Philippine Canadian Inquirer #378

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JULY 5, 2019

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VOL. 7 NO. 378

COURAGE

Tribal leaders walk towards the gate of the United Nations Headquarters in New York City on Monday (July 1, 2019). They engaged representatives of the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights on the challenges their communities are facing due to attacks by the CPP-NPA-NDFP. MAC VILLARINO/PCOO

PRRD seeks China’s assurance to keep Filipino fishermen safe

BY AZER PARROCHA Philippine News Agency MANILA — President Rodrigo Duterte is asking the Chinese government to guarantee the safety of the Filipinos who fish within the Philippines’ exclusive economic zone (EEZ) in the West Philippine Sea. Presidential Spokesperson Salvador

Panelo said this as matters relating to the Recto Bank (Reed Bank) incident were brought up during Monday’s Cabinet meeting in Malacañan Palace.

“The President wanted China’s assurance that the rights and safety of our fisherfolks are guaranteed,” Panelo said in a statement on Tuesday.

Duterte’s appeal to China comes after

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5-minute Cubao-Makati travel time possible: DPWH’s Villar

13 Canada celebrates 152nd birthday with fireworks and flybys

❱❱ PAGE 2 PRRD seeks

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❱❱ PAGE 16

PRRD may change mind about Paolo’s possible bid for speakership

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Drilon urges Congress to end political dynasties

BY FILANE MIKEE CERVANTES Philippine News Agency MANILA — Senate Minority Leader Franklin Drilon is urging Congress to fulfill its constitutional duty to end political dynasties as he filed a measure prohibiting the continuous existence of such practice.

According to a statement on Tuesday, Drilon has filed Senate Bill No. 11, or the Anti-Political Dynasty Act, for the first regular session of the 18th Congress.

The measure seeks to prohibit spouses or relatives of an incumbent elective official seeking re-election to hold or run for any elective office in the same province in the same election.

“The Constitution entrusted to Congress the duty to end political dynasties. Unfortunately, we have failed in our duty and, hence, political dynasty still persists and so does poverty,” Drilon said.

FRANKLIN DRILON/FACEBOOK

Also included in Drilon’s pet bills filed at the Senate is the bill seeking to strengthen the political party system in the country and discourage political “turncoatism.”

“Turncoatism should never be tolerated since it only distorts the concept of word of honor and dignity of a leader. It is therefore imperative that the country’s political party system should be strengthened in or-

der to achieve genuine political development and democratization,” Drilon said.

Other priority measures of Drilon are the amendments to the Public Service Act, Retail Trade Liberalization Act, the Citizenship Retention and Reacquisition Act; institutionalization and strengthening of Public-Private Partnerships; and creation of Boracay Development Authority. ■

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PRRD seeks... ❰❰ 1

criticism that he has turned his back on the 22 fishermen whose boat sank after it was allegedly rammed by a Chinese vessel off Recto Bank in the West Philippine Sea or South China Sea last June 9.

Panelo, meanwhile, defended Duterte anew from critics who questioned the Filipino leader’s verbal agreement with Chinese President Xi Jinping that allows the Chinese to fish within the Philippines’ 200-nautical mile EEZ for as long as China will allow the Filipinos to fish in the Panatag (Scarborough) Shoal during their first bilateral meeting in Beijing in October 2016.

He explained the deal is to ensure that despite their respective claims over the disputed waters, there would not be any armed conflict between the two countries.

“If you recall, our fishermen were not safe during when they were fishing at that time two years ago. That’s why he (Duterte) made sure that we got the assurance that they will not be touched. They (Chinese) have not touched them,” Panelo

said in a Palace briefing.

“The fact alone that they agreed that fishermen from our country can fish in that disputed area is already an assurance that they will not be touched.

What the President wants is continuing assurance from them (China),” he added.

He said Duterte’s appeal may be resolved through the next Bilateral Consultative Mechanism between the Philippines and China.

Panelo earlier said the Duterte administration will not abandon the 22 fishermen and will even be deploying additional Coast Guards in the Recto Bank to ensure their safety.

He noted that government has already filed a diplomatic protest and may also file charges against the Chinese crew if proven that the alleged ramming and abandonment was intentionally done.

The Presidential Spokesperson, meanwhile, reiterated that the Duterte administration will continue to maintain the country’s claims with respect to its territory and EEZs while also maintaining friendly relations with China. ■

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Go files pet bills on Malasakit Centers, death penalty

BY FILANE MIKEE CERVANTES Philippine News Agency MANILA — Senator Christopher Lawrence “Bong” Go on Tuesday filed his first 10 pet bills aimed at achieving “genuine positive change” felt by all Filipinos for the first regular session of the 18th Congress.

Topping Go’s priority legislation is a bill that seeks to institutionalize the establishment of Malasakit Centers in more provinces and strategic urban centers in the country to make quality healthcare more affordable and accessible.

Go noted that Malasakit Centers will be a one-stop shop for medical and financial assistance and a health care processing center for patient assistance to complement the implementation of Universal Healthcare Law. “Kapag naisabatas po ang pagtataguyod ng Malasakit Center, mas maraming pasyenteng matutulungan lalo na yung mga nasa probinsya at malalayong lugar (If the institutionalization of Malasakit Centers is enacted into law, more patients would receive finan-

cial and medical assistance, especially those in the provinces and far-flung areas),” Go said.

Go also filed a bill reinstating the death penalty for certain heinous crimes, involving dangerous drugs and plunder.

The penalty imposed under the proposed law shall be carried out through lethal injection.

The neophyte senator is pushing for the establishment of the Department of Overseas Filipinos that would serve as a one-stop-shop in providing legal assistance for OFWs in distress.

He also filed a Senate resolution to form a committee that will handle legislative concerns related to overseas employment, migrant workers and the welfare and protection of overseas Filipino communities.

“Napapanahon na tutukan ng Senado ang ating mga overseas Filipinos sa kabila ng kanilang sakripisyo para sa kanilang pamilya at sa kanilang kontribusyon sa ating ekonomiya (It is timely for the Senate to focus on the needs of our overseas Filipinos, who have sacrificed a lot for their families and contributed significantly to our economy),” Go said.

Senator Bong Go.

Aside from the creation of a new department for OFWs, Go is also batting for the creation of the Department of Disaster Resilience, which shall concentrate on disaster risk reduction, disaster preparedness and response, and recovery and building forward better.

For fire incidents in the country, he filed a Fire Protection Modernization bill, which seeks to modernize the Bureau of Fire Protection by hiring more personnel, acquiring modern fire equipment, and training firefighters, among others.

Meanwhile, Go’s National Housing Development, Production, and Financing Bill seeks to reduce the country’s housing backlog by providing continuous funding support to implement the major components of the National

BONG GO/FACEBOOK

Housing Development, Production, and Financing Program of the Duterte administration.

Other priority bills that Go filed include the increase in the salaries of all government workers, better benefits for solo parents and their children, and the postponement of the barangay and Sangguniang Kabataan elections slated this May 2020 to October of 2022.

“Nais ko matulungan pa ang ating gobyerno na ipagpatuloy ang pagbabago at pagmamalasakit sa tao sa pamamagitan ng pagbibigay ng mabilis, maayos at maaasahang serbisyo para sa bawat Pilipino (I wish to continue efforts made by the government in brining positive change by delivering faster, more efficient and reliable service to all Filipinos),” he said. ■

Binay’s priority legislation focused on women, education

BY FILANE MIKEE CERVANTES Philippine News Agency

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2019-04-17 12:45 PM

MANILA — Senator Nancy Binay prioritized the improvement of the quality of education and the protection of women’s rights in her first 10 pet bills filed on Monday.

Among the first bills that Binay filed for the incoming 18th Congress include proposed laws establishing a safety internet education program in the curriculum of all elementary and secondary schools, and increasing the monthly minimum wage of public school teachers to PHP28,000 and non-teaching personnel to PHP16,000.

Binay further sought the provision of educational assistance to public school

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teachers and the exemption from income tax compensation given to teachers for serving as members of the electoral board for national or local elections.

Furthermore, the senator proposed legislation focused on women, which include a bill defining electronic violence against women and providing protective measures, as well as a bill allowing women to revert their maiden surnames.

Binay also filed a bill requiring all government and private hospitals, medical centers, clinics, infirmaries, and puericulture centers to give free medical and dental assistance to indigent children.

Also included in her pet bills are the regularization of barangay officials, the regulation of the use of plastic bags, the institutionalization of the Magna Carta for child development workers. ■

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Duterte gives go signal for Boracay action plan

BY JOANNA BELLE DEALA Philippine Canadian Inquirer PRESIDENTIAL SPOKESPERSON Salvador Panelo on Tuesday, July 2, said President Rodrigo Duterte has approved the Boracay Medium-Term Action Plan that will maintain the rehabilitation efforts of the world-renowned island.

The plan was approved during the 39th Cabinet meeting in Malacañang on Monday, July 1.

“We likewise announce the approval of the Boracay Medium-Term Action Plan which will sustain the efforts of the government after its closure,” Panelo said.

Citing National Economic and Development Authority (NEDA) Director General and Socioeconomic Planning Secretary Ernesto Pernia and Undersecretary Adoracion Navarro, Panelo said the action plan has four themes: enforcement of laws where there will be intervention on the regulation of visitors and hotel accommodations; prevention where there will be interventions on the

sewerage infrastructure, solid and liquid waste management; rehabilitation and recovery of ecosystems; and sustainability of activities in the island such as improvement of roads and public health infrastructure, construction of permanent housing program for indigenous people and education facilities.

The Boracay Inter-Agency Task Force adopted the action plan in December 2018. According to NEDA earlier, the proposed estimated total investment requirement for the plan covering 233 programs, projects, and activities is P25.27-billion. Sixty-four percent or P16.21-billion will be allocated for infrastructure, while 62.9 percent or P15.89billion of the total cost will be shouldered by the private sector.

The agency had said the action plan will be implemented until 2022.

Last April 2018, the President ordered the closure of Boracay Island for six months to give way for its rehabilitation, after he called the popular holiday destination a “cesspool.”

It opened its door to the general public in October 2018. ■

JUDGEFLORO / WIKIMEDIA COMMONS, CC0

5-minute Cubao-Makati travel time possible: DPWH’s Villar

BY FERDINAND PATINIO Philippine News Agency

mababawas sa (of course, it will help lessen vehicles passing through) Edsa.

Some projects directly affect Edsa. But overall, we expect that the President’s MANILA — A five-minute travel time statements are backed by very solid from Cubao in Quezon City to Makati projects,” the DPWH chief explained.

City is doable with the completion of Earlier, Duterte said that travel beseveral infrastructure projects in Metro tween Cubao to Makati could be reduced Manila, the Department of Public Works to five minutes by end of the year. The and Highways (DPWH) said Monday. current travel time is at least one hour.

On the sidelines of the Pre-State of The Metro Manila Skyway Stage 3 is the Nation Address (SONA) Economic an 18.68-km elevated expressway from and Infrastructure Buendia, Makati Forum in Pasay City, City to the North DPWH Secretary Luzon Expressway Mark Villar said that in Balintawak, Que250,000 to 300,000 zon City. The porvehicles are expected The completion tion along President to decongest Epiof other Quirino Avenue in fanio Delos Santos bridges Manila will open this Avenue (EDSA) once surrounding year. the major projects Edsa will On the other hand, are opened by the lessen 50,000 the 5.58-kilometer end of the year. vehicles.

NLEX Harbor Link, “When the PresiSegment 10 condent ran, he promnecting McArthur ised he would finish Highway and C-3 was traffic in Edsa. In orinaugurated last Febder for us to do that, ruary 28 and opened we computed and we needed to take out to traffic on March 1.

250,000 to 300,000 vehicles a day,” he The C-5 South Link Expressway is said. a 7.7-kilometer expressway stretching “To revert back to a level of traffic from R-1 Expressway to SLEX/C5. Travwhen we finished the Skyway Project it el time will be reduced from 40 minutes will reduce traffic by 100,000 vehicles. to 10 minutes. Segment 3A1 — Merville When the NLEX (North Luzon Express- to C5/SLEX is targeted to be opened on way) Harbor Link connector is com- July 22. pleted it will minimize 50,000 vehicles.

Also, Villar reported they were able When C-6 is finished we reduce another to build and lay the ground work for the 50,000,” the DPWH chief added.

1,049 kilometers of new high-standard The completion of other bridges sur- highways and expressways in Luzon, rounding Edsa will lessen 50,000 ve- Cebu and Davao with a total investment hicles. “‘(The) Harbor Link, syempre malaki ❱❱ PAGE 8 5-minute

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PH-Canada relations ‘good’, back to normal: envoy

BY JOYCE ANN L. ROCAMORA Philippine News Agency MANILA — The PhilippinesCanada bilateral relations are back to normal and are seen to “get better” following the resolution of the two nations’ waste issue, Canadian Ambassador John Holmes said during the 152nd Canada Day in Makati City on Monday night.

“The final resolution of this problem, never mind how long it took, came about through tremendous cooperation between the government of the Philippines, the Embassy, and the officials in Canada,” he said in a speech at a reception hosted by the Canadian Chamber of Commerce of the Philippines.

“We got the job done and my message coming out of that issue is that if our two countries can continue to work collaboratively as we did in resolving this matter, imagine what we can do to enhance our trade, our investment, our people-to-people context. The opportunities are limitless and we really want to build on that,” he added.

Holmes said the Canadian government is “delighted” with Malacañang’s statement affirming that Ottawa and Manila’s relations are “cordial”

and back to normal.

“Our relations are good and are only going to get better,” he added.

The Philippines and Canada are seeking to boost ties in the areas of agriculture, transportation, and information and communications technology.

“These are the areas we are very interested and I think a lot of scope for partnerships in that,” Holmes said.

Asked if Canada would pursue parties accountable to the garbage issue, the diplomat said it is a subject for the Philippines’ court. “(DFA) Secretary Locsin said, I think publicly and tweeting, he said that’s the plan. I think that was one of the challenges that we had, there were court cases and court orders that we had to figure out how to work through and respect. One of them is the legal responsibility, that’s not a Canadian issue,” he said. “(The) Canadian company at the time exported legally, so there are no legal issues in Canada,” he added.

From 2013 to 2014, Canadian company Chronic Inc. exported containers labeled as recyclable plastics to two importers in the Philippines. The shipment contained a mixture of plastics, metals, and paper, as well as

Pres. Rodrigo Duterte and Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary (AEP) Designate of Canada John Holmes.

RENE LUMAWAG/PRESIDENTIAL PHOTO

household waste.

While the export of such material was allowed under Canadian regulations at the time, the import of mixed plastics and household waste is prohibited under Philippines regulations.

In 2016, courts in the Philippines ordered the importers to ship the containers back to Canada at their expense; the importers did not comply with the court order.

To prevent future exports of such material, Canada amended its Export and Import of

Hazardous Waste and Hazardous Recyclable Material Regulations in 2016.

According to Environment and Climate Change Canada, the amendments now apply to waste that is controlled or prohibited in the country of import, consequently, the shipment sent to the Philippines in 2013 and 2014 would be prohibited today.

‘Extremely effective’

The envoy, for his part, cited the assistance extended by of-

ficials of the Philippine government including those of the Department of Environment and Natural Resources and the “very colorful” Foreign Affairs Secretary Teodoro Locsin Jr. who made sure that everything went smoothly.

“When we got the different deadlines, the second one was more realistic because it was linked to the departure of one of the regular ships going through. We had a number of little issues emerged and I was in constant contact with (Secretary Locsin), texting, phoning. He was in Japan, I was actually in Canada, but we were in regular contact,” he shared.

“There was one issue, although not really controversial, as you know we had to fumigate the containers. So we had set up the contract, the guys were working and then we were notified that the base is going to be closed all weekend for the joint Filipino-American military training. I phoned the Secretary so he said ‘I’m on it. I’m on it.’ Our fumigation team was back on the job that Saturday afternoon,” he said.

“There were a number of other issues, I don’t want to give you the details, but he was very helpful. My minister phoned him a couple of times to thank him for his help,” he said. ■

PH to insist 3rd party Recto Bank probe if results don’t match

BY AZER PARROCHA Philippine News Agency MANILA — The Duterte government will “insist’ on a thirdparty investigation if both the Philippines and China are unable to reconcile their findings on the sinking of a Filipino fishing boat after it was rammed by a Chinese vessel in the Recto Bank on June 9, Malacañang said on Monday.

Presidential Spokesperson Salvador Panelo made this remark after baring that Chinese government has rejected the proposal of the Philippines to include a third party noting that it was “not necessary” if the two countries could agree to resolve

the issue by themselves.

“Siguro ipipilit na natin. Di tayo nagkakasundo, mag-third partytayo (Perhaps we will insist. If we cannot agree, we should include a third party),” Panelo said in a Palace press briefing.

“Kung hindi tayo magkakatugma, paano mare-resolve (If our findings are not compatible, how will we able to resolve it?) Some independent body, it doesn’t have to be a country,” he added.

Panelo said he learned about China’s stand to reject a third party in its joint investigation on Sunday (June 30) after Philippine Ambassador to China Jose Santiago Sta. Romana had a talk with the Chinese Foreign

Ministry.

“Sumagot na raw ang China.

Ang sabi naman nila, ‘wag na yung third party, kailangan tayo lang mag-usap doon (China has already responded. They say, ‘there’s no need for a third party. Let’s just discuss it among ourselves),’” Panelo said.

“Ang feeling nila, kung meron tayong mga (China feels that if we already have) separate investigation then let’s meet … we exchange our findings and then we decide kung anong gagawin na natin dito (how we are going to reconcile this),” he added.

Panelo said the issue is as simple as finding out whether the alleged ramming and abandonment of Filipino fishing boat with 22 fishermen on www.canadianinquirer.net

Photo shows the first batch of the 22 fishermen rescued in waters off Recto Bank (Reed Bank), who were abandoned after their fishing vessel, F/B Gemver, was hit by an alleged Chinese vessel on the night of June 9, 2019.

PHILIPPINE NAVY VIA PNA

board by a Chinese vessel was done intentionally or accidentally.

“Kung yun lang ang issue ang dali lang malaman (If that’s the

only issue, it’s easy to find out) if it was an accident or not,” Panelo said. ❱❱ PAGE 13 PH to insist

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MANILA — The Philippine government is seeking cooperation from the United Nations (UN) in its crackdown on illegal drugs, noting that over a million Filipino drug users have surrendered for rehabilitation since the start of President Rodrigo Duterte’s term in 2016.

Presidential Communications Operations Office (PCOO) Assistant Secretary Marie Rafael made this call during the Briefing for Diplomatic Missions on Human Rights Accountability Mechanisms in the Philippines at the Palais des Nations in Geneva, Switzerland on June 28, 2019.

Rafael stressed that the campaign against illegal drugs in the Philippines has been “politicized” by Duterte’s critics and detractors. “[T]he campaign against illegal drugs has been full of challenges. Unfortunately, the efforts have been so politicized that even our achievements have been used against us,” Rafael said.

Rafael explained that the Duterte administration had always been supportive of approaches that enhance “constructive” cooperation to address the country’s drug problem despite politicized actions which she described as “counter-productive and have unclear outcomes.”

“We now seek that same cooperation from this body, as we trust that empathy is much needed as we move forward and build a better future for our Filipino children,” Rafael said.

During the briefing, Rafael bared that there have been 1.3 million self-confessed Filipino drug users who surrendered to the government and willing to

PCOO Assistant Secretary Marie Rafael.

JOEY O. RAZON / PNA

undergo rehabilitation and reintegration programs since July 1, 2016.

“It must be underscored that the Philippines has working mechanisms and domestic processes including in the law enforcement sectors and inter-agency mechanism,” Rafael said in her speech.

“Our data here shows significant progress in so far as our rehabilitation efforts,” she added.

Rafael said the Duterte administration has also conducted 132,152 legitimate anti-illegal drugs operations, which have yielded 190,002 arrests, and 5,489 deaths — including high-value targets, and even government workers.

Government, non-government organizations and religious groups have also joined forces to help surrenderers recover and learn skills to prepare them for their return as productive members of the community, according to the PCOO official.

A total of USD667 million of meth-

amphetamine and USD498.96 million worth of controlled precursors and essential chemicals and laboratory equipment have also been seized by law enforcement agencies, she added.

lyst for national growth moving forward, with private sector partners investing in the development of commercial areas and industrial parks,” he said.

Other officials of the economic cluster who were present during the event were Trade and Industry Secretary Ramon Lopez, Socioeconomic Planning Secretary Ernesto Persia, Science and Technology Secretary Fortunato dela Pena, Energy Secretary Alfonso Cusi, Tourism Undersecretary Art Boncato, and Budget and Management OIC-Secretary Janet Abuel.

