Philippine Canadian Inquirer Issue #27

CANADA’S FIRST AND ONLY NATIONWIDE FILIPINO-CANADIAN NEWSPAPER VOL. 8 NO. 27

FRIDAY AUGUST 24, 2012

CANADA NEWS

PHOTO BY THE DEPARTMENT OF NATIONAL DEFENSE

PImmigration suspects marriage of 60-year-old man with Filipina a fraud ( On page 21 )

Bank of Canada governor apologizes for ‘Asian’ banknote controversy

( On page 21 )

Great Cities of the World Have Great Parks: MLA Linda Reid ( On page 23 )

PORTENT OF THINGS TO COME. As Tropical storm “Igme” (international code name: Tembin) lashed the Philippine islands, bringing heavy rains, triggering landslides and flashfloods on Monday, let us be reminded that our kababayans are still in need of help. The Multicultural Helping House Society via its Operasyon Habagat: Relief for Manila Flood Victims is coordinating efforts to receive donations and assistance. Please call (604) 8793277 to make your pledge now.

‘Still, we grieve, oh, we grieve for Jesse’ TJ BURGONIO, KRISTINE FELISSE MANGUNAY and NORMAN BORDADORA Philippine Daily Inquirer

CHAMPION of good governance. Gift of God. Pathfinder. Exceptional public servant. Gone too soon. These were among the heartwarming words used by colleagues and friends to describe Interior Secretary Jesse Robredo after his body was recovered from the Piper Seneca plane that plunged into the waters off Masbate City. Had Robredo lived, he could have run for higher office, and who knows, could have “changed our history,” said Harvey Keh, who with Robredo and other likeminded convened the Kaya Natin!

Movement for Good Governance and Ethical Leadership in 2008.

28

“He’s the best president we never had,” Keh said.

Fr. Catalino Arevalo, S.J., said as much in his homily during Mass for the 29th death anniversary of Ninoy Aquino at the Edsa Shrine. Arevalo, who’s the spiritual adviser of President Aquino, said that the Liberal Party had been looking at Robredo as a presidential candidate.

Arevalo also quoted Robredo’s spiritual adviser, who asked not to be identified, in his homily during the noon Mass at the Edsa Shrine.

“Jesse was a pure gift of God to P-Noy’s administratfion since its beginnings, who shared his experience of good governance from Day One, sustained it, remained steadfast and true when criticized and challenged.”

Arevalo said that when the spiritual adviser last talked with Robredo he found him “so incredibly detached” and “free from all self-promotion and self-seeking.”

“When I heard of the accident, I had a feeling that Jesse was ready for the welcome words of the Lord: ‘Jesse, you have done much good and have been truly my faithful servant. Enter my Kingdom!’ I have faith that God will give us many other great men.

Jesse from heaven will make sure.

Still, we grieve, oh, we grieve,” Arevalo quoted Robredo’s spiritual adviser as saying.

As someone who oversaw all local governments, Robredo won plaudits More on page 5

RInnovator of emergency preparedness vest a new immigrant in Canada ( On page 25 )

Services of POLO in Vancouver ( On page 26 )

Quartier des Spectacles is THE place to party ( On page 36 )

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News-Phils

PRO-RH solons seek 10 changes

BY LEILA B. SALAVERRIA Philippine Daily Inquirer

bishops however insisted they have the numbers to squelch the measure.

AT THE BEHEST of President Aquino, proponents announced proposed 10 changes in the reproductive health (RH) bill to make it more acceptable, including deletion of any reference to family size and the classification of contraceptives as essential medicines.

The entire section of the consolidated bill which recommended an ideal family size to Filipinos was deleted, in deference to the wishes of the President, said Albay Rep. Edcel Lagman, who was to introduce the alterations at the start of the period of amendments in the plenary.

The proposed changes—reached weeks before the Palace meeting with congressmen last week—suggest that the bill is not a population control measure and amend provisions that tie responsible parenthood and family planning components to antipoverty programs, according to its authors.

However, opponents of the measure, for the second straight day, managed to block discussions on the changes by delivering privilege speeches.

Lagman, principal author of the RH bill, said that the deletion of the section on family size was made to allay apprehensions that the measure was intended to impose a two-child policy.

He said that the deleted provision was never meant to be compulsory in the first place.

The authors of the RH bill also agreed to scrap the section classifying family planning supplies, including contraceptives, as essential medicines, according to Lagman.

This would be replaced by a new provision directing the Food and Drug Administration to determine the safety and efficacy of supplies for modern family planning methods prior to their procurement and distribution.

Ifugao Rep. Teddy Baguilat said some of the proposed amendments dealt with softening language to remove contentious phrases to appease critics, led by the powerful Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines (CBCP).

He stressed this did not necessarily mean that the intent of the RH bill would be diluted.

On Aug. 6, hours after a meeting with the President, a majority of the congressmen in a voice vote ended debates on the bill to bring it to the period of amendments.

The swiftness of the Congress action was denounced by the CBCP as a display of “naked power” reminiscent of the impeachment in December of then Chief Justice Renato Corona. The

Foreign agencies denounced In the Senate, Majority Leader Tito Sotto in the second part of his turno en contra speech on the floor denounced foreign agencies, including the US Agency for International Development, the United Nations and the World Bank, for promoting population control.

Last week, the country representative of the UN Population Fund said that the passage of the RH bill was essential to the Philippines reaching its millennium development goals of reducing poverty.

The Senate leadership has been accused of siding with the Catholic Church in blocking passage of the bill in the upper chamber. The period of interpellation has been closed, but was reopened after Senate President Juan Ponce Enrile said he still had questions on the measure which he was unable to ask because of his preoccupation as presiding judge in the recent impeachment trial of Corona.

Another proposed amendment in the House version of the RH bill seeks to change the age at which mandatory reproductive health and sex education would start, according to its authors.

Under the new version, sex education would begin in the sixth grade instead of the fifth.

The teaching of values formation would take into account religious affiliation. The subjects to be included in sex education would include proper and responsible sexual values and behavior, delayed entry into sexual relations, abstinence before marriage, avoidance of multiple sexual partners, and prevention of sexually transmitted diseases.

Parents would also be given the option not to allow minor children to attend reproductive health and sexuality education classes to respect religious convictions and beliefs.

The proponents also agreed to delete the section on employers’ responsibilities on RH services for their employees.

Other proposals include: • Funding of mobile health-care services for districts by the national government, instead of the pork barrel of politicians.

• Rephrasing prohibited acts and refusal to perform legal and medically safe RH procedures on the ground of lack of marital or parental consent and clarifying actions expected of a conscientious objector to certain family planning practices, and prohibiting pharmaceutical companies from colluding with government officials or contributing to partisan political activities.

• Revoking the license of pharmaceutical companies or its agents, and fining them for violating the law.

• Emphasizing that the state would fund the promotion of modern natural methods of family planning consistent with the needs of acceptors.

• Guaranteeing religious freedom and the option of hospitals owned by religious groups in the provision of a full range of modern family planning methods.■

Days of excess over; protest at MWSS

BY RIZA T. OLCHONDRA Philippine Daily Inquirer WEATHER forecaster Jori Loiz sometimes has no fare money because of his low salary, but a driver at the Metropolitan Waterworks and Sewerage System (MWSS) gets a monthly salary of nearly P100,000.

Until about 2009, a driver for the MWSS used to receive about P97,000 a month and he was not even working for a high-profile, multinational company but a government owned and -controlled corporation (GOCC).

By Sept. 1 this year, with the removal of illegal allowances and bonuses, that same package would be trimmed to about P38,000 a month. But that will still be way above what drivers in other companies get, MWSS Chair Ramon Alikpala said in a phone interview .

33 types of bonuses In 2010, the Senate committee on finance found that the COA had identified 33 types of bonuses amounting to a total of P156 million out of the P242 million in MWSS bonuses in 2009.

The MWSS bonuses were disclosed during a hearing on bonuses and allowances at GOCCs. “I will not even comment on whether the total package is too high or what, just that the allowances and bonuses included before were illegal, as pointed out by the Commission on Audit (COA),” Alikpala said.

Lacking legal basis Alikpala said the MWSS board of directors had looked into COA reports and found that many allowances and bonuses really lacked a legal basis. Two weeks ago, he said, the board decided to stop the illegal payments.

“Employees’ representatives were present when the board explained the findings,” he said.

“There is also a move, in cooperation with the Government Commission for GOCCs, to raise the standard of

FRIDAY AUGUST 24, 2012 2

salaries so that we can be competitive in hiring good people. But we have not even started meeting on how to do that and already there are protests and smear campaigns from a small group of employees who do not want us to stop what they used to receive.”

No way Alikpala said the group of complaining employees asked whether the illegal allowances and bonuses could be maintained while the plans to raise salary standards were being finalized.

No way. Alikpala said, “We already know which are illegal benefits so we cannot keep giving them out, otherwise we would be no different from the previous boards. We had to comply with the COA findings and institute reforms.

For example, the board members are not allowed bonuses and there is a cap to what we can actually receive, so I would say we are more objective.”

The COA, for instance, found no legal basis for the P150 per day meal allowance for employees so this was reduced to P3, based on a decade-sold order from the budget department.

Car plans All employees, including drivers, previously had car plans under which the MWSS paid 60 percent of the cost and the employees paid 40 percent over five years with minimal interest, Alikpala said.

There were also allowances that were supposed to have been folded into the monthly salary but were still being given on top of the “integrated salary,” he said.

“We are putting a stop to the days of excess, and we are getting strong opposition from those who have become so used to them,” Alikpala said.

The disgruntled employees, he said, have been spreading false information against MWSS officials in the media, probably to get them replaced by others who will not be as uncompromising.

Setting the example Alikpala said: “We set the example by removing the excessive allowances of the board members. Now, we even get less than what is allowed. But these employees claim the board meets several times a day to collect our per diems. The truth is the board meets only twice a month.”

Once a board member reaches the cap allowed for the per diem, he will no longer get paid no matter how many more times the board meets, Alikpala added.

Disgruntled employees had also claimed that the management has hired more than 400 consultants and paid them retroactively.

“We hired less than 30 and they are paid only for actual services,” Alikpala said. “We also hired 162 foresters to take care of the Ipo watershed with proper approval from the Department of Budget and Management, contrary to claims that the hirings were not authorized.”

The MWSS gets its income mainly from the concession fees paid by Manila Water Co. and Maynilad Water Services Inc., the concessionaires in the east and west zones of Metro Manila and nearby areas. ■

News-Phils Rights group finds reason to probe Davao killings

chr.gov.ph

3 FRIDAY AUGUST 24, 2012

BY CYNTHIA D. BALANA Philippine Daily Inquirer

THE COMMISSION on Human Rights (CHR) said it had found a pattern of selective and systematic extrajudicial killings of 206 individuals accused or suspected of committing various offenses by a vigilante group in Davao City from 2005 to 2009.

CHR Chair Loretta Ann Rosales presented the commission’s findings on the activities of the so-called Davao Death Squad (DDS) in a statement issued .

The CHR faulted local officials for failing to conduct any meaningful investigation into the

killings, thereby violating the state’s obligation to protect the rights of its citizens.

It said the then city mayor, Rodrigo Duterte, as the local chief executive and deputized Napolcom representative with general and operational control and supervision over the city police force, had clearly disregarded information on alleged human rights violations in Davao City, and did not act on them.

Rosales asked the Office of the Ombudsman to look into Duterte’s administrative and criminal liability for his inaction and for tolerating such violations in his jurisdiction.

“It is axiomatic in human rights law that where there are human rights violations, there must be accountability,” Rosales said.

The CHR investigation was prompted by the search for accountability for the many lives taken arbitrarily by the DDS, a group allegedly responsible for summary executions of delinquents and drug traffickers in Davao.

Rosales said the number of persons killed could even be higher as the 206

figure was only based on what the CHR had in its records.

According to Rosales, dead bodies were piling up in Davao City during that period, consisting mainly of addicts, drug pushers, thieves and young people with police records for petty crimes. Many of the victims were minors.

Then President Gloria MacapagalArroyo established the Melo Commission to look into the killings.

Official concern from the United Nations came with the visit of Philip Alston, the UN special rapporteur on extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions, who visited the country in February 2007.

In his report to the UN Human Rights Council in 2008, Alston observed that “it is a commonplace that a death squad known as the ‘Davao Death Squad’ (DDS) operates in Davao City. One fact points very strongly to the officially sanctioned character of these killings: No one involved covers his face.”

The New York-based Human Rights Watch observed that the

DDS “typically make greater efforts to conceal their weapons than their identity.”

The CHR at the time, then headed by now Justice Secretary Leila de Lima, decided to conduct an investigation into the killings.

The CHR conducted public hearings in Davao City in March, April, May and September 2009.

According to Rosales, the CHR’s investigation was hampered by a climate of fear gripping witnesses and by official denials from local government and law enforcement officials that the Davao Death Squad even existed.

Still, enough evidence emerged that there was a pattern in the victims targeted and in the methods of attack, she said.

“The killings were selective: The victim was usually involved or suspected to have been involved in some type of illegal activity. The manner of killing was also distinct: The assailants were usually motorcycle-riding gunmen,” she said. ■

News-Phils

Want to live in high style?

Join Comelec, solons learn

Business hotel or Comelec’s summer cottage?

BY CATHY C. YAMSUAN Philippine Daily Inquirer EXPENSIVE beds and curtains. New cars. And junkets, too. It must really be more fun in the Commission on Elections (Comelec).

At a budget hearing, senators wondered whether the poll body was now a favored lifestyle destination after Senate Minority Leader Alan Peter Cayetano reported the purchase of “luxurious” beds and furnishings worth P7 million to refurbish the Comelec’s summer cottages in Baguio, and P7 million more for new vehicles.

Sen. Franklin Drilon, chair of the finance committee, also questioned a proposed P21-million allotment for “honoraria” to supervise overseas voting, saying it “appears to be for junkets abroad” come 2013.

“This cannot be a tourism project,” Drilon quipped.

The Comelec is asking for an P8.4billion budget next year, most of which would be spent for the 2013 national and local elections.

At the hearing, Cayetano held up a copy of a notice of award dated Feb. 21, 2012, showing the purchase of seven king-size beds worth P91,250 each and 17 queensize beds at P84,600 each and other furnishings meant for the Comelec’s summer cottages in Baguio City.

Slept in the king-size bed In the hot seat, Comelec Chair Sixto Brillantes admitted having used one of the kingsize beds but that noted it did not appear to be worth as much as Cayetano had said.

The senator said Brillantes should have been aware of the purchases since records showed he joined the Comelec en banc when approving these purchases.

Ateneo backs Church on RH Jesuit university affirms stand as profs face heresy charges

BY KRISTINE ALAVE Philippine Daily Inquirer FACULTY members who are facing possible charges of heresy for supporting a population control bill aren’t getting any sympathy from Ateneo de Manila University.

A day after a ranking official of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines (CBCP) called for an investigation of Ateneo’s 159 faculty members for purportedly going against Church dogma, their president, Fr. Jose Ramon Villarin, said that the university supports the bishops.

“Together with our leaders in the Catholic Church, the Ateneo de Manila University does not support the passage of House Bill No. 4244 (The Responsible Parenthood, Reproductive Health and Population and Development Bill),” Villarin said in a letter to the Ateneo community posted on the university’s website.

Spectrum of views “As there is a spectrum of views on this ethical and public policy issue, I ask all those who are engaged in the Christian formation of our students to ensure that the Catholic position on this matter continues to be taught in our classes, as we have always done,” Villarin said.

The university will also support the Church in its future actions should the bill is passed by Congress, Villarin said.

“Should the bill with whatever amendments be passed, we should neither hesitate to bring to the judiciary whatever legal questions we may have nor cease to be vigilant in ensuring that no coercion takes place in implementation.”

Social compassion Villarin acknowledged that there were members of his faculty who were advocates of the measure pending in Congress. He expressed appreciation for “their social compassion and intellectual efforts” and urged them “to continue in their discernment of the common good.”

Bishop Leandro Medroso, the CBCP’s canon law expert, said the professors’ stand, contained in a statement circulated should be investigated. He noted that educators in Catholic institutions should follow Church teachings inside their classrooms.

The CBCP president, Cebu Archbishop Jose Palma, also said on that educators in Catholic institutions who veer away from Church teachings should leave the school.

Academic freedom In various social media sites yesterday, Medroso’s statement caused a furor among Ateneo alumni and supporters of the bill, who accused the prelate of infringing on academic freedom.

In issuing the statement of support, Ateneo’s faculty members said the RH bill would provide much-needed maternal and infant health care to all Filipinos regardless of religious beliefs.

“The reality is, despite the Philippines being predominantly Catholic, the majority of Filipinos want the full range of family planning services, including ‘artificial’ contraception,” they said, calling the RH bill “a vital piece of legislation that needs to be passed urgently.” ■

The copy of the notice provided by Cayetano indicated that Paula’s Furniture based in Sto. Domingo, Angeles City, also won the bid for 20 sets of double deck beds with mattresses (P15,840 each); a rectangular dining set (P74,180); a round dining set (P78,000); three reception tables with chairs (P15,680 each); 30 accent chairs with armrests (P17,280 each), and three living room sets (P59,780 each).

A separate notice showed that the Comelec also purchased “blinds” worth P340,552.35 and “curtains” worth P694,589.72 totaling more than P1 million from Raddy’s Construction and Supply in Pasig City.

Cayetano said he would also provide documents showing the Comelec purchased a Toyota Camry, now being used by Brillantes, and other vehicles.

In all, the senator alleged in an ambush interview later that the Comelec spent P7 million for household items now in the cottages of its Baguio summer compound, along with P7 million for new vehicles.

Cayetano wants Brillantes to explain the purchases when the Comelec makes a second presentation of its budget later this month.

Rarely used cottages Cayetano said he found it incongruent that the Comelec had purchased these expensive items for its “rarely used” Baguio summer cottages while Brillantes continued to complain that

FRIDAY AUGUST 24, 2012 4

his agency did not have enough funds.

Cayetano even showed photos of cheaper beds available in the market to approximate the ones allegedly used in Comelec’s Baguio enclave.

“Anyone who looks at the Internet would see beds like that kind worth only P7,800 each and the mattress appear to be not even worth P5,000,” he later told reporters.

“Double beds at P15,000 each is still okay. But all in all, P7 million in expenses for the commissioners’ cottages,” Cayetano gasped.

In case the Senate detects an overprice in the household items, Brillantes would have to explain why these should not be classified as “extravagant,” Cayetano added.

“If you can buy a P15,000 bed that doesn’t look bad at all, why buy one that is P91,000? That’s the people’s money! Besides, P7 million for cottages could have been used for 20 to 25 new classrooms,” Cayetano added.

Cordillera election officials said the summer cottages, which were inaugurated in April this year, served the seven Comelec commissioners when holding summer sessions in Baguio City.

Much like the Supreme Court and the Court of Appeals, which hold sessions in Baguio from April to May, Comelec held en banc sessions in the city this year, said lawyer Julius Torres, Comelec-Cordillera director. ■

Solons lament declining quality of Pinoy envoys

BY CATHY YAMSUAN Philippine Daily Inquirer FILIPINO diplomats who can’t be bothered to learn even a smidgen of the language of their host countries have no place being in the foreign service, a senator has said.

Sen. Edgardo Angara, at ’s Senate hearing on the 2013 budget of the Department of Foreign Affairs, proposed the creation of a Foreign Service Institute to train envoys in the intricacies of representing the country abroad.

“We get dismayed that some people receive (foreign) postings not even knowing the language used in the post,” Angara said.

“I think it’s really a shame like when I meet Thai diplomats and they speak the language of Madrid and elsewhere so fluently,” he added.

Foreign Secretary Albert del Rosario could only agree with Angara.

He said that in Southeast Asia alone, the quality of the career officers in the foreign service of many countries had “significantly improved.”

“In some ways, I feel we are behind in educating our career officers. I see that there are many officials in foreign ministries (of other countries who) have doctorates and master’s degrees. We do need to focus on staying or catching up with that, if possible, get ahead of the curve,” Del Rosario told the senators.

The concern over the quality of Filipino envoys, especially those who get their posts due to political considerations, has always been an issue in the local diplomatic community.

Commission on Appointments (CA) members have confronted diplomatic nominees about being proteges or proxies of

the politicians who had maneuvered for their appointments.

Professional officers who have spent a lifetime building careers in the foreign service find it demoralizing when undeserving political appointees are named to crucial postings, the CA found.

Del Rosario, however, assured the senators the DFA had adopted standards that gave more weight to performance in assessing merit within the agency.

“Now we are saying to everyone we are implementing a merit-based establishment (where) performance comes before and is more important that seniority,” the secretary said.

Del Rosario said the DFA had also partnered with certain institutions in an effort to “look for means to train people as quickly as possible.”

For example, officers being trained in economic diplomacy are made to undergo courses at the Asian Institute of Management “to be able to pass a career minister’s test.”

Del Rosario said the game plan was to look for “additional funding and a suitable allocation” so that foreign officers would “become better educated.”

Angara urged the DFA to examine multilateral agreements with countries like South Korea and Australia, as well as global institutions such as the World Bank, Asian Development Bank and United Nations Development Fund, for possible funding.

“They are quite generous with other countries yet we support them through tax waivers and exemptions … I think that if we activate a Foreign Service Institute and create that kind of office, just seeking grants and networking (with international benefactors), we can build a good diplomatic school within our own department,” Angara said. ■

5 FRIDAY AUGUST 24, 2012

...from page 1

for implementing a sensitive policy aimed at boosting transparency.

The full disclosure policy, the crown jewel of his work in local governance, requires local government units (LGUs) to disclose in public places 12 key financial documents that show how funds are spent.

As of June, 99 percent of LGUs had complied with the policy. This was validated by the latest Pulse Asia and Social Weather Stations surveys that showed more Filipinos were observing transparency and accountability in their localities, according to the Department of Interior and Local Government (DILG).

Movement for Good Governance chair Solita Monsod said it was crucial that the reforms initiated by Robredo be continued and that his replacement would make sure that the ideals he fought for be protected.

Last Aug. 17, Robredo wanted to start an advocacy campaign so that ordinary citizens would use the maximum benefits from the tool to demand good governance and transparency from their local leaders. He also gave instructions that illegal logging be stopped, and those involved be made accountable.

Robredo has also been tirelessly improving disaster risk reduction and mitigation capabilities of local government units across the country. He has introduced the Seal of Disaster Preparedness, another incentive mechanism to help LGUs deal with disasters and calamities. “The important thing here is reducing casualties to zero,” he said.

As of the first semester, a total of 8,504 LGUs already have functional disaster

News-Phils management councils while 1,539 have command centers and alarm systems.

They now have emergency response, rescue, and medical teams, and evacuation centers.

Rare man Robredo’s colleagues in the Cabinet mourned his passing as they gathered at Mass at La Salle Green Hills in Mandaluyong City before noon.

Several government officials and people who knew Robredo personally showered the late Cabinet official with praises, and reminisced about their experiences with the man they described as a great loss not only to the people of Naga City but also to the entire country.

Budget Secretary Florencio “Butch” Abad described him as a “rare man.”

“His unflagging sense of integrity and diligence served as an example to many of his colleagues in and outside government, and these same qualities have made him a most valuable and highly regarded member of President Aquino’s Cabinet,” Abad said in a statement.

Under Robredo’s watch, the DILG made “significant breakthroughs” in establishing good governance practices among local government units and key government institutions, Abad said.

“Secretary Jesse is a very big loss, not just to the family, not just as a friend, but to the entire nation .... We mourn his loss,” deputy presidential spokesperson Abigail Valte said in an interview before the Mass.

She described him as “a very patient” and kind man, who had “no ego at all.”

Naga is truly a model INQUIRER columnist Randy David, who was chair of the Ramon Magsaysay

Award Foundation which granted Robredo a citation for government service in 2000, described him as a “true public servant.”

“An entire government depends on the performance of local government units. And what Jesse Robredo did in Naga is truly a model for transforming local government units. You should visit Naga, I mean, you can’t recognize it from the past. It has become a universal center,“David said.

Sought for comment by reporters after the Mass, Teresita Quintos-Deles, presidential adviser on the peace process, said: “He had such good skills, good relationships ... He was an enabler.”

Asked what she would never forget about Robredo, QuintosDeles said: “It’s that smile. That’s the image I will remember, and his ‘ Sige Sec.’ He always called me Sec...”

Robredo in all of us Asked if there would be another Robredo in the country’s midst, the government official said without any hesitation: “No. But we will have to find the (Jesse) Robredo in all of us.”

Former Sen. Aquilino Pimentel Jr. said: “Jesse was an exceptional public servant, able and faithful to his oath of office. The nation is poorer because of this tragedy. God rest his soul and bless his family.”

Justice Secretary Leila de Lima said Robredo was gone too soon.

“I intend to honor him by vowing to carry on what we have started,” De Lima said. “The DOJ family lost a staunch partner and a prime mover in our fight against criminality and impunity!” the justice secretary said.

In a statement, Secretary Herminio Coloma of the Presidential Communications Operations Office called Robredo a “pathfinder” and inspiration for many in the bureaucracy.

Senate resolution Senators noted Robredo’s exceptional qualities as a person and as a government official.

Sen. Francis Pangilinan expressed a personal loss on the passing of “a longtime ally and a great friend.”

Pangilinan said a resolution honoring Robredo and his life would be filed in the Senate.

Sen. Loren Legarda sent word to Robredo’s wife, Leni, and their daughters that they may take comfort in “the fact that he died a happy man and left behind a good name associated with vision, reform and integrity.”

In a text message, Sen. Panfilo Lacson said Robredo “quietly” helped him during the days when he was still in hiding to avoid arrest in connection with the DacerCorbito double murder case.

Lacson said Robredo had tried his best to convince De Lima to comply with the Court of Appeals decision reversing the finding of probable cause against the senator.

Sen. Francis Escudero, who also suffered a loss recently with the death of his father Sorsogon Rep. Salvador Escudero, also mourned the loss.

Catholic bishops extended their sympathies to the family of Robredo.

Manila Auxiliary Bishop Broderick Pabillo said Robredo had great sympathy for the poor. “His heart was with the masses,” he said. ■

Comelec to block GMA attempt to fly to NY

BY JOCELYN R. UY AND CHRISTIAN V. ESGUERRA Philippine Daily Inquirer

THE COMMISSION on Elections (Comelec) quickly thumbed down suggestions that former President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo seek a second opinion on her medical condition from specialists in New York, after doctors early this week found a blockage in her neck.

Comelec Chair Sixto Brillantes Jr. said that should Arroyo’s camp formally file a petition to seek medical consultations abroad in the Pasay Regional Trial Court, the Comelec, being the prosecutors of her electoral sabotage case, would object to it.

“As the prosecution, we will always object to it. We will always oppose any move to bring her out of the country,” Brillantes told reporters during the launch of the Comelec’s new website for the 2013 balloting .

As in previous attempts by Arroyo to leave the country to seek medical treatment abroad, Brillantes stressed that the Comelec could not risk

allowing the former president to leave since she was facing a “capital offense.”

“It is capital punishment. If it were just an ordinary case, then we would have agreed to let her go,” he said.

The Comelec filed late last year an electoral sabotage case against Arroyo, now Pampanga representative, for her alleged role in the massive poll fraud in Maguindanao during the 2007 senatorial election.

Arroyo, who was placed under hospital arrest at Veterans Memorial Medical Center for eight months, gained temporary freedom after Pasay Judge Jesus Mupas granted her petition for bail early this month on the ground that the case against her was weak.

She was taken to Makati Medical Center for an examination after the titanium plate supporting her cervical spine was displaced, a condition which her doctors described as “lifethreatening.”

A cardiologist, who said Arroyo was suffering from a “30 to 40 percent” obstruction in her right coronary artery and left descending artery, had

advised the former president to seek a second opinion in New York. “[But] as far as the Comelec is concerned, there is no reason for her to leave. They can just bring the equipment here and treat her here so that there will be no more issue,” Brillantes said.

But Arroyo’s colleagues in the minority bloc said the former president should be allowed to fly abroad for medical treatment after her cardiologist told her to get a second opinion on her lingering cervical spine ailment.

In the two-page MMC bulletin signed by cardiologist Dr. Roberto Anastacio, the physician proposed another Quantum CT-Scan procedure on Arroyo “to determine the status of the risk and how to address it.”

“I do hope the patient will consider my serious suggestion of a reinvestigation and second opinion,” he wrote in the bulletin dated Aug. 11, noting a “40-30 percent” obstruction in her coronary artery.

“The presence of a displaced titanium plate along C2-C3 is a serious factor in the mechanism of

breathing and subsequently blood circulation which may lead to sudden death,” he warned.

Opposition congressmen are seeking the House leadership’s support for a resolution asking the court to lift the hold departure orders on Arroyo for humanitarian consideration.

Minority Leader Danilo Suarez was optimistic that such a resolution would solicit bipartisan support from the administration-dominated chamber.

“We saw the case of the (former) president and it’s not right that we will do nothing,” he said in a press conference.

“We are going to draft a resolution and I suppose it would be a resolution that would be supported by some members of the majority. This is nonpartisan.

There’s no political color. (This is about) the health of a colleague.”

But Speaker Feliciano Belmonte Jr., a former Arroyo ally, shot down the idea, saying “we are at a stage where the jurisdiction over her is with the courts rather than with the political authorities.”■

News-Phils DENR says Philex faces P325M in fines

BY RIZA T. OLCHONDRA Philippine Daily Inquirer

PHILEX Mining Corp. will be required to pay at least P325 million in penalties for the accidental tailings discharge from its Padcal mine site in Benguet province, according to Environment Secretary Ramon Paje.

Paje said in an interview that four accidental discharges were monitored at Padcal’s tailings pond. The first discharge was estimated to have leaked 5 million cubic meters of sediment, which translates to about 6.5 million tons.

The penalty prescribed under national mining laws is P50 per ton, resulting in P325 million in initial penalties.

“That’s just the first of four discharges. We are still assessing how much was the total discharge,” Paje said.

Mike Toledo, Philex senior vice president for corporate affairs, said the company will comply with whatever is required of it. However, he said Philex has not received any notice from authorities on penalties.

The Mines and Geosciences Bureau and Environmental Management Bureau are still checking the tailings pond, said Toledo.

“When we do receive the final assessment, we will of course study it and comply with whatever is required of us,” he said.

“In the meantime, while mining is suspended at Padcal, our staffers are working round the clock to make rehabilitation as fast as possible and are also busy helping with the cleanup of Balog River,” Toledo said.

In a report to the Philippine Stock Exchange, Philex said the suspension of operations at the Padcal mines will have an effect on its profits this year.

Philex said although Padcal is on a standstill, it has the capability to pay for the cost of repairing its tailings pond that was damaged due to heavy rains.

It said, however, that it expects earnings to decline as a result of the suspension of operations in Padcal.

Philex said it has tapped local and foreign consultants to develop a rehabilitation plan to ensure the safety of the tailings pond and an environmental program to prevent the same accident in the future.

The company said water and sediment from its tailings pond are nontoxic and biodegradable.

No injuries or fatalities have been reported as a result of the accident.

Philex, a company statement said, is working closely with affected communities and local governments.

The company said gold production from its Padcal mine in the first six months of 2012 fell by 19 percent to 58,681 ounces from 72,784 ounces in the first half of last year because the mines had yielded lower-grade ore.

It said it spent P7.472 billion for operations in the first half of the year.

Revenue from gold and copper stood at P4.071 billion and P3.260 billion, respectively, from P4.401 billion and P3.318 billion a year earlier.

Revenue from silver dropped to P67.7 million from P100.4 million for the same period due to lower prices.

The tailings pond leak came just weeks after President Aquino issued an executive order that outlined his administration’s new policy on mining.

The EO listed areas that are off limits to mining, including tourism sites and watersheds.

It also directed Congress to pass a new law that would require mining firms to give more shares to government from mining revenues. ■

Earlier hazing victim’s kin decry ‘injustice’

BY NORMAN BORDADORA Philippine Daily Inquirer WITH the public outrage over their loved one’s senseless death almost forgotten, the family of San Beda College law student Marvin Reglos brought back to mind the unfulfilled promise of Justice Secretary Leila de Lima to bring to justice the fraternity men behind his deadly hazing.

Invited to the hearing of the Senate committee on public order and dangerous drugs on proposed amendments to strengthen the Anti-Hazing Law, Reglos’ father, Lucito, said that up to now, almost six months after his death, De Lima had yet to deliver on her pledge.

The senate committee revisited the Reglos case after the death on July 30 of yet another San Beda law student, 21-yearold Marc Andrei Marcos, during reported hazing rites Reglos, 25, died in February this year as a result of hazing rites linked to San Beda’s Lambda Rho Beta fraternity.

De Lima, a member of Lambda Rho Sigma, the sister sorority of the fraternity involved in Reglos’ death, had promised a full investigation of her “brods.”

But Reglos’ younger sister, Lorvie, told the committee the National Bureau of Investigation had failed to get the testimony of a vital witness—who was already at the NBI. The NBI has since stopped its investigation of the case.

“One of our problems is that many persons promised they would help like

FRIDAY AUGUST 24, 2012 6

Justice Secretary Leila de Lima, who said that they would bare those involved, but until now, we have yet to be helped by ma’am Leila,” Lucito Reglos told the Senate panel chaired by Sen. Gregorio Honasan.

Lorvie informed the Senate committee the NBI had stopped its investigation of the case.

“We stopped the NBI because our only witness in the case reported to the NBI ... but it (the NBI) didn’t even get his statement,” Lovie said.

Fratmen, too During the hearing, Senate President Juan Ponce Enrile told NBI Deputy Director Medardo de Lemos the bureau shouldn’t have stopped its probe even after the family withdrew the case from them.

Enrile said the crime involved the People of the Philippines and the NBI should have continued its investigation.

Honasan, tasked to come up with legislative proposals to crack down on violent fraternity initiations, however, is himself a fratman and believes a total ban on hazing is “too drastic and premature.”

Drastic and premature “Banning hazing would be too drastic and premature at this time,” Honasan said in an interview after his committee’s first hearing on proposed amendments to the antihazing law.

Honasan, who incidentally lost a brother to fraternity hazing in the 1970s, said a longterm policy on the matter can’t be made based on emotions that are running high.

“I want to calibrate this. Every step must be in line with complete information,” Honasan said.

“We can’t be impulsive especially when it comes to longterm policy. Decisions can’t be made when we’re too happy or too angry,” said Honasan, who joined the Alpha Sigma Fraternity at the University of the Philippines.

Enrile, who said he became a fratman decades ago without having to go through physical abuse, pushed for initiations without “physical contact.”

No physical contact Enrile told the Senate hearing there was no physical contact when he went through the initiations of the Sigma Rho Fraternity based at the University of the Philippines’ College of Law. The only thing that they did to me was make me kneel, go to Ideal Theater, kneel down there and ask for alms,” Enrile said.

“And then they made me eat one stick of cigarette. There was no physical contact as far as I can remember,” he added.

Enrile said there was also a supervisor, a senior member of the fraternity, who observed the rites to prevent injuries among the neophytes.

“We should prohibit physical contact ... you can ask him to kneel, squat for several hours if you want to test his physical stamina,” Enrile said.

“But for lawyers to be killers or criminals themselves, they do not deserve to be lawyers, he said.

Former Sen. Jose Lina, the author of Republic Act No. 8049 or the Anti-Hazing Law, told the committee that the law could use some amendments but expressed belief that the law was sufficient to address the problem of deadly initiation rites.

He blamed its “faulty implementation” for the continued proliferation of violent hazing. ■

7 FRIDAY AUGUST 24, 2012

News-Phils

Sotto says RH foreign backers advocating abortion

Hospital makes poor leave valuables–solon

BY CATHY C. YAMSUAN Philippine Daily Inquirer

SENATE Majority Leader Tito Sotto said that at least four non-government organizations presenting themselves as “pro-women” had received funding from international groups advocating abortion.

In the second salvo of his series against the reproductive health (RH) bill, Sotto said that these international organizations, including the US Agency for International Development (USAID), have programs targeting developing countries that aim to reduce their populations.

Sotto told a packed Senate gallery and a national TV audience that the local NGOs—the Family Planning Organization of the Philippines (FPOP), Reproductive Health Advocacy Network (RHAN) and its affiliate Likhaan and the Democratic Socialist Women of the Philippines (DSWP)— had actively participated in hearings on the RH bill.

Among those in the gallery was former Health Secretary Esperanza Cabral who asked Sotto to produce the death certificate of his infant son whom the senator said was conceived despite the contraceptives his wife took. Cabral said contraceptives could not be responsible for the “weak heart” suffered by Sotto’s son. The senator said he would produce his son’s death certificate.

Sotto said the NGOs “want to make it appear that their interest is the health of our women. But my research showed that they have partnered with foreign organizations to acquaint our society with modern and liberal RH schemes.”

He said the FPOP received $625,095, “or almost P27.5 million,” in 2011 from the International Planned Parenthood Federation (IPPF).

“The FPOP’s website displays the organization’s support for the use of abortive facilities. In fact, the FPOP posted on its website an instructional brochure discussing different methods of abortion, depending on the weeks of pregnancy,” Sotto said.

“Furthermore, FPOP’s website is linked to a website named Women on Waves which provides contacts to abortion clinics worldwide,” he said.

Abortion a global agenda Sotto noted that IPPF had a global agenda to promote abortion and the dissemination of contraceptives.

The RHAN, on the other hand, even “submitted a budget proposal to the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) containing a budget allocation for ‘nurturing legislators’ to expedite the passage of the RHbill,” he said.

Sotto described Likhaan as among the local groups “actively pushing for the RH bill.

“Likhaan openly supports abortion, as it features in its website step by step procedure on how to abort a baby. To make matters worse, the instructional material desperately intends to reach the Filipino masses by using the Filipino language and putting pictures that clearly illustrate how to abort,” he said.

BY LEILA B. SALAVERRIA Philippine Daily Inquirer

“In addition, there is a video featuring Dr. Junice Melgar, the head of Likhaan who was quoted as saying, ‘If you are prowomen, you will have contacts to the services that are underground’ and whose other statements refer to abortion service providers,” he added.

“These organizations have such huge budgets so it’s not surprising that they have very active campaigns for the RH bill on radio, TV, print and especially the Internet,” Sotto noted.

The senator blasted foreign organizations funding the local NGOs. They include the USAID, World Health Organization, World Bank and economic agencies whom he said “were given a directive to gear their policies and programs toward promoting the reduction of the world’s population especially in less developed countries” based on National Security Memorandum 200 issued by Henry Kissinger.

US directs programs Sotto said Kissinger was “the source of the entire family planning, population and poverty reduction programs of the US. All loans, grants and aid coming from the US and Western powers must be based on the reduction of population through birth control.”

“Since the USAID is the principal instrument for the socalled development programs, there are NGOs and government agencies in the Philippines that have been contacted, supported and funded by it,” he added.

“These foreign organizations underhandedly seek to legalize abortion in countries where it is still a crime. And that I believe is exactly what they’re doing now in our country through this bill,” said Sotto, one of the staunchest opponents of the RH bill.

He also questioned the claim of the RH bill backers that 11 Filipino mothers die everyday due to childbirth complications. He said he had sent his staff to conduct a nationwide survey of government hospitals to verify this detail.

Instead of confirming this, however, Sotto said the Nueva Viscaya provincial hospital recorded only two maternal deaths for the entire 2011; the Pangasinan provincial hospital, four deaths; and the Batangas Regional Hospital, seven deaths out of 2,584 deliveries last year.

Cavite Naval Hospital recorded no maternal deaths for 2011 at all, he said.■

THE STATE-RUN Philippine Children’s Medical Center (PCMC) has continued the practice of making desperate patients give up their personal belongings to cover their hospital expenses and was even auctioning off these items, party-list member Teodoro Casiño (Bayan Muna) said .

Casiño said he had obtained documents, dated May and July 2012, showing that the hospital was selling the items left behind as collateral by patients.

A July-dated document, for instance, set out the guidelines for a July 25-Aug. 10 bidding, while another document, dated May 2012, listed several items for sale and invited parties to bid for them.

The items included 10 cameras, 21 DVD players, 46 pieces of jewelry, 13 gadgets, including iPods, 92 watches and 16 assorted pieces.

According to Casiño, he had exposed this dismaying practice of the PCMC last year but it was apparently still continuing despite statements from the Department of Health that it would look for other ways to deal with patients’ unpaid hospital bills.

“Requiring patients to turn over their valuables as collateral for unpaid bills is heartless and unjust, if not tasteless,” he said.

“This is feeding on the misery of poor patients.

Should public hospitals resort to such practices to cover the severely insufficient budget for hospitals?” he asked.

Casiño said he had brought up the matter with Health Secretary Enrique Ona, who did not seem to know about it.

He said Ona had said he would fire the hospital director if the practice was not stopped.

Assistant Secretary Eric Tayag said the Department of Health had already ordered the PCMC to stop the auction of the personal belongings of patients.

In a radio interview, Tayag said Ona had already asked the officials of the hospital to stop the practice of taking personal belongings of patients as collateral for unpaid hospital bills.

“Although under the law patients are allowed to make a promissory note, many of them would rather give up their personal belongings to make up for the lack of money to pay the hospital bill,” he said.

Tayag reminded those in areas covered by the government’s conditional cash transfer program that they were automatic members of the PhilHealth state medical insurance program, which offers discounts for hospital services.

“And if they avail themselves of services in government hospitals, they will not have to spend even a single centavo,” he said.

Casiño said the practice being resorted to by the PCMC was a clear indication that the budget for public hospitals must be increased.

He noted that under the proposed 2013 budget, the allocation for the PCMC for poor patients and those patients subsidized by the state would be reduced by P100 million. It has been reduced to P345 million, from P445 million.■

News-Phils

FRIDAY AUGUST 24, 2012 8

Urban poor: P-noy OKD ‘on-site, in-city’ housing

BY TJ BURGONIO AND JERRY E. ESPLANADA Philippine Daily Inquirer

WITH the government talking again of relocating 100,000 informal settlers in Metro Manila, the Urban Poor Associates (UPA) is asking: Whatever happened to the ambitious plan to provide on-site or in-city housing for them?

“The plan was on-site, in-city or near-city housing. The President agreed to that,” UPA executive director Denis Murphy said in a phone interview . “What happened to that?

There’s no more talk about it.”

Instead, Murphy said, the news is about the “eviction” of slum dwellers.

Last year, the government announced a five-year, P50-billion project to provide on-site or incity housing for more than 100,000 families living near “danger zones” such as estuaries, waterways, rivers and creeks. The resettlement was supposed to involve 20,000 families a year.

President Aquino approved P10 billion for the implementation of the project in 2011, and committed P10 billion a year for it until he steps down in 2016.

New plan Part of the delay was the newness of the on-site or in-city plan, especially for the National Housing Authority (NHA), which was used to the Marcosera practice of relocating squatters outside the metropolis, other officials said.

“This is an entirely new scheme, and the bureaucracy is not used to this,” Secretary Joel Rocamora of the National Anti-Poverty Commission (NAPC), which is part of the interagency body, said by phone.

“Even the urban poor are new to this.

[The] NAPC has to get involved to organize them.”

According to Rocamora, the NHA and the Housing and Urban Development and Coordinating Council were pushing for off-site housing, while the interagency panel was advocating in-city housing.

Murphy agreed. “Maybe the President is in favor [of in-city housing] but the whole middlelevel management is against it,” he said.

“The NHA people, they want the way things are now. They’re more

construction and other public works projects as DPWH secures what it calls project right-of-way,” Gatan said in an interview with the INQUIRER.

comfortable with buying land in the countryside and shipping people out there.”

Rocamora said even the bureaucracy itself needed to be “roused” to speed up the housing program for slumdwellers because of the frequency of the flooding.

‘On-stream’ Interior Secretary Jesse Robredo said the plan was now “on-stream,” but admitted that only 9,000 to 10,000 slum-dwellers would be relocated by yearend, or half of the annual goal of 20,000 families.

“It’s not as easy as buying a car,” Robredo said by phone, citing difficulties in finding relocation sites, the lengthy process of bidding and the rigorous consultation with the squatters on their preferences.

Robredo, who chairs an interagency body in charge of the relocation program, a project for 1,450 families in Quezon City and Manila had been bid out for construction; another project for 3,003 families was set to be bid out; and still another project for 3,900 families was being prepared for bidding.

When?

When will the houses be built?

“That’s difficult to say,” Robredo replied.

But he said that building houses for 20,000 families a year was doable “as long as we can find a site.”

After last week’s flooding in Metro Manila, central and southern Luzon caused by two weeks of torrential monsoon rains, Robredo said the

government would dismantle shanties and structures built on the banks of creeks, canals and other waterways to make way for floodmitigating systems, and relocate 100,000 families over a five-year period.

Exactly how many?

But how many exactly really need to be relocated?

The Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) 2012 flood control master plan for Metro Manila and outlying provinces will result in the displacement of more than 735,000 people, mostly illegal settlers, not 100,000 as estimated by the Department of the Interior and Local Government.

The DPWH report, a copy of which was given to the INQUIRER, said, however, that the resettlement of squatters living on the banks of rivers and other waterways would benefit millions of people in the National Capital Region.

Perennial problem Patrick Gatan, head of the DPWH Project Management Office for Major Flood Control Projects, said the squatter resettlement program was a “perennial problem” in the implementation of public works projects.

But “it’s one of the project requirements prior to the actual implementation or construction of flood control structures,” Gatan said.

“The resettlement of both legal and illegal settlers has been part and parcel of flood control, road or bridges

Good and bad news According to the DPWH report, the Marikina large dam and the PasigMarikina River Improvement projects will displace 330,708 people but benefit 1.6 million others.

The Malabon-Tullahan River improvement project will require the resettlement of 39,456 squatters. It will, however, benefit 298,000 people.

The Meycauayan River improvement project will displace 35,320 squatters, but benefit 250,000 other people.

On the eastern side of Metro Manila, the East Manggahan floodway and Cainta-Taytay river improvement projects will call for the resettlement of 24,832 squatters. But the project will benefit 227,000 people.

The West Manggahan area drainage improvement project will displace 3,200 people, but benefit 25,600 others.

On the southern side of the metropolis, the West Laguna lakeshore land raising project will require the relocation of 114,000. It will, however, benefit 575,000 people living around the lake.

The South Parañaque-Las Piñas river improvement project will displace 30,278 squatters but benefit 104,000 people in the area.

Farther in the lake area, the land raising project for small towns around Laguna de Bay will require the removal of 299,879 squatters, but will benefit 1.5 million people.

The improvement of inflow rivers to Laguna lake will lead to the resettlement of 26,633 squatters.

But the project will benefit 260,000 people.

The Manila core area drainage improvement project will displace 24,000 illegal settlers, but benefit 270,000 legal residents.

No estimate of displacements and beneficiaries has been provided for the Valenzuela-Obando-Meycauayan river improvement project.

The DPWH’s 2012 master plan was based on a study funded by a $1.5-million grant from the World Bank and the Australian Aid for International Development. ■

9 FRIDAY AUGUST 24, 2012

News-Phils

P-noy ups reward for Palparan, Reyes et al.

BY MICHAEL LIM UBAC Philippine Daily Inquirer

PIQUED that the nation’s most wanted fugitives remain scot-free, President Aquino raised the bounty for the capture of Jovito Palparan, a retired general known as “the butcher,” and other high-profile figures facing criminal charges.

Presidential spokesperson Edwin Lacierda told reporters that Mr. Aquino was “displeased with the lack of progress” in arresting Palparan, former Palawan Gov. Joel Reyes and his brother Mario, real estate developer Delfin Lee, Dinagat Rep. Ruben Ecleo, and communist guerrilla chiefs Benito Tiamzon and Jorge Madlos. He said the President’s action would “assist the authorities in their task of capturing these fugitives.”

Mr. Aquino doubled the reward from P1 million to P2 million for information leading to the arrest of Palparan, who is facing charges of kidnapping for the disappearance of students Sherlyn Cadapan and Karen Empeño in 2006. Activists call him “the butcher” for his alleged human rights abuses.

The US-based Human Rights Watch said in a recent report that Palparan was being protected by some military officials and businessmen who had benefited from his high-handed suppression of the communist insurgency.

Mr. Aquino raised the reward from P1.55 million

to P2 million for the capture of Reyes and another P2 million for his brother, who is mayor of Coron, Palawan province. The brothers have been tagged as the brains behind the killing of Palawan broadcaster and environmentalist Gerry Ortega.

A reward of P2 million each was set for Lee and Ecleo. The owner of Globe Asiatique, Lee is charged with syndicated estafa. Ecleo is wanted for the murder of his wife Alona in Cebu City in 2002 and had been sentenced to life imprisonment in absentia.

Mr. Aquino reminded the public of the existing reward of P5.6 million each for the capture of Tiamzon and Madlos, ranking leaders of the Communist Party of the Philippines and the New People’s Army (CPPNPA). The two have outstanding warrants of arrest.

Interagency task force Interior Secretary Jesse Robredo, appearing in the Palace news briefing with Lacierda, announced he had formed an interagency task force composed of the National Bureau of Investigation and Philippine National Police to unify and intensify the manhunt efforts of law enforcement authorities.

Robredo admitted that previous efforts of the “tracker teams” put up by the PNP Criminal Investigation and Detection Group had all failed. “[So] there is an additional order from the President to double up efforts to hunt them down,” said Robredo, assuring the public that all seven are still in the country.

National Security Adviser Cesar Garcia expressed confidence that the reiteration of the existing bounty for Tiamzon and Madlos would not affect the revival of the peace talks with the National Democratic Front (NDF).

“The bounties for these two top wanted CPP-NPA personalities have been outstanding ever since even while the peace process was going on,” he said.

Hardliners Garcia described Tiamzon as the leader of the hardline faction of the CPP-NPA. He said Tiamzon was responsible for “the spate of violent incidents that have been occurring throughout the Philippines, particularly those perpetrated against civilian targets, in complete disregard of the ongoing peace process.”

Madlos was described as “a notorious CPP-NPA personality responsible for several high-profile attacks on civilian targets and key economic programs in Mindanao.

He was involved in several kidnapping incidents as well as one of those charged for the raid on Taganito Mines.

Garcia said the government had already addressed an NDF demand for the release of 17 detained guerrillas.

“We have, in fact, released several of them—not the entire number but several of them—[which is] quite a significant number. And the discussions between the NDF and the GRP panel are [ongoing],” he said. ■

gmaresign

GMA: No plea bargain in 2 graft cases; I’m innocent

BY CYNTHIA D. BALANA Philippine Daily Inquirer FORMER President Gloria MacapagalArroyo said she would not plead guilty to lesser offenses in order to evade tougher penalties in the two graft cases filed against her before the Sandiganbayan in connection with her alleged involvement in a scrapped $329-million telecommunications deal during her administration.

“President Arroyo is not open to any plea bargain. She maintains her innocence and stands by her not guilty plea,” her lawyers said.

In an eight-page pretrial brief submitted by her defense counsels, Arroyo, now a representative of Pampanga’s second district, expressed her desire to face trial on all cases brought against her pending before the antigraft court’s Fourth Division, where she is also facing an administrative proceeding.

Arroyo’s lawyers said they would present 12 potential witnesses to testify in her defense and identified various documents that they would mark as evidence during the trial stage. The brief was signed by J. Alberto C. Flaminiano, Laurence Hector B. Arroyo and Jose Aurelio B. Alban.

Arroyo is accused of two counts of graft and/or violation of the Code of Conduct and Ethical Standards for Public Officials and Employees for allegedly having had unlawful interests in the NBN-ZTE deal.

Arroyo’s lawyers listed former President Fidel V. Ramos as one of witnesses for the defense.

Also listed were three of her Cabinet officials, former Trade Secretary Peter V. Favila, former Presidential Chief of Staff Michael T. Defensor and former Local Government Secretary Ronaldo V. Puno.

In the second graft case, Arroyo identified only two possible witnesses, husband Jose Miguel T. Arroyo and former Commission on Elections Chair Benjamin Abalos Sr., both named coaccused in the case.■

News-Phils

FRIDAY AUGUST 24, 2012 10

Heads roll over Rolito Go caper Bureau of Corrections chief, 5 guards sacked

BY JAYMEE T. GAMIL, PHILIP C. TUBEZA AND TJ BURGONIO Philippine Daily Inquirer CONVICTED murderer Rolito Go is back in the stockade, the Bureau of Corrections (BuCor) chief has gone on leave and five jail guards have been sacked as President Benigno Aquino ordered a probe into how a high-profile inmate disappeared from prison for at least 24 hours.

Police said their investigation showed that Go and a nephew who was with him were “forcibly taken” from a minimum security compound at the New Bilibid Prison (NBP) in Muntinlupa City, but Justice Secretary Leila de Lima said this was being looked into.

Go disappeared from prison. Police were able to get him.

De Lima said Mr. Aquino was dismayed by what happened, given that measures had been adopted following reports that prominent inmates had been allowed to “live out” in the past.

“He is disappointed because, you know, this kind of incident keeps happening,” De Lima told reporters.

“He (the President) said, ‘he thought all the safeguards and all the reform initiatives have been put in place to avoid similar incidents.’

He’s really disappointed and that’s why he immediately ordered an investigation,” she said.

De Lima said Mr. Aquino’s reaction was “How can it happen again, if it’s true that it’s abduction or kidnapping for ransom right within the NBP?” Malacañang praised the Philippine National Police for recapturing Go. “It is good that while one agency was apparently remiss in its duties, another agency stepped up,” said presidential spokesperson Edwin Lacierda.

Lacierda added: “To emphasize the principle of command responsibility and help the investigation, Bureau of Corrections Director Gaudencio Pangilinan has offered to go on leave, and the President has accepted it.”

Lacierda said the NBP would be under the direct supervision of De Lima “pending the appointment of an officer in charge.”

De Lima said Pangilinan went on leave “for the sake of an impartial and thorough investigation.”

“Let’s not preempt him,” De Lima said when asked if Pangilinan was expected to resign.

“Maybe he’s thinking about it, maybe he’s not yet thinking about it, maybe he has a good explanation, maybe he can explain the level of responsibility and the level of efficiency and competence that was expected of him as the overall administrator of the facility,” the justice secretary added.

5 guards sacked The NBP sacked five BuCor personnel held responsible for Go’s disappearance from prison. They were the officer in charge of the NBP minimum security compound, Prison Officer 1 (PSO1) Gabriel Magan; PSO1 Serafin Geronimo, PSO1 Edgardo Cruz and Prison Guards Andrew Corre and Arman Soriano.

De Lima agreed that the public expected command responsibility to reach Pangilinan’s level but said managing the prison facility was difficult.

“That facility is beset with many problems, and in fairness, Director Pangilinan introduced many reforms when he took over,” she told Malacañang reporters.

De Lima was skeptical about the claim of Go’s family that he had been snatched from prison.

She said that according to the initial information from Pangilinan, the family of Go was claiming that he and his nephew, who was assigned to him as a nurse, “were abducted and that there was a P1-million demand.”

“But that information was met with so much skepticism by Director Pangilinan, by myself and by others. Even the NBI (now says) they do not find that theory plausible but we cannot yet rule out that angle,” she said.

De Lima added: “We might put him back to somewhere other than the minimum security compound.”

She said investigators would have to check the BuCor rules “because right now he is really a minimum security category on account of his age—more than 70 years old; on account of his illness—he is reportedly suffering from colon cancer, and that he is due to be released next year.”

Go underwent chemotherapy after he was diagnosed with colon cancer in 2010. At a separate press conference at the PNP, he showed his colostomy bag to the media and said his nephew had been helping him for the last two months with his treatment.

De Lima did not rule out the possibility that an escape attempt would jeopardize Go’s release next year.

She said: “If it turns out that he was indeed abducted, then there’s no culpability on his part. But if he was an escapee, there are consequences to that. That might jeopardize his scheduled release next year.”

‘NBI agents’ She said the justice department could file charges against Go, as it had done against former Batangas Governor Antonio Leviste over the latter’s infamous trip out of prison last year. Leviste is serving 12 years in jail for the 2009 killing of his friend, Rafael de las Alas.

In the press conference in Camp Crame, Go said four men who pretended to be National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) agents forcibly took him and his nephew, Clemence Yu, from the NBP compound.

He said he and his nephew were released in Sto. Tomas, Batangas province.

“I was at Ina ng Awa parish on my way back to the minimum (security) compound when the four suddenly arrived, wearing IDs and claiming to be from the NBI. They had guns,” Go said in Filipino.

“I didn’t know them but they knew me.

They said ‘Mr. Go’ and said they were taking me to the NBI,” he added.

PNP Director General Nicanor Bartolome presented Go and Yu at the press conference in Camp Crame.

Go said that despite the public uproar over his latest disappearance from the NBP, he was still hoping he would be freed next year.

“Time might be running out for me … I’ve served my full sentence. At least, I would still have the chance to be with my family,” he said.

Go said his abductors told him they were bringing him to the NBI because he was going in and out of the NBP compound without authorization.

Go said that, as a “living out” inmate since 2010, he was allowed to go out of the minimum security compound.

“I said I couldn’t go with them… but he put his arm over my shoulder and forced me inside a car,” Go said.

Bartolome said the culprits used Yu’s own car, a white Honda Civic (UUR 805), in taking them out of the compound.

Go said he and his nephew were taken to a safe house in Batangas and the kidnappers asked for a “big” amount from his family.

He said the kidnappers contacted his wife and that his wife agreed to give a smaller amount but they did not proceed “because they felt that my wife was accompanied by NBI agents.”

“At around noon their leader wanted me killed,” Go said. He said that when evening came, his abductors talked among themselves and then decided to release him and his nephew.

“Maybe they saw that they couldn’t get much from me. And if they kill me, they won’t get any so they let me go,” Go said. “I thought they got (a ransom) but when I got home, my wife said no (ransom) was paid.”

Gunfire erupts Bartolome said the police recovered Yu’s car in Sto. Tomas, Batangas, and found an empty shell and one live ammunition inside.

“This jibes with the statement of Mr. Go that they opened fire inside the vehicle…

According to Mr. Go, they even hit him on the head,” Bartolome said.

Go showed reporters a bump in his head and cuts in his right arm. Bartolome said Yu also had wounds.

Bartolome said his men received information that Go and Yu had been released and had taken a bus. He said police waited for the bus in Alabang, Muntinlupa City.

“True enough, Mr. Rolito Go and Mr. Yu disembarked from a bus that came from Sto. Tomas, Batangas. The two were processed and given medical attention,” Bartolome said.

Privileges Looking tired and bedraggled, with tufts of grey hair sticking up his forehead, Go was brought back to the NBP. Escorted by six jail guards, Go was brought straight to the maximum security compound and would be taken to the prison hospital, according to NBP Superintendent Richard Schwarzkopf Jr. This means the revocation of Go’s “living out” privileges. He will also no longer be allowed to leave the maximum security compound.

Kidnappers from inside?

Justice Undersecretary Francisco Baraan said NBP officials were liable for negligence whether Go was abducted or escaped from prison.

If he did try to escape, Go stood to lose his application for parole and the chance to leave prison next year, he said.

Baraan said there was also a lapse in security because how did the kidnappers get in unless they are insiders, which is also a possibility.

Baraan said they would also look into allegations that Go was spotted at Resorts World in Pasay City , noting this was a “serious allegation.” ■

11 FRIDAY AUGUST 24, 2012

News-Phils State firm execs face graft raps

VP of PNOC-EC among those charged in 9,000% overprice in P55M project and punish corrupt officials and employees and ultimately restore the people’s trust in the government.”

BY JERRY E. ESPLANADA Philippine Daily Inquirer

CITING the Aquino administration’s “daang matuwid,” the chairman of the Philippine National Oil Company Exploration Corp. has filed graft charges with the Ombudsman against three top PNOC-EC officers for allegedly overpricing by up to 9,000 percent the renovation of the state firm’s headquarters at Bonifacio Global City.

Gemiliano Lopez Jr., also a former Manila mayor, named Lourdes Gelacio, PNOC-EC vice president for corporate services; Raymundo Savella, chairman of the bids and awards committee, and Ma. Rita Dayleg, manager of the human resources and administration department, as respondents in an 18page complaint he filed on July 16.

Gelacio, Savella and Dayleg were accused of violating Section 3 of Republic Act No. 3019, the Anti-Graft and Corrupt Practices Act. Lopez said he filed the case “in line with President Aquino’s continuing thrust and mission to eradicate grafters

Gov’t short-changed The 2010 PNOC-EC building renovation project, which had a budget of P55 million, “showed an overprice ranging from 100 to 9,000 percent,” he said.

“Clearly, the (43) contracts for the purchase of construction and renovation materials at overpriced costs were grossly and manifestly disadvantageous to the PNOC-EC, leaving the latter shortchanged by a hefty sum of money,” he added.

In his complaint, Lopez also sought the issuance of a preventive suspension order against the respondents.

“Their continued stay in office while the investigation is ongoing would enable them to tamper with evidence that is still in their possession or harass potential witnesses,” he said.

An investigation team, led by retired Court of Appeals Justice Myrna Dimaranan Vidal, earlier recommended the filing of a graft case, saying “the transaction for the renovation work done

for the subject building was grossly and Piecemeal contract manifestly disadvantageous to PNOC- Lopez said that “instead of implementing the (three-phase) EC.” project and awarding it to a general contractor who would handle all the ‘Erroneous, malicious’ In a July 14 memo to the PNOC-EC work, Gelacio’s team made piecemeal board, however, Gelacio dismissed contracts for each and every aspect of the charges against her as “erroneous, the project.”

“For phases 1, 2 and 3, Gelacio’s baseless, unsubstantiated and malicious.”

Aside from Lopez, the board includes team spent P69,330.33, P20,931.90 president Pedro Aquino Jr. and directors and P54,544.48 per square meter, Leopoldo Petilla, Niel Tupas Sr., Rufino respectively. However, when the Bomasang, Luis Ma. Uranza, Rafael del PNOC-EC engineering department Pilar, Francisco Iganaga Jr. and Armando handled the project after its brief suspension, the projects cost only Galimba.

Gelacio said the project was P735.74, P1,449.77 and P7,070.86 “done in a professional manner. per square meter, respectively, for the Consultancyservices for architectural, same three phases,” he said.

He said it was “very clear that engineering, design and project the costs incurred [by] Gelacio’s management were bid out.”

“The procurement law was properly team were grossly overpriced and observed for all contracts which were prejudicial to PNOC-EC.” A case in point, he said, was awarded to the lowest technically complying bidder. All contracts passed the installation fee for the airthrough the bids and awards committee,” conditioning units which amounted to P23,272.73. “Interestingly, when the she added.

The two other respondents—Savella engineering department purchased and Dayleg—have yet to respond to air-con units, the installation was free of charge.” ■ the charges.

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News-Phils

PNP still believes Rolito Go was kidnapped

BY MARLON RAMOS Philippine Daily Inquirer

DESPITE doubts raised by prison officials, the Philippine National Police (PNP) yesterday said it was still considering kidnapping as the likely motive behind ’s disappearance of convicted road rage killer Rolito Go from the state penitentiary in Muntinlupa City.

Chief Supt. Generos Cerbo Jr. shows the artist’s sketch of one of the suspects in Rolito Go’s alleged abduction at a news briefing in Camp Crame.

PNP spokesperson Chief Supt. Generoso Cerbo Jr. said evidence gathered by police investigators supported the claims of Go and his nephew Clemence Yu that they were forcibly taken by four unidentified men from the tightlyguarded New Bilibid Prison (NBP) on the night of Aug. 14.

“We are acting based on the testimonies of Rolito Go and Clemence Yu. We respect their allegations,” Cerbo told reporters.

“As far as the PNP is concerned, all available evidence showed that the incident is a case of abduction. But if it later showed otherwise, then we will support whatever the findings of the (other law enforcement agencies),” he added.

“The motive that will prevail is the one supported by evidence. The strong theory now is the alleged kidnapping.”

In a news briefing at Camp Crame, Cerbo presented a computer-generated sketch of one of the alleged abductors whosupposedly posed as agents of the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI).

As ordered by Malacanang, Cerbo said investigators of the Antikidnapping Group (AKG) were closely coordinating with the officials of the Department of Justice, the NBP and the NBI who were tasked to conduct a separate probe on Go’s surprise disappearance from the NBP. “According to Go, this man was the possible leader of the group which seized them. He was holding a .45-caliber pistol which he allegedly used to whip Go,” he said, showing to reporters a copy of the computer-generated sketch.

“We will also show this to Rolito Go for confirmation,” he said.

Citing the information that Go and Yu provided to the PNP Crime Laboratory and the AKG, he said the man was dark-skinned, medium built, around 35 to 38 years old, 5’5” to 5’6” tall and weighs about 85 to 90 kilograms.

Go, who is serving a life sentence for killing student Eldon Maguan during a traffic altercation in 1991, said the man was wearing jeans and red jacket over a white t-shirt at the time of the alleged abduction.

He said police investigators had also taken the sworn statements of the driver and conductor of the bus that Goand Yu reportedly took after their alleged abductors released them.

Cerbo added that Yu would remain in police custody as AKG operatives were still trying to determine if the men who seized them were also behind the reported abduction of relatives of wealthy inmates of the NBP. ■

Poll chief: Luxurious, yes, but not overpriced

BY MARLON RAMOS Philippine Daily Inquirer THE FURNISHINGS in the Commission on Elections’ (Comelec) summer cottages in Baguio City may be luxurious but they’re not overpriced, Comelec Chair Sixto Brillantes Jr. said in response to Sen. Alan Cayetano’s charges made during a budget hearing.

Citing a Notice of Award dated Feb. 20 this year, Cayetano said the procurement for the cottages included seven kingsize beds worth P91,250 each; 17 queen-size beds at P84,600 each, as well as blinds and curtains worth P340,552.35 and P694,589.72, respectively.

The Senate minority leader described as “luxurious” and “extravagant” the beds and furnishings worth

FRIDAY AUGUST 24, 2012 12

P7 million procured for the election body’s summer cottages.

In an interview with reporters , Brillantes said he was reviewing voluminous documents pertaining to the refurbishing of the Comelec cottages to be able to answer criticisms that the agency had overspent for the renovations.

“I’m just gathering all the documents since 2009 up to the present,” Brillantes said. “I want to see the details and what happened, and then I’ll be meeting with our people involved in the purchases,” he added.

The senator said he wanted the Comelec chief to explain the “extravagant” purchases when the election body makes a second presentation of its budget on Aug. 30.

Moral issue, not legal Asked if someone would be held liable for the procurement, Brillantes said: “Of course someone has to be held liable, but I don’t know if there is an anomaly because it’s not overpriced; it’s just that it’s luxurious.”

“The issue here is moral rather than [legal],” he added.

Brillantes said that an initial review of the documents showed that the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) had originally allotted P9 million for the furnishings, but that the Comelec en banc had asked the department to reduce the amount to P7.9 million instead.

“The DPWH proposed P9 million but for us that was too high so we asked them to cut it,” he said. “So when it was lowered to P7.9 million, we ordered our bids and awards committee to proceed with the acquisition.”

The poll chief said that while he would examine the beds and other items provided in the cottages, he would also look into the Comelec’s procurement process.

Brillantes has called the members of the Comelec’s bids and awards committee to a meeting in preparation for his “confrontation” with Cayetano. ■

WORLD OF DANCE TOUR kicks off the CANADA leg , VANCOUVER TOUR, SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 15th 2012 AT MASSEY THEATRE , NEW WESTMINISTER BC

HEADLINE ACTS INCLUDE: America’s Best Dance Crew champions Poreotics, Chachi Gonzales (I.aM.mE ABDC winner), RNG-Rate Next Generation -ABDC season 7 finalists, Freshh-Canada’s Got Talent finalist, World Of Dance the only professional dance competition that tours the world and can only be described as the X-Games of the dance world. The world’s top dancers, hundreds of participants, and thousands of spectators will partake in performance festival settings, awarding today’s top dancer’s with the most prestigious acknowledgments. The World of Dance Tour promises to deliver an unparalleled experience to both participants and spectators in effort to build the reputation as the global authority in Urban Dance and Lifestyle. More than 3500 spectators are expected to be in attendance at each tour stop. Major sponsors of the tour include Sprott-Shaw Community College, Paul Mitchell, The Beat 94.5, Pioneer, DIPT, Monster Energy Drink and Brand Jordan.

Each stop will have multiple stages and a vast vendor area, including a choreography main stage, BBoy/BGirl Arena, All Styles Tournament and a special Fashion District where guests can buy various dance-related items and clothing. Despite economic climate the urban dance scene continues to propel forward in culture. Sponsors are not only leveraging their brand awareness into this marketplace, but some have identified the market as a long-term investment.

13 FRIDAY AUGUST 24, 2012

News-Phils

FBI agents hounded PH freedom fighters in US

BY CYNTHIA D. BALANA Philippine Daily Inquirer

SEPTEMBER 1979. Somewhere in the desert of Arizona, a group of Filipino freedom fighters had just finished their secret bomband-weapons training, courtesy of an American Vietnam war veteran who shared their hatred of dictators.

Tired and hungry, they drove to a nearby restaurant to eat and one of them, Raul Daza, a practicing lawyer in San Francisco, California, made the mistake of using his credit card to pay for the bill. That gave them away to the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI).

Heherson Alvarez, a member of a group called Movement for a Free Philippines, recounted how they were tailed in the United States and their activities monitored by the FBI. “The FBI became suspicious after seeing the big bill and in a restaurant in a desert. So they were tracked down. That was why we were all investigated,” Alvarez recounted to the INQUIRER. The C-4 bombs were bought in Kansas and they were trained to assemble and detonate them, as well as dig in the Arizona desert to hide them.

Six months after the 1986 Edsa People Power Revolution, the US Department of Justice drafted an undated indictment to criminally charge the members of the group. They included naturalized Americans Steve Psinakis and Charles Avila, and the Filipinos Alvarez (later elected senator), Daza and Bonifacio Gillego (who both later won congressional seats).

The plan to include the three Filipinos in a court case for trying to oust the dictator Ferdinand Marcos was vehemently blocked by the state department to avoid embarrassing the new regime of Cory Aquino, who was then enjoying immense popularity, even in Washington.

of the US government in suing the three Filipinos.

Citing handwritten notes on a 1986 meeting among federal prosecutors, the Times said the “state department officials were concerned that the new Aquino government would be embarrassed if its allies in Washington pressed charges against the officials.”

Pursued by the Times for comment, the federal prosecutors denied that foreign policy concerns influenced their decision not to prosecute the Filipinos.

According to Alvarez, the allegations against them were all true, but they never admitted these because they were committed during troubled times.

“It was really a debate between the state department and the Department of Justice.

The DOJ ended up suing Steve Psinakis, an American, because the Filipinos—Daza, Gillego, Avila and myself—were [already holding] offices in the revolutionary Cory government,” Alvarez said.

In the end, only Psinakis and Avila were charged with conspiracy and interstate transportation of explosives in 1981. Psinakis, a GreekAmerican businessman married to a Filipina, was acquitted by a grand jury. Avila, never arrested or arraigned, later became mayor of Tanauan.

Birth of NAM Alvarez organized the Ninoy Aquino Movement ( NAM) in the United States to galvanize the expanding protest movement in the Philippines, focusing on the martyrdom of former Sen. Benigno Aquino Jr., who was assassinated on Aug. 21, 1983, upon his return from US exile.

The assassination unified the various opposition groups abroad working against Marcos.

Alvarez became a chief lobbyist of the group, being a former Constitutional Convention delegate.

US ambivalence The various opposition groups Alvarez said The New York Times also helped elevate the struggle in 1988 exposed the ambivalence against an oppressive regime to a

higher political level, persuading American liberals like Edward Kennedy, Stephen Solarz, John Kerry and Richard Lugar to become sympathetic to their cause.

Kennedy and Solarz held congressional hearings on the NAM’s allegations about how Marcos and his wife had amassed ill-gotten property in America, in a bid to cut US military funding for his government.

“When we got all these documents, we brought these to Sen. Edward Kennedy. I told him, ‘Senator, why don’t you investigate this.’ And he said, ‘What if you’re wrong, Sonny?

Then we will be sued,’” according to Alvarez.

“I retorted, ‘ What if it’s American money or foreign aid or military aid?’ I was targeting military aid because the definition is tied to violations of human rights [and] irregularities. We thought that was the vulnerable point of Marcos and we had a civil war, the Muslim secessionists.

So if that is cut, that is really an Achilles’ heel,” Alvarez said.

Marcos property Alvarez said the NAM provided US legislators with information on the money invested in New York real estate by the Marcoses.

It also documented the acquisition by the regime of the Lindenmere beachfront estate, the fabulous Crown Building of the Shah of Iran, four apartments in the exclusive Olympic Tower on 5th Avenue, and sprawling homes in Cherry Hill, New Jersey and in Princeton Pike.

The properties were later sequestered by the Presidential Commission on Good Government.

Alvarez said the group had accumulated enough documents to show that Marcos had amassed millions of dollars. It tried to peddle these documents to The New York Times but the paper refused, fearing a lawsuit in case the allegations were wrong.

Alvarez then went to Peter Carey of the Mercury News, a prominent publication in California. It ran a series of articles that eventually

won for it the Pulitzer Prize.

The US Congress conducted hearings and, in every hearing, would slash military aid to the Philippines by 15 to 25 percent until the cut became more than half of the total.

Selective bombings To complement the lobby, the freedom fighters agreed to stage selective terror bombing operations, including one at the Commission on Elections offices and at Rustan’s, where an American woman died.

It was then, Alvarez said, that the FBI decided to pursue the charges against them.

“I have along wanted to reveal this, that there was an operation here, not meant to hurt but to move the US Congress, [to show] what we had been doing, which really destroyed the American appreciation of Marcos as a democrat and a pillar of freedom in Asia,” Alvarez said.

“There was the use of selective violence but it was not to hurt but to do propaganda,” he added. “We tell the foreign correspondents there is an event like that and they will flash it to their papers and it comes out in The Washington Post, in The New York Times.” “[We wanted] to show that not all’s well in the Philippines,” he said.

Except for the American woman, no other individual was killed in the bombings but there were others who got hurt by these “super firecrackers,” Alvarez said, referring to the C-4 bombs.

All those involved denied at the time their roles in this small footnote in history because of the turbulent times and because US officials were after them, he said.

Alvarez found no remorse on his part.

“We’re freedom fighters,” he said. “We were not setting off bombs precisely to bomb and hurt people. It was designed to capture through media the policy makers [in the US Congress].”

“Freedom was won with the efforts of foreign exiles who were consistently and systematically trying to change policy makers’ opinions.” ■

Opinion

FRIDAY AUGUST 24, 2012 14

THERE’S THE RUB

Winners, losers

BY CONRADO DE QUIROS Philippine Daily Inquirer THE ONE thing that struck me about the London Olympics was not the magnificent performances led by that of the hugely talented, and even more hugely entertaining, Usain Bolt. It was not that China gave the United States a run for its money in gold medals and threatens to reach, or even surpass, it in Rio. It wasn’t the fact that we fared completely wretchedly, which came as no surprise.

What struck me about it was the couple of athletes who were banned from it.

The first was Voula Papachristou, a Greek triple jumper who was kicked out of her team after twitting the Africans in a tweet.

Commenting on reports that Africans were carrying the West Nile virus, she tweeted: “With so many Africans in Greece, at least the West Nile mosquitoes will eat homemade food!” Social network users were enraged.

One said, “If you are serious, the Greek Olympic Team should put you on the first plane and send you back.”

It did. The Olympic Committee argued that her views ran “contrary to the values and ideas of the Olympic movement.” Voula explained later that she was just joking, but her extreme-right sympathies belied it. Her coach remonstrated with the committee’s decision saying, “I respect the decision, but it is a little harsh for a kid we are trying to educate.”

The second was Michel Morganella, a Swiss soccer player who ranted against the South Koreans after his team lost to it 1-2. His tweet was in French, a combination of slang and text language, but its meaning was not lost on other tweeters. He called the South Korean team a “bunch of mongoloids” and said “they can go burn.” The “mongoloid” was apparently a reference to their Asian features. Irate readers called him out and the Olympic Committee threw him out of the games.

He later apologized, saying: “After the disappointing result and the reaction from Korea that followed, I made a huge error.”

I applaud the Olympic Committee for its decisions. Far from being harsh, they are proportionate to the offense. Voula’s tweet was by no means accidental or isolated. She earlier tweeted an extreme-right party spokesman who had just assaulted two women MPs during a TV talk show: “Be always strong and true!” Bigotry has no place anywhere, least of all in an activity that is meant to promote universal understanding, particularly in an activity that is meant to show what aspiration and transcendence mean, particularly in an activity that is meant to show the best that humanity can be.

Voula’s expulsion “was a little harsh for a kid we are trying to educate”? That is how you educate a 23-year-old “kid” who remains uneducated to this day. You give her a lesson in the consequences of spreading demeaning, or even hateful, thoughts like that. Xenophobia is no joke, racism is no joke. As Jews who were

gassed to death, as African-Americans who were hung from the nearest tree, as Turks who have been beaten to death in German towns can attest to. They were not laughing their way hysterically to kingdom come.

As to Morganella’s excuse, everybody gets frustrated by defeat, everybody gets pissed off by being taunted afterward for it. Not everybody lashes back by using the favorite word of people who do not like to read—“mongoloid”—to describe his detractors. Especially so when the description refers not to what they have done but to how they look as a legacy of birth. That is foul and deserves more than a red card. Bigotry is no joke, racism is no joke. Anything that abets it should be nipped in the bud, and its abettors punished as they deserve. In the Olympics more than anywhere else.

Fortunately, the Olympics also offers no end of things that are the opposite of these, sights and stories that uplift and inspire. These are not the spectacles like the Jamaican team routing everybody else in track and field, with someone like Bolt demonstrating superhuman abilities— though I rooted for Bolt in the 100 and 200 as much as the next viewer. These are the sidelights, the small things that happen there, but that illuminate the Olympics far more dazzlingly than the record-breaking accomplishments. They happen again and again in every Olympics, but never fail to dazzle with their magic each time.

This time around, there was the “Blade Runner,” Oscar Pistorius, the first double amputee to run in the Olympics on artificial

blades. He finished last in the 400 meters, but the crowd leaped to its feet and gave him a standing ovation as he neared the end.

There was Turkish runner Merve Aydin, who hurt herself early in the 800 meters, but, refusing to give up, limped her way in tears to the finish line. The crowd appreciated her efforts by clapping for her more loudly than it did the winner.

There was Liu Xiang, a former champion of the 110-meter hurdles, who crashed on the first hurdle, but also refusing to give up, hopped on one leg to the finish line as the crowd cheered.

He was met by another hurdler, Balazs Baji of Hungary, who hugged him and raised his hand to tell the world who had really won that event.

All these show how the same attitudes, values, and disposition you need in life to get to the finish line are the same ones you need in sports, and vice versa. All these show how there is really very little difference between sports and life at their best, such as the Olympics, which is why Muhammad Ali is as much a historical icon to Americans, black or white, as he is a boxing one, which is why Nelson Mandela is as much a sports icon to South Africans, black or white, as he is to history. All these show how, in life as in sports, winning is not just about getting to the finish line first and at all costs, it is about getting there at all in as fine, as luminous, as awe-inspiring a way as possible.

That is what makes for champions. The other kind just makes for losers.■

follows—until the next typhoon barges in. There is a debate going on over the issue of whether or not the flooding that comes with storms are man-made—that is, structures built by the private sector are responsible for the flooding. Some groups or experts who have made serious studies about the effects on flooding of structures in urban development have pinpointed certain developments.

For example, an academic journal published in Australia, World Politics Review, ran an article highlighting Philippine floods in relation to fast urbanization. The article, written by Catherine Cheney in the Aug. 2 issue of the Review, is based on a paper by Edward Blakely, honorary professor of urban policy at the University of Sydney’s United States Studies Center and a disaster-recovery expert who led recovery management for New Orleans following Hurricane Katrina. According to Blakely, the devastation caused by these floods results not only from the amount of rainfall, but also from a lack of planning, coordination and enforcement in terms of urbanization.

The deadly floods in the Philippine capital, he said, are the latest in a series of flooding-related disasters to strike the region. Last month, the heaviest rainfall to hit Beijing in decades forced the evacuation of 650,000 people from their homes, while three months of heavy rains in Bangkok last year claimed at least 500 lives.

“These floods are the result of overbuilding and extending into farm and marsh areas,” Blakely said.

“There is an issue here of responsible building,” adding that developers “were building on very fragile marshlands and covering them up with a bit of cement and hoping for the best.”

Over the past three months, floods have devastated three major capital cities: Taipei, Beijing and Manila.

“The death toll in Asia is always so huge in comparison to other places because of the dense population and size of the population in urban areas,” he said. “So this is a real issue for governments in those countries, because they affect such a large portion of the population.” ■

ANALYSIS

Storms

BY AMANDO DORONILA Philippine Daily Inquirer

THE PHILIPPINES is bracing for two or three more tropical storms before the month is up, even after floods caused by more than two weeks of continuous rains devastated the island of Luzon.

The floods killed several dozen people, rendered hundreds of thousands of others homeless and destroyed crops and public works. The national capital, Metro Manila, bore the brunt of the fury of the natural calamity.

The Philippines, because of a misfortune deriving from geography, sits in the path of tropical storms that ravage the islands at the average rate of 20 each year. The latest of these tempestuous visitors, Typhoon “Gener,” dumped a deluge of rainfall on Metro Manila and neighboring provinces, before unceasing monsoon rains worsened the problem and paralyzed life, business and productive activity.

The monsoon rains produced the highest volume of rainfall recorded in Metro Manila since the record-breaking downpours brought by Tropical Storm

“Ondoy” in 2009, which forced more than two million people in Metro Manila to evacuate to safety and turned Marikina Valley into a huge “lake of death,” where scores of residents in new middle-class development housing drowned in swiftrising floodwaters. The amount of rain that fell on Metro Manila from Aug. 6 to 8 reached 1,007 millimeters, nearly twice the estimated accumulated rainfall for August projected by Pagasa, the weather bureau, which was 540 mm. Despite modern weather forecasting instruments and its best efforts, Pagasa’s forecasts have at best been erratic, and Pagasa has received much flak, often undeserved because of the unpredictability of capricious weather.

Despite the exposure of the Philippines to storms and the southwest monsoon, Philippine governments, past and present, have failed to come up with defensive programs and mechanisms to prevent the loss of lives, crops and property—except for the finger-pointing and the blame game that inevitably follow the exit of typhoons. The toll and costs are counted, and rehabilitation

15 FRIDAY AUGUST 24, 2012

Opinion

AT LARGE

Welcoming him home

BY RINA JIMENEZ-DAVID Philippine Daily Inquirer NOW HE is home. Jesse Robredo is now with the people he loved most—his wife Leni and their daughters, the other members of his family, and the people of Naga, whom he had served for decades as the city mayor. The rest of the nation, led by P-Noy who had spearheaded the rescue and recovery efforts to bring Robredo and his companions up from the depths of the sea off Masbate, condole with his loved ones, waiting patiently for their turn to honor the late secretary.

There is no doubt the country has lost a good man, a good man who served the country he loved and dedicated his life to. As I wrote in yesterday’s column, Robredo could very well have followed the trajectory carved out for someone like him: a job in the private sector that would give him personal satisfaction, a fulfilling outlet for someone of his talent and training, and the rewards of doing his job well. Instead, pushed by events that embroiled our country decades ago, he looked around and found himself at a crossroads—as had so many folk his age and inclination—and chose to follow not just the road less taken, but a road fraught with peril and risk.

The nation must be thankful that someone like Robredo, and so many others of his generation, many of them now serving in government or in civil society, made the choices they did when they did. I would count among them President Aquino,

who, perhaps realizing the many things he had in common with his interior secretary, and Robredo’s contributions to his administration, spent a good deal of time at a site near the plane crash just to personally be at hand if and when the latter would be rescued or his remains recovered. With his Cabinet team, P-Noy had set out on the proverbial straight and narrow road, driven by the dream to turn away from the crooked paths of previous administrations, and to re-inspire, re-ignite the fire of civic commitment. And Robredo readily joined in that vision and work. *** PERSONALLY, I had only a few chances to interact with Robredo. But one thing that struck me about him, even when he was still mayor of Naga, was how he managed to strike a balance between the idealism of the young activist and the pragmatism of a politician.

In consultations among a group of young professionals seeking changes in governance and politics, Robredo would drive home the point on the need to seek a middle ground, taking care not to lose one’s footing or one’s head in the confusing air of politics, but at the same time being wily enough to use the tools of politics to pursue our idealistic ends.

He spoke of how he would make the rounds of neighborhoods in Naga, engaging the people in small group discussions not just on their neighborly concerns but also on their own hopes and aspirations. As his own colleagues

acknowledged, Robredo believed firmly in consulting his people, paying more than just lip service to the need to reflect and act on citizens’ aspirations. As a mayor, he institutionalized this idea in local citizens’ consultative councils. And as head of the Department of Interior and Local Government, he sought to make institutions under his office, especially the police and law enforcers, more accountable to the public. *** IN PERSON, Jesse Robredo was, as they say, “easy to carry.” Laid-back and informal, he did not seek special attention or hold himself aloof.

He would talk to friends and acquaintances in an easy, relaxed manner, and I sensed a discomfort with official trappings or airs.

I remember during a hiatus between his terms as mayor of Naga, I asked him if it was true that he was setting his eyes on “higher” office, perhaps as a congressman or governor. He laughed in reaction, and said he was taking this chance to “rest and recover” from the rigors of public office, and perhaps pursue studies abroad. And this he did, although when he did return to the country, he found himself embroiled once more in local politics.

At this time, his star had grown in size and sheen way beyond the Naga city limits, becoming some sort of role model for the young, idealistic but successful politician, and setting a model for governance that today is spreading across the country.

Perhaps his passing marks a stage as well for the maturation of alternative models for local and national officials, beyond the modeling stage for we are now seeing a number of such officials growing into a critical mass that could set our country in promising directions. *** AND THAT, of course, is what wemainly mourn with Robredo’s passing.

His assumption of the DILG post was his debut on the national stage, and we can only speculate at this point on where his long-delayed introduction to national politics and governance would have taken him. He was still young enough to carve out new paths in public service, but could already boast of a rich, enviable record that had earned him accolades and international recognition.

But I am sure ambition and future rewards were farthest on his mind the day he boarded a small plane, planning a surprise for a daughter. As far as I know, he was one Cabinet member who wasn’t harboring plans for the coming elections, willing to bide his time until 2016 when the P-Noy administration steps down. We will no longer know what fate had in store for him had he survived the plane crash. But we do know he left this earth still intent on serving the country he loved, and looking forward to joining his family on a long weekend, away from the pressure of politics.

His family can find comfort in the unblemished record and unselfish service he left behind, a legacy they should treasure with pride and fondness. ■

AS I SEE IT

Time to shift to renewable energy

BY NEAL H. CRUZ Philippine Daily Inquirer THE OLYMPIC GAMES are over but I am still confused by the rules. Professional athletes are allowed in basketball, tennis and soccer, but not in boxing. Had professional boxers been allowed in boxing, Manny Pacquiao would have surely brought home a gold medal instead of the current Philippine Olympic team’s zero haul. Ballroom dancing is not a sport (it was disguised as such by renaming it “dance sport”) yet it is included in the Games, but golf, which is a true and very popular sport, is not. Why? *** The recent adverse weather conditions are undeniable proof that global warming is upon us. Global warming is worsened by greenhouse gases produced by man. Tops in the production of greenhouse gases is the burning of fossil fuels— oil, coal, natural gas—to produce energy without which the modern world wouldn’t be the same.

The exhausts from the millions of motor vehicles alone contribute greatly to greenhouse gases and to global warming. Even just the eating of meat contributes to global warming. The manure excreted by the billions of livestock—cattle, sheep, goats, buffalo, camels, chicken, etc.— raised by man to feed the world’s meat eaters emit carbon dioxide, one of the greenhouse gases.

Also, the fertilizer used to grow the food—corn, soybeans, etc.—for the livestock produce CO2.

It is imperative that the world stop burning fossil fuels, which are, by the way, running out and therefore becoming more and more expensive, no thanks to the world oil cartel, the Opec (Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries). It is therefore comforting to hear that our own government is leading the way in the use of renewable energy sources—solar, wind, hydro, wave, and biomass.

Biomass is the organic matter—without the plastics and styrofoam—that we throw away every day in such great volumes that man has a difficult time collecting and disposing of them.

And as we have seen recently, trash thrown away carelessly and that clogs drainage mains and waterways, is one of the causes of floods.

This garbage, or biomass, is burned to produce energy. It is therefore important that we learn to separate organic, or biodegradable, trash from the nonbiodegradable (plastics, styrofoam, metals, bottles, etc.) garbage that will not burn.

The good news is that our Energy Regulatory Commission (ERC) approved last July 27 the Feed-in-Tariff (FIT) for four renewable power sources: biomass, solar, wind, and hydro.

Power generation with biomass will not only generate electricity but also solve our problem of garbage disposal. Solar is free and plentiful in the Philippines, which is bathed in sunshine almost the whole year round. Wind is also plentiful, especially from politicians during the

campaign period and congressional debates.

And as we have seen, water is plentiful, so plentiful that the dams have to release water so they wouldn’t break due to the water pressure.

If we can harness all that free water to generate electricity, then we would have the cheapest electricity in Asia instead of the most expensive.

The issuance of the FIT rates is deemed crucial in boosting the local renewable energy industry as it would provide an incentive to developers with the assurance of fixed cash flow for their power projects. This is a timely decision that will surely attract investments in the renewable energy sector and help the environment.

The ERC took some time to approve the FIT rates but I think it is only proper to consult all the stakeholders in the industry. I understand that this ERC process required a longer time than usual for studies to be fair to all stakeholders.

The ERC-approved FITs are lower than what was proposed by the National Renewable Energy Board in May 2011. The ERC approved a FIT rate of P9.68 a kilowatt hour for solar power from the applied rate of P17.96; P8.53 a kWh for wind from P10.37; P6.63 for biomass from P7; and P5.90 a kWh for hydropower from P6.15.

With the lower FITs, there will be less likely opposition from the anti-renewable energy advocates, some of whom, as previously mentioned, are funded by coal suppliers whose

business would be affected by the entry of renewable energy investors.

The Department of Energy has expressed appreciation to the ERC for issuing the FIT rates. It also said that the rates brought relief to local renewable energy developers, who had put off their projects while waiting for the rates.

The ERC move provides a respite to an overburdened public that has to contend with the increasing cost of gas and electricity.

Renewable energy sources are plentiful here.

The cost of producing power from them is not subject to volatile political and economic geopolitical conditions in the countries from which we import fuel sources like oil and coal.

Renewable energy is also more environmentfriendly and ecologically sustainable than imported fossil fuels.

This also jibes with the direction set by President Aquino, who has repeated in his policy speeches the urgent need to promote renewable energy. He has committed to the sustained growth of renewable energy in the Philippines’ power mix to about 50 percent within a 10-year period.

Energy Secretary Rene Almendras cited the ERC in ensuring a balanced view to be able to serve the needs of all stakeholders.

He said he was hopeful that all stakeholders would continue to cooperate with everyone to establish a competitive and dynamic power market.■

News-Phils House split causing RH bill delay

BY CHRISTIAN V. ESGUERRA AND LEILA B. SALAVERRIA Philippine Daily Inquirer

LAWMAKERS traded barbs as the House of Representatives failed to open the crucial period of amendments on the reproductive health (RH) bill for two straight session days.

Given the coming long weekend and the chamber’s preoccupation with budget deliberations, the issue will have to wait until August 28 when congressmen resume their plenary session.

Deputy Majority Leader Janette Garin complained on the floor about the move by her colleagues against House Bill No. 4244 to rise “on a question of personal and collective privilege.”

Garin, a proponent of the RH bill, described as palusot (alibi) the effort of Parañaque Representative Roilo Golez, who wanted the chamber to discuss measures to address the devastation caused by the heavy monsoon rains and flooding.

But Golez later hit back, saying it was pro-RH congressmen who were “delaying” the proceedings, citing their absence at the start of the plenary session.

“They are the proponents, they are the ones who would like to change the status quo so they should be here,” he told the Philippine Daily Inquirer. “They are the ones delaying (the proceedings). They’re not here.

Very few of them are here. They’re losing by default.”

‘Be man enough’ During her turn, Garin blasted Golez and company, saying “let us be man enough to show our people what our vote is for the responsible parenthood bill.”

“Isn’t it that this (question of) personal and collective privilege—if I may quote Congressman (Rodolfo) Fariñas—is just an excuse not to talk about the responsible parenthood bill?” she said.

When the period of amendments was to start, there were more anti-RH congressmen spotted on the floor at the start of the plenary session. The following day, even fewer lawmakers showed up at the beginning of the session.

“We are not sure about our numbers,” Garin said.

“We might win or we might lose, but at the end of the day, we would like to show to our people that it is our obligation and our duty to put forward our vote on this very important issue.”

The real battle Golez denied that his group was avoiding the period of amendments, pointing out that few of the pro-RH lawmakers were present, noting that he was among those who voted to terminate the debates on HB 4244.

“This is the real McCoy. This is the real battle,” he said. “They should be here.”

But before session adjourned , Golez moved to suspend all further deliberations on HB 4244 to allow the chamber to address the problems caused by the recent monsoon rains and storms. However, the session adjourned and it was not put to a vote.

FRIDAY AUGUST 24, 2012 16

Parliamentary warfare The session was also unceremoniously adjourned after the chamber failed to settle the issue on whether Palawan Representative Victorino Socrates should continue with his speech condemning the termination of the RH debates.

Asked why the issue was never put to a vote, Speaker Feliciano Belmonte said: “It’s better not to vote. It’s very divisive if you start doing that on an issue as that one. We have to try to maintain an atmosphere that is conducive to getting on. That’s what we’re going to do.”

Proponents of the bill have urged Belmonte to set a timetable to tackle the amendments.

But Majority Leader Neptali Gonzales said that even if a timetable was set, lawmakers could not be prevented from delivering privilege speeches.

“Even if you set a schedule and 100 percent of members are present, that does not prevent anybody from using parliamentary tactics provided for by the rules,” Gonzales said in a phone interview.

The presence of supporters of the bill was also important, he also said. “That’s how it is.

That is parliamentary warfare. This is going to be a war of attrition, so you have to be there.”

What’s more, Gonzales said even the House leaders were divided on their stand on the RH bill. He added that this was the first time he had seen a measure that had split the House almost right down the middle.■

Escudero extolled for loyalty, service to PH, agriculture absent twice, and only because of his illness.

And even when he was confined to a wheelchair during sessions, Escudero did his best to stand up every time the national anthem was sung, Belmonte said. Escudero’s 20 years as a legislator were “unblemished,” he added.

BY LEILA B. SALAVERRIA Philippine Daily Inquirer

CONGRESSIONAL colleagues paid tribute to Sorsogon Rep. Salvador Escudero III , remembering him as a dedicated public servant who energized the country’s agriculture, pushed for educational reform and kept a stack of papers on his desk to personally answer each single letter sent to him.

They gave Escudero a standing ovation and bade him farewell during necrological services at the House of Representatives. They told anecdotes, recounting his humility, strong principles, dedication to public service, and commendable accomplishments in agriculture and education.

Escudero died at the age of 69, after fighting colon cancer for two years.

Ilocos Norte Rep. Imelda Marcos, the widow of the late dictator Ferdinand Marcos, eulogized Escudero, who had served her husband as agriculture minister, and thanked him for remaining loyal not only to the country but also to the Marcos family.

‘Even when unpopular’ “He never left us in the most critical time of our history,” Marcos said. She thanked Escudero profusely for authoring a House resolution to give the dictator a hero’s burial at the Libingan ng mga Bayani.

Escudero remained loyal to the Marcoses even when it was unpopular to do so, his son Sen. Francis “Chiz” Escudero said. The younger Escudero thanked the lawmakers for honoring his father, and told them not to be sad at his passing but to celebrate his life.

Fellow lawmakers remembered Escudero’s valuable contributions to rice production. According to Sorsogon Rep. Deogracias Ramos, the agriculture sector experienced growth even during a drought when Escudero was agriculture minister. He also improved the plight of farmers whom he organized into groups to turn them into entrepreneurs, colleagues said.

Speaker Feliciano Belmonte Jr. extolled Escudero’s diligence and punctuality, noting that in the current Congress, Escudero was only

Always kept his word The Sorsogon lawmaker also valued keeping one’s word, and always told officials during committee hearings not to say “yes” when they could not deliver on what was asked, and to just say “no” nicely, Belmonte said.

“It is better than saying ‘yes’ when it is an empty ‘yes,’” the Speaker quoted Escudero as saying.

His illness was never a hindrance to him doing his job, Ramos said. “He never got tired of serving the public even with his health reminding him [that] he was only a man,” he said.

La Union Rep. Victor Ortega, a close friend of Escudero, said the latter was always humorous and jolly, but serious when he needed to be.

Belmonte, noting the hundreds of lawmakers who showed up for the service, said the unusual turnout was a testament to how well-loved Escudero was.

Television host Kris Aquino, President Aquino’s sister, who is known to be a close friend of Senator Escudero, also attended the service. ■

17 FRIDAY AUGUST 24, 2012

Church backs tactics to delay RH bill

BY KRISTINE L. ALAVE and LEILA B. SALAVERRIA

ROBERT’S Rules of Order will be the working bible in the Church-led effort to squash the reproductive health (RH) bill.

All the tactics contained in the handbook of parliamentary procedure will come in handy in the anti-RH initiative in the House of Representatives to derail passage of the bill, according to Fr. Melvin Castro, executive director of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines–Episcopal Commission on Family and Life.

“We support them,” Castro said in an interview of congressmen on the opposition front line in the second stage of the legislative process on the bill—the period of amendments— after Aquino administration allies on Aug. 6 voted to end the debate on the population control measure.

“It’s not delaying. It’s about using existing parliamentary procedures

News-Phils because this has plenty of loopholes,” he said. “We foresee that this period of amendment, hopefully, will take a while.”

Speaker Feliciano Belmonte told the INQUIRER over the weekend he was exploring the possibility of setting a timetable for the period of amendments so that the measure could be put to a vote on the plenary once and for all.

Opponents of the bill in the last two sessions succeeded in preventing the introduction of alterations.

Cagayan de Oro Rep. Rufus Rodriguez, who is against the RH bill, said the opposition would not hesitate to question the quorum during the parliamentary discussions.

Castro expressed wariness at Belmonte’s move to short-circuit the legislative process. “We have been burned by that,” he said, noting that the House leadership did not follow its own rules on Aug. 6, when it held a surprise vote to end the debate on the bill.

Blitzkrieg move Bishops said the vote, earlier scheduled on Aug. 7, was reminiscent of the blitzkrieg fashion in which 188 congressmen impeached then Chief Justice Renato Corona, who was subsequently removed.

“They want to railroad this,” Castro said.

The Church has been leading the campaign against the bill since it was proposed a decade ago, maintaining that it would propagate a culture of premarital and permissive sex.

If approved, the RH bill will allow the use of government funds and facilities to provide family planning methods. It will also allow information on reproductive health and the inclusion of sex education in schools.

In a statement , Albay Rep. Edcel Lagman, the main proponent of the bill, suggested that the House give the measure the same priority as the national budget.

He said the RH bill complemented the budget bill regarding social services, risk management during disasters and climate change mitigation and adaptation.

“Appropriations are eroded by a huge population growth rate,” Lagman said.

“Consequently, both the budget and RH bills must be prioritized for passage.”

Echoing Mr. Aquino’s position in his State of the Nation Address last month, Lagman said the constantly growing budget would not be enough for the country’s needs if Filipinos would not be given the chance to determine the number and spacing of their children.

Impact on quality education The lack of adequate classrooms, teachers and textbooks will impact on quality education as the number of enrollees grow and outpace the education budget, he warned.

Lagman said the government would continue to spend more for healthcare if maternal and infant morbidity and mortality would continue to rise because of a lack of access, especially of those from the marginalized sectors, to reproductive health information and services.

Reproductive health services bring down the number of fatal high-risk pregnancies and would save the government millions of pesos in maternal care costs, Lagman added, saying that he based his statement on studies from the Guttmacher Institute and Likhaan Center for Women’s Health.

Lagman said unemployment and underemployment would continue to be a problem even if funds were allocated for job generation, because entrants to the manpower pool would remain high.

Allocations to protect the environment and deal with climate change would also be inadequate if the ecology falls prey to the unabated rise in population, he said. ■

News-Phils

FRIDAY AUGUST 24, 2012 18

‘Helen’ exits; public told to stay alert for monsoon rains

BY DJ YAP Philippine Daily Inquirer

TYPHOON “Helen” is out but rains remain a threat to people living in low-lying and mountainous areas.

The weather bureau asked the public to remain watchful of rains and winds brought by the storm-enhanced southwest monsoon.

The Philippine Atmospheric, Geophysical and Astronomical Services Administration (Pagasa) lowered all public storm signals nationwide as Helen exited the country.

Pagasa reissued its warning to residents living in low-lying and mountainous areas affected by the southwest monsoon for possible flash floods and landslides.

The storm’s exit offered some relief for millions of people struggling to recover from a brutal few weeks of monsoon rains that claimed 109 lives.

However, civil defense chief Benito Ramos said floods could still hit the Cagayan River basin, a farming region of more than 2 million people as runoff from storm-induced rains descend from surrounding mountain ranges.

“The storm is gone but we’re still on red alert. In 10 hours we’d know how much water would descend on Cagayan River,” Ramos said.

Helen strengthened into a typhoon and was heading toward the coast of southern China west of Hong Kong.

The storm swept across Luzon, dumping heavy rain on the Cagayan basin and other areas in the north, leading to the deaths of four people.

But the storm also caused more bad weather in other parts of Luzon, including Metro Manila and surrounding farming regions where an intense deluge triggered by another storm caused devastating floods .

105 killed Those floods, which came after nearly a fortnight of relentless rain that soaked the ground and filled rivers, killed at least 105 people, according to the government’s latest tally.

The government’s National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council said it was still providing relief aid to nearly a million people adversely affected by ’s floods, including more than 216,000 at evacuation centers.

towns of Palanan and Maconacon had returned to their houses after the storm passed.

The 360-megawatt Magat Dam’s gates in Ramon town remained closed after rains stopped in the province.

Floods that persisted in the farming provinces surrounding Manila had started to recede, and the number of people in evacuation centers was about half the peak over the weekend.

Helen was spotted at 290 kilometers west northwest of Laoag City, Pagasa said.

The storm was still packing maximum sustained winds of 85 kph near the center and gustiness of up to 100 kph, and was forecast to move west northwest at a speed of 24 kph.

Helen should already be well out of the Philippine area of responsibility at 530 km west northwest of Laoag City, Pagasa said in an advisory.

Pagasa said the western section of Luzon would experience occasional to frequent rains because of the monsoon, while Mindanao would have mostly cloudy skies with scattered rain showers and thunderstorms.

The rest of the country will be partly cloudy to cloudy with isolated rain showers or thunderstorms, it said.

Moderate to strong winds blowing from the southwest will prevail over Luzon and its coastal waters will be moderate to rough. Elsewhere, winds will be light to moderate coming from the south with slight to moderate seas.

Ramos said he expected most people would be able to return to their flood-damaged homes .

Homes destroyed But Ramos said more than 12,000 families, or about 60,000 people, had lost their homes completely and would need temporary shelters for a longer period.

Anna Lindenfors, country head for aid group Save the Children, warned that the millions of people affected by the floods faced months of miserable and dangerous conditions either inside or outside evacuation centers.

“The need is massive and urgent— millions of people are suffering the miserable consequences of these floods and we must try to reach them before the rains hit again,” she said in a statement.

Damage to crops In Cagayan province, the Provincial Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council (PDRRMC) reported that at least P500-million worth of unhusked rice and corn were destroyed by floods.

In Isabela province, agriculturist Danilo Tumamao said rains dumped

by Helen in the past two days did not leave widespread destruction to farms and crops in the province, except in about 10 hectares of corn farms in San Pablo, Santa Maria, Cabagan, San Agustin and Palanan towns, and Ilagan City.

Governor Faustino Dy III said the 500 villagers in the eastern coastal

Floors recede In La Union province, floodwaters in 169 villages in 12 towns and one city started receding.

Provincial officials said 5,135 people, who evacuated as floodwaters rose, returned home.

Reports from La Union officials said the floods destroyed P2.1 million worth of palay and vegetables in the province.

Pio Adamor Dagang, provincial information officer, said bangus and tilapia fingerlings in the province’s hatchery were washed away by floods.

In Ilocos Norte province, officials and residents in Paoay town, which was hit hard by Helen, started removing heaps of trash and debris on a creek that caused floodwaters to swamp two villages at the height of the storm.

In Central Luzon, the storm spared Aurora as only mild rains occurred, said engineer Elson Egargue, head of the PDRRMC in Aurora.

In Pampanga province, the number of flooded villages decreased from 395 to 182. Nearly half a million residents live in the flooded communities.

These villages remained flooded as rainwater from Nueva Ecija and sections of Sierra Madre in Central Luzon started flowing downstream of the Pampanga River, said Joel Mapiles, provincial information officer.

Neck-deep in Masantol Eight coastal villages in Masantol town, which faces Manila Bay, are submerged in neck-deep water.

Residents have made temporary shelters on top of a dike in the town while those in Barangay Sagrada Familia took refuge in an evacuation center built beside the dike.

Classes in the second district towns of Guagua, Lubao, Sasmuan, Sta. Rita, Porac and Florida blanca after Pampanga Governor Lilia Pineda lifted the alert for lahar flows from the damming of rainwater in Porac’s upland areas due to landslides. ■

19 FRIDAY AUGUST 24, 2012

News-Phils

SC axes interpreter who failed to declare her kids

BY CHRISTINE O. AVENDAÑO Philippine Daily Inquirer

THE SUPREME Court has dismissed a court interpreter based in Cebu City for dishonesty and falsification of an official document when she failed to declare in her personal data sheet (PDS) that she had three children.

In a 10-page decision dated Aug. 10, the high court ordered the dismissal of Marilyn Avila, court interpreter in a Cebu city municipal trial court, as well as the cancellation of her government eligibility and the forfeiture of her benefits, except for accrued leave credits.

She was also barred from ever working for the government again.

High employee standards “Employment in the judiciary demands the highest level of responsibility, integrity, loyalty and efficiency from its personnel... By her acts of dishonesty and falsification of an official document, (Avila) has failed to measure up to the high and exacting standards set for judicial employees, and must, therefore, be dismissed from the service,” said the high court.

Avila’s dismissal stemmed from a complaint filed by her former live-in partner, Manolito Villordon, before the Office of the Court Administrator in October 2008, where he claimed she had falsified information in her PDS, including her nondeclaration of her three children out of wedlock from another relationship.

An investigation by Cebu City MTC Executive Judge Oscar Andrino showed that aside from Avila’s omission of the names of her three daughters in her PDS, she also failed to declare that a complaint of physical injuries had been filed against her by Villordon’s present partner, Marilyn Caballero, after an altercation in January 2009. Avila had also filed a case against Villordon after that incident.

Not under custody In her defense, Avila said Villordon’s charges came after she ended their relationship when she became a court interpreter. She also claimed she did not declare her children in her PDS because they were not under her custody but were living with her parents. She added that she withheld that information upon the advice of a friend who had pointed out

that the birth certificates of her children were not available.

Avila said she did not cause any injury to the government by her action.

On March 2011, the high court received a letter from complainant Villordon, saying he was no longer interested in pursuing his complaint and that he had only filed it out of anger. He also said he had found the recommendation for Avila’s dismissal both “inhuman” and “unjust.”

But the high court agreed with Andrino’s recommendations, noting that Avila’s explanations were “mere excuses that should not be given credence.”

It pointed out that Avila had intended to be dishonest about her children’s existence because she filed her PDS twice that year and failed to name them both times.

“Whatever respondents’ reasons may be, the fact remains that the respondent filled out and signed her PDS fully aware that she had omitted the names of her three children. She was fully aware that the information she supplied was not ‘true, correct and complete,’ and yet she declared under oath that it is,” the court said. ■

2 fugitives fall

BY JOCELYN R. UY Philippine Daily Inquirer

THE BUREAU of Immigration (BI) yesterday said its agents have arrested two fugitives—an American and a South Korean—in separate operations in Metro Manila. They are now detained while awaiting deportation.

Immigration Commissioner Ricardo David Jr. yesterday identified the American fugitive as Micah Wagner, 23, accused of theft and burglary and the South Korean as Kim Chong Rok, 37, a convicted swindler.

The two were already being detained at the BI detention facility in Bicutan, Taguig, as the agency worked on their deportation to their respective countries, said the BI chief.

David said the foreigners were arrested in separate operations conducted by members of the BI’s fugitive search unit early this month.

The arresting agents were armed with mission orders which he had issued at the request of the embassies of US and South Korea. ■

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News-Phils

FRIDAY AUGUST 24, 2012 20

Church goes after Ateneo professors for heresy

BY KRISTINE L. ALAVE PHILIPPINE DAILY INQUIRER

IT’S NOT exactly an inquisition but 159 members of the Ateneo de Manila University faculty may face investigation for heresy, and sacked— not excommunicated—if found guilty.

Bishop Leandro Medroso, in an interview over Churchrun Radio Veritas yesterday, called for an investigation of the Ateneo faculty members who signed a statement declaring support for the controversial reproductive health (RH) bill being pushed by the Aquino administration in Congress.

Medroso, the permanent council member of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines (CBCP) and chair of the Episcopal Commission on Canon Law, said the university should make sure that the teachers who endorsed House Bill No. 4244 were not teaching concepts against Church laws.

“That has to be investigated. The first principle of Canon law about this matter is that we don’t allow teaching that which is against the official teachings of the Church. Now, if there is somebody who is giving

instructions against the teachings of the Church, then they have to investigate immediately,” Medroso said.

Those found guilty of teaching students concepts contrary to Church teachings could be fired, he said.

Church officials have previously raised the possibility of excommunication for Catholics espousing population control.

Ateneo officials were not available for comment yesterday, a holiday.

Recently, Archbishop Jose Palma of Cebu, the current CBCP president, warned Catholic schools and teachers to toe the line or end up in hot water.

“They should be consistent and true to the nature of their calling, which is to enlighten and teach the Catholic doctrine. They should realize how important their vocation and their mission is, which is of course to impart the Catholic teaching,” Palma said.

The CBCP acknowledges that there are some differences in the beliefs of teachers and Church teachings on topics like reproductive health. The group said that while it respected academic freedom in colleges and universities, Catholic institutions should adhere to Church laws.

No lifting “There is no official lifting yet In issuing the statement of support, of the socalled blacklist,” said Ateneo’s faculty members said the Corpuz.

He added that dialogues with RH bill would provide much-needed Hong Kong executives were maternal and infant health care to continuing with Philippine all Filipinos regardless of religious consulate officials. The DOT has beliefs.

“The reality is, despite the also been inviting Hong Kong Philippines being predominantly officials for familiarization tours Catholic, the majority of Filipinos of the Philippines.

Just two months ago, the tourism want the full range of family planning agency “informally invited” services, including ‘artificial’ some officials of the Hong Kong contraception,” they said.

“Our reflected and collective Tourism Board for a two to threeappraisal of the Responsible day visit to Manila, Corpuz Parenthood, Reproductive Health and disclosed.

Early this year, the DOT also met Population and Development Bill is with the Travel Industry Council that it is a vital piece of legislation of Hong Kong (TICHK) in a bid that needs to be passed urgently,” the to convince it that the country was paper said.

The Guidon, Ateneo’s student safe for tourists.

The TICHK is an influential newspaper, said it was not the first umbrella organization of travel time that its professors had released a statement endorsing the bill, which agencies in Hong Kong, the has been pending for more than a counterpart of the Philippine and the decade. The first statement was issued Tourism Authority Philippine Tour Operators in 2008, with 66 signatories.

Association.

The Guidon said another statement The DOT also invited leaders of followed in 2011, signed by more than 200 faculty members from Ateneo and selected travel agencies in Hong Kong for a familiarization tour the University of the Philippines. ■ late last year.

Slight hike in HK tourist arrivals noted

BY BY JOCELYN R. UY Philippine Daily Inquirer

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THE DEPARTMENT of Tourism has observed a slight increase in the number of Hong Kong tourists visiting the Philippines despite a “black travel” advisory issued against the country two years ago.

“The decline has been arrested,” said Daniel Corpuz, undersecretary for tourism planning and promotions in an interview with reporters on the sidelines of a national travel exhibit recently held in Pasay City.

Latest records showed the number of visitors from Hong Kong jumped by two percent in the first semester of this year from the 138,000 arrivals recorded during the same period of last year, according to Corpuz.

He said the government, including the DOT, continues to appeal to Hong Kong executives to lift the travel ban, which was issued two years ago after a bungled rescue of Hong Kong tourists held hostage in a bus resulted in the deaths of eight tourists.

Hostage incident Hong Kong put the Philippines on its travel blacklist in reaction to the botched rescue on Aug. 23, 2010, of Hong Kong tourists held hostage by a disgruntled Manila police officer. The former policeman, Rolando Mendoza, held the busload of tourists hostage for 10 hours at Rizal Park in a desperate attempt to get his job back. A breakdown in negotiations led Mendoza to fire shots in the bus, killing eight tourists and injuring many others.

Mendoza was eventually killed by a police sniper.

Corpuz said they were generally optimistic that arrivals from all markets, including Hong Kong, would continue to increase.

“Our projections show all markets will increase in varying degrees but we have to have massive improvement and expansion of our international gateways—that means airports in Puerto Princesa, Tagbilaran, Kalibo as well as Clark,” said Corpuz.

He also noted that in order to exceed targets, there was also a need to boost the frequency of routes, increase airline seats and offer new tourism packages to potential visitors. ■

21 FRIDAY AUGUST 24, 2012

Immigration suspects marriage of 60-year-old man with Filipina a fraud

BY KRISTINE L. ALAVE PHILIPPINE DAILY INQUIRER

IT HAS been more than three years of waiting, and 60-year-old Carwin Miltimore still cannot bring his wife to his own country.

Immigration officials are keeping Miltimore’s Filipina wife at bay because they are skeptical about the authenticity of Miltimore’s marriage and suspect that it is a fraud.

The immigration appeal tribunal earlier ruled in Miltimore’s favor; however, immigration officials are now requesting the court to overturn its decision and order a new hearing because Miltimore’s wife was not present during the previous hearing.

“The wait has been very frustrating,” Miltimore said.

On his end, the truck driver insisted that his wife married him for love and not merely to have the opportunity to come to Canada.

“I’m 100 per cent sure that I’m not being duped. I’m not an idiot,” he said.

Throughout the three years that they have been waiting for the court’s the decision, Miltimore and his wife have been communicating consistently through online video chats and spending time together, though for only a few weeks in a year.

“When you talk to someone online every day for hours, you can see in their eyes and by the way they speak that they love you,” he said.

Miltimore met his 22-year-old wife, Marife Matangcas Miltimore, in an Asian dating site and met her in person in April 2008. After getting married in February 2009 in the Philippines, Miltimore applied for sponsorship but was denied due to the big age difference between him and his wife.

Miltmore said, “I understand that it would be strange to see a man my age walking down the street here with a woman of her age, but in the Philippines it’s not unusual.”

Raj Sharma, the immigration lawyer who represents Miltimore, said that

Bank of Canada governor apologizes for ‘Asian’ banknote controversy

BY DEAN BEEBY THE CANADIAN PRESS

OTTAWA - Bank of Canada governor Mark Carney apologized Monday for the way the image of an Asian woman was removed from the initial design for new $100 banknotes.

The bank handled the issue poorly, Carney said in a statement. ``I apologize to those who were offended - the Bank’s handling of the issue did not meet the standards Canadians justifiably expect of us,’’ the statement said. ``Our banknotes belong to all Canadians, and the work we do at the bank is for all Canadians.’’

The central bank came under fire last week when The Canadian Press revealed that the image of an Asian woman had been removed from the original design after some focus groups raised questions about her ethnicity.

Some of the focus participants said the Asian woman did not represent Canada, while others said other ethnic groups should be shown as well.

The groups were based in Calgary, Toronto, Montreal and Fredericton; many in Toronto approved of the use of an Asian woman as a symbol of Canadian multiculturalism.

In the end, an image of a Caucasianlooking woman was substituted in a move a bank spokesman said was to restore ``neutral ethnicity.’’

The original design never went into circulation.

Spokespersons for the Chinese Canadian National Council initially called the move ``racist,’’ and demanded the bank change its policies to stop ``erasing’’ visible minorities from Canada’s money.

On Monday, Carney called Victor Wong, the executive director of the Toronto-based council, to discuss the apology.

recent features of high profile cases like Miltimore’s have created a false impression that the number of fraudulent marriages is increasing.

In 2010, out of 46,300 applications for permanent

residence for partners and spouses, about 7,408 were declined based on face-to-face interviews.

The federal government’s appeal on Miltimore’s case is set to be heard on August 27, 2012. ■

``This is a win-win,’’ Wong said, noting that the council appreciated his statement. ``I had a brief and cordial telephone conversation with Governor Carney ... and CCNC has offered to give input into the Bank of Canada review process.’’

Carney’s statement did not clarify whether the central bank intends to change its banknote policies to allow so-called ethnic groups or visible minorities to appear on Canada’s currency.

He acknowledged that an early design for the new $100 polymer banknote, issued last November, was a ``’Photoshopped’ image based on an original photograph of a South Asian woman looking through a microscope.’’

That appears to contradict a statement by bank spokesman Jeremy Harrison last week that the original image ``was not designed or intended to be a person of particular ethnic origin.’’

Carney said while that image was shown to eight focus groups in 2009, the bank was already changing it to ensure it did not resemble an actual

person - suggesting the focus-group input had no bearing on the decision.

The bank has declined to say what changes it made to the image. Critics have said the Caucasian-looking woman does not have ``neutral ethnicity,’’ as the bank claims, but merely represents the dominant group in Canada.

A bank spokeswoman again refused a request by The Canadian Press for a copy of the original image, saying the bank does not release rejected designs.

A marketing professor of Asian heritage, Ken Wong of Queen’s University in Kingston, Ont., said Carney had no choice but to apologize given the public outcry. ``The person on the bill is a Canadian regardless of ethnicity; it (the image) should never have been changed,’’ Wong said. ``If Carney needs to apologize for anything, it is for being overly sensitive to political correctness run amok.’’

Wong said the bank should leave images of people off all bills, except for historic figures such as prime ministers. ■

23 FRIDAY AUGUST 24, 2012

BY MAYOR GREGOR ROBERTSON

Canada News

More Homes, More Affordability for all Vancouverites

WORD FROM THE MAYOR WHILE Vancouver continues to rank as one of the most liveable cities in the world, housing affordability continues to be a key issue for many people, especially newcomers from countries such as the Philippines who are seeking to build a better life here.

Tackling the issue of affordability is a priority and we have taken several steps at the municipal level to take action. In August, the City of Vancouver announced that it is seeking proposals to build an estimated 500 new units of affordable housing on six City-owned sites, the latest step to have more affordable rental housing built in Vancouver.

The City has launched More Homes, More Affordability, a program that seeks creativity and innovation through partnerships to build below-market housing which will be operated through a long-term land lease from the City.

The program aims to move the city closer to its housing targets as set out in the City’s 10-year Affordable Housing and Homelessness strategy, and aligns with the policy recommendations from

BY LINDA REID

BY LINDA REID

the Mayor’s Task Force on Housing Affordability.

Increasing affordable housing options in Vancouver is a top priority for this council, and this is our latest step to get affordable housing built now. Ensuring that Vancouver has affordable housing is crucial to building an inclusive, diverse city that supports local jobs and investment, limits sprawl, and creates opportunity for people of all ages.

Six sites have been identified in Kensington-Cedar Cottage and Killarney for the potential development

of about 500 new rental units, with targeted completion for the end of 2015. The land is being made available for redevelopment to successful consortia of not-for-profit and private sector applicant teams in exchange for a nominal, long-term ground lease.

We need a wide range of new housing in Vancouver to address our affordability crisis. The housing we want to produce through More Homes, More Affordability is targeted to people who can only afford rents which are below the current market levels.

Canada News

The Mayor’s Task Force on Housing Affordability has been working for months to examine conditions that exist in Vancouver which may act as barriers to the creation of affordable housing and the steps necessary to protect existing affordable housing, and to identify opportunities for increasing affordable housing.

The Task Force is charged with two main objectives: prioritizing affordability for those households with low to moderate incomes (which currently range from $21,500 to $86,500); and developing innovative recommendations from an evidence-base that will help Vancouver become a more sustainable, diverse, and affordable city; The Task Force will deliver its final report to Council in the fall and using the tools available at the municipal level we will continue to take action to tackle the affordability crisis in our city. ■ Gregor Robertson is the Mayor of Vancouver. Twitter @MayorGregor @VanMayorsOffice.

For more information, please visit www.

WEDNESDAY JULY mayorofvancouver.ca . 18, 2012 24

Great Cities of the World have Great Parks

THE REID REPORT THE REID REPORT THE GREAT cities of the world have great parks; London and Hyde Park, Boston and the Boston Public Gardens, Paris and Jardin de Tuileries, New York and Central Park, Vancouver and Stanley Park. All of these parks are world renowned for family spacessome with walking paths six metres across to accommodate walkers, MOST would probably strollers,PEOPLE dancers, runners.

Parks that agree therecities are two mainactivities goals definethat their include for educating our young people.

The for all seasons, from picnickers to kite goals are to provide them with an flyers, dog walkers, little leaguers, education that will open their minds strollers, observers, frisbee tossers, and give them the skills to open doors and huge informal soccer matches… for a secure future. Too often these Richmond has the opportunity to add a broad, critical goals become lost. great park to a fine collection of parks.

If we look a little more closely at those What makes a park great? Memorial two goals, they are easier to define gardens, outdoor markets, volleyball than to achieve. Giving students open games, drumming circles, family Barminds means instilling the tolerance b-ques, performances, pedal boats, and acceptance to live in a diverse society. It also means opening their minds to the challenging world they

Open Doors, Open Minds: Goals for Education

will be entering upon graduation.

We all have a challenge ahead of This brings us to the question of Students should leave school with a us in meeting this pledge to our responsibility.

On average in Canada, clear understanding of the increasing a student spends about 900 hours a year students.

Across Canada, youth complex and competitive world they unemployment is double the national in class. That’s less than 10 percent are entering. They should be under average. Added to this is the problem of their time on an annual basis. The no illusions. of youth “underemployment”, other 90 percent is spent with parents, That awareness connects directly to the community. meaning educated theyouth goal of giving them the skills to hostels, multiple entrances, felt with the soul.” – young Enrique people Penalosa guardians, gardens, and blueberries, fish ponds… working in jobs far below their It is therefore to thinkbelieve that open doors. one level, that means grand sportOn facilities, fireworks, opera, I want the Garden City lands to be The people unrealistic of Richmond schools alone can deliver on the twin educational levels, often part-time. ensuing that jazz they have the fundamental libraries, festivals, outdoor film Richmond’s next great park. I will be in green space and all this could be Compounding this is the fact that one goals of open doors and open minds. abilities to succeed in a global economy. screenings … looking for a commitment to parkland, accomplished within the Agricultural We all share responsibility for this of the largest areas of post-secondary Unlike previous generations, they will “Public space is for living, doing, green space, orchards, memorial Land Reserve. This could be a legacy enrollment growth is among special collective challenge. We need to talk compete jobs playing. with graduates from be gardens, rows of maple trees, public of enormous kissing forand It can’t magnitude. After all, it is needs students. about it. n dozens of countries. measured with economics; it must be space, amenity buildings, community about who comes after us.■ But the “open door” skill set also includes the tools to be active, informed citizens.

DEBTS, BILLS, PENALTIES, FEES…

World News

FRIDAY AUGUST 24, 2012 24

The Mr. Bigs of wildlife trafficking profit from Asia’s lax laws,corruption and sheer size

BY DENIS D. GRAY THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

BANGKOK, Thailand - Squealing tiger cubs stuffed into carry-on bags. Luggage packed with hundreds of squirming tortoises, elephant tusks, even water dragons and American paddlefish. Officials at Thailand’s gateway airport proudly tick off the illegally trafficked wildlife they have seized over the past two years.

But Thai and foreign law enforcement officers tell another story:Officials working-hand-in-hand with traffickers ensure thatother shipments through Suvarnabhumi International Airport are whisked off before they even reach customs inspection.

It’s a murky mix. A 10-fold increase in wildlife law enforcement actions, including seizures, has been reported in the past six years in Southeast Asia. Yet, the trade’s Mr. Bigs, masterful in taking advantage of pervasive corruption, appear immune to arrest and continue to orchestrate the decimation of wildlife in Thailand, the region and beyond.

And Southeast Asia’s honest cops don’t have it easy. ``It is very difficult for me. I have to sit among people who are both good and some who are corrupt, says Chanvut Vajrabukka, a retired police general. ‘’If I say, ‘You have to go out and arrest that target,’ some in the room may well warn them,’`` says Chanvut, who now advises ASEAN-WEN, the regional wildlife enforcement network.

Several kingpins, says wildlife activist Steven Galster, have recently been confronted by authorities, ``but in the end, good uniforms are running into, and often stopped by bad uniforms. It’s like a bad Hollywood cop movie. ``Most high-level traffickers remain untouched and continue to replace arrested underlings with new ones,’’ says Galster, who works for the FREELAND Foundation, an anti-trafficking group.

Galster, who earlier worked undercover in Asia and elsewhere, heaps praise on the region’s dedicated, honest officers because they persevere knowing they could be sidelined for their efforts.

Recently, Lt. Col. Adtaphon Sudsai, a highly regarded, outspoken officer, was instructed to lay off what had seemed an open-and-shut case he cracked four years ago when he penetrated a gang along theMekong River smuggling pangolin.

This led him to Mrs. Daoreung Chaimas, alleged by conservation groups to be one of Southeast Asia’s biggest tiger dealers. Despite being arrested twice, having her own assistants testify against her and DNA testing that showed two cubs were not offsprings from zoo-bred parents as she claimed, Daoreung remains free and the case may never go to the prosecutor’s office.

Tiger cubs are illegally exported to Thailand in carry-on bags.

``Her husband has been exercising his influence,’’ says Adtaphon,referring to her police officer spouse. ``It seems that no policeman wants to get involved with this case.’’ The day the officer went to arrest her the second time, his transfer to another post was announced. ``Maybe it was a coincidence,’’ the colonel says.

In another not uncommon case, a former Thai police officer who tried to crack down on traders at Bangkok’s vast Chatuchak Market got a visit from a senior police general who told him to ``chill it or get removed.’’ ``I admit that in many cases, I cannot move against the big guys,’’ Chanvut, the retired general, notes. ``The syndicates like all organized crime are built like a pyramid.

We can capture the small guys but at the top they have money, the best lawyers, protection. What are we going to do?’’

Chanvut’s problems are shared by others in Southeast Asia, the prime funnel for wildlife destined for the world’s No. 1 consumer - China - where many animal parts are consumed in the belief they have medicinal or aphrodisiacal properties.

Most recently, a torrent of rhino horn and elephant tusks has poured through it from Africa, which suffers the greatest slaughter of these two endangered animals in decades.

Vietnam was singled out last month by the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) as the top destination country for the highlyprized rhino horn.

Tens of thousands of birds, mostly parrots and cockatoos plucked from the wild, are being imported from the Solomon Islands into Singapore, often touted as one of Asia’s least corrupt nations, in violation of CITES, the international convention on wildlife trade.

According to TRAFFIC, the international body monitoring wildlife trade, the imported birds are listed as captive-bred, even though

it’s widely known that the Pacific Ocean islands have virtually no breeding facilities.

Communist Laos continues to harbour Vixay Keosavang, identified as one of the region’s half dozen Mr. Bigs, who has been linked by the South African press to a rhino smuggling ring. The 54-year-old former soldier and provincial official is reported to have close ties to senior government officials in Laos and Vietnam.

Thai and foreign enforcement agents, who insist on anonymity since most work undercover, say they have accumulated unprecedented detailsof the gangs, which are increasingly linked to drug and human trafficking syndicates.

They say a key Thai smuggler, who runs a shipping company, has a gamut of law enforcement officers in his pocket, allowing him to traffic rhino horns, ivory and tiger parts to China. He frequently entertains his facilitators at a restaurant in his office building.

According to the agents, Chinese buyers, informed of incoming shipments, fly to Bangkok, staying at hotels pinpointed by the agents around the Chatuchak Market, where endangered species are openly sold. There they seal deals with known middlemen and freight operators.

The sources say that when they report such investigations seizures are either made for ``public relations,’’ sink into a ``black hole’’ - or the information is leaked to the wrongdoers.

Such a tip-off from someone at Bangkok airport customs allowed a trafficker to stop shipment of a live giraffe with powdered rhino horn believed to be implanted in its vagina. ``The 100,000 passengers moving through this airport from around the world everyday are oblivious to the fact that they are standing in one of the world’s hottest wildlife trafficking zones,’’ says Galster.

Officials interviewed at the airport,

one of Asia’s busiest, acknowledge corruption exists, but downplay its extent and say measures are being taken to root it out.

Chanvut says corruption is not the sole culprit, pointing out the multiple agencies which often don’t co-operate or share information. Each with a role at Bangkok’s airport, are the police, national parks department, customs, immigration, the military and CITES, which regulates international trade in endangered species.

With poor communication between police and immigration, for example, a trader whose passport has been seized at the airport can obtain a forged one and slip across a land border a few days later.

Those arrested frequently abscond by paying bribes or are fined and the case closed without further investigation. ``Controlled delivery’’ - effectively penetrating networks by allowing illicit cargo to pass through to its destination - is rare.

Thailand’s decades-old wildlife law also awaits revision and the closing of loopholes, such as the lack of protection for African elephants, and far stiffer penalties. ``The bottom line is that if wildlife traffickers are not treated as serious criminals in Southeast Asia we are just going to lose more wildlife,’’ says Chris Shepherd, TRAFFIC’s Southeast Asia deputy director. ``How often is anyone arrested? They just run off, they must be the fastest people on Earth.’’

Chalida Phungravee, who heads the cargo customs bureau at Suvarnabhumi, says just the sheer scale makes her job difficult. The airport each year handles 45 million passengers and 3 million tons of cargo, only some 3 per cent of which is X-rayed on arrival. The main customs warehouse is the size of 27 football fields.

But seizures are made, she said, including boxes of tusks - the remnants of some 50 felled elephants - aboard a recent Kenya Airlines flight declared as handicrafts and addressed to a nonexistent company. ``We have cut down a lot on corruption.

It still exists but remains minimal,’’ she said, citing recent computerization which has created a space - dubbed ``the Green Line’’ - between customs officials, cargo and traffickers.

Galster says unlike the past, traffickers are no longer guaranteed safe passage, describing a daily battle at Suvarnabhumi with ``undercover officers monitoring corrupt ones and smugglers trying to outwit them all.’’

Such increased enforcement efforts in the region have slowed decimation of endangered species, he says, ``but there is still a crash going on. If corruption is not tackled soon, you can say goodbye to Asia’s tigers, elephants and a whole host of other animals.’’ ■

25 FRIDAY AUGUST 24, 2012

Immigration

To the Rescue Innovator a new immigrant in Canada

Briones during his interview with ANC’s Lexi Schulze

NO STRANGER to occasional flash floods, earthquakes and typhoons, seasoned survivors like Filipinos can appreciate the convenience of a Rescue72 vest bag when calamity strikes.

This new survival kit on the market is the work of Danvic Briones, an exhibiting artist behind the Lefthand Graphics design firm who found himself at the forefront of emergency preparedness as an innovator.

“The idea is for every person to be self-reliant even in an emergency or a disaster,” according to Briones, who came up with the timely innovation after soldiering through Typhoon Ondoy in 2009 and seeing the damage aired on the news. He adds, “Before Ondoy, our family already had a 72hour bag prepared at home, but it was only a simple backpack.”

That idea has come a long way since then, eventually evolving into a multi-purpose vest which he calls “Personal Rescue Device”(PRD for short) that is not only a handy emergency bag but also a flotation device for protection. According to Briones, “I always ask myself, what will an average person need for three days that will help him survive?”

A single Rescue72 PRD vest is wrought from fire- and waterresistant 420D nylon, sturdy enough to carry over 50 lbs for the individual wearer. Its thoughtful design includes a rain hood, tube tent, whistle, strobe lights and

reflectors to help one weather the next 72 hours of a crisis—hopefully long enough for rescue workers to arrive.

The Rescue72 PRD vest also comes with essentials such as first aid, personal hygiene and tool kits. Equipped with two large compartments on the back and four smaller ones along the front, this personal rescue device can be stocked with necessities like clothes, food, medicine and even a phone. Liquid compartments for up to a liter of water are found on either side. The packs modular webbing also allows all these pockets to be adjusted and moved for the wearer’s comfort.

Briones advised that the vest must be worn before putting in supplies.

A zipper enclosure and snaps make for a secure fit. Until necessary, the vest can also be hung by its strap for convenient storage and access.

One of Rescue72’s biggest hurdles was finding a manufacturer who shared Briones’ vision. Garment and bag producers alike turned down the concept and claimed it was too complex or unprofitable.

“That did not discourage me because at the back of my mind, I knew I would find someone who believed in what I was trying to do,” he said. After two years, a dozen prototypes, four suppliers and funds out of his own pocket, the final product was unveiled.

Today, Rescue72 has its eye on local government units as well as Filipino families, to provide them some much-needed peace of mind amidst recent natural and man-made disasters.

The message is preparedness According to Briones, “The product is relevant because of the reality of climate change. Disasters – stronger typhoons, frequent earthquakes, tsunamis – plague the present world and it seems there are more and more happening at the present time.

The message is preparedness and the vest gives that - it gives a person better chances of survival during disasters, whether natural or manmade because it contains the basics - food, clothing, shelter (the tent).

The plus factor is that it floats.

There is a study that land masses are disappearing at least some 2 cm per year because of the melting ice caps. Flooding is a reality and it is said to be the ultimate killer because the earth is three-fourths water. It is, in this sense, inevitable. With the vest, a person increases his chances to save himself, and he is given the chance to save another person.

And because he is prepared, he has presence of mind. When he has presence of mind, he commits less mistakes so hopefully, he will be alive when the rescuers come.”

The Rescue72 PRD vests have already found clients in NGOs, who

supply them to their rapid response and relief teams, and private firms looking to augment their disaster risk reduction strategies.

Apart from the vest, a more compact device called the Rescue72 Everyday Carry can be placed conveniently in one’s car or office.

A Rescue72 PRD vest to fit children and babies and other emergency preparedness products like Rescue72 Travel Ark, Rescue72 utility knives and Rescue72 Packet series are also in development and may already hit store shelves within the year.

Information on pricing and purchasing of the Rescue72 PRD vest and other products is available via www.rescue72.com. Philippine clients can email Mon Maranan at mon@rescue72.com or 0917-9052084. North American clients can email Briones, who is now based in Canada, via danvic@rescue72.com or (604) 358-0533. ■

Immigration

FRIDAY AUGUST 24, 2012 26

Services of POLO in Vancouver Understanding the Philippine Overseas Labor Office

THE PHILIPPINE Overseas Labor Office (POLO) is the operating arm of the Philippine Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) overseas. The Overseas Workers’ Welfare Administration (OWWA) is an agency attached to the DOLE. Overseas, OWWA has Welfare Officers who are attached to POLO and are under the supervision of the Labor Attaché.

The POLO, on the other hand, is attached to the Philippine Embassy or the Philippine Consulate General. Under the principle of “One Country Team Approach” enunciated

in the Magna Carta for Filipino Overseas Workers, POLO and the PCG work as a team under the supervision of the Ambassador.

The following are some of the issues handled by POLO. Can a Filipino temporary worker who lost her job and want to go back to the Philippines request for POLO’s intervention to negotiate with the former employer who does not want to pay for her return airfare?

The POLO can try to talk to the employer but this is not effective as based on past experiences. This is especially true of employers of caregivers and those with small businesses. Perhaps from their point of view, POLO does not have the authority to be calling employers for some negotiations.

The Labor Standards Act clearly provides that Canadian government agencies such as the Employment Standard Branch have the authority to handle issues relating to employer-employee relationship and not some foreign government agencies like POLO. Under the circumstances, the most POLO can do is to put the non-responding employer under its “watch list” file which means, he/she cannot hire another Filipino

worker unless the issue with the previous employee has been resolved. POLO does not have the authority to compel the employers to come for negotiation or meeting. Only the Employment Standard Branch has that authority after the worker concerned shall have exhausted the remedies provided in the “self-help” kit. In situations like this, POLO assists the worker in responding to the “self-help” kit or access to the appropriate host government agency or refer him/her to POLO’s partner lawyers/immigration consultants and NGOs. However, institutional employers like those in oil and gas and construction industries do listen to POLO as it conveys the worker’s issue/s, and in many instances, the matter is resolved.

In Alberta, POLO advises Filipino workers faced with the problem described above to go to the Temporary Foreign Workers Advisory Office who will then call the employer following POLO’s informal arrangement with that Office.

What are the services provided by POLO in Vancouver?

Collection of OWWA membership fee is basically a function of OWWA itself through its Welfare Officer. In the absence of such a Welfare Officer, POLO accepts applications for membership and the corresponding fee.

POLO’s functions are wide ranging. Its significant functions include negotiating with the host government for a facilitative, orderly and ethical recruitment and deployment of workers, securing better terms and conditions for them, and strengthening workers’ protection and welfare. In the context of British Columbia, for instance, POLO negotiated with the Province for a “Memorandum of Understanding Regarding Cooperation in Human Resources Deployment and Development” which was signed in January 2008. POLO also negotiated for the same MOU with the Provinces of Alberta (October 2008), Saskatchewan (2010) and Manitoba.

Of late, POLO facilitated the formulation of a “Joint Communiqué on Areas of Mutual Benefits with Respect to Labor Mobility” between B.C. and the Philippine Department of Labor and Employment which was signed during the visit of Premier Christy Clark to the Philippines on May 19, 2012. It stipulates, among others, the parties’ “willingness to explore and, where mutually agreed, facilitate ways to strengthen their relations in education, training and cooperative projects which directly assists Filipino workers in meeting the requirements and standards necessary for entry into specific occupations in BC, through jointly planned activities and information sharing related to: education and training policies and regulations; educational exchange and training activities; and cooperative projects on training facility improvements”.

POLO likewise facilitated the creation of the Panels of Experts between B.C and the

Philippines to discuss issues related to labor mobility and skills recognition particularly among Filipino nurses and engineers/ technicians and technologies. The two parallel panels met in Manila in mid-May 2012. Follow-up meetings are expected. The end result hopefully will be the easing if not dismantling of barriers to labor mobility and the recognition of Filipino professionals.

[Similar Panel Discussions were facilitated

by POLO between the Saskatchewan Health Authorities and the Philippine Nursing Authorities in 2008].

As well, POLO co-organized with B.C’s Provincial Nominee Program the holding of Job Fairs in the Philippines the first being in October 2008 and the second in May 2012 in connection with the visit of the Premier.

During the height of recession which saw hundreds of Filipino workers being terminated by employers in the construction industry due to lack of projects, POLO negotiated with the employers for the extension of all possible assistance to the terminated workers including the release of all benefits and the seamless repatriation to the Philippines.

POLO makes and provides periodic labor market analysis and submits recommendations to the Philippine Embassy in Ottawa as inputs to bilateral meetings with the Federal government and to concerned Philippine government offices including Congress to guide them in policy formulation and/or as inputs in the legislation process.

On a day-to-day basis, POLO does verification of employment contracts complementing in the process Service Canada and assists workers in need either directly or referring them to partner NGOs, lawyers/immigration consultants and concerned host government and Philippine agencies.

In collaboration with partner Associations, POLO conducts seminars and workshops to educate Filipino workers on their rights and obligations, show them options and opportunities and how to transit from temporary work status to permanent residency and in general, how it is to live and work in Canada. A center piece of this activity is the Seminar on Reintegration to show the workers the various options available for them to re-integrate back into Philippine society should they decide or want to go home.

POLO also acts as Resource Speaker in Workers’ seminars and workshops organized by third parties.

POLO likewise negotiates with institutional employers like those in the oil and gas industry, service and construction industry for preference in the hiring of Filipino workers and for better terms for them.

The POLO may be reached at (604) 6825770 or polo_vancouver@dole.gov.ph and vancouverpolo@yahoo.ca. ■

27 FRIDAY AUGUST 24, 2012

Lotto’s millions are not enough to save one’s life

BY WILLIE JOSE THE PLAN was to build a huge bargain Lotto in the Philippines is becoming more and more popular these days specially after one guy from Luzon has won the P 741 M Grand Lotto jackpot recently.

Our kababayans back home are moving heaven and earth to buy these much-desired lottery tickets – and if they win— they think their money would be enough to give them a comfortable life, thereby freeing themselves from the shackles of poverty.

The millions of pesos jackpot is enticing every Pedro, Juan, and Maria, the young and old, to bear the long line-ups at lottery outlets to place their bets and even those people who have not played games of chance before are now joining the frenzy, some of them are saying “ who knows, this might be our lucky day and win the jackpot.”

To increase their chances of winning the lottery’s huge jackpot, some people tend to rely on the power of dreams, go to churches to ask the intercession of their favourite saints and make a plea to God to hear their prayers; and reportedly more people have been seen going to churches on the day of the lotto’s draw.

Even religious leaders, who are supposed to tend their flock and give them the right moral compass, have been sending mixed signals that add to the country’s moral confusion and deterioration.

The Philippine Daily Inquirer (PDI) has reported quoting Fr. Cris Magbitang, vice dean of studies at the Don Bosco Center of Studies in Paranaque City, that “ he saw nothing wrong with betting in the lottery. He admitted that once in a while, he also placed bets on lotto, ‘ just for fun or out of curiosity’.

Magbitang said he had made a bet twice on the Grand Lotto. Should he win, he intends to use the money to help people in need. But he finds the practice of some people of having their lotto tickets blessed by a priest a bit too much.”

The PDI has also quoted Caloocan Bishop Deogracias Iniguez, chair of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines’ affairs committee, as saying that gambling is “‘incompatible with Christianity and invoking God for good luck is flawed.’ The bishop said he ‘understands’ people praying to God to win the lotto but he frowns on bettors who reportedly rub their tickets on the images of saints, hoping it would bring them good fortune” The world has really changed—for the worst. These lotteries-- used to be a form of gambling and vice-- are now considered entertainment and fun. The people couldn’t care less anymore even if their winning the lotto could mean misery of others. Would profiting from the losses of others be in harmony with the Bible’s exhortation “ You must love your neighbour as yourself”” (Mathew 22:39) How about relying on good luck to enhance the betting chances, what does the Holy Scriptures say? To the unfaithful Israel, Jehovah said: But you men are those leaving Jehovah, those forgetting my holy mountain, those setting in order a table for the god of Good Luck and those filling up mixed wine for the god of Destiny.

So by involving ourselves in any form of gambling, in effect, we are serving these gods of Good Luck and god of Destiny.

Here in Toronto, I know some people who have won in lotto but they have not stopped buying lotto tickets despite their winnings. Why? Let’s hear what the Bible says on this—“ A mere lover of silver will not be satisfied with silver, neither any lover of wealth with income. This too is vanity”.

(Ecc.5: 10.).

For our peace of mind, let’s heed the Bible ‘s counsel: ... Keep your eyes open and guard against every sort of covetousness, because even when a person has an abundance, his life does not result from the things he possesses.”

(Luke 12:15) The millions of money one can get from this lottery will not be enough to save one’s life, as Christ aptly warns “ For what benefit will it be to a man if he gains the whole world but forfeits his soul....” ■ (Willie Jose can be reached at williej@ hotmail.com)

Lifestyle ‘Lucky’ luxury mall set to redefine Chinatown

FRIDAY AUGUST 24, 2012 28

BY CHECHE V. MORAL Philippine Daily Inquirer

THE PLAN was to build a huge bargain shopping place that would dwarf all the popular thrift, wholesale haunts in the neighborhood. Three years hence, and what rose on one whole block on Reina Regente Street in the heart of Binondo has indeed eclipsed every structure in its vicinity. But it wasn’t the discount behemoth originally planned that opened last February, but a posh, multilevel mall that this side of town had never seen before.

“We took a risk,” said Kevin Tan, first vice president and Commercial Division head of Megaworld Corp., the developer of Lucky Chinatown shopping mall.

“Chinatown is a known bargain area, but midway we felt that we ought to do something different, one that’s never before seen in this area.”

The five-level Lucky Chinatown, interconnected by bridge walkways to Megaworld’s twin-tower residential condo, Cityplace, has a supermarket, four cinemas, a food court, an appliance center, a kids’ zone, a fashion zone, and a host of dining, service and retail shops previously seen only in upscale malls in Makati.

The mall will have its grand opening on Aug. 15, with President Aquino as guest of honor.

Next month, it will also unveil its so-called Chinatown Walk, a gentrified Chinatown alley, with tenants selling exotic Chinese delicacies and street foods seen in Hong Kong and Shanghai, Chinese gold, ceramics and unique services like herbal doctors and suppliers for Chinese ceremonies.

“That part of the plan was never changed,” Tan said on a recent tour of the mall. “In any country, one of the most popular tourist destinations is the Chinatown.

We wanted to raise the level of our Chinatown and make it according to world standards. In the existing Chinatown, there’s no planning, there’s traffic [jam] and no place to park. It’s hard for pedestrians to get from one store to the next.”

Megaworld’s solution: To create a promenade it calls Chinatown Walk, and bring in tenants from Ongpin. “It has a lot of merit. It’s pedestrian-friendly, and we put 1,000 parking slots in the mall. The walkway is even covered,” Tan said.

Lucky Chinatown is also bringing in several institutions in Binondo into the mall, including Sincerity Restaurant, well-known for its fried chicken.

Services that can’t be accommodated in the mall are located in Cityplace, like Gold’s Gym, which is set to open soon.

Something special Tan’s father, real estate tycoon and Megaworld CEO Andrew Tan, always wanted to build something special for the Binondo of his childhood, according to Teresa Pesigan-Valentino, Megaworld’s AVP for marketing and business development.

The 3-hectare location of Lucky Chinatown is considered a heritage site where two public high schools, Rajah Sulayman and José Abad Santos, used to be. (When Megaworld acquired the property from the Manila city government in 2008, the developer relocated and built new structures for the two schools, also in Manila.)

MEGAWORLDCEO Andrew Tan always wanted to build something special for the Binondo of his childhood. His son Kevin is making good on that dream.

THE MONEYED Binondo Chinese go to Makati to shop on weekends “because there’s no place to go here,” says Kevin Tan of Lucky Chinatown’s target market.

ASIDE from known retailers, Lucky Chinatown is also bringing in traders from within the Ongpin neighborhood in a soon-to-open promenade called ChinatownWalk

Lucky Chinatown sits smack on two main thoroughfares: Reina Regente in front and Sta. Elena in the back, which leads to Divisoria.

The popular bargain place, 168 Mall, is right behind it.

Building the structure was, however, easier than convincing potential tenants to sign up. There was understandably some resistance. Why build a high-end mall in a known bargain area where fakes and knockoffs abound?

“A lot of the tenants were afraid,” Tan said.

“But we assured them that we’re targeting a separate market. These are not the ones who buy wholesale and sell the wares elsewhere or in the provinces. It’s for the moneyed Chinese, those who go to shop in Makati.”

Tenants, including Stores Specialists Inc. and Suyen Corp. (Bench Group), were pleasantly surprised at the response when they opened in February. Tan and his team were right.

“They see that there’s a market for their brands here,” said Tan. “The economics of this area is that they’re well-off and they don’t need to buy knockoffs.”

Security is tight in the mall, with metal detectors at entrances and CCTV systems in place. Ratio of guards per square area is high, according to Tan. “It’s a mall in the middle of Binondo; we attract all markets. Any mall will always have a mix of customers, and we welcome all markets. We have both a food court and upscale restaurants. Everyone must feel secure.”

Frustrated architect RVP Architects designed the mall, but interiors, just like other Megaworld Lifestyle Malls, were done in-house. “I’m a frustrated architect,” Tan said, grinning. “So you can see my personal touches,” details that include recessed lighting, porcelain flooring and the like.

“WE took a risk,” says Kevin Tan of Megaworld’s decision to build a grand shopping mall in a known bargain area.

Though he believes in following certain auspicious dates (the grand launch on Aug. 15 is one, which is two days before the so-called “ghost month” begins), Tan isn’t superstitious.

Not a lot of feng shui came into play in the design and zoning of the mall. “We knew the place is lucky. I follow the basics of feng shui, but the tenants also do their own. They bring their own geomancers, whether they’re Chinese or not.

They said the entrances are positioned in very lucky directions.”

Apart from basic services like nail and hair salons, spas, and a barbershop, Lucky Chinatown also has a license renewal counter of the Land Transportation Office. One of its tenants is SM, which has a Toy Kingdom, Handyman and an Appliance Center. Metro Gaisano runs the supermarket. One cinema has 24 love seats.

Like other Megaworld malls, this one is petfriendly, and has a pet-grooming station.

Signages are both in English and Chinese.

Proof that you’re not in swanky Makati anymore, there are markers leading to pedicab and jeepney stands.

Megaworld’s type of branding is to make its malls distinct from one another, down to the names. (It also has Eastwood, Newport, Burgos Circle and McKinley Hills.) “We don’t want to be the kind of developer that just replicates,” Tan said. “That works for certain developers… We love to play with outdoor seating. We love to use indoor-outdoor areas. Every mall has its own story. Every location has to have its own identity, so the details have to be completely different.”

As for the naming of the Binondo mall, Tan explained: “A lot of people come to Chinatown to find luck, like charms, etc. This is supposed to be an auspicious location. It is for us, and for our retail clients as well.” ■ Photos by Jim Guiao Punzalan

29 FRIDAY AUGUST 24, 2012

Throw a theme party for your pet

Lifestyle

Packages can be customized according to your budget, with 10 percent of what you pay going to the animal welfare group of your choice

BY ANNE A. JAMBORA Philippine Daily Inquirer

A ROARING “pawty” for your four-legged best friend is now just a bark away.

When huskies Sophie and Oliver moved to Chicago last month, pet party organizer Karla Kangleon set up Bark Voyage, a going-away party for the two handsome pooches.

The two 2-year-old “Filipino” huskies— both were born and bred in the country— partied with furry friends and their pet parents to caninerelaxing Mozart music, dined on gourmet food, and participated in a piñata game activity loaded with treats. There were balloons designed by balloon artists, a specially baked doggie cake and desserts, and homemade “yappetizers” and treats.

Sophie and Oliver wore ponchos, compliments of the organizers, while their guests were given colorful bandanas. There were pet and human games and, at the end of the party, guests went home with doggie-bag giveaways.

“This is really an excellent way to bond with your pets, that one time of the year when your pets don’t have to beg for food or treats,” said events organizer Kangleon, owner of All4Pets Party (www.all4petsparty.com; tel. 0917-5287995, 0926-6238658; e-mail info@all4petsparty.com).

Kangleon, who is also the events and PR officer of Cara Welfare Phils., always had a soft heart for pets. She grew up in a dog-friendly home, such that during her five-year stint abroad, she became a volunteer in animal rescue organizations where she got acquainted not just with canines and felines, but also with turtles, snakes and other animals. Soon she found herself dog-sitting during her spare time.

Today, she buys a sack of dry dog and cat food every week to feed the homeless in her neighborhood. Every stray dog and cat in her neighborhood is spayed/neutered, fed daily, wears bands for ID, and now answers to the names Kangleon christened them with.

All4Pets Party, launched just this year, already has big-named clients, including the Bow & Wow Benefit Dinner last June that saw hundreds of guests with pets in tow.

Party packages can be customized depending on clients’ budget, she said. A budget of P10,000 will cover the standard party package, consisting of invitations, a poncho for the celebrant and

Right now Kangleon is busy whipping up a new concept and food treats—for a hamster party.

She had an inquiry a couple of weeks ago, and is now exploring the possibilities of going beyond serving felines and canines.

“I’ve concentrated on animal welfare and rescues. I don’t have 40 cats but I feed the homeless A pizza for dogs “I’ve been hosting children’s parties for 15 years dogs and cats every day. I found my soul doing now. It’s time we celebrate our love for pets. My this. It’s so rewarding,” Kangleon said. ■ love for pets and organizing parties inspired me to set up this company,” she said.

Cakes, desserts, treats are all fresh, made from holistic recipes. Kangleon and her mom whip up the doggie sweets and treats themselves. The duo recently created Barkin’ Pizza, a large, pizzalooking dog treat. Clients, however, have the option to go for off-the-rack, branded treats.

Other packages available, that come in addition to the standard party package, are Yappy Barkday/ Meowday, with Barkday/Meowday cake and piñata; Spaw Time, where pets and pet parents are pampered with luxurious massage by certified petgrooming and massage specialists of Aromapet Dog Spa, with options to add Pawdicure and grooming packages; Pet Chef Corner, a cooking lesson for pet parents to learn how to make holistic yappetizers and gourmet meals; Teacher’s Pet Pawty, an activity for children and pets such as coloring, balloon sculpture, meet-and-greet with rescued animals, games and storytelling; and All4Pets Star Challenge, an amazing race challenge for pets and pet parents.

They also offer Pet Sketch, with an artist sketching pets at the party that one can use as a party favor; themed décor; professional pet photographer; and Paw-Lickin’ Treats (gourmet, holistic treats). Doggie plates are provided during the party. bandanas for furry guests, décor, games, pets’ yappetizers and treats, and bag giveaways for three hours. Ten percent of services purchased will be donated to the clients’ preferred welfare organization.

30 FRIDAY AUGUST 24, 2012

King’ of the world

Respall, who appeared in the London and UK tour productions.

It still gives me goose bumps every time I hear it.”

Good thing he has always been into running, “to maintain good health, to keep in shape and get back in shape.” Fitness is like a “second religion” to Valdez. “It’s a huge part of my daily lifestyle routine.”

Beyond the physical demands, he is priming himself by reading up on the Thai king depicted in the play, Mongkut Rama IV. He has discovered, that contrary to the famous depiction onscreen, the King was a “progressive” monarch.

“The real King was a good person with an amazing vision for his kingdom,” he related. “I have seen the Yul Brynner movie version many times and the Chow Yun-Fat interpretation as well. It was instructive to see how these two different actors gave their own takes on an iconic role.”

He considers the songs in the musical as “some of the most beautiful ever.”

His favorite, however, is not one of the King’s, but “Something Wonderful,” sung by head wife Lady Thiang. “In our show, it’s performed wonderfully by Gina

Good company Valdez described working with fellow “Miss Saigon” graduate Monique Wilson as “heaven.”

Last time they worked together was in “Chess,” mounted by Wilson’s New Voice Company in 1996.

“I have always admired Monique as an actor and as a person. Although I haven’t worked with her in ‘Miss Saigon,’ I have always considered her as part of my ‘Saigon’ family. What a joy to act with her again,” he remarked.

(Wilson was part of the original London staging of “Saigon”; Valdez played the Engineer in a succeeding production.)

He is also reunited with stage director Freddie Santos in this play. “He is one of the hardest working directors I know.

I’m delighted to work with him again so soon after ‘Broadway Showstoppers,’ my concert in Resorts World last year.”

The kids in the show have also charmed Valdez. “They’re adorable on- and off-stage. They blew me away.

Not one kid is a fraction off when they sing together. They are so smart. The kids alone are already worth the price of admission.”

Precious advice He offered precious advice to budding performers. “It is the love of the craft that will see them through. There are no small roles as everyone is part of a whole. If they become a big star, they should never forget why they went into the performing arts in the first place.”

He added: “Also, they should respect co-workers, big or small. Lastly, talent will out, but to achieve excellence, there is absolutely no substitute for hard work.”

Although he has performed all over the world, nothing beats a “rousing ovation” from his countrymen, he said.

“Filipinos are among the best [if not the best] audiences in the world.

You have to up your ante because Filipinos are musically discerning.

It’s challenging, but rewarding if you’re able to impress the local crowd,” he asserted.■

BY BAYANI SAN DIEGO JR. Philippine Daily Inquirer

ONSTAGE, singer-actor Leo Tavarro Valdez feels and looks every inch like the “king” of the world. Make that king of Resorts World.

Sharing the role with Bimbo Cerrudo, Valdez has been cast as the Siamese monarch in “The King and I,” which goes onstage at the Newport Performing Arts Theater of Resorts World Manila, beginning September 15.

Like his leading lady Monique Wilson (who shares the role of British governess Anna Leonowens with Sheila Valderrama), Valdez is preparing for the “King”-sized challenge with rigorous cardio workouts.

Wilson said she had gone back to jogging.

Valdez explained: “Physical stamina is important … not just because of all the running around onstage, but so that we can keep up with the draining rehearsal routine.”

‘Film-style’ TV series

BY MARINEL CRUZ Philippine Daily Inquirer

TV and film director Jeffrey Jeturian shares his thoughts on the success of his latemorning drama series “Be Careful With My Heart” on ABS-CBN. “[It] is the first soap on ABS-CBN that is shot using high-definition camera—this explains its glossy look. Plus, we shoot the series ‘filmstyle’ so it has the feel, look and ‘magic’ of a movie. Its success can be attributed to a lot of things. First, there’s chemistry between (lead actors) Jodi (Sta. Maria) and Richard (Yap). Jodi is effective as the naive and purehearted nanny to the deaf kid of the stern and stone-hearted widower played by Richard.

Second, the story’s simplicity and feel-good tone are able to capture the audience’s fancy.

The show doesn’t only leave one feeling romantic every time, but also with a smile in the heart each time.” ■

Entertainment

31 FRIDAY AUGUST 24, 2012

HOME BODY Rebuilding a family home

BY MARINEL R. CRUZ Philippine Daily Inquirer

GUIGUINTO, Bulacan—“Looking back, I now appreciate the petty arguments I had with Robert when it came to choosing one furniture over another,” said singer-actress Isay Alvarez as she recalled the experience of rebuilding her parents’ home here in 2008.

Isay is married to Robert Seña, singer and theater stalwart, with whom she has three kids—Didang, 26; Bok, 20, and Miong, 13.

The couple started the “project” in November 2008, the year Isay’s father, Onesto, died.

Isay told Living Stars: “My dad loved this place. He stayed here even after my mom passed on. When he died, we decided to turn it into a home that my own family could enjoy. Robert and I got really fixated; it was all we talked about.

There was a time when our kids were already complaining, ‘Puro na lang para sa Bulacan’ (It’s all for Bulacan)! We also fought about it a lot.”

The couple commissioned architects Nick and Ivy Puzon to design the new house and had Bulacan-based architect Gigi Gabe to execute it.

Keepsakes Isay said the house became their focus for almost half a year. “As in our house in Quezon City, which we filled with keepsakes from travels abroad, this place was full of things we bought from all over the Philippines.”

These included a wooden bowl from Palawan, a shell ornament from Bangui, Ilocos Norte, and fabrics from Benguet Province.

Isay, youngest in a brood of five, grew up in this house that stands on a 500-square-meter property.

She recalled: “It burned down when I was a teenager and my parents renovated it into a bungalow. I think I was the one who caused the fire because I failed to turn off an old electric fan when I left to visit a friend in Malolos town. When I came back, we didn’t have a house anymore.”

The couple initially wanted windows made from capiz and wood but decided against the idea in the end. “It’s impractical,” Isay explained. “We instead used stained glass, which made the house look better because they’re colorful.”

They also reused materials from the old house, “like the tanguile pieces from our old barn,” Isay said.

The recycled pieces of wood were used as ceilings for the storage room and patio, as well as for the pillars by the staircase. The couple tried to replicate the intricate designs of the old house’s iron grills.

Backyard garden “I remember singing ‘Bahay Kubo’ in our backyard,” Isay recounted. Her dad planted vegetables like okra, pepper, eggplant, malunggay, kamias, patola and upo.

“He even raised pigs! I didn’t know how all those fitted here,” she said.

“Now, I remember my parents whenever I visit my garden. I’ve planted herbs like basil, rosemary and kafir lime, which I occasionally harvest to bring home to Manila. They’re important ingredients for my Thai dishes.”

Robert and Isay also planted fruitbearing trees like mango, duhat, atis, jackfruit and calamansi around the house.

Isay said that when it came to designing the house, she left the decision-making to Robert. “That’s his specialty. He loves scouting for interesting fixtures, like the antique lampshade from Kamias (Quezon City). He came home very excited one day and showed it to me as he was crossing the street. I said, ‘Ang pangit (It’s ugly)!’ But he cleaned it and transformed it into this beautiful thing.”

The lampshade, made of brass and crystal, now sits proudly in a corner of the living room.

Machuca tiles All around the house are pieces of sculpture by Randy Llazo, who also uses recycled wood. The daybed, sofa and cabinets, all made of ipil, are from Vigan in Ilocos Norte.

“The wooden rocking chair belonged to my lola,” Isay added.

Robert is especially proud of the authentic Machuca tiles on the floor of the second-floor kitchen, as well as on the patio and ground floor. “We met the owners of the tile shop in Quiapo and they gave us a big discount. These tiles are unique,” he said.

(According to the site www. machucatile.com, these tiles were first introduced in the Philippines in 1900. Old pieces are still found in old churches like San Beda and San Sebastian in Manila, as well as in the homes of illustrious Filipino families like the Zobels in Calatagan, Batangas.)

Vinyl discs Robert showed Living Stars his collection of vinyl records. “I unearthed some of the family’s records, cleaned them to get rid of the molds,” he said.

He then bought a record player at a mall in Mandaluyong City and began buying vinyl records of his own. His top five favorites are those of Frank Sinatra, Stan Getz, Billy Idol, Tony Bennett and Earl Klugh.

They bought the six-seater wooden dining set from a shop in White Plains, Quezon City.

Consistent with the all-Filipino theme, the couple served ginataang halo-halo,

inipit, bonete and kapeng barako for merienda—with table napkins from Vigan—during the Inquirer visit.

Balcony party “We hold evening parties on the balcony during weekends,” said Robert, while Sergio Mendes music played in the background. “It’s breezy here and, on a cloudless night, you can see the stars. We usually schedule gettogethers when the moon is full. It’s really inspiring.”

Isay turned melancholic when she recalled the family reunion she organized last year. “I asked all of my siblings to come home in January 2011.

I wanted them to see and experience the new house. In December of that same year, my eldest brother, who was based in New York, died almost as soon as he was diagnosed with cancer.

That reunion was the last time we all saw him.”

She said they decided to follow the old house’s original layout, which had two bedrooms and a kitchen. “When we built the second floor, we made sure it was self-contained. I imagine Robert and I growing old here. When that time comes, it’s good to know that everything is within our reach.” ■

TOLL FREE NUMBER: 1-888-862-9332

Entertainment

FRIDAY AUGUST 24, 2012 32

Attorneys for Kim Kardashian, estranged husband spar over pace of couple’s divorce

admedia / Shutterstock.com

BY ANTHONY MCCARTNEY THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

Kris Humphries and Kim Kardashian pre-divorce.

LOS ANGELES - Kim Kardashian’s divorce has engulfed her family and network, literally.

Attorneys for her estranged husband sought detailed records Wednesday about her reality shows and details of depositions with her mother and current boyfriend Kanye West to prove her 72-day marriage to NBA player Kris Humphries was a fraud.

The legal bickering means it is unlikely the couple will be granted a divorce, or annulment, as Humphries desires, before next year, attorneys and a judge said during a testy hearing.

Kardashian’s attorney Laura Wasser accused Humphries’ team of overreaching in the effort that has already resulted in $250,000 in legal fees for the model-actress.

The acrimony over the breakup led lawyers for Humphries to recently try to serve West with a deposition subpoena -disguised in a Nordstrom’s box -at Kardashian’s home.

Humphries’ attorney Marshall Waller said the lack of co-operation from West’s attorneys and companies that work on Kardashian’s reality show were delaying the case. He said it could take a two-week trial if Humphries keeps pursuing an annulment based on fraud.

Waller said at the hearing that he wanted to prove Kardashian had ``no intention of proceeding with this marriage. That it was basically a contrivance for the benefit of her show and to make money,’’ he said.

Wasser said the tactic was slowing the legal process and she intended to

bill Humphries for her legal fees. ``To say that I’m frustrated would be an understatement,’’ Wasser said in the packed courtroom where 18 other cases were to be called. ``I am at a loss to figure out what the holdup is. ... It’s dragging on, it’s clogging resources.’’

Several depositions have been taken, including one of Humphries in his home state of Minnesota, and his girlfriend is scheduled to undergo questioning next week.

Wasser said many of Humphries’ requests for information were overly broad, including information on the finances of Kardashian’s mother, Kris Jenner.

The couple was married last summer in a lavish, star-studded, televised ceremony, but Kardashian soon filed for divorce on Oct. 31.

Humphries responded a month later asking for an annulment, claiming the couple’s nuptials were based on fraud. He did not lay out specific evidence.

Kardashian is the star of the E! Entertainment Television series ``Keeping Up with the Kardashians,’’ the network’s top-rated show, averaging more than 3 million viewers in its sixth season.

Humphries, an NBA forward, recently signed a two-year, $24 million contract with the Brooklyn Nets.

Superior Court Judge Stephen Moloney said he thinks the case can still be resolved by next May and ordered the attorneys to return for an update on Nov. 28.

--Anthony McCartney can be reached at http://twitter.com/mccartneyAP

ENTERTAINMENT BRIEFS

LOS ANGELES - Production on ``Iron Man 3’’ is on hold after star Robert Downey Jr. hurt his foot during filming. Marvel Studios said Downey was injured while performing a stunt and ``there will be a short delay in production while he recuperates.’’ The 47-year-old actor is shooting the third installment in the superhero franchise in North Carolina. ``Iron Man 3’’ is set for release next summer. Downey plays billionaire playboy Tony Stark and Gwyneth Paltrow is his love, Pepper Potts. Guy Pearce and Ben Kingsley also star. Downey also appeared as his Stark/Iron Man character earlier this summer in ``The Avengers.’’ The actor also unveiled a clip of the forthcoming ``Iron Man’ flick at Comic-Con last month. ■

Nicki Minaj close to signing on for ‘Idol’

Debby Wong / Shutterstock.com

s_bukley / Shutterstock.com

Robert Downey Jr. injured on ‘Iron Man 3’ set; production briefly paused while he recovers

NEW YORK - Nicki Minaj sings about ``Starships,’’ but is she a star-maker? The singer-rapper could be joining the ranks of ``American Idol’’ judges. A person close to Minaj said the entertainer has been in talks to judge the Fox TV competition and that a deal is in works. The person spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to publicly discuss. ■

A

– 1 8 7 1 , 2 st 4 u – 26 g u

KAPISANAN in partnership with SAN MIGUEL BEER

kultura presents

THE 7 TH ANNUAL FILIPINO ARTS FESTIVAL KAPISANAN PHILIPPINE CENTRE FOR ARTS & CULTURE 167 Augusta Avenue, Toronto

AUG. 17–31 Pamahiin/Ritual - Visual Arts Exhibit FRI. AUG. 17, 7–9PM Opening Night Reception SAT. AUG. 18, 8PM Film Screening in community partnership with KAPATID

Markova: Comfort Gay (2000), A film by Gil Portes Starring Dolphy Quizon

FRI. AUG. 24, 7–9PM Novice Playwright Reading

in community partnership with

✹ ! ee r f

Carlos Bulosan Theatre

For More Details On KULTURA Scheduled Events Go To: kapisanancentre.com info@kapisanancentre.com 416.979.0600

Community Sponsor:

Organizational Sponsor:

SAT. AUG. 25, 1–3PM So You Think You Can…Write a Play?!

Reading in community partnership with Toronto Public Library and Carlos Bulosan Theatre SAT. AUG. 25, 6–8PM Filipino Leaders & Legacies VIP Event

Guest list only. RSVP with your name & organization to info@kapisanancentre.com

SUN. AUG. 26, 12–6PM Adobo Masters Cook-Off + KULTURA Live! at Artscape Wychwood Barns 601 Christie Street, Toronto

Hosted by Big Norm with Adobo Masters Cook-Off Judge, celebrity comic, Ron Josol & Live music by April Aliermo (Phaedra, Hooded Fang), Casey Mecija (OhBijou) & Maylee Todd, Alexander The (Times Neue Roman) & Romeo Candido + more!

The Official Chronicler of the 7th Annual KULTURA Filipino Arts Festival:

Canada: Seen and Scenes

FRIDAY AUGUST 24, 2012 34

PCCF Donates $10000 for the Poor. True to its promise and the success of various events of the Philippine Canadian Charitable Foundation, the organization has allocated donations to various charities and worthy Causes. $10,000 goes to the Building of Houses for the Poor through ANCOP or Answering the Cry of the poor. PCCF President Jimmy Marasigan led the delegation that includes Miss Philippines Canada Alev Usta, runner ups Mary Quilao and Meghan Garvida, Mrs. Philippines Canada June Javier and Little Miss Philippines Canada runner up Kiana Craig. Joining the walk includes EVP Rosemer Enverga, VP Romy Rafael, Officers: , Lita and Tony Leano, Alain and Sheila Canizares, Mrs Philippines Canada 2011 Noemi Milanes, Gie Alvarez, Bing Marasigan, Rebecca Rafael, and Jun Enverga. – Gloria Rafanan

Larry Bercasio, president of the Camarines Norte Association Canada - Ontario (CNAC-O) with Romeo Ayson Zetazata and Dindo Orbeso of the St. Jamestown News Service after discussing the future programs and projects of the CNAC-O. – Manny Papa

ASHLEY SUVA’S SOLO CONCERT AT SQUARE ONE AUDITORIUM. A student of Leander Mendoza, and Josie de Leon of the Josie De Leon School of Performing Arts (JDLSPA), Ashley is stepping out on her own in her first solo show that promises an evening of entertainment showcasing her versatility as a singer.

For more information, see the event page on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/ events/260763654033055/ - A. Lazaro

FILIPINO DIPLOMAT WITH CNAC-O PRESIDENT - Larry Bercasio, president of the Camarines Sur Association Canada – Ontario (CNAC-O), is shown in photo together with Consul General Junever Mahilum West after swearing into office Bercasio as CNAC-O President and other officers and members of the board of directors recently. – Jojo Taduran, St. Jamestown News Service

OUR LADY OF PENAFRANCIA. Bobby Achacon and Jojo Taduran, Treasurer and Vice-President respectively, of the Bicol Canada Community Association Inc. (BCCA) headed by President Paeng Nebres, pay homage and make thanksgiving to Our Lady of Peñafrancia, the Patron Saint of Bicolandia, whom the Bicolanos fondly call Ina. The feast day to be celebrated on September 15th, 2012, Saturday, will be preceded by a novena or nine days of prayer in honor of the Virgin, and will start with a fluvial parade at the Bluffers Park Lake at Brimley Rd. in Scarborough, Ontario. For more information, please call Bobby and Lorna Achacon (416) 265-2085, Rafael ( Paeng ) Nebres (416) 618-1362, Felix Reyes (905) 896-4958 and Toti and Naty Gutierrez (416) 751-9437. - Romy Zetazate

35 FRIDAY AUGUST 24, 2012

Canada: Seen and Scenes

MIGRANTE BC HOLD SPORTS DAY AT SLOCAN PARK. The Sports Day featured a women’s volleyball match with teams from Migrante BC, West Coast Domestic Workers Association (WCDWA,) and the Committee for Domestic Workers and Caregivers’ Rights (CDWCR). Photos by Migrante BC members. - E. Maestro, Migrante BC

FIELD AND FORT DAY. On August 19, Victoria Settlement, owned and operated by Alberta Culture and originally formed around the 1862 McDougall Methodist Mission and the Hudson’s Bay Company’s Fort Victoria, celebrated the iconic potato with games for the entire family. www.victorialsettlement. org

To all you globe trotters - travel with PCI and be published!

If you take the Philippines Canadian Inquirer to your trips and take a photo of a famous or scenic landmark or backdrop - we will feature you and your photo! pides of Kaela, Joy, Gaby and Louie Eliscu Canadian Calgary, Alberta bring the Philippine Pines, Inquirer to vacation in Whispering Sicamous, British Columbia.

Please e-mail your photos with photo caption (names of people in the photos, details about the trip) to info@canadianinquirer.net.

Have fun on your adventure!

36 WEDNESDAY JULY 25, 2012

Quartier des Spectacles is THE place to party Montréal’s new entertainment hub showcases 40 annual events and festivals throughout the year

BY MARGO PFEIFF Courtesy of the Canadian Tourism Commission

MONTRÉAL LITERALLY parties in the street. Closing off its downtown Quartier des Spectacles to car traffic, it turns almost a square kilometre of its Latin Quarter between Sherbrooke Street and René Lévesque Boulevard into a pedestrian oasis during festivals and events. Now a major, multi-million dollar makeover has morphed this cluster of 80 venues dotting a network of city streets into one seamless entertainment hub.

Seven public squares have been linked up with curb-less streets allowing revellers to roam this vast urban cultural space during more than 40 annual events and festivals from summer’s Montréal Jazz Festival to mid-winter’s Festival en Lumiere.

In the summer of 2011 two grand venues opened their doors in the Quartier. The long- awaited Maison Symphonique, the new 2,100-seat home for the Montréal Symphony

Orchestra (OSM), is a warm, Canadian beech wood-clad interior that provides an intimate venue and great acoustics.

Nearby, in a restored, historic building on Ste. Catherine Street, the Maison du Festival Rio Tinto Alcan also came online. The ground floor French bistro Le Balmoral has a terrace facing the Place des Festivals: on Thursday, Friday and Saturday evenings it transforms into a jazz club. Revenues from the non-profit

restaurant finance other free activities in the building like theLegends of the Festival museum on the 2nd floor with performance costumes from the likes of Ray Charles and Ella Fitzgerald and mementos gathered over three decades of jazz festivals like Dave Brubeck’s Grammy “Lifetime Achievement” Award, guitars belonging to Mark Knopfler and Pat Metheny, even Leonard Cohen’s famous hat. There is also a

gallery of jazz-related art created by Québec and international artists.

These new additions join the Quartier’s 30 existing performance halls and spaces including Place des Arts and smaller venues like the Théâtre du Nouveau Monde (TNM) and the Salles du Gesù – Montréal’s oldest theatre. Nearby venues for contemporary music like Club Soda, the Metropolisrock-palace and alternative music Mecca Foufounes Electronique are being enveloped into the Quartier complex as the surrounding St. Laurent Boulevard red-light district is gentrified.

