Philippine Canadian Inquirer Issue #6

PHILIPPINE CANADIAN VOL. 3 NO. 6

TUESDAY MARCH 20, 2012

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NEWS INSIDE Roxas, Takenaka ink deal to finally complete NAIA 3 ( On page 4 )

Robredo sued over Cebu reclamation project ( On page 7 ) Tagle or Palma is next cardinal ( On page 8 )

Sy leads 5 Pinoys in Forbes’ richest list ( On page 9 ) US-Canada Action Plan Measures ( On page 16 ) Travel Alberta says $1.5M worth it to go to Kelly ‘Live’ in Banff

Photo by Edwin Bacasmas

( On page 26 )

GOING FOR 6,000 President Aquino (third from left) poses with business tycoons and officers of the Philippine Stock Exchange (PSE) after ringing the bell in Makati City on March 6 to mark March 2’s historic market closing level of above 5,000 points. With the President are (from left) Andrew Tan, Teresita Sy-Coson, Jaime Augusto Zobel de Ayala, PSE chair Jose Pardo, PSE president Hans Sicat and BPI president Aurelio Montinola III.

Pork tied to impeach bid Solon defies House, testifies for Corona

BY CHRISTIAN V. ESGUERRA Philippine Daily Inquirer

WITH HIS colleagues watching behind him, Navotas Rep. Tobias Tiangco broke ranks and appeared as a witness for the defense panel in the resumption of the impeachment trial of Chief Justice Renato Corona.

CANADA NEWS

Tiangco testified on what defense lawyer Dennis Manalo called a “pattern or scheme” in the House of Representatives “to intimidate or exert undue influence” on a member to support moves such as the filing of the Corona impeachment complaint.

According to Tiangco, the

The Philippine Bayanihan Community Center

administration may exert pressure on a lawmaker by delaying or withholding his pork barrel.

A first-term congressman, Tiangco recounted how the House led by Speaker Feliciano Belmonte cooked up the impeachment complaint during More on A5

CANADA NEWS

In 1961, officers of the Victoria Filipino Canadian Association dreamed about a cultural center.

Ten years later, the Bayanihan Cultural Center opened its doors to Filipinos in Victoria.

VFCA Volunteers of the Philippine Bayanihan Community Centre.

PH Travel: Northern Adventure ( On page 30 )

Strong women, Strong Canada This year’s focus was on women in rural, remote and northern communities who play a vital role in the economic prosperity of rural, remote and northern regions.

( On page 20 )

( On page 20 )

Driving the Klondike/ Kluane Loop ( On page 31 ) To subscribe, please send an email to

info@canadianinquirer.net.

Applicable postage shall be charged.

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News-Phils Accountant, lawyer needed for new SALN

BY GIL C. CABACUNGAN Philippine Daily Inquirer A GOVERNMENT worker may have to enlist the help of a lawyer and an accountant just to fill out the new SALN form, two lawmakers said.

“The revised SALN (statement of assets, liabilities and net worth) form might be too complex for a public employee who cannot afford to hire the services of an attorney and/or an accountant to assist him or her in the filing of the said form,” said Cagayan de Oro Rep. Rufus Rodriguez.

Rodriguez urged the Civil Service Commission (CSC) to move the April 30 deadline for the filing of the SALN. The CSC issued Resolution No. 1100902 in July last year ordering all public officials and employees to use the revised form in filing their SALN for 2011, including “a statement of the amounts and sources of his income, the amounts of his personal and family expenses and the amount of income taxes paid for the next preceding calendar year.”

Personal expenses include allowances for mobile phone plan, toiletries, food, clothing and travel. Family expenses include electricity and water bills, groceries, Internet and cable service fees, food expenses, tuition and home mortgage payments.

The amounts do not have to be exact up to the last centavo, according to the CSC.

Senate court raps Corona lawyer over bribery claim

BY MICHAEL LIM UBAC & MARLON RAMOS Philippine Daily Inquirer

FOR CLAIMING that senators could be bought, defense lawyer Jose Roy III has been cited for contempt by the Senate impeachment court.

The Senate noted that without offering any cogent proof, Roy claimed in a press conference on Feb. 12 that Executive Secretary Paquito Ochoa had offered P100 million in pork barrel funds to each senator to defy a Supreme Court order restraining the impeachment court from looking into dollar accounts of Chief Justice Renato Corona.

“The implication of the statement of one of your members is rather serious because it, in effect, suggests that this court could be paid in making a decision, and I don’t think that is a proper thing

Rodriguez said public officials could be subject to lawsuits for any “honest mistake” in their SALNS. The “complex form might lead to useless or unjustified complaints against public officers for violations of the law which are caused by mere inadvertence, confusion, honest mistake or misapprehension of difficult legal and accounting concepts,” he said.

Technicalities Speaker Feliciano Belmonte Jr. said government officials and employees would have to invest a significant amount of time to fill out the revised SALN form.

“It’s true, you will need a lawyer and accountant to fill it out because there are technicalities in it. Our members can ask help from our legal office if they need guidance,” Belmonte said.

But while he supported government’s reforms to tighten compliance with SALN requirements, Belmonte said the House remained undecided on whether to ask the CSC to delay the use of the new SALN form until after the more than a million-strong bureaucracy shall have been fully briefed about it.

Rodriguez noted that the SALN requirement under Republic Act No. 6713 (the Code of Conduct and Ethical Standards for Public Officials and Employees) issued in 1985 did not include the details demanded under the CSC resolution.

He said RA 6713 itself had already been “repealed” by the 1987 Constitution, which requires a simple SALN declaration without any mention of “amounts and sources of income, the amount of personal and family expenses or the amount of taxes paid for the next preceding calendar year.”

Ex-post facto Rodriguez said the CSC resolution could be considered an “expost facto” law as it would penalize government officials and employees for failure to declare their income and expenses in the preceding year when a CSC circular had not yet been published.

“It was approved April 17, 2011, and it requires information months before its approval which may already have been forgotten by the declarant, and this new requirement by the CSC makes his inadvertence punishable,” the lawmaker said.

Belmonte and Rodriguez said the SALN had become a sensitive issue amid the impeachment trial of Chief Justice Renato Corona.

The Chief Justice’s failure to disclose his SALN to the public and discrepancies between what he declared as his cash and other assets and what the prosecution presented as his actual bank deposits and property holdings have surfaced in the trial.

Corona’s chief defense counsel, Serafin Cuevas, said any omissions in the filing of the SALN could be corrected if this was proven to be an honest mistake. ■

TUESDAY MARCH 20, 2012 2

PHILIPPINE CANADIAN

Publisher Philippine Canadian Inquirer Head of Editorial Melissa Remulla-Briones Editorial Consultant Maria Ramona Ledesma Contributors Jeffrey J.D. Andrion Gigi Astudillo Dr. Rizaldy Ferrer Marietta Pangan-Dutkoski Stella Reyes Jenn Torres Frances Grace H. Quiddaoen Laarni de Paula Rodel J. Ramos Graphic Designer Victoria Yong Illustration Danvic C. Briones Photographer Ryan Ferrer Sales and Operations Laarni de Paula Dominador Masakayan MaryAnn Roque HINGE INQUIRER PUBLICATIONS CUSTOM PUBLISHING GROUP Managing Editor Maita de Jesus

to even think about this impeachment court,” said Senate President Juan Ponce Enrile.

Enrile, the impeachment court’s presiding officer, handed down the ruling which was prompted by an earlier motion by Sen. Antonio Trillanes IV. “I think the court feels that, in effect, there is an implied suggestion that there is a quid pro quo in the votes to be obtained from Senate members of this court, which this court considers an indirect contempt of the court. So therefore this court is constrained to cite one of lawyers of the defense, Attorney Roy, for contempt,” Enrile said.

The penalty to be imposed on Roy will be determined by senatorjudges during a caucus today.

The lead defense counsel, Serafin Cuevas, asked, in jest, whether Roy would face “life imprisonment, or the death penalty.”

“No, we don’t go that far,” Enrile said, explaining that the defense should not take lightly such an unproven claim that “would be misunderstood by the public.”

“This court must assert its dignity and honor in this proceeding, and we are going to think about the penalty to be imposed on him commensurate to the degree to what we consider to be an accusation to the members of this court,” Enrile said. “We may be politicians, but we have our integrity and honor that we have earned over time.”

“We welcome the judgment of the court. While we disagree, we have extended our apology,” Roy told reporters after the proceedings.

He pointed out that the decision to hold the press conference was a “collective action.”

Asked why he was singled out, Roy said with a grin: “Well, maybe the most charming one is the object of affection.”■ www.canadianinquirer.net

Asst. Creative Director Bong Sevilla Graphic Artist Reggie Goloy Associate Publisher Lurisa Villanueva Jr. Associate Publisher Millicent Agoncillo Project Coordinator Lychelle Ang In cooperation with the Philippine Daily Inquirer digital edition PHILIPPINE CANADIAN INQUIRER is located at Suite 400 North Tower 5811 Cooney Road, Richmond B.C. Canada Tel No. 778-3836090 / 778-383-3203 • Email us at : info@ canadianinquirer.net or inquirerinc@gmail.com

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Gov’t bats for backyard gardens

BY KRISTINE L. ALAVE Philippine Daily Inquirer

TENDING vegetable patches in one’s backyard is good for your health and can reduce hunger in the country, according to the National Nutrition Council (NNC).

Backyard gardening can also make Filipinos less dependent on food imports, Hygea Ceres Gawe of the NNC nutrition surveillance division said recently at a forum organized by Save the Children Foundation.

“Filipinos need to be self-sufficient especially in staple foods. This will allow us to be less dependent on

our project sites, especially Parañaque City, a highly urbanized area where imported staple food, the prices of malnutrition is the sixth cause of death which are increasing,” Gawe said. among children under 5 years old, She said the council was encouraging may be replicated in other cities and households to plant leafy vegetables municipalities. because these have a high mineral From 15.6 percent, the number of content. underweight children ages 0 to 59 Tubers like camote (sweet potato) months has been reduced to 13.0 are also another option. “They can use percent. It is our duty to help every it as a rice substitute,” she said. child attain their right to be healthy and well nourished,” Pongan said.

Model communities A project that taught families to Inadequate calories transform their backyards into Gawe said Filipinos were eating less vegetable gardens has pushed nutritious foods because they could not down hunger incidence in model afford the more nutritious alternatives. communities, said Norma Pongan, Two out of every three Filipino program manager of Save the Children. households have been found to have More than 1,500 families in inadequate food intake, she said.

Parañaque City, Lake Sebu in South “They are not meeting their caloric Cotabato province and San Remigio intake. For average Filipinos, that’s in Antique province have set up 2,000 calories per day,” Gawe said in household gardens. an interview.

The project, with support from Intake of carbohydrates and protein Kraft Foods Philippines, has resulted in many households has also declined. in a decrease in the participants’ selfrated hunger from 47.6 percent to 36.7 Income not enough percent, Pongan said.

Close to three of every four households “We hope the results of the project in were worried about the sufficiency of

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food because they do not have money to buy food, according to Gawe.

“One of the reasons they tell us is that the prices of commodities are increasing and their income is not enough. There is limited food purchasing power,” she said.

The NNC findings jibe with results of a survey by the Bureau of Agriculture Statistics (BAS), which point to an imbalance in the Filipino diet.

A BAS survey released last December said Filipinos’ rice consumption remained high, but their intake of meat and vegetables had gone down over the years, a sign that they could not afford a more varied and nutritious diet.

The BAS said a Filipino ate 308.93 grams of rice a day in 2010, up from the base level of 282.63 grams per day in 2000. That amount of rice provided 1,102.88 grams of calories and 23.17 grams of protein.

Filipinos were also eating less beef than before. Their average beef intake per day in 2010 went down to 6.57 grams from the base level 7.70 grams per day. They were also eating less vegetables, according to the BAS. ■

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TUESDAY MARCH 20, 2012 4

Roxas, Takenaka ink deal to finally complete Naia 3 Gatdula skips initial

BY PAOLO G. MONTECILLO Philippine Daily Inquirer MORE THAN three years after it was partially opened to the public, the Ninoy Aquino International Airport (Naia) Terminal 3 should be well on its way to being completed and used to its full potential.

Transportation Secretary Mar Roxas announced the signing of a deal between the government and Japanese industrial giant Takenaka Corp. for the completion of the work still needed at Naia 3.

The signing of a memorandum of understanding (MOU) in Tokyo is considered the first legal step to making Naia 3 100-percent operational.

“We would like to thank Takenaka Corp. for both being thorough and sincere in negotiating with us,” said Roxas.

“It was with their cooperation that this deal was signed in record time,” he added.

Takenaka was the original contractor for Naia 3. Its work at the facility was never finished because the airport was expropriated after the concessionaire, Philippine International Air Terminals Co.

(Piatco), was declared to be a dummy firm for its partner Fraport AG from Germany.

Roxas said the signing of the MOU signified an agreement between the government and Takenaka on the price at which the remaining work at Naia would be completed.

About 23 different areas of construction still need to be completed at Naia 3, including its baggage handling, fire alarm, flight information and closed circuit television systems.

Because these systems were not installed, Naia 3 is currently running at half of its capacity.

Once completed, the 182,500squaremeter terminal would be able to serve up to 33,000 passengers daily at peak or 6,000 passengers per hour. It would have 34 air bridges and 20 contact gates which would allow it to service 28 planes simultaneously.

Some of the operations at Terminal 1 would be transferred to Terminal 3 once the 23 systems are delivered. This would decongest the three-decadeold Terminal 1 and make it more passengerfriendly. This would hopefully erase the worst airport in the world tag the terminal has earned from travellers. ■

“If we attended the hearing, that would have made our petition moot,” Espejo said.

Gatdula was sacked for his alleged involvement in kidnapping and extorting money from undocumented Japanese national Noriyo Ohara, the complainant in the case.

The DOJ panel, composed of Assistant State Prosecutors Juan Pedro Navera, Irwin Maraya and Hazel Decena-valdez, ordered Ohara to answer Gatdula’s petition to suspend the preliminary investigation.

Gatdula’s fellow respondent, Virgilito Gutierrez, asked the panel to dismiss the case or transfer the venue of the preliminary investigation to the Manila city prosecutor’s office.

Gutierrez, one of Gatdula’s close aides, said the case was “totally lacking of legal and factual basis to warrant the filing of the charges for kidnapping, robbery and other charges against the respondents.”

Gutierrez and his fellow respondents, NBI Security Management Division chief Mario Garcia and Gatdula’s special assistant Raul Dimaano, attended the hearing. ■

probe of his case

BY PHILIP TUBEZA Philippine Daily Inquirer

SACKED National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) Director Magtanggol Gatdula was a no-show at the opening of the Department of Justice (DOJ) preliminary investigation into his alleged participation in the kidnapextortion case involving a Japanese national.

Lawyer Abraham Espejo, Gatdula’s counsel, said his client failed to attend the hearing because they had pending petitions before the Manila Regional Trial Court and the DOJ to stop the preliminary investigation.

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TUESDAY MARCH 20, 2012

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PORK TIED TO... A1

a majority caucus on Dec. 12, the same day Corona was impeached.

Under direct examination by Manalo, Tiangco said he had “psyched” himself up to sign the complaint “with eyes closed” ahead of the caucus. But he said he still did not do so after finding no “probable cause” to impeach Corona.

“I was not convinced that there was probable cause,” the witness told the impeachment court. “I understand probable cause as the probability that the accused did what he is being accused of.

How could I be convinced if there was no document or proof being presented?”

Tiangco recalled the previous impeachment case against then Ombudsman Merceditas Gutierrez when his “Priority Development Assistance Fund” (PDAF) was allegedly withheld after he refused to sign the complaint prepared by the stalwarts of President Aquino.

“I don’t want to catch the ire of the most powerful man in the country who has a very high popularity rating, that is, the President of the Philippines,” he said.

“The President can make life miserable for you,” Tiangco added, recalling his experience as a member of the political opposition during the nine-year regime of former President Gloria Macapagalarroyo.

Tiangco took the witness stand despite the risk of further antagonizing his colleagues. He earlier lost key committee posts after refusing to sign the impeachment complaint against the Chief Justice.

The congressman downplayed the possibility of angering fellow congressmen because of his decision to testify. “It’s OK. They’re supporting me,” he told the INQUIRER. “No,” Tiangco replied when asked about the awkward situation of testifying against his colleagues, many of whom were sitting in the VIP section of the Senate session hall.

Zero pork threat House prosecutors were generally cordial to Tiangco, who even engaged in light banter with Rep. Rodolfo Fariñas during his direct examination. Fariñas, the deputy chief prosecutor, later briefly cross-examined him.

But Cavite Rep. Jose Emilio Abaya, chair of the House committee on appropriations, did not look amused, especially when Tiangco brought up the Gutierrez impeachment case.

Tiangco recalled that a text message had circulated claiming that congressmen who would not support the Gutierrez impeachment would receive “zero” PDAF, more popularly known as “pork barrel.”

Senate Juan Ponce Enrile, the presiding officer, stressed he was giving the defense a lot of “leeway” but appeared impatient about

the relevance of the Gutierrez impeachment to the Corona trial.

Manalo said Tiangco’s testimony would prove that the Corona impeachment was “politically motivated.”

“We are obviously proving that there is a pattern or scheme or plant or modus operandi with the majority of the House of Representatives to intimidate or exert undue influence upon their other members to approve their measures such as this impeachment case filed against Chief Justice Renato Corona,” the defense counsel said.

Tiangco recalled getting a text message from Budget Secretary Florencio “Butch” Abad in reaction to his press release complaining about the nonrelease of his PDAF. “Cong. Tiangco, read your PR today re PDAF. On my own, I cannot withhold any legislators’ PDAF. I suggest you find a way to talk to Pnoy (President Aquino).

The Speaker can help you along this line,” the message read, a copy of which was marked as exhibit for the defense.

Tiangco said his PDAF was eventually released shortly before he was about to discuss the matter with Abad during a budget briefing at the House.

Last year, he said he received a text message informing congressmen about an “all-majority caucus” on Dec. 12 but with no agenda.

“I tried to psyche myself up. I tried to force myself to vote ‘yes’ in case the matter to be tackled would be impeachment,” he recalled, noting his supposedly negative experience with the Gutierrez impeachment case.

In an ABS-CBN report, however, Abad denied that it was the administration’s policy to withhold the pork of lawmakers who did not toe the line.

Fariñas objected to Tiangco’s testimony about the caucus, claiming legislative privilege. But he was overruled.

In the caucus, Tiangco said Belmonte informed some 120 to 130 congressmen at the Andaya Hall: “We will impeach the Chief Justice today. Chief Justice Corona is a protégé of GMA (Gloria Macapagalarroyo) and he would do nothing else but to protect (her)…”

“He will be an obstacle to the good intentions of President Noynoy. Think about it. What could the President do in his six years in office if the Supreme Court would block his good intentions?”

Belmonte added.

Tiangco said Rep. Niel Tupas Jr., chair of the House committee on justice, later made a 20-minute Powerpoint presentation discussing the eight articles of impeachment. But he said the presentation contained only “bullet” points and short “narratives.”

Tiangco noted that Tupas showed no document such as certifications when he discussed, for instance, Article 2, which alleged that Corona did not publicly disclose his statements of

assets, liabilities and net worth. “I cannot sign (the complaint) without reading it (first),” he said.

Besides the absence of proof, Tiangco said he went against the House leadership because “I felt it was an attempt to control or to scare the Supreme Court.

It’s not a simple impeachment of the Chief Justice,” he added.

Enrile later sustained the prosecution’s objection that Tiangco was expressing an “opinion.”

Tiangco said he particularly did not like that Belmonte told the caucus that the Corona impeachment was “nondebatable.”

“No questions will be entertained,” the group was supposedly told.

“To me, it was a veiled threat,” the witness said, noting that the House was supposed to be a “deliberative body.”

Before the presentation, Tiangco said Muntinlupa Rep. Rodolfo Biazon took the floor and complained in a “high voice” that while media people knew that a caucus had been called to impeach Corona the congressmen were not even given a copy of the impeachment complaint that they were to sign.

Tiangco also said that similarly disturbed, Cagayan de Oro Rep. Rufus Rodriguez purportedly asked if congressmen could not raise “clarifications” after Tupas’ presentation. He said Majority Leader Neptali Gonzales II then told Rodriguez that if he had questions he should raise them on the floor.

Belmonte supposedly replied only to Biazon’s query and said that lawmakers could secure copies of the impeachment complaint later.

Harmless rantings In an interview with reporters, Belmonte dismissed Tiangco’s “rantings” and said his testimony was “harmless.”

“What is he complaining about? He got what is due him,” he said. “Tobias is just making himself important.”

Gonzales indicated that Tiangco could be subjected to disciplinary action for unethical behavior, pointing out that he had a duty to defend the integrity of the House.

He denied he was threatening Tiangco with expulsion. “It’s just a matter of stating what is provided for by the rules and the Constitution,” Gonzales said.

“If ever there will be expulsion proceedings, I am ready to face it,” Tiangco told reporters later. “What I said is the truth. That institution must live on truth. It cannot live on lies so it must survive on what is true.”

Corona’s defense lawyers condemned the expulsion threat against Tiangco. “That is an attempt to interfere in the administration of justice,” said Jose Roy III. ■

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TUESDAY MARCH 20, 2012 6

Ampatuan, on respirator, asks to stay in hospital

BY JULIE M. AURELIO Philippine Daily Inquirer THE LEGAL counsels of the patriarch of the clan charged with the 2009 Maguindanao massacre have formally asked a Quezon City court to allow him to remain in confinement at a military hospital.

Saying their client was connected to a respirator at Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) Medical Center, Andal Ampatuan Sr.’s lawyers said the condition of the 70-year-old former Maguindanao governor still required hospitalization.

Ampatuan is hooked to a mechanical ventilator—with a tube connected to the machine inserted down his throat— to assist him in breathing.

AFP spokesperson Col. Arnulfo Burgos Jr. said a medical bulletin issued by the military hospital on Monday morning reported that Ampatuan was found to have pneumonia.

The former Maguindanao governor was set to undergo a whole abdominal ultrasound.

Judge Jocelyn Solis-reyes of QC

Regional Trial Court Branch 221 has ordered the defense to submit a medical abstract of the accused, who has been confined at the hospital since March 9.

Defense lawyer Gregorio Narvasa also asked the court to allow a private doctor to examine Ampatuan for a second opinion.

In a medical certificate dated March 11 which was presented in court, Dr. Estrellita Bitong of V. Luna Medical Center said Ampatuan’s present condition “still requires hospital confinement.”

The certificate said he was diagnosed with the following: Pneumonia, community acquired, high risk; acute respiratory failure secondary to noncardiogenic pulmonary edema; chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, and chronic alcoholic liver disease.

Malacañang would prefer that Ampatuan remained in a government hospital, especially if the facility would be able to provide his medical needs.

“If the government hospital can address his concern, we see no need for him to be shifted or transferred to a private hospital,” presidential

spokesperson Edwin Lacierda said.

“In any event, we have more control.

We can provide security in those government medical institutions,” Lacierda said.

Ampatuan’s lawyers reportedly wanted him transferred to a private hospital, The Medical City in Pasig City, for further medical tests.

Ampatuan, who has been detained at the Philippine National Police facility in Camp Bagong Diwa, Taguig City, with the other Maguindanao massacre suspects since 2009, was brought to Taguig-pateros District Hospital on Friday after reportedly vomiting blood. He was transferred to the government hospital later that day.

At March 12’s hearing, the prosecution panel and the patriarch’s lawyers engaged in a heated argument over his confinement.

Private prosecutor Harry Roque pointed out that while Ampatuan’s lawyers filed a motion seeking permission for his hospital visit, he was rushed to the military hospital without a court order. ■

Lawmakers push ‘Manny Pacquiao Act’

BY GIL C. CABACUNGAN LAWMAKERS are pushing a bill urging the government to bankroll the construction of boxing gyms all over the country to train indigent Filipinos to excel in the sports and in the process lift them out of poverty just like boxing icon Manny Pacquiao.

ALE party-list Rep. Catalina Bagasina has filed House Bill No. 5505 seeking the establishment of boxing gyms in every town in the country and appropriating funds for them.

Kabataan party-list Rep. Raymond Palatino called the proposed bill the “Manny Pacquiao Act” as it aims to provide an opportunity for young Filipinos to hone their skills in boxing which was the key to the Saranggani legislator’s rise from being a pan de sal vendor in General Santos City to one of the world’s richest athletes.

Pacquiao, considered the world’s best pound-forpound boxer, is now the richest congressman due to his winnings from his boxing bouts and his share from cable payfor-view proceeds.

The bill has been endorsed for deliberation in the House committee on youth and sports.

Palatino said he supports the bill because it would also prevent the youth from engaging in vices like drugs and alcohol. ■

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News-Phils Robredo sued over Cebu reclamation project A7

TUESDAY MARCH 20, 2012

BY LEILA B. SALAVERRIA Philippine Daily Inquirer

AN ENVIRONMENT group and fisherfolk from Cebu have filed a criminal case against several government officials over a reclamation project in the municipality of Cordova in Cebu which they said would destroy marine resources and worsen the effects of climate change.

Named in the complaint were Interior Secretary Jesse Robredo, Cebu Gov. Gwendolyn Garcia and several local officials.

The complainants said the project was illegal and did not have the approval of the Philippine Reclamation Authority (PRA). They said the officials also refused to investigate the project.

The complaint was filed before the Office of the Ombudsman in the Visayas by the Philippine Earth Justice Center (PEJC) represented by Gloria Ramos and Mary Joan Dulhao, and fisherfolk and nongovernment organization members Cirilo Pagobo, Edie Quijano, Alejandro Baguio, Victor Lapaz, Owen Migraso, Gerlie Migraso, Vince Cinches and Owen Migraso.

Also named respondents were Cordova Mayor Adelino Sitoy, Vice Mayor Rodrigo Jumaoas, Department of the Interior and Local Government (DILG) Regional Director Ananias Villacorta, Environmental Management Bureau Director Fernando Quililan and EMB officer in charge William Cunado.

According to the complainants, the officials violated the Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Act, the Local Government Code, the Antired Tape Act, the Code Of Conduct and Ethical Standards for Public Officials and Authorities, as well as committed abuse of authority, illegal expenditures, grave misconduct and gross dereliction of duty.

In their complaint, they said PRA general manager Anthony Abaya informed them that neither the Cordova municipality nor the Cebu province had complied with the requirements for the PRA to evaluate and process the application for reclamation.

The PRA is responsible for integrating, directing and coordinating all reclamation projects for and on behalf of the national government.

The PRA provided the information upon the request of the PEJC, which asked for the data shortly after hearing about the 20-hectare reclamation project in December last year.

Last month, the PEJC also sent a letter to Garcia and Vice Gov. Agnes Magpale, asking them to stop the reclamation project because of Cebu’s vulnerability to climate change and the lack of PRA approval.

Strategic importance In opposing the project, it cited the strategic importance of the diverse ecosystems in Cordova, ecological integrity, food security, ecotourism and shipping. It also asked for copies of pertinent documents related to the Project.

“By implementing the Project, and by the DILG’S inaction and the Department of Environment and Natural Resources’ highly questionable issuance of ECC (environmental compliance certificate), amid the continuing disasters that we face, the respondent public officials are not serious in addressing climate change adaptation and mitigation and the implementation of our laws,” they said.

They lamented the officials’ lack of transparency in allegedly failing to disclose the scope and extent of the project, and to release copies of the environmental impact assessment, and the plans and agreements submitted by the proponent.

They alleged that the project was inconsistent with the Integrated Coastal Resource Management Plant of Cordova, and that the officials failed to integrate concerns about human rights, climate change, sustainable development and disaster risk reduction in the undertaking.

The officials also supposedly failed to implement, and may have even violated, environmental protection and antipollution laws, with the DILG failing to do its part to supervise the local governments as well, the complainants further said.

They also decried the “E-gwen” signages, which they said was contrary to the policy against the use of the names and faces of officials in publicly funded projects.” ■

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TUESDAY MARCH 20, 2012 8

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More fun for career women in Ph–report

BY DORIS C. DUMLAO Philippine Daily Inquirer

IT’S MORE fun for women climbing the corporate ladder in the Philippines than in most other places in the world: More Filipino women are taking on leadership positions in business and more of them enjoy flexible work arrangements.

This, according to the Grant Thornton’s International Business Report (IBR) released by its local member firm Punongbayan & Araullo (P&A).

From 35 percent in 2011, the ratio of Filipino women in top corporate positions rose to 39 percent, making the Philippines second only to Russia, along with Thailand and Botswana, in the list of countries with a growing number of women joining the “C-suite.”

The “C-suite” refers to executives belonging to a corporation’s senior management team and is so called because these people usually have a “C” in their official titles, such as chief executive officer, chief operating officer, chief finance officer, chief investment officer or chief information officer.

Equal access “The result of the study shows that top posts in the country are accessible to men and women equally,” said Marivic Españo, P&amanaging partner and CEO. The survey looked into the roles women play in senior management and found that as in most Philippine households, women leaders end up with responsibilities involving finance. This year, 64 percent of Filipino women in senior management were either chief finance officers or were in senior finance positions, up from last year’s 54 percent, the study said.

The Grant Thornton International Business Report provides insight into the views and expectations of 12,000 businesses across 40 economies. This unique annual survey draws upon 20 years of trend data for most European participants and nine years for many noneuropean economies.

The latest data were drawn from interviews with 6,000 businesses across the globe conducted between November 2011 and February 2012. The target respondents were chief executive officers, managing directors, chair or other senior executives primarily across five sectors: manufacturing (25 percent), services (25 percent), retail (15 percent) and construction (10 percent), with the remaining 25 percent spread across all sectors.

For the first time, the IBR asked respondents if they offered flexible work arrangements. Sixty-six percent of Philippine businesses polled answered yes, above the global average of 52 percent and the Southeast Asian average of 53 percent.

‘Tagle or Palma is next cardinal’

BY JOCELYN R. UY Philippine Daily Inquirer

FOLLOWING the death of Jose Cardinal Sanchez, either Manila Archbishop Luis Antonio Tagle or Cebu Archbishop Jose Palma will likely be named a cardinal when Pope Benedict XVI calls for the next consistory, according to Church officials.

Archbishop Emeritus Oscar Cruz said that normally the Philippine Catholic Church had three cardinals but the Vatican had not yet named the replacements of Sanchez, former Manila Archbishop Gaudencio Cardinal Rosales and former Cebu Archbishop Ricardo Cardinal Vidal when the three retired.

Though retired, the two remaining living cardinals—Rosales and Vidal—are still members of Vatican’s College of Cardinals but can no longer vote during a Papal conclave.

The College of Cardinals is a body of all the cardinals of the Roman Catholic Church whose functions include advising the Pope on Church

matters and electing a successor following the death of a Pope.

“It’s hard to answer why the Vatican is taking its time, but sooner or later, the Archbishop of Manila and of Cebu will be named cardinals because the observance of the Church is that if you replaced a cardinal, you will also be elevated to cardinal,” Cruz explained to reporters.

Tagle, then bishop of Imus, was named late last year as Rosales’ replacement. Palma, who is also currently president of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines, replaced Vidal when the latter retired in 2010.

“In due time, Archbishop Tagle and Archbishop Palma will be elevated to the College of Cardinals,” said Cruz.

Sanchez, the fifth Filipino to be elevated to the Vatican’s College of Cardinals, died on Friday at the age of 91.

He will be buried in a tomb in the cathedral crypt. Vidal will officiate the Holy Mass and deliver the homily. ■

“This is one way of encouraging women to aim for the top, especially those who have to balance their career with motherhood,” Españo said.

But the global picture isn’t looking very rosy as the same study showed that the proportion of women holding senior management posts has been on a steady decline in all major regions of the world except Europe since 2009.

Results from 2011 and 2012 in the Southeast Asian region showed that although the number of women in top management positions remained above the global average, only the Philippines and Vietnam recorded an uptick in numbers from the past year.

“When we started tracking women in leadership posts in emerging markets such as BRIC (referring to the fast-growing emerging market bloc BrazilRussiaindia-china) and the ones in Southeast Asia, it was very encouraging to see that these dynamic economies were leading the pack in terms of welcoming women in the boardroom,” Españo said. “So it is a point of concern to see the proportion of women business leaders shrinking in these countries. Hopefully this doesn’t signal a further drop in the coming years to the point where women are underrepresented globally.”

Added Españo: “The falling numbers globally should alert business leaders and get them to start asking why women aren’t at present at the top of the ladder and what can be done about it. Hopefully, we can find more ways to open up those C-suite posts to women and continue to be a good example of gender equality here in the Asean (Association of Southeast Asian) region.”. ■

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Sy leads 5 Pinoys in Forbes’ richest list

BY LEILA B. SALAVERRIA Philippine Daily Inquirer

SIX BUSINESS tycoons from the Philippines led by SM group patriarch Henry Sy made it to Forbes Magazine’s 2012 list of richest people on the planet.

The list includes Lucio Tan, Andrew Tan, Enrique Razon Jr., Eduardo Cojuangco Jr. and Roberto Ongpin. It was the first time for Cojuangco and Ongpin to join the roster of the world’s billionaires (in US dollar terms). Forbes published on March 7 its latest gallery of the world’s richest people, an alltime high 1,226 billionaires, who were worth a record $4.6 trillion.

When the magazine started this tradition of counting billionaires around the world 25 years ago there were only 140 names.

At the top of Forbes’ global list is Mexican Carlos Slim, 72, who has an estimated net worth of $69 billion. Microsoft founder Bill Gates, 56, is second and investment guru Warren Buffet, 81, chair of Berkshire Hathaway, third.

Sy and family ranked 116th richest in the world, cementing his title as the wealthiest man in the Philippines. Forbes estimated his net worth at $8 billion.

also has an interest in oil exploration.

Cojuangco, 76, is the fifth Philippine tycoon on the list with a global rank of 960th. The 76- year- old chair of San Miguel Corp. ( SMC) has an estimated net worth of $ 1.3 billion.

Cojuangco has a 15-percent stake in San Miguel which has diversified from its traditional food and beverage businesses into power generation, power distribution (via a minority but significant stake in Manila Electric Co.), oil refining, mining, toll road, airport, banking and telecommunications.

Ongpin’s Ashmore Ongpin, 75, is ranked 1,153rd on the list with an estimated net worth of $1 billion.

Ongpin brought in London-based Ashmore as a partner in Philippine investments in recent years. Apart from his interest in San Miguel and Petron Corp., Ongpin is into real estate, mining and recently into banking.

Compared to last year, Sy, Lucio and Andrew Tan and Razon significantly increased their wealth.

Sy was worth $5.8 billion in 2011 while Lucio Tan, Andrew Tan and Razon were worth $2.3 billion, $2.2 billion and $1.1 Banking, retailing billion, respectively. With the local stock The 87-year-old Sy leads SM Investments, market outperforming most bourses in the the dominant player in Philippine banking, region, the market capitalization of their retailing and shopping mall development. respective companies has surged.

It is also a fastgrowing player in residential and tourism-oriented property Counting malls development. Sy’s group has recently “The Philippines’ richest man, Henry added mining to its portfolio.

Sy started out in his father’s bodega Lucio Tan and family ranked 314th on (warehouse) and then opened a shoe store. the list with an estimated net worth of He now controls the Philippines’ largest $3.5 billion. Lucio Tan, 77, has interests in mall developer, with 42 locations; has five tobacco and liquor manufacturing, airline, in China, including one that opened last property and banking. He has vast property year. Shares in SM Investments, which interests in mainland China and is likewise makes up bulk of his fortune, popped 50 a big investor in Guam. percent in the past year. BDO Unibank, Property tycoon Andrew Tan ranked run by daughter Teresita Sy-coson, is the 601st on the global list with a net worth of country’s largest bank,” Forbes said. $2.1 billion. Andrew Tan, 59, built a fortune BDO is worth over P1 trillion, the first on real estate development, particularly in local bank to breach this mark in asset offering high-rise residential units to the base. The Sys also own another big bank, mass market and in pioneering mixed-use China Bank, which is run by the tycoon’s developments to attract business process sons. The retailing group, operating outsourcing firms. through a chain of SM Department stores, He has also successfully ventured into hypermarts, supermarkets and Savemore, the gaming business in partnership with the had a turnover of P148.2 billion in 2011.

Genting group of Malaysia. He likewise has consumer-based interests, including a Tobacco king beverage unit and the Philippine chain of Forbes described Lucio Tan as a “tobacco Mcdonald’s fast-food stores. king” holding over a third in Philip Morrisfortune Tobacco, a joint venture between Port operations his privately held Fortune Tobacco and Razon, 52, is the fourth and the youngest Philip Morris. The combined entity has tycoon from the Philippines with an an estimated 80-percent share of the international rank of 683rd. Forbes Philippine cigarette market. Tan’s Asia estimated his net worth at $1.9 billion. He Brewery is the country’s second largest has built a fortune on international port beer maker, according to Forbes. operations.

“A big chunk of fortune comes from Razon has unloaded his interest in Hong Kong-based Eton Properties,” the the country’s electricity transmission magazine said. superhighway and is now building a “He got his start as a chemical engineer casinohotel complex in Pagcor City. He and mopped floors to pay for school. Tan

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enjoys flying helicopters,” Forbes said.

The publication noted reports that Lucio Tan was in talks to bring in San Miguel to help refurbish the aging fleet of Philippine Airlines. It also noted that three of Tan’s companies, Eton Properties, Tanduay Holdings and PAL Holdings, faced delisting by the Philippine Stock Exchange for failing to maintain a 10-percent public float.

Second casino “Son of a factory worker, Andrew Tan did odd jobs to put himself through college.

Saved money he earned as a kitchen appliance salesman to buy a distillery and made his first fortune in brandy. His holding company, Alliance Global, has interests in food and beverage, real estate and gaming.

With partner Genting Malaysia, he plans to build a second casino in Pasay City this year,” Forbes said.

Cojuangco was described by Forbes as a “former Marcos crony” who controls San Miguel, a food and beverage conglomerate best known for its beer. Forbes noted that San Miguel had spun off its brewery unit in 2007, diversifying into power, infrastructure and heavy industry.

“In 2010, he sold an option to a group of investors to buy him out for an undisclosed sum. The country’s Supreme Court has ruled that his stake in San Miguel, which the Presidential Commission on Good Government had alleged he got because of his links with the former dictator, wasn’t illgotten,” Forbes said.

To unload 15% The INQUIRER reported in May 2010 that Cojuangco had made plans to unload his entire 15percent equity in San Miguel in favor of trusted allies.

The option to buy his shares for P75 per share was given to a holding firm, Top Frontier Investment Holdings. The holding firm is 49-percent owned by San Miguel itself as represented by Cojuangco’s trusted lieutenant and concurrent company president Ramon Ang. An investor group, which includes Ongpin, Iñigo Zobel and condiments king Joselito Campos, controls 51 percent.

Forbes noted that Ongpin, a former minister of trade during the Marcos regime, had investments in property, gaming, mining and telecommunications. ( His interest in telecoms was recently sold to San Miguel and Ongpin instead took a controlling stake in Philippine Bank of Communications).

Ongpin heads Top Frontier, the entity with a controlling interest in San Miguel.

“Last November he appeared before a Senate inquiry over a loan from a stateowned development bank, which he claims was above board. He’s a certified public accountant and Harvard Business School graduate,” Forbes said.

Aside from the interests mentioned by Forbes, Ongpin has an interest in media being the deputy chair of South China Morning Post in Hong Kong.■

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To Los Baños community, a Ray of hope

BY DORIS C. DUMLAO Philippine Daily Inquirer

LOS BAÑOS, LAGUNA—Ray Bernard Peñaranda’s last conversation with his family was in a phone conference the night before he was killed.

“His sister was telling him that they should graduate together in 2013. I do not know if it was a premonition or something, but Ray said he might not be able to do so,” said Ray’s father, German, 56.

At that time, German thought that Ray was again teasing his sister, Anna, 23, who was taking a master’s degree at the University of the Philippines in Diliman, Quezon City. But the next call the family received on Sunday was from Ray’s friend, telling them about his death.

German, an agricultural engineer and like his wife, Flordeliza, 53, a professor at University of Rizal System in Tanay, Rizal, said Ray did good in his academics and was a candidate for cum laude in agriculture at UP Los Baños (UPLB).

In fact, Ray was supposed to be awarded his certificate as a college scholar (dean’s lister) during the 103rd founding anniversary of the UPLB College of Agriculture. The dean instead delivered Ray’s certificate to his family in Tanay at the wake.

“He had many options after college. He planned to pursue higher education abroad or work in a company or

News-Phils a government agency. He also planned to take over our small farm in Quezon,” German said.

Ray was the second UPLB student killed near the UPLB campus. He was stabbed dead by unidentified robbers.

A few days before, high school student Rochel Geronda, 14, was raped and killed in the same vicinity. In October last year, UPLB computer science student Given Grace Cebanico was raped and killed.

“Ray was a very sweet son. He would often give his mother a massage and a manicure and would sometimes sleep with us in our room,” German said. “He was also very close to Anna because she was his idol.”

Outposts, CCTVs On March 12, student organizations led an indignation rally. Ray’s classmates shared testimonies about their lost friend.

“We condemn these tragic and senseless deaths.

We will not stop until justice is served no matter how long it may take,” said chancellor Dr. Rex Cruz at the rally attended by around 200 students.

Another rally was set with Bayan Muna Representative Teddy Casiño, a UPLB alumnus, as guest.

During the meeting of the multisectoral Peace and Order Council, the municipal government of Los Baños approved proposals to install 100 more lampposts, police and village outposts at every entry and exit point in all villages, and security cameras in strategic locations.

There were also plans to impose a liquor ban from 12 midnight to 8 a.m. and for private dormitory owners to

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provide their own security guards and CCTV cameras.

Dr. Enrique Tolentino Jr., vice chancellor for community affairs, said the recent events might also justify the university’s need for a higher budget to put up more dormitories inside the campus.

Ray of hope “UPLB is a very beautiful place, but I think it’s the local officials’ responsibility to keep it safe. We really hope to find justice so we can move on,” German said.

On Friday, police arrested Carl “Dactil” de Guzman, 27, in Daraga, Albay, and on Thursday, Tyrone Kennedy Terbio, 19, surrendered to broadcaster Raffy Tulfo and Philippine National Police Director General Nicanor Bartolome. Terbio, the one who allegedly stabbed Peñaranda in the chest, was held at the detention cell of the Laguna police office in Sta. Cruz town, said Laguna police director Senior Superintendent Gilbert Cruz on Friday. De Guzman allegedly drove the suspects’ motorcycle.

Terbio and De Guzman were named by confessed lookout Joseph Beltran, who earlier surrendered to the police. All three suspects now faced robbery with homicide charges at a court in Calamba City, said Cruz.

Geronda’s remains were buried at a public cemetery in Barangay (village) Anos in Los Baños on Wednesday, while Ray’s burial took place Sunday at Haven of Rest Memorial Park in Tanay.

“Maybe Ray had died for a reason. His death will not be put to waste if only this will protect and give hope to other students that none of these will happen again,” German said. ■

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TUESDAY MARCH 20, 2012

News-Phils

Japan envoy thanks PH nurses in Fukushima the northeastern coast of Japan’s Honshu island. The tsunami knocked out the plant’s main power system and back-up generators that were supposed to pump water to cool its nuclear reactors.

Japan has been scrambling to cool the crippled power plant, which was rocked by explosions and fires that raised radiation levels in the coastal region and compelled the government to draw a 20-kilometer exclusion zone around the site.

BY KRISTINE L. ALAVE AND CHRISTINE O. AVENDAÑO Philippine Daily Inquirer

Filipino nurses have stayed put in Fukushima, Japan, site of one of the worst nuclear disasters in history, to help their elderly patients.

In a speech marking the first anniversary of the Great East Japan Earthquake, Japanese Ambassador to the Philippines Toshinao Urabe gave thanks to the Philippines and its citizens who had helped in the aftermath of the disaster.

Urabe specifically thanked the Filipino nurses who have stayed in nursing homes to help care for elderly patients, despite the threat of nuclear contamination and aftershocks.

“Just last week, I was visiting Fukushima. I wanted to pay tribute to the Filipino nurses. They stayed on despite the nuclear disaster because they couldn’t leave the helpless elderly people,” Urabe said at a ceremony on the campus of the University of the Philippines in Diliman, Quezon City.

“Don’t you worry, you’ll be safe while in Japan,” he added.

The nuclear plant in Fukushima sustained damage after the 9-magnitude quake triggered a tsunami that swamped

Bigtime perks sought for ‘Iglesia’ centennial

BY GIL CABACUNGAN Philippine Daily Inquirer

TWO ALLIES of President Aquino want the government to go all out in providing the best perks for Iglesia Ni Cristo in its centennial celebration in 2014 by requiring airlines to give members discounts on tickets, putting up special express lanes for members in airports, and forming a government commission to be bankrolled by state funds.

Indelible mark The Filipinos’ unforgettable support has left an indelible mark on the Japanese government, Urabe said as he thanked the Philippine government and volunteers for their help.

“Countless individuals, companies and organizations from various parts of the Philippines offered their support through our embassy, the Philippine Red Cross, and other channels,” the ambassador said.

“The Philippine government sent a medical team to Japan to provide medical assistance. President Aquino visited Ishinomaki City and offered $1 million, saying, ‘Japan has helped the Philippines so much, it is our turn to help Japan in difficult times,’” Urabe said.

Rebuilding Although Japan faces a difficult road ahead as it rebuilds its economy, the strong will of its people and help from other nations indicate that it can recover from the disaster, the ambassador said.

“Postdisaster reconstruction, disasterrisk reduction, energy-saving and environment-friendly ‘green economy,’ aging society as an economy, will be pursued creating new opportunities. We will build a new Japan,” Urabe said.

At the ceremony attended by Speaker “Considering the global scale of the occasion, it is projected that a celebration unprecedented in scope will mark the unfolding event. Taking into account that the Philippines is the nucleus of the Church and is the center of the centennial celebration, the influx of foreigners unparalleled in number in Philippine history is anticipated,” said Quezon City Representatives Winston Castelo and Jorge “Bolet” Banal said in one of three resolutions for INC’S centennial on July 27, 2014. INC’S central temple is in Quezon City.

Feliciano Belmonte Jr., Executive Secretary Paquito Ochoa Jr. said Filipinos could not help but find inspiring the strength shown by Japan.

Ochoa also conveyed Manila’s “sincere condolences” over the destruction and death caused by the disaster.

Proverb In a speech, Ochoa said a Japanese proverb—keizoku wa cikara nari— “captures how Japan has bounced back after this crisis.”

“Literally translated, this phrase means ‘perseverance is strength’ and this tragedy has taught us and those in the international community that the Japanese are a strong people whose capacity to persevere and triumph over adversity serves as an inspiration to us Filipinos who, like our Japanese friends, live in areas that are particularly prone to devastation from severe weather events and geological hazards,” he said.

More than 15,000 Japanese were killed in the quake, tsunami and nuclear disaster.

Pledge “On behalf of the President, I wish Japan success as it undertakes the reconstruction and rehabilitation of affected areas. We continue to be in solidarity with Japan as it undertakes relief, reconstruction and rebuilding,” Ochoa said.

He reiterated Mr. Aquino’s “pledge” during his official visit to Japan a few months after the quake that the country was ready “to extend assistance.”

Ochoa expressed hope that the funds donated by Mr. Aquino to Ishinomaki had helped the local government and public facilities there.

Noting how both Manila and Tokyo were vulnerable to natural disasters, Ochoa thanked Japan through its overseas development assistance In House Resolution 2157, Castelo and Banal urged Malacañang to form the INC Centennial commission which would oversee and coordinate with the leadership of the religious group preparation and activities for the said event and “providing funds therefor.”

The two also filed resolution 2182 urging both domestic and international airlines to extend special airfare discounts to all INC members flying into the country for its centennial. Castelo and Banal did not say how Congress would be able to compel private companies to

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(ODA) which had helped the country in putting up disaster readiness and response programs.

Doppler radar Through Japan’s ODA, the Philippines has improved its disaster prevention and response capabilities through its Doppler radar and flood warning systems, emergency shelters and river channel-improvement projects, Ochoa said.

The executive secretary said the government would inaugurate next month a new radar station in Catanduanes, courtesy of funding from the Japan International Cooperation Agency.

The radar station will “substantially improve” the accuracy of weather forecasts and will therefore, enable authorities to provide early warning to people, he said.

Ochoa expressed hope that the two countries would be able to sustain their cooperation when it came to disaster management.

Cleaner, safer Environment groups said the disaster in Fukushima should remind governments to pursue a cleaner and safer form of energy.

Greenpeace, in a report, said Fukushima became a bigger disaster not because of the forces of nature, but because of the past and tragic predisposition of industry and government regulators to secure the interests of the nuclear industry, instead of ensuring public welfare and safety.

Greenpeace is calling for a global phaseout of nuclear power by 2035.

It warned that such a disaster could happen at any nuclear plant in the world, noting that major meltdowns had taken place every decade for the past 50 years.■ give discounts based on religious affiliation.

The third is resolution 2183 asking the Bureau of Immigration and the Bureau of Customs to establish a “centennial lane” for INC members at the international airport for “practical and courteous purposes” for the “throng of INC members flying in.”

The INC centennial bills were apparently filed to woo the INC leaders amid strained relations with the Aquino administration. ■

Opinion

TUESDAY MARCH 20, 2012 12

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PUBLIC LIVES

A battle for sympathy

BY RANDY DAVID Philippine Daily Inquirer

IMPEACHED Chief Justice Renato Corona will not take the witness stand “unless the need arises,” his lawyers say. Instead it is his wife, Cristina Corona, who will answer questions about his statements of assets, liabilities and net worth. One can only marvel at this manifestation of spousal sacrifice. It is, after all, the husband who is on trial here, not the wife. Mrs. Corona’s readiness to take the blows for her husband is admirable. It affirms the Filipino wife’s role as the rock of the family. But what does it say of Mr. Corona?

The defense lawyers who thought of this strategy may have been encouraged by the belief that women generally make better witnesses. Indeed, the legendary Boston lawyer Rufus Choate once gave this advice to novices: “Never cross-examine a woman. It is of no use. They cannot disintegrate the story they have once told.” In addition, the defense may have also taken into account the sympathy that our culture instantaneously confers on the wife who quietly bears all the problems brought into the family by its members.

But the plan can easily backfire. It is Mr. Corona who direly needs to clear himself of any doubt about his integrity and character. He has said, time and again, that he would like the public to get to know him better. But why is he now relying on his wife to do the explaining

of his SALNS before the impeachment court?

The expected public empathy for Mrs. Corona as a witness may not necessarily benefit him.

Indeed, it may only reinforce the impression that he is incapable of taking responsibility for his own actions, and that he suffers from an egoism that preys on others’ willingness to take up the cudgels for him.

As the country’s chief magistrate, he, of all people, must know the power of questions. He sees it every day in his court. He would have seen how stressful the whole act of testifying has been for many of the witnesses in this ongoing trial. If he cares for his wife, he would think twice before allowing her to be subjected to the rigors of cross-examination.

“All questioning,” writes the Nobel laureate Elias Canetti, “is a forcible intrusion. When used as an instrument of power it is like a knife cutting into the flesh of the victim. The questioner knows what there is to find, but he wants actually to touch it and bring it to light.

He sets to work on the internal organs with the sureness of a surgeon. But he is a special kind of surgeon, one who keeps his victim alive in order to find out more about him and, instead of anaesthetizing, deliberately stimulates pain in certain organs in order to find out what he wants to know about the rest of the body.”

The defense lawyers wish to spare their client this ordeal, and so they offer his wife instead. This reverse gallantry is, to say the least, perplexing. For it is not Mrs. Corona who

presides over the high court. It is not her fitness to dispense justice that is being questioned but her husband’s. It is the impeached Chief Justice who owes the nation clear explanations, not she. The nation is waiting to hear him explain himself under oath, before the right forum, and not in selective media appearances where, as a guest, he can afford to be vague and elusive.

One can only suppose that the option to let his wife testify in his place is not the personal preference of this Batangueño (as he refers to himself when he’s fired up) but that of his lawyers. This strategy may have another reason behind it: His lawyers do not want to give his interrogators the chance to assert their power over him. They know this can be done in many different ways, crudely or with feigned courtesy. A situation like this is not easy to manage. If their client gives in to provocation, he may lose any chance of gaining sympathy.

If he allows himself to be browbeaten, he may lose what little is left of the respect that inheres in his position.

If, setting aside all caution, Mr. Corona prevails on his lawyers to let him personally appear before the impeachment tribunal and defend himself, he has to be prepared to forget that he is chief justice. He must remain cool and deferential. He must keep in mind that, more than his title, it is the honor of his name that he is in danger of losing. He must realize that the more he clings to his office, the more he loses.

If he can project openness and decency, traits

that are uncommon in the world of politics, he may get to keep not only his name but also the esteem of his people.

My unsolicited advice to the Chief Justice, therefore, is for him to personally appear before his accusers, as he proudly did on the opening day of the trial. If he has nothing to hide, then there is nothing to expose. This is the best time to show the Filipino people what kind of a person the Chief Justice is. He has told the media more than once that this is not his personal fight, that he is only an incidental player, and that the real fight is the fight to preserve the independence of the judiciary.

That’s a great line. Mr. Corona can put some flesh to it by taking an indefinite leave from his office while he is on trial. For good measure, he can announce this when he takes the witness stand. Doing so would communicate the one message he should have delivered to the nation on Day One: “I am an honorable person. I will not use my office to shield myself from accountability.”

Thus stripped of power, his name being his only protection, he can look at his accusers in the eye and not fear they can diminish him further. In the final analysis, a trial like this is not so much a quest for truth as it is a battle for sympathy. As Canetti puts it: “The man on trial stands in a relation of hostility to his examiner … He will escape only if he succeeds in convincing him that he is not an enemy.”.■

VIEWPOINT

No welcome mat

BY JUAN L. MERCADO Philippine Daily Inquirer “UNWELCOME GUESTS” is not about the “midnight appointees” Gloria Macapagal-arroyo picked before scurrying from Malacañang—on to a hospital jail, for election sabotage raps.

Count me out, snapped the former president’s manicurist. Anita Carpon had been dangled a Pag-ibig Fund midnight appointment. She nixed a two-year job with a P100,000 monthly paycheck.

Deal me in, said Arroyo’s former chief of staff. She named Renato Corona chief justice just before the clock struck midnight. Today, Corona battles impeachment.

“Unwelcome guests” is, in fact, a scientific paper on forest invasive species. In Kunming, China, Filipino foresters presented this study before an Asia-pacific conference, organized by the UN Food and Agriculture Organization.

“Man can cram many exotic crops in one place,” wrote N.T. Baguinon, M.O. Quimado and G.J. Francisco of UP Los Baños, Forest Management Bureau and Department of Environment and Natural Resources. But plantations are not more diverse than natural forest ecosystems, and they pose little-recognized threats.

God-endowed natural forests here are stunning in diversity. A 1911 enumeration recognized mangrove, molave and other mossy forest types. The 1984 Palawan Botanical Expedition listed forests found in various sites from karst

limestone to lake margins. Ecosystem diversity classifications identified nine types: from lowland evergreen to upper montane forests.

“There could be more types… than those published,” caution Baguinon, Quimado and Francisco. “Stereotyping unique forest ecosystems into just a few lists may not render justice to complex Philippine bio-geological history.”

Malayo-polynesian settlers, in prehistoric times, introduced exotic plants, ranging from malunggay to mango. “A few escaped into the wild like the bignai, duhat and santol. However, these have not… established themselves as persistent gregarious stands.”

Sailing on galleons from Mexico, Spanish missionaries brought plants from Central American countries. So did traders from nearby Asian countries. Among these were guyabano, chico and avocado. Coffee from Africa came via Acapulco. Some of these crept into parks: e.g., ipil-ipil ( Leucaena leucocephala), datiles, and kamatchile.

After the Spanish-american war, more “exotics” came through exchanges and “purchase from foreign countries by private citizens.” American administrators reforested school grounds. Other exotics followed such as kakawate and teak. “African tulip has since spread deep into natural stands.”

Even before World War II, exotic trees propped up reforestation showcases, among them: Minglanilla in Cebu, Nasiping Project in

Cagayan, Paraiso in Ilocos Norte, Kanlaon in Negros, and Impalutao in Bukidnon. Seedlings of bio-invasive species “found their way into national parks.”

This history cobbled a mindset, in both foresters and policymakers, “that artificial forests are as ecological as the natural forest they replace. The same ecological benefits that jungle regrowth provides can be provided by plantations,” some Filipino foresters insisted at the First Asean Congress in 1983. You can make a buck as fast in either? That fits with “most foresters’ pragmatism.” If the natural forest had been squandered, then “enrichment planting with fast-growing commercial exotic tree species is better than restoring natural forests,” Baguinon, Quimado and Francisco pointed out.

No studies have been done on the rate of bioinvasion of our nature reserves. But planting of exotics in national integrated protected areas is now banned. “No definite policies are in place yet on what to do with mature exotic trees, should they become bio-invasive.” As in the lush Makiling forest reserve?

Many logged over areas were reforested with “exotics”: mahogany, yemane or bagras.

Other bio-invasive species are ihagonoy and coronitas. Ipil-ipil can usurp steep bare slopes.

Along beaches, “exotic mimosoid legumes form gregarious thickets of aroma.”

Eight out of 10 seedlings raised in government nurseries are exotics: Giant ipil-ipil account for 41 percent. Large leaf mahogany—33

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percent; yemane—17 percent; teak—4 percent.

Others—5 percent. At bottom, believe it or not, are native species—17 percent.

“So, what’s wrong with our molave?” asked Dr. Franz Seidenschwarz in a January 1998 University of San Carlos conference. “Or tindalo for that matter?” He whipped out a printout listing 1,487 sturdy native species, honed by centuries of evolution.

Reforestation programs ignore this rich genetic matrix of local species. Instead, they opt for monocultures of nine exotics, including gemelina and teak from India, mahogany from Central Africa; candlenut tree or lubang from Malaysia. “Is imported sikat?” he asked.

“Government continues to subsidize this denigration of Philippine trees,” Sun Star noted.

“This opens windows of vulnerability to disease.

Valuable species are thinning. Third millennium reforestation should favor a broader genetic base, built on premium species of native trees.”

“Planting exotics violates the international convention on biodiversity,” notes the Soil and Water Conservation Foundation. “What is the consequence when students, asked to plant trees under the Greening Program, are only given exotic seedlings by the DENR? Is it because the DENR cannot, or will not, spend to gather native tree seedlings?”

Right. But public attention, alas, is fixated elsewhere: on a chief justice who volunteers his wife to run the impeachment gauntlet to save his skin. “Greater love than this no man hath....” ■

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Opinion

TUESDAY MARCH 20, 2012

THERE’S THE RUB

Still, the people will decide

BY CONRADO DE QUIROS Philippine Daily Inquirer THE DEFENSE won’t take up the Basa case in its defense of Renato Corona. It will take up only what has been taken up in the impeachment proceedings.

But of course it won’t. The Basa case is the lightning bolt that the defense has been daring heaven to hurl upon it if it is telling a lie. It’s the most damning thing there is. It strikes at the heart of Corona’s character, or pagkatao, as the Filipino puts it so well. The question is not merely: Is this the person you want to continue to become chief justice? The question is: How in hell did this creature become chief justice in the first place?

The more Corona and the defense try to extricate themselves from it—outside of the impeachment court of course, which they did throughout last week—the more they sink in the bog. That’s what a pile of lies does to you, it adds more weight on your shoulders as you thrash in the bog.

Corona’s first instinct was to deny it outright and say the Basas no longer had any shares in the company and to taint Ana Basa’s revelation by saying Antonio Carpio was behind it. The first only raises more questions than it puts down. Chief of them: How? How did the Basas manage to lose their share in the company that their parents put up? Or conversely, how did Cristina get to own a company she had only a 10-percent interest in?

The second is a lie. Ana doesn’t know the shape or form of Carpio. Corona himself doesn’t bother to offer any shred of evidence for his claim, something his chief defender, Serafin Cuevas, demands at every turn in the impeachment court.

“Trust me” is what he’s saying. Which raises the even bigger question: Why? The defense itself went around questioning the timing of Ana’s revelation. “Why only now?” it kept asking, imagining that to be its strongest suit and Ana’s weakest. In fact the opposite is true. That is Ana’s strongest suit and the defense’s weakest. It doesn’t improve the defense, it demolishes it.

The timing is the beauty of it. The timing is what makes it precious. The Basas had been begging heaven, Cristina—and Corona—for answers about what happened to their company, about what happened to its finances, about where the proceeds from the sale of its assets went. And they had gotten nothing. Only the nocturnal noises of the creatures of the night in Corona’s and Gloria’s favorite hour, the witching hour, the midnight hour. They had been shut off from their own company. They were pariahs in their own company. Cristina would not answer. Corona would not answer. Only heaven answered.

But what an answer it gave. While trying to extricate himself from the bog of his SALNS, Corona testified that he got the millions to buy his houses and condo units from the BasaGuidote company. That was what had happened to the company, that was what had happened to its finances, that was where the sale of its assets had

gone. The company had gone to pot, and the money had gone to Corona.

Why have the Basas come out with their revelations only at this time? Because this is the only time they got an answer to their questions.

Because this is the only time heaven supplied them with an answer to their questions. Because this is the only time heaven transformed them into a lightning bolt aimed at the one person telling a lie.

But this won’t be taken up by the defense in the impeachment court. This won’t be taken up by the senator-judges in the impeachment court.

That does not reflect on the Basas, that reflects on the impeachment court. That’s what’s wrong with the impeachment court. That’s what makes the impeachment court irrelevant. That’s what makes the impeachment court superfluous.

For a while now, we’ve been asking whether the real judges of the impeachment court are the senator-judges or the people. But there’s an even more basic and urgent question to ask, and that is whether the real issues are being taken up by the impeachment court or not. The answer is no. What is central to this trial? Whether or not Corona is corrupt. But that is something the impeachment court may not take up because the prosecution presumably did not include it in its articles of impeachment.

What is central to this trial? Whether or not Corona has hidden wealth. But that is something the impeachment court may not take up because the Supreme Court forbade the impeachment court from opening Corona’s dollar accounts.

What is central to this trial? Whether or not Corona showed bias toward Gloria in his rulings.

But that is something the impeachment court may not take up because the Supreme Court forbade its people from testifying in the impeachment court.

What is central to this trial? Whether Corona is the font of wisdom that a chief justice is supposed to be or a mandurugas as the Basas’ revelations proclaim him to be. Whether Corona has the meekness and humility of an Ana Basa who says he can have the money all to himself if he wants, all she wants is justice, and the expansiveness of a Sister Flory who says she has forgiven him and his wife a long time ago, or the arrogance and bullying ways of someone who would shove a gun at a caretaker’s head as the caretaker alleged. But that too is something the impeachment court may not take up because it is presumably not central to the trial.

What in hell may the impeachment court take up? What in hell is central to this trial?

Such things as laying the predicate, saying “this representation concurs with that representation,” and wailing “Waaa!”?

No, the real trial is happening outside the impeachment court. That’s where the real issues are being raised, that’s where the real issues are being discussed, that’s where the real basis for judgment is being laid. The real trial is being held by the public.

The real judgment will be rendered by the people.■

and Epifanio de los Santos (best remembered for historic Epifanio de los Santos Avenue or Edsa) insisted that the bones were those of Bonifacio. But then the most authoritative person, Lazaro Makapagal, who was in charge of Bonifacio’s execution and burial, denied this. So a medico-legal report was brought out, and Bonifacio’s impressionable younger sister was presented as a witness to support the authenticity of the dubious bones.

I remembered all these when I watched retired justice Serafin Cuevas cross-examine Justice Secretary Leila de Lima at Chief Justice Renato Corona’s impeachment trial.

He made her comfortable, got her to tell her story, and concluded by asking the court to have everything she said struck from the record as hearsay. When the prosecution objected to the term “hearsay,” Cuevas explained: “Sa Tagalog, di galing sa sariling kaalaman (not from personal knowledge)!”

That line hit me like a thunderbolt and made me reflect on my profession as a historian because what I write does not come from personal knowledge, and though I use primary sources these are almost always biased and reflect the truth from one point of view.

Based on the evidence, I believe the bones recovered in Nagpatong, Maragondon, in 1918 are not Bonifacio’s. We can spend many columns asking more unanswered questions

regarding these “Bonifacio bones,” but to summarize, two claims were made by people who were neither witnesses to his execution, death and burial nor experts in medico-legal examination: one (by Masangkay and De los Santos) that the bones are indeed those of Bonifacio, and the other (by Masangkay) that Bonifacio was hacked to death. This goes against the eyewitness testimony of Makapagal that says the Bonifacio brothers were shot and then buried in a spot different from the place where Masangkay found the controversial bones. One also wonders how come Bonifacio’s widow was not consulted by the forensic team.

Then we have the most important part. In 1918 Masangkay found only one skeleton. If we grant, for the sake of discussion, that these bones are indeed those of Andres Bonifacio, where are the bones of his brother Procopio who was executed and buried with him? If we are to complicate matters further, if these bones were those of Procopio, then where are the bones of the Katipunan supremo?

The postmortem examination on the teeth of our heroes is the best proof that contrary to popular belief, dead men do tell tales. Their mortal remains, their clothing, their personal effects tell us a lot about what they were like in life. These details are often seen as trivial because they do not change the course of our history, but anything that makes the boring narrative move should be worth something.■

LOOKING BACK

Urban legends

BY AMBETH OCAMPO Philippine Daily Inquirer THERE IS an urban legend in the Ateneo on how the late Fr. Jose A. Cruz (grandnephew of Jose Rizal and university president) once surprised his philosophy students when he entered the classroom with a saw and a piece of wood. Without saying a word he began to saw and continued doing so for about 20 minutes, making his students uncomfortable.

When he was done he turned to them and asked: “What was I doing?” Naturally, everyone answered: “You were sawing wood!” To which he replied: “Why are you so sure of that? What if I tell you that I was making sawdust?”

This story inspired me to create my own Zen or Eureka moment in my history course, resulting in oversubscribed classes known on campus as “The Ambeth Ocampo Experience.” One of the urban legends on me goes thus: For an exam I told students to describe the Battle of Mactan from the point of view of a fish. One student filled six pages of his blue book with “glub glub glub,” and wrote at the end: “I’m sorry, sir, I don’t understand fish language.” I gave this student an “A” for effort, honesty and creativity.

The truth is that I gave the student a “C” for effort and wrote this on his paper: “If you can translate this into human language, I will give you an ‘A.’”

There is another hilarious Ateneo legend that I came to class once in a pirate outfit complete with a parrot. When I was asked to confirm or deny this, I declared: “I didn’t come as a pirate, I came to class as the parrot!” Then there is the legend, unfortunately true, that I appeared in two films given an “X” rating by the Movie and Television Review and Classification Board.

This explains why I never got a third movie offer.

It is true that there are as many histories as there are historians, making people of a previous generation wonder whether they should believe Gregorio Zaide or Teodoro Agoncillo. History is a slippery discipline because one cannot know all sources and there is always more than one angle to any story.

Last week I got mixed reviews from the column on our heroes and their teeth. Some were upset that I wrote about the probability that Rizal had bad breath and that Andres Bonifacio’s flared teeth made him look like the late comedian Apeng Daldal.

Some people want their heroes perfect and fossilized in marble and bronze; everyone else wants a human they can relate to.

The point of writing about the dental records of our heroes is that in 1925 there was a debate over the authenticity of the bones dug up by Guillermo Masangkay in Maragondon, Cavite, in 1918. Masangkay

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Business-Phils

Gov’t to privatize Poro Point airport Plans international gateway for Northern Luzon

BY CEDELF P. TUPAS Philippine Daily Inquirer

J Duggan / Shutterstock.com

THE GOVERNMENT has announced plans to develop the San Fernando Airport in La Union’s Poro Point special economic zone into a world-class international gateway for millions of Filipinos living in Northern Luzon.

The Bases Conversion and Development Authority (BCDA) said it was finalizing the terms of reference to be used for the privatization of the San Fernando Airport.

“We want to turn it into something similar to the Changi Airport in Singapore, which is a combination of a commercial shopping mall and an airport,” said BCDA Chair Felicito Payumo, a former congressman from Bataan.

Payumo also served as chair of the Subic Bay Metropolitan Authority under former President Estrada, and later under former president Arroyo. He is currently a member of President Aquino’s ruling Liberal Party.

In an interview, Payumo said the San Fernando Airport would serve the demand from Northern Luzon.

In particular, he said the facility would provide both international and domestic passengers easy access to

PSE backs ‘responsible mining’ framework Bourse urges gov’t to issue ‘clear, decisive, practical’ rules

BY DORIS C. DUMLAO Philippine Daily Inquirer

THE PHILIPPINE Stock Exchange, whose main barometer outperformed all other Asian stock indices last year with the help of mining stocks, has called for a “clear, decisive and practical” national mining framework that would keep the industry vibrant while ensuring sustainable growth to host communities.

Throwing its support behind “responsible” mining in the ongoing national debate, the PSE cited the important role of the industry in the local economy and the capital markets.

The exchange added that as far as listed mining companies were concerned, it has been doing its part in requiring transparency and full disclosure since the the implementation in 2010 of its Philippine Mineral Reporting Code, which compelled mining companies in the exploration and development stages to map out and report their environment protection and management strategy as well as their community development plans.

Baguio City, the country’s socalled “Summer Capital.”

“There is currently no worldclass airport in that area,” Payumo said, noting that Baguio’s Loakan Airport was no longer capable of taking big commercial flights. The Laoag International Airport in Ilocos Norte, meanwhile, is at least four more hours away.

Meanwhile, the Clark International Airport in Pampanga, Payumo said, was too far to be convenient for North Luzon residents.

“From San Fernando, Baguio City would just be 45 minutes away,” BCDA president Arnel Casanova said in a separate interview.

Casanova said the BCDA would also prioritize the installation of night navigation equipment at the San Fernando Airport to allow planes to take off and land at any time of the day.

He said the project, to be handled by BCDA subsidiary Poro Point Management Co., would be bid out this year to the private sector under the Aquino administration’s Public-private Partnership (PPP) scheme.

The BCDA declined to give further details. Casanova said the terms for the contract would be announced once the project was ready to be bid out. ■ “As the government and the various stakeholders continue to find ways to best utilize our rich mineral resources to help spur growth in the economy and provide wealth and livelihood to many Filipinos, it must be ensured that intervention in mining activities are geared first and foremost toward ensuring responsible and sustainable mining, which includes stricter enforcement and monitoring of mining laws and guaranteeing that the host communities would be included among the beneficiaries of mining activities,” PSE president Hans Sicat said in a statement.

He said a solution was needed to enable the mining industry to “remain a showcase of investment stability in the Philippines” while ensuring that host communities would benefit and be protected, such as from environmental destruction.

The stock market’s advance, as an indicator of economic growth, has been supported by the mining sector. The growth of the mining and oil index by 69 percent in 2011 helped push the Philippine stock market to become the best performing in Asia despite the uncertainties in the global environment.

The PSE reported that in the last five years, the mining and oil sub-index registered an annual growth rate of 39 percent, much higher than the 15-percent annual expansion registered by the next best performing sector, the holding firms sector. On the other hand, the overall market grew an average 8 percent over the same period.

This growth of the mining sector was even more pronounced in the past three years as the sector posted a compounded annual growth rate of 94 percent since 2008 when markets globally suffered significant declines, the PSE said.

The PSE report added that the mining sector had created wealth amounting to P378 billion in the last three years, representing the 951-percent increase in the sector’s market capitalization since 2008.

Meanwhile, the contribution of trades in mining

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TUESDAY MARCH 20, 2012 14

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Business registration in PH now made easier with PBR

BY CEDELF P. TUPAS Philippine Daily Inquirer

THE DEPARTMENT of Trade and Industry is set to launch the Philippine Business Registry (PBR) at the Securities and Exchange Commission, in an effort to provide faster and more efficient service to those planning to set up a corporation or partnership.

In a statement, the DTI said the PBR is expected to streamline the business registration system, thus making it easier for Filipinos to set up shop.

“Through the PBR, the country will become more attractive to investors and it will improve our ranking in global competitiveness,” the DTI said in a statement.

Trade Secretary Gregory L. Domingo earlier said that one major factor affecting the Philippines’ ranking in competitiveness surveys is the slow and inefficient registration process in the country.

The Philippines was at 136th place in the Doing Business Survey published by the World BankInternational Finance Corp.

Domingo said that through the PBR, the government should be able to provide a one- stop shop for entrepreneurs who need to transact with several government agencies before operating a business.

From what would usually take days, the waiting time for business registration will be cut short to about 30 minutes for at least five permits from the Department of Trade and Industry, Bureau of Internal Revenue ( BIR), Social Security System (SSS), Home Development Mutual Fund (Pag- Ibig), Philippine Health and Insurance Corp (Philhealth) and the Securities and Exchange Commission ( SEC).

The PBR would also become a useful source of information on businesses in the country.

Domingo also said that the DTI is rolling out the registry system in several local government units to ensure that this scheme will benefit a wider range of applicants. ■ stocks to total market turnover has jumped from 5.5 percent in 2008 to 14 percent in 2011.

Meanwhile, the PSE also noted that its mineral reporting requirements for listed mining firms would allow stakeholders to have access to information on the practices of listed mining firms with respect to “sustainable” and “responsible” mining.

The most valuable mining firms listed on the PSE and their respective market capitalization levels were: Philex Mining (P106 billion); Semirara Mining (P81.58 billion); Lepanto Consolidated Mining (P67.6 billion); Atlas Consolidated Mining and Development Corp. (P32 billion); Nickel Asia (P30.3 billion); Philodrill Corp. (P10.4 billion) Manila Mining (P16.3 billion), Nihao Mineral Resources (P9.5 billion) and Oriental Peninsula Resources Group (P8.9 billion). Philex and Semirara are part of the main-share PSE index, which recently breached the historic 5,000 mark. ■

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TUESDAY MARCH 20, 2012

Sports

Azkals dreaming big after making history Team within two wins of Asian Cup

BY CEDELF P. TUPAS Philippine Daily Inquirer

KATHMANDU—Two wins.

That’s what separates the Philippines from bagging the 2012 AFC Challenge Cup, whose champion gets an automatic berth in the prestigious AFC Asian Cup in 2015 in Australia.

The job will be easier said than done though for the Azkals, who came here as the lowest-seeded squad and brought down a couple of former champions to make the semifinals for the first time.

Standing in the way of the Azkals in the semifinals is 2010 finalist Turkmenistan, which defeated the Philippines, 5-0, in 2008 and blitzed past Nepal and Maldives to gain top seed in Group A here.

The Azkals, relying on swift counter-attack football, have turned out to be the surprise package of the tournament in this laid-back city in the Himalayas.

A 0-2 loss to defending champion North Korea was followed by a resounding 2-nil drubbing of India and a come-from-behind 2-1 tripping of another former champion in Tajikistan.

Azkals coach Michael Weiss and manager Dan Palami moved to temper the expectations after the back-to-back victories.

“I know the people and the mentality [of the team]. They are proud. They are extremely excited and cool at the same time in order to win it,” said

Weiss, whose squad was treated to a sumptuous dinner by India-based Filipino diplomats at a restaurant in the city’s tourism district of Thamel.

Match bans The Azkals will miss two key players for the clash against Turkmenistan with James Younghusband and Angel Guirado suspended for yellow cards against North Korea and Tajikistan.

Defending champion North Korea and Palestine— two teams that were billed to go further in the tournament—will dispute the other semifinal berth at the Dashrath Stadium with the winner advancing to the final on March 18.

Regardless of the result on Friday, the Azkals are sure to play on March 18.

While the Challenge Cup is for less-developed football nations, the Asian Cup features the biggest squads in the continent like Japan, South Korea and Australia.

Save for a few minor knocks on Jason Sabio (knee) and Juani Guirado (thigh), the Azkals, who were given a free day, remain free of health concerns in the leadup to their biggest match since they faced Kuwait in the second round of World Cup Qualifying.

Weiss has ruled out recalling more players to the side, particularly Fil-Danish leftback Dennis Cagara, who recently signed with FSV Frankfurt in the German Bundesliga.

“It affects the team but we have to cope with it,” said Weiss of the impending absence of his two wingers. “But we have fantastic spirit and the

La Salle swim ace Aguilar UAAP’S top athlete

BY JASMINE W. PAYO Philippine Daily Inquirer

FOR LA Salle swimmer Johansen Benedict Aguilar, excelling both in school and sports is not difficult at all.

“It’s more of discipline and time management,” said Aguilar, who bagged the UAAP Season 74 Athlete of the Year award.

Aguilar shared the league’s highest individual honor with Adamson softball player Rizza Bernardino (women’s division) and University of Santo Tomas’ Joaquin Mendoza (juniors) during the league’s closing ceremony over the weekend at the PICC Forum in Pasay City.

The 19-year-old Aguilar also led seven other recipients of the Athlete Scholars award, the recognition the league reserves for wellrounded student-athletes.

“I want to keep my grades high and excel in sports at the same time,” said Aguilar, a consistent Dean’s Lister.

Aguilar shattered the Philippine record in the men’s 50-meter backstroke (27.52 seconds) and also broke the league records in the 100m and 200m backstroke in the varsity swimming competition last September.

The three records highlighted Aguilar’s

seven gold-medal haul in the Green Tankers’ title romp.

By November, Aguilar reset the national 50m backstroke record anew with a time of 27.29 seconds in the 26th Southeast Asian Games in Palembang, Indonesia.

Bernardino similary starred in the international front as a member of the Blu Girls in the World Cup of Softball and the Garuda Cup. Aside from her pivotal role in the Lady Falcons’ second straight 10game season sweep, Bernardino virtually captured all individual awards in her sport by winning the MVP, Best Hitter, Best Slugger, Best Pitcher and Most RBI plums.

Mendoza, meanwhile, emerged as the top high school athlete after capturing this season’s MVP just a year after winning the Rookie of the Year in junior taekwondo.

University of Santo Tomas received the general championship after capturing its 14th straight and 39th overall crown in the seniors division and sixth straight title in the juniors side while La Salle’s Dance Company (88.9 points) won for the second straight year in the streetdance competition. ■

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players are performing over their level. We can even make it with this group.”

Except for the World Cup Qualifying, the Azkals have actually managed to produce the results needed in major tournaments and Weiss could not help but draw parallelisms to his own national team— Germany, which has reached the semifinals of the last two World Cups and the final of the European Cup. “We’re like Germany. We do well in major tournaments,” said Weiss.

“The first two games are scrappy, but then they find their rhythm and get into the competition. So obviously the Philippines is a competition team.”

The Azkals lost a series of exhibition matches against Major League Soccer side Los Angeles Galaxy, CF Madrid, Incheon Citizen and the Olympic teams of Uzbekistan and Australia before seeing action here.

“When our backs are against the wall, we manage to pull through and that’s what has endeared this team to its fans,” said Palami.

Weiss said that the task is by no means easier: “It grows with every bigger task. So the next task is bigger than Tajikistan, which is Turkeministan.■

Floirendo cops top driver plum GOLDEN WHEEL AWARDS

BY JASMISNE W. PAYO Philippine Daily Inquirer

NOT even a two-year break could slow him down.

Despite a long hiatus from the racing scene, Vincent Floirendo came back strong in his Grand Touring debut to bag the Driver of the Year plum during the 9th Golden Wheel Awards Night held recently at the Cultural Center of the Philippines.

The 43-year-old Floirendo edged eight other contenders for making the biggest impact in his solid GT run, which included a GT Driver of the Year triumph in the 2011 Yokohama Philippine GT Championship.

Jean Stefano Marcelo turned out to be Floirendo’s strongest rival for the top plum as the 19year-old sensation made local motorsports history by bagging a fourth Karter of the Year award.

Marcelo went on to receive a Golden Wheel distinction along with top drivers Glenn Aguilar (motocross), Anthony Roman (underbone racing), Audel Sison (drifting), Noel Rivera (slalom), Reynan Jayme (4x4 offroad), Martin Manalo (drag racing) and Dashi Watanabe (scooters).

Floirendo’s recognition highlighted a colorful racing career that (Rookie of the Year), Jette Calderon (Junior Karter of the Year), Vrei-ar Suba (International Junior Karter of the Year) and Marcelo (Karter of the Year and International Karter of the Year). ■

News-Canada

TUESDAY MARCH 20, 2012 16

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Minister Fast Highlights Ways to Strengthen Canada-U.S. Advantage THE CANADIAN PRESS

Canada’s involvement in the Trans-Pacific Partnership would help create new jobs for Canadians and Americans alike, Minister tells U.S. political and business leaders March 12, 2012 - The Honourable Ed Fast, Minister of International Trade and Minister for the Asia-Pacific Gateway, today wrapped up his visit to the United States, where he stressed the value in leveraging the Canada-United States competitive advantage in new trade negotiations, including the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP).

“Canada and the United States have the largest bilateral trading relationship in the world,” said Minister Fast. “As neighbours and friends, we can and should build the TPP together. As like-minded allies, we can ensure that high standards are included in the TPP on such issues as investment, regulatory cooperation, stateowned enterprises and labour provisions.”

The Trans-Pacific Partnership is a free-trade agreement under negotiation by, at present, nine countries, including the United States. Since Prime Minister Stephen Harper announced Canada’s formal interest in joining the TPP negotiations, in November 2011, Minister Fast has held meetings with his

counterparts from all nine TPP countries (Australia, Brunei, Chile, Malaysia, New Zealand, Peru, Singapore, the United States and Vietnam).

In Washington, D.C., Minister Fast addressed an investor conference to promote Canada as an investment destination of choice, highlighting the country’s strong economic fundamentals, low taxes and business-friendly policies.

He also held meetings with U.S. Trade Representative Ron Kirk, Secretary of Commerce John Bryson, and other key U.S. officials and policy-makers. In New York City, he met with business and political leaders to underscore how free trade has created jobs and prosperity on both sides of the border.

“U.S. jobs and prosperity are best served by having Canada join the TPP negotiations at the earliest opportunity,” said Minister Fast. “Canada’s participation in the TPP is critical to preserving the jobs and prosperity that exist for U.S. workers, businesses and families thanks to our integrated economies and supply chains.”

Minister Fast said he was pleased that, in the U.S. Federal Register process concluded in January 2012, the response of U.S. stakeholders to Canada’s inclusion in the negotiations was overwhelmingly supportive.

“More than 91 percent of the submissions supported Canada’s membership in the TPP,” said the Minister. “This is a clear recognition by U.S. stakeholders that, as each other’s largest trading partner, and with our integrated economies that support millions of jobs on both sides of our shared border, Canada’s inclusion in the TPP is critical to ensuring the future prosperity of both our countries.”

Minister Fast also described other ways Canada and the United States are currently working together to grow the two countries’ highly integrated economies. In December 2011, Prime Minister Stephen Harper and U.S. President Barack Obama announced the Action Plan on Perimeter Security and Economic Competitiveness and the Action Plan on Regulatory Cooperation, which are designed to speed up trade and travel, improve security in North America and align regulatory approaches.

These plans—the most significant step forward in Canada-United States cooperation since the North American Free Trade Agreement—will create jobs and growth in both countries.

Over 10 million jobs in both countries depend on Canada-United States trade—8 million in the U.S. and 2.4 million in Canada. Canada and the

Alberta government adds tough new laws to protect job seekers foreign workers about: their rights or their chance of becoming a Canadian citizen; intimidate, harass or threaten individuals seeking work; or require workers to provide a performance bond.

Alberta’s strong economy attracts many people looking to work in the province. With signs indicating continued growth in the province’s future, the Alberta government is strengthening rules to protect job seekers when they use an employment agency.

“Many workers come to Alberta because we have excellent opportunities,” said Service Alberta Minister Manmeet Bhullar.

“Unfortunately, some people take advantage of their eagerness to find work. That’s why this government is acting by putting in strict rules that make employment agencies

more accountable, strengthen protection for workers, and aid in complaint investigations.”

To assist with investigations and prosecutions, agencies will be required to start keeping records of their recruiting activities and register their agents with the government. Offenders risk losing their business licence, fines or even jail time. These records will be valuable for investigators investigating employment agencies that have complaints from vulnerable workers.

Employment agencies currently cannot charge workers a fee to find them jobs, and agencies must be licensed by the Alberta government.

The province does not have authority over immigration so the new changes coming into effect on September 1 give workers even tougher protection and makes employment agencies more accountable.

The province wants to make sure all job seekers are treated fairly and that Alberta remains an attractive destination for individuals seeking employment.

These changes will improve employment agency standards and help ensure that ethical businesses can compete on a level playing field.

Stricter rules will clarify that employment agencies are not allowed to mislead vulnerable temporary

Visit the Service Alberta website at www.servicealberta.gov.ab.ca for more information. ■

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United States are each other’s largest export market. In fact, Canada is the number one foreign market for goods for 35 of the 50 U.S. states. ■

US-Canada Action Plan Measures • Better aligning Canadian and U.S. programs for low-risk travellers so that they can travel more efficiently back and forth across the border; • Developing an overall approach for future preclearance initiatives, including implementing a number of new pre-inspection and preclearance initiatives in rail, marine and highway modes of transportation to relieve pressures at border crossings; • Establishing wait-time service levels and posting wait times on the Internet so that truckers and others can better plan their border crossings; • Developing and implementing administrative and operational improvements to streamline crossborder movement of business travellers; • Setting up a single window for companies to submit electronically all the data required by government departments in one place; • Increasing and harmonizing the value thresholds for expedited customs clearance and streamlining current import processes for low-value shipments to minimize the burden at the border for these kinds of shipments; • Launching a joint independent assessment of fees charged at the border in order to have a better picture of border costs to businesses; • Upgrading infrastructure at key crossings to relieve congestion, speeding the movement of traffic across the border, and doing so in a more coordinated way on both sides of the border; • Installing radio frequency identification technology at key border crossings so that documents can be read as vehicles approach the border, thus saving time and helping to relieve congestion at the border itself; • Ensuring that enhanced and expanded trusted trader and traveller programs have the infrastructure required to fully realize their intended benefits to members; • Coordinating investments at remote ports of entry; and • Organizing regular meetings of binational port operations committees, so that both countries can react more rapidly to local concerns and needs. ■

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TUESDAY MARCH 20, 2012

News-Canada

Harper promises new ‘measures’ as job creation stall, thousands stop looking

BY JULIAN BELTRAME THE CANADIAN PRESS

OTTAWA - Unemployed Canadians continued to struggle with a tough job market last month as the slow-moving economy laid an egg in February, unexpectedly shedding 2,800 jobs.

The national unemployment rate dropped to 7.4 per cent, but that was because close to a net 38,000 frustrated job seekers simply gave up the search.

The news was particularly grim for young Canadians. Employment among the 15-24 age cohort fell another 26,800 in February and now is down almost 300,000 jobs since the beginning of the recession in 2008.

Prime Minister Stephen Harper called the Statistics Canada report ``disappointing,’’ but stressed some positives, including increased fulltime employment, continuing a trend, and a brightening outlook in the United States.

Still, Harper conceded his government has work to do and promised action in the upcoming March 29 budget. ``Obviously we will not keep our eye off the ball and there will be a lot of measures in the budget to create jobs and get us on a long-term sustainable track,’’ he told an event in Toronto.

Liberal critic Scott Brison berated the government’s record, particularly on youth employment, saying ``an entire generation of Canadians is losing hope.’’

February’s report continues a string of poor results dating to October and wiping out what had been a heady period of growth and falling unemployment rates.

``Essentially the labour market has been flat on its back for the last five months - it’s gone nowhere,’’ said Douglas Porter, deputy chief economist with the Bank of Montreal.

Revised figures show the economy has in fact shed 37,000 jobs since October.

Porter said Canadians shouldn’t expect much better news going forward for awhile.. ``Basically, the easy job gains are gone,’’ he said. ``The things that really drove jobs early in the cycle are simply not going to be there, whether it’s government hiring or retail related jobs driven by consumer spending.’’

Despite Harper’s reference to ``a lot of measures’’ coming in the budget, the statements from ministers suggest there will be little to generate short-term job growth. In fact, the expectation is that Finance Minister Jim Flaherty will bring in an austerity budget that reduces spending and cuts the public service.

The ball is being left to the private sector to carry, but TD Bank economist Diana Petramala said corporations appear to be spooked over European debt problems. ``The weakness ... largely reflects a small crisis of confidence, with businesses remaining reluctant to add to payrolls as rising financial risks in Europe threatened future demand prospects,’’ she said.

That is in contrast to the United States which, after years of playing second fiddle to Canada in terms of job generation, now appears to be catching up.

The U.S. reported, also on Friday, an additional 227,000 jobs for February to complete three of the best months

VICTORIA - The only sitting provincial politician who supported B.C. Premier Christy Clark in her bid to lead the Liberal party last year has resigned from cabinet for sharing an email from a reporter.

Harry Bloy, who was multiculturalism minister, says he is accepting responsibility for sharing the email.

The email in question was sent to the Ministry of Advanced Education from a Vancouver newspaper reporter,

counterparts for the first time in nearly a decade last year.

After posting a better-than-expected 0.7 per cent gain in the fourth quarter of 2011, Canadian business productivity for the full year was up 0.8 per cent, slowing from the 1.5 per cent gain in 2010.

By comparison, the U.S. saw a slight increase of 0.2 per cent in the fourth quarter to finish the year at 0.2 per cent, down from four per cent in 2010.

Porter noted that the productivity report suggested that labour performance may finally be turning the corner after a lacklustre stretch in the middle of the recovery. ``It truly appears like the Canadian and U.S. recoveries are trading places - Canada exiting strong jobs/weak productivity, and the U.S. leaving weak jobs/strong productivity,’’ Porter said.

The biggest Canadian job losses in February came in the retail and wholesale trade industries, which shed about 37,000 workers, followed by 22,000 job declines in both transportation and warehousing, and health-care and social assistance.

Meanwhile, employment in finance, insurance, real estate and leasing rose by 41,000, reversing half the declines in those industries over the past five months. There were also smaller gains in educational services, business, building and other support services, natural resources, construction and manufacturing.

Regionally, six out of 10 provinces experienced job losses in February, although none of the declines was large. The only significant movement in the provincial numbers was Ontario’s 40,500 decline in the labour force, which helped drop the provincial unemployment rate half a point to 7.6 per cent. ■

Filipino Community in Edmonton Mourns Death of four Filipino Workers

Email forces B.C. cabinet minister Harry Bloy to quit Christy Clark’s cabinet THE CANADIAN PRESS

of hiring in four years. Monthly gains over that period averaged 245,000.

That is slightly above the consensus estimate from economists, while in Canada the result badly missed expectations. Economists had called for an increase of 15,000 jobs.

While the losses were tiny given the close to 19-million-member Canadian labour force, the big story was the exodus of workers from the job market, particularly in Ontario, which saw 40,500 fewer people actively seeking employment.

Labour market contraction at a time of rising population is normally associated with discouraged workers giving up on finding employment.

After strong job growth following the 2008-09 recession, Canada has seen this critical aspect of the economy slow and then essentially stall.

Statistics Canada noted that employment had risen by 121,000 over the past 12 months, almost all in the first six months.

Economists estimate Canada needs to add between 15,000 and 20,000 jobs each month just to keep up with demand from increases in population.

Labour economist Erin Weir of the United Steelworkers noted that along with fewer jobs, the two per cent gain in average hourly wages means even those working are not keeping up with inflation.

He called on governments to shift focus from austerity to job creation. ``The priority should be to create jobs through public investment,’’ he said. ``The risk is that budget cutbacks will push Canada back into recession by eliminating public-sector jobs and reducing expenditures that help support private-sector jobs.’’

The jobs report came the same day that Statistics Canada reported that labour productivity at Canadian businesses grew faster than their U.S.

who was seeking comment about Eminata founder Peter Chung, a frequent donor to the Liberals.

The Vancouver Province has reported that the ministry passed the email onto Bloy, who in turn sent it to Eminata.

The premier says Bloy’s actions were inappropriate, but not criminal, and she notes he has apologized and taken responsibility for his actions.

The Opposition New Democrats are also demanding the resignation of Advanced Education Minister Naomi Yamamoto for her ministry’s decision to share the email with Bloy. ■

The Honorary Consul General in Edmonton, Alberta Mrs. Esmeralda Agbulos reported that the Edmonton Filipino Canadian Community gathered at the Hainstock Funeral Home on Sunday, 11 March 2012 to pay their last respect to the four victims of the March 4 car accident in Innisfail, Alberta.

Anthony Subong Castillon and Joey Flores Mangonon both 35, Eden Biazon, 39 and Josefina Flores Velarde, 52 were killed in a head-on collision on Queen Elizabeth Highway, while Josphine Gaila Tamandong, 28 survived the crash.

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The Funeral Home was packed with hundreds of mourners that spilled out into the parking lot. People brought donated food and money. Monetary donations amounted to $20,604. 62 with more deposited at the Trust Fund set up at the Alberta Treasury Branch.

The lawyer will divide the money into the five victims of the accident. The shipment of remains is scheduled this weekend once all documents were submitted for authentication.

The Edmonton Filipino community united to support and comfort the relative who came from Vancouver, Friends and Co-worker of the victims.■

Canada-News

TUESDAY MARCH 20, 2012 20

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Strong Women, Strong Canada

BY MELISSA REMULLA-BRIONES Philippine Canadian Inquirer

March 8 marked the celebration of International Women’s Day around the world. Spearheaded in 1908 by women from New York City who demanded shorter hours, better pay and voting rights, this year’s activities included political rallies, business conferences, government activities and networking events to inspire women and celebrate their achievements.

In Canada, the International Women’s Day 2012 celebration featured the theme, “Strong Women, Strong Canada.” This year’s focus was on women in rural, remote and northern communities who play a vital role in the economic prosperity of rural, remote and northern regions through innovative projects such as business networks and training in nontraditional occupations.

Collingwood Neighborhood House (CNH) in British Columbia, in partnership with the Professional Immigrant Resource Society (PIRS), celebrated International Women’s Day with a series of workshops which started in February, including selfdefense training, yoga and seminars on self-esteem, wellness and health.

Organized by Karen Caguioa of CNH and Liza Wajong of PIRS, the International Women’s Day celebration culminated in a big event on March

Filipino participants at the International Women’s Day Celebration

Keynote Spearker Angela Baines

8 which was attended by around 100 participants, including several Filipinas.

The atmosphere on the day was festive. Elizabeth Briemberg of PIRS and Jennifer Gray-Grant of CNH gave welcome speeches. Host Marcela Mancilla-Fuller introduced a slideshow that acknowledged the participation and strength of women in building Canada. She also introduced Angela Baines, a brand strategist with one of the most successful design businesses in BC, who was the keynote speaker for the day At the beginning of her speech, Baines held up a paper with the words, “No gypsies, no Irish, no blacks.” She then spoke about her challenges as an

African American woman immigrant in Europe. “I remember that when I was 14, I was walking home from school with some friends. A group with shaved heads started shouting at us and made threatening motions. It was great that my father taught me selfdefense. We stood our ground, fought back, and they got the surprise of their lives.” She said that this became the mantra of her life: being bold, being strong, standing up inside and moving forward. This mantra also served her well when she and her husband migrated to Canada during the height of the economic crisis in Europe. She lacked Canadian experience and could not get a job, so she set up her own design studio at home. She called a lot of people and heard a lot of no’s, a lot of “we are not interested.” Few years down the road to today, because of her perseverance, she is one of the most successful immigrants in BC. She adds, “Never let fear win. It is frightening.

Fear will always be there. But never let

it stop you from doing what you want to do.”

After the keynote speech, there was a presentation from Hanes Canada about the many benefits of Wonder Bra. The participants enjoyed some snacks while they enjoyed the entertainment provided by the Chinese dancers and the singing duo from Indonesia. There were also self-help books and gift bags from Hanes Canada that were raffled off.

According to one volunteer, “It was a lovely event. It was well-organized, entertaining, [there was] delicious food, [and it was] most enjoyable.

I was thrilled to be part of it!” The atmosphere was easygoing and there was a lot of camaraderie among the participants, the organizers and the volunteers. The parting words of Baines hung in the air: “We have to instill confidence in young female children. If we have strong women, we will have strong communities. [We can] let everyday be an International Women’s Day.” ■

The Philippine Bayanihan Community Center: A Center Built on Commitment

BY LAARNI DE PAULA Philippine Canadian Inquirer

In the heart of the City of Victoria, British Columbia, lies the Philippine Bayanihan Community Center.

This building is the fruit of the unending commitment of the original founder, the Victoria FilipinoCanadian Association (VFCA), prime mover in acquiring the center’s building and increasing the number of its supporters over the years. The dream of the founding members would not be a reality without the fundraising events and donations from committed members and volunteers of VFCA, the Victoria Filipino-Canadian Caregivers’ Association (VFCCA), the Victoria Filipino-Canadian Seniors Association (VFCSA) and individual donors. Part of the funding towards the acquisition of the building is the grant of the provincial government in the amount of C$215.000.00.

It was forty-two years ago, on February 10, 1969, when 15 Filipino immigrants, all women who were mostly in the health care field, incorporated the VFCA, first Filipino – Canadian association in the country. This association grew in prominence

over the years. On February 16, 1961, the officers took a bold move to incorporate a society called the Bayanihan Cultural and Housing Society (BCHS), aimed at acquiring a building for a cultural center. On November 3, 2001, or ten years later, the Bayanihan Cultural Center located in 1709 Blanshard Street, Victoria, BC, opened its doors.

For being able to successfully acquire and accomplish its purposes, the VFCA was awarded the Maharlika (Nobility) Award in 2010 as an Outstanding Filipino Association for establishing the Bayanihan Cultural and Housing Society and for successfully acquiring a property. Various fundraising activities are continuously held at the Center to support the upkeep of the building.

“The spirit is good,” says VFCA President Leila Pirez. The Center has big projects for the next years, including providing youth programs through booth camps and outreach programs, like “feed the needy,” which are undertaken together with other multicultural groups. Their main project, however, is to conduct a census of the Filipino Community in Canada, and they are soliciting the help of Filipino business owners in this endeavour. ■

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VFCCA officers Jojo Partosa, Junrie Calubag, Hazel Madayag, Shirley Ronco, Annette Beech, Diane Namoco, Miechel Micabola, Rose de Guzman, Ma. Leonora Manicad, Vivian Antero, Joy Capuyan, Roberto Celdran, Chin Te

During the VFCCA election

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TUESDAY MARCH 20, 2012

Immigration

Western provinces seek increase to immigration caps in nominee program

Farm field in Saskatchewan

THE CANADIAN PRESS

SASKATOON - Saskatchewan is seeking to increase the cap on the number of immigrants allowed to come here through the immigrant nominee program.

Rob Norris, responsible for Advanced Education, Employment

and Immigration, says the province would like to see the cap raised to 6,000 people from 4,000.

Norris says Alberta and B.C. are also seeking to have their caps raised as well, and the three provinces are working together to put the pressure on Ottawa.

A recent study done by the Institute for Research on Public Policy in Manitoba says that immigrant nominees tend to enter the workforce rapidly.

They experience low levels of unemployment, with close to 90 per cent of them having permanent jobs. ■

Workplace Mentoring for Immigrants: A Mentor’s Perspective

BY AGNES MEDINA-TECSON, CHRP

MOSAIC, an immigrant-serving organization in the Lower Mainland, has been helping around 60,000 new immigrants annually, whether in settlement, in improving their English language skills, in their job searches and in connecting the skills immigrants have in their home countries to the skills requirements of Canada. They have 250 employees across lower mainland delivering these services. They also have around 150 volunteer mentors assisting these new immigrants in their job searches and eventually helping them facilitate their entry to the workplace.

Last week, I attended a Mentoring Workshop. I am mentor number 101.

There were 12 of us in the workshop.

We were all immigrants from around the globe and experts in various fields.

Three, including myself, are in human resources, four were in business, three were in the engineering field and two were in community building. Each one of us was asked about our motivation to be a mentor. There were two common answers: empowering new immigrants and giving back.

Abraham and Chris, two energetic and dynamic outreach workers of MOSAIC, discussed the process, our roles and responsibilities, and our mentees’ expectations. All the necessary tools to make the partnership successful and the values a mentor should have were also discussed.

These are partnership, empathy, sharing, advice, encouragement, networking, professionalism and teaching by example. It was reiterated that mentors are there to facilitate the

new immigrant’s entry to the world of work but mentees are not expected to land a job in the three months that we are mentoring them.

Part of our duties include facilitating the new immigrant’s entry to the workplace, through advising them on how to do information interviews, preparing them for interviews by conducting mock interviews, giving them interview tips, reviewing their resumes and cover letters, encouraging them to volunteer, helping them find volunteer organizations, advising them to expand their network and providing link to professional associations, licensing bodies and other governmentfunded programs that would help them improve their knowledge and skills.

Mentors can also discuss workplace culture and expectations and the concept of employability for life through continuous skills-building.

Our first activity and challenge at the workshop was creating the mentor plan: building rapport by exchanging experiences and learning, setting direction with the mentee by choosing areas to focus and discuss plans for each area, relationship building by reviewing goals earlier set and whether they are being met and making some adjustments, and finally, after a 3-month period, closing the partnership officially by reflecting on achievements and discoveries.

The workshop made my day. I felt so enriched and encouraged. I am now ready and excited to meet my first mentee. I hope it would be a very productive journey. ■ For information on Mosaic’s Workplace Connections Mentoring Program, visit www.mosaicbc.com

Applications for Canada on a Fast Track

BY DON COLLANTES Are you interested in migrating to Canada?

Or have you ever thought of helping a close loved one migrate to Canada? If your answer is yes to either of these questions, this article contains further information that is of high interest to you.

BENEFITS OF SKILLED WORKERS IN CANADA Presently, the most suitable way to immigrate to Canada is as a Skilled Worker. Skilled workers in Canada are given permanent residence status in Canada, are able to include their spouse and children to Canada, are able to apply for any employment in Canada, are able to access all of the same social government programs as Canadian citizens, are given the same rights and freedoms as Canadian citizens (except for the right to vote), are able to acquire Canadian citizenship after three years of residence in Canada, and the list goes on...

QUALIFICATIONS OF SKILLED WORKERS The qualifications to be a skilled worker applicant to Canada are: 1.Must have at least one year of experience in a profession on the limited list of occupations for fast-tracking; 2.Minimal completion of a Bachelor’s Degree; and

3.Ability to listen, read, write and speak proficiently in English.

New applicants, who are able to meet these conditions are currently experiencing a processing time as low as six-months to receive their permanent residence visas.

List of Occupations Still Open for FastTracking Licenced Practical Nurses Cooks and Chefs Insurance Claims Adjusters Architects Insurance Claims Examiners Doctors Psychologists Registered Nurses Social Workers Enrolled Nurses Dentists Dental Hygienists Pharmacists Welders/ Carpenters Electricians Radiologists Physical Therapists Heavy Duty Equipment Operators Supervisors/Constructions And many more

This limited of professions is expected to change or be altered on July 1, 2012, so apply today. ■

Regulated Immigration Consultant Program The program is available online and satisfies the academic requirements for registration as a Regulated Immigration Consultant.

Program starts May 14, 2012

Apply now.

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Ashton College | 1190 Melville Street, Vancouver, BC Ashtoncollege.com | 604.899.0803 Accounting | Bookkeeping | Business | Financial Services | Home Inspection | Human Resources Immigration | International Trade | Sales & Marketing | Payroll Administration

Lifestyle-Phils Aloe vera recommended for acid reflux

BY ANNE A. JAMBORA Philippine Daily Inquirer

Aloe vera for your skin and hair, sure.

But for your acid reflux? Well, why not?

When Bettina Osmeña, wife of Sen.

Serge Osmeña, battled breast cancer in 2003, she decided to take control of her health and pumped her system with 30 supplements a day.

While she has since been down to just 15 supplements, Osmeña was still taking one drug for her acid reflux (gastroesophageal reflux disease, or GERD). For years, she said, acid reflux has tormented her and often disrupted her daily routine.

“I wanted to go the natural way but there was that one drug I couldn’t live without,” Osmeña said.

It was not until she attended a trade fair in China that she discovered AloeCure, an organic aloe vera juice that is said to balance the stomach acidity and soothe the digestive system.

Today, Osmeña is drug-free. She said since she tested the AloeCure she has never bought medicine for her acid reflux again.

“Aloe vera is really a food that makes you well. Some food act like medicine; aloe vera is one of those. It is food that acts like medicine,” said naturopathic medical doctor Elizabeth A. Micaller.

Micaller said a dose of pure aloe vera juice contains 200 nutrients of vitamins, minerals, enzymes, 20 out of 22 amino acids—making it a powerful shot to boost the body’s immune system.

The beauty of aloe vera, continued

TUESDAY MARCH 20, 2012 22

Micaller, is that it contains a significant amount of polysaccharides. This active component polysaccharides, in simple terms, she explained, are like “trains” that transport nutrition into the body.

“The polysaccharides make sure nutrition is absorbed by the body. When you’re sick your body lacks the necessary nutrition to make it function well. You can eat nutritious meals but you also need a good ‘train system’ to deposit the necessary nutrition where it is needed most. That’s what polysaccharides do,” Micaller said.

AloeCure comes in two forms: AloeCure Pure Organic Aloe Vera Juice and Aloe Pure Aloe Chunks. The juice tastes nasty, like all-natural and pure aloe vera juice, so it is best mixed with juice, said Osmeña.

Called the “wonder plant,” Micaller said the Egyptians used aloe vera 2,000 years ago as the answer to many ailments. Be wary, she warned, of people who claim their product is a cure.

“Cure is all-encompassing. As a doctor, I am extremely careful in using that term. There is not one product that cures.

Period. Rather, they will help make you stronger so your body is able to fight off the disease better,” Micaller said.

The rich amino acid content of aloe vera juice, including seven out of eight essential amino acids, is responsible for

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repairing tissues and building cells. It forms antibodies critical in fighting off diseases. AloeCure products are coldpressed, said Osmeña, so there’s only a minimum amount of preservatives included in the ingredient. (It is 95-percent pure aloe vera juice.)

According to Sis. Luz Maria Buitrago, a Colombian nun from the Holy Family Home Foundation based in the Philippines, there are studies now on how pure aloe vera juice strengthens the immune system to fight cancer.

The juice is best taken twice a day, in the morning and evening before retiring. Add it on smoothies and juices, particularly berries and fruity flavors to tame its strong taste. It also comes in grape flavor.

The chunks, milder in tastes, goes well with fruit desserts. It is rich in fiber so it is good for cleansing the colon as well, said Micaller. It normalizes bowel movement and eases constipation. It can even help people with irritable bowel syndrome, Osmeña said.

In the Philippines, AloeCure is distributed by Organic Basket.

Organic Basket is the only certified organic company in the country. Visit www.aloecurephilippines.com and www.aloepurephilippines.com for more details. ■

The great Italian lifestyle at Milano Residences

BY THERESA S. SAMANIEGO Philippine Daily Inquirer

Our natural affinity for anything Italian is evident in the way we enjoy their pizza, pasta and wine.

We admire their taste and flair for fashion and design. But more than all this, we love the way Italians continue to redefine style, elegance and craftsmanship.

Italy is home to some of the greatest minds and talents like Enzo Ferrari, Leonardo da Vinci, Andrea Bocelli, Christopher Columbus, Filippo Brunelleschi, Michelangelo Buonarroti, making the country and its people the epitome of timeless beauty and sophistication.

And for centuries, Italians have continuously set the benchmark for all things superior—from shoes to clothes down to the interiors of their homes—without having to sacrifice comfort.

Luckily, Filipinos can have a taste of that true Italian living through Century Properties’ Versace Home-designed Milano Residences.

One of 5 Launched in late 2010, Milano Residences is one of only five Versace Home interior–designed properties worldwide. The others are Hotel Plaza in New York City, Palazzo Versace both in Dubai and in Australia and Damac Tower in Beirut.

The 53-story residential tower being built at the Century City in Makati will showcase the distinctive mark of the Versace Home.

According to Century Properties Group Inc., the

entire amenity area of the Milano Residences will be designed by Versace Home, allowing the project to have that authentic Italian flair.

“Amenities of the residential masterpiece—from the grand lobby to the library, business center, swimming pool and juice bar—will be draped in genuine Versace Home aesthetic,” the company claimed.

Personalized services Future residents can also choose to have their units designed by Versace Home or be adorned by branded fine furniture pieces.

“Aside from showcasing Versace Home’s great interior detailing in the Milano’s common areas, we are giving our residents the flexibility and distinction of extending this exquisite experience into their own private space,” added Robbie Antonio, Milano project head and CPGI managing director.

“Versace Home is offering personalized interior design services for Milano’s unit owners,” Antonio added.

According to him, residents who chose to have their units designed by Versace Home will have exclusive access to the brand’s fine home collection and the rare luxury of having their own residence adorned with the art of essential living—as what the brand is highly known for.

“The Versace world is not just expressed in fashion, but in the full spectrum of art and creativity. From our love of beauty come tailor-made interior design services and home furnishings that tell of a genuine lifestyle—one that truly shows what ‘Made in Italy’

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is all about,” said Gian Giacomo Ferraris, CEO of Gianni Versace SpA. And such exquisite details are evident in the Versace Home line—from linens, tapestries, pillows to furniture, silverware, and glass and porcelain pieces.

Superior craftsmanship “To be surrounded by finely crafted pieces will be the daily pleasures of a Milano resident,” Antonio claimed, adding that “superior craftsmanship of one-of-a-kind and tailor-made pieces from the brand will be showcased in Milano.”

Currently, a bubble sofa—statement piece by the brand—can be found at the Milano showroom in a pattern exclusively created for the building’s grand lobby. A sunburst coffee table made of a crystal top and steel frame structure complements the sofa’s whimsical appeal.

Dining chairs upholstered in rich black leather and steel chrome tables engraved with the iconic fret speak of Versace Home’s creative play of the classical and modern. Couches and pillows wrapped in purple velvet upholstery, crystal, glass and steel table lamps as well as porcelain and silver tableware from the Rosenthal collection are also some of the items on display at the Milano showroom.

“Milano residents will enjoy substantial value and will be proud of owning both an incredible investment and a symbol of a lifestyle never before seen in Manila,” Ferraris concluded. ■

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Lifesyle-Phils

Preventing the ‘sneak thief of sight’

LOCATED AT the back of our eyes are bundles of nerve fibers—called the optic nerves—that serve as communication cables between our eyes and our brain.

Within each of these 1.5mm- to 2.0mmdiameter strands are about 1.5 million exceptionally thin nerve fibers, which when affected by disease or subjected to trauma or excessive pressure could suffer irreversible damage.

One of the conditions that could injure the optic nerve is glaucoma, characterized by the gradual blurring of vision, especially at night, seeing halos or rainbows around lights, experiencing severe headaches or eye pain, nausea (although one type of glaucoma exhibits no symptom as the individual loses peripheral vision if not go completely blind without warning).

“Glaucoma is thought to be the primary reason for preventable loss of vision and in fact, statistics show that over 60.5-million people around the world suffer from the disease, of which 8.5 million of them are already blind in both eyes,” informed Philippine Glaucoma Society president Dr. Maria Imelda Yap-veloso during the launch of World Glaucoma Week held at the Makati Shangri-la Hotel.

World Glaucoma Week will be celebrated between March 12 and 16.

She added that the No. 1 cause of bilateral permanent blindness in the Philippines is brought about by the increased pressure around the optic nerve.

No symptoms “The most concerning fact about most types of glaucoma is that distinct from other causes of blindness, it is asymptomatic (no symptoms) until it may be too late,” she lamented.

But while glaucoma is described as the “sneak thief of sight” because of lack of any obvious symptoms, it is still possible to prevent the disease, noted Dr. Rainier Covar, member of the Philippine Glaucoma Society’s research committee.

“Early detection of the disease is crucial to effective management.

Although glaucoma risk is universal, particular groups are at higher risk than others. Risk factors for glaucoma may include those over 45 years old, anyone with family members who have had glaucoma, a predisposition toward diabetes, or known eye problems such as high intraocular

pressure,” Covar described.

In observance of the World Glaucoma Week, the Philippine Glaucoma Society members will conduct free eye checkups on select locations nationwide.

“World Glaucoma Week was established in response to the worldwide concern over the increasing number of people with glaucoma. If these people do not have the condition detected and treated right away, more people, including Filipinos, are at risk of going blind from this disease,” announced Dr. Mario Aquino, the founding president of Philippine Glaucoma Society, He added that World Glaucoma Week aims to educate more people about how to assess their risk for glaucoma and to be aware of the importance of regular eye examinations and disease detection.

Comprehensive exam “Although there are glaucoma eyedrops that could aid in reducing the risks that elevate eye pressure, one has to undergo comprehensive eye exams first (must be conducted by an ophthalmologist) as this is the only way to detect glaucoma in its early stages. As a general rule, have comprehensive eye exams every three to five years after age 40 and every year after age 60. You may need more frequent screenings if you have glaucoma risk factors,” Covar suggested.

There are several tests that an ophthalmologist could perform including tonometry, a simple, painless procedure that measures one’s intraocular pressure.

Another is one that checks the fibers in one’s optic nerve. Here, the eye doctor employs instruments that look directly through the pupil to the back of the eye. This can reveal slight changes that may indicate the beginnings of glaucoma.

A visual field test could also be done to check whether the visual field has been affected by glaucoma, (the doctor uses a special test that evaluates peripheral vision).

Veloso said a comprehensive test would cost about P500 to about a few thousands, depending on clinics or hospitals.

“Remember early detection is vital to stopping the progress of the disease as there is no cure for glaucoma, yet.

However, medication or surgery can slow or prevent further vision loss.

This upcoming observance of the World Glaucoma Week is significant to every Filipino as our ranks will join forces to help more Filipinos preserve their sight,” Veloso said ■.

Photo by Madelene Briones

BY CHARLES E. BUBAN Philippine Daily Inquirer

Babies benefit from mothers’ plant-based diet, say scientists

birth weight among babies born in Malaysia (the study is titled “Higher intake of fruits and vegetables in Science may now have the evidence pregnancy is associated with birth to convince expectant mothers to size”). He has expressed willingness eat even more veggies, and shun the to be interviewed by this writer. A three-way interview with Deocaris meat altogether.

Neuroscientist Custer Deocaris, and Jan is currently being planned.

Deocaris initially explained Jan’s a Deparment of Science and Technology Balik Scientist who is study: “This means, babies born now in Japan for further research on to mothers who love meat become the human brain, has been urging more stressful.” He added: “Babies pregnant women “to eat less meat,” with hyperactivated stress axis tend to grow up as adults who have or even go as far “go vegetarian.”

“This is consistent with the ADA difficulty managing their anger, are (American Dietetic Association) more aggressive and have higher recommendation for the suitability risk for heart disease.”

Custer stressed that this maternal of vegetarian diets for pregnant dietary factor has never been mothers,” Deocaris said.

Deocaris recently e-mailed studied in detail in the Philippines.

“The HPA, or hypothalamicInquirer Science and Health a scientific paper that he recently pituitary-adrenal axis (or stress got hold of indicating a diet response), of the baby is altered predominant with meat could lead by vegetable consumption by to fetal programming of genes pregnant mothers. Obesity, too, involved in stress responses of the can be programmed in the genes by maternal overnutrition. Weirdly, developing baby.

The author of the paper, Hamid what you eat while you’re pregnant Jan, showed that a vegetarian diet determines how your baby will eat alters head circumference and when it becomes an adult.”■ www.canadianinquirer.net

BY TESSA R. SALAZAR Philippine Daily Inquirer

Lifestyle-Phils

TUESDAY MARCH 20, 2012 24

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Child-friendly Mind Museum opens March 16 Museum seeks to make science interesting and fun for kids

BY FRAN KATIGBAK Philippine Daily Inquirer The Museum is not a playground, a place to let your kids loose. But The Mind Museum at Taguig (TMMT), which will open to the public March 16, seeks to make science accessible and interesting to kids; it seeks to be both educational and fun for kids. TMMT promises to be a unique science museum where you won’t have to rein in your child’s curiosity and hyperactiveness. These qualities play t o the advantage of kids as they explore over 250 interactive exhibits.

“Think of it as an educational institution,” said Manny Blas, managing director of Bonifacio Art Foundation Inc., one of the museum’s organizers.

“It is a showcase of ‘what we know, how we know it and what we do with what we know,’” said organizers in a press statement. “Teachers can find ways to supplement their science lessons and students can satisfy their curiosity about how the world works.”

The bottom line, organizers said, is to help breed scientific literacy that could inspire people to understand nature and support the sciences. No person is too young or too old for that, they added.

Experiential learning It may not be a substitute for schools, but Tmmtseeks to make science engaging, accessible and fun through interactive exhibits. Kids can touch the exhibits, view them close, even smell them, which they wouldn’t have done in a regular schoolroom.

Five main galleries serve as a “playground” of concepts related to the atom, Earth, life, the universe and technology.

The Atom Gallery presents the tiniest particles in 3D imagery plus large-scale models and contraptions.

Kids will be able to understand gravity and centripetal force in Whirlpool, where balls spiral down a transparent funnel. A psychedelic booth introduces carbon and its versatility. Static Ball, a silver sphere as large as a basketball, shows that electrostatic energy could make hairs stand on end.

Earth Gallery showcases the planet’s features and traces its history. On display are fossils; mechanical and audiovisual representations of volcanoes and tectonic plates; and the skeleton of a tyrannosaurus rex named Stan.

Perhaps the most impressive feature in the gallery is Omniglobe Explorer, a large sphere that projects the Earth’s current state in terms of atmosphere, climate change, earthquakes and topography.

Star-gazing in daytime Life Gallery offers a close look at living things, from microbes to humans and gigantic animals. There’s a walkthrough of a large model of a human brain. A life-size whale shark, or butanding, is suspended in the gallery.

Consoles serve as tactile, visual and interactive multimedia representations of cells, flora and fauna, animals, and parts of the human body.

Universe Gallery exudes the look and feel of a planetarium. The simulation of a star-studded sky allows kids to star-gaze even in daytime.

The gallery includes a replica of a spacesuit; an exhibit on the life cycle of a star; Spaceshell, which features films about space; and a giant orrery, the mechanism that shows the movement and position of moons and planets in the solar system.

Technology Gallery, located on the second floor, shows man’s inventions and how these have evolved based on his needs and ability to invent and innovate.

Features include Mimo, the obstacle-avoiding robot; solarpowered mechanical bugs; diorama of the Shell Malampaya Natural Gas Project; and practical inventions such as clothes, toilets and refrigerators.

Despite the range and volume of exhibits, curator Maria Isabel Garcia insists there is no one right way to begin exploring the museum. You can begin with anything that interests you.

“Most of the time I see kids [overwhelmed] and they don’t know where to go first,” said Garcia. “But you’ll be surprised how kids are able to ‘bookmark’ what they see in the museum and then come back for a second look.”

A parent shouldn’t worry about being unable to explain science concepts to a 5-year-old because help is within reach. Mind Movers, or museum guides, roam the facility and they have been trained to explain the exhibits in different levels. They could talk in a level suitable for a child or an adult.

For some things, though, parents would just have to wait till their children could understand better, said the curator.

The Mind Museum at Taguig opens March 16. Purchasing tickets online is recommended.

Rates are P600 for adults; P450, students in private schools; P150, teachers and public school students. Visit www.themindmuseum. org; tel.

909-MIND (6463). ■

A Taste of the Mediterranean

Indulge in the diverse and unique flavors of the Mediterranean through these new dining spots.