Also present at the first of the threepart fora meant to report on the government’s accomplishments under the Duterte administration, ahead of the

President’s SONA on July 22, 2019, were Presidential Communications Operations Office Secretary Martin Andanar, Transportation Secretary Arthur Tugade and Information and Communications Acting Secretary Eliseo Rio. The second forum to be held in Cebu City on July 10 will report on accomplishments related to the “Patuloy na Malasakit at Pagkakaisa” agenda (which is focused on human development).

The third discussion is scheduled to be held in Davao City on July 17, will report on the accomplishments related to the “Patuloy na Katatagan” agenda (which is focused on security and disaster resiliency). ■

Misinformed on killings

Rafael, meanwhile, clarified reports that killings under the Duterte administration have reached 27,000, saying they were actually general homicide cases which are not directly related to the deaths during anti-illegal drug operations.

“I would like to emphasize in the clearest possible terms the alleged 27,000 killings that have received a lot of international misunderstandings and misinformation,” Rafael said.

“These homicide cases may have resulted out of road rage, land dispute, personal grudge, business rivalry, love triangle, family dispute or politics,” she added. ■

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cost of USD15 billion (PHP776 billion).

Under the Duterte administration, he added that 2,709 bridges were constructed, widened, upgraded, rehabilitated and strengthened.

Aside from Villar, another member of the Infrastructure Cluster, Bases Conversion and Development Authority (BCDA) president and CEO Vicencio Dizon reported on the progress of the New Clark City, which will be the country’s first smart and green city.

The New Clark City, located in Capas, Tarlac, and measuring 9,500 hectares will be a major alternative growth area out of Metro Manila.

“New Clark City will serve as a cata-

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FOI, divorce among bills refiled in House of Representatives

BY JOSE CIELITO REGANIT Philippine News Agency

Gen. Oscar Albayalde.

JOEY O. RAZON / PNA

PNP to arrest ‘erring’ impeachment filers vs. PRRD

BY CHRISTOPHER LLOYD CALIWAN Philippine News Agency MANILA — Those who would file an impeachment complaint against President Rodrigo Duterte will be arrested if they commit any violation of the law, the Philippine National Police (PNP) said Monday.

“Well of course, if that’s the order of the President and we see that they violate the law, why not?” PNP chief, Gen. Oscar Albayalde, told reporters on Monday.

The country’s top cop made the remark when asked for a comment on the statement of Duterte that he would order the arrest of people who would want him impeached over his statements allegedly favoring China instead of defending the Constitution and its provision on sovereignty.

The PNP chief, however, clarified that the arrest would not be immediate.

“There should be an investigation. You cannot just point to anybody and then get them.

There will always be an investigation before you can make an

arrest,” said Albayalde.

Albayalde said among the violations of the law that may be used to arrest those who would file an impeachment complaint against the President are sedition and libel.

He also clarified that the PNP has yet to receive instructions from the President regarding the matter.

Earlier, Presidential Spokesperson Salvador Panelo believes a bid to oust President Duterte is unlikely to prosper in Congress as impeachment is a numbers game.

This came after Panelo was asked to comment about interpretations that the Chief Executive’s anger in a recent interview shows fear of impeachment.

Critics, including former foreign affairs secretary Albert del Rosario, earlier warned that allowing the Chinese to fish in the Philippines’ territorial waters violates the 1987 Constitution.

The former top diplomat said the Chief Executive’s failure to defend the country’s territory, including its Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ), violates the Constitution and is a basis for impeachment. ■

MANILA — The Freedom of Information (FOI) Bill and the Absolute Divorce Bill were among the first measures filed on Monday at the House of Representatives prior to the formal opening of the 18th Congress on July 22.

Both bills have been approved by the House on third and final reading in the 17th Congress, but failed to hurdle the Senate.

Cebu City Rep. Raul Del Mar refiled the FOI bill which “seeks to provide citizens access to official records, documents, and papers pertaining to official acts, transactions or decisions, and government research data used as basis for policy development.”

The Cebu lawmaker pointed out that access to public records means access to evidence vital to proving public officials accountable for wrongdoing.

“But more than that, it serves as a great deterrent to wrong-

doing,” he said in his explanatory note.

A version of the measure was approved on third and final reading by both the House and the Senate during the 14th Congress, and was further approved by the bicameral conference committee during that time, according to him.

However, the bicameral report was only ratified by the Senate, as the House failed to muster a quorum on the last session day of the 14th Congress.

“I hope the measure will be prioritized in the 18th Congress,” del Mar said.

In the meantime, Albay Rep. Edcel Lagman refiled his proposed bill instituting absolute divorce in the Philippines.

Lagman said the Absolute Divorce Bill is a sequel to the Reproductive Health Act which he principally authored.

“Like the RH Law, the bill granting absolute divorce is a pro-woman legislation because it is the wives in irreconcilably broken marriages who need relief from their husbands’ philandering and cruelty,” Lagman said.

Other measures refilled on Monday after failing to get the Senate’s nod in the 17th Congress were Lagman’s Human Rights Defenders Protection Bill and Del Mar’s Motorcyclesfor-Hire Bill.

The Human Rights Defenders Bill guarantees protection from harassment and assault of human rights advocates and defenders.

On the other hand, the Motorcycle Bill allows and regulates the use of motorcycles as public utility vehicles.

The Medical Marijuana Bill was also refiled, this time by Isabela Rep. Antonio Albano.

The bill seeking to legalize and regulate the use of medical marijuana was first filed by his brother, former congressman and now Isabela Governor Rodolfo Albano III. A booth has been set up at the House’s South Wing Lobby for lawmakers and their staff who want to file their bills and resolutions way ahead of the opening of sessions on July 22.

As of 6 p.m. Monday, a total of 890 House Bills and 24 House Resolutions have already been filed. ■

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Philippine News

JULY 5, 2019

FRIDAY

Poverty alleviation among Palace says there’s still Duterte’s goals in his last 3 years hope for federalism PHILIPPINE NEWS AGENCY MANILA — Presidential Communications Operations Office (PCOO) Secretary Martin Andanar on Monday said the administration of President Rodrigo Duterte will focus on poverty alleviation, infrastructure development, and peace and order in the remaining three years of his presidency.

In a radio interview over DWWW 774, Andanar said achieving these three goals will fortify the “already-formidable” legacy of the country’s first leader from Mindanao.

“Napakarami na pong nagawa ang Pangulo para sa ating mga mahihirap na kababayan pero meron pang mga kailangang maisakatuparan (The President has done a lot for our poor countrymen but there is more to be done) for the last three years of the Duterte legacy at dito tututukan ng gobyerno ang poverty (and here the government will focus on) alleviation, infrastructure projects, and peace,” Andanar said.

He said the Duterte’s long list of accomplishments include the 67 legislative agenda designed to address poverty and to bring comfortable life to 107 million Filipinos.

Some of the legislation passed under the Duterte administration are free education to State Universities and Colleges (SUCs), free irrigation to farmers, free internet services in selected public areas, and assistance to first-time job seekers.

Other notable laws include the Universal Health Care Act, the institutionalization of the Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino Program (4Ps), the Farmer and Fisherfolk Enterprise Develop-

BY AZER PARROCHA Philippine News Agency

PCOO Secretary Martin Andanar.

ment Program, and the new Social Security law that enhances state-provided benefits.

He said the achievements as well as future plans and programs will not only be showcased in the upcoming state of the nation address (SONA) of the President but will be extensively discussed in the pre-SONA forums to be held in Luzon, Visayas and Mindanao.

In a separate interview with Radyo Inquirer, Andanar affirmed the government’s commitment to bring down poverty incidence from 21 percent to 14 percent by the end of Duterte’s term in 2022, by sticking with its socio-economic agenda.

“Nangangahulugan po talaga na kailangang matutukan natin ito ng husto by doing the Build, Build, Build program (It would mean we have to give focus on this by doing the Build, Build, Build program),” he said.

He added that the “Build, Build, Build” program will continue to spur the economy as it creates more jobs.

The government, he said, should continue its counterinsurgency efforts through the National Task Force to End Local Communist Armed Conflict

PCOO PHOTO

(NTF-ELCAC).

“The recipe for progress really is peace so we need peace in the land,” he said.

The NTF-ELCAC was created by virtue of Executive Order No. 70, which institutionalized a whole-of-nation approach against insurgency, marking a shift from the previous militaristic approach.

In line with the creation of NTF-ELCAC, Cabinet Officers for Regional Development and Security (CORDS) have also been designated per region.

Andanar, who was designated as CORDS for Region 10 (Northern Mindanao), recently spearheaded the launching of the Convergence Areas for Peace and Development (CAPDev).

CAPDev seeks to promote the establishment of durable peace and development while empowering communities in the priority focus areas through peace building and reconciliation, socio-economic transformation, good governance, and institution building.

The CAPDev launching was marked by the turnover of 50 houses to residents of Brgy. Iba, Cabanglasan, Bukidnon. ■

www.canadianinquirer.net

“Eh ‘di lang naman ‘yan ang pamamaraan ng pag–amyenda ng saligang batas, puwede namang Constitutional convenMANILA — Despite President tion (A Constituent Assembly is Rodrigo R. Duterte earlier ad- not the only way to amend the mitting that he is inclined not Constitution, they can also try to push for federalism, Malaca- a Constitutional Convention),” ñang said that hope for a shift to he added. a new system of government is A Con-Con allows delegates not completely lost. to be elected per region while a Presidential Spokesperson Con-Ass involved the Congress Salvador Panelo said that the proposing amendments to the chief executive still had three Constitution. years left before the end of his On June 26, Duterte said he term so anything will no longer was possible. insist on push“Palagay ko ‘di ing for federalmawawala ‘yan. ism but would May tatlong taon still prefer to pa naman tayo(I A Conmake “changthink the effort Con allows es” in the 1987 to push for federdelegates to C o n st i t u t i o n alism won’t just be elected but did not go away. We have per region elaborate what three years left),” while a Conhe meant.

Panelo said in a raAss involved “If you do dio interview. the Congress not want fed“There is always proposing eralism, fine,” the light at the end amendments Duterte said of the tunnel,” he to the in his speech added.

Constitution. during the Panelo pointed oath-taking of out that the probnewly-elected lem between the senators and two chambers of local officials Congress is that endorsed by they failed to agree on conven- the Hugpong ng Pagbabago ing a Constituent Assembly.

(HNP) in the recent mid-term However, he said that Con- polls. gress could still open its doors “But change the Constitution to a Constitutional Convention. that would really change this “Nagkaroon sila ng problema nation,” he added. ■ dahil ‘di nila alam kung paano nila ico-constitute ang kanilang sarili. ‘Yung Senado at ‘yung members ngHouse of Rep hindi sila magkaunawaan kung paano diskarte nila (They had problems because they didn’t know how to constitute themselves.

The Senate and members of the House of Representatives cannot agree on what to do),” Panelo said.

Philippine News

FRIDAY JULY 5, 2019

11

Duterte-Xi verbal fishing deal still legally binding: Palace

BY AZER PARROCHA Philippine News Agency MANILA — The “verbal” fishing deal made between President Rodrigo Duterte and Chinese President Xi Jinping to allow Chinese nationals to fish within the Philippine exclusive economic zone (EEZ) is still “legally binding,” Malacañang said on Monday.

Presidential Spokesperson Salvador Panelo made this remark a week after Duterte bared that he had an agreement with Xi to allow Chinese to fish within the Philippines’ 200-nautical mile EEZ if China allowed Filipinos to fish in the Panatag (Scarborough) Shoal during their first bilateral meeting in October 2016.

In an interview at cable ANC television, Panelo described the agreement as an “informal agreement other than documented.”

Panelo, in a Palace briefing

on Monday, said the agreement was likely “verbal” but it was still legally binding.

“Kahit sa batas, kahit na verbal eh valid and binding iyon basta mayroong mutual consent ang dalawang partido. Kaya nga agreement eh(Even in the law, even if it’s verbal, it’s valid and binding as long as there is mutual consent from the two parties. That’s why it’s an agreement),” said Panelo, also the Presidential Chief Legal Counsel.

Asked if he believed Xi would hold on to his end of the deal, Panelo noted that there have yet to be reports of Chinese nationals fishing in the Recto Bank (Reed Bank) in the West Philippine Sea. “Eh sa ngayon hindi naman niya ginagalaw ang Reed Bank, ’di ba? Gaya ng pangako niya (Now, they’re not fishing in the Reed Bank, right? Just as he promised),” Panelo said.

Following calls by members of party-list group Bayan Muna

President Rodrigo Roa Duterte and People's Republic of China President Xi Jinping.

KING RODRIGUEZ / PRESIDENTIAL PHOTO

for Malacañang to present the “complete text” of the supposed fishing deal between Duterte and Xi, Panelo said the Palace has long bared the existence of the agreement on several occasions.

“Kahit ako, sinasabi ko na iyan. Nagkakaroon ng usapan kaya nga okay na doon sa Scarborough eh (I have even

mentioned that. There was an agreement that’s why our fishermen are now allowed at the Scarborough),” Panelo said.

Oil exploration

Panelo, meanwhile, bared that the Philippines is willing to hold bilateral meetings with China on the proposed joint oil exploration in the South China Sea.

Duterte earlier suggested a 60-40 sharing arrangement on the joint oil exploration.

Although the chief executive bared that China may disagree on a 60-40 sharing deal of resources, Panelo believed that the two countries could still talk it out.

“Lahat naman ‘yan puwedeng pag-usapan (because all of that can be discussed),” Panelo said.

Panelo pointed out that the reason why joint ventures were necessary is because the Philippines lacks capacity to do it alone.

“Unang-una, wala tayong resources (First of all, we don’t have resources) the reason why we need joint ventures and joint agreements with other countries is because wala tayong kapasidad (we don’t have the capacity),” he added.

Duterte earlier bared that Xi warned of “trouble” after the Filipino leader mentioned his plan to dig for oil in the disputed waters. ■

Church needs any info on Pinoy teen declared as ‘Servant of God’

BY FERDINAND PATINIO Philippine News Agency MANILA — The Diocese of Cubao on Monday asked the public to provide it with any document on the life of Darwin Ramos, who has been declared as a “Servant of God” by the Vatican.

In his edict, Cubao Bishop Honesto Ongtioco urged the people who have information about the life of the boy to give them a copy of such documents.

“In accordance with the laws of the Church, we hereby direct all those who are in possession of any writing, published or unpublished, which can be attributed to the Servant of God, and which has not yet been recorded in the Postulation of the Cause to submit these and all documents relevant to this Cause as soon as possible to the President of the Commission of Enquiry,” he said in an order

dated June 16.

The Catholic prelate noted that they will accept an authenticated copy if the provider wishes to keep the original copy of the documents.

Ongtioco noted that they want to gather as many information on the life and faith of Ramos as part of the process towards his sainthood.

“We want to gather as much data as we can regarding his virtues, his life, to prove his sanctity. We need feedback from people who knew him,” he said in a separate interview.

With this, he added that those who have information to send them to Diocesan Tribunal of First Instance of the Cubao Diocese or through email: tribunal@dioceseofcubao.ph.

Also, Ongtioco directed parishes and Church institutions in the diocese to keep the edict posted for two months.

Last March 29, the Vatican declared Ramos as “Servant of

God,” which is the preliminary step towards sainthood. It is the second of four steps in the Church’s canonization process for one to be declared as “Venerable.”

He spent his early years in the slums of Pasay City, where he became a scavenger along with his younger sister, in a bid to help his family. He was diagnosed with Duchenne muscular dystrophy, which made him unable to stand as his muscles had weakened.

In 2006, Ramos entered one of the centers that help street children after getting acquainted with a group of street educators from Tulay ng Kabataan (TnK).

Discovering the Catholic faith, he received the sacrament of baptism in the same year and the first communion and the sacrament of confirmation in 2007.

Ramos had developed a deep personal relationship with Christ, and not a day passed www.canadianinquirer.net

Servant of God Darwin Ramos.

ROMAN CATHOLIC DIOCESE OF CUBAO / FACEBOOK

that the boy did not take time out to entrust himself to God. He died at the Philippine

Children’s Medical Center in Quezon City on Sept. 23, 2012, at the age of 17. ■

Philippine News

12

JULY 5, 2019

FRIDAY

SC junks pleas on source code review in vote counting machines

BY BENJAMIN PULTA Philippine News Agency MANILA — The Supreme Court (SC) has turned down petitions, which seek to compel the Commission on Elections (Comelec) to allow groups to open and review the source code in the vote counting machines (VCMs) as provided for under Republic Act 9369 or the Election Modernization Act of 1997.

In an banc decision dated April 30 and released Monday, the High Court likewise denied the motion of the petitioners — Sen. Richard Gordon, the Bagumbayan-NVP Movement Inc. and Tanggulang Demokrasya — to hold former Comelec chair Sixto Brilliantes Jr. in contempt for his failure to comply with his commitments to the Court during the May 8, 2013 oral arguments to, among others, make the source code available for review and to grant more time to the parties to comply with the require-

ments to do so.

“In deciding that Chairman Brillantes is not liable for indirect contempt, the Court focuses solely on the undertakings that were directly promised to the Court, not those which the petitioner feels were promised,” the SC added.

The High Court dismissed on the ground of “being moot and academic” while their plea to cite Brilliantes for contempt was junked for “utter lack of merit.”

Likewise, the Court denied the plea of the petitioners to compel the Comelec to use digital electronic election returns and provide for the basic security safeguards, which include the source code review, vote verification, and random audit in compliance with RA 9369.

The SC said it took judicial notice of Comelec Resolution 10423 promulgated on Sept. 21, 2018, modifying the qualifications for the source code review for the 2019 elections, as well as providing for several steps be-

JOEY O. RAZON / PNA

fore an interested party may actually get to review the source code.

“As this Resolution 10423 governs the conduct of the [2019] elections and any automated election from here on unless it, itself, is superseded by another, the cause of action of the petitioners has ceased to exist,” the SC said in a decision penned by Associate Justice Andres Reyes Jr. The SC also noted that the

recent promulgation of Resolution 10458 (General Instructions for the conduct of Random Manual Audit relative to the May 13, 2019 Automated National and Local Elections and subsequent elections thereafter), on December 5, 2018, Resolution 10460, or the General Instructions on the constitution, composition and appointment of the Electoral Board; use of the Vote Counting

Machines; the process of testing and sealing of the Vote Counting Machines; and the voting, counting and transmission of election results, on December 6, 2018, and Resolution 10487, or the VCM Operation procedures for (A) Final Testing and Sealing (FTS) (B) Election Day and (C) Transmission of Election Results in connection with the May 13, 2019 National and Local Elections, on Jan. 23, 2019 (Resolution 10487, in particular, supplanted Resolution 10460) have made the petitions moot and academic.

“The promulgation of these removes the justiciable controversy existing in the consolidated petitions especially as it is these resolutions that now govern the conduct of the specific items being assailed,” the ruling added.

The SC further held that the electronic transmission through the method promulgated by the Comelec is valid under the law, as it cited the Rules on Electronic Evidence. ■

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Philippine News

FRIDAY JULY 5, 2019

13

Panelo gives Duterte PRRD may change mind about score of 9 out of 10 Paolo’s possible bid for speakership for first 3 years

BY AZER PARROCHA Philippine News Agency

BY AZER PARROCHA Philippine News Agency MANILA — If President Rodrigo R. Duterte’s performance for his first three years in office would be graded, Presidential Spokesperson Salvador Panelo said he would give the chief executive a nine out of 10 rating.

“In the scale of 10, it should be nine,” Panelo said over a radio interview on Sunday.

According to Panelo, the President had several achievements he previously mentioned, including the signing of measures to improve Filipinos’ lives, the move to an independent foreign policy, and developing Mindanao, among others. “‘Di mo ba nabasa yung listahan ng accomplishments niya, walang presidenteng nakagawa ng ganun (Did you see the list of his achievements, there’s no president who has ever done that),” Panelo said.

Panelo, however, admitted that despite these achievements, there is still so much that needs to be done.

He said that there is a need to improve a number of acts, including those that pertain foreign investments, retail trade,

and public service.

He said that there is also a need to monitor the implementation of the Build, Build, Build infrastructure program, support the creation of more rehabilitation centers, and pay closer attention to overseas Filipino workers and out-of-school youth.

“Marami pa kaya sabi ko (There’s still so much he can do that’s why I say) the best is yet to come despite na marami na ngang nagawa ang Presidente (despite him having achieved so much already),” Panelo said.

Panelo also pointed out that the President has stayed true to his promise of curbing corruption within government.

“He has been firing left and right Cabinet officials, government officials, prosecuting errant officials,” Panelo said.

“Kaya nakikita ng mga kababayan natin na ginagawa niya lahat para sirain ang kultura ng corruption sa ating bansa (That’s why our citizens can see he is doing everything to destroy the culture of corruption in our country),” he added.

Earlier, Panelo assured that Filipinos can expect “the same number of significant achievements, if not more” before the President steps down in 2022. ■

PH to insist... ❰❰ 7

Panelo expressed confidence that the two countries will be able to reconcile their different findings.

He said Duterte is fine by any method — with or without a third party.

“Diba sinabi ni Presidente, okay sa’kin lahat ‘yan basta gusto ko matapos na ‘yan at malaman na natin kung sino accountable. Okay lang sa kanya walang third party (Remember, the President said he’s fine with anything, what he wants is that investigation is concluded and we find out who is accountable),” Panelo said.

Panelo said if proven that Chinese crews are indeed guilty of ramming and abandoning the Filipino fishing boat, Chi-

nese government will hold them liable.

“I trust the assurance of the Ambassador of China (Zhao Jianhua), they will not allow that.

Kung merong (If there is) irresponsible behavior, they will impose sanctions,” Panelo said.

The Philippine government has already filed a diplomatic protest against China in relation to the alleged abandonment of Filipino fishermen at sea.

The Chinese embassy in Manila, for its part, explained that while the Chinese captain tried to rescue the Filipino fishermen at sea, they were “afraid of being besieged by other Filipino fishing boats” and only fled after they had been rescued by a Vietnamese fishing boat. ■

MANILA — Although President Rodrigo Duterte previously said that he will resign if his son, Davao City Rep. Paolo Duterte, decides to join the House speakership race, Malacañang said the chief executive may still “change his mind.”

“You make a stand on the basis of circumstances. When those circumstances change, you also change your stand,” Presidential Spokesperson Salvador Panelo said in a Palace briefing on Tuesday.

Panelo did not elaborate of what circumstances he meant but stressed that while the President could still change his mind, his son could do the same.

“Puwede rin magbago ng isip YANCY LIM / PRESIDENTIAL PHOTO si Presidente, puwede rin mag- Pres. Spokesperson Salvador Panelo. bago ng isip si Congressman Paolo Duterte so tingnan natin “You cannot prevent people is not about speakership alone, (The President may change his from running. Now, it’s be- but who is the right person mind, Congressman Paolo may tween the father and son, ibang to unite Congress and I hope also change his mind. Let us usapan na ‘yun (that’s a differ- those running for the speakersee),” Panelo said. ent story) but as a general prin- ship stop influencing the cabi“Ang isang tao pag nag- ciple, if you are qualified to run net,” Paolo said. salita ng isang bagay, seryoso then you can run,” Panelo said.

On May 27, Duterte said he ‘yun (A person, when he says would step down once Paolo something, that’s serious) un- Paolo’s decision chooses to seek House speakless there are circumstances In a statement, Paolo bared ership since his winning could that will compel him to alter that while he initially had no mean too many members of his stand so hindi natin alam interest in the position, he had their family occupying top kung ano yung mga kalakaran a change of heart after Taguig posts. na maaring magpabago ng isip Rep. Alan Peter Cayetano, who “Itong si Paolo, sabihin ko sa ng Presidente (we don’t know is also vying for House Speaker, kanya (I told Paolo), if you run what are the circumstances expressed desire to push for a for speakership, let me know. that may change Kasi kung tatakhis mind),” he bo ka, magreadded. resign ako. Kasi Panelo, meanmarami na tayo while, played It is not about speakership alone, (because if down Paolo’s debut who is the right person to unite you’re running, sire to join the Congress and I hope those running I will resign. BeHouse speakerfor the speakership stop influencing cause there’s ship race as “just the cabinet. too many of us a plan.” now),” Duterte “Plano pa lang said. naman ‘yun e Duterte’s (It’s just a plan). Siguro (Per- term-sharing deal between him daughter, Sara, is currently haps) we will wait for that to and Marinduque Rep. Lord Al- Davao City mayor while his happen kung totoong mang- lan Velasco. youngest son, Sebastian, nickyayari (if it will really happen),” The younger Duterte is pro- named “Baste” is vice mayor.

Panelo said. posing that the House Speaker The President, a former “Di pa naman nagiging post be shared by representa- Davao City mayor for over two Speaker e (He’s not even Speak- tives from Mindanao, Visayas, decades, admitted that he has no er yet),” he added.

Luzon, and the party-list control over his son’s decisions Panelo, however, acknowl- groups. but appealed to him to tell him edged that every person has the “We are not talking about two of his intentions of running for right to any position as long as persons here. We are talking speakership three days before he or she is qualified or elected. about our beloved country. It he announces it in public. ■ www.canadianinquirer.net

14

Canada News Bills now take almost three times as long to get through the Senate

BY CHRISTIAN PAAS-LANG The Canadian Press OTTAWA — Bills are spending more than twice as long in the Senate since Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s reforms to the upper house of Parliament, raising the question of who should get the credit for the chamber’s more thorough approach — or the blame for its plodding pace.

From 2011 to 2015, when the Senate was controlled by Conservatives, government bills from the House of Commons spent an average of just 12 sitting days in the upper chamber, according to an analysis by The Canadian Press.

In the past four years, however, the length of time a bill will spend in the Senate has skyrocketed to 31 days, on average. That number is even higher depending on how one divides up the time the two chambers spend dealing with amendments proposed by the Senate.

The calculations were made using the number of sitting days between the time a bill was introduced in the Senate and when it passed third reading there. The averages also exclude appropriations bills, which are rarely debated at length and pass swiftly.

According to the leader of the largest group in the upper chamber, that increase in time is, in part, a “reflection of the Senate doing its job.”

Yuen Pau Woo, the senator who serves as the “facilitator”

for the Independent Senators Group, said more scrutiny, debate and deliberation meant longer timelines. The group is a loose affiliation of senators without formal party links, formed under Senate rules to distribute things like budgets and committee assignments.

Woo also pointed out the Senate amended a high proportion of bills — 29 out of 65 government bills originating in the House (again, excluding appropriations bills). Traditionally, a party that controls majorities in the Commons and the Senate has been able to count on senators not to get in the way of its legislation.

Woo noted that in no cases did the Senate insist on its amendments, meaning senators did not “overreach,” in his view.

“I think we very much met the test of an independent Senate,” he said.

But Woo also argued a portion of the delay was because of Conservative senators, “who have used the rules of the Senate to hold up bills and to delay their passage.”

Procedural shenanigans were usually aimed at making sure private members’ bills didn’t come to the floor of the Senate, but they had an effect on government legislation as well, Woo said.

“That’s just a complete fabrication,” said Stephen Kelly, chief of staff to Larry Smith, the Conservative leader in the Senate.

“The government determines the legislative agenda of the

Senate” through negotiations with the Conservatives, he said.

However, Kelly did say the Conservatives were fulfilling their role as Official Opposition in giving voice to Canadians who were against the policies of the government.

“If that takes more time as opposed to less time, if that takes a little longer than what some people had hoped, then so be it. But those are the tools of opposition — it’s not unique to the current circumstances,” Kelly said.

At the end of the day, he said, the delays were a normal result of “the basic relationship in the chamber” and negotiations to set out the agenda between the government and the Official Opposition.

Add to that the fact the government needed to make so many amendments on its own bills, he said, and that during debates on sensitive bills like C-45 (the cannabis legalization bill), the government did not aggressively push other bills forward.

“The legislative lethargy of this government is not something that’s fabricated by the Opposition,” he argued.

On the Senate specifically, Kelly did note there is a “certain degree of incoherence” to the current structure of the chamber, with its independent elements. The inability of the government representative in the Senate, Sen. Peter Harder, to limit debate by invoking time allocation was one change that had an impact, he said.

For Woo, also, the current

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Senate Chamber, Centre Block of the Parliament of Canada.

MIGHTYDRAKE / WIKIMEDIA COMMONS, CC BY 3.0

rules and procedures of the Senate could be improved.

Noting the crush of bills that were debated and passed in the last week of sitting time — major bills on the environment, solitary confinement, even the federal budget — he said many ISG senators were “dissatisfied” with the pacing of their work and the time afforded for real debate.

He specifically raised the example of Bill C-58, on the access-to-information law, which spent 116 sitting days in the Senate, by far the most of any bill.

“To me there is really no reason it should have taken that long,” Woo said, “and a more rational and orderly process of managing our agenda surely can be worked out and put into practice.”

Both sides acknowledged the election will lead to a turning point in the way the Senate functions — whether it will continue on its current path of reform or revert closer to its expressly partisan past.

Conservative Leader Andrew Scheer has talked about returning to partisan appointments if he becomes prime minister; if Trudeau wins re-election, he’ll likely get to entrench his system of naming senators who don’t answer to a whip.

“This should be an issue which is front and centre in the election, because the Senate is a foundational institution in our democracy, and Canadians need to pay attention,” Woo said.

“There will be unfinished business, regardless of who wins the election.” ■

Canada News

FRIDAY JULY 5, 2019

Ukraine’s comedian turned president makes North American debut in Toronto

BY MIKE BLANCHFIELD The Canadian Press OTTAWA — Canada will continue “to stand with Ukraine against Russian interference and aggression,” Prime Minister Justin Trudeau told Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskiy Tuesday, as an international conference on the Eastern European country’s future began in Toronto.

The two leaders shook hands in front of Canadian and Ukrainian flags and, speaking in English, Zelenskiy thanked Trudeau for the welcome.

Zelenskiy is making his North American debut at the Ukraine Reform Conference in Toronto more than a month before he is to visit the United States and Ukraine’s envoy says that’s no mistake.

Andriy Shevchenko, Ukraine’s ambassador to Canada, says that’s an indication of just how important Zelenskiy sees the ties between the two countries that have grown in the last 28 years.

Zelenskiy, a popular actor and comedian with no previous political experience, easily won this spring’s presidential election, unseating Petro Poroshenko and sparking concern

about whether someone who played the Ukrainian president in a fictional TV drama was cut out for the actual job.

But Zelenskiy has worked quickly, dissolving his country’s parliament and pushing forward with new elections for that assembly later this month, a timeline that was months ahead of its previous schedule.

Shevchenko says the threeday reform conference will see representatives from 30 countries participating as well as representatives from major international institutions such as the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank.

It will help Zelenskiy set his agenda for his term in office, which includes fending off ongoing threats from Russia, said Shevchenko.

In 2014, Russia annexed Ukraine’s Crimean Peninsula in the worst breach of Europe’s borders since the Second World War, an act Canada and its Western allies view as illegal. Russia has also fomented a pro-Kremlin insurgency in the country’s east that has left more than 13,000 dead.

In November, Russia detained 24 Ukrainian sailors and seized three ships in the Kerch ❱❱ PAGE 24 Ukraine’s comedian

Canada will always stand with the people of Ukraine, and we’ll continue to support their efforts on the path to greater democracy, security, and prosperity. @JUSTINTRUDEAU / TWITTER

15

Third-party advertisers start disclosing ad spending as election nears

BY CHRISTIAN PAAS-LANG The Canadian Press

to the union’s national director.

The union’s elected leadership needs to approve a plan, he said, and that hasn’t happened yet.

Starting Sunday, Canadians If the decision is made to run will begin to see which thirdads over the summer and into party groups will be spending the writ period, he added, the money to sway their votes in spending needs to be carefully the upcoming federal election. targeted so as not to exceed the As of June 30, groups that prescribed limits, while still aren’t political parties but want providing value. a say in the fall campaign will The limits on spending in any need to register with Elections given electoral district were Canada if they spend more than particularly notable, Rowlin$500 on political activities, and son said, because it made buyfile interim disclosure forms ing ads in urban centres diffionce they raise or spend more cult. than $10,000.

Daniel Bernhard, executive Groups such as Engage Candirector of Friends of Canadian ada and Shaping Canada’s FuBroadcasting, an advocate for ture stole the spotlight earlier public broadcasting, said his this month with duelling ads organization will also wait to during the NBA Finals (Engage make major decisions.

Canada attacked the Conser“We will be running some vatives; Shaping Canada’s Fuprint ads, probably next week, ture went after to get the ball Liberal Leader rolling,” he said.

Justin Trudeau), “And then we’ll while groups see what hapsuch as Canada pens in the sumProud will likely The limits on spending in any given mer and fall.” be spending big electoral district were particularly But, he added, in the coming notable, Rowlinson said, because it the group is almonths. made buying ads in urban centres ready out and acBut more than difficult. tive in 22 swing half the more ridings. than $6 million Bernhard also directly spent on argued any conelectioneering versation about by third parties third-party adin the 2015 election was shelled Filippone, director of commu- vertising in Canada needs to out by the top 10 organizations, nications at the Public Service acknowledge the roles of platmost of which are unions.

Alliance of Canada, but said his forms like Facebook and TwitThose tallies are just for the union’s final amount of adver- ter in allowing for “nefarious 78-day election period in 2015. tising spending isn’t certain. activity” and enabling groups to Now, new rules on advertising Filippone said the overall pri- skirt limits or act anonymously, disclosure will show how much ority will be reminding mem- he said. groups are spending in the bers of the union, which is the He likened the dynamic to months before the campaign biggest representing federal the relationship between the officially begins. employees, why PSAC thinks tax system in Canada and the Bill C-76, the election-reform they should oppose Conserva- offshore tax industry. law passed by Parliament in tive candidates.

Facebook has rolled out an ad December, sets limits for third The exact tone of the messag- library to meet the transparenparties of just over $1 million ing hadn’t yet been worked out, cy requirements of Bill C-76, so in the “pre-writ period,” and Filippone added, “but it won’t people can see where political about $500,000 in the election be gentle.” advertisements come from and period. In any given electoral The United Steelworkers how they’re targeted. Twitter is district though, those limits are Union, which was the top di- temporarily banning political $10,000 and $5,000. rect spender in the last elec- ads on its platform in Canada as At least one union group will tion with over $430,000 worth it builds its own tracking tool. be trying to reach that limit, of advertising activities, has But those actions weren’t and has already spent on ads not yet committed itself to any enough for Bernhard. prior to the start of the pre- spending.

“All this talk of limits is alelection period.

“One has to think about most a sideshow,” he said. “The “We’re all in,” said Jerry Dias, whether or not spending money people who are already reportnational president of Unifor, on ad buys in media in July and ing and complying with the the country’s largest private- August is money well spent,” limits are the least of our probsector union. said Mark Rowlinson, assistant lems.” ■ www.canadianinquirer.net

“We’re entitled to spend $511,000 in the writ period — we’re going to spend $511,000” he added. “There is no question, we will be very aggressive.”

An outspoken critic of conservative politicians both federally and provincially, Dias said his focus will be on supporting Liberal or NDP candidates and incumbents in winnable ridings.

Dias said Unifor will put more emphasis than ever on social-media spending. Digital advertising on platforms like Facebook and Twitter has, he said, greater reach than traditional means.

But for some of 2015’s top spenders, the mood is more cautious.

“We will be registering for the pre-writ period, and the post-writ period,” said Riccardo

16

Canada News

JULY 5, 2019

FRIDAY

Canada celebrates 152nd birthday with fireworks and flybys

BY TERESA WRIGHT The Canadian Press OTTAWA — Prime Minister Justin Trudeau delivered a campaign-style speech focused on his Liberal government’s successes over the last four years as he delivered his Canada Day remarks on Parliament Hill on the country’s 152nd birthday.

Speaking to a jovial crowd clad in red and white gathered under a hot sun, Trudeau reminded the assembled masses about last year, when he skipped the festivities in the nation’s capital and instead visited communities impacted by steel and aluminum tariffs that had been imposed as part of a trade dispute with the United States.

In those communities, Trudeau said he saw people helping and supporting one another — a key Canadian quality to celebrate, he said.

But he also dropped a notso-subtle reminder of how his government was able to renegotiate a new free trade agreement with the United States and Mexico, and eventually got the U.S. tariffs lifted.

“We put up a united front, we leaned on each other, we had each other’s backs and we didn’t get pushed around,” Trudeau said.

He also highlighted some rosy numbers sure to be regularly touted in the upcoming election campaign: the number of jobs created since his Liberals took office in 2015 — one million; the number of longterm boil-water advisories lifted since 2015 — 85; and the number of kids who have been lifted out of poverty — nearly 300,000.

His support for diversity was

also a focal point of his remarks, saying he is proud to be part of a country that values multiculturalism while also looking to the future to meet what he called “the great challenges of our times” — climate change, reconciliation and gender equality.

“As a country, it’s important that we celebrate our accomplishments, that we take pride in how far we’ve come. But we can’t forget that Canada did not happen by accident and won’t continue without effort and hard work. We can and we must continue to make our country Today on Parliament Hill, we celebrated our beautiful country and all the Canadians who make it such a great place to call home. even better,” he said. @JUSTINTRUDEAU/TWITTER “I have no doubt that together, we can continue to build a country we can all be proud to month ago. tween Toronto and his home- sorts: the 140th official holiday call home.”

“Even if we don’t know town, he said, are palpable. celebrating Confederation.

Trudeau wasn’t the only anybody, we talk to people at “Going around in different For the first dozen years that high-profile Canadian at Ot- church and they help us with places and just seeing all of Canada was a country, there tawa’s celebration, which Ot- what we need. I think that’s these people of different co- were no official celebrations, tawa police said swelled to ap- something Canada has that lours and different races and thanks in part to Nova Scotia proximately 16,000. In addition we’re very fortunate to have ex- backgrounds together and just politicians who felt they had to Governor General Julie Pay- perienced,” she said. enjoying each other’s presence, been forced into Confederaette and a smattering of cabinet Torontonians had their pick that’s something that’s really tion, said Matthew Hayday, a ministers, actor Ryan Reynolds of celebrations like the annual important I think that Canada history professor at the Univerwatched the festivities from the Yonge-Dundas Multicultural- symbolizes well,” said Hamp- sity of Guelph.

VIP section on Parliament Hill. ism party, which celebrated the ton Junior.

At a parade in the East York And astronaut David Saint- country’s diversity with jazz Fabiola Peoraza, 30, was also area of Toronto, which was Jacques, freshly celebrating her advertised as the city’s lonback from a stint first Canada Day gest-running Canada Day celin space, made in Toronto af- ebration, children with painted a surprise vidter immigrating faces and dressed head to toe in eo appearance We put up a united front, we to Canada from red and white ran up and down from a hospital leaned on each other, we had each Mexico in 2017. the roads blowing bubbles in in Houston, TX., other’s backs and we didn’t get “I think it’s small capes made of Canadian where he’s repushed around. very easy to live flags. covering from here and be part Older couples sat on Mushis trip back to of the culture koka chairs holding hands to earth. and society be- watch the parade.

In rainy Halicause you have “It’s our heritage, it’s our hisfax, meanwhile, the occasion bands, a “Parade of Nations” people from all around the tory, and it represents a society was marked with a 21-gun sa- and live performances from world,” she said. “It feels like that I think the world wants to lute on Citadel Hill, sending the multicultural groups. you are part of this country and be,” said Dennis Marangos, 60, sound of cannon blasts echoing Terence Hampton Junior, you can share it.” a life-long East York resident through the sky like thunder.

21, was visiting Toronto for the Though the celebrations who said he’s never missed a Jihan Estrella was happy to first time on a family vacation were little less grand than they parade. ■ be in Halifax for the holiday from Memphis, TN, when he were two years ago for the counafter immigrating to Canada found the Yonge-Dundas cel- try’s sesquicentennial birthday, With files from Halifax and Tofrom the Philippines just a ebration. The differences be- 2019 is an anniversary year of ronto.

www.canadianinquirer.net

Canada News

FRIDAY JULY 5, 2019

17

At G20, Trudeau highlights Quebecers less exposed plight of Canadians in China, to Holocaust, Jewish but details scarce people, compared to other Canadians: poll

BY KRISTY KIRKUP The Canadian Press OSAKA, JAPAN — Justin Trudeau kept his cards close to the vest Saturday as he wrapped up this weekend’s high-stakes G20 meetings in Japan, acknowledging Canada’s protracted impasse with China but offering few details about the ongoing effort to liberate the two Canadians caught in the crossfire.

The arrest in China of Michael Kovrig and Michael Spavor — victims, from Canada’s perspective, of a three-way diplomatic standoff rooted primarily in a dispute between the United States and Beijing — came up in sideline talks with President Xi Jinping, the prime minister said before jetting back to Ottawa.

But Trudeau would say little else about what he called a “challenging moment” for Canada, and it remained agonizingly unclear whether U.S. President Donald Trump had made good on his promise to raise the issue in his own bilateral meeting with Xi. “I think it was important that I have an opportunity to have face-to-face discussions with President Xi on this issue,” Trudeau said. The two did not formally meet, but were spotted having discussions on the margins of the gathering — “constructive interactions,” in the words of the Prime Minister’s Office.

“We take the situation of the two Canadians detained in China extremely seriously, and it was important we have those exchanges,” Trudeau added.

One of the Canadian government’s strategies going into the meetings was to rally support from other G20 countries during the two days of talks, and the PMO said Friday that Canada received “broad” support from its European partners on the matter.

But it was Trump’s commitment to confront Xi about Kovrig and Spavor, secured during Trudeau’s meeting with the president last week in the

BY GIUSEPPE VALIANTE The Canadian Press

A busy first day at the #G20 in Osaka, Japan.

Oval Office, that was widely seen as the first real hope for progress in what has evolved into an intractable conflict.

