November 2014 'B' issue

Celeb Scoop page 24

E E FR

Connecting Global News & Views For The Community

UK & Europe Edition

November 2014 / Fortnightly

Volume 5 - Number 22

www.hello-philippines.com

‘HANGGANG MAKA-RECOVER KAMI’

Yolanda survivor sells her body to feed her children

OFWs URGED TO CASH IN ON THEIR EMPTY HOUSES BACK HOME

WHEN working abroad, most Filipinos consider buying houses as a major goal. But what most don’t take into account is the state of these houses, particularly those uninhabited, while they are away.

Turning these major purchases into cash sources is one of the goals of Pinoy WISE, a UAE-based Filipino group that focuses on teaching OFWs to be more financially literate.

In a conference held on November 7 and 8, the group encouraged OFWs to use their empty houses in the Philippines as cheap bed and breakfast accommodations for tourists, both local and foreign.

Philippine Ambassador to the UAE Grace Relucio Princesa told Filipino Times that the two-day conference was created to “maximize the benefits of living abroad” and to counteract the

tendency of Filipinos “not making the best use of the financial opportunities” abroad.

Estrella Dizon-Anonuevo, executive director of Atikha Overseas Workers and Communities Initiative Inc., said in an interview with Gulf News that OFWs could start by advertising these services in their host country.

Dizon-Anonuevo said this service will drive up tourism in the country

while “earning an income for house owners.”

She said it will also benefit fellow OFWs who “are very keen” on visiting popular tourist spots in the Philippines but “cannot afford the high prices of star hotels.”

The conference, themed “Engaging Overseas Filipinos in Migration and Development Initiatives,” was held at Crown Plaza Hotel in Abu Dhabi. ■ Rie Takumi / KBK, GMA News / November 12, 2014 / 4:42 PM

TACLOBAN CITY – Inside a hut whose roof and walls are made from a United Nations tent, “Lovely” (not her real name) nurses her two-week old son as she waits for her work to start.

As evening falls, the 28-year old mother of five gets ready to head to a bar where she is a sex worker, earning on the average P500.

“Hindi ko ginusto itong trabaho ko ngayon pero naniniwala ako na ngayon lang ‘to at hindi ito habangbuhay. Basta makatapos lang ang mga anak ko sa pag-aaral masaya na ako. Gagawin ko ito hanggang maka-recover na kami (I don’t like this work but I believe this is only for now and not for life. As long as my children can finish schooling I’ll be happy. I will do this until we have recovered),” she said.

Just a month before super typhoon Yolanda devastated Tacloban, Lovely’s husband, a pedicab driver, was arrested and jailed for frustrated murder. He remains detained, his trial to still begin this December.

When Yolanda smashed into the city, Lovely, then with four children, did not head for the evacuation center but sought shelter in the barangay hall, which was near the sea.

“Doon kami sa barangay hall, sa itaas. Hinakot ko lahat ng mga anak ko pataas para sila maligtas, buti na lang may humawak sa iba kong anak na kasama sa taas ng building.

‘Pag tumatama ‘yung alon sa amin, pumipikit ang mga anak ko sa takot.

Continue to page 6

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BUSINESS & FINANCE

www.hello-philippines.com

November 2014 / Fortnightly – No. 22 • UK & Europe Edition

BOC sues rice trader, Customs brokers for ‘illegal’ rice importation SMUGGLING-RELATED charges were filed against the owner of Medaglia De Oro Trading and licensed Customs brokers for allegedly importing rice without the necessary permits from the National FoodAuthority (NFA).

In an emailed statement Thursday, the Bureau of Customs (BOC) said it filed complaints against Emmanuel Santos, owner and proprietor of Medaglia De Oro, and customs brokers Denise Kathryn Rosaroso, Raquel Sildora Cabasag, Emilio Chio, Myrene Noynay Sollano, Gemma Garcia, Melvin Isagan, John Kevin Cisneros, Eduardo Borje III, and Kenneth Quial.

A separate complaint against Santos and Customs brokers Rosemarie Sangalang Arciaga and Baltazar Ramirez will be filed on Friday.

The bureau said Medaglia De Oro imported more than 16,039 metric tons of rice from Thailand and Singapore in July and August last year through the ports of Manila, Cebu, Davao and Misamis Oriental.

Dutiable value of the imported rice is more than P205 million while market value is more than P641 million, according to BOC. Medaglia De Oro has claimed private

importers can import rice without securing a permit as the quantitative restrictions on rice imports under the World Trade Organization (WTO) expired in 2012, the bureau said.

However, BOC argued that the law states “only NFA can import rice, mandating public companies... to secure from NFA the import permit.”

NFA regulates rice imports through quotas to prevent excessive and unquantifiable amounts of rice “to ensure fair competition and viability of the local rice industry,” it added.

“Any sudden surges in imported rice would have catastrophic consequences on millions of farmers and our agriculture industry. It is for these reasons why the Philippine government has been requesting for special treatment of rice imports under the WTO for the past several years,” said Customs Commissioner John P. Sevilla.

The Agriculture Department, according to BOC, reported the Philippines has achieved 96 percent rice sufficiency or equivalent to 18.44 million metric tons in 2013. ■ Kathryn

Mae P. Tubadeza / VS, GMA News / November 13, 2014 / 12:58 PM

Photo by Bernard Testa

Philippine benchmark index returns above 7,200 MANILA – Philippine share prices posted modest gains to lift the benchmark index above 7,200 anew in the absence of fresh catalysts.

At the Philippine Stock Exchange, the benchmark index rose 18.71 points, or 0.26 percent, to close at 7,217.34. The PSE index added 0.16 percent for the week.

Sub-indices were mixed with the financials, mining & oil and services counters finishing in the green, while the industrial, holding firms and property sectors ended in negative territory.

Market breadth was negative as decliners beat advancers, 90 to 86, while 37 issues were unchanged. Value turnover slid to P6.65 billion from

yesterday’s P7 billion, as 2.44 billion shares changed hands.

The most actively traded stocks were BDO, Alliance Global, PLDT, GT Capital and Robinsons Retail. The biggest gainers were Federal Resources, IRC Properties and IRipple, while the top losers were Jackstones, Prime Media and Manila Mining.

Overnight, the Dow Jones Industrial Average moved between gains and losses, but closed the session at a fresh record high, the 25th this year. The blue-chip index added 40.59 points, or 0.2 percent, to 17,654.79. ■ Krista Angela

Eastern Visayas economy on the mend; business up, soft loans released MANILA – A year after super typhoon Yolanda left Eastern Visayas in ruins, the green shoots of recovery are now gradually sprouting for the region’s economy.

In Tacloban City, the economic nerve center of the region, which is largely fueled by the trade and services sector, businesses are now up to half the number before the powerful storm hit.

“A little bit more than half of what we used to have,” Mayor Alfred Romualdez said in an interview during the first anniversary of Yolanda. “There were about 15,000 to 17,000 businesses before and we are more or less half of that.”

The largest company to reopen in the region is Freight Process Outsourcing Services, Inc., a logisticsbased BPO located in Palo, Leyte. It now has 1,058 employees and is still hiring.

“The company has shown that in less than a year, they could already

get back to their previous operation,” Cynthia Nierras, Region 8 director of the Department of Trade and Industry, told InterAksyon.com.

Nierras said the company was able to bounce back with the support of its UK partners.

There are now two major malls in the city—Robinsons and Gaisano Central.

Gaisano Capital is still under repair while SM is set to open a mall before the year ends.

In addition, six mid-sized department stores have also reopened.

Mercury Drug, which had six branches in the city, has reopened three, with the other branches still being repaired.

A number of restaurants have also opened in the city, mostly on Gomez and Burgos streets, largely servicing the influx of foreign aid workers in the city.

Some businesses, however, such as the APAC Costumer Service Inc., a business process outsourcing (BPO)

M. Montealegre / InterAksyon.com / November 14, 2014 / 5:23 PM

company that used to employ about 1,800 workers, have opted not to reopen.

For the entire Eastern Visayas region as a whole, pockets of economic growth are also being seen.

Small Business Corp., the financing arm of the Department of Trade and Industry, has already approved 249 borrowers with total loans amounting to P292 million. Of the total amount, half has already been released according to Nierras.

The soft loans carry 6% interest a year, a one-year grace period, simplified requirements and processing, with no collateral for loans under P2 million.

The soft loans were released through a special window for micro, small, and medium enterprises affected by Yolanda.

Nierras said the largest group of borrowers is the traders—44 of them —followed by poultry raisers, retailers, food processors, and transport.

Rural micro-enterprises are assisted through non-cash programs, Nierras said.

“Since they are not qualified for loans, our program is assistance.

We distribute starter kits, not cash.

But we put them first in a training for entrepreneurship where we also partner with INGOs (international NGOs),” she explained. ■ Jose Bimbo F. Santos with a report from Lottie Salarda / InterAksyon.

A meat stall at the Tacloban market. Photo by Bernard Testa, ©InterAksyon.com.

com / November 12, 2014 / 10:10 AM

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BUSINESS & FINANCE

www.hello-philippines.com

November 2014 / Fortnightly – No. 22 • UK & Europe Edition

Billionaire George Ty’s power generation company in talks for geothermal venture MANILA – The power generation arm of George Ty-led GT Capital Holdings Inc is looking to beef up its renewable energy portfolio with a possible venture into geothermal energy.

GT Capital president Maria Carmelo Luza Bautista said Global Business Power Corp (GBPC) was approached for a possible geothermal energy project, adding that discussions are at the very early stages.

“We don’t know anything about geothermal but with the right partners pwedeng ma-explore,” Bautista said, without elaborating.

Roxas Holdings Inc (RHI) earlier announced a partnership with GBPC

GBPC’s Panay power plant

for a 40-megawatt biomass power plant beside the former’s sugar mill in La Carlota, Negros Occidental. The facility will be GBPC’s first renewable project.

RHI and GBPC have a common shareholder in First Pacific Co Ltd, with the Hong Kong-based conglomerate and affiliate Meralco holding shares in the listed sugar producer and Ty-led power plant operator, respectively.

“It’s a good complement. You’re shifting away from coal-fired plants.

It’s renewable. It has priority of dispatch to the grid. It has its own feed-in tariff. You don’t normally have to find an off-taker because you sell to the grid and it’s good to have green type of energy in your portfolio,” Bautista said.

Aside from exploring renewable energy projects, GBPC is also looking

at entering the Luzon and Mindanao markets.

GBPC’s power generation portfolio comprises primarily of diesel and coal plants in the Visayas with a generating capacity of 627 MW, excluding the 82-megawatt coal-fired power plant in Toledo City that will be completed in January.

Aside from GBPC, GT Capital has interests in Metropolitan Bank & Trust Co, Toyota Motor Philippines Corp, Federal Land Inc, Philippine AXA Life Insurance Corp, Charter Ping An Insurance Corp, Toyota Manila Bay Corp and Toyota Cubao Inc. InterAksyon.com is the online news portal of TV5, which like Meralco is chaired by First Pacific managing director Manuel V. Pangilinan. ■ Krista

Angela M. Montealegre / InterAksyon.com / November 14, 2014 / 8:00 AM

PAL sets three-year timetable for entry of new investor MANILA The new management of Philippine Airlines (PAL) is reviewing its business strategy in preparation for the entry of a foreign strategic investor in three years.

“What we are doing now is really the start of the process. The airline’s short-term, medium-term and long-term plans are part of the process of getting an investor. If you need an investor they will look at these plans,” Jaime Bautista, PAL president said in a briefing today.

Bautista did not provide details on the airline’s plans, only to say that the company will add new domestic and long haul flights.

“I think personally, I would like to have a strategic investor in the next three years. There are names that we are looking at, but we are not at liberty,” Bautista said, adding that the flag carrier may sell up to 40 percent to the new investor.

“We have no preference for what is the location of the operator, but I would prefer an airline with more

destinations so we can expand our presence in other destinations,” he said.

Last month, PAL entered into a partnership with Japan’s All Nippon Airways. The Philippine carrier also has a codeshare agreement with Etihad Airways.

Also under review are the pending orders for additional aircraft made by the previous management. Before the Lucio Tan Group regained management control of PAL, the San Miguel Corpled management ordered 64 airplanes from Airbus with a list price of $7 billion. These include 44 single-aisle A321s and 20 wide body A330s.

The flag carrier is scheduled to take delivery of 10 more jets next year, and another 10 in 2016. The Centre AsiaPacific Aviation (CAPA) had said the Airbus orders put PAL in a difficult position.

Promo fare for resumption of New York flights The flag carrier today announced it would mount flights to New York starting March 15 next year, offering an introductory fare of $610.

The round trip, budget economy ticket, exclusive of taxes and surcharges, may be bought starting November 15, for travel from March 15 onwards.

“We are prioritizing our US network expansion, after the lifting of the Category 2 rating in answer to the clamor of the huge Filipino community in the US East Coast,” Bautista said.

PAL first flew to New York on September 21, 1996, but this lasted for only a year after the Philippines was placed under Category 2 restriction.

“The potential market is about 500,000 Filipinos, 250,000 in New York, 9,000 in East Virginia, 70,000 Washington DC, 31,000 Philadelphia. If we capture 30 percent of that potential market, it would be a successful route,” Bautista said.

The four-times-a-week service, which will fly out of Manila and will make a one-time stop in Vancouver, will operate at the Terminal 1 of New York’s JFK International Airport.

Bautista said the Manila-New York services will be the carrier’s longest

route with approximately 16.5 hours of total flying time.

“We will be using A340 via Vancouver. Last year we took delivery of four A340s and we will receive two more this year,” he said.

“We will take advantage the Category 1 rating. There are many Filipinos that we can fly from the US to the Philippines. We are looking at more frequency to Los Angeles and San Francisco. We will also increase our presence in Honolulu and Guam,” he added.

PAL operates a total of 26 weekly flights to the US, with frequencies to Los Angeles, San Francisco, Honolulu and Guam.

PAL Holdings Inc reported a profit of P1.49 billion in the April to June period, reversing the P1.08 billion loss in the same three months of last year. Secondquarter revenue shot up by 47.4 percent to P27.30 billion this year from P18.52 billion last year. Darwin G. Amojelar / InterAksyon.com / November 14, 2014 / 5:45 PM

PAL president Jaime Bautista during November 14, 2014 briefing. Photo by Darwin Amojelar.

Energy department unveils 4-pronged program to meet electricity shortfall next summer MANILA - Energy Secretary Carlos Jericho L. Petilla has unveiled contingency measures amid legislators’ reluctance to grant emergency powers to the Executive so it can deal with a projected shortfall in electricity next summer.

In a briefing today, Petilla said the Department of Energy (DOE) has adopted a four-pronged approach to improve supply.

The first is to “continue with the Interruptible Load Program (ILP)”, which provides compensation to

industries or establishments with their own generator sets and willing to be cut off from the grid during tight supply.

To increase the number of program participants, DOE is looking at supply from customers under retail electricity supply (RES) agreements outside Manila Electric Co’s (Meralco) franchise area.

To date, only heavy users from the Meralco franchise area have taken part in the ILP. RES customers pertain to establishments that source their electricity requirements directly from

power generators or suppliers other than Meralco and similarly franchise holders.

The power supply that would be freed up from participating RES groups would be coursed through the grid and “re-nominated” to meet the demand of utilities like Meralco.

The second measure is to promote energy savings through demand-side management. “The problem with energy savings is you don’t know what you will get,” Petilla said.

The third measure is to pursue

emergency powers not for the lease or purchase of gensets, but for expediting projects in the pipeline, particularly securing right-of-way or local government permits.

The fourth measure would involve reducing forced outages of power plants. These are the unplanned shutdown of power facilities due to technical breakdowns.

“We want plant owners to be conscious of not having plant outages.

If we can reduce the forced outages way below the 2014 [occurrences] ang laking

tulong niyan because we assumed forced outages for 2015,” Petilla said.

He said these measures are all “non-firm” as these would depend on the participation and concurrence of qualified RES, regulators, lawmakers, consumers, and industry stakeholders.

“All these four, we will try,” he added.

The department is looking at a supply deficiency of about 700 megawatts by March next year on account of delays in the construction of new plants and growing demand. ■ Euan Paulo C. Añonuevo / InterAksyon.com / November 11, 2014 5:29 PM

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NEWS

www.hello-philippines.com

November 2014 / Fortnightly – No. 22 • UK & Europe Edition

Continuation from page 1

Yolanda survivor sells her body to feed her children Nakikita nila ang ibang tao na nahuhulog at namamatay. Sa kabila ng lahat masaya ako at buhay ang mga anak ko.

Sa dinami-dami ng namatay, hindi ko maisip na mabubuhay ang mga maliliit na ito (We were at the barangay hall, on the second floor. I hauled my children up there to keep them safe, luckily someone held on to my other children.

When the waves struck us, my children would shut their eyes in fear. They could see people falling and dying. Despite everything, I am happy they are alive.

With so many dying, I could not imagine these little ones surviving),” Lovely told interAskyon.com.

“Nang makita kong buhay ang mga anak ko, nasabi ko sa sarili ko na binigyan ako ng Diyos (ng pagkakataon) na gawin ang lahat para buhayin ang mga anak ko (When I saw my children alive, I told myself God had given me the opportunity to do everything to raise them),” she said.

After the storm had passed, her inlaws helped her build the shelter where she and her, at the time, four children— three of them in elementary school and a two-year old daughter—stayed.

But Tacloban was in ruins, her husband in jail, there was no work to be found for a 28-year old mother of four who had quit school after her second year in high school, and crucially, she was getting no help for herself and her

Lovely nurses her 2-week old infant in front of a statue of the Sto. Nino, the Child Jesus, in her makeshift home in Tacloban. Photo by Lottie Salarda,©InterAksyon.com.

children. They were literally starving.

“Mahirap. Ang pinakamasakit sa akin na makita ang mga anak ko na walang kinakain. Hanggang maisip kong pumasok sa bar diyan sa downtown mga Pebrero nu’n (It’s hard. But it was most painful for me to see my children with nothing to eat. Until I thought of working at a bar downtown in February),” Lovely said.

Ironically, it was the same month when, after a conjugal visit in jail, she found out she was again with child.

Talking to InterAksyon.com, she made no attempt to prettify her decision, although she wept as she explained: “Madali ang pera kasi pagka-kinabukasan pera na agad, meron nang pagkain at pamasahe sa school

ang mga anak ko. Ito na lang ang pinili kong trabaho para sa mga anak ko, kasi wala akong choice eh (The money is easy because in the morning there is money for the food and fare to school of my children. I chose this job for my children, because I had no choice).”

Lovely said her husband knows of her work but there is nothing he can do.

She kept at her work even as her pregnancy progressed.

And headed back to work as soon as she could after giving birth.

“Minsan napapagod na din ako, pero minsan pag walang customer natutulog ako tapos ginigising ako ng amo namin pag meron nang costumer. Buti nga mabait ang

amo ko ngayon kasi naiintindihan niyang kakapanganak ko pa lang (Sometimes I grow really tired, sometimes when there is no customer I sleep until my boss wakes me up when there is a customer.

Luckily my boss is good and understands that I have just given birth),” Lovely said.

The activist women’s group Gabriela says the spike on prostitution and sex trafficking in Eastern Visayas in Yolanda’s wake is an indictment of the government’s failure to serve the needs of survivors, notwithstanding the billions of dollars that poured in from local and international donors.

“Pahirapan pa rin ang buhay ng mga survivor … lalo na ang mga kababaihan kaya hindi nakasosorpresa kung mayroon nang luminya sa pagbebenta ng sariling katawan (Life remains hard for the survivors … especially women, thus it is not surprising if there are those who sell their bodies),” Gabriela secretary general Joms Salvador said in an interview.

Gabriela has embarked on a Women’s Solidarity Mission to investigate the real situation of Yolanda survivors, particularly women and children.

“Alarming itong sitwasyon na dapat talagang ma-address ng gobyerno (This is a really alarming situation that the government should address),” Gabriela party-list Representative Luz Ilagan said.

■ Lottie Salarda / InterAksyon.com / November 12,

2014 / 3:08 PM

AFP: Peacekeeper with fever has malaria MANILA - The Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) clarified on Friday that the peacekeeper who recently returned from Liberia but remains under quarantine and diagnosed with fever had long been experiencing malaria seizures, contrary to speculations that he might be afflicted with Ebola virus.

“Our peacekeeper had fever due to malaria,” Lt. Col. Harold Cabunoc, chief of the military’s Public Affairs Office (PAO), said.

Cabunoc declined to elaborate on the details because, he explained, Defense Secretary Voltaire Gazmin issued a directive to the effect that only the Department of Health (DOH) is authorized to give updates on medical matters concerning the peacekeepers.

“We will follow the advise of DOH officials regarding our peacekeeper who has a fever. This should not cause panic because the AFP and DOH are on top of the situation,” Cabunoc said.

The 133 peacekeepers—108 soldiers and 25 policemen—are currently being subjected to a 21day quarantine on Caballo Island off Manila Bay after their arrival Wednesday from Monrovia, Liberia, having completed a nine-month United Nations-sanctioned peacekeeping mission. ■ Jaime Sinapit / InterAksyon.com / November 14, 2014 / 2:05 PM

November 2014 / Fortnightly – No. 22 • UK & Europe Edition

IMMIGRATION / OFNEWS

www.hello-philippines.com

7

‘Everyday activities’ to keep peacekeepers busy on Caballo Island PINOY peacekeepers arrive; brought to Caballo Island for quarantine. Filipino UN peacekeepers disembark from a chartered flight from Liberia at Villamor Air Base in Pasay City on Wednesday, November 12. The 133 peacekeepers returning from Ebola-hit West Africa were whisked to an isolated island for a 21day quarantine as part of measures to protect the Philippines from the deadly virus.

They may be confined on an island for three weeks, but their days will never be boring.

In an interview with “Unang Balita” on Thursday, Armed Forces spokesman Lt. Col. Harold Cabunoc said “everyday

activities” will keep the 133 Filipino peacekeepers from Ebola-stricken Liberia preoccupied during their stay on Caballo Island.

Cabunoc said Task Force Liberia, which was organized for the peacekeepers’ homecoming, has laid out daily activities for them from 6 a.m. to 6 p.m., among them a sportsfest where winners will be awarded based on orders from AFP chief Gen. Gregorio Pio Catapang Jr. Most of the activities will be done by groups, Cabunoc said.

At a press conference on Monday, Air Force spokesman Lt. Col. Enrico Canaya said one of the activities involved caring for the environment.

“We’ve prepared everything for those 21 days. We lined up some activities, more on the care of the environment there,” he said.

In a separate interview on the sidelines of the press conference, Canaya said the peacekeepers will not be doing formal military exercises during their stay.

“They will not work. We want to make them feel like they’re almost home,” he said.

The AFP said the peacekeepers will have the opportunity to talk to

their families every day during their quarantine since telecommunication services have been set up for them.

They will also have free WiFi connection.

The peacekeepers arrived at the Villamor Air Base in Pasay City on Wednesday afternoon and were brought straight to the island where they will stay until December 3.

The quarantine is part of government protocols against the possible entry of Ebola virus, which has so far killed over 4,000 in West

Africa. Prior to their departure from Liberia, the peacekeepers had been tested negative for the virus. They were also cleared in a thermal scanning procedure after their arrival in the Philippines.

The peacekeepers will undergo a routine medical test after their quarantine.

A heroes’ welcome awaits the peacekeepers, which will be held at the AFP General Headquarters after the quarantine period. ■ Rose-An Jessica Dioquino

/ KBK, GMA News / November 13, 2014 / 12:18 PM

DBM adds P50M for repatriation efforts in Middle East THE Department of Budget

and Management has allocated an additional P50 million for the repatriation of Filipinos in troubled countries in the Middle East, Budget Secretary Florencio Abad said on Tuesday.

These funds will add to the P100million emergency fund received by the DFA in August to repatriate Filipinos from Libya.

“Our countrymen face uncertainty and danger due to the untenable security situation in these Middle East countries. As such, the National Government (will) shoulder all costs of their repatriation, whether by land, sea, or

air,” said Budget Secretary Butch Abad in a statement.

Funds amounting to P50-million and P800-million will also be given by the Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) and the Overseas Workers Welfare Administration

(OWWA) respectively to augment repatriation efforts.

Both repatriation funds will supplement the DFA’s Assistance-To Nationals fund and were sourced from the 2013 contingency fund. ■ Rie Takumi /

NB, GMA News / November 11, 2014 / 4:52 PM

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IMMIGRATION / OFNEWS

www.hello-philippines.com

November 2014 / Fortnightly – No. 22 • UK & Europe Edition

Fil-Am bets win big in Nov. 4 polls FILIPINO-AMERICANS stood front and center in the November 4 elections as candidates, strategists, organizers and voters.

Incumbents and aspirants campaigned throughout the nation, reinforcing the community’s growing influence. Even the Philippine ambassador to Washington D.C. got into the swing of things, urging FilAms to make their presence felt, get heard by voting.

While the turnout typified low numbers in non-presidential elections, many Fil-Ams grabbed top spots on winners’ row from coast to coast. A couple of incumbents lost their seats, however.

US House of Representatives.

United States Representative Robert Cortez Scott has won yet again for his 12th term in Congress representing the third district of Virginia.

Scott, the highest ranking official of Filipino descent on the ballot in this week’s midterm elections, ran unopposed. With all 216 precincts reporting, Scott posted 138,627 votes for 94.1 percent.

