise • 1 1/2 pounds small red potatoes, unpeeled • 1 head green cabbage (2 pounds), uncored, cut into 8 wedges For the corned beef, dissolve salt, sugar, and curing salt in 4 quarts water in large container.

Add brisket, 3 garlic cloves, 4 bay leaves, allspice berries, 1 tablespoon peppercorns, and coriander seeds to brine. Weigh www.canadianinquirer.net

brisket down with plate, cover, and refrigerate for 6 days.

Adjust oven rack to middle position and heat oven to 275 F. Remove brisket from brine, rinse, and pat dry with paper towels. Cut 8 inch square triple thickness of cheesecloth. Place remaining 3 garlic cloves, remaining 2 bay leaves, and remaining 1 tablespoon peppercorns in centre of cheesecloth and tie into bundle with kitchen twine. Place brisket, spice bundle, and 2 quarts water in Dutch oven. (Brisket may not lie flat but will shrink slightly as it cooks.) Bring to simmer over high heat, cover, and transfer to oven. Cook until fork inserted

into thickest part of brisket slides in and out with ease, 2 1/2 to 3 hours.

Remove pot from oven and turn off oven. Transfer brisket to large oven-safe platter, ladle 1 cup of cooking liquid over meat, cover, and return to oven to keep warm.

For the vegetables, add carrots and potatoes to pot and bring to simmer over high heat. Reduce heat to medium-low, cover, and simmer until vegetables begin to soften, 7 to 10 minutes.

Add cabbage to pot, increase heat to high, and return to simmer. Reduce heat to low, cover, and simmer until all vegetables are tender, 12 to 15 minutes.

While vegetables cook, transfer brisket to cutting board.

Slice brisket against the grain into 1/4-inch-thick slices. Return brisket to platter. Using slotted spoon, transfer vegetables to platter with beef.

Moisten with additional broth and serve. ■ Nutrition information per serving: 462 calories; 224 calories from fat; 25 g fat (8 g saturated; 0 g trans fats); 102 mg cholesterol; 1726 mg sodium; 19 g carbohydrate; 5 g fiber; 7 g sugar; 41 g protein.

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Food

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FRIDAY

Skip delivery tonight and make pizza at home in a skillet AMERICA’S TEST KITCHEN MAKING PIZZA at home is gratifying, and it almost always tastes better than what you can get from delivery. But achieving a pizza with a crisp crust in the home oven can also be a real challenge.

You need to stretch the dough carefully, preheat a heavy baking stone, and then swiftly slide the topped dough round into a hot oven, making sure the pizza maintains its shape.

In searching for a foolproof method for cooking pizza whenever the mood struck, we found that making truly great pizza is a breeze in a skillet. Our dough came together quickly in the food processor; after we let it rise, we rolled it thin and then transferred it to a cool oiled skillet, where we topped it with a fast no-cook sauce and slices of fresh mozzarella cheese.

We placed the skillet over a hot burner to get it good and hot and to set the bottom of the crust. Once the crust began to brown, we simply slid the skillet into a 500-F oven. In the oven, the hot skillet functioned like a pizza stone, crisping up our crust in just minutes and melting the cheese.

We've featured a Margherita pizza topping here, adorning the sauce and cheese with just a sprinkle of basil. But if you'd like a more substantial topping for your pizza, feel free to sprinkle pepperoni, sauteed mushrooms, or browned sausage over the cheese before baking; just be sure to keep the toppings light or they may weigh down the thin crust and make it soggy.

The sauce will yield more than is needed in the recipe; extra sauce can be refrigerated for

ANOKARINA / FLICKR, CC BY-SA 2.0

up to one week or frozen for up to one month.