Tensions with China have been on the rise since December, when Canada detained Chinese high-tech scion Meng Wanzhou at the behest of the U.S. government.

Meng, the chief financial officer of telecom titan Huawei Technologies, is facing charges in the U.S. of violating sanctions against Iran. She is free on bail but under partial house arrest in Vancouver as she awaits an extradition hearing; the detention in China of the two Canadian citizens, which happened less than two weeks later, is widely considered an act of retribution.

“Many of our allies around the world have been highlighting the situation of the two Canadians detained in China and we are confident that the (U.S.) president also brought that up, but you’ll have to ask him for details,” Trudeau said.

But in his own post-G20 press conference, marked by a reboot of stalled trade talks between the White House and Beijing, Trump didn’t explicitly mention Kovrig and Spavor.

@JUSTINTRUDEAU / TWITTER

Huawei, which the U.S. and other countries see as a potentially serious threat to national and global security, did come up — but not Meng.

“That was not discussed,” Trump said. “We did discuss Huawei, but we didn’t discuss her situation.” Huawei would have to be the last issue discussed in trade talks with China, he added.

Trump said existing U.S. tariffs would remain in place against Chinese imports while negotiations continue, but that additional tariffs he’s threatened to slap on billions worth of other Chinese goods will not be triggered for the “time being.” He added that the U.S. and China would restart stalled trade talks, saying, “we’re going to work with China where we left off.”

The U.S. has imposed 25 per cent import taxes on $250 billion in Chinese products and is threatening to target another $300 billion — a move that would extend the tariffs to virtually everything China ships to the U.S. China has lashed back with tariffs on $110 billion in American goods, focus❱❱ PAGE 18 At G20

www.canadianinquirer.net

MONTREAL — Quebecers are significantly less likely than other Canadians to have learned about the Holocaust in school, to have read a book about the genocide in the Second World War or to have ever been in contact with a Jewish person, a new poll suggests.

The results of the Leger poll come at a time when academics in Quebec are preparing a new study guide to help teachers educate students about genocide and acts of anti-Semitism are on the rise across the country.

About 35 per cent of respondents across Canada said they did not learn in school that roughly six million European Jews were murdered by the Nazis during the Second World War, while more than 53 per cent of Quebecers said so.

More than 61 per cent of Quebecers polled said they’d never read a book about the Holocaust, compared to the Canadian average of 41 per cent. And 36 per cent of respondents from Quebec said they had never had contact with a Jewish person.

The Canadian average was 18 per cent.

Leger surveyed 1,560 Canadians — including 418 Quebecers — over the age of 18, between June 7 and 11 in the online poll commissioned by Jack Jedwab, president of the Association for Canadian Studies.

The polling industry’s professional body, the Marketing Research and Intelligence Association, says online surveys cannot be assigned a margin of error as they are not a random sample and therefore are not necessarily representative of the whole population.

Jedwab, a historian, said he was surprised to learn the gap between Quebec and the rest of the country was so high.

“These are very surprising gaps — which is telling,” Jedwab said, adding that he’s studied

the Quebec history curriculum and the province’s schools don’t teach the Second World War in great detail.

“And if you’re not going to deal with WW2, probably the end result is that you won’t learn a lot about the Holocaust because they are connected,” he said.

Sivane Hirsch, professor of education sciences at Universite du Quebec a Trois-Rivieres, says she is not surprised by the results.

Her research on Holocaust education in the province revealed teachers were hesitant to teach it because they said the subject matter was complicated, sensitive and that students weren’t interested in it.

Hirsch said the percentage of Quebecers who said they never met a Jewish person “is normal” because most Jews in the province live in Montreal and are members of the Englishspeaking community.

“About 50 per cent of the students in the (Jewish) community go to Jewish school,” she said, adding there are few places where francophones outside Montreal can meet Jews.

Other than Quebecers, the Canadians least likely to have learned about the Holocaust in school were from Ontario and Atlantic Canada, both at 31 per cent.

About 38 per cent of respondents from Manitoba and Saskatchewan, who were grouped together in the survey, said they had never read a book about the Holocaust, second only to Quebec.

Ontarian respondents were the most likely Canadians to know someone who is Jewish — only 12 per cent of them said they have “never” had contact with a Jew. The survey results should be a wake-up call to Quebec’s minister of education, Jedwab said.

Learning about the genocide of the Jews empowers people to fight discrimination and ❱❱ PAGE 18 Quebecers less

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18

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ing on agricultural products ter Iran. in a direct and painful shot at In a wide-ranging news conference afTrump supporters in the U.S. ter the summit, Trump called the killing farm belt. of Khashoggi “horrible,” but said Saudi A central point of friction between Arabia had “been a terrific ally.” He sugthe U.S. and China is the decision by the gested he was satisfied with steps the Americans to deem Huawei as “incom- country is taking to prosecute some of patible” with its security interests and those involved, while claiming that “nothat of its allies. But that appears to have body so far has pointed directly a finger” taken a back seat to the newly rekindled at Saudi Arabia’s future king. U.S. intelefforts to secure a trade agreement — a ligence officials have concluded that bin development that likely has farmers, ex- Salman must have at least known of the porters and financial markets exhaling plot. with relief.

Trudeau for his Trump, who said part acknowledged he has “become attending a G20 sesfriends” with Xi, said sion on empowerhe intends to allow ing women that was U.S. companies to We take the also attended by bin sell their products to situation of the Salman, whose reHuawei, but he was two Canadians gime — initially seen not yet willing to redetained as progressive on move the company in China the issue of women’s from a trade blackextremely rights — has since list. seriously, and it been widely critiThe U.S. president was important cized for detaining also had his first facewe have those activists and backto-face sit-down with exchanges. sliding on human Saudi Arabia’s Morights issues in genhammed bin Salman eral. He said he raised since the U.S. intelCanada’s concerns ligence community about Khashoggi and concluded that the crown prince direct- human rights. ed the grisly murder of Washington Post Trudeau noted that next year’s G20 columnist and American resident Jamal summit will be held in the Saudi capital, Khashoggi last year.

Riyadh.

Trump, who referred to Prince Mo“Since they are hosting next year, hammed as his “friend,” has long sought there is an opportunity for them to demto minimize the crown prince’s role in onstrate the reforms they have begun the murder and has been reluctant to to undertake and move quicker on that, criticize the killing of the royal critic at and that Canada certainly hopes there a Saudi consulate in Turkey last year. will be forward progress.” ■ Trump views the kingdom as the lynchpin of U.S.’ Middle East strategy to counWith files from The Associated Press

Quebecers less... ❰❰ 17

strengthens one’s sense of tolerance, he added.

According to B’nai Brith Canada, anti-Semitic incidents in Quebec increased from 474 in 2017 to 709 in 2018. Anti-Semitic incidents rose roughly 17 per cent between 2017 and 2018 across Canada.

The 2,041 hate acts against Jews in 2018 was the first time since 1982 that there have been more than 2,000 such incidents in the country over a 12-month period, B’nai Brith Canada noted in its April report. The Jewish advocacy group also said in its most recent audit that the year 2018 “was characterized by a dramatic increase in anti-Semitic incidents worldwide.”

A September 2018 survey that polled 1,100 Canadians, conducted by New York City-based Schoen Consulting, indicated 22 per cent of respondents between 18 and 34 years old were unaware

www.canadianinquirer.net

or unsure if they had even heard of the Holocaust.

In response to the rise of anti-Semitic acts in Canada and the decline of Holocaust awareness across the country, a foundation that educates young people about genocide is partnering with the Quebec government to offer high school teachers a study guide on genocide.

Hirsch is one of two academics working on the study guide she says will be available to teachers in a handful of schools starting in the fall.

“A major challenge for teachers was having the tools to teach about genocide … they said it was complicated. So we’re going to help them,” she said.

Heidi Berger, head of The Foundation for Genocide Education, told The Canadian Press in April that her goal is to have the guidebook in every public and private high school across the province by 2020. ■

World News

FRIDAY JULY 5, 2019

19

Rebuked by many, Saudi crown prince feted at G20 summit

BY BINAJ GURUBACHARYA The Associated Press OSAKA, JAPAN — For many he’s an international pariah, but you wouldn’t know it by the lavish reception Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman has received at the G-20 summit this week.

He beamed as he stood front and centre, sandwiched between President Donald Trump and Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, for a group photo Friday. He exchanged an impish grin as he sat down next to Russian President Vladimir Putin. He posed with South Korean President Moon Jae-in and a group of flagwaving kids ahead of an earlier signing ceremony for $8 billion in deals.

Even as rebukes pile up elsewhere — a U.N. expert has called for an investigation of his alleged role in the killing of a prominent journalist, and a growing number of Americans are questioning their nation’s support for his kingdom and its role in the war in Yemen — some leaders in Osaka have gone out of their way to make sure the prince feels comfortable.

It’s not clear if any leader in Osaka has raised concerns about the killing last October of Saudi writer Jamal Khashoggi, who had criticized the Saudi heir in columns for The Washington Post. Saudi Arabia is hosting next year’s G-20 gatherings.

This year’s summitry set a particular tone.

The high-profile gatherings can often have a club-like feel to them, with welldressed leaders standing around and talking — sometimes intensely, sometimes convivially — before and after the photo-ops and public statements. In the absence of many details about what’s happening behind closed doors, observers are forced to spend a lot of time parsing body language. And, at least when the cameras were rolling, that language has been overwhelmingly positive for the prince.

In addition to standing next to Trump in the centre part of the front row for the first group photo, the prince was seated next to the summit’s host, Abe, at the official opening ceremony.

As the prince — easily one of the tallest leaders, and striking in his flowing, ankle-length robes — strode from meeting to meeting, or wandered among the other leaders before the summit’s setpiece ceremonies, he seemed completely at ease, often flashing a broad smile and exchanging pleasantries.

Trump, who has long been loath to scold authoritarian leaders for human rights abuses, seemed to go out of his way at times to shepherd Prince Mohammed.

As the two sat down over breakfast Saturday, Trump praised his “friend” for

taking steps to open up the kingdom and extend freedoms to Saudi women.

Trump also ignored reporters’ questions about the prince’s alleged role Khashoggi’s death. A White House statement said they discussed “Saudi Arabia’s critical role in ensuring stability in the Middle East and global oil markets, the growing threat from Iran, increased trade and investments between the two countries, and the importance of human rights issues.”

The U.S. president sees a close relationship with Saudi Arabia as a lynchpin to Washington’s Middle East strategy to counter Iran. Trump has brushed aside Khashoggi’s killing and said it has already been investigated. A Saudi pledge to spend billions of dollars on U.S. military equipment, Trump said, “means something to me.”

Following a monthslong inquiry, Agnes Callamard, the U.N. special rapporteur on extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions, recently said she’d concluded that Khashoggi was a victim of a “deliberate, premeditated execution, an extrajudicial killing for which the state of Saudi Arabia is responsible.”

Saudi Arabia denies the 33-year-old crown prince had any knowledge of the killing of Khashoggi. The kingdom has put on trial 11 suspects, some of whom worked directly for the prince. But his closest former adviser, Saud al-Qahtani, who was sanctioned by the United States after the killing, is not among those on trial.

Business concerns may have colored Prince Mohammed’s warm welcome this week.

Take South Korea, for instance. In Seoul before the summit, Saudi Arabia and South Korea signed 10 memorandums of understanding and contracts that would be worth $8.3 billion, according to Seoul’s presidential office. Moon, the president, hosted a luncheon at his mansion that was attended by some of South Korea’s most powerful businessmen.

South Korea gets more than 70% of its crude oil from the Middle East. Seoul is the world’s fifth largest importer of crude oil and Saudi Arabia has been its biggest supplier. Prince Mohammed, during his meetings with Moon, promised to help with possible fuel shortages in case of supply disruptions caused by Middle East turmoil.

Not everyone was happy about his reception.

Some South Koreans criticized the country’s two major English newspapers — The Korea Herald and The Korea Times — for using their front pages Wednesday to publish identical full-page ads by S-Oil, a South Korean oil refining company that is a subsidiary of the giant Saudi oil company Aramco.

Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman.

WORLD TOURISM ORGANIZATION (UNWTO) / FLICKR, CC BY-NC-ND 2.0

The ads printed the national flags of Saudi Arabia and South Korea side by side and contained the message, “We welcome HRH Prince Mohammed bin Salman Al-Saud, Crown Prince, Deputy Prime Minster, Minister of Defence.”

There was also criticism of a massive photo of the prince unfurled on the Seoul headquarters of S-Oil. The worries about the abuse claims may not resonate in the G-20 meetings.

But there’s mounting concern about the ties between the kingdom and the many

Western nations that have relied on its natural resources and political position.

In a recent opinion piece in The New York Times, David Wearing, the author of “AngloArabia: Why Gulf Wealth Matters to Britain,” said strategic bonds between Saudi Arabia and the Atlantic powers may survive, “but the existential threats are now plain to see, and if anyone in Riyadh, Washington or London has a serious plan to preserve the status quo, they are keeping it a closely guarded secret.” ■

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World News

JULY 5, 2019

FRIDAY

Cartoonist behind anti-Trump image thinks online presence played role in contract ending

BY MICHELLE MCQUIGGE The Associated Press A recent editorial cartoon taking aim at Donald Trump may have brought an Atlantic Canadian artist to international attention, but the man behind the image does not believe the sketch itself is what resulted in the loss of a working relationship he had for nearly two decades.

Michael de Adder said his online presence — replete with anti-Trump messages — is what he believes ultimately resulted in the end of his contract with Brunswick News Inc., a chain that owns many of the major media outlets in New Brunswick.

“It was left to me to figure out what the reason was,” he said in a telephone interview Tuesday.

“If they had (my departure) already in the works, it must have been (because) my online presence that was anti-Trump.”

De Adder, a freelancer, an-

nounced Friday that Brunswick News had scrapped its contract with him. That came a day after he had posted a cartoon of the U.S. president playing golf next to the bodies of two migrants who drowned trying to cross into Texas.

The contract termination — and its timing — garnered international criticism, including from Star Wars star Mark Hamill and Canadian comedian Mark Critch. De Adder called the reaction “mindblowing” but noted that he stopped sending Brunswick News content related to Trump months ago following feedback from editors that it wasn’t well-received.

Brunswick News said in a statement that De Adder did not offer the viral Trump cartoon for publication and said it was “entirely incorrect” to suggest it cancelled the artist’s contract over the image. It added that it had begun talks weeks ago to work with a different cartoonist it described as a “fan favourite,” and did not provide

further comment.

De Adder said he had a long history of working with papers associated with Brunswick News, which is owned by the powerful Irving family.

The cartoonist, who describes himself as a political centrist, said the occasional antiTrump image was published in affiliated papers prior to 2018 but that changed in recent month.

De Adder said the Brunswick News employee who called to terminate his contrat did not explain why it was being cancelled. The cartoonist said he explicitly asked if his dismissal was related to incompetence, his online presence in general or the most recent Trump cartoon in particular and was told in every case that those were not factors.

When De Adder shared the development on Twitter, he drew a firestorm of support.

Hamill was just one of many to praise the cartoonist, calling the most recent Trump image

“Pulitzer Prize worthy” and congratulating him for “speaking truth to power.”

“The world reaction has been overwhelming and erases some of the hard feelings or anger or sadness that I had,” De Adder said. “But I still am not working for my home province. My family and friends that I grew up with aren’t reading my cartoons every day, at least not in the newspaper.”

Paul Knox, former professor of journalism at Ryerson University, said the case illustrates some of the complex dynamics at play in the media industry, which features a dwindling number of editorial cartoonists in an era of shrinking budgets and newsroom resources.

Papers do have the right to publish whatever content they see fit, Knox said, while cartoonists and other artists have the right to shape their online presence according to their own beliefs and preferences.

He dismissed critiques that De Adder’s freedom of expres-

sion was being violated in this case, noting the cartoonist still maintains control of his own online platform and holds other long-term contracts with other media outlets.

But he said what happened nonetheless represents what he sees as a poor move by a media chain known throughout the industry for its close ties with the Irving family and widely perceived to have limited editorial independence.

“From a business point of view and a public life/democracy point of view, a newspaper should have a wide variety of opinion,” he said. “Therefore they should not be ending a relationship with people … because of what you do in the rest of your professional life.”

Knox said employers and employees alike should come to agreements well in advance to determine whether certain issues are off-limits in order to prevent working relationships from “going south” in the public eye. ■

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Mexico president mixes Trump and Kim’s DMZ meeting left, conservative mixes show and substance policy in 1st year

BY LINDSEY BAHR The Associated Press

ers outside a huge anniversary rally the president held in Mexico City’s main plaza Monday.

Like many, she was charmed MEXICO CITY — Andres Man- by some of his symbolic moves uel Lopez Obrador marked the to dismantle the high-level, anniversary of winning Mexi- distant, arrogant presidency co’s presidency Monday amid of years past, like taking lavish some strange contradictions. pensions away from ex-presiA leftist, he has been more dents. “But aside from that, evfiscally conservative than any erything continues the same,” of his predecessors since the Miranda Vazquez said.

1950s. He has cut the size of Ruben Jimenez, a Lopez Obgovernment so dramatically rador supporter, agreed that it has drawn protests. He has the biggest change has been been more openly religious psychological. than most Mexican presidents “Things are better, in popular in recent memory. terms, because the people have He still spends most of his more hope that things will get days on the campaign trail, better,” Jimenez said. “The govholding near daily rallies in ernment is more democratic, outlying states and it is getting even though he is closer to the peofirmly in control ple.” of Congress and But even the opposition I think he Jimenez agreed is a fragmented has a good that real progmess. vision, ress has been He has better but his slow. relations with proposals, Homicides reU.S. President the team main at historic Donald Trump he has, highs, though the than his conserI’m not rate of increase vative predesaying they has slowed. The cessor, and has are good government oil cracked down on or bad. company is stagmigrants harder.

There are gering under Despite risky just a lot debt, and some economic moves, of doubts government polls say his apthere. spending cuts proval rating have hampered ranges from 66% medical care at to 72%, seven state-run hosmonths after he pitals. The busitook office Dec. 1. ness community is spooked by Clearly, many Mexicans are Lopez Obrador’s propensity reacting more to his personali- for rescinding what he feels are ty — folksy, smiling, humble, in- unfair infrastructure contracts. credibly accessible — than any The Cabinet, largely composed big governmental results. Un- of newcomers, is on what can like previous Mexican leaders, be most kindly described as a he still shakes hands in public, learning curve. eschews security details, flies The Cabinet “is learning, economy class on commercial and very slowly,” Jimenez said. flights and takes selfies with “The people’s needs have to be fellow passengers. met more — higher wages. We “I think he has a good vision, need quicker progress. The Nabut his proposals, the team he tional Guard (Lopez Obrador’s has, I’m not saying they are new military-based policing good or bad. There are just a force) has to make more rapid lot of doubts there,” said Arge- progress.” lia Miranda Vazquez, a governThe 65-year-old president ment worker who was engaged maintains an exhausting schedin a friendly discussion with some Lopez Obrador support❱❱ PAGE 36 Mexico president

BY ZEKE MILLER AND JONATHAN LEMIRE The Associated Press

“OK, LET’S do it.”

With those words, a deliberate step and a pat on the arm of Kim Jong Un, President Donald Trump became the first sitting American leader to step into North Korea on Sunday as the two made history at the heavily fortified Demilitarized Zone.

The made-for-television moment was unthinkable just two years ago, when the men were trading base insults and grim threats.

Trump’s three-hour stop at the DMZ — of which about 80 minutes were spent with Kim — was a display of handshake-diplomacy for the history books, but also a chaotic spectacle reflective of the last-minute nature of the invitation to the authoritarian leader to join him at the border between the Koreas.

Afterward, it was unclear whether the meeting was more show than substance. Other than the headline-grabbing moment and the unprecedented images, Trump’s only accomplishment appeared to be securing an agreement to restart nuclear talks that he himself had walked out on in February during his last summit with Kim in Vietnam.

Trump had long planned a visit to the DMZ, dating to 2017 when a scheduled trip was cancelled by fog, but aides said the public invitation for Kim to join him there was as spontaneous as it seemed. In typical Trump fashion, it started with a tweet.

“I would meet him at the Border/DMZ just to shake his hand and say Hello(?)!” Trump posted about 30 hours before the visit.

The secrecy that had surrounded the ill-fated attempted visit two years ago was replaced by a media frenzy stoked by the president himself.

Trump said North Korea quickly responded and expressed interest in the invitation. U.S. and North Korean officials spent much of Saturday evening and early Sunday trying to surmount the immense logistical and security hurdles on such a tight timetable. www.canadianinquirer.net

@REALDONALDTRUMP / TWITTER

Even Kim seemed unable to contain his surprise when the meeting occurred.

“I never expected to meet you at this place,” he told Trump as they shook hands across the concrete slab marking the Military Demarcation Line between North and South.

It was Trump who first broached the notion of walking into North Korea. “Would you like me to step across?” he asked Kim as an interpreter translated his words to Korean.

“Would you like me to?”

Kim waved Trump over, replying through an interpreter of his own: “If your excellency would step forward, you will be the first U.S. president to cross the border.”

As Trump took his first steps, the former reality television star quickly moved to stagemanage the show of his own creation.

“Come on,” he said to Kim, tapping his elbow, as they walked side by side 10 paces into the North.

After a moment, they turned to face the press waiting in the South.

Trump escorted Kim back to the South as a scuffle broke out between reporters and North Korean security guards, with officials shoving and trying to block the press from capturing the moment.

The jostling intensified as the leaders moved to the Free-

dom House on the southern side of Panmunjom, where they made brief remarks to reporters and then met for roughly 50 minutes. A photographer was knocked to the ground and one reporter was seen in tears.

At one point, incoming White House press secretary Stephanie Grisham side-checked a North Korean guard who was blocking reporters from the room while others security officials frantically tried to cordon off the area with yellow rope.

Grisham ended up with bruises from the fracas. The U.S. Secret Service intervened in the pushing and shoving match.

The president was joined in the Freedom House conversation with Kim by his daughter and son-in-law, Ivanka Trump and Jared Kushner, both senior White House advisers. Chief of staff Mick Mulvaney milled about with other aides. National security adviser John Bolton, a skeptic of the talks with Kim, was en route to Ulaanbaatar to consult with Mongolian officials on regional security issues.

At one point, Ivanka Trump and Kushner stopped to enter one of the blue huts straddling the border between the two Koreas. Asked by a reporter about her trip to the North, she replied, “Surreal.”

And a sequel could be in the works: Trump told reporters he had invited Kim to Washington.■

22

World News

JULY 5, 2019

FRIDAY

Hong Kong leader Iran’s breach of uranium limits condemns protesters’ complicates nuclear deal violent acts

BY DAVID RISING The Associated Press

PHILIPPINE NEWS AGENCY HONG KONG — Chief Executive of China’s Hong Kong Special Administrative Region Carrie Lam on Tuesday strongly condemned the violent acts of some protesters who stormed the Legislative Council (LegCo) building.

Lam said she was saddened and shocked by the use of violence and vandalism, stressing that any illegal acts committed by the protesters would be investigated.

“This is something that we should seriously condemn because nothing is more important than the rule of law in Hong Kong,” she told the media.

“I hope community at large will agree with us that with these violent acts that we have seen, it is right for us to condemn it and hope the society will return to normal as soon as possible,” she added.

On Monday night, some radical protesters stormed into the Legislative complex and destroyed equipment inside the chamber of the building.

After the midnight, the police cleared roadblocks and drove off protesters who were staying in the Legislative Council complex.

Speaking with the media early Tuesday, Lam said that some protesters confronted the police, blocked roads and used unidentified liquid to attack police officers on Monday.

Some protesters tried to intrude the LegCo Complex, using a roll cage trolley as a battering ram and iron poles to shatter glass doors of the LegCo. They, during the clash, also threw toxic powder at the police.

On Monday evening, a number of protesters stormed into the complex, destroyed the chamber and defaced the Hong Kong emblem. ■

Protesters outside the Hong Kong Police Headquarters in Wan Chai on 21 June.

IRIS TONG -VOA , PUBLIC DOMAIN

BERLIN — Efforts by world powers to preserve a 2015 landmark nuclear deal with Iran grew more complicated Monday with confirmation that Tehran had breached the pact’s limitations on stockpiles of low-enriched uranium.

The announcement by Iran, later verified by the United Nations’ nuclear watchdog, that it had followed through with its threat to increase the stockpiles raises the pressure on the countries — Russia, China, Germany, France and Britain, along with the European Union — trying to preserve the pact following the unilateral withdrawal of the United States last year.

European signatories to the nuclear deal, known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, or JCPOA, have warned of consequences, but have not yet said what they might be.

British Prime Minister Theresa May’s spokesman, James Slack, said Iran’s announcement was “extremely concerning.”

“We will continue working with our JCPOA partners — in particularly with German and France — to keep the nuclear deal in place. This is in our shared security interests,” Slack said. “We have been consistently clear that our commitment to the JCPOA depends on Iran complying in full with the terms of the deal and we urge them to reverse this step.”

In a statement, a spokeswoman for EU foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini, one of the guarantors of the pact, called on Iran “to reverse this step and to refrain from further measures that undermine the nuclear deal.”

“The EU remains fully committed to the agreement as long as Iran continues to fully implement its nuclear commitments,” spokeswoman Maja Kocijancic said.

Germany’s Foreign Ministry added it was “very concerned” Iran had exceeded the stockpile limits and called on Tehran to reduce the levels “and not further undermine the nuclear agreement.”

It said it would “carefully www.canadianinquirer.net

consider the next steps” with its JCPOA partners.

Meantime, the clock is ticking toward Tehran’s July 7 deadline, when it has threatened to begin enriching uranium closer to weapons-grade levels unless the JCPOA countries offer significant relief from American sanctions.

JCPOA member Russia downplayed the significance of Monday’s announcement that the stockpile limit had been exceeded, calling on the Europeans in the JCPOA not to overreact and on Iran not to push further.

“Exceeding the 300-kilogram limit causes regret, but shouldn’t be overdramatized, it must be seen as a natural result of the preceding events,” said Russia’s Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov, adding that Iran had faced “unprecedented and unthinkable” pressure from U.S. sanctions.

“We are calling on all European members of the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action not to heat up the situation,” he said. “We are urging our Iranian colleagues to be extremely responsible regarding their actions, particularly those that concern Iran’s fulfilment of comprehensive guarantees with the IAEA and an additional protocol to the agreement.”

President Donald Trump withdrew the United States from the accord last year and imposed new sanctions on Iran in hopes of forcing Tehran into negotiating a wider-ranging deal. Since then, Iran’s economy has been suffering and the other countries involved have been struggling to keep the pact alive.

At the same time, Europeans have been calling for both the U.S. and Iran to deescalate the rising tensions in the Middle East.

The U.S. has been worried about international shipping through the Strait of Hormuz since tankers were damaged in May and June in what Washington has blamed on limpet mines from Iran, although Tehran denies any involvement.

Last week, Iran shot down a U.S. Navy surveillance drone, saying it violated its territory; Washington said it was in international airspace.

The JCPOA deal promises

economic incentives in exchange in return for curbs on Iran’s nuclear program, and while the country had been sticking to the limitations so far, its increasing frustration with those nations’ inability to offset American sanctions led to the threats on stockpiles and the increase of enrichment purity.

European countries had been pressing for Iran to comply in full with the accord, though have not specified what the consequences would be of failing to do so.

Iran’s state-run IRNA news agency quoted Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif suggesting Tehran was still willing to bargain if Europeans were willing to provide more economic incentives to help offset American sanctions.

“If Europeans do what they have to do, our measures are reversible,” Zarif said, IRNA reported.

It seemed likely the Europeans would take a wait-and-see approach until the July 7 deadline, based on diplomats’ previous comments that the purity of uranium Iran enriches was seen as a much more important limitation.

The announcement will give the U.S. added leverage, however, in pressing others to join Washington in leaving the JCPOA. Last week, U.S. Special Representative for Iran Brian Hook met top European diplomats in Paris and said he wants them to get tougher on Iran, instead of clinging to the nuclear deal.

Britain, France and Germany had been hoping that their establishment of INSTEX, a complex barter-type system to protect companies from American sanctions, would address some of Iran’s concerns.

But after announcing Friday that it was active, Iran’s Deputy Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said in Vienna that while INSTEX represented a step forward, it was not enough.

“Europeans need to buy oil from Iran, or to consider credit lines for this mechanism,” he said. ■ Vladimir Isachenkov in Moscow, Jill Lawless in London, Kiyoko Metzler in Vienna and Lorne Cook in Brussels contributed to this story.

23

Entertainment Angel Locsin says ‘yes’ to boyfriend Neil Arce

BY JOANNA BELLE DEALA Philippine Canadian Inquirer FROM BEING boyfriend and girlfriend, actress Angel Locsin and film producer Neil Arce can now call each other fiancé and fiancée!

The news about them being engaged was confirmed by the couple in a series of Instagram posts on Saturday, June 29.

Sharing a photo of him holding a ring behind his back, Neil wrote in a caption, “Excuse me miss… I have a question…”

Neil instantly became the happiest man in the world today as he gets Angel’s favorable response.

In her own posts, the 34-yearold actress announced that she said “yes” to Neil’s proposal which she called as the “surprise of my life.”

“We’re engaged!

Waaaaaaaaaah!” Angel said in one of her posts where she flaunts the engagement ring and Neil was pointing on it while they shared a kiss.

Neil, in his other post, thanked Angel for “allowing me to be with you, take care of you and most of all love you for the rest of my life.”

Celebrities like Marian Rivera, Anne Curtis, Kim Chiu, Kathryn Bernardo, Maja Salvador, John Prats, Vhong Navar-

Taylor Swift pens scathing post about Scooter Braun

BY LINDSEY BAHR The Associated Press LOS ANGELES — Taylor Swift is not staying silent over the sale of her masters to Scooter Braun.

In a scathing Tumblr post Sunday, the pop superstar writes she is sad and grossed out that her music catalogue now belongs to Braun who she accuses of subjecting her to years of incessant and manipulative bullying, referencing clashes with Kim Kardashian

and Kanye West.

Braun’s Ithaca Holdings announced Sunday that it is acquiring Big Machine Label Group which released all of Swift’s studio albums and owns her masters. Swift says she learned of the sale Sunday.

Swift left Big Machine in November and signed with Universal Music Group.

Representatives for Scooter Braun and Big Machine Label Group founder Scott Borchetta did not immediately respond to request for comment. ■

Neil & I would like to thank @mymetrophoto @paolonierves @kiko.pascua for saying yes right away to our spur of the moment shoot. @THEREALANGELLOCSIN/INSTAGRAM

ro, Raymond Gutierrez, Ruffa Gutierrez, Dimples Romana, Ryan Eigenmann, and many others could not hide their happiness as they congratulated the two on their engagement, flooding the comment section with hearts and heart-eyes emojis.

It was in February 2018 when Angel confirmed to Philippine Entertainment Portal (PEP.ph) her relationship with Neil.

“Yes, we’re together. Nahihirapan na ako sa mga interviews, lagyan na natin ng something

(I’m having a hard time with interviews, so let’s put something on it),” she admitted.

Prior to this, both Angel posted a sweet message to Neil on New Year’s day of that year, saying falling in love with Neil was the “best part” of her 2017.

Neil, meanwhile, wrote, “My 2017…2018..2019… and sabi nga niya ‘pag galingan ko… my forever… Don’t worry gagalingan ko (and she told me that if I do my best… there is forever…

Don’t worry, I will do my best)!!!

I Love you.” ■

@TAYLORSWIFT / INSTAGRAM

Filipino director Mikhail Red signed with Hollywood rep

BY GIANNA LLANES Philippine Canadian Inquirer KNOWN FOR his works like Oscar-nominated “Birdshot,” “Eerie,” “Neomanila,” “Rekorder,” and “Block Z,” 27-year-old Filipino filmmaker Mikhail Red is expected to make waves in Hollywood after signing with 3 Arts Entertainment.

The management and production company based in

both New York and Beverly Hills, California is representing Mikhael through agent Ari Lubet, who is “very excited about this partnership.” He describes Mikhael as “a prolific and gifted filmmaker,” stating, “I reached out to him after seeing the trailers for his films. But once I saw the feature films that he’s made, I was blown away by his powerful storytelling and visual aesthetic.”

Mikhael also responds that he was “surprised and excited,” also telling Inquirer.net, “After all, it has always been my objective to eventually transition to English-language works and international projects. Having an agent represent me stateside could only propel me closer to my goals.”

Looking to the future, the young talent describes “hoping to achieve the same balance [relevant social commentary www.canadianinquirer.net

with accessible genre cinema] when [he] works on Englishlanguage projects.” He adds, “My films have always been set in the Filipino milieu, but my themes about the human condition are actually very universal, that’s why my films travel well.”

Lubet also shares, “We are working on breaking Mik into the US market. I hope that Mik will continue to make powerful and engaging films that reach a

worldwide audience.”

Currently, the Filipino is working on an action/fantasy mini-series, a Japanese sci-fi film, and a movie about Black Dahlia, a serial killer who escaped Manila during martial law.

3 Arts Entertainment is the same company that manages A-listers like Chris Evans, Robert Pattinson, Tina Fey, Amy Poehler, Kevin Hart, Jessica Alba, and Debra Messing. ■

24

Entertainment

Ukraine’s comedian... ❰❰ 15

Strait, which connects the Sea of Azov and the Black Sea off the Crimean coast. Last month, a United Nations maritime tribunal said Russia must free the sailors and their ships. Russia says the tribunal has no jurisdiction over it.

“The president will ask Canada to support our fight for the sailors imprisoned by Russian after the incident in Kerch,” said Shevchenko.

Canada became the first Western country to recognize Ukraine’s independence in 1991 after the fall of the Soviet Union.

“He (Zelenskiy) wants to have this personal connection, this personal touch. He wants to reassure this very important connection between the countries,” Shevchenko said.

Canada has supplied Ukraine with $785 million worth of military, legal, financial, development and political assistance since 2014 when President Vladimir Putin tried to bring the country back into Russia’s sphere of influence just as Ukraine was poised to deepen its integration with the European Union.

Trudeau’s office has said he and Zelenskiy will discuss Ukraine’s reform efforts and its path toward integration with Europe.

Canadian is also home to 1.3 million people of Ukrainian descent, which makes it one of the

country’s most influential diaspora communities, which has big domestic political implications with the October federal election looming.

The Conservative opposition said Tuesday that the Liberal government isn’t doing enough to show its support for Ukraine. Erin O’Toole and James Bezan, the party’s critics for foreign affairs and defence, called on the government to send Canadian troops to lead an international peacekeeping mission along the Ukraine-Russia border.

They also called for increases in military and development assistance, as well as more sanctions against Russians.

Foreign Affairs Minister Chrystia Freeland’s own Ukrainian heritage has helped keep the country near the top of her agenda.

She is hosting the conference and is to give a major speech.

Freeland was one of the first Western politicians to visit Zelenskiy in Kyiv after he was declared the victor of the presidential race at the end of April.

Canada has offered Zelenskiy’s officials training in how to actually run a government because they lack experience and are running a country whose institutions are not as strong as those in the West. ■ With files from Alanna Rizza in Toronto

JULY 5, 2019

FRIDAY

Celebrity couple Mariel Rodriguez, Robin Padilla expecting another baby girl

BY JOANNA BELLE DEALA Philippine Canadian Inquirer

she is going to have a sibling.

She is so jealous so everyday I feel that she is not yet ready but God gave us the blessing early),” Mariel said.

The 34-year-old host said aside from her doctor, sister, best friend, and her co-”It’s Showtime” host Amy Perez, and people who coordinated the gender reveal party, no one else knows whether the couple is having a baby boy or baby girl.

“The best part is even si

tried my best to surprise him on the gender of our baby number two),” Mariel said.

Prior to the party, Robin IT IS another daughter for “It’s said based on his wife’s glow, it Showtime” host Mariel and seems to him that they are exhusband Robin Padilla, with pecting another baby girl. the couple making the revela“Minsan iniisip ko lalaki ito tion in a gender reveal party kasi ‘yung paghihilo niya ngayheld at The Bellevue Manila. on iba eh. Pati ako nadadamay, In her first vlog entry uppati ako nahihilo (Sometimes I loaded to her YouTube chanthink our baby is a boy because nel on Sunday, June 30, Mariel her dizziness this time is differshared that the newest addition ent. Even I was affected, I also to their famfeel dizzy),” Robily was not yet on in shared. their plan that’s But Robin said why she came up it does not matwith a nickname I want my child to be part of our ter to him wheth“baby surprise” family tradition to be able to help er they get a boy for their second to those who are less fortunate. or girl. ”Gusto child. ko ‘yung anak “In my head, ko makatulong I really wanted doon sa tradito give Isabela syon ng pamilya a sibling pero gusto ko sana Robin hindi niya alam (he does na makatulong doon sa less formagta-try ako ‘pag three years not know). As in, this is the big- tunate (I want my child to be old and above na siya para mas gest secret that I’ve kept from part of our family tradition to ma-explain ko sa kanya nang him and I tell him everything. be able to help to those who are mabuti na magkakaroon na siya Ito ‘yung talagang sinecret ko. less fortunate),” he said. ng kapatid. She is so selosaso ev- There were times na maduduIn revealing their second ery day feeling ko hindi pa siya las na ako pero ginalingan ko child’s gender, the couple pulled ready pero maaga binigay ni talaga na i-surprise siya sa ribbons attached to a large woGod ’yung blessing (but I want- gender ng aming baby number ven basket, and pink flowers ed to try when Isabela is already two (I have really kept this a se- came out, indicating that they three years old and above so I cret. There were times that my can clearly explain to her that tongue might slip but I really ❱❱ PAGE 35 Celebrity couple

Surveys show that Filipinos are third sexiest nationality in the world

BY GIANNA LLANES Philippine Canadian Inquirer AFTER SURVEYING 1.5 million people from across the globe, international website Big 7 Travel has concluded that Filipinos are officially the third sexiest group of people in the entire world out of 50 countries included in the study.

The word “sexy” was open to interpretation for those who fulfilled the survey, but defined Filipinos through the likes of boxer-turned-Senator Manny Pacquiao, Grammy-awardwinning Bruno Mars, and “the

many Miss Universe participants,” like Miss Universe 2015 Pia Wurtzbach and Miss Universe 2018 Catriona Gray, saying, “Probably the most famous Filipino in the world, professional boxer Manny Pacquiao along with Bruno Mars and the many Miss World participants make this a top scorer.”

The purpose of the survey was “to get an insight into where you’ll find the world’s most beautiful people,” according to Big 7. They were the same publication who recently conducted a survey that concluded that “the Filipino accent is the sexiest in Asia and the 21st

sexiest in the world.” They described the Philippine accent as, “Gentle and soft, the accents you’ll hear when in the Philippines are simply lovely.”

Topping the polls with the number one spot is Ukraine, with the Danish coming shortly after at second. Following the Philippines in ranking are Brazil and Australia, who charted number four and five respectively. The top 10 was completed

by South Africa, Italy, Armenia, United Kingdom, and Canada.

At the bottom of the list are the Irish, with the Americans also not faring well at the 45th spot. The study explained, “The www.canadianinquirer.net

@PIAWURTZBACH / INSTAGRAM

United States has a hugely diverse population, making it hard to pinpoint what an ‘Amer-

ican’ looks like. Some might say Britney Spears, others think of Donald Trump.” ■

Entertainment

FRIDAY JULY 5, 2019

25

Song-Song couple no more as Korean actor Song Joong Ki files divorce from Song Hye Kyo

BY JOANNA BELLE DEALA Philippine Canadian Inquirer South Korea’s Song-Song couple left their fans shocked and heartbroken after the news broke that actor Song Joong Ki has filed for divorce from Song Hye Kyo. According to a report by Soompi, attorney Park Jae Hyun, Joong Ki’s legal counsel, said their law firm has filed for divorce on Wednesday, June 26, at the Seoul Family Court.

In his statement conveyed by his lawyer, the actor apologized to the fans who “love and care” for him for delivering such “unfortunate news.”

“Rather than denouncing one another and arguing over who is to blame, I hope that the divorce process can be wrapped up amicably,” he said.

Joong Ki did not reveal the reason as to why he is taking legal steps to part ways with Hye Kyo but he asked the public for their understanding as it is “difficult” for him to give details of his personal life.

“I will recover from my current wounds and do my utmost as an actor to repay you through great productions in

the future,” he continued.

Shortly after this announcement, Hye Kyo also issued her statement through her agency, United Artists Agency (UAA) Korea.

“We find it unfortunate that we are greeting you with unhappy news. After careful consideration, actress Song Hye Kyo and her husband are taking the first steps toward a divorce,” a representative of the agency said as reported by Soompi.

Disclosing what caused the couple to arrive in that decision, it said that it was because of “differences in [their] personality.”

“The two were unable to overcome their differences, they were forced to come to this decision,” the agency said.

“We respectfully ask for your understanding in regards to the fact that we cannot confirm any further details out of respect for the two actors’ personal lives. Additionally, we urge you to refrain from making scandalous posts and speculative comments,” it added.

The hashtag #SongSongCouple is taking the first spot on Twitter’s top trends in the Philippines on Thursday, June 27, as their Filipino fans started to share photos of the couple, mostly their wed-

Song Joong Ki and Song Hye Kyo.

ding pictures, while they express their sadness over the breakup.

Joong Ki and Hye Kyo tied the knot in 2017, following the success of their hit drama, “Descendants of the Sun,” which will have a Philippine adaptation.