First elected to the U.S. Congress in 1992, Scott began his political ascent in 1978 with the Virginia House of Delegates and then the Virginia Senate.

The Democrat sits on the Committees on Education and the Workforce and the Judiciary.

Known as supporter of equity for Filipino World War II veterans, “Bobby” Scott went in private practice before serving with the U.S. Army Reserve.

He strongly favors legally requiring women and minority hires, pathway to legalize undocumented immigrants, women’s right to choose, same-sex marriage and expanded health care reform. He strongly opposes privatized social security, expanded military and absolute right to gun ownership.

California State Assembly. Another candidate who has united his fellow FilAms, Assembly member Rob Bonta sealed the landmark victory he notched two years ago when he became the first Filipino elected to the California State Legislature. With all precincts reported, Democrat Bonta collected 52,784 votes to represent for District 18.

The former Deputy City Attorney in San Francisco routed his Republican opponent David Erlich with 85 percent of the vote, the most for all state assembly bets in California and one of only two to win by over 80 percent.

“In this job, elections are a public servant’s job evaluation,” Bonta told Philippine News.

“I am proud to have stood before the voters with a strong track record of key legislative victories, creating important change for the people of Oakland, Alameda, and San Leandro.

I am humbled and honored that the voters of the 18th Assembly District

voted overwhelmingly to send me back to Sacramento for another two years.

Together, we will continue rebuilding California.”

Bonta chaired the Public Employees, Retirement and Social Security committee and sat on banking and finance, elections and redistricting, health, and transportation committees in the recent session of the Assembly.

The Philippine-born lawmaker is married to MiaLisa, head of a literacy nonprofit based in Oakland. They have three children.

Meanwhile systems engineer and Church of Latter-Day Saints bishop Rene Pineda lost his impressive challenge to the sitting representative for Assembly District 19. The GOP candidate took 17,972 votes in deepblue west San Francisco and parts of Daly City.

Incumbent Robert Bernardo also lost his seat on the San Mateo County Harbor District board despite raking in 34,232 votes in the race for two fouryear posts. He was the second openly gay FilAm elected official.

Mayors. In Yolo County beyond the San Francisco Bay Area, West Sacramento Mayor Christopher Cabaldon ran unopposed two years ago. Despite the late entry of a challenger, Cabaldon kept his seat by getting 83.8 percent or 5,976 votes with all precincts reported.

First elected mayor in 1998, Democrat Cabaldon is the town’s longest-serving chief. The chair of the United States Conference of Mayors entered politics as an advocate for education. This will be his sixth twoyear term.

Incumbent Jose Esteves replicated his triumph about a decade ago when he was first re-elected as mayor of Milpitas, south of San Francisco Bay. Termed out in 2008, the Republican reclaimed his post as town chief four years ago to resume his program of “fiscal responsibility, and maximizing City services.”

Majority of the 70,000 residents agreed and gave him a brand new term. Esteves routed two candidates by taking 4,444 votes in final count.

Suisun City, California, voters showed love to Pete Sanchez, whom they first elevated as mayor in 2006.

Unchallenged, Sanchez collected 3,031 at the end.

City councils.

The FilAm community may have expanded its empowerment movement with two more of their own looking victorious in city council contests.

Milpitas planning commissioner and city council hopeful Garry Barbadillo’s 2,111 votes took second best in a crowded field eight for two seats. Also placing second with all votes counted for a win was Gabriel Quinto in El Cerrito, who got 2,244 or 32 percent.

Voters in Hercules, Contra Costa County, east of San Francisco, approved of current Mayor Myrna de Vera’s leadership and gave her another four years. De Vera led a field of three with 1,901votes at final tally.

De Vera is an architecture graduate from the University of the Philippines who entered politics in 2005 as an appointed planning commissioner, retained through 2009 when she was chosen chair.

The U.S. town with the highest concentration of Filipinos retained its two Council members of Filipino heritage, both Democrats. Ray Buenaventura led a field of four with 6,293 and Mike Guingona took second at 5,819 to resume serving Daly City, the biggest municipality in San Mateo County.

“I am grateful for the people’s support,” Buenaventura told PNews.

“Campaigning is a humbling experience to go through. Personally, there were times throughout the campaign that I had some doubt. I wondered if I had done enough to gain the people’s trust and confidence for another term.

Although I wasn’t ’t interested in taking credit or grandstanding, I wondered if I had said enough to let the people know what I’ve done during my term. In the end, I believe it wasn’t the words on the campaign literature, but the actions I’ve taken as a Councilmember. I go back to the reason why I ran for office: My belief in an obligation beyond myself, an obligation to make a difference in people’s lives.”

In Union City, Alameda County, Pat Gacoscos, known as a champion for immigrants for her compassionate attention to their issues, got 4,236 votes and placed close second in a field of three to continue governing.

Executive assistant Joanne del Rosario won a third term for the Colma City Council, at press time leading with 87 a field of four that included her predecessor and husband-and-wife candidates.

“I am thrilled and deeply humbled to have been given the opportunity to serve the residents of Colma for a third term,” Del Rosario told PNews.

“I thank the voters for giving me the opportunity to continue to work on the initiatives that this council has started, and I could not be prouder to work with such a fine group of individuals for another 4 years. These are exciting times for our town and I look forward with much enthusiasm and optimism as we work on the remodel of City Hall and some economic development projects.”

Alameda City Council member Stewart Chen lost his seat on the Alameda City Council despite getting 5,778 votes. Born and raised in the Philippines, Dr. Chen is concurrent director of Alameda County Healthy Homes Department and alternate

Commissioner with the Alameda County Transportation Commission.

Meanwhile businesswoman Christy Lim had hoped to become the first FilAm elected in Hillsborough and promote new policies but residents preferred the way the town has been managed. Lim got 957, placing third of three candidates for two seats.

Outside the San Francisco Bay Area, voters crushed Chris Mateo’s wish to return to service in Lathrop in San Joaquin County, where he was once vice mayor. Mateo placed sixth in a field of seven running for city council.

School boards. Veteran advocate for public schools and families, Hydra Mendoza McDonnell, the first Filipina elected in the city and county of San Francisco, defended her seat on the San Francisco Unified School District along with two other incumbents. She placed third with a whopping 37,218 votes.

Silicon Valley community luminary Thelma Boac kept her seat on San Jose’s Berryessa Union Elementary School District board of trustees by getting 5,055 for second place at press time. The 37-year veteran teacher and administrator was appointed last year after she had retired.

Retirement gave the education advocate more time to embark on her passion projects. She supervised student teachers at San Jose State and National Hispanic University in preparation for earning their state teaching credentials. She is a leadership professional coach or new principals and administrators with the Santa Clara County Office of Education.

Berryessa USD aims to “ensure a safe learning environment, enhance proficiency in Communication, Collaboration, Critical Thinking and Creativity, and enhance technology,” according to its site. The board this year aimed to “provide all students the skills to become lifelong learners and successful 21st century global citizens.”

Noelani Sallings, who has served actively on her children’s PTAs and nonprofit boards, succeeded in her quest for a seat on the Santa Clara Unified School Board of trustees, District 2, with 5,789 votes or second place in a field of six.

Prominent Vallejo, California, leader Tony Ubalde staved off challengers to his seat on the Vallejo Unified School Board with 6,096, topping a field of eight including two other FilAms seeking one vacancy. Student Ryan Cayangyang conducted a healthy campaign and got 4,807 while dentist Brisbane Pucan, gained endorsements from non-Filipino leaders and took 4316, but both will have to try again.

“The campaign was tough because of the negativity and divisiveness that I have not experienced before, but we prevailed because we were doing the

Virginia Rep. Bobby Cortez Scott gains a 12th term in U.S. Congress. He is highest ranking elected FilAm. ©Philippine News.

right thing for our students here at the Vallejo School District,” Ubalde told PNews. “My victory, as the top vote getter, is a mandate for us to continue the positive things we are doing and accomplishing. Secondly, I have the best campaign team that you could ever imagine under the leadership of Norma Placido, the president of the Filipino Community and Dr. Rozzana Verder-Aliga, City Council member of the City of Vallejo.”

In Union City, Rosalinda Canlas will continue to represent students, teachers, staff, parents and community now that she has been re-elected to the New Haven Unified School District Board. She topped the race with 3,934 votes.

Jefferson Union High School District Board in Daly City, Colma and Brisbane boasts of incumbents Katherine Zarate Dulany and Rosie Tejada, who endorsed each other while running in tandem with other candidates.

Tejada, a litigation law secretary appointed in the spring, notched her first election win with 8,274, topping the field of five for three seats. Zarate Dulany, an employment relations lawyer in private practice, placed third at 7,795 for another term.

Unopposed incumbent of Bayshore Elementary School District board Joy Gutierrez-Pilare will remain trustee on the board governing schools in Daly City and part of neighboring Brisbane.

Meanwhile Carlos Taylor, also a FilAm lost his bid for the JUHSD board of trustees but received a strong 4,063 votes for last place.

Park & rec district. Mae Cendana Torlakson, the first known Filipina elected in Contra Costa County in Northern California, reinforced her leadership by garnering the most votes among five for three seats on the Ambrose Recreation & Park District board. She took 913 for a third term.

Cendana Torlakson, who is married to also victorious State Scools Superintendent Tom Torlakson, is chair of the board. By day, she works at the University of California Office of the President. ■ Cherie M. Querol Moreno / Philippine News / November 11, 2014 / 1:34 PM

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‘21 days before I can hug him’: Kin barred from welcoming arriving peacekeepers “TITIISIN ko na lang po.

Maghahantay na lang po ako ng 21 days para yakapin siya.”

This was the tearful statement of the daughter of one of the Filipino peacekeepers who will arrive home on Wednesday from Ebola-hit Liberia.

The military has barred families of the 133 peacekeepers from meeting them face to face upon their arrival as part of the government’s protocol on Filipinos arriving from countries with confirmed Ebola outbreak.

The peacekeepers, most of them soldiers, will be quarantined for three weeks in Caballo Island, a Philippine Navy installation at the mouth of Manila Bay, to ensure that the country remains free of the dreaded virus that has killed over 4,000 in West Africa.

In a report on “24 Oras” Tuesday night, the wife of one of the peacekeepers said they would comply with the order although with a heavy heart.

“Iba pa rin kasi yung makita mo

siyang bababa ng eroplano, yung feel mo kung papaano mo talaga na-miss yung isang tao,” she said.

Instead of face-to-face meeting at the airport, the relatives of the peacekeepers could watch the arrival through a livestream at a museum inside the Villamor Air Base in Pasay City, according to Armed Forces public affairs office chief Lt. Col. Harold Cabunoc.

The museum is about a kilometer away from the Base Operations Center

of the Villamor Air Base.

“They will not be allowed [to welcome the peacekeepers],” Cabunoc said of the relatives. “But they will be invited at the museum to watch the live coverage that would be aired by the Philippine Air Force and the media.”

“This is to maximize the safety of everybody, so that no one will be blamed. It’s an additional protocol suggested by our health practitioners,” he added.

From Villamor Air Base, the troops

will board trucks that will take them to Sangley Point in Cavite, where they will board a Navy ship to Caballo Island.

The peacekeepers are considered “no risk” as they have passed an Ebola Screening Test conducted by United Nations medical staff last Saturday prior to their departure from Liberia.

They are scheduled to arrive at 5:45 p.m. aboard a UTair Aviation flight from Monrovia, Liberia. ■ Rie Takumi / KBK,

GMA News / November 11, 2014 / 8:21 PM

UAE court sentences man to 6 months for molesting Pinay

A United Arab Emirates court has sentenced an Asian man to six months in jail after it found him

guilty of molesting a Filipina, a UAE news site reported Wednesday.

The Filipina’s Emirati sponsor

had told police that the man, 22, molested the Filipina in a building elevator several times, Khaleej Times reported.

In its decision Tuesday, the Fujairah Criminal Court of First Instance found the accused guilty of molesting the Filipina, 28, after promising to marry her, the report said.

While the defendant denied the charges, witnesses saw him entering the elevator with the Filipina many times, the report added. ■ Joel Locsin / RSJ / GMA News /

November 12, 2014 / 10:29 AM

Pinoy UN peacekeepers to be quarantined on island. Officers of the PNP-AFP Contingent to Liberia led by Sr. Supt. Cesar Hawthorne Binag (center, seated) pose with their medals after they were awarded by the UN Peacekeeping Mission officials on November 5, 2014 prior to their departure from Liberia. The Pinoy peacekeepers are scheduled to arrive at Villamor Airbase on Tuesday, November 11, before they will be shipped to Caballo Island for a 21-day quarantine period against the Ebola virus. ©GMA News.

DOLE reminds employers: Pay your workers 13th month pay MALAPIT NA ANG PASKO

MANILA – With 42 days to go before Christmas, Labor Secretary Rosalinda Baldoz on Wednesday urged employers in the private sector to pay their workers the 13th month pay, pursuant to the Labor Code of the Philippines and its implementing rules and regulations.

The labor chief stressed that the 13th month pay is a general labor standard that the DOLE does not compromise as to its payment.

Today, the Secretary signed and issued a labor advisory to this effect, explaining that private sector employers are duty-bound under the law to report their compliance with this worker benefit.

“All employers are required to pay their rank-and-file employees the 13th month pay, regardless of the nature of their employment, and irrespective of the methods by which their wages are paid, provided they worked for at least one month during a calendar year,” Baldoz said.

“Good labor-management relations, increased workers’ and enterprises’ productivity and competiveness result from workers being paid what is due them,” she added.

Reminding employers to pay their

workers their 13th month benefit has been one of Baldoz’s staunchest advocacies since she assumed the position as Secretary of Labor and Employment in 2010.

What is the 13th month pay. The 13th month pay is defined to mean one-twelfth (1/12) of the basic salary of an employee within a calendar year.

The basic salary includes all remunerations or earnings paid by an employer to an employee for services rendered, but may not include costof-living allowances (COLA), profitsharing payments, cash equivalents of unused vacation and sick leave credits, overtime pay, premium pay, night shift differential pay, holiday pay, and all allowances and monetary benefits which are not considered, or integrated as part of the regular or basic salary of the employee.

“The 13th month pay must be paid on or before 24 December of every year.

This year, the 24th of December falls on a Wednesday, so employers may pay their workers the 13th month benefit on this day, but I urge them to pay earlier to avoid the rush,” said Baldoz.

She added, however, that employers may pay their employees one-half of their 13th month benefit before the

Labor Secretary Rosalinda Baldoz. Photo courtesy of ©DOLE.

opening of the regular school year (May or June) and the remaining onehalf on or before 24 December. If not paid after this date, the 13th month pay becomes due and demandable.

To enable workers and employers to appreciate better the formula and computation of the 13th month pay, Baldoz issued a sample illustration, as follows: 13th month pay = Total basic salary earned during the year/12 months

Under the Labor Code, every covered employer is required to make a report of compliance with the law to the nearest DOLE regional office not later than 15 January of each year.

Baldoz said employers failing to pay the 13th month benefit are liable to money claim cases that aggrieved employees can file with any DOLE regional office.

“Once the DOLE receives a request

for assistance (RFA) to resolve a non-payment of 13th month benefit, the RFA will be acted upon using the single entry approach (SEnA) mechanism of conciliation-mediation which is a very accessible, fair, nonlitigious, and inexpensive dispute settlement system,” said Baldoz.

For questions, call DOLE Hotline at 527-8000 or the Bureau of Working Conditions at 527-3000 loc. 307-308.

■ InterAksyon.com / November 12, 2014 / 10:08 AM

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November 2014 / Fortnightly – No. 22 • UK & Europe Edition

Fil-Am veterans gear up for Congress hearing on compensation ON Veterans Day, four FilipinoAmerican veterans and their supporters visited Arlington National Cemetery in Arlington County, Virginia, to recall and honor the sacrifices of 400,000 military service members buried there since the Civil War. Filipino World War II veterans Celestino Almeda, 97, and Pontenciano Dee, 87, were joined by their younger comrades, former US Army chaplain Georgette Beltran and retired US Army Maj. Sonny Busa.

The four placed American and Philippine flags and a vase of red poinsettias besides the headstones of three heroes, namely US Navy service man Jose Yulo Lachica, US Air Force Master Sergeant Francisco J. Salveron, and US Army Colonel Edwin Price Ramsey.

Lachica was born in La Carlota in Negros Occidental and later resided in New Jersey and fought in World War I, while Salveron was a Purple Heart recipient who served in WWII as an aide to Gen. Douglas MacArthur and later in the Korean War. Ramsey, meanwhile, led 24,000 Philippine

guerrillas in Central Luzon during WWII. During their visit, Chaplain Beltran led the group, which included family members of the veterans, in prayer at the grave sites of three selected heroes.

Busa recited the popular moving World War I poem “Flanders Field” to honor Lachica.

More than 4 million visitors visit the cemetery annually.

Busa invited interested volunteers to place Christmas Wreaths at the Arlington gravesites on December 13.

More than 60,000 Philippine Commonwealth Army, Philippine Scouts and Filipino guerrillas in addition to 14,000 American G.I.s fought and died in the Philippines in WWII. A million Filipino civilians died to war related causes, the US State Department estimated.

Meanwhile, Filipino-American veteran leaders and supporters are preparing to attend the November 20 hearing of the US House of Representatives’ veterans affairs subcommittee on the Filipino

Veterans Equity Compensation Fund’s adequacy of verification process by the Department of Veterans Affairs, according to Eric Lachica of the American Coalition for Filipino Veterans, Inc. The hearing will be held at 10 a.m. at Cannon House Building room 340.

More than 4,554 Filipino WWII veterans or their surviving spouses have appealed the denial of their official recognition for the one-time payment of $15,000 to a US citizen veteran (or $9,000 for Filipino citizen) by the VA Department that refuses to accept the validity of their US Army and PH Commonwealth USAFFE service discharge documents.

The American Coalition for Filipino Veterans, a national membership organization in Arlington VA, and other advocacy groups will be submitting written statements to the committee, urging the new VA Secretary Robert MacDonald to live up to 2009 Equity Compensation Law’s directive to make prompt payments to deserving surviving veterans. ■ KBK, GMA News /

November 14, 2014 / 5:25 PM

Teachers protest junking of case vs. ‘well-connected’ trafficker

A group of teachers, among them trafficking victims in the United States, on Wednesday protested the Department of Justice’s (DOJ) dismissal of a complaint filed against alleged trafficker Isidro Rodriguez.

The Grupo ng mga Gurong Umuusig kay Rodriguez or GURO, a group of about 300 teachers based in the Philippines and the US, participated in the “dance protest” tagged as “One Billion Rising,” led

by OBR global director and former actress Monique Wilson.

The group said trafficked teachers also held a simultaneous gathering and activity to launch the OBR program in the US. “We are fully aware of Rodriguez’s very broad clout in different government agencies, even possibly in the US and the Philippine immigration.

He could not have operated for years without them,” said GURO spokesman Loel Naparanto, expressing dismay over the junking of the complaint.

A report on The FilAm Metro DC said Rodriguez is facing multiple cases of illegal recruitment, alien smuggling, visa fraud and human trafficking filed against him in the Philippines and the US. He was put behind bars briefly but was later released from detention.

According to GURO, some of their members were those brought to the US by Rodriguez with a promise of employment only to find out that there

were no jobs waiting for them there.

Human trafficking cases were eventually filed against Rodriguez, both in the US and the Philippines.

The DOJ, however, dismissed the first batch of trafficking complaints for lack of probable cause.

The teachers group filed a motion for reconsideration last Monday, as well as a motion for urgent resolution of at least 20 other cases of large-scale and syndicated illegal recruitment and estafa cases against Rodriguez and his other co-respondents.

Rodriguez allegedly duped hundreds of teachers by offering them

fictitious jobs in the US through his agency, Renaissance Staffing Support Center, formerly Great Provider Service Expertors, which is licensed by the Philippine Overseas Employment Administration.

Rodriguez allegedly collected an average of P500,000 from each victim. His agency would allegedly traffick victims in batches, usually by 10 to 15 teachers per batch.

According to Migrante International, at least 20 batches of teachers have filed separate cases against Rodriguez. — By Mark D. Merueñas / KBK, GMA News / November 12, 2014 / 7:37 PM

US Army Maj. Sonny Busa (ret.), Eric Lachica of the American Coalition for Filipino Veterans, Pontenciano Dee, 87, Celestino Almeda, 97, and former Army chaplain Georgette Beltran, honor World War I US Navy Filipino serviceman with a prayer, a poem, a vase of poinsettias, and PHL and US flags at the Arlington National Cemetery on Veterans Day. Photo

by Angelyn Tugado-Marzan, ©ACFV.

POEA padlocks training center for illegal recruitment

A training center in Pampanga has been ordered closed after it was found recruiting factory workers for Japan and Korea, the Philippine Overseas Employment Administration said.

POEA Administrator Hans Leo Cacdac ordered the padlocking of RRR International Training Center Inc. at DRT G27 at Plaza Cristina Building in Dolores, San Fernando City.

“The training center was reported to have been offering Korean language course but its name was not found in the updated TESDA (Technical Educational Skills Development Authority) registry of technical and vocational institutions (TVIs) and training programs,” POEA said.

Citing information from at least 18 applicants of the training center, the POEA said the establishment was owned by Grace Manuel and Regulus “Sir Bong” Mallari.

The POEA noted Mallari had

been arrested earlier this year at the POEA premises for alleged illegal recruitment.

It said Mallari was detained at Philippine National Police headquarters in Camp Crame but was reportedly still communicating with the applicants.

Cacdac ordered charges of illegal recruitment filed against Manuel, Mallari and other officers and employees of RRR International Training Center.

He also ordered their inclusion in the POEA List of Persons with Derogatory Record.

In the meantime, the POEA reminded OFWs that training centers have no authority to recruit applicants for jobs abroad.

Cacdac said training centers have no license or authority to recruit Filipino workers but some use publicized job opportunities abroad to entice applicants. ■ Joel Locsin / JDS, GMA News / November 13, 2014 / 9:35 PM

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New California law to allow undocumented Pinoys to apply for driver’s license SACRAMENTO, Calif. – Effective January 1, 2015, state residents will be eligible to apply for driver’s license in California regardless of immigration status.

The Golden State will succeed Colorado, Connecticut, Illinois, Maryland, New Hampshire, New Mexico, Nevada, Utah and Washington as states, according to the National Immigration Law Center, to enact such law.

However, California will be the first state to require a secondary review of identification.

Filipino-American groups applauded AB 60 or The Safe and Responsible Driver Act, which requires the Department of Motor Vehicles to issue an “original driver license to an applicant who is unable to submit satisfactory proof of legal presence in the United States.”

The Filipino Bar Association of Northern California welcomed the law as a “significant step towards giving undocumented members of society a chance to normalize their lives and give them more economic opportunity.”

“The privilege of acquiring a driver’s license gives more ability for mobility and will make undocumented residents’ day-to-day lives easier,” Robert Uy, FBANC president, told Philippine News.

Fiona Cruz, an organizer with Oakland-based Filipino Advocates for Justice, said AB 60 “will create real change for undocumented” in the state.

California DMV this week issued an

advisory reminding the public of the new law and to prepare for it.

“Our commitment is to successfully implement this law to increase safety on California roads and protect the high level of security in our licensing and identity verification process,” said DMV Director Jean Shiomoto.

“Californians planning to apply for a new driver license under AB 60 should study for their exams and gather the required documents for proving identity and residency.”

Driver license applicants under AB 60 “must meet all other qualifications for licensure and must provide satisfactory proof of identity and California residency,” the announcement emphasized.

The new regulations will be posted for further public comment and approval by the Office of Administrative Law. “In general, DMV will require fewer documents for proving identity when those documents are very secure and electronically verifiable,” said the DMV advisory.

Those unable to produce required documents proving identity will undergo a secondary review that will entail an interview with “DMV investigative staff who will attempt to verify the applicant’s identity.”

The list of necessary documents is posted on the DMV website.

License issued under AB 60 will have a visible distinguishing feature and cannot be used for specific federal purposes like entering restricted areas

of federal facilities, said Shiomoto.

DMV encouraged applicants to begin gathering the necessary documents and studying the California Driver Handbook on the DMV webpage at www.dmv.ca.gov. See Page A2 for frequently asked questions.

Since 2001. Authored by California Assembly 30th District representative Luis Alejo (D- Salinas) with co-sponsors from the Latino Caucus, Assembly Bill 60 was passed and signed by Gov. Jerry Brown in 2013.

“I authored AB 60 because under the current system many hardworking families suffer the cost and indignity of tickets, court fees and car impoundments due to their immigration status,” Alejo, who also serves as vice chair of the Caucus, said early this year in his appeal for expedited implementation of the bill.

“It is crucial that we work to ensure that implementation of the bill happens in a timely and efficient manner. In order to accomplish this, we must work with the DMV and immigrant rights groups to educate our communities and make sure that all individuals are prepared to take the written test, the driving test, and ultimately get a driver’s license.”

Before two decades ago, residents of California had easy access to a driver’s license. The Department of Motor Vehicles did not require proof of citizenship or legal residence until 1993. Applicants were allowed to present a Social Security number assigned only to U.S. citizens, or a

Info campaign to keep OFWs away from strife-torn Syria eyed JUSTICE Secretary Leila de Lima has tasked the Inter-Agency Council Against Trafficking (IACAT) to come up with an advocacy campaign to discourage OFWs from traveling to strife-torn Syria amid a travel ban there.

