The Standard - 2016 March 15 - Tuesday

VOL. XXX NO. 34 3 Sections 32 Pages P18 TUESday : MaRCH 15, 2016 www.thestandard.com.ph editorial@thestandard.com.ph

Duterte: It’s okay not to agree

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Poll boDy looks at two oPtIons

By Sara Susanne D. Fabunan

THE Commission on Elections said Monday they are down to two options: postpone the elections by three weeks or hold the elections on May 9 as scheduled with its credibility diminished.

Commissioner Christian Robert Lim said the Comelec en banc would decide which way to go, after the Supreme Court ordered the poll agency to issue printed receipts to voters.

Lim also said that contrary to

earlier reports, the Comelec is not considering a return to manual voting.

Comelec Chairman Andres Bautista, who said the Supreme Court ruling on printed receipts would set back preparations for

the elections, said they never considered a no-election scenario, but said a postponement was possible.

He admitted, however, that a postponement would require that Congress pass a law.

“I want to emphasize that the primary duty of the Comelec is not just to conduct elections but elections that are orderly and credible,” Bautista said.

On Monday morning, the Comelec officials held a meeting with its Comelec Advisory Committee and Technical Evaluation

Committee to seek advice on what steps to take in the wake of the Supreme Court decision.

The Comelec then met with representatives from the political parties, where both options were presented.

Most of the political parties urged the Comelec to push through with the elections on May 9 no matter what, said Nationalist People’s Coalition legal counsel and former Comelec commissioner Gregorio Larrazabal.

“We said there has to be a consensus that we have to have

a credible automated elections on May 9, 2016. And everybody in the room agreed to that. They have to reach that goal. There is no option. We have to have automated elections and the preparations to achieve that goal just have to be met,” Larrazabal told the reporters.

He added that the political parties also rejected manual voting, which he said was illegal.

“If you postpone the election, that will be a huge political upheaval. The people won’t agree to that,” Larrazabal said. Next page

VP debate. From left, candidates Senator Chiz Escudero, Senator Ferdinand Marcos Jr., Rep. Leni Robredo and Senator Antonio Trillanes meet at the Go Negosyo debate. EY ACASIO

Ex-chief justice slams Poe’s foes

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Marcos: We’ll abide by any court ruling IN A debate among four vice presidential candidates Monday, Senator Ferdinand Marcos Jr. said his family would abide by any decision of the courts that were hearing cases against them.

Marcos was responding

to a question about human rights abuses during the Martial Law rule of his father, and President Benigno Aquino III’s attacks on him during the 30th anniversary of the People Power Revolution.

“I enjoyed the attention

that the President was giving me,” Marcos said during the Go Negosyo: Meet the Vice Presidentiables Forum at the Manila Polo Club.

He also acknowledged that he dyed his hair.

“I don’t notice his hairdo,

so I was surprised that the President noticed mine,” he said in Filipino.

Senator Francis Escudero said it was not appropriate for the President to make personal attacks during the Edsa People Power anniNext page versary.

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Poll...

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Press conference. Health Secretary Janette Garin gestures during a press conference on Monday on the Zika Virus in Manila on Monday. AFP

Poe takes lead anew in nd latest poll; Binay in 2 The nationwide survey of 1,800 respondents was conducted from March 4 to 7, ending one day before the Supreme Court junked disqualification cases against Poe and declared her qualified to run for president.

The BusinessWorld-SWS PreElection Survey had Poe ahead at 27 percent, followed by Binay at 24 percent; administration standard bearer Manuel Roxas II at 22 percent; Davao Mayor Rodrigo Duterte at 21 percent; and Senator Miriam Defensor Santiago, 4 percent. Some 2 percent of the respondents were undecided.

With sampling error of ±2 percent for national percentages, Poe and Binay were statistically tied.

In the vice presidential race, Senators Francis Escudero and Ferdinand Marcos Jr. were statistically tied for the top spot at 28 percent and 26 percent, respectively.

They were followed by administration candidate Camarines Sur Rep. Leni Robredo at 24 percent, Senator Alan Peter Cayetano at 11 percent; Senator Antonio Trillanes IV

at 6 percent; and Senator Gringo Honasan, at 5 percent.

From the official list of 50 names, the 12 leaders in the senatorial race include five candidates from the Liberal Party (LP), four independents (IND), and one each from Akbayan (AKBYN), the Nationalist People’s Coalition (NPC) and United Nationalist Alliance (UNA).

Senator Vicente Sotto III retained the top spot with 53 percent.

The candidates and their ranking were: 1. Vicente Sotto (NPC) 53 percent; 2. Panfilo Lacson (IND) 46 percent; 3. Frank Drilon (LP) 44 percent; and 4-5, Senators Ralph Recto (LP) and Francis Pangilinan (LP), each with 43 percent; 6. Miguel Zubiri (IND) 41 percent; 7. Manny Pacquiao (UNA) 38 percent; 8. Senator Sergio Osmeña III (IND) 34 percent; and 9-10. Richard Gordon (IND) and Leila De Lima (LP), each with 32 percent.

The last two seats are being contested by 11. Risa Hontiveros (AKBYN) 30 percent; 12. Senator Teofisto Guingona III (LP) 26 percent; 13. Joel Villanueva (LP) 24 percent;

and 14. Francis Tolentino (IND) 23 percent.

The March 2016 Pre-Election Survey was conducted using faceto- face interviews with1,800 validated voters, 300 each in Metro Manila, North Luzon, South Luzon, Visayas, North Mindanao and South Mindanao (sampling error margins of ±2 percent for national percentages, ±6 percent each for Metro Manila, North Luzon, South Luzon, Visayas, North Mindanao and South Mindanao).

The area estimates were weighed by the 2016 Commission on Elections data on validated voters to obtain the national estimates.

The March 2016 Pre-Election Survey was the third in a series of SWS 2016 Pre-Election Surveys.

The first two polls in the series was conducted over Jan. 8 to 10 and Feb. 5 to 7.

Poe said she was thankful to the Filipino people for their support in making her No. 1 in the latest SWS survey. Obtaining a three-point increase, Poe took the top spot from Vice President Jejomar Binay with her 27 percent rating. Binay lost three percentage points from the previous survey to hold 24 percent.

The Palace said the latest results showed that voters were “troubled by integrity questions” against some of the candidates.

“Despite the mudslinging and concerted attacks against the ad-

Marcos...

campaigned against Marcos, saying there was a possibility that the senator would follow in the footsteps of his late father.

He also blamed Marcos for the failure of the Senate to pass the Bangsamoro Basic Law. But Marcos said the law was local in character and had to be

passed by the House of Representatives before the Senate could act on it.

He added that he was against the BBL because the government filed to consult other sectors, such as the Moro National Liberation Front, the lumad and the Christians.

By Sandy Araneta

SENATOR Grace Poe took the lead in the latest Social Weather Stations survey of presidential preferences, overtaking Vice President Jejomar Binay, who led the survey during the previous polling period

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“Edsa people power is not for the Aquinos or for the Marcoses,” Escudero said, adding that he was saddened by Aquino’s remarks.

During the occasion, Aquino

ministration and its record of public service, not only has the Daang Matuwid coalition endured—but it is gaining ground as our fellow citizens continue to ask tough questions and demand concrete solutions from all the candidates,” said presidential spokesman Edwin Lacierda.

Roxas said he was confident that “the one who is honest and clean will win.”

He added that the improvement of the ratings of his running mate, Robredo, showed that voters trusted her.

Robredo said she was happy that the “first-place finish” was within reach.

“This result is giving us new inspiration and energy in our advocacy, plans and programs even in the farthest areas in our country, especially those within the margins of our society,” she said.

Duterte said he was not bothered by his fourth place ranking in the survey.

“It’s good,” Duterte said in response to questions from reporters. “At the end of the day, I will be your last card.”

“I do not question survey companies. But you are not there until you are there. That has always been the rule in the elections. You are not there until you are there,” he said. With Macon Ramos-Araneta and John Paolo Bencito But administration vice presidential candidate Camarines Sur Rep. Leni Robredo said Aquino’s attacks were not personal.

If there were complaints about Martial Law, she said, they had to pursue them.

“That’s not personal,” she said.

Joel E. Zurbano

A failure of election, he added, should not be entertained because as long as voters are able to cast their votes, these can be tallied even beyond 5 p.m.

The representative of United Nationalist Alliance, Ivan John Uy, agreed that the elections must be held on May 9.

Only the Nacionalista Party rejected both options presented and urged the Comelec not to activate the voter receipt feature, Lim said.

Earlier, In a separate interview, Comelec Commissioner Arthur Lim said that it will be also impossible to conduct a credible automated elections for overseas voters on April 9.

Lim said bringing back the 1,400 SD cards that were already sent to 30 embassies in various countries and reconfiguring them at the Comelec’s warehouse in Sta. Rosa, Laguna, would take 21 days.

After that, they would still need to train all the board of election inspectors, a process that would take days.

Lim said, the Court decision was “far reaching and totally unexpected.”

UP law professor and Kabayan party-list nominee Harry Roque Jr. urged the Supreme Court to stand firm on its decision on voter receipts.

In a petition-in-intervention, Roque backed the earlier petition filed by a group led by former senator Richard Gordon last month, which was granted by the high court last week.

In disabling the essential security features of the automated election system, the poll body brazenly and unconscionably deprived voters of their right to verify whether or not their votes were appreciated and counted correctly in accordance with their choice, Roque said.

The militant Bagong Alyansang Makabayan also rejected a postponement.

“We oppose moves to postpone the elections, not simply because it is against the Constitution, and definitely not because we believe in its promise of change, but because a delay in the polls will ultimately favor the incumbent Aquino regime and its candidates,” Bayan secretary general Renato Reyes Jr. said.

Reyes said a delay will allow the Aquino administration to dip deeper into public coffers to bankroll its administration bets, led by its standard bearer Manuel Roxas II. Lawmakers led by senatorial candidate and Leyte Rep. Martin Romualdez and House Speaker Feliciano Belmonte Jr. also rejected a return to manual voting.

Senator Ferdinand Marcos Jr. said the Constitution is clear: the elections must be held on the second Monday of May and must be automated.

“The mere fact that the Commission on Elections feel justified in flouting the Constitution and the law leads many to suspect that this is opening more opportunities for abuse and cheating. We must not allow this to happen.

We must maintain the integrity and the credibility of the electoral process,” Marcos said. With Rey E. Requejo, Christine F. Herrera and Maricel V. Cruz

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Ex-chief justice slams Poe’s foes RETIRED Chief Justice Artemio Panganiban on Monday defended Senator Grace Poe and slammed her critics’ refusal to accept the Supreme Court decision declaring her qualified to run for president in the May 9 elections.

Visit. Presidential candidate Grace Poe visits Jaro Church in Iloilo City on Monday. Jay MoRales

Duterte tells aides: It’s okay to disagree TACLOBAN CITY—Presidential candidate Rodrigo Duterte on Monday called on his supporters to refrain from attacking his critics online, reminding them that the Philippines is a free country where freedom of speech is protected by the Constitution.

“We respect each other’s opinions,” Duterte said.

“We always say that it’s OK if we disagree. I may not agree with what you say but I will defend your right to say it. That’s how it should be.”

Duterte made his statement even as his national campaign manager likened the shift of voter reference to the Davao City mayor to the “sand dunes of Paoay.”

Mayor Leoncio Evasco of Maribojoc, Bohol, said barely 58 days before the May 9 elections, Duterte had been receiving greate support from voters, and that they were not ignoring every indicator that could validate Duterte’s growing popularity.

“We take survey results serious-

ly and we have seen several mock polls and social media trending reinforcing the observation that Duterte is gaining more believers, adherents and converts,” Evasco said in a statement.

Meanwhile, the youth group Anakbayan on Monday said there was nothing wrong with questioning a presidential candidate’s budgetary priorities as it a University of the Philippines-Los Baños student for asking Duterte a critical question during a forum.

Anakbayan said questions on education spending and the national budget were legitimate regardless of how those were articulated.

“Under the Aquino regime, UP has seen chronic budget cuts and tuition and other fee hikes,” the group said in a statement.

“We thus understand the UPLB student’s concern about a presidential candidate’s budgetary priorities for the next six years.”

Duterte on Monday echoed the

statement of his spokesman, Peter Laviña, who asked Duterte’s supporters to be civil, intelligent, decent and compassionate when engaged in any kind of discourse.

“I would say the same,” Duterte said.

“What we can do is concede a certain degree of understanding.

Relax. Everything is going well.”

Duterte described his supporters as “over-enthusiastic to the point that I can do no wrong.”

His comments came after UPLB student Stephen Villena was cyberbullied after he was accused of being disrespectful of the mayor during the question-and-answer portion of a forum last Friday.

Duterte said he himself did not feel disrespected during the forum.

“Disrespected? No. I was once a student. You don’t expect these students to be all prim and proper,” he said.

“Those are the ways of the youth and I can understand.” Rio n. araja and sandy araneta

Panganiban said her critics’ behavior contrasted with the humility displayed by Poe before the release of the 9-6 high court ruling when the leading presidential candidate said she would be willing to accept any decision by the high court.

Panganiban made his statement even as the spokesman of Liberal Party standard bearer Manuel Roxas II on Monday slammed Poe for “doing a Binay” after she criticized the Aquino administration’s Straight Path for derailing her bid for the presidency.

“Senator Poe is doing a VP Binay with her tirades, that the administration has something to do [about her woes.],” Rep. Barry Gutierrez said.

“From the very start, the policy of the Daang Matuwid coalition has been very clear,” Rep. Barry Gutierrez said.

“We cannot understand Senator Poe. She got all that she wants, there are no roadblocks to her presidential bid, but it seems that she cannot move on.”

Panganiban said Poe’s “phenomenal victory” at the Supreme Court “was severely criticized even when the text of the decision had not yet been released.”

“In fact, on the very day the vote was announced on March 8, some of her opponents instantly

crowed over TV-radio that they would file a motion for reconsideration,” Panganiban said.

“Without having seen the decision, one had the temerity to say that the nine majority justices committed a ‘culpable violation of the Constitution and betrayal of public trust.’ If that is not hubris, I don’t know what is.”

Panganiban said that while Poe’s opponents were entitled to their opinions, he could not help but compare theirs with what Poe had repeatedly said before the high court’s verdict was announced: “I will accept whatever the Supreme Court decides, whether favorable to me or not.”

“If that is not humility, I do not know what is,” Panganiban said.

Voting 9-6, the high court granted Poe’s petition seeking to set aside two decisions of the Commission on Elections canceling her Certificate of Candidacy for president allegedly due to her false statements regarding her citizenship and residence.

Panganiban pointed to the similarities between Poe’s case and that of his late father, Fernando Poe Jr. whose citizenship was also questioned before the high court when he ran for president in 2004. Rey e. Requejo and John Paolo Bencito

‘Robredo faces an uphill climb in north’ CALASIAO, PANGASINAN— Administration standard-bearer Manuel Roxas II may receive a significant chunk of support from the so-called “Solid North,” but his running mate Leni Robredo may not because of Ferdinand Marcos Jr., a Liberal Party stalwart said here Monday.

“Particularly for president, I have to say that the Solid North is not solid [for those vying for] president, but a substantial amount will go to Secretary Mar [Roxas],” Ilocos Sur Rep. Eric Singson, a cousin of Ilocos Sur Gov. Chavit Singson, told reporters.

“But for VP, since Marcos is from here, I cannot say how Leni will fare here because [Marcos] is from Ilocandia.”

Singson, together with Pangasinan Gov. Amado Espino, Pangasinan Rep. Rachel Arena, Rep. Gina de Venecia, former House Speaker Jose de Venecia, Abra Gov. Eustaquio Bersamin, La Union Rep.

Victor Ortega, along with other local politicians from Pangasinan and Ilocos Sur in La Union, had a show of force on Monday in support of Roxas and Robredo.

They showed their support in recognition of the administration’s efforts to release the local government units’ share from the national government’s excise tax collection from locally produced tobacco products.

Roxas, who traces his roots from the Visayas, faces opposition in the so-called “Solid North” from his rivals Vice President Jejomar Binay, who hails from Isabela, and Senator Grace Poe whose adoptive father, the late actor Fernando Poe Jr., had roots in Pangasinan.

Singson said parts of the Second District of Ilocos Sur, First District of La Union, and the provinces of Abra and Pangasinan will deliver substantial votes for the RoxasRobredo tandem.

But for the vice presidential

race, Singson promised that the LP allies “will work very hard to make Robredo win.”

Robredo’s figures in North/ Central Luzon based the latest The Standard Poll days after the first Comelec-sponsored presidential debates, placed her in third spot with 10 percent after Marcos’ 43 percent and Escudero’s 28 percent.

Roxas downplayed a possible roadblock to Robredo in the North in Dagupan City.

“We’ll see if the Solid North is solid for [Marcos], but as we see the rise of ratings for Congresswoman Leni, it sends us a strong signal,” Roxas said referring to the recent rise of Robredo in the latest SWS survey.

Marcos and Escudero emerged statistically tied for the top spot.

Escudero received 28 percent, up by two points from the February poll, while Marcos received 26 percent, the same figure he received in the previous poll. John Paolo Bencito

Rounds. Administration standard bearer Manuel Roxas II makes the rounds of vote-rich Pangasinan on Monday. John Paolo Bencito

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Almendras ‘charm offensive’ on

By Vito Barcelo AFTER writing an open letter extolling the leadership of his predecessor Albert del Rosario, interim Foreign Secretary Rene Almendras will try to restore friendly relations with China during his brief stint as head of the Department of Foreign Affairs, but he will stand for what is right.

In his first meeting with diplomatic reporters at the DFA, Almendras stressed that the country has always been friendly to China and treated China with appropriate respect in the past.

“In my personal capacity, I tend to overextend on [friendliness]. That’s me, I’m a very friendly person. But I will stand for what’s right,” Almendras said.

“I will put down my foot on what’s right, but there’s always a nice way of saying it. There’s always a proper way of doing it,” he added.

Almendras made the remarks in a brief initial exchange with DFA reporters when he reported for work on Monday, a day after he wrote an open letter that mentioned his experience in real diplomacy under the guidance of Del Rosario.

Noting that he will only be DFA chief for a little more than 100 days, Almendras admitted he lacked experience in foreign policy, but vowed to seek the guidance of Del Rosario and other DFA experts from time to time.

He said this will be particularly important in matters concerning the West Philippine Sea where China is pressing its claim to almost the entire South China Sea to the detriment of the claims of Vietnam, the Philippines, Taiwan, Malaysia and Brunei.

If left unchallenged, Philippines and Malaysia will lose about 80 percent of their EEZ, Vietnam about 50 percent, Brunei about 90 percent, and Indonesia about 30 percent, the new DFA head said.

Meanwhile, the Philippine Navy announced that the Philippines expects to take delivery from the United States of the third Hamilton-class cutter that was pledged by US President Barack Obama last year.

The US Coast Guard cutter Boutwell is in the same class as the BRP Gregorio Del Pilar (formerly the USCGC Hamilton) and BRP Ramon Alcaraz (ex-USCGC Dallar) which were decommissioned in 2011 and 2012, respectively.

The USCGC Boutwell will be decommissioned from US Coast Guard service on Wednesday in San Diego, California after 48 years of service.

“We are expecting the delivery of this ship this year. [It will be an] additional asset for the PN and will be a big boost to our capabilities once it enters our inventory,” Navy public affairs office chief Capt.

Lued Lincuna said.

The US Coast Guard is working with the State Department to transfer the ship to the PN as part of a Foreign Military Sale Program through the Foreign Assistance Act.

Still inconvenient truth.

Former United States vice president Al Gore presents his views on climate change during the 31st leadership training of the Climate Reality Project at the Sofitel hotel in Pasay City on Monday.

DANNY PATA

2 bomb suspects nabbed in Zambo

By Francisco Tuyay TWO suspected bombers, who were found in possession of a key ingredient in bomb-making, were arrested by combined security forces at a port in Zamboanga City Sunday night.

The authorities said they nabbed Allan Ajing Ajijun, 30, and Asbi Tandih Jama, 21, both residents of Zamboanga City, on Saturday at the Sangil Port and seized two kilos of ammonium nitrate, six improvised blasting caps and two time fuses.

This developed as Zamboanga City Mayor Maria Isabelle Salazar commended intelligence units from the Philippine National Police and the Armed Forces of the Philippines for

the arrest of the suspected and the seizure of the bomb component.

“I commended the intelligence communities, the Task Force Zamboanga and the Zamboanga City Police, but I also want to look deeper into identities and background of the suspects,” Salazar said.

Chief Insp. Rogelio Alabata, spokesman of the Zamboanga Peninsula regional police, said the suspect were caught by Naval Intelligence and Security Company, Marine Battalion Landing Team, Air Force Intelligence Special Group Field Station Western Mindanao and Naval Special Operation Unit.

Security forces in Mindanao has launched a wide-scale intelligence

monitoring for potential bombing activities by local terrorist groups following reports that 100 Muslim recruits trained by foreign militants are out to conduct bombings in Mindanao.

The recruits are said to have been graduated from a clandestine school of bomb-making somewhere in Liguasan Marsh near Tacurong, Sultan Kudarat.

The recruits, sources said, were trained by Salahudin Hassan, a member of the Al-Khobar group supporting the Jemaah Islamiya, and Mumanda Ali, alias Mauwiya, a former military officer from Singapore, who became of JI leader responsible for the 2001 Bali, Indonesia bombing. He fled to Mindanao in 2002.

GMA seeks birthday furlough

By Rey E. Requejo

Vice presidential empathy. Vice President Jejomar Binay, presidential bet of the

opposition United Nationalist Alliance, visits three victims hit by a vehicle that cut the UNA motorcade in Baguio on Sunday.

FORMER president and now Pampanga Rep. Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo has asked the Supreme Court for a five day furlough for the celebration of her birthday next month.

In a two-page motion filed last Friday, Arroyo, who is on hospital arrest while standing trial for her remaining case in the Sandiganbayan, appealed to be allowed to leave the Veterans Memorial Medical Center and spend her birthday with her family in their Quezon City home from April 3 to April 7.

Her lawyers argued that celebrating her 69th birthday on April 5 with her family would benefit Arroyo, especially considering her frail health.

“It is the opinion of her doctors that her continued confinement is injurious to her health. A five-day furlough to celebrate her birthday and be with family

and friends will do the former president some good,” Arroyo’s lawyers said in their pleading.

“Petitioner Arroyo appeals anew to the humanity of the Honorable Supreme Court and respectfully asks that she be granted a similar furlough for her birthday on 5 April 2016... To this day, the law presumes petitioner Arroyo innocent. She is not a flight risk and has no intention of fleeing,” they added.

Last December, the SC granted relief to Arroyo by approving her plea for a holiday furlough and allowing her to spend Christmas and New Year with her family in their Quezon City residence.

Last week, the SC extended for the second time its order suspending the trial of Mrs. Arroyo.

It extended for 60 days or until April 20 its status quo ante order halting the proceedings before the first division of the anti-graft court on the PCSO case.

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Binay’s top cadet; PNoy’s goat

By Christine F. Herrera IN few official functions that President Benigno Aquino III and Vice President Jejomar Binay were together after their falling out, the two officials broke the ice and had a good laugh during the graduation rites of the Philippine Military Academy at fort Del Pilar in Baguio on Sunday.

The ice breaker turned out to be whose province mate was valedictorian and whose was the goat or the last in the class.

It was the first time that Aquino and Binay met a few days after the President said he regretted having Binay as his vice president and that it would have been different had it been his running mate who had won the vice presidential race.

President Aquino’s running mate in 2010 was Mar Roxas II, the ruling Liberal Party’s standard bearer, who lost to Binay by 700,000 votes.

Binay and Roxas, who is backed by the President, are squaring off again for the presidential race with the vice president running under the banner of the oppositionist United Nationalist Alliance.

Binay chose to ignore the President’s dig against him but scored a few points when he got applauded by the families of the PMA graduates when his arrival was announced while the chief executive was given the cold shoulder.

To break the ice, Binay boasted to President Aquino that the valedictorian of the PMA Gabay-Laya Class of 2016 was a province mate and a fellow Ibanag, Cadet first Class Kristian Daeve Gelacio Abiqui.

“Sabi ko kasi sa kanya, Mr. President, ‘yong valedictorian, IP (indigenous people) ‘yon, IP. Ibanag. Natutuwa ako do’n ha. Nag-Ibanag pa siya. At sinabi niya ‘yong grade school niya, doon pa sa bayan ng Nanay ko. Kasi ‘yong bayan nila dati was part of Cabagan, ‘yong San Pablo,” Binay told Aquino.

Rubbing it in, Binay added: “Saka dalawa ‘yon ah na taga-Isabela sa top 10.

Pero five in all out of 63. Pero No. 1 and No. 3 taga-Isabela.” “‘Yong pinakahuli, ang tawag dun goat.

‘Yong goat sa PNPA (Philippine National Police Academy), sabi ko sa kanya, Mr. President, balita ko kababayan mo raw ‘yon. Taga-Tarlac,” Binay told the President.

President Aquino retorted: “Oo nga, ‘di nga makatingin sa akin eh.”

Then the two started laughing.

Pro-poor. Senatorial candidate and Rep. Martin Romualdez links arms with urban poor leaders led by Kusog Bisaya chairperson Linda Mendez during a consultation held in Quezon City. Romualdez proposes the expansion of the conditional cash transfer program aimed at enhancing the government’s proverty alleviation efforts. MANNY PALMERO

Urban poor groups go for Romualdez

By Maricel V. Cruz The 400,000-strong Kusog Bisaya, composed of labor, farmers, fisherfolk and urban poor groups, on Monday declared support for the senatorial candidacy of house Independent Bloc Leader and Leyte Rep. Martin Romualdez following his “malasakit” (compassionate) platform for the welfare of Filipino people especially on his proposal to increase the cash grant of conditional cash transfer. erlinda Mendez, chairperson of Kusog Bisaya, said Romualdez’s proposal to institutionalize the CCT will help address the bias in the selection of legitimate beneficiaries.

“Congressman Romualdez has plans for us to address our problem on CCT implementation. we thank the congress-

man for his malasakit,” Mendez told reporters in a press conference after the Urban Poor Consultation guested by Romualdez at Quezon City restaurant.

Mendez said Romualdez’s election to the Senate would guarantee that problems of ordinary filipinos will be addressed, including jobs, deliv-

Animated.

Senator Gregorio Honasan, Red Cross chairman Richard ‘Dick’ Gordon and lawyer Romulo Macalintal find themselves engaging in animated discussion on ‘Election 2016’ during the media forum hosted

by Samahang Plaridel held at the Manila Hotel.

LINO SANTOS

ery of social services, peace and order, disaster preparedness, corruption and among others.

Jim Lamento, Kusog Bisaya media relations officer, lauded Romualdez for advancing specific requests of their group especially on reforming the CCT which significantly helping their sector.

“Our members are overwhelmingly supporting the candidacy of Rep. Martin,” Lamento said as he urged Romualdez to address the politicized nature of CCT through his proposal to institutionalize the program.

The group was also joined by members of urban poor community from Malabon and Navotas.

Responding to them, Romualdez vowed to expand the number of beneficiaries

and increase the amount of cash grant to the poorest of the poor.

“This is part of our malasakit program devoid of any controversy and politics. we will also ensure checks and balances in its implementation through congressional oversight,” Romualdez said in the same press conference where he was invited by the urban poor group to join.

Romualdez told the media that the proposed expansion of the CCT program aimed at enhancing the poverty alleviation efforts of the government by extending a maximum of P46,200 and a minimum of P24,200 financial support annually to each qualified household-beneficiary as “malasakit” (compassion) to the poorest of the poor.

BIR chief first on VP’s ‘hit list’ deals at the UMak. “The BIR chief has acted swiftly on a writThe United Nationalist Alliance’s presi- ten request from a critic of Vice President dential bet Vice President Jejomar Binay Binay, which is all part of their conspiracy on Monday said that Bureau of Internal to harass businesses and private individuRevenue chief Kim henares will be gone 30 als even remotely connected to the VP,” said minutes after he took his oath as president. UNA campaign spokesman Rico Quicho.

Binay said he was prompted to plan to In response to a letter by Trillanes, move fast on henares’ tenure because she henares said the tax agency will not was even faster in taking action on vice discount the allegations raised against presidential bet Senator Antonio Tril- Binay, his son former Makati Mayor lanes IV’s request for a probe of Universi- Jejomar “Junjun” Binay and key sharety of Makati, involving some government holders of STI holdings who allegedly officials and shareholders of publicly siphoned public funds from the school. listed STI holdings, Inc. “In the business community, harassBinay said the school officials were ment is a term that is associated with the remotely connected to him yet Trillanes BIR. No wonder the business community and henares started to harass them. has warmly applauded VP Binay’s stateThe BIR over the weekend said it ment that the BIR chief will be gone 30 will investigate possible tax liabilities minutes after he takes oath as President,” arising from allegedly questionable Quicho said.

By Christine F. Herrera

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A6

NEWS

editorial@thestandard.com.ph

Graft raps filed vs governor

By Rio Araja

The Office of the Ombudsman filed on Monday graft charges before the Sandiganbayan against Pangasinan Gov. Amado espino Jr. and several other people in connection with their alleged involvement in the illegal magnetite or black sand mining along the coastal areas of Lingayen.

Apart from Espino, the anti-graft body also indicted were Provincial Administrator Rafael Baraan and Cynthia Camara and Lolita Bolayog of Alexandra Mining and Oil Ventures Inc. (Alexandra Mining).

Also charged were Pangasinan Housing and Urban Development Coordinating Officer Alvin Bigay; Alexan-

dra Mining Directors Cesar Detera, Edwin Alcazar, Denise Ann Sia Kho Po, Annlyn Detera, Glenn Subia and Emiliano Buenavista; and Michael Ramirez, Gina Alcazar and Avery Pujol of Xypher Builders Inc. The filing of graft complaints against Espino and others came after Ombudsman Conchita Carpio-Mo-

rales has upheld its decision indicting Espino, Baraan and several others for graft and corruption over illegal black sand mining activities in Pangasinan.

In a Jan. 11, 2016 resolution, Ombudsman Conchita Carpio-Morales denied the motions for reconsideration filed by Espino, dismissed provincial administrator Rafael Baraan and provincial housing development officer Alvin Bigay, and officers of the companies contracted for the magnetite extraction activities.

“All indictments against them, as originally written in a joint resolution dated February 28, 2014, stand. The office maintains the finding of grave misconduct and meting the penalty and acces-

sory penalties against Baraan and Bigay,” the Ombudsman ruled.

The anti-graft body stressed that it found Espino, Baraan and Bigay criminally liable for their actions when they issued permits and transacted with two companies—Alexandra Mining and Oil Ventures and Xypher Builders Inc.—which were “unqualified to undertake the eco-tourism, golf course development and/or mining activities.”

It noted that the two companies contracted to remove the black sand did not acquire environmental compliance certificate allowing them to undertake magnetite extraction activities in Lingayen Gulf, and were not members of the Philippine Contractors

Accreditation Board.

“Despite this glaring infirmity, they [Espino and other provincial officials] still negotiated and contracted with this unregistered contractor and authorized the magnetite extraction activities, thereby evincing their manifest partiality in favor of the said companies,” the Ombudsman said, in its resolution.

The extraction of the magnetite, also known as black sand, happened from 2011 to 2013 within the area of a proposed 18-hole golf-course project spanning the coastal barangays of Sabangan, Malimpuec, Capandanan and Estanza.

Last year, the Office of the Ombudsman ordered the filing of graft charges Espino and 13 others for allegedly

engaging in illegal black sand mining trade in the Lingayen Gulf area.

The Ombudsman said Espino, Baraan, and Cynthia Camara and Lolita Bolayog of Alexandra Mining and Oil Ventures, Inc. violated two counts of Section 3(e) of Republic Act 3019 or the AntiGraft and Corrupt Practices Act. On the other hand, Pangasinan Housing and Urban Development Coordinating Officer Alvin Bigay, Alexandra Mining directors Cesar Detera, Edwin Alcazar, Denise Ann Sia Kho Po, Annlyn Detera, Glenn Subia and Emiliano Buenavista and Michael Ramirez, Gina Alcazar and Avery Pujol of Xypher Builders, Inc. violated one count of Section 3(e).

Public Works vows to act on trafficking

By Vito Barcelo THE Department of Public Works and Highways has pledged to institutionalize zero tolerance on trafficking in persons in all its infrastructure projects all over the Philippines under an agreement with the Millennium Challenge Corporation MCC and Millennium Challenge Account-Philippines.

The move came amid charges that white slavery and prostitution were on the rise in areas where roads were being constructed or repaired by the public works department.

The increase in the number of road and bridge projects in the country has spawned the operation not just of brothels and other sex establishments, but also the cause in the rise of person being trafficked, according to MCA-P. In a statement, the MCA-P said they have convinced the DPWH to adopt an anti-trafficking in person policy.

The initiative will involve capacity building of DPWH em-

ployees and staff in 18 regional offices, including the agency’s headquarters. It aims to integrate anti-TIP measures in different phases of construction using the “Toolkit for Making Road Insfrastructure Projects Gender Responsive.”

Undersecretary Maria Catalina S. Cabral, who chairs the DPWH Committee on Gender and Development, expressed commitment to incorporate anti-TIP initiatives to the agency’s gender toolkit during the opening of the first batch of Training of Trainers last Feb. 10.

“DPWH is really in a unique position to be able to make change and to have a better fight against trafficking in persons within its projects,” MCC deputy resident country director Burak C. Inanc was quoted in the statement.

MCA-P managing director and chief executive officer Ma. Victoria E. Añonuevo said she personally have no doubt that the government remain steadfast in fighting TIP.

Read-along. Filipino-American Virgilio Minimo, a crewmember of the USS Antietem, leads other US Navy sailors who participate in a read-along program organized by the Philippine Coast Guard on Monday, March 14, 2016 at the Pedro Guevarra Elementary School in Binondo, Manila. DANNY PATA

Pasig flood control system restored Turnover.

Newly appointed Chairman Anselmo Adriano of the Optical Media Board (right) receives the agency’s flag from Chairman Lualhati Buenafe during the ceremonial turnover at the OMB office in Quezon City. mANNY PAlmeRo

By Joel e. Zurbano THE Japan International Cooperation Agency has completed the repair of a flood control system in Pasig City whose components and remote stations were severely damaged by previous typhoons.

Jica officials on Monday formally turned over the newly restored Effective Flood Control Operation System in a simple ceremony at the Rosario Pumping Station in Barangay Manggahan, Pasig City.

The system has been placed under Jica’s 15-month rehabilitation.

In October 2014, Jica and MMDA officials signed an agreement for the improvement of the facility, involving the restoration of the telemetry system and replacement of its radio system—two of

the most vital components of the project.

The telemetry system will be used for a more efficient f lood monitoring and early warning mechanism while the radio system will help in reporting advance rainfall data.

Under the agreement, Jica provided the funding of the restoration of the telemetry equipment amounting to P74.7 million.

MMDA chairman Emerson Carlos said the project will contribute to the flood control and early warning system especially during the onset of the rainy season.

He said that Efcos will be beneficial not only to the eastern Metro Manila residents but also to those in the province of Rizal such as the towns of San Mateo, and Rodriguez—which likewise bore the brunt of the mas-

sive flooding in the wake of Typhoon “Ondoy.”

“The Efcos Project will greatly complement our continuous efforts to minimize flooding in flood-prone areas the Pasig-Marikina-Laguna Lake complex thus saving thousands of lives during this natural calamity,” Carlos said.

As early as February, Carlos said that hundreds of MMDA personnel have embarked on the annual Estero Blitz program, the agency’s waterways cleanup drive in Metro Manila, in preparation for the coming typhoon months.

There are 18 observation stations transmitting data to the Efcos while four monitoring stations (Department of Public Works and Highways Central Office, Pagasa, Napindan, and Rosario) are receiving the data.

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ADELLE CHUA EDITOR

lettertotheeditor@thestandard.com.ph

A7

OPINION

NOWHERE IN THE AGENDA

[ EDI TORI A L ] FORMER United States Vice President Al Gore visited Tacloban City over the weekend to see for himself how the people had rebuilt their lives after surviving one of the strongest weather events on record.

Upon his return to Manila, he led a three-day training among so-called climate warriors who would amplify calls on government, corporations and individuals alike to do something to mitigate the emission of greenhouse gases into the atmosphere.

Gore established the scientific link between the increase in global temperature and the occurrence of extreme weather events. He also emphasized that the Philippines tops the list of countries most vulnerable to the

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effects of climate change even as its emissions, both historical and current, have been insignificant.

Talking about the climate is as timely as it is urgent. “We do not have centuries; we have years,” Gore said. This backdrop sets the stage for a more popularized discussion of the effects of climate change and means of mitigation and adaptation.

But why isn’t the discussion happening right now in the context of the Philippine elections, less than two months away?

Climate change is hardly mentioned as presidential candidates go around communities, shake the hands of voters and present what they intend to if they get elected. There is talk about addressing poverty,

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improving education, upgrading infrastructure and pursuing some path or another.

There is no mention, however, of how to balance the country’s power needs with the recognition that sources of energy should shift from coal-based to clean. Experience tells us that while renewable energy like solar and wind may cost more to establish, there is an ultimate, hidden cost to sticking with fossil-fuel based sources. In fact, the Philippines—led by President Aquino himself—committed to this by signing the Paris agreement along with 195 other nations in December.

Disasters end lives and undo gains realized over decades, and it is a wonder that government officials only talk about reduc-

MST Management, Inc. Philip G. Romualdez Arnold C. Liong Former Chief Justice Reynato S. Puno Jocelyn F. Domingo Ron Ryan S. Buguis Anita F. Grefal Treasury Manager

Chairman President & Chief Executive Officer Board Member & Chief Legal Adviser Director of Operations Finance Officer Edgar M. Valmorida Circulation Manager

ing and managing disaster risk in the aftermath of such an event. There has also been no progress in proposals to institutionalize an agency that would lead DRR efforts. At present, the National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council is composed of several agencies that must hurdle coordination challenges on top of actually addressing the needs of the affected communities.

A few weeks remain until the people are expected to cast their votes on May 9. There is still time to raise the questions that matter. The answers may not be as racy as those made attacking other candidates, but these responses will give us a better idea of how these aspirants regard the job they are applying for.

Rolando G. Estabillo Jojo A. Robles Ramonchito L. Tomeldan Chin Wong/Ray S. Eñano Francis Lagniton Joyce Pangco Pañares Adelle Chua Romel J. Mendez Roberto Cabrera

Publisher Editor-in-Chief Managing Editor Associate Editors News Editor City Editor Senior Deskman Art Director Chief Photographer

Emil P. Jurado Chairman Emeritus, Editiorial Board

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A10

OPINION lettertotheeditor@thestandard.com.ph

AMBA WRITES 30 LOWDOWN JOJO A. ROBLES A GREAT man died last Friday. And I hope that through this piece, the people who did not have the good fortune of meeting former Ambassador Antonio L. Cabangon Chua will get an idea of how much I admired him—and how great a loss his passing was to the media industry.

The people who have already had the pleasure of meeting and working with “Amba” over the years will have no problem understanding my admiration. If you’re among those who never did, I hope I’m up to the task of explaining why.

You wanted to make Amba happy, because he gave you his unwavering trust and the freedom to be—and outdo —yourself.

I was late to the party of getting to know “Amba.” I met him only in latter part of 2014, when I was being considered to anchor the long-running radio talk show “Karambola” on Amba’s dwIZ. I was immediately struck by how devoid of airs and how respectful he was of the people in my line of work. It was also clear that this self-made billionaire, an accountant by profession, was in love with the journalism trade.

Understand, this was a man who owned a nationwide radio network, a bunch of newspapers and magazines and the local affiliate of CNN; on top of that, he was also an acknowledged leader or major player in the insurance, hospitality, real estate, hotel, auto dealership, memorial park, banking and other industries. In my experience, such people were often so full of themselves

that they treated the people beneath them economically as mere pawns in the outsize chessboard of their plutocratic lives.

Amba was not like that.

Sitting across from him at a table in a quiet restaurant in Makati, I thought, this is a man who treats the people who work for him as his partners, instead of just hired help; I knew immediately that I would enjoy working for him.

We exchanged anecdotes about people we both knew like long-lost former colleagues, drank wine, laughed and cussed a lot and laid out plans small and grand. The following morning, he called me, of all things, to apologize.

“I may have spoken too freely last night because of the wine,” Amba said.

“Please forgive me for being indiscreet.”

I was a 30-year veteran of newspapers and broadcast.

But I was hooked like a starstruck rookie who had just met his first news celebrity. *** Amba was easy, but getting on the air was not so troublefree. Largely because of this newspaper column, I had developed a well-deserved reputation as a staunch critic of government; one administration big shot decided that he would make it his business to stop me from getting another platform for my views.

This controversial but very powerful figure called on Amba and demanded that I should not get on the show, or the Congress-granted franchise for his station would not be renewed. Now, if you know anything about the broadcast industry, you’ll know that this is a very serious threat—most network owners would have quailed and acquiesced.

But they are not Amba.

The old man stared the big shot down and refused to be bullied; I got on the show and Amba’s franchise was granted by both Houses.

Again, I was impressed.

And I am not one who is impressed easily.

In the course of working for Amba for more than a year, he would have lunch with the Karambola crew at a favorite Japanese restaurant. But he never told us what or what not to do.

Continued on A12

OLYMPUS HAS FALLEN I FELT shattered not only as a journalist, but more as a lawyer, with the Supreme Court decision finding Mrs. Mary Grace Natividad Kelly Poe Llamanzares qualified to run for president because she is a natural-born Filipino and has been a resident of the Philippines for over 10 years, just as the Constitution mandates.

Santa Banana, in fact, I felt like tearing up the Philippine Constitution on my desk. With this ruling, the fundamental law of the land, which I consider the people’s will since it was ratified by the people, has turned into a scrap of paper.

When I took up Constitutional Law, I was made to believe that the Constitution is the anchor of our democratic way of life. It is so sacrosant that it must be interpreted according to its letter and intent.

But Sereno et al interpreted the Constitution according to their whims and caprices, and even worse, injecting their opinions and twisting the facts. They defy logic!

My gulay, Mrs. Llamanzares is “presumed” naturalborn simply because she is a foundling and that, statistically speaking, there are far more babies born to Filipinos than to foreigners in the Philippines. Logic and reason tell us that this is a non-sequitur —an argument that does not follow.

And that the Comelec in disqualifying Mrs. Llamanzares did not misrepresent nor lied when she filed her Certificate of Candidacy for the Senate in 2013, which she never corrected (perhaps not knowing then that she would ever aspire to be president).

“It was an honest mistake,” Sereno and her cohorts said. Many of them, appointed by BS Aquino, wanted to protect the man who appointed them by trying to make Mrs. Llamanzares a potential president, likely because she has agreed to prevent Aquino from landing in jail.

Mrs. Llamanzares did not misrepresent and lie about her residency? Santa Banana, she misrepresented and lied not once, but twice.

If Sereno et al only checked the record of Mrs. Llamanzares when she filed her documents for dual citizenship under Republic Act 9225 before immigration as required by law, she would

TO THE POINT EMIL P. JURADO have known that the senator declared under oath: “I am a natural-born Philippine citizen, born on Sept. 3, 1968 in Iloilo City to Ronald Allan Kelly Poe, a Filipino citizen, and Jesusa Sonora Poe, a Filipino citizen...” in her 2006 notarized petition for citizenship. This is a bare-faced lie and we all know it.

Another lie was in claiming that she had resided in the Philippines since May 24, 2005. At that time, she was still an American resident domiciled in the US. In short, Sereno and her cohorts did not rely on facts but on their whims, caprices and sentiments. I have always said that Mrs. Llamanzares is the “Manchurian candidate” of BS Aquino, who is relying on her for protection just in case administration candidate Mar Roxas does not make it. And that seems certain, with Mar languishing in fourth place in all poll surveys.

Santa Banana, now comes this big twist in this comedy of errors brought about by the Sereno Court. Senior Associate Justice Antonio Carpio claimed that there was no majority decision as required by the internal rules of the high court, needing eight votes, in its 9-6 decision qualifying Mrs. Llamanzares. Carpio claimed that the voting on the issue of citizenship of Mrs. Llamanzares was not 9-6, but 7-5-3, which means that there was no decision at all.

While Sereno disputed Carpio’s claim in his dissent, he insisted that just seven of the nine justices were of the opinion that foundlings like Mrs. Llamanzares were considered natural-born. They were Sereno herself, and Associate Justices Presbitero Velasco Jr., Lucas Bersamin, Jose Perez, Jose Mendoza, Marvic Leonen and Benjamin Caguioa.

Santa Banana, this puts the Sereno Court on crisis mode.

It’s bad enough that the Constitution’s letter and intent were not followed by the alleged 9-6 decision. Now a senior associate justice claims that there was no decision at all. My gulay, Olympus has fallen!

I believe the only way the Supreme Court can recover

from this is another en banc decision if only to restore the people’s faith and credibility of the Supreme Court, which had been eroded. Otherwise, if Sereno insists on her claim, the facts are clear that there was no majority decision on Mrs. Llamanzars’ qualification. Since she is a potential president, Santa Banana, would the people accept an alien as president, chief executive, Commanderin-Chief of the Armed Forces and top cop of the Philippine National Police?

It’s bad enough that the nation also has a crisis with the Comelec trying to postpone the May 9 polls, or even resort to manual voting. My gulay, the nation is being pushed to the edge! *** I mourn the death of a close friend, former Ambassador to Laos Antonio Cabangon Chua, who was the founder and chairman emeritus of 21 corporations of the multi-billion ALC Group of Companies nationwide.

Whenever Tony had a problem in business he could not solve by himself, he would call me: “Manong, I need your advice.”

More than being a sharp businessman—he was engaged in insurance, pre-need services, car distribution, banking, hotels and tourism, even in schools, radio and television, printing, security services and magazine publishing—he was a good friend to journalists, ever ready to help them, and even to religious organizations. In the many times I went to his office along Roces Avenue, I always saw people, and even bishops lining up for assistance. He was a very good friend of the late Cardinal Sin and now Cardinal Luis Tagle and many bishops nationwide.

Tony’s rags-to-riches story was well chronicled by National Artist Nick Joaquin, one-time editor-in-chief of Tony’s Graphic Magazine, who wrote Tony’s “Saga of Success.” There was a sequel by award-winning writer Jose F. Lacaba, another Graphic editor, and Eric Caruncho titled “No Dream Too Tall.” There’s also a book on Tony’s “Continuing Saga of Success.”

I will already remember Tony’s generosity to friends and projects of the Catholic Church as his way of paying back for his many successes.

Continued on A12

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A11

OPINION lettertotheeditor@thestandard.com.ph

HAIL TO THE CHAIR VICTOR AVECILLA

THE POE DECISION: WHAT HAPPENED?

(Part 1)

Equally important is the fact that when it comes to LAST week, a divided Su- who is qualified to run for preme Court, voting 9 to 6, president, the Constitution ruled that Senator Grace Poe requires a fact—natural-born is eligible to run for president Philippine citizenship—and in the May 2016 elections. not a likelihood of one’s citiThe majority held that from zenship, or a statistical infera statistical perspective, it is ence on one’s likely parents, very likely that Poe’s biologi- as the majority relied on. cal parents are Filipinos beSimply put, the Constitucause she was discovered as a tion is not worded properly foundling in Iloilo; that from enough to accommodate the birth statistics in Iloilo in Poe’s ambition to become the late 1960s submitted by president. Thus, if Poe wants the Solicitor General, it may to be president, she has to be inferred that Poe was born follow the proper proceto Filipino parents; and that dure. First, Poe should get the commitment of the Re- Congress to convene as a public of the Philippines to constituent assembly and the rules on international law propose amendments to the warrant that conclusion.

Constitution that will allow The majority ruling has no foundlings to run for presilegal foundation anywhere in dent. Second, Poe must get the 1987 Constitution and, Congress, this time sitting as as pointed out by Justice a legislature, to enact a law Arturo Brion in his dissent- calling for a plebiscite where ing opinion in the Senate the Filipino people will either Electoral Tribunal case filed ratify or reject the proposed against Poe, there is nothing amendments. If the peoin any international covenant ple ratify the amendments, signed by the Philippines then Poe can validly run for which categorically supports president. Therefore, until the sweeping assumptions the Constitution is properly the majority made in render- amended, there is nothing in ing judgment in favor of Poe. the charter to warrant Poe’s

desire to run for the highest office in the land.

The Supreme Court does not have the power to propose amendments to the Constitution, or to enact a law calling for a plebiscite. It likewise cannot decide for the people whether or not any proposed amendment to the Constitution should be ratified. Poe’s critics maintain that the majority ruling amounts to precisely that—a judicial usurpation of the aforementioned constituent and legislative powers of Congress, as well as the power of the sovereign people to ratify amendments to the Constitution.

In other words, the majority of the Supreme Court held that Poe is a naturalborn citizen of the Philippines, not on the basis of the Constitution, but on the basis of judicial fiat (or judicial legislation in Constitutional Law).

Poe’s case shows that the Supreme Court chose to interpret the provisions of the 1987 Constitution liberally, instead of strictly—as it did when it dismissed petitions filed a couple of years ago

by public interest advocates seeking to enforce specific provisions of the charter.

One petition sought to compel the Commission on Elections to come up with rules against political dynasties because Congress refuses and continues to refuse to fulfill its constitutionally mandated duty to prohibit political dynasties. The other petition sought to compel the Department of Foreign Affairs to press the Philippine claim to North Borneo (Sabah) in the wake of a Malaysian crackdown on Filipino Muslims staking their historic claim to this valuable tract of land. Cited in the petition is the provision of the Constitution which defines the extent of the territory of the Philippines.

In dismissing the petition on political dynasties, the Supreme Court said it is powerless to order the Comelec to come out with a rule outlawing political dynasties because the language of the Constitution provides that only Congress may outlaw political dynasties. The Court did not explain why

it applied a strict interpretation of the Constitution when the Constitution itself authorizes the Comelec to decide all questions affecting elections.

Moreover, an earlier ruling of the Supreme Court involving the aborted sale of the Manila Hotel categorically stated that the government should not be left in a quandary just because Congress refuses to perform a duty mandated by the Constitution. In that ruling, the Court said that the judiciary is empowered precisely to address problems where Congress does not want to perform specific acts mandated by the Constitution.

Despite the foregoing premises, the Supreme Court chose to uphold the strict letter of the Constitution. As a result, Congress will continue to refuse to prohibit political dynasties, and the Filipino people will just have to tolerate the endless list of political families which shamelessly dominate the elections to every public office within the reach of their influence.

Continued on A12

AL GORE AND MY CLIMATE STORY EAGLE EYES DEAN TONY LA VIÑA AS I wrote in my previous column, The Climate Reality Project is hosting a climate leadership training event in Manila this week.

Participants came from all over the Philippines to learn about climate change and how to communicate about this challenge. The objective is to train many Filipinos to join the Climate Reality Leadership Corps, described by the Climate Reality Project as “a global network of activists committed to taking on the climate crisis and solving what is far and away the greatest challenge of our time.” The aim is to catalyze a “dynamic group of worldchangers shaping the conversation on climate in forums from family dinners to international summits and building a 21st-century movement for solutions.”

The training program, being held in the Philippines for

the first time, forms leaders and makes them exceptional.

Participants are exposed to climate science and provided communications and organizing skills so they can share the story of climate change.

The hope is that these leaders will inspire communities everywhere to take action.

The idea, as the Climate Reality Project has articulated, “is to bring a global challenge down to street level.”

According to their website: “We hear it on the news and see it in the headlines: climate change is transforming our seasons and our planet.

But in between all the media chatter, it can be hard to know what climate change actually means for our daily lives—or what we can do to solve it.”

This is the role then of the Climate Reality Leadership Corps: “Climate Reality Leaders are messengers and activists personally trained by former US Vice President Al Gore to share the truth about what climate change is doing to our world and how we can stop it by shifting to

clean, renewable energy. Climate Reality Leaders break down the complex terms of science and policy into the language of everyday life so people everywhere can understand how climate change directly affects them and join the millions worldwide working for solutions. Climate Reality Leaders regularly hold public forums on climate change and solutions all around the world.”

Its founder and Chairman Al Gore, former Vice President of the United States inspires the Climate Reality Project. He is leading the training in Manila, delivering several talks, including moderating the panel I will be joining on Wednesday.

On the first day of the training (that was yesterday, Monday), Mr. Gore presented the updated version of his “An Inconvenient Truth” which won him an Emmy and eventually the Nobel Peace Prize.

Before the training, to be sure he could speak from experience about climate change and the Philippines, Mr. Gore went to Tacloban City and

toured the Yolanda/Haiyandevastated city with Mayor Alfred Romualdez and Senator Loren Legarda. In his presentations yesterday, he also bothered to use the Filipino names of the biggest storms, again grounding the problem of climate change in our experience.

As I shared in the training yesterday, I must confess to being personally inspired

by Al Gore. Among others, I did my doctoral dissertation in Yale University on climate change because of his book “Earth in the Balance.” I remember particularly these words from that book: “We can believe in the future and work to achieve it and preserve it, or we can whirl blindly on, behaving as if one day there will be no children to inherit our legacy.

The choice is ours; the earth is in balance.”

Later in Kyoto, Japan, when I negotiated the Kyoto Protocol for the Philippines, I rejoiced when Mr. Gore, then US Vice-President, instructed the American delegation to be more flexible

in the final stretch of the negotiations. That intervention was critical to get the Kyoto Protocol adopted.

I was working in Washington, DC in 2000 when Mr. Gore lost the presidential elections by act of the US Supreme Court. I was heartbroken with that, even as that later enabled me to meet him in person as he joined the board of the World Resources Institute where I worked as a senior fellow.

Finally, in 2006, having returned to the Philippines to become the Dean of the Ateneo School of Government, I was persuaded by Mr. Gore’s documentary “An Inconvenient Truth” to jump back into the climate issue.

Eventually, I returned to the climate change negotiations and have been a lead negotiator of the Philippines all the way to the Paris conference on climate change.

In Paris last December, I met Mr. Gore again and was touched by the empathy he showed when, as Rappler recalled, he told us “When the Continued on A12

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A12

OPINION lettertotheeditor@thestandard.com.ph

EIGHT STORY LINES EXPLAIN THE GLOBAL ECONOMIC CRISIS

By Justin Fox SOMETHING weird is going on with the global economy.

It’s been going on since at least 2007. Economic growth has been slow, financial markets have been volatile and economic policy makers have often been at a loss.

We tend to focus on the problem of the moment—the subprime crisis, the euro crisis, the China slowdown, the oil bust.

But surely these events are connected. What threads link them?

I’ve been collecting possible story lines for a while now. I make no claim that the eight here are an exhaustive list. Together, though, they paint an interesting picture, if not a clear one.

Global Financial Crisis and Aftermath. There was an international bad-debt crisis that started in 2007 and really got interesting in 2008, and the global economy is still dealing with its aftermath. Carmen Reinhart and Kenneth Rogoff tell the basic story in “This Time Is Different: Eight Centuries of Financial Folly”: These debt crises happen from time to time, and they always leave an economic hangover. This crisis was especially large, so the hangover has been especially long and painful.

Great Deviation.

Economist John Taylor defined this in a 2011 paper as “the recent period during which macro-

economic policy became more interventionist, less rules based, and less predictable” (emphasis his). The deviations from good policy started in 2003 with the Federal Reserve’s decision to keep interest rates lower than dictated by the monetary guideline known as the Taylor rule (yes, same Taylor), and have continued through various bailouts and monetary easings and fiscal stimuli in the US and Europe. Taylor’s specific diagnosis of policy failure has been much disputed, but the sentiment that government and central-bank errors have let us down is widely shared.

End of the American Century. Since the 1940s the US has been the dominant force in the global economy and the dollar the de facto global currency. In recent years this dominance has waned, but no other country or global institution is ready to take over. The result is continuing uncertainty and unrest in geopolitics, economics and financial markets. And there’s no sign of that ending anytime soon.

End of Inflation. Since the 1200s, historian David Hackett Fischer wrote in “The Great Wave: Price Revolutions and the Rhythm of History,” the world has seen four long periods of rising prices. The first three were followed by economic and political turmoil and then a long

The Poe... From A11 The other petition—involving the Philippine claim to North Borneo (Sabah is the name the Malaysians gave to the territory), also ended on a sad note. History indicates that when Britain granted independence to Malaysia, London allowed Kuala Lumpur to exercise sovereignty over North Borneo. This is legally invalid because North Borneo was never a colonial territory of the British. It was only leased by the Sultan of Sulu to a British corporation. Before World War II, the United States repeatedly told Britain that North Borneo is not British property to give away by the British at will. The American advisory fell on deaf British ears, or

Olympus... From A10 I remember Tony preferring to be low-profile in almost all the things he did. He had a lifetime achievement award from the Kapisanan ng mga Brodkaster sa Pilipinas, which I founded. He was also chairman of the Catholic Mass Media Awards, and

Al Gore... From A11 suffering of the people of Tacloban was understood and felt by people around the world, it had a profound effect on the way people understood the impact of this stronger storm.”

In the final stretch of the Paris negotiations, as we went sleepless to nail down the historic agreement, I found myself recalling the opening words of Mr. Gore as he showed us the

period of price stability. The fourth, which in Fischer’s telling began in the late 1890s and was still going when he published his book in 1996, may now be in its death throes. If history is any guide, those could go on for a while, and spark multiple financial crises. Even if you don’t believe that history moves in long waves, it’s clear that after the Great Inflation of the 1960s and 1970s and the Great Disinflation (another Taylor phrase, meaning a long period of declining but still above-zero inflation) that followed, central bankers are at something of a loss as deflation spreads.

Great Stagnation. Economist Tyler Cowen was referring specifically to the US when he popularized this term, but it’s a good name for the more global phenomenon of a slowdown in technology-driven productivity growth and a waning of the conditions (big untapped export markets abroad, big untapped labor supply at home) that allowed developing countries to make great economic leaps forward in recent decades.

Technological Revolution. On the other hand, maybe the productivity slowdown is just the prelude to a boom. Major new technologies take time to make their impact felt, technology scholar Carlota Perez argued in her book “Technological Revolutions and Financial Capital:

more specifically, British ears that pretended to be deaf.

Since the time of President Diosdado Macapagal, the Philippines was already keen on taking back North Borneo from Malaysia. Where Macapagal left, President Ferdinand Marcos continued. Sadly, Senator Benigno “Ninoy” Aquino Jr.’s exposé in the Senate about a Philippine military plan to take North Borneo by force aborted the mission and convinced Malaysia to strengthen its hold on North Borneo. Thanks to Ninoy, the Philippines lost its only realistic chance to get back North Borneo. Since then, the Malaysians have made it a point to maltreat and discriminate against Filipinos residing in North Borneo.

Doctor Emeritus on Humanities conferred on him by the Angeles University Foundation, the biggest Catholic university north of Manila.

The best example of his humility was his desire to be buried in his hometown Mandaluyong City beside his late mother Dominga.

During the Japanese Oc-

cupation, Tony even became a shoe shine boy, something I can relate to since I was also a bootblack earning a few centavos during the war.

I will never forget Tony as a good friend, generous to a fault.

To Tony’s family, my deepest condolences. To Tony, I say, rest well and be at peace with the Lord.

iconic picture of our planet: “You see that pale, blue dot?

That’s us. Everything that has ever happened in all of human history has happened on that pixel. All the triumphs and all the tragedies, all the wars, all the famines, all the major advances.... It’s our only home. And that is what is at stake: our ability to live on planet Earth, to have a future as a civilization. I believe this is a moral issue. It is your time to seize this issue; it is our time to rise again

The Dynamics of Bubbles and Golden Ages.” With each past technological revolution there have been missteps, uncertainty and serious financial turmoil before a “golden age” in which businesses, consumers and governments figure out how to take full advantage of the new possibilities. Perez dates what she calls the information and communications technology revolution to 1971, and has speculated that the 2007 to 2008 financial crisis might mark the beginning of a transition to a new golden age. She doesn’t say how long that transition will take, though.

Population Plateau. In the latest issue of Foreign Affairs, Morgan Stanley’s Ruchir Sharma argues that declining fertility rates around the world have put a major damper on economic growth. There was a time when many people worried that unchecked population growth would destroy the planet, so in most ways the population slowdown is a really good thing. But modern capitalism arose and thrived during a long era (starting around 1350) of continuous population growth. If the global population is nearing a plateau, capitalism will have to adjust.

Peak Resource Use. The world may be nearing a decoupling of economic growth and natural-resource consumption, the Breakthrough Institute, an environmental think tank, ar-

Amba... From A10 He trusted us so completely that we basically could do whatever we want on the air. We never received a reprimand or even a reminder of any kind from him, which basically made me and my colleagues, by tacit agreement, strive every day to give our best in order that we could deserve that trust.

This was how, I think, Amba brought out the best in people. You wanted to make him happy, because he gave you his unwavering trust and the freedom to be—and outdo—yourself.

The only person for whom I have felt similar feelings was my late father. In Amba, I knew that I had found a replacement for my own departed Tatay; but like Tatay, Amba would be taken from me, as well.

When I learned from Josephine Reyes, the creator of Karambola and president of Amba’s Aliw Broadcasting, the corporate vehicle of dwIZ, that Amba had fallen sick late last year, I tried to put up

to secure our future.”

His final words in that documentary are also memorable and inspired me to complete the work in Paris: “Future generations may well have occasion to ask themselves, “What were our parents thinking?

Why didn’t they wake up when they had a chance?” We have to hear that question from them, now.”

“I believe this is a moral issue. It is your time to seize this issue. It is our time to rise again,

to secure our future.”

Yesterday, here in Manila, Mr. Gore echoed this again. He quoting from a favorite American poet, Wallace Stevens: “After the final no, there comes a yes, and on that yes, the future world depends.” Mr. Gore recalled the most important moral struggles of history—slavery, women’s suffrage, racism, among others—and pointed out how the fight to change these was met by a no many times. Eventually

gued in a report this past fall.

Per-capita use of wood, water and farmland is already falling worldwide, and while per-capita carbon emissions are still rising globally, they’re flat in the developed world. Together with the population’s plateauing, this decoupling could bring a new era of sustainable, environmentfriendly growth. As the McKinsey Global Institute proposed in a recent report, global trade may also be evolving away from flows of physical goods and toward flows of information. These shifts seem necessary and welcome for the world as a whole. But if your income or your country’s economy depends on selling commodities or manufactured goods that the world needs less of, the transition won’t be easy.

Put these all together, and what do you get? A Great Muddle, perhaps. Some stories overlap. At least two of them contradict each other. They don’t all add up to any kind of consistent narrative. I’m temperamentally most sympathetic to the last three, though, and those do add up to something. They describe a world economy that’s going through a painful but necessary transition from the industrial age to something that might be much better. We’re in the pupal stage, basically. So how about we call it the Great Metamorphosis?

Bloomberg

a brave front. But Amba was 81 years old, after all; when he missed a post-Christmas lunch with us at our favorite restaurant, I knew it was serious.

My radio partner Conrad Banal and I were doing the show last Friday morning when Josephine texted me to say that Amba had died. Because there was still no official statement from Amba’s family, we could not even announce his passing on the air.

Tomorrow, Amba will be buried beside his beloved mother Dominga at the cemetery of the San Felipe Neri Church in Mandaluyong City.

The man who rose from his poor roots to become an industrialist and media mogul, who owned and developed some of the poshest memorial parks in the country, had instructed his family to bury him in a poor man’s grave, just so he could be beside his mother.

Now that Amba is gone, it’s like I lost my father again. As Amba and my Tatay would have wanted, I shall soldier on, to prove myself worthy of both of them. the tide was turn and the choice became binary—right or wrong, good or evil. We are at this moment on climate change, Mr. Gore said, and that is why we will win this fight.

I have worked on helping the world overcome the challenge of climate change for 25 years.

With Gore’s inspiring words, I can do another 25, even more.

Facebook: Dean Tony La Viña Twitter: tonylavs

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sports sports@thestandard.com.ph

Nadal plans to sue France’s ex-sports minister

Novak Djokovic of Serbia returns a shot against Bjorn Fratangelo during the BNP Paribas Open at the Indian Wells Tennis Garden on March 11 at Indian Wells Tennis Garden on March 12, 2016 in Indian Wells, California. AFP

RAfAEl Nadal stepped up his attack on those who label him a drugs cheat, threatening to sue the french ex-sports minister who said the Spanish tennis star failed a drug test.

Nadal said on Sunday he is seeking “justice” and will have his day in court to silence critics like former french minister Roselyne Bachelot.

“I gonna sue her, and I gonna sue everyone who gonna comment something similar in the future, because I am tired of that,” Nadal said Sunday night at the Indian Wells hardcourt tournament.

Bachelot, who served as sports minister between 2007 and 2010, has said that Nadal faked an injury in 2012, when he missed the final six months of the season due to knee problems, in order to hide a positive drug test.

The 14-time Grand Slam champion first told AfP on Saturday night that he was going to seek “justice” and use the courts to put a stop to speculation he ever used performanceenhancing drugs.

“I am tired about these things. I let it go a few times in the past. No more,” Nadal said, adding that he expected better of person who was “minister of a big country and a great country like france.”

Nadal has never failed a drug test in his many years on the AtP tour and has always vehemently denied ever using a banned substance.

AFP

Novak Djokovic fights back to advance at Indian Wells World number one Novak djokovic booked his third round spot in the Indian Wells hardcourt tennis tournament Sunday, fending off Bjorn Fratangelo in three sets, 2-6, 6-1, 6-2.

“I started awful,” Djokovic said. “I just tried to win by using my experience and playing tougher in the key moments.”

The defending two-time champ Djokovic has now won 12 consecutive matches

in Indian Wells and is trying to become the first player in tournament history to claim five titles.

The reigning Australian open champion Djokovic is hoping to use Indian Wells as a stepping stone as he seeks

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to win his first french open in two months and complete the career Grand Slam.

Djokovic is coming off a year where he won 11 titles, including the Australian open, Wimbledon, uS open. he lost in the final at the french open. “obviously 2015 was a remarkable year,” he said. “It will be a big challenge to repeat what I have done. Why not?” under windy conditions Sunday, Djokovic won 78 percent of his first serve points, made three double faults and had his serve broken three

times, including twice in the first three games against fratangelo. he returned the favour in the deciding third set by breaking world No. 149 fratangelo in games one, five and seven and then capping of the match with an overhead smash.

“The fifth game in the third set was the deciding one,” he said. “I played more aggressive.”

Djokovic next faces German Philipp Kohlschreiber who swept past Denis Kudla 6-0, 6-1. AFP

Di Resta joins Williams as reserve driver BRItISh driver Paul Di Resta said Monday he will join the Williams team as reserve driver for the formula one season which gets under way in Melbourne this weekend.

“I am delighted to be joining Williams as reserve driver and look forward to the 2016 season,” the 29-year-old former force India driver told williamsf1.com on Monday.

The Scot takes on the role behind drivers Valtteri Bottas of finland and Brazilian felipe Massa and initially will spend time getting accustomed to the controls and procedures of the Williams Mercedes fW38.

Di Resta spent three seasons at force India from 2011-2013, amassing 121 world championship points from 58 starts.

The 2006 European formula 3 champion lost his seat the following season so re-joined the Deutsche tourenwagen Masters (DtM) touring car racing series, where he raced early in his career, competing for Mercedes, and he hopes to combine his role there with the new one at Williams. AFP

Schwartzel outlasts Haas to win US PGA Valspar title South African Charl Schwartzel, the 2011 Masters champion, parred the first playoff hole Sunday to defeat American Bill haas and capture the uS PGA Valspar Championship.

Schwartzel won his 15th professional title worldwide, his first since last month’s European tour tshwane open and his first in a uS event since he birdied the last four holes at Augusta National to win his first major title five years ago. haas was right of a cart path with his tee shot on the first

playoff hole, the par-4 18th, and found a bunker with his second shot while Schwartzel landed his ball in the middle of the green. haas, 33, blasted out to 25 feet with his third shot while Schwartzel, 31, left his birdie putt two feet short. haas tapped in for bogey but Schwartzel tapped in for par and the triumph.

Schwartzel made the greatest last-day rally to win in tournament history, one better than the four-stroke comeback of Australian John Senden in the 2014 final round.

haas and Schwartzel each finished 72 holes at the Innisbrook resort’s Copperhead course on seven-under par 277 after 54-hole leader haas shot a 72.

Schwartzel birdied three of the last six holes in regulation to fire a four-under par 67, the day’s low round. he missed by inches on a 40-foot birdie putt at 18.

“That was a really good round,” Schwartzel said. “I think everyone’s goal was just to keep bogeys off the card. You were just surviving. It was just really tough.” AFP

Charl Schwartzel smiles as he leaves the 18th green during the final round of the Valspar Championship at Innisbrook Resort Copperhead Course on March 13, 2016 in Palm Harbor, Florida. AFP

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SPORTS sports@thestandard.com.ph

Kaya FC battles Balestier Khalsa

By Peter Atencio

KAYA FC faces a big challenge when it meet Singapore’s Balestier Khalsa today in their Group F tie in the 2016 AFC Cup at the Rizal Memorial Football Stadium.

Their Singaporean rivals are on top of the standings after upsetting Hong Kong

champions Kitchee SC, 1-0, last week.

Gametime is set at 7:30 p.m.

The Singaporeans are in the solo lead with one win and a draw and if they beat their Filipino rivals, they will improve their chances of making it to the Round of 16.

But Kaya FC coach Joel Villarino is unfazed.

“We’re expecting a tough time. But everyone wants to win,” said Vilarino during their pre-match press

conference at the Sheraton Hotel.

Kaya FC currently ranks third after pulling off a hard-earned 1-0 triumph over New Radiant SC of Maldives, also last week.

A final-minute goal from OJ Porteria on the fourth minute of injury time at game’s end sealed the win of Kaya, which posted their

first win in two games in Group F. “Hopefully, we get a good result. This meeting is very important,” said Baliester Khalsa coach Marko Kraljevic.

Over in Group E, Ceres-La Salle FC takes on home team Tampines Rovers for their third match in the in the Group E Qualifiers at

Tayao levels up, eyes Formula cars SEAOIL and Car Porn Racing driver Gabe Tayao made his debut on American soil as he took part in the initial stage of the Simraceway Formula 3 driver development program at the famed Sonoma Raceway in California, USA. Backed by Victoria Court, DC and Gold’s Gym, Tayao is the country’s next best bet in Formula single-seater racing.

The multi-awarded 16-year-old levelled up after capping off a stellar five-year career in karting with the top titles International Karter of the Year and Karter of the Year apart from several podium wins around Asia.

Despite the semi-wet track conditions, Tayao managed to clock in the fastest time, as well as break the track’s existing record for Formula 3 cars in just his second open lap session.

Stage 1 of the race school’s driver development program includes operations of the Lola Simraceway Formula 3 car, acceleration, threshold braking and downshifting exercises.

Tayao was also required to undergo classroom training for chassis dynamics, use of a dynamic skid pad to explore the boundaries of grip, chassis manipulation and driver sensitivity to feedback and control techniques.

“I’m truly grateful to my sponsors

Gabe Tayao is shown during a break in his Simraceway Formula 3 driver development program.

who made this Formula 3 driver training a dream come true. It has changed my perspective on things and presented a lot more options for me to race Formula 4 and Formula 3

cars abroad. I look forward to learning more since 2016 will be an intensive training year for me,” Tayao said.

Tayao is set to stay a month in the United States for training and

TV guesting commitments before heading back to Manila to formally receive his Automobile Association of the Philippines Award for Driver of the Year in karting.

Trillanes, Guevarra post twin wins at Iriga netfest

Glydel Guevarra (center) and Jan Harold Trillanes (right) hold their twin trophies as they pose with University of Saint Anthony Tennis Club president Elly Barra after dominating their respective divisions in the PPS-PEPP age-grouper in Iriga City.

PSA Forum tackles football THE country’s hosting of the Asean Football Federation Suzuki Cup for the first time this November and other matters pertaining to the sport will be tackled in Tuesday’s session of the Philippine Sportswriters Association Forum at Shakey’s Malate.

Speaking on the topic is Philippine Football Federation secretary-general Ed Gastanes, who just came back from Vietnam over the weekend to attend the AFF Council meeting.

Philippine football team manager Dan Palami has also been invited in the session aired live over DZSR Sports Radio 918 and presented by San Miguel Corp., Accel, Shakey’s, and the Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corp.

The other half of the session will have the 2016 Manila 10’s International Rugby Festival.

Rick Santos, president of the Philippine Rugby Football Union and team owner of Mavericks, will discuss about the event along with several members of the Philippine Volcanoes.

JAN Harold Trillanes and Glydel Guevarra came away with a pair of twin title wins in varying fashions as the local bets stamped their class in the Palawan Pawnshop-Palawan Express Pera Padala age-group regional tennis circuit at the University of Saint Anthony in Iriga City yesterday.

Trillanes recovered from a second set blowout and wore down upset-conscious Jolo Basa in the grueling decider, 6-3, 0-6, 16-14, to secure the boys’ 16-and-under crown. The 13-year-old rising star from San Antonio Elem.

School also needed an extra set to topple No. 2 Jenard Gonzales in the 14-U finals of the five-day Group 5 event sponsored by Palawan Pawnshop and presented by Slazenger.

Guevarra, on the other hand, imposed her will against Carla Andrada, 6-1, 6-1, to pocket the girls’ 12-U plum then nine-year-old find from Iriga Elem. School clobbered Andrika Idioma, 6-1, 6-2, to annex the 14-U diadem in the ranking tournament sanctioned by the Philippine Tennis Association headed by president and Paranaque Mayor Edwin Olivarez and backed by Asiatraders Corp., exclu-

sively distributor of Slazenger, the official ball.

“Given the proper exposure and support, Trillanes and Guevarra loom as the country’s next tennis stars and Palawan Pawnshop will continue to provide these young players, especially from the countryside, the venue to toughen up and hone their skills and talent,” said Palawan Pawnshop president/CEO Bobby Castro.

Guevarra, however, missed making it a three-title feat as she bowed to Ryan Christian Taller from Tabaco City, Albay, 4-2, 2-4, 1-4, in the 10-unisex finals.

Nica Alanis, another local bet, and Naga City’s Nolan Gagalac ruled the premier divisions with the former holding off Patricia Corporal, 6-2, 6-4, to cop the girls’ 18-U crown and the latter blasting Osward Hernandez, 6-3, 6-0, for the boys’ 18-U title.

Top seed JC Gonzales from Legazpi City took the boys’ 12-U plum with a 6-3, 6-3 romp over JB Aguillar while Corporal, also from Iriga, made up for her loss to Alanis by beating Katrina Salvadora, 6-2, 6-1, for the girls’ 16-U title.

the Jalan Besar Stadium in Singapore.

Tampines has the top spot in Group E with 6 points after a 4-0 win against Shiekh Jamal of Bangladesh and 1-0 triumph over Malaysia’s Selangor FA. Ceres is at no. 2 with 4 points after a 2-2 draw against Selangor at the Panaad Stadium and a 2-0 win against Bangladesh last week.

Youth standout fastest in aquathlon AS SHE was still recovering from recent triathlon challenges, Philippine team youth standout Vicky Deldio cruised her way to the finish line ahead of 327 other participants of what is now the nation’s biggest all-female multisport event in the 2nd AtletaAko. com Women’s Aquathlon held at the swimming pool and track oval of the Philsports Complex in Pasig City on Sunday.

Deldio finished the 500 meter swim-5 kilometers run (standard course) challenge with a time of 31 minutes and 8 seconds to claim the 18-24 age group title in the race organized by Bike King, headed

by Raul Cuevas, and presented by the Philippine Sports Commission and AtletaAko.com.

Bea Grabador, the 25-29 champion, delivered the second fastest standard course time of 33:38, while her closest categorical rival Lyllian Grace Banzon timed 34:35.

“I managed to improve my swim today which helped me a lot going into the run at the Philsports track oval,” Deldio said. “This big all-female aquathlon event was very well organized and also special to be part of. This is something I will always treasure.”

Others who topped their respective age groups in the event supported by Arena, KleanKanteen, Urban Ashram YOGA, Standard Insurance, Smart, Timex, Neutrogena, Gatorade, Crayola, Ogalala, Robinsons Supermarket, Dolfin, E-Z laces, Pigeon, Century Tuna, Gardenia and Del Monte, were Katherine Kaye Lopez (30-34), Laarni Paredes (35-39), Carly Relf (40-44) andCelma Hitalia (45-above). The standard course relay champion was Team Pamilya.

The shorter-distance agegroup winners in the race also backed by Asian Secrets, Rexona Motion Sense, Casino Ethyl Alcohol, Omega Pain Killer, Merrell and Endurance Sports were Magali Echauz (Petite 18-24), Jaruzel Medina (Petite 25-29), Vanessa Agdon (Petite 30-34), Yumika Baba (Petite 35-39), Maria Nicolas (Petite 40-44), Rorie Pena (Petite 4549), Franchesca Jovez (15-17), Franz Emmanuelle Jove (1314), Isabella Pascual (11-12) and Sabine Oduilo (9-10).

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SPORTS sports@thestandard.com.ph

LOTTO RESULTS

Eagles book 2nd triumph THE defending champion Sacred Heart School-Ateneo de Cebu Magis Eagles booked their second straight win on Sunday, demolishing Southern City Colleges of Zamboanga, 99-38, in the 2016 SM-National Basketball Training Center tournament at the Mall of Asia Arena.

Jerry Nacua hit a game-high 18 points for the Magis Eagles, who earned a semifinal seat after sweeping Group D of Division 1.

Andrew Vincent Velasco, Justin Christopher Javelosa and Eroll Pastor added 16, 12, and 10 points, respectively for the Cebuanos.

Rafael Quilla led Southern City Colleges with 13.

Earlier, UAAP champions National University demolished Tay Tung High School of Bacolod, 88-38, to move in contention for another semis slot in Group B. The Magis Eagles, who are seeking a fourpeat, take on current NCAA champion San Beda in the Division 1 semifinals this Wednesday.

In other matches, Chiang Kai Shek College came up up their second win with an 83-45 triumph over St. Robert’s International Academy of Iloilo, while Agusan National High School of Butuan crushed Our Lady of the Pillar College of Isabela, 93-62.

This put CKSC in the semis against the NU Bullpups, also this Wednesday.

Peter Atencio

6/55 00-00-00-00-00-00 6/45 00-00-00-00-00-00 4 DIGITS 0-0-0-0 3 DIGITS 0-0-0 2 EZ2 0-0

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The right response THE story that came out recently that MaARMAN laysian organizD. ARMERO ers of the 2017 Southeast Asian Games released an initial list of calendared sports which excluded some of the sports disciplines where the Philippines is considered as a strong contender for gold medals is no news at all.

You see, the SEAG is held every two years and the hosting rights are given to members of the Asean on a rotational basis, and next year, it will be Malaysia’s turn.

As host and organizer, Malaysia is given the privilege to choose the sports disciplines that they would calendar for the games and as such, it is understandable that Malaysian organizers would pick the sports where they are traditionally strong and can contend for gold medals. At the same time, they limited the sports and sports events where their top rivals are deemed to have the upperhand.

Malaysia isn’t actually the only country that has done this since every Asean member which had hosted the SEA Games, including the Philippines, had used—or sometimes abused—this privilege.

Because of this privilege, host countries almost always end up with more gold medals and end up either the overall leader or at the top tier of the medal standings after the Games.

This is an acceptable norm in the SEAG, the Asian Games and even in the Summer Olympics, and the International Olympic Committee, the governing body for Olympic competitions, has not discouraged this practice.

So the statement of athletics chief Philip Ella “Popoy” Juico that PATAFA will boycott the 2017 Malaysian SEAG should the organizers remove some of the events in track and field is puzzling.

As former chairman of the Philippine Sports Commission, Juico should know better since he was always part of the Philippine delegation during his term and he knows the workings of the SEAG. Juico should also understand that boycotting an event simply because the organizers failed to satisfy your wishes to include all the sports events under your sports association isn’t the right response. Boycotting an IOCsanctioned event will instead put a black mark in our standings in the international sports community.

The right response was actually spelled out

by POC Chairman Tom Carrasco, who said that they would appeal to Malaysian organizers to re-insert the events that they removed from the initial list that they released.

Again, the negotiating and the backand-forth at this level is standard practice in the SEAG and Popoy Juico, I’m sure, is aware of this.

As a sportswriter, I’ve known Popoy Juico for many years and he always struck me as a reasonable man and a true professional, and his reputation as one of the best to ever hold the top post of the PSC is well deserved. But to me, his position in this issue is a typically knee-jerk reaction, and not very reasonable.

I’m also sure that he was not grandstanding when he made that statement. Or was he?

For reaction, e-mail me at armero_23@ yahoo.com

STEP BACK

Dottie Ardina will try to foil the foreign bets’ bid in the Champion Tour.

Ardina, Piccio head local challenge in Champ Tour SYMETRA Tour campaigners Dottie Ardina and Mia Piccio hope to step up as they try to foil the foreign bets’ sweep bid of the twoleg ICTSI Champion Tour presented by Champion and Taiwan LPGA Tour at the Manila Southwoods starting Wednesday at the Legends course in Carmona, Cavite.

With LPGA Tour mainstay Cyna Rodriguez and amateur ace Princess Superal skipping this week’s $75,000 championship to honor previous commitments to compete abroad, Ardina and Piccio will carry the cudgels for the embattled local side which took a beating in last week’s ICTSI Champion Tour at Splendido.

Korean Lee Jeong-hwa nipped Japanese Fumika Kawagishi by one to top the kickoff leg of this year’s ICTSI Ladies Philippine Golf Tour and the fifth stage of the Taiwan LPGA with the duo again tipped

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to slug it out for this week’s title and the top $15,000 purse owing to their form and momentum.

Lee and Kawagishi turned the Splendido leg into a two-player affair with Superal emerging the top local finisher at joint third with Thai Kanphanitnan Muangkhumaskul and Taiwanese Chen Yu-ju although the troika finished six strokes behind the Korean ace.

Piccio wound up joint ninth while Ardina, winner of three LPGT events, ended up solo 11th with both players raring to make

Foton, Cignal teams fight for survival vs separate foes IMUS CITY—A highly crucial dou- advance to the final round, where the ble-header will be played in this city Top 3 squads will challenge a topnotch as Foton and Cignal fight for survival team from Thailand for the title.

But should Foton and Cignal fall against separate foes when the third round of the 2016 PLDT Home Ul- short, the cast of the final round will be formally completed tera Philippine Superliwith F2 Logistics joinga Invitational ConferGames Today (Imus Sports Complex) ing unbeaten RC Colaence women’s volleyball • RC Cola-Army vs Foton Army and Petron in the tournament fires off 4 p.m.

6 p.m. • Petron vs Cignal next round.

Tuesday at the Imus Cignal coach Sammy Sports Complex.

The Toplander clash with RC Acaylar knows the difficulty of the task, Cola-Army at 4 p.m., while the HD but believes that nothing is impossible, Spikers battle Petron at 6 p.m. in a especially if they will do their homebid to keep their heads above water work and come up with a solid game in this prestigious inter-club tourney plan on both ends of the floor.

“Medyo mahirap ang haharapin sponsored by Asics, Mikasa, Senoh, Mueller and Grand Sport with TV5 namin pero kakayanin namin yan,” said Acaylar, shortly after surrenderas official broadcast partner.

Knotted in third spot with identical ing a four-set defeat to the Car Movers 1-2 cards, Foton and Cignal need to over the weekend at the Batangas City sweep their remaining assignments to Sports Complex in Batangas City.

up for those so-so finishes with a pair of strong performances this week along with former LPGT winners Jayvie Agojo and Sarah Ababa and former SEA Games gold medalist Chihiro Ikeda.

But the foreign cast remains as tough as ever with 38 other mainstays of Taiwan LPGA re-joining the event, all aiming to get a crack for top honors in the 54-hole championship sponsored by International Container Terminal Services, Inc. They include Korean Hwang Ye-nah, winner of last year’s ICTSI Ladies Open at Southlinks but who struggled and hobbled to finish joint 16th last week, Yu Pei-lin and Chen Min-jou of Taiwan, Kang Ji-won of Korea, Japanese Senno Yasufuku, Yumi Takabayachi and Tomoko Takahashi and Thais Pornpak Paksakul, Chatpara Siriprakob and Saranporn Langkulgasettrin.

Ronda PH resumes ILOILO CITY—The Visayas Leg of the LBC Ronda Pilipinas 2016 resumes today with Navy-Standard Insurance’s Ronald Oranza and Rudy Roque seek further widen the gap in today’s Stage 3 that starts at the Iloilo Business Park here and ends in front of the Robinson’s Mall in Roxas City.

Oranza and Roque alternated in ruling the first two stages with the former topping Stage 1 in Bago City, Negros Occidental last Friday and the latter snaring the Stage 2 triumph here Sunday to share the overall lead after two stages with 28 general individual classification points each.

It will be Oranza, however, who will don the LBC

red jersey, which is symbolic of the overall leader, after he amassed a better clocking of two hours, 16 minutes and 50.69 seconds as against Roque, who had a two-stage aggregate of 2:16:50.77.

Roque finished second to Oranza in the opening stage before the two exchanged places in Stage 2.

A stage winner will receive 15 points, while the second placer gets 13.

The 22-year-old Oranza, a proud son of Villasis, Pangasinan, thinks he has a better chance to win his very first race here.

“I can smell it,” said Oranza, who has won six Ronda stages including three this year but never won the big one, in Filipino.

T U E S DAY : M A R C H 1 5 , 2 0 16

A16

RIERA U. MALL ARI EDITOR

REUEL VIDAL A S S I S TA N T E D I T O R

sports@thestandard.com.ph

SPORTS

LeBron James of the Cleveland Cavaliers goes for the lay up against the Los Angeles Clippers at STAPLES Center in Los Angeles, California. AFP

Uichico wants more from TNT

By Jeric Lopez WITH his team still not where he wants it to be, Jong Uichico wants Talk ‘N Text to double its efforts at this point.

Figuring in a tight battle for a spot in the next round in the 2016 Philippine Basketball Association Commissioner’s Cup, the Texters are in a better spot after a crucial win Sunday night. For now.

Uichico hopes that the defending champion’s much-needed 85-80 victory over NLEX in its last outing is the spark that the team is looking for to start the consistent run he wants.

“We needed that win. I’m hoping we can get over the hump because we’re falling behind in the standings,” said Uichico. “Hopefully we can carry this in our next games.”

At the moment, Talk ‘N Text is in a four-way tie from spots 7 to 10 with Star, NLEX and Blackwater as they all have 3-4 marks. Only the top eight teams will advance to the quarterfinals.

Meanwhile, the Meralco Bolts have suspended guard Gary David for one game for insubordination.

The Bolts confirmed on their website that David was suspended by the management after refusing to play in the Bolts’ 99-104 loss to NLEX last Friday.

David rode the bench for the first three quarters before Meralco coach Norman Black asked him to enter the contest with around four minutes left. David reportedly refused to and informed Black that he didn’t want to be put in the game.

LeBron fuels Cavs again LOS ANGELES—LeBron James scored 27 points to lead Cleveland to a 114-90 NBA victory over the Clippers in Los Angeles on Sunday and said the Eastern Conference-leading Cavaliers are rounding into shape.

“We’re kind of getting into form right now, and coach (Tyronn) Lue has done a great job of kind of finding out his rhythm, and we know what he wants out of us and we’re responding,” said James, who scored 16 points in the first half and sat out all of the fourth quarter.

“We have a great rotation going right now,” James added. “Guys are healthy, and we’re just trying to play the right way.”

J.R. Smith, who drained five

three-pointers, and Kyrie Irving added 17 points each for Cleveland.

Cleveland won their third straight game and their sixth in seven outings.

“The ball was moving, it had a lot of energy behind it, and guys were in great rhythm,” said James, who also had six rebounds and five assists.

He moved past Kevin Johnson for 19th on the NBA’s all-time assists list with 6,716.

“We made extra passes and we were able to execute with guys

feeling great rhythm.”

J.J. Redick had 19 points to lead the Clippers, who have lost three of their last five and fell one and a half games behind the Oklahoma City Thunder for third place in the Western Conference.

The game marked the first time Cavs coach Lue—promoted to replace the sacked David Blatt in January—faced his mentor Doc Rivers.

Lue spent five seasons as an assistant to Rivers, first with the Boston Celtics and then with the Clippers.

“Having a chance and an opportunity to go up against him tonight seems surreal,” Lue admitted.

Knicks hold off Lakers The second game of a Los Angeles double-header ended

in a dramatic 90-87 victory for the New York Knicks over the Lakers.

Jose Calderon drained a threepointer with two-tenths of a second remaining to seal the win for the Knicks—moments after Lakers superstar Kobe Bryant missed a basket that would have given los Angeles a lead with 9.9 seconds left.

New York’s Carmelo Anthony led all scorers with 26 points.

Bryant, a five-time NBA champion heading into retirement at the end of the season, had 14 points in his 29th and last career meeting with Anthony and the Knicks—whose current president Phil Jackson coached Bryant to those five titles. AFP

Atlas: Distractions won’t bother Pacquiao

By Ronnie Nathanielsz TEDDY Atlas, the trainer of Timothy Bradley, doesn’t believe that supposed distractions will bother eight-division world champion Manny Pacquiao, who was set to begin training at the Wild Card Gym of Freddie Roach on Monday (Tuesday Manila time).

There are claims that Pacquiao will be more distracted than ever because of his senatorial bid in the May elections, where he has dropped in the survey rankings following his comments that bitterly criticized gays, lesbians and others of similar inclinations,

claiming they were worse than animals.

Pacquiao apologized and continues to go out of his way to assuage the feelings of those he hurt by his remarks, but Atlas told reporter Pacquiao Keith Idec that he doesn’t expect any of these supposed distractions to impact the Filipino ring icon (57-6-2, 38 KOs) on fight night.

Bradley’s trainer has heard about Pacquiao’s pre-fight distractions throughout the Filipino superstar’s career, only to watch

him compete at an elite level once the bell rings.

“I wish I could say yes, because I’ll take any advantage I can get for my fighter. But I don’t think I can say yes. I don’t think it’ll impact him in any negative ways at all. I go by what there’s a precedent to go by. I go by history, by what’s tangible. And he’s had distractions and if you want to call it chaos sometimes, but definitely a lot of things swirling around him throughout most of

his career,” said Atlas.

He noted: “Whether it was politics, whether it was singing, whether it was some personal situations he was going through that everybody goes through, whether it was religious thoughts and growth so to speak, whether it was all the pulls on him because he’s an iconic figure in his country, where he gets all that attention you could never get here for one fighter … he has always dealt with that. It’s never impacted him.”

Atlas noted that innate ability is one of the few things the 37-year-old Pacquiao has in common with Floyd Mayweather Jr.

TUESDAY: MARCH 15, 2016

RAY S. EÑANO EDITOR

RODERICK T. DELA CRUZ ASSISTANT EDITOR

business@thestandard.com.ph extrastory2000@gmail.com

BUSINESS

B1

San Miguel, Telstra end talks

By Darwin G. Amojelar

SAN Miguel Corp. and Australia’s Telstra Corp. ended talks on a $1-billion joint investment in a new mobile network in the Philippines after failing to agree on terms.

San Miguel and Telstra on Monday announced the planned joint telecommunications venture had been abandoned due to “commercial arrangements” issue.

Telstra was attracted to the Philippine market, which has the slowest Internet speed in the region, because of its growth potential.

“Both SMC and Telstra worked hard to come up with an acceptable resolution to some issues. However,

we agreed we can no longer continue with the talks. I believe this is best for all parties,” San Miguel president and chief operating officer Ramon Ang said.

Telstra chief executiveAndrew Penn confirmed the organizations agreed over the weekend to bring negotiations to an end.

“Despite an enormous amount of effort and goodwill on all sides, we are simply unable to come to

commercial arrangements that would have enabled us all to proceed,” Penn said.

“While this opportunity is strategically attractive, and we have great respect for San Miguel Corp. and its President Mr. Ang, it was obviously crucial that the commercial arrangements achieved the right risk-reward balance for all involved,” he added.

Local telecommunications companies said they were keeping their business strategy in preparation for the possible entry of third and major player, despite the failed joint venture of San Mniguel and Telstra.

The planned joint venture between San Miguel and Telstra would see the local conglomerate holding a majority stake, in compliance with the 1987 Con-

stitution, which limits the foreign ownership of utilities to a maximum of 40 percent.

Australian consulting firm Creator Tech Pty Ltd. earlier warned Telstra shareholders of many risks that could impact on the cost of the company’s plan to invest in the Philippines through a wireless joint venture with San Miguel.

Among the risks faced by Telstra in the Philippines were the reallocation of the powerful frequency held by San Miguel and the incoming national elections.

Despite the collapsed joint venture, San Miguel said it would still switch on its telecommunications network along with a high-speed Internet service as scheduled.

Telstra offered to continue technical work design and con-

struction consultancy support to San Miguel.

“SMC’s entry in the telecom market will definitely be a game changer. When we launch, consumers will benefit from better, cheaper service,” Ang said.

Ang said San Miguel was still interested in considering other joint venture opportunities for its telecom business.

“We are not rushing. What’s important is that we give Filipinos a third and better choice that they have been deprived of for the longest time.”

Philippine Long distance Telephone Co. spokesman Ramon Isberto said “with or without a new player, we are vigorously pursuing our digital divot strategy which involves a broad range of initiatives.

PSe comPoSite index Closing March 14, 2016

8300 7840 7380 6920 6460 6000

7,112.89 14.25

PeSo-dollar rate

Closing March 14, 2016 48.00 46.00 45.00

P46.595

44.00

CLOSE

43.00

HIGH P46.440 LOW P46.610 AVERAGE P46.506 VOLUME 673.600M

P400.00-P620.00 LPG/11-kg tank P30.00-P39.32 Unleaded Gasoline

oPriceS il P today

P19.25-P22.75 Diesel P34.55-P39.15 Kerosene

Credit conference. Financial Infrastructure Development Network kicks off the two-day Conference on Credit Infrastructure at Dusit Thani Hotel in Makati City. The conference aims to share international best practices and policies on improving accessibility of financing, especially for micro, small and medium enterprises and low-income households. The delegates are led by (front row, from 10th left) Securities and Exchange Commission chairman Teresita Herbosa, Finance Assistant Secretary Ma. Teresa Habitan, Finance Undersecretary Didith Tan, International Finance Corp. project director Gay Santos and Finance Undersecretary Jeremias Paul Jr.

April water rates to rise due to forex volatility

Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas Monday, March 14, 2016

F oreign e xchange r ate Currency

Unit

US Dollar

Peso

United States

Dollar

1.000000

46.6920

Japan

Yen

0.008778

0.4099

UK

Pound

1.438100

67.1478

Hong Kong

Dollar

0.128874

6.0174

Switzerland

Franc

1.017605

47.5140

Canada

Dollar

0.755744

35.2872

Singapore

Dollar

0.728491

34.0147

Australia

Dollar

0.754900

35.2478

Bahrain

Dinar

2.657737

124.0951

Saudi Arabia

Rial

0.266681

12.4519

Brunei

Dollar

0.725847

33.8912

Indonesia

Rupiah

0.000077

0.0036

Thailand

Baht

0.028241

1.3186

UAE

Dirham

0.272301

12.7143

Euro

Euro

1.114900

52.0569

Korea

Won

0.000843

0.0394

China

Yuan

0.154012

7.1911

India

Rupee

0.014934

0.6973

Malaysia

Ringgit

0.244738

11.4273

New Zealand

Dollar

0.673000

Taiwan

Dollar

0.030628

31.4237 1.4301 Source: PDS Bridge

By Anna Leah E. Gonzales CUSTOMERS of Maynilad Water Services Inc. and Manila Water Company Inc. will pay higher rates in April because of the fluctuation in the peso-dollar exchange rate, the two concessionaires said Monday.

Maynilad and Manila Water said the water rate hike was due to the so-called foreign currency differential adjustment.

FCDA is a tariff mechanism granted to utility companies to allow it to recover losses or give back gains arising from the fluctuating movements of the peso against other currencies.

“Maynilad pays foreign-denominated concession fees to the Metropolitan Waterworks and Sewerage System as well as loans to fund projects that will improve service for its customers,” Maynilad said, in explaining FCDA. Residents in the west zone served by Manilad would experience a P0.12-per-cubic meter or 0.34-percent increase in the average basic charge of P33.87 per cubic meter.

The adjustment would take effect in the second quarter, or from April 1 to June 30 this year. It was higher than the FCDA of P0.05 per cubic meter in the first quarter.

Maynilad customers consuming 10 cubic meters or less every month will see their water bill increase by P0.15 from P115.76 to P115.91, while those consuming 20 cubic meters a month will see their monthly water bill increase from P433.57 to P434.14, or a difference of P0.57.

Meanwhile, households consuming 30 cubic meters a month will have an increase of P1.17 in their monthly water bill, from the current P885.02 to P886.19.

Manila Water said the FCDA adjustment in the second quarter would be equivalent to P0.26 per cubic meter or 1.04 percent of the company’s average basic charge of

P24.89 per cubic meter.

The amount is also higher than the first-quarter FCDA of P0.15 per cubic meter.

Manila Water said for those consuming 10 cubic meters a month and not belonging to lifeline consumers, their monthly bill would increase by P0.59 from P133.06 to P133.65, while those consuming 20 cubic meters a month would see an upward adjustment of P1.31 from P293.26 to P294.57.

Customers who consume 30 cubic meters will see an increase of P2.67 a month in their monthly water bill from P597.04 to P599.71.

TUESDAY: MARCH 15, 2016

B2

BUSINESS business@thestandard.com.ph extrastory2000@gmail.com

The STandard BuSineSS daily STockS review Monday, March 14, 2016

52 Weeks

Previous

High Low 7.88 75.3 124.4 107 56.5 2.49 4.2 4 17 30.45 890 1.01 100 1.46 30.5 91.5 137 361.2 57 180 1700 124 3.26

2.5 66 88.05 88.1 45.45 1.97 1.68 8.7 12.02 19.6 625 0.225 78 0.9 17.8 62 88.35 276 41 118.2 1200 59 2.65

47 5 1.46 2.36 15.3 20.6 36 65.8 2.97 4.14 21.5 21.6 11.96 9.13 11.8 31.8 109 20.75 15.3 9.4 0.98 241

35.9 1.11 1.01 1.86 7.92 15.32 10.08 29.15 1.5 1.5 10.72 9.55 9.04 6.02 8.86 20.2 71.5 13.86 13.24 5.34 0.395 173

79 33.9 90 13.26 293 5 5.25 12.98 6.75 15 7.03 3.4 4.5 6.3 7.34 238 5.5 3.28 0.315 2.18 2.65 234 5.28 1.3 2.17

34.1 23.35 17.3 5.88 250.2 3.37 3.87 8.45 3 10.04 3.03 1.95 1 4.02 5.9 161 4.1 1.55 0.138 1.02 2.09 152 4.28 0.640 1.2

0.59 59.2 30.05 7.39 3.4 3.35 823.5 10.2 84 3.35 4.92 1455 7.5

0.44 48.1 20.85 6.62 0.23 0.23 634.5 7.390 12.8 2.6 2.26 837 5.3

76 9.25 0.85 17.3 0.71 5.53 0.0670 2.31 1.61 84.9 3.5 974 1.66 1.39 390 156 0.710 0.435 0.510

49.55 4.84 0.59 12 0.580 4.2 0.030 1.23 0.550 59.3 1.5 751 1.13 0.93 170 80 0.211 0.179 0.310

10.5 26.95 1.99 1.75 0.375 41.4

6.74 12 0.65 1.2 0.192 30.05

STOCKS

High

Low

FINANCIAL 2.95 2.87 45.8 44.6 106.30 104.30 87.45 84.70 37 36.5 2.99 2.65 1.46 1.35 10.1 10 14.3 14.1 15.3 15.16 600.00 585.50 0.600 0.570 84.7 83 0.95 0.95 14.80 14.78 53.20 52.20 102.1 101.8 279.8 273 31.7 31 155.7 154.9 1350.00 1339.00 58.00 57.10 1.54 1.53 INDUSTRIAL Aboitiz Power Corp.

43.9 45.1 43.65 Agrinurture Inc. 5.2 5.33 5.14 Alliance Tuna Intl Inc. 0.7 0.76 0.7 Alsons Cons.

1.5 1.51 1.49 Asiabest Group 10.7 10.98 10.7 Century Food 17.9 18.3 17.8 Cirtek Holdings (Chips) 18.74 18.96 18.48 Concepcion 41 42.5 41.05 Crown Asia 2.45 2.48 2.38 Da Vinci Capital 5.71 6.05 5.46 Del Monte 12.2 12.38 11.7 DNL Industries Inc. 9.080 9.320 8.880 Emperador 8.00 8.21 8.03 Energy Devt. Corp. (EDC) 6.34 6.43 6.14 EEI 7.02 7.37 7.02 First Gen Corp.

21.9 22.2 21.2 First Holdings ‘A’ 63.8 64.25 62.9 Ginebra San Miguel Inc. 12.00 12.10 12.00 Holcim Philippines Inc. 13.70 14.00 13.72 Integ. Micro-Electronics 5.46 5.53 5.48 Ionics Inc 2.790 2.860 2.750 230.00 235.00 229.40 Jollibee Foods Corp.

LBC Express 10.5 10.98 10.46 Liberty Flour 32.00 32.00 30.90 Manila Water Co. Inc. 26.4 26.45 26 Maxs Group 19 19.2 18.4 Megawide 6.25 6.35 6.25 Mla. Elect. Co `A’ 326.40 330.80 327.20 Panasonic Mfg Phil. Corp. 4.00 4.10 4.10 Pepsi-Cola Products Phil. 3.59 3.7 3.59 Petron Corporation 10.30 10.48 10.04 Phil H2O 3.32 3.32 3.32 Phinma Corporation 11.60 11.60 11.42 Phoenix Petroleum Phils. 4.17 4318.00 4.11 Phoenix Semiconductor 1.66 1.72 1.66 Pryce Corp. `A’ 2.6 2.8 2.6 RFM Corporation 4.00 4.23 4.08 Roxas Holdings 4.55 4.6 4.6 San Miguel’Pure Foods `B’ 161.5 167.5 161 SPC Power Corp.

3.7 4.09 4.05 Splash Corporation 2.46 2.48 2.45 Swift Foods, Inc. 0.155 0.157 0.153 TKC Steel Corp.

1.20 1.19 1.11 Trans-Asia Oil 2.50 2.72 2.52 Universal Robina 204 204 200 Victorias Milling 4.72 4.6 4.6 Vitarich Corp.

0.86 0.87 0.79 Vulcan Ind’l.

1.17 1.25 1.17 HOLDING FIRMS Abacus Cons. `A’ 0.360 0.360 0.360 Aboitiz Equity 61.00 63.55 60.15 Alliance Global Inc. 16.00 16.30 15.86 Anscor `A’ 6.10 6.20 6.12 ATN Holdings A 0.275 0.290 0.270 ATN Holdings B 0.275 0.290 0.275 Ayala Corp `A’ 757 765 750 Cosco Capital 7.71 7.86 7.72 DMCI Holdings 12.90 13.28 12.82 F&J Prince ‘A’ 5 5 5 Filinvest Dev. Corp.

4.96 5.00 4.96 GT Capital 1410 1447 1411 House of Inv. 6.05 6.10 6.05 IPM Holdings 9.77 9.74 9.60 JG Summit Holdings 76.00 76.45 75.55 Lopez Holdings Corp.

6.1 6.2 5.88 Lodestar Invt. Holdg.Corp. 0.71 0.73 0.7 LT Group 15.92 16.28 15.7 Mabuhay Holdings `A’ 0.475 0.475 0.475 Metro Pacific Inv. Corp. 6.03 6.03 5.94 Pacifica `A’ 0.0320 0.0340 0.0310 Prime Media Hldg 1.410 1.400 1.390 Prime Orion 1.950 2.020 1.960 San Miguel Corp `A’ 75.60 75.40 72.50 Seafront `A’ 2.3 2.30 2.30 SM Investments Inc. 926.50 949.00 915.00 Solid Group Inc. 1.15 1.15 1.12 South China Res. Inc. 0.77 0.75 0.74 Transgrid 152.00 160.00 159.90 Top Frontier 164.000 167.900 157.000 Unioil Res. & Hldgs 0.3100 0.3200 0.3100 Wellex Industries 0.2150 0.2140 0.2040 Zeus Holdings 0.295 0.280 0.280 PROPERTY 8990 HLDG 7.270 7.310 7.240 Anchor Land Holdings Inc. 7.80 7.78 6.96 A. Brown Co., Inc. 0.90 0.92 0.89 Araneta Prop `A’ 1.480 1.530 1.410 Arthaland Corp.

0.228 0.225 0.225 Ayala Land `B’ 35.300 36.000 35.650 AG Finance Asia United Bank Banco de Oro Unibank Inc. Bank of PI China Bank BDO Leasing & Fin. INc. Bright Kindle Resources Citystate Savings COL Financial Eastwest Bank Manulife Fin. Corp.

MEDCO Holdings Metrobank Natl. Reinsurance Corp.

PB Bank Phil. National Bank Phil. Savings Bank PSE Inc. RCBC `A’ Security Bank Sun Life Financial Union Bank Vantage Equities

Trading Summary FINANCIAL INDUSTRIAL HOLDING FIRMS PROPERTY SERVICES MINING & OIL GRAND TOTAL

Close

SHARES 15142921 119960993 227682740 137456671 257037463 234442070 993674858

2.98 45.5 105.00 86.20 36.9 2.75 1.44 10 14.18 15.2 585.00 0.600 84.1 0.95 14.84 52.55 102 275 31.7 154.5 1320.00 57.20 1.54

Close

%

Net Foreign

Change Volume

Trade/Buying

52 Weeks

Previous

High Low

STOCKS

Close

5.6 5.59 1.44 0.201 0.69 10.96 0.97 0.305 2.22 2.1 1.8 5.94 0.180 0.72 8.54 31.8 2.29 4.9 21.35 1.06 7.56 1.62 8.59

3.36 4.96 0.79 0.083 0.415 2.4 0.83 0.188 1.15 1.42 1.27 4.13 0.090 0.39 2.69 22.15 1.6 3.1 15.08 0.69 3.38 0.83 5.73

Belle Corp. `A’ Cebu Holdings Century Property Crown Equities Inc. Cyber Bay Corp.

Double Dragon Empire East Land Ever Gotesco Global-Estate Filinvest Land,Inc. Interport `A’ Megaworld MRC Allied Ind. Phil. Realty `A’ 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

10.5 66 1.44 1.09 28.5 15.82 0.1430 5.06 99.1 12.3 7.67 1700 2720 8.41 1.97 119.5 0.017 0.8200 2.2800 5.93 12.28 3.32 2.53 3.2 95.5 1 2.46 15.2

1.97 35.2 1 0.63 18.2 8.6 0.0770 2.95 56.1 10.14 4.8 830 1600 5.95 1.23 102.6 0.011 0.041 1.200 2.34 6.5 1.91 1.01 1.95 3.1 0.650 1.8 6

0.62 1.040 22.8 22.9 3486 0.760 2.28 46.05 90.1

0.335 0.37 14.54 4.39 2748 0.435 1.2 31.45 60.55

11.6 0.85 10 0.490 1.9

7.59 0.63 5 0.315 1.14

2GO Group’ ABS-CBN Acesite Hotel APC Group, Inc. Berjaya Phils. Inc. Bloomberry Boulevard Holdings Calata Corp.

Cebu Air Inc. (5J) Centro Esc. Univ.

DFNN Inc. FEUI Globe Telecom GMA Network Inc. Harbor Star I.C.T.S.I. IP E-Game Ventures Inc. Island Info ISM Communications Jackstones Leisure & Resorts Liberty Telecom Lorenzo Shipping Macroasia Corp.

Manila Broadcasting Manila Bulletin Manila Jockey Melco Crown Metro Retail MG Holdings NOW Corp.

Pacific Online Sys. Corp.

Philweb.Com Inc. PLDT Common PremiereHorizon Premium Leisure Puregold Robinsons RTL SBS Phil. Corp.

SSI Group STI Holdings Travellers Waterfront Phils.

Yehey

0.0098 5.45 17.24 0.330 1.19 1.62 9.5 4.2 0.48 0.420 0.440 0.022 0.023 8.2 49.2 4.27 3.06 7.67 12.88 10.42 0.040 420 9

0.0043 1.72 6.47 0.236 0.85 0.77 5.99 1.17 0.305 0.2130 0.2160 0.013 0.014 3.240 18.96 2.11 1.54 5.4 7.26 2.27 0.015 115.9 3.67

Abra Mining Apex `A’ Atlas Cons. `A’ Basic Energy Corp.

Century Peak Metals Hldgs Coal Asia Dizon Ferronickel Geograce Res. Phil. Inc. Lepanto `A’ Lepanto `B’ Manila Mining `A’ Manila Mining `B’ Marcventures Hldgs., Inc. Nickelasia Nihao Mineral Resources Oriental Peninsula Res. Petroenergy Res. Corp.

Philex `A’ PhilexPetroleum Philodrill Corp. `A’ Semirara Corp.

TA Petroleum

70 553 525 515 8.21 1047

33 490 500 480 5.88 1011

78.95 84.8

74.5 75

ABS-CBN Holdings Corp.

Ayala Corp. Pref `B1’ Ayala Corp. Pref ‘B2’ GLOBE PREF P GMA Holdings Inc. PF Pref 2 PNX PREF 3A SMC Preferred B SMC Preferred C SMC Preferred D SMC Preferred E SMC Preferred F

6.98

0.8900 LR Warrant

91,480.00 3,104.00 -86,400.00 -3,000.00

15

3.5

12.88

5.95

151,659,515.00

130.7

105.6 First Metro ETF

2.95 45.8 104.30 84.70 36.7 2.99 1.45 10.1 14.16 15.18 585.50 0.570 83.9 0.95 14.80 52.95 102.1 275 31 155 1340.00 57.10 1.53

-1.01 0.66 -0.67 -1.74 -0.54 8.73 0.69 1.00 -0.14 -0.13 0.09 -5.00 -0.24 0.00 -0.27 0.76 0.10 0.00 -2.21 0.32 1.52 -0.17 -0.65

76,000 16,900 2,470,360 657,070 171,600 13,000 307,000 10,000 17,000 364,100 650 2,206,000 5,186,530 22,000 121,900 63,840 4,010 940 378,300 1,357,050 230 47,970 316,000

43.65 5.2 0.76 1.51 10.96 18.1 18.48 42.5 2.43 5.71 11.9 8.910 8.10 6.17 7.35 21.2 63.25 12.10 13.90 5.52 2.750 229.60 10.98 30.90 26.1 18.5 6.33 329.80 4.10 3.63 10.28 3.32 11.50 4.18 1.68 2.63 4.10 4.6 161 4.09 2.45 0.156 1.11 2.70 200 4.6 0.8 1.23

-0.57 0.00 8.57 0.67 2.43 1.12 -1.39 3.66 -0.82 0.00 -2.46 -1.87 1.25 -2.68 4.70 -3.20 -0.86 0.83 1.46 1.10 -1.43 -0.17 4.57 -3.44 -1.14 -2.63 1.28 1.04 2.50 1.11 -0.19 0.00 -0.86 0.24 1.20 1.15 2.50 1.10 -0.31 10.54 -0.41 0.65 -7.50 8.00 -1.96 -2.54 -6.98 5.13

2,235,100 803,200 83,000 349,000 3,700 4,167,300 345,100 81,100 878,000 7,583,300 262,400 10,075,700 4,568,300 17,118,200 806,600 2,403,600 270,930 300 36,000 67,300 2,885,000 633,600 5,200 200 1,141,300 237,200 79,600 217,940 5,000 889,000 7,837,200 3,000 136,500 140,000 622,000 406,000 1,049,000 3,000 10,710 11,000 80,000 6,950,000 19,000 30,900,000 1,479,250 6,000 11,543,000 526,000

0.360 60.15 15.86 6.13 0.285 0.285 759.5 7.76 13.10 5 5.00 1415 6.05 9.74 75.55 6 0.72 15.7 0.475 5.97 0.0330 1.390 2.010 75.00 2.3 915.00 1.14 0.74 160.00 160.000 0.3100 0.2040 0.280

0.00 -1.39 -0.88 0.49 3.64 3.64 0.33 0.65 1.55 0.00 0.81 0.35 0.00 -0.31 -0.59 -1.64 1.41 -1.38 0.00 -1.00 3.13 -1.42 3.08 -0.79 0.00 -1.24 -0.87 -3.90 5.26 -2.44 0.00 -5.12 -5.08

12,000 1,988,430 19,143,470.00 4,474,900 6,204,364.00 51,700 2,480.00 7,840,000 1,380,000 391,390 -41,437,505.00 2,564,100 -1,625,725.00 3,854,200 15,484,020.00 1,000 78,000 293,600 32,848,245.00 118,300 235,950.00 1,726,000 2,340,720 28,639,054.50 3,668,900 -4,235,637.00 294,000 3,374,300 -1,067,962.00 10,000 33,329,900 22,079,406.00 142,000,000 7,000 844,000 746,960 6,159,589.50 1,000 2,300.00 158,500 63,118,715.00 511,000 481,000 280 95,930 1,700,000 170,000 300,000

7.250 6.96 0.90 1.410 0.225 35.650

-0.28 -10.77 0.00 -4.73 -1.32 0.99

81,000 1,900 1,019,000 357,000 510,000 9,179,500

552,685.00 20,363,189 19,144,510.50

1,424.00 -1,850,372.00 207,400.00 -66,600.00 60,376,126.50 -1,463,720.00 -1,211,317.00 -1,262,085 91,793,050.00 276,200.00 -234,681.00 557,960.00 19,604.00 -89,480.00 59,968,770.00 -199,250 33,460.00 3,660,837.00 -885,874.00 9,142,826.00 10,372,228.00 1,030,747.00 1,716,797.00 -10,043,140.00 -8,416,062.50 -419,460.00 67,246,880.00 -13,921,490.00 227,584.00 137,036.00 -22,171,216.00 1,363,340.00 -28,008,922.00 -1,242,728.00 8,340.00 81,000.00 -618,090.00 -794,060.00

33,229,210.00 15,477,450.00 27,600.00 1,165,000.00

Alterra Capital Makati Fin. Corp.

Italpinas Xurpas

High

VALUE 1109515980.16 1297859897.11 1833560682.37 1235544556.70 2636913042.44 235611570.20 8387247204.98

FINANCIAL 1,573.28 (down) 11.01 INDUSTRIAL 11,545.83 (down) 97.25 HOLDING FIRMS 6,915.24 (down) 44.03 PROPERTY 2,926.44 (up) 11.52 SERVICES 1,496.04 (up) 71.29 MINING & OIL 11,528.89 (up) 60.09 PSEI 7,112.89 (up) 14.25 All Shares Index 4,103.52 (up) 7.76 Gainers: 90; Losers: 94; Unchanged: 34; Total: 218

Close

%

Net Foreign

Change Volume

Trade/Buying

3.15 5.16 0.550 0.127 0.480 34.5 0.890 0.153 1.08 1.69 1.26 4.14 0.101 0.440 8.69 27.65 1.5 3.13 21.40 0.84 5.4 1.050 4.550

3.23 3.14 3.14 5.23 5.16 5.16 0.56 0.540 0.550 0.127 0.125 0.126 0.510 0.480 0.510 37 34.5 36.4 0.900 0.880 0.890 0.167 0.160 0.160 1.12 1.02 1.04 1.70 1.63 1.70 1.26 1.26 1.26 4.22 4.1 4.14 0.105 0.100 0.104 0.450 0.440 0.450 8.7 8.67 8.67 28.30 27.50 27.55 1.5 1.48 1.48 3.14 3.13 3.14 21.40 21.20 21.25 0.85 0.82 0.82 5.65 5.41 5.65 1.050 1.080 1.020 4.700 4.580 4.610 SERVICES 7.23 7.29 7.05 7.14 55.95 57.3 56 57.25 1.24 1.31 1.18 1.23 0.530 0.560 0.530 0.530 28.5 22.5 22.5 22.5 5.05 5.15 4.94 4.95 0.0580 0.0610 0.0580 0.0600 3.15 3.18 3.15 3.15 86.6 87.2 84 84 9.9 9.9 9.9 9.9 6.39 6.36 6.22 6.35 956 956 956 956 1770 1920 1860 1910 6.85 6.95 6.85 6.95 1.33 1.33 1.30 1.30 66.3 67.15 65 65 0.0090 0.0100 0.0100 0.0100 0.217 0.235 0.213 0.227 1.3300 1.3300 1.2800 1.3300 2.2 2.2 2.19 2.19 7.90 8.20 7.90 7.93 3.61 4.29 3.85 3.10 1.23 1.23 1.23 1.23 2.75 2.77 2.74 2.76 19.00 20.15 20.15 20.15 0.560 0.550 0.550 0.550 1.87 1.95 1.85 1.85 2.8 2.89 2.68 2.84 3.85 3.96 3.77 3.86 0.275 0.280 0.275 0.280 0.850 0.930 0.860 0.920 17.38 17.46 17.46 17.46 22.15 22.10 21.95 22.05 1704.00 1918.00 1801.00 1901.00 0.460 0.450 0.430 0.440 0.970 1.000 0.930 0.970 36.95 37.75 37.00 37.60 70.00 70.50 68.90 70.00 6.36 6.40 6.18 6.27 3.56 3.65 3.51 3.54 0.540 0.530 0.510 0.520 4.01 4.13 3.88 3.88 0.325 0.345 0.340 0.345 4.770 4.590 4.770 4.770 MINING & OIL 0.0045 0.0046 0.0044 0.0045 2.28 2.20 2.20 2.20 4.55 4.89 4.52 4.85 0.247 0.240 0.240 0.240 0.63 0.66 0.63 0.63 0.480 0.485 0.470 0.475 7.50 8.10 7.36 8.00 0.760 0.830 0.770 0.820 0.310 0.315 0.300 0.300 0.295 0.305 0.295 0.300 0.310 0.310 0.305 0.305 0.0130 0.0130 0.0120 0.0120 0.013 0.013 0.013 0.013 2.31 2.36 2.27 2.32 5.7 5.93 5.8 5.85 2.65 2.71 2.62 2.71 1.2300 1.2600 1.2500 1.2500 3.70 3.98 3.75 3.95 6.15 6.14 6.02 6.11 1.75 1.80 1.70 1.78 0.0120 0.0120 0.0110 0.0110 135.90 136.00 132.10 135.40 2.35 2.47 2.34 2.47 PREFERRED 56.2 57.5 56.7 57.45 523 520 520 520 530 530 530 530 527 527 527 527 6.76 6.8 6.6 6.8 1012 1020 1012 1012 105.9 1104.9 103.5 104.9 80 81 81 81 82.5 82.8 82.8 82.8 76.5 76.5 76.5 76.5 76.5 76 76 76 77 77.2 77 77.2 WARRANTS & BONDS 2.700 3.680 2.770 3.580 SME 3.66 3.65 3.64 3.65 3.19 3.16 3.16 3.16 3.11 3.17 3 3.1 18.1 18.08 17.6 17.9 EXCHANGE TRADED FUNDS 114.8 116.8 115.1 116.2

T op g ainerS STOCKS

Low

-0.32 0.00 0.00 -0.79 6.25 5.51 0.00 4.58 -3.70 0.59 0.00 0.00 2.97 2.27 -0.23 -0.36 -1.33 0.32 -0.70 -2.38 4.63 0.00 1.32

728,000 36,700 4,868,000 2,940,000 5,870,000 3,970,600 4,556,000 50,000 8,443,000 11,912,000 331,000 39,230,000 2,290,000 140,000 12,800 2,161,700 169,000 55,000 20,010,000 2,737,000 5,200 1,603,000 8,655,000

172,620.00

-1.24 2.32 -0.81 0.00 -21.05 -1.98 3.45 0.00 -3.00 0.00 -0.63 0.00 7.91 1.46 -2.26 -1.96 11.11 4.61 0.00 -0.45 0.38 -15.85 0.00 0.36 6.05 -1.79 -1.07 1.43 0.26 1.82 8.24 0.46 -0.45 11.56 -4.35 0.00 1.76 0.00 -1.42 -0.56 -3.70 -3.24 6.15 0.00

180,100 165,580 80,000 225,000 200 5,762,400 43,320,000 50,000 846,930 1,100 166,200 40 343,655 486,900 291,000 531,320 3,000,000 53,910,000 1,854,000 8,000 661,000 6,587,000 2,000 41,000 100 29,000 71,000 38,361,000 5,896,000 270,000 22,054,000 100 159,900 433,720 730,000 42,162,000 4,911,500 1,250,430 591,700 4,382,000 4,330,000 3,098,000 60,000 15,000

0.00 -3.51 6.59 -2.83 0.00 -1.04 6.67 7.89 -3.23 1.69 -1.61 -7.69 0.00 0.43 2.63 2.26 1.63 6.76 -0.65 1.71 -8.33 -0.37 5.11

48,000,000 40,000 1,174,000 10,000 1,059,000 960,000 107,500 36,652,000 1,380,000 59,730,000 6,480,000 19,100,000 43,600,000 399,000 8,299,000 513,000 117,000 47,000 850,700 1,231,000 3,500,000 872,500 231,000

2.22 -0.57 0.00 0.00 0.59 0.00 -0.94 1.25 0.36 0.00 -0.65 0.26

121,960 500 410 470 59,200 1,410 2,490 50 120,080 12,900 61,000 39,670

32.59

7,930,000

-7,280.00

-0.27 -0.94 -0.32 -1.10

6,000 9,000 664,000 1,135,600

30,200.00 6,095,268.00

1.22

137,400

-58,740.00 -104,000.00 12,597,335.00 -1,670.00 -568,920.00 -5,115,880.00 12,164,440.00

9,541,715.00 57,950.00 -85,036,065.00 26,500.00 -8,285,750.00 -73,368.00 1,300.00 1,665,552.00 -12,600.00 -8,820,154.50

79,450,625.00 13,921,145.50 -114,500.00 -193,880.00 -599,930.00 82,200.00

10,131,360.00 -252,480.00 -253,710.00 858,590.00 459,662,370.00 -7,842,540.00 92,499,885.00 12,423,732.00 -500,130.00 -2,600.00 -560,050.00

-731,380.00

9,037,300.00 -30,500.00 150,600.00 -7,218,853.00 -52,800.00 -1,627,014.00 -35,600.00 43,327,913.00 30,420.00 5,012,822.00

-68,000.00

T op L oSerS Close (P)

Change (%)

STOCKS

Close (P)

Change (%)

LR Warrant

3.580

32.59

Berjaya Phils. Inc.

22.5

-21.05

PLDT Common

1901.00

11.56

Liberty Telecom

3.61

-15.85

IP E-Game Ventures Inc.

0.0100

11.11

Anchor Land Holdings Inc.

6.96

-10.77

SPC Power Corp.

4.09

10.54

Philodrill Corp. `A'

0.0110

-8.33

BDO Leasing & Fin. INc.

2.99

8.73

Manila Mining `A'

0.0120

-7.69

Alliance Tuna Intl Inc.

0.76

8.57

TKC Steel Corp.

1.11

-7.50

NOW Corp.

0.920

8.24

Vitarich Corp.

0.8

-6.98

Trans-Asia Oil

2.70

8.00

Wellex Industries

0.2040

-5.12

Globe Telecom

1910

7.91

Zeus Holdings

0.280

-5.08

Ferronickel

0.820

7.89

MEDCO Holdings

0.570

-5.00

TUESDAY: MARCH 15, 2016

B3

BUSINESS business@thestandard.com.ph extrastory2000@gmail.com

Green movement.

Concepcion Industrial Corp., through subsidiary Concepcion-Carrier Air Conditioning Co., launches the Green Footprints Movement, an advocacy campaign that seeks to galvanize the general public into action towards reducing their environment footprint. Shown are (from left) Manila Fashion Observer blogger Christine Dychiao, Environmental Management Bureau assistant director Eva Ocfemia, celebrity host and World Wide Fund for Nature - Philippines national ambassador Marc Nelson, CIC chief executive Raul Joseph Concepcion, CIC executive vice president for business development Rafael Hechanova Jr. and CCAC director and head of consumer solutions group Harold Pernikar Jr.

Market climbs; Globe, PLDT up STOCKS rose for a fifth day, tracking the gains in Asian markets, led by Shanghai and Tokyo shares ahead of policy reviews by the Bank of Japan and the US Federal Reserve.

The Philippine Stock Exchange index, the 30-company benchmark, climbed 14 points, or 0.2 percent, to close at 7,112.89, the highest in four months. The bellwether was also up 2.3 percent since the start of the year.

The heavier index, representing all shares, also advanced 7 points, or 0.2 percent, to settle at 4,103.52, on a value turnover of P8.4 billion.

Losers outnumbered gainers, 94 to 90, while 34 issues were unchanged.

Philippine Long Distance Telephone Co. and Globe Telecom Inc. surged, following reports that San Miguel Corp. and Telstra Corp. ended talks on a joint investment in a new mobile network in the Philippines.

PLDT jumped 11.6 percent to P1,901, while Globe Telecom advanced 7.9 percent to P1,910.

DoubleDragon Properties Corp. climbed 5.5 percent to P36.40, while Puregold Price Club Inc. rose 1.8 percent to P37.60.

Meanwhile, most Asian markets traded higher. The Bank of Japan started a two-day meeting Monday, while the Federal Reserve and Bank of England also gather this week.

Markets are keen to see if Japanese policymakers unleash fresh stimulus, after launching a widely-panned negative interest rate policy in January, while the Fed talks will be watched for clues about a possible timeline for more rate hikes.

The meetings come after the European Central Bank last week cut rates and boosted its bondbuying in a bid to kickstart the tepid eurozone economy.

Belle’s net income falls 44% to P1.4b

By Jenniffer B. Austria

PROPERTY and gaming company Belle Corp. said Monday net income in 2015 dropped 44 percent to P1.42 billion from P2.55 billion in 2014.

The company said excluding nonrecurring items, Belle’s recurring net income in 2015 increased 29 percent to P1.33 billion from P1.03 billion in 2014.

Belle said in a regulatory filing total operating revenues surged 64 percent to P5.19 billion from P3.16 billion in 2014.

“The company’s operating growth in 2015 was attributable to higher revenue from its lease of the City of Dreams Manila property to Philippine entities controlled by Melco Crown Entertainment Limited and increased income contributed by its listed subsidiaries—Premium Leisure Corp. and Pacific Online Systems Corp,” Belle said.

PLC has an operating agreement with MCE that give it a share of gaming revenue or earnings at the City of Dreams Manila.

Meanwhile, sales from real estate and club sales grew 7 percent to P347 million from P300 million booked in 2014.

Real estate sales a fell 2 percent to P843.1 million from P935.5 million in 2014. However, club shares held by the company, valued at historical cost, increased 11 percent to P2.99 billion from P2.7 billion.

Belle said despite the lower profit in 2015, the company considered the growth in recurring net income and its dividend payout as the more relevant indicators for future operating trends and prospects.

Belle’s board approved last month the

declaration of a cash dividend of P0.095 per share, for a total dividend payment to its common shareholders of P1 billion, payable on March 29.

Belle’s principal assets include land and buildings located at Pagcor Entertainment City in Parañaque City, which are being leased on a long-term basis to MCE. The property is the site of the $1-billion City of Dreams Manila gaming and resort operations, which encompasses 6.2 hectares of land

and more than 30 hectares in building gross floor area.

Belle also realizes a share in earnings from City of Dreams’ gaming operations through its 78.7 percent-owned subsidiary PLC. Belle also owns significant real estate assets in and around Tagaytay City, a temperate mountain resort about 90 minutes south of Manila overlooking scenic Taal Lake and Mount Makiling.

OFFICE OF THE GOVERNOR

Circular No. 904 Series of 2016

Subject: Guidelines on Recovery Plan of a Domestic Systemically Important Bank (DSIB) The Monetary Board, in its Resolution No. 254 dated 12 February 2016, approved the attached guidelines on recovery plan (Appendix 107a), which is required to be submitted by DSIBs, pursuant to Section X115.5 of the Manual of Regulations for Banks. Accordingly, said provision is amended to read as follows: “Subsec. X115.5. Domestic systemically important banks (DSIBs). xxx c. Intensive Supervisory Approach xxx The guidelines on the framework for dealing with DSIBs and recovery plan of a DSIB are shown in Appendices 107 and 107a.”

The recovery plan shall form an integral part of the Internal Capital Adequacy Assessment Process (ICAAP) document to be submitted every 31 March of each year.

However, the first recovery plan shall be submitted on 30 June 2016 as a supplement to the 2016 ICAAP document, which is required to be submitted on or before 31 March 2016.

For the Monetary Board: (Sgd.) AMANDO M. TETANGCO, JR. Governor 10 March 2016 Note: This Circular along with its appendices can be accessed at the BSP website: www.bsp.gov.ph under “Regulations\Circulars”

B4 Inventor assistance.

World Intellectual Property Organization deputy director general John Sandage (right) pays a courtesy call on Trade Secretary Adrian Cristobal Jr. at the Department of Trade and Industry headquarters in Makati City. Sandage said the Inventor Assistance Program would assist inventors or small companies by providing free legal counsel and information regarding the patent system.

91-day Treasury bill rates decline

By Gabrielle H. Binaday THE government on Monday raised P20 billion from the sale of short-term debt papers, amid a healthy market appetite for short-dated securities.

The Treasury sold P8 billion worth of 91-day debt papers, P6 billion worth of 182-day instruments and P6 billion worth of 364-day Treasury bills.

“The auction committee decided for a full award of the Treasury bills offered in today’s auction citing healthy market appetite,” the Treasury said in a statement after the auction.

Interest rate on the 91day or three month debt facilities eased by 4.4 basis points to 1.469 percent from the previous auction rate of 1.513 percent.

Tenders for the threemonth debt papers reached P23.23 billion, or nearly three times the offer.

“Auction results revealed strong preference for the shorter-dated 91-day securities as average rates went down from the previous month,” the agency said.

Interest rate on the 182day or six month debt papers, however, increased 8.1 basis points to 1.589 percent from the previous rate of 1.508 percent. Tenders for the six-month debt facility reached P8.34 billion, slightly higher than the P6-billion offer.

The interest rate on the 364-day debt papers also rose to 1.75 percent, or 7.2 basis points higher than the previous rate of 1.678 percent. Tenders for this debt facility was slightly oversubscribed at P8.15 billion, compared to the P6-billion original offer.

The government intends to borrow 85 percent from the domestic market and 15 percent from the international lenders this year.

Laguna Lakeshore auction reset again

By Darwin G. Amojelar

THE government deferred for the fourth time the bid submission for the P122.8-billion Laguna Lakeshore Expressway Dike Project because of minor changes in the terms of the contract, the Public Works Department said Monday.

Public Works Secretary Rogelio Singson said the bid submission for the largest toll road project under the public-private partnership scheme was moved by two weeks to March 28 from March 14.

“We have to give time for the bidders to discuss a minor change in the concession agree-

ment on termination payment provision,” Singson said.

This was the fourth time the agency extended the bid submission deadline. The last one was deferred to Jan. 7, 2016 from Nov. 6.

Under the original schedule, pre-qualified bidders had until July 6 to submit their technical and financial proposals. Techni-

cal proposals were supposed to be evaluated between July 7 and July 26, while the financial proposals would be examined between July 27 and Aug. 10.

The Public Works Department planned to award the project on Aug. 21 and sign the concession agreement on Sept. 20 last year.

The three prospective bidders were San Miguel Holdings Corp., Alloy Pavi Harshen LLEDP Consortium and Team Trident.

Team Trident is composed of Trident Infrastructure and Development Corp., Ayala Land Inc., Megaworld Corp., Aboitiz Equity Ventures Inc. and SM Prime Holdings Inc. The Alloy-Pavi Hanshin LLEDP Consortium consists of

Malaysia’s Alloy MTD Capital Berhad, Prime Asset Ventures Inc. and Hanshin Engineering Construction.

The LLED project is the largest public-private partnership venture so far, involving the construction of a flood control dike, an expressway on top of it, and the reclamation of over 700 hectares of land for commercial development.

The LLED concession will last 37 years, including seven years for design and construction and 30 years for operation and maintenance.

It will be financed mainly by private capital with no government subsidy, except for right-ofway costs.

PH, Malaysia sign deal opening banking sectors

By Julito G. Rada THE Philippines and Malaysia signed a bilateral agreement on the entry of banks between the two countries under the Asean Banking Integration Framework.

Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas said the two countries became the first Southeast Asian economies to sign the banking integration framework.

Bangko Sentral said in a statement it agreed with Bank Negara Malaysia on the guidelines regarding the entry of qualified Asean banks between the two countries.

Bangko Sentral Governor Amando Tetangco Jr. said this was in line with strengthening

intra-regional trade and investments under the Asean Banking Integration Framework.

The guidelines are contained in the heads of greement signed

by Tetangco and Bank Negara Malaysia Governor Zeti Akhtar Aziz in Kuala Lumpur on March 14.

The agreement is one of the first bilateral agreements to be signed under ABIF and marks a milestone within the broader Asean community.

The heads of agreement outline market access and operational flexibilities that may be accorded to qualified Asean banks from each jurisdiction into the other.

These QABs shall operate under the prevailing laws and regula-

tions in the Philippines and Malaysia, respectively.

“By signing this agreement, the BSP manifests its commitment to support greater regional financial integration and economic development through the ABIF,” Tetangco said.

“Being among the first Asean economies to do so only further highlights the importance we place upon the ABIF as a regional initiative and as the future of our region,” Tetangco said.

A key provision of the agreement is that it allows up to three QABs from each jurisdiction to operate in the other country.

These QABs will enter the host jurisdiction only in the form of a subsidiary of the parent bank in

the home jurisdiction in line with the principle of reciprocity.

As these qualified Asean banks from Malaysia enter the Philippines, they will be regulated under applicable Bangko Sentral regulations and within the legal framework defined under Republic Act No. 10641, which further liberalized the domestic banking system.

Qualified Asean banks are strong and well-managed banks, headquartered in the Asean region and majority owned by Asean nationals. Banks that apply for QAB status must be endorsed by the home country regulator to and may be accepted by the host country regulator based on their bilateral agreement.

T U E S D AY : M A R C H 1 5 , 2 0 1 6

BUSINESS business@thestandard.com.ph extrastory2000@gmail.com

7 Cool TED talks IN 2020, a presenter will win $5 million for delivering a talk no longer than 18 minutes that tackles “some of the world’s grand challenges” at the annual TED conference—but the speaker won’t be human.

The winner of the IBM Watson AI X Prize can be an artificially intelligent system or an AI-human combination, chosen from three finalists who survive head-to-head competitions at IBM Watson’s annual developer conference over the next three years.

Announced at TED2016 in Vancouver last month, the competition seeks to demonstrate how humans can collaborate with “cognitive technologies” or AI to tackle today’s most pressing problems.

Each team can define its own challenge in AI-human collaboration, but the audacity of that mission—and the quality of the AI talk—will help the audience at TED2020 choose the final winner.

These AI presentations promise to be fascinating—but there’s no need to wait until 2020 to appreciate exciting developments in AI and other technologies. Today, anyone can visit the TED website (www.ted.com/talks) and view for free more than 2,400 talks (as of March 2016) not only about technology and design, but also a broad range of scientific, cultural and academic topics.

TED—short for Technology, Entertainment and Design – is run by the non-profit Sapling Foundation under the slogan “Ideas Worth Spreading.” It began in 1984 as a one-off event, and became an annual conference series in 1990.

Past speakers include Bill Clinton, Al Gore, Elon Musk, Richard Stallman, Bill Gates, Google founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin, and many Nobel Prize winners.

Each TED talk is no more than 18 minutes—long enough to be serious and short enough to hold people’s attention.

Search filters can help you find the speaker or topic you want.

Here in no particular order are 10 technology-related talks I found to be informative, engaging and even inspiring.

Can technology solve our big problems? (Feb. 2013). Jason Pontin, editor and publisher of the MIT Technology Review, observes that technology used to solve the world’s biggest problems and wonders aloud why it hasn’t been brought to bear to cure cancer, feed everyone on the planet or create truly clean energy. “Something happened to our ability to solve big problems. It seems like technologist have diverted us and enriched themselves with trivial toys. With things like iPhones, apps, and social media. These have expanded and enriched our lives but they don’t solve humanity’s big problems,” Pontin says.

New bionics let us run, climb and dance (March 2014). Hugh Herr, director of the Biomechatronics research group at the MIT Media Lab, talks about—and demonstrates--the next generation of bionic limbs, robotic prosthetics inspired by nature’s own designs. Herr, who lost both legs in a climbing accident 30 years ago, shows his incredible technology in an inspiring talk with the help of ballroom dancer Adrianne Haslet-Davis, who lost her left leg in the 2013 Boston Marathon bombing, and performs again for the first time with a new bionic leg.

How we’re teaching computers to understand pictures (March 2015). Fei-Fei Li, director of Stanford’s Artificial Intelligence Lab and Vision Lab, shares how she and her colleagues are working to solve AI’s trickiest problems—including image recognition, learning and language processing. How do we go about emulating on a machine a young child’s ability to view a picture and understand what she is looking at?

How to fool a GPS (February 2012). Todd Humphreys, director of the University of Texas at Austin’s Radionavigation Laboratory, studies global positioning system (GPS), its future, and how we can address some of its biggest security problems. He predicts a future when millimeter-accurate GPS dots will enable us to pinpoint locations and index-search our possessions—or track people without their knowledge. Technology used to counter this invasion of privacy, however, can have unintended consequences in a GPS-dependent society.

The game that can give you 10 extra years of life (June 2012).

Game designer Jane McGonigal relates how, after she found herself bedridden and suicidal following a severe concussion, she dove into the scientific research and created the healing game, SuperBetter. McGonigal explains how a game can boost resilience—and promises to add 7.5 minutes to your life (she does the math to show you how).

A delightful way to teach kids about computers (February 2016).

Programmer, storyteller and illustrator Linda Liukas gives an infectiously cheerful talk about encouraging kids to see computers not as mechanical, boring and complicated, but as colorful, expressive machines meant to be tinkered with. Her children’s book, Hello Ruby, is the “world’s most whimsical way to learn about technology, computing and coding.”

What can save the rainforest? Your used cell phone (September 2014). Conservationist Topher White talks about his non-government organization uses recycled cell phones to build solar-powered listening devices to monitor and protect remote areas of the rainforest from illegal logging.

Column archives and blog at: http://www.chinwong.com

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Del Monte rebounds with $41.9-m income

By Jenniffer B. Austria

FRUIT grower and canner Del Monte Pacific Ltd. said Monday net income in nine months ending January 2016 hit $41.9 million, a turnaround from the $23.9-million net loss recorded a year earlier.

Del Monte Pacific’s fiscal year starts May and ends April of the following year, in line with the financial report of US subsidiary Del Monte Foods Inc. Del Monte Pacific said in a disclosure to the stock exchange revenues grew 6 percent in the nine-month period ending January to $1.7 billion, on higher sales from the US, the Philippines and Asia.

US subsidiary Del Monte Foods accounted for 80 percent

of group sales and generated revenue of $1.4 billion, up 8 percent from a year ago.

The Philippine market also delivered good results with sales up 7 percent, driven by expanded penetration and increased consumption for juices, tomatobased sauces and packaged pineapple products.

Sales of the S&W branded business in Asia and the Middle East grew16 percent on higher sales from both the fresh and

packaged segments.

Del Monte Pacific said barring unforeseen circumstances, it was poised to report a profit for the full fiscal year ending April 2016, a significant turnaround from the loss position a year ago.

The group said in the third quarter of its fiscal year alone, covering November to January, it generated sales of $594.1 million, down by 7 percent due to lower sales in Del Monte Foods of 9 percent mainly from unsuccessful government and co-pack contract bids.

Sales in Philippines rose 6 percent with effective holiday season advertising campaigns.

The rest of Asia under the S&W brand performed strongly and rose 35 percent. China and Japan markets grew significantly on higher sales of canned tropical fruit and fresh fruit.

Cloudera partner. Information technology company Cloudera and Computrade Technology Philippines Inc. team up to help organizations leverage Big Data for massive large-scale distributed computing and to gain greater value from their data assets more quickly using Cloudera Enterprise. Shown sealing the partnership with a handshake are Cloudera Philippines country manager Jonathan Limbo (left) and Computrade Technology managing director Teddy Sumulong.

California firm opens Taguig center SERVICESOURCE, a Californiabased business solutions providers, announced it will open a new service delivery center in Taguig City on March 21 to expand its global presence and accelerate growth.

The new facility located at Net Park Building in Bonifacio Global City is expected to employ 500 Filipinos once fully operational.

ServiceSource said the Philippine facility would increase the company’s capacity to deliver 24/7 operations, enabling the company to provide faster delivery times and execute sales-related activities at a large scale.

“The center will play a key role as ServiceSource continues to build its overall leadership in the revenue lifecycle management space. With the increased capacity that this center will create in the company’s current in-market

centers, the company will be able to dedicate more resources to strategic selling and customer success-related activities associated with RLM,” it said.

ServiceSource provides the world’s leading business-tobusiness companies with expert, technology-enabled solutions and best-practice processes proven to grow and retain revenue from existing customers.

ServiceSource brings to market more than 15 years of exclusive focus on customer success and revenue growth, global deployments across 40 languages and 150 countries and a powerful, purpose-built revenue lifecycle management technology platform.

The new center marks ServiceSource’s tenth global location and the fourth in the Asia Pacific and Japan region, following of-

fice openings in Singapore, Kuala Lumpur and Yokohama.

The center is also expected to expand the company’s best-inclass global support coverage with direct access to a growing pool of well-educated, Englishspeaking talent.

ServiceSource earlier said it planned to grow the facility to 500 employees. “The top-quality and rapidly growing workforce in the Philippines has made it one of the most attractive markets for global companies looking for further expansion opportunities,” ServiceSource chief executive Christopher Carrington said in October.

The newest location will be led

by James Keating, whose career spans 13 years as an experienced and effective sales operator with proven proficiency in all aspects of managed services.

TUESDAY: MARCH 15, 2016

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BUSINESS business@thestandard.com.ph extrastory2000@gmail.com

Solar deadline not extended Stricter anti-money laundering law urged

By Jenniffer B. Austria SECURITIES and Exchange Commission chairman Teresita Herbosa called on Congress to further strengthen the country’s Anti-Money Laundering Act amid reports that $81 million have been laundered in the Philippines.

Herbosa in an interview at the sidelines of the Apec Financial Infrastructure Development meeting cited the need to expand the coverage of reporting institutions and ensure that the Anti Money Laundering Council had powers to conduct investigations on the perpetrators.

Herbosa said AMLC should now push for the inclusion of casinos and as well as art in the coverage of AMLA. “We need to strengthen the law.

Money laundering can only be stopped if everyone in the world cooperates. It’s a global effort to eradicate money laundering, we have to catch up with people doing that activity, and while we are doing that, we need to strengthen the laws of each country to conform to best practices,” Herbosa said.

She said the recent reports should be a “good stimulus” to prompt legislators to strengthen the AMLA, like adding certain groups or individuals, such as casinos, to the covered institutions “I’m sure they’ll be considered for the next round of amendments. [The recent reports on money laundering] is a very good stimulus for everyone to seriously consider who should, or should not be considered,” said Herbosa.

By Alena Mae S. Flores

THE National Renewable Energy Board recommended to the Energy Department the non-extension of the March 15 deadline for the feed-in tariff availment of solar power projects.

NREB vice chairman Ernesto Pantangco said the non-extension covered the deadline for the second round of solar power projects qualified to avail of the FIT rate, or those failling under the n“500-megawatt whichever comes first” policy.

The government last year approved the second round of installation target of 450 MW for solar power plants, bringing

the total installation goal to 500 MW. “[This] is based on the DoE circular increasing the solar installation target from 50 to 500 MW or March 15, 2016, whichever comes first. This was signed

by Secretary [Carlos Jericho] Petilla two years ago so everybody is aware,” Pantangco said when asked to justify the request for non-extension.

The ERC approved a feedin tariff rate of P9.68 per kWh for the first wave of installation target of 50 MW and P8.69 per kWh for the second batch .

ERC commissioner Josefina Asirit, meanwhile, said the total 500-MW solar installation target would definitely be subscribed [by proponents] “based on the numbers we’re seeing now.”

Asirit said ERC already started the inspection of the wind projects endorsed by the department.

“The FIT eligible COC [certificate of compliance from ERC] is dependent on whether or not they [solar developers] get the certificate of endorsement from DoE. Be that as it may, we are aware that the DOE is mindful of the subscription numbers,”

Asirit said.

The procedure for the certificate of endorsement, or COE, for FIT eligibility is outlined in a circular spelling out the guidelines for the selection process of renewable projects under the FIT system and the award of the certificate for FIT eligibility.

The circulate allows the department to validate “successful commissioning” and affirm the date of start of commercial operations within 15 working days and issue the COE-FIT Eligibility on a first-come-first-served basis.

The department said renewable energy developers could request for a validation upon 80 percent completion of the electro-mechanical component of the project.

Pepsi feeding program. Pepsi-Cola

Products Philippines Inc. gains an international partner in pushing its Pepsigla school feeding program. Korea-based Lotte Scholarship Foundation has hopped into the Pepsigla bandwagon in a move seen to widen the project’s scope to more schools nationwide.

Photo shows the 2015-2016 Pepsigla launch held in Muntinlupa City led by PCPPI chief executive Yongsang You (extreme right) presenting a P2.04-million donation for public elementary schools covered by the program during school year 2015-2016. Also shown are (from left) PCPPI vice president for corporate affairs and communications Jika Dalupan, Lotte Foundation executive director Jung Wook Lee, Tunasan Elementary School principal Rhodora Mandap, Victoria HomesTunasan Elementary School officer-in-charge Gina Orquia, Muntinlupa Elementary School principal Jane May Balbuena, Kabisig ng Kalahi president Victoria Weineke, and Kabisig trustee Cora Tan.

Groups whose presidential support will be crucial THE support of large groups of voters will be crucial to the success of one of the five candidates for president in the 2016 election.

The most important of these are the youth— voters aged from 18 to 30 years—the women, the farmers, the regional groups and the largest political parties.

Who among the five candidates—Mar Roxas, Grace Poe, Jejomar Binay, Rodrigo Duterte and Miriam Defensor-Santiago – is likely to get the support of the majorities of these groups?

Support of young Filipino voters— accounting for anywhere up to 50 percent of the 56 million registered voters will be not only the biggest plum for the candidates, but it is also the most unpredictable among the major elements of this year’s election. What are the so-called millennials—mainly those born after the Edsa Revolution—thinking? To whom do they best relate: the experienced but colorless Roxas, the inexperienced but eager Poe, the accomplished but ailing Santiago, the competent but legally vulnerable Binay,

the experienced and tough Duterte? Young voters probably relate to Poe because of her comparative youthfulness and to Santiago and Duterte for their toughness in a time of all-things-to-all-men public administration.

There’s no doubt about it: whoever is able to capture the youth will have a long headstart in the May 9 polls.

Will this country’s women automatically go for either Grace Poe or Miriam Santiago?

Not necessarily. The first of the two women who became president of the Philippines won because her opponent was Ferdinand Marcos, and the second female Chief Executive, Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, was never elected by the Filipino people (the 2004 election having been won, in the eyes of most observers, by the late Fernando Poe Jr.). In the latest opinion surveys, only around 31 percent of respondents have selected Grace Poe, with Miriam Santiago as the consistent tail-ender. But, who knows?

With the Poe disqualification issue settled by the Supreme Court, a majority of Filipino women voters could, for the first time, elect this country’s second female president.

Because of the absence of what can be referred to as honest-to-goodness agricultural policy, it is not possible to speak of a farm vote in this country, in the same way that communicators on US elections speak of a

Farm Belt vote. Voters in sugar-growing areas tend to vote for candidates endorsed by their representatives; the same goes for Filipino farmers who grow rice, corn, coconuts, tobacco, etc. But a presidential candidate who espouses a sub-sector is likely to be at the receiving end of an adverse reaction. Grace Poe’s recent statements on the coconut levy cannot have been well received by this country’s coconut farmers.

Historically, Filipino voters have exhibited a tendency to vote for presidents and other national officers on a favorite-son basis, preferring those who hail from the same region and speak the regional language over those who don’t. Following history, on May 9, a majority of the voters who speak Cebuano or come from the Davao City area should go for Rodrigo Duterte.

That’s a large voter base. The Western Visayas vote would probably be split between Miriam Santiago, who belongs to the Defensor family of Iloilo and Mar Roxas, whose parentage consists of families from Panay Island. Grace Poe can claim to be a Western Visayan, having been found in an Iloilo church. Jejomar Binay’s ties to Batangas are neither deep nor well-publicized. A strong regional language base would definitely be a big plus.

Finally, there are the machineries of the four major political parties (Liberal Party,

Nationalist People’s Coalition, PDP-Laban and Lakas-UMDC). To give their standard bearers a very strong push, the two largest parties, the Liberal Party (Roxas’s) and NPC (Poe’s) need to be united. But this is just the point: the parties are not united and are experiencing defections and loyalty-related doubts. This is certainly the case with the Liberal Party, which definitely cannot count on the firm loyalty of its 110-plus House of Representatives members. And the recent announcement by the NPC leadership of the party’s support for Grace Poe was received with skepticism, even incredulity, in many quarters.

Summing up, the above five groups, being the largest agglomeration, will decide the outcome of the 2016 presidential election.

It sounds simplistic to say that if Mar Roxas generated enthusiasm among young and female voters and could relate to the Cebuanospeaking people of this country, he would be on his way to Malacanang.

But this cannot be said of the daang matuwid’s standard bearer. Like his four opponents, Mar will just have to pick up as many majorities as he can among the nation’s age, gender, sector, regional and political-party groups, and hope that the total votes will be the ticket to Malacañang.

E-mail: rudyromero777@yahoo.com

T U E S D AY : M A R C H 1 5 , 2 0 1 6

WORLD

CESAR BARRIOQUINTO

editorial@thestandard.com.ph

EDITOR

B7

US, Russia pulling the strings in Syria BEIRUT—The United States and Russia are pulling the strings in Syria’s five-year war, experts say, pressuring the opposing sides and leveraging rival regional powers to reach a settlement.

As the conflict enters its sixth year, the embattled regime and fractured opposition are in Geneva for indirect peace talks hosted

by United Nations peace envoy Staffan de Mistura.

But the real solution, experts say, is in Russian and American hands.

“The two great powers talk among themselves by phone or in meetings around the world. Then they inform their Syrian allies and de Mistura what

they’ve decided,” says veteran opposition figure Haytham Manaa.

“Then, Russia and the US give the regional powers the red lines they’re not supposed to cross. The US bans the Turks from a ground incursion in Syria and asks the Saudis to stop sending arms. Russia does the same thing with Iran,” Manaa tells AFP. Syria’s conflict began on March 15, 2011 with a peaceful protest movement calling for

President Bashar alAssad to step down.

But the uprising turned violent after the government launched a brutal crackdown on dissent, and its key players became the various armed forces—regime, opposition, jihadist, Kurdish—and their respective backers.

Russia and the United States have exerted their influence over the opposing sides of the complex war to broker a landmark truce that has been holding since February 27.

“The US and Russia have taken command of, and have a monopoly over, the Syrian issue,” says Joseph Bahout, a visiting scholar at the Carnegie Endowment

in Washington.

Bassel Salloukh, political science professor at the Lebanese American University of Beirut, agrees.

“Indeed, what started as a non-violent movement demanding reforms metamorphosed into an overlapping domestic, regional, and international struggle over Syria,” Salloukh says.

He expects that “the strategic interests of Russia and the US will determine the shape of the settlement in Syria rather than the aspirations of its peoples.”

Both the US and Russia were hesitant to become involved in a conflict as complex and unpredictable as Syria. AFP

SORSOGON CITY WATER DISTRICT Capitol Compound, Sorsogon City (056) 421-5940/211-1570 INVITATION TO APPLY FOR ELIGIBILITY AND TO SUBMIT COMPARATIVE PROPOSALS (IAESP) The Sorsogon City Water District (SCWD), created pursuant to Presidential Decree No. 198, as amended, otherwise known as the Provincial Water Utilities Act of 1973, received an unsolicited proposal from the Original Proponentfor the FINANCING, DEVELOPMENT, REHABILITATION, EXPANSION, IMPROVEMENT, OPERATION AND MAINTENANCE OF THE WATER SUPPLY AND SEPTAGE SYSTEM OF SORSOGON CITY WATER DISTRICT. Pursuant to the 2013 Guidelines issued by the National Economic Development Authority under Section 8 of Executive Order No. 423 dated 30 April 2005, negotiations ensued between SCWD and Original Proponent on the JV Proposal. Subsequently, an agreement was reached between SCWD and Original Proponent to form an unincorporated joint venture to undertake the JV Project.

In compliance with the SCWD Board Resolution No. 004-16, Series of 2016, the SCWD, through its Joint Venture Selection Committee (JVSC), invites Interested Private Proponent/s (IPPs) to challenge the JV Proposal by submitting comparative proposals for the following: Name of Project:

FINANCING,DEVELOPMENT, REHABILITATION, EXPANSION, IMPROVEMENT, OPERATION AND MAINTENANCE OF THE WATER SUPPLY AND SEPTAGE SYSTEM OF SORSOGON CITY WATER DISTRICT

Location of Project:

Sorsogon City, Sorsogon, Philippines

Project Description:

The project involves a joint venture undertaking between the SCWD and the Winning Private Proponent for the Financing, Development, Rehabilitation, Expansion, Improvement, Operation and Maintenance of the Water Supply and Septage System of SCWD.

Applications for eligibility shall be evaluated based on a non-discretionary “pass/fail” criterion.

An IPP shall be considered eligible upon compliance with the following minimum qualification requirements: 1.

1.1.

Legal Eligibility The IPP must be either of the following: a. A duly licensed sole proprietorship owned by a Filipino citizen; or b. A partnership or corporation created pursuant to the Corporation Code of the Philippines and registered with the SEC. c. A Consortium of two or more entities with at least sixty percent (60%) of both voting and non-voting interest in the said Consortium being owned and held, by citizens of the Philippines and/or by Philippine registered corporations at least sixty percent (60%) of both the total number of outstanding shares of stock, whether or not entitled to vote in the election of directors are owned by Philippine nationals.

1.2.

The nationality of the IPP shall be determined via the Grandfather Rule.

1.3.

If the IPP is a Consortium, each member of the Consortium must be disclosed during the pre-qualification stage and the Lead Member thereof must be specifically identified. For this purpose, the Lead member must have at least fifty one percent (51%) equity interest in the Consortium, andthe totalpercentage interestof all Consortium Membersmustbeone hundredpercent(100%).

1.4.

The IPP or each Consortium member must also certify that it has no Unsatisfactory Performance Record.

2.

2.1.

Technical Eligibility The IPP must have completed a similar or related project costing at least 50% of the cost of the JV Activity/Project. For the avoidance of doubt, cost of the JV Activity/ Project pertains to the amount of contribution of SCWD and the Original Proponent representing the present value of capital expenditures using a 12% discount factor. For this project, the cost of the JV Activity/Project is equal to One Billion Six Hundred Forty Six Million Three Hundred Ninety Seven Thousand One Hundred Twenty Two Pesos (PhP 1,646,397,122.00).

3.

3.1.

Financial Eligibility The IPP should have the capability to finance the completion of the entire project evidenced by financial documents to be submitted and will form as an integral part of the Financial Proposal.

3.2

A letter from a domestic universal/commercial bank, or an international bank with a subsidiary/branch in the Philippines, or any international bank recognized by the BangkoSentralngPilipinas (BSP), attesting that the prospective JV Partner is one of its current clients, and is in good financial standing.

4.

Additional eligibility criteria are specified in the instructions to IPPs. Only those lPPs that are deemed eligible shall be entitled to submit Comparative Proposals, which must be in accordance with instructions contained in the Request for Proposal Documents (RFP Documents).

The JVSC shall evaluate the proposals using the Quality Based Evaluation/Selection (QBE/QBS) procedure. The criteria and rating system for the evaluation of the proposals shall be provided in the Instructions to Interested Private Proponent/s (IIPPs).

The following procedures, schedules and instructions shall be strictly observed: SCHEDULE (using Philippine Standard Time)

ACTIVITY 1. Purchase of Eligibility Documents for a nonrefundable fee of Five Hundred Thousand Pesos (Php 500,000.00).

March 15-22, 2016 (from 8:00am to 3:00pm)

The Eligibility Documents may be purchased ONLY from the SCWDJVSC at the SCWD Office, Capitol Compound, Sorsogon City, 4700, Sorsogon City

2. Submission of Eligibility Documents

10:00am, April 22, 2016

Deadline of Submission of Eligibility Documents to the SCWDJVSC office,CapitolCompound, Sorsogon City, 4700, Sorsogon City

3. Opening Documents

April 22, 2016 1:00pm onwards

of

Eligibility

at

JVSC will determine the completeness of the eligibility documents based on a pass or fail criteria. For those IPPs with incomplete, irregular or patently insufficient submission shall be considered failed.

For those IPPs whose eligibility documents appear to be complete shall be further evaluated to determine its eligibility.

4. Determination of Eligibility

On or before May 09, 2016

JVSC will evaluate the eligibility documents of the IPPs to determine if they are eligible or ineligible, and the IPPs will be notified of the result of the evaluation.

5.

Purchase of Tender Documents by IPPs declared “eligible” for non-refundable fee of One Million Pesos (PhP1,000,000.00), payable either in cash or manager's check.

May 10-13, 2016

Tender Documents may be purchased ONLY from the SCWDJVSC Secretariat at the SCWD Capitol Compound, Office, Sorsogon City, 4700, Sorsogon City

6. Pre-selection conference will thereafter be held.

August 15, 2016 ( 1:00 pm)

All Eligible IPPs are encouraged to attend the conference to be held at the SCWD Office, Capitol Compound, Sorsogon City, 4700, Sorsogon City

7. Submission and Opening of Comparative Proposal

September 13, 2016 (on or before 12:00 noon only)

Comparative Proposals shall be addressed to: Orlando R. Gacias Chairperson - JVSC SORSOGON CITY WATER DISTRICT Capitol Compound, Sorsogon City, 4700, Sorsogon City

Meeting. This handout picture provided by the office of Iranian President Hassan Rouhani on March 14, 2016, shows him meeting with Vietnam’s President Truong Tan Sang in Tehran. AFP

Activists mark Spratly Islands battle HA N O I — Ac t i v i s t s chanted anti-China slogans in the Vietnamese capital on Monday to mark the anniversary of a 1988 battle in the Spratly Islands, a rare act of protest over an issue that has come to dog the relations between Hanoi and Beijing.

The two neighbors are locked in long-standing territorial disputes over the Spratly and Paracel Islands, which both countries claim.

One-party Vietnam clamps down on public protest. But anti-Chinese demonstrations have become increasingly commonplace, particularly around the March 14 anniversary

of a skirmish between China and Vietnam.

In 1988 China launched an attack on Gac Ma Island, one of the larger Spratly Islands that was formerly under Vietnamese military control. The attack killed 64 Vietnamese soldiers in the last violent conflict between the two nations.

“We are here to commemorate our soldiers killed by Chinese,” teacher Pham Toan told AFP in front of a statue of Ly Thai To—the founder of Hanoi and a nationalist figurehead.

“Their sacrifice has been long forgotten by Vietnamese authorities,” Toan added, referring to

activist claims that the communist authorities do not sufficiently commemorate the battle.

Vietnam’s communist leadership’s handling of its delicate relationship with China—which is the country’s largest trading partner—is a frequent flash point for domestic criticism of Vietnam’s authoritarian government.

Watched by dozens of plain-clothed security officers, the activists played patriotic music and waved Vietnamese flags near the central Hoan Kiem lake in Hanoi.

Dozens of activists laid floral wreaths covered with black ribbons

that read “the people will never forget” at the statue of Ly Thai To. The protest lasted about an hour.

Vietnam’s tightly controlled state media covered the anniversary but not Monday’s protest.

There was no official comment from the government. AFP

NOTICE Notice is hereby given that the estate of the late ESTEBAN G. FRIERA was extrajudicially settled among his heirs as per Doc. No. 6, Page No. 47-48, Book No. 2, Series of 2015 under Notary Public Atty. Alexander P.C. Ballesteros. ( T S - M A R . 1, 8 ,15 , 2 016

ADDITIONAL INSTRUCTIONS

For any queries and/or clarifications, please address your communication in writing to the Chairperson of the SCWD-JVSC at the address indicated above or fax the same at (056) 211-1570 and 421-5940or email the same to sorsogoncitywaterdistrict@yahoo.com.ph SCWD reserves the right to reject any or all submissions, waive any minor deviations, and award the contract for the JV Project to the IPP whose financial proposal is the best among the qualified interested private proponent/s whose technical proposals are complying.

All proposals must be accompanied by a Proposal Security in the form of cash, Manager’s Check (MC) or Surety Bond callable on demand amounting to 2% of the estimated participationof the Original Proponentfor the entire cooperation period.

SCWD assumes no responsibility whatsoever to compensate or indemnify any IPP for expenses incurred in the preparation of the comparative proposals.

(Sgd.) ORLANDO R. GACIAS Chairman, JVSC

(T S-M A R . 15 , 2016 )

T U E S D AY : M A R C H 1 5 , 2 0 1 6

B8

CESAR BARRIOQUINTO EDITOR

editorial@thestandard.com.ph

WORLD

US, France to help in cleanup in Fukushima TOKYO—The Japanese government will team up with experts in the United States and France to develop brand-new technologies to collect melted fuel from the crippled reactors at Fukushima, an official said Monday.

The removal of the melted rods at the nuclear plant, which was wrecked by a tsunami five years ago, is one of the biggest challenges of the mammoth cleanup, a huge project expected to take up to four decades.

Scientists have long warned the technology required for the complex—and potentially dangerous—task does not yet exist, and would have to be invented.

Entombing the uranium rods in concrete and effectively abandoning the site—as was done after the meltdown at Chernobyl in 1986— has been ruled out by the Japanese government as politically unacceptable, leaving innovation as the only possible solution.

Japan’s science and technology ministry said it would work with the US Energy Department and the French National Research Agency on the project—a key step towards eventual decommissioning, which is expected to begin in 2021.

“This is the first basic research led by the government designed to help decommission Fukushima Daiichi after TEPCO worked together with its partners overseas at the private level,” a ministry official said, referring to the operator of the plant.

Under the plan, the US side will help Japan develop equipment and technology to manage and dispose of highly-radioactive waste produced from the decommissioning work, the official said.

France will cooperate with Japan in developing remote-control technology, including robotic and image processing expertise that can withstand high-radiation environments, he said.

The Japanese government plans to finance the projects by spending part of its “Fukushima technology development budget” worth 3.0 billion yen ($26.4 million).

Japan last week marked five years since an offshore earthquake sent a huge tsunami crashing into its northeast coastline. AFP

Stuck. Migrants and refugees keep warm by a bonfire on March 13, 2016, in a makeshift camp on train tracks at the Greek-Macedonian border near the Greek village of Idomeni, where thousands of them are stranded. The misery being endured by the refugees has reached a deplorable peak at the overcrowded Idomeni camp on the Greek border with Macedonia, a UN refugee agency spokesman said on March 13. More than 14,000 people are stuck in and around the overflowing camp, with basic living conditions deteriorating as they wait for a closed border to be reopened. AFP

Afghan strongmen tame Taliban bastion ZANGIABAD, Afghanistan—A captured Taliban rifle dangling at his side, commander Sultan Mohammed swaggers through a bomb-cratered district that was once a hornet’s nest of insurgents, symbolizing a rare Afghan military triumph where US forces failed.

Panjwai was one of the centerpieces of US President Barack Obama’s 2009 troop surge ambitiously aimed at crushing the Taliban, but the southern district soon became a poster child of the failed intervention.

Strongmen including Mohammed, the Panjwai police chief with a reputation for brutality, in recent years did what the Americans could not—tame the insurgent haven that had come to be known as the “blood fountain”.

The Taliban are now out of sight in the district in Kandahar, pomegranate orchards stand on fields once awash with land mines, and poppy farms that boosted militant coffers are just a memory.

“When US forces were here, the Taliban were within one kilometer of their bases. Now they aren’t even within 100 kilometers,” Mohammed said, trailed by armed loyalists.

“We did what American soldiers could not—rid the area of the Taliban.”

To get a full measure of the turnaround, juxtapose Panjwai against the turmoil convulsing the wider region, increasingly drawing Nato troops back into the conflict a year after their combat mission ended.

The neighboring opium-rich Helmand, Afghanistan’s largest province, is teetering on the brink of collapse.

Overstretched Afghan troops are retreating from the volatile southern districts, ceding swathes of key areas to the Taliban.

And conflict-induced displacement is edging towards a new record as the Taliban now control more territory than in any year since 2001.

Panjwai offers a striking contrast: children in schools learning algebra instead of a Taliban cur-

riculum, grape farmers tending their vines even after sundown, and once-wary visitors jaunting around on pheasant-hunting trips.

The transformation of Panjwai, the birthplace of the Taliban movement, defies the common perception that Afghan security forces— bedeviled by high casualties and desertions—cannot stand alone without Nato backing.

To its advantage, observers say Panjwai is not a messy froth of tribal and economic dynamics. And unlike the neighboring districts gripped by violence, it does not fall on a major drug trafficking route.

“Being a backwater has helped Panjwai achieve detente that has seen many local insurgent fighters return to farming,” a Kabul-based Western official told AFP. AFP

US sailor arrested for rape in Okinawa

Awaiting spring. The morning sun cuts through the fog on a field near Oranienburg north of Berlin on March 14, 2016 . With an overnight temperature of -4 celsius, northern Germany is still awaiting spring. AFP

TOKYO—Japanese police said Monday they have arrested a 24-yearold US sailor on suspicion of raping a Japanese woman on Okinawa, in a case that could further fan sentiment against Washington’s military presence on the fortified southern island.

Okinawa was the site of a brutal World War II battle between Japan and the United States but is now considered a strategic linchpin supporting the two countries’ decades-long security alliance.

Pacifist sentiment, however, runs high on the crowded island, which makes up less than one percent of Japan’s total land area but is home to about 75 percent of the US military bases in the country.

More than half of the 47,000 American military personnel in Japan are stationed there and rapes and other crimes by US service personnel have sparked local protests in the past.

A spokesman with the Okinawan prefectural police on Monday identified the arrested seaman as Justin Castellanos, who is stationed at the US Marine Corps Camp Schwab base on the island.

Castellanos, arrested Sunday, allegedly raped the woman earlier the same day while she was unconscious at a hotel in the Okinawan capital city of Naha, the spokesman said.

A spokesman for the US Navy in Japan had no immediate comment

on the arrest.

Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga, the Japanese government’s top spokesman, told reporters that the alleged incident is “extremely regrettable”.

Suga said the Japanese government had “expressed a strong protest” to the US side, adding he hopes that police can solve the case.

“The US side said it would be a very disappointing incident if the allegation was true and that they’re taking this matter seriously,” he added, referring to what he described as the US response to Japan’s protest.

Takeshi Onaga, the governor of Okinawa, expressed anger at the alleged rape. AFP

tuesday : m arch 15, 2016

tatum aNcheta EDITOR

BING PareL

A S S O C I AT E E D I T O R

BerNadette LuNas WRITER

life @ thestandard.com .ph

@LIFeatstandard

a rts, cuLt u re & t ech

LIFE

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Ebb AnD FlOW: ThREE WOmEn ART ExhIbIT Tessa Alindogan and her works (second and third from right) Tessa Mendoza and her works (second and third from left)

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ack in the old times, the letter “T” was used by the ancient Phoenicians as a marker or a sign especially for people who didn’t know how to sign their own names. Today, the letter “T” stands for so many things and can be used for so many words. After seeing the exhibit of Ebb and Flow, we can now associate “T” to three powerful women whose names start with the letter “T” and we can aptly use the adjective “talented” to go with their names.

Tessa Mendoza, Tina Gonzales, and Tessa Alindogan – up-and-coming artists who teamed up for the first time to unveil their three women art exhibit featuring their distinct signature paintings in each canvas. It tells of three different painters with different styles, yet when their works are put together, these create a rhythm – a movement of different songs flowing and interweaving to create an ebb and flow.

Mendoza, a self-taught artist, had her first successful exhibit entitled “Gracia” in November 2014. Coming from her sold-out show, she featured some of her earlier works for the three-women exhibit. Her style focuses on detailed human form, portraits and other line art with animals and nature as inspiration.

Since 1986, Tessa has been painting but stopped for a while when she had to focus on marriage and motherhood, having four children of her own. For over 20 years, her passion took a backseat but after a successful sold out exhibit last 2014, she’s back and ready to conquer the art scene. “Mine is but the hand that wields brush to canvas; it is Christ’s abounding grace that inspires, conjures, creates and blesses,” she shares.

For Tina Gonzales, art comes as second nature as she is a long time collector and

art dealer. “Ebb and Flow” marks her first exhibit. While Mendoza dabbles on linear details, Gonzales’ work is almost without lines as paint flows to create the illusion of forms highlighting scenes from everyday life with people in parks and places that caught her fancy. “It’s Life, real life. I like to draw and I started in 1994. When my mom died last 2014, I decided that this is what I really wanted and what I like to do,” she explains.

Tessa Alindogan on the other hand has been a practicing interior designer since 1988. She graduated with an Architectural Interior Design diploma from the Inchbald School of Design in London. Painting didn’t come as something she loved to do but “had” to do out of necessity. She began painting in 2004 when she needed some artwork for her condo, and people who visited her place loved the artworks and it eventually became a calling, as the need grew for her profession. As an interior

Tina Gonzales and her work

designer, Alindogan creates abstract pieces that go well with the walls of offices and homes that she designs.

Ebb and Flow was a one-time exhibit held last March 8 at Discovery Primea.

Portions of the proceeds will be donated to Assumption High School Batch 1981 for the benefit of the Assumption Alumnae Association (AAA).

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@LIFEatStandard

ARTS AND CULTURE ROUNDUP What’s on in theaters and galleries this week

ExhibiTS

CONCERTS PPO: Rachelle Gerodias, Byeong-in Park and Madz Main Theater, Cultural Center of the Philippines, Manila March 18; 8:00 p.m.

Vagari Galleria Duemila, Pasay City Ongoing until March 31

Filipino and Korean talents join forces in the 7th season concert of the Philippine Philharmonic Orchestra this month, Philippines’ multi-awarded and sought-after soprano Rachelle Gerodias will perform alongside Korean baritone Byeong-in Park under the baton of Maestro Olivier Ochanine.

The concert also features another country’s gem, the Philippine Madrigal Singers.

The program will showcase the world premiere of a new Filipino work and will feature Johannes Brahms’ Ein Deutsches Requiem.

Performance artist Josephine Turalba presents her latest solo show featuring her current suite of works composed of an array of multimedia works that encompass photography, video installation, painting and serigraph print.

The exhibition showcases leitmotifs laden with narratives of migration of sea, land and air – very apt considering that the show’s

name is a Latin translation of the word “wander.” As with most of Turalba’s works, this series takes the form of an investigative and multidisciplinary approach that shifts in context as her medium changes.

To know more about this ongoing exhibit, call (02) 833-9815 or visit www. galleriaduemila.com.

Opera Silverlens Galleries, Makati City March 19 to April 23 Highly reclusive artist Gabriel Barredo presents a more intimate version of his grand-scale ballet production of the same name, which ran from February 13 to 16 at the CCP Main Theater, in the form of a series of installation.

The multi-sensory installation displayed in the set of the ballet is composed of hundreds of dissected, mutated and manipulated mannequins, skeletal sculptures and found objects.

Video footage of the ballet, filmed by Pabrika Film, and the original music

by Malek Lopez, will also be featured in the exhibition.

Visit www.silverlensgalleries.com to know more about this upcoming show.

Puno’t Dulo LRI Design Plaza, Makati City March 21, March 28, April 4 and April 11

For inquiries and subscription, call the CCP Marketing Department at (02) 832-1125 loc. 1806, the CCP Box Office at (02) 832-3704 or Ticketworld at (02) 891-9999.

Rachelle Gerodias

Three, Two, One... Arai!

Abelardo Hall Auditorium, University of the Philippines, Quezon City March 20; 5:30 p.m.

Classical and contemporary guitar music take centerstage this Sunday as Independent Philippine Art Ventures brings three outstanding guitar artists from Japan to the Philippines.

Concertgoers will be treated to a musically-soothing afternoon featuring Shibuya-born Tomonori Arai and the Duo Trussardi composed of Eisei Tanigawa and Takashi Endo.

Tomonori started guitar studies at the age of six with his father Kazuo.

He has won many prizes at numerous guitar competitions in Europe, has held recitals in several countries around the world, and has recorded five albums. Duo Trussardi, on the other hand, studied classical guitar and music theory under Tomonori.

They have performed all over Japan and once alongside their mentor, Tomonori, in Thailand to outstanding acclaim.

Call Ticketworld at (02) 891-9999 for ticket inquiries and reservations.

Tomonori Arai

LECTURES In Search of Europe UP Film Institute, University of the Philippines, Quezon City March 15; 4:00 p.m.

Trees in their unique and original character will be showcased in this solo exhibition. Visual artist Dido GustiloVillasor has always been fascinated with this Mother Nature’s offspring so much so that she tried to capture trees in the light much like how an artist paints a human being.

The exhibition is presented by Vessel and The Jung Art Collective. Viewing is from 10:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m.

For more information, contact Oliver Roxas at (0922) 887-8757, Reni Orayani at (0917) 530-0053, or Rose Yenko at (0917) 512-3763.

The Kingdom of Netherlands brings to the country its Inspire Innovation Lecture Series, which will kickoff with a lecture by Dutch visionary artist Lucas de Man. De Man’s three-hour lecture will highlight his travels to 17 cities in eight countries within 30 days, during which he interviewed young artists and creative professionals who are trying to effect positive change in the world.

The lecture series is staged in celebration of the 65 years of diplomatic ties and 150 years of consular relations between the Philippines and the Netherlands.

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LIFE life @ thestandard.com .ph

@LIFEatStandard

T EC H TA L K

OPPO shOwcases suPer-Fast 15-Minute Flash charge

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World’s First smartsensor image stabilization tech unveiled at mWc

PPO, the global smartphone brand from China known for its mobile electronic devices in over 20 countries (including the United States, Australia and many countries throughout Europe, Southeast Asia, South Asia, the Middle East and Africa), recently unveiled exciting advancements in their smartphone user experience at the Mobile World Congress 2016.

More and more people use smartphone devices for their daily image capturing, be it for work, leisure or to fill up their social media pages with travel and selfie photos. One key feature that you can find in most digital or smartphone cameras is an image stabilization feature that prevents blurring when capturing photos especially when you are on the go or on a moving platform. The brand released its new SmartSensor image stabilization technology, the first sensor-based image stabilizer in the industry, and touted as the smallest image stabilizer in the world.

Optical image stabilization technology can be either lens-based or sensorbased and due to the small size for smartphone cameras, most of the phones use lens-based technology. OPPO, on

the other hand, managed to move image stabilization out of the lens and into the image sensor, making it the first sensorbased and the first three-axis image stabilizer in the smartphone industry.

“With our commitment in providing consumers with the best technology, OPPO invests great effort in technological innovation,” says Sky Li, vice president of OPPO and managing director of International Mobile Business. “We are excited to share these breakthrough innovations to the world at the MWC 2016 – they’re the results of our active listening to what our customers want through their feedback, as we aim to create more delightful mobile experiences for them in the future,” he adds.

Included on the release is another feature – Super VOOC Flash Charge technology.

Battery drain and recharging is often the problem with cellphones, and app usage usually runs 24/7, which eats up battery life. Charging however can sometimes take an hour or more depending on the power source and the capability of the smartphone to recharge. OPPO’s solution to this is its latest Super VOOC Flash Charge technology that offers a full 10

OPPO released its new smartsensor image stabilization technology and super VOOc Flash charge technology at the Mobile world congress 2016

hours of talk time with only five minutes of charging, and filling a 2500mAh battery in only 15 minutes, a never-before-seen speed. Now that’s something most of us would want especially when we leave out of town for work or travel.

Another added advantage of this technology is that you need not wait for

your phone to be fully charged to be able to use it. You can watch your HD video, play games, and use other apps while charging and it will still give the same charging result.

For more information, you may visit www.oppo.com/ph

BaLLEt PhILIPPInES tO hOLd annuaL SummEr dancE wOrkShOP StartIng aPrIL

Ballet Philippines' summer Dance workshop training program is open for students from the age of four to pre-professional and professional levels, as well as adult beginners

Dance your way this summer through Ballet Philippines Dance School’s intensive 7-week Summer Dance Workshop training program that is open for students from the age of four to preprofessional and professional levels, as well as adult beginners. Offered during the program are courses in Classical Ballet, Modern and Contemporary Dance, and Hip Hop. Participants to this 47th CCP Summer Dance Workshop have an option to concentrate on a preferred genre or take the full course package to enhance their dance vocabulary in both classical ballet and modern dance in classes that are suited to their age and skill level. Nonoy Froilan, Gina Katigbak-Garcia, Rhea Dumdum-Bautista, as well as current dancers Jean Marc Cordero, Gillianne Gequinto, and Erl Sorilla will be interacting with students who have the opportunity to learn from these notable Ballet Philippines alumni.

The Summer Dance Workshop also includes a weekly Lecture Series in keeping with the BP Dance School’s holistic approach to dance education.

These sit-down talks will give students the opportunity to interact with artists of different fields and learn how aspects of their art form can relate to and enhance their dancing.

Classes begin on April 4 at BPDS-Aura and on April 5 at BPDS-CCP. Students may attend a minimum of three classes a week (for pre-ballet and elementary ballet students) to as much as five classes a week, including workshop rehearsals for culminating performances at the Tanghalang Nicanor Abelardo (CCP Main Theater) on May 21 and 22.

Scholarship auditions for the 47th CCP Summer Dance Workshop are scheduled on March 19 at 11:00 a.m. and 1:30 p.m. and on April 5 (for

provincial applicants only) at 1:00 p.m. and 2:00 p.m. Scholars are given wide access to intensive dance training, aside from paying discounted fees.

Intermediate and Advanced students who reach Company Scholar status become part of Ballet Philippines II, BP’s junior performing company. These scholarships are supported through donations made to the Noordin Jumalon Scholarship Program.

The Ballet Philippines Dance School is the professional training ground of the country’s most promising young talents in dance. With a unique curriculum that encompasses various dance styles and techniques, the systematized method and approach to instruction takes highly into account children’s anatomy and psyche at various ages and levels so that the training is physically safe, technically effective and artistically enriching for all students.

The Ballet Philippines Dance School is located at the following venues: BPDSCCP at the Ground Floor, Cultural Center of the Philippines, CCP Complex, Roxas Boulevard, Pasay City, telephone number (02) 832-3689; BPDS-Aura at the 6th Floor, Unit 602B, SM Aura Premier, 26th Street Corner McKinley Parkway Bonifacio Global City, Taguig City with telephone number (02) 531-4436.

Connect to the Ballet Philippines Dance School online through www.facebook.com/balletphilippines; @balletph on Twitter; @ccpdanceschool and @balletphilippines on Instagram and balletph on YouTube.

To join in the Ballet Philippines conversation, use the official hashtag: #balletph, #bpdanceschoo.l

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@LIFEatStandard

The red Carabao signifies hard work and strength

Giant sculptures dot sM aura preMier’s sky park

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our giant sized sculptures in eye-catching bold colors are now the focus of conversations among visitors of SM Aura Premier. Standing up to six meter tall, the animal-inspired steel sculptures painted in vibrant colors and designed by Filipino-American contemporary artist Jefre Figueras have since become the favorite selfie spots among mall goers.

Dubbed as contour sculptures that take on the form of a rooster, a carabao, a tarsier and the Philippine eagle, the artist drew inspiration from the stacking architectural ribbons and fluid interior spaces of SM Aura.

The building form reminded the artist of the living, functional landscape of the Rice Terraces, and each piece is visualized as a series of vertical stagnant lines. But as one goes around the piece, the lines appear to extrude, forming a series of dynamic horizontal ribbons to metaphorically resemble various the animals of the Philippines.

Yet more than just eye-catching pieces, the sculptures were also created by the artist to signify Filipino aspirations and values.

According to Jefre, the Philippine eagle, which is one of the largest and most endangered species in the world, evokes conservation and hope. The red carabao, on the other hand, stands for hard work and strength, while the blue rooster was designed as a symbol of pride and vibrancy. The green tarsier, which is found in the southern part of the archipelago, is considered by Jefre as one of the most enduring symbols of the Philippine islands.

“What inspired me to do these pieces was that the whole SM Aura building was based on the idea of layering, very similar to the rice

terraces of Banaue in the northern Philippines,” Jefre said.

A noted public artist, Jefre has constructed several site-specific artworks in cities around the world including London, Miami, New Orleans, Philadelphia, Abu Dhabi, San Antonio, and most recently Manila. He studied at the Art Institute of Chicago prior to receiving a Bachelor’s Degree in Landscape Architecture from Ohio State University and was named one of the seven “Faces of Design for 2007” by the Florida Inside Out architecture magazine for his environmental art and couture landscapes.

The prestigious Marlborough Gallery in New York City also named him as an “Up and Coming International Public Artist” and the Lexus Corporation chose him to be the sixth member of its ECO Hybrid Living National Design Team for environmental conscious carbon neutral environments. Jefre is passionate about sharing his public art initiative through his line of new interactive designs and upcoming public art projects.

As a designer and public art initiator, the Fil-am’s design solutions originate from a deep understanding of the historical, environmental, social and contextual relationships influencing the site and the architecture. In 2008, the artist launched his own couture landscape and public art studio with a focus on environmental art, green roofs, boutique plazas and parks and public art master plans.

The larger than life sculptures of Carabao, Eagle, and Rooster are located at the SKY Park of SM Aura Premier while Tarsier welcomes visitors at the grand entrance of the mall.

Filipino-American artist Jefre Figueras is a noted public artist

The Philippine Eagle, one of the largest and most endangered species in the world, was designed by Jefre as a symbol of conservation and hope

The blue Rooster is a symbol of pride and vibrancy

The artist beside the giant Tarsier sculpture at the entrance of SM Aura Premier

t uES DAy : m A RcH 15, 2016

SHOWBITZ isahred @ gmail.com

ISAH V. RED EDITOR

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26 fInalIsTs In CEnTuRy Tuna supERbODs naTIOn 2016

century tuna Superbods 2012 winner John Spainhour and 2009 winner therese fenger

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xcitement, anticipation, and exhilarating energy permeated the ballroom of the Marco Polo Hotel in Ortigas during the recently concluded final callback session of the Century Tuna Superbods Nation 2016.

From an initial batch of over 60 fit, sexy, and pumped up men and women— each one selected from the go-sees all over the country—24 candidates were chosen in what was undeniably an afternoon of intense but friendly competition.

Comprising the board of judges were model and international host Joey MeadKing; actress and fitness buff Bubbles Paraiso; Ariel Comia of PC&V Communications; Greg Banzon of Century Pacific Food Inc.; 2009 Century Tuna Superbod Theresa Venger; and 2012 Century Tuna Superbod John Spainhour.

After the rigorous screening sessions which saw the hopefuls strut their stuff on the catwalk and put their best bodies—and personalities—forward, these fine men and women were declared as finalists: Females: Olivia Medina, Carmela Fernandez, Ambra Gutierrez, Nancy Leonard, Princess Abella, Maria Martinez, Cassie Umali, Mirtle Gimenez, Kaara Tan, Carla Meneses, Anja Peter, Tanya Hyde.

Males: Jerome Tan, Ryan Sy, John Padilla, Erie Obsena, Ifran Khan, Jose Pio Luz III, Tom Esconde, Cedric Roxas, Shawn Stansbury, Ali Khatibi, Clint Bondad, Ameen Sardouk From here, the 24 finalists will move to the next leg of the competition,

the 12 female finalists for the century tuna Superbods nation 2016

the 12 male finalists for the century tuna Superbods nation 2016

where two Superbods candidates from the USA will join them. The search will culminate in the finals night on April 10 at the ultra exclusive Palace Pool Club.

Other exciting activities to watch out for in the 10th year of the Century Tuna Superbods search are the Century Tuna Superbods Nation 2016 Challenge and the Century Tuna Superbods Consumer

Weekend on April 2 and 3 at the Bonifacio High Street, where you can meet and greet with past and present Superbods and some of the hottest celebrities, events sure to fire up the summer season.

‘BAtmAn V SupERmAn: DAwn of JuStIcE’ EnERgIzED moVIE ExpERIEncE

Last year, Energizer launched its Energizer® Max® batteries, which are 35 percent longer lasting than its previous version.

Now, Energizer Philippines, Inc., partners with Warners Bros. Pictures on its upcoming release, Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice coming to cinemas on March 26.

The epic action adventure features the much-awaited battle between the world’s most iconic Super Heroes in their firstever big screen pairing. Adding to the excitement, Energizer will launch a promotional activity featuring limited edition Superman, Batman and WonderWomaninspired collectibles.

According to Claire Guevarra, senior brand manager of Energizer Philippines, the company’s partnership with Warner Bros. Pictures made it possible for the company to share positivenergy with its Filipino customers, who are fans of the famous Super Heroes as well.

“This gives a new perspective to what Energizer can do for its customers. With

the partnership, we can share positivenergy with our Filipino consumers,” Guevarra said. “Just like these legendary DC Comics characters, Energizer is also powered to bring to life the battery-operated gadgets owned by Filipinos, making lives more convenient and entertaining. For us, that’s positivenergy beyond borders.”

Guevarra said, “High-powered batteries have an advantage of being cost-efficient in the long-run as these enable portability of different devices without using electricity.

This is why Energizer has been innovating its batteries and lighting products to light up the world, offering them unparalleled convenience with every power used. This high-powered battery is available in the market, there are more reasons for Filipinos to energize their day though highquality batteries.”

Recently, Energizer launched the improved Energizer® Max® batteries, which deliver dependable and powerful perfor-

mance. The Energizer® Max® AA batteries now powers devices for 35 percent longer than the previous version. What’s more, it helps protect devices from leakage in climate-controlled environments, and holds power by up to 10 years in storage.

“By using the Energizer® Max® batteries, families can now enjoy their battery-operated gadgets longer” Guevarra added.

Aside from the collectibles, Energizer is also giving fans a full “atman v Superman: Dawn of Justice movie experience by bringing one lucky winner and his or her loved one to Australia through its ‘Trip to Australia’ promotion. This promo is for 4 days and 3 nights that includes airfare, hotel accommodation, pocket money and two entrance passes to Warner Bros. Movie World.

“Energizer consumers can now get a chance to win tickets to Gold Coast, Australia, to go to Warner Bros. Movie World through purchase of any Energizer product, by taking a photo of the receipt togeth-

er with the product purchased, and filling up the entry form found in our facebook page or website,” said MJ Tiquia, brand activation manager of Energizer Philippines.

“We know that this partnership will reinforce ‘positivenergy’ among the fans of Superman, Batman and Wonder Woman.

We are excited with this partnership because this will complement the alreadyexciting feel of the movie. With this engagement, every Filipino will be able to feel the superhero power not only during the screening but also as they go home,” Tiquia said. “Truly, this is a much-powered event we’ve all been waiting for.”

For more details about Energizer’s collect-them-all promo and trip to Australia promo, please visit Energizer Philippines’ Facebook page at https://www.facebook. com/energizerPH/. Learn more about Energizer Philippines and its roster of products by visiting the website at http://www. energizer.com.ph/Energizerv2/home.aspx.

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SHOWBITZ

ISAH V. RED EDITOR

isahred @ gmail.com

BEsT hOmE shOws aRE On FYI

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n FYI’s brand new series Zombie House Flipping, we meet the Robin Hoods of real estate led by millennial flipper Justin Stamper. Together with his badass band of house flipping mavericks composed of property scout and realtor extraordinaire Ashlee, construction king Keith, renegade remodeler Duke and adorable black lab Marley, they buy and fix up dilapidated, abandoned, bank-owned “zombie houses.”

Skillfully cleaning up embarrassing properties in Orlando’s most upscale neighborhoods, the team works on delivering almost magical transformations, while making big bucks in the process. Catch their adventures as Zombie House Flipping starts airing on April 27, 9 p.m. Wednesdays.

Three shows are about to show viewers how to turn junk to funk, 9 to 11 p.m. on April 22 and 29. First up is Trashformers, where two teams of up-cycling designers get three days to dig into a 28,000-pound discarded school bus and compete to create the next high fashion, must-have item of the season.

meet the Robin Hoods of real estate as they buy and fix up dilapidated, abandoned, bank-owned “zombie houses” in FyI’s brand new series “Zombie House Flipping”

Hosts Tanya McQueen and Tracy Hudson (Extreme Home Makeover) take on a different challenge as the Picker Sisters, journeying cross country and searching through every nook and cranny for great bargains and cool items to fill their new home store. These girls are ready to

“trashformers, Buy It, Fix It, Sell It, and Picker Sisters” are about to show viewers how to turn junk to funk

beg, borrow and buy their way across America just to find those furniture pieces and antiques that customers will die for.

Rounding off the exciting line-up is latest series Buy It, Fix It, Sell It, where a trio of top professional ‘fixers’ battle for the best junk to trans-

form and sell for big profits. Creativity equals cash for these pros and they have the vision and skills to back it up, with each episode delivering results that make viewers go “wow.”

FYI™ is available on SKYCable Ch 79; Cable Link Ch. 44; Dream Satellite Ch 21.

HERoES AcRoSS tHE SEA

What are you willing to do for the people you love?

For Overseas Filipino Workers (OFWs), this question is something they live with every day. Every day, they answer it by spending time away from their families, working in a different world. Every day they choose to help, often at the cost of their own comfort.

Working abroad requires big changes. It means going out of comfort zones and taking chances far from the convenience of the place they call home. Bringing their talents abroad for the sake of uplifting loved ones back in the country involves dedication, a strong will, and unarguably, a big heart.

For actor and TV personality Robin Padilla, calling these people “modern day heroes” is not enough for the amount of glory and sacrifice they give to the country. The actor, who is an avid advocate of OFWs, can very much relate to the stories these people tell.

“Hindi ako bago sa kanila. Baliktad lang siguro ang sitwasyon ko dahil ako kumikita ako dito at pinapadala ko sa Australia. Pero alam ko ang pakiramdam ng malayo sa mga

anak ko. (I’m not new to their situation.

Maybe it’s the opposite because in my case I earn money here and send it to Australia.

But I know the feeling of being away from my children.),” Robin said.

The drive of these modern heroes and their dedication towards their loved ones are aspects that have always resonated with him. He shares the facets that make him admire these people succinctly and emphatically. “Kung sakripisyo lang, lahat naman tayo nagsasakripisyo eh. Yung tibay talaga. Kapag andun ka sa ibang bansa at solo ka, iba yun. (If it’s just about sacrifice, we all make them. It is really the strength of these people. It is different when you are in a different country alone).”

The actor’s innate compassion for these individuals is the reason why he was chosen by a leading global money remittance service to serve as its face--and heart. Alex Chan Lim, country manager of MoneyGram International, Inc., Philippines praises the man for his sincere stand towards OFWs. “There was a meeting of the minds.

When we first talked to him, we saw how

cROsswORD puzzlE 40 41 42 43

answer PreVIOUs PUZZLe

ACROSS 1 Muff 6 Chemists’ lairs 10 It had three parts 14 BP mergee 15 Non-flying birds 16 — spumante 17 Tuxedo trim 18 Night lighters 20 Um cousins 21 Western 23 Sunday dinner

24 25 26 29

WWW addresses Van — Waals force Woodworking tool Makes a line (2 wds.)

34 Dentist’s request 35 Feinted 36 Amt. 37 Amtrak driver 38 Swain 39 California’s — Woods

Tokyo, to shoguns Nut holders Hippie greeting Propose (2 wds.)

45 Extra levy 46 Cl-, e.g.

47 Distance measure 48 Power source 51 Cuffs 53 Society column word 56 Dismiss (2 wds.)

58 Teen bane 60 Raison d’ — 61 Early movie vamp 62 Shinbone 63 Much loved 64 Comes to a halt 65 Palette adjunct DOWN 1 Pedestal 2 Bradley or Sharif 3 Small fry 4 201, to Cato 5 Award recipient 6 Some punches 7 Yves’ girlfriend 8 Laird’s accent 9 Wind dir.

10 In large supply 11 Three oceans touch it 12 Navajo foes

TUESDAY, MARCH 8, 2016

13 Memory jogger 19 Jung contemporary 22 Give it your — 24 Ex-superpower 25 Hoofed animal 26 Obnoxious one 27 Rama devotee 28 Gold brick 29 “— the raven “ 30 Luau strings 31 Hunker down 32 Carthage neighbor 33 Test-tube glass 35 Nasty shock 38 Frazzled 39 Like a pittance 41 Kiosk 42 Throb 44 Digit 45 Not guzzle 47 Chichen Itza dwellers 48 Answered a judge 49 Behind schedule 50 Mystique 51 Ballet lake 52 Piecrust ingredient 53 Gists 54 Mr. Wiesel 55 Term paper abbr. (2 wds.)

57 Honest prez 59 Width of a cir.

he keeps true to his word. All the things that he says, they come from the heart. He isn’t the type of person who would just go out there for the sake of his job as an endorser. He has genuine care that touches the hearts of these people. And once you touch the softness of their heart, the rest will follow,” Lim said.

The actor, who has represented MoneyGram since 2012, has been an effective conduit that connects Filipinos abroad to the culture they have temporarily left behind in the country. With the help of the brand, the TV personality has actively reached out to OFWs through a series of performances to bring joy to these modern heroes.

MoneyGram has been participating and at some cases, mounting its own shows for free as part of their efforts for the OFWs. Padilla religiously participates in them to gamely entertain the OFW communities across the sea.

Lim shares one particular experience they had abroad. “There was a time when we went to Saudi Arabia and we met an OFW who works at the hotel we checked

in. When he saw us, he naturally got awestruck with Robin. He returned three times just to talk to us. We talked for hours and not once did I see Robin show signs that he was tired.”

He continued, “What really surprised me is that he gave something that is really personal to him. That is out of his responsibilities as a brand endorser but he did it.”

Robin gave one of the shirts he uses for his prayer sessions. “Sabi ko sa kanya, etong pangdasal ko na to, ang daming humihingi.

Hindi ko to binigay pero ibibigay ko ito sayo.

(I told him, there are so many people who asked me for this. I didn’t give it to them but I am giving this to you.)”

Lim and Padilla pride their approach towards OFWs as progressive.

“Nagsimula kami sa malasakit. Pero progressive kami sa approach. Sa mga performances, yung mga nagawa na namin, hindi na namin inuulit. (We started with compassion. But we are progressive with our approach. When it comes to performances, we do not repeat what we have done already.),” Robin explained.

t uES DAy : m A RcH 15, 2016

SHOWBITZ isahred @ gmail.com

Double the learning, twice the fun After debuting last year as the first and only all-Filipino cast for the local franchise of the award-winning Australian edutainment show, Hi-5 Philippines’ first season has been a one-of-a-kind ride for the cast and its young viewers. Philippine television witnessed the birth of the edutainment program of this generation, and the new icons of today’s youngsters in its maiden season.

And a new round of catchy songs, exhilarating dances and learning adventures await fans as the show returns for a second season. The vibrant gang of Hi-5 Philippines, composed of Fred, Rissey, Aira, Alex and Gerard, is sure to captivate kids and kids-at-heart once more with their irresistible charm, especially now that they’ve learned the ropes and have more to bring to the table.

The cast took time to reminisce about experiences during the show’s first run, look back at how much they’ve grown, and share their thrill for the new season. The group revealed that they have just as much fun as their viewers when doing the show.

“My segments usually involve food and eating. One time, I had to eat bread and jam.

It took several takes, that when our director requested for another one, I had to take a break because I ended up finishing the loaf, and was too full already,” Aira fondly recalls. Meanwhile, Rissey reveals what an amusing challenge her Body Move segment is, with her mimicking different animals during storytelling. “I’ve been all kinds of animals already that I feel like I can create a ‘Rissey Zoo’ now,” she said.

However challenging, everyone recognizes how Hi-5 contributed to their growth as performers and as individuals. “It really stretched us as performers. The role requires being childlike, and doing this really helped me get in touch with the child within me,” Rissey said. “The bonding sessions with the group are the best thing about the first season for me. Clinging to each other through all the tapings and shows, and just doing everything else together was definitely unforgettable,” said Fred, adding that that made a huge contribution to them becoming more comfortable with their roles.

“Being part of Hi-5 requires presenting a heightened version of ourselves. And in the course of doing that, we somehow embody our roles that it’s no longer just a character, it becomes us,” Gerard said. They also recognized and acknowledged how amazing it is to be a role model that kids look up to.

Although they admitted that being a role model comes with a great deal of responsibility as well.

“It’s a lot of pressure to be a good role model to kids but it also gives you a really good feeling. A kind of warm rushing light fills you especially when you get feedback from the kids on how much impact you’re making in their lives,” Alex shared.

They said that the positive reception that they get from kids and parents during their live shows, in schools and malls, is overwhelming and very fulfilling. “It’s the best feeling when a kid comes up to us and tells us that we are their inspiration, or that they always look forward to watching our show,” Aira said. Gerard added that interacting with the kids in their live shows is when they feel most acknowledged for what they do.

Join Fred, Rissey, Aira, Alex and Gerard for another Hi-5 season of fun, singing, dancing and active learning.

Hi-5 airs Monday to Friday at 8:30 a.m., Saturday at 9:30 a.m. and Sunday at 9:00 a.m., only on TV5.

ISAH V. RED EDITOR

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MElIssa ManchEsTER back-TO-back wITh DavID POMERanz

m

usic lovers will be treated to a wonderful evening of timeless love songs from two of the biggest names in adult contemporary music when Melissa Manchester and David Pomeranz visit Manila to do a back-to-back concert on April 6 at the Smart Araneta Coliseum.

Dubbed Melissa Manchester and David Pomeranz Live, the twin bill from Ovation Productions shall also feature Asia’s Mr. Crooner, balladeer Arthur Manuntag, as special guest in what is considered as one of the biggest concert events in this summer’s musical calendar.

Manchester is one of the most enduring artists in popular American music whose extraordinary career began when she studied songwriting with Paul Simon in her native New York, followed by a stint as a back-up singer for Bette Middler.

Pomeranz, on the other hand, is one of the most successful and prolific songwriters and performing artists on the scene today.

American singer-songwriter melissa manchester joins David Pomeranz onstage in April

His latest CD, You’re The Inspiration, which contains his versions of some of the most beloved pop songs of all time, was released in February 2015.

Melissa Manchester and David Pomeranz Live is presented by Ovation Productions. are Tickets are available at all Ticketnet outlets and at www.ticketnet.com.ph

Hero cooks up a mouth-watering line-up Hero brings into your homes two new ingredients to make this month more delectable to your anime-loving palate: Food Wars : Shokugeki No Soma and Gourmet Girl Graffiti.

Food Wars : Shokugeki No Soma is about Souma Yukihara, sent by his father to Tootsuki Culinary Academy, an elite cooking school where only 10 percent of the students graduate. The institution is famous for its “Shokugeki” or “Food Wars” where students face off in intense high-stakes cooking showdowns.

The show airs Monday to Friday, 6:30 p.m. with replays at 12:30 midnight, 6:30 a.m. and 12:30 noontime.

Gourmet Girl Graffiti is about Ryou, a middle school girl who lives by herself and has a knack for cooking and making friends through her food. Witness

her daily struggle to cook and prepare mouthwatering food suited for everyone’s taste. The show airs Monday to Friday at 6 p.m. with replays at 12 midnight, 6:00 a.m. and 12 noon.

Hero channel’s old time favorites namely Chaika Coffin Princess, Daily Lives Of a Highschool Boys, Free, Gargantia On Verdurous Planet, Haikyuu!, Initial D 4th Stage, Kuroko No Basket Season 3, Log Horizon, Mirmo De Pon Season 3, Space Brothers and Yuyushiki, meantime, will continue to be served to fill your craving for everything anime.

For more information, like herotv on facebook and follow @herotvofficial on Instagram.

“Gourmet Girl Graffiti” is anime about food and making friends

Laurence mossman passes acting test via ‘Dolce Amore’

Despite being a neophyte, Laurence Mossman began to carve a name in acting after favorable notices for his portrayal

Born and raised in New Zealand, Laurence mossman is now an actor to watch on local tV

as Signore Mossman or Mr. Mossman in ABS-CBN’s Dolce Amore with Liza Soberano and Enrique Gil. His first TV appearance on Feb. 28 became a trending topic on social media.

Laurence received high praises for his ultimately close-to-real life portrayal on the role of a young billionaire Mr. Mossman whom Serene (Liza) thought could help their family solve their bankruptcy problem. However, it turned out that Mr. Mossman took advantage of her, and Tenten (Enrique) readily came to the rescue.

Laurence said he has mixed emotions after the various reactions from viewers.

“I am elated and a little bit sad at the same time. Elated because people have approved my acting. They are convinced by my portrayal. It means I have passed the acting test. (I am) sad because I have become the subject of ranting comments on social media. I understand that they are just carried

away by my character Mr. Mossman. Sana hanggang doon na lang because I am not really like Mr. Mossman in real life,” added the Kiwinoy (half-Kiwi, half-Filipino).

Laurence was born to a Kiwi or New Zealander father and a Filipina mother. He was raised in New Zealand but has been visiting the country every now and then. Two years ago, Laurence decided to try his luck in the Philippine entertainment industry and was included in the all-male singing trio called The Primo, which has regular shows at Resorts World Manila. He is a native Englishspeaking guy who likes to sing Tagalog songs.

Laurence’s exposure in Dolce Amore might be extended. There are also talks that he will be given a follow-up project soon.

Aside from the teleserye and his regular show at Resorts World, Laurence is also busy with promotional tours and provincial shows as the ambassador of Psalmstre New Placenta for Men.

t uES DAy : m A RCH 15, 2016

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ISAH V. RED EDITOR NICKIE WANG WRITER

isahred @ gmail.com

SHOWBITZ

Genetically gifted Victoria Secret models take the stage once again in a special feature shot entirely in West Indies

BEsT BODIEs anD BEsT hOusEs On LIfEsTyLE ISAH V. RED

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ifestyle,” which tells you to “Love Your Life Now” offers a double treat this month with features on the best of the best in the world of interior design and fashion.

Launched this month is Best Houses Philippines with Australia’s Best Houses Gar y Takle and T V personality and homemaker Daphne Osena-Paez as hosts. It aired at 10:30 p.m. last Sunday on the 20 th at the same time.

Whether it’s the modern or traditional style you want, you will be mesmerized as these two bring you to visually stunning homes around the Philippines.

From the success of its Australian production, it has now travelled to this part of Asia to discover more breathtaking living spaces that reflect Filipino craftsmanship and use of local materials.

Meantime, the hottest Victoria’s Secret angels once again took to the stage at the Victoria Secret’s Swim Special 2016 on March 10 live from the French West Indies.

Music stars Demi Lovato and Nick Jonas rocked the stage.

Behati Prinsloo, Candice Swanepoel, Elsa Hosk, Jasmine Tookes, Josephine Skriver, Lais Ribiero, Lily Aldrige, Martha Hunt, Romee Striid, Sara Sampaio, Stella Maxwell, Taylor Hill, and Vita Sidorkina splashed around shooting the hottest swim catalogue of the year.

Lifestyle is available on Skycable and Destiny. It is on channel 52.

For more information, like Lifestyle on Facebook and follow us on Instagram at LifestyleTVph. ****

Exciting ‘journey’ with Mocha Girls The all-female group Mocha Girls was formed about a decade ago. After several changes of members, the present

line-up is composed of group leader Mocha Uson, with Mae Dela Cerna, Franz Fainsan, Seika Hashizume and Georgina Knight.

The sexy Mocha Girls endorses Robust Extreme, an all-natural dietary supplement for men that enables them to boost their performance during intimate activities.

Take one to two capsules of Robust Extreme preferably with warm water, one to two hours before intimate activity.

Note that Robust Extreme is not a medicinal drug and is not used to treat the symptoms of any disease.

Make your marriage a wonderful and exciting journey, take Robust Extreme from ATC Healthcare.

Australia’s Best Houses Gary takle (right) joins Philippines’ Daphne Osena in the series’ local version

mocha Girls members mocha uson (center) with mae Dela Cerna, Franz Fainsan, Seika Hashizume and Georgina Knight

the sexy all-female group endorses the medicinal drug for men, Robust Extreme

“Victoria’s Secret’s Swim Special 2016” is shown exclusively on Lifestyle

One of the Victoria’s Secret angels featured on this year’s “Swim Special”

Alternate world in student musical drama Imagine a world where members of the LGBTQA+ form the majority, while heterosexuals are in the minority. This is the premise behind The World We Live Without, a musical drama presented by students of the Arts Management program of De La Salle-College of Saint Benilde (DLS-CSB), under the guidance of Eric dela Cruz.

The World We Live Without takes viewers to an alternate universe where injustice flourishes in a radical society. Follow Elle, the protagonist, as she continues her parents’ battle for equality. The entire production is bathed in an edgy aesthetic inspired by the 1980s for a familiar yet disconcerting environment.

The play is written by Kamille Casida and

directed by Kurvine Chua. Kurvine and the Rebellion provides the original music.

It stars Isabella Manikan, Jearon Sepacio, Patrcia Ong, Lucas Buencamino, Shania Sumergido, Ricardo Torres, Brian Bobadilla, Hannah Rodrigo, and Leif Malvas.

The show will have performances from March 17-19, twice daily at 1 p.m. and 7 p.m., at the SDA Black Box, School of Design and Arts campus, DLS-CSB. For ticket inquiries, call Kaila at 09175809593 or Luisa at 0916-3220436. Tickets are priced at P150.

For details and updates, visit the musical’s Facebook @theworldwelivewithout, IG @theworldwelivewithoutph, and Twitter @TWWLWph.