Manila Standard - 2017 February 6 - Monday by Manila Standard

MINING AUDIT RESULTS QUESTIONED By Rio N. Araja and Anna Leah E. Gonzales A LAWMAKER on Sunday accused Undersecretary Leo Jasareno of granting special favors to some mining companies that were not ordered closed or suspended for violating environmental laws, while an industry association urged the Department of the Environment and Natural Resources to release the results of its audit. Surigao del Norte Rep. Robert Ace

Barbers on Sunday challenged DENR Secretary Gina Lopez to justify Jasareno’s appointment as the leader of the audit team. Barbers also questioned Jasareno’s ﬁndings, which resulted in the closure of 23 big mining companies and the suspension of several others. “How about those mining companies which were not closed and whose owners were known friends of Mr. Jasareno?” Next page Barbers asked.

VOL. XXX • NO. 359 • 4 SECTIONS 20 PAGES • P18 • MONDAY, FEBRUARY 6, 2017 • www.thestandard.com.ph • editorial@thestandard.com.ph

Senate probes ‘pay for kill’ tale By Macon R. Araneta

ARTS FOR PEACE Pasinaya 2017, a celebration of Filipino culture and arts, has unfolded with this year’s event taking on the theme ‘Arts for Peace,’ at the CCP Complex in Pasay City.

NORMAN CRUZ

THE Senate will investigate this week allegations by the international watchdog Amnesty International (AI) that police paid killers to liquidate drug users and pushers, Senator Panﬁlo Lacson said Sunday. “I have asked them to look for a committee room for Thursday. If there’s an available [room], we will [notify] those concerned,” said Lacson. Lacson , who heads the committee on public order, said he had already instructed his staff to write a letter to AI and ask them their basis for the allegations. Lacson said he wanted to know the source of AI’s information. “Was there an afﬁdavit? Was there really a statement? Those Next page

Reds deemed terrorists CBCP: War on drugs spurs reign of terror By John Paolo Bencito and Rio N. Araja THE Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines on Sunday assailed President Rodrigo Duterte’s war on drugs for creating a “reign of terror” among the poor in a pastoral letter read in all Masses across the country, but the Palace said the bishops were out of touch with reality. “We, your bishops, are deeply concerned due to many deaths and killings in the campaign against prohibited drugs,” CBCP president Lingayen-Dagupan Archbishop Socrates Villegas said in his most strongly worded comments so far on Duterte’s crackdown on pushers and users, which has killed more than 7,000

drug suspects since July 2016. “An additional cause of concern is the reign of terror in many places of the poor. Many are killed not because of drugs. Those who kill them are not brought to account,” Villegas added. The CBCP pastoral letter made it clear it did not advocate neglecting the war on drugs, saying the Church supported the administration’s concern for the evils brought by illicit d rugs. However, the bishops maintained that “an even greater cause of concern is the indifference of many to this kind of wrong.” “It is considered as normal, and, even worse, something that [according to them] needs to be done,” the pastoral letter, signed Jan. 30, read. Next page

As talks fail, Du30 orders arrest of freed detainees By Sandy Araneta and Lance Baconguis

FAILED GAB. President Rodrigo Duterte declares the suspension of peace talks with the Communists Party of the Philippines—National Democratic Front after visiting the grave of his mother at the Davao Catholic Cemetery in Davao City on Feb. 4, 2017.

RESIDENT Rodrigo Duterte on Sunday declared the Communist Party of the Philippines, its armed wing, the New People’s Army, and the umbrella organization, the National Democratic Front as terrorists and ordered detainees he had freed for peace talks rearrested.

“From now on, I will consider the CCP-NPA-NDF a terrorist group,” Duterte said one day after ordering an end to peace talks with the communist rebels. “I’m ashamed at the statements of these sons-of-bitches. Who do they think they are?” the President, a self-described leftist, said in Filipino. “You give them all the leeway and they make you look stupid,” he added. In remarks at the wake of sol-

diers killed by the communist rebels in Camp Evangelista in Cagayan de Oro City, Duterte also ordered the military and the Bureau of Immigration to be on the lookout for NDF consultants that he had freed for peace talks, including CPP leaders Benito and Wilma Next page

Duterte son Korean maﬁa warned of ‘kill order’ told: Mind By John Paolo Bencito your kids By John Paolo Bencito PRESIDENT Rodrigo Duterte on Sunday advised his son Sebastian “Baste” Duterte to “go home and spend time with your kids” after he heard one of his grandchildren talking bitterly about their father. “I’m hurt for my grandchild as I have not seen the guy [Sebastian],” Duterte. “Go home because your child does not know you anymore.” Duterte said he didn’t want his grandchildren to grow up without their father around them all the time. “Many men are fools,” Duterte said. “They would father three, four children and then leave the wife and go to another woman.” Duterte has three children with his former wife Elizabeth Zimmerman: Davao City Mayor SEBASTIAN ‘BASTE’ DUTERTE

PRESIDENT Rodrigo Duterte has warned the South Koreans allegedly controlling the illegal drug trade and prostitution in Cebu province that they would get shot like ordinary criminals if they continued their illegal activities. Following Police Chief Ronald dela Rosa’s remarks that a South Korean maﬁa could possibly be involved in the abduction and killing of businessman Jee Ick Joo, Duterte said the Koreans in-

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kidnapping, you will be treated just like ordinary criminals.” But Duterte emphasized the Philippines’ friendship with South Korea. “I’m not condemning all Koreans. They’re always welcome here,” Duterte said. “Korea is our friend. It has helped us in so many ways. I will not want to pick a quarrel just like [with] India,” Duterte said referring to his stand against the Indians engaged in usurious lending. Next page

More charges sought vs Jee’s killers By Rey E. Requejo and Macon Ramos-Araneta THE widow of South Korean businessman Jee Ick Joo has asked the Justice department to ﬁle more cases against those responsible for kidnapping and killing her husband. Choi Kyungjin made the plea before the department’s prosecu-

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volved could not enjoy “special privileges” here just because they were foreigners. “It’s strongest in Cebu. If you ask any [Cebuano] or if you go to Cebu for an investigative journalism you will ﬁnd out,” Duterte told reporters on Saturday night. “I’ve always heard from intelligence sources that in Cebu, with all due respect to the South Korean government, they’re the ones controlling drugs, prostitution. “For those into the racket of prostitution, drugs and everything,

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tors during the hearing on the reinvestigation of the case on Friday last week. Despite the case, the number of South Koreans visiting the Philippines soared to a record 1.5 million last year and they spent a total of P70 billion, Senate Minority Leader Ralph Recto said. He said a total of 5.967-million tourists ﬂocked to the coun-

try in 2016 “for sun, sea and shopping,” with the South Koreans again topping the count. In the Senate, Senator Panﬁlo Lacson on Sunday said it was wrong for President Rodrigo Duterte to say he had lost trust in the Philippine National Police and the National Bureau of Investigation following the abduction and killing of Jee. Next Nextpage page

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‘Straps may lead to Lam bank’ T Reds... From A1

Tiamzon. “Arrest them all again,” Duterte said. The President was visiting the wake of three soldiers killed by NPA rebels on Wednesday last week, the same day that the communist group announced the termination of their unilateral ceasefire with the government. The Armed Forces of the Philippines reported on Friday that the three soldiers were killed by NPA rebels. On the same day, Duterte lifted the government’s unilateral ceasefire with the communist group. Addressing soldiers and families in a mix of Bisaya, Tagalog, and English, the President tore into the CPP-NPA-NDF. In calling off peace talks, Duterte condemned the insurgents for resuming hostilities, saying he was ready for a prolonged conflict. “I told the soldiers to prepare for a long war. I said [peace] will not come during our generation,” he said late Saturday. The two sides separately declared ceasefires in August, and the informal arrangement largely held as they continued discussions in Rome. The President said he was now ordering government negotiators to “fold their tents and return home from overseas talks with the

rebel leaders. “I am not interested in talking to them [the rebel leaders]. I will refuse to talk about it anymore,” he told reporters. “We have been fighting for 50 years. If you want to extend it for another 50 years, so be it, we will be happy to accommodate you,” he added. His order came after the rebels announced an end to their fivemonth-old ceasefire last week, accusing Duterte’s administration of treachery and human rights abuses. The government responded by calling off its own unilateral ceasefire with the rebels. Duterte also denounced the 4,000-strong communist NPA for killing four soldiers in attacks last week, saying one of the victims had been riddled with 76 bullets. The communist insurgency in the poverty-stricken country, that began in 1968, is one of the longest running in the world and has claimed an estimated 30,000 lives, according to the military. The NDF on Sunday said it was willing to continue peace talks, even as Duterte announced their cancellation. “The NDF stands firm in its commitment to struggle for a just and lasting peace in the country in accordance with the national and democratic aspirations of the Filipino people,” Fidel Agcaoili, NDF chief negotiator, said in a statement sent to reporters. Agcaoili said that it has yet to

receive a formal notice from government peace panel headed by Labor Secretary Silvestre Bello III on the termination of peace negotiations with the communist rebels. “The NDF hereby states that it is waiting for the formal notice from the GRP Negotiating Panel on its termination of the peace negotiations as mandated in the Joint Agreement on Safety and Immunity Guarantees (Jasig) which defines the mode of termination,” he added. NDF peace panel spokesman Dan Borjal, on the other hand, accused the Armed Forces of the Philippines for violating its own ceasefire. “The AFP took advantage of ceasefire for what they call clearing barangays of NPA influence in the guise of peace and development missions,” he said. In the same statement, Agcaoili said that all 17 NDF consultants who were granted release from detention last August 2016 by Duterte were “all in the Philippines and are not in hiding.” “Those who took part in the third round of formal talks in Rome, Italy from 19 to 25 January 2017 have returned to the country as of 31 January. They are all protected from rearrest in accordance with the Jasig,” he said. “These consultants have been put under the effective jurisdiction of… courts because they were released only on bail and only for a

six-month period. They have been required to secure court permission every time they went abroad to participate in the last three rounds of talks. Their bail renewal is due this month and, as reﬂected in the Rome Joint Statement of 25 January 2017, both their lawyers and the GRP have agreed to cooperate in this regard,” he added. Agcaoili said the Norwegian government, as third party facilitator in the peace talks, has been covering the travel and accommodation expenses of the NDF delegation. NDF legal counsel Krissy Conti scored Duterte for failing to appreciate the problem of political prisoners, whom he refused to release until an agreement was reached. “Duterte yet betrays his misappreciation of the problem of political prisoners, branding them legitimate objects of enforcement of law and order, and calling on them to face charges in court,” Conti said. “Political prisoners may indeed carry criminal indictments, but the impetus for their arrest lies largely on political motives. Most of them are supporters, suspected rightly or wrongly, of rebel causes. It’s a mix of the outspoken and the timid, the politicized and the ‘collateral damage’ but in common: they’ve been set apart by the state to generally answer for supposed crimes of the NPA, charged en masse and by alias,” she added. Conti maintained that the solution for the problem of political

prisoners is for Duterte to exercise political will to release them immediately. “So it’s a logical pitfall to pass them all off as common criminals, when the prosecutorial practice has since been to veer away from their politics. They’ve been grievously wronged upon arrest.” “It’s an added insult to ask them to rely on a system they have sought to change, inside and outside the courtroom, to vindicate themselves,” she added. A military source said Sunday that intelligence agents have been alerted to keep track of 23 detainees, all identiﬁed as NDF consultants, who took part in the peace talks in Oslo and Rome. Among them were Benito Tiamzon, chairman of the CPP and the NPA and wife Wilma, CPP-NPA secretary-general, who were released Aug. 19, 2016. Also included were Loisa Magpatoc, thead of the Far South Mindanao command of the CPPNPA; Reynante Gamara, alleged secretary of CPP’s Metro Manila Regional Party Committee; Tirso Alcantara, spokesman of NDF Southern Tagalog region; Adelberto Silva, secretary-general of the CPP-NPA; Cochita Araneta Bocala, leader of CPP Panay Island Regional Party Committee; and Alan Jazmines, member of the CPP central committee and secretary general of the party. With John Paolo Bencito, Francisco Tuyay, AFP

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“I think that statement is not right,” Lacson told dzBB radio. “He should not lose trust in the constitutionally established institutions. You can lose trust but you cannot change the institution: You can change the leadership.” Choi’s lawyer asked the prosecutors to include charges of carjacking and robbery against the policemen and several others tagged in Jee’s killing apart from kidnapping for ransom with homicide. “His [Jee’s] motor vehicle was also taken [during the kidnapping),” Bryan Bantilan told the prosecutors. He said the kidnappers took Jee’s black Ford Explorer and golf set when they took him from his home at the Friendship Subdivision in Angeles City on Oct. 18 last year along with his housemaid Marisa Morquicho. Morquicho earlier tagged Senior Police Officer 3 Ricky Santa Isabel in the case and on Friday also appeared in the hearing for the preliminary reinvestigation of the case. The PNP’s Anti-Kidnapping Group asked the Justice department to make Morquicho a private complainant in the case and not just a witness since she was also abducted by the respondents before freeing her later. Besides Santa Isabel, the other accused in the case also appeared before the prosecutors: -Senior Police Officers 4 Roy Villegas and Ramon Yalung, Police Officer 2 Christopher Baldovino, Gerardo Santiago, Jerry Omlang and Christopher Alan Gruenberg. Santiago, the retired police officer who owns the Gream funeral parlor where Jee’s body was cremated, has applied for the witness protection program after earlier surrendering to the National Bureau of Investigation, which conducted a parallel probe on the case, according to his lawyer Restituto Mendoza. Omlang, a striker or errand boy in the NBI who also surrendered and confessed to his participation in the crime, has likewise sought protection after tagging Superintendent Rafael Dumlao of the PNP Anti-Illegal Drugs Group as mastermind in the case. Dumlao did not appear before the hearing for security reasons, but he sent his lawyer who assured the panel that Dumlao, who is now under PNP restrictive custody, would appear when he submits his answer to the allegations.

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ASEAN KIOSK. Presidential Communications Assistant Secretaries Kris Ablan (left) and Marie Banaag (third from right) take part in the ribbon-cutting ceremony of the Association of South East Asian Nations (Asean) Kiosk at SM City Baguio on Feb. 4, 2017.

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He said supposed violations of the involved mining ﬁrms took place when Jasareno was the head of the DENR’s Mines and Geosciences Bureau. “I suspect Secretary Lopez could have been fooled by Mr. Jasareno,” he said. “He is not an innocent bystander in this masquerade. He is the protagonist. His MGB was supposed to police the mining activities in the country, but now he is saying that these companies committed environmental violations. Such hypocrisy coming from the one who was supposed to ensure that mining laws are followed and implemented,” Barbers said. He said Jasareno already knew about the violations of many mining companies under his watch, but deliberately turned a blind eye to these. “There should be no selective

Sara, Vice Mayor Paolo and Sebastian. He now stays with his commonlaw wife Honeylet Avanceña and daughter Veronica. Duterte recently scoffed at his son’s highly publicized relationship with actress Ellen Adarna, whom Sebastian was often seen with in the past few months. But Sebastian said he and Adarna had already broken up.

prosecution here. The investigation should cover everything,” he said. He called on Lopez to investigate Jasareno if she is sincere about reforming the department and wiping out corruption. Earlier, Surigao del Sur Rep. Prospero Pichay sought a probe of the closure of 23 mining companies and the suspension of ﬁve others for, saying the action was “illegal and arbitrary.” The closures would lose billions of pesos in government revenues, he added. The Philippine Mine Safety and Environment Association on Sunday urged the DENR to disclose the results of the mining audit. “In the spirit of transparency and due process, the PMSEA exhorts the DENR to release the results of the mining audit to clear any doubts and air of suspicion,” said PMSEA president Louie Sarmiento. Lopez earlier said of the 41 metallic mines in the country, only 12

passed the mining audit. It said 23 would be closed down and five would be suspended. Mining companies, however, said the the government could not just shut down mining operations without due process. Members of PMSEA noted that the audit review findings were first made known through a press conference. “It appears that full details of the results of the mining audit have yet to be furnished to the concerned companies,” Sarmiento said. “The closures and suspensions, if affirmed, will have far reaching effect especially in mining communities that plays host to these mines―employees and their dependents, contractors and mine-dependent small businesses will be the biggest losers,” said Sarmiento. Lopez, however, said that due process was observed in the mining audit. The DENR chief said technical experts from different government offices were invited

to conduct the audit and all observed the standards of truth, service and the common good. “This means they know what they are doing and have followed the due legal process that needs to be done,” Lopez said. “We based the checklist of the criteria for the audit on the items in compliance with the different mining and environmental laws. A cross-audit was also done, which means that the auditors who reviewed one site, have come from a different region,” she said. Lopez said mining companies were given time to respond to the results of the audit. “My issue here is not about mining. My issue here is social justice “ Lopez said. “We assure the industry and the general public that due process was meticulously observed in the mining audit conducted by the agency and that the results would be always anchored on integrity, social justice and the common good,” she said.

5) Any action that harms another seriously is a grave sin. To push drugs is a grave sin, as is killing, except in self-defense; 6) The deep roots of the drug problem and crime are the poverty of the majority, destruction of the family, and corruption in society; and 7) To consent and keep silent in the face of evil is to be an accomplice to it. Duterte’s bloody war on drugs has killed at least 7,080 people as of Jan. 31, or seven months since the President took ofﬁce. Up to 4,000 of them were extrajudicial or vigilante killings. The bishops did not cite Duterte by name in their letter, but urged “elected politicians to serve the common good of the people and

not their own interests.” In apparent reference to Duterte’s recent tirades against immorality and corruption among bishops and priests, the CBCP letter acknowledged the clergy’s shortcomings, but nonetheless said they will continue to speak “against evil” in a country “shrouded in the darkness of vice and death.” “We will do this even if it will bring persecution upon us because we are all brothers and sisters responsible for each other,” the pastoral letter read. Malacañang slammed the CBCP for attacking the President. “The ofﬁcials of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines are apparently out of touch

with the sentiments of the faithful who overwhelmingly support the changes in the Philippines—turning the nation into a safer place for families, working people, especially young night shift workers, far from the ‘terror” the bishops paint rather dramatically,” said Presidential Spokesman Ernesto Abella. Abella urged the CBCP to instead put to better use the religious teachings to build a stronger nation, as well as to help achieve peace in the country. He said instead of lambasting the government’s war on drugs, CBCP should instead build the moral character of its faithful and contribute to peace-making of communities.

HE currency straps used to bundle the 50-million-pesos worth of 1,000-peso bills in the Jack Lam bribery case are key to identifying the bank account from which the money was withdrawn for the purpose of asset sequestration, Surigao del Sur Rep. Johnny Pimentel said Sunday. Jack Lam, a Chinese gaming tycoon, is accused of bribery and economic sabotage after he allegedly attempted to offer money to Justice Secretary Vitaliano Aguirre II in connection with the arrest of over 1,300 Chinese nationals illegally working at his Fontana Leisure Parks and Casino in Pampanga. “When Justice Secretary Aguirre II presented the P50 million to the media, the money appeared to be bunched in the currency straps of a leading bank,” Pimentel, chairman of the House committee on good government and public accountability, said in a statement. “Starting from the currency straps, it should be fairly easy to ascertain from which bank account the money came from. And an inquiry into a single bank account may be enough to lead to multiple bank accounts elsewhere.” A currency strap or bill band is a simple paper contraption used to put together a specific number of banknotes of the same denomination to facilitate tallying. Pimentel said he was counting on the Anti-Money Laundering Council “to follow the money and act fast in complying with President Rodrigo Duterte’s order to freeze and confiscate Lam’s financial and other assets in the country.”

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are the things we wanted to know before we investigate,” he said. Senator Risa Hontiveros scored the Duterte administration for dismissing the Amnesty International report on extrajudicial killings. “From the House Speaker’s ‘it’s none of their business” remark to the Justice Secretary’s “criminals are not humans’ statement, to the President’s usual profanity-laced attacks, the government’s lack of commitment to address the country’s human rights issues is appalling and unconscionable,” Hontiveros said. “After all, what should a government be for, if not to protect the basic rights and liberties of its citizens? It is important to remember that peace and order is worth nothing and will eventually itself be destroyed without human rights, that an improvement in people’s lives will only have lasting positive effects if it were founded on human rights for all.” In Davao City, President Rodrigo Duterte denied that drug suspects in the country were being treated and killed “like dogs.” With John Paolo Bencito

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The pastoral letter stressed that all acts must be guided by truth and justice, and cited seven “basic teachings that are rooted” in the people’s being “human, Christian and Filipino.” These basic teachings are: 1) The life of every person comes from God; 2) The opportunity to change is never lost in a person; 3) To destroy one’s own life and the life of another is a grave sin and does evil to society; 4) Every person has the right to be presumed innocent until proven guilty;

Jee’s death in the hands of scalawag cops had led to a halt in the anti-drug operations of the Philippine National Police and National Bureau of Investigation. The President, meanwhile, tasked the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency and the military to continue his war on drugs after the police were deemed unﬁt for the job. On Friday, Dela Rosa said the PNP had knowledge of the “competition within [the Korean] community” but he could not conﬁrm it yet. A joint probe team of the PNP and the National Bureau of Investigation were looking into it, he said

News

MONDAY, FEBRUARY 6, 2017

War on ‘5-6’ lending pressed By John Paolo Bencito

RESIDENT Rodrigo Duterte has vowed to pursue discussions with the Indian government on the issue of usurious lending practices involving Indian nationals operating in the country.

“I would not want to pick a like to talk to the Indian govquarrel with India. I would ernment regarding these 5-6

[operators],” Duterte said in a late night press briefing in Davao City on Saturday. The President said some traders who are into “5-6” require their clients to buy certain goods before lending them money. “It’s okay that they lend money, but their new style is to lend the poor Filipino money, but they would first let them buy

refrigerator, appliances. The hardships of the Filipino get doubled,” he added. Duterte earlier said that discussions have been going on, at least at the ministerial level, as Foreign Affairs Secretary Perfecto Yasay Jr. met with the Indian charge d’affaires last January to discuss the subject. The President said Filipinos had been experiencing such con-

ditions but it had not been noticed for a long time. In 1982, the Philippine government suspended the antiusury law and the central bank removed the loan interest rates, thus leaving it up to the courts to decide what constituted excessive interest rates. The Trade department said the government will initiate a P1-billion lending program

designed to eliminate the socalled “5-6” loans with an affordable micro-financing for the country’s micro, small and medium enterprises. The 2017 budget has included an initial funding of P1 billion for the program, part of the planned P19-billion financing initiative for micro and small businesses in the next five years.

Carbon emission tax eyed By Rio Araja A CONGRESSMAN from Bicol region is batting for the passage of a climate tax on carbon dioxide emission from electricity under his proposed “Piso Para sa Kalikasan Act.” Camarines Sur Rep. Luis Ray Villafuerte seeks to impose a tax of P1 for every kilo of CO2 emission on the monthly power bills of residential or household consumers. Villafuerte, House committee on appropriations vice chairman, said the proceeds of House Bill No. 4939, if passed, would be used exclusively for programs designed to help the most vulnerable communities better adapt to erratic weather patterns and other disastrous effects of global warming. A consumer shall be exempt from the payment of the climate tax if the monthly consumption would not exceed 60 kilowatt hours or if the power is generated from renewable energy sources, he said. “This bill’s purpose is twopronged: Generating revenues and at the same time, protect and preserve the environment,” he said. “The bill is the first of its kind in the country.” Proceeds of the fund shall also be used to explore alternative and cleaner sources of energy, provide better public transportation and raise climate change awareness, he added. The Philippines is “ground zero for climate disaster” and has been classified by the World Bank as one of the countries most vulnerable to natural disasters caused by climate change, the Camarines Sur lawmaker said.

ANGELS’ WALK. Leyte Rep. Yedda Marie Romudez (left) and husband Martin Romualdez, president of the Philippine Constitution Association, with their daughter Minxie (2nd left) join SM Prime president Hans Sy (standing) and about 24,000 participants at the starting line of 2017 Angels Walk for Autism at the Mall of Asia Pasay City. Romualdez authored the persons with disability law (RA 10754, which expands the benefits and privileges of PWD.) Ver Noveno

‘Death penalty no crime deterrent’ By Macon Araneta WITH the Senate Committee on Justice and Human Rights poised to tackle proposals to reimpose the death penalty, Senator Richard J. Gordon maintained his stand that a revival of the capital punishment will not deter criminals. Gordon, who chairs the Justice committee, insisted on his claim that life is precious and that imposing the death penalty is not a solution to the rising criminality in the country.

“My father was assassinated, tatlong attempt sa buhay ng tatay ko, baka nga apat o lima pa e. But I’m against it [death penalty] because that’s not the solution,” said Gordon. While there may be fear on the part of criminals, Gordon said it would be for only a brief period. The fear does not last long. It’s like instant gratification,” he said. The senator also noted that poor people would be most likely to be meted the death penalty, justly or unjustly, once it is re-

imposed since they are the ones usually accused of crimes and they could hardly afford the services of lawyers. “Palaging mahirap ang pumapatay, sila ang natatamaan. Wala silang abogado dahil sa poverty,” he stressed. Gordon pointed out that amending the penal system to ensure that convicts would be locked up in prisons that are located far from their families and giving a bigger stigma to criminals, would be more of a deterrent to crime.

“ If you jail a person and our justice system, our penal system is that you are living in a far place, it would be difficult for your family to visit you. There should be publicity, we have the website, this person killed and he is now in jail. There’s stigma in your family,” explained Gordon. Conceding that such proposal is not really a sufficient solution, Gordon proposed that ensuring that people get better education and employment opportunities would reduce the need to commit crimes.

Lighten estate tax onus, Angara urges By Macon Araneta SENATOR Sonny Angara, chairman of the ways and means committee, on Sunday pledged to act on the House bill granting amnesty on unpaid estate taxes once it is passed and transmitted to the upper chamber. Angara said it will be paired with a measure that will reform estate taxes to include hiking deductions to comfort “bereaved families.” “We want our grieving families to be spared from further anguish in paying high estate taxes which often delay the distribution of the assets to the heirs, “ the senator pointed out. In the desire to revamp the estate tax regime, Angara said his committee will be adopting an “Una ang Pamilya” philosophy, “by setting rules that are easy to comply with, and rates that are affordable.” “We will lighten the tax burden on a deceased’s assets in order to lighten the grief of the heirs. But if this will benefit the government as well and gives it more money for social services, then all the better,” he said. The National Internal Revenue Code currently exempts from tax a net estate of up to P200,000, and imposes four tiers of taxes from five percent to 20 percent based on the value of assets. Finance officials have said that owing to many reasons, col-

lection of estate taxes averages P1 billion yearly from a potential P10 to P50 billion. “This tax hurdle, plus the unfamiliarity with estate taxes and cultural avoidance to discuss deathrelated affairs, has led families to delay settling the estate, resulting in huge penalties and surcharges while use of assets are not maximized,” Angara stressed. He explained that the Senate’s plan is to “trim estate tax rates” and increase the tax deductible expenses—such as the medical expenses incurred by the deceased. Angara has filed Senate Bill 980 which incorporates the estate tax reforms he is advocating. Foremost of these is adjusting the 1997-era estate brackets to inflation which, he said, “would result in more than doubling the tax-exempt values.” Angara proposed that in computing the estate tax, the standard deduction must be increased from P1 million to P2 million. In addition, a family home will not be taxed if it is valued at P2 million, double the present threshold of P1 million. Heirs can also charge to the estate medical expenses of up to P1 million and funeral expenses of up to P500,000, in recognition, he said, “of the high cost of dying the country.” Angara’s bill also allows an authorized heir or estate administrator to withdraw P200,000 from the bank deposits of the deceased.

PILGRIM. The relic of the parents of St. Therese of the Child Jesus, namely Sts. Louis and Zelie Martin, is carried by church-goers during the 1st Philippine Pilgrim visit at the Manila Cathedral on Sunday. It will be toured around the country until Feb. 28, 2017. Norman Cruz

QC solon seeks list of OFWs’ crimes QUEZON City Rep. Winston Castelo on Sunday asked the Overseas Workers Welfare Administration and Department of Foreign Affairs to submit to Congress an inventory of all overseas Filipino workers who are languishing in jails or facing cases abroad. Castelo, House committee on Metro Manila development chairman, said there is a need to review all such cases and map out a comprehensive legal assistance program and diplomatic actions to avert the execution of the beleaguered OFWs convicted of crimes. “We have always been caught unawares of the reports about an OFW to face execution,” he said, referring to the recent case of Jakatia Pawa from Zamboanga del Norte, who was hanged in Kuwait for killing her employer’s 22-yearold daughter. He said the House of Representatives would like to know the readiness and competence of OWWA and DFA to help distressed OFWs. “We would like to find out exactly how many OFWs have been convicted or undergoing trial, the nature of their cases, the penalty they are facing, what can be done to help them,” he added. OWWA and DFA must not run out of solutions on how to help OFWs facing criminal charges, he said. “Just tell Congress if they [agencies] do not have the needed funds to help our beleaguered OFWs so we can make the appropriation for their legal defense funds,” Castelo said. OWWA and DFA should also present to Congress what efforts they have been exerting to brief OFWs on how to stay away from being involved in crimes and from being victimized by abusive employers forcing them to commit crimes. Rio Araja

Opinion

MONDAY, FEBRUARY 6, 2017

EDITORIAL

An overplayed hand

ESPONDING to a series of attacks by communist rebels, President Rodrigo Duterte has scrapped peace talks with the National Democratic Front, ending immediate hopes of an early end to Asia’s longestrunning insurgency. In January, negotiators from both sides ended a third round of talks in Rome, Italy, with no major breakthrough, but agreed to continue discussing contentious issues, including the communist demand that the government release rebel detainees, many of whom

Adelle Chua, Editor

are charged with ordinary crimes such as murder, arson and robbery. Duterte had earlier released top communist leaders so that they could take part in the ﬁrst two rounds of peace talks in Oslo, but balked at granting a general amnesty, which he said is usually granted

after successful negotiations. Using that as a pretext, the communist New People’s Army announced that it would terminate its unilateral ceaseﬁre on Feb. 10—then promptly launched a series of provocative attacks on government troops well before that target date. On Feb. 1, while its own ceaseﬁre was supposed to be operative, the NPA killed four soldiers in Davao Oriental. The following day, three more soldiers were killed in Bukidnon, while two others were abducted in Sultan Kudarat. On Friday, the President

called an immediate end to the government’s own unilateral ceaseﬁre, setting the stage for a resumption of hostilities, and bringing peace talks teetering on the edge of collapse. That domino fell on Saturday. That the rebels could not even stick to their own timetable presents several possibilities, none of which are particularly encouraging. First, it could mean that the communist leadership has no effective control over its troops on the ground, who cannot comply even with their own ceaseﬁre terms.

Alternately, it could mean that the communist leadership had planned or approved of the attacks all along, and had no intention of waiting until after its own Feb. 10 lifting of the ceaseﬁre to resume attacks on government forces. Neither case presents the communist leaders as being trustworthy partners in the peace process. Their recent actions left the President little choice than to end the government ceaseﬁre and to call off the peace talks. While we applauded the President’s early efforts to bring the communists back to the negotiating table to

end the 48-year-old insurgency, we also recognize that peace talks are a matter of give and take, a point the rebels seem to have overlooked. We also believe that detainees held on serious crimes such as murder need to go through a judicial process, and not be automatically given a pass simply because their goal is revolution. In demanding the immediate release of 400 rebel detainees, the communists overplayed their hand—and now we must all pay the price of renewed ﬁghting where guns were silent only a month ago.

The folly of long legal battles

Helping Digong BECAUSE President Digong has repeatedly characterized the bishops, in fact the Roman Catholic Clergy, as obstructionists and coddlers of drug users and peddlers, they are the sector of Philippine society from which he expects no help at all. But whether he accepts it or not, concedes the point or vehemently takes exception, the fact is that the bishops, in ceaselessly protesting extrajudicial killings and sounding the alarm over the rising body count in what is undeniably the bloody campaign against drug lords and their couriers, are helping Digong. A government remains in power only as long as it is perceived to be “legitimate” and the issue of legitimacy is not settled by presenting a duly signed and authenticated copy of the oath of office. Ferdinand Marcos recited his oath of office before Chief Justice Ramon Aquino, as did Erap Estrada before Chief Justice Andres Narvasa. That did not stop the crowds from massing, paralyzing city life in Manila,

winning over the sympathy and the support of the military that promptly declared that it was no longer taking orders from the erstwhile commander-in-chief. Constitutionalists could argue no end about whether or not the incumbents were entitled to office according to the letter of the law, but obviously, discourse on legitimacy belongs to quite a different level. When all dissent is silenced and all opposition suppressed, it becomes so much the easier to argue the proposition that the government has ceased to be legitimate. Legitimacy, after all is directly related to the freedom of exchange, the freedom to make claims, the freedom to challenge them, and the freedom to vindicate claims. By agitating the national conscience and stirring it from acquiescence to extrajudicial killings and summary executions, the Church is maintaining that critical exchange that makes legitimacy a current issue. I have not heard bishops or priests call for the overthrow of the government.

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The President is rousing the Church from the stupor of its self-satisfaction to watchfulness.

It is not likely that they will ever do do, and it is not, to my mind, correct that they should. But that the government must constantly defend itself—not always convincingly and successfully though—against charges of human rights abuses only means that the citizens of the country deal with it not as brutal fact about which they are helpless—the very tinderbox of rebellion—but as an establishment framed within the discourse of legitimacy. This dynamic of thrust and

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parry—it is this that makes collective will-formation relevant. When everything becomes a “given” about which none can do anything, then is government truly endangered, for then there will be no more room and space for that crucial exchange that allows for a common definition of the situation and a consensus on a meaningful response. Then, it will be that government must ceaselessly woe the military, pamper it, keep it on a short leash, and unleash it against all foes. Digong is also helping the Church, rousing it, if not too gently, from the stupor of its self-satisfaction to watchfulness for its deportment and conduct as prophetic in word and in deed. The President has no right demanding of the Church that it be perfect. Not even God demands that. But he has a right to demand of the Church that it be constantly self-critical and to wrestle with the obstacles to its own credibility. For some time, some bishops thought that maintaining a politically calculated silence

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was safeguarding its credibility. That is a politician’s gambit. It is not the way a prophet remains God’s mouthpiece. The prophet is one who will speak, even if in consequence of his diatribes, woes and imprecations he is thrown into cisterns, shooed off the land and dealt savage blows. That is credibility for the Church. And I am proud of the fact that the Catholic Church has not allowed its voice to be muffled—“Altar of Secrets” and other aspersions notwithstanding. And rather than engage the Church in a rhetoric of slur and insult, it will be well for President Digong and his government to demand of the Church proof of its claims, to challenge the warrants both from constitutional theory as well as from moral theory that it uses, to introduce qualifiers and to build on rebuttals. This is the way of rationality. It is also the way by which legitimacy is decided. Rather than attacking the persons of the likes of Turn to A5

RECENTLY, the Philippine government lost a long legal battle. I refer to the international arbitration court’s decision on President Benigno Aquino III’s cancellation of the Laguna Lake dredging contract with a Belgian firm. The deal was entered into by the government of President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo. President Aquino simply canceled the contract, despite the protestations of the Belgian and EU ambassadors, and despite the fact that the Belgian dredging contractor was reputed to be one of the world’s best and most reliable. “A, basta” is perhaps the best descriptive of the rationale behind the cancellation. So the Belgian firm, supported by its government, went to court. Predictably, the Philippine government lost the case. We are now being fined P800 million payable to the Belgian firm. It’s Duterte who must pay, never mind if the culprit is his predecessor. Correction: The Filipino people must pay. *** One recalls that the same thing happened when the Arroyo administration refused to honor the terms of the Naia 3 terminal won by Piatco in partnership with Fraport of Germany, and constructed quickly by Japan’s Takenaka. We went to great lengths, paying humongous sums to lawyers both domestic and international, here and in Washington DC, just because our government decided to get into legal battle over a project that was in fact already completed. At the beginning of the Aquino administration, Piatco, burdened by the inability to get paid, and with their own obligations to their partners and contractors, sued for a compromise agreement. They were willing to settle for less than 200 dollars, just to get it over with. Six long years dragged on top of the nine years of Arroyo. No dice. So the aggrieved had no choice but to pursue the case it won in the RTC but which government appealed all the way to the Supreme Court. Piatco won, and government lost in the high tribunal. But because monetary claims earn interest as years of inaction take its toll, the sum government has to pay doubled. Who lost? The Filipino taxpayer. Turn to A5

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Opinion

MONDAY, FEBRUARY 6, 2017

Waging war on all fronts WHEN billionaire businessman Donald J. Trump took on the CEO job of United States of America Corp, little did he know he was going to encounter headwinds after setting sail only less than a month ago. His ship of state, the USS America, is floundering and heading into dangerous waters. It’s not the fault of his crew whom he picked mostly on the basis of their tax returns in the corporate world. Yet, he cannot yell “you’re fired!” The shoe is now on the other foot. His bosses, the people , are showing their dissatisfaction with the man they hired. They know where the buck stops—at Trump’s desk. He only has himself to blame. His inexperience at this kind of job and his reckless, controversial policies are sinking him deeper into a quagmire. Trump, from all indications, is waging a war on several fronts. On the domestic front with foreign and global implications, Trump stopped the US refugee program and put on notice that the US will not be granting visas to those from seven majority Muslim countries—Syria, Yemen, Somalia, Iraq, Sudan, Libya and Iran. Radical Islam has spawned a worldwide fear after Islamist terrorists struck in Paris, Brussels, Frankfurt, Nice and US cities. Fear of Islam though should not be the lynchpin of US foreign policy. A Washington state federal judge ruled that Trump’s temporary ban of travelers from Muslim majority countries is unconstitutional. Trump has challenged the court ruling as he says the ban is a lawful order to protect the security of the state. Airlines in Qatar, Bahrain and the United Arab Emirates, despite the Trump ban, resumed boarding passengers with valid US visas following three days of confusion at international airports when passengers were not allowed to check in while those already on board were offloaded at the tarmac. Trump also called the proposal of Australian Foreign Minister Julie Bishop to swap refugees held in the Pacific

Islands for refugees from Muslim countries as “a dumb deal.” How many more enemies will Trump make in his no-Muslims-inAmerica policy? Filipino-Americans in the US have joined the widening protests against Trump’s ban despite the administration clarifying that Filipinos and other foreign nationals with green cards or US residents are exempted. The latest to draw Trump’s ire is Iran for test-firing long-range missiles even after the Obama administration inked a compromise peace agreement with Tehran. Russia, which was accused of hacking the November presidential US elections to favor Trump into winning over Hillary Clinton, did not escape Trump’s notice. His ambassador to the United Nations, Nikki Haley, said the US will maintain its economic sanctions against Russia for annexing Crimea where the strategic naval base of Sevastopol in Ukraine which gives the Russian navy access to the Mediterranean Sea. Vladimir Putin’s playbook also calls for the massing of Russian troops along its border with Ukraine where two million ethnic Russians live. Displaying his confrontational propensity, Trump is pushing to build a wall along the US-Mexico border to make good on his campaign promise of keeping illegal aliens and drug traffickers from entering and eroding American values and institutions. While Trump’s “America first” campaign slogan found traction with US voters, the widespread protests would seem to show a change of heart among those who voted for him. Constitutionalists and human rights groups are leading the worldwide protests. American diplomats expressed opposition

to the President’s suspension of the refugee program and discriminatory visa requirements as unlawful and an act that would draw antiAmerican sentiment. In Asia and the Pacific, the Trump administration is fanning the flames of war as it warns China against military buildup that would impede the flow of commercial cargo from plying vital international sea lanes in the South China Sea. But there are dissonant voices within the Trump Cabinet itself. While Secretary of State Rex Tillerson warned China against further aggressive moves, Defense Secretary James Mattis said there will be no dramatic moves by the US in the South China Sea. US allies are confused at this conflicting statements on the US stance. Mattis, however, reaffirmed its support for treaty ally Japan in its territorial dispute with China over the Senkaku/ Diaoyu Island being claimed by China. “China has shredded the trust of countries in Southeast Asia,” said Mattis who’s on an official trip around Asia. Former Soviet president Mikhail Gorbachev, in an opinion piece in Time magazine, expressed concern the world could be preparing for war. War clouds are gathering in the horizon arising from China’s aggressive moves to claim nearly all of the South China Sea, North Korea’s nuclear saber-rattling and Russia’s territorial grab of Crimea from Ukraine. Last week, the worst fighting since 2015 flared up anew between Ukrainian troops and Russian-backed rebels along the east Ukrainian border. Exchange of heavy mortar barrage and gunfire between the two sides took a toll of 33 lives. The Crimean crisis, the simmering South China Sea territorial dispute and the unresolved civil strife in Syria which sent refugees fleeing across Europe are only some of the failures of Ban Ki Moon as UN Secretary General tasked to deal with global crises.

The best picture for what America needs right now By Virginia Postrel “HIDDEN Figures” pulled off a surprise victory at the Screen Actors Guild awards, making it the most serious challenger to Oscar favorite “La La Land” for best picture. An enjoyable if overpraised musical, “La La Land” is the sort of Hollywood tale Academy voters love. But “Hidden Figures,” a drama about three black women working as NASA mathematicians in the early days of the space race, has an edge of its own. It’s a movie for anxious times, offering patriotic balm for the fractured body politic and even throwing in a tale of career resilience in the face of automation. Cultures are held together by the stories they tell about themselves, and America is struggling to find a new national story, one that can acknowledge past injustices without becoming defined by them. The old all-ornothing morality tale of Good America has too often been superseded by an all-or-nothing morality tale of Evil America, which proclaims that every apparently positive accomplishment disguises a sadistic reality. American industry despoiled the earth, the great universities were built on slave labor, the land itself was stolen. “Just occurred to me that Trump praised a slave owner in his black history month remarks,” Salon political writer Simon Maloy tweeted on Wednesday. That’s the current line on Thomas Jefferson. Good thing Trump didn’t also mention George Washington. Neither morality tale is true and neither is sustainable. American history has its blemishes and horrors. But self-hatred can’t provide the basis for a viable culture, and demanding it only feeds resentment and division. “Hidden Figures” offers an alternative. “The idea that black women had been recruited to work as mathematicians at the NASA installation in the South during the days of segregation defies our expectations and challenges much of what we think we know about American history. It’s a great story, and that alone makes it worth telling,” writes Margot Lee Shetterly in the book on which the movie is based. The women are the heroines, of course, but the country that recognized their

talents—and that united behind the astronauts they supported—is equally honored. The book and the movie take patriotism for granted. Like her protagonists, Shetterly is a welleducated black woman, the daughter of a NASA research scientist and a Hampton University English professor. Her goal as an author wasn’t to replace or subvert the American story but to enlarge it. “What I wanted was for them to have the grand, sweeping narrative that they deserved,” she writes, “the kind of American history that belongs to the Wright Brothers and the astronauts, to Alexander Hamilton and Martin Luther King Jr. Not told as a separate history, but as a part of the story we all know. Not at the margins, but at the very center, the protagonists of the drama. And not just because they are black, or because they are women, but because they are part of the American epic.” History is neither a comedy nor a tragedy. It is an open-ended epic. And epics are complex —just as America’s western expansion or the Pacific War was complex. That’s why readers can still argue over the merits of Achilles versus Hector or whether Milton’s Satan is the hero or villain of “Paradise Lost.” What exactly are we to make of Thomas Jefferson, Henry Ford, Andrew Carnegie, or William Tecumseh Sherman? For understandable commercial reasons, however, Hollywood, likes its dramas clearcut. And “Hidden Figures,” which has grossed more than $100 million domestically since opening Christmas Day, is definitely a commercial film. The transition from book to screen inevitably brought changes: compressing time, changing ages, and creating vivid but fictional incidents. To heighten the drama, the movie unfortunately also adds white villains who didn’t exist in real life, even as composites, and grossly distorts what working at NASA was like for its heroines. In the movie, the male colleagues of Katherine Goble Johnson (Taraji P. Henson) are sullen segregationists who never converse with her and won’t even drink from the same coffee pot. They’re also much older and stuffier than their real-life counterparts, who were,

Shetterly writes, “an opinionated, high-energy bunch, and best of all, as far as Katherine was concerned, they were all as smart as whips.” The admiration was mutual: Katherine’s confidence and the bright flame of her mind were irresistible to the guys in the Flight Research Division. There was nothing they liked more than brains, and they could see that Katherine Goble had them in abundance. As much as anything, they responded to her exuberance for the work. They loved their jobs, and they saw their own absorption reflected back at them in Katherine’s questions and her interest that went so far beyond just running the numbers. Working at NASA gave bright black women a blessedly meritocratic respite from the daily indignities of everyday life in pre-Civil Rights Act Virginia. Indeed, Shetterly notes that one reason they found the facility’s segregated cafeteria and restrooms so offensive was that they felt equal in the office. Eventually, the institutional culture wouldn’t sustain the state-mandated segregation. “Driven by the pragmatic sensibility of the engineers,” she writes, “management had naturally tacked toward a policy of benign neglect with respect to the bathroom signs and lunchrooms.” The truth, in other words, is more inspiring than the movie. But the movie is a start. For all its distortions, it presents a story of women defined not by their victimhood but by their merits. And the big stuff is true: Katherine Johnson really did develop math to calculate John Glenn’s reentry and the astronaut really did say, “Get the girl to check the numbers.” Mary Jackson (Janelle Monáe) really did have a NASA mentor who encouraged her to study engineering—a Polish-American Catholic, though, not a Holocaust refugee—and did get “special permission” to take a night class in the white high school. Dorothy Vaughn (Octavia Spencer) really did learn Fortran and reinvent her career at age 50. And by the end of the movie, they all receive the recognition they deserve—including the film itself. Their ingenuity and triumph enlarge the American epic. Bloomberg

Helping...

by which alone we can make decisions that do not arise from the embarrassment of those who are shamed, nor the submission of From A4 those threatened and bullied but that rational consensus that is Villegas, Bacani, Cruz et al., why does the government not synonymous with legitimacy! question the premises of the Church’s position, articulate the moral principles from which its draws its conclusions and enunciate the rannie_aquino@csu.edu.ph constitutional premises on which it relies? When this happens rannie_aquino@sanbeda.edu.ph the whole nation can then be engaged in that fruitful exchange rannie_aquino@outlook.com

The folly... From A4 *** There is yet another contract that government will soon lose in the international arbitration courts—the much-criticized North Rail contract which was launched during the Arroyo administration. As of this writing, I do not know how much we will have to pay the Chinese state-owned company which was left holding a document to construct a rail system between Manila and Pampanga—but never proceeded. The tragedy consists not only in monies or fines that we have to pay, but more because of the economic opportunities laid to waste by these unfinished projects. Clark is not viable as an international airport because there are no commuter trains to ferry passengers quickly enough to it. Mass housing plans are in limbo, so the metropolis remains as congested as ever.

In the case of the Laguna Lake dredging project, designed to alleviate the flooding that occurs with every downpour in the metropolis, weeping is what we all do each time the heavens open and send us tons of rain. All these damages, all these aggravations, because government is so fatally attracted to the folly of long legal battles, instead of reasonable settlements and rational decision-making. *** Now comes DENR Secretary Gina Lopez-Roy’s decision to cancel 21 mining permits already awarded by her predecessors, legally, to some very big corporations, many of which have tie-ups with foreign companies. Asked to reveal the results of the audit she claims her department laboriously worked upon since her appointment to the position, she refuses, saying “it’s too complicated.” And then she generalizes by saying it’s because mining “causes suffering.”

Oppressed migrants DISTURBING events happened in the last week of January. Two Filipinas, both household service workers in Kuwait, suffered tragic deaths. One of them, Jakatia Pawa, a 32-yearold mother of two, was hanged on Jan. 25 for allegedly killing her employer’s 22-year-old daughter in May 2007. She was convicted to death by hanging in 2010. The other one—Amy Capulong Santiago—was reported to have been beaten to death by her Kuwaiti employer. Records of the Police Directorate General of Criminal Evidence in Kuwait showed that Santiago’s body bore old and fresh bruises. Contusions on various parts of her body showed that the beatings went on for a certain period of time. The fates suffered by these two Filipino household workers in Kuwait represent only the tip of the mountain of agonies and oppression that Filipino household service workers suffer in the Middle East, especially Kuwait. According to accounts from Pawa’s family, mainly from her brother, Air Force Colonel Angaris Pawa, her employers went on a vacation in Iran in May 2007. When they returned, Pawa’s female employer caught her 22-year-old daughter sleeping with her boyfriend in her bedroom. The daughter was allegedly betrothed to someone else. Her sleeping with another man while not yet married would bring shame to her family apart from being contrary to Islam laws. Out of rage, the girl’s mother allegedly stabbed her own daughter to death but pinned the blame on Jakatia Pawa. Pawa consistently professed her innocence throughout the trial and until her death. Her claim of innocence was supported by the fact that the murder weapon did not bear her fingerprints; there were no blood stains on the dress she was wearing on that day; and she had no motive to kill the daughter of her employers whom she had served for five years. Several other events of late showed the sorry plight of Filipino overseas workers in Kuwait. Labor Secretary Silvestre Bello III was reported fuming mad because in his recent visit to the Philippine Embassy in Kuwait, he was not told that there were some 100 runaway Filipino workers living in the Philippine government-run halfway house. He learned about it only after he had left, prompting him to recall Labor Attaché Angelita Narvaes to face administrative charges. Bello said The Labor Narvaes misled him about the death of department must Amy Santiago and concealed from rid its ranks of him that there were consular ofﬁcers runaway Filipino workers who were who have no waiting to talk to him. Then, too, last week, genuine concern for 32 repatriated Filipino workers arrived in their fellow citizens Manila from Kuwait. in foreign lands. All of them were domestic helpers who escaped from their employers because of maltreatment and abuse. One of them said she was sold by her employer to another Arab who physically abused her. Another said she too was sold to another Kuwaiti who had three sons. She recounted that one of the sons tried to rape her, forcing her to run away. The way Filipino workers are treated in Kuwait and other Arab countries speaks volumes about their people’s lack of respect for Filipinos. I saw with my own eyes how a Kuwaiti male, the third secretary of the Embassy of Kuwait, spoke and behaved with much rudeness and disrespect toward a female member of the House of Representatives. She filed a complaint at the Department of Foreign Affairs against a former Kuwait Ambassador for causing millions of pesos worth of damage to her house, which he had rented. I thought to myself, if a Filipino congresswoman can be treated in this manner at the very premises of the Foreign Affairs Office by a Kuwaiti national, we can just imagine how Kuwaitis treat Filipino workers in their home territory. Truth is, Kuwait and other countries in the Middle East need our labor force more than we need the wages they pay. The proposed move to ban Filipino household workers from going to Kuwait and other countries in the Middle East should thus be implemented soon. The Duterte administration, after all, is working to create as many jobs as possible to keep Filipinos workers from leaving. Then, too, an information and education drive must be launched to open the eyes of Filipinos to the unimaginable horror stories suffered by our Filipino overseas workers. It may be a dream. But if we do more to help the poor members of our society to stay home and do productive work here in their own homeland, we will earn the respect of nations that treat our overseas workers like dirt. In the meantime, the Department of Labor must study how many overseas Filipinos need help in various jurisdictions. It must rid its ranks of consular officers who have no genuine concern for their fellow citizens in foreign lands. Email: ritalindaj@gmail.com Visit: www.jimenolaw.com.ph

Naturally, the mining firms insist on their rights under the Constitution which guarantees due process. They will go to court. Again, this looks like another “A, basta!” decision. Media and a lot of people cheer the secretary’s decision against “bad, bad mining” which causes environmental destruction. “A basta, parepareho silang lahat.” The same people who “hate” mineral extraction will soon cook their meals on stainless steel pots and pans, mindless of the fact that these are made from extracted metals, principally iron and nickel. After dinner, the more religious (why do these environmentalists always swear by the good Creator?) will fondle their “blessed by the Santo Papa, mismo” rosaries forgetting that the chain that keeps the mysteries together in their rosary beads are made of metal extracted earlier from the bowels of the earth, and that the crucifixes they kiss and adore are made of metal likewise (perhaps verdadero argento for the elitist matronas?). Folly.

News

MONDAY, FEBRUARY 6, 2017

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100 more eCourts this year —Sereno By Rey E. Requejo

BLOOD TYPING. Members of the Cabinet Spouses Association and the Department of Health have launched the ‘Type Ng Bayan’ a free blood typing at the Mandaluyong City Hall. Manny Palmero

Poe: Discounts for juniors “J By Macon Ramos-Araneta

UNIOR” citizens – children aged zero to 12 years old belonging to poor families —should enjoy a 20-percent discount and exemption from the value-added tax on goods and services that their parents buy for them, Senator Grace Poe said. Poe has filed Senate Bill No. 1295 which seeks to grant junior citizens whose family’s annual income does not exceed

P250,000 the same benefits enjoyed by senior citizens a 20-percent discount and exemption from VAT on medi-

cines, vaccines and essential medical supplies, accessories and equipment. “The government should be there to help poor improve their living conditions,” Poe said. Under the proposed Junior Citizens Act of 2017, junior citizens shall also be entitled to discounts and VAT exemptions on professional fees of attending physicians in all private hospitals, medical facilities, outpatient clinics, home health care services and service providers;

on medical and dental services, diagnostics and laboratory fees in all private hospitals, medical facilities, outpatients and home health care services; on admission fees on theaters, cinemas and concert halls, leisure and amusement parks; and on funeral and burial services. Medical and dental services, diagnostics and laboratory procedures of junior citizens in state-run facilities shall be free of charge while all necessary pediatric vaccinations shall also be

administered for free. The measure also makes junior citizens automatic members of the Philippine Health Insurance Corp. Poe said the bill intends to provide relief to poor Filipino families with children amid rising prices of basic commodities and services. “This proposed legislation would surely help every poor Filipino family’s ﬁnancial constraints, raise their level of living and improve their quality of life,” she said.

Group wants production, sale of e-cigs regulated THE New Vois Association of the Philippines on Sunday urged the Department of Health and the Food and Drug Administration to immediately start regulating the production and sale of electronic cigarettes in the country. NVAP president Emer Rojas said it is high time for the DoH and the FDA to put restrictions on e-cigs, which has become a

popular alternative to traditional cigarettes. “Putting its foot down on ecigarettes is imperative for the DoH and FDA with more and more studies showing its adverse effects on one’s health,” Rojas said. The NVAP ofﬁcial who is also an active cancer ambassador warned that the government can-

not just sit idly while more Filipinos use e-cigarettes, thus still getting addicted to nicotine. He cited a new University of California study which showed that teenagers who smoke e-cigarettes are more likely to eventually move on to regular cigarettes. “Such studies simply show that e-cigarettes are actually encouraging, instead of discouraging,

the youth to smoke and to consume nicotine,” said Rojas. “The current global trend is to really get rid of nicotine addiction by curbing tobacco use. And some countries are actually ﬁnding success in it. But with the emergence of e-cigarette’s popularity, our ﬁght may actually be neutralized,” he added. The battery-operated devices

are designed to resemble traditional tobacco cigarettes and deliver nicotine with ﬂavorings and other chemicals in vapor form. The wide range of ﬂavors, such as bubblegum and blueberry, make e-cigarettes extremely appealing to young people. The FDA already issued an advisory in 2013 discouraging the public from using e-cigarettes. PNA

QC: ‘Libreng Sakay’ amid transport strike By Rio N. Araja AMID a planned transport strike today, the Quezon City government will mobilize all its emergency response vehicles to help ferry stranded commuters during rush hours. Mayor Herbert Bautista tasked Karl Michael Marasigan, chief of the Quezon City Disaster and Risk Reduction Management Ofﬁce, to provide free transportation just in case the planned strike pushes through. “All QCDRRMC buses and barangay emergency response team vehicles are hereby directed to be deployed to conduct Oplan: Libreng Sakay within your areas of responsibility,” Bautista said. The “Libreng Sakay” operation will roll out during rush hours from 6 a.m. to 9 a.m. and 4 p.m. to 7 p.m.

The transport group Stop and Go Coalition said its members will halt their operations nationwide on Feb. 6 to protest the Department of Transportation’s proposed phaseout of old jeepneys. Based on the records of the Land Transportation Franchising and Regulatory Board, Stop and Go has 200 units in Metro Manila and 200 more in the provinces. Other jeepney groups—the Pinagkaisang Samahan ng mga Tsuper at Opereytors Nationwide, Pasang Masda, Federation of Jeepney Operators and Drivers Association, Alliance of Concerned Transport Organization, Alliance of Transport Operators and Drivers Association of the Philippines, and Liga ng mga Tsuper at Operator sa Pilipinas said they are not joining the strike.

AWARDEE. Malabon City Mayor Antolin ‘Lenlen’ Oreta III (2nd from right) receives a plaque of recognition from the Pag-IBIG Fund for Program Innovation following the realization of the L’ Oasis Project, a six-building, 674-unit, medium-rise housing now under construction at Barangay Baritan. Malabon is the only local government unit in the region and among three localities nationwide to receive the citation. The said venture was done through a public-private partnership agreement with Phinma Property Holdings Inc. Also in photo are (from left) Pag-IBIG Fund Senior Vice President-Administrative Services Sector and Chief Legal Counsel Atty. Robert John S. Cosico, Home Development Mutual Fund-Deputy Chief Executive Ofﬁcer for Home Lending Operations Acmad Rizaldy P. Moti and Pag-IBIG Fund-Chief Executive Ofﬁcer Atty. Darlene Marie B. Berberabe.

3 soldiers killed by NPA given posthumous award CAGAYAN DE ORO CITY— President Rodrigo Roa Duterte posthumously awarded three soldiers killed by communist rebels in Bukidnon last week during his visit to Camp Evan-

gelista on Sunday. The awardees—Sgt. Owen Yee, Cpl. Niño Christopher Talabor and Cpl. Pat Non—were all members of the Army’s 8th Infantry Battalion based in Ma-

laybalay City, Bukidnon. The slain soldiers, who were wearing civilian clothes and were unarmed, were on their way to Kibalabag, a remote village in Malaybalay City on

Wednesday to follow up documents for the livelihood project of the remote community. Members of the New People’s Army attacked the victims, a day after the communists announced

that it was suspending its own unilateral ceaseﬁre. The victims sustained at least 24 gunshots each, or a total of 76 gunshots of different calibers. PNA

THE so-called “eCourt system” will be in place in 297 courts nationwide this year, up from only 197 last year. Chief Justice Ma. Lourdes Sereno said the Supreme Court, in cooperation with the United States Agency for International Development and the American Bar Association, decided to increase the number of trial courts using the system after the existing ones reported major improvements in their ability to dispose of and declog their respective dockets. “All the 197 courts in eight cities nationwide that are now eCourts have reported dramatic improvements in their ability to dispose and manage their dockets,” she said. “By 2017, the USAID-supported project will have deployed eCourts in 297 courts in 10 cities, covering 30 percent of the trial courts’ total case load,” Sereno added. By 2018, Sereno said eCourts will be further rolled out in select courts across the National Capital Region as well as Central Luzon and Calabarzon with the support of the European Union. The eCourt system was pilottested in 2013 in Quezon City. It notiﬁes judges of deliverables and deadlines, and provides them with templates for orders and decisions to hasten their orders immediately after the hearing, thereby targeting aged cases, and ultimately reducing case backlogs. Sereno said the eCourt system not only helps in the speedy resolution of cases, but also make the courts less prone to corruption since it provides for random electronic sampling and rafﬂing of cases.

Anti-graft court orders arrest of Parojinog By Rio N. Araja THE Sandiganbayan has ordered the arrest of Ozamis Mayor Reynaldo Parojinog Sr. and his daughter, Vice Mayor Nova Princess Parojinog-Echavez, over an alleged anomalous contract for the renovation of the provincial gymnasium in 2010. Associate Justice Maria Theresa Mendoza Arcega of the Fifth Division said there was a probable cause against the two accused as she junked their motion to dismiss the graft raps against them. The Sandiganbayan said Parojinog and his daughter were conflicted when they patronized their familyowned company, the Parojinog and Sons Contruction Co., in the renovation of the provincial gymnasium. “The Court is convinced that the prosecution presented ample evidence to support a finding of probable cause hence the accused must be arrested and brought to trial,” the anti-graft court’s seven page resolution read. The Parojinog and Sons Construction Co., which was listed in the mayor’s Statement of Assets Liabilities and Net Worth, won the government contract to renovate the city’s Ramiro Gymnasium. Parojinog-Echavez was the company’s managing partner. Based on the Ombudsman’s investigation, Parojinog Sr., in an alleged conspiracy with the other respondents, approved the awarding of the contract to his family company. “It is clear that Parojinog and Sons is a family enterprise in which respondent Parojinog has financial and material interest with access to information that will likely influence the result of the bidding process, and should have been disqualified,” the Ombudsman’s resolution read.

Sports

MONDAY, FEBRUARY 6, 2017 sports_mstandard@yahoo.com

World Slasher Cup 2 set in May at Big Dome THE second edition of 2017 World Slasher Cup Invitational 9-Cock Derby sizzles on May 22 to 28 at the historic Smart Araneta Coliseum. Pintakasi of Champions, host of the illustrious derby, made the announcement recently in response to queries from local and international participants. Many participants, including the foreigners that joined the just concluded WSC 1, have expressed their intent to join in May and want a longer preparation, the group said. The World Slasher Cup remains the premier cockfighting derby in the country and has become the most prestigious all over the world. A participant from Oklahoma said he flew to the country just to compete this year, thrilled that the derby is being held in “one of the biggest facilities (for cockfighting) in the world,” he said of the Big Dome. John Seider, who also flew in from the States, noted of WSC: “It’s the toughest place to be in.” A guy known to many repeat participants as Stickman, also from the US, agreed. “Your participants here (in WSC) are only the best of the best. If you

Juico named PSA Exec of the Year

A LONG-TIME partner and friend of Philippine sports will be recognized for his work by the Philippine Sportswriters Association when it holds its Annual Awards Night presented by San Miguel and MILO next week at LE PAVILLON in Pasay City. The country’s oldest media organization is pleased to honor sportsman Philip Ella Juico as its Executive of the Year during the Feb. 13 affair co-presented by CIGNAL/ HYPER HD for his continuous work in developing Philippine sports. As president of the Philippine Athletics Track and Field Association, Juico has helped revitalized the programs of the federation, which qualified three tracksters to the 2016 Rio De Janeiro Games. At the same time, he serves as vice president and chairman of the School and Youth Commission of the Asian Athletics Association. He is also current chairman of the Philippine Super Liga, the semi-pro women’s volleyball league that has helped raised the popularity of the sport in the country. Juico was a former chairman of the Philippine Sports Commission from 1996 to 1998. He joins an exclusive list of personalities previously honored by the PSA with the same award in the past, among them including Manny V. Pangilinan, Wilfred Uytengsu, Chito Salud, Hans Sy, Ricky Vargas, and Dan Palami. Rio De Janeiro silver medalist Hidilyn Diaz will be bestowed with the Athlete of the Year award during the two-hour program that has for major sponsors Rain or Shine, Mighty Sports, Globalport, ICTSI, Foton, Gold Toe, Phoenix Petroleum, and Smart. Asia’s first Grandmaster Eugene Torre meanwhile, is going to be feted with the Lifetime Achievement Award, while 16 others led by another Grandmaster in Janelle Mae Frayna will be given major awards in the affair also backed by Federal Land, NLEX, Meralco, PCSO, MVP Sports Foundation, ACCEL, Philippine Sports Commission, SM Prime Holdings Inc., and the PBA.

don’t have good roosters, don’t come to the Slasher,” he declared. The May event’s format: 2-cock elimininations on May 22 and 23; 3-cock semifinals on May 24 and 25, with a 4-cock pre-finals on May 26 and 27, and 4-cock grand finals on May 28. Frank Berin, recently hailed solo champion of the WSC 1, has been joining the WSC since 1995 using the popular entry Mulawin of former Rep. Rudy Albano, and recently the Sebastian entry with his brother Greg of Australia. About 5,000 aficionados witnessed the cliffhanging battle where Berin’s NEJ Sebastian entry outlasted the bird fielded by ARC March 10. Joey Melendres of Australia ( Swerteng Anak, 7.5 points ) lost his championship fight against Marvin Millo’s super bulik, but vowed to compete again in May after experiencing a warm welcome from other sabungeros. “Melendres and all the foreign participants marvelled at how the Filipino cockers improved tremendously, and this is seen in the World Slasher Cup,’’ said WSC media partner Manny Berbano.

Blogger Jeng Del Rosario (4th from left) wins P100,000 for ChildHaus Manila in the ﬁrst RWM LuckStars Charity Poker. Together with Jeng are (from left) RWM Director for Gaming Operations Arturo Basa; actor Epi Quizon; Ang Misyon’s Jovianney Cruz; singer Aliya Parcs, Child Haus’s Daydee Castillo; commercial model Michael Jungschlager, athlete Anton Del Rosario, ABS-CBN Lingkod Kapamilya’s Vic Hernandez; and RWM Director for Corporate Communications Owen Cammayo.

Blogger bests 27 others in 1st RWM charity poker WINNING hands turned into helping hands as Resorts World Manila staged the first LuckStars Charity Poker on the first day of the Lunar New Year of the Fire Rooster (Jan. 28) at the integrated resort’s refurbished Poker Room. Poker enthusiasts from show business, the athletic community, socialites and scribes from various blog sites in social media participated in the inaugural event which aims to help RWM’s selected charity beneficiaries namely Child Haus, Orchestra of the Filipino Youth, and ABS-CBN Bantay Kalikasan, as part of its socio-civic initiatives. “RWM takes responsible citizenship seriously and we continue to come up with inno-

vative ways to make communities win,” said RWM Director for Corporate Communications Owen Cammayo. “In 2015, we staged a similar activity where we raised and donated around Php100,000 to chosen beneficiaries. This year, we’ve raised the stakes and with the help of the country’s most prominent poker players, we’re donating Php150,000 to our selected beneficiaries.” Twenty-eight players turned up for the poker tourney which saw blogger Jeng Del Rosario, actors Epi Quizon, Jeremy Marquez, Rocco Nancino, athlete Anton Del Rosario, model Michael Jungschlager , and socialites JV Durian and Yeboy Avante advance to the final eight Main Event.

Quizon and Jeng Del Rosario met for the face-off with the latter emerging as the firstever LuckStars Charity Poker champion and winning for Child Haus P100,000. Quizon took 1st runner-up honors with proceeds P20,000 donated to ABS-CBN Bantay Kalikasan, while Anton Del Rosario placed 2nd runner-up donating P30,000 to ANG MISYON: Orchestra of the Filipino Youth. Among other prominent personalities who helped out in the charity fun tournament were Troy Montero and wife Aubrey Miles, Cesca Litton, KC Montero, Aliya Parcs, Luigi Muhlach, Gwen Zamora, Boy2 Quizon, Karel Marquez, and bloggers Raffy Pekson and Ron Villagonzalo among others.

James achieves milestone as Cavaliers clobber Knicks Wide-open L battle looms

OS ANGELES—Cleveland star LeBron James scored 32 points -- and became the youngest player to score 28,000 in an NBA career -- as the Cavaliers downed the New York Knicks 111-104 at Madison Square Garden on Saturday. James, 32, took his career points tally to 28,020, good for eighth on the NBA’s all-time scoring list. He reached the milestone with a step-back jumper that gave the Cavaliers a 45-31 lead with 6:49 left in the second quarter. He also handed out 10 assists, and with two more will pass Lenny Wilkens (7,211) for 13th on the career list. The NBA champion Cavaliers were without guard Kyrie Irving, who sat out with soreness in his right quadriceps. Deandre Liggins started in his place, scoring

five points without an assist. Kevin Love returned to the Cavs lineup after missing two games with back spasms. He contributed 23 points and 15 rebounds as Cleveland took their Eastern Conference-leading record to 34-15. The Knicks fell to 22-30. They haven’t won two straight games since December 20-22. Brandon James paced New York with 23 points and 10 assists. Knicks star Carmelo Anthony, the subject of persistent trade rumors, scored 17 points but connected on just six of 21

from the floor. The Knicks were without point guard Derrick Rose, sidelined for a fourth straight game by a sprained left ankle. And starting center Joakim Noah departed early with a sore left hamstring. New York showed signs of life late, scoring six straight points to trim Cleveland’s lead to 106101 with 59 seconds remaining. But James found Love for an uncontested three-pointer as the Cavs pulled away again. Meanwhile, the Washington Wizards poured it on in the fourth quarter to hold off the New Orleans Pelicans 105-91 on Saturday and stretch their NBA-leading home winning streak to 17 games. John Wall scored 24 points and handed out 13 assists for the Wizards, who closed the game with a 15-0 scoring run and held the Pelicans without a point for

the final 5:51. All five starters scored in double figures for the Wizards, who won their seventh straight overall and beat the Pelicans for the second time this week. Anthony Davis had 25 points and 10 rebounds for the Pelicans, who took a three-point lead into the final quarter but ended up losing their fourth in a row. Tyreke Evans’s basket put New Orleans up 91-90 with 6:02 remaining, but Wall answered by feeding Markieff Morris for a dunk that put Washington ahead for good. Morris scored seven of his 18 points and Wall added six in the closing stretch, while the Pelicans scored just eight points in the final period. “I would like to think it was good defense,” Washington coach Scott Brooks said of the final surge. AFP

Navy’s Morales... Turn to A7

CHARITY RUN. Members of Samahang Mananakbo ng Smart, an employee club of Smart Communications, recently joined a pledge run to beneﬁt low-performing students in public schools. Fifteen Smart employees participated in the KaRUNungan Charity Event organized by Silid Aralan at the Marikina Sports Center. Silid Aralan is a nonproﬁt organization focusing on the development of underperforming students. The charity run was meant to raise funds for the establishment of learning hubs in San Mateo, Rizal, which are expected to cater to 100 students. SMS is one of 23 employee clubs in Smart which aim to encourage the workforce to have a balanced life. Smart employees are also encouraged to do volunteer work, and are allowed to go on paid leave for community service efforts.

tiring from UPIS’ shift to a zone defense, backup guard Astrolave Vista stepped up even if he made only six points. Vista’s two big triples at the start of the last period touched off a decisive 8-2 run. With the Junior Archers slightly ahead, Vista’s trey saw the Junior Archers moving away, 65-56, with 8:16 left. Diaz then sank all of his 11 points in the remaining time as La Salle-Zobel moved out of the Junior Maroons’ reach. “We are taking advantage of an opportunity that’s before us,” said La Salle Zobel coach Boris Aldeguer as they will now ﬁght for the no. 4 slot with UST on Thursday. The Tiger Cubs were ahead, 94-81, in the last 58 seconds when UST cager Cruzette Gonzales threw a punch at Rhayjun Baquial during a loose ball situation, resulting in a bench-clearing incident. Peter Atencio

in golf meet

WITH last year’s champions now in the pro ranks, the chase for top honors in both the men’s and women’s divisions is expected to be fierce when the 22nd W Express RVF Cup Amateur Golf Championship is fired off beginning tomorrow at the North Course of the Canlubang golf complex in Laguna. Japanese Yuto Katsuragawa banners a stellar field that will hardly miss the presence of last year’s winner Jobim Carlos and runner-up Justin Quiban, who are now both campaigning in the pro circuit, with the likes of Ira Alido, Kristoffer Arevalo, Luis Castro, Aidric Chan, Carl Corpus, Dan Cruz, Weiwei Gao, Jolo Magcalayo,, Ryan Monsalve, Carlo Villaroman and former national champion Ruperto Zaragosa all in the roster. That should guarantee a shootout in all four days of the annual 72-hole championship held in honor of the late golf patron Rod Feliciano, who also served as president of the organizing National Golf Association of the Philippines. Also tipped to contend for this year’s crown in one of NGAP’s flagship tournaments held as part of the PLDT Group National Amateur Golf Tour and backed by the MVP Sports Foundation, Cignal and Metro Pacific Investments are Matthew Abalos, Eric Gallardo, Josh Jorge, GJ Katigbak, Perry Bucay, Marc Lu, Lester Lagman, Aniceto Mandanas, Carlo Quimson, Pierre Ticzon and Paolo Wong.

Patriots, Falcons chase history at Super Bowl LOTTO RESULTS HOUSTON—Tom Brady and the New England Patriots will be chasing history as they attempt to stop the Atlanta Falcons from claiming their first Super Bowl crown here Sunday. More than 100 million homes across the United States and millions more worldwide will tune in for the American football showpiece in Hous-

ton, which sees Brady aiming to become the most decorated quarterback of all time. The 39-year-old superstar will become the first quarterback to win five Super Bowl crowns if he manages to guide the Patriots to victory over the Falcons before a crowd of around 72,000 spectators at the NRG Stadium. Blanket security will be in

place for the game, which takes place at a time of roiling political tensions across the United States following President Donald Trump’s controversial immigration order. Pop diva Lady Gaga, an outspoken critic of Trump, will have the eyes of the nation -- including US Vice President Mike Pence inside the stadium -- on her during

the halftime show. A win on Sunday would come 15 years after Brady and Patriots head coach Bill Belichick’s first Super Bowl triumph in 2002. It would also represent a satisfying last laugh for Brady following his longrunning battle with National Football League commissioner Roger Goodell. AFP

6/49 00-00-00-00-00-00 P0.0 M+ 6/42 00-00-00-00-00-00 P0.0 M+ 6 DIGITS 00-00-00-00-00-00 3 DIGITS 00-00-00 2 EZ2 00-00

Sports

Riera U. Mallari, Editor Reuel Vidal, Assist aant Editor sports@thestandard.com.ph sports_mstandard@yahoo.com

MONDAY, FEBRUARY 6, 2017

Tabuena crowned golf king S

ANTA ROSA, Laguna – Youth prevailed over experience in a survival of the fittest as Olympian Miguel Tabuena stunned veteran Juvic Pagunsan with clutch shots and putts to nail his first The Country Club-Don Pocholo Razon Memorial Cup crown at the wind-raked TCC course here yesterday. Tabuena bounced back from a disastrous 80 in the third round and rallied from five shots down with an eagle-spiked 33 at the front in a flight ahead of the championship group. He then rebounded from a doublebogey mishap on No. 10 and a bogey on No. 15 with key putts down the stretch to card a 72 for a 301 worth P1.5 million. He actually stood tied with Pagunsan at 13-over total and was bracing for a playoff as the latter headed to the tough par4 18th. But after a solid drive, Pagunsan’s approach shot spun and dropped into the lake, washing away his bid for a record fourth TCC championship with a 78 and a 302. “It’s good. It has been my dream to win this tournament,” said the 22-year-old Tabuena, who added the crown to his growing list of victories, including the Philippine Open in late 2015, while finally joining the

Ramirez warns erring sports execs By Randy Caluag THIS should serve as a stern warning to erring sports officials, who continue to make life difficult for Filipino athletes. “Aaksyionan ko talaga ‘yan. Basta may sumbong ang mga atleta, iimbestigahan natin at parusahan ang dapat maparusahan,” vowed Philippine Sport Commission Chairman Butch Ramirez, in response to a call that athletes should report irregularities in their respective National Sports Assocations. Ramirez spoke before more than a thousand athletes and coaches during the PSCsponsored fellowship dubbed “Pagmamahal sa Inang BayanSports for Change” at the Philsports Arena in Pasig City on Saturday night. He assured the athletes of extensive support from the government as they carry the flag in international competitions. “We need young heroes who will speak the millennial language of sports and to inspire our children. In Cuba they say ‘love of country or death’. Mahirap bang mahalin ang ating bayan? Kaya bang mahalin ang inang ibayan,” Ramirez dared the athletes. To do that, however, Ramirez knows the athletes should be unburdened of other worries, including abuses of their own officials. “Wala na tayo sa feudal state. We are bringing change to sports and that we will make sure our athletes will be treated as heroes,” he said. In his previous statements, Ramirez said there are a lot options for the PSC to make sure the NSAs shape up. “We can always exercise our monitoring and supervisory powers. If we find out that a certain NSA is not using our support well, we can always withdraw financial support. Or we can directly give our support to the athletes,” Ramirez said.

elite circle of winners in what has long been considered as one of the country’s major championships. He was at the scoring area when he saw Pagunsan’s ball drop but he said he was ready to slug it out with the former Asian Tour No. 1 in sudden death. “I was always ready for a playoff. I have no problems with No. 18. I’m pretty long off the tee and the wind was coming from the right so it’s not too much of a concern,” said Tabuena, who also bucked fatigue coming off three straight tough tournaments abroad, including in last week’s Myanmar Open where he ﬁnished third. “I felt tired playing for the fourth straight week. But it’s certainly a good conﬁdence boost for my next tournament in Malaysia,” added Tabuena, referring to this week’s $3 million Maybank Championship.

Miguel Tabuena reacts after drilling in an eagle on No. 8 then kisses his huge The Country Club Invitational trophy.

Beermen enter PBA semifinals By Jeric Lopez ANOTHER win in the book. Still in its dominant form, scorching top seed San Miguel Beer entered the semifinals after making quick work of No. 8 Rain or Shine, 98-91, eliminating the Painters in yet another impressive showing in the quarterfinals of the 2017 Philippine Basketball Association Philippine Cup yesterday at the Ynares Center in Antipolo City. In undoubtedly his best game as a Beermen, RR Garcia shone bright, scoring a game-high 25 points to lead his team’s entry into the next round. Armed with a twice-to-beat advantage, San Miguel took care of business to be the first team in the semis. The defending champion will now await the victor between No. 4 TNT KaTropa and No. 5 GlobalPort in their own quarters’ clash and face whoever it is in a best-of-seven semis showdown. This was San Miguel’s 10th straight victory, dating back to the eliminatiom round as its onslaught just cannot be stopped at the moment. Right from the first half, San Miguel already took command and established a double-digit lead to set the tone. After taking a 28-21 edge after one, San Miguel kept its momentum and built several 15-point leads in the second quarter. By halftime, the Beermen were still comfortably ahead, 51-38. It’s the same story for most part in the second half until the Elasto Painters tried to save their season with a last-ditch stand towards the end. Rain or Shine was able to pull within just five, 89-94, with 1:10 left after a Beau Belga basket. However, Arwind Santos’ insurance putback with 47.2 seconds remaining made it 96-89 and put the Beermen out of harm’s way and into the next round. As of this report, No. 2-ranked Alaska, with a twice-to-beat advantage, is trying to book a ticket in the last four as it is engaged in a tough tussle against rival Barangay Ginebra, the No. 7 seed. The action continues today as the other two quarterfinal pairs continue their series. Higher seeds Star and TNT KaTropa go for the jugular and both shoot for seats in the semis.

Navy’s Morales nails Ronda PH Stage 2 win VIGAN, Ilocos Sur--Defending champion Jan Paul Morales of NavyStandard Insurance made his move by ruling the Stage 2 criterium even as teammate Rudy Roque wound up second to retain the overall individual lead Sunday in the LBC Ronda Pilipinas 2017 at the City Hall here. Slowed down by his chief rivals in the 158-kilometer, Vigan-Laoag-Vigan Stage 1 the day before, Morales, 31, made his move and towed a sixman group to rule the leg with identical clockings of an hour, 11 minutes and 44 seconds and get himself into the thick of things. “The plan was for all of us to stay in front and we executed it well,” said Morales, a native of Calumpang, Marikina as he emerged the 2015 Asian Cycling Championship silver medallist. Ending up behind Morales and Roque were Kinetix Lab Army’s Cris Joven, Bike Extrme’s Jaybop Pagnanawon, Mindanao Sultan Kudarat’s Roel Quitoy and Kinetix

Lab Army’s Ronnilan Quita. Rounding up the Top 10 in the stage were Stage 1 winner Ronald Lomotos of Navy, Go for Gold’s Ronnel Hualda, RC Cola NCR’s Jervin Torres and Leonel Dimaano with times of 1:11:49, 1:11:53, 1:11:54 and 1:11:54, respectively. Morales’ effort pushed him from 23rd the day before to 17th with a total clocking of 5:08:11, or a little over ﬁve minutes off the pace in this annual race staking P1 million to the champion courtesy of presentor LBC and in partnership with MVP Sports Foundation, Petron, Mitsubishi, Versa.ph, Partas, Maynilad, Standard Insurance, CCN, Bike Xtreme, NLEX, PhilCycling and 3Q Sports Event Management. The 25-year-old Roque, who was discovered by former Tour king Renato Doloso years back, was part of that pack but he checked in at second to keep the LBC red jersey, symbolic of the overall lead.

Junior Archers set playoff duel with UST Tiger Cubs THE La Salle Zobel Junior Archers leaned on two second stringers to give them the extra push to beat the University of the Philippines Integrated School Junior Maroons, 82-69, last Saturday in the 79th University Athletic Association of the Philippines juniors’ basketball tournament at the Arena in San Juan. The Junior Archers, led by Roberto Mariano with 23 points,

ﬁnished the elimination round sharing the same 6-8 record with University of Santo Tomas. The UST Tiger Cubs arranged a playoff with the Junior Archers for the fourth Final Four semiﬁnal slot after they won by forfeiture over the University of the East via a bench-clearing incident that took place in the last 58 seconds. As the Junior Archers began Turn to A7

Riders race at the famous cobblestones of Calle Crisologo in Stage 2 of the LBC Ronda Pilipinas 2017 in Vigan, Ilocos S

Baby Tams score 7-peat in UAAP football Matches on Thursday: (Moro Lorenzo Field) 2 p.m. – Ateneo vs NU (Men) 4 p.m. – UE vs UP (Men) CHESTER Gio Pabualan scored the marginal goal as Far Eastern University-Diliman nipped De La Salle-Zobel, 1-0, Saturday night to rule the UAAP Season 79 juniors’ football tournament at the Rizal Memorial Stadium. Pabualan struck on the 29th minute as the Baby Tamaraws stretched their reign to seven years.

The Junior Archers squandered several chances to level which spelled their doom. FEU-Diliman ﬁnished the season with six straight wins after dropping a 1-2 loss to De La SalleZobel in the opener. Orlan Togores, who like Pabualan is a national U16 standout, was named the season MVP, while Jermi Darapan took home the Rookie of the Year honors. Other Baby Tamaraws awardees were Pabualan (Best Midﬁelder), Keith Absalon (Best Striker). Eduard Acervida of the Junior Archers went home with

the Best Defender honors. De La Salle-Zobel, which achieved its best ﬁnish ever since the event started eight seasons ago, also claimed the Fair Play award. Ateneo, a perennial runner-up, settled for third place this time, with Gavin Rosario winning the Best Goalkeeper award. Selected in the Mythical XI were FEU-Diliman’s Pabualan, Absalon and Pocholo Bugas, De La Salle-Zobel’s Acervida, Elijah Liao, Jed Bode and Miguel Basmayor, University of Santo Tomas’ Jiannecel Molina and Jonas del Rosario and Ateneo’s Rosario.

So stretches unbeaten streak to 60 games FILIPINO grandmaster Wesley So has stretched his unbeaten record to 60. After staying unscathed in 56 games and winning the 13-round 2017 Tata Steel Masters Chess Tournament in The Netherlands last week, So resumed his streak by winning four out four games

playing for the Saint Louis Arch Bishops in the Professional Rapid Online Chess League. According to reports, the Arch Bishops have a 3-1 score, with So in the lineup. So far, So has ofﬁcially risen to no. 3 in world FIDE rankings this February.

He is within reach of world no. 1 Magnus Carlsen and no. 2 Fabiano Caruana with his ELO rating of 2822. Carlsen has an ELO of 2838 at the end of the Tata Steel chessfest, while Caruana has 2827. He gained 51 points over the last six months.

The 23-year-old So earned his points from his Tata Steel campaign, the Sinqueﬁeld Cup, the London Chess Classic and the Grand Chess Tour last year. So is ahead of Vladimir Kramnik (2811), Maxine Vachier Lagrave (2796) and Viswanathan Anand (2786).