De Lima, who chairs the IACAT, gave the order amid reports that household service workers continue to be smuggled or trafficked to Syria through Dubai and Oman and other Asian cities despite the deployment ban imposed by the Philippine government.

“We hope to undertake this by familiarizing Filipino migrant workers with the modus operandi of the traffickers and alerting them of the imminent risks that they may face due to the political instability in the said destination country,” said De Lima in a statement Wednesday.

Unrest in Syria started when Syrian rebels took up arms after president Bashar al-Assad launched a violent crackdown against the 2011 Arab Spring protests. The rebels and the

government have pinned the blame for the chemical attack on each other.

Among the member agencies of the IACAT are the Departmemt of Justice, Philippine National Police, Bureau of Immigration, Philippine Overseas Employment Administration, Department of Labor and Employment, Department of Foreign Affairs, and Department of Social Welfare and Development.

A total deployment ban in Syria has been in place since August 2011 due to the political instability there.

According to the DOJ, the ensuing mass repatriation of OFWs from Syria on the last quarter of 2012 gave way to the discovery of numerous workers without proper travel documents or have no existing records of leaving the country. ■ Mark Merueñas / KBK, GMA News / November 12, 2014 / 3:38 PM

document identifying the applicant of the country of citizenship. Those who chose the latter also were required to present proof of residence in California.

The process allowed those without authorization to work in this country to proceed with their daily lives without worrying about getting pulled over, their identification scrutinized, getting arrested and potentially deported.

Proponents of AB 60 estimate some 2 million motorists to be driving without license because they are unable to prove legal residence.

Multisectoral advocates and lobbyists particularly from the agriculture and insurance sectors contend that issuing driver’s licenses to those unable to show proof of legal presence would improve road safety because applicants would be required to pass a driver safety test and acquire insurance.

In 2001, then-46th District of the House Assembly member Gil Cedillo, now a member of the Los Angeles City Council, began introducing legislation to restore revoked licenses. Faithbased and civil rights groups attended hearings in Sacramento to support the proposed law.

Most of those who testified at the hearings favored the bill.

Lone opposing testimony came Don Rosenberg, who founded an organization named Unlicensed to Kill, and whose son died in a car crash reportedly caused by a driver without license.

Cedillo’s effort stalled after the driver’s license for undocumented residents became an issue perceived as having contributed to the recall of then-Gov. Gray Davis. Davis had signed a third version of the proposed legislation after having vetoed two earlier iterations.

Alejo took over last year but acknowledges Cedillo for initiating and guiding the legislation through the state Capitol.

AB 60 had bipartisan support as well as that of the California Police Chiefs Association.

Meanwhile immigrants who entered the United States without or lost legal status as minors and qualified for deferred action under the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals or DACA program have been able to obtain driver’s licenses in nearly every state, according to the National Immigration Law Center. Arizona and Nebraska deny driver’s licenses to those granted DACA. ■ Cherie M. Querol Moreno / Philippine News / November 14, 2014 / 12:45 PM

DFA vows assistance in repatriating Pinoy victims of Macau fire PHILIPPINE authorities are just waiting for the investigation to conclude before they could start the process of repatriating the bodies of the two Filipinos killed in a fire in Macau last Wednesday.

“Once na matapos po lahat ito ay puwede na pong asikasuhin ‘yung proseso sa pagpapauwi ng mga remains ng mga nasawi pong mga kababayan natin,” said Foreign Affairs spokesperson Charles Jose in an interview on GMA News TV’s “Balita Pilipinas.”

The two Filipinos, identified as Paul Angelo Lita and Marites Natino, were among the four people killed in the fire that razed a boardinghouse in Macau on Wednesday.

The report said Lita had been working as a waiter in Macau for nine months, and was to return home in December for the birthday of his child and for Christmas.

Jose said the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) will provide assistance

in repatriating the bodies of the two Filipino fatalities.

“Handa tumulong ang DFA pati ang Consul General sa pamilya ng mga nasawaing Pilipino kaugnay po sa pagpapauwi ng mga labi,” he said.

He added that the Consulate will also do its best to expedite the investigation since the cause of the fire has not yet been determined.

Jose also said the undersecretary for migrant’s affairs has already contacted the victims’ families and will advise them on the next steps to take. ■ Andrei Medina / KBK, GMA News / November 13, 2014 / 5:18 PM

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November 2014 / Fortnightly – No. 22 • UK & Europe Edition

FREE LISTING of events in HELLO PHILIPPINES newspaper.

Please email info@hello-philippines.com to include your event. r listing does not constitute or imply its endorsement, recommendation or fa f vouring by D I S C L A I M E R : The Events Diary ry HELLO PHILIPPINES newspaper. The views and opinions of authors expressed herein do not necessarily state or reflect those / r the Publisher. What’s On is a Filipino Events Diary r listing fo f r UK and Europe. of Hello Philippines newspaper and/o /o ry DATE / TIME Saturday, 22nd November 2014 Saturday 29th November 2014 Sunday, 30th November 2014 Sunday 7th December 2014 Saturday 13th December 2014 6pm until 1am Saturday, 20th December 2014 Saturday 13th December 2014 6pm to 12pm Saturday December 20th 2014

2014 CALENDAR OF EVENTS – UK & EUROPE VENUE ORGANISER RADA Studios 16 Chenies LK and the Philippine Street London WC1E 7PA, Baranggay Folk Dance group, London, London, UK Miss Pearl Of Asia Camden Centre MPOAUK UK Jude Street, King's Cross, London, WC1H 9JE "UNPLUGGED Bar FM, Uxbridge Road, INTERNATIONAL MUSIC ACOUSTIC NIGHT" Shepherds Bush, London, FUSION UK The Finals Copper Box Arena, Kampi Basketball UK Kampi Super Olympic Park, London League 2014 Grand E20 3HB Championship Day Mazenod Community FILMO Fil Mo Christmas Centre, Quex Rd, kilburn Party NW6 4PS.Off Kilburn High Road Christmas Filwood Community FILCOM BRISTOL Hollywood Style!

Centre, Barnstaple Road, Bristol BS4, 1JP, UK Philippine Centre Park Inn Hotel Heathrow Philippine Centre Dinner and Dance Bath Road, Middlesex, UB7 0DU Simbang Gabi SS Michael & Martin Philippine Centre Church

EVENT Paglalakbay Journey

CONTACTS / REMARKS

0203 286 4883

Tickets@lkdance.org.uk www.MissPearlOfAsia.com enquiries@misspearlofasia.com 07547 985 508 ARMIN 07526 029898

More details to fo f llow…

Vannz Bio 07947160826 07445975098 0117-9414672

admin@filcombristol.co.uk CynthiaCanias 07941 335 557

FREE LISTING of your events in HELLO PHILIPPINES newspaper. If you know of any events please contact us via in fo @ h e llo -p h ilip p in es.co m t o s u b m i t y o u r e v e n t .

DISCLAIMER: The Events Diary Listing does not necessarily constitute or imply its endorsement, recommendation, or favouring by Hello Philippines newspaper. The views and opinions of authors expressed herein do not necessarily state or reflect those of Hello Philippines newspaper. This is merely an Events Diary Listing of what is happening within the Filipino Communities in Europe. This is for general information only.

1st Saturday

2014 MONTHLY FILIPINO COMMUNITY MASSES IN GREATER LONDON 5:00pm

1st Sunday

2:00pm

1st Sunday

5:00pm

2nd Saturday

4:00pm

2nd Sunday

2:00pm

2nd Sunday

2:00pm

2nd Sunday

4:00pm

3rd Sunday

3:00pm

3rd Sunday

3:00pm

Last Saturday

6:00pm

Last Sunday

12:00pm

Last Sunday

2:00pm

Every Sunday

5:00pm

First Wednesdays

6:30pm

Devotion in Honour of Our Lady of Fatima (Exposition of the Blessed Sacrament / Rosary / Benediction / Mass) St Pius X Catholic Church, 108 Orme Road, Kingston Upon Thames KT1 3SB – Oliver Abasolo – 07782 661 922 Five Precious Wounds Parish, Brentfield Road, Stonebridge Park, London NW10 8ER Mervic Monocillo – 07894 636 140 Our Lady of Sorrows Catholic Church, Friary Road, Peckham, London SE15 1RH Allen Abeleda – 07713 625 888 St Peter the Apostle Catholic Church, 103 Woolwich New Road, London SE18 6EF Moises Espanola – 07894 648 639 English Martyrs Church, Chalkhill Road, Wembley Park, Wembley HA9 9EW Becky Sarinas – 07949 857 699 / 07425 761 519 / Lina B – 07579 418 510 St Dominic Catholic Church, 243 Violet Lane, Waddon, Croydon CR0 4HN Merlie Mirto – 07722 216 462 St. Anselm and St. Cecilia, 70 Lincoln's Inn Fields, London WC2A 3JA Feliciano Ramirez – 07733 680 748 Sacred Heart of Jesus, New Priory, Quex Road, Kilburn, London NW6 4PS Sheidrick de Leon – 07738 210 202 Blessed Sacrament Parish, 157 Copenhagen Street, Islington N1 0SR Christy Sangalang – 07709 119 969 Our Lady of Dolours, Servite Parish Church, 264 Fulham Road, London SW10 4EL Fr Allan Satur – 020 7352 6965 / fulhamroad@rcdow.org.uk / Roland Adap – r_adap@hotmail.com St Pius X Catholic Church, 108 Orme Road, Kingston Upon Thames KT1 3SB Oliver Abasolo – 07782 661 922 St. Joseph’s Catholic Church, 218 Roehampton Lane, London SW15 4LE Rafael Santiago – 07795 254 451 Holy Redeemer Catholic Church, 20 Brixton Road, Oval, London SW9 6BU Ben Ortiz – 07723 318 486 Filipino Mass and Novena to Our Mother of Perpetual Help, Farm Street Church of the Immaculate Conception (Jesuit House Chapel), access on 114 Mount Street, London W1K 3AY – Josie Ramos – 07723 024 591

November 2014 / Fortnightly – No. 22 • UK & Europe Edition

HAPPY BIRTHDAY

18th

SAMIEJO Ragudo Madrid celebrated her 18th Birthday on Saturday 8th November at Newham Town Hall with friends and family. ■

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HAPPY BIRTHDAY JULIE Aquino’s 80th and Anna Marie Cabanlig’s 18th Birthday Celebrations. ■

Left - Julie Aquino’s celebrates her 80th Birthday with friends.

Anna Marie Cabanlig’s 18th Birthday.

Birthday celebrant with Mom and Dad.

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COMMUNITY FOCUS

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November 2014 / Fortnightly – No. 22 • UK & Europe Edition

Benguet Org UK’s Adivay, Igorot Pride in London PENTAGON Hall in Southwark, East London played host to the Benguet Organisation UK’s ADIVAY on the 8th of November 2014. As the heavens poured, the rain soaked guests didn’t dampen the spirit of this Igorot Festival. And so the eBenguets in the UK gathered together in the midst of heavy rain and busy work life in the spirit of community and camaraderie to celebrate their culture .The rituals and customs practiced by their fore bearers came to life as the performers entertained with the traditional dances, beating of the gongs and the traditional chants .

ADIVAY is an ibaloi word meaning coming together. It also means thanksgiving and unity. It is also to celebrate the foundation day of the Province of Benguet and its 13 municipalities and where the ADIVAY Festival is a month long celebration of culture, agricultural and market trade fair, beauty pageant, street parades, concerts and other contests. Benguet has two major tribes and ethno linguistic groups, the Ibalois and the Kankanaeys, whils minor ones are the Kalanguyas, karaos and others Here in London, the Benguet Organisation United Kingdom (BOUK) aims to capture the very essence of ADIVAY. BOUK is one of the subgroups of IGOROT UK , the mother organisation of all Igorot tribes in the UK- the Mt Province Federation UK, United Kalinga Apayao Network and Ifugao Organisation, all of which hold their own cultural festivals in the UK. On its 7th year, the theme is the

Tribal Beat and Dances of Benguet and ADIVAY London attempted to bring back ancient Benguet beats via the play of gongs, Solibao, tiktik and the tallak.

These Benguet dances are coupled with dances with different meanings depending on which occasion they are performed. Culture is important to the Igorots. And Benguet in particular because of its proximity to Baguio City and other highly urbanised areas is in danger of a cultural set back as more and more young and middle aged ebenguets are not familiar with the rituals, dances and music of Benguet anymore. Thus, the BOUK made it their business to promote and preserve the Benguet culture so far away from home.

Tarektek is an Ibaloi Dance performed in honour of the colourful woodpeckers that once inhabit Benguet on the borders of Mountain province. It is a mimetic courtship dance, with one tarektek male manipulating a colorful tribal blanket representative of the birds’s iridescent plumage while the other playfully beats on a brass gangsa representing impressive bird calls as they battle for the attention of three tarektek females.

Tallak Dance is a native dance accompanied with fine tuned wood instruments that produce a rhythm when played in harmony and which originated in Bakun, Benguet.

Taychek is the monumental dance of the culture-unique Karao Tribe in the Municipality of Bokod . It sounds like the Mt.Province’s because it is believed that the ikaraos’ origin is somewhere in

Natonin, Mt Province. The dance may serve to honor or celebrate a battle won against the headhunters and it can also be performed as a harvest dance The “Ginalding” is an Ibaloi thanksgiving ritual for Kabunyan .It is a dance which emphasizes a slow, smooth, and graceful movement. Here, four galsas, one solibao, one gimbal, and one takik are played.

The Ginambuyao or ginangsa is a faster and more snappy dance, resembling the kankanaey dance in Benguet and western Bontoc. This was led by the newly formed Buguias Mankayan Group The Day-eng (kankanaey Chant) was provided by the Gorgeous and talented Ms Conchita Marquez of Buguias Benguet and the Bahdew (Ibaloi Chant) was written by our very own special guest, Victor A. Cosalan of Kabayan, Benguet who’ve regaled us with a tayao and sadong. Mayor Jerry Dapilog of Banaue Ifugao was also a special guest, together with representatives of Philippine Tourism as they promote the Tourism owned Banaue Hotel in Ifugao.

The 7th Adivay also launched CADIEM (friend) the very first news

letter of the BOUK and distributed free to its members and friends.

Headed by its President Archie Nabus and led by the creative work of Crispina Moresto, The BOUK provided a spectacle worthy of the Benguet culture’s unique qualities. Benguet’s premiere dance, the Bendian dance

was performed to celebrate the guests, the members, the families and friends who have continuously provided their support. Come again and join us for Next year’s Adivay. There is so much more to showcase-Adivay: Proudly Benguet, Proudly Igorot.

OOOOWWWAAAYYY…….. ADIVAY. ■

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SPECIAL FEATURE

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November 2014 / Fortnightly – No. 22 • UK & Europe Edition

The Philippine Embassy in London proudly presents

The Exhibition: “Allegory of a Philippine Gaze” From The Royal Society of British Artists The de Laszlo Foundation Award Winner, Filipino-Spanish Artist Maria Mari Murga “A fascinating insight to celebrate the Philippine Culture across utopian fantasies of idyllic exoticism”

MARIA Mari Murga. Exhibition Statement. Award-winning Filipino-

Spanish artist Maria Mari Murga exhibits her artwork at the Philippine Embassy from 7 to 21 November 2014.

Entitled “Allegory of a Philippine Gaze”, the art exhibition celebrates a fascinating insight of the Philippine Culture across utopian fantasies of idyllic exoticism. Its concept is an allusion to Dr. José P. Rizal’s last manuscript “The Lord Gazes at the Philippine Islands”.

Maria´s refined richness of colours reflects her fascination with the vibrant tropical sunlight creating a unique vision of the overwhelming power of nature. This is manifested in her paintings “Iloilo Paraw Festival” and “Sunset behind boats in Davao”.

The virtuoso Still Life compositions represent a classical notion of idealism, in which artistic truth is found through harmony, balance and beauty. The artist palette is filled with vibrant intense colours where Red, like crystallised burning Magma, reinterprets the naturalism of Amorsolo in a new genre of composition.

Further highlights include Murga’s award-winning shoe sculpture “Men

at your Feet”. The sculpture will be displayed alongside her amazingly tangible drawings, as if they had been drawn with the most delicate and precise of instruments.

These sensual and ephemeral allegories represent an outstanding collection of masterpieces reflecting a new, uninhibited and innovative view of the Pinoy culture; just as the 7107 islands unify the multicultural Philippine Archipelago.

Curator: Mr. Leif Miguel Martinez RIBA

Maria Mari Murga. Biography.

Maria Mari Murga is an award winning Filipino Spanish artist currently established in London.

Maria was trained in Florence, Italy, where she specialised in Renaissance Painting techniques. Her vibrant palette of colours is a testimonial of her Mindanao origins. Orient and Occident are brought together under Murga´s life vision.

Maria works from her studio in Clerkenwell, London, where she is currently taking portrait commissions. Her paintings feature in a large number of private collections including well known corporate clients.

Maria Mari Murga

Maria has exhibited at international venues, which have been extremely well received. She has showcased her artwork at The Annigonni Museum in Florence, Petley’s Gallery in Mayfair, or The Derwent Art Prize. Her work has been awarded by prestigious Art Institutions such as The Royal Society of British Artists, The de Laszlo Foundation and The Pastel Society at The Mall Galleries in London.

Maria Mari Murga. Artwork Critique. “Marí knows that painting requires effort, sacrifice and renunciation. From there she exercises with demands, rigor and consistency.

The result is that her work contrasts refinement of settings with determination and firmness of stroke.

Marí has burst with humility and determination in the ever complex and atypical art market.

A promising future awaits the Filipino-Spanish painter wherein the

Primo de Rivera Family. Oil on canvas. 150 x 230 cms. ©Maria Mari Murga.

Eleonora. Oil on canvas. 70 x 90 cms. ©Maria Mari Murga.

most proficient collectors have already anticipated. She is a real artist.”

Miguel Angel García Juez. Director Subastas Siglo XXI Art Magazine.

Madrid

Maria Mari Murga. Exhibition Press Release. Filipino Spanish artist Maria

Mari Murga has received this year “The Royal Society of British Artists The de Laszlo Foundation Award” at the “RBA Annual Exhibition 2014” “The de Laszlo Foundation” is one of the most prestigious Art Foundations in United Kingdom. The Foundation is in charge of preserving the legacy of 19th century artist Philip de Laszlo and act as patrons of the Arts. In addition to the cash prize and the diploma, “The de Laszlo Foundation Award” is an important recognition in an artist´s career. Damon de Laszlo, President of the Foundation explains: “The de Laszlo Foundation awards prizes to encourage the Arts and particularly

Yakan Seputangan. Pastel on paper. 70 x 50 cms. ©Maria Mari Murga.

skilled Art. Maria’s innovative ideas and exceptional skills deserve a very good prize indeed.”

Last year, “The de Laszlo Foundation” acquired all the works of Mari Murga exhibited in the previous edition, “The Royal Society of British Artists - Annual Exhibition 2013”.

The award was presented by RBA President James Horton, at the opening event at The Mall Galleries.

His Excellency Ambassador Enrique A. Manalo received Mari Murga at The Philippine Embassy in London to congratulate personally the artist for her extraordinary achievement.

Maria was subsequently offered an art exhibition in collaboration with the Philippine Embassy.

Mari Murga, originary from Zamboanga (Mindanao) is very excited to share her work with the Filipino Community in London.

Currently, Maria Mari Murga is

The Ice Sovereign. Oil on canvas.

50 x 70 cms. ©Maria Mari Murga.

November 2014 / Fortnightly – No. 22 • UK & Europe Edition

exhibiting her work at The Philippine Embassy in London. The exhibition is open until 21st November 2014.

The Exhibition Reception and Private View has been hugely successful. HE Ambassador hosted the event. Special guests for the Private View included The Diplomatic team of The Philippine Embassy, The Chairman of the Livery Companies of the City of London, Mr. Nigel Pullman, International art collectors and representatives of Institutions such as The Knights of Rizal, The Embassy of The Republic of China, The Embassy of Spain, The Asia House, The British Spanish Society, The Royal Society of British Architects among others.

Maria is immensely grateful to HE Ambassador and The Philippine Embassy in London for their collaboration and the trust they placed in her artwork. It is testimony to the power of Maria’s work that the exhibition has captured imaginations of international visitors and art collectors responded with excitement to the vibrant colours of her paintings, shown alongside new artwork charged with energy.

• HE Ambassador Mr. Enrique Manalo said: “I am very much impressed with Maria´s work. I especially like how she puts the

Eleonora. Oil on canvas. 70 x 90 cms.

colours together at her painting called “Carmen”. We are very proud of hosting this Exhibition.”

• Mr. Pullman added: “It´s been really fascinating to come to the Exhibition this evening. I particularly enjoyed the shoe sculpture. It is brilliant! It´s got to be seen to be believed!

SPECIAL FEATURE

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19

Award winning Artist specialist in Portrait Commissions. Maria offers a full service for helping to commission personal and office portraits, corporate art commissions and other bespoke works of art. Clients benefit from her extensive experience in understanding their individual needs, her unequalled experience when dealing with portrait commissions for UK and international clients and her personal back up throughout the project.

How to commission a Portrait Painting to Maria.

Maria Mari Murga and HE Ambassador Mr Enrique Manalo

Potential sitters come to her studio in Clerkenwell and look through her portfolio.

Maria has a collection of paintings on her studio walls, enough to give an idea of the styles available. Maria is happy to discuss sittings, clothes and timings.

She listens to what the client wants, understands and finds the ideal pose. Maria works together with the client to agree what is appropriate for a particular project and makes the experience of being painted as special as the portraits themselves.

International clients. Maria is very happy to travel abroad, if ‘sitters’ are unable to visit the UK. The client has the option of being painted at home, alternatively the artist might take photographs, organise the composition and make sketches before working on the painting in her studio in the UK. Her friendly and professional attitude, her balanced perspective and advice,

and determination to ensure that the client is satisfied throughout, from selection of the right pose to the final framing of the portrait, gives real confidence and a happy end result. ■ For more information, please contact Maria: mariamarimurga@gmail.com 0044 (0) 743 8379 314 www.mariamari.es

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INTERNATIONAL / GLOBAL NEWS

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November 2014 / Fortnightly – No. 22 • UK & Europe Edition

‘Rat poison’ drug warning after India sterilisation deaths ALOK Shukla, principal secretary in the health department of Chhattisgarh state, urged the media to raise awareness about the ciprofloxacin tablets manufactured at a local factory and banned from sale following the deaths last week.

RAIPUR: A senior Indian health official warned on Sunday (Nov 16) against buying an antibiotic feared laced with a toxin found in rat poison and linked to the deaths of 13 women who underwent sterilisation operations.

Alok Shukla, principal secretary in the health department of Chhattisgarh state, urged the media to raise awareness about the ciprofloxacin tablets manufactured at a local factory and banned from sale following the deaths last week. “Since the specific medicine is available for private (sale and use), people need to be informed about its substances to avoid any further casualty,” Shukla told AFP. “We found zinc phosphide in one of the medicines given to the patients

during the sterilisation operation,” he said. “We also received reports that about nine persons, who were not part of the sterilisation operations and had taken the same medicine, manufactured locally, have taken ill with the same symptoms.”

Zinc phosphide is commonly used in rat poison. Officials suspect the tainted drugs were handed out to the impoverished women who underwent the operation at a mass sterilisation camp this month in the central state.

The deaths have triggered widespread criticism of a government-run programme that offers poor Indian women cash incentives for sterilisation in what activists say are often horrible conditions.

Police on Friday arrested the head of the drug company and his son and raided their factory in the state capital Raipur. The firm has denied any wrongdoing. A doctor who performed the operations in just a few hours on 83 women blamed the drugs for the deaths after his arrest. He said he

was being made a scapegoat for the controversial family planning scheme.

The victims suffered vomiting and a dramatic fall in blood pressure on Monday last week after undergoing laparoscopic sterilisation, a process in which the fallopian tubes are tied.

Dozens of women were still in hospitals recovering, with several on dialysis or on ventilators, Shukla said.

Officials stressed on Sunday that although initial tests found toxins in the drugs, they were awaiting results of more comprehensive laboratory analysis due Monday. Counterfeit or adulterated medicines are a significant health problem in India.

“We have confiscated 27,000 (strips) of these drugs from our district over fears of their toxic contents,” state government official Siddharth Pardeshi told AFP. “We anticipate that these deaths could be related to toxic drugs but can say anything clearly only after we get chemical analysis report from different government labs.”

Sterilisation is one of the most

An Indian doctor holds up an x-ray as he talks with relatives and a patient,

popular methods of family planning in India, and many state governments organise mass camps where mainly poor rural women can undergo the usually straightforward procedure.

Human Rights Watch has said health workers in India are coercing

women into getting sterilised, because they are under pressure to meet informal targets. A total of 336 people have died as a result of sterilisations in India in the three years since 2010, according to national government figures. ■ AFP / November 16, 2014 / 10:06 PM

Japan PM Abe ‘plans snap election on December 14’

Three-year-old boy stabbed to death by woman in China

POLICE detained the suspect, who was aged about 40, and seized a kitchen knife and a dagger, Xinhua news agency said, adding that inquiries revealed she may be mentally ill.

BEIJING: A three-year-old Chinese boy died and a girl was seriously injured when a knife-wielding woman attacked the children on Sunday (Nov 16), media reported, the latest in a series of assaults against youngsters.

Police detained the suspect, who was aged about 40, and seized a kitchen knife and a dagger, Xinhua news agency said, adding that inquiries revealed she may be mentally ill. The injured girl, who is aged nine, is being treated at hospital, it added, citing local authorities.

The report on the incident, in Beihai in southern Guangxi region, did not give details of any relationship

between the woman and the victims.

The attack was the second to take place against children in Guangxi in recent weeks, after a man stabbed to death four pupils as they went to school in September. The victims were reported to have been aged under 12.

Earlier in September, a man stabbed to death three children and a teacher and wounded several others in a rampage at a primary school in central Hubei province.

Violent crime has been on the rise in China in recent decades as the nation’s economy has boomed and the gap between rich and poor has expanded rapidly. Studies have also noted a rise in the prevalence of mental disorders in China, with many failing to get proper treatment due to a lack of resources and qualified professionals. ■

AFP / November 16, 2014 / 10:06 PM

JAPANESE Prime Minister Shinzo Abe plans to hold snap elections on December 14, two years ahead of schedule, as he seeks to bolster his public support by delaying another scheduled tax hike, reports said Saturday.

Abe is expected to announce his decision at a press conference on Tuesday, according to major media, including the Yomiuri Shimbun.

The development comes as the Abe government moves to postpone a consumption tax hike to 10.0 percent from the current 8.0 percent amid a series of weak economic indicators fuelling fears of a recession.

The tax hike was originally scheduled for October 2015, but the government wants to delay it until April 2017 to safeguard fragile recovery, according to local media.

Abe’s decision would cut short the current four-year term of the powerful lower house, which is scheduled to expire in December 2016.

The premier wanted an early election while opposition parties

remain weak after the ruling party’s spectacular election victory two years ago, pundits said.

Abe also wanted to put a national election behind him before he pushes unpopular bills such as those related to expanding roles of Japanese military, Kyodo News said.

Japan raised the consumption tax from 5.0 percent to 8.0 percent in April in a bid to sustain the greying nation’s vast pension system while slowing the growth of its public debts.

Under the law, the tax was going to rise again to 10 percent from October 2015, but the law also stipulated that the government must take measures to protect the economy, including stopping the tax increase.

Economists have for years said that Japan needs to increase the consumption tax to reduce its enormous national debt.

But the earlier tax hike discouraged consumer spending, and fuelled fears that the second hike could smother that recovery out altogether, and hurt Abe politically.

Abe has said he would decide whether

to raise the tax after reviewing the July-September economic growth data, to be released on Monday, while the prospect for the second tax hike became increasingly unpopular among voters.

Government officials could not be reached for comment on Saturday.

Abe, currently in Australia for the Group of 20 meeting, will return home on Monday and confer with his ruling coalition partner, said the Sankei and the Mainichi.

He will order drafting of an additional budget on Tuesday, before announcing his decision to dissolve the lower house, the Mainichi said. ■ AFP / November 15, 2014

MEDIA PARTNER:

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HEALTH and Lifestyle

Cold or flu?

ONE-THIRD of Britons think flu is just a bad cold, but each year thousands of people die of complications following flu. Find out how colds and flu differ.

Colds and flu share some of the same symptoms (sneezing, coughing, sore throat), but are caused by different viruses. Flu can be much more serious than a cold.

If you’re generally fit and healthy, you can usually manage the symptoms of a cold or flu yourself without seeing a doctor. Look after yourself by resting, drinking non-alcoholic fluids to avoid dehydration and avoiding strenuous activity. Painkillers such as ibuprofen or paracetamol can relieve aches and pains.

People more at risk. Some people need to take extra care as they’re more at risk of serious chest complications, such as pneumonia and bronchitis.

People over 65 are more at risk of

complications. People under 65, including children, are more at risk of complications if they have: • serious heart or chest complaints, including asthma • serious kidney disease or liver disease • diabetes • lowered immunity due to disease or medical treatment • had a stroke or transient ischaemic attack (TIA) Everyone in an at-risk group is eligible for a free flu vaccination. This is the best protection against the virus.

Find out who is offered the flu jab, including all pregnant women.

Symptoms. There are around 200 viruses that cause colds and three that cause flu. There are many strains of these flu viruses, and the vaccine changes every year to protect against the most common ones.

GERMS can be passed from person to person or indirectly by touching unclean equipment or surfaces.

Cleanliness experts say hygienic cleaning will help prevent germs spreading in the home.

Hygienic cleaning involves focusing your efforts on areas in the house where germs are more likely to spread from and cause infection.

Use either soap and hot water (rinsing the germs away) or a disinfectant to kill the germs. Thoroughly dry surfaces after cleaning. Dampness helps any remaining germs to survive and, if there’s enough water, multiply.

“Good hygiene is not a once-weekly, deep-down clean,” says Professor Sally Bloomfield, of the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine.

“Hygienic cleaning needs to be an ongoing part of our daily lives, where hygiene measures are targeted where and when necessary.”

She says that cleaning aids, such as cloths or mops, must be germ-free or they’ll spread germs to other surfaces.

Germs can multiply easily. Within eight hours, one bacterium on a damp cloth can multiply to six million.

Germs stick to cloths and are difficult to remove by rinsing, so all cleaning materials should be disinfected and then dried after use.

Below are some general hygiene tips to minimise the spread of germs in the home: Cloths and sponges. Use disposable cloths or paper towels when possible.

Re-usable cloths should be disinfected after each use.

Washing-up brushes. Wash brushes

in a dishwasher regularly or clean with detergent and warm water after each use.

Mops and buckets. Use two buckets for mopping – one for detergent and the other for rinsing.

Mops and buckets should be cleaned, disinfected and dried after each use.

Lavatories. Keep the U-bend and lavatory bowl clean by flushing after each use.

Use a lavatory cleaner and brush every few days.

Limescale should be regularly removed using a descaling product.

Keep the lavatory seat, handle and rim clean by using a disinfectant.

Baths and sinks. Hygienically clean baths and sinks frequently.

Use disinfectant if they’ve been used by someone who is ill.

Showers. Clean shower trays as above for baths and sinks.

If a shower hasn’t been used for a long period, let it run with hot water before using it.

Tiles and shower curtains. Keep tiles and grout in good condition and clean them often.

Hygienically clean or launder the shower curtain frequently, depending on how often it’s used.

Kitchen. Ensure food preparation surfaces are hygienically clean.

Use separate chopping boards for meat (including fish and poultry) and vegetables.

Wash and dry your hands after handling high-risk foods such as raw meat.

Hygienically clean surfaces immediately after use.

Floors. Clean floors regularly to remove visible dirt with warm water and detergent.

• If soiled with vomit or excreta, the floor should be cleaned using a disposable cloth and warm water and

Colds. Symptoms of a cold include: • runny nose, beginning with clear mucus that develops into thicker, green mucus as the cold progresses • blocked nose • sore throat • sneezing • cough People with a cold may also suffer with a mild fever, earache, tiredness and headache. Symptoms develop over one or two days and gradually get better after a few days. Some colds can last for up to two weeks.

According to the Common Cold Centre in Cardiff, a cold is most contagious during the early stages when the person has a runny nose and sore throat.

Flu. Flu usually comes on much more quickly than a cold, and symptoms include: • sudden fever of 38-40°C (100104°F) • muscle aches and pains • sweating • feeling exhausted and needing to lie down

November 2014 / Fortnightly – No. 22 • UK & Europe Edition

• dry, chesty cough • sneezing Flu symptoms appear one to three days after infection and most people recover within a week, although you may feel tired for longer. A severe cold can also cause muscle aches and fever, so it can be hard to tell the difference.

Whether it’s a cold or flu, get medical help if: • you have a chronic condition (such as asthma, diabetes or heart disease), or • you have a very high fever as well as an unusually severe headache or abdominal or chest pain

Stop the viruses spreading. Cold and flu viruses are spread by droplets that are sneezed or coughed out by an infected person. Other people can breathe in these droplets or transfer the droplets to their eyes or nose on their fingers.

Protect yourself and others against colds and flu by: • coughing or sneezing into a tissue • throwing a used tissue away as soon as possible • washing your hands as soon as possible • having a flu jab every year if you’re in an at-risk group. ■ NHS Choices

How to prevent germs from spreading Five facts about colds then disinfected. Ensure the floor is dry before allowing children on it.

Carpet and soft furnishings

• Periodically clean carpets and soft furnishings using a suitable product.

Carpets and furnishings can be hygienically cleaned by steam cleaning.

Curtains can be cleaned by laundering or disinfected by steam cleaning.

Pets and other animals. Keep pet food separate from human food.

Always wash your hands after touching animals, their food, toys, cages and litter trays.

Dishes, utensils and tin openers used for pet food should be stored separately.

Toys. Clean hard or plastic toys by washing them and storing them once they’re clean and dry.

Some soft toys can be cleaned in the washing machine.

All toys and equipment should be added to a regular cleaning rota.

Laundry. Wash your hands after handling dirty laundry.

To prevent the spread of germs, all underwear, towels and household linen should be washed at 60°C (140°F) or at 40°C (104°F) with a bleach-based laundry product.

Run the washing machine on empty once a week, either at a high temperature or with a chemical disinfectant to prevent the growth of germs.

Don’t leave laundry in the washing machine as any remaining germs can multiply rapidly.

Waste disposal. Foot-operated bins are better for hygiene because they reduce the risk of hands picking up germs when they touch the bin lid.

Always wash your hands after handling waste material.

Throw rubbish away carefully to avoid attracting vermin and insects. ■ NHS Choices

SOME surprising facts about colds, including what causes symptoms such as a blocked nose, and why mucus turns thick and yellow.

1

Cold viruses don’t make us feel ill

“It’s your own immune response that makes you feel ill,” says Professor Ron Eccles of the Common Cold Centre in Cardiff, where experts have researched the common cold for more than 20 years.

When you get a cold, the virus attacks the nose and the back of the throat, and it doesn’t take long for the body’s natural defences to start to work.

“The immune system detects the virus and floods the area with white blood cells and chemical messengers, and these trigger various symptoms such as headaches and a blocked nose.”

2

A blocked nose is due to swollen erectile tissue

“During a cold, the lining of your nose is the battlefront,” says Professor Eccles.

When your nose feels blocked it isn’t because it’s full of mucus, but because the blood vessels in your nose are inflamed.

The nasal lining is made from erectile tissue (similar to the tissue in the sexual organs). When you have a cold, the blood vessels swell up as infection-fighting white blood cells flood to the area. This narrows the air passage in your nose and restricts the airflow as you breathe.

A decongestant spray can reduce the swelling and allow you to breathe more easily.

3

You can catch a cold through your eyes

When an infected person coughs or sneezes, they release droplets of mucus into the air, or into their hand if they use their hand to cover their mouth.

If you get these droplets on your hand (for example, by shaking hands or touching contaminated objects such as doorknobs), you can pass them into your eyes or nose when you touch them.

Most of us touch our eyes and nose more often than we realise. A duct links the eyes and the nasal cavity, and the virus travels easily from the eye to the nose and throat, where it can cause infection. You can help to avoid being infected by washing your hands thoroughly.

4

Women get more colds than men

5

Yellow mucus is caused by white blood cells

“Women have more colds than men, and this is probably due to increased interaction with children,” says Professor Eccles. Children get around seven to ten colds a year, compared with two to three for adults. So people who spend a lot of time with children, such as childminders, nursery teachers or school teachers, are more likely to pick up the viruses.

When your immune system is fighting a cold virus, one of the first symptoms is clear, runny mucus from the nose. As the cold develops, mucus usually becomes thicker and yellow, then green. White blood cells cause this change in colour and texture as they flood to the nasal area and increase in number as the cold progresses.

“Many people think that yellow or green mucus is caused by bacteria, but this isn’t the case,” says Professor Eccles. “It’s because there are billions of white blood cells in the mucus.” ■ NHS Choices

November 2014 / Fortnightly – No. 22 • UK & Europe Edition

HEALTH and Lifestyle food

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Are chocolate’s health claims for real

RECENT interest in the health benefits of chocolate was sparked by studies on the cocoa-drinking peoples of Central America.

Researchers observed that the Kuna Indians of Panama, who drank cocoa as their main beverage, had very low blood pressure, a leading cause of heart disease and stroke.

Chocolate is the processed and sweetened food produced from cocoa. Brand experts have sought to associate chocolate, and in particular dark chocolate, with the supposed health benefits of cocoa, which include protection against cancer and stress relief.

We’ve teamed up with the British Dietetic Association (BDA) to examine whether the health claims made about chocolate are supported by the evidence.

Binge eating BINGE eating is an eating disorder where a person feels compelled to overeat on a regular basis.

People who binge eat consume very large quantities of food over a short period of time and they often eat even when they are not hungry. Binges are often planned and can involve the person buying “special” binge foods.

Episodes of binge eating often alternate with periods where the person severely cuts down on the amount of food they eat, which can make the problem worse.

Binge eating usually takes place in private, with the person feeling that they have no control over their eating. They will often have feelings of guilt or disgust after binge eating.

These feelings highlight underlying psychological issues, such as: • low self-esteem and lack of confidence • depression – feelings of extreme sadness that last for a long time • anxiety – a feeling of unease, such as worry or fear, that can range from mild to severe These feelings can be made worse over time while the person is still binge eating.

Who is affected by binge eating?

Anyone can be affected by binge eating.

Unlike anorexia, where more women than men are affected, binge eating affects men and women equally. The condition tends to be more common in older adults than in younger people.

Binge eating and bulimia. People who binge eat and those with bulimia (another type of eating disorder) often eat until they are uncomfortably full.

People with bulimia then purge (flush out) the food they have eaten by making themselves vomit or by taking laxatives (medicine to help empty the bowels).

Unlike those with bulimia, people who binge eat do not purge themselves to control their weight, and are more

THE EVIDENCE Blood pressure. A well-conducted

2012 review of the best available evidence on the effects of chocolate on blood pressure concluded that cocoa products – including dark chocolate – may help to slightly lower blood pressure. However, most of the studies were of short duration (between two and eight weeks) and there were some weaknesses in the available research. The authors of the review say longer term trials are needed to further our understanding of cocoa’s effect on blood pressure and cardiovascular health.

Cancer. Some limited animal and laboratory research suggests a cocoa-rich diet could offer protection against bowel cancer. However, it’s impossible to conclude from research carried out in a laboratory that cocoa

can protect people against bowel cancer.

Stress. In a small study from 2009, 30 healthy people who were given 40g of dark chocolate a day for 14 days experienced a reduction in stress hormones. However, the study, which was funded by a major chocolate manufacturer, had several limitations, including its short study period, and does not provide any evidence that chocolate has any benefits or effects on stress.

The dietitian’s verdict. Alison Hornby, a dietitian and BDA spokesperson, says it’s important to remember that the studies on the health benefits of chocolate have focused on cocoa extracts, not chocolate.

She says: “A range of health benefits from the consumption

of cocoa products have been investigated, particularly in relation to cardiovascular disease, with early results showing promise.

“However, the potential health benefit of some compounds in the chocolate have to be weighed against the fact that to make chocolate, cocoa

is combined with sugar and fat.

“This means chocolate is an energy-dense food that could contribute to weight gain and a higher risk of disease. As an occasional treat, chocolate can be part of a healthy diet. Eaten too frequently, it is an unhealthy choice.” ■ NHS Choices

Causes of binge eating

likely to try to limit weight gain by having periods of eating very little.

However, this often leads to more binge eating and sometimes weight gain, which can lead to obesity (see below).

Binge eating and obesity. Binge eating is often associated with obesity, where someone is very overweight with a body mass index (BMI) of 30 or over.

Obesity is a serious health problem that can lead to a number of serious chronic (long-term) health conditions, such as: • high blood pressure (hypertension) • high cholesterol • type 2 diabetes • heart disease Being obese can also shorten your life expectancy. For example, the life expectancy of obese adults who are over the age of 40 can be shortened by six or seven years.

Read more about the symptoms of binge eating for details of other health conditions related to obesity.

Seeing your GP. Visit your GP if you think that you have a binge eating problem. They will be able to diagnose the condition and refer you to a specialist, such as a psychiatrist or a psychologist. In some cases, you may also be referred to a dietitian.

In diagnosing binge eating, your GP will ask you about your eating habits and look for three or more of the following signs: • you eat much faster than normal during a binge

• you eat until you feel uncomfortably full • you eat a large amount of food when you are not hungry • you eat alone or secretly due to being embarrassed about the amount of food you are consuming • you have feelings of guilt, shame or disgust after binge eating People who regularly eat this way are likely to be diagnosed with a binge eating disorder.

Treating binge eating. Binge eating is a treatable condition and a number of different treatment options are available.

For example, treatments include: • a self-help programme – this may be individually with a book or online course, or as part of a self-help support group • psychological therapy, such as cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT) • a type of antidepressant known as selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs) that are usually prescribed in combination with therapy If you are overweight, a healthcare professional may draw up a weight loss plan once any psychological issues have been dealt with. This is to help you lose weight in a safe and effective way.

People can recover from binge eating if they can understand the psychological issues causing their condition, adopt regular eating patterns and receive realistic advice about food. ■ NHS Choices

THERE is no single cause for binge eating. However, like most eating disorders, it is seen as a way of coping with feelings of unhappiness and low self-esteem.

The binge eating cycle. People who binge eat often display a particular pattern of behaviour known as the binge eating cycle. The binge eating cycle (described below) is difficult to break.

• binge eating leads to a surge in blood sugar that causes the pancreas to produce insulin (a hormone that helps to break down fat and carbohydrate in the body) • the insulin causes blood sugar levels to fall rapidly, resulting in a false message being sent to the brain that more food is needed to top up glucose levels • this results in cravings for sugary foods to provide a quick glucose fix, so the person eats large quantities of food even when they are not hungry • eating large amounts of sugary foods leads to a rapid increase in blood sugar levels and the production of insulin, causing the cycle to begin again Depression. It is estimated that about 50% of people who binge eat have been depressed at some point in their life. However, it is not clear whether depression causes binge eating or whether binge eating causes depression.

Stress and anxiety. Stress is another common trigger of eating disorders.

Stressful events, such as moving house, job or school, or the death of a friend or relative, can sometimes cause someone to binge eat.

People with eating disorders usually experience difficulties in their personal life. Those who binge eat are often ashamed at the amount of food

that they consume. They may also feel that their lack of control around food mirrors the lack of control they have over their personal lives.

Research has suggested that there are other factors or emotions that may bring on an episode of binge eating, including: • anger • boredom • worry or anxiety • sadness • low self-esteem There are also specific behaviours that are more common in people with a binge eating disorder. These include: • impulsive behaviour – acting quickly without thinking about the consequences • alcohol misuse – regularly drinking more than the recommended daily amount of alcohol • avoiding discussing feelings and emotions openly • not feeling responsible for yourself or your actions Trying to lose weight. The social pressure of trying to achieve a slim body shape can sometimes cause a person to binge eat.

People who binge eat may be unable to achieve their desired body shape. This can result in a sense of inadequacy, causing them to overeat and feel guilty afterwards.

It is not known whether dieting and binge eating are related. However, some people binge eat after: • skipping meals • not consuming enough food each day • avoiding certain foods These are unhealthy methods of trying to lose weight and alter body shape, and these methods increase a person’s risk of binge eating. ■ NHS Choices

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Scoop

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Derek Ramsay on Yolanda survivors: ‘They see you, and it’s like Christmas’ forgotten, as they still need the help of their fellow Filipinos.

“I do that through social media or just going there,” he said.

Derek has also been promoting Gabay Guro, a PLDT-Smart education program based on six pillars: scholarships, trainings, housing and educational facilities, livelihood programs, broadbanding and computerization, and tributes for teachers.

“Tama ‘yung ginagawa nila to rebuild schools. This is one of the best things that the government should do, build proper ones so that if ever there is another typhoon, these kids are safe,” he said.

During his recent visit to Palo, he was able to see the students already using the schools previously handed over by Gabay Guro.

But the rehabilitation of typhoonhit provinces should not be limited to donations, Derek stressed.

“Ang kailangan, kabuhayan.

Create jobs for these people, farming, whatever just to get their life back,” he said. “It’s really sad that it takes a calamity like that for our government to try and do something and help them.

Bakit kailangang may mangyaring ganun? Even before the storm, these people had been struggling.” ■ Tricia

November 2014 / Fortnightly – No. 22 • UK & Europe Edition

Giggling schoolgirls meet Derek Ramsay at an outreach in Palo, Leyte. Photo courtesy of ©Alagang Kapatid Foundation, Inc.

WHEN Derek Ramsay first visited Leyte in the aftermath of Supertyphoon Yolanda, which devastated Eastern Visayas a year ago, cars were still hanging from the edges of houses.

His second visit was not much better. Then, people who seemed to have lost their minds because of the hardship they had endured roamed the streets.

During his fourth visit to mark the anniversary of the storm last week, however, things were looking up.

Despite the dire situation, people had been slowly putting their lives back together. The airport, previously roofless, was perhaps the most tangible proof of this, he told InterAksyon.com in a phone interview.

It was newly renovated when he and Kapatid stars Empoy, Akihiro Blanco, and Nicole Estrada arrived to visit two communities in the municipality of Palo.

The celebrities helped distribute 300 rice buckets from Alagang Kapatid Foundation, PLDT-Smart Foundation, One Meralco Foundation, and Philex Mining. They also helped distribute school kits for elementary school students in Pawing and Candahug Elementary Schools.

To revive the local economy, Alagang Kapatid gave away pedicabs,

barbecue and burger stands, and some livestock. “Volunteer heroes” who helped Alagang Kapatid provide assistance to their neighbors were among the recipients, said Derek.

They were also present for a feeding program.

“It was a great day,” he said. “We also did a little show to lift up their spirits. It was nice to interact with everybody.”

“The Amazing Race Season 2” host could not help but marvel at the strength of Yolanda survivors. He seemed puzzled that a simple visit from a celebrity could brighten up the faces of people who had lost their families, homes, and livelihood.

“They see you and they’re smiling.

They see you and it’s like Christmas. I don’t know why,” Derek said.

While he gives back to them what he can, they too have given him something precious: a sense of what is important in life, as well as gratitude for what he has.

“Bakit ko pa pinoproblema ang mga problema ko sa buhay na napakaliit?” he asked.

Derek urged his fellow stars to take time off to be with those who need the gift of cheer, even though Christmas is still a month away. They can also use their popularity to make sure the survivors of the disaster are not

Aquino / InterAksyon.com / November 12, 2014 / 4:59 PM

A viewing area was set up during the outreach. Photo courtesy of ©Alagang Kapatid Foundation, Inc.

“NICK & Chai”, the acclaimed documentary about two survivors of typhoon Yolanda who lost 17 family members, including all of their four children, won Best Picture in the Circle Competition of the QCinema International Film Festival last Sunday.

Directed by neophyte filmmakers Cha Escala and Wena Sanchez, the film won the Pylon trophy and P300,000 in cash. It also received a special citation for “its intimate observational documentary about a heartbreaking tale that manages to convey an inspirational and positive message.”

In her acceptance speech, Escala said the prize money will go a long way in paying off the debts both she

and Sanchez had incurred over the course of the film’s shoot, including fees of the production staff and loans from friends and family.

As the finished product showed, “Nick & Chai” turned out to be a worthy undertaking for the filmmakers. The documentary focuses on the moving story of Nick and Chai Quieta, a sweet couple from Tanauan, Leyte who lost all of their four children and 13 other family members, including Chai’s mother who was with the children when Yolanda’s storm surges struck, her sister, her sister-in-law and nieces and nephews.

“Nick & Chai” had its world premiere at the Busan International Film Festival last month and is also scheduled to compete at the

International Documentary Film Festival Amsterdam (IDFA) in the Netherlands also this November. In an interview with InterAksyon prior to the film’s Philippine premiere at the QCinema festival, Sanchez said she and Escala became interested in doing the film after the former was introduced to the couple by her sisterin-law Sheila Flores.

As captured on film, the Quieta couple tried their best to pick up the pieces and move on from their loss even as the fond memories of their lost children ages 11 to 1 are preserved by the photographs and pixelated mobile phone videos that they were able to save at the height of Yolanda’s wrath that also destroyed their home.

“I went through a lot of self-

examining of conscience while we were shooting. Being the camera person of this film, shooting them was very difficult for me. In fact, we didn’t use a tripod and lapel mics during the entire shoot, just a very small camera. But every time we were filming, I needed to decide when to take the camera and start recording and when to put the camera down and stop shooting,” Escala confessed.

The children’s birthdays are particularly hard for the couple as they bring food to the common grave where all four and relatives are buried. The couple said that as typhoon victims, they were fortunate to receive what they call a substantial amount of financial assistance, they have decided to share their blessings with members of their community.

“Making this film has made me realize many things about life, death, and relationships. There’s a lot to learn from this couple like selflessness and the courage to move on,” Sanchez noted.

In addition to “Nick & Chai”, three other feature films were honored in the festival. Lem Lorca’s “Mauban: Ang Resiko” won acting honors for Alessandra de Rossi (Best Actress) and

Akihiro Blanco (hidden) and Derek Ramsay lift some lucky women during a show led by Kapatid stars.

Photo courtesy of ©Alagang Kapatid Foundation, Inc.

Empoy and Nicole Estrada perform hosting duties during the games at an outreach in Palo, Leyte.

Photo courtesy of ©Alagang Kapatid Foundation, Inc.

Tricycles were among the forms of livelihood assistance given to Yolanda survivors in Palo, Leyte.

Photo courtesy of ©Alagang Kapatid Foundation, Inc.

Docu on Yolanda survivors wins Best Picture in QCinema fest

Quezon City QC Mayor Herbert Bautista and Vice Mayor Joy Belmonte flank QCinema Best Picture filmmakers Wena Sanchez, Cha Escala and film editor Apol Dating.

Winners and presenters at the QCinema International Film Festival pose with Mayor Herbert Bautista, Vice Mayor Joy Belmonte and other festival officials.

Menggie Cobarrubias (Best Actor).

Real S. Florido’s “1st Ko Si 3rd” was honored with the Pylon trophy for the Gender Sensitivity Award and P100,000 while Carl Joseph Papa’s “Ang Di Paglimot sa Alaala” won the NETPAC Jury Prize for Best Film and P200,000.

Short films were likewise honored, with Victor Villanueva’s “Ang Nanay ni Justin Barber” winning the NETPAC Award for Best Short Film while all five short films (“Tila” by Rob Jara; “Senior”

by Jed Medrano; “Bonifacio” by Grace Simbulan; and “Sa Ngalan ni Ultimate Warrior” by Miko Livelo.) billed as QCX or Quezon City Experience jointly won the Audience Choice Award and P100,000 cash prize.

The QCinema International Film Festival officially concludes this Tuesday, November 11 but all local films will have extra screenings from November 12 to 14 at Fairview Terraces and November 15 to 17 at Robinsons Magnolia under the festival’s extension program, “QCinema Reloaded”. ■ Edwin P. Sallan /

InterAksyon.com / November 11, 2014 / 4:58 PM

& Scoop 5 reasons to watch 9Works Theatrical’s restaging of ‘Grease’ November 2014 / Fortnightly – No. 22 • UK & Europe Edition

IT’S summer in November as 9Works Theatrical brings back “Grease”, the well-loved and awardwinning musical by Jim Jacobs and Warren Casey set in 1959 at the fictional Rydell High School.

One of the longest running shows on Broadway since it was first staged in 1971, “Grease” was also adapted into a Hollywood feature film in 1978 starring John Travolta and Olivia Newton-John. The movie went on to become the highest-grossing musical film of all time, according to Box Office Mojo.

Despite the fact that it was successfully staged by 9Works Theatrical last year and most people are already familiar with the high school romance of Danny and Sandy as well as the Greasers, the Pink Ladies and the rest of the gang, director Robbie Guevarra enumerates several reasons to consider watching this new almost “all-new” production.

1. A brand-new and exciting cast. Gian Magdangal (Danny), Frencheska Farr (Sandy) and Iya Villania (Rizzo) are out. Guji Lorenzana, Tippy Dos Santos and Antoinette Taus are in to portray those respective roles. Guji, Tippy and Antoinette will be interacting with returning cast member Rafa Siguion-

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Reyna who will be reprising the role of Kenickie.

Other new faces in the new production include Steven Silva (Johnny Casino), Marvin Ong (Doody), Alex Godinez (Marty), Nelsito Gomez (Sonny), Gabriela Pangilinan (Cha Cha).

“We have a younger, energetic cast.

This is not going to be the same show that we staged last year,” Guevarra declared during the recent press conference that launched the show.

2. Going back to the 1950s.

As depicted in its stage and film incarnations, “Grease” is a virtual time capsule of the 1950s, the famous era that saw the birth of rock and roll as personified by icons like Elvis Presley, James Dean and teen idol Frankie Avalon.

Fashion statements like slick back hair and leather jackets for boys and pedal pushers and tightlyfitted sweaters for the girls were also showcased in “Grease” as well as well as venues and events like soda fountains, drive-in movies, slumber parties and the much-anticipated high school dance.

Guevarra said the production design of the new show hopes to capture the fun-loving essence of the 50s in a new

and exciting way. It’s no accident that last year’s staging of “Grease” won the PHILSTAGE Gawad Buhay Awards for the Performing Arts for Outstanding Production of Existing Material for a Musical.

3. Those timeless songs. Thanks to a special arrangement with “Grease” film producer Robert Stigwood, songs from both the original musical and its film adaptation are used in the 9Works presentation. These include “Summer Nights,” “Greased Lightnin’,” “You’re the One that I Want,”, “Hopelessly Devoted to You”, “Sandy” and yes, even “Beauty School Dropout”.

“These are the songs that have inspired generations to dream, love, and celebrate the spirit and vitality of youth. And with our energetic dance numbers, you’ll want to get off your seat and dance along with the cast,” Guevarra quipped.

4. The original high school musical.

Guevarra noted that a good story remains key to the success of any musical and the music is not just the reason why “Grease” continues to entertain generations of theater fans. “Through the teenage love story of Danny and Sandy, the energetic brotherhood of the T-Birds, the fun-loving Pink Ladies, and other

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25

The lead cast of 9Works Theatrical’s ‘Grease’. : (clockwise) Guji Lorenzana, Tippy Dos Santos, Rafa Siguion-Reyna and Antoinette Taus.

unforgettable characters, ‘Grease’ truly is the original high school musical,” he noted.

“Grease” is a coming-of-age story that continues to strike a chord in our heartstrings with its universal subjects of growing up, teenage angst, and finding love set against the colorful backdrop of 1950s pop culture.

5. A new set of Teen Angels. Last year, “Grease” featured surprise guests on every show that suited up as the Teen Angels and serenaded Frenchy (still played by returning cast member Peachy Atilano) during the “Beauty School Dropout” number.

These guests included Audie Gemora, Michael de Mesa, Franco Laurel, JM Rodriguez, Boboy Garrovillo, Tirso Cruz III, Tim Yap, OJ Mariano, Jake Macapagal, Raul Montesa, Bo Cerrudo, and Tom

Rodriguez.

This year, Guevarra promised that an all-new line-up of Teen Angels will again delight audiences. “Be on the lookout for this new set of Teen Angels we’ve cooked up for you,” he declared.

Also starring Reb Atadero, Vince Lim, Sarah Facuri, James Stacey, Harold Cruz, Sab Jose and Angela Padilla, the 9Works Theatrical production of “Grease” will run all weekends from November 15 to December 7, 2014. Friday and Saturday galas are scheduled at 8PM, Saturday matinees at 3:30PM and Sunday matinees at 4PM. For tickets and other inquiries, email info@9workstheatrical.com or visit Facebook: 9workstheatrical or Twitter and Instagram: @9WTonline.

Hashtag: #GreaseManila ■ Edwin P. Sallan / InterAksyon.com / November 14, 2014 / 7:13 PM

Christopher Ad Castillo bounces back from Cinemalaya debacle with new film WHEN it was first announced last year that the son of the late, legendary filmmaker Celso Ad Castillo would make his feature film debut with a Cinemalaya entry at that, the news was naturally met with high expectations.

So when Christopher Ad Castillo’s “The Diplomat Hotel”, a horror thriller based on the haunted hotel of the same name in Baguio City failed to meet those expectations, the director took a lot of heat for all the negative feedback critics threw at the film.

As it turns out, what viewers saw on Cinemalaya was not the film Castillo had envisioned.

Christopher Ad Castillo on the set of ‘In Darkness We Live’.

“I’ve never really spoken out about ‘The Diplomat Hotel’. Here’s what happened. Right after I finished principal photography on the film, I had a prior commitment to do a film in Los Angeles so I left with specific instructions on the editing. It was a film designed for deception and it was important that my cut be followed.

Let’s just say that the film was not my cut. I put my trust on people and I was disappointed,” Castillo told InterAksyon.

But even as Direk Chris hopes to do a director’s cut of “The Diplomat Hotel” someday, he has moved on from the experience. Recently, he completed “In Darkness We Live” a new horror

slasher film that placed second in the voting for the Audience Choice award in the recently concluded QCinema International Film Festival.

As selected by a board of jurors composed of celebrated filmmaker Lav Diaz, veteran actress Jaclyn Jose and Indonesian film producer John Badalu, “In Darkness We Live” also scored Best Actor nominations for lead stars Mon Confiado and Alex Vincent Medina.

Castillo declared that he was “in command of the whole creative process from beginning to end” this time around.

“What you see on the screen is what I envisioned. My producer Suzette Ranillo put her trust on me and in

Director Christopher Ad Castillo (center) with the cast of ‘In Darkness We Live’, Jerald Napoles, Mon Confiado, Imelda Schweighart and Alex Vincent Medina.

return I took some of her suggestions seriously and even incorporated some of her ideas,” he noted.

Castillo said the film is about bank robbers (Confiado, Medina, Jerald Napoles and Imelda Schweighart) who are on the run after a caper gone awry. They end up in a forest where they discover a house occupied by a young girl (Katy Fernandez) and her mysterious grandmother (Ms. Gloria Sevilla).

“The idea was borne about by my love for Takashi Miike gangster films and French slasher films of the ’90s. It’s not your traditional exercise in horror but more of a drama and the toll the extreme psyche exerts on the human soul. I toy with the idea of a myth and its effects on people who are already on the edge while being violent by nature.”

In terms of style, Castillo added that while “The Diplomat Hotel” was more “visually dreamlike with its flowing cameras”, “In Darkness We Live” is “more raw and in your face.”

“It’s like a punch out of nowhere. It’s in your space and it doesn’t care what you think,” he added.

Asked if he will continue to stick to doing horror features similar to the

works of the likes of Wes Craven, Clive Barker and Rob Zombie, Castillo said that as extremely violent as “In Darkness We Live” is, he does not see himself specializing exclusively on these types of films.

“It just so happens that I really feel like doing something extremely dark at the moment,” he pointed out.

“I’m going to do an erotic film sometime soon. I’m very much interested in that and I’ve already started with some erotic scenes in this film. I’ll do other things that are maybe even lighter in tone but I will always go back to horror because fear of the unknown will always be fun to do. You can’t box in my father because of the vastly different materials he tackled. I’d like to attempt the same.”

As part of the “QCinema Reloaded” extension of the QCinema International Film Festival, “In Darkness We Live” will have additional screenings this Friday, November 14 at Fairview Terraces (7:30PM) and Monday, November 17 at Robinsons Magnolia (9:30PM).

■ Edwin P. Sallan / InterAksyon.com / November 14,

2014 / 7:47 AM

& Scoop Cherie Gil pages Meryl Streep over ‘Maria Callas portrait’ in Dutch resto 26

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SOMEBODY please tell Meryl Streep. And why not Mike Nichols, too?

Upon learning that a publicity photo of her in character as legendary Greek soprano Maria Callas had ended up as an etched portrait displayed prominently at a posh Greek restaurant in The Netherlands, actress Cherie Gil posted this reaction on Twitter on Tuesday.

As first reported by InterAksyon, the portrait of Gil as Callas was discovered by a Filipina tourist named Noemi Katuin inside the Platia restaurant in the small town of Druten.

There, she learned from a waiter that the restaurant’s management had commissioned an artist two years ago to do a portrait of Callas, and the artist mistakenly copied a photo of Gil in character as Callas from the 2010 Philippine production of Terrence McNally’s play, “Master Class”.

That same play is being adapted into an upcoming HBO made-fortelevision movie by director Mike Nichols and it will star legendary actress Streep as mentioned by Cherie in her tweet.

Last year, Cherie again played an opera singer, a fictitious one at that, who lost her voice and retreated to her hometown in Negros in “Sonata”,

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the acclaimed indie feature of Peque Gallaga and Lore Reyes where she was nominated for Best Actress in the Gawad Urian awards.

Meanwhile, Katuin said she had no idea what the restaurant’s management did with the painting after she had made them realize that it was not Callas.

“They said they were gonna try to go back to the artist who did it and/ or get a refund or replacement. We left Druten so I really have no clue what happened after that. I am now in Purmerend in the Netherlands and then will be off to Barcelona where my hubby is based,” Katuin told InterAksyon in an online interview on Tuesday. ■ Edwin P. Sallan / InterAksyon.com /

November 2014 / Fortnightly – No. 22 • UK & Europe Edition

Cherie Gil as Maria Callas in a publicity photo for the 2010 production of the Terrence McNally play “Master Class’.

Noemi Katuin, a Filipina currently vacationing in Europe, poses beside the Cherie Gil as Maria Callas protrait in Platia, a Greek restaurant in Druten, The Netherlands.

November 12, 2014 / 7:56 AM

Primetime King Dingdong Dantes invades ‘Bet ng Bayan’ this Sunday SA darating na Linggo (November 16), ang Kapuso Primetime King na si Dingdong Dantes ang isa sa mga uupong judge sa Northern Luzon Regional Showdown ng Bet ng Bayan.

Walang makalalampas sa mapanuring mata ng veteran StarStruck host at makakasama rin niya ang mga institusyon sa larangan ng musika na sina Kuh Ledesma at Jim Paredes. Sino kaya ang magiging bet nilang tatlo?

Abangan niyo rin ang mga magpapasiklaban sa kantahan

ngayong Huwebes na sina John Andrew Manzano, Roxette Malamion at Rocelle Nava.

Makikilala niyo si John Andrew, ang balladeer-turned-pop rock singer, na nagsusumikap magkaroon ng singing career para mapagamot ang lolo niyang may sakit.

Alamin kung bakit si Rocelle na tubong Ilocos Sur ay patok sa mga lamay.

Mamamangha rin kayo sa determinasyon ni Roxette from Baguio city na matapang na hinarap ang sakit

niyang rheumatic heart disease at pilit pa ring inaabot ang pangarap niyang maging sikat na performer.

Lahat ‘yan mapapanood niyo sa Bet ng Bayan daily updates sa GMA Telebabad pagkatapos ngIlustrado.

At sa Linggo ng gabi, tunghayan ang Bet ng Bayan Northern Luzon Regional Showdown hosted by Asia’s Songbird Regine Velasquez-Alcasid and Alden Richards pagkatapos ng Kapuso Mo, Jessica Soho. ■ Aedrianne Acar / GMANetwork.

com / November 14, 2014 / 8:19 PM

Isabelle de Leon has showbiz crushes but prioritizes career over love life

ALL grown up and ready for her “Wattpad Presents” close-up, Isabelle de Leon still does not mind being called Duday, her most famous role as a child actress in the hit ’90s sitcom “Da De Di Do Du” where she played the youngest daughter of Vic Sotto’s widower character.

In fact, Isabelle said she is still referred to as Duday on the set of her upcoming film “My Big Bossing’s Adventure”, even by Bossing Vic who again plays her father on the big screen.

“Everyone still calls me Duday. It’s

Isabelle de Leon.

okay, I don’t mind. I think those who call me by that name means that they’re somehow still fond of me,” Isabelle told InterAksyon and other media during the pocket press conference for her latest project for TV5, the ongoing primetime mini-series, “Wattpad Presents: Diary ng Hindi Malandi (Slight Lang)”.

The 19-year-old actress who is also making a name for herself as a hitmaking singer-songwriter said not having a problem with how people see her is part of her maturity as an artist.

“It’s really up to the fans if they prefer

to call me Duday or Isabelle. I just try to make the best of the opportunities thrown my way.”

As opportunities go, a good number landed on her lap this year. Together with fellow musical artists Lara Maigue and Katrina Velarde, Isabelle is headlining the weekly musical comedy-drama series “Trenderas”, which continues to air every Saturday night.

There’s also the aforementioned Metro Manila Film Festival entry where Isabelle says she is more than thrilled to be reunited with her longtime TV dad.

A sequel to the 2013 MMFF top grosser “My Little Bossings”, “My Big Bossing’s Adventure” is expected to duplicate, if not exceed, the box office performance of its predecessor. For Isabelle, that also means exposure to a bigger audience for her.

And then there’s “Diary ng Hindi Malandi (Slight Lang)”, a Wattpad story written by owwSIC which to date has garnered over 3.5 million reads—a huge captive audience for the TV adaptation right off the bat.

Isabelle read several Wattpad stories prior to this series and considers herself a fan of the popular online reading community. She said she’s very happy

to be given the role of Pipay, a young girl who adheres to an old but strange superstitious belief that the only way she can get the attention of the object of her affection (Ken Anderson) is to not take a bath for days.

“Marami akong ginawa dito na nakakawala ng dignidad. Meron pa akong ginawang kakaibang sayaw para lang makuha ang puso ng mahal ko,” she quipped.

Unlike Pipay who is depicted in the story as someone who doesn’t like to bathe a lot, Isabelle said she’s the exact opposite who in addition to frequently hitting the showers also likes to collect perfumes. But she said she can relate to her Wattpad character in at least one aspect.

“One thing that I think Pipay and I have in common is that we both love our families very much. Sobrang magmahal sa pamilya si Pipay and I think that’s something you will also love about her,” she revealed.

As for the way Pipay fell head over heels for a guy considered as a campus heartthrob, Isabelle said that is something she could not relate with on a personal level since like fellow Kapatid star Ritz

Azul, she is also a member of the “No Boyfriend since Birth” or NBSB Club.

Not that she does not have her share of crushes, Isabelle said she actually has several. Pressed to name names, she relented and identified fellow artist Bamboo and Brazilian-Japanese hunk Daniel Matsunaga as at least two of them.

“I really like Bamboo for the way he performs and the way he connects with his audience. With Daniel, it’s just not just his good looks. One look at him at you know he’s a good person and I really admire his faith in God,” she explained.

Even with these crushes, Isabelle said she’s in no hurry to be in a relationship and believes that everything including the future man in her life will fall into place in God’s time.

For now, Isabelle de Leon’s career takes centerstage as she also revealed that she was recently signed by Mother Lily Monteverde and is now considered one of the new Regal Babies.

Also starring Edgar Allan Guzman, “Wattpad Presents: Diary ng Hindi Malandi (Slight Lang)” airs on TV5 every weekday this week at 9:30PM. ■ Edwin P. Sallan / InterAksyon.com / November 12, 2014 / 12:45 PM

November 2014 / Fortnightly – No. 22 • UK & Europe Edition

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Renz, Hiro, and Betong celebrate ‘Give Back November’ KAPUSO actors Renz Valerio, Hiro Peralta, and Betong Sumaya gathered together for an afternoon filled with love to celebrate their birthdays.

The trio, who are celebrating their birthdays this November, surprised the girls of Christian Compassion Ministries.

Christian Compassion Ministries in Antipolo City started in 2000 and consists of four houses. These houses shelter girls who are studying in elementary and highschool levels.

In an interview, Renz and Betong revealed that it was their first time to have this kind of birthday celebration.

Betong said, “sobrang natutuwa ako kasi first time ko dito. Kami ni Renz, first time namin magcelebrate dito. Isipin niyo ‘di ba? Wow,

amazing! Salamat sa GMA Artist Center sa napakagandang surpresa.

Nakakatuwa kasi alam naman nating may pinagdadaanan ang mga batang ito. Nakakatuwa na kahit papaano e nakapagbigay kami at nai-celebrate ang special day namin kasama sila.”

Renz added that he was thankful to be able to share on his 16th birthday.

“Ako po very overwhelmed kasi dati hindi ko po na-try ‘to kasi busy po ako last year. Pero ngayon, nagkaroon ng free time. Buti nga in-arrange ng Artist Center at dito pa,” he said.

Hiro revealed that giving back on their birthdays is a family tradition.

He said, “Sanay na ako sa ganitong event kasi every year, annually yung family ko nag-se-set lagi ng charity event. Siguro minimum of four, so

“give back November” actually ang tawag namin. Lahat kami pag may birthdays, give back sa mga tao.”

A birthday celebration will not end without a birthday wish, so the Kapuso actors shared their heart’s desire for this year.

Hiro said, “sana sa career marami pang trabahong matanggap. Sana healthy ako; every year gumigising ako na okay ako.”

Renz jested that he wants one of his Kuya Hiro’s assets.

“Ako po gusto ko pong maging kasing tangkad ni Kuya Hiro,” he quipped.

He added, “siyempre po good health para long life, success rin sa career kasi it’s a long way to go. Gusto ko pong maabot yung mga naabot ng

mga idol ko. And sana, dumalas po ‘yung mga ganito, ‘yung pag-give back sa mga tao. Fortunate po kami, ‘yung iba less fortunate, so sana makapagshare po kami sa mga tao.”

Betong who has had a successful career for the past few years was teased that he doesn’t need to wish for

anything. He answered, “I just wish you a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.” “[I wish for] good health and sana patuloy po tayong makapagbigay sa mga tao,” he concluded. ■ Ann Charmaine Aquino and Maine Aquino / GMANetwork.com / November 14, 2014 / 3 :40 PM

Valerie Weigmann aims for backto-back Miss World wins for PHL

Tom Rodriguez, Luis Gabriel Moreno to get stars at Eastwood Walk of Fame KABILANG sa 23 personalidad sa loob at labas ng showbiz na mabibigyan ng bituin sa Walk of Fame sa Eastwood, Quezon City sa darating na Diyembre ang Kapuso actor na si Tom Rodriguez at ang kauna-unahang Pinoy gold medalist sa nagdaang 2014 Youth Olympics na si Luis Gabriel Moreno.

Nag-uwi ng 16-year-old archer ang gintong medalya sa mixed international team archery event mula sa 2014 Summer Youth Olympic noong Agosto sa China.

Si Tom Rodriguez naman ang isa sa mga pinakakilalang Kapuso actor ngayon matapos bumida sa internationally-acclaimed series na My Husband’s Lover kasama si Dennis Trillo.

Napanood rin si Tom sa GMA primetime series na My Destiny kasama si Carla Abellana, at kasalukuyan siyang host sa game show na Don’t Lose the Money ng GMA. Mapapanood rin si Tom sa MMFF 2014 entry na Praybeyt Benjamin 2 sa darating na Disyembre.

Ayon kay Master Showman German Moreno, ang punong-abala sa pagpili ng mga magagawaran ng bituin sa Walk of Fame, pinili ang mga personalidad base sa kasikatan nila at sa mga naiambag

nila sa Pilipinas at sa kani-kanilang larangan.

Bukod kay Tom at Luis, kabilang rin sa mga mabibigyan ng bituin ang Kapuso artists na sina Allan K at Queen of Soul Jaya.

Nasa listahan rin sina Direk Joey Lamangan, mga beteranong aktor na si Daisy Romualdez, Lito Legaspi, Angelito Nepomuceno, Chanda Romero, Dante Rivero, at Tony Ferrer, ballet dancer na si Liza Macuja-Elizalde, hosts na sina Willie Revillame, Cory Quirino, at Vice Ganda, at ang mga aktor at aktres na sina Aiko Melendez, Angel Aquino, Sylvia Sanchez, Kathryn Bernardo, Daniel Padilla, Carmi Martin, Jestoni Alarcon, at Evangeline Pascual.

Gaganapin ang pagawad ng bituin sa December 1 sa Eastwood, Quezon City.

Itinatag ang Eastwood Walk of Fame noong December 1, 2005 alinsunod sa Hollywood Walk of Fame sa Amerika. Nasundan ito ng pagkakatatag ng Kapuso Walk of Fame sa paligid ng GMA Network Center sa Timog, Quezon City noong March 23, 2014 sa pangunguna ni Kuya Germs.

■ Bianca Rose Dabu / JST, GMA News / November 12,

2014 / 7:12 PM

TWENTY-YEAR-OLD Valerie Weigmann witnessed her life transform in a span of a few months.

Earlier this year, she was going around barangays with the Sugod Bahay Gang of Eat Bulaga. She afterwards trained with an imaging consultancy company to prepare herself for a journey that has now changed her life.

Last October, she joined the Miss World 2014 Philippines pageant, bagged most of the special awards and brought home the crown. She will represent the country in the international tilt next month.

Miss World Philippines National Director Cory Quirino is hopeful about how Valerie will fair in the competition.

Valerie is first and foremost, flattered that Cory is all praises for her.

“I’m just happy that she thinks I’m already totally prepared for it and

that she thinks that I can do it [and] represent my country [well],” Valerie told GMANetwork.com.

She is determined for another win for the Philippines, to follow the feat of Megan

Young last year.

“I’m really excited to go out to work for the back-to-back win,” she said. ■ Mary Louise Ligunas / GMANetwork.com / November 14, 2014 / 4:44 PM

Noted Manila-born events director named Fil-Australian of the Year

KNOWN around the world as a top-notch event director, Ignatius Jones has been named Filipino-Australian of the Year during the 13th Annual Conference of the Filipino Communities Council of Australia (FILCCA).

Lauded as an inspiration to Filipinos

Philippine Ambassador to Australia Belen F. Anota presents to Mr. Ignatius Jones the trophy as winner of the Filipino-Australian of the Year award from the Filipino Communities Council of Australia. ©DFA photo

in Australia, Jones was awarded the recognition in front of representatives of Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott, NSW Premier Mike Baird, and Philippine Ambassador to Australia Belen F. Anota last October 25.

Jones, in his acceptance speech, noted the artistic talents of Filipinos in Australia, and the multicultural beauty of the Philippines, according to a news release by the Department of Foreign Affairs.

Born in Singalong, Manila, to Basque-Chinese and Catalan-American parents in 1957, Jones moved to Australia when he was five, according to an ABC report.

After training in classical ballet, Jones, whose real name is Juan Ignacio Trapaga, branched out to rock, jazz, theater, and even journalism before

settling as an events director for various high-profile events, a separate report on ABC said.

In an interview with ABC, Jones wrote that Vivid Sydney, an event he has been supervising since 2011, was successful because it was free and took “art out of the museums, of the walls and onto the streets” where people can interact with it.