BY FRAN KATIGBAK Philippine Daily Inquirer

The Cuisinier Bistro The scarcity of Mediterranean restaurants available in the Metro North was what drove Chef Mafe to open Cuisinier Bistro. This quaint, new eatery may not easily catch one’s attention but it is a great example of the saying, “never judge a book by its cover.” The wide menu in this restaurant is definitely worth every visit.

Chef Mafe took what she learned from her tenure at Le Cordon Bleau in London to create an exquisite variety of dishes from French Mediterranean origins.

Start with a hearty bowl of Bouillabaisse (P320) filled with fresh seafood and mixed in a flavorful shrimp bisque. The appetizing Salmon Tournedos (P740) is a must order, and the foie gras-topped salmon can easily become a favorite. If you’re looking for a meat dish, try the Moroccan Lamb Stew (P550); the herby meat is so tender, it falls off the bone.

You can also have a taste of the Spanishinfluenced Osso Buco (P740), a stew of New Zealand beef shank served on top

a risotto parmigiana. These hefty dishes make the Bistro a definite contender to the more established restaurants of the same theme. But the best part about Cuisinier Bistro is that its dishes don’t break the bank. Bring your family and friends to this little hotspot and you’re sure to come back for more.

The Cuisinier Bistro, 102 Timog Avenue, Quezon City (fronting Caltex Station near GMA 7).

Hassan Kabab and Steaks From the outside, Hassan Kabab and Steaks looks like just another kainan you can do without. But stop at this little establishment and you’ll see—or in this case, taste—why so many patrons, including celebrity clientele, come back.

The owners’ passion for Persian cuisine came from a childhood of eating a lot of good Persian food. Unable to find the flavors they loved so dearly from other establishments, they decided to cook their own. Using only the best meats and traditional flavors of Persian cuisine, they made a menu that seems ordinary but definitely packs a punch. “What makes

us different is our signature sauces,” says owner Ian Lee of the six savory add-ons.

From an herbed sauce to a pepper sauce, there’s certainly one to complement your chosen kabab. Bestsellers include the Garashi Kabab (P265) and the Adana Kabab (P245), two tasty treats you can pair with signature rice that’s cooked in Keema broth. They also have the Koftezi Pie (P180), a Persian pizza with herb-rich meatballs and a homemade tomato sauce.

Bring a friend or two to devour the 10-inch Shiekha Shawarma (P275). Their roast chicken, drenched in a yoghurt marinade, is also a must try. Down everything with a cool yoghurt shake that comes in banana (P75), strawberry (P95), and mango (P85). Take the advice of many and don’t underestimate the “hole in the wall,” it might just be what you’re looking for.

Hassan Kabab and Steak, Katipunan Ave., Quezon City.

Grilled Tomato What started out as a way to share good food with a barkada became an eatery many go to for their Mediterranean cuisine cravings. If you’re looking to grab

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a very affordable plate of kabab or keema, your best bet is Grilled Tomato. The menu at this establishment is a mix of Persian, Greek, and Middle Eastern cuisine. Chef Chico Navarro explains that all three regions have their similarities: meats are grilled and a lot of spices are used to flavor them. Flavor is surely what all the dishes here have in common. All rice meals are served with a savory cup of curry rice.

For beef lovers, the Keema (P80) and the Beef Kabab (P100) are perfect especially when mixed with a little garlic sauce.

The Chicken Tikka (P100) or the Gyros (P65 each) are recommended to health buffs. The hearty Beef Korma (P120) is a favorite of many and is one of their best sellers. If you’re a bit adventurous with your food, try the Ox Brains (P90). They even have a Milk Tea (P50) that is also mixed with spices. What makes the dishes special and authentic is that the spices are all imported from the Middle East so you know what you’re tasting is the real deal.

When asked what sets them apart from other restaurants, Chef Navarro simply said, “you get more bang for your buck.”

Students, yuppies, and anyone who is looking for a good meal on a budget can always run to Grilled Tomato for a cheap but definitely good meal. Grilled Tomato, 186 B Tomas Morato, Quezon City.

From the March 2012 issue of Northern Living Magazine, Philippines

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Food-Phils

TUESDAY MARCH 20, 2012

Cooking Light Eat your favorite dishes without the guilt with these healthy infusions.

From the September 2011 issue of Southern Living Magazine Philippines

What you need: · 1 Whole Wheat Tortilla (about 9 inches) · 3 tbsp. tomato paste · 1 tsp. water · 2 tsp. muscovado sugar · 1-2 garlic cloves, minced · ¼ cup sliced button mushrooms · 8-10 thin and long strips of green bell pepper · 10 black olives, sliced · 1 small white onion, cut into rings · ¼ cup strips of tomatoes, seeds removed · ¼ cup grated slim or light cheddar cheese

Procedure: 1. Pre-heat oven to 200C (you may also use a toaster oven pre-heated at least 15 mins.).

2. Prepare tomato sauce by combining tomato paste, water, muscovado sugar and garlic. Stir well.

3. Spread tomato sauce on the whole-wheat tortilla leaving half an inch bare on the edges.

4. Top the wheat tortilla with mushroom, bell pepper, olives, onions and tomatoes.

5. Sprinkle cheese over all the other toppings.

6. Place pizza in preheated oven. Bake for 12-15 minutes or until edges are toasted.

7. Once cooked, slice the tortilla into 8 pieces and serve fresh.

Vegetable Pizza

•ARE YOU A NEWCOMER TO CANADA? •ARE YOU INTERESTED IN CONNECTING YOUR SKILLS TO THE CANADIAN WORKPLACE? •DO YOU NEED FUNDING FOR SKILLS UPGRADING OR CREDENTIAL EVALUATION?

Egg white Omelette

Come and learn about Skills Connect for Immigrants, a dynamic initiative by Immigrant Services Society of BC (ISS of BC) that helps ease the transition of skilled immigrants into the Canadian workforce by connecting them with industry-specific skills training, credential evaluation and job search services.

If you are unemployed or working in a job that doesn’t use your pre-arrival skills, we can help you!

Information Sessions Every Wednesday (Vancouver)/Thursday (Surrey) 10:00-11:00 Presentation 11:00-12:00 Screening #501 - 333 Terminal Ave, Vancouver #303 – 7337 137th Street, Surrey To register, call: 604-684-2561 ext 2123 (Vancouver, New Westminster, Coquitlam and Richmond) 604-590-4021 ext 2193 (Surrey) or email: skillsconnect@issbc.org

What you need: 1 tbsp. olive oil 1 small red onion, chopped 1 big tomato, chopped 1 small green bell pepper, sliced into strips 1 small red bell pepper, sliced into strips

2 pcs. egg whites 2 tbsp. low fat milk ½ tsp. Salt ½ cup Shiitake Mushrooms

Procedure 1.Heat olive oil on a pan. Saute onions, tomato and bell peppers until cooked.

Set aside.

2.Beat egg whites while pouring low fat milk. Season with salt. Heat a nonstick pan and pour egg white mixture in, allowing it to spread all around. As it sets, put the vegetables in the middle of the omelet mixture. Fold sides of egg, covering the vegetables.

3.Slide onto plate. Serve hot.

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Lifestyle-Canada

TUESDAY MARCH 20, 2012 26

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Canada’s Got Talent’ judges take measured approach with deluded hopefuls

BY CASSANDRA SZKLARSKI THE CANADIAN PRESS

TORONTO - The celebrity judges of ``Canada’s Got Talent’’ say there’s a delicate art to letting a wannabe star know they’re too awful to continue on the show.

And comic Martin Short, soprano Measha Brueggergosman and musician Stephan Moccio say they got plenty of practice figuring out the right way to reject deluded performers.

The homegrown stars separate the wheat from the chaff on the Canuck spinoff of the popular ``Got Talent’’ franchise, debuting Sunday on Citytv.

Brueggergosman said she tried to be honest with less-than-talented contenders without being mean. That meant using comments such as: ``the act lacked a little bit of polish’’ or ``perhaps you should consider singing in a different key,’’ she said to laughs at a press conference Thursday. ``It’s like a traffic accident, it’s hard to look away even though you should,’’ Brueggergosman admitted of some of the worst offenders. ``(But) even when they’re bad you can still give them some kind of feedback, you don’t just say: ‘You’re bad.’ That’s not helpful.’’

Short said it was possible to be more direct at times, as long as the delivery was right.

``It’s your tone. Like: ‘You know, you really stink,’’’ Short said in an upbeat lilt. ``And you smile,’’ he added to chuckles.

The first episode of ``Canada’s Got Talent’’ features tryouts in Toronto from a wide range of would-be entertainers: a balancing artist from Belarus, a Frisbeeloving dog, an acrobatic hula hoop dancer and an over-confident tenor.

There were plenty of amazing performances among them, notes the Hamilton-born Short, who leaps onstage to join a fawning contestant during the premiere episode and at one point breaks into song to the delight of an enthusiastic audience.

Contestants were assessed throughout a six-city audition tour that included stops in Toronto, Calgary, Vancouver, Winnipeg, Halifax and Montreal. Entertainers ranged in age from four to 82.

The winner gets a prize package including $100,000, a Nissan GT-R, a performing slot at Citytv’s televised New Year’s bash and a chance to perform in a Las Vegas show.

Brueggergosman said she leapt at the judging gig for the slick series, produced by the same crew behind CTV’s ``Canadian Idol’’ and CBC’s ``Battle of the Blades,’’ calling it ``a nobrainer because I’m super judge-y.’’ ``I’m a huge reality show junkie. I’m

absolutely addicted,’’ she confessed. ``If anybody is eating something gross, or racing to somewhere, or trying to get someone to marry them, I’m in.’’

Still, Brueggergosman said she was wary of coming down too hard on fragile egos when it came time to decide if they had talent or not. ``You can’t joke too much because it’s only funny to you and they’re hurting.

You still have to consider their feelings but you have to tell them the truth without tearing them down and doing irreparable damage. Because I don’t think that’s our job, either.’’

Moccio said he found it most difficult to know what to say when the act was merely average. ``Because if it was really bad you can have fun with it and if it was amazing your reaction just said it all,’’ said Moccio, whose star-studded music career has included collaborations with Celine Dion and David Foster. ``And we had a lot of just average acts.... Good is not going to win the competition ... amazing is going to win the competition.’’ ``Canada’s Got Talent’’ joins a television lineup already packed with music-related reality series including ``The Voice’’ and ``American Idol’’ but producer John Brunton said this homegrown contest offers something unique, even from its U.S. and British

Helga Esteb / Shutterstock.com

Travel Alberta says $1.5M worth it to get Kelly ‘Live’ in Banff

LOS ANGELES - FEB 26: Kelly Ripa arrives at the 84th Academy Awards at the Hollywood & Highland Center on February 26, 2012 in Los Angeles, CA.

CALGARY - Breathtaking scenery and a second honeymoon with her husband aren’t the only things luring Kelly Ripa and her popular television show to Banff next month.

Travel Alberta set aside $1.5

million to seal the deal and ensure that ``Live! with Kelly’’ would tape four shows in Alberta’s plushest Rocky Mountain resort community.

Travel Alberta CEO Bruce Okabe (oh-KAW’-bee) says about half the money is to be offset by sponsorships from Air Canada, Brewster Transportation and the Fairmont Hotel.

He says the publicity from reaching 3.6 million people every day should be worth close to $22 million when all is said and done.

Okabe says there will be an economic impact study after the April tapings are over to make sure that Travel Alberta got good bang for its buck.

The show will be broadcast from the Eric Harvie Theatre at The Banff Centre, a national arts training school. ■

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``Got Talent’’ counterparts. ``There are so many things that we witnessed that they wouldn’t even see down there,’’ said Brunton, pointing to ethnically diverse acts that included a Bollywood-style dance troupe. ``We celebrate individual cultures that are part of Canada as opposed to wanting people to assimilate into the American way.’’

He added that ``Canada’s Got Talent’’ displays a notable lack of cynicism. ``Not one of our panellists or our host, in my opinion, have a cynical bone in their body,’’ he said. ``And I think there’s an enormous amount of cynicism in some of these panels in the States - ‘Who’s your mean judge? Who’s going to play this character? Who’s going to play that character?’ That had no bearing on how we cast our program and I think that’s fundamentally different.’’

Brueggergosman said an easy rapport emerged quickly among the three judges. ``Martin came in on the panel and obviously if he’s insane then the whole panel’s thrown off, right? So he comes in, and he’s super-warm, super-great, super-generous,’’ she said. ``Super-medicated,’’ Short chimed in. ``Canada’s Got Talent’’ airs Sunday, 8 p.m. on Citytv. ■

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Lifestyle-Canada

Featureflash / Shutterstock.com

Celine Dion sings just another note in Montreal’s love song for smoked meat

Celine Dion

By Nelson Wyatt THE CANADIAN PRESS

MONTREAL - So, it seems Celine Dion is a bit of a deli diva.

Maybe that would surprise some considering one of her biggest hits is ``My Heart Will Go On,’’ but the pop megastar has a history with smoked meat that extends way beyond her new investment in Schwartz’s, Montreal’s most famous purveyor of the fatty delicacy.

In the old days her hankerings for smoked meat would occasionally take her to the spot across the street from Schwartz’s - The Main deli which is now, ironically, her competition.

That hop-scotching from one smokedmeat joint to the next places Dion in a rich culinary tradition, as Montreal residents have spent countless hours comparing and debating the merits of their city’s old-style delis.

Which is the most famous? Schwartz’s, surely. Which has the longest lineups?

Again, Schwartz’s. But which serves the best smoked meat? Well, that’s a question that has made mouths salivate and had fists pounding a few vinyl tabletops in animated diner conversations. ``Montreal is one of the greatest deli cities in the world,’’ says David Sax, author of 2009’s ``Save the Deli,’’ which looked at the phenomenon of delicatessens around the world. ``There’s nowhere that has an abiding sort of passion for Jewish delicatessen in a way that Montreal does. It’s certainly on a par with New York, if not in some respects bigger and more deeply ingrained into the culture.’’

Like New York, Montreal was a focal point for early 20th century Jewish immigration and various histories indicate the creators of

smoked meat came from Eastern Europe, particularly Romania.

The details are vague but some credit Ben Kravitz, who founded Ben’s De Luxe Delicatessen in 1910, as the inventor, curing the briskets with methods he remembered from Lithuanian farmers.

Others include butcher Aaron Sanft, who made the meat Romanian-style.

Until Dion came around, the closest that the dingy Schwartz’s got to the glitz of showbiz was a musical based on it, a couple of movies, and the stream of heavyweight entertainers who have sidled up to its timeless counter.

Frank Silva, the the eatery’s manager since 1999, thinks Dion and Schwartz’s go together like, well, smoked meat and rye. ``Why not?’’ says Silva with a smile. ``She’s a Quebec icon and we’re a landmark. I think we make a good team.’’

Debates on who serves the best smoked meat can be as passionate as any ever heard in the House of Commons - at least to smoked meat lovers.

It’s Schwartz’s, it’s Dunn’s, it’s Lester’s, it’s The Main, they argue.

Norman Spector, a former chief of staff to Brian Mulroney when he was prime minister, weighed in after he questioned on Twitter whether Schwartz’s was the best. Schwartz’s was good, he agreed, and the now-defunct Ben’s was a favourite of students. ``But the secret known to only a few mavens is that the Snowdon Deli on Decarie has the best smoked meat sandwich in town (one must ask for the old-fashioned and by no means lean) and the lineups are a lot shorter,’’ he wrote in an email.

Francis Morin, an Ottawa resident who has been coming to Schwartz’s for the last 30 years, is a fan not only of the thickly stacked sandwiches but also the timeless atmosphere.

It’s a place that seems untouched by the passing decades, where customers are practically jammed cheek to jowl in tables along the wall, amid furnishings accumulated over generations. ``The atmosphere, it’s unique,’’ said Morin, who always orders the mediumfat sandwich. ``It’s a fantastic place. I’ve always said if I have time in Montreal to do just one thing, this is what I do.’’

One man, who declined to be interviewed but said he’d been a judge at numerous local competitions to declare the best smoked meat, gave his nod to Smoke Meat Pete: ``You can’t beat Pete’s meat,’’ he said, invoking the restaurant slogan.

Word of Dion’s new venture hasn’t hurt the competition across the street at her old stomping grounds, says Pete

Varvaro, owner of The Main.

That’s partly because Schwartz’s international renown - it’s currently listed at No. 9 on the Lonely Planet website’s list of 660 things to do in Montreal - often tends to cause world-class lineups.

That can have spillover benefits for the less-famous spot across the street. The last few months, which are usually quiet periods, have been busier than usual, Varvaro said. ``When they wait in line, they don’t want to wait,’’ he said. ``So they come and try ours and they like it and they come back.’’

It’s been happening for a long time, he adds.

Just ask Dion and her husband.

Varvaro, whose son owns the Smoke Meat Pete deli, remembers well how a 16-year-old Dion and Rene Angelil would slide into a booth at his place. ``They used to come in to eat the smoked meat, they liked the baby back ribs,’’ said Varvaro. ``There was a place that the two of them sat, it was right in the corner,’’ he said. ``Very nice person.’’

He noted that Dion drifted off as her fame grew and she got involved in yet another smoked meat-serving venture, the Nickels chain. He said that even though Dion wasn’t a regular anymore, she often sent regards through manager Ben Kaye, who has since died.

The mystical meat platters of StLaurent Boulevard have had other prominent admirers.

The late author Mordecai Richler humourously described Schwartz’s cut in his novel ``Barney’s Version’’ as a ``maddening aphrodisiac’’ that should be sold as the ``Nectar of Judea.’’

Artistic jack-of-all-trades Leonard Cohen is one of the celebrities who stops

by The Main when he’s in Montreal and Silva rattles off a list of names that sounds like a Hollywood phone book when he cites some of Schwartz’s

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customers, including Halle Berry - ``one of my favourites’’ - Angelina Jolie and funnyman Tim Allen.

And that’s not counting the list of Canadian politicians that have chowed down on smoked meat there and other delis.

Paul Martin, when he was prime minister, was a paricularly avid consumer, choosing to mainstreet in Ben’s delicatessan during one campaign and bringing bags of Schwartz’s sandwiches to passengers on the Liberal plane during another.

Prime Minister Stephen Harper visited the deli when he was Opposition leader. It was also a campaign stop for the NDP’s Jack Layton. Pierre Trudeau was a more regular deli customer, known to wander down from his law office to the now-defunct Ben’s.

So, about that nagging question: Which one’s the best?

A sampling of some of Montreal’s fabled smoked meat doesn’t yield dramatic differences in taste. Spices give some a slightly sweeter flavour, marinating and smoking may give others a peppery tang. ``It’s the brisket,’’ says Silva, of Schwartz’s. ``We marinate it with home spices - a secret blend, of course - for 10 days. And we smoke in-house for approximately eight hours. Then we steam it three hours and we hand slice it. Against the grain, very thin and very fast, of course.’’

Diane Bass, co-owner of The Main, says the cutting is key and notes the brisket comes in three parts - lean, medium and fat. ``The grain of the brisket goes different ways. If you have a good smoked meat cutter that knows how to turn his brisket every time he’s cutting, it won’t get stringy.’’

But Ian Morantz, owner of the Snowdon Deli, has a theory on why Montreal smoked meat is so unique and has never been completely replicated anywhere else: Montreal’s water. ``Water is a big factor in most recipes,’’ he says, explaining that water composes the major part of the pickling brine before the meat is smoked. ``Every region has different minerals in its water. It’s still clear, pure water but it’s not the same water.’’

Baguettes made in Paris taste different than those made in Montreal using the same recipe, he said citing one example. So do Montreal-style bagels made in Toronto. ``Everything else is the same except that the water they’re using is local water and it creates a little different texture, a little different taste.’’ ■

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TUESDAY MARCH 20, 2012

Entertainment www.canadianinquirer.net

She skipped Oscars to visit Malacañang Actress-cook Liza Diño comes home and whips up a slew of projects

BY BAYANI SAN DIEGO JR. Philippine Daily Inquirer

FILIPINO ACTRESS Liza Diño didn’t mind missing this year’s Academy Awards show because she had an appointment in Malacañang Palace.