The Montréal Contemporary Art Museum is part of the scene as are smaller galleries, exhibition centres, shops with a cultural bent, restaurants, cafés and bars. But perhaps the best part is simply the luxury of strolling open spaces perusing outdoor art and music presentations and such delightful installations as 21 Balançoires – 21 Swings – that creates musical notes as you swing back and forth. ■

– all inspired by apples. Those with a taste for knowledge will want to plan an afternoon at the Collingwood Cooking Academy for lessons in making pies, crepes and even butter, all flavored with apples.

The fruits of the trees and vines of the Apple Pie Trail don’t all find their way into baked goods, as a visit

to Georgian Hills Vineyards for a glass of Ida Red Frozen to the Core dessert wine or a stop at Coffin Ridge Boutique Winery for some Forbidden Fruit Hard Cider will prove.

Whether you’re feeding your appetite for food, drink, crafts or culture, you’ll find a feast on the Apple Pie Trail. ■

Take a bite out of the Apple Pie Trail

Ontario’s Apple Country near Collingwood dishes out delicious apple treats

by Liz fleming Courtesy of the Canadian Tourism Commission

IN THE Blue Mountains surrounding Collingwood, Ontario, it’s all about the apple.

Though the region, about two hours northwest of Toronto, boasts Georgian Bay and countless other sparkling cottage country lakes as well as great ski resorts such as Craigleith, Osler and Blue Mountain (the province’s largest ski centre), the area now has a new focus – the Apple Pie Trail.

Winner of the Ontario Culinary Association’s 2011 Culinary Experience Award, the Trail features 32 members including restaurants, bakeries, cheese shops, cafés and wineries and offers a delectable guide to Ontario’s Apple Country. Not every Apple Pie Trail stop is dining-oriented, but all celebrate the area’s most

plentiful and popular fruit.

Start your tour at a farmer’s market – the ones in downtown Collingwood, Owen Sound and Meaford are great choices – to buy a basket of Red Prince apples, a variety prized for both cooking and eating, and first grown in the areas through which the Apple Pie Trail winds.

Next stop: the Ashanti Coffee Estate, for a home-baked apple crumble muffin and a cup of hand-roasted coffee grown on a plantation in East Africa belonging to café owners and Thornbury residents Amy and David Wilding-Davies. The café is their way of providing fair trade works in East Africa and melding that culture with their own Canadian heritage.

Knitters will enjoy browsing at Collingwood’s Grey Heron Natural Designs, a yarn boutique specializing in wool shades such as Red Prince, McIntosh, Delicious, Golden Ginger

37 FRIDAY AUGUST 24, 2012

Travel

Grizzly bears ‘invade’ HK Disneyland

BY ANNELLE S. TAYAO Philippine Daily Inquirer

EVEN a typhoon couldn’t stop people from flocking to the “Happiest Place on Earth.”

Of course, Hong Kong Disneyland had to shut down operations and close the park once Typhoon “Vicente” (“Ferdie” in the Philippines’ area of responsibility) hit Signal 8 on July 23.

But as soon as the signal level was lowered to Signal 3 in the next two days, guests armed with Mickey Mouse raincoats and umbrellas wasted no time queuing outside the park’s ticket booths— our media group included.

Unmindful of the continuous drizzle and occasional downpour, we trooped to the park’s newest area—the Wild West-themed Grizzly Gulch, where guests must be prepared to get wet.

As the Grizzly Gulch story goes, the “town” was built on a dry creek bed and active geysers, so once in a while these geysers still erupt and spray jets of water into the air.

Kids can enjoy a friendly water fight using water bellows at the blacksmith’s shop and dry goods store. Or one could douse their friends (or parents) with buckets of water by leading them to the water tower and pulling the rope under it.

Grizzly Gulch, which opened July 14, is an attraction exclusive

to HKDL. (A gulch is a deep valley that goes through a mountain.)

The “imagineers” behind this newly opened area also made an entirely new story about the origins of Grizzly Gulch. (Imagineering is the combination of imagination and engineering, or creative storytelling and technical knowhow.)

The story goes: The town of Grizzly Gulch came about when gold was discovered in the rocks of Big Grizzly Mountain in 1888, with the help of the grizzly bears who had scratched their back against some of the boulders (helping reveal the gold). Soon after, people began to settle around the mountain, and the Big Grizzly Mountain Mining Company was established.

The town’s main landmark is Big Grizzly Mountain, named so because its peak looks like the head of a grizzly bear. It is also home to the Grizzly Bear family— Papa, Mama and their cub.

New ride The highlight of any visit to Grizzly Gulch is a ride on the Big Grizzly Mountain Runaway Mine Cars. The roller-coaster runs through the whole attraction, and its forward launches, backward dips, and sharp turns are caused by the “mischief” of the grizzly bears

inside the mines. And because it’s a semi-open ride, one gets an occasional spray of water from nearby geysers.

“We’ve combined elements in this ride, like the instantaneous drop backwards and the launch, that we’ve never done in other Disney rides,” said Ali Rubenstein, Grizzly Gulch creative director.

The whole area took around four years to complete, from story development to design and production. Rubenstein and her team of imagineers took inspiration from the landscape of the Sierra Nevada mountain range in northern California.

Rubenstein said it was a challenge to recreate such a Western environment.

Sierra Nevada is also home to over 2,000 species of pine trees—HK has only two. “We had to make substitutions and replacements to recreate this kind of landscape.”

Grizzly Gulch’s imagineers also had to concentrate on making authentic-looking rocks.

Big Grizzly Mountain, which took 14 months to complete, was handcarved from concrete; it’s 27 m high and occupies 13,000 sq.m.

“We looked at the core of the Disney DNA, and part of it is a Western-theme land,” said Rubenstein, who has been with Disney Parks and Resorts for 14

years. “It’s rooted in the traditional Disney story of prosperity and luck.”

More rainy day surprises HKDL had other rainy day surprises.

Mickey’s Waterworks Parade splashed and sprayed guests with even more water.

Characters such as the Toy Soldiers from “Toy Story” had water guns, and weren’t shy about squirting them on guests’ faces. Whimsical floats carrying The Big Bad Wolf, Pinocchio, Mickey, Minnie, Goofy and Chip ’n’ Dale doused already-drenched guests.

There was also the Rainy Day Parade, which brought around the park the Disney Princesses, Mickey, Minnie, Goofy, Woody and other characters in a train, to keep them safe and dry A short break from the downpour allowed us to watch in a small corner at Tomorrowland the Jammitors drum performers, who were dressed like the park’s cleaning crew. The duo used simple cleaning instruments—a tin pail, brushes, large plastic bins—to play some groovy beats which easily drew an audience.

Soon after, though, the rain started to fall again, which cut the performance short and dispersed the crowd of onlookers.

But, really, when you’re in Disneyland, a little rain can’t dampen your day.■

Business

usc.edu.ph

URC takes full control of overseas business unit

BY DORIS C. DUMLAO Philippine Daily Inquirer

GOKONGWEI-led food and beverage conglomerate Universal Robina Corp. is taking full control of its overseas operating unit, URC International Co.

(URCI) Ltd., by buying the 23-percent stake held by another firm for P7.2 billion.

In a disclosure to the Philippine Stock Exchange, URC said its board had approved the purchase of the 23-percent stake in URCI from International Horizons Investment Ltd., a private firm likewise controlled by the Gokongwei family.

This means URC will own 100 percent of its international operations, as control will be consolidated into the listed entity. The transaction is expected to be completed by mid-September.

URC also reported that its net income from October 2011 to June 2012, the first nine months of its fiscal year, rose by 24 percent to P6.13 billion due to higher operating income and finance revenue, and significant marked-tomarket gains from its bond and equity holdings.

“The acquisition of the shares of URCI will allow URC to fully capture the strong growth from its international operations,” URC said in its disclosure.

The transaction values 100 percent of URCI at P31.3 billion, which is 15.5 times its estimated earnings for 2013. URC is presently valued at 16.7 times 2013 earnings, based on Bloomberg estimates.

“The acquisition is therefore accretive for the company,” the company said in the disclosure.

URCI manufactures, markets and distributes consumer food products under its own brands in China, Malaysia, Indonesia, Thailand, Vietnam, Hong Kong and Singapore.

In 2011, its revenues amounted to $440 million, up from $84 million in 2003.

On its nine-month results, URC said sales coming from its flagship branded consumer foods group

FRIDAY AUGUST 24, 2012 38

remained buoyant, rising by 11.1 percent year-on-year.

However, the decline in sales of the sugar division—as selling prices decreased compared to year-ago levels— tempered the company’s overall performance. As a result, total URC sales grew by 4.9 percent in the first nine months.

Net sales and services for the nine-month period amounted to P53.05 billion, up from P50.58 billion in the same period last year.

Operating income stood at P5.78 billion in the first nine months, 6 percent higher year-on-year. “This was mainly due to higher operating income from the branded food business as prices of key inputs are relatively lower than year-ago levels. The agro-industrial business started to contribute positive income as recovery of the hogs business can already be seen,” it said.

Sales registered by its international branded consumer food business increased by 5.7 percent in dollar terms, to $350 million or P15.072 billion. This was attributed to the double-digit sales growth of Vietnam as URC continued to expand in the ready-to-drink (RTD) beverage industry.

The company noted the sustained momentum and market share growth of C2, which is now the number one RTD tea brand, as well as the encouraging performance of Rong Do, its offering in the energy drinks segment.

“Indonesia also contributed to the growth as our renewed entry into the extruded/pelletized snacks line showed good traction. However, overall top-line growth was tempered by Thailand’s softer sales as consumption for biscuits and wafers, which are discretionary in nature, declined as a consequence of the flooding,” the disclosure said. ■

39 FRIDAY AUGUST 24, 2012

Sports

Rookie Azkals bare fangs

PH Olympians: We did our best and proud of it

Ed Cubillan | www.azkalsfootballteam.com

BY ARTEMIO T. ENGRACIA JR. Philippine Daily Inquirer

BY CEDELF P. TUPAS THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

CHICAGO—Newcomers Demetrius Omphroy and Matthew Uy are making a good account of themselves as they stake their claim for regular spots in the Philippine football team intensifying its buildup here for the Suzuki Cup late this year.

Omphroy and Uy, who came on as halftime substitutes in the 1-3 loss to the Chicago Inferno, have impressed Azkals coach Michael Weiss and manager Dan Palami only a week into training with the national side.

“They were able to rise to the challenge in the second half (against the Inferno),” said Weiss.

Palami said Omphroy, who was drafted by Major League Soccer side Toronto two years ago, “provides a certain quality and maturity in the squad.”

The 22-year-old Omphroy played for Panama only at youth level, making him still eligible for the Philippines senior side.

The manager said the 22-yearold Uy, who played college soccer at Fairfield University, has been standing out with his good vision and distribution from midfield.

Another prospect, Josh Boone, will be a strong candidate for the senior side in the future, Palami added.

“This camp has also allowed us to evaluate new players and they seem to be promising additions to the squad,” said Palami.

“People should understand that camps have certain objectives that we want to accomplish and one of them is experimenting

on players and trying out new formations and this is what we do during test matches,” said Palami.

The Azkals have been undergoing twice-a-day sessions since they arrived Aug. 4 to improve fitness and cohesion.

Meanwhile, Rob Gier arrived here night to give the Azkals a boost it badly needs defensively a few days before its duel with US Virgin Islands in Indianapolis.

The Azkals, who continue to miss skipper Aly Borromeo because of injury, are short on defenders in this training camp with midfielders Jason de Jong and Jeff Christiaens moved to play in a makeshift backline against the Inferno.

The 31-year-old Gier is one of the most experienced players in the side, having been with the Azkals in the historic run to the 2010 Suzuki Cup semifinals as well as the 2012 AFC Challenge Cup. Gier’s presence is expected to shore up the Azkals’ defense which conceded three goals in 32 minutes, a deficit that proved too difficult to overcome even after a solid showing in the second half.

“I’m here to do my usual job, maybe be a steadying ship at the back and communicate with the players,” said Gier. “We want to make sure we keep improving and ensure that things are right come November.”

Gier was referring to the 2012 Suzuki Cup where the Azkals have been marked as among the darkhorses. ■

LONDON—They didn’t win a single medal and all but one failed to advance to the next round. But those who think it was a waste of time and money to send a Philippine delegation to London for the 30th Olympic Games are missing the point of the Olympic spirit.

This was the consensus of the 11 Filipino athletes as they defended their dismal performance in the Games on the eve of the Closing Ceremonies of what had been touted as “the greatest show on earth.”

“We earned the right to represent our country in the Olympics. We trained hard for this and we sacrificed months and even years just to get here. And we gave it our best,” said archer Mark Javier, one of the first to fall in a fortnight of action in London.

The athletes were reacting to criticisms of their performance in London, which was just a notch better than the Philippines’ showing in Beijing in 2008, the worst since the country joined the Olympics in 1924.

Only Mark Barriga’s first round win in boxing, the first since the 2004 Athens Games, made the Philippine performance here better than in Beijing.

Javier, Barriga and nine other Filipinos meet the Philippine press at lunch on and gave their assessment of their performance on the eve of the Closing Ceremonies at the Olympic Stadium.

The other Filipino athletes were skeet shooter Brian Rosario, swimmers Jessie Khing Lacuna and Jasmine Alkhaldi, weightlifter Hidilyn Diaz, archer Rachelle Anne Cabral, judoka Tomohiko Hoshina, long jumper Marestella Torres, long distance runner Rene Herrera and BMX (bicycle motocross) rider Daniel Caluag.

Those who criticized them for failing to measure up to the opposition don’t understand what they had to go through to make it to Olympics, they said. They spent hours daily for months and even years to earn the right to be here. They put their lives on hold, sacrificing family, friends and even their studies to train and achieve what others can only dream about. And those who criticize them for not bringing home a medal should win the gold in punditry.

This was the collective sentiment of the athletes as they prepared to go home and sacrifice even more for the 2016 Olympics in Rio de Janeiro.

“It’s heartbreaking to go home without a medal when we know we had a chance,” said Manny Lopez, chief of mission of the Philippine delegation. “But that’s not just what the Olympic spirit is all about.

It’s all about participating in the Games and representing 95 million Filipinos in a congregation of nations that’s even bigger than the United Nations.”

“Its only now that I realized what the Olympic spirit is all about,” said Cabral, who also did not make it past the first round of the knockout matches. Soaking it all in competition and in visits to Olympic venues and the Olympic museum, Cabral said it’s not about winning. It’s about participating.

“It’s about unity in sports,” she said. “Athletes like us need all the support, not the criticisms. We need to have the facilities. We need to train and eat the right food. It’s better to just help. It’s better to be part of the solution, not the problem.”

Javier said qualifying Olympics is no joke. “It’s like going through the eye of the needle,” he said. In his case, Javier tried twice—in the world for the championship and in ther Asian qualifying tournament before he and Cabral finally made it in the qualifying in Utah. It was the first time that a male and female archer represented the Philippines in the Olympics.

“I don’t even have a love life,” he said as he virtually lived in the archery range, practicing all day “We were the ones among all Filipino archers to compete in the Olympics because we were the only ones who qualified, he said. “Those who didn’t think we were qualified don’t even know a bit about what we had to go through to make it here.”

One of those criticized, even before the Games started was Rene Herrera, one of two Filipinos in athletics. Herrera, described by organizers in the media guide in athletics, ran his personal best in the 5,000 meters but still ended up dead last and 500 meters behind the eventual winner, Mo Farah of Great Britain.

The Somalian-born Farah, also the winner in the 10,000 meters and hailed in Britain as a hero, walked up to Herrera after the qualifying run and congratulated him as the capacity crowd of 80,000 at the Olympic Stadium cheered.

“I was overwhelmed,” Herrera said.

“I just cried afterwards.”

Villified at home, three Filipino women—Torres, Diaz and Cabral— said they, too, were overwhelmed by the reception they got from Filipinos in London and those who came here just for the Olympics.

“They were happy to see us, even if we lost,” said Diaz, who crashed out of competition in women’s weightlifting after failing three times to lift a routine 118 kilos—more than twice her weight—in the clean and jerk.

Rosario, who bowed out of competition in a flash of glory, scoring a perfect 25 points in his final set of targets in the skeet, said representing the country in the Olympics is a proud moment for him.

Lacuna said seeing the likes of Ryan Lochte and Michael Phelps was “an experience that I will bring with me for the rest of life.” ■

Food

FRIDAY AUGUST 24, 2012 40

Top chefs take on Maine lobster during world championship cook off

BY CLARKE CANFIELD THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

PORTLAND, Maine - Raw lobster tartar over creme frais with a fried quail egg. Miso-butter basted lobster with sunchoke puree, roasted maitake mushroom ragout and lily bulb. Lobster sashimi ballotine with chevre hazelnut stuffing and roasted beet emulsion.

Those are three of the elaborate dishes that helped take four chefs to this week’s lobster chef world series championship, where they’ll create and prepare food with Maine lobster meat, fancy names and sophisticated ingredients.

Three of the chefs earned a trip to Maine by winning lobster competitions in Asia, Europe and Boston. The fourth chef, who works at Portland restaurants, will serve as the host and hold the final cooking competition Wednesday at his home in Scarborough.

The chefs spent Monday in Stonington hauling lobster traps with local fishermen. On Tuesday, they visited the Shucks Maine Lobster processing plant in Richmond followed by dinner in Portland. Shucks is sponsoring the event.

Organizers hope the competition will help showcase Maine’s lobster industry. ``The purpose is to introduce Maine lobster to chefs around the world and bring them to Maine to teach them about the industry,’’ said Caitlin Hathaway, who’s in charge of marketing at Shucks. ``Basically, it’s an educational and fun hands-on experience of learning about Maine and where lobster comes from and how it’s processed and how it’s handled and how it gets to the chef and the consumer.’’

For the contest, Hathaway held a competition last fall at the Asian Seafood Expo in Hong Kong with five chefs from Hong Kong. In March, another competition was held at the International Boston Seafood Show in Boston with four chefs. In April, Hathaway and a travel writer met with chefs in Rome; Paris; Dresden, Germany; and Segovia, Spain, to taste their lobster concoctions.

The winners of those competitions were Gerd Kastenmeier, a chef in Dresden; Chris Gould, of

Boston; and Patrick Goubier, a chef in Hong Kong.

Steve Corry, a chef at Portland’s Five-Five-Five and Petite Jacqueline restaurants, is the host and fourth competitor in the final cook-off.

The judges are Luke Holden and Ben Conniff, coowners of the New York-based Luke’s Lobster chain of lobster roll eateries; travel writer Dez Bartelt; and Linda Greenlaw, the Maine swordfish skipper who survived the nor’easter that was the basis for the book ``The Perfect Storm’’ and was portrayed by Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio in the Hollywood film.

The world series of lobster is similar to the Maine Lobster Promotion Council’s annual Maine Lobster

Chef of the Year competition except it includes restaurant chefs from around the world, not just Maine.

The dishes they prepare won’t be boiled whole lobster, lobster rolls or other lobster dishes you might find at a typical Maine lobster pound.

In winning the European title, for instance, Kastenmeier prepared a dish featuring raw lobster Tartar over creme frais with a fried quail egg, lobster tail sausage over champagne kraut and scrambled egg with lobster knuckles topped with caviar.

The winner receives $5,000 and a lobster buoy that’s painted gold. ■

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The Medallion Club Member

Canada

BY RUDY M. VIERNES

PHILIPPINE ENGLISH II In Los Banos, Laguna, the International Rice Research Institute (IRRI) is the hub of agriculture studies in Asia. In the not so distant past, Thailand sent their agriculturists to IRRI to study a particular strain of rice which could only be found in the Philippines. Now Thailand is exporting rice, especially the Jasmine variety to all parts of the world including the Philippines.

On another note, Vietnamese patis (fish sauce) is as good as the Philippine brand, Rufina’s – I am sure this craft was also learned in the Philippines.

FAST FOOD FOR THOUGHT THE GAMES of the 30th Olympiad has ended. Four years ago Beijing staged its own sumptuous extravaganza that showcased its emergence as a sporting power. They say that if a country can successfully sponsor a sporting event with the magnitude of an Olympics, that country has arrived. And in 2008, China came out with a bold statement and put on a pedestal the glory of the 29th Summer Games with ten feet tall preeminence.

The success of the Beijing Summer Games could be attributed in some measure to the legions of young and dedicated Chinese volunteers who were ubiquitous while doing their thing, eager to please, helpful, enthusiastic, spirited and ever smiling and with one very useful skill—they all speak functional English. And where did they learn their English? For many of them, they learned it from the Philippines.

A Filipino reporter covering the Olympics who took a cab with a sign “Yes, I speak English” befriended the driver who volunteered information that he learned his English from the Emilio Aguinaldo University in Dasmarinas, Cavite, a De la Salle-owned institution in the Philippines.

There were similar stories for many Chinese volunteers.

After the Olympics, many of them went back to the Philippines to hone their English and use it to pursue lucrative careers as tourist guides, interpreters or in jobs with tourism-oriented establishments like hotels, restaurants or houses of entertainment and leisure which modern China now offers to droves of foreign tourists.

School of choice Indeed, the Philippines is the third largest English-speaking country in the world. With its 93.9% English literacy, the country provides modern facilities, resources, and a multi-cultural learning atmosphere for foreign students. Not only is the Philippines a preferred destination for Asians who want to learn English, its nearness to East Asian nations like China, Japan and Korea, as opposed to, say, Australia and New Zealand, make it the “English school” of choice. The

FRIDAY AUGUST 24, 2012 42

Philippines also is attractive in terms of affordability for foreign students who seek high quality education.

The Philippines boasts of a number of ISO-certified universities and higher educational institutions identified as Centers of Excellence and Centers of Development. These include the University of the Philippines, Ateneo de Manila University, De la Salle University and University of Santo Tomas (UST is 25 years older than Harvard). According to Fortune Magazine, they are among the top schools of learning in the world.

UNESCO reports that half of foreign students going to study in the Philippines come from China, Korea, Japan, Taiwan, Singapore and Malaysia. Increasing number of Americans and Europeans also pursue their studies in the Philippines because they can live comfortably with only $350 to $500 a month.

Livability is indeed a factor as English is the official language in the Philippines.

Apart from Tagalog, it is the medium of instruction in schools, it is the language of the courts, commerce and trade, formal gatherings, and all the laws are written in English.

More than Basic English There are several international schools in the country that cater to the children of foreign nationals, like the International School and The British School Manila, which provides the highest standard of education that helps students be “independent critical thinkers, problem solvers, decision makers, effective communicators, team players, responsible risk takers, and active participants in a global society”. For highranking executives or entrepreneurs, the Asian Institute of Management is the school of choice for postgraduate studies.

Government programs To attract foreigners to pursue their education in the Philippines, the government prepared certain innovative programs for foreign students.

An example is the ESL (English as a Second Language) Tour Program. Participants find it more stimulating and fun when they interact with each other while speaking English through games and outdoor activities. Aside from learning English, they also get to see world-renowned tourist spots of the country and become tourist promoters themselves when they return to their homes.

To further sweeten the pot, the government issued Executive Order 285 which converts a tourist visa category to a student visa granting foreigners special study permits if they wish to enroll in a non-degree course for less than a year.

Center for business The Philippines is also considered as a choice location for call centers (most of which are in the Ortigas business district in Pasig, at the Global City in Taguig, and in Mandaluyong City). High information and communications technology (ICT) skills, low operational and labor costs, and more importantly, the English language proficiency of the populace – written and spoken English is not far behind the standard American or British English (sometimes even better grammatically) – make it a very attractive location to set up an outsourcing or offshore business.

According to travel website Expedia, “Unless one is pretty keen on accent, diction or pronunciation, Filipinos speak ‘impressive and functional English’”.

Putting the emphasis on impressive, this speaks highly and accurately of the Filipino who has a working knowledge, and for some, mastery, of the lingua franca of the world – a people from an island far away from mainland USA and the British Isles.

It is simply amazing. ■

The Philippine Canadian Inquirer welcomes your views and opinions. Please e-mail the editor at editor@canadianinquirer.net.Thank you.

Publisher Philippine Canadian Inquirer Editor Melissa Remulla-Briones Correspondents Lizette Lofranco Aba Jeffrey J.D. Andrion Gigi Astudillo Laarni de Paula Dr. Rizaldy Ferrer Maria Ramona Ledesma Frances Grace H. Quiddaoen Rodel J. Ramos Stella Reyes Sarah Taguiam Agnes Tecson Graphic Designer Victoria Yong Illustration Danvic C. Briones Photographers AJ Juan Solon Licas Ryan Ferrer Angelo Siglos Art Viray Sales and Operations Laarni de Paula Alice Yong (778) 889-3518 HINGE INQUIRER PUBLICATIONS CUSTOM PUBLISHING GROUP Managing Editor Maita de Jesus Graphic Artists Reggie Goloy Maud Villanueva Editorial Assistants Phoebe Casin Anne Lora Santos Associate Publisher Lurisa Villanueva Jr. Associate Publisher Millicent Agoncillo Project Coordinator Lychelle Ang In cooperation with the Philippine Daily Inquirer digital edition

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