GMA Network, where the Pinoy version of the drama will be aired, had earlier revealed the cast, with Dingdong

MANILA — Screen actor and Philippine Army (PA) reservist probationary 2nd Lt. Matteo Guidicelli graduated from the Scout Ranger Orientation Course at the Scout Ranger School, First Scout Ranger Regiment (FSSR) at Camp Tecson, Bulacan Thursday.

Along with the 97 other graduates composed of officers and Philippine Military Academy cadets, Guidicelli was awarded the Military Commendation Medal and was recognized as an outstanding student.

“They (undergone a month’s) rigorous training where their physical and mental abilities (were) harnessed to prepare them to lead,” FSRR commander Brig.

Gen. William Gonzales said.

“The physical aspect, given na mahirap (that it is difficult), pero (but) what got me is the first four days na (that had a) psychological effect sa akin (on me). Dahil galing ako sa civilian na buhay, isang araw lang yung transition ko

at pumasok na ako sa military, akala ko kaya ko, pero sa totoo lang gusto ko nang umuwi (Because I came from civilian life, I had only one day of transition before entering the military. I though I can do it, but honestly, I already want to go home),” the actor said as he recalled his first days at the FSSR. “As a civilian before, looking at soldiers, we give them so much respect. Now that I immerse, I live, I train with them, my respect for them has gone up that words cannot explain. Sila ang totoong (They are the real) VIP and without them, we wouldn’t be here, we wouldn’t be protected. The level of sacrifice a soldier goes through for their families, for their country, is beyond expectation,” he added.

During his speech, PA chief Lt. Gen. Macairog S. Alberto told the new graduates to use all their lives important lessons they have learned during the training and use it as they move forward to become leaders and protectors of the country.

“Each one of you here has the potential to do great things, not just good things, but great and life-changing deeds,” he added. ■

Dantes playing the role of Captain Lucas Manalo — the counterpart of Joong Ki’s character, Yoo Shi Jin a.k.a “Big Boss.”

Also part of the cast are Rocco Nacino, Jasmine Curtis-Smith, Chariz Solomon, and Paul Salas, among others. Meanwhile, the actress who will be Dingdong’s leading lady has not been announced yet as of writing. ■

PSYCHIC FAITH

Guidicelli completes Scout Ranger orientation course

BY PRIAM NEPOMUCENO Philippine News Agency

@KYO1122 / INSTAGRAM

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26

Lifestyle 50 years of LGBTQ pride showcased in protests, parades

BY SABRINA CASERTA AND REBECCA GIBIAN The Associated Press NEW YORK — Crowds gathered outside New York’s historic Stonewall Inn on Sunday to celebrate five decades of LGBTQ pride, marking the 50th anniversary of the police raid that sparked the modern-day gay rights movement. Other cities throughout the country held parades.

More than 2,000 people gathered outside the bar where patrons resisted the famous June 28, 1969, police raid. Thousands also turned out for a larger parade that packed Fifth Avenue, where rainbows were on display across everything from flags to T-shirts.

Eraina Clay, 63, of suburban New Rochelle, came to celebrate the anniversary.

“I think that we should be able to say we’ve been here for so long, and so many people are gay that everybody should be able to have the chance to enjoy their lives and be who they are,” Clay said. “I have a family.

I raised kids. I’m just like everybody else.”

Alyssa Christianson, 29, of New York City, was topless, wearing just sparkly pasties and boy shorts underwear. A Pride flag was tied around her neck like a cape.

“I’ve been to the Pride parade before, but this is the first year I kind of wanted to dress up and get into it,” she said.

Christianson said she is concerned that the movement

could suffer setbacks during the Trump administration, which has moved to revoke newly won health care protections for transgender people, restrict their presence in the military and withdraw federal guidance that trans students should be able to use bathrooms of their choice.

“I’m definitely a little scared of how things are going, just the anger and violence that comes out of it and just the tone of conversation about it. We’ve come so far, especially in the last few decades, that I don’t want to see that repressed in any way.”

In May, Trump tweeted about Pride Month and praised the “outstanding contributions” of LGBT people. But his administration has also aligned with some religious conservatives in arguing that nondiscrimination black and brown folk, of im- So they can reclaim it. This will protections for those same peo- migrants,” said Jake Seller, a always remain a protest, not an ple can infringe on the religious 24-year-old Indiana native advertisement,” Seller said. beliefs of others who oppose who now lives in Brooklyn and Other attendees focused on same-sex marriage and trans- worked as one of the march’s the progress that’s been made gender rights. volunteers. within the LGBTQ community At the Queer over the last few Liberation decades.

March near the “We’ve come Stonewall Inn, so far in the past some particiWe’ve come so far, especially in the 20 years,” said pants said the last few decades, that I don’t want 55-year-old Gary larger Pride pato see that repressed in any way.

Piper, who came rade had become from Kansas to too commercialcelebrate Pride ized and heavily with his partner. policed.

“I remember “What’s important to reProtesters carried anti- friends who would be snatched member is that this is a protest Trump and queer libera- off the streets in Texas for against the monetization of the tion signs, chanting, “Whose dressing in drag. They’d have to Pride parade, against the police streets? Our streets!” worry about being persecuted brutality of our community, “We march for the liberation for their identity.” against the poor treatment of of our community so they can “But now we’re so much more sections of our community, of live and celebrate their identity. accepted. I’m not saying we

www.canadianinquirer.net

A KATZ / SHUTTERSTOCK.COM

don’t have ways to go, but let’s celebrate how far we’ve come,” he said.

The police presence at the march was heavy, with several officers posted at every corner.

Metal barricades were erected along the entire parade route.

In Illinois, Gov. J.B. Pritzker chose the parade day to sign an executive order creating a task force to study the rights of transgender students. The task force will look at what schools are doing to promote LGBTQ rights to make sure students have “welcoming” and “inclusive” environments.

Chicago planned its own Pride parade, with Lori Lightfoot, the city’s first openly gay mayor, as one of seven grand ❱❱ PAGE 35 50 years

Lifestyle

FRIDAY JULY 5, 2019

Honoring the unsung heroes of Korean War

BY MA. CRISTINA ARAYATA Philippine News Agency MANILA — Sixty-nine years ago, more than 7,000 Filipino soldiers were sent to Korea during the Korean War. Among them were the late husbands of Leticia Tamayo Collado and Victoria Tuscano.

Their husbands, who survived the war, are among those honored for their bravery and sacrifice.

Now at their late stages in life, Collado and Tuscano continue to be treated for what their husbands did in Korea.

Recently, they went to the Cultural Center of the Philippines to attend the Peace Concert that the Korean and Philippine government entities organized to honor the unsung heroes of the Korean War. “The Korean War Memorial Peace Concert” also aimed to inform the youth about the soldiers’ sacrifices, that these have contributed a lot to the peace that they are currently enjoying.

“More than 7,000 Filipino soldiers came to South Korea to defend its freedom and democracy. I strongly believe that this Korea will not be enjoying its freedom and economic prosperity without the noble and

great sacrifice of the Filipino people and veterans. Indeed, they deserve the title of a hero,” said South Korean Ambassador to the Philippines Han Dongman in his speech.

He said the next generation must know the value of freedom and the nobility of the veterans.

As such, the Embassy of the Republic of Korea in the Philippines, National Commission for Culture and the Arts, the Ministry of Patriots and Veterans Affairs, and The Patriotic Cultural Association of Korea organized the Peace Concert last June 25.

Han told the Philippine News Agency (PNA) this will be the only time that a Peace Concert would be organized in Manila, also because 2019 marks the 70th year of bilateral relations between the Philippines and Korea.

Collado said the Korean government has been helping the families of Filipino veterans.

She said her child graduated dentistry through the support of the Korean government.

Meanwhile, the Philippine Philharmonic Orchestra and the Seocho Philharmoniker of Korea shared the stage during the concert. Among their performances included “Bimok,” the Korean folk song to commemorate Korean War veterans, as well as the Korean “boating song,” “Arirang Fantasy.” ■

The Philippine Philharmonic Orchestra and the Seocho Philharmoniker of Korea share the stage during “The Korean War Memorial Peace Concert.”

CRISTINA ARAYATA/PNA

27

Museum puts heartbreak on display as relatable ‘human experience,’ curator says

BY ADINA BRESGE The Canadian Press TORONTO — Salima Punjani still loves the Ethiopian cotton scarf, despite the heartache woven into its fluorescent yellow fabric.

The gift from her ex had become a symbol of Punjani’s past loves and the pain that followed, and the 32-year-old Montreal graduate student knew she needed to let go of the item in order to unburden herself of the romantic baggage it carried.

Punjani couldn’t fathom who would want such an article of pain, nor was she ready to consign it to the trash heap.

So she decided to donate the scarf to the Museum of Broken Relationships, where it will be displayed alongside other artifacts of heartbreak in a Toronto exhibition opening Saturday.

“This is a perfect place to still honour the memories, but also get the scarf the hell out of my house,” Punjani said.

The Harbourfront Centre marks the 53rd stop in the Museum of Broken Relationships’ worldwide showcase of the mementos and memories that are left behind when love ends, organizers say.

The show will feature highlights from the museum’s permanent collection in Zagreb, Croatia, as well as about 10 new contributions from lovelorn Canadians.

These local donations may not seem like much at first glance, but their stories run the emotional gamut from fury to forgiveness.

A comb represents a bitter entanglement with a hairobsessed ex-partner. A handdrawn treasure map tracks an online romance that took a turn for the worse. A red-eyed toy rabbit evokes the searing glare of strangers witnessing a couple’s public argument.

The first-person testimonials that accompany each of the objects detail not only failed romance, but the passion that preceded it. In this sense, cofounders Olinka Vistica and Drazen Grubisic like to say the museum is about love, but turned “upside-down.” www.canadianinquirer.net

MUSEUM OF BROKEN RELATIONSHIPS / FACEBOOK

The trove of once-treasured keepsakes traces its origins back to the Croatian artists’ own breakup in the mid-2000s.

The former couple longed for a place where the sentiments and stories of their years-long relationship could be preserved. And over time, the personal project evolved into a public space where the private grief of heartbreak can be shared with strangers, Vistica said.

“When a relationship is over, there is a remembrance. There are people who can connect with it, empathize, identify with the story,” she said.

“In a way, it stops being your personal experience, but it becomes a human experience.”

All donations made to the museum are exhibited anonymously, and the stories of severed connections can span failed romance, betrayals of friendship or even the death of a loved one.

As the museum travelled across the globe, Vistica said the crowdsourced collection came to resemble an “anthropological study of modern love.”

Even with a limited sample size, one can learn a lot about a place’s character through its personal relics, she said.

Between curating a 2015 show in Whitehorse and the upcoming Toronto exhibition, Vistica has noticed the vast expanse of Canada lends itself to long-distance relationships, and a disproportionate number of donations involve warm apparel.

Both these elements are true of Punjani’s scarf, which bears the love and loss of two rela-

tionships — one that pushed her to pursue her passions, the other that forced her to recognize her own resilience.

Punjani met her first love in Ethiopia, where he helped her realize she was an artist, which was “the biggest gift he could have given me.”

But the scarf was the last present he gave her — on the day their engagement ended.

While pursuing her studies in Montreal, Punjani drained her bank account to meet up with her then-fiance in Sri Lanka, only to find out he was cheating on her.

The two parted on amicable terms. And a couple years later, Punjani started seeing someone else, and he would borrow the scarf as a regular part of his wardrobe.

After that relationship ended painfully, Punjani tried to reclaim the scarf as her own.

But every time she wrapped it around her neck, she felt her temperature rise and throat swell, as if she were having an emotional allergic reaction.

Punjani believes in “recycling love,” and by putting the scarf on display, she hopes this token of pain will be restored as a symbol of mutual support.

“The fact that it’s part of this Museum of Broken Relationships feels like this collective way of moving forward,” Punjani said. “It validates those feelings of loss and pain, but together.”

The Museum of Broken Relationships is part of Harbourfront Centre’s Brave: Secret Lives, Second Chances festival, and the exhibit from June 29 to Sept. 8. ■

28

Lifestyle

JULY 5, 2019

FRIDAY

Canuck-themed restos give the world a taste of Canada, make expats feel at home

BY ADINA BRESGE The Canadian Press GROWING UP, Paryse Lambert spent summers with her mother’s family in Quebec indulging in French-Canadian staples including croque monsieur, steak hache, and of course, poutine.

After settling down in Jacksonville, Fla., the dual U.S.Canadian citizen longed for that mouth-watering medley of crispy french fries and slinky cheese curds smothered in gravy. What she found were grotesque mutations of the dish with shredded mozzarella broiled over what seemed like a spud-based baked ziti.

These American abominations were nothing short of “shameful,” said Lambert. So, she decided to rectify this culinary crime by launching the Stuffed Beaver, one of many establishments around the world devoted to an unexpected theme: Canada.

From Japan to Brazil, Canuck-centric bars and restaurants are set to ring in Canada Day with festivities featuring Tragically Hip cover bands, maple-infused menus and a steady flow of caesars.

Bedecked in kitsch Canadiana ranging from local licence plates to sports jerseys, these red-and-white restos are exporting Canadian culture and cuisine to a global audience, while serving as a hub for expats to be reminded of the comforts of home, proprietors say. “(Canadians) are growing like cockroaches here, even in northern Florida,” said Lambert. “We’re an underserved market.”

A stone’s throw away from the Interstate 95, which serves as a migration route for snowbirds and other sun-seekers, the Stuffed Beaver regularly caters to Canadians making their way across the border, said Lambert.

Behind the counter hangs a map dotted with the hometowns of visitors from Yukon to Prince Edward Island who have savoured her “grandma’s kitchen food” while travelling through the U.S. South, she said.

“When they hear that there are other Canadians, they get really excited,” she said. “They say, ‘it feels like being home,’ so I know I’m doing something right.”

Hearty fare like crepes, poutine and lobster rolls also isn’t a tough sell for Americans, Lambert added.

On Canada Day, the counterservice joint will host a special event for 20 guests to dine on a seven-course feast featuring vol-au-vent, salmon tartare, boeuf bouilli and poor man’s pudding by the light of a candelabra.

It may lack the star-spangled flash of the Fourth of July, Lambert concedes, but she can’t think of a better way to celebrate Canada’s national pride than with a full stomach.

Halfway around the world in Queensland, Australia, Alana and Mike Vandenbrink will be toasting pints of Molson not only to Canada Day, but the third-anniversary of opening Mollydookers Cafe and Bar in the small country town of Apple Tree Creek.

The Aussie-Canuck couple goes all out for the dual celebration, bolstering their sprawl-

THE STUFFED BEAVER / FACEBOOK

ing menu of cross-hemispheric cuisine with perogies, dry ribs, pickle spears, smoked salmon latkes and venison.

The eatery also hosts games such as “You’re Welcome/We’re Sorry,” in which photos of Canadian celebrities are tacked to a wall for patrons to sort into one of two categories: cultural ambassadors the world is grateful for, and those who bring shame on our country’s reputation.

The Tragically Hip is permanently fixed in the “You’re Welcome” bracket, they said, while Nickelback is stapled under the heading, “We sincerely apologize. Please forgive us!”

But the Vandenbrinks note other iconic artists can be divisive, with fans and haters switching Shania Twain and Celine Dion from side to side

throughout the day.

The Vandenbrinks named Mollydookers after the Australian slang term for southpaw in a wink to Alana being lefthanded.

The two met when Alana was an Australian exchange student at the University of Waterloo, and Mike, who grew up near London, Ont., was her bartender. Or, as they like to joke: “So a left-handed ‘roo and a right-handed moose walk into a bar...”

This origin story is emblazoned in the restaurant’s logo of a moose-versus-marsupial boxing match. But in reality, Alana Vandenbrink said the relationship between their respective homelands is more adoring than adversarial.

Despite being roughly 14,000 kilometres apart, many Austra-

lians see Canada as a kindred country, she said.

“There’s a lot of Aussies that come in probably more passionate than the Canadians, which is not something we expected,” she said.

When he opened BJ’s Canadian Bar in southern Portugal two decades ago, Pat Ferreira says the watering hole’s maplecrested branding was a way to set it apart from the British and Irish pubs catering to vacationers on the Algarve coast.

But Ferreira said the sports bar has evolved into a “home away from home” for the increasing number of Canadian backpackers and retirees taking in the nightlife of Albufeira.

The bar’s slogan is “a taste of the true North in the beautiful South” — a place to root for Canadian sports teams while sipping on Canadian brews and cocktails.

For the international crowd that flocks to BJ’s, he said the appeal is almost “a connection to a dream” for people entranced by Canada’s natural beauty.

Others feel connected through friends and relatives who have moved there, which Ferreira sees as emblematic of the multiculturalism that makes Canada Day a global celebration.

“There’s something about being Canadian that brings us all together in a way that I’ve never seen in any other nationality,” Ferreira said.

“That’s really what makes Canada Day something that everybody wants to be a part of: It’s just a mix of everybody together and acceptance of everything we are.” ■

Lobby crush: Online shopping leads to mountains of boxes

BY KATHERINE ROTH The Associated Press As online shopping becomes ubiquitous, so do the boxes delivered to homes across the country.

For apartment dwellers — and the managers of the buildings they live in — it’s tough to

manage the boxes that pile up, sometimes clogging precious space for days. (If not watched, packages also can be stolen or left out in the rain.)

The problem’s only getting worse, says Rick Haughey, vicepresident of the non-profit National Multifamily Housing Council, which represents many owners, developers and

managers of apartment housing. People are ordering more heavy, oversize and perishable items than ever before, he notes, and building managers are “tasked with finding new and creative ways to meet the demand for package storage, sorting and security.”

The problem is especially acute around the holidays, but www.canadianinquirer.net

continues all year.

“Now, you’ve got a lot of perishables coming in. And things like tires can be ordered online at discount prices. That means four tires are sitting in the leasing office, along with items like flat-pack furniture and even bed mattresses,” Haughey says. “They might be there for days or potentially weeks if

you’re away on vacation. There doesn’t seem to be perfect solution, but locker systems and delivery hubs come close.”

There are a growing number of technologies and services aimed at alleviating the delivery problem in apartment foyers. ❱❱ PAGE 33 Lobby crush

29

Sports Ginebra rains in threes for win against Alaska

BY GIANNA LLANES Philippine Canadian Inquirer GINEBRA HAS again proven effective with the new addition of former Northport guard Stanley Pringle as they defeated the Alaska Aces, 118-106, at the Smart Araneta Coliseum last Sunday, June 30 for another elimination match of the 2019 Philippine Basketball Association (PBA) Commissioner’s Cup. Justin Brownlee successfully chipped 3-of-5 from beyond the arch as he totalled 27 points.

Pringle scored the same amount of points, while LA Tenorio and Japeth Aguilar both contributed 22 points individually, mostly performing in the fourth quarter. Specifically, Tenorio also succeeded from the threepoint line, making six of his eight attempts. Aguilar fared with a double-double, also adding 10 rebounds.

For Alaska, Chris Banchero fought for a win at 29 points, while returning import Diamon Simpson scored 22. Vic Manuel totalled 18 points.

Ginebra head coach Tim Cone said that this win is a “big difference from the last game, especially in the second half,” saying, “We played with a lot

PAGCOR donates P800M for SEA Games venue renovation

BY GIANNA LLANES Philippine Canadian Inquirer

Stanley Pringle.

BARANGAY GINEBRA SAN MIGUEL / FACEBOOK

more fire. I thought last game, we kinda got loath into sleep that the game was easy. We had a halftime lead and we didn’t work for it.” He added, “There’s a big difference from this game to last game, especially in the second half. We came out with a lot more fire. Alaska made tough shots all game long. I was just really impressed how well they played, but we just kinda overwhelmed them there with our 3-point shooting in the last three or four minutes.”

When it comes to the tandem of his players, Cone also revealed, “We tried to use Justin and Stanley together down the stretch, and that created shots

for LA. LA is used to have all the attention on him. I think he’s kinda shocked of how open he is all of a sudden and we all know what kind of shooter he is.”

The Ginebra Kings now stand with five wins and four losses.

On the other hand, Alaska is now suffering from four wins and five losses.

The Coach Tim Cone-led squad will have another chance to elevate their playoff bid on Sunday, July 7 against the Magnolia Hotshots at the Smart Araneta Coliseum. Alaska, on the other hand, attempts to return to their winning form the day before against Rain or Shine at the Mall of Asia Arena. ■

MORE THAN 800 million pesos is donated to the Philippine Sports Commission (PSC) from the Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corporation (PAGCOR) in light of the country hosting the upcoming 2019 Southeast Asian (SEA) Games happening from November to December this year; the money aimed to be used for the renovation of venues for the biennial international sports meet.

PAGCOR chairwoman Andrea Domingo told the PSC, “We are trying to give you as much help as we can,” as the venues PSC manages, specifically the Rizal Memorial Sports Complex Track and Football Stadium, the Ninoy Aquino Stadium, and the PhilSports Arena, are awaiting rehabilitation in preparation for the hosting of 10 other countries.

In response to the donation, PSC Chairman William “Butch” Ramirez stated in delight, “This is a good legacy of PAGCOR

that under your watch all three facilities will be rehabilitated at this level. This P800 million is very sentimental for PSC because those have never been rehabilitated in this way.”

Specifically, the Rizal Memorial Sports Complex Track and Football Stadium will be hosting the football matches, the Ninoy Aquino Stadium will be hosting weightlifting and taekwondo, and the PhilSports Arena will be hosting volleyball.

With the efforts of the PSC, the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) has also been working on improving venues in Cavite, Subic, and Clark. In addition, the PhilSports Arena also opened its second Nutrition Hall in Pasig last March.

This is the fourth time that the Philippines is hosting the iconic international competition, winning the most medals overall in the same year of its last hosting in 2005. More than 400 athletes will be present at the games from November 30 to December 11. ■

Former Gilas Coach officially leading Team Indonesia for SEA Games

BY GIANNA LLANES Philippine Canadian Inquirer THE INDONESIAN basketball national team will officially be led by former Gilas Pilipinas coach Rajko Toroman for the upcoming Southeast Asian Games in November that will be held in the Philippines, according to reports that circulated last weekend from Indonesia

sources.

The Serbian coach confirmed the news last Wednesday, June 26 as he was present at the Smart Araneta Coliseum for the two matches of the 2019 Philippine Basketball Association (PBA) Commissioner’s Cup. In his words, “I will handle the Indonesian team to the SEA Games so I’ll be here a lot more times.” He also shared that he is currently in Manila as an as-

sistant to the Mighty Sports, who is anticipating their next competition for the Jones Cup in Taipei in July.

Toroman is the first coach of Gilas Pilipinas, then featuring college stars to represent the country.

In 2017, the Indonesian national team received silver during the 2017 Southeast Asian Games, hoping to improve their 2019 bid with the guidwww.canadianinquirer.net

ance of Toroman. When talking about facing the near the end of the year, he admits it won’t be a walk in the park, sharing, “It’s very difficult because we change some of the players and we have a new generation, some younger players. We still don’t know our naturalized player but of course, the Philippines is a big favorite to win the gold medal and the other teams will fight for the second position.”

Indonesia will also be facing the same Philippine Team for the 2021 FIBA Asia Cup Qualifiers, where they are joined by South Korea and Thailand in Group A. When asked if he will be guiding the Indonesians for that event as well, Toroman reveals, “My contract will be two (years) plus two.

We will see. We have to go step by step, day by day. The goal will be to improve the team and be more competitive.” ■

30

Business Duterte approves new dev’t plan to boost PH exports

BY AZER PARROCHA Philippine News Agency MANILA — President Rodrigo Duterte has signed a memorandum that approves the Philippine Export Development Plan (PEDP) 2018 to 2022, a multiyear roadmap aimed at improving exports performance and increasing the sector’s competitiveness.

Executive Secretary Salvador Medialdea, by the authority of the President, signed Memorandum Circular 62 on June 26, 2019, and a copy of the document was released to reporters on Monday (July 1).

The PEDP 2018 to 2022, which was prepared by the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI), aims to increase export revenues from USD122 billion to USD130 billion by 2022.

Moreover, the PEDP 2018 to 2022 is very much aligned with the government’s Philippine Development Plan (PDP), which calls for boosting services exports, increasing the competitiveness of Philippine exports, and exploring new markets for Philippine products.

“The task for PEDP 20182022 is determining the feasibility of the targets that would

People support tax reforms if they feel benefits: Dominguez

BY JOANN VILLANUEVA Philippine News Agency

Pres. Rodrigo Duterte and Executive Secretary Salvador Medialdea.

RICHARD MADELO/PRESIDENTIAL PHOTO

synchronize the PEDP with the six-year program of the Duterte administration (the PEDP 2018-22 five-year timetable is to catch up with the PDP),” the executive summary on the PEDP read.

“The export targets are seen to significantly contribute to short to medium term development objectives in the PDP and in ensuring they are integral to the long-term vision of the country as Ambisyon 2040,” it added.

Meanwhile, the memorandum also directs all concerned government agencies to review relevant policies to ensure the implementation of the plan.

Last month, the Economic Development Cluster endorsed the PEDP 2018-2022 for President’s approval.

The Economic Development Cluster is an executive body composed of 15 member agencies in charge of promoting inclusive, sustainable, and rapid economic growth. ■

MANILA — Finance Secretary Carlos said he is optimistic about the passage of the remaining tax reform measures because of the support of lawmakers and most Filipinos.

“The confidence level is very high,” he said in a panel discussion during the 2019 pre-SONA economic and infrastructure forum at the Philippine International Convention Center (PICC) on Monday.

Tax reform measures that are still awaiting lawmakers’ approval include the cut in corporate income tax and fiscal incentives rationalization.

The Finance chief explained that, in the past, many lawmakers who supported tax reforms failed to get the people’s vote in their reelection bids as such measures are unpopular.

An example of this is former Senator Ralph Recto who authored the increase of value added tax (VAT) from 10 percent to 12 percent in 2001.

Dominguez, however, pointed out that times have changed since all those who supported

the recent tax reform measure won in the May 2019 mid-term polls.

Among these lawmakers are Senator Juan Edgardo “Sonny” Angara and Albay 2nd District Representative Joey Salceda, who sponsored the first package of tax reform, which eventually became known as the Tax Reform for Acceleration and Inclusion (TRAIN) law.

TRAIN reduced workers’ income tax rates and exempted those earning PHP250,000 and below annually from paying income tax.

Dominguez said Angara’s success in the recent polls show that voters recognize the importance of a tax reform measure if they see that they will benefit from it.

“I’m very confident that given the lessons in this last election where no one who supported the tax reform lost will resonate in the minds of the legislators,” he said.

“The message of the electorate is that if the tax reform is fair, and if the money is not stolen, and is used for their benefit—infrastructure and education— they will win,” he added. ■

Jollibee expands presence in Vietnam

BY LESLIE GATPOLINTAN Philippine News Agency MANILA — Homegrown fastfood giant Jollibee Foods Corp.

(JFC) is expanding its footprint in Vietnam as it plans to put up 20 to 30 new stores a year.

“We look at the population of Vietnam which is close to 95 million, about the same in the Philippines and still fastgrowing market so there is a lot of opportunities,” JFC Chief Executive Officer Ernesto Tanmantiong told reporters after

the company’s stockholders’ meeting on Friday.

JFC Chairman Tony Tan Caktiong is optimistic that Vietnam can replicate the Philippine market.

As of March 31, 2019, JFC was operating 421 restaurants outlets in Vietnam, including Jollibee brand -117; Highlands Coffee - 284; PHO24 -18; and Hard Hard Cafe -2.

It was operating 3,141 restaurants outlets in the Philippines.

Meanwhile, Tan Caktiong said the company is studying a plan of bringing its joint venture behind

the Highlands Coffee brand to Vietnam’s stock market.

“We are looking into that we’re reviewing that timetable. we’re looking at the entire business,” he added. “The business by the way is doing very well.

It’s one of our fastest growing businesses and one of the most profitable in terms of margin and one of the highest returns on investments.”

In 2019, JFC is looking to open about 500 stores worldwide, half of which is located in the Philippines and the remaining stores in markets abroad. ■ www.canadianinquirer.net

DOF Secretary Carlos Dominguez III.

KING RODRIGUEZ / PRESIDENTIAL PHOTO

Business

FRIDAY JULY 5, 2019

31

Keystone XL pipeline opponents pursue new legal challenge

BY MATTHEW BROWN The Associated Press BILLINGS, MONT. — Environmentalists asked a federal judge on Monday to cancel approvals issued by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers for the Keystone XL oil pipeline from Canada, opening another front in the legal fight over a long-delayed energy project that President Donald Trump has tried to push through to completion.

Attorneys for the Northern Plains Resource Council, Sierra Club and other groups filed the latest lawsuit against the $8 billion tar sands pipeline in Montana, where they’ve previously won favourable rulings in related cases.

First proposed in 2008, Keystone XL was rejected by President Barack Obama but revived under Trump. An appeals court last month lifted an injunction that had blocked construction.

That came after Trump issued a new permit for the project, in a bid to nullify a legal challenge that had been based on a previous permit from his administration.

A separate lawsuit challenging the president’s actions on the permit is pending in federal court. Monday’s lawsuit gives pipeline opponents another avenue to delay or stop it should Trump’s permit be upheld.

Both cases are assigned to Judge Brian Morris in Great Falls — the same judge who issued the injunction recently overturned by the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.

The environmentalists claim the Army Corps did not examine the potential for oil spills and other environmental damages when it approved plans submitted by pipeline developer TC Energy. The line would cross hundreds of waterways along a 1,184-mile path from Canada to Nebraska.

Almost all the crossings fall under an Army Corps program that gives blanket approval to individual pieces of a bigger project without considering the potential cumulative impacts, according to the lawsuit. That means no analysis was done of the possibility that the line would break and cause an oil spill or of its potential contributions to climate change, the lawsuit says.

The U.S. Army Corps public affairs office said in response to queries from The Associated Press that it was not commenting because the matter is under litigation.

Montana Gov. Steve Bullock on Monday criticized the Trump administration for approving the pipeline without consulting more with the Native Americans whose land it would pass through, but he said

Keystone 30 in (760 mm) pipeline (phase 1) near Swanton, Nebraska (2009).

SHANNONPATRICK17 FROM SWANTON, NEBRASKA, U.S.A. – KEYSTONE PIPELINE, CC BY 2.0

he is open to supporting the project itself.

“I’ve said from the beginning that, look, if it’s done right we can’t take it off the table,” Bullock said during an online meeting about climate change held from the Montana Capitol.

U.S. Justice Department attorneys defended the Trump administration’s handling of the pipeline in legal papers filed Friday in the presidential permit lawsuit.

Referring to Obama’s decision to block the project over

climate change concerns, Deputy Assistant Attorney General Lawrence VanDyke said Trump enjoys “broad authority to revisit, reverse and undo prior decisions.” He asked the judge to dismiss the case.

TC Energy, until recently known as TransCanada, said prior to the injunction being lifted that it was too late in the construction season to begin work on the line this year. The company did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

In yet another attempt to thwart the project, the environmental groups behind Monday’s lawsuit also filed notice that they intend to sue Trump over the pipeline’s potential harm to imperiled species. They say building the line would kill birds such as the whooping crane and piping plover and an endangered fish, the pallid sturgeon. ■ Associated Press writer Matt Volz in Helena contributed to this report.

France, PH eye closer trade, dev’t ties during 8th economic meet

BY JOYCE ANN L. ROCAMORA Philippine News Agency MANILA — The French and Philippine governments on Friday concluded the 8th Philippines-France Joint Economic Commission (JEC) meeting in Manila, agreeing to come up with more exchanges to increase trade and investment ties as well as boost development cooperation.

In the latest JEC meet, the two nations have opened “new inroads” as a result of ongoing shipbuilding and maritime industry agreements which will pave the

way to the entry of French companies to the Philippines, according to Trade and Investment Secretary Ramon Lopez.

Infrastructure and transportation-related projects were also identified by the two partners.

Among items discussed were information and communication technology, infrastructure development, cable car systems, rapid bus transit systems, industrial park development, and even international food terminal, Lopez said.

Lopez said the France-Philippines JEC is the longest running economic meet in the country.

“We have been running the Philippines-France JEC since the first one hosted in Manila in 1996. The main objective of the JEC was and still is to develop economic relations between the two countries in the framework of open international exchanges,” he said in a speech Friday.

Aside from developing trade and investment ties, French Minister of State Jean-Baptiste Lemoyne said France is also interested in expanding cooperation with Manila in research, culture, and defense and security.

On the sidelines of the JEC meeting in Manila, Lemoyne met with Foreign Affairs Secrewww.canadianinquirer.net

tary Locsin Jr. “With Secretary Locsin, we discussed most bilateral issues and also strategic issues because France, you know, is a permanent member of the Security Council of the United Nations,” he told reporters in an interview.

Locsin earlier said Paris has offered “some of the best military hardware” to the Philippines.

Prodded for a categorical answer, the French official said the Philippines has to state what is needed.

“Those discussions will continue… of course we have great expertise in submarine and

in the region, we established a strategic partnership with Australia in submarines and it’s a proof of the quality of our industry but not only the quality, also the fact that France can establish strategic partnerships in the region,” he said. “(It is) the Philippines who has to define what is the need, what they want and then, of course, we will apply to fulfill these needs,” he added.

Lemoyne did not provide further details but said they are hoping to welcome Defense Secretary Delfin Lorenzana “in the coming months to Paris” to further discuss this aspect of cooperation. ■

32

Technology PH’s largest satellite- New technologies for tracking antenna the brain require ethical launched in Davao approaches to innovation

BY CHE PALICTE Philippine News Agency

pines’ very own Diwata-1 and Diwata-2 microsatellites, by receiving, processing, and distributing space-borne imagery.

DAVAO CITY — The PhilipPaler said that it has direct acpines’ largest satellite-tracking cess to a broad range of optical antenna is now fully operation- (high-resolution, multispectral) al here. and synthetic aperture radar Launched on Sunday, the (cloud-penetrating, day-nightDavao GRS Ground Receiving imaging) satellite data.

Station (D-GRS) called PhilApart from post-disaster imippine Earth Data Resource ages, the D-GRS will be utilized and Observation (PEDRO) will for agricultural monitoring, have the same functions as maritime surveillance and urthat of the first ban mapping.

GRS installed Compared to at Department the ASTI GRS of Science and in Quezon City Technology-AdIt will be with only 3.7 mevanced Science processed ters, the D-GRS and Technology and has a 7.3-meter Institute (DOSTdownloaded satellite-trackASTI) in Quezon and will be ing antenna, City. distributed which will allow Harold Bryan to the more efficient Paler, Senior Sciconcerned download of imence Research disaster ages at a higher Specialist of agencies. bandwidth.

DOSTASTI, With the Dsaid on MonGRS in full operday the system ation, the recepis very helpful tion, processing, since the country is starting to and satellite data storage cycle leverage on space technology will open more opportunities to to address challenges such as promote inclusive innovation, disasters. reaching more Filipino scien“This tracking system will tists and researchers in return, take images of the affected ar- Paler added. eas. It will be processed and The D-GRS was installed at downloaded and will be distrib- the Civil Aviation Authority uted to the concerned disaster Philippines Transmitter Facilagencies,” he said. ity here and was established by It is designed to communi- DOST-XI and Department of cate with Earth observation Information and Communicasatellites, including the Philip- tions Technology. ■

BY JUDY ILLES Professor of Neurology and Director of Neuroethics Canada University of British Columbia and Jennifer Chandler Professor of Law University of Ottawa, The Canadian Press BRAIN TECHNOLOGIES are all the rage these days. Entrepreneurs are selling wearable devices in the open marketplace with claims of benefits to memory, attention and concentration. Neurosurgeons and psychiatrists are exploring new ways and further developing old invasive ones to intervene in the brains of people with major mental illnesses whose conditions are resistant to conventional drug therapy.

Other scientists interested in the brain are sleuthing ways to give people with disabilities who do not have the ability to communicate verbally a technologically-mediated way to do so.

As experts in the field of neuroethics, our research is dedicated to raising critical questions about ethics, law and society alongside discoveries in the neurosciences and explaining new knowledge and methods for the benefit of Canadians and people worldwide.

When it comes to innovations with brain technologies, we ask questions such as: Who are the individuals who might benefit? What are the technologies? And, most importantly, in

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what circumstances can these approaches be used ethically?

Loss of speech

Many different types of neurological disorders can affect a person’s ability to communicate via spoken language.

A stroke, for example, can cause a disorder of verbal language and render a person unable to communicate as they could before. A stroke could also cause “locked-in” syndrome, where a person is fully aware, but paralyzed and unable to move muscles in the body except for those that control eye movements and blinking.

Brain injuries from falls or head traumas can put people in a state of disordered of con-

sciousness and unable to respond physically to external cues.

A lack of oxygen at birth can leave a child with deficits in the development of brain and body, including cerebral palsy, characterized by impairments of movement, language, or both.

Technological responses to these challenges involve recording proxy signals to visualize imagined or silent speech from which meaning needs to be interpreted. For example, in the case of disorders of consciousness, communication may be elicited by a faint signal related to the way that blood and oxygen flow to regions of the brain specific when a per❱❱ PAGE 36 New technologies

Technology

FRIDAY JULY 5, 2019

33

Huawei focuses on digital transformation in PH

BY KRIS CRISMUNDO Philippine News Agency SHANGHAI — Information and communications technology infrastructure and smart devices maker, Huawei, is bringing in innovative technology to the Philippines to benefit from the application of digital transformation.

Huawei Technologies Philippines, Inc. Vice President Daniel Guo said here that the company is now in partnership with the two telecommunication giants in the Philippines to rollout the 5G technology in the country.

Guo added that Huawei is also ready to partner with the new telco player, which include Chinese firm China Telecommunications Corp., for future projects in the Philippines.

Huawei has been working with state-owned company in China.

“Our focus, to help the people to benefit from the digital transformation. That is why we are here. The focus currently, we are trying to help operators to improve the telecom services for the Filipino. So Filipinos can benefit from low-cost and highly efficient network experience,” he told Filipino reporters on the sidelines of the Mobile World Congress (MWC) Shanghai 2019 from June 26 to

28 here.

“We worked together with operators, design the network with low-cost, efficient solution and then implement into the government with the practical provider or contractors,” the executive added.

Guo said the 5G deployment in the Philippines will focus initially in the National Capital Region (NCR) since Metro Manila has the infrastructure to host 5G network.

“Philippines need to build the backbone for the country first, which means the fiber link to all the cities. Currently, Globe and PLDT don’t have the backbone for the country. But in China or other countries, they have that long time ago,” he said, noting that it is faster for other countries to deploy 5G network.

He stressed that this telecommunication infrastructure gap outside Metro Manila should be addressed in order for the whole country to benefit from this latest technology.

As Huawei often stressed, 5G is not just about faster network, but its application leads to digital transformation.

In his keynote speech at the MWC 2019, Huawei Deputy Chairman Ken Hu stressed the need to accelerate 5G development to maximize the benefit of the technology in different sectors to innovate and im-

prove services to end-users. ”5G will pay a pivotal role in the digitization of all industries,” Hu said.

“At the same time, as more and more industries embrace intelligence, we will see much greater demand for technologies like cloud, AI (artificial intelligence), big data, and edge computing. With the support of 5G, these technologies will be able to support far more industrial applications than ever before — and much more efficiently, too,” he added.

He mentioned that Huawei is also active in partnering with different companies worldwide to develop 5G ecosystem.

To date, Huawei have signed 50 commercial contracts for 5G and shipped 150,000 5G base stations.

During the MWC 2019, Huawei and more than 30 industry partners established an alliance base on 5G deterministic networking.

The industry alliance aims to build 5G ecosystem and promote the 5G industry.

Moreover, Huawei obtained its 5G license in China early this month, marking the beginning of 5G commercialization in the world’s largest mobile communications market.

“Right now China is in the process of evolving towards automated, digital, and AI-driven

industrial development. And 5G arrived just in time to help,” said Hu. Hu also pointed out reasons for operators in choosing Huawei for 5G, which include its early, long-term, and heavy investments to develop 5G network.

Huawei started its 5G research in 2009, when 4G was just starting its commercial deployment.

Over the past 10 years, the Chinese firm also invested USD4 billion in 5G, and continues to invest in 5G research and development.

“When we began 5G research, there were no standards to speak of. We had to basically start from scratch — we couldn’t jump into product development right away. Products are only the results you see at the tail end of a very long process,” Hu said. “This ongoing investment in R&D has helped us stay ahead.”

“But innovation isn’t just about technology. Part of our success is our focus on making 5G easier to operate, more affordable, and simpler to deploy,” he added. ■

inside or outside apartment buildings, and are accessible using codes.

“It’s a huge issue for a lot of apartment buildings. There’s a security factor, but also a convenience factor. Building management offices aren’t open as late as some residents need them to be in order to retrieve packages, and in some cases, just accepting a building’s packages can easily become a fulltime job,” says Melody Akhtari, spokeswoman for Luxer One, which started out in 2005 with lockers in apartment buildings for dry cleaning.

“A couple years in, a few buildings asked us if we could do something to help with all the boxes that were being delivered. In 2013, we launched across the United States and Canada, and our lockers are

now in over 3,500 locations,” she says.

Along with smart lockers, there are services that arrange deliveries for a specific time when residents know they’ll be home; or let recipients have packages delivered to secure hubs or other locations that are conveniently located and open late.

“The challenge is that in an apartment building with, say, 400 units, you have FedEx, UPS and USPS all stopping by at multiple times of the day to make deliveries. And these are not just small standard packages. One person might be receiving a Casper mattress and another might be receiving a box of flowers that needs refrigeration,” says Akhtari.

But such locker systems can be pricey, and in buildings with-

out them, residents can use services offered either by the shipper or by some retailers.