Vivid Sydney attracted 1.43 million in 2014, breaking all previous attendance records of the event.

Jones has also been in charge of the Sydney Mardi Gras Parade since 2011, and has directed events such as the Sydney Olympic Ceremonies in 2000, the Doha Asian Games Ceremonies in 2006, and the Vancouver Winter Olympic Games in 2010. ■ Rie Takumi / KBK,

GMA News / November 12, 2014 / 2:53 PM

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November 2014 / Fortnightly – No. 22 • UK & Europe Edition

As farmers march from Davao to Malacanang, Ateneans back calls for coco levy trust fund MANILA – On the 55th day since 71 coconut farmers began marching from Davao to Malacanang, the Ateneo community issued a statement backing the call for President Benigno Aquino III to issue an executive order creating the Coconut Farmers Trust Fund.

As of Tuesday this week, the members of KILUS-Magniniyog (KM71) had already walked 1,558 kilometers since September 21.

They hope to complete the march in 71 days.

The trust fund the farmers seek will set a plan for the use of the P71billion coco levy held by the National Treasury and the United Coconut Planters Bank. They want to be able to tap into the money themselves so as to develop the coconut industry and coconut-based enterprises, enabling them to compete globally.

The statement, issued by Ateneans for Agrarian Reform Movement (AFARM) and Buklod Atenista, said the farmers never benefited from the fees they paid when former President Ferdinand Marcos issued presidential decrees to collect P9.7 billion through the Philippine Coconut Authority.

Neither did they benefit from

the funds under subsequent administrations.

AFARM is a social justice task force of rural development advocates, while Buklod Atenista is an alliance of student governments of Ateneo de Manila University, Ateneo de Naga University, Ateneo de Davao University, Xavier University – Ateneo de Cagayan, and Ateneo de Zamboanga University.

“We condemn the coco levy issue as the biggest scam that hit our country, having been left unresolved for 42 years. We side with the 3.5 million Filipino farmers who were robbed of their contributions during the Marcos dictatorship and who currently remain as tenants and farm workers mostly in small farms unreached by the existing agrarian reform legislation in the country,” they said in the Ateneans’ Manifesto on the issue, titled “Laban Niyugan: Laban Para Sa Kinabukasan.”

According to the National AntiPoverty Commission, 41 percent of coconut farmers belong to the poorest of the poor. At most, they earn P16,000 per year per household.

The Ateneans echoed the call of the coconut farmers that the funds be used to directly impact their lives,

The coconut farmers marching from Davao to Malacanang . Photo by Bart Manoguid.

to build fresh coconut processing hubs as an alternative to the copracentric coconut industry, and to put the recovered coconut levy fund in a perpetual trust fund, “the annual interest earnings of which must be used in programs to develop the coconut industry with the upliftment of lives of farmers as the end goal.”

They pressed Aquino and lawmakers to certify the Coconut Trust Fund Bill as urgent, as well.

The groups urged their fellow

Ateneans and other youth to join them in fighting for farmers’ rights by first signing the manifesto here: Buklod Atenista will also be conducting awareness campaigns, donation drives, and signature campaigns in each of the five universities as part of their solidarity with the farmers.

On November 20, the 71 farmers will stay overnight at the Ateneo de Manila University, where they will be participating in a solidarity program

with students and attend mass to be presided by school president Fr. Jose Ramon Villarin.

On a related note, KILUSMagniniyog also launched a petition on advocacy platform Change.org early this month, asking Aquino to sign an Executive Order creating the Coconut Farmers’ Trust Fund and certify as urgent the bill filed in Congress.

“May this one act of justice be one of your legacies,” the letter read. ■ Tricia Aquino / InterAksyon.com / November 14, 2014 / 1:03 PM

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November 2014 / Fortnightly – No. 22 • UK & Europe Edition

10 tales of survival and hope, sorrow and despair, a year after Yolanda TACLOBAN CITY – The ordeal they underwent, punctuated by the images of death and destruction, of loved ones and homes lost, as the powerful storm surge and 195-kilometer per hour winds of super typhoon Yolanda laid waste to Leyte’s capital city, Tacloban, are forever etched in the minds of those who survived the strongest storm to make landfall in recorded history.

As will their struggle -- for many unfinished or barely begun -- to get back on their feet and rebuild their shattered lives in the year since November 8, 2013.

And indeed, their stories and emotions are varied as they look back on the year past. Sorrow, yes, a lot of it, and anger too, amid calls for government to really get its act together and help them rise again.

But also hope and inspiration, for themselves, to their families, and to others as, individually and collectively, they move on.

Here are some of their stories:

Arib has been a security guard at the Department of Tourism Region 8 office for the past three years.

LIFE LESSONS: Pedro Arib, 33

“Aminin ko, kasama ako doon sa mga looters na sinasabi nila. Nakasama ako doon kasi kailangan naming mabuhay.

Kailangan ko pakainin pamilya ko kasi wala talagang natira sa amin, totally, walang natira (I admit I was among those they call looters. I joined in because we needed to live. I needed to feed my family because we were left with nothing, totally nothing).”

As Yolanda ravaged Tacloban, Arib left his wife and three children in an evacuation center to join his 62-year old mother and brother, who were still at their house in Barangay Alimasag, which was already in ruins. The three of them donned life vests Arib had borrowed from his office before going home and decided to try for the nearest evacuation center.

And then the storm surge swept them away.

His eyes tear up and he taps on his logbook before continuing: “Ang sakit eh. Hindi ko maiwasan umiyak.

Ewan ko,parang kung minsan ayaw ko na pag-usapan, kahit sila (family), ‘di ako nagsalita dito (It still hurts. I can’t help but cry. I don’t know, sometimes I don’t want to talk about it, even they, I haven’t told them about this).”

“Simula Alimasag hanggang Astrodome, nadala kami ng tubig. Wala na, hindi na namin alam, parang isinilid na kami sa washing machine. Hindi namin alam anong nangyari. Right after, ewan ko kung ilang minuto, ilang ano, pero nandito na kami sa Sagkahan (From Alimasag to the Astrodome, the water took us. Nothing, we couldn’t tell what was happening, it was like we had been dumped in a washing machine.

We did not know what was happening.

Right after, I don’t know how many minutes, how long, we found ourselves in Sagkahan),” Arib reluctantly told InterAksyon.com.

He found his mother, injured, her clothes torn off. But all three of them survived.

After the storm had moved on, Arib looked for food for his family and medicine for his mother. “Ang gusto ko lang talaga ay makakain ang pamilya ko, makahanap ako ng damit, wala akong ibang intensyon, wala (All I wanted was to feed my family, find some clothes, I had no other intention, none).”

Today, Arib and his family live in a house lent by a good friend in Imelda town. He is also slowly building his own house in Sta. Rita.

Yet, despite the bitter memories that haunt him, Arib says he has also learned an important lesson from their ordeal. “‘Yung mga material na ‘yan na pinaghirapan natin bilhin, walang kuwenta iyan. Tapos naging mas close pa kami ng pamilya ko, mas natuto ako maging tao (The material things that we toil so hard to buy, they are nothing. And we in my family have become closer, I have learned to be a better person).”

Cesar Cayanong with one of his works.

MY LIFE IS IN MY HANDS: Cesar Cayanong, 60

“Nakatayo na. Nakabangon na.”

Outside his signage shop on Real Street in Sigkahan district, covered in inspirational messages and opinionated images, Cesar Cayanong stood looking as if he was eager to talk to anyone.

Approaching us, he showed us

some of his work and gave us a tour of his shop. Moments later, he began recounting his experience during the typhoon and how he managed to get back on his feet. “‘Yung bahay ko dito, totally washed out. Noong magbigay dito ng relief, ‘di ako nabigyan kasi wala iyong pangalan ko sa listahan ng barangay. ‘Yung Tzu Chi (Foundation), nagbigay ng kaunting halaga na pinambili ko ulit ng mga gamit,ng pintura. Iyan ang bumubuhay sa amin. Marami na ‘ko napintahan na jeep after Yolanda. Ngayon na lang ulit maraming nagpapagawa (My house here was totally washed out.

When they were giving out relief, I got nothing because my name was not in the list of the barangay. Tzu Chi gave me some money with which I bought tools and paint. That is what keeps us alive. I have painted several jeeps already after Yolanda. But it is only recently that I am getting many jobs),” Cayanong said.

Cayanong said the images he saw during the storm have inspired him to make his inspiration signs, including those he paints on the vehicles of his customers, mostly pedicab and jeepney drivers. “‘Yung mga natirang brush na ‘di natangay ng Yolanda, nagpipinta ako dito ng mga inspirational (messages).

Marami na kong naisulat, ‘yung una kong sinulat ‘yung sa cellphone kasi pagkatapos ng bagyo maraming gustong tumawag pero walang signal kaya ‘yung iba naiiyak na; kaya pinunturahan ko ng spray paint ‘yung tirang kahoy (With the brushes that Yolanda hadn’t swept away, I painted these inspirational messages. I have done so many, but the first was the cellphone because after the storm many wanted to call but there was no signal and many were crying; so I spray painted a crap of wood): ‘With or without the signal, Jesus will answer you’,” Cayanong said.

“Ganoon naman, kailangan mainspire talaga (It’s like that, people need to be inspired) in times of need,” he added.

And then he stopped, teary-eyed, before saying this was the first time he had cried since the disaster.

Ironically, the house Cayanong has built is threatened with demolition because of a road-widening project of the provincial government.

Despite this, he remains hopeful.

“Sisirain din itong mga bahay na ito.

Ang sabi nila, before daw ng Yolanda, programa na ‘yon. Naghihintay lang tayo kung dumating na ‘yon. Gusto ko, kahit dumating iyong panahon na ‘yon, ‘yung maibibigay nila sa nakatira dito, maayos muna nila para walang problema (This house will be demolished. They said, even

before Yolanda, this was already programmed. We are just waiting for that to happen. All I want is, when that time comes, the assistance they give to those living here is sufficient so there will be no more problems),” Cayanong said.

“Wala namang problema sa trabaho ko, nandito naman puhunan ko.

Wala na itong shop, wala na bahay ko, pero narito buhay ko (There is no problem with my job, this is where my investment lies. This shop will be gone, my house will be gone, but my life is here),” he said repeatedly pointing to his right hand.

The band with no name practices beside a destroyed building on the Maharlika Highway.

BAND WITH NO NAME: Ernesto Nobe Jr., 42, Candido Mercado, 63, Gener Paglinawan, 54, and Mike Almendras, 46

“Pinagtagpo kami ng Yolanda (Yolanda brought us together).”

We found the band practicing for a gig beside a gutted building by the side of the Maharlika Highway.

But more than a source of income, their shared love for music and the playful variety and pop songs in their repertoire are what bind them together as they struggle to get back on their feet.

Each of them has a story to tell about losing the members of their previous bands to the storm, stories they apparently are not yet ready to share.

“Baka maluha ako. Kapag iniinterview ako, babalik na naman ‘yung nakaraan na nabuhay ako (I might cry.

Every time I am interviewed, I relive the past and how I survived),” said lead guitarist Almendras. “Inaaliw na lang namin sarili namin sa pagtugtog (We distract ourselves with our music).”

Paglinawan, the drummer, hastens to add: “Kasi kasiyahan din namin ito eh. Pasalamat din tayo na nakasurvive tayo (Because this is also our happiness. And we are also grateful we survived).”

They said they would think of a band name in the near future.

He remembers November 8 as the day he did not believe he, his wife and daughter could have survived.

“Nandito lang kami sa loob ng kuwarto, sa ganiyang sulok. Naupo na lang kami kasi wala na talaga.

Tapos noong nag-attempt pa kami na bumaba, naggulong-gulong sila doon.

Ako, nadala ako ng hangin, nakakapit lang ako sa lalagyan ng damit (We were just here inside a room, in a corner. We sate down because there was nothing more to be done. When we attempted to go down, they were hurled here and there. I was snatched by the wind but managed to hold on to a closet),” he recalled.

“Tapos parang maiiyak ka, maiiyak ka talaga kasi nakakatakot talaga ‘yung parang New Year ba, ‘yung parang sumasabog lahat, tapos ‘yung mga glass nababasag, may mga sanga ng kahoy. Tapos, nu’ng malakas na malakas na talaga, parang wala na ‘yung kaba, parang accept mo na lahat ng mangyayari sa’yo. Nagyakapan na lang kami (And then you felt like crying, crying because it was really scary, like New Year, everything exploding, glass shattering, tree branches hurtling. And then, when it got as strong as it could get, it seemed the fear left, like you had accepted what would happen to you.

We just embraced each other).”

After the ordeal, he painted drowning people until, months later, his work underwent a transformation -- colorful images of sprouting plants, like the works in his “Usbong Series 7.”

“Para lang ito sa exhibit, tungkol ito sa mga pagbangon, makulay lang siya, symbols lang siya ng bagyo, tapos may tumutubo nang mga halaman.

Tapos ito ‘yung mga pattern ng pinta ng pintado tattoo, kasi kilala ang Tacloban sa pintados (These are all for an exhibit about rising up, they are colorful, full of symbols, with growing plants. And the patterns of the paint are like pintado [ancient Visayans] tattoos, because Tacloban is known for the pintados).”

His other series, “Resilience 2” and “Resilience 3,” depict survivors exchanging stories of their experiences and of resilience.

PAINTING HOPE: Dante Enage, 42

“Para ito sa isang exhibit, tungkol ito sa mga pagbangon (These are for an exhibit, it’s about rising up again).”

Enage, in his still half-damaged studio in Barangay 83, San Jose, stands amid his colorful paintings, which he says speak of recovery, hope, and resilience.

Enage shows his colorful artworks.

November 2014 / Fortnightly – No. 22 • UK & Europe Edition

“Mas gusto ko ng sariling sikap kaysa maghintay. Hindi na maganda ‘yung hintay-hintay, maghanapbuhay na lang sa sarili natin. Kaya naman natin ‘di ba? Maganda na iyong pinagsisikapan.

Kung magbigay, salamat (I would rather work on my own than wait. Waiting is never good, we might as well make a living ourselves. We can do it, can’t we? The fruit of your effort is always good. If someone gives anything, then thank you),” says Geronima who, while insisting she remains positive about the situation, also admits to frustration about constantly receiving news of possible government assistance only to find none forthcoming, almost a year since their house was washed away by Yolanda.

“Hindi na ako maghihintay kasi ‘yung mga sinasabi nilang mga bigay-bigay, hanggang ngayon wala pa naman kaming natatanggap, istorya lang siguro ‘yon (I will wait no longer because everything they say about relief due us has never come true until now, it must be nothing but talk),” she said.

Borrowing a sewing machine from a fellow church member, Geronima revived her tailoring business from scratch. Beginning with member of her church, she began sewing curtains, uniforms, even wedding dresses.

Months later, she recruited her husband, Aurelio, a pedicab driver, who started sewing for her. Geronima asked the office of the vice mayor for another sewing machine, which she got after five months of continuous visits to follow up on her request.

The couple work out of the bunkhouse that serves as their temporary shelter in Barangay 95, Caibaan.

With their livelihood taken care of, the couple awaits the day when they can transfer to a permanent home. “‘Yung permanent house namin, madaliin ba. Mabagal, sabi nila June lilipat kami doon, eh ano na ngayon, October na (They should hurry with the permanent housing. It’s so slow, they told us we would transfer in June but what is it now, it’s already October),” Geronima said.

breaking news of the approaching storm. By the evening of November 7, their preparations were done, with enough food stocked and protective gear such as raincoats and boots ready, their field reports deployed.

Around 1 a.m. of November 8, Requiez headed to Tolosa from where he gave a situation report. He remembered it was calm but his gut told them something really bad was about to happen because the birds were restless.

As he headed back to the station, which was near the sea, Requiez urged his son, who was also one of his reporters, to go home.

On their way, the wind turned violent, rocking their vehicle.

When they reached home in Magallanes, they checked on their family and filed another situation report. Moments later, he lost phone contact with the station and noticed the waters rising rapidly.

“Nakikita namin ‘yung tubig, malakas talaga … umabot na sa atip namin, saka nakikita ko na ‘yung mga sasakyan na galing doon sa may kanto, sa kabilang kalsada. Hangin at tubig, hangin, malakas talaga, kaya lang ‘yung ibang sasakyan, kung hindi sumabit sa kuryente, sa bahay namin talaga. ‘Yung ginawa ko, sa kuwarto (ko) sila (pinapunta) dahil walang tubig. Dinala ko sila lahat sa lababo, wala na kaming atip, wala nang kisame, wala, naghihintay na lang kami ng mangyayari sa amin (We saw the water rising, the current was really strong … it rose to the level of our roof and I could see the vehicles from the other road being carried off. Wind and water, wind, really strong, and some of the vehicles, those that did not snag on power lines, headed for our house.

What I did was bring my family to a room where water had not entered.

I placed them by the sink, we had no more roof, no more ceiling, nothing, we were just waiting for what would happen to us),” Requiez said.

“Malakas na malakas talaga ‘yung ulan, ‘yung hangin, hindi na namin makikita ‘yung tapat namin. Wala, saka makikita mo ‘yung mga tao d’yan, noong tumaas ‘yung baha, makikita mo ‘yung mga tao. Ewan ko kung may buhay, o patay, naglulutangan na ‘yan, naghihingi ng tulong, paano ka makakatulong, kahit ikaw nga gusto mo humingi ng tulong, kaya lang mabilis din ‘yung pagbaba ng tubig (The rain was really strong, the wind, we could no longer see the front of our house. Nothing, and then you could see the people, as the waters rose, you could see the people. I couldn’t tell if they were alive or dead, they were just

“‘Yung orientation namin, basta may mga ganyang calamity, lalo na at malakas, nag-24 hours talaga kami (Our orientation was, during calamities like this, especially major ones, we go on 24-hour broadcast).”

And this is what Requiez, then station manager of dyBR Apple Radio, and his staff did as Yolanda approached,

Danny Requiez interviewed by InterAksyon.com’s Romsanne Ortiguero.

Giving up on waiting for government to help them, Geronima and Aurelio Tambulogan struggle to get back on their feet through tailoring.

STITCHING IT BACK TOGETHER: Geronima Tambulogan, 51 and Aurelio Tambulogan, 56

FAMILY FIRST: Danny Requiez, 54

NEWS floating past, you could hear calls for help, but how could you help, if even you wanted to ask for help, but the waters subsided quickly),” he added.

His whole family survived. But his co-host and another staff of the station died.

Asked what he learned from the experience, Requiez replied: “‘Yung natutunan lang namin as a broadcaster, intindihin talaga ‘yung panawagan namin sa gobyerno kung ano man ‘yung dapat ipaalam sa tao, dapat i-simplify nila, dapat maintindihan talaga. Kahit kaming broadcaster hindi namin alam ‘yung storm surge, kahit sila, blind sila … Tapos, after naman, kung merong ganyan, dapat kung ano man ‘yung dapat ibigay, ‘yung mga tulong, dapat ibigay saka huwag i-pulitika. Palaging may pulitika dito.

‘Yung mga pamimigay dito problema talaga pulitika. Until now wala (What we broadcaster learned is government should heed our call to keep the information the people need to know simple, easily understood. Even we broadcasters didn’t know what a storm surge was, even they in government were blind … And after such disasters, whatever needs to be given, the aid, should be given immediately and not be subjected to politics. There’s always politics involved here. The problem in distributing the aid is politics. Until now, nothing).”

“At saka sa ganitong trabaho namin, nasabi ko na, ano man ang mangyari, anyway, pagkatapos eh, siguro saka na tayo mag-broadcast. Pamilya muna, pamilya muna (And in our work, I have said, whatever happens, anyway, after this, maybe we broadcast later. Family first, family first),” he said.

www.hello-philippines.com nagbibigay, eh. Hanggang March lang ‘yung DSWD (Here, we’ve managed to get back on our feet somehow through our own efforts. There is no more assistance arriving. The aid from the DSWD lasted only until March),” Amormendez said, referring to the rice the Department of Social Welfare and Development used to distribute in their “tent city.”

When they have no food, they harvest the kangkong (water spinach) they have planted beside their tent, with they cook in soy sauce or, if they are lucky, with fish.

Asked whether they have been told about permanent housing, she replied: “Mayroon daw sa Pagporo, papuntang San Juanico, pero salita lang (They say there will be in Pagporo, going to San Juanico, but it’s been all talk).”

Showing the cramped interior of their tent, Amormendez says it is a struggle to squeeze everyone in, even more so when it rains. Worse, the portalets they share with other tent dwellers have become grimy and dilapidated.

“Malakas ang tubig kapag umuulan, hindi na kami natutulog, mga bata na lang, tapos yung Orocan na ‘yan, nilalagay namin (When the rain is strong, we no longer sleep, only the children, and that Orocan [plastic container], we use to catch the water),” she said.

Unable to wait any longer for the permanent shelter promised them, but which has yet to come true, she said they have started building a small house in Payapay and will soon move out of the tent city.

The Olendan family in their house at the “No Build Zone” in Barangay 31, Pampango.

Amormendez plays with her children in their small shelter in the ‘tent city’ in Barangay 89, San Jose.

‘PALAKASAN DIN’: Dulce Amormendez, 32

“Mayroong nagbigay ng financial (aid), Tzu Chi (Foundation), P12,000, kaso ‘di kami nabigyan kasi ‘di kami malapit sa d’yan ... basta sa mga namimigay. Kasi dito, palakasan din (Tzu Chi gave financial assistance, P12,000, but we got nothing because we are not close to … those who were distributing the aid. You see here, it depends on who you know).”

Amormendez, her husband, a pedicab driver, and their five young children still live in a tent in Barangay 89, in San Jose -- the worst hit area of Tacloban. Failing to receive the financial assistance, she opened a small sari-sari store near their shelter to help her husband make ends meet.

“Heto, medyo nakakabangon na kasi sarili na lang. Kasi wala na pong

RETURN TO THE ‘NO-BUILD ZONE’: Renato Olendan Jr.,39; Maritess Olendan, 35; Raymar Olendan, 20; Renato Jr., 17; Bridgette Arawang, 16; Maureen Olendan, 8; Raymond Olendan, 5

“Mayroon pang trauma kapag lumakas ‘yung hangin, halimbawa, kapag may bagyo tumitingin kami sa dagat, baka lumaki na naman. Kapag may bagyo na darating, punta na kami sa evacuation agad. Dati kasi, kapag may bagyo ‘di kami natatakot kasi noon, parang wala lang naman (We’re still traumatized whenever the wind picks up, for example, when there is a storm we look at the sea, it might rise again. When a storm is coming we head straight for the evacuation center. Before, whenever a storm came we were not scared because before, nothing really happened).”

Renato Olendan Jr. and his family lived near the shoreline in Barangay 31 when Yolanda struck.

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“Totally washed out. Mahigit pa sa washed out. Tatlong alon kasi humampas dito, nilampasan pa ‘yung airport. ‘Yung tubig naman doon sa palengke, nag-abot sila diyan sa gitna.

Lubog talaga ang downtown (We were totally washed out. More than washed out. Three huge waves struck here, taller than the airport. They were met in the middle by water by the market. The whole of downtown was underwater),” Renato recalled.

“Bigla na lang namin nakita ‘yung alon. Kasi noong una, parang tubig lang na tumataas tapos saka na ‘yong alon, malalaking alon tapos balik na naman. Pagbalik, natangay na ‘yung mga tao, tatlong beses. Tumakbo kami sa kalsada tapos nakaakyat na kami sa isang bahay na binuksan ng may-ari.

Hinintay na lang naming humupa ‘yung tubig kasi ‘di naman makakalabas. Mga dalawang oras kami naghintay, tapos baba na kami, tapos marami nang patay na tao d’yan sa kalsada. Bahay, tao magkasama na (We just saw the waves. At first, it was just water rising and then the waves, large waves, and again. It was when the waves returned that people were swept away, three times. We ran through the street until we climbed up a house whose owner opened the door to us. We waited for the water to subside because we couldn’t get out anyway. We waited for around two hours, and when we went down, corpses were all over the road.

Houses, people, all together).”

“Siyempre natakot kami lalo na ako, nahiwalay ako sa pamilya ko. Nakita ko na lang sila, nakaakyat sila diyan.

Pagbaba ng tubig, hinanap ko pamilya ko; siyempre nagpasalamat ako na walang naiwan sa amin (Of course, we were scared, especially me, because I had gotten separated from my family. I finally saw them; they had climbed up somewhere. When the water subsided, I looked for my family, of course I was thankful no one was left behind),” he said.

Breaking the seriousness of the moment, Renato’s wife Maritess quipped, “Nu’ng bagyo nakapulot ng asawa, dala ng (During the storm he picked up a wife, brought to him by) Yolanda,” referring to their son Renato Jr., who met his wife, Bridgette, right after the storm.

In Yolanda’s aftermath, the government declared the shoreline of Tacloban a “No-Build Zone.”

Despite this, the Olendans have built a makeshift shelter where their house used to stand.

“May bunkhouse kami pero dito muna kami dahil walang hanapbuhay doon. Sa ngayon, nagtitinda ako ng itlog. Tubero din kapag may tawag.

Kapag walang trabaho sa pagtubero, nangingsda din. Si misis dito na lang nagtitinda (We have a bunkhouse but we’ve chosen to stay here because we could not make a living there. For now, I see eggs. I also do plumbing when I am called. When there is no plumbing work, I fish. My wife sells wares here),” Renato said.