ALSO a flamenco dancer, Diño (above) is a line cook at Spago, the restaurant owned by the renowned chef Wolfgang Puck, who lays out the lavish Oscars buffet every year. Last year, she won a citation for “achievement in acting” from the International Film Based in Los Angeles, California, Diño is a line cook at Spago, the restaurant owned by worldrenowned chef Wolfgang Puck, who lays out the lavish Oscars buffet every year.

“Last year, I was part of the crew that prepared food for 1,800 guests at the 83rd Oscars,” she related.

“It took us two weeks to prepare. We had a sushi bar and flew in Iberico ham from Spain.”

Diño joined the “vegetarian team” in last year’s feast. “There are a lot of vegan and vegetarian celebrities. They have specific dietary requirements.

We had to cook these dishes separately— so there would be no hint of garlic, onion or dairy products in their meals.”

Her specialty in the resto is endive salad, but of course she cook a mean adobo and callos at home.

This year, she just watched Oscars on TV in Manila,

cheering as her colleagues, including chef Puck, marched down the red carpet.

She opted to skip the frenetic annual banquet in order to personally accept the Ani ng Dangal award given by the National Commission for Culture and the Arts in Malacañang on Feb. 28.

The honor was in recognition of Diño’s “achievement in acting” citation from the 2011 International Film Festival Manhattan for her work in Will Fredo’s “Compound.”

Diño was honored alongside other indie artists who won international acclaim last year: filmmakers Jeffrey Jeturian, Auraeus Solito, Remton Siega Zuasola, Loy Arcenas and Sheron Dayoc, among others.

“I got star-struck when I saw (Tony winner) Lea Salonga, who sang the National Anthem,” she said.

“Plus, I got to bring my family to Malacañang.”

A first-time Palace visitor, Diño described the experience as “surreal.” She explained: “I never won awards when I was still an actress here. To be recognized now, after five years in the United States, is a great validation.”

As she enjoys a three-week Philippine holiday, she is cooking up several projects, too—including a possible foodie show for a Filipino-american TV station in LA. “It’s the same channel that airs [actor] Bernardo

Bernardo’s late-night talk show,” she said. “The station is considering a travel-cooking show for me.”

Among the present crop of food show hosts, she admires Jamie Oliver the most. “I love his series, ‘ Food Escapes,’ because it’s about healthy, hearty, homecooked meals. He did an episode on Italy and made Venetian tiramisu.”

Diño envisions a similar cooking show that will highlight Filipino cuisine which, she conceded, is largely “unknown” to foreigners. “It would be great to share Filipino food with the world, while maintaining its purity.”

Later in the year, her latest collaboration with Fredo, “In Nomine Matris,” will premiere, too.

It’s a special film for her because it allows her to showcase yet another passion: flamenco dancing, which she discovered while traveling in Madrid in 2005 and which she studied under Clara Romana in Manila later that year.

When she goes back to LA later this week, she will resume her work in Spago while juggling auditions, as usual. (Apart from the short film “Imelda and Gunter” in 2009, she appeared in TV commercials in the States.)

That excites her. “It’s pilot season when I get back,” she said. “My agent is lining up several gosees for me.” ■

Photo courtesy of Ervin Santiago

Goma praying for two more kids; wife Lucy wants four

Lucy Torres-Gomez with husband Richard Gomez

BY MARINEL R. CRUZ Philippine Daily Inquirer

“I can’t be tied down to a longterm, exclusive contract. Our work in Ormoc demands so much time,” Richard told INQUIRER Entertainment. “We have projects to plan and implement. In fact, I fly to the province every other week.”

Richard hosts a reality program, “The Biggest Game Show in the World–asia,” on TV5 and is in the cast of the drama series “Walang Hanggan” on ABS-CBN. Richard, who ran for Congress in 2010 but was disqualified for failing to meet the residency requirement, was replaced by wife Lucy, who won as a candidate of the Liberal Party.

“When people ask for your help, you feel compelled to respond,” Richard said. “If there’s an opportunity for you to serve in government, you just go for it.”

The actor said he and Lucy visit Ormoc alternately to make sure one of them can look after (daughter) Juliana at all times. Explained Richard: “Juliana is 11 now. I’m praying for two more (kids); Lucy wants four.”

In the new TV series “Walang Hanggan,” Richard is reunited with ex-girlfriend Dawn Zulueta. They last worked together in the full-length drama

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“Filipinas,” directed by Joel Lamangan in 2003.

“We’ve remain very good friends,” Richard said.

“Now that we’re working together, our friendship has been reinforced.”

Richard said they are very comfortable doing romantic scenes, so portraying starcrossed lovers Marco and Emilia in “Walang Hanggan” is effortless.

Girl friends He said Lucy didn’t mind his working with an ex. “They’re good friends. Lucy has seen my film with Dawn, ‘Hihintayin Kita sa Langit,’ over 20 times,” he pointed out. “It was Lucy who sent a text message to Dawn to say I had agreed to do ‘Walang Hanggan.’” (“Walang Hanggan,” which also features Coco Martin, Julia Montes, Susan Roces and Helen Gamboa, airs weeknights after “Eboy” on ABSCBN’S Primetime Bida time slot.) ■

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Entertainment

TUESDAY MARCH 20, 2012

What Budoy taught Gerald

Photo courtesy of Ervin Santiago

BY BAYANI SAN DIEGO JR. Philippine Daily Inquirer

GERALD Anderson shed weight, grew his hair and wore brow extensions and false teeth for his role in ABSCBN’S “Budoy,” winding up soon.

Gerald, 22, says he discovered things about himself while playing Budoy.

“That God put me here to help others, for one thing,” he said during the launch of his new endorsement, Jollibee’s burger steak meal, in SM Megamall. “I hope to launch a big charity event this year.”

What did this role teach you about special children?

Not to pity them. They’re just different, and we should appreciate that.

Did you ever make fun of people like Budoy? Never.

Have you tried to help special children?

I recently gave a cash donation to a school in Montalban, Rizal, where I did myimmersion for the role.

Have you always empathized with the disabled?

I always wanted to help but didn’t know how.

Now I do.■

First Fil-am to have real shot at ‘Idol’

BY BAYANI SAN DIEGO JR. Philippine Daily Inquirer

after she performed a flawless “Love You I Do,” from the movie “Dreamgirls.” Randy called her “legit.” J. Lo said Jessica left her “speechless.” Steven surmised that Jessica “made 40 million people cry.” Tears of joy, he apparently meant.

The usually cranky web site “Vote for the Worst” conceded that it “was one of the best NON-VFTW vocals in at least a few years.”

But VFTW thought she “may have been lipsynching.” Or it could have been a touch of ventriloquy, since she hit the last high note while smiling coyly. This launched a hot trending topic/debate in cyberspace: Autotune vs. Reverb vs. Backup Vocals.

FILIPINO-AMERICAN Jessica Sanchez gets the boot on “American Idol” in the next few weeks, it would change not only the famous reality talent show, but world history as we know it.

That’s because the three judges— Steven Tyler, Jennifer Lopez and Randy Jackson— virtually handed Jessica the crown after her rendition of “I Will Always Love You” during the show’s Whitney Houston-stevie Wonder smackdown on Wednesday (Thursday in Manila).

All three jurors gave the petite 16-yearold a standing ovation—as they had done last week

Secret code Funniest quip on VFTW: “When Jessica is tapping the microphone, do you think that’s a special secret code for people who live in Manila?”

This early, VFTW is predicting a showdown between Jessica and hard-rockingcountry boy (and pawnshop employee) Phillip Phillips in the finale. AI Season 11 has “become so predictable it’s not even funny,” VFTW complained. J. Lo foretold “a sing-off” between two girls (Jessica and Hollie Cavanagh, 18).

Phillip was rushed to the hospital recently; would that spell good or bad news for J-haters? ■

Lip-synching? Ventriloquy? Petite 16-year-old shines again but sparks lively cyber debate

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Travel-Phils

TUESDAY MARCH 20, 2012 30

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Northern Adventure Spend the long, summer days exploring the northern side of our local shores

BY RUTH KAIRUZ

Batanes On the northernmost point of the country is the group of islands called Batanes. It is one of the Philippines’ most breathtaking islands that remains largely unaffacted by the rest of modern civilization to this day. Its distance from the mainland is a natural deterrent to those who seek to bring in modernization, thus its natural beauty, allure, and mystery have remained intact. The picturesque rolling hills and mountains, scenic beaches, simple stone houses and such, make Batanes the most ideal of places to go trekking and mountain biking. Many who have visited recommend a hike to the Nakamaya Burial Grounds and a visit to the Diura Fishing Village, which are both part of the Ultimate Batanes Tour. Rent a bike and take it for a spin around the town proper’s streets and stop by the many tiny karinderia’s that offer savory local cuisine.

A must-see stop is one store that has slowly gained popularity amongst Batanes’ visitors—Honesty Café.

It’s more than just a pit stop where townspeople and travelers in the area can buy food and drinks. What sets it apart is that people who drop by just leave whatever payment they feel is right to give in the money basket. The owners, Aling Elena and Mang Jose, have found that those who have dropped by are so amazed with the store’s whole concept that they pay more than the actual value of the items.

Travel Tips: Flights: Direct flights to Batanes are available from Manila to Basco, Batanes via Seair. Their frequency may vary though, depending on the season and weather conditions. Visit http://flyseair. com/ for more information.

Lodging: Just a 15-minute ride from the Basco Airport is Fundacion Pacita Batanes Nature Lodge. It offers rooms and suites of various sizes and spectacular views. Their rates start at P6,300+/ night.

Visit http://www.fundacionpacita.ph/ for more information.

Tours: They have everything from bike and hike tours to dive and beach

Batanes Hills

Batanes Lighthouse

Honesty Coffee Shop

Ilocos sand dunes

Ilocos Windmills

Fort Ilocandia

tours. You may check out the following sites to help you further: www. batanestravelandtours.com/, www. divebatanes.com/, batanestravel.com/, and www.ultimatephilippines.com.

Ilocos Provinces If you’re searching for adventure, Ilocos Province has something for everybody.

Vigan, Ilocos Sur, a haven for the history buffs, boasts a large number of wellpreserved colonial homes. Reminisce along the heritage cobblestone street lined with historical homes that date back to the 1570s. Fort Ilocandia, a former military fort turned resort, has interesting masonry buildings, sand dunes for ATVs, and hot air ballon rides for the entire family. Other must-see stops are the famed Cape Bojeador Lighthouse which has been in operation since 1892, and the Bangui Windmills, a modern-day wonder that supplies power to the entire region. Those who want a relaxing time

by the pristine waters of a beach can visit Pagudpud, Ilocos Norte. It’s known for its white sand, serene surroundings, and spectacular pinkish orange sunsets. Not too far from here is the Maira-ira Cove, known also as the “Blue Lagoon” because of its deep blue waters. If thrill and excitement is what you’re up for, then the sand dunes of Paoay, Ilocos Norte is for you. Choose between the two awesome activities they offer: sandboarding and 4x4 jeepney rides. Somewhat similar to surfing, sandboarding down steep dunes, whether seated or lying flat on your belly, is indeed a rush. 4X4 jeepney rides, on the other hand, offer a different kind of thrill.

Enjoy a rollercoaster-like ride as your driver speeds across hilly sand dunes.

Travel Tips: Fly or Drive: Direct flights to Ilocos are available from Manila via Philippine Airlines, Air Philippines, Cebu Pacific, and others. Their frequency varies

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for each airline. Visit their respective websites for more information: www.philippineairlines.com, www. airphilexpress.com/, and www. cebupacificair.com/. Driving to Ilocos is another option, but expect the trip to be at least 7-10 hours long. For a detailed travel guid/ map, please visit www.justgo.ph.

Lodging: There are a number of hotels and resorts that are a short distance from the Laoag International Airport. Try Northview Hotel, Pamulinawen Hotel, and the Ilocos Rosewell Hotel, among others. For rate inquiries and other hotel choices, visit www.booking.com.

Tours: Plan your tour ahead with the help of these sites: www.ilocostours.com/, everythinginbudget.blogspot.com/, and www.travelandtourpackages.com/.

Courtesy of the March 2012 issue of Northern Living magazine, Philippines ■

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Travel-Canada

TUESDAY MARCH 20, 2012

Driving the Klondike/Kluane Loop Route through the Yukon revisits the Klondike Gold Rush

Piloting a small Cessna over the mountains and glaciers of Kluane National Park is the best job ever. I envy how Marie Young spends her days flightseeing over green tracts of spruce and up-up-up to a bird’s-eye view of the world’s largest non-polar icefields, then circling where the air is thin.

Below is a snowy landscape splashed like thick icing onto cake. Magnificent rivers of ancient glacial ice are part of a continent that is still slowly drifting.

In the distance is the summit of Mount Logan, Canada’s highest peak.

Prospectors of the crazy 1898 Klondike Gold Rush tackled the forbidding Kluane Mountains. To them, these ice-shrouded pinnacles were obstacles to conquer en route to hills they dreamed were dripping with gold nuggets. Many never made it.

Fast forward to modern times and a driving tour of the Yukon’s scenic Klondike/Kluane Loopbeats the months of slogging with heavy packs endured by the gold seekers. It’s still a bit of a journey – 1,435 km (892 miles) of stirring vistas along three of the North’s great roadways: the Alaska Highway, Top of the World Highway and Klondike Highway.

Josephine Matyas

BY JOSEPHINE MATYAS Courtesy of the Canadian Tourism Commission

Think of the Yukon and you think of wilderness. Everywhere.

For fishing guide Allan Hansen, a day of boating on glacial-fed Dezadeash Lake is dusk to dawn trolling and casting for lake trout, grayling and whitefish. And between tugs on the line, he gets the binoculars out to look for moose, bears and bald eagles along the shoreline.

After miles and hours of wilderness in stunning browns and greens, we

Offbeat Learning Vacations Go off-the-beaten-track to look and learn

BY JOSEPHINE MATYAS Courtesy of the Canadian Tourism Commission

A lazy beach stint is fun, but sometimes you want more.

Here are a couple of unique educational vacations when you want to move from looking to learning:

1. Stay at a Subarctic Research Station In the polar bear capital of Churchill, Manitoba, you can now live and learn for a week alongside senior scientists and student researchers – even assisting with research – at the non-profitChurchill Northern Studies Centre.

start to think “we have got to be getting somewhere soon”. And suddenly, we’re there: Dawson City, the most northerly community on the route.

In the frantic days of the Gold Rush, a town of 30,000 sprung up on this wedge of frozen swamp, right at the joining of the Yukon and Klondike Rivers. And then, just as suddenly, as dreams of gold riches evaporated, Dawson City was again near deserted. For most of the miners there was nothing but hardship

and expense.

Today, wooden boardwalks line the dirt streets and colourful storefronts are testament to a past based on a fleeting golden wish. Brave and adventurous visitors sip a Sourtoe Cocktail. Gamblers try their luck at Diamond Tooth Gerties.

And those that crave a shot of authentic Klondike history panhandle for gold, visit an eight-storey mining dredge and touch the past at the Dawson City Museum. ■

Programs vary year round. “Winter Skies: Aurora and Astronomy in Churchill” is about Northern Lights when they are at their strongest in February and March. Astronomers give talks, then everyone heads to the heated, darkened, enclosed viewing lounge with its clear-acrylic dome. As with the polar bear program, during daytime, guests can go snowshoeing, dogsledding and snowmobiling or visit Churchill’s acclaimed Eskimo Museum.

June offers “Spring’s Wings: Birding in Churchill.” Dedicated to bird-watchers, it features one of Canada’s leading ornithologists. It’s “all birding, all the time,” the centre’s executive director, Michael Goodyear, says. “From sunrise to sunset, they’re out visiting boreal forest, tundra, marsh, salt flats, sand dunes, river estuaries and creek wetlands.”

trip starts in Montréal at an Inuit-owned arts cooperative before heading to Kuujjuaq, the main town of Nunavik, Québec’s Arctic region. From there it’s off to Diana Island by canoe to scout for musk oxen.

Travel to the community of Kangiqsujuaq and mingle with locals, perhaps dropping in on a hockey game or to the school. Check out a sub-Arctic grocery store or prowl for locally made art. This traditional Inuit community is a perfect base for exploring Northern culture.

Launch into Inuit culture with a dogsledding trip led by the region’s top mushers on a traditionalqamoutik sled.

One of the highlights is heading out at low tide to pick mussels with locals – under metres-thick sea ice!

Workshops at ancient archaeological sites will introduce you to cooking bannock as well as traditional sewing and tools and you’ll also meet elders for storytelling sessions.

Then indulge in meals with local ingredients like caribou and Arctic char while listening to traditional throat singing by Inuit women. ■

2. Go on an Inuit Odyssey Immerse yourself in all things Inuit with a week-long “Inuit Odyssey: Under the Ice & Snow,” a cultural adventure selected

by National Geographic Traveler magazine as one of the “2011 Tours of a Lifetime”. The

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Laarni E. Liwanang Treasurer FY 2011-2012 #1200-805 West Broadway Vancouver, B.C. V5Z 1K1 Cell: 604-551-3360 Faz: 604-872-2614 Emal: laarni_liwanag@yahoo.com Website: www.pctcnet.org

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Terms and Conditions: Philippine Canadian Inquirer will provide $10 Free long distance in partner with Times Telecom to all advertisers. This is One time offer of Free Long Distance which will be given $5 per month to selected 28 countries for 2 consecutive months. Necessary information from advertiser is needed for activation of long distance account with Times Telecom. If Terms and Conditions: Philippine Canadian Inquirer will provide $10 Free long distance in partner with Times Telecom to all advertisers. This is One time offer of Free Long Distance which advertiser have existing account with Times Telecom, $5 invoice credit will be given for the next 2 month upon receipt of payment. For new customer, activation will be done upon receipt of will be given $5 per month to selected 28 countries for 2 consecutive months. Necessary information from advertiser is needed for activation of long distance account with Times Telecom. If information from PCI within 24 hours. Unused credit is not cumulative. Times Telecom will bill customer in excess of $5 credit monthly for 2 months plus applicable taxes. Promo offers from advertiser have existing account with Times Telecom, $5 invoice credit will be given for the next 2 month upon receipt of payment. For new customer, activation will be done upon receipt of March 1 to June 30,2012. Check more info at www.canadianinquirer.net. information from PCI within 24 hours. Unused credit is not cumulative. Times Telecom will bill customer in excess of $5 credit monthly for 2 months plus applicable taxes. Promo offers from March 1 to June 30,2012. Check more info at www.canadianinquirer.net.

Canada: Seen and Scenes

TUESDAY MARCH 20, 2012 34

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Event Chairman Sir George R. Poblete, Block Rosary Crusade of Toronto Over-all Chairman Madeleine Ong, Tessie de la Cruz, Angela Field, Lady Bing Marasigan, Sir Josef Widjaya, Lita Leano, Lady Lynn Widjaya and Lady Dolly Poblete, during their Steering Committee meeting in Scarborough for the Block Rosary’s 30th Anniversary Celebration to be held on September 30, 2012.

Event Chairman Sir George R. Poblete, Block Rosary Crusade of Toronto Over-all Chairman Madeleine Ong, Tessie de la Cruz, Angela Field, Lady Bing Marasigan, Sir Jozef Widjaya, Lita Leano, Lady Lynn Widjaya and Lady Dolly Poblete, during their Steering Committee meeting in Scarborough for the Block Rosary’s 30th Anniversary Celebration to be held on September 30, 2012.

Brother George and Sister Dollie meet His Eminence Thomas Cardinal Collins at the Blessed Trinity Church at Bayview Avenue, Toronto, Ontario.

Fr. Fernando Suarez, the Healing Priest, will be speaking at the Pinoy Fiesta and Trade Show sa Toronto on June 9, 2012 organized by the Philippine-Canadian Charitable Foundation and the Philippine Chamber of Commerce-Toronto.

Ed and Salve Dayao celebrating their 32nd wedding anniversary with friends.

Friends of the married couple joining them in the celebration.

Participants to the International Women’s Day celebration in BC.

Filipino magician Mark Beltranini with Danvic and Rai Briones and Boyet Chungtuyco at the Granville Island Public Market.

Assembly for the Victoria Filipino-Canadian Caregivers Association Election.

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Yssa Ventura’s 1st birthday.

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