Jet.com, for example, which is owned by Walmart, has installed lockers in hundreds of New York apartment buildings.

There’s also a service called Fetch (www.fetchpackage. com), which collects packages, stores them offsite and delivers them when the recipient is home, taking the burden off building managers.

In some cases, buildings have converted space into package storage rooms and hired additional staff to deal with deliveries. In other cases, they have decided not to accept packages at all, so residents must rely on one of the outside services.

“Managing deliveries can be especially challenging in high package volume markets like

New York, Washington, D.C., and Chicago,” says John Falco, principal at Kingsley Associates which, with the National Multifamily Housing Council, published a report on the issue.

“In higher-density, urban areas, space is often at a premium, so package storage solutions are important.”

And the challenge doesn’t end at delivery and storage.

Once the boxes are opened, some are shipped back as returns, while others create a trash or recycling headache.

According to the report, issued in November 2018, over 40 per cent of respondents said the large volumes of cardboard and packaging materials being disposed of have created a waste management challenge. ■

SHUTERSTOCK

Lobby crush... ❰❰ 28

UPS, FedEx and Amazon all have begun offering services to help manage the flow of delivery boxes. The Amazon Hub program, for example, includes Amazon Locker, based at third-party locations like Whole Foods; Locker+, with staffed locations for pickups and dropoffs; and Apartment Locker, which accepts Amazon and non-Amazon packages in apartment buildings, among other services.

Luxer One, a company based in Sacramento, California, provides secure lockers in buildings in the United States and Canada that can be accessed by both delivery companies and residents — including compartments for very large boxes and refrigerated lockers for perishables. The lockers can be placed

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JULY 5, 2019

34

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35

Travel Dive tourism, the next big thing in Camiguin

BY JOYCE ANN L. ROCAMORA Philippine News Agency CAMIGUIN, NORTHERN MINDANAO — Keen on attracting the growing dive tourism market, the first-ever dive festival in the south has been launched in Camiguin, the northern tip of Mindanao, indicating the province and the region’s readiness to accommodate divers.

Bo Mancao, a Cebu-based international dive photographer, said “a couple more years” and the volcanic island could position itself as a “top diving destination in Asia.”

“Camiguin has it all. It has great muck diving where you look for the rare creatures. It has awesome reefs and good dropoffs, and in the right season, it has super clear waters — that makes a good mix for a dive holiday,” Mancao said on the sidelines of the 1st Camiguin Dive Festival in Mambajao.

The dive fest, a two-month long event pumped with a flurry of dive packages at discounted rates, underwater photography competition, and a provincewide campaign on sustainable tourism, runs until August.

Depending on what one fancies — freediving or scuba div-

ing — this underwater sport is a fairly expensive hobby. Classes to get the required dive certification ranges from PHP20,000 to PHP25,000. The regular dive package for licensed divers, on the other hand, costs between PHP1,200 and PHP2,500 per dive site.

Throughout the two months, divers get to enjoy a 30-percent discount on each package and about 15 percent less on introductory dive classes.

“We are spearheading the first-ever Camiguin Dive Festival promoting the island’s rich, unique, diverse and pristine dive sites. This is in line with our vision to develop Camiguin as a destination that meets global standards of sustainable and responsible tourism,” Camiguin Governor Maria Luisa Romualdo said.

During the grand festival launch on June 23, international dive photographers and professional divers were treated by the provincial government with a trip to the Black Coral Forest near the Medan Island off Mambajao.

Mancao, the event’s official underwater photographer, said the view underneath is as breathtaking as all the dives he had in Camiguin.

“The dive was very good, I’m always happy to dive in

Celebrity couple... ❰❰ 24

are expecting another daughter.

Kylie Padilla, Robin’s daughter with ex-wife Liezl Sicangco, said she already knew that she is having another sister when she caught Mariel addressing the baby as “her.”

“Magkasama kami tapos nagkukwento siya about the baby tapos sabi niya ’her.’ Sabi ko, ‘Oh, it’s a girl’ so alam ko na noon pa na tama ako (When we are together, she would tell stories about the baby she addresses as ‘her.’ So I said, ‘Oh, it’s a girl’ so I know that back then, I was right) ,’“ Kylie said.

For her part, Mariel said she

According to the Department of Tourism (DOT) 10 (Northern Mindanao) Director Marie Elaine Unchuan, the department has already accredited six dive shops on the island.

“The PCSSD (Philippine Commission on Sports and Scuba Diving) actually inspected everything and gave certification so we can really invite people with confidence because we know the divers would have good diving experience,” she told reporters in an interview.

The advantage in dive tourism is that divers often stay longer, she noted. And the longer a visitor stays in a place, the more vibrant the tourism industry.

“When the dive groups come here after they dive, they’ll roam around the island because they’re not allowed to get on a flight within 24 hours. The good thing with Camiguin is it’s an ecotourism destination.

It has beaches, mountain, hot springs, and even cold springs,” she said.

Long before the official promotions and the festival, Camiguin has already established a name recall among Europeans — particularly Germans and Russian divers — through word of mouth.

“We have Germans, French, and Russians diving here, and of course, the domestic divers and we’re getting a lot of rave reviews from dive photographers we’ve invited in the past,” Unchuan said.

“We’re very confident that a lot more people will get enticed to dive in Camiguin,” she added.

The diving event is in line with the national government’s goal to develop and promote the Philippines as a premier diving and business hub in Asia.

Last year, the DOT even hosted the largest dive exposition in the Philippines. ■

memorations in New York that included rallies, parties, film showings and a human rights conference. The celebration coincides with WorldPride, an international LGBTQ event that started in Rome in 2000 and was held in New York this past week.

Other Pride events will take place Sunday around the U.S. and the world.

In San Francisco, a contingent of Google employees petitioned the Pride parade’s board of directors to revoke Google’s sponsorship over what they called harassment and hate speech directed at LGBTQ

people on YouTube and other Google platforms.

San Francisco Pride declined to revoke the sponsorship or remove the company from the parade, but Pride officials said the Google critics could protest the company’s policies as part of the parade’s “resistance contingent.”

Larraine and Peter Browne, who were visiting from Australia, told the San Francisco Chronicle they had never seen anything like the parade’s rainbow-colored display.

“Look at the costumes!”

80-year-old Peter Browne said. ■

BO MANCAO VIA PNA

Camiguin,” he said. “The dive industry in the Philippines is getting a lot stronger now. We can see it in other dive destinations now and I think Camiguin would be the best next dive destination in the Philippines.”

Diving-wise, the island is in fact now ready to accept an influx of international and local dive tourists. “It’s been ready for years now. Divers have been coming here for some time already. It’s not just that popular yet,” he said.

50 years... personally wanted to have a baby boy for Robin, but she wanted Isabella to have a sister.

“In life, you need that person, a sister and they’ll be sisters forever, best friends forever. When I found out that she’s a baby girl I cried because I was so happy.

God really knows what my Isabella needs and baby surprise is exactly what she needs,” Mariel said.

It was on May 11, a day before the country celebrated Mother’s Day when Mariel announced during “It’s Showtime” that Isabela, their firstborn, is going to be a big sister. ■

❰❰ 26

marshals. Lightfoot, who took office in May, walked alongside her wife and wore a “Chicago Proud” T-shirt with rainbow lettering. The couple held hands at times, drawing cheers from onlookers.

The larger New York Pride parade had 677 contingents, including community groups, major corporations and cast members from FX’s “Pose.”

Organizers expected at least 150,000 people to march, with hundreds of thousands more lining the streets to watch.

The Pride march concludes a month of Stonewall comwww.canadianinquirer.net

Travel

36

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ule of daily morning news conferences, capped off by his outdoor rallies. But though the opposition is disorganized, Mexico is increasingly polarized, in part because Lopez Obrador laughingly dismisses anyone who opposes him as “fifi” — a word that means roughly posh, elite or frivolous.

Constantly whipping up his base while disparaging the opposition is something Lopez Obrador has in common with Trump, or people like conservative Italian Interior Minister Matteo Salvini, says Federico Estevez, a political science professor at the Autonomous Technological Institute of Mexico.

“It’s the new politics, you know. It’s Trump, it’s Salvini, it’s all of them. They all do it. It’s only the establishment that doesn’t do it,” Estevez said. “Obviously, it works.”

The argument that Lopez Obrador is more populist than leftist may have some validity. He has cut out some social programs that went directly to Mexico’s poorest people, and replaced them with handouts — like scholarship and work programs — that go to a broader income band.

He has bent over backward to avoid conflict with Trump, especially on issues like migrants. Lopez Obrador

son is asked to think about certain tasks such as acknowledging a familiar voice or mentally navigating a space.

Some more robust signals can be drawn from non-invasive recordings of brain electrical activity from the scalp, or more invasive ones from deep in the brain. Augmented reality methods are lifting measurements from simple physical movements of the eyes or head to a whole new level of interaction and experience.

Signalling challenges

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originally ordered Central American migrants be given work and travel visas, and promised investment to create jobs in their home countries. But under Trump’s threats to close the border and impose tariffs on Mexican products, the government has begun raiding trains, buses, hotels and parks to stem the flow of migrants.

While leftists may view that as a betrayal, it plays well among average Mexicans, who appear to be fed up with throngs of Central Americans, Haitians and Africans crossing their country trying to reach the U.S. border.

“He should focus on the people, instead of being compassionate with the migrants who come from other countries,” said Miranda Vazquez. “He should support the people. And the others?

Well, let their governments take care of their own people.”

Lopez Obrador has broken with traditional leftist positions on other issues, too. He has little use for environmental restrictions, loves fossil fuels and has cut tens of thousands of government jobs as part of an austerity drive.

“In some ways he’s doing something that would not have been expected of a leftist president,” said Estevez. “It’s amazing how conservative this guy is …

I mean what lefty hates bureaucracy?” ■

New technologies... ❰❰ 32

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FRIDAY

Are these signals meaningful, and are they trustworthy enough for communication of messages that are of especially high consequence, such as a request for medical aid in dying, consent to participate in research, testimony about abuse, voting or sharing of an intimate desire with a loved one?

The challenges are immense and they begin with questions about the technical aspects of the interventions. For example, the quality, sensitivity and reliability of the signals produced have still to be well-understood.

People and brain conditions differ; so do brain signals. Variability related to severity, gender, and simple daily fluctuations in mood and functioning is significant. The ethics challenges are no

www.canadianinquirer.net

less tricky: definitions of risk and benefit, autonomy, bias and affordability are all in play. And in today’s world of open science and data, privacy concerns are increasingly significant.

Ethical innovation

Scientists, ethicists, health lawyers and entrepreneurs shoulder enormous responsibility to innovate, analyze and deliver complex data transparently in today’s fast-paced, neuro-obsessed and technologically-charged world. Pseudoscience is not science, and hype about hopeful benefits of real biomedical advances cannot overshadow limitations and warnings about potential harm.

Still, given the enormous potential for enhancing human well-being, speed of innovation is essential to compressing health inequities in Canada and elsewhere. Progress, however fast or slow, must also be accompanied by humility that will preserve public trust, promote the kind of inclusion and hope the most vulnerable people in our society deserve and ensure that discoveries about the brain and the human right to access them are in balance. ■ This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Disclosure information is available on the original site.

37

Food This chocolate éclair cake is an instant dessert classic AMERICA’S TEST KITCHEN

stir glaze. Six ounces of finely chopped semisweet chocolate can be used in place of the chips.

CHOCOLATE ÉCLAIR cake is an instant dessert classic; this no-bake cake features layers of store-bought vanilla pudding and Cool Whip sandwiched between graham crackers and topped off with chocolate frosting.

As the graham crackers soften, the whole thing melds into a creamy, sliceable cake. We loved the ease of these convenience items, but our enthusiasm waned when confronted by their flavour. With a couple of easy techniques and very little active time, we produced a from-scratch version that easily trumped its inspiration.

Since the cake layers required no more work than lining a pan with graham crackers, we made the effort to prepare a quick stovetop vanilla pudding, folding in whipped cream to lighten it.

For the éclair topping, we created a simple microwave-and-

Chocolate éclair cake

Servings: 15 Start to finish: 3 1/2 hours plus cooling time • 1 1/4 cups (8 3/4 ounces) sugar • 6 tablespoons cornstarch • 1 teaspoon salt • 5 cups whole milk • 4 tablespoons unsalted butter, cut into 4 pieces • 5 teaspoons vanilla extract • 1 1/4 teaspoons unflavored gelatin • 2 tablespoons water • 2 3/4 cups heavy cream, chilled • 14 ounces graham crackers • 1 cup (6 ounces) semisweet chocolate chips • 5 tablespoons light corn syrup Combine sugar, cornstarch, and salt in large saucepan.

Whisk milk into sugar mixture until smooth and bring to boil over medium-high heat, scraping bottom of pan with

heatproof rubber spatula. Immediately reduce heat to medium-low and cook, continuing to scrape bottom, until thickened and large bubbles appear on surface, 4 to 6 minutes. Off heat, whisk in butter and vanilla. Transfer pudding to large bowl and place plastic wrap directly on surface of pudding.

Refrigerate until cool, about 2 hours.

Sprinkle gelatin over water in bowl and let sit until gelatin softens, about 5 minutes.

Microwave until mixture is bubbling around edges and gelatin dissolves, 15 to 30 seconds. Using stand mixer fitted with whisk attachment, whip 2 cups cream on medium-low speed until foamy, about 1 minute. Increase speed to high and whip until soft peaks form, 1 to 3 minutes. Add gelatin mixture and whip until stiff peaks form, about 1 minute.

3 Whisk one-third of whipped cream into chilled pudding, then gently fold in remaining whipped cream, 1 scoop at a time, until combined. Cover

bottom of 13-by-9 inch baking dish with layer of graham crackers, breaking crackers as necessary to line bottom of pan. Top with half of puddingwhipped cream mixture (about 5 1/2 cups) and another layer of graham crackers. Repeat with remaining pudding-whipped cream mixture and remaining graham crackers.

Combine chocolate chips, corn syrup, and remaining 3/4 cup cream in bowl and microwave on 50 per cent power, stir-

ring occasionally, until smooth, 1 to 2 minutes. Let glaze cool completely, about 10 minutes.

Spread glaze evenly over graham crackers and refrigerate cake for at least 6 hours or up to 2 days before serving. ■ Nutrition information per serving: 469 calories; 227 calories from fat; 25 g fat (14 g saturated; 1 g trans fats); 68 mg cholesterol; 334 mg sodium; 58 g carbohydrate; 2 g fiber; 40 g sugar; 6 g protein.

This bright, tasty salad celebrates Sicilian ingredients AMERICA’S TEST KITCHEN

LISA CERICOLA / FLICKR, CC BY 2.0

THIS LIGHT, bright salad celebrates ingredients that are abundant in Sicily.

Citrus fruits, in particular, flourish and come in many varieties. Taroccos, or blood oranges, are the most popular and prized variety, so it seemed only fitting that we use them for this salad.

We liked the fennel best when it was sliced as thin as possible; this ensured its texture was delicate and crisp rather than tough and chewy, making it an ideal pairing with the sweet, juicy oranges.

To ensure that they were evenly distributed in the salad, www.canadianinquirer.net

we cut the oranges into bitesize pieces and tossed the salad gently to keep the segments from falling apart. To finish our salad, we added some oil-cured black olives, which added briny contrast, plus fresh mint, lemon juice, olive oil, salt and pepper.

Fennel, orange and olive salad

Servings: 4-6 Start to finish: 25 minutes

• 2 blood oranges • 1 fennel bulb, stalks discarded, • bulb halved, cored, and sliced thin • 1/4 cup pitted brine-cured black olives, sliced thin • 3 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil

• 2 tablespoons coarsely chopped fresh mint • 2 teaspoons lemon juice • Salt and pepper Cut away peel and pith from oranges. Quarter oranges, then slice crosswise into 1/2-inchthick pieces. Combine oranges and any accumulated juices, fennel, olives, oil, mint, and lemon juice in bowl. Season with salt and pepper to taste.

Serve. ■ Nutrition information per serving: 122 calories; 89 calories from fat; 13 g fat (2 g saturated; 0 g trans fats); 0 mg cholesterol; 152 mg sodium;10 g carbohydrate; 2 g fiber; 6 g sugar; 1 g protein.

38

Food

JULY 5, 2019

FRIDAY

Add succulent shrimp to quesadilla and you’ve got a party AMERICA’S TEST KITCHEN WE LOVE a simple cheese quesadilla, but add a filling of succulent shrimp spiked with tequila and lime zest and you turn Mexico’s griddled cheese sandwich into a party.

To make them substantial enough for a meal, we started with 10-inch flour tortillas. To make four at once, we turned to the oven. By placing the quesadillas on an oiled baking sheet and then brushing their tops with oil, we were able to brown and crisp them on both sides without having to cook each individually.

To keep the quesadillas from getting soggy while ensuring juicy shrimp, we par-cooked the shrimp slightly on the stovetop with aromatics and tequila; this gave them a head start while evaporating most of the liquid. It was essential to cut the shrimp in half so that they re-

leased most of their moisture into the pan.

Cilantro, scallion greens, and lime zest provided welcome freshness, and Monterey Jack cheese offered melty richness.

Tequila-lime shrimp quesadillas

Servings: 4 Start to finish: 1 hour

• 3 tablespoons vegetable oil • 12 ounces Monterey Jack cheese, shredded (3 cups) • 1/4 cup minced fresh cilantro • 2 scallions, white and green parts separated and sliced thin • 1 1/2 pounds medium-large shrimp (31 to 40 per pound), peeled, deveined, tails removed, and halved lengthwise • Salt and pepper • 2 garlic cloves, minced • 1 teaspoon minced canned chipotle chile in adobo sauce • 1/3 cup tequila • 1 teaspoon grated lime zest • 4 (10 inch) flour tortillas

T.TSENG / FLICKR, CC BY 2.0

Adjust oven rack to middle position and heat oven to 450 F. Line rimmed baking sheet with aluminum foil and brush with 1 tablespoon oil. Toss Monterey Jack with cilantro and scallion greens.

Pat shrimp dry with paper towels and season with salt and pepper. Heat 1 tablespoon oil in 12 inch nonstick skillet over medium heat until shimmering. Add scallion whites, garlic,

chipotle, and 1/4 teaspoon salt and cook until softened, about 2 minutes. Add tequila and simmer until tequila has evaporated and pan is dry, about 5 minutes.

Add shrimp and cook, stirring often, until cooked through and opaque throughout, about 3 minutes. Transfer to bowl, stir in zest, and let cool for 5 minutes; drain well.

Lay tortillas on counter.

Sprinkle half of cheese mixture over half of each tortilla, leaving 1/2 inch border around edge. Arrange shrimp on top in single layer, then sprinkle with remaining cheese mixture. Fold other half of each tortilla over top and press firmly to compact.

Arrange quesadillas in single layer on prepared sheet with rounded edges facing centre of sheet. Brush with remaining 1 tablespoon oil. Bake until quesadillas begin to brown, about 10 minutes. Flip quesadillas over and press gently with spatula to compact. Continue to bake until crisp and golden brown on second side, about 5 minutes.

Let quesadillas cool on wire rack for 5 minutes, then slice each into 4 wedges and serve. ■ Nutrition information per serving: 789 calories; 375 calories from fat; 42 g fat (18 g saturated; 0 g trans fats); 290 mg cholesterol; 2145 mg sodium; 41 g carbohydrate; 2 g fiber; 3 g sugar; 50 g protein.

Pansit Kalabuko: Forest Wood Garden’s very own delicacy

BY GLADYS PINO Philippine News Agency SAN PABLO CITY, LAGUNA — A unique delicacy that you can only find at the Forest Wood Garden Farm located in Sta. Elena village here is the pansit “Kalabuko,” a healthy stir-fried noodle dish filled with organic vegetables and fruits.

Joselito “Joel” Frago, owner of Forest Wood Garden Farm, said the name “kalabuko” is derived from its ingredients: organic mushroom (or kabute in Filipino, the “Ka”), squash (or kalabasa stands for “la”) mixed with coconut (buko) meat, and seven other vegetables and two fruits.

Frago said the dish that is unique to their farm was concocted on a rainy day when it was impossible for them to go out and buy food.

“I have children, a family to feed, so what I did is to make www.canadianinquirer.net

FOREST WOOD GARDEN / FACEBOOK

use of whatever ingredients I have in the farm, mix it up with noodles and came up with my own version of noodle dish,” he said.

Due to its unique taste, especially the crispy coconut meat, his family and children liked the dish, which has health benefits because the ingredients are organic.

His friends and relatives started to order Kalabuko, so he decided to make it as one of the

main dishes of his restaurant’s menu.

Aside from the farm, Frago also owns a restaurant in the town’s busy area where “kalabuko” can be ordered for dine in and take out.

Forest Wood Garden is accredited by the Department of Tourism as an agri-tourism farm site, and by the Department of Agriculture-Agricultural Training Institute (DAATI) as a learning site. ■

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