The Cavite-born So said he felt great after ﬁnishing ahead of Carlsen in the Tata Steel competition. “It’s a huge thing to ﬁnish ahead of Magnus. He’s the best player in the world,” said So in an online interview with chessbase.com. Peter Atencio

Epira amendments readied B3

Business

IN BRIEF Phinma defers 900-MW plant

PHINMA Energy Corp. decided to defer a planned 900-megawatt coalfired power plant in Pangasinan amid concerns over an oversupply of coal projects, a top executive said. Phinma Energy president Francisco Viray told reporters the company was now looking at 2023 to 2025 as the construction window of the major coal plant. Phinma Energy is formerly known as Trans-Asia Oil and Energy Corp. “There are now a lot of coal plants. We think there is enough coal to supply us,” Viray said. The Energy Department earlier allowed Phinma Energy to conduct the grid impact study for the 3 by 300-MW Baquioen circulating fluidized bed coal fired power plant in Sual, Pangasinan. Viray said Phinma Energy wanted to spread its resources and was not likely to put up more coal projects. Trans-Asia and Ayala Corp.’s wholly-owned subsidiary, AC Energy Holdings Inc. (formerly Michigan Power Inc.) already completed a 270MW coal plant in Batangas. Trans-Asia also finished a 54-MW San Lorenzo wind project in Guimaras and expressed interest to expand the project. The wind farm consists of 27 wind turbines each with 2 MW of generation capacity installed over a 14 square kilometer area in San Lorenzo. Phinma Energy owns and operates various power generation facilities including wind, diesel, geothermal and coal and sells electricity through bilateral contracts and through the Wholesale Electricity Spot Market. Alena Mae S. Flores

Wilcon Depot adding 29 stores

WILCON Depot Inc., a construction materials retailer that plans a P7.9-billion initial public offering in March, will add 29 new stores over the next five years. Wilcon’s latest filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission showed the company planned to solidify its presence in existing markets and expand its store network in key locations in the Visayas and Mindanao. It plans to open eight stores in 2017 alone. The five-year expansion plan will boost Wilcon’s store network to 65 from 36 outlets at present. “Wilcon shall focus on the growth of its depot format and expects to open 8 stores in 2017 and targets a total of 29 new stores in the next five years. This is in line with the company’s objective to remain as the leading home improvement retailer in the Philippines,” the company said. The company identified Cavite, Zamboanga, Iloilo, Tacloban, Cabanatuan, Bicol, General Santos, Davao, Lucena, Isabela, Tagum, Tuguegarao and Surigao as locations for possible expansion. The company said earlier of the P7.9-billion expected proceeds from the maiden share offering, P6.1 billion would be allotted to support expansion plans and nearly P1 billion to repay outstanding debt with BDO Unibank Inc. The remaining P500 million will be used as working capital. Wilcon tapped First Metro Investments Corp. and BDO Capital & Investments Corp as underwriters for the offering of 1.393 million primary shares at P5.68 apiece. Jenniffer B. Austria

Ray S. Eñano, Editor Roderick T. dela Cruz, Assistant Editor business@thestandard.com.ph extrastory2000@gmail.com MONDAY, FEBRUARY 6, 2017

Govt starts reviewing SMC airport in Bulacan T By Darwin G. Amojelar

Pasay City. “I offered to build an airport in Bulacan and if they want it, we HE Duterte administration is now will build it but if they don’t like reviewing the unsolicited proposals by San it, it’s okay,” Ang said earlier. San Miguel’s proposal would Miguel Corp. to build a new international compete with the proposal of airport in Bulacan and an expressway along Pasig another conglomerate that expressed an interest to build an River using the new guidelines of the Publicairport in Sangley Point, Cavite. Private Partnership Center. All-Asia Resources and RecThe PPP Center said several airport on reclaimed part of Ma- lamation Corp., a consortium led by by tycoon Henry Sy and the unsolicited proposals were re- nila Bay in Metro Manila. cently submitted to the TransporThe conglomerate wanted to Tieng family, offered to build a tation Department and the Public build an airport with at least four new international airport in SangWorks Department. runways and covering 2,000 ley. ARRC plans to reclaim 2,500 It said the Transportation De- hectares in Bulacan towns near hectares at Sangley Point. The company expects to complete the partment, using the new guidelines, Manila Bay. began to review the proposed New San Miguel president Ramon reclamation in 12 months. Meanwhile, the Public Works Manila International Airport Proj- Ang said the government was ect submitted by San Miguel. awaiting the government’s deci- Department is also reviewing, San Miguel offered to build sion on the company’s plan to based on the guidelines, the 17.7the new airport in Bulacan, north build an international airport in km Manila-Taguig Expressway, of Manila, in a revision from its Bulacan to replace the Ninoy an unsolicited proposal from 2014 proposal for a $10-billion Aquino International Airport in Citra Central Expressway Corp.,

the project proponent of the Metro Manila Skyway Stage 3. Citra is a partner of San Miguel in various road projects. The proposed P40-billion Manila-Taguig Expressway is an elevated toll road along Pasig River which shall serve as a radial road in Metro Manila to connect the province of Rizal through Metro Manila Expressway (C-6), to Pasig, Makati and Manila. The PPP Center said for unsolicited proposals to be considered by the government, several conditions should be met. Such projects should involve a new concept or technology and/or are not part of the list of priority projects. No direct government guarantee, subsidy or equity should be required, it said. The proposal should not also be a component of an approved project.

Govt open to renegotiating bilateral trade with US By Othel V. Campos THE Trade Department is willing to renegotiate a bilateral free trade agreement with the US, following a suggestion from the American Chamber of Commerce of the Philippines. “What we are hoping for in particular is the long-term effectivity of the US GSP [Generalized System of Preferences]. That the

Philippines may beneﬁt from this system for a longer period of time and other sectors such as the travel goods will be included in the system,” Trade Secretary Ramon Lopez said over the weekend. Lopez, however, said the Philippines would ﬁrst pursue FTA and bilateral trade talks with China, Russia, the EU, Asean and the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership.

The Philippines has been ﬁghting for the inclusion of the leather and travel goods in the US GSP. The US GSP program covers a total of 5,000 products or tariff lines or roughly 47 percent of the 10,600 total US tariff lines. It includes most dutiable manufactures and semi-manufactures and selected agricultural, ﬁshery and primary industrial products. Major Philippine exports under

the US GSP include measuring and checking instruments, appliances and machines, other cane sugar, telescopic sights for riﬂes not designed for use with infrared light, other acrylic monomine and their derivatives and insulated electric conductors. Philippine exports under the US GSP reached $1.25 billion in 2013, making it the ﬁfth largest user of the program.

Manila

Standard

TAX COMICS. Tax advocate and Center for Strategic Reforms founding president Mon Abrea (left) and Bank of the Philippine Islands Foundation executive director Faye Corcuera (right) meet with Trade Secretary Ramon Lopez for the ceremonial turnover of Tax Komiks: ‘VAT Ganun? Bakit Ako May Tax?’ to empower the public and aspiring entrepreneurs by providing readerfriendly guidelines and information on time-efficient business registration. The first Tagalog comic text released as a guide on time-efficient business registration and tax filing will be available for free at Negosyo Centers soon.

TODAY HEAD OFFICE: PBCom Tower, 6795 Ayala Avenue corner V.A. Rufino Street, 1226 Makati City Trunk Line: 830-7000 * E-mail: customercare@pbcom.com.ph * Website: http://www.pbcom.com.ph

BALANCE SHEET (Bank and Financial Subsidiaries)

BALANCE SHEET (Head Office and Branches) As of December 31, 2016 As of September 30, 2016

As of December 31, 2016 As of September 30, 2016

ASSETS

Cash and Cash Items Due from Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas Due from Other Banks Financial Assets at Fair Value through Profit or Loss Available-for-Sale Financial Assets - Net Held-to-Maturity (HTM) Financial Assets - Net Unquoted Debt Securities Classified as Loans - Net Loans and Receivables - Net Interbank Loans Receivable Loans and Receivables - Others General Loan Loss Provision Other Financial Assets Equity Investment in Subsidiaries, Associates and Joint Ventures - Net Bank Premises, Furniture, Fixture & Equipment - Net Real and Other Properties Acquired - Net Other Assets - Net

P 1,010,466,593.55 13,276,675,252.42 2,877,264,209.62 300,166,595.21 44,452,432.50 13,531,709,424.94 3,672,552,632.89 39,546,226,419.16 49,720,000.00 39,883,189,472.48 386,683,053.32 551,647,500.91 961,313,774.25 1,878,997,674.85 496,136,145.17 6,089,690,869.79

841,054,054.87 12,776,757,212.00 2,050,441,125.70 222,483,103.77 44,452,432.50 17,289,327,097.32 3,670,503,970.80 35,471,513,232.70 48,500,000.00 35,779,146,286.02 356,133,053.32 421,922,868.41 913,118,479.56 1,927,693,215.85 446,081,706.13 6,060,100,864.20

TOTAL ASSETS

P 84,237,299,525.26

82,135,449,363.81 TOTAL ASSETS

Cash and Cash Items P 1,041,137,300.95 Due from Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas 13,356,060,584.66 Due from Other Banks 3,242,726,459.21 Financial Assets at Fair Value through Profit or Loss 300,166,595.21 Available-for-Sale Financial Assets - Net 44,452,432.50 Held-to-Maturity (HTM) Financial Assets - Net 13,531,709,424.94 Unquoted Debt Securities Classified as Loans - Net 3,672,552,632.89 Loans and Receivables - Net 41,247,431,847.83 Interbank Loans Receivable 49,720,000.00 Loans and Receivables - Others 41,600,429,101.29 General Loan Loss Provision 402,717,253.46 Other Financial Assets 583,214,489.58 Equity Investment in Subsidiaries, Associates and Joint Ventures - Net 27,446,160.02 Bank Premises, Furniture, Fixture & Equipment - Net 1,992,285,120.52 Real and Other Properties Acquired - Net 560,391,545.14 Other Assets - Net 6,677,704,191.90

gressively based on a graduated scheme, he said. Lopez said the Trade Department wanted to make sure the proposed tax measures on vehicles would not affect the Cars program. The automotive industry earlier said it was willing to go along the proposed tax increase, even to the point of taxing all vehicle line-up, provided that the taxes were well within acceptable range and rates “so as not to kill the industry.” The Finance Department’s proposal would extensively affect the price bracket of P600,000 to P1.2 million, which has the biggest range that includes small cars, currently the fast selling models, sedans and entry-level AUVs. The automotive industry also expressed concern that the proposed tax reforms would affect the commitment of their principals to participate in the development of the Philippine automotive sector. The automotive sector accounts for 12 percent of the industrial output and 4 percent of the country’s gross domestic product. Othel V. Campos

DoF: Duterte supports tax reforms By Gabrielle H. Binaday PRESIDENT Rodrigo Duterte is fully supportive of the Comprehensive Tax Reform Program that will play a pivotal role to dramatically reduce poverty, achieve economic inclusion and catapult the country into an upper middle-income economy by 2022, Finance Secretary Carlos Dominguez III said over the weekend. “The president has already held three meetings with leaders of Congress, and the basic subject of those meetings were the tax reforms,” Dominguez said at a recent Makati City forum. “And he has indicated his strong support for the tax reform program,” Dominguez said. Dominguez was referring to CTRP whose ﬁrst package under House Bill No. 4144 was ﬁled at

the House of Representatives on Jan. 17 by Rep. Dakila Carlo Cua, chairman of the House committee on ways and means. “Deﬁnitely, President Duterte is willing―as you put it―to spend his political capital on this [CTRP],” Dominguez said. Dominguez said while the new government raised about P900 billion from China and Japan alone, this wouldn’t be enough to fund the administration’s massive ﬁscal spending strategy, which would actually cost an estimated P8 trillion over the president’s six-year term. “Well, quite frankly, we’ve raised a total of something like P800 billion or P900 billion, and that will be spent over let’s say six years, right? Certainly, that’s not enough to cover the P8-trillion program that we need to spend on,” Dominguez said.

84,260,340,286.25

63,149,978,349.58 10,099,383,950.05 10,099,383,950.05 464,530,594.20 2,364,548,902.28

25,470,000.00 63,393,516,159.22 7,799,562,916.81 7,799,562,916.81 609,222,369.67 2,447,722,339.91

P 76,078,441,796.11

74,275,493,785.61

12,884,054,099.96 1,374,698,969.07 -4,264,148,359.18 -9,758,209.21

LIABILITIES

Financial Liabilities at Fair Value through Profit or Loss Deposit Liabilities Bills Payable: Other Deposit Substitutes Other Financial Liabilities Other Liabilities

61,188,817,002.68 10,099,383,950.05 10,099,383,950.05 447,145,103.17 2,260,940,019.61

25,470,000.00 61,356,204,861.10 7,799,562,916.81 7,799,562,916.81 583,402,452.37 2,335,427,515.22

TOTAL LIABILITIES

P 73,996,286,075.51

72,100,067,745.50 TOTAL LIABILITIES

12,884,054,099.96 Capital Stock 1,335,685,361.07 Other Capital Accounts -4,184,357,842.72 Retained Earnings Minority Interest in Subsidiaries 10,035,381,618.31 TOTAL STOCKHOLDERS’ EQUITY

P 12,884,054,099.96 1,579,287,593.51 -4,254,757,991.37 -9,746,712.85 P 10,198,836,989.25

9,984,846,500.64

82,135,449,363.81 TOTAL LIABILITIES AND STOCKHOLDERS’ EQUITY

P 86,277,278,785.35

84,260,340,286.25

P 2,222,647,854.71 395,133,364.11 1,241,237,877.47 1,377,819,320.77 5,683,734,099.96 1,089,636,831.45 4,594,097,268.51 184,744,981.67

2,224,126,280.69 554,950,291.83 1,102,900,653.99 2,405,867,210.56 5,846,345,757.99 1,317,365,812.16 4,528,979,945.83 102,967,506.36

P 11,105,317,498.69

12,237,157,701.42

Financial Liabilities at Fair Value through Profit or Loss Deposit Liabilities Bills Payable: Other Deposit Substitutes Other Financial Liabilities Other Liabilities

STOCKHOLDERS’ EQUITY

THE Trade Department is pushing for a higher floor value on vehicles that will be affected by the proposed tax reforms. Trade Secretary Ramon Lopez said the department proposed to adjust the floor price on vehicles that will face higher taxes to P1 million, compared to the Finance Department’s proposal of P600,000. He said the adjustment would help promote local production of small cars such as Mirage and Vios, consistent with the Comprehensive Automotive Resurgence Strategy program. “We want to protect the segment where the Mirage, Vios and other small yet affordable cars belong and this is those with value of P1 million below. That is why we are very keen on making this work with the Finance Department,” he said. He said the Trade and Finance Departments could cooperate on having one fixed, minimal rate for cars falling under the category of P1 million and below. Vehicles priced above P1 million will be taxed pro-

870,573,649.42 12,861,075,912.51 2,391,253,496.54 222,483,103.77 44,452,432.50 17,289,327,097.32 3,670,503,970.80 37,289,329,058.57 48,500,000.00 37,613,857,074.02 373,028,015.45 451,361,455.83 27,062,303.29 2,038,400,280.69 510,623,358.08 6,593,894,166.93

P 86,277,278,785.35

LIABILITIES

DTI wants higher ﬂoor on car tax

STOCKHOLDERS’ EQUITY

Capital Stock Other Capital Accounts Retained Earnings

P 12,884,054,099.96 1,541,317,192.51 -4,184,357,842.72

TOTAL STOCKHOLDERS’ EQUITY

P 10,241,013,449.75

TOTAL LIABILITIES AND STOCKHOLDERS’ EQUITY

P 84,237,299,525.26

CONTINGENT ACCOUNTS Financial Standby Letters of Credit Commercial Letters of Credit Trade Related Guarantees Spot Foreign Exchange Contracts Trust Department Accounts Trust and Other Fiduciary Accounts Agency Accounts Others TOTAL CONTINGENT ACCOUNTS

CONTINGENT ACCOUNTS

P 2,222,647,854.71 395,133,364.11 1,241,237,877.47 1,377,819,320.77 5,683,734,099.96 1,089,636,831.45 4,594,097,268.51 184,739,553.67

2,224,126,280.69 554,950,291.83 1,102,900,653.99 2,405,867,210.56 5,846,345,757.99 1,317,365,812.16 4,528,979,945.83 102,962,367.36

P 11,105,312,070.69

12,237,152,562.42

Financial Standby Letters of Credit Commercial Letters of Credit Trade Related Guarantees Spot Foreign Exchange Contracts Trust Department Accounts Trust and Other Fiduciary Accounts Agency Accounts Others TOTAL CONTINGENT ACCOUNTS

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION Gross total loan portfolio (TLP) Specific allowance for credit losses on the TLP Non-Performing Loans (NPLs) a. Gross NPLs b. Ratio of gross NPLs to gross TLP (%) c. Net NPLs d. Ratio of Net NPLs to gross TLP (%)

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION

41,705,821,743.45 1,772,912,270.97 2,259,014,990.06 5.42% 486,102,719.09

1.17% Classified Loans & Other Risk Assets, gross of allowance for credit losses 1,065,744,487.21 DOSRI Loans and receivables, gross allowance of credit losses 16,291,278.80 Ratio of DOSRI loans and receivables, gross of allowance for credit losses, to gross TLP (%) 0.04% Gross non-performing DOSRI loans and receivables 82,861.43 Ratio of gross non-performing DOSRI loans and receivables to TLP (%) 0.00% Percent Compliance with Magna Carta (%) a. 8% for Micro and Small Enterprises b. 2% for Medium Enterprises

Return on Equity (ROE) (%) Capital Adequacy Ratio (CAR) on Solo Basis, as prescribed under existing regulations

a. Total CAR (%) b. Tier 1 CAR (%) c. Common Tier 1 Ratio (%) 1/

1.69%

11.96% 0.78% 14.64%

11.51% 11.51%

Common Equity Tier 1 is only applicable to all Universal and Commercial Banks and their subsidiary banks.

37,581,461,816.96 1,753,815,530.94 1. List of Financial Allied Subsidiaries (excluding Subsidiary Insurance Companies) 1. Rural Bank of Nagcarlan, Inc. 2. Banco Dipolog, Inc. a Rural Bank 2,283,081,027.49 6.08% 2. List of Subsidiary Insurance Companies 529,265,496.55 1. PBCom Insurance Services Agency, Inc. 1.41% 3. Capital Adequacy Ratio (CAR) on Consolidated Basis, as prescribed under existing regulations a. Total CAR (%) 14.67% 111,033,320.42 b. Tier 1 Ratio (%) 11.61% c. Common Tier 1 Ratio (%) 1/ 11.61% 16,407,790.80 1/ Common Equity Tier 1 is only applicable to all Universal and Commercial Banks and their subsidiary banks.

15.03% 11.87% 11.87%

0.04% 82,861.31 REPUBLIC OF THE PHILIPPINES) 0.00% City of Makati )S.S. 1.76%

11.37% -1.32%

We, Arlene M. Datu and Patricia May T. Siy, of the above-mentioned bank do solemnly swear that all matters set forth in the above balance sheet are true and correct to the best of our knowledge and belief.

15.14%

11.88% 11.88%

(SGD.) ARLENE M. DATU Controller, SVP

REPUBLIC OF THE PHILIPPINES) City of Makati )S.S.

(SGD.) PATRICIA MAY T. SIY President & CEO

SUBSCRIBED AND SWORN to before me this 25th day of January 2017 at City of Makati, affiants We, Arlene M. Datu and Patricia May T. Siy, of the above-mentioned bank do solemnly swear that all matters set forth in the exhibiting their SSS nos. 0356633451 and 0373099955, respectively. above balance sheet are true and correct to the best of our knowledge and belief. (SGD.) ATTY. GERVACIO B. ORTIZ JR. (SGD.) ARLENE M. DATU (SGD.) PATRICIA MAY T. SIY NOTARY PUBLIC City of Makati until December 31, 2018 Controller, SVP President & CEO IBP no. 656155 - Lifetime Member MCLE Compliance No. V-0006934 SUBSCRIBED AND SWORN to before me this 25th day of January 2017 at City of Makati, affiants exhibiting Doc. No. 75 Appointment no. M-104 -(2017-2018) their SSS nos. 0356633451 and 0373099955, respectively. Page No. 16 PTR no. 5909514 Jan. 3, 2017 Book No. VI Makati City Roll no. 40091 (SGD.) ATTY. GERVACIO B. ORTIZ JR. Series of 2017. 101 Urban Ave., Campos Rueda Bldg. Brgy. Pio del Pilar, Makati City NOTARY PUBLIC City of Makati until December 31, 2018 IBP no. 656155 - Lifetime Member MCLE Compliance No. V-0006934 Doc. No. 76 Appointment no. M-104 -(2017-2018) Page No. 17 PTR no. 5909514 Jan. 3, 2017 Book No. VI Makati City Roll no. 40091 Series of 2017. 101 Urban Ave., Campos Rueda Bldg. Brgy. Pio del Pilar, Makati City Member: Philippine Deposit Insurance Corporation Maximum Deposit Insurance for each Deposit P500,000.00

Business

MONDAY, FEBRUARY 6, 2017 extrastory2000@gmail.com

Mining concerns to affect market By Jenniffer B. Austria

RADING at the Philippine Stock Exchange is expected to remain volatile this week, as investors watch the new policies of US President Donald Trump and weigh the impact of the Environment Department’s closure and suspension orders against 28 mining companies. Analysts said investors would likely focus on political developments overseas, particularly on how Trump would address US economic growth through his ﬁscal expenditure program and other matters that could affect trade and fund ﬂows. “Political headlines are likely to drive events this week, espe-

cially sequel pronouncements from US President Trump,” 2TradeAsia.com said. Analysts said on the domestic front, investors would monitor developments in the mining sector as the closure and suspension orders against mining companies were expected to have a signiﬁcant impact on employment

numbers and foreign direct investments. Trading is expected within a range of 7,000 to 7,400 points this week, analysts said. The Philippine Stock Exchange index, the 30-company benchmark, dropped 1.5 percent last week to close at 7,226.70 on Feb. 3, while the broader all-share index went down 0.9 percent to 4,375.03. All major sub-indices ended in the red, led by mining and oil index which plunged 2.3 percent after the Environment Department issued closure and suspension orders against a number of mining ﬁrms. Holdings ﬁrms also dipped 2.2 percent while services and property went down 1.7 percent and 0.4 percent, respectively. Foreign investors were net

sellers last week by P674 million, while average daily turnover declined to P5.2 billion from the previous week’s average of P6.2 billion. Top gainers last week were Philippine Realty and Holdings Corp. which surged 65 percent to P0.66, Arthaland Corp. which jumped 45.6 percent to P1.15 and Phoenix Petroleum Philippines Inc. which advanced 14 percent to P6.83. Heavy losers were mostly mining ﬁrms that were affected by the closure and suspension orders by the Environment Department. Marcventures Holdings Inc. and Global Ferronickel Holdings Inc. requested for voluntary trading halt on their shares last week as they sought additional information about the orders issued by the Environment Department.

MPIC seeks to buy more logistics firms By Darwin G. Amojelar CONGLOMERATE Metro Paciﬁc Investments Corp. is expanding its footprint in the logistics industry as it set to acquire more companies this year. MPIC chairman Manuel Pangilinan said the conglomerate would acquire more logistics companies in the coming months, following the takeover of Ace Logistics. Pangilinan said some of the companies would “be signiﬁ-

MANILA STANDARD BUSINESS WEEKLY STOCKS REVIEW STOCKS

JANUARY 30-FEBRUARY 3, 2017 Close Volume Value

AG Finance Asia United Bank Banco de Oro Unibank Inc. Bank of PI China Bank BDO Leasing & Fin. INc. Bright Kindle Resources COL Financial Eastwest Bank First Abacus I-Remit Inc. Manulife Fin. Corp. MEDCO Holdings Metrobank Natl. Reinsurance Corp. PB Bank Phil Bank of Comm Phil. National Bank Phil. Savings Bank Philippine trust Co. PSE Inc. RCBC `A’ Security Bank Sun Life Financial Union Bank Vantage Equities

3.45 48.2 114.50 90.50 38.5 4.16 1.31 16.18 20.2 0.72 1.69 840.00 0.830 81.5 0.77 14.2 24.20 54.60 90.3 142 236 36.3 210.6 1770.00 78.90 1.3

87,000 65,900 12,370,630 7,252,820 583,600 51,000 1,690,000 66,000 2,779,500 20,000 495,000 210 103,280,000 13,831,900 1,680,000 127,700 95,700 140,890 1,970 1,240 3,720 527,700 2,487,470 1,965 308,120 15,000

Aboitiz Power Corp. Agrinurture Inc. Alliance Tuna Intl Inc. Alsons Cons. Asiabest Group Basic Energy Corp. Bogo Medelin C. Azuc De Tarlac Cemex Holdings Century Food Chemphil Conc. Aggr. ‘A’ Conc. Aggr. ‘B’ Cirtek Holdings (Chips) Concepcion Crown Asia Da Vinci Capital Del Monte DNL Industries Inc. Emperador Energy Devt. Corp. (EDC) EEI Euro-Med Lab First Gen Corp. First Holdings ‘A’ Ginebra San Miguel Inc. Holcim Philippines Inc. Integ. Micro-Electronics Ionics Inc Jollibee Foods Corp. Liberty Flour LMG Chemicals Mabuhay Vinyl Manila Water Co. Inc. Maxs Group Megawide Mla. Elect. Co À’ MG Holdings Panasonic Mfg Phil. Corp. Pepsi-Cola Products Phil. Petron Corporation Phil H2O Pilipinas Shell Phinma Corporation Phinma Energy Phoenix Petroleum Phils. Phoenix Semiconductor Pryce Corp. À’ RFM Corporation Roxas and Co. Roxas Holdings San Miguel ‘Pure Foods À’ Shakeys Pizza SPC Power Corp. Swift Foods, Inc. TKC Steel Corp. Universal Robina Victorias Milling Vitarich Corp. Vulcan Ind’l.

43.05 5.19 0.87 1.48 18.68 0.190 104 15.30 11.44 16.04 150 96 105 23.8 56 2.06 6.31 12 12.500 7.05 5.80 8.07 1.72 22.45 72.05 12.28 16.70 6.11 1.800 206.00 70.00 3.87 3.82 30.35 27.95 14.78 289.60 0.260 5.37 3.33 9.36 3.58 78.6 11.56 2.40 6.83 1.52 5.11 5.00 2.03 3.15 271 12.7 4.35 0.015 1.57 162 4.33 1.82 1.06

10,646,500 14,881,700 4,625,000 4,770,000 25,300 2,540,000 8,810 1,560,300 22,762,500 6,701,500 70 5,100 240 800,600 242,730 2,494,000 1,184,100 101,300 23,027,500 4,770,700 60,955,900 3,442,300 133,000 3,874,400 1,217,700 6,800 755,500 936,800 5,027,000 2,233,710 760 6,891,000 42,000 3,049,000 3,038,400 7,443,900 438,330 1,950,000 60,700 640,000 22,692,000 2,000 1,965,430 10,900 10,409,000 15,122,800 1,065,000 1,273,400 5,368,500 117,000 1,358,000 264,780 14,668,000 277,000 7,350,000 3,023,000 8,620,100 67,000 35,216,000 388,000

Abacus Cons. À’ Aboitiz Equity Alliance Global Inc. Anglo Holdings A Anscor À’ ATN Holdings A ATN Holdings B Ayala Corp À’ Cosco Capital DMCI Holdings F&J Prince ‘A’ Filinvest Dev. Corp. Forum Pacific GT Capital House of Inv. JG Summit Holdings Jolliville Holdings Lopez Holdings Corp. Lodestar Invt. Holdg.Corp. LT Group Mabuhay Holdings À’ Metro Pacific Inv. Corp. Pacifica À’ Prime Media Hldg Prime Orion Republic Glass ‘A’ San Miguel Corp À’ Seafront À’ SM Investments Inc. Solid Group Inc. South China Res. Inc. Top Frontier Unioil Res. & Hldgs Wellex Industries Zeus Holdings

0.400 73.70 12.62 1.17 6.10 0.340 0.350 795 9.24 12.96 5.9 8.14 0.184 1245 6.07 74.50 3.85 7.92 1.11 12.9 0.440 6.62 0.0430 1.120 1.980 2.56 99.50 2.23 692.00 1.41 0.85 264.000 0.3350 0.1900 0.245

46,330,000 5,634,690 19,992,600 11,000 112,900 53,430,000 6,680,000 763,680 17,452,100 18,207,000 5,800 178,000 660,000 867,160 1,900 6,600,440 200 7,090,600 16,551,000 13,837,100 190,000 102,124,500 742,100,000 35,000 701,000 145,000 771,560 9,000 1,377,560 9,446,000 683,000 26,470 32,240,000 1,800,000 6,040,000

8990 HLDG Anchor Land Holdings Inc. A. Brown Co., Inc. Araneta Prop À’ Arthaland Corp. Ayala Land `B’ Belle Corp. À’ Cebu Holdings Century Property City & Land Dev. Cityland Dev. À’ Crown Equities Inc. Cyber Bay Corp. Double Dragon Empire East Land Ever Gotesco Global-Estate Filinvest Land,Inc. Interport À’ Megaworld MRC Allied Ind. Phil. Estates Corp.