Continue to page 32

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NEWS

www.hello-philippines.com

November 2014 / Fortnightly – No. 22 • UK & Europe Edition

BAYAN twits Aquino for not bringing up Laude slay with Obama MANILA – The Bagong Alyansang Makabayan on Friday criticized President Benigno Aquino III for not bringing up the killing of transgender woman Jennifer Laude when he met with US President Barack Obama at two recent world leaders’ meetings.

“It is a sad day when a Philippine president would say that the murder of Filipino by a US soldier is not ‘earthshattering’,” BAYAN secretary general Renato Reyes Jr. said in a statement, referring to news reports on Aquino’s explanation of why he did not bring up major issues with the US president.

“Aquino belittles no end the implications of Laude’s death on the Visiting Forces Agreement,” Reyes said.

“By failing to raise the issue with Obama during their time at the APEC (Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation) and ASEAN (Association of Southeast Asian Nations) summit, Aquino lost an opportunity to advance national interest.”

Aquino and Obama had opportunities for brief exchanges at the sidelines of the recently concluded 25th ASEAN Summit in Myanmar and the APEC Summit earlier in the week in Beijing, China.

But Aquino said that there was no need to take up the matter with Obama, saying that it was not “earthshattering” and could be handled at the lower levels of government.

Various groups have raised question anew on the thorny provision on jurisdiction of erring US servicemen contained in the Philippines-US Visiting Forces Agreement following the October 11 murder of Laude in Olongapo City.

A US Marine, Joseph Scott Pemberton, has been charged with the crime but technically remains under American custody.

Pemberton is detained at a special facility inside Camp Aguinaldo under American guard.

“Aquino has shown gross subservience to the US, it is so shameful. He should at least (have) conveyed the message that the Philippine government wants justice for the family of Laude. He should have conveyed the position that Pemberton should be under Philippine custody,” Reyes said.

Reyes noted that while Aquino downplayed the Laude murder and its impact on the PH-US relations, prominent Americans have thrown their support for the termination of the VFA, among them author Noam Chomsky, former congresswoman Cynthia McKinney, and former US Attorney General Ramsey Clark, who have signed an open letter to Obama and Aquino, asking them to scrap both the VFA and the Enhanced Defense Cooperation Agreement, and to turn Pemberton over to Philippine custody.

Pres. Benigno S. Aquino III and US Pres. Barack Obama arrive for the exchanges during the 2nd ASEAN-US Summit on the sidelines of the 25th ASEAN Summit in Myanmar. ©Malacanang Photo Bureau.

Meanwhile, BAYAN said various groups are preparing protests next week in time for the Supreme Court oral arguments on the EDCA on November 18.

Expected to argue for the petitioners are former UP Law Dean Pacifico Agabin, former Subic rape lawyer Evalyn Ursua, Laude’s lawyer Harry Roque and lawyer Rachel Pastores of

the Public Interest Law Center.

Roque is also the counsel for the Laude family.

“The EDCA allows for permanent US military presence in the country.

It is a throwback to US bases and foreign military occupation. It is an affront to our sovereignty worse the VFA,” Reyes said. ■ Lira Dalangin-Fernandez / InterAksyon.com / November 14, 2014 / 11:48 AM

Circulo del Mundo rotunda at Terminal 3 to be demolished between P50 and P100 million and the MANILA - The “egg-like structure” located at the rotunda near the Ninoy Aquino International Airport Terminal 3 that cost P100 million from the past administration will have to give way to the ongoing construction of an elevated road that connects the three airport terminals and is meant to speed up traffic for travelers.

The structural design called “Circulo del Mundo,” also known as Layag Islas, is becoming one source of traffic going in and out of NAIA Terminal 3 because of the ongoing construction of the Skyway that is expected to be finished next year.

Manila International Airport Authority (MIAA) General Manager Jose Angel Honrado announced the plan to tear it down at a press

briefing Wednesday afternoon The Circulo del Mundo/Layag Islas, is a winning design of architectural students that showcases Metro Manila as the window of the country to the world. The design was conceptualized

to enhance the image of NAIA as being on a par with similar facilities worldwide. However, the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) scrapped the original design.

The cost of the “egg structure” is

The Circulo del Mundo structure at the NAIA Terminal 3 rotunda. Photo by Eric Apolonio, ©InterAksyon.com.

MIAA contributed about P40 million, Honrado said.

Before, the structure itself was considered a park, its open space and landscape providing employees and students a place to unwind from the daily grind; but it soon became the source of heavy traffic.

Airport sources said that if the structure is demolished, it will add about three to four more lanes and will definitely reduce traffic in the area.

Motorists are complaining that it takes 30 to 40 minutes going in and out of Terminal 3 coming from Fort Bonifacio in Makati and coming from Manila.

The Skyway begins in Barangay San Isidro, Makati, and ends with the NAIA Expressway in the Parclo intersection

of SLEX (South Luzon Expressway) and Sales Road in Makati. The Skyway will be rerouted with the assemblage of the entrance ramps shortly after crossing the C-5 Road Exits in Merville, Paranaque.

Other airport plans. On Wednesday, Honrado said that the 18 sets of newly renovated male/female comfort rooms inside Terminal 2 and the 40 sets of comfort rooms outside the terminal will be ready before Christmas.

On Ebola preparedness, Honrado said, “we have two temporary staging areas, one at the Nayong Pilipino former administration building and at the Flight Operations Base inside the general aviation area”. ■ Eric B. Apolonio / InterAksyon.com / November 13, 2014 / 6:07 PM

10 tales of survival and hope, sorrow and despair, a year after Yolanda

The Ronzon family

WHILE THE SHIPS ARE ASHORE: Arnold Ronzon, 39; Jackelyn Zabaldica, 32; Bong, 10; Genrette, 6; and Riyanna, 2

“Hindi kami makakapagtirik ng bahay diyan hanggat nandiyan ‘yan.

Marami naman d’yang bahay noong

wala pa ‘yung barko (We cannot build a house while they’re still there. There were many houses there before the ships washed ashore).”

Couple Arnold Ronzon and Jackelyn Zabaldica not only lost their home when Yolanda’s storm surge sent three ships crashing ashore onto the densely populated community of Barangay 68 in Anibong. Arnold also lost his father.

Although their family had evacuated to a school ahead of the storm surge, Arnold’s father returned to their house to check on his mother, who had refused to go with them. When the storm surge hit, Arnold and Jackelyn noticed that he had not returned yet.

When they headed out to where their home used to stand after the

storm had passed, Arnold found his father’s corpse among the bodies of their neighbors who had not made it.

A year after, the family’s only wish is for the ships to finally be dismantled and removed from Anibong so they can rebuild their home because they have given up on the thus far unfulfilled promise of permanent relocation for survivors like them.

“May sinabi pero ‘di naman nagawa.

Mag-iisang taon na, nasaan na ‘yon (It’s been all talk and no action. It’s been almost a year, where is it)?” Jackelyn lamented.

In the meantime, they have built a makeshift home on the Anibong shoreline, from which they keep an eye on the sea in case it rises again with the next storm.

Cobilla with a length of rope from one of the ships that washed ashore in Anibong.

‘I’LL DIE HERE’: Mark Cobilla, 27

“Dito ako lumaki, dito ako mamamatay (I grew up here, I will die here).”

InterAksyon.com found Cobilla in late October swimming in the waters off Anibong pulling a thick rope behind him -- a remnant from one of the ships that Yolanda had washed ashore.

Continuation from page 30

Asked why he was pulling the rope, Cobilla hesitated for a while before quietly answering, “souvenir.”

“Ako na lang mag-isa. Namatay anak ko, wala na ring asawa (I am all alone now. My child died, I have no more wife),” Cobilla said after a long silence.

“Kalungkutan naranasan ko sa bagyo (Sorrow is what the storm brought me),” he added.

He said he planned to light candles for his wife and three-year old daughter on All Saints’ Day. Although still full of sadness and reluctant to talk, Cobilla said, in a firm voice, before going back to what he was doing, that he still loves Tacloban and would prefer to die here. ■ Romsanne Ortiguero / Photos by Bernard Testa and Romsanne Ortiguero / InterAksyon.com / November 4, 2014 / 8:30 PM

ORIGINAL CREATION & COPYRIGHT RESERVED BY © HELLO PHILIPPINES 2014

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NEWS

www.hello-philippines.com

November 2014 / Fortnightly – No. 22 • UK & Europe Edition

YOLANDA POSTSCRIPT

Covering grief, covering hope MANILA – After I have filed all my stories, and before I fully write 30 to this coverage, to quote Steve Jobs, there’s still one more thing. I just need to write this personal note, lest I forget.

The palest ink (or an FB post) is better than the best memory, so they say.

In Barton Fink (damn great movie by the Coen brothers), John Turturro, who plays the titular character, said something about pain and writing: “I’ve always found that writing comes from a great inner pain. Maybe it’s a pain that comes from a realization that one must do something for one’s fellow man – to help somehow to ease his suffering. Maybe it’s a personal pain.

At any rate, I don’t believe good work is possible without it.”

So how can you write about suffering and give it due justice and context? For all intents and purposes, I was a textbook parachute journalist for the Yolanda anniversary coverage.

It was my first time to visit Tacloban, or any part of Eastern Visayas, for that matter. I had not written any stories about Yolanda before (save for writing and editing a few TV scripts in my previous capacity in TV5).

I was, in the words of John Goodman to Turturro, also in Barton Fink, “just a tourist with a typewriter.” (Or a tourist with an iPhone to be precise, a faulty degenerative iPhone at that).

I did not have street cred, unlike

most of the other reporters during the coverage. I had not earned my stripes in this. Mostly, I’ve been in beats “where the most hazardous thing a reporter faces is a paper cut,” as esteemed journalist Ed Lingao once wrote.

But being in a tight ship in InterAksyon.com, the invitation landed on my lap so I said yes, sure, and I so I found myself in Tacloban with our chief photographer Bernard embedded with the child rights group Plan International a few days before the typhoon’s anniversary, and with United Nations Development Programme on the actual day of commemoration.

So when you’re there, to borrow the immortal words of the late Sen. Juan Flavier, you just do it. Do or do not, there is no try, as another diminutive, but this time algae-colored sage slash warrior, also said.

But sometimes, at least in one instance, I wasn’t able to.

She was taking a picture. She was taking a picture of a name (or names?) at the memorial tarpaulin of missing persons, a towel in one hand wiping her tears. Beside her was a man, who I assumed was her husband, and a little girl, who I assumed was their kid, in between them. The man was carrying an umbrella while his other arm was draped over the shoulder of the crying woman. To whom does the name belong, I wondered. A parent?

A brother? Sister? Friend? I think she took at least three shots on her digital camera, all the while tears were rolling down her cheeks, all the while the man was rubbing her back, trying his darned best to console, even as he himself had his head bowed in muted grief. How does it end up like that? How can it end like that? Years’ worth of memories, now gone except for a mere collection of stitched-up pixels to show.

I tried, I tried to will myself to talk, to approach, and to pry, to put on my reporter’s hat. I know I could fish for a good sound bite lurking within that story. But I hesitated, and I eventually decided against it, thought it best to leave them be, let them have their moment’s peace. It’s bad enough losing a loved one perish, with no closure from seeing the remains, without having a nosy reporter pick at your misery. I just looked at them from a comfortable distance for a few minutes, then went my way wandering again around the cemetery.

At the mass grave, a number of survivors sat on the ground, under the punishing heat, in front of their respective crosses bearing the name of their departed written using felt-tip pens. Some were standing, looking down at a grave, with a thousand yard stare. I managed to talk to a few other survivors, most sitting on monobloc chairs waiting for the mass to start.

I returned to the memorial tarpaulin again and this time saw a man writing something on it. Is this man vandalizing? Then I heard him say something as I closely approached to see what the hell he was doing.

“Dapat s ang una, hindi z,” I heard him mumble to no one in particular, all the while crossing out the s and z, and putting the correct letters on top. It may seem like an innocuous mistake, an inevitable oversight over the scores of names, but there was injustice written all over this man’s face, scowling while editing the names (of his parents as I would later learn), visibly distressed that the only remembrance, the

only acknowledgement, the only recognition, of his parent’s existence on that imposing canvas has been sullied by a misspelling. “Dapat s ang una, hindi z,” he repeated a couple of times while editing the mistake. In the end he decided to just blot out the entire misspelled surname and write the correct one next to it, just to be sure, you never know.

Later on I’ll learn his family still lives in a tent, taking shelter under nearby trees when rains fall on their leaky makeshift dwelling.

I once heard a local investigative journalist say that investigative journalists are by nature angry people deep inside, that it takes a certain measure of indignation to carry you through every assignment and have the drive, stamina, and endurance to pull all possible stops to uncover wrongdoing that almost always takes a toll on, and exploits, the poor.

He is called Mang Pete. He lost 22 loved ones during the storm — his wife, five daughters, apo, and pamangkin, the whole lot of them. His family now consists of his eldest son, three apo, and one adopted kid. (That he managed to take in an orphan after it all already speaks volumes about him.)

So I ask him questions, but he’s got nothing. Nothing. In fact he just answers my questions with more questions. I ask what happened when he met PNoy, and he said he

was presented at a conference by the president in Bohol for some reason.

And he wonders why. He wonders what that was for. He wonders why help has not been forthcoming even after he touched base with the highest official of the land. Why a government staffer went to his house, asking him all sorts of question, insistently fishing for any scrap of info confirming that the government did help. But there was practically no government help, he says, so he was wondering why he was being questioned, or rather, interrogated.

Meanwhile, his mayor and the president still refuse to see eye to eye because of each other’s surname, hobbling coordination of rehabilitation efforts. The situation could really be frustrating, with so much fingerpointing, chest thumping, and potty politicking. And suffering, still lots of suffering.

So sometimes, like Mang Pete, I also find myself asking, wondering, if there is still hope in instances such as these.

Sometimes I also forget why I chose to write stories for a living.

But last week I saw kids with smiles as warm as sunshine and as bright as their dreams dashing toward their newly built classrooms with utmost excitement. It was beautiful. I will never forget that. ■ Jose Bimbo F. Santos / InterAksyom.com / Photos by Bernard Testa / November 14, 2014 / 2:38 PM

NEWS

November 2014 / Fortnightly – No. 22 • UK & Europe Edition

www.hello-philippines.com

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UNESCO members vow to continue education for sustainable development

UNESCO worldwide commitment map

This may well be an indication that more and more countries will be including ESD in their curriculum just like what 9,000 UNESCO schools in 180 countries decided to do in the last decade.

The first commitment pledge from the Philippines was the submission of the Bohol Island State University (BISU).

The university wants to make ESD part of mainstream subjects “to bring about systemic change” and in its submission, BISU stated that “unless ESD would be brought to a substantial level of awareness and recognition of target population, any ESD program, project or activity

would never fulfill genuine success.”

BISU plans to make their officials and rank and file, most of whom are educators, to be ESD aware so that they can pass on the knowledge to their target market, the students.

‘Whole country committed to ESD’ - DepEd.

News5 was able to interview Department of Education Assistant Secretary Rey Laguda at the UNESCO meet.

He explained that even though not all schools in the Philippines are UNESCO-certified, compliance with the ESD concept is very high in our country.

“Our integration of ESD or education for sustainable development , when you talk about disaster risk reduction, climate change adaptation or even solid waste management or environment conservation, these are integrated in our curriculum, not just by law, but in actual practice,” Laguda said.

The challenge, Laguda said, is for the country to actually make ESD part of the system for a long time.

The education department official said, “this was started even way before 2005, there were commendable ideas and efforts to integrate it, but one of the challenges is to sustain it, to continue it.”

Bright future? Earlier this year, a UNESCO team held an expert’s meeting in Ortigas that tacked climate change and disaster preparedness.

Part of their mission was to check on some schools in Metro Manila to see how ESD is being explained to students.

One school they visited was the Congressional High School in Commonwealth Avenue, Quezon City.

Foreign experts witnessed a fire drill, an earthquake drill and inspected the school’s recycling program and they generally liked what they saw.

UNESCO’s Dr. Hubert Gijzen, one of the experts who attended the event, said he believes the Philippines can play a special role in arming the next generation with the proper knowledge in facing nature’s wrath.

“The frequency of intensity of natural disasters are increasing, we are building up experiences, including from the Philippines. You are the supermarket of disasters, you have an opportunity

The UNESCO World Conference on Education for Sustainable Development. Photo by Jove Francisco, ©News5.

of learning, you can share that to the world.

Others can learn from that,” he said.

After expressing support for the Aichi Nagoya Declaration and the aim of the UNESCO member countries to level up the push for ESD, the challenge for the Philippines now lies in the quality of the knowledge that should be taught to the next generation.

What Climate Change Commission Secretary Mary Ann Lucille Sering said during the expert

meeting may very well be the guide in achieving ESD compliance, when she stressed the need for “education that sticks, stock knowledge that sticks.

Information that is like second nature to all of us.”

■ Jove Francisco / News5’s Senior Correspondent/Anchor Jove Francisco

was among the international/foreign journalists invited by the UNESCO to cover the body’s World Conference on Education for Sustainable Development. He attended the pre-conference media briefing in Paris, France last year during the 2013 UNESCO General Assembly. / News5 / Special to InterAksyon.com / November 14, 2014 / 9:18 AM

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NAGOYA, Japan -- Delegates from almost 200 UNESCO member countries closed the World Conference on Education for Sustainable Development at the Nagoya Convention Center with a vow to continue the responsibility of educating the youth on sustainability.

The conclusion of the convention serves as the wrap-up of the first decade of the ESD concept and the birth of a new roadmap for the next decade of ESD, as contained in the 16-point manifesto called the Aishi Nagoya Declaration.

The declaration emphasized the need to continuously train educators so that they can find creative ways to include climate change, disaster preparedness and environment friendly lifestyle in their teachings.

The declaration also urges governments to work with educators, students and communities in working on ESD strategies.

UNESCO stressed that the responsibility that goes with a major endeavor such as ESD needs to be shared so it will succeed.

ESD is the concept of including practical knowledge in the school curriculum so that youngsters will be armed with information that will make their lives easier and safer.

UNESCO Director General Irina Bokova, during an ambush interview at the sidelines of the convention, talked about ESD this way: “(ESD) it is about knowing, it is about skills and it is about living together.”

More schools wanted. As the conference drew to a close, the ESD map posted at the UNESCO website displaying the number of commitments made by groups from several countries.

36

PHILIPPINE EMBASSY AROUND THE WORLD

www.hello-philippines.com

November 2014 / Fortnightly – No. 22 • UK & Europe Edition

Consular outreach set for Pinoys in Norwich FILIPINOS in Norwich in the United Kingdom stand to benefit from a special consular outreach by the Philippine embassy there this November.

In an announcement, the embassy said the special consular outreach will be on November 15, from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. at the Clover Hill Village Hall in Humbleyard, Norwich.

Services to be offered at the outreach include: • e-passport applications (for scheduled applicants) • civil registration (reports of birth, marriage or death) • notarization and legalization services (affidavits, SPAs) • NBI clearance form servicing (fingerprinting) • acceptance of applications for visa

to the Philippines • Philippine citizenship retention or reacquisition • assistance to nationals and advice on Philippine laws • verification of employment contracts and advice on employment/ labor-related matters • Home Development Mutual Fund (Pag-IBIG Fund) membership and inquiries • Social Security System (SSS) membership Passport services. Those needing passport services should fill out an attached Passport Service Request Form and send it to the Embassy via email to embassy@philemb.co.uk or fax to 0207 930 9787 from October 7 to 31.

Families need to send one request form only, listing the names and details

of all those requiring the services.

Meanwhile, those who will avail of the services during the outreach mission were advised to check the documentary and other requirements at www.philembassy-uk.org.

Applicants may likewise download application forms in advance from the

same website.

Fake websites. On the other hand,

the embassy warned applicants against “other websites purporting to be the Embassy’s website.”

It said those who wish to receive their passports, visas or other documents by post should submit a self-addressed

stamped special delivery envelope with their applications.

Payments at the outreach mission shall be in cash or with postal money orders made out to the Philippine embassy. Personal checks are not accepted. ■ Joel Locsin / KBK, GMA News / November 14, 2014 / 8:28 PM

Philippine, Australian Foreign Ministers Meet at APEC 2014

Philippines, Bangladesh Sign MOU on Sports Cooperation THE Philippine Sports Commission, represented by its Chairman, Mr. Ricardo Garcia, and Ambassador John Gomes, representing the Ministry of Youth and Sports of Bangladesh, signed the “Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) between the Philippine Sports Commission of the Republic of the Philippines and the Ministry of Youth and Sports of the People’s Republic of Bangladesh on Sports Cooperation” on November 05 at the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA).

The MOU provides a framework for cooperation between the Philippines and Bangladesh in the field of sports.

The two countries agreed to work together in sports education, sports science, including sports medicine and

anti-doping measures, sports training, and other areas of sports as may be mutually decided.

Areas of cooperation will include exchange of officials-in-charge of sports policy-making, sports experts, coaches; participation in conferences, symposia, seminars and exhibitions; exchange of printed materials and date, and organization and convening of joint sporting events between the two countries.

The MOU aims to strengthen and develop bilateral relations between the Philippines and Bangladesh through the promotion of cooperation in sports as well as to secure benefits from mutual cooperation in this area. ■ Philippine Embassy

Philippines / November 10, 2014

FOREIGN Affairs Secretary Albert F. del Rosario and Australian Foreign Minister Julie Bishop met today on the sidelines of APEC 2014 in Beijing, China.

The two foreign ministers acknowledged the multifaceted and comprehensive nature of bilateral relations between the Philippines and Australia. Both sides welcomed the increased frequency of exchanges by their respective government officials, businessmen and members of the academe. The two agreed that the New Colombo Plan of Australia is a good

way to promote people-to-people ties.

Secretary del Rosario also acknowledged the continued support of the Australian government in the reconstruction and rehabilitation of areas affected by Super Typhoon Haiyan/Yolanda.

In addition, both officials discussed each country’s efforts at supporting the global campaign to contain the spread of the Ebola virus disease. They likewise exchanged views on ISIS and peacekeeping, and they agreed to expand cooperation in counter-terrorism. ■ Philippine Embassy Philippines / November 07, 2014

DFA Spokesperson Briefs Indian Military Delegation on Regional Security, West Philippine Sea Developments THE Spokesperson of the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA), Assistant Secretary Charles C. Jose, briefed a twenty-member delegation from the Indian Army High Command Course on the evolving regional geopolitical landscape and developments in the West Philippine Sea/South China Sea yesterday, November 11, at the DFA main office in Pasay City.

The delegation, led by Brigadier

Paramdeep Singh Bajwa and Commodore Ajay Kumar Agarwal, was composed mostly of Colonels and officers of equivalent rank.

“Indeed, your visit to the Philippines promotes stronger relations and deeper friendship between our two countries. The Philippines considers India as an important bilateral partner and we hope for greater interaction between our peoples,” Assistant Secretary Jose said in his welcome remarks.

“With India we share the belief that disputes should be peacefully settled, that freedom of navigation should be protected and that the rule of law should be upheld,” he added.

The delegation expressed appreciation for the briefing and likewise expressed hope for continued cooperation with the Philippines in the fields of defense and security. ■ Philippine Embassy Philippines / November 12, 2014

Secretary Del Rosario speaks at 26th Apec Ministerial Meeting for Ministers of Foreign Affairs and Trade in Beijing

(Front row, from left) US Secretary of State John Kerry, Indonesian Trade Minister Rahmat Gobel, Indonesian Foreign Minister Retno L.P. Marsudi, Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi, Chinese Minister of Commerce Gao Hucheng, Philippine Foreign Affairs Secretary Albert F. del Rosario and Philipine Trade and Industry Secretary Gregory L. Domingo.

FOREIGN Affairs Secretary Albert F. del Rosario arrived in Beijing in the morning of November 07 to participate in the 26th APEC Ministerial Meeting, co-chaired by China’s Foreign Affairs Minister Wang Yi and Commerce Minister Gao Hucheng.

Foreign Affairs and Trade Ministers from APEC’s 21 member economies gathered for the 26th APEC Ministerial Meeting to prepare for the forthcoming APEC Economic Leaders Meeting.

Secretary Del Rosario and Trade and Industry Secretary Gregory L. Domingo

led the Philippine delegation.

In his statement at the meeting, Secretary Del Rosario identified human capital development with emphasis on science and technology, as the top strategy for economic growth, as well as the alignment of education and training programs with industrial requirements.

The Secretary commended the establishment of the APEC Higher Education Research Center (AHERC) and the APEC Scholarship Roadmap in advancing cross-border education.

He informed the meeting of the Philippines’ participation in the APEC Scholarship Program.

He underlined the importance of other connectivity initiatives, such as transportation and logistics, financial services, and professional mobility.

Secretary Del Rosario took the opportunity to thank the APEC economies for their unwavering support that enabled the Philippines to move forward with rehabilitation and reconstruction after Typhoon Haiyan.

■ Philippine Embassy Philippines / November 08, 2014

November 2014 / Fortnightly – No. 22 • UK & Europe Edition

NEWS

www.hello-philippines.com

37

Miriam says VP could be sued over ‘07 revolt but Binay camp says link to mutineers only via piggery MANILA – Criminal charges could be filed against Vice President Jejomar Binay, the possible contender of Sen. Miriam Defensor-Santiago in the 2016 presidential polls, following the claim of Sen. Antonio Trillanes IV that the country’s second highest official, when he was still mayor of Makati, allegedly conspired with him and his military colleagues to overthrow the Arroyo administration seven years ago.

This is according to Santiago, who on Friday said that Binay “could be held criminally liable for conspiracy to commit rebellion” in connection with the November 29, 2007 Manila Peninsula siege in Makati City where Trillanes, who had just won as senator, and other Magdalo officers called for the ouster of then President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo.

Binay had announced his intention to seek the country’s highest post.

Last August, Santiago said that she had beaten cancer and might seek the presidency in 2016 if she would get enough support.

In a statement issued Friday, Santiago said that, “Under Article 136 of the Penal Code, the crime of conspiracy to commit rebellion is punishable by imprisonment of four years, two months and one day to six years, and a fine not exceeding P5,000.”

“Merely agreeing and deciding to rise publicly and take arms against

the government for the purposes of rebellion is already punishable under the crime of conspiracy to commit rebellion,” the senator said.

“Thus, it was immaterial that Binay allegedly failed to mobilize the supporters, and was nowhere to be seen during the Manila Pen siege,” added Santiago.

Earlier, Trillanes claimed that Binay allegedly promised him that he would use his then position as Makati mayor to mobilize the employees of Makati City Hall, the urban poor, the students of the University of Makati, and Makati traffic enforcers and police to support the Magdalo soldiers in revolting against the government.

However, Binay allegedly failed to deliver his promised group of supporters when Trillanes and the soldiers walked out of the Makati City Regional Trial Court and occupied the Manila Pen. While Trillanes and the other participants of the Manila Pen siege, and their civilian supporters, were granted amnesty by President Aquino in 2010, the amnesty did not apply to Binay, according to Santiago.

The senator, a former regional trial court judge, said “Binay should have applied for amnesty with the Department of National Defense, in accordance with the provisions of Presidential Proclamation No. 75, series of 2010.”

“Moreover, the application for amnesty expired in 31 March 2011…

The crime of conspiracy to commit rebellion prescribes in ten years from the discovery of the crime. This means that since the Manila Pen siege occurred in 2007, the government has until 2017 to prosecute the offender,” said Santiago.

Binay’s camp says VP’s link to Magdalo soldiers only via Batangas piggery. On Thursday, the Vice

President’s camp denied that Binay had a hand in the 2007 mutiny. While Binay did help some Magdalo soldiers, the assistance was not in any way related to the rebellion.

According to Cavite Governor Jonvic Remulla, the Vice President’s spokesperson for political concerns, Binay helped the Magdalo soldiers by providing them jobs in his piggery at the controversial hacienda in Rosario, Batangas.

“Pagkatapos ‘nong attempted coup d’etat sa Oakwood at sa Peninsula humingi ng tulong ‘yong mga sundalong nasalanta, silang mga naapektuhan dahil sa ginawa nila, nawalan ng trabaho, kinupkop ni Vice President ‘yan, tinulungan at binigyan ng trabaho,” said Remulla.

[After the attempted coup d’etat in Oakwood and Peninsula, the affected soldiers asked help, they got jobless and the Vice President took care of them and gave them work.]

“At ‘yong iba doon, inassign doon para magbantay ng babuyan [And some of them were assigned to watch over the piggery],” the governor added.

According to Binay’s camp, the ninehectare land that was used for the Vice President’s piggery business under JCB Farms was not owned but only leased

by Binay and his wife Elenita. The nine-hectare landholding is part of the 145-hectare Batangas hacienda now bring managed and said to be owned

by Sunchamp Real Estate Dev’t Corp., whose president is Antonio Tiu. Former Makati Vice Mayor Ernesto Mercado claims that the property’s size is 350 hectares and the estate is purportedly owned by the Vice President through dummies.

Confiscate

Batangas

hacienda.

During a Senate inquiry last October, Tiu failed to present documents that Sunchamp owns the Batangas hacienda.

Earlier this month, Department of

Agrarian Reform Secretary Virgilio delos Reyes said the DAR would be ready to take back the Batangas property if the agency finds out that the hacienda had been placed under the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program but was illegally sold by farmer-beneficiaries of the CARP. According to Santiago, who is former DAR chief, the Batangas property should be confiscated by the department.

“Whether the hacienda is 145 or 350 hectares, it is in violation of the agrarian reform law, which limits land ownership to only five hectares,” she said.

“The legality of the existence of a hacienda which, by definition, is a huge tract of land, is deeply suspicious, and may have involved the crimes of falsification of public documents, and of illegal conversion of agricultural land,” she said. ■ InterAksyon.com with reports from Ernie Reyes / November 14, 2014 / 7:28 PM

sets three-year timetable for entry of new investor 6.1M senior citizens to get automatic PAL MANILA - The new management of the previous management. Before the we capture 30 percent of that potential Airlines (PAL) is reviewing its Lucio Tan Group regained management market, it would be a successful route,” PhilHealth coverage after PNoy signs law Philippine business strategy in preparation for the control of PAL, the San Miguel Corp- Bautista said.

MANILA – More than six million senior citizens will be granted automatic coverage by the Philippine Health Insurance Corp. under a law signed last week by President Benigno Aquino III, Senate President Pro-Tempore Senator Ralph Recto said Tuesday.

Under Republic Act 10645, “magpakita lang sila ng ID bilang patunay na sila’y senior citizen at matatanggap na nila mula sa ospital ang karampatang benepisyong laan sa mga miyembro ng Philhealth (they just need to show their IDs to prove they are senior citizens and they can receive from a hospital all the benefits granted to Philhealth members),” Recto, main author of the law, said.

The new law is also called “An Act Providing for the Mandatory PhilHealth Coverage for All Senior Citizens, Amending for the Purpose RA 7431, as Amended by RA 9994, Otherwise Known as the ‘Expanded Senior Citizens Act of 2010’.”

“Health insurance can never be called universal if it does not cover all seniors. Enrolling them must be automatic, not optional. The ideal is that the minute they blow out

the candles on their 60th birthday cake to the moment they breathe their last, they should be PhilHealth members,” Recto said.

There are approximately 6.1 million senior citizens—those 60-years old and older—in the country today.

As of December 2013, PhilHealth has 31.27 million registered members and 45.63 million dependents, or a total of 76.9 million Filipino.

Last year, PhilHealth reported an income of P62 billion from premium contributions on top of the P12.612billion subsidy it received from the national government, while disbursing P55.559 billion in benefits payment. ■ Ernie Reyes / InterAksyon.com / November 11, 2014 / 10:35 AM

entry of a foreign strategic investor in three years.

“What we are doing now is really the start of the process. The airline’s short-term, medium-term and long-term plans are part of the process of getting an investor. If you need an investor they will look at these plans,” Jaime Bautista, PAL president said in a briefing today.

Bautista did not provide details on the airline’s plans, only to say that the company will add new domestic and long haul flights.

“I think personally, I would like to have a strategic investor in the next three years. There are names that we are looking at, but we are not at liberty,” Bautista said, adding that the flag carrier may sell up to 40 percent to the new investor.

“We have no preference for what is the location of the operator, but I would prefer an airline with more destinations so we can expand our presence in other destinations,” he said.

Last month, PAL entered into a partnership with Japan’s All Nippon Airways. The Philippine carrier also has a codeshare agreement with Etihad Airways.

Also under review are the pending orders for additional aircraft made by

led management ordered 64 airplanes from Airbus with a list price of $7 billion.

These include 44 single-aisle A321s and 20 wide body A330s.

The flag carrier is scheduled to take delivery of 10 more jets next year, and another 10 in 2016. The Centre AsiaPacific Aviation (CAPA) had said the Airbus orders put PAL in a difficult position.

Promo fare for resumption of New York flights. The flag carrier today

announced it would mount flights to New York starting March 15 next year, offering an introductory fare of $610.

The round trip, budget economy ticket, exclusive of taxes and surcharges, may be bought starting November 15, for travel from March 15 onwards.

“We are prioritizing our US network expansion, after the lifting of the Category 2 rating in answer to the clamor of the huge Filipino community in the US East Coast,” Bautista said.

PAL first flew to New York on September 21, 1996, but this lasted for only a year after the Philippines was placed under Category 2 restriction.

“The potential market is about 500,000 Filipinos, 250,000 in New York, 9,000 in East Virginia, 70,000 Washington DC, 31,000 Philadelphia. If

The four-times-a-week service, which will fly out of Manila and will make a one-time stop in Vancouver, will operate at the Terminal 1 of New York’s JFK International Airport.

Bautista said the Manila-New York services will be the carrier’s longest route with approximately 16.5 hours of total flying time.

“We will be using A340 via Vancouver.

Last year we took delivery of four A340s and we will receive two more this year,” he said.

“We will take advantage the Category 1 rating. There are many Filipinos that we can fly from the US to the Philippines.

We are looking at more frequency to Los Angeles and San Francisco. We will also increase our presence in Honolulu and Guam,” he added.

PAL operates a total of 26 weekly flights to the US, with frequencies to Los Angeles, San Francisco, Honolulu and Guam.

PAL Holdings Inc reported a profit of P1.49 billion in the April to June period, reversing the P1.08 billion loss in the same three months of last year. Secondquarter revenue shot up by 47.4 percent to P27.30 billion this year from P18.52 billion last year. ■ Darwin G. Amojelar / InterAksyon.

com / November 14, 2014 / 5:45 PM

38

NEWS

www.hello-philippines.com

November 2014 / Fortnightly – No. 22 • UK & Europe Edition

NAST: Ebola quarantine should be at country of departure MANILA - People coming from countries affected by the Ebola virus should have first been quarantined before leaving that country, not upon their arrival at the Philippines, according to the National Academy of Science and Technology (NAST).

Jaime Montoya, chairman of the NAST health sciences division, said that quarantine should be done at the exit point before boarding their planes bound for departure.

“Those countries -- like Liberia and Sierra Lone -- should be the ones doing the quarantine for 21 days before they allow people to leave the country.

That is the ideal,” Montoya said in a press release from the Department of Science and Technology (DOST).

DOST said Montoya issued his remarks before a recent conference on health safety.

NAST is DOST’s advisory body composed of academicians in the local science community. Montoya, a medical doctor who specializes in infectious diseases, is a member of the World Health Organization Western Pacific Region Clinical Advisory Committee for emerging infections.

The Philippine government placed the 133 UN Filipino peacekeepers from Ebola-stricken Liberia under quarantine procedure for 21 days on Caballo Island, Cavite upon their arrival last Wednesday.

Montoya, however, acknowledged the difficulty of conducting exit-point

Image grabbed from video by Kodao Productions shows the arrest of Quezon City assistant prosecutor Raul Desambrana for alleged extortion.

Fiscal arrested for allegedly extorting from ‘Morong 43’ doctor MANILA – A Quezon City fiscal was arrested on Friday by the National Bureau of Investigation during an entrapment operation after he demanded money from a doctor for the dismissal of a case filed against the health professional.

Assistant City Prosecutor III Raul Desambrana, who was nabbed around noon, is expected to undergo inquest proceedings for direct bribery and corrupt practices of public officers based on the complaint filed by Dr. Alex Montes.

Montes is one of the health workers known as the “Morong 43” who were arrested by the military and police in 2010 during a raid on a farmhouse in Morong, Rizal. The health workers were accused of being communist rebels and charged, but the cases against them were subsequently declared baseless and dropped.

Human rights lawyer Edre Olalia, a counsel of the Morong 43, said Desembrana contacted Montes and demanded P80,000 as “SOP” (standard operating procedure) for the dismissal of a case for unjust vexation filed by a retired military chaplain against the doctor.

Olalia said Desembrana promised Montes a draft of the resolution of dismissal once he was paid.

After consultations with Montes, the National Union of People’s Lawyers, of which Olalia is secretary general, decided to approach the NBI to entrap the prosecutor.

The independent media outfit Kodao Productions shot a video of the arrest and posted it on YouTube.

Olalia said they made the decision “if only to weed out corrupt prosecutors and somewhat cleanse what is generally perceived as a dirty, shady and slimy legal and justice system.”

“We cannot just look the other way and simply ignore the brazenness by which Prosecutor Desembrana tried to extort from our client, which indicates how audacious he was to fantasize that he can just get away with his criminal act and remain untouchable,” Olali said.

“He and his likes must be sanctioned and punished to serve as exemplary deterrent for many others,” he added.

■ Lira Dalangin-Fernandez / InterAksyon.com /

November 14, 2014 / 1:55 PM

quarantine for the peacekeepers.

“The problem is that those countries have their own laws and regulations.

So we have no option but to undertake the quarantine here,” Montoya said.

Mediadora Saniel, president of the University of the Philippines Medical Foundation, also gave similar views during the conference, saying that “exit screening of travelers is the most effective way to assess the health of travelers who are at risk.”

Saniel also stressed the need to refocus health initiatives from detection and response efforts to prevention measures.

Among the basic preventive measures against infectious diseases, according to Saniel, are regular

handwashing with soap and water, avoidance of stress which attacks the immune system, and a healthy diet

composed of low-fat, low-salt, and lowsugar foods. ■ Jose Bimbo F. Santos / InterAksyon. com / November 13, 2014 / 2:28 PM

Customs sues trader, brokers for P640M rice smuggling in 2013 MANILA - The Bureau of Customs (BOC) on Thursday filed smuggling charges against the proprietor of Medaglia De Oro Trading and nine customs brokers for importing rice with an estimated market value of P641 million in 2013 without the required import permit from the National Food Authority (NFA).

BOC Commissioner John Sevilla said the charges were filed before the Department of Justice (DOJ) against Emmanuel Santos, owner and proprietor of Medaglia De Oro, along with the firm’s customs brokers, Denise Kathryn Rosaroso, Raquel Sildora Cabasag, Emilio Chio, Myrene Noynay Sollano, Gemma Garcia, Melvin Isagan, John Kevin Cisneros, Eduardo Borje III, and Kenneth Quial.

A separate smuggling case will also be filed tomorrow, Friday, against Santos and customs brokers Rosemarie Sangalang Arciaga And Baltazar Ramirez.

Sevilla said the charges for violating Section 3601 of the Tariff and Customs Code of the Philippines (TCCP) and Section 29 of Presidential Decree (PD) Number 4, as amended by P.D. No. 1485 were prompted by Medaglia’s illegal shipment of 16.039 metric

tons of rice (or more than 16.039 million kilograms) from Thailand and Singapore in July and August 2013 through the ports of Manila, Cebu, Davao and Misamis Oriental.

“The firm’s rice imports have a total dutiable value of more than P205 million and an estimated market value of over P641 million,” Sevilla disclosed, adding that, based on records, Medaglia De Oro neither applied for nor was granted any import permit or allocated import quota.

“Philippine laws state that only the NFA can import rice, mandating public companies who wish to do the same to secure from the NFA the import

permit. The NFA regulates rice imports through quotas, preventing excessive and unquantifiable amounts of rice, to ensure fair competition and viability of the local rice industry,” he said in a statement after the filing of the case.

If convicted of the offense, the respondents face a maximum punishment of 10 years imprisonment and a fine of P50,000 for violation of Section 3601 of the Tariff and Customs Code of the Philippines (TCCP), while violation of P.D. No. 4 is levied a maximum penalty of four years imprisonment and a fine of P8,000 per count. ■ Brian Maglungsod / InterAksyon.com /

November 13, 2014 / 2:45 PM

DOST’s Project NOAH bags int’l award MANILA — The mobile application of the Department of Science and Technology’s (DOST) early weather warning program dubbed Nationwide Operational Assessment of Hazards or Project NOAH won in the World

Summit Awards Mobile Content 2014.

In a press release, the DOST reported that Project NOAH’s mobile app ARKO was chosen as one of five winners under the e-Inclusion and Empowerment category, besting hundreds of global entries.

“ARKO serves as a vehicle to deliver important information regarding floods to ensure the safety of our communities at risk, and this app proves one thing, it shows that Filipino talent is world class,” DOST secretary Mario Montejo said in a statement.

Arko was picked as one of the 40 winners of WSA Mobile from a total of 456 projects submitted by 98 countries.

Other winners include ColorADD from Portugal (a color identification system for the color blind), Braille Board from

Palestine (a Braille teaching tool for the visually impaired), SnooCode from Ghana (an app that solves the problem of lack of addresses in developing countries), and LIVOX from Brazil (an alternative communication program for disabled people such as those with autism, cerebral palsy, among others).

“The creation of the ARKO mobile app for Project NOAH is one clear example of the innovativeness and ingenuity of our Filipinos scientists and software engineers who developed a very important tool in disaster preparedness,” Montejo said.

The winners are set to formally receive their awards in Abu Dhabi on February 1-2, 2015 in time for the WSA Mobile Global Congress. ■ Jose Bimbo F.

Santos / InterAksyon.com / November 14, 2014 / 3:43 PM

November 2014 / Fortnightly – No. 22 • UK & Europe Edition

SPORTS

www.hello-philippines.com

39

FOOTBALL

Phil Younghusband reaches milestone in Azkals’ bounce-back win over Cambodia AFTER getting shellacked in Thailand, the Philippine national men’s football team bounced back strong with a 3-nil victory over Cambodia on Friday at Rizal Memorial Football Stadium.

Fittingly, Azkals star striker Phil Younghusband put the exclamation point by scoring in extra time, giving him the milestone of his 40th international goal.

“We played with confidence,” said Azkals coach Thomas Dooley, who nonetheless expressed a bit of frustration over the squandered opportunities for the dominant Azkals.

“Obviously, you’re never happy

FOOTBALL

when you have so many chances and you only have three goals.”

The Azkals, who were coming off a 3-nil humbling from Thailand last week, made sure that there would be no repeat of that. Daisuke Sato opened the scoring, sending home a 75-footer at the 13th minute.

The Philippines continued to dominate, with Younghusband and Misagh Bahadoran both getting chances to score.

Manny Ott finally broke through at the 40th minute, sending in a shot off a rebound from a Younghusband miss to give the Azkals a 2-nil edge.

Cambodia fared better in the second

half, threatening to cut the deficit several times. But Patrick Deyto’s confident performance between the sticks kept Cambodia from putting up a score.

It was a largely uneventful second half for the Azkals before Younghusband sent a shot over the crossbar at the 89th minute.

Undeterred, he was back at it a few moments later, as he outmuscled a lone defender to send his milestone goal home.

The match is part of both teams’ buildup for the ASEAN Football Federation Suzuki Cup, which kicks off on November 22. ■ JST, GMA News / November 14, 2014 / 9:48 PM

Azkals hero Chieffy Caligdong announces retirement from national team

PHILIPPINE national men’s football team hero Chieffy Caligdong on Wednesday night announced his retirement from the Azkals.

The left winger Caligdong made the decision after suffering a couple of injuries which prevented him from suiting up for the national team this year.

“To all my supporters and fans, family and friends, Philippine Azkals supporters, management a heartfelt THANK YOU TO ALL OF YOU,” Caligdong wrote on his Facebook account. “To my teammates, coaching staff and management, THANK YOU FOR THE UNFORGETTABLE MEMORIES. It will always be in my heart.

“Even though I will not be playing in the team anymore, my heart, prayers

and support are always with the team. To the present players, future and the next generation of Azkals may you play with all your heart, and wear the flag with honor and pride!”

Caligdong, 32, has been a member of the Azkals for 10 years and scored memorable goals for the national team.

He counts his game-winning goal against Vietnam in the ASEAN Football Federation Suzuki Cup in 2012 as the best shot of his colorful international career.

A long-time enlisted member of the Philippine Air Force, Caligdong decided to leave his military duties two years ago as he had planned to migrate to the United States with his family.

“Opportunity ‘yun para sa family

ko,” Caligdong, whose wife, a registered nurse, has found employment in Texas, then told InterAksyon.com. “I’ll grab the opportunity para sa kanila, para mabigyan ng magandang kinabukasan.”

But Caligdong eventually decided on staying put, and transferred to Green Archers United Globe in the United Football League in 2013. He also became the telecommunications giant’s sports ambassador, leading football clinics in his hometown Barotac Nuevo, Iloilo and fundraising projects nationwide.

In 2012, Caligdong also became one of the recipients of the prestigious The Outstanding Young Men of 2012 award.

As the Azkals hired a new coach in Thomas Dooley, Caligdong found a

difficulty getting a crack at the lineup. To make things worse, the veteran suffered a foot injury last March which eventually ruled him out of the team’s campaign in the Asian Football Confederation Challenge Cup last May. He tried to make a return to the team, but injuries hounded Caligdong, who hasn’t played even a single match this year for the Azkals. He was called up against Papua New Guinea in October, but did not see action.

As he made his departure from the squad, Caligdong wished luck to Philippine football.

“Let’s all support the Philippine football as it continue to flourish in our country. God Bless Philippine Football!” ■ InterAksyon.com / November 13, 2014 / 1:24 PM

Photo by Ver Marquez, ©InterAksyon.com.

MORE SPORTS

PHL jiu-jitsu bets strike gold at Asian Beach Games

BASKETBALL

Tim Cone invites Jerry Codiñera to observe Purefoods practice: ‘We want to keep him close to the organization’ JERRY Codiñera, a week after having his jersey retired by the Purefoods organization that he played on for 11 years, is now being invited to attend the practices of the team.

Purefoods coach Tim Cone disclosed the idea to InterAksyon.com in an exclusive interview.

“I told him to drop by at practice and observe. Maybe he can pick up a thing or two about the triangle offense,” Cone said.

Codiñera, currently a coach at Arellano University in the NCAA, is using some of the principles of the famed offensive system introduced by Tex Winters and popularized by Phil Jackson’s teams in the NBA and Cone’s in the PBA.

The invitation could be beneficial for Codiñera’s coaching, and Cone is happy to help out one of the franchise’s all-time great players.

“We want to keep him close to the organization. He’s a good guy,” Cone said.

Purefoods team manager Alvin Patrimonio, the frontcourt partner of Codiñera in several champion teams, confirmed that the team reached out to his old teammate.

He could not say anything definite, though, about a possible official role with the squad.

“But he’s been invited to come,” added Patrimonio. ■ Rey Joble / InterAksyon.com / November 14, 2014 / 11:11 PM

JIU-JITSU bets Maybelline Masuda and Annie Ramirez secured the Philippines’ first two gold medals in the history of the competition at the start of the 4th Asian Beach Games in Phuket, Thailand.

Filipino-Japanese Masuda dominated Vietnamese foe Le Thu Trang, 15-0, in the women’s 50kg category.

“We have many talented ju-jitsu fighters back home. I hope it will soon be included in the Olympics,” said Masuda, who was trained by Philippine MMA legend Alvin Aguilar.

The 25-year-old Masuda is a sixtime Pan Asian International Ju Jitsu Championship open category champion.

“May (Masuda) is the first Filipino world champion in jiu-jitsu and we’ll

be working hard to reclaim her title next year,” said Aguilar, who is also the president of the Wrestling Association of the Philippines.

Ramirez, on the other hand, recovered from being pinned by Thailand’s Onanong Saengsirichok, forcing an armbar in the 60kg category for the country’s other gold.

“I don’t want her to take advantage of my mistakes and give them a reason to increase her points,” said Ramirez.

Ramirez’ mentor, John Baylon, also added a bronze to the Philippines’ medal haul via the 80kg category.

The Philippines, with two golds and

a bronze, now finds itself in fifth place out of 45 countries after two days of competition behind Mongolia (6-0-2), United Arab Emirates (4-2-3), Pakistan (2-3-0) and Thailand (2-2-6).

“It’s very important for Philippine sports to win medals in this kind of competition. I hope it continues in the next 10 days to inspire our athletes bound for the SEA Games,” said chef de mission Richard Gomez. “We really need to redeem ourselves.”

A total of 77 athletes are representing the Philippines in 16 sports in the competition. ■ RAF, GMA /

November 14, 2014 / 9:37 PM

sport BASKETBALL

PHL jiu-jitsu Tim Cone invites Jerry Phil Younghusband Azkals hero Chieffy reaches milestone in Caligdong announces Codiñera to observe Purefoods bets strike gold Azkals’ bounce-back retirement from practice- ‘We want to keep at Asian Beach win over Cambodia national team him close to the organization’ Games Story on page 39

Story on page 39

40-year-old Menk relishes Best Player honor in Alaska win over Blackwater

Story on page 39

Story on page 39

ERIC Menk had had 14 points and 13 rebounds as the Alaska Aces beat Blackwater to protect its untarnished record in the eliminations.

It has been a while since the former PBA Most Valuable Player, who turned 40 this year, showed a glimpse of his former self and he obviously relished the opportunity.

“I think last year I had a few double-doubles but it’s been years since I’ve been Player of the Game,” Menk said. “It’s a long time.”

Menk averaged just 4.9 points and 5.5 rebounds per game last season with GlobalPort before being acquired by Alaska in a trade.

“I’m very thankful that Alaska traded for me, that Alaska saw something in me to trade for me,” he said.

The former national team member saw extended minutes with Sonny Thoss sitting out due to a foot injury.

“I’m another big guy so with Gabby (Espinas) being injured and Sonny being injured, just gonna try to do the best that I can.”

Menk said he is enjoying playing with the Aces, especially having Calvin Abueva as a teammate.

“He really does all the work for me,” he said of Abueva. “It takes two guys to contain him so I’m free a lot down there.”

“Him and JVee (Casio), they do most of the work. I’m just picking up the scraps,” he added.

■ Marisse Panaligan / RAF, GMA News / November 14, 2014 / 9:44 PM