Skillet pizza

Servings: 8 (Makes two 11inch pizzas) Start to finish: 2 3/4 to 3 1/4 hours (Rising time: 1 1/2 to 2 hours)

• 1/4 teaspoon pepper • 8 ounces fresh mozzarella cheese, sliced 1/4 inch thick and patted dry with paper towels • 2 tablespoons chopped fresh basil

Sauce and Toppings: • 1 (28-ounce) can whole peeled tomatoes, drained with juice reserved • 5 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil • 2 garlic cloves, minced • 1 teaspoon red wine vinegar • 1 teaspoon dried oregano • 1/2 teaspoon salt

For the dough: Pulse flour, yeast, and salt in food processor until combined, about 5 pulses.

With processor running, add oil, then water, and process until rough ball forms, 30 to 40 seconds. Let dough rest for 2 minutes, then process for 30 seconds longer.

Transfer dough to lightly floured counter and knead by hand to form smooth, round ball, about 30 seconds. Place dough seam side down in lightly greased large bowl or container, cover tightly with plastic wrap, and let rise until doubled in size, 1 1/2 to 2 hours. (Unrisen dough can be refrigerated for at least 8 hours or up to 16 hours; let sit at room temperature for 30 minutes before shaping)

factured on demand locally.

Barcelona is perhaps the most easily recognized fabrication environment. Already, a significant amount of food, materials and products are no longer manufactured thousands of kilometres away — they are

conceived, designed and grown within the urban boundaries.

Fabrication cities can differentiate themselves through design. They create a unique ecosystem that attracts innovative people and organisations, which allows cities to diversify

Dough: • 2 cups (11 ounces) plus 2 tablespoons bread flour • 1 1/8 teaspoons instant or rapid-rise yeast • 3/4 teaspoon salt • 1 tablespoon extra-virgin olive oil • 3/4 cup (6 ounces) ice water

For the sauce and toppings: Process tomatoes, 1 tablespoon oil, garlic, vinegar, oregano, salt, and pepper in clean, dry workbowl until smooth, about 30 seconds. Transfer mixture to 2-cup liquid measuring cup and add reserved tomato juice until sauce measures 2 cups. Reserve 1 cup sauce; set aside remaining sauce for another use.

Adjust oven rack to uppermiddle position and heat oven to 500 F. Grease 12-inch ovensafe skillet with 2 tablespoons oil.

Transfer dough to lightly floured counter, divide in half, and cover loosely with greased plastic. Press and roll 1 piece of dough (keep remaining piece covered) into 11-inch round of even thickness.

Transfer dough to prepared skillet and reshape as needed. Spread 1/2 cup sauce over dough, leaving 1/2-inch border around edge. Top with half of mozzarella.

Set skillet over high heat

and cook until outside edge of dough is set, pizza is lightly puffed, and bottom of crust looks spotty brown when gently lifted with spatula, about 3 minutes.

Transfer skillet to oven and bake pizza until edges are brown and cheese is melted and spotty brown, 7 to 10 minutes.

Using potholders, remove skillet from oven and slide pizza onto wire rack; let cool slightly.

Sprinkle with 1 tablespoon basil, cut into wedges, and serve.

Being careful of hot skillet, repeat with remaining oil, dough, 1/2 cup sauce, remaining mozzarella, and basil. ■ Nutrition information per serving: 322 calories; 152 calories from fat; 17 g fat (5 g saturated; 0 g trans fats); 20 mg cholesterol; 657 mg sodium; 30 g carbohydrate; 2 g fiber; 3 g sugar; 10 g protein.

Print your... ❰❰ 33

in consumer goods, energy, food production, health products and more. It is not hard to conceive that bulky products such as cars or fridges that are expensive to ship and warehouse could, in the future, be manu-

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and offer an unparalleled quality of life. Fabrication cities are a powerful game changer in the way that we make and dispose of everything we consume. ■ This article is based on a chapter

by Tomas Diez, Jeremy Millard,

Massimo Menichinelli and Marie Nicole Sorivelle in the forthcoming book, Innovative Solutions for Creating Sustainable Cities (Cambridge Scholars), edited by Sylvie Albert.

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