7.190 6.20 1.34 2.550 1.150 35.150 3.34 5.13 0.520 1.08 1.290 0.169 0.570 53.75 0.730 0.143 1.02 1.66 1.19 3.64 0.169 0.2650

1,090,600 120,400 379,800,000 6,223,000 369,915,000 35,848,600 18,360,000 60,900 130,705,000 474,000 2,600,000 314,930,000 27,459,000 2,577,080 1,583,000 930,000 9,431,000 28,681,000 1,927,000 106,747,000 190,620,000 1,350,000

FINANCIA 306,770.00 3,177,575.00 1,386,384,221 658,240,540.50 22,509,115.00 209,110.00 2,250,070.00 1,065,903.00 55,548,124.00 14,400 816,500.00 176,850.00 81,295,920.00 1,125,935,759.00 1,284,680.00 1,816,472.00 2,368,490.00 7,676,623.00 177,186.00 168,110.00 887,010.00 19,113,525 524,866,422.00 3,480,150 24,258,440.00 19,540.00 INDUSTRIAL 456,082,355.00 74,115,287.00 4,085,240.00 7,236,840.00 461,858.00 496,540.00 940,125.00 25,338,488.00 260,278,292.00 109,196,868 10,500.00 486,057.00 24,182.00 18,141,615.00 13,986,538 5,115,330.00 7,580,499.00 1,217,812.00 284,837,912.00 32,977,023.00 380,682,566.00 27,516,057.00 231,890.00 86,965,420.00 87,406,992.50 83,508.00 12,496,700.00 5,734,581.00 9,301,680.00 461,513,644.00 53,356.00 28,527,470.00 152,700.00 91,995,685.00 84,879,630.00 109,915,686.00 125,803,624.00 490,150.00 321,439.00 2,091,870.00 211,940,657.00 7,160.00 154,900,667.50 124,382.00 24,309,790.00 99,602,010.00 1,619,580.00 6,909,551.00 26,526,681.00 238,710.00 4,119,820.00 69,801,392.00 188,015,394.00 1,163,260.00 1,107,150.00 4,980,160.00 1,402,795,843 296,870.00 67,354,440.00 423,510.00 HOLDING FIRMS 18,614,050.00 417,247,981.00 253,165,228.00 12,830.00 685,600.00 18,726,450.00 2,312,600.00 614,033,775 162,537,063.00 236,011,504.00 34,220.00 1,430,106.00 124,320.00 1,111,119,075.00 11,263.00 490,942,201.50 7,700.00 56,270,181.00 18,572,680.00 180,726,886.00 83,650.00 1,897,459,976.00 30,514,400.00 39,450.00 1,392,310.00 369,050.00 76,291,348.50 20,070.00 957,709,015.00 13,626,990.00 621,210.00 6,970,202.00 10,292,850.00 345,710.00 1,548,630.00 PROPERTY 7,938,353.00 128,184.00 479,736,490.00 16,337,800.00 358,517,640.00 1,268,387,020.00 60,602,390.00 307,639.00 69,201,080.00 500,160.00 3,430,790.00 56,400,710.00 15,613,460.00 136,883,087.00 1,158,080.00 132,990.00 9,522,360.00 46,320,470.00 2,286,860.00 390,012,330.00 33,302,710.00 371,850.00

JANUARY 23-27, 2017 Close Volume Value 3.64 48.3 114.50 92.30 38.55 4.12 1.38 16 20 0.68 1.68 850.00 0.720 79.25 0.77 14.24 24.80 54.00 90 136 240 36.1 213.6 1770.00 77.80 1.26

49,000 86,900 9,702,910 5,759,360 277,500 19,000 956,000 72,000 2,521,400 18,000 748,000 650 61,105,000 15,496,190 6,211,000 150,100 26,000 178,800 5,940 900 4,500 520,200 3,437,300 2,200 232,450 10,000

179,320.00 4,187,400.00 1,101,198,123 526,942,429.00 10,684,755.00 77,310.00 1,312,250.00 1,158,506.00 49,189,136.00 12,240 1,255,440.00 550,900.00 44,595,050.00 1,211,491,203.50 4,795,570.00 2,132,898.00 628,360.00 9,665,675.00 533,286.00 128,342.00 1,079,226.00 18,767,655 735,390,758.00 3,872,995 18,152,236.00 12,570.00

43.7 4.9 0.92 1.55 18.38 0.199 90.15 15.90 11.28 16.8 174.8 98 97.05 22.8 56 2.09 6.64 12.08 12.480 7.02 5.64 7.98 1.75 22.8 70.55 12.14 16.50 6.17 1.890 208.00 73.00 4.51 3.6 30.2 27.4 15.2 285.00 0.260 5.34 3.2 9.42 3.61 78.05 11.26 2.29 6.00 1.52 5.34 5.00

5,957,700 10,375,000 17,467,000 15,099,000 22,500 2,310,000 3,010 566,100 36,761,200 19,118,500 1,140 2,880 170 647,500 526,140 2,119,000 1,365,900 50,600 32,211,800 4,813,900 71,132,900 7,230,300 2,000 7,920,600 1,178,380 46,000 1,449,400 813,000 3,615,000 3,660,390 850 13,864,000 50,000 19,218,800 1,654,500 20,068,700 1,217,530 2,930,000 14,400 1,028,000 18,208,100 4,000 3,653,980 148,600 2,668,000 3,612,500 629,000 3,845,300 1,997,000

261,346,160.00 48,907,260.00 16,537,110.00 23,232,820.00 426,566.00 892,990.00 290,819.50 6,333,798.00 422,950,678.00 317,163,678 189,282.00 277,801.00 16,560.50 14,677,050.00 30,294,358 4,447,740.00 8,823,304.00 608,482.00 399,348,419.00 33,731,962.00 399,024,895.00 57,930,564.00 3,500.00 179,236,810.00 82,540,814.50 561,758.00 23,931,654.00 4,974,597.00 6,652,830.00 759,315,982.00 61,842.50 58,902,720.00 182,270.00 584,223,690.00 45,261,485.00 303,277,660.00 350,157,830.00 736,650.00 76,231.00 3,303,770.00 174,862,289.00 14,440.00 282,636,362.00 1,686,066.00 6,055,880.00 21,622,568.00 965,830.00 20,186,009.00 9,827,560.00

2.85 251 12.9 4.21 0.147 1.60 168 4.35 1.95 1.10

659,000 187,840 28,404,300 278,000 5,440,000 900,000 5,734,400 236,000 84,212,000 16,000

1,915,480.00 46,360,118.00 359,034,408.00 1,163,940.00 806,140.00 1,419,070.00 962,163,724 1,051,410.00 166,133,540.00 17,450.00

0.410 74.80 12.86 1.13 6.11 0.305 0.310 800 9.24 13.00

66,670,000 6,359,620 29,176,900 262,000 169,700 1,950,000 660,000 1,493,130 15,268,000 41,889,700

28,421,250.00 476,988,438.00 373,144,912.00 296,300.00 1,026,332.00 597,150.00 202,900.00 1,221,706,770 194,182,375.00 546,014,914.00

8.18 0.183 1381 6.07 76.30

573,400 150,000 685,860 30,200 6,615,160

4,641,192.00 27,330.00 930,496,340.00 182,003.00 508,668,098.00

7.99 1.16 13.26

3,905,000 37,107,000 83,436,400

31,197,012.00 43,934,890.00 1,049,752,948.00

6.8 0.0440 1.220 2.020 2.56 99.00 2.21 705.00 1.40 0.85 264.200 0.2900 0.1860 0.255

147,565,600 357,600,000 8,000 1,105,000 53,000 2,282,760 130,000 2,246,520 3,687,000 21,000 36,470 4,600,000 3,410,000 120,000

1,015,355,635.00 13,243,508.00 9,670.00 2,205,350.00 135,250.00 226,457,742.00 288,360.00 1,590,446,230.00 5,088,720.00 17,860.00 9,622,054.00 1,334,600.00 647,250.00 30,500.00

7.300 6.11 1.27 2.590 0.790 35.350 3.25 5.13 0.550 1.06 1.350 0.191 0.560 52.4 0.770 0.145 1.01 1.64 1.18 3.64 0.175 0.2600

691,700 700 9,447,000 2,788,000 150,776,000 37,376,500 15,909,000 37,300 133,959,000 6,624,000 21,772,000 222,600,000 125,409,000 1,391,570 1,518,000 1,410,000 12,446,000 24,545,000 236,000 174,664,000 357,400,000 2,230,000

5,077,422.00 4,277.00 11,707,400.00 7,133,820.00 123,625,710.00 1,340,225,915.00 51,719,270.00 188,340.00 75,036,940.00 6,807,460.00 29,299,470.00 42,876,290.00 71,443,280.00 72,503,241.50 1,106,630.00 202,920.00 12,583,020.00 40,377,730.00 279,580.00 644,433,730.00 61,544,810.00 621,350.00

STOCKS

JANUARY 30-FEBRUARY 3, 2017 Close Volume Value

Phil. Realty `A’ Phil. Tob. Flue Cur & Redry Primex Corp. Robinson’s Land `B’ Rockwell Shang Properties Inc. SM Prime Holdings Sta. Lucia Land Inc. Starmalls Suntrust Home Dev. Inc. Vista Land & Lifescapes

0.660 30.95 4.97 24.50 1.66 3.4 30.00 1.08 7 0.950 5.040

2GO Group’ ABS-CBN Acesite Hotel APC Group, Inc. Apollo Global Asian Terminals Inc. Berjaya Phils. Inc. Bloomberry Boulevard Holdings Calata Corp. Cebu Air Inc. (5J) Centro Esc. Univ. Discovery World DFNN Inc. FEUI Globe Telecom GMA Network Inc. Golden Haven Grand Plaza Hotel Harbor Star I.C.T.S.I. Imperial Res. À’ Imperial Res. `B’ IPeople Inc. À’ IP E-Game Ventures Inc. IPM Holdings Island Info ISM Communications Jackstones LBC Express Leisure & Resorts Macroasia Corp. Manila Broadcasting Manila Jockey Melco Crown Metro Retail NOW Corp. Pacific Online Sys. Corp. PAL Holdings Inc. Paxys Inc. Phil. Racing Club Phil. Seven Corp. Philweb.Com Inc. PLDT Common PremiereHorizon Premium Leisure Puregold Robinsons RTL SBS Phil. Corp. SSI Group STI Holdings Transpacific Broadcast Travellers Waterfront Phils.

7.41 46.7 1.44 0.500 0.062 10.52 5.66 7.50 0.0670 2.57 96 9.6 2.05 9.35 960 1675 6.26 16.86 15.40 3.40 77 15.80 110 11.74 0.0095 9.07 0.199 1.4000 2.98 14.5 4.12 2.50 19.40 2.03 4.85 3.99 2.840 11.2 5.34 3.2 8.53 140.00 9.16 1480.00 0.450 1.410 43.50 80.75 6.50 2.63 1.060 1.78 3.2 0.425

Abra Mining Apex À’ Atlas Cons. À’ Atok-Big Wedge À’ Benguet Corp À’ Benguet Corp `B’ Century Peak Metals Hldgs Coal Asia Dizon Ferronickel Geograce Res. Phil. Inc. Lepanto À’ Lepanto `B’ Manila Mining À’ Manila Mining `B’ Marcventures Hldgs., Inc. Nickelasia Nihao Mineral Resources Omico Oriental Peninsula Res. Oriental Pet. À’ Oriental Pet. `B’ Petroenergy Res. Corp. Philex À’ PhilexPetroleum Philodrill Corp. À’ Semirara Corp. TA Petroleum United Paragon

0.0032 2.65 5.66 11.48 1.8000 1.9500 0.53 0.495 11.02 2.740 0.250 0.187 0.191 0.012 0.0120 1.84 6.87 2.64 0.4600 0.9500 0.0110 0.0110 4.05 9.20 3.65 0.0140 133.50 2.91 0.0088

ABS-CBN Holdings Corp. Ayala Corp. Pref `B1’ Ayala Corp. Pref ‘B2’ Alco Preferred B DD PREF First Gen F First Gen G GLOBE PREF P GMA Holdings Inc. GTCAP PREF A GTCAP PREF B MWIDE PREF PCOR-Preferred A PCOR-Preferred B PF Pref 2 SMC Preferred B SMC Preferred C SMC Preferred D SMC Preferred E SMC Preferred F SMC Preferred G SMC Preferred H SMC Preferred I WARRANTS & BONDS LR Warrant Alterra Capital Makati Fin. Corp. Italpinas Xurpas

6.6 3.01 3.85 8

First Metro ETF

119

JANUARY 23-27, 2017 Close Volume Value

111,620,000 400 18,925,000 10,555,200 881,000 1,877,000 44,629,200 32,998,000 8,300 2,498,000 11,217,800

46.5 542 540 106.9 104.8 113 116 535 5.89 1020 1048 110 1072 1098 1020 76.65 81 76.1 78.4 79.75 78 79.1 78

66,684,450.00 12,380.00 93,640,550.00 263,739,740.00 1,474,910.00 6,147,550.00 1,334,696,690.00 34,742,040.00 57,960.00 2,390,430.00 56,176,428.00 SERVICES 285,100 2,115,288.00 63,700 3,019,185.00 115,000 164,800.00 1,865,000 962,870.00 1,331,360,000 81,055,210.00 200 2,104.00 15,800 85,873 44,963,700 334,374,131.00 93,910,000 6,449,360.00 22,825,000 61,538,080.00 1,664,920 158,675,741.00 55,100 530,046.00 126,000 266,120 3,015,200 27,859,816.00 7,790 7,478,400.00 247,910 424,642,230 220,500 1,375,532.00 527,200 8,746,356.00 500 7,690 22,729,000 74,420,700.00 11,413,890 890,506,246.50 51,100 828,690 270 29,702 11,500 138,188.00 118,800,000 1,174,220.00 2,514,000 22,779,710.00 53,380,000 10,986,010.00 1,988,000 2,839,190.00 3,179,000 10,325,480.00 25,900 376,894.00 3,267,000 13,497,380 534,000 1,334,520.00 3,000 55,630 22,000 44,100.00 23,726,000 112,722,300.00 11,523,000 45,723,590.00 26,659,000 75,395,140.00 24,100 270,780.00 211,800 1,103,101 310,000 969,530.00 1,700 15,159.00 1,062,080 140,729,067.00 3,353,500 32,200,328.00 343,215 506,461,820.00 29,510,000 13,267,350.00 47,315,000 66,820,840.00 8,703,700 379,959,285.00 6,936,760 552,150,362.00 35,216,600 242,253,984.00 8,981,000 23,782,690.00 36,412,000 38,860,300.00 33,000 59,360.00 1,995,000 6,467,690.00 16,090,000 6,679,600.00 MINING & OIL 939,000,000 3,045,900.00 10,670,000 29,103,610.00 5,224,100 29,130,974.00 200 2,296.00 561,000 1,099,190.00 256,000 520,840.00 24,838,000 13,143,125.00 54,839,000 28,151,630.00 463,000 5,249,868.00 54,321,000 143,149,200.00 9,440,000 2,374,230.00 217,560,000 41,035,450.00 33,280,000 6,249,860.00 118,600,000 1,366,900.00 588,100,000 7,057,900.00 18,967,000 36,310,250.00 35,984,200 246,270,731.00 609,000 1,619,540.00 630,000 294,550.00 4,808,000 4,692,860.00 75,500,000 844,200.00 54,300,000 619,400.00 14,000 57,780.00 7,091,300 65,189,919.00 8,629,000 104,823,470.00 494,800,000 6,903,000.00 3,750,200 505,133,722.00 103,000 303,290.00 16,000,000 142,200.00 PREFERRED 667,000 31,405,740.00 200 108,400.00 2,180 1,150,350 19,200 2,051,530 82,920 8,626,739.00 30 3,390.00 2,600 301,600.00 4,280 2,264,330.00 7,074,000 41,639,874.00 68,895 70,050,725.00 62,330 64,826,030.00 124,360 13,639,902.00 17,000 18,222,000.00 200 219,600.00 14,450 14,703,220.00 37,370 2,871,937.00 306,370 25,058,846.50 22,540 1,714,478.50 22,320 1,745,824.00 580,690 46,365,753.00 76,800 5,964,474.00 53,130 4,102,366.00 435,930 34,134,309.00

2.200

625,000

1,383,780.00 SME 808,700 5,370,272.00 74,000 217,810.00 2,489,000 9,990,520.00 9,198,600 74,655,784.00 EXCHANGE TRADED FUNDS 24,390 2,918,103.00

0.400 30.95 4.92 26.10 1.68 3.23 30.00 1.05 6.98 1.010 5.080

120,000 28,900 16,693,000 5,275,600 1,138,000 49,000 57,372,900 71,967,000 42,500 246,410,000 11,194,200

48,850.00 867,540.00 77,878,880.00 137,983,210.00 1,938,350.00 158,880.00 1,747,085,525.00 76,018,490.00 296,502.00 225,109,540.00 57,270,160.00

7.5 47.9 1.36 0.530 0.054 10.52 5.32 7.90 0.0720 2.85 94.75 9.6 2.12 8.90 960 1805 6.15 16.50 15.20 3.01 78.65 16.26 119 12 0.0100 9.06 0.215 1.4800 3.1 15 4.14 2.56 18.20 2 4.88 4.15 2.770 11.3 5.34 3.1 9.89 132.00 9.95 1495.00 0.475 1.440 44.25 78.05 6.44 2.74 1.080 1.8 3.26 0.380

75,500 116,200 106,080 1,336,000 189,080,000 17,900 15,200 74,796,200 32,680,000 30,444,000 2,421,140 10,200 70,000 3,279,800 105 205,460 1,569,900 391,700 1,200 22,021,000 9,269,820 82,800 940 5,800 123,800,000 2,504,000 42,680,000 1,965,000 538,000 15,100 4,509,000 445,000 10,600 2,000 66,791,000 10,427,000 9,779,000 21,200 82,000 59,000 2,700 949,730 6,568,000 468,475 18,060,000 72,261,000 10,997,200 6,493,040 1,462,500 31,175,000 47,036,000 32,000 1,719,000 2,430,000

565,306.00 5,569,245.00 99,430.00 697,710.00 10,257,770.00 192,102.00 82,880 566,188,064.00 2,336,780.00 86,676,000.00 231,658,714.00 100,047.00 145,490 29,215,576.00 101,225.00 361,071,940 9,765,791.00 6,409,474.00 18,936 65,381,080.00 714,967,357.50 1,351,244 105,890 69,600.00 1,241,900.00 22,694,620.00 9,059,980.00 2,840,620.00 1,719,900.00 220,362.00 18,569,040 1,149,370.00 196,408 4,000.00 311,747,910.00 42,609,570.00 26,991,360.00 239,022.00 426,863 187,000.00 17,815.00 130,149,561.00 66,825,203.00 701,935,260.00 8,480,850.00 104,772,860.00 479,783,445.00 471,441,622.00 9,274,814.00 86,939,980.00 51,037,420.00 56,170.00 5,628,660.00 915,800.00

0.0033 2.71 5.32 11.48 2.1700 2.1900 0.5 0.465 12.18 2.810 0.255 0.219 0.220 0.012 0.0130 2.23 6.75 2.7 0.4900 1.0500 0.0110 0.0120 4.19 9.10 3.70 0.0140 136.60 2.98 0.0090

723,000,000 9,205,000 2,207,300 5,700 78,000 82,000 4,759,000 4,610,000 185,700 26,821,000 3,360,000 30,000,000 2,840,000 173,500,000 116,800,000 4,629,000 31,554,200 604,000 130,000 1,020,000 254,600,000 75,500,000 49,000 13,017,400 14,923,000 2,101,400,000 5,443,670 407,000 17,000,000

2,385,900.00 25,230,910.00 11,914,455.00 62,240.00 170,030.00 56,100.00 2,386,860.00 2,121,500.00 2,240,430.00 77,060,270.00 859,600.00 6,613,400.00 629,130.00 2,082,200.00 2,569,900.00 10,405,340.00 211,513,560.00 1,651,330.00 63,750.00 1,081,790.00 2,907,400.00 941,900.00 199,230.00 118,992,195.00 55,363,120.00 29,244,700.00 750,773,236.00 1,185,380.00 153,000.00

47.95 542 535 105 104.3 112.9 116 520 5.85 1020 1040 109 1070 1178 1012 76.85 81.2 76 78.25 79.7 77.55 79.5 77.95

3,370,500 9,940 40 69,860 106,630 10 7,000 4,040 16,851,400 1,905 18,935 10,190 4,800 1,405 1,000 249,710 101,620 104,500 147,150 278,690 33,880 119,170 517,990

161,783,930.00 5,326,600.00 21,400 7,443,456 11,140,674.00 1,129.00 812,000.00 2,103,100.00 98,813,105.00 1,943,100.00 19,718,920.00 1,109,573.00 5,444,000.00 1,627,770.00 1,013,810.00 19,195,629.50 8,230,759.00 7,972,335.00 11,511,113.00 22,335,195.00 2,627,204.00 9,376,024.00 40,730,653.00

2.250

578,000

1,309,200.00

6.81 2.93 4.3 8.38

1,171,800 11,000 576,000 7,027,000

8,073,441.00 32,350.00 2,413,430.00 59,741,328.00

120.4

158,130

18,957,913.00

WEEKLY MOST TRADED STOCKS Apollo Global Abra Mining Pacifica À’ Manila Mining `B’ Philodrill Corp. À’ A. Brown Co., Inc. Arthaland Corp. Crown Equities Inc. Lepanto À’ MRC Allied Ind.

VOLUME 1,331,360,000 939,000,000 742,100,000 588,100,000 494,800,000 379,800,000 369,915,000 314,930,000 217,560,000 190,620,000

STOCKS Metro Paciﬁc Inv. Corp. Universal Robina Banco de Oro Unibank Inc. SM Prime Holdings Ayala Land `B’ Metrobank GT Capital SM Investments Inc. I.C.T.S.I. Bank of PI

VALUE 1,897,459,976.00 1,402,795,843 1,386,384,221 1,334,696,690.00 1,268,387,020.00 1,125,935,759.00 1,111,119,075.00 957,709,015.00 890,506,246.50 658,240,540.50

cant” in terms of size. MPIC ventured into the logistics and distribution business in May 2016 when it acquired the assets of mid-size corporate logistics provider Basic Logistics. It then formed a new company called Metro Pacific Movers Inc. in joint venture with the shareholders of Basic Logistics to provide logistics, shipping, freight forwarding and e-commerce services. MPIC’s subsidiary Premier Logistics Inc. signed a definitive agreement in January to acquire some of the assets and businesses of Ace Logistics worth P280 million. “We want to build up a significant substantial logistics group. We started late last year when we invested in basic logistics so this is the next investment for us and there could be further investments in logistics company here because I think it’s a very basic need of the country, to have a more efficient logistics infrastructure,” Pangilinan said. He said that at present, the cost of moving goods between Manila and Mindanao was more expensive than moving the goods from to Europe. “That’s something we should cure,” Pangilinan said.

Corporate bonds rose to P280b in 2016 CORPORATE bonds registered with the Securities and Exchange Commission jumped 134 percent in 2016 to P280 billion from P120 billion 2015, as many companies took advantage of the shelf-registration program implemented by the corporate regulator. The SEC attributed the significant increase in corporate bond issuance to the enhanced shelf registration program under the 2015 Securities Regulation Code’s implementing rules and regulations (2015 SRC-IRR). Under the program, companies are allowed to register and issue securities in tranches on a continuous or delayed basis for a period not exceeding three years. This means the issuers can time their capital raising activities as they are needed and/ or when market conditions favor them. The SEC also provided flexibility in the payment of registration fees by allowing firms to pay based on the value of the securities to be issued and on per tranche basis. Data showed of the P280billion registered bonds and commercial papers, around P236 billion or 84 percent were registered through the enhanced shelf-registration system. Most of these issuances were geared towards the retail market. Among the corporate bond issuers in 2016 were Ayala Land Inc., DMCI Project Developers Inc., Ayala Corp., SM Prime Holdings Inc., Petron Corp., SM Investment Corp., Arthaland Corp., Double Dragon Properties Inc. and SMC Global Power Holdings Corp. The 2015 SRC-IRR also provided an improved definition of commercial papers that encourage many companies to issue debt papers. Under the newly issued SRC IRR, commercial paper is now defined as evidence of indebtedness of any person with a maturity of 365 days or less. Jenniffer B. Austria

Business De Leon eyes new tack on funding By Gabrielle H. Binaday RETURNING National Treasurer Rosalia De Leon said the government will look for innovative solutions to fund the administration’s ambitious infrastructure program amid external volatilities that may affect the Philippine bond market. “The scenario right now is different, before we have QE [quantitative easing] but right now, we have the concerns on the policies of the new administration in the US, we have geopolitical concerns—what’s happening in Europe. I think there are more headwinds that we have to encounter,” de Leon said. “We’ll be having prudent funding exercises and at the same time we continue to strengthen the buffer of the Treasury,” she said, citing the huge funding by infrastructure and social development projects. Finance Secretary Carlos Dominguez III last week swore into ofﬁce former national treasurer Roberto Tan as the new president of Philippine Deposit Insurance Corp., making way for the appointment of de Leon as the new treasury chief. Tan, who was national treasurer since 2015, also served in the same Bureau of Treasury post from 2008 to 2012 before assuming the position of executive director at the World Bank in Washington D.C. He started with the Finance Department’s International Finance Group in 1991, and was later named assistant secretary in 1999. He was appointed undersecretary in 2005 before being named National Treasurer in 2008. Before taking her oath of ofﬁce as the new National Treasurer, De Leon13, meanwhile, was the alternate executive director for the same World Bank group previously led by Tan. She previously held the post of National Treasurer from 2013 to 2015.

MONDAY, FEBRUARY 6, 2017 extrastory2000@gmail.com

Epira amendments readied By Alena Mae S. Flores

EN. Sherwin Gatchalian is proposing amendments to the Electric Power Industry Reform Act to further promote transparency and governance at the Energy Regulatory Commission. “We want to improve transparency and governance standards. Reform is a much more appropriate process, not abolition,” Gatchalian said during a recent forum sponsored by Phinma Energy Corp. Gatchalian noted that the energy sector was a complex industry and that removing the regulator and replacing it again would stunt the growth of the sector. “Energy is a very complex industry. If you kick out everybody, there will be a learning curve... Deﬁnitely, we will consult international experts in regulation,” he said.

ERC was under fire late last year over allegations raised by the late ERC director Francis Jose Villa Jr., who committed suicide. ERC chairman Jose Vicente Salazar went on voluntary onemonth leave on December 5 to give way to an investigation of the Commission on Audit and the National Bureau of Investigation. CaA last week cleared the regulator of alleged irregularities from a audio visual presentation issue raised by Villa in his letter. Villa’s suicide note prompted President

Rodrigo Duterte to call for the abolition of the ERC, which the Epira created and mandated to regulate the power industry. Gatchalian said he would also ask ERC for an update on pending cases. The processing of several power supply agreements, including those of Manila Electric Co., have been put on hold following the controversy. “We will ask for an update with ERC, what’s pending and also talk also to industry players. Everything now is provisional, they use benchmark but benchmark might not be accurate anymore. So we will have to look at contracts pending and the impact to the consumers,” the senator said. The Philippine Independent Power Producers Association earlier wanted the ERC to continue and remain the energy sector’s regulatory body. “With respect to the current investigation on alleged anomalies, PIPPA be-

lieves that it will be conducted with due process and resolved expeditiously,” the group said. PIPPA is an association of 28 companies engaged in power generation. PIPPA’s members collectively have 82.8 percent, or equivalent to 13,549.4 megawatts, of installed grid capacity and serve millions of Filipinos in Luzon, Visayas and Mindanao. It said the power industry recognized and supported the initiatives and reforms being implemented by the commission in furthering the ERC’s institutional integrity, capabilities and efﬁciency. Citing the urgency to modernize and expand the country’s current infrastructure, PIPPA said more investments were needed in the industry more than ever. “Continuity and a certainty in policy direction are imperatives in raising such investments,” the group said.

ASIAN FLAVORS.

The Department of Trade and Industry’s Center for International Trade Expositions & Missions showcases a gallery of Asian ﬂavors under its International Hall in the IFEX Philippines 2017. The International Food Exhibition Philippines is the biggest and most respected sourcing platform for Asian heritage food and ingredients. Citem and the DTI will feature the historical, geographical and cultural inﬂuences behind some of Southeast Asia’s distinct cuisines in the 11th edition of IFEX Philippines on May 19-21 2017 at the World Trade Center Metro Manila and at the Philippine Trade Training Center.

The Marshmallow Challenge used only the tape but IN one of our class sesstruggled because it is not sions, our professor gave us a task. We were asked XENIA D. QUIAÑO too sticky to hold the pieces together. to group ourselves into REEN IGHT We were too focused on groups of five. We were the end result, which is the given a piece of marshmallow, one meter of straw, one meter of height of our structure. We built it piece by masking tape and 20 pieces of uncooked piece, then tried to put it all together with spaghetti noodles. Using the materials that just a minute before the time ended. If we were given to us, we had to make the high- could have tried it along the way and made est structure as possible, with the marsh- a prototype as we built it, we could have mallow on top of the structure. To win the seen the possible problems and made adchallenge, the structure must independently justments during construction. Failures happen stand after the 18-minute time allotted to In an organization, failures happen. Peoconstruction it. ple were given challenges or projects to acThe Execution... Our group started right away. One of my complish, but not all the projects succeed group mates drew what our structure will because circumstances along the process look like. Even though the drawing looks impede its completion. In our department good, and our final creation may become for example, we are required to propose acthe highest structure in the class, some of tion plans at the beginning of the year, deus challenged the plan. We were afraid that fine the objectives, actions to be taken, reit might not stand on its own or might not sources that we needed, and time required be able to support the weight of the marsh- to finish the project, but at the end of the mallow. My classmate was confident that it planned period, the only thing that were acwould work, and was able to convince the complished is the plan not the project itself. Not even 10 percent of our projects were group to execute the planned design. Unfortunately, at the end of the given time, our close to completion because most of our time was spent in meetings and planning. structure did not even stand for a second. We revised the plan if we think that it was The Realization... What went wrong? We had a goal, which not possible, without even trying it first. In is to build the highest possible structure the end, projects piled up, processes did not that we could using our materials. We also improve, and more resources were wasted. After doing this challenge, I remembered had a plan, made a blue print of it, discussed about it, and assigned who will do the speech of Mansmith and Fielders CEO, Ms. Chiqui Go in an earlier class. She which part. But why did we still fail? It’s because we stated that there are lots of leaders who are didn’t have a good execution process, we brilliant, full of very good ideas, but still forgot to consider all the resources and limi- fail because they are poor when it comes tations that we have, the time limit—that we to execution. spent too much time in planning, that when The author is an MBA student at the the time given is nearing the end, we were cramming and pressured to make it stand. Ramon V. del Rosario College of BusiThus, it was too late when we realized that ness. This essay is part of a journal she the plan we made is not viable and we al- kept in fulfillment of the requirements of the ready exhausted our time and can no longer course, Trends and Issues in Business and make any revision to at least make it stand. Management: CEO Series. Visit her blog We did not consider the quality of mate- at http://ceo14.blogspot.com/. rials. We forgot that the noodles were too The views expressed here are the aufragile to stand, given our grand design. Also, the noodles could not support the thor’s and do not necessarily reflect the ofweight of the marshmallow. We ignored ficial position of DLSU, its faculty, and its one of the materials given, the straw, and administrators.

Illicit cigarette traders still proliferate WHILE cigarette prices continue to rise through the sin tax law, illicit traders also got bolder as shown by the latest arrest by the police of ﬁve people in two separate provinces. Cigarette bootlegging has been a thriving business and costs the Philippine government billions of pesos worth in lost taxes. The illicit trade has prospered despite sizable takes generated annually from licit cigarette sales since Republic Act No. 10351, or the Sin Tax Reform Law, was implemented in 2013. In Ilocos Sur, Junlee Azcueta Llanes, Ariel Vallejo Tindoc and Dexter Sarabia Ballete of Barangay Sabang, Cabugao were caught by policemen patrolling on foot while

in the act of selling various fake cigarette brands at a public market in the area. The suspects took out assorted cigarettes from a backpack and tried to sell the contraband to a storeowner who chanced upon a policeman nearby, who accosted the suspects to present an authority to sell the same products. Failing to do so, the policeman brought the suspects to the police station and contacted a cigarette company representative, who veriﬁed that the items were counterfeit. Meanwhile, Jay Monteroyo Godinez and Jay Mendoza Trinidad of Sitio Cabil-Isan, Barangay Maravilla, Palanas, Masbate were stopped by the town mayor, Rudy

Alvarez Sr. and his security aide, upon receiving a phone call from a concerned storeowner regarding two suspicious men on board a black motorcycle selling and transporting reams of Mighty brand cigarettes inside a green sack. A Mighty Corp. representative who was contacted by the police conﬁrmed that all 50 cigarette reams were indeed fake. The suspects were brought to the local police station and charged with violation of Section 155 (trademark infringement) in relation to Section 170 of Republic Act 8293, also known as the Intellectual Property Code of the Philippines under NPS Docket no. V-12-INQ17A-02379.

DAVAO-CLARK ROUTE. Philippine

Airlines holds a ribboncutting ceremony for the maiden journey of the PAL DavaoClark ﬂight. Tourism Secretary Wanda Teo (ﬁfth from left) and PAL senior vice president for legal and corporate communications and general counsel Siegfred Mison (third from left) lead the ceremony. Also shown are (from left) Davao Councilor Al Ryan Alejandre, Davao City Chamber of Commerce president Ronald Go, PAL senior assistant VP for sales Harry Inoferio, PAL Mindanao Area head Vic Suarez, Captain Edgardo Mendoza, Mindanao Development Authority chairman Datu HJ Abul Khayr Alonto and Macroasia HR manager Sonnie Rubis. The traditional water cannon salute (below photo) welcomes the Airbus A321 aircraft as it touches down in Davao from Clark.

Ray S. Eñano, Editor business@thestandard.com.ph extrastory2000@gmail.com

MONDAY, FEBRUARY 6, 2017

Business

US companies navigate mineﬁeld in Trump era By Jeremy Tordjman

ASHINGTON― Starbucks promises to hire 10,000 refugees? President Donald Trump’s supporters call for a boycott. Uber allegedly takes advantage of the president’s antiimmigration decree to drum up business? Users unsubscribe from the app en masse.

Trump’s election has laid bare the deep divisions of American society, a discord that has forced many businesses to walk a ﬁne line to avoid alienating consumers. “Companies that were working very hard to stay neutral no longer can,” says brand expert Bruce Turkel. “The biggest problem is anything they say can be misinterpreted.” Sportswear manufacturer New Balance, for instance, found itself embroiled in controversy after its CEO Matt LeBretton voiced optimism following the election.

“We feel things are going to move in the right direction,” he said in an interview, prompting outrage on Twitter, where users called for a massive boycott of the sneaker company, forcing the brand into damage control. “From the people who make our shoes to the people who wear them, we believe in acting with the utmost integrity and we welcome all walks of life,” the company said. Beverage giant PepsiCo faced similar backlash from the opposite camp. Two days after the election, the company’s CEO Indra Nooyi said her employees “were all in mourning.” “And the question that they’re asking, especially those who are not white: Are we safe?” she said. The retaliation came instantly: “It’s probably a good time to pass on the Pepsi products,” the conservative site The Gateway Pundit wrote. ‘No margin in the middle’ Calls for boycotts often proliferate on internet forums such as Reddit and 4Chan, as well as social media platforms like Facebook and Twitter. Others originate from more structured protests. The Grab Your Wallet site, launched in Oc-

tober, lists companies suspected of favoring Trump, either because their leaders contributed to the real estate billionaire’s campaign or because they do business with the Trump family. The long “boycott” list includes the department store Macy’s, retail giant Walmart and beer brand Yuengling. “Brands have always been political, but now consumers can see more of this activity and are making decisions based on this information,” the site’s cofounder Shannon Coulter says. The impact of boycott campaigns is difﬁcult to evaluate, however, because calls to blacklist speciﬁc companies tend to get lost in the frenzy of social media. “Consumers have an incredibly short memory,” marketing expert Merry Carole Powers says. Still, some companies fear losing customers by staying silent. Nordstrom, a chain of department stores, recently announced it would drop the Ivanka Trump clothing line belonging to the president’s eldest daughter. “There’s no margin in the middle,” says Turkel, who recently wrote the book “All About Them,” focused on company branding. “If you stay quiet, you get nothing out of it.” AFP

PICK YOUR OWN. Kuwaitis pick strawberries at the Blue Lake farm in Al-Abdali, 130 kilometers north of Kuwait City on February 3, 2017. The farm in Abdali, encourages people to pick their own strawberries before buying them according to weight, in an attempt to encourage agricultural tourism. AFP

Crackdown on visas worries India’s techies By Vishal Manve MUMBAI, India―Indian student Sunny Nair has always dreamt of working for a technology giant in the United States but fears that President Donald Trump will crush his life ambition. The 19-year-old worries that Trump’s crackdown on immigration will include restrictions on socalled H-1B visas, which India’s IT sector uses to send thousands of highly-skilled workers to America every year. Analysts say the issue also threatens to sour Trump and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s burgeoning relationship. The leaders have extended mutual invitations to visit their respective countries but are heading for a clash on visas. “I had always dreamt about going to the US and working for a major company like Infosys but now all that will change,” Nair told AFP despondently before trudging into class. The aspiring techie had planned to head to the United States for further study next year after completing his bachelor’s degree in engineering at the Don Bosco Institute of Technology in Mumbai. He hoped that would help land him the opportunity of a lifetime at one of India’s top information technology exporting ﬁrms, such as Infosys, Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) or Wipro. But Trump has pledged to prioritize jobs for Americans. Shares in India’s three largest tech ﬁrms took a hit this week after White House spokesman Sean Spicer suggested

Protesters gather for a rally organized by the International Migrants Alliance to speak out against US President Donald Trump and his recent immigration and refugee restrictions, in Hong Kong on February 5, 2017. AFP

that presidential and congressional action could be taken on H-1B visas as “part of a larger immigration reform effort.” Three bills have been introduced to Congress which reportedly seek to restructure the H-1B visa program, including one that would raise the salary threshold, making it more expensive for Indian ﬁrms to send employees to America. Scores of high-proﬁle Indians, including Google chief executive Sundar Pichai, have followed a well-trodden path from Indian IT institutes to a master’s degree in America before landing a plum job in Silicon Valley. Nair is now anxiously plotting a different road map for his future.

“(Restrictions)... would be a major negative decision by Trump and would mean fewer international opportunities so my goals have shifted drastically now. I am looking at other venues for my future studies like Canada and Europe instead of USA,” he said. Government concerns India’s IT outsourcing industry is worth around $108 billion, according to industry body NASSCOM, the National Association of Software and Services Companies, with almost four million people employed in the sector. Nasscom president R Chandrashekhar said restrictions would create uncertainty and leave US businesses short of the skilled

workers they need. “It’s a myth that these workers replace American workers,” he told AFP. “Given that there aren’t enough people with the qualifications to fill these jobs, two things can happen― these jobs can remain unfilled or companies can ship these jobs overseas. Neither is a good thing for the US.” India’s IT sector has become a boom industry in recent years with companies, especially in developed nations, subcontracting work to firms such as TCS, taking advantage of the country’s skilled English-speaking workforce. It makes more than $60 billion alone from the American market, providing IT and engineering services to major US businesses. The United States offers 85,000 H-1B visas every year, most of which are snapped up by Indian outsourcers whose employees fill a skill gap in US engineering. Applications are vastly oversubscribed and are allocated via a lottery system. Industry experts say any clampdown would force Indian tech titans to radically rethink their business models. “Indian IT firms may start focusing on Asia-Pacific and expand their businesses here instead of in the US,” D.D. Mishra, an analyst at technology research company Gartner told AFP. Infosys has said it is looking into reducing its dependency on visas to stay competitive, while worried software executives are due to travel to the US later this month to press their case with lawmakers. AFP

(Second row from left): Merly Cruz of Go Negosyo, Robina Gokongwei-Pe of Robinsons Retail Holdings, Maria Concepcion, Tony Meloto of Gawad Kalinga, George Barcelon of the Philippine Chamber of Commerce and Industry, Michael Tan of the LT Group and Asia Brewery Corp. , Manny Osmena of the Manny O. Group, Luis Oquinena of Gawad Kalinga, Mike Toledo of MVP Group of Companies Media Bureau, , Joseph Chua of Macroasia Corp., Babe Romualdez of Stargate Media Corp., Sammy Uy of Davao Import Distributors Inc., Alfredo Yao of Zesto Corp., and William Belo of Wilcon Depot. (ﬁrst row from left) Manny Pangilinan of the MVP Group, Teresita Sy-Coson of SM Investments Corp., Peace Process Secretary Jess Dureza, Agriculture Secretary Manny Piñol, presidential adviser Joey Concepcion, President Rodrigo Duterte, former president GloriaMacapagalArroyo, Trade and Industry Secretary Ramon Lopez, Datu Shah Bandar Abdusakur Tan, Gov. Abdusakur Tan II of Sulu, Ginggay Hontiveros and Henry Lim Bon Liong of SL Agritech Corp.

BIG BUSINESS AS PEACEMAKERS IN SULU YOU read that right. Big business would probably be the last place to look at towards peace efforts, owing perhaps to the perception that big business thrives on competition and is, thus, not of the peaceful nor peace-giving sort. But there you have it: big business gathering together, pledging what they can, all to develop one of the poorest provinces not just in Mindanao, but also in the rest of the country. Sulu. Mention Sulu and a long-standing armed conflict comes to mind and, because of this, no one in his right mind would do business there. So, it’s a chicken-and-egg situation: the lack of a thriving local economy results in a breakdown of peace and order resulting in business not wanting to set up shop, and so forth. This was the dilemma that former Sulu Governor and current ViceGovernor Abdusakur Tan presented to President Duterte. Immediately after their meeting, the President called on Agriculture Secretary Manny Piñol, Trade Secretary Mon Lopez, and Presidential Adviser on Entrepreneurship - GO NEGOSYO Founder Joey Concepcion to do something about this. A townhall meeting was set with the President last Christmas to gather big business and MSMEs to see how they can help Sulu. At the end of the meeting, pledges were made for the development of Sulu, and the Negosyo Para Sa Kapayapaan Sa Sulu was well on its way to involve the private sector in assisting government with peace and development in the province. Special mention must be made of the Project Sulu Coordinator from GO NEGOSYO, Ms. Ana Margarita “Ginggay” Hontiveros, who is as brave as she is beautiful flying in and out of Sulu to get things going on the ground. Ginggay, of course, is the sister of the equally brave and beautiful Senator Risa Hontiveros, a staunch champion of universal healthcare and human rights in the Senate. Some of the pledges made were the following: The San Miguel Group under Ramon Ang promised to build a coal-fired power plant on the island province, rebuild an arts and trade school, and invest in a feed mill supply chain. Tycoon Lucio Tan will look into renewing PAL flights to Sulu. The Gokongwei Group pledged to help the coffee

farmers as well as assist in housing efforts together with other groups like Gawad Kalinga. The SM Group, represented by M.A.P. Management Man of the Year for 2016, Tessie Sy-Coson, was also present to provide whatever support they can to the initiative. Secretary Mon Lopez had earlier requested the mall operators to provide free space in their malls for the display and retail of Sulu products. The MVP Group pledged to rehabilitate and expand 16 SMART mobile sites, build at least 40 houses with Gawad Kalinga over the next 2 years and provide for water and power services for these houses, consider a coconut processing plant, and provide for the hospital needs of the province. In his remarks during the townhall meeting, President Duterte mentioned that Sulu had been neglected for so long and that if poverty can be addressed then perhaps the peace and order situation can also be addressed. “This is what I want to tell the nation, the President said. “You have to heed us people, guys from Mindanao because we are telling you the truth, you have to really transform this country.” When the Sulu vice-governor spoke thereafter, he thanked the group and was surprised as to how fast the President reacted to his request. Soon after the townhall, Chairman MVP met with Vice-Governor Sakur Tan to discuss how to move forward on the Group’s commitments. This was the ﬁrst time that big business was involved in peace and development efforts, and is another shining example of private-public partnership (PPP). If it all works out, as it shows to be, then this approach can well be replicated in other parts of the country. That, in itself, is already a milestone for the President, not just on the development of the economy, but also on peace and order and poverty-alleviation. We can only wish this project the very best. And do our best with it as well.

With Teresita Sy-Coson of SM Investments Corp., MVP , and Babe Romualdez of Stargate Media Corp.

With ePLDT President and CEO Eric Alberto, MVP, Sec. Jess Dureza, Maynilad President and CEO Mon Fernandez and MPIC’s Oslec Lopez

With Oslec Lopez of MPIC, Gabby Cui of PLDT , MVP , and Eric Alberto of ePLDT

LGUs

LOOK AT THEM MELONS. Young boys cradle the watermelon harvest from a techno-demo farm in Brgy. 107, Sta. Elena, Tacloban City. This farm was originally used for growing assorted vegetables and sweet corn. Mel Caspe

LOCAL GOVERNMENT UNITS

Jimbo Owen Gulle, Editor Roger M. Garcia, Assistant Editor jimbo.gulle@gmail.com mslocalgov@gmail.com MONDAY, FEBRUARY 6, 2017

Erap to vendors: Don’t pay ‘fees’ A

charged by city hall. “You don’t need to pay anything to anyone. I’m empowerMID the reported widespread extortion ing you not to give in to these racket in the Divisoria and Blumentritt syndicates. Just pay city hall, we will protect you,” Estrada told a districts, Manila Mayor Joseph “Erap” group of vendors from the disEstrada on Sunday reminded legitimate tricts during a dialogue last Frivendors not to pay any illegal fees to groups or day. “If they keep bothering you, individuals posing as city hall representatives. report it directly to me,” he assured the vendors. Estrada assured protection to coerced into shelling out money As far as the city government the vendors being harassed or other than for legal fees being is concerned, Estrada said le-

By Sandy Araneta

gitimate vendors in Blumentritt have to pay only P40 a day as rent for their stalls. The vendors, however, reported being charged P160 a day by a lone “organizer” for their spaces. Blumentritt has about 3,000 vendors. A fish and poultry vendor, Julieta Mungkal, complained to Estrada that the P160 fee is too much of a burden for them, considering they have legitimate permits from city hall.

“We pay high fees for the place,” she said, adding they only used to pay P110. Estrada promised the vendors he would look into it. “We will not tolerate it. We will go after them,” the mayor told the vendors. Estrada reiterated he has orderd the citywide road clearing operations specifically to shield legitimate vendors from protection syndicates. He earlier called on the thou-

Top tech in Manila Solar City project THE soon-to-be-built Solar City urban center in Manila Bay will be the first multibillionpeso project in the country to utilize the latest technologies in energy generation, solid waste management and environmental conservation. Project proponent Manila Goldcoast Development Corp. made this assurance as Manila Mayor Joseph “Erap” Estrada reiterated his support to the bigticket infrastructure project, which he said would help bring back the city’s “old glory.” “We need these new developments, not only because of its positive economic impact. It will certainly beautify Manila without destroying our environment, especially our historic Manila Bay,” Estrada said. Upon assuming office in 2013, Estrada embarked on his Urban Renewal Program, aimed

at reviving the capital city’s lost glory. MGDC Vice Chairman Edmundo Lim said Solar City, compared to other existing commercial districts such as the Bonifacio Global City in Taguig, will use cutting-edge technology that are available only in Europe, United States, and Canada. “We will be much better because we’re putting the best technology in the world: power generation through solar wind and biomass, state-of-the-art waste collection systems, and environment protection measures,” Lim said. “This will be the first project in the country to incorporate all these technologies,” Lim pointed out, allaying fears Solar City’s construction will only further pollute Manila Bay. Turn to A2

2 Asean awards for CV groups By Brenda Jocson

NABBED. Caloocan City police commander Senior Supt. Chito Bersaluna (left) questions Jayson del Valle, the suspect in the murder of Jannelle Mangulabnan, whose three-year-old daughter is still fighting for her life at the hospital after the crime committed inside the victim’s house in Barangay 178, Camarin, Caloocan North. With Bersaluna are the arresting officers. Jun David

Quezon City backs ‘prescription for TB meds’ law By Rio N. Araja RESIDENTS of Quezon City can no longer self-medicate for tuberculosis, after Mayor Herbert Bautista recently signed into law an ordinance preventing drugstores from selling anti-TB drugs without a doctor’s prescription. District 3 Councilor Eufemio Lagumbay authored Ordinance No. 2545, titled

the “No Prescription, No Dispensing of Anti-TB Drugs Policy,” to enforce locally a national policy in dispensing prescription medication, which includes anti-TB drugs, over the counter. The measure also makes it imperative for pharmacies “to equip their personnel with the necessary skill and competence to help TB patients get access to the correct and complete TB treatment.”

The ordinance cited a Department of Health order and Republic Act 10918, or the amended Pharmacy Law. Section 1 of DoH Administrative Order No. 64, Series of 1989, prohibits the dispensing of identified foods, drugs, devices and cosmetics without prescription. Section 22 of Republic Act 10918, or the Act Regulating and Modernizing the Practice of Pharmacy in the Philippines,

clearly states that prescription medicines may be dispensed “only by a duly registered and licensed pharmacist and only with the valid prescription of physician, dentist or veterinarian.” The ordinance recognizes the effects of self-medication or indiscriminate use of anti-TB drugs that could lead to the development of multi-drug resistance, as well as other health complications.

QC mayor to lead inauguration of new public library QUEZON City Mayor Herbert Bautista will lead the inauguration of the new QC Public Library today at the QC Hall Complex. The three-storey building features state-of-the-art data storage, retrieval and archival systems, making it globally

sands of vendors in Manila, especially in Divisoria, to be wary of syndicates and personalities inciting them to rally against the road clearing operations. “These extortionists and syndicates who earn money by demanding ‘protection fees’ from illegal vendors are feeling the heat of our street clearing operations. It is not surprising they are attempting to make this desperate move to break our momentum,” Estrada pointed out.

competitive. The new library also incorporates eco-friendly infrastructure in its design and construction. “Before, our vision was only to provide the use of latest technology to our clients, but now, we want to be recognized as an open and world-class leading library that

promotes advanced learning and literacy,” said City Librarian Emelita Villanueva. The fully automated QCPL will soon be adopting an Integrated Library System to be connected to the security gate, a High Frequency RFID Library Management System, and an e-book system.

According to Villanueva, the new QCPL building can serve up to 1,000 clients a day, including those availing of e-government services. “Before, we serve about 500 clients daily, mostly high school students,” Villanueva said.

SANTA ANA, Cagayan—A Cagayan Valley-based environment association received the prestigious Association of South East Asian Nations Tourism Award for the protection of Palaui Island, the Department of Tourism announced. DoT Regional Director Virgilio Maguigad said the Palaui Environmental Protection Association here is the first recipient of the Asean Tourism Award’s newest category, Community-Based Tourism. The awards have set specific requirements for tourism standards in the categories of Green Hotels, Homestays, Spa Services, Public Toilets, Clean Cities, and Tourism Security and Safety. Earlier, Maguigad said the Batanes Homestay Association also gained an award in a ceremony held recently in Singapore with Fundacion Pacita Batanes Nature Lodge in Basco as an entry. He said Fundacion Pacita was the first recipient in Region 2 when it won the Asean Tourism Awards’ Green Hotel category in 2015. “It is a back-to-back win for the Cagayan Valley region for bagging these two categories,” Maguigad said. He said of the four awardees from the Philippines, two came from Cagayan Valley. In 1993, PEPA was organized as a cooperative with the help of Process Luzon, and later with the assistance of Cagayan Economic Zone Authority and the Department of Environment and Natural Resources.

CYAN MAGENTA YELLOW BLACK

LGUs

MONDAY, FEBRUARY 6, 2017 Standard C2 TODAY Manila

Cavite unveils new tourism website THE Provincial Government of Cavite, through its Tourism Development Office, in partnership with XPLORRA, an online travel and tourism platform, recently launched the Cavite Tourism website cavite.xplorra.com at the Ceremonial Hall of the Provincial Capitol Building in Trece Martires City, Cavite. A presentation highlighting the best of Cavite created by XPLORRA was shown at the start of the program. Members of the Association of Tourism Officers and Coordinators of Cavite, bloggers, local media, tourism staff and some provincial government agencies attended the event. JR Felipe, CEO of XPLORRA, presented the overview of Cavite Tourism Website, in which all travel destinations in Cavite were listed and organized in it. The site also provides online booking for local and foreign

tourists covering 67 attractions and nine accommodations. Tourism officers from different municipalities of Cavite contributed to update the data and statistics of the website, which took more than three years to make. The website “will further boost tourism in the province,” said engineer Enrico Alvarez, Provincial Administrator for Internal Affairs, reading a message from Gov. Boying Remulla. “Marketing Cavite’s history through its vast information registry, the most valuable part of the province’s heritage, unique landscapes, products and people will meet the challenges of local competition through fast and accurate promotion,” he added. Alvarez also led the oath taking of ATOCC together with Liberty Herrera, head of the Provincial Tourism Office. Benjamin Chavez

FESTIVE MOOD. Biñan Rep. Len Alonte-Naguiat (second from right) joins city officials led by Mayor Arman Dimaguila Jr. (second from left)

OFFICE OF THE PRESIDENT

NATIONAL HOUSING AUTHORITY Invitation to Bid The National Housing Authority (NHA), through the Corporate Budget approved by the NHA Board for the year 2016 intends to apply the sum of the Approved Budget for the Contract (ABC) to payment for the following contract: Ref. No.

Project

ABC/ Source of Funds (P)

Procurement of Reproduction Services through 1,500,000.00/ 2017 Rental of Three Corporate -01- (3) Units Digital Receipts 205 P h o t o c o p y i n g Machines for NHA Main Office

Duration (c.d.)

Work Description

365 c.d./ (1 Year)

Renewal of Another One (1) Year Rental of three (3) heavy-duty digital machines console type with capability for access to remote printing and scanning.

and Vice Mayor Angelo Alonte in inspecting stalls during the Grand Parade commemorating the 7th cityhood anniversary of Biñan on Thursday, Feb. 2. Roy Tomandao

Palace assures support for Cordillera autonomy

Bids received in excess of the ABC shall be automatically rejected at bid opening.

By Dexter A. See

The NHA now invites bids for the above-cited project. Delivery of the Goods is required within the duration herein cited upon receipt of Notice to Proceed. Bidders should have completed, within five years from the date of submission of bids, a single contract similar to the Project costing at least fifty percent (50%) of the ABC. The description of an eligible bidder is contained in the Bidding Documents, particularly, in Section II. Instructions to Bidders.

Bidding will be conducted through open competitive bidding procedures using non-discretionary pass/fail criterion as specified in the Implementing Rules and Regulations (IRR) of Republic Act 9184 (RA 9184), otherwise known as the “Government Procurement Reform Act”. Bidding is restricted to Filipino citizens/sole proprietorships, partnerships, or organizations with at least sixty percent (60%) interest or outstanding capital stock belonging to citizens of the Philippines. A complete set of Bidding Documents shall be issued only to bidders/ authorized official representatives or employees of the bidder who can show proof of Notarized Authority to secure bid documents for the specific Project and Official Company ID upon submission of a Letter of Intent (LOI) and upon Cash Payment of non-refundable fee of P1,500.00 for Ref. No. 2017-01-205 at the Office of the NHA-BAC 2 Secretariat, 2nd Floor NHA Main Building, Diliman, Quezon City starting on February 6, 2017. For further information, the NHA BAC 2 Secretariat may be contacted at Tel/FAX No. 928-8272. The NHA will hold a Pre-Bid Conference on February 14, 2017 at 10:00 a.m. at the SLB-AMO Conference Room, Annex Building NHA Main Complex, Elliptical Road, Diliman, Quezon City, which shall be OPEN only to all interested parties who have purchased the Bidding Documents. Bids must be delivered at the on SLB-AMO Conference Room, Annex Building NHA Main Complex, Elliptical Road, Diliman, Quezon City on February 28, 2017, not later than 10:00 a.m. All bids must be accompanied by a bid security in any of the acceptable forms and in the amount as stated in BDS. Bid opening shall follow immediately after the deadline of submission of bids at the same venue. Bids will be opened in the presence of the Bidders representative who choose to attend at the address above. Late bids shall not be accepted. The NHA reserves the right to accept or reject any bid, to annul the bidding process, and to reject all bids at any time prior to contract award, without thereby incurring any liability to the affected bidder or bidders. (SGD) AR. SUSANA V. NONATO Chairperson Bids and Awards Committee 2 ( M S - F E B , 6 , 2 017 )

INVITATION TO BID No. 04-2017 The National Irrigation Administration (NIA), Biliran-Leyte del NorteLeyte del Sur Irrigation Management Office, Marasbaras, Tacloban City through the General Appropriations Act (GAA) 2017, intends to apply the sum of Eighteen Million Nine Hundred Thousand Pesos & 06/100 (P 18,900,000.06) being the Approved Budget for the Contract (ABC) , to payment under the contract for Tubaon CIS, Silago, Southern Leyte. The National Irrigation Administration (NIA) now invites bids for: Contract No. Project Description Work completion Approved Budget for Contract (ABC)

: BNLSL-LCB-09-2017 : Construction of Canal and Farm Level System : 270 Calendar Days

AGUIO CITY—President Rodrigo R. Duterte fully supports the Cordillera region’s renewed quest for autonomy vis-à-vis his platform to shift to a federal form of government, Presidential Communications Office Secretary Martin Andanar said here.

Because autonomy and federalism “co-exist with each other,” Andanar said there will be “bright prospects” for the realization of Cordillera’s quest for autonomy “for as long as the President will continue to advocate for federalism with full steam.” Andanar was in town for the country’s hosting of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations Summit that falls on the 50th anniversary of Asean. “There will surely be bright prospects for autonomy to be achieved while President Duterte will be aggressive in his campaign

for federalism because the region and the federal states will have greater control of their resources for the development of their respective places,” he stressed. PCO assistant secretary Ana Marie Rafael-Banaag said the status of the Cordillera will still depend “on the will of the people.” The region can strive for autonomy before the onset of federalism, become an independent federal state, or be an autonomous region within a federal state. Banaag urged autonomy advocates “to sustain the aggressive

PORAC, Pampanga—Diplomatic relations between the Philippines and South Korea remain solid and cordial, if the inauguration of a deep well and sanitary facility constructed by Koreans here on Sunday is proof. A project of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of South Korea, the deep well and sanitary facility worth P175,000 is aimed at

NOTICE OF DISSOLUTION This is to inform the public and all interested parties that Excellar Pet Products Incorporated has filed its application for dissolution effective on July 31, 2016 with the Securities and Exchange Commission. (MS-JAN. 23,30 & FEB. 6, 2017)

NOTICE TO THE PUBLIC

Interested bidders may submit a Letter of Intent together with the Class “A” documents addressed to the Chairman, Bids and Awards Committee, NIA, Biliran-Leyte del Norte-Leyte del Sur Irrigation Management Office, Marasbaras, Tacloban City. The schedules of BAC activities are as follows: BAC Activities Schedule 1.Issuance of Bid Documents Starting February 6, 2017 2.Pre-Bid Conference February 14, 2017 3.Receipt and Opening of Bids February 27, 2017

Time 8:00 am to 5:00 p.m 10:00am 11:00 am

A complete set of Bidding Documents may be purchased by the interested bidders from the address above and upon payment of a nonrefundable fee of P25, 000.00 to the Cashier. The NIA reserves the right to accept or reject any bid, to annul the bidding process, and to reject at any time prior to contract award, without thereby incurring any liability to the affected bidder or bidders. For further information, please refer to: CATHERINE G. MACANIP National Irrigation Administration Marasbaras, Tacloban City (053) 323.6210 Noted: (Sgd.) FERMINA B. ALING Division Manager A, IMO

(Sgd.) CATHERINE G. MACANIP BAC Chairman

(MS-FEB. 6, 2017)

They have requested President Duterte to certify the autonomy bill to be filed by Cordillera lawmakers as an urgent administration measure to guarantee its passage in both the House of Representatives and Senate during the present administration. Andanar said President Duterte will always be a strong advocate for the realization of federalism and autonomy in the regions of the country. Duterte “believes devolving the powers of the central government to the federal states or autonomous regions will be the ultimate solution in spurring socioeconomic development that will contribute in uplifting the living condition of the people in the countryside,” he added. “That has been the clamor of the people wherein there should be equitable development opportunities for both the rural and urban areas in the archipelago,” Andanar said.

Korean project for Aetas in Porac launched

: P 18,900,000.06

Bidding will be conducted in accordance with relevant procedures for open competitive bidding as specified in the lRR of RA 9184. Bids received in excess of ABC shall be automatically rejected at bid opening. The contract shall be awarded to the Lowest Calculated Responsive Bidder (LCRB) who was determined as such during post qualification..

information and education campaign to inculcate into the minds of the people the benefits of becoming an autonomous region, wherein the regional government will have greater control of its resources with lesser restraint from outside forces.” Earlier, Presidential Peace Adviser Jesus Dureza suggested Cordillerans should strive to achieve autonomous status while the move for federalism will be put in place so the region will have greater leverage in maintaining its status as an autonomous region within a federal state, or an independent federal state depending on its capacity to stand alone. Local governments and the Regional Development Council in the Cordillera passed separate resolutions expressing their support to the national government’s plan to shift from the current presidential form of government.

This is to inform the public that Ms. Anna Marie Tamares Tardio, whose picture appears above, is no longer connected with Macarmik Travel Center, Inc. Any transaction made or entered by her on behalf of Macarmik Travel Center, Inc. is void and will not be honored bythe said office.

helping Aetas living in Sitio Pidpid, Sapang Uwak in this town. The project was inaugurated by second district Rep. Gloria M. Arroyo, the former president, and Gov. Lilia Pineda along with Dr. Eun-Mi Yang of Kkottongnae University, and Roberto Tantingco, Vice President for Student Services and Affairs of Holy Angel University in Angeles City. Yang and Tantingco “labored very hard for the realization of the project, which will benefit 300 Aetas living in the area,” Arroyo said in her remarks. Dr. Yang, also the dean of planning and director of Catholic Global Education of KU, said the project also aims to study the health and hygiene level needs of the Aeta community, and create and implement health education programs for them. Meanwhile, Arroyo said she filed a bill in Congress to amend the Ingenious People Rights Act (IPRA) that give them rights to subdivide their land titles. In fact, she said the land titles of Porac are now ready for partition under the National

Commission of Indigenous Peoples. Pineda thank Dr. Yang and Tantingco for their efforts to improve the health and hygiene of Aetas living in Sapang Uwak. The project is under the auspices of Academy Partnership Program of the Korean International Cooperative Agency, the international development agency of the Korean Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Earlier, Chief Supt. Aaron Aquino, regional director of Police Regional Office 3 assured the safety and security of 16,500 Koreans living in Central Luzon after the kidnapping and murder of Jee Ick Joo last year and robbery of three others by police elements last week. During his visit to the Koreans’ business center along Friendship Highway in Angeles City on Saturday, Aquino strongly believes the two incidents “will not lead to the demise of the relationship between the countries.” “Although there are scalawags in the police force as in any other organization, the majority of us are good policemen,” Aquino added. Romeo Dizon

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be equipped with garburators—a device that shreds food leftovers into small pieces, Lim said. “We produce tons and tons of food waste every year, but if you have a system wherein you throw away your organic food to a garburator, when you throw your garbage there, it just grinds it into a slurry, and then there’s a special pipe, that slurry is bio-digested, so you transform organic matter to methane gas and compost,” Lim explained. The produced methane gas and compost, he said, will be used to generate energy that will power the entire business center. “Since organic matter or food waste makes up more than 50 percent of your daily waste, 50 percent of the waste is already removed through this garburator. What is left? Dry waste, your paper, your plastic, your bottle, those that cannot be recycled like batteries, napkins, that’s a few, only five to 10 percent,” Lim pointed out. Sandy Araneta

MGDC won the contract to build Solar City in 1991. In 2012, the city council of Manila finally ratified the consortium agreement and Joint Venture Agreement it entered with the city government. Solar City is a 148-hectare, state-of-theart, tourism, commercial and residential district that will be put up in Manila Bay to host business centers, residential and commercial properties, and tourism facilities, including an international cruise ship terminal. Lim said this ultramodern commercial and business hub will have huge cisterns that will collect rainwater, which can then be processed to usable water. To reduce food waste, every office building, business establishment, and residential unit will

CYAN MAGENTA YELLOW BLACK

World IN BRIEF Euthanizing of animals banned TAIPEI―Taiwan has banned euthanizing animals in shelters, which follows the tragic suicide last year of a vet burdened with the task of putting down animals. The law came into effect Saturday, two years after it was passed by parliament -- a period meant to prepare shelters for the ban. But during the wait, animal lover Chien Chih-cheng took her own life with euthanasia drugs, reportedly upset at having to kill animals at the shelter she worked at. Reports at the time said Chien was called a “butcher” by activists. Her death sparked calls for authorities to improve conditions for animals and staff at shelters. An animal welfare group, Life Conservationist Association, estimated more than 1.2 million animals not adopted from shelters have been put down since 1999. “Animal protection in Taiwan has moved towards a new milestone,” the association’s executive director Ho Tsunghsun said in a statement. AFP

2,000 protest near Trump’s golf club WEST PALM BEACH―At least 2,000 people marched Saturday near President Donald Trump’s Florida golf club, voicing outrage at his executive order to bar refugees and travelers from seven Muslimmajority countries. Trump and First Lady Melania Trump were attending the annual Red Cross ball at Mara-Lago, Trump’s “Winter White House,” located in an upscale area on Florida’s east coast. “You know, my father fought World War II,” protester Rob Resaid said. “For years and years, so many people fought for freedom in this country and now it’s being taken away.” “We have to stand now before all of our rights are taken away, before we become the pariah of the world.” Marchers chanted “This is what democracy looks like,” and “No ban, no wall,” referring to Trump’s plan to build a wall on the US-Mexican border. In an executive order issued on January 27, Trump slapped a blanket ban on nationals of seven mainly Muslim countries -- Iran, Iraq, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Syria and Yemen -- barring their entry to the United States for 90 days. AFP

Soupy smog chokes Poland W

ARSAW―The soupy gray smog shrouding Polish cities this winter is one of the most visible symptoms of the EU member’s addiction to coal, a deadly habit forcing many to stay indoors or don masks before venturing out.

Police detain 60 suspected IS jihadists ANKARA―Turkish police on Sunday detained 60 suspected members of the Islamic State jihadist group in the capital Ankara, just over a month after an attack on an Istanbul nightclub claimed by the extremist organization, state media said. Those held were mainly foreign nationals, the state-run Anadolu news agency said, without saying if they were linked to any suspected plot. The suspects were rounded up in simultaneous raids on the Sincan, Cubuk, Yenimahalle and Mamak districts of the capital, it added. Thirty-nine people were killed, mainly foreigners, on New Year’s night when a gunman went on the rampage inside a plush Istanbul night club. IS claimed the massacre, its ﬁrst clear claim for a major attack in Turkey although it had been blamed for several bombings in 2016. Police detained the suspected attacker, Abdulgadir Masharipov, an Uzbek national, on January 16 after over over two weeks on the run and authorities say he has confessed to the massacre. AFP

MONDAY, FEBRUARY 6, 2017

AWARD. Actress Janelle Monae accetps the Virtuosos Award presented by UGG during the 32nd Santa Bar-

bara International Film Festival at the Arlington Theater on February 4, 2017, in Santa Barbara, California. AFP

Professor Anna Doboszynska, a respected specialist with more than two decades of experience treating lung disease, minces no words about the health risks it poses. “During periods of smog, more people with respiratory and circulatory illnesses actually die,” she told AFP after examining an asthma patient wheezing heavily amid a spike in pollution in Warsaw. “Children, pregnant women and the elderly are most at risk from smog, which damages the respiratory tract much in the same way smoking does. “A child playing outside in the smog is smoking cigarettes, it’s the same thing,” she told AFP. One Warsaw hospital reported a 50 percent spike in patients over several days of intense smog during a windless cold snap in January. As anti-smog masks sold out across Poland this week, Warsaw issued them to police ofﬁcers on duty across the capital. A study published last year by the European Environmental Agency (EEA) blamed air pollution -- caused in large part by the burning of coal -- for an estimated 50,000 premature deaths per year in the country of 38 million people. Seventy percent of Polish households burn low-quality coal or rubbish in old stoves for heat and antiquated coal-ﬁred power plants generate nearly all of Poland’s electricity, giving it some of the dirtiest air in the 28-member EU. The EEA also blames so-called “low-stack” emissions from old

household stoves for countless cases of respiratory illness. The AirVisuals website regularly lists Warsaw, Katowice or Krakow among the world’s top ten most polluted cities alongside Beijing or New Delhi. Karolina, a Warsaw mother of three who did not wish to reveal her surname, says checking mobile phone apps for smog levels and wearing masks have become part of her family’s daily routine. “My son’s had pneumonia twice within the last 10 months and my daughter was sick all October and November. But, of course, nobody’s blaming smog, even though we live in an area of Warsaw where there’s chronic air pollution,” she told AFP. “What scares me the most is the total lack of information and government inaction. “There are days on end when the smog is so bad that school and kindergarten should be closed, but nothing is being done.” Authorities in Poland only alert the public when air pollution exceeds the EU-wide norm by a whopping 600 percent, according to Piotr Siergiej, an activist with anti-smog NGO “Alarm Smogowy”. The EU limit for exposure to ﬁne air pollutants known as PM 10 particles is 50 micrograms per cubic meter per day. “In Paris, authorities announce smog alerts and take action when pollution exceeds 80 micrograms per cubic meter per day,” Siergiej told AFP. “In Poland, the alert level is 300 micrograms,” he added, slamming the measure as a “health hazard”. AFP

Greece hopes its migrant burden will turn into a boon ATHENS―Two decades ago, an inﬂux of half a million migrants boosted Greece’s economy. Today, the government and some experts hope a new wave of migrants will do the same. Some 60,000 refugees, including many young Syrians, Afghans and Pakistanis, have been stuck in Greece for the past year, languishing in camps after the doors to Europe were shut. But unlike in the 1990s and early 2000s, when the migrants, mainly from Albania and Bulgaria, beneﬁted from a booming economy, Greece has been unable to make the most of the recent arrivals. “The refugees we have now are different” since many still hope to reach northern Europe and have no intention of settling in Greece,

said Stavros Zografakis, an associate professor at the Agricultural University of Athens. Many of the 500,000 to 600,000 migrants who entered Greece 20 years ago, by contrast, quickly found their place in Greek society, with jobs in agriculture and construction. Analysts estimate they contributed 3 percentage points to Greece’s gross domestic product in the 2000s, as the country grew strongly on the back of the 2004 Olympic Games, heavy infrastructure spending, and Greece’s adoption of the euro in 2001. But the situation today reﬂects the opposite: The country’s economy has been pummelled over the past seven years due to Greece’s debt crisis and the austerity poli-

cies that followed. And even though the EU has provided the nation with millions of euros to help with the heavy ﬂow of migrants, particularly with housing, “for now the results are negative,” Zografakis said. In Athens, over one million euros ($1.08 million) has been injected into the economy via a refugee housing program, ﬁnanced in part with the EU funds. The funds help pay for rents several months in advance, for prepaid supermarket cards and metro and bus tickets, and the salaries of about 100 people hired to carry out the program. The money “has a direct impact on the local economy, but for the long term, an integration and social cohesion plan is needed at

the national level,” said Lefteris Papagiannakis, deputy mayor of Athens in charge of refugees and migrants. But landlords are thrilled. “No more unpaid rent or bills,” said Sophia Alikhan, who said her in-laws had rented a 90-squaremeter (970-square-feet) apartment to a Syrian family since June 2016, after it had stood empty for seven months. Andreas Samaras, owner of the Cafe Omonia in central Athens, said that “80 percent of sales for stores in the neighborhood” came from refugees. In 2015 he put up an Arabic sign on his cafe, and installed hookahs to attract these new clients. For Zografakis, however, the economic impact is marginal,

though he thinks this wave of migrants will eventually pay off, “like in Germany”. In spring 2016, a European Commission report forecast that the refugees would add 0.2 to 0.3 percentage points to European GDP growth in 2016 and 2017. But Papagiannakis said: “We’ve fallen behind in working out an integration policy.” Maria Logotheti, cabinet director for Athens Mayor George Kaminis, added that integration efforts “often fail because most refugees don’t want to stay in Greece.” Experts nonetheless say that sectors like tourism and agriculture, that offer ﬂexibility for workers, could prove attractive for migrants, as they have in the past. AFP

Indonesia takes aim at hardline Islamic group JAKARTA―Indonesia is moving to rein in a notorious Islamic hard-line group that the spearheaded protests against Jakarta’s Christian governor, but experts warn it will be tough to bring to heel a network with close ties to the establishment. The Islamic Defenders Front (FPI) has in recent years become the face of hard-line Islam in the world’s most populous Muslimmajority country, growing in inﬂuence despite being a fringe organization whose extreme views are rejected by most. The group has raided bars selling alcohol during the holy month of Ramadan, forced the cancellation of a concert by Lady Gaga -- whom they dubbed “the devil’s messenger” -- with noisy protests, and led demonstrations against the Miss World beauty pageant when it came to Indonesia. Led by ﬁrebrand cleric Rizieq Shihab, the FPI helped organise recent mass rallies -- which attracted conservative and moderate Muslims -- against Jakarta governor Basuki Tjahaja Purnama, an ethnic Chinese Christian, who is on trial for allegedly insulting Islam. The protest movement against Purnama -- accused of insulting

the Koran while campaigning for re-election in polls later this month -- propelled the hardliners from being a marginal group to the center of national politics, alarming observers and some in the government. Now authorities are seeking to put the muzzle back on the radicals, with police stepping up an investigation into Shihab in a move seen as supported by President Joko Widodo and his administration. “This is unprecedented, it is the ﬁrst time that the president and the government is openly challenging this Islamist group,” Tobias Basuki, an analyst from Jakarta think-tank the Centre for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS), told AFP. Last week police named the cleric a suspect for allegedly defaming Indonesia’s founding president, Sukarno, and the state ideology in a speech several years ago, meaning authorities believe there is enough evidence for him to stand trial. Basuki said successive governments had shied away from cracking down for fear of being accused of attacking Islam but the current administration decided to “make a stand” as concerns mounted about the hardliners’ inﬂuence. AFP

FASHION SHOW. Olivia Giannulli, center, and guests attend designer Rebecca Minkoff’s Spring 2017 ‘See Now, Buy Now’ Fashion Show at The Grove on February 4, 2017, in Los Angeles, California. AFP

Cesar Barrioquinto, Editor

MONDAY, FEBRUARY 6, 2017

World

Thousands in Europe, US protest travel ban N EW YORK―From London and Paris to New York and Washington, thousands of people took to the streets Saturday in American and European cities to protest US President Donald Trump’s travel ban amid a fierce legal battle over the order.

The biggest demonstration by far took place in the British capital, where an estimated 10,000 people turned out, chanting “Theresa May: Shame on You” to denounce the British prime minister’s support for the new US leader. Brandishing placards declaring “No to scapegoating Muslims” and “Socialism not Trumpism,” the protesters moved from the US embassy toward May’s Downing Street ofﬁce. In an executive order issued on January 27, Trump slapped a blanket ban on nationals of seven mainly Muslim countries -- Iran, Iraq, Libya, Somalia, Sudan,

Syria and Yemen -- barring their entry to the United States for 90 days. Refugees were also barred from entry for 120 days, except those from Syria, who were blocked indefinitely. On Friday, a US federal judge suspended the ban, a move which the Republican president -- who took office on January 20 -- condemned and vowed to fight. Late Saturday, the Justice Department filed its motion to appeal the judge’s order, though the legal brief detailing its arguments has yet to come. “We’ll win. For the safety of the country, we’ll win,” Trump

told reporters. About 3,000 people demonstrated in New York, Trump’s hometown where protests against the property magnate-turned-world leader take place almost daily. Activists and supporters gathered outside the historic Stonewall Inn, a landmark of the gay rights movement in New York’s Greenwich Village, to show support for Muslims and others affected by Trump’s immigration order. Democratic Senate minority leader Charles Schumer led the crowd -- which carried rainbow ﬂags and Americans ﬂags -- in cheers of “Dump Trump.” In Washington, hundreds marched from the White House to Capitol Hill to show their solidarity. “Donald, Donald can’t you see, we don’t want you in DC,” chanted the demonstrators in the largely Democratic-leaning US capital. Many waved homemade signs with slogans like “Love knows no

borders” and “Will swap Trump for 1,000 refugees.” “I was born and raised here and for the ﬁrst time in my life, I don’t feel safe,” said Abu Bakkar, 26, whose parents are originally from Pakistan. The Department of Defense consultant said the new president “has revealed hate that’s been underground for so long. He has divided one of the greatest countries in the world.”In Britain, more than 1.8 million people have signed a petition saying Trump should not be afforded a formal state visit because it would embarrass Queen Elizabeth II. “We’re going to bring this capital to a halt on the day he comes over. We are going to make it impossible for him to have a state visit,” Chris Nineham, vice-chair of the Stop the War Coalition, told AFP. The Guardian newspaper said around 10,000 people attended the London protest, while organizers claimed 40,000. AFP

FASHION WEEK. A model showcases a creation by designer Divya

Reddy at the Lakme Fashion Week in Mumbai on February 5, 2017. AFP

Worries over US revival of torture WASHINGTON―President Donald Trump’s advocacy of waterboarding and the promotion of a CIA official who once led brutal interrogations have raised concerns that the United States could yet resume torturing suspects in its fight against Islamist extremists. Last week the leaked draft of a White House executive order detailed a desire to reopen CIA “black sites” used in the socalled enhanced interrogations in the early 2000s and to ease tough restrictions on interrogation techniques set by former president Barack Obama. On Thursday, the Central Intelligence Agency announced that Gina Haspel would become the agency’s deputy director, answering to new director Mike Pompeo. Haspel, a veteran undercover agent, presided over the interrogations of Al-Qaeda detainees Abu Zubaydah and Abd al-Rahim al-Nashiri in a secret CIA facility in Thailand after the 9/11 attacks. Those interrogations involved repeated waterboarding and other now-banned techniques. On Friday, five top Democratic senators sent a letter to Pompeo and Defense Secretary James Mattis expressing alarm that the government could change policies and laws to resume the practice of torture, especially in the offshore black sites. The draft executive order and Trump’s own comments in support of torture “have created alarm that this administration may be preparing a return to policies and practices that are ineffective, contrary to our national values, and damaging to our national security,” the senators said. “Torture is immoral and deeply contrary to the principles of this nation. Beyond that, it is widely recognized as ineffective and even counterproductive, as it produces unreliable information.” But analysts and intelligence community officials say that, even if the Trump administration wanted to use torture, it would run into both a dense thicket of laws against the practice and extreme reluctance within the intelligence community to resume practices used on detainees in the four years after the 2001 terror attacks. AFP

Laborers leery of Trump’s remarks

PREMIERE. Singer Mariah Carey and her children Morrocco and Monroe attend the Los Angeles premiere of ‘The Lego Batman Movie’ at the Regency Village Theater in Westwood, California, on February 4, 2017. AFP

New envoy eyes curbs to UN peacekeeping UNITED NATIONS―Washington’s new UN envoy Nikki Haley is putting in motion a far-reaching review of UN peacekeeping that is likely to lead to closures and downsizing of missions, according to diplomats. Haley took up her post with a vow to overhaul the United Nations and “do away” with what she termed as “obsolete” activities amid fresh clamor in Washington over US funding for the world body. During one-on-one meetings with Security Council ambassadors this week, the new US envoy raised peacekeeping as a priority

for cuts, zeroing in on the UN’s ﬂagship enterprise, according to three diplomats with knowledge of the discussions. “On UN reform, I think there is a particular interest in peacekeeping,” said a Security Council diplomat. Haley is setting up a missionby-mission review of all 16 peace operations and is “relatively skeptical” of the value and efﬁciency of many of the blue-helmet deployments, said the diplomat, who spoke on background. A senior Security Council diplomat told AFP that peacekeeping reform was “a priority” for the

new US ambassador “who wants to work closely with key partners on the issue in the coming weeks.” While the United States has few soldiers serving as peacekeepers, it is by far the biggest ﬁnancial contributor to UN peacekeeping, providing nearly 29 percent of the $7.9 billion budget for this year. During hearings at the US Senate last month, Haley made clear she was seeking to bring the US share of funding for peacekeeping to below 25 percent and said other countries should step in to shoulder the burden. “We have to start encouraging other countries to have skin in the

game,” she said. No list has been drawn up of missions that are to be axed, but diplomats said UN missions in Haiti and Liberia are probably headed for a rapid shutdown. The last remaining UN peacekeepers in Ivory Coast will pull out in June while the Security Council renewed the UNMIL mission in Liberia until March 2018 with the understanding that this would be the ﬁnal year. UN peacekeeping chief Herve Ladsous is traveling to Haiti next week to carry out an assessment that could pave the way for a closure. AFP

BRAWLEY―Many people are just getting to bed when Roger Medina wakes up at the stroke of midnight and, after a quick coffee, heads to the US-Mexico border as his wife and infant daughter sleep. Six hours later, having gone through US customs and immigration control and after an hour-long bus ride from the border, the 23-year-old is standing in a field, packaging lettuce at a California farm. Medina is among the tens of thousands of laborers who legally cross into the US daily from Mexicali, just opposite California’s Imperial Valley, to harvest the fruits and vegetables that fill America’s supermarket shelves and eventually end up on Americans’ dinner tables. And they have warily been watching as President Donald Trump rails against Mexican immigration, accusing migrants of crime and of taking Americans’ jobs, even as he orders the building of a border wall to prevent, he says, undocumented migrants or terrorists from entering the country. “If he wants to close the border, he can come and harvest the fruits and vegetables himself,” scoffed Jose Luis Carrillo, 35, as he methodically chopped iceberg lettuce heads, placing them with lightning speed into platic bags before they are loaded in crates on conveyor belts. “I don’t think he realizes who we are or the amount of work it takes for the salad he eats to reach his plate,” he said with a scowl. Almost 55,000 people cross into the US from Mexicali everyday, the majority to work in the fields, according to US Customs and Border Patrol data. Nationwide, some 540,000 Mexicans work in the US farming and forestry sectors, according to the Pew Research Center, though it is unclear how many of them are undocumented. In the Imperial Valley, one of the world’s most productive agricultural regions, most of those who work the land are Mexicans with green cards or dual citizenship. They line up at the border before dawn every day but Sunday to cross over, and they make the long journey back home as the sun is setting. AFP

Life

Arroz caldo a la bulalo (P175)

FOOD

T’S very easy to lose all sense of time when dining at Arroz Ecija. Amid an urban jungle backdrop of the 43-floor-high Arya Residences, with its imposing concrete and sleek metals and glass panes, stepping inside the newly opened restaurant in Taguig City feels like stepping back THE JOYCE OF EATING into history—to the early 1900s, to be JOYCE BABE PAÑARES more precise. Oversized wooden frames bearing photographs of rice plantations in Nueva Ecija and sacks of seven varieties of rice, including the heirloom purple pirurutong, along with bilao of different sizes used to winnow rice on display, create a hacienda vibe perfect for enjoying Filipino-Hispanic cuisine. “This is an ode to my grandfather, who was part of the last wave of Spanish settlers to the Philippines,” said Andrew Masigan, president of Advent Manila, which is also behind the XO46 Heritage Bistro. Masigan’s abuelo, Don Claro Veléz, set up Albufera de Veléz in Jaen, Nueva Ecija, where impeccable weather conditions made it easy to grow rice. The lady of the hacienda, Doña Patrocinio Alindada, presided over the kitchen from where she prepared what she fed all the workers in the field. Her long dining tables groaned under the weight of the hearty feasts she prepared with attention and cariño. But in 1942, the Japanese Imperial Army descended upon the Albufera. Don Claro and his eldest son, Alfredo, were made to join the Death March from Bataan to Tarlac, a struggle that they did not survive. Neither did the Albufera. “Everything in this restaurant is a memory of the Albufera, a homage to a time when life was beautiful and when a good meal was enough to make up for a hard day’s work,” Masigan said. Masigan’s late aunt, Nenita, was the source of all the anecdotes and, thankfully, the recipes of the dishes that have fed two generations of Velezes which can now be enjoyed by diners at the Arroz Ecija restaurant. “We source our rice from a farmers’ cooperative in Nueva Ecija. We have the following varieties so far: wag-wag, balatinao, sampaguita, dinorado, jasponica, black jasmine, and pirurutong. It was a conscious decision to try and get as many varieties as possible because these varie-

ties will die if you do not eat them. The farmers simply won’t plant them if there is no demand,” Masigan said. For starters, there’s the chorizo sampler (P495), a combination of Vigan, Tuguegarao, batutay, and betamax (blood) longganisa; chicharon Mexico with guacamole dip (P225); Huevos Rotos (P275), made of crisped potato strips topped with ground chorizo and fried egg; and hinornong Mejillones or baked mussels (P285). The restaurants main dishes include Ilocos bagnet (P375); callos Madrileno (P345); pastel de lengua Sevillana (P335), morcon de queso de bola (P325); and bopis Ecija (P225). They also serve bangus belly sinigang (P375) cooked in green mangoes, which provide the perfect foil to the creamy taste of milkfish. Diners can also choose between two types of noodles: pansit batil patong con inihaw na kalabaw (P325) and pansit Ecija (P295) served with shrimps and crispy dulong. The showstoppers, however, are the different kinds of bringhe, Pampanga’s version of the Spanish paella cooked with coconut milk for a distinctly Pinoy taste. There’s the bringhe sa manok (P285); a version cooked with vegetables and Cordillera rice (P285); bringhe in squid ink (P335) similar to paella negra; and seafood bringhe (P385). And what is hacienda cuisine without the traditional kakanin which can be ordered per piece or per box of 12, all made of – what else but rice. There’s sapin-sapin (P39/P468), cassava cake (P49/P588), biko ube (P65/P780), maja mais or maja ube (P55/P660), and biko langka (P49/P588), among others. “Central Luzon cuisine has a lot to offer. It is something that needs to be re-discovered. This restaurant is our small contribution toward this end,” Masigan said.

ARROZ ECIJA relives halcyon days

in NUEVA ECIJA

For feedback, send comments to joyce.panares@gmail.com

The dishes of Doña Patrocinio Alindada come to life with the hearty meals of Arroz Ecija.

Asian flavors in Oishi World of O, Wow! Bag FROM its humble origins of repacking gawgaw and local coffee, and introducing classics such as Oishi Prawn Crackers and Kirei, Liwayway Marketing Corporation has come a long way in the last 70 years. From then on, it has been redefining snack time for Filipino families as they introduce more favorites such as Bread Pan, Ribbed Cracklings, Pillows, Marty’s, Potato Fries and Ridges. Now with an ever-growing roster of products, Oishi has been capturing hearts around Asia as well, including countries such as Vietnam, Indonesia, Thailand, Myanmar, Cambodia, India and China.

MONDAY, FEBRUARY 6, 2017

‘COMIDA HACENDERA’

Almusal ng mangingisda: tuyo in garlic, daing na bangus and sardines (P465)

Pochero grande (P685)

Isah V. Red, Editor Bernadette Lunas, Writer isahred@gmail.com

The World of O, Wow! Bag brings Thailand all Asian favorites together in one True to their culture, Makado Sticks bag, a taste of what Oishi has to offer Larb Flavor is a Thai-style potato around the world. snack that will appeal to other Asian snack lovers as well. Larb is a popular Vietnam savory meat dish in Thailand, as well Vietnamese Oishi snacks include as other neighboring countries. AnTomati, a tasty sweet-sour snack other original snack in Thailand is Omade and flavored with tomatoes, pa-la, chocolate covered potato chips. and coconut flavored Pillows. Philippines Pinoy favorites make a comeback Indonesia Indonesians have the Suky such as Wafu, wafer-stick snack with Suky Sweet & Spicy Shrimp creamy leche flan filling. Newer snacks snack to go crazy over, a South- are also in the mix such as Ziggs, a east Asian-inspired snack where chocolate covered granola clusters shrimp crackers are sweetly snack. Some newer items include glazed, topped with sprinkled Panchos, nacho cheese tortilla chips, Crunchy Karl’s, a cheesy curly-shaped chili f lakes.

corn snack, and Mobster’s Caramel and Cheese Popcorn, taking a page from the well-known Chicago treat. China Carrying the authentic taste of American baby back ribs, Potato Chips Baby Back Ribs is a hit in the Chinese market. Meanwhile, a healthy yet tasty snack comes in the form of Whits Original, made with semolina oil, oats, whole wheat, and sunflower oil. Different Oishi flavors from all over Asia come together in one bag. Taste the flavorful snacks of different Asian countries included in the World of O’Wow Bag

Life

MONDAY, FEBRUARY 6, 2017 isahred@gmail.com

‘Life is sweet’ – Francinne By Robbie Pangilinan

P AND coming young actress Francinne Rifol not only loves cupcakes and yema cakes—she bakes them!

The star of the indie film Patintero: Ang Alamat ni Meng Patalo, one of QCinema International Film Festival’s eight locally-produced full-length features for the Circle Competition 2015, shares that, as a kid, she was very curious about baking and cooking. She would watch her tita in the kitchen baking pastries and cooking great meals and eventually patiently taught her the family’s secret recipes. Baking allows Francinne to relax and momentarily escape from her busy showbiz schedule. Her “top clients” are her Mom, Papa, and friends. She is always asked to bake on special family occasions. “I dream of turning this hobby into a full-time business and put up chains of stores someday. I would also like to learn to bake specialty breads,” says Francinne whose specialties are yummy cupcakes and sweet yema cakes. Though many of the recipes are family secrets, Francinne gladly shares her Fluffy Francinne Vanilla Cupcakes so everyone can have a taste of her sweet life. Up-and-coming actress Francinne Rifol shares the recipe of vanilla cupcakes she loves to bake

Photos by Patrick Aninang

Fluffy Francinne Vanilla Cupcakes INGREDIENTS: Cupcakes 1 2/3 cups (217g) all purpose flour 1 cup (200g) sugar 1/4 tsp baking soda 1 tsp baking powder 3/4 cup salted butter (170g), room temperature (Francinne uses Challenge Butter) 3 egg whites 3 tsp vanilla extract 1/2 cup (120ml) sour cream 1/2 cup (120ml) milk Icing 1/2 cup (115g) salted butter 1/2 cup (95g) shortening 4 cups (480g) powdered sugar 2-3 tbsp (30-45ml) water or cream 1 tsp vanilla extract

DIRECTIONS: Cupcakes 1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. 2. Whisk together f lour, sugar, baking soda and baking powder in a large mixing bowl. 3. Add butter, egg whites, vanilla, sour cream and milk and mix on medium speed just until smooth. Do not over mix. 4. Fill cupcake liners a little more than half way. 5. Bake 18-20 minutes. 6. Allow to cool for 1-2 minutes, then remove to cooling rack to finish cooling. Icing 1. Combine butter and shortening and mix until smooth. 2. Add 2 cups of powdered sugar and mix until smooth. 3. Add vanilla extract and 1-2 tbsp of water or cream and mix until smooth. 4. Add remaining powdered sugar and mix until smooth. 5. Add a little more water or cream until desired consistency is reached. 6. Top cupcakes with icing.

Francinne’s note: You may notice little bits of butter in the batter, but that’s ok. They will melt into the cupcake as they bake. Enjoy!

B ITES

Baker John bread products for breakfast and snacks KNOWN for its innovative snacks and beverages, Universal Robina Corporation (URC) has been making Filipinos’ snack time enjoyable for decades. This time, it makes breakfast and merienda time more delightful and satisfying for families with its new soft bread products. The country’s leading food manufactur-

ing company introduces Baker John, a line of premium soft bread that are made with the highest-quality ingredients in URC’s state-of-the-art baking facilities. Moms can partner their kids’ favorite spreads and cold cuts with Baker John Premium Soft White Bread to make delectable sandwiches for breakfast or merienda;

Baker John’s range of bread products is great eaten with spreads and hot or cold beverages

while the Baker John Cinnamon Soft Bread is an ideal match with coffee or cold drinks, any time of the day. The Baker John Premium Soft White Bread and Baker John Cinnamon Soft Bread are available at selected Mini Stop branches and Robinsons Supermarket outlets nationwide.

‘Barkada’ bonding over Ultimate Overload Pizza

Max’s Group Inc. president and CEO Robert Trota says Filipinos now prefer authentic-tasting food

More Filipinos choose local food AT THE recently concluded 25th Visayas Area Business Conference (VABC) in Ormoc, Leyte, Robert Trota, president and CEO of Max’s Group, Inc. (MGI), shared how Filipino diners are more inclined to choose restaurants that serve authentic-tasting and healthy food. The demand for products made from organic ingredients shows that Filipinos are becoming more adventurous with food even as they remain conscious about their consumption. More Filipinos choose locally sourced food, which help support the country’s agricultural and food manufacturing industries. MGI has been working with these local industries to capitalize on opportunities to create awareness and demand for homegrown prod-

ucts. It has introduced the Tinawon and Minaangan Flavored Rice Dishes that proudly feature heirloom rice harvested by Ifugao farmers. In keeping its thrust to continually help local produce, Trota also made a commitment in that session to work closely with the Research and Development teams of Leyte and Samar to identify products that MGI can outsource from these provinces. As a starter, MGI has looked into sourcing the danggit supply of Pancake House from Palompon, Leyte. Lastly, Trota mentioned that MGI is exploring partnerships with the provincial government of Samar for their coconut program as the province is widely recognized for its rich coco industry.

THE most memorable moments are even more exciting when they are shared with our barkada. Reunions, random get-togethers, and celebrations are even more highlighted when they are spent with friends both old and new. You can bond with friends over Ultimate Overload by Greenwich. This everything-on-it pizza is generously made with mozzarella and cheddar cheese with a total of 13 different kinds

of toppings of a variety of meat and vegetables. With this wonderful blend of ingredients, each bite is sure to satisfy everyone’s taste buds. Despite being fully loaded, each slice is sure to make you want more. This pizza plus your barkada is indeed the #UltimateBarkadaBlend. Visit @greenwichpizza on Facebook, Youtube, Instagram, and Twitter to know the latest on Greenwich. Greenwich’s Ultimate Overload Pizza is made of mozzarella, cheddar cheese and 13 different kinds of toppings—perfect to share with friends

MONDAY, FEBRUARY 6, 2017

ING of RnB Jay-R chalked up another musical milestone when Elevated recently turned gold. The awarding ceremony, presided over by PARI Chairman Atty. Marivic Benedicto and Homeworkz Ad Prom Officer Perry McDonald, was held at ABS-CBN’s Sunday noontime show A.S.A.P. on Jan. 22. The album, released October 2014, sold more than 7,500 units, based on both digital and physical sales, according to data compiled by PARI and the Optical Media Board. The former Your Face Sounds Familiar finalist feels a deep sense of fulfillment and vindication with his recent feat. He exclaimed, “I feel great about receiving a gold record under my own label. All the hard work I put into the project really paid off. It was passion that kept my drive and spirit high. I’m passionate about spreading original music. I think originality and creativity is more important than statistics and numbers.” The award, he said, feels even more rewarding because of the challenges faced by most indie music labels. He explains, “Yes, it is harder. Being and independent label, you don’t have the major label budget to work with. You don’t have the connections of the major. You really have to start from the bottom up as far as distribution, promotion, recording, mixing, mastering, photo shoots, music video shoots, paperwork, permits, etc.” Jay-R’s earlier works were also certified bestsellers. Gameface (2003) turned double platinum, Soul In Love (2008) earned platinum, and Jay-R Sings OPM Love Classics (2010) also turned gold. He also feels equally proud of the accolades bestowed upon other artists in his Homeworkz label, most recent of which was Glaiza de Castro’s Synthesis album, which

Yasmien stays as Kapuso

R&B singer Jay-R celebrates a career milestone after his album is certiﬁed Gold Record by PARI.

JAY-R’S

‘ELEVATED’ TURNS GOLD turned gold in 2016. For Jay-R, the most fulﬁlling reward comes from knowing that original Filipino music has a bright future in the country. He says, “I expect my fellow artists to realize that original music does sell. You don’t have to do remakes to sell music. It’s proven

here at homework that our music lovers are looking for new creations. Classic songs will always be classic. But new songs are the future of OPM.” Though still far off, it’s only a matter of time before Elevated eases into platinum status. “I would love to hit platinum

status! I will be promoting Elevated at the same time as my new release of the new album this year. If I keep at it, I’m hoping I will reach the next level,” he says, ﬁngers crossed. In the meantime, the OPM advocate is taking his much-needed break. He admits, “I need to take a vocal rest. I’ve been going non-stop. One of the few ﬂaws of doing what you love is you never want it to end. Of course, I realize it will end if I keep going.” In closing, the Pinoy RnB icon gives due credit to his Homeworkz team as well as Pinoy music fans. He says, “I want to point out that my special handpicked Homeworkz team is solid. It’s really a team effort. I couldn’t have done it without them. I would also like to thank all the music connoisseurs out there for keeping our OPM industry alive. We make music for your ears, hearts and souls. Thank you for allowing us music artists to have the best job in the world.”

Angeline Quinto’s ‘hugot-ﬁlled’ album

Record producer Jonathan Manalo and pop singer Angeline Quinto

M U LT I P L AT I N U M - S E L L I N G artist Angeline Quinto explores the twists and turns in her love life and heartbreaks in @LoveAngelineQuinto, the new album that features mostly originals, including one of the songs she penned. “All the songs in this album are love songs. I think I’ve experienced all the situations in love and relationships,” said Angeline, who is celebrating her sixth anniversary in showbiz this year. Released as the album’s ﬁrst single, “At Ang Hirap,” tagged as the “most heartbreaking song of 2017” (composed by pop rock princess Yeng Constantino and produced by Jonathan Manalo), chronicles the struggles of coping with a fresh break-up. The Queen of Teleserye Theme Song returns to recording also features the upbeat “Para Bang, Para Lang,” a song she dedicates to her mother. It is also Angeline’s second composition that she recorded, after “Sana Sana” off of her 2013 album Higher Love. Serving as one of the highlights in the album is the relatable “Paano Ba Ang Huwag Kang Mahalin,” the ﬁrst-ever

CROSSWORD PUZZLE Monday, February 6, 2017

ACROSS 1 Cease-fire 6 Cellar, briefly 10 “Green Mansions” hero 14 Call for takeout (2 wds.) 15 Mr. Moto remark (2 wds.) 16 Graceful wrap 17 Radiates 18 Oz pooch 19 Fraus, in Sp. 20 Dazzling 22 Flora and fauna 23 All fine (hyph.) 24 Yawning gulf 26 Claim 30 Sucked up to 32 Nettle 33 Up and about 34 Boot part 36 Insult 37 Clear the slate 38 “Judith” composer 39 Summer in France 40 Big happening 41 — rings 42 Forest newbie 44 Strong protest 45 “In Xanadu did — Khan ...” 46 Guitarist — Paul

47 Horse — 49 Like some alibis 54 Stop lights 55 Longest arm bone 57 Wrong move 58 Legendary ox 59 Livestock show 60 Jack up 61 The — the limit! 62 They fly by night 63 Perception DOWN 1 Plumbing joints 2 Gangplank 3 Elec. or gas 4 Quote from 5 Trap 6 Tie-dye cousin 7 Wearing pumps 8 Colo. setting 9 Overly 10 St. Francis’ city 11 Kind of pressure 12 Was, to Ovid 13 Bart’s sister 21 Pixel 22 Invited 24 Seashore 25 Ocean fish 26 Basilica area 27 Delta builders 28 Just made it

(2 wds.) 29 NATO turf 30 Longbow’s sound 31 Benefactor 33 Sports palace 35 Counting-rhyme start 37 Worse than bad 38 Colony member 40 1814 exile isle 41 Coups end in them 43 Lipstick holders 44 Above, in verse

46 Polygraph flunkers 47 Moons or planets 48 Pike’s discovery 49 Indigo plant 50 Latin hymn word 51 Smile ear-to-ear 52 Little Joe’s bro 53 Leaf source 55 Roswell crasher 56 Lemon —

song written by Darla that narrates the pain of letting go. Also included in the album is another Yeng composition, “’Di Na Tayo,” as well as Angeline’s duet with Michael Pangilinan and the 5th Best Song in the Himig Handog P-Pop Love Songs 2016, “Parang Tayo Pero Hindi.” Completing the track list are the acoustic remix of “Para Bang, Para Lang,” and covers of Jeremiah’s “Nanghihinayang” and the sweeping ballad “Kailangan Kita,” and originals “Awit Ng Pag-ibig” and “Ang Pag-ibig Ko’y Ikaw,” – both declarations of love. Jonathan Manalo produced @ LoveAngelineQuinto now available at all record stores nationwide for only P299. It can also be streamed on Apple Music and Spotify. The full album, meanwhile, is available for download in digital stores. For more information, visit Starmusic.ph or follow Star Music’s ofﬁcial social media accounts at Facebook.com/starrecordsphil, Twitter. com/starrecordsph and Instagram.com/ Starmusicph.

YA S M I E N Kurdi is happy that she renewed her contract with GMA 7. “And what made it more meaningful was that it happened on my 28th birthday (Jan. 25). What a great coincidence, isn’t it? It’s a great start of the year for me,” she says. Asked about her new contract, the original StarStruck First Princess couldn’t divulge its exact duration. “All I can say is its quite long. It’s enough to give me all the opportunities to explore my artistic gifts, not just acting. I’m very happy because the plan is for me to get back to recording as well. That’s one thing I miss, you know, promote on television, sing live while doing mall shows and interacting with fans. I’m grateful that it’s included under the new contract I inked with them.” As one of the most loyal Kapuso talents, Yasmien has been with the network since 2004. She did lots of hit soaps until she slowed down when she became a homemaker to husband Rey Soldevilla, a pilot and daughter Ayesa. “I don’t have any regret when I took a furlough from the showbiz scene during that time. I have a wonderful family. Honestly, if you’ll ask me now, I’m already content with what I have. I can’t ask for more. It’s a huge bonus that I’m able to continue my showbiz career while I tend to my family life. And I’m thankful to GMA for their continued trust in me.” It can be remembered that her comeback project Yagitwas a surprise charttopper and so was her follow-up vehicle Sa Piling ni Nanay with Mark Herras, Katrina Halili, Jillian War, Gabby Eigenmann,and Nova Villa. “I’m glad that the viewing public patronized said programs. My next soap is now being prepared. In the meantime, I will guest in one currently airing soap, which I can’t mention. My character will be introduced soon so better watch out guys!” At this point when it seems that everything has fallen into its proper place in her life, what are the things that she still wishes to attain? “Personally, I want to enter the beauty business, study make-up and try culinary. When it comes to my showbiz career, how I wish I’ll be able to do a variety of roles in the coming days to develop my versatility. You know, I plan to stay long in the business, be a respected and critically-acclaimed actress in the mold of Ms. Gloria Romero,” ends Yasmien. ******** Although many say that she’s a sure winner if ever she’ll decide to join a beauty contest someday, Liza Soberano doesn’t want to entertain the thought. “Yes, actually, even Enrique (Gil) has been vocal in saying that. Of course, I’m ﬂattered but honestly, it’s not part of my plan,” she avers. For the pretty lass, each individual has a calling. “That’s true! It’s a big honor to join a beauty tilt and win a title. It’s just that I don’t see myself in that path. It’s not for me. Although I’m grateful to those who believe in my potential.” Since Valentine is fast approaching, some quarters are curious how she and Enrique are going to celebrate the occasion. “Hmm…that’s the premiere night of our movie My Ex and Why’sso that’s our date already and what’s more meaningful is that It’ll be with our fans as well who will watch,” states Liza.

MORE FILIPINOS FOLLOW, VISIT

Isah V. Red, Editor Nickie Wang, Writer isahred@gmail.com MONDAY, FEBRUARY 6, 2017

ABSCBN Online

British rock band Coldplay led by vocalist and keyboardist Chris Martin is coming to Manila for the ﬁrst time. The concert, which is part of of the band’s world tour, will happen on April 4.

Create your Globe

COLDPLAY STORY

ET an exclusive chance to win tickets and watch Coldplay live in Manila.

The Coldplay fandom in Manila is undeniably huge. Tickets to band’s April 4 concert at the MOA Concert Grounds (presented by Globe) were sold out in a day. Globe is giving its customers another chance to watch the most-coveted concert of 2017. By registering to any GoSurf promo or subscribing to any Broadband plan, customers can earn raffle entries to win tickets to Coldplay’s A Head Full of Dreams Tour in Manila. For Globe Broadband customers, every P5 spent on their bill is equivalent to one raffle entry. Forty tickets are up for grabs. Twenty lucky customers will win two tickets each. “We know that music is an integral part in every Filipino’s lives and Globe is here to elevate your music experience by allowing you to enjoy music in a different perspective. With Globe, you can listen to your favorite artists like Coldplay on Spotify, or catch it via live stream from their L.A. concert on YouTube, or even watch them perform live by joining our raffle promo. We want all our customers to get this chance and experience watching their favorite artists here in Manila, or even abroad,” shares Globe Senior Vice President for Consumer Mobile Business, Issa Cabreira. “This time, by simply registering to any GoSurf promo or subscribing to a Broadband plan, all our customers can get a chance to win tickets to the most-anticipated concert of Coldplay this 2017.” Cabreira added. Taking entertainment to another level Just recently, Globe awarded two of its loyal customers,

on Dec. 13, 2016 through Globe’s “Fly-Away Promo.” They won a total of P230,000.00 worth of prizes that included a 4-day, 3-night trip to Sydney with round-trip airfares, concert tickets, hotel accommodation, and pocket money. “I’ve always been a hardcore Coldplay fan, from Parachutes to A Head Full of Dreams. It just so happened that A Head Full of Dreams is my most favorite among their albums. The moment people started screaming and when the show was about to start, I had to pinch myself to feel that I was actually there... about to witness beyond paradise!” shared Lim. Santiago shared the same fandom as Lim, “When Chris Martin went up the stage for the first time, it was so surreal that feeling was way over the top. After witnessing and experiencing how their live performances, I will definitely get tickets to their concert here in Manila. We’re so grateful that Globe made it possible for us to experience such a magical concert all the way in Australia. This whole experience is definitely one for the books.” Customers can still get a chance to experience paradise and win tickets to the Manila leg of Coldplay’s A Head Full of Dreams tour by registering to any GoSurf promo or subscribing to Cris Martin rocking the stage in one of the band’s concerts a Broadband plan. Learn how to earn raffle entries by visiting www.globe.com.ph/globecoldplay. Monique Lim and Cristina Santiago, to watch the band Follow @enjoyGLOBE (on Twitter) and like Globe perform at the Allianz Stadium in Sydney Australia Telecom (on Facebook) for updates.

FOX’s program lineup for February FEBRUARY proves to be an extremely exciting month for FOX Philippines as the channel announces the premiere of several hit US television series. Several FOX shows are returning to the channel, including The Walking Dead, Billions, and WWE’s wrestling programs, while new shows Legion and 24: Legacy are set to bring more prestige to an already strong lineup. To promote this huge boost in programming, FOX is teaming up with Philippine escape room game Breakout to host an experience called FOXtreme Breakout, which will bring elements of these shows closer to viewers in a unique escape room challenge from Feb. 9 to 12 at Uptown Mall in Bonifacio Global City. The new and returning television shows premiering this month on FOX all have day and date telecasts based on exciting, adrenaline-pumping content. Legion is based on a Marvel comic book that follows the life of David Haller, who is diagnosed with dissociative identity disorder and soon discovers that he’s a powerful mutant—probably one of the most powerful that’s ever lived. Starring Dan Stevens (Beauty and the Beast, Downton Abbey), this 10-episode limited series premieres in the US on Feb. 8 and in the Philippines on FOX at 8 p.m. on Feb. 9. Another exciting release is 24: Legacy, a spin-off of 24. The series stars Corey Hawkins and Miranda Otto. It follows the story of Eric Carter, an ex-Army

Ranger sought by a terrorist group. He tries to stop one of the largest attacks to potentially happen in the US. This heart-stopping 12-episode series will show exclusively on FOX at 8 p.m. tonight, after its US premiere on Feb. 5. Meanwhile, the highly successful series The Walking Dead returns on Feb 13 at 11:35 a.m. simultaneously with the US, with an 8:55 p.m. replay. This mid-season premiere continues the explosive Season 7 of the zombie apocalypse-based show. Billions is also returning for its 13-episode

second season on Feb. 20 at 9:50 p.m. exclusively on the channel. FOX is also the Philippines’ Home of Wrestling, with its wide roster of WWE titles such as Raw, SmackDown, and Royal Rumble. FOX’s local production Wrestling Gods adds to the channel’s testosterone-fueled wrestling mania when it premieres at 9:50 p.m. on Feb.14. Charo Espedido, director and head of Content & Marketing at FOX Networks Group Philippines, said, “The

addition of new shows like Legion and 24: Legacy along with the return of hit shows like The Walking Dead, Billions, and our favorite WWE programs to FOX make it clear that we are determined to deliver the most exciting, action-packed US entertainment content to our viewers. We’re excited to share these shows and engage with FOX’s viewers at the FOXtreme Breakout game in Uptown Mall this month so that we can whet their appetites for the amazing shows they’ll see on their TV screens soon.”

ABS-CBN Corporation, the country’s leading media and entertainment company, dominated the digital space in 2016 as many Filipinos in and out of the country turned to its media website and social media accounts to get the latest in news and entertainment. In 2016, www.abs-cbn.com breached three billion page views and averaged 40.3 million monthly users, becoming the biggest local website in the country. It also ranked fourth after global giants Facebook, YouTube, and Google, according to web traffic data and analytics site Alexa. ABS-CBN Entertainment and PUSH.com.ph made ABSCBN the biggest source of entertainment news and features as Filipinos sought updates and trivia about their favorite stars and Kapamilya programs, while ABS-CBN News remained Filipinos’ most dominant source of news for the past four years. Also emerging as last year’s go-to sports page was ABSCBN Sports, as it served up news updates about major sports leagues and began operating NBA.com/Philippines, the National Basketball Association (NBA)’s official digital destination in the country, and ended up outdoing foreign sports websites. On social media, ABS-CBN also sustained its lead ahead of all media outlets. ABS-CBN’s Twitter account for its music channel MYX is still the most followed Twitter account in the country with 5.91 million followers. More Twitter users also rely on ABS-CBN News, which has 5.06 million followers, compared to GMA News’ 4.94 million. Also commanding the biggest following on Facebook are ABSCBN and ABS-CBN News, with 14.08 million likes and 13.22 million likes, respectively, compared to GMA Network’s 11.2 million and GMA News’ 9.22 million likes. ABS-CBN’s dominance also extends to video streaming service YouTube, where four of its channels – including ABS-CBN News (2.07 billion views), Star Music (617 million views), and Star Cinema (362 million views) – rank in the top ten Filipino channels. ABSCBN Entertainment’s channel, meanwhile, ranks first in the country and 20th in the world in terms of views (5.9 billion views), besting even other global media outlets. It even surpassed global news outlets CNN, BBC, ABC News, and Al Jhazeera. The Kapamilya network, home to the nation’s top-rating TV programs, box-office films, and best-selling books and music, is rapidly transitioning into an agile digital company with the biggest online presence among all media companies, and a growing list of digital properties. Last year, it also reached out to online audiences with its digital marketing initiative and multi-channel network Adober Studios, formerly called Chicken Pork Adobo. It continued to gain tremendous headway in 2016, enlisting more than 350 Youtube creators, and launching two original series, “Trot or Charot” and “Unspoken Rules.” ABS-CBN also launched three major digital events that attracted unprecedented number of unique visitors to its sites – the Push Awards, music portal OneMusic.PH, and the Choose Philippines Awards.