The Standard - 2016 April 26 - Tuesday

VOL. XXX NO. 73 3 Sections 32 Pages P18 TUESDAY : APRIL 26, 2016 www.thestandard.com.ph editorial@thestandard.com.ph

UNA hits Salceda claim on defectors

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2 CABINET EXECS, GOVERNOR SUED Kidapawan farmers file murder, other raps at Ombudsman

Lawmakers slam plot to steal vote overseas

By Florante S. Solmerin, John Paolo Bencito and Rio N. Araja

By Maricel V. Cruz and Sara Susanne Fabunan

FARMERS on Monday filed multiple complaints—including murder—against two Cabinet members, high-ranking government officials and more than 90 police and military personnel for the bloody dispersal of a protest in Kidapawan City on April 1.

LAWMAKERS voiced concern Monday over the alleged pattern of cheating favoring administration candidates discovered by some opposition candidates and voters who participated in overseas absentee voting.

At the same time, Abakada party-list Rep. Jonathan de la Cruz, member of the independent minority bloc in the House, said he is filing a resolution in Congress to investigate the matter.

He also wrote Commission on Elections Chairman Andres Bautista to address the issue.

“These reports which have been widely circulated in both traditional and social media, if true, are definitely disturbing and a cause of great concern to us all,” De la Cruz said in his letter to Bautista.

The irregularities include incomplete voters lists and a discrepancy between votes cast and votes posted, the letter said.

“There are also reports that some embassy and consulate staff were caught on camera campaigning for Team Daang Matuwid and purportedly distributing Comelec materials which turned out to be for the RoxasRobredo team,” the letter added.

De la Cruz said his group was gathering some of those materials for the information and appropriate action by the Comelec.

De la Cruz said the discrepancies between the voter receipts and the votes actually posted in several instances of overseas absentee voting could be a precursor of more widespread fraud during the May 9 elections.

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Roxas: LP conducting pre-election loyalty check

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Lawsuit. Ebao Sulang, father of one of the farmers allegedly killed by a police dispersal unit in Kidapawan City last April 1, shows journalists a copy of the charge sheet.

“Charges of murder, frustrated and attempted murder, torture and physical injuries, illegal arrest and detention and other civil and political rights violations were filed by the farmer-complainants, including families of those who were shot during the dispersal, as well as the farmers who were illegally arrested and detained by the Philippine National Police,” said Cristina Palabay, secretary-general of the human rights group Karapatan.

The respondents include Interior Secretary Mel Senen Sarmiento, Agriculture Secretary Proceso Alcala, Philippine National Police chief Ricardo Marquez, North Cotabato Gov. Emmylou Taliño-Mendoza and 94 local, police and military officials.

The complainants urged the Ombudsman to place all the accused under a preventive suspension.

Sarmiento said the government’s actions were defensible and that officials involved will be able to respond to all allegations hurled against them.

“We stand ready to answer all allegations pertaining to the incident if and when required to do so,” Sarmiento said.

He added that the Interior Department had already created two fact-finding panels to look into the circumstances behind the bloody April 1 dispersal.

On April 1, police broke up a protest by a group of about 6,000 farmers who had blocked the CotabatoDavao highway to demand food Next page

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AFP intensifies hunt for bandits 2 Cabinet...

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aid amid a five-month drought.

Two farmers were killed and dozens more were wounded in the bloody dispersal.

In a similar protest in Koronadal City Monday, hundreds of farmers barricaded portions of the Koronadal-General Santos highway, preventing motorists from passing through it.

Koronadal Mayor Peter Miguel denied claims by protesting farmers that they had a rice shortage, even though the South Cotabato provincial government declared a state of calamity last week.

Domingo Azures, a spokesman for the protesting farmers said they will continue asking for a rice subsidy from the government because Alcala has declared that Mindanao has enough rice for the victims of the continuing dry spell.

Vehicles were stranded on opposite sides of the national highway in front of the Soccsksargen Regional Center in Barangay Carpenter Hills.

Members of the 27th Infantry Battalion said they were securing vital installations in

the city, including the National Food Authority warehouse, government buildings, public markets, malls, and even media outlets following reports of possible sabotage by communist guerrillas.

The situation was unresolved as The Standard went to press.

In the Kidapawan case, Palabay said the complainants wanted officials investigated for violating the Anti-Graft and Corrupt Practices Act for their failure to effect measures to mitigate the effects of the El Niño and for the misappropriation of calamity funds.

She said the victims were assisted by human rights lawyers from the Union of Peoples’ Lawyers in Mindanao, National Union of Peoples’ Lawyers and Public Interest Law Center, and paralegals from Karapatan and Children’s Rehabilitation Center.

“Our struggle for food, land and justice is legitimate, and we will pursue justice in every possible way. We are not cowed by various sinister government attempts to harass and intimidate us and to cover up for these officials’ accountability.

We filed this case as part of our

continuing search for justice and battle against impunity,” said Gerry Alborme, Kilusang Magbubukid ng PilipinasNorth Cotabato spokesman and one of the complainants in the case filed Monday before the Office of the Ombudsman in Davao City.

Ebao Sulang, father of slain farmer Darwin Sulang, lamented that President Benigno Aquino III had already absolved the police of crimes committed against the farmers.

“Mr. Aquino and his Liberal Party are employing all means to stop us from seeking accountability,” he said.

Elderly and pregnant women farmers were also among the 22 complainants who filed the case.

The Office of the Ombudsman received two sets of complaints. The first accused respondents of murder, frustrated murder and three counts of attempted murder, and violations of the Anti-Torture Law, Rights of Accused, and the Public Assembly Act and obstruction of justice.

The second set of complaints accused the respondents of violating the rights of

free assembly and persons arrested, torture, arbitrary detention, perjury, and obstruction of justice.

“The farmers were only asking for rice,” one of the complaints read. “They were driven to do this because of the extreme hunger that they and their families have already suffered due to the severity of the effects of El Niño. The provincial government could have immediately addressed this concern by giving them what they have asked for, along with a clear plan on how to help the farmers survive the effects of El Niño.

“Had Governor TaliñoMendoza and her crisis committee done this, instead of ordering the dispersal of the protest, the violence could have been averted… Even the provincial government of North Cotabato had already announced its readiness to face the impact of El Nino in the province, and even allocated the calamity funds for it.

How come these farmers still reached the point of starvation, driving them to the streets to ask for the very thing that was supposed to have [been] long given them?”

Inspirational talk. Liberal Party chairman President Benigno Aquino III speaks during a meeting with elected local leaders at the Fontana Convention Center in Clark, Pampanga on Monday.

Lawmakers...

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“Let us be vigilant and expose these corrupting influences,” he said.

House deputy minority leader and 1-BAP party-list Rep. Silvestre Bello III said that massive cheating on May 9 to favor administration candidates led by administration bet Manuel Roxas was likely to occur.

Bello, a supporter of presidential candidate Mayor Rodrigo Duterte, said he believes the administration will resort to all forms of “hocus focus” to ensure victory of its candidates, especially Roxas who is lagging in surveys.

Comelec Chairman Andres Bautista on Monday said political parties should file a complaint and present their evidence of poll cheating in Hong Kong, Guam, Dubai, Kuwait and Okinawa, Japan before the

poll body can investigate the reported discrepancies.

“Our challenge and appeal to all voters is to file a formal complaint... as soon as possible, especially the political parties [who are claiming cheating],” Bautista said.

He added that voters should immediately report any discrepancies to the board of election inspectors.

Earlier, vice presidential candidate Senator Ferdinand Marcos Jr. and his cousin senatorial candidate Leyte Rep. Martin Romualdez bared “a pattern of cheating” to deprive them of their votes in the ongoing overseas absentee voting.

The opposition United Nationalist Alliance presidential candidate Vice President Jejomar Binay also complained of similar incidents.

Marcos said he has received several reports over the weekend that votes being cast in his favor were being credited to

another vice presidential candidate, Senator Gregorio Honasan of UNA, who has been trailing opinion surveys.

Marcos, Romualdez and Binay said they were alarmed that the same kind of cheating would mar the May 9 polls when 54 million voters cast their votes.

Romualdez on Monday pounded on the Comelec to protect the sanctity of ballot as he asked the poll body to explain the alleged crediting of his votes to another senatorial candidate.

Romualdez said Comelec and Smartmatic-Total Information Management (TIM) Corp. should explain to him and the public why there were discrepancies between the actual votes on the ballot and the printed voter receipts during the overseas absentee voting Romualdez cited reports reaching him that his overseas Filipino workers’ votes in Hong

Kong have been counted in favor of another senatorial candidate, Bayan Muna party-list Rep. Neri Colmenares.

“The Comelec and Smartmatic should explain this reported incident because this may happen again in other parts of the world under the absentee voting and even on the May 9 elections in many part of the country,” said Romualdez.

Colmenares demanded that the Comelec unmask those behind the vote switching.

“If this is a black propaganda or cheating, we want to know who is behind it and hold them accountable,” Colmenares said.

“Should it be found that the allegation is true and a Comelec personnel is responsible for such fraud I will personally file a case against him and see to it that he goes to prison,” he added. With Christine F. Herrera, Sandy Araneta and Macon Ramos-Araneta

By Florante S. Solmerin, Francisco Tuyay and Sandy Araneta

THE military poured more troops into areas where Abu Sayyaf bandits have been known to hide after the group threatened to behead three foreign hostages and a Filipina if they did not receive P300 million in ransom for each of the foreigners by April 25.

“President Aquino has directed acting Armed Forces of the Philippines chief [Lt. Gen.] Glorioso Miranda and Philippine National Police chief Ricardo Marquez to conduct appropriate military and law enforcement operations to effect the rescue of the hostages,” Communications Secretary Herminio Coloma Jr. said in a statement Monday.

In a rare joint press briefing at the General Headquarters of the Armed Forces of the Philippines at Camp Aguinaldo in Quezon City, military and police spokesmen said rescue efforts intensified as the Abu Sayyaf deadline expired.

“Maximum efforts are being exerted by a joint AFPPNP task group to effect the rescue of four hostages who were kidnaped in Samal Island last October 2015 after the ASG announced the possible beheading of one of its hostages. This follows intensified anti-ASG operations in Basilan and Sulu in recent weeks,” PNP spokesman Chief Supt. Wilben Mayor told reporters.

Local authorities have been told to cooperate with the joint task force to ensure the safety of civilians in the area, he added.

Mayor said some 400 Abu Sayyaf armed men are involved in the kidnapping of Canadians John Ridsdel and Robert Hall, Norwegian Kjartan Sekkingstad, and Hall’s Filipina girlfriend Marites Flor.

Armed men seized the four on Sept. 21, 2015 at the Ocean View Samal Resort on Samal Island.

The kidnappers originally demanded a ransom of P1 billion for each of the three foreigners, but later lowered this to P300 million each.

Four months after the abduction, the kidnappers released a one-and-a-half-minute video showing an Abu Sayyaf bandit brandishing a machete above the necks of Canadians Ridsdel and Hall.

Ridsdel appealed to Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and the Canadian people to meet the kidnappers’ demands to prevent their execution.

At Monday’s briefing, military spokesman Brig.

Gen. Restituto Padilla said he could not divulge details of the ongoing operations.

“We cannot divulge [that] at the moment in the interest of the safety of the victims.

The intensified operations are

ongoing, and we have forces on the ground currently pursuing these bandits,” he said.

But a senior military officer who spoke on condition of anonymity said Miranda wanted them “to get more heads of the terrorists” who threatened to behead the hostages.

Western Mindanao Command spokesman Maj. Filemon Tan confirmed that the acting AFP chief was in Sulu.

“They landed in Zamboanga City on Saturday but few to Sulu this morning,” Tan said Monday in a phone interview.

The ASG is said to be holding several local and foreign hostages in Sulu as well as Basilan.

Just recently, 18 soldiers were killed in clashes with the Abu Sayyaf in Tipo-Tipo town. Thirty of the bandits also died in the series of encounters, the military said.

Tan said the national leadership would decide on an Indonesian request to stage joint border patrols to stop pirates from seizing more hostages.

Indonesia has said it would set up a crisis center, headed

by President Joko Widodo, to handle security situations involving its citizens overseas, following recent abductions of Indonesian sailors in Philippine waters.

The center will include senior ministers and military and police chiefs and will be designed to respond quickly to situations that could have a “strategic impact,” Indonesia Chief Security Minister Luhut Pandjaitan said.

Since coming to power in 2014, Widodo has placed maritime security for the Indonesian archipelago high on his government’s agenda.

Indonesia has voiced fears that a surge in piracy in the waters between Indonesia and the Philippines could reach Somalian levels and has told vessels to avoid danger areas.

Up to 18 Indonesians and Malaysians have been kidnapped in three attacks in recent weeks on tugboats in Philippine waters by groups suspected of ties to the Abu Sayyaf.

Abu Sayyaf, which has posted videos on social media pledging allegiance to Islamic State militants in Iraq and Syria, has demanded P50 million to free the hostages, but the Indonesian government has said it does not intend to pay the ransom.

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UNA slams Salceda’s statement on Binay THE United Nationalist Alliance on Monday slammed Albay Gov. Joey Salceda for saying the local party leaders in Bicol had abandoned the presidential bid of Vice President Jojo Binay.

“Maybe Salceda made the false media statement in a desperate effort to gain recognition from his newfound group after bolting the Liberal Party the other day,” said JV Bautista, UNA secretary general.

Bautista said Sorsogon Gov. Raul Lee, UNA Region 5 chairman and Sorsogon provincial coordinator, had assured party leaders that he continued to support the candidacy of Binay and the other UNA stalwarts of Bicol.

Lee aside, he said, Binay also had the support of Camarines Norte Gov. Edgardo Tallado, Rep. Wimpy Fuentebella of Camarines Sur and former Catanduanes Gov. Joseph Cua, who is seeking his old post.

Rep. Fuentebella’s brother, Tigaon Mayor Arnulf Fuentebella, is UNA candidate for governor in Camarines Sur. Tallado himself informed a party official that there was no truth to Salceda’s claim.

Lee said he had already denied the report to local newsmen in Bicol.

“It is true that Governor Salceda approached me and some UNA leaders in the Region offering some concessions, but the offer was rejected as we maintain our belief that Vice President Binay is the most prepared and competent candidate to become the next President,” Lee said.

“If it is true that I and fellow UNA leaders in Bicol have changed camps, Governor Salceda is not the right person to make a public announcement. It should be me and my party mates who will call a press conference or issue a formal statement.”

Bautista called on Binay’s supporters not to easily believe the misinformation coming from other political groups. He said in Albay alone, UNA had a good number of mayoralty candidates in addition to the incumbent mayors of sister towns and cities of Makati City who had pledged support for Binay. Vito Barcelo

Presidential debate. This photo taken on April 24 shows presidential candidates Jejomar Binay gesturing next to Senator Miriam Defensor-Santiago,

Davao City Mayor Rodrigo Duterte, Senator Grace Poe and former Interior secretary Manuel Roxas II during the presidential debate at Phinma University in Dagupan City. AFP

Roxas says loyalty check on LP members ongoing CLARK, Pampanga—The ruling Liberal Party’s standard bearer, Manuel Roxas II, on Monday admitted conducting a “loyalty check” on the party’s members less than two weeks before this year’s elections.

Despite the decision of some LP members to support his rivals, Roxas said, he was confident the party leaders would stick with him.

“You know, the loyalty check... is going on. If you are a believer, you will believe. I’m a believer. I remain with the straight path,” Roxas said.

Some party leaders, including

Aquino classmate Albay Gov. Joey Salceda, have expressed their support for Roxas’ rival Senator Grace Poe and her vice presidential candidate Francis Escudero.

“People will stay with you or will leave you,” Roxas said.

“You are either a believer or you are not. You are either [an] opportunist or not.”

Roxas also reiterated his dare to Davao City Mayor Rodrigo Duterte to back out of the presidential race for saying his constituents were not receiving help from PhilHealth during the last presidential debate in Dagupan City on Sunday.

“The data is already complete. We proved that in Davao City alone, the amount of [PhilHealth] reimbursements last year is 2.8 billion pesos, [and] even PhilHealth general manager Alex Padilla even confirmed this.”

During Sunday’s presidential debate, Duterte said Roxas was lying about the health insurance

program of the Aquino administration because he had not heard of any Davaoeño who had been able to avail themselves of it.

Roxas then challenged him to back out of the presidential race if he could prove that he was not lying.

“I dare you. If I can show you a person, a name, a hospital that has really helped Davao City, will you back out of the race?” he said.

Roxas denied the claims circulating in the internet that he was told about the questions by ABS-CBN that hosted the last leg of the presidential debates held in Pangasinan. John Paolo Bencito

Poe: Let us reject Martial Law

Welcome. Vice presidential candidate Ferdinand Marcos Jr. is welcomed in Ormoc City by residents who vowed to support him in the coming elections.

WITH two weeks to go before the May 9 elections, presidential candidate Grace Poe on Monday urged voters to choose a leader that will not bring the Philippines back to the dark days of Martial Law, when thousands were killed and tortured.

“Mag-ingat tayo sapagkat ‘yan ang ayaw nating balikan,” Poe told reporters when asked if she was worried about Davao City Mayor Rodrigo Duterte’s statement that he was open to declaring martial law if there was lawlessness.

“Sa tingin ko malayo ang narating na natin pagdating sa kalayaan ng paghahayag.”

Senator Poe also said she could not stomach the injustices and poverty she had seen while campaigning all over the country.

“As a woman, a mother, can you bear to know that millions of children in the country are starving?” she said.

“Can you bear to know the funds that were earmarked for the treatment of the sick went to the wrong pockets or were wasted due to wrong spending?”

Poe made her statement even as the farmers’ group Kilusang Magbubukid ng Pilipinas on Monday urged her to rethink her support for the Metro Rail Transit Line 7 project that it said would “displace farmers from the more than 300

hectares of disputed agrarian reform lands” in Tungkong Mangga in San Jose del Monte, Bulacan.

The KMP issued the statement after Poe, when asked about the worsening traffic in Metro Manila situation in Sunday night’s presidential debate, cited the MRT-7 as one of the solutions.

According to Amnesty International, around 70,000 people were imprisoned, 34,000 were tortured, and 3,240 were killed during the nine years of Martial Law declared on Sept. 21, 1972 and officially lifted on Jan. 7, 1981.

“Marami tayong problema sa kahirapan, marami tayong problema sa kaligtasan, pero hindi natin pwedeng isuko ang ating kalayaan na magsalita na hindi tayo takot sa ating bansa,” Poe said.

“Hindi natin dapat katakutan ang gobyerno.

Dapat ang gobyerno ang matakot sa atin ‘pag hindi ginagawa ang trabaho.”

Poe is back on the campaign trail after Sunday’s Pilipinas Debate, the last of three presidential debates sponsored by the Commission on Elections.

From the University of Pangasinan in Dagupan City, where the final debate was held, Poe proceeded to Calasiao in Pangasinan to meet her supporters. Macon Ramos-Araneta and Sandy Araneta

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Govt urged to improve computer security

By Sara D. Fabunan FOLLOWING the hacking of the Commission on Elections’ computerized voters’ records, a private computer systems provider called on all government agencies and other entities to improve security measures to protect their data.

Accent Micro Technologies Inc. president Allyzon Cua said in an interview that computer administrators must change all passwords and improve security questions to prevent a repeat of the Comelec leak.

“We must all change whatever passwords and security information we can,” Cua said. “These may be little things, but they help greatly in neutralizing the possible consequences of data breaches.”

In the Philippines, it is unfortunate that many organizations do not prioritize computer security strategies.

“Many organizations do not give security strategy the level of importance it requires. When security systems are put in place, the level of security remains the same despite the exponential growth of data being protected. And due to limited budget allocations, security strategy and layers of protection rarely get prioritized,” he said.

He said most organizations do not allocate any budget for security upgrades until it is too late.

Angry response. A militant worker throws paint at the main office of the Department of Labor and Employment in Intramuros, Manila on Monday to protest Labor Secretary Rosalinda Baldoz’ announcement that there will be no wage increase this year. DANNY PATA

Digong widens lead in new SWS survey DAVAO City Mayor Rodrigo Duterte has widened his lead over his rivals despite a backlash from diplomats, the influential Catholic Church and women’s groups for a remark he made about raping a murdered Australian missionary.

Duterte, the tough-talking mayor of the southern city, emerged as the clear front runner in a survey that Social Weather Stations released Monday.

The candidate, who has promised mass killings of suspected criminals, saw his support rise from 27 percent of respondents in March to 33 percent in April, giving him a nine-point lead over second-placed Senator Grace Poe just two weeks before the vote.

The survey was conducted

from April 18 to 20, shortly after a video circulated showing Duterte making the off-color remark about the missionary during a campaign stop.

Duterte had told laughing followers that the woman, Jacqueline Hamill, was so beautiful he wished he had been the first in line to rape her before she was murdered in a jail riot in his city in 1989.

SWS spokesman Leo Laroza said the joke may have dented Duterte’s popularity but did not prevent him

pulling ahead of his rivals in the poll of 1,800 voters.

“Mayor Duterte has been steadily gaining ground. It’s a clear lead. The joke could have affected him in such a way that his score could have been higher had it not been for that news,” he told AFP. Duterte posted a voter preference rating of 33 percent, up six points from 27 percent in the SWS’ March 30 to April 2 survey.

Erstwhile frontrunner Senator Grace Poe ranked second at 24 percent, from 23 percent in the previous SWS survey.

Liberal Party and administration standard-bearer Manuel Roxas II overtook Vice President

Jejomar Binay at third place, with the two scoring 19 percent and 14 percent, respectively, from 18 percent and 20 percent previously.

Senator Miriam Defensor Santiago continued to trail the field at two percent, lower than the three percent she posted previously.

Duterte’s comments drew widespread condemnation, including from the Australian and American ambassadors, while women’s groups filed a complaint before the Commission on Human Rights.

But Duterte was undaunted, telling the diplomats to “shut their mouths” and warning he was prepared to sever ties with Canberra and Washington over the affair.

‘China to continue reef buildup’

Another complaint. Former Senator Francisco Tatad and his lawyer Manuel Luna file a complaint before the Bureau of Immigration on Monday questioning the citizenship of Teodoro Daniel Llamanzares, husband of presidential candidate Senator Grace Poe. DANNY PATA

BEIJING—China will start construction on a South China Sea islet within the Philippines’ claimed exclusive economic zone this year, as it seeks to project its power in the disputed waters, Hong Kong media reported Monday.

China will establish an outpost on Scarborough Shoal, 230 kilometers off the Philippine coast, the South China Morning Post cited an unnamed source close to the People’s Liberation Army as saying.

Beijing claims nearly all of the strategically vital sea, despite competing claims from several Southeast Asian neighbors, and in recent

months has built contested reefs into artificial islands, some topped with airstrips.

Manila claims Scarborough Shoal, but says China took effective control of it in 2012, stationing patrol vessels in the area and shooing away Filipino fishermen, after a two-month stand-off with the Philippine Navy.

The newspaper quoted the source as saying the outpost would allow Beijing to “further perfect” its air coverage across the South China Sea, suggesting it plans to build an airstrip.

The report comes ahead of an international tribunal ruling, expected within

months, on a case brought by the Philippines over the South China Sea. It also follows an announcement by the US and the Philippines that they would launch joint naval patrols in the sea.

The plans were likely to be accelerated in the light of the upcoming ruling from the Permanent Court of Arbitration at The Hague, the newspaper quoted the source as saying.

“China should regain the initiative to do so because Washington is trying to contain Beijing by establishing a permanent military presence in the region,” it quoted the source as saying. AFP

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Rivals cross party lines for Marcos

By Macon Araneta and Joel Zurbano

SC asked to reprint ballots in Laguna race

Political rivals in leyte have crossed party lines to support the vice presidential bid of Senator Ferdinand Bongbong Marcos Jr.

By Rey E. Requejo THE son of ousted Laguna Gov. Emilio Ramon “ER” Ejercito on Monday prodded the Supreme Court to instead compel the Commission on Elections to print new ballots to be used in the general elections in Laguna after failing to have his named excluded in the ballots, despite his withdrawal from the gubernatorial race.

In an urgent motion, Jorge Antonio Ejercito through lawyer Romulo Macalintal petitioner reiterated his plea for the high court to immediately order the Comelec to remove his name from the ballots for the province following his withdrawal from the gubernatorial race last February.

“Since the Comelec could print ballots at a speed of 1.5-million ballots a day, then it would only take the Comelec not more than one and a half days to print the 1.6-million new ballots for the province of Laguna without [petitioner’s] name therein and to totally disregard the ballots already printed,” the two-page manifestation stated.

Ejercito told the Court that the Comelec committed grave abuse of discretion in rejecting his plea for removal of his name in the ballots for the province due to “time timelines” last Feb. 1.

“As we stated in our petition, when an error was discovered last February 17, 2016 that the political party of Senator Miriam Defensor-Santiago, a presidential candidate, was not included in the ballot, the said correction was made immediately on the same date. If insertion of a name could be added to the ballots then there is no reason why a “deletion” of name could not be similarly undertaken, especially when such deletion would affect only one province,” he stressed.

“In the case of Senator Santiago, her case involved the correction of the entire 56.77-million ballots printed by the Comelec while only 1.6-million ballots [corresponding to the total registered voters of Laguna] are involved in petitioner’s case.

Hence, the speciousness, if not falseness, of Comelec’s claim that it had ‘tight timelines’ to grant petitioner’s request to delete his name from the ballot,” petitioner said.

In the 4th district of Leyte which includes Ormoc City , the rivalry is between two husband-and-wife teams, the Codilla couple and the Gomez couple.

Reelectionist Ormoc City Mayor Edward Codilla is running against actor Richard Gomez while Codilla’s wife, Violy, is pitted against Gomez’s wife, incumbent Leyte Rep. Lucy Torres Gomez.

But when Marcos brought his Unity Caravan to Ormoc City Sunday, both couples, in separate meetings, pledged their full support for Marcos, the frontrunner in the country’s highest second highest post.

In courtesy call to Codilla, Marcos was openly endorsed by the incumbent mayor saying he is crossing party lines for the senator’s sake.

Codilla is a member of the United People’s Coalition.

In a separate meeting with Gomez, who is a member of the Nationalist People’s Coalition, Marcos also got the former’s support saying he and his wife, who is a member of the ruling Liberal Party, have always been a supporter of the senator.

However, Rep. Torres was not present during the meeting as her flight back to Ormoc was delayed.

Gomez said he has been a long-time Marcos supporter. “In fact I supported President Marcos Sr. when he ran for reelection during the snap election and his running mate was Senator [Arturo] Tolentino,” said Gomez, who lost to Codilla in the 2013 polls by a slim margin.

The young Marcos said he was humbled by the endorsements acknowledging that it is a big boost to his campaign during the homestretch.

Meanwhile, Marcos also got the back-

ing of Liberal Party candidates in Maasin City, Leyte. They pledged their support for Marcos during the “2nd Barangay Day Celebration 2016” held in the city last Sunday.

LP gubernatorial candidate Damian Mercado, congressional candidate Roger Mercado, mayoralty candidate Lito Mercado, and vice mayoralty candidate Malone Samaco all referred to Marcos as the next vice president.

As a gesture of support, Mercado led members of his LP ticket in raising Marcos’ hand.

Marcos thanked the LP local candidates for their support and warm welcome saying they have shown the kind of unity he is espousing all throughout the campaign.

Marcos said he is also campaigning for the movement for unity of the Filipino people “so we can be together in alleviating the lives of our people.”

Latest survey results showed Marcos remaining as the frontrunner in the vice presidential race, attributing this feat to the people’s support through his Unity Caravan.

Malasakit message. Senatorial candidate and Leyte Rep. Martin Romualdez (right) expounds on his malasakit message to

more than 400 barangay officials and sectoral leaders led by 4th District Congressional candidate Violy Codilla during a barangay consultation and open forum at Lorenzo’s restaurant in Ormoc City. Romualdez vows to push for the granting of retirement benefits to barangay officials, watchmen and health workers if elected to the Senate. VER NoVENo

Ex-DBP chairman gets jail term over lingerie

By Rio N. Araja THE Sandiganbayan has convicted former Development Bank of the Philippines chairman Vitaliano Nañagas II of graft and estafa over the reimbursement of money he spent on personal materials such as lingerie, underwear, jersey shorts and other personal gifts.

In a 36-page decision of the

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anti-graft court’s Third Division, Presiding Justice Amparo Cabotaje-Tang sentenced Nañagas to a jail term of six to 10 years for graft, four to 12 years for estafa and another four to 14 years for another count of estafa.

Saying that Nañagas II “employed deceit for his reimbursement, Cabotaje-Tang also directed the former bank executive to return P377,040 to the government.

In a statement, the Office of the Ombudsman said it successfully established that Nañagas “was able to integrate his personal business with the official travel itinerary using public funds.”

In 2004, Nañagas was on official travel to the United States of America, the witnesses told the anti-graft court.

The official travel included time spent on personal business from

May 22, 2004 to June 8, 2004.

Upon reimbursement of travel expenses, Nañagas included P310,665.73 for personal expenses when he bought lingerie, underwear and jersey shorts and other personal gifts.

Nañagas also requested reimbursement of expenses worth P66,374.28 incurred in the Philippines even if he was on travel abroad in the US.

“The accused also employed deceit in his claims for reimbursement stating that the expenses were authorized, lawful, necessary and incurred in the discharge of official duties when in fact, some of his expenses were used for personal matters in the USA, and that some of the expenses were incurred in the Philippines while he was still in the USA,” the resolution read.

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NEWS

editorial@thestandard.com.ph

Probe of cyber heist resumes

By Macon Ramos araneta THE Senate Blue Ribbon Committee will resume its probe of the $81-million money laundering scheme on May 12, 2016 in a bid to reconcile the conflicting testimonies among the parties involved in the latest scandal known as cyber heist to rock the banking system here and other countries.

Committee chairman Senator Teofisto Guingona said the hearing intends to get more details from witnesses on where all the stolen money went since the $17 million in cash remained unaccounted for.

Guingona said the Senate inquiry is far from over as additional hearings are still needed to help the committee finish its recommendations for ways to finetune banking and anti-money laundering laws.

The reelectionist lawmaker said his committee still needs to get a clearer and more accurate picture of how $81 million in stolen funds were brought into the country and laundered here, and where all the money went after.

He noted that the committee’s 7th public hearing was set back by the failure of the lawyers of key witnesses Kim Wong, maia Deguito and philrem to promptly submit their respective waivers on the disclosure of their phone records.

“During the April 19 hearing, three parties, Wong, Deguito, and philrem, have given the committee their verbal consent to look into their phone records between February 5 and 13. But as of

today, none of their lawyers have submitted waivers allowing Globe to furnish us with these information,” Guingona said.

Guingona’s committee has summoned the phone records in question following the conflicting statements of Wong, Deguito, and the Bautista couple of philrem on who called whom during the deliveries of the stolen funds.

The parties have given conflicting testimonies at the Senate, particularly on the $17 million in cash that philrem claimed to have delivered to Chinese national Weikang Xu at Solaire casino in the presence of Wong, but which Wong claimed he never received.

Testimonies and pieces of evidence presented during the Senate hearings can be used by the Anti-money Laundering Council and the Department of Justice in filing criminal suits against those accused in the laundering scheme as well as in civil forfeiture cases for the

recovery of the stolen funds and their return to Bangladesh.

The next session is also set to hear the statement of philrem’s accountant, who has already resigned according to philrem president Salud Bautista. The accountant has been asked to appear after the April 12 hearing but remained incognito until the April 19 hearing was suspended.

“The committee also expects philrem to have produced their accountant by then. otherwise, they will be cited for contempt,” Guingona warned.

The Blue ribbon committee has traced how most of the $81 million came into the country on February 5, 2016 and how large amounts have been disbursed to casinos using numerous bank accounts, including allegedly fictitious accounts.

However, the committee has yet to determine who received and kept about $17 million delivered by philrem in cash.

‘De Lima unfit to become a senator’ A mULTI-SeCTorAL organization over the weekend described former Justice secretary Leila de Lima as not qualified to become a senator since she is an advocate of a twisted “straight path” (tuwid na daan) guidance of governance.

Leody de Guzman, first nominee of Sanlakas in the party-list election, said De Lima was one of the leading advocates of the straight path concept of the Aquino administration that has intentionally committed crimes to the Filipino people such as massive injustice to the victims of summary executions of human rights fighter and journalists, massive unemployment and underemployment, massive contractualization, massive corruption, and protectors of plunderers in the government identified with president Benigno Aquino III. De Lima has been the secretary of the Department of Justice since Aquino assumed his presidency in June 2010.

De Lima relinquished her post to pursue her ambition to become a senator courtesy of the Liberal party.

De Guzman, who is also the chairman of the Bukluran ng manggagawang pilipino, said De Lima belongs to the “notorious yellow politics” being pursued by Aquino and mar roxas. De Guzman said Sanlakas is not lowering its guard on De Lima because she “does not deserve to become a senator since she intentionally bungled and weakened the pieces of evidence against the Janet Lim Napoles, dismissed masbate Gov. rizalina Seachon-Lanete, and former Apec rep. edgar Valdez, thus, they were allowed by the Sandiganbayan to post bail for their temporary liberty despite the numerous pieces of evidence to pin them down in their involvement in the p10-billion priority Development Allotment Fund (pDAF) scam.”

CPR campaign. Members of the Bureau of Fire Protection, Philippine Heart Association and Axa Phils. join a CPR training as part of public awareness campaign on the importance of CPR. Knowledge about CPR is very low among Filipinos and has resulted in dismal survival rates from out of hospital cardiac arrest incidents. The event was held at the Quezon City Memorial Circle. Manny PalMeRo

Taiwan, PH universities sign pact To promoTe academic exchanges and cooperation, Taiwan’s Shu-Te University and University of the philippines have signed a memorandum of Academic Cooperation on April 23, 2016 at the Board room of the University of the philippines.

The two outstanding universities are well represented by Dr. Yuan Hsiang Chu, president of Shu-Te University and Dr. Alfredo e. pascual, president of the University of the philippines.

Also present at the signTaiwan’s representative to the Philippines Dr. Gary Songing ceremony is Dr. Gary Huann Lin (left) signs the memorandum on academic Song-Huann Lin, reprecooperation between the University of the Philippines and Shu-Te University as a witness. Beside him is UP president Dr. sentative of the republic of Alfredo E. Pascual.

China (Taiwan/roC) to the

philippines, who also signed the mAC as a witness. In his brief remarks, Dr. Gary Song-Huann Lin emphasized the importance of the memorandum of Academic Cooperation as a platform for Taiwan and philippine universities to forge more academic partnerships and people-to-people links.

Lin mentioned that the two countries are not only geographically close to each other and share similar history and common values but also complement each other in many areas, including in the field of education, ICT, agriculture and human resources.

It will be a win-win situation if the two universities

will be able to pool together their resources, facilities and staff and offer each other the respective strengths to complement each other and make alliance with each other.

At a time of globalization, the philippines will be an ideal place for the Taiwanese students to learn english in the philippines especially spoken english.

Likewise, as Taiwan is facing a shortage of students, with Taiwan’s excellent facilities, technology, agriculture and high standard of teaching staff, it will be conducive for the philippines’ teaching staff, students and researchers to have advanced studies in Taiwan.

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NEWS

editorial@thestandard.com.ph

‘Replicate resilient evacuation buildings’

By Macon Araneta ThirTy-two disaster-resilient evacuation centers in 16 regions will be replicated in the country’s 145 cities and 1,490 towns will be built by the Department of Public Works and highways, with P768 million in funding from the national budget.

Senate President ProTempore ralph recto said that the evacuation centers are meant to spare schools from being used as sanctuaries during calamities. he added that the “Swissknife type of structures will be either of two models—a multi-story dormitorytype building to maximize space where land is scarce, and a multi-purpose gym and evacuation center.

The latter, according to recto, “addresses the shortage of covered sports facilities in municipalities and the need for a safe building people can seek shelter in during a calamity.”

The structures can serve as storage spaces for disaster rescue equipment and emergency supplies, relief goods and medicine, and serve as the headquarters of the local disaster management committee.

“Disasters displace two kinds of people: those who are directly hit, and the children, who, though unscathed, have to temporarily give up their classrooms to evacuees,” recto added. “in any calamity, students are the collateral damage,” he further said.

Even in conflict areas, he said schools automatically become the temporary shelter of those displaced by fighting. he said if the latter lasts for weeks, then students go on early or unscheduled vacation.

Harvest time. Farmers in Carigara, Leyte harvest rice. Carigara is considered a rice granary in Region 8. MEL CASPE

Aid group says disaster response must be local

By Ronald O. Reyes TACLOBAN CITY—A consultant from an international humanitarian organization highlighted the need for localizing humanitarian emergency efforts in the country in light of post-Super Typhoon “Yolanda” aid response in November 2013.

“We recognize that humanitarian effectiveness is not just delivering the needed goods and services in a timely and appropriate manner, but also a process of affirming the dignity and rights of people, especially the most vulnerable,

and empowering them as persons, groups and communities,” said rico Cajife, consultant of interchurch Organisation for Development Cooperation, a Netherlands-based non-governmental organization. reiterating their call for

commitment on said issue, Cajife said they welcomed the discussions in the World humanitarian Summit process on the “effectiveness” of humanitarian action if delivered locally.

Cajife added that the localization of disaster aid response would “affirm the primary role of local stakeholders, especially community-based organizations, as front-liners in disaster preparedness, response and resilience.”

“We are committing ourselves to these following actions for localizing aid delivery in affected

communities. To build and strengthen local mechanisms among government agencies, community organizations and other stakeholders; increase direct funding to local NGOs and community-based organizations for humanitarian action; provide for organization development and process support in humanitarian action; and reaffirm the principles of partnership among stakeholders and actors.” he maintained that locals would know better in providing the ideal solution to the affected people

in times of disaster. iCCO was one of the international aid groups who immediately set up emergency response in central parts of the country after yolanda, from food, shelter, livelihood and capability training to the victims.

On Monday, Cajife also led in a training on disaster preparedness and response for disaster-affected communities in Eastern Visayas and neighboring regions which was attended by over 40 participants, mostly farmers and fisherfolk affiliated to land rights advocate group rights inc.

Civil Service Commission upholds dismissal of college officials

By Dexter A. See

Marching in April. Close to 300 Katarungan farmers and fishermen stage a motorcade from various towns in Leyte demanding that their issues be discussed in the campaign for the 2016 elections. MEL CASPE

BONTOC, Mountain Province—The Civil Service Commission upheld a ruling rendered by its regional office ordering the dismissal of four personnel of the Mountain Province State Polytechnic College for grave misconduct, conduct prejudicial to the best interest of the service and insubordination relative to the failed July 1, 2011 siege that sought to topple the institution’s leadership. in a decision promulgated on April 6, the CSC ordered the dismissal of the first batch of respondents, Terence Leif F. Fanga-asan, Peter L. Puma-at, Jayson A. Oma-

weng and Charlie Wrykan S. Engngeg with all its accessory penalties of cancellation of eligibility, forfeiture of retirement benefits, perpetual disqualification from holding public office and barred from taking civil service examination. however, the CSC en banc decision signed by Chairperson Alicia dela rosa-Bala and Commissioners Nieves L. Osorio and robert h. Martinez modified the CSC-CAr ruling stating the forfeiture of retirement benefits does not include leave credits and personal contributions to the Government Service insurance System.

The decision stated that as

correctly pointed out by CSCCAr, there is substantial evidence to hold Fang-asan, Pumaat, Omaweng and Engngeg guilty of conduct prejudicial to the best interest of the service since government workers who join, participate or take part in any prohibited concerted activity or mass action as defined under existing laws and regulations shall be held administratively liable for the administrative offense. records established that Fang-asan, Pumaat, Omaweng and Engngeg not only participated in a prohibited and concerted mass action but also represented themselves as the leaders who led the strike at MPSPC last July 1, 2011.

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ADELLE CHUA EDITOR T U E S D AY: A P R I L 2 6 , 2 0 1 6

OPINION [ EDI TORI A L ]

ENDING ‘ENDO’ ONLY in the Philippines would the term “endo”—short for “end of contract”—be understood and appreciated by millions.

The term found its way into the national consciousness the painful way—through the actual experience of millions of workers who are employed just a little under six months under a contract.

During this period, the workers get salaries but no benefits, and no certainty whether they would get hired again.

This has been a convenient scheme for employers who need the manpower but do not want to provide security of tenure —and all the costs that come with it—to their people.

At the presidential debate last Sunday, the five candidates were asked what they intended to do to address the injustice, long acknowledged but persistent, nonetheless.

The rivals agreed the labor practice had to end and offered various plans for it.

One said she would lower corporate taxes to offset the additional operational costs to be incurred by employers, stressing that secure employees are more productive.

Another, as always given to exaggeration, said contractualization would stop the moment he assumes the presidency.

One candidate said the law protecting workers against this practice was simply not being implemented; yet another said he would fix the loopholes in that law.

We have every reason to take the candidates’ pronouncements with a grain of salt; after all, how many promises have been made in the name of the pursuit of victory only to be abandoned later?

Workers put up with the injustice because they have no other option—it is either job insecurity or no job at all.

Whoever wins, we will hold the new president accountable for his or her pronouncement if only because the issue has long festered: distorting the job market, creating illusions of productivity, denying workers the opportunity to grow and to plan, and most especially keeping them powerless against “market forces.”

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PUTTING LENI ON TOP LOWDOWN JOJO A. ROBLES

PERHAPS because Mar is so hard to sell and to force through as a winning presidential candidate, the powers that be seem to have decided that maybe it’s easier to get away with allowing Leni to win. And at least one of the major survey companies seems to have been enlisted full time in this effort.

Leni Robredo ended up on top of the heap in the latest survey of vice presidential candidates conducted by Social Weather Stations. The only thing more incomprehensible than Robredo’s inexplicable ascent, after all, is if her running mate—the perennially bottom-feeding Mar Roxas—also topped a major survey for candidates of the presidency.

Survey companies often seek to find explanations for the data they gather, after the fact. Anticipating questions from the people

who commissioned the surveys and from the general public, they point to events that impact on the popularity and other ratings that they produce, like a widely reported remark or a major natural disaster.

In the case of Robredo’s incredible rise, I failed to hear SWS’ explanation, other than the fact that the survey outfit has been seeing her steady in the polling outfit’s surveys.

But Leni on top?

I have several issues with the latest survey from SWS, which routinely ignores critics of the unusual survey results it sometimes comes up with.

Let me explain.

SWS has been pushing the envelope for some time now with its surveys, like the “pick three” poll. More recently, SWS hit upon the novel—but completely questionable—method of giving 120 people cellular phones, from which they would respond to questions about their voting preferences when asked by the polling outfit to do so.

I have several issues with the latest survey from SWS, which routinely ignores critics.

In the first of these two strange surveys, SWS, by necessity, came up with a total of more than 100 percent in responses, simply because the respondents were asked to name not one, not two, but three choices. SWS has not bothered to explain how it decided on this unusual methodology, when actual voting is always limited to one candidate in presidential or similar races; I guess the fact that they never conducted a similar survey again is explanation enough.

As for its now-famous “mobile” survey, SWS got

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a lot of flak for coming up with results that were so skewed that it’s reasonable to expect that the outfit will not conduct a similar poll in the future. The fact that nearly half of all the people that SWS gave mobile phones to never took their calls again may have something to do with such a decision, as well. *** My other complaint about the latest SWS survey—which was thoroughly “traditional,” based on what we’ve been told—is that it conforms to the findings of a similar poll conducted almost simultaneously by its major rival in the polling game, Pulse Asia. Only up to a very important point, however.

The SWS and Pulse surveys validated each other in the presidential race, with variances of one or two percentage points, something that is statistically unremarkable. Even in the two companies’ senatorial polling, the results were largely the same.

Continued on A10

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T U E S D AY: A P R I L 2 6 , 2 0 1 6

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OPINION lettertotheeditor@thestandard.com.ph

ONGPIN’S JUSTICE VELASCO’S CONCURRENCE ‘MAGNUM OPUS’ EAGLE EYES IN BAGUIO TO THE POINT EMIL P. JURADO

I WAS in Baguio over the weekend and it was a breeze going there. Travel from Metro Manila, via Balintawak, North Luzon Expressway, then through Ta r l a c - Pa n g a s i n a n - L a Union Expressway now only takes three hours. I remember it took at least six hours before.

Note that I wrote Balintawak since it took another hour and a half to two hours to negotiate Edsa.

Baguio’s cool weather was a relief to me because I occasionally suffer from asthma because of the heat. When in Baguio, I always stay at the Camp John Hay Forest Lodge because it’s affordable.

It was time to recharge an old man’s batteries.

But I must confess I’m a workaholic. I did not waste time and immediately visited a “magnum opus” of Bobby Ongpin—the Alphaland Baguio Mountain Lodges, just eight kilometers away from Baguio City proper.

Bobby was my student at Ateneo High School. He told me that going to the place, almost at a hilltop, would be comfortable because the road is now fully cemented. It was not that way 40 years ago when he bought that 76-hectare property for his family.

Bobby said that even then, he could foresee the haphazard development in the city. It used to take him an hour to get to his property, he said. The traffic was nightmarish.

In 1977, he completed his home. At the same time, he developed a citrus farm which gave him a modest income over the years. “But the trees have now grown old and are no longer commercially feasible,” he said.

I was actually stunned to see a development like it, knowing Baguio as it is today. To me, the only place now in Baguio where one could still smell the pine trees is Camp John Hay. The Alphaland Baguio Mountain Lodges is something to see in Baguio City.

It boasts of an elevation of 5,200 feet compared to Baguio proper and the Loakan Airport, which is at 4,300 feet, and Tagaytay Highlands, where the highest point is at 2,000 feet and the average elevation is only at 1,500 feet.

Bobby said the fireplace in his Baguio house is always lit and roaring away.

He added, “I even have portable heaters for the cold Christmas months when the temperature could dip to 5 degrees Centigrade, sometimes even lower.”

I was taken around by my guide, and was told that Alphaland Baguio Mountain Lodges would consist of 300 log houses, master planned over the property.

It will not be a high-density community so the unit owners could enjoy privacy, walk around or even go horseback-riding. Alphaland in fact planted an additional 200,000 pine trees.

Alphaland Baguio Mountain Lodges will not be a membership club. Homes will be built in clusters of five or six, i.e. each homeowner will have a proportionate share of the 76-hect-

More than half of the first 50 units of the Alphaland property have been reserved.

are property. In other words, it will be a horizontal condominium. Fences will not be allowed and landscaping will be provided and maintained by Alphaland.

I did not see a gateway entrance, it will be built next month. Alphaland has contracted the designer Rico Sison and architect Nick Pagulayan. Five model log homes, ranging from threebedroom to five-bedroom units, will soon be up. Each home will be completely furnished. They will be in a ready-to-move-in condition.

Ongpin expects to build 50 lodges during the first year, 100 during the second year and 150 on the third year. Each home will be constructed from imported cedar to ensure they are termite-free. Termites are the no. 1 scourge of pinewood.

There will be fireplaces in the living room and the master bedroom.

To provide electric power at all times, the project will have solar panels on roofs for adequate hot water and lighting at all times.

THIS is the fifth column in my series on the Supreme Court decision on the Grace Poe case. In the first column, I summarized the majority decision written by Justice Jose Perez. I followed that with essays on the concurring opinions of Chief Justice Maria Lourdes Sereno, Justice Marvic Leonen, and Justice Francis Jardeleza. Last Tuesday, I wrote about the dissent of Senior Justice Antonio Carpio.

In his separate opinion, Justice Presbiterio Velasco went directly to the heart of the issues. On residency, Velasco enumerated the requirements to acquire a new domicile namely, (1) residence or bodily presence in the new locality; (2) an intention to remain there (animus manendi); and (3) an intention to abandon the old domicile (animus non revertendi). Making reference to the ponencia, Velasco, dealt with more particularity Poe’s evidence, saying that the evidence presented by Poe sufficiently portrays her intent to stay in the Philippines and to abandon the US since May 2005. In his mind, the facts of the case suggest that Poe’s change of domicile and repatriation from the US to the Philippines was “accomplished, not in a single key move but, through an incremental process that started in early 2005.

He dismissed as illogical the suggestion that Senator Poe’s animus manendi only existed at the time she took her oath of allegiance under RA 9225 in July 2006 and that her animus non revertendi existed only in October 2010 when she renounced her US citizenship. According to Velasco, Poe is not an ordinary “alien” trying to establish her domicile in a “foreign country.” She was born and raised in the Philippines, who went through the tedious motions of, and succeeded in, reestablishing her home in the country. She There will be full electric power backup.

A sports center with tennis court, basketball court, badminton courts and a basic gym will be built. And there will be mountain ponies and horse stables at the far end of the property. There will also be a steakhouse on high part of the property with the best views.

To facilitate access to lodges, the Ongpin property will also build a total of three helipads. Ongpin is acquiring one more to accommodate those who want to use the helicopter services, which can take off from Alphaland’s hangar at Naia or its helipad at Alphaland Southgate Tower in Edsa corner Chino Roces Avenue in Makati.

The sad part of my tour was that I was told that each lodge will cost between P35 million to P50 million, which I can never afford. Not surprisingly, more than half of the first 50 units have already been reserved.

DEAN TONY LA VIÑA

is, by no means, foreign to the Philippines nor its people. In short, she presented overwhelming evidence of her permanent relocation to the Philippines, her actual residence, and intent to stay in the Philippines since May 2005, i.e., even before she took her oath of allegiance under RA 9225 in July 2006.

On citizenship, Velasco narrated the circumstances surrounding her birth, pointing out that as an admitted foundling Poe has no known biological parents and was found on Sept. 3, 1968 in Jaro, Iloilo when she was but a newborn. She was then adopted by spouses Ronald Allan Kelly and Jesusa Sonora Poe in May 1974. Indeed, while it is not denied that Senator Poe was abandoned by her biological parents, her abandonment on the date and specific place above indicated does not obliterate the fact that she had biological parents and the private respondents had not shown any proof that they were not Filipino citizens.

Section 1, Rule 131 of the Rules of Court provides that the burden of proof is the duty of a party to prove the truth of his claim or defense, or any fact in issue by the amount of evidence required by law. The private respondents had not presented even an iota of proof to show that Senator Poe was not born to Filipino parents. Thus, it was grave abuse of discretion for the Commission on Elections to conclude that Senator Poe was not a natural-born Filipino and had deliberately misrepresented such fact.

For Justice Velasco, to shift the

What a pleasant visit I had.

While Ongpin’s Mountain Lodges will only be for those who can afford it, it can be said that the summer capital is progressing. I am sure there will be other property developers that will follow.

In fact, I have been told that there are more hotels being built this year to accommodate Baguio’s tourism needs. With TPLEX finally finished within the year, going to Baguio either through Marcos Highway or Kennon Road will be easy and comfortable. *** I asked Baguio City residents and friends who will make it, and almost everybody told me it will be a Binay-Marcos victory.

If follows. Vice President Jejomar Binay is from Isabela and also speaks Ilocano, the main dialect in Baguio.

And Senator Bongbong Marcos is a Marcos—the Solid North will carry him.

It looks like Baguio is still a “Marcos Pa Rin” territory.

burden of proof to foundlings, like Senator Poe, to prove the citizenship of their parents who had abandoned them is as preposterous as rubbing salt on an open, bleeding wound; it adds insult to injury. The State cannot allow such unconscionable interpretation of our laws. Instead, the judiciary, as the instrumentality of the State in its role of parens patriae, must ensure that the abandoned children, the foundlings, those who were forced into an unfavorable position are duly protected.

As pointed out by petitioner Poe, the same view was shared by the framers of the 1935 Constitution. A delegate to the 1934 Constitutional Convention, Sr. Nicolas Rafols, proposed to explicitly include “children of unknown parentage” in the enumeration of jus sanguinis Philippine Citizens in Section 1, Article IV of the 1935 Constitution. The suggestion, however, was not accepted but not on the ground that these children are not Philippine citizens. Rather, that the cases of foundlings are “few and far in between,” as pointed out by delegate Manuel Roxas, and that citing a similar Spanish Law, they are already presumed to have been born to Filipinos.

For Justice Velasco, an alternative construction of the 1935, not to say the present Constitution, presents dire consequences. In such a scenario, abandoned children with no known parents will be considered stateless. This violates the rights of a child to immediate registration and nationality after birth, as recognized in the United Nation’s Convention on the Rights of the Child. Thus, the good Justice could not subscribe to the proposal that foundlings are not natural-born Filipino citizens.

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Putting... From A8 However, when it came to the vice presidential contest, SWS, as I’ve already said, came up with Robredo on top, leading her statistically tied rival Senator Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr. by a single point, 26 percent to 25 percent. The Pulse poll, which had a bigger respondent base and a smaller margin of error than SWS (4,000 respondents versus 1,800 and 1.5 percent against two percent) came up with Marcos ahead of Robredo by six points, 29 to 23.

The seven-percent difference represents a lot of variance, a difference of 3.5-million votes based on a voting population of 50 million. (Political strategists, though, routinely base their assumptions on 70-percent turnout on election day, which makes the Pulse-SWS difference a little less than three million votes—huge still, by any standard.)

Previous surveys—even the one conducted immediately before by SWS (March 30-April 2)—had Marcos leading the former frontrunner, Senator Francis “Chiz” Escudero.

At that time, SWS said, Marcos had 26 percent, compared to Escudero’s 21 percent and Robredo’s 19 percent; that was before the latest poll showed Robredo “leaping” (SWS’ word, not mine) by six percentage points, of course—even if there was no significant event involving her or her rivals to explain the leap.

I’d like to hear what Junie Laylo of Laylo Research, whom this newspaper commissions regularly to conduct our exclusive polling, comes up with in his latest survey.

Laylo, after all, was the first major survey-taker to track Davao City Mayor Rodrigo Duterte’s incredible (and now seemingly inexorable) rise to the top of the standings in the presidential voter-preference surveys—a position that he has yet to yield to his other rivals.

If Laylo comes up with numbers similar to Pulse Asia’s, then the conclusion will be clear: the plan to create a bandwagon effect to explain Robredo’s unexplainable rise is in the works—and SWS’ strange findings are part of the scheme.

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OPINION lettertotheeditor@thestandard.com.ph

HAIL TO THE CHAIR VICTOR AVECILLA LEILA De Lima is the exSecretary of Justice running for the Senate unDer the moribund Liberal Party of President Benigno Aquino III. Since De Lima is offering her services to the electorate, voters must be told about her track record as a government official.

De Lima began her public career as the head of the Commission on Human Rights where she did nothing outstanding enough to be remembered for.

It’s De Lima’s record as the secretary of Justice that invites scrutiny.

There are many occasions when a party is unjustly accused in court for an alleged criminal offense. To prevent injustice, the accused is permitted by law to seek relief from the department of Justice by filing a petition for review. If the petition is granted, the accused can readily seek the dismissal of the criminal case against him. Otherwise, the accused can take his case to the higher courts.

Unfortunately, the DoJ takes a long time to act on those petitions. Under De Lima’s predecessors, it takes at least a year before the petition is resolved. When De Lima was the DoJ secretary, the wait lasted for many years. Many of those petitions were not acted

SO I SEE LITO BANAYO AS WE GO into the last two weeks of this hot and humid campaign, “crunch time” sets upon us.

The surveys clearly indicate that the wind is beneath the wings of the Rodrigo Duterte presidential quest. It is a contest between him and the Fil-Am Grace Poe Llamanzares.

The latest reading for the week of April 12 to 17 shows Duterte with 34 points, up 2 from the previous week. Llamanzares is down by 3 points, from the previous week’s 25 to 22. The gap between the two has widened to 12 points.

This translates into a margin of 6.5 million votes. But assuming an 80-percent voter turnout, which is the historic standard for presidential elections, that’s a lead of 5.2 million votes.

The latest survey does not quite capture though the probable fall-out from Duterte’s “dirty” mouth, which since it became viral on the 17th, has discombobulated the nation for the last week prior to the final presidential debate of 24 April.

How many points will Duterte drop? And to whom will the numbers go?

Interestingly, of the three-point drop in Senator Llamanzares’ previous week rating (April 5 to 10), one point went to Senator Miriam.

Two points went to Duterte.

The next field research period of this reputable company, which is winding up as of this writing, covers April 19 to 24. “Swak na swak,” as they say, into the dirty mouth controversy. So, if the Duterte

LEILA DE LIMA: A ‘TRAPO’ OF THE WORST KIND upon even when De Lima left her DoJ post almost six years since she assumed office in 2010.

Since there are many lawyers in the DoJ assigned to work on those petitions, the undue delay in their resolution is inexcusable.

Moreover, there are no complicated questions of law raised in those petitions. All that needs to be done is for a DoJ lawyer to go through the records of each case and recommend to De Lima if the petition is meritorious or not.

Justice delayed is justice denied. Thus, the delay of several years in resolving those petitions is already a crime in itself. As the secretary of Justice, De Lima should have cracked the whip to make her hirelings resolve those petitions with minimum delay.

She did not do so.

Actually, De Lima can see to the speedy resolution of a case by giving it preferential attention.

That’s called selective justice.

Last year, the Iglesia Ni Cristo religious group accused De Lima of selective justice. According to the INC, De Lima was unduly interested in a criminal case which an INC minister filed against certain high-ranking INC officials.

The INC was so angry with De Lima that its officials organized a protest rally, first outside the DoJ head office in Manila, and later at

the Edsa-Shaw Boulevard intersection in Mandaluyong.

A number of traditional politicians like Grace Poe and Chiz Escudero who saw the INC rally as a means to court the votes of its members insisted on speaking there. They were accommodated probably out of courtesy.

Anyway, the rally enDed after President Aquino and INC leaders supposedly reached a Deal.

Although the INC issued statements suggesting that the Aquino administration gave in to its Demands, the president’s publicists insisted otherwise, but they did not explain how and why the standoff was resolved.

What the alleged Deal between the government and the INC was all about remains a big mystery today because De Lima avoids talking about it. She is also silent on what happened to the INC case. Since De Lima is running for high public office, she has a lot of explaining to do.

The management of penitentiaries is vested by law in the DoJ. It was during De Lima’s watch as Justice secretary when the news media discovered that drug lords Detained at the New Bilibid Prisons in Muntinlupa enjoyed numerous perks such as spacious, air-conditioned quarters with comfortable beds

and the amenities of modern living, and had access to catered meals or restaurant food, hired entertainers, mobile phones, and even the internet. Under the law, prisoners are not entitled to those privileges. That is why they call the prison a penitentiary— it’s not supposed to be very comfortable for the inmates!

Such brazen disregard of the law happened either because the special treatment of the drug lords had De Lima’s blessings, or because De Lima was negligent and did not regularly monitor the prisons and their personnel. If De Lima paid regular, unannounced visits to the prisons, which she should be doing in the first place, this mockery of the justice system would not have occurred.

Last year, the Commission on Audit reprimanded the DoJ, under De Lima’s watch, for illegally re-channeling funds earlier earmarked for a particular project and spending it on something else instead. As the lawyer of the Cabinet, the DoJ secretary be expected to comply with the law.

De Lima failed in that regard.

In July 2015, when she was still Justice Secretary, De Lima joined a junket to Holland supposedly to attend a hearing in the arbitration case the Philippines filed against Communist

China regarding Beijing’s illegal expansionist operations in the West Philippine Sea. De Lima wasn’t needed there. It’s the solicitor general, not the DoJ secretary, who represents the Republic of the Philippines in international disputes. Sadly, the Filipino taxpayers ended up paying for De Lima’s plane fare, allowances, and hotel accommodations. Would De Lima have gone to Holland if she, not the taxpayers, had to pay for all that?

De Lima accused outspoken presidential candidate Rodrigo Duterte of committing human rights violations as Davao City mayor. If that is so, then why didn’t De Lima file the corresponding criminal cases against Duterte when she was still the DoJ secretary? How come De Lima made the accusation only now, when Duterte is leading in the election surveys and her party’s bet for president, Mar Roxas, is trailing at fourth place?

That belated accusation against Duterte only underscores the selective justice De Lima dispensed in the DoJ when she was its head. Besides, isn’t the wastage of public funds by the ex-Justice secretary as bad as human rights abuses? As the ex-chief of the CHR, De Lima should know.

THE POLITICAL MACHINERY numbers drop by three points, will two points accrue to Grace, and one point to Miriam? Maybe.

In any case, Duterte would still end up leading Grace by some eight to nine points as we enter the final week when minds and hearts are set for E-Day on May 9. The Social Weather Stations, through Businessworld came out with its April 18-20 survey results yesterday, and reported 33 points for Duterte and 24 for Poe. That’s still a ninepoint lead, rape-joke brouhaha already taken into consideration.

The Digong crowds keep swelling, the fervor burning. The Grace crowds, Coco Martin and real FPJ daughter Lovi Poe notwithstanding, seem to be limping.

So much for that.

This article is about the vaunted political machineries of the yellows and by their self description, the “nognog.”

In 1992, Mitra and the LDP had sewn up the machinery comprised of almost 85 percent of the entire gaggle of local government unit and congressional officials. It didn’t work. Someone who started with a core of seven congressmen naming themselves the Lakas won by a squeaker over a feisty lady with absolutely no machinery.

That story was repeated in Erap versus Joe de V in 1998. In 2004, the story was a bit different. Gloria Macapagal Arroyo was the incumbent, while her challenger had the deposed Erap, Angara, the NPCs of Danding Cojuangco and others forming themselves into a big and noisy conglomeration based on the supra-popular movie legend, FPJ. Cunning beat them and FPJ

lost, albeit controversially.

In 2010, again there was some variation. The man to beat was Manny Villar, relatively popular, quite rich, and had built a vaunted machinery in preparation for his presidential quest. The field also had the come-backing Erap, still residually popular, particularly in Mindanao. The administration candidate, Gilbert Teodoro, banked on the Lakas of GMA. The “outlier” who entered the scene on a veil of tears occasioned by the “timely” demise of President Cory, was her son Noynoy.

The machinery consisted of a gaggle of Liberals who could fit into a van, amply fortified by an instant company of volunteers mostly from the ABC class.

What happened? Gibo’s Lakas was sundered by “traitorous” party men early in the game, their hopes dimmed by the low survey numbers of their champion. Villar’s machine sputtered by end March, conked out by end April.

Erap’s revved up, yet not enough to catch the yellow brigade’s spin.

History repeats itself, in varying modes.

The yellows, both original and hepatitis-infected, have now become a humongous party. At the beginning of the game, every Tom, Dick and Harry in Philippine politics joined “daang matuwid” and cheered the proclaimed heir, Manuel Araneta Roxas II. They picked a charming commoner for political bride, Leni Robredo who unlike Cinderella, chose yellow slippers instead of sparkling, shimmering glass shoes.

The “opposition” refused to identify itself as combatants

against the “Daan” until their owner-champion, Binay, was blackened by accusations of corruption most vile. Too late in the game, too late to become “hero.”

Yet the “opposition” owner has through five and a half years of hard work and gazillion boodle fights, cobbled together a formidable force of both open and closet “allies,” enough to give the Daang Matuwid a run for its money.

Ahh, money… one is public money, the other is dirty laundry.

Will the machineries deliver?

Learn from history.

In 1998, when the pollsters said the coast was clear for an Erap victory, the Lakas local machineries started “talking” to the Erap camp. Two weeks or so before the elections, the Lakas machinery had been “overhauled.” It had a new engine—Erap’s. Same thing happened in 2010.

Why this phenomenon? Simple—there is no real party system in this country, thanks to a confused Constitution of 1987. What we have instead are “local” machineries built by local kingpins, whose be-all and end-all is to fortify their local fiefdoms. And the way to fortify their feudal hold is to make sure they are on the “right side” of national politics.

This is really a crazy system.

This is amoral practice. But it is the prevailing political reality.

As we write this, “talks” have transpired into open action between LP’s and UNA’s erstwhile “loyal” local chieftains. These local machinery owners have chosen either Digong or Grace.

So the gubernatorial lameduck, Albay’s Salceda is the lat-

est recruit into the Grace camp.

Quien mas? Barbers and Romarate of Surigao del Norte, “kuno.” Erlpe Amante of Agusan del Norte, at odds with his sister, Governor Angel, who is openly for Mar, but secretly for Digong.

Batangas has fallen for Mindanao’s “barako.” So has Cavite.

Earlier, quite so openly, UNA’s Cebu machinery allied with fellow Bisaya, Digong. And more to come in Luzon, Visayas, and of course, Mindanao.

Lessons from the continuing saga of Philippine politics, postmartial rule?

Artikulo Uno: There is NO national machinery, only local machinery.

Artikulo Dos: There are NO political ideologies in local politics. Political “parties” both local and national, are mere flags of convenience.

Artikulo Tres: Power resides in the people, NOT the politicians, at least on election day. The Filipino voter will continue electing his local “patron,” either because of some rudiments of good governance in the locality or because of patronage. BUT he will always vote for his “kursunada” when it comes to his president.

Therefore, the local kingpins, the machinery-owners, follow the popular crest, lest they themselves are drowned by its wave.

A final word: The world has changed, and continues to change. Those who cling to their mentally atrophied political “templates” are well…atrophied.

“The world will always give way to a man [or woman] who knows where he is going.”

T UE S DAY : A P RI L 2 6 , 2 0 1 6

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SPORTS sports@thestandard.com.ph

UST bet bags 200-m gold in Thailand

By Peter Atencio A Sure Bet for Progress in Gaming, Entertainment and Nation Building

INVITATION TO BID FOR THE PROCUREMENT OF TWO (2) LOTS - THREE (3) YEAR VIP BAR PERSONNEL SERVICES FOR SATELLITE OPERATIONS GROUP (SOG) 1’S RONQUILLO AND BINONDO SATELLITES UNDER ITB NO. PB16-036

UNIVERSITY of Santo Tomas standouts Karen Janario and Feiza Lenton came up with worthy finishes over the weekend in the 2016 Southeast Asian Youth Athletics Championships in Rangsit Thailand.

The Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corporation (PAGCOR) is inviting all interested bidder in its forthcoming public bidding for the Procurement of Two (2) Lots – Three (3) Year VIP Bar Personnel Services for Satellite Operations Group (SOG) 1’s Ronquillo and Binondo Satellites under ITB No. PB16-036.

Approved Budget for the Contract (ABC):

Location:

Lot and Description

ABC (VAT-Exclusive, Zero Rated Transaction) [FOR ONE (1) YEAR)

ABC (VAT-Exclusive, Zero Rated Transaction) [FOR THREE (3) YEARS)

Lot 1 – Procurement of Three (3) Year VIP Bar Personnel Services for SOG 1’s Ronquillo Satellite

Four Million One Hundred Sixty Thousand Four Hundred SixtyTwo Pesos and 40/100 (PhP4,160,462.40)

Twelve Million Four Hundred Eighty-One Thousand Three Hundred Eighty-Seven Pesos and 20/100 (PhP12,481,387.20)

Lot 2 – Procurement of One Million Six Hundred Three (3) Year VIP Bar Seventeen Thousand Personnel Services Nine Hundred Fiftyfor SOG 1’s Binondo Seven Pesos and 60/100 Satellite (PhP1,617,957.60)

Four Million Eight Hundred Fifty-Three Thousand Eight Hundred Seventy-Two Pesos and 80/100 (PhP4,853,872.80)

Grand Total

Seventeen Million Three Hundred ThirtyFive Thousand Two Hundred Sixty Pesos (PhP17,335,260.00)

Five Million Seven Hundred SeventyEight Thousand Five Hundred Twenty Pesos (PhP5,778,420.00)

Lot 1 – Procurement of Three (3) Year VIP Bar Personnel Services for SOG 1’s Ronquillo Satellite  561 Ronquillo Street corner Rizal Avenue Sta. Cruz, Manila Lot 2 – Procurement of Three (3) Year VIP Bar Personnel Services for SOG 1’s Binondo Satellite  801 Ongpin corner S. Padilla Streets Binondo, Manila

Required Personnel: Satellite

Bar Attendants

Beverage Cart Attendants

Kitchen Staff

Buffer*

Total

Ronquillo

6

6

3

3

18

Binondo

6

-

-

1

7

Note: * To be delivered when need arises VIP Bar Personnel Shift Rotation:

6:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m.

1st Shift: 2nd Shift: 1:00 p.m. to 10:00 p.m.

3rd Shift: 9:00 p.m. to 6:00 a.m.

(Inclusive of one (1) hour break)

Working Hours:

Six (6) days a week; nine (9) hours a day inclusive of one (1) hour break

Contract Duration:

Within a period of Three (3) Years commencing from the effectivity date specified in the Notice to Proceed.

Source of Fund:

Internally Funded

Notice of Loss Stock Certificate

C I TAT I O N FO R FR E E D O M FRO M PA R E NTA L CUSTO DY A N D CO NT RO L

Notice is hereby given that Vantage Equities, Inc. Stock Cert. No. 39088 for 1,000,000 shares, with par value of P1.00, issued to Harley Sy was lost. If no contest is received, a new stock cert. will be issued.

To: C h r i s t i a n To r r e s Yo u a r e a d v i s e d t h a t y o u a r e r e q u i r e d t o appear in the Superior Cour t of the State o f C a l i f o r n i a , C o u n t y o f S a n D i e g o, C e n t r a l D i v i s i o n , J u ve n i l e c o u r t , 2 8 51 M e a d o w L a r k , S a n D i e g o, C A 9 212 3 , i n D e p a r t m e n t 10 o n 0 5 - 2 7-16 , a t 9 : 0 0 a m ., t o s h o w c a u s e , i f y o u h ave a ny, w hy C e a n a S a n t o s m i n o r s h o u l d not be declared free from parental custody a n d c o n t r o l (f o r t h e p u r p o s e o f p l a c e m e n t f o r a d o p t i o n) a s r e q u e s t e d i n t h e p e t i t i o n .

( T S - A P R . 2 6 , M AY 3 & 10 , 2 016

ERRORS & OMISSIONS In Classified Ads section must be brought to our attention the very day the advertisement is published.

We will not be responsible for any incorrect a d s n o t reported to us immediately.

Yo u a r e a d v i s e d t h a t i f t h e p a r e n t (s) a r e p r e s e n t a t t h e t i m e a n d p l a c e a b ove s t a t e d t h e judge will read the petition and, if requested, m ay ex p l a i n t h e e f f e c t o f t h e g r a n t i n g o f t h e petition and, if requested, the judge shall ex p l a i n a ny t e r m o r a l l e g a t i o n c o n t a i n e d therein and the nature of the proceeding, its procedures and possible consequences and m ay c o n t i n u e t h e m a t t e r f o r n o t m o r e t h a n 3 0 d ay s f o r t h e a p p o i n t m e n t o f c o u n s e l o r t o g i ve counsel time to prepare.

T h e c o u r t m ay a p p o i n t c o u n s e l t o r e p r e s e n t the minor whether or not the minor is able t o a f f o r d c o u n s e l . I f a ny p a r e n t a p p e a r s a n d is unable to af ford counsel, the cour t shall appoint counsel to represent each parent who appears unless such representation is k n o w i n g l y a n d i n t e l l i g e n t l y w a i ve d .

I f y o u w i s h t o s e e k t h e a d v i c e o f a n a t t o r n ey i n t h i s m a t t e r, y o u s h o u l d d o s o p r o m p t l y s o t h a t y o u r p l e a d i n g , i f a ny, m ay b e f i l e d o n t i m e . ( T S - A P R 5 /12 /19 / 2 6 , 2 016)

NOTE: Bidder may bid on any or both lots.

A Sure Bet for Progress in Gaming, Entertainment and Nation Building

Bidder should have completed, within the last three (3) years before the date of submission and receipt of bids, a contract similar to the Project. The description of an eligible bidder is contained in the Bidding Documents, particularly, in Section II Instructions to Bidder. Bidding will be conducted through open competitive bidding procedures using a non-discretionary “pass/fail” criterion as specified in the Implementing Rules and Regulations (IRR) of Republic Act (RA) 9184, otherwise known as the “Government Procurement Reform Act”.

Bidding is restricted to Filipino citizens/sole proprietorships, partnerships, or organizations with at least sixty percent (60%) interest or outstanding capital stock belonging to citizens of the Philippines, and to citizens or organizations of a country the laws or regulations of which grant similar rights or privileges to Filipino citizens, pursuant to RA 5183 and subject to Commonwealth Act 138.

All particulars relative to Pre-Bid Conference, Detailed Evaluation of Bids, Post-Qualification and Award of Contract shall be governed by the pertinent provisions of R.A. 9184 and it’s IRR. The schedule of activities is listed, as follows: Activities

April 26, 2016, Tuesday

2. Pre-Bid Conference

May 04, 2016, Wednesday, 2:00 p.m.

3. Deadline for the Submission and Receipt of Bids 4. Opening and Preliminary Examination of Bids

May 16, 2016, Monday 3:00 p.m.

May 16, 2016, Monday 3:00 p.m. onwards

Complete details of the project are indicated in the bidding documents which will be available to prospective bidder at the Bids and Awards Services Department (BASD), acting as the BAC Secretariat, upon payment of the non-refundable cost for the sale of bidding documents based on the following matrix from the address below: Approved Budget for the Contract

Cost of Bidding Documents (in Philippine Pesos)

500,000.00 and below

500.00

More than 500,000.00 up to 1 Million

1,000.00

More than 1 Million up to 5 Million

5,000.00

More than 5 Million up to 10 Million

10,000.00

More than 10 Million up to 50 Million

25,000.00

Brief Description

Procurement of One (1) Year Comprehensive Maintenance Service Contract for AS/400 Machines

Contract Duration

One (1) year from the effectivity date specified in the Notice to Proceed.

Approved Budget for the Four Million Two Hundred Forty-Eight Thousand Six Hundred Pesos Contract (ABC) (PhP 4,248,600.00), VAT Exclusive, Zero Rated Transaction Internally Funded

Bidder should have completed, within the last three (3) years before the date of submission and receipt of bids, a contract similar to the Project. The description of an eligible bidder is contained in the Bidding Documents, particularly, in Section II. Instructions to Bidder. Bidding will be conducted through open competitive bidding procedures using a non-discretionary “pass/fail” criterion as specified in the Implementing Rules and Regulations (IRR) of Republic Act (RA) 9184, otherwise known as the “Government Procurement Reform Act”.

Bidding is restricted to Filipino citizens/sole proprietorships, partnerships, or organizations with at least sixty percent (60%) interest or outstanding capital stock belonging to citizens of the Philippines, and to citizens or organizations of a country the laws or regulations of which grant similar rights or privileges to Filipino citizens, pursuant to RA 5183 and subject to Commonwealth Act 138.

All particulars relative to Pre-Bid Conference, Detailed Evaluation of Bids, Post-Qualification and Award of Contract shall be governed by the pertinent provisions of R.A. 9184 and its IRR. The schedule of activities is listed, as follows: Activities 1. Issuance of the Bidding Documents 2. Pre-Bid Conference

Prospective bidder may also download the Bidding Documents free of charge from the following websites: www.pagcor.ph and www.philgeps.gov.ph and may be allowed to submit bids provided that bidder shall pay the non-refundable bidding fee not later than the date of the submission of bids. The Pre-bid Conference is open to all prospective bidder. Prospective bidder should present to PAGCOR’s Cashier located at the Sixth (6th) Floor, PAGCOR Corporate Office, New World Manila Bay Hotel, 1588 M.H. del Pilar Street corner Pedro Gil Street, Malate, Manila the Bidding Fee Slip which can be secured from BASD in effecting payment for the Bidding Documents. All bids must be accompanied by a bid security in any of the acceptable forms and in the amount stated in ITB Clause 18.

PAGCOR assumes no responsibility whatsoever to compensate or indemnify bidder for any expenses incurred in the preparation of their bids.

In accordance with Government Procurement Policy Board (GPPB) Circular 06-2005 - TieBreaking Method, the Bids and Awards Committee (BAC) 3 shall use a non-discretionary and non-discriminatory measure based on sheer luck or chance, which is “DRAW LOTS,” in the event that two or more bidder have been post-qualified and determined as the bidder having the Lowest Calculated Responsive Bid (LCRB) to determine the final bidder having the LCRB, based on the following procedures: 1.

In alphabetical order, the bidder shall pick one rolled paper.

2.

The lucky bidder who would pick the paper with a “CONGRATULATIONS” remark shall be declared as the final bidder having the LCRB and recommended for award of the contract.

PAGCOR reserves the right to accept or reject any Bid, and to annul the bidding process and reject all Bids at any time prior to contract award, without thereby incurring any liability to the affected bidder or bidder.

Please address all communications to the Bids and Awards Committee 3 thru BASD, Room 203, Second (2nd) Floor, PAGCOR House, 1330 Roxas Boulevard, Ermita, Manila, Tel No.: 524-3911, 521-1542 local 223 or 671.

(SGD) ALBERTO R. VILLARAMA Chairperson Bids and Awards Committee (BAC) 3

The Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corporation (PAGCOR) is inviting all interested bidder in its forthcoming public bidding for the Procurement of One (1) Year Comprehensive Maintenance Service Contract for AS/400 Machines under ITB No. PB16-030.

Source of Funds

Schedule

1. Issuance of the Bidding Documents

INVITATION TO BID FOR THE PROCUREMENT OF ONE (1) YEAR COMPREHENSIVE MAINTENANCE SERVICE CONTRACT FOR AS/400 MACHINES UNDER ITB NO. PB16-030

( T S - A P R . 2 6 , 2 016)

3. Deadline for the Submission and Receipt of Bids 4. Opening and Preliminary Examination of Bids

Schedule April 26, 2016 to May 16, 2016 May 4, 2016, 3:00 p.m.

May 16, 2016, 10:00 a.m.

May 16, 2016, 10:00 a.m. onwards

Complete details of the project are indicated in the bidding documents which will be available to prospective bidder at the Bids and Awards Services Department (BASD), acting as the BAC Secretariat, upon payment of the non-refundable cost for the sale of bidding documents in the amount of Five Thousand Pesos (PhP 5,000.00).

Prospective bidder may also download the Bidding Documents free of charge from the following websites: www.pagcor.ph and www.philgeps.gov.ph and may be allowed to submit bids provided that bidder shall pay the non-refundable cost for the sale of bidding documents not later than the date of the submission of bids. The Pre-bid Conference is open to all prospective bidder. Prospective bidder should present to PAGCOR’s Cashier located at the Sixth (6th) Floor, PAGCOR Corporate Office, New World Manila Bay Hotel, 1588 M.H. del Pilar Street corner Pedro Gil Street, Malate, Manila either the Bidding Fee Slip which may be secured from BASD or a copy of this ITB in effecting payment for the Bidding Documents. All bids must be accompanied by a bid security in any of the acceptable forms and in the amount stated in ITB Clause 18.

PAGCOR assumes no responsibility whatsoever to compensate or indemnify bidder for any expenses incurred in the preparation of their bids.

In accordance with Government Procurement Policy Board (GPPB) Circular 06-2005 - Tie-Breaking Method, the Bids and Awards Committee (BAC) 2 shall use a non-discretionary and non-discriminatory measure based on sheer luck or chance, which is “DRAW LOTS,” in the event that two or more bidder have been post-qualified and determined as the bidder having the Lowest Calculated Responsive Bid (LCRB) to determine the final bidder having the LCRB, based on the following procedures: 1.

2.

In alphabetical order, the bidder shall pick one rolled paper.

The lucky bidder who would pick the paper with a “CONGRATULATIONS” remark shall be declared as the final bidder having the LCRB and recommended for award of the contract.

PAGCOR reserves the right to accept or reject any Bid, and to annul the bidding process and reject all Bids at any time prior to contract award, without thereby incurring any liability to the affected bidder or bidder.

Please address all communications to the Bids and Awards Committee thru BASD, Room 203, Second (2nd) Floor, PAGCOR House, 1330 Roxas Boulevard, Ermita, Manila, Tel Nos.: 524-3911, 521-1542 local 223 or 617.

(SGD) RODERICK R. CONSOLACION Chairperson Bids and Awards Committee (BAC) 2

( T S - A P R . 2 6 , 2 016)

Janario took the 200-meter dash gold in 24.43 seconds, ahead of well-coached Vietnamese sprinter Thi My Thien Huynh, who settled for the silver in 25.51 seconds, according to results released on the competition’s official website.

But Thi beat her in the 100-m hurdles in 14.23 seconds, with Janario taking the silver in 14.77 seconds.

Thi is coached by Loren Seagrave, who is regarded as one of the world’s top short-distance running coaches, according to athletics’ expert Andrew Pirie.

Seagrave is known for having trained elite sprinters such as Ben Johnson, Donavan Bailey and Pauline Davis.

Lenton settled for the bronze in the 800-meter run in 2:21.37. Her time is below her best of 2:14.53 in the 2015 Palarong Pambansa.

Thi Thuy Hanh Pham of Vietnam claimed the gold in 2:14.53.

After having topped the Ayala-Philippine National Open’s 1500 meter run, Lenton once again had a great finish in the same event, this time ruling it in 5:00.23.

She was ahead of Myanmar’s Aye Khan(5:34.28).

Messi keeps 10 million shirt promise to Curry BARCELONA—Barcelona star Lionel Messi fulfilled his promise to the NBA’s MVP Steph Curry for reaching 10 million followers on social media network Instagram by sending the Golden State Warriors talisman a Barcelona shirt with his name and number 10 emblazoned on the back.

Curry is a long-time admirer of the five-time World Footballer of the Year and sent the Argentine a signed Warriors number 30 shirt when Messi reached 30 million followers back in December.

“As I promised I would, I’m sending you my shirt to celebrate you reaching 10 million followers on Instagram,” Messi posted on his official Facebook page on Sunday.

“It’s an honor for me to be able to share my jersey with you and it’s always a pleasure to watch you play.

“I hope to see you play for many more years to come and I wish you all the success possible.”

t ue s day : a p ri l 2 6 , 2 0 1 6

A13

sports sports@thestandard.com.ph

Gonzales makes Toby’s net finals

Participants in the 15th Toby’s Sports Wilson Summer Tennis Festival arw shown at the Rizal Memorial Tennis Center. Joining the players (over 300 joined the league) are Event Organizer Ms. Jean Agra and Toby’s Sports President Toby Claudio.

3-way golf fight looms A THREE-WAY fight looms as local bets Sarah Ababa and Jayvie Agojo and Cristina Corpus shoot for their second win on the ICTSI Ladies Philippine Golf Tour, which resumes Wednesday with the ICTSI Beverly Place Classic at the Beverly Place Golf Club in Mexico, Pampanga.

Ababa topped the tough Sherwood Hills stage last year, beating the likes of now LPGA campaigner Cyna Rodriguez and Thai Amolkan Phalajivin for her breakthrough win. But the top Davaoena shotmaker has struggled to find her form after two legs of this year’s circuit, both part

of the Taiwan LPGA Tour.

She hobbled to finish joint 21st at Splendido and wound up tied at 32nd at Southwoods, which Korean Lee Jeong-hwa swept. But save for Corpus and England’s Sarah Henderson, the upcoming event will feature most local players, giving Ababa and Agojo some edge,

having won a leg each in the fledgling circuit organized by Pilipinas Golf Tournaments, Inc. Agojo actually is on a slump, groping for form since nailing her first victory at Riviera two years ago. She has also turned in a pair of so-so- finishes this year, making her hungry for another title and recognition.

But Corpus is also tipped to crowd the duo for the championship in the P500,000 event sponsored by ICTSI with the Fil-Am bet seeking a follow-up to her victory at Luisita last year where she bested a tough field that featured a slew of Thai players.

Focus will also be on Chihiro Ikeda, the former national team stalwart still in search for her maiden victory in the pros, along with Apple Fudolin, Lucy Landico, Anya Tanpinco and former Philippine Ladies Open winner Heidi Chua.

Also expected to crowd the pros are a host of amateurs out to duplicate Princess Superal feats, including Annika Cayabyab, Louise Manalo, Shery Villasencio, Malaysian Kellie Kan and The Country Club mainstays Sofia Chabon, Mikha Fortuna, Bernice Olivarez-Ilas, Kayla Nocum and Sam Martirez.

DEFENDING champion Cenon Gonzales Jr. defeated Jake Martin in the semifinal round to reach the boys’ 18-under singles’ championship round of 15th Toby’s-Wilson Summer Tennis Festival yesterday at the Rizal Memorial Tennis Center.

The top seed Gonzales will meet fourth seed Emmanuel Fuellas in the final round of the tournament supported by Toby’s Sports and Wilson, in cooperation with the Philippine Tennis Association, Equipe, AQ and Gatorade.

Fuellas outlasted second seed Jeremiah Macias 2-6, 6-1, 10-3, in the other semifinal round to meet Gonzales in the tournament attended by more than 300 participants nationwide.

In the girls’ 18-under semifinals results, Bettina Bautista outplayed Megan Reyes, 6-0, 6-1, to enter the final round and meet Jade Charito Capadocia, who defeated Blanche Lagrisola, 6-2, 6-2, in the other semifinal round.

Stefano Gurria blasted Angelo Saraza, 6-0, 6-4, to make it to the boys’ singles’ 16-and-under finals.

Gurria meets RJ Virrey, who outplayed Ranz Javier, 6-1, 6-3, in the semifinal round.

In the girls’ 16-under singles semifinals, Francesca Marie Cruz bashed Kaye Alcala, 6-4, 6-3, to advance in the final round against Macie Carlos, who defeated Mikaela Vicencio, 1-6, 7-5, 106, in the other semifinal pairing.

Aljohn Talatayod whipped Karl Philip Miguel, 6-3, 6-0, in the boys’ 14-andunder singles’ semifinals, while Matthew Garcia pounced on Michael Jay Fuentes, 6-0, 6-0, to arrange a title duel in the boys’ 14.

Macie Carlos walloped Adeline Abadia, 6-3, 6-0, in the semifinals to reach the girls’ 14-and-under singles’ finals.

Marianne Matta rallied past Gab Zoleta, 1-6, 6-1, 11-9, in the other semifinal pairing to advance in the championship round, where she will face Carlos.

Familiar faces dominate Cebuana Lhuillier tennis in Talibon FAMILIAR names dominated the action at the recent Talibon, Bohol Cebuana Lhuillier Age Group Championship Series leg that attracted close to a hundred entries and hosted by the New Talibon Tennis Club.

Lanao del Norte’s emerging tennis talent Heiz Asian Carbonilla led the way, winning two singles’ titles and a share of a doubles’ crown with veteran Marc Nicole Suson of Cebu City, Richard Bautista, and Elizabeth Abarquez, who won two age-group categories each in the tournament supported

by Dunlop as the official ball and Msgr. Alberto Uy of the

Diocese of Talibon.

Carbonilla started off with the 10-under title after beating provincemate Kurt Gervan Bandolis, 4-0, 4-0, followed by a come-from-behind 3-6, 6-0, 11-9 win over Bohol’s Chryshyll Lungay for the 12-under boys’ crown.

He then partnered with Bandolis and swept the duo of KC Miasco and Casy Padilla, 4-1, 4-0, to take the 10-under unisex title.

Suson, meanwhile, was unbeatable in the older age categories, defeating another Cebuano bet Francis Hidalgo, 7-5, 7-5

for the 16-U boys’ crown and repeated with a 6-1, 7-5 victory over again another player from Cebu, Norman Joseph Enriquez for the 18- under boys’ title.

“It is just a matter of time that some of these young players will soon be wearing the country’s colors in future international competitions. I believe that with the 10 years that we have been sponsoring this age-group tennis series, we have expanded the base of our tennis talents,” said Jean Henri Lhuillier, President/CEO of Cebuana Lhuillier and current Chairman of the Philippine Tennis Association.

Rivera brothers, Ortiz dominate Phoenix national slalom TOUGH Gear Racing’s Milo Rivera once again dominated the 2016 RACE Motorsports Club Phoenix National Slalom Series third leg last Sunday, held for the first time at Robinsons Las Pinas.

Rivera clocked 39.26 in bagging the production and overall best time of the day for the third consecutive time, followed by his younger brother Estefano Rivera with a time of 39.92.

The 1-2 finish of the Riveras shoved Team All Fish’s Dr. Peewee Mendiola to third with a time of 40.08.

They are followed by AF Racing Team’s Dion Ortiz (40.88) and Richard Gallardo (40.98) and Abet Reyes (41.48).

Ortiz also bagged the novice and front wheel titles with a time of 40.88.

Winners of the earlier second

leg were awarded and received four liters of Phoenix Accelerate Fully Synthetic Motor Oil and sports bottles. The second leg was participated in by Team Comet of Tarlac, Sukelyas Racing Team, Team Orthodox, Special Stage Baguio City, Team Big Bird and Racing Unli and privateers.

The 2016 Phoenix Series is powered by Phoenix Premium 98 and Phoenix Accelerate Fully Synthetic Oil and co-sponsored official tires Federal Tyres, and Outlast Battery and Robinsons Antipolo.

The event is also backed by Starbright Body Kits, Auto Transporter, Aeromed media partners Stoplight TV, Inside Motoring, DZRJ-Am, Pinoy Speed sa mga Pahayagan, Spin.Ph Sports Interactive Network, C! Magazine, Ride and Drive Philippines, Targa

Pilipinas and Auto Industriya.

All events are sanctioned and affiliated by the Automobile Club of the Philippines.

The fourth leg is set on May 1 at Robinsons Starmills Pampanga.

For details, contact Bing Bang Dulce at tel. no. 09178119337, email racemotorsportsclub@yahoo.com or the Facebook pages racemotorsportsclub and phoenixpetroleum.

All event pictures can be viewed at racemotorsportsclub’s Facebook page.

Some of the official Results: Executive Class: 1st Oski Nuke 48.24; 2nd Robert Macapagal 52.10 Novice Stock Carburated: 1st Ino Ortega 48.04; 2nd Robert Macapagal 51.18 Novice Modified A: 1st Dion Ortiz 43.46

Robert Macapagal of Aeromed, one of the entries in the Novice Stock Carburated Division, is shown prior to the event. Aeromed is the event’s medical team partner.

Republic of t he Philippines DEPARTMENT OF SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY

OFFICE OF THE SECRETARY Memorandum Circular No. 002 Direct Licensing and Spin-off Terms under the Food and Beverage Industry that would be Considered as “Fair” to the Government Funding Agency (GFA) and/or Research and Development Institute (RDI) for Fast Tracked Issuance of Fairness Opinion Report (FOR) under Republic Act No. 10055, otherwise known as the “Philippine Technology Transfer Act of 2009” _______________________________________________________________________________ SUBJECT:

Per the recommendation of the Industry-based FOB duly constituted for the Food and Beverage Industry pursuant to DOST Special Order No. 175 s. 2016 dated 21 March 2016, the following requirements and terms shall be considered “FAIR” to the GFA and/or RDI for fast tracked issuance of FOR: A. FOR DIRECT LICENSING

The following requirements must be satisfied before the proposed transaction shall be assessed: Cost of technology (Development/R&D Cost):  Not exceeding P5,000,000 for licensing with Intellectual Property (IP);  No limit for those without IP. Types of IP: No IPs; UMs, ID, Know-Hows; in case of Patents, automatic referral for full-blown FOB evaluation Eligibility of Licensee: a.

If Sole Proprietor:  Registered at the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI)  No citizenship requirement, provided that if the Licensee is a non-Filipino citizen, the licensed technology must first be worked out (manufactured, commercialized/sold) in the Philippines within five (5) years  With existing facilities  At least three (3) years of existence provided that the networth is at least equivalent to the cost of the technology but not below P500,000.00

b.

If a corporation/partnership:  Registered at the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC)  No citizenship requirement provided that the constitution of the corporation/partnership conforms to the rules and regulations of SEC  Paid up capital twice the cost of the technology but not below P500,000.00 exclusive of the cost of plant facilities.  With existing facilities  At least three (3) years of existence provided that the networth is at least equivalent to the cost of the technology (exclusive of the cost of plant facilities) but not below P500,000.00

c.

If a cooperative:  Registered at the Cooperative Development Authority (CDA)  With existing facilities  At least three (3) years of existence provided that the networth is at least equivalent to the cost of the technology (exclusive of the cost of plant facilities) but not below P500,000.00

(2) Ideal terms in the proposed transaction The following terms shall be the basis in the determination whether the proposed transaction is “Fair” to the GFA or to the RDI: Financial terms: a.

Royalty rates: Minimum Royalty** <P1,000,000

P1,000,000 to P5,000,000

> P5,000,000

Ty p e s o f I P

Simple Technology

Complex Technology

No IP

At least 0.5%

At least 0.5%

Patent

N/A***

N/A***

Utility model (UM)

At least 1%

At least 1.5%

Industrial Design (ID)

At least 1%

At least 1.5%

Know-How/Trade Secret

At least 1%

At least 1.5%

No IP

At least 0.5%

At least 0.5%

Patent

N/A***

N/A***

UM

At least 1%

At least 1.5%

ID

At least 1%

At least 1.5%

Know-How/Trade Secret

At least 1%

At least 1.5%

No IP

At least 0.5%

At least 0.5%

Patent

N/A***

N/A***

UM

N/A***

N/A***

ID

N/A***

N/A***

Know-How/Trade Secret

N/A***

N/A***

* Refers to R& D or Development Cost ** Based on the Gross Sales * * * Shall require a full - blown FOB evaluation

b.

<P1,000,000

P1,000,000 to P5,000,000

> P5,000,000

sports@thestandard.com.ph

Painters seek 2-0 lead over Beermen SOMETIMES, a positive start is what a team needs.

Following its impressive come-from-behind Game 1 victory, Rain or Shine coach Yeng Guiao is feeling good about the state of his Painters as they go for a commanding 2-0 lead in the resumption of their best-of-five semifinal series against San Miguel Beer in the 2016 Philippine Basketball Association Commissioner’s Cup. Republic of t he Philippines DEPARTMENT OF SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY OFFICE OF THE SECRETARY Memorandum Circular No. _____ Direct Licensing and Spin-off Terms under the Chemical Industry that would be Considered as “Fair” to the Government Funding Agency (GFA) and/or Research and Development Institute (RDI) for Fast Tracked Issuance of Fairness Opinion Report (FOR) under Republic Act No. 10055, otherwise known as the “Philippine Technology Transfer Act of 2009” _______________________________________________________________________

SUBJECT:

Per the recommendation of the Industry-based FOB duly constituted for the Chemical Industry pursuant to DOST Special Order No. 171 s. 2016 dated 21 March 2016, the following requirements and terms shall be considered “FAIR” to the GFA and/or RDI for fast tracked issuance of FOR: A. FOR DIRECT LICENSING (1) Basic Requirements The following requirements must be satisfied before the proposed transaction shall be assessed: Cost of technology (Cost of developing the technology or valuated cost, whichever is lower): Not exceeding P2,000,000.00 Types of IP: Utility Models (UMs), Industrial Design (ID), Trade Secrets/Know-Hows Eligibility of Licensee: a.

If Sole Proprietor or Partnership:  Registered at the DTI/SEC  Filipino citizen  Financial statement showing net worth of at least equivalent to the cost of the technology but not below P500,000.00  With existing facilities  At least three (3) years of existence

b.

If a corporation:  Registered at the SEC  Domestic  Paid-Up Capital twice the cost of the technology but not below P1,000,000.00.  With existing facilities  At least three (3) years of existence, with net worth not less than P1,000,000.00.

(2) Ideal terms in the proposed transaction The following terms shall be the basis in the determination whether the proposed transaction is “Fair” to the GFA or to the RDI:

Licensing fee: Cost*

SPORTS

By Jeric Lopez

(1) Basic Requirements

Cost*

A14

T UESDAY : AP RIL 2 6 , 2 0 1 6

Financial terms: Types of IP

Minimum Upfront Fees Simple Technology

Complex Technology

No IP

No minimum

No minimum

Patent

N/A**

N/A**

Utility model (UM)

P10,000

P10,000

Industrial Design (ID)

P10,000

P10,000

Know-How/Trade Secret

P10,000

P10,000

No minimum

No minimum

No IP Patent

a. b.

Royalty rates: At least 1% of the gross sales.

Upfront Licensing fee: At least 1% of the cost of technology but not less than P10,000.00.

Exclusivity: a. b. c.

License: Non-exclusive Field of use: Non-exclusive Geographic territory: Within the Philippines

Sub-licensing: With consent/upon the discretion of the Licensor Effectivity / Term: a. b. c.

For UMs: At least three (3) years or the remaining life of the UM, whichever is longer Industrial Design: At least two (2) years, renewable Trade Secrets/Know-Hows: At least five (5) years, renewable

N/A**

N/A**

UM

1% of R&D cost

1% of R&D cost

ID

1% of R&D cost

1% of R&D cost

Know-How/Trade Secret

1% of R&D cost

1% of R&D cost

No IP

No minimum

No minimum

Patent

N/A**

N/A**

Types of IP: UMs, ID, Trade Secret/Know-How

UM

N/A**

N/A**

Criteria:

ID

N/A**

N/A**

Know-How/Trade Secret

N/A**

N/A**

a. b. c.

B. FOR SPIN-OFFS (1) Basic Requirements The following requirements must be satisfied before the proposed transaction shall be assessed: Cost of technology (Cost of developing the technology or valuated cost, whichever is lower): Not exceeding P2,000,000.00

Who can spin-off: Any member of the research team as defined by the research agreement Type of spin-off: Corporation, without government funding support T Capitalization equity: c1.

Spin-off pin-off corporation with RDI participation: may depend on actual capitalization needed for technology commercialization, provided that:  For Private RDI: At least 50% equity in the spinoff company, regardless of the IP valuation  For Public RDI: Equity is at least equal to the valuation of the IP c2. Spin-off corporation of researcher independent of RDI: Full-blown FOB evaluation.

* Refers to R&D or Development Cost

** Shall require a full-blown FOB evaluation Exclusivity: a.

Field of use: Non-exclusive b.

Geographic territory: Non-exclusive Sub-licensing: With consent or subject to the discretion of the Licensor

(2) Ideal terms in the proposed transaction

B. FOR SPIN-OFFS

The following terms shall be the basis in the determination whether the proposed transaction is “Fair” to the GFA or to the RDI:

In the interest of encouraging the researchers or inventors to become directly involved in the commercialization of their technologies by creating their own companies, we shall recommend “Fair” opinion to said proposed spin-off activities prior to their incorporation as required by Law provided that the following requirements must be fully satisfied:

Financial terms:

Cost of technology (Development/R&D Cost):

Royalty rates: At least 1% of the gross sales.

Upfront Licensing fee: At least 1% of the cost of technology but not less than P10,000.00.

Exclusivity:

 Not exceeding P5,000,000.00 for technologies with IPs;  No limit for those without IPs

a. b. c.

Types of IP: No IPs; UMs, ID, Know-Hows

License: Non-exclusive Field of use: Non-exclusive Geographic territory: Within the Philippines

Sub-licensing: With consent/upon the discretion of the Licensor

a.

Who can spin-off  Researcher or any member of the research team  Employee / still in the service

b.

Type of spin-off: Corporation, without government funding support T

c.

Capitalization apitalization equity may depend on actual capitalization need for technology commercialization, provided that:  For Private RDI: At least 50% equity in the spinoff company, regardless of the IP valuation  For Public RDI: Equity is at least equal to the valuation of the IP

Effectivity / Term:

However, the above shall not be applicable in case of spin-off companies from technologies that are subject of Patents, wherein automatic referral for full-blown FOB evaluation is strongly recommended.

The above conditions for a fast-tracked issuance of Fairness Opinion Report for direct licensing and spin-off proposed transactions that shall merit our opinion as “Fair” shall be applicable to technologies that are categorized under International Patent Classification (IPC) Classes A21, A22, A23, and C12. We are not covering technologies related to equipment to manufacture food, packaging of food products, transport of food, and analysis of food.

This Circular shall take effect immediately after its complete publication in the Official Gazette or newspaper of general circulation and upon filing at the UP Law Center in accordance with law.

( T S - A P R . 2 6 , 2 016)

a. b.

MARIO G. MONTEJO Secretary

a. b. c.

For UMs: At least three (3) years or the remaining life of the UM, whichever is longer Industrial Design: At least two (2) years, renewable Trade Secrets/Know-Hows: At least five (5) years, renewable

In the event that the RDI opts to provide incentives to the researchers other than royalties from licensing transactions, the RDI may choose to waive licensing fees for the use of its technology from the spinoff company and the above terms under this section will not apply.

The above conditions for a fast-tracked fairness opinion as “Fair” shall be applicable to technologies that are categorized under International Patent Classification (IPC) Class C except chemicals with pharmaceutical applications, foodstuffs and beverages, equipment and mechanical devices, and fertilizers. Moreover, we shall consider technologies that are in the field of biotechnology if they have no specific applications.

This Circular shall take effect immediately after its complete publication in the Official Gazette or newspaper of general circulation and upon filing at the UP Law Center in accordance with law.

( T S - A P R . 2 6 , 2 016)

MARIO ARIO G. MONTEJO Secretary

Game Tonight (Semis, Game 2 - Smart Araneta Coliseum): 7 p.m. - Rain or Shine vs. San Miguel

Game 2 is scheduled today at 7 p.m. at the Smart Araneta Coliseum, with Rain or Shine aiming for another win for a tighter grip on the series, even as the Beermen are looking to use their championship muscles in hopes of evening things out.

In Game 1, San Miguel Beer led through the first three quarters, before Rain or Shine showed tough resistance to eventually snatch the game away, 98-94, in crunch time.

Guiao admitted that with the way the opening game was going, he nearly felt that his team was finished for the night. But his wards fought back to reverse the tide.

“It’s just one of those comebacks that will linger in my memory,” he said. “I almost gave up on the guys, but the guys didn’t give up on me. They proved their coach wrong.”

PH lifters at Forum MEMBERS of the Philippine powerlifting team will talk about their coming campaigns in the World and Asian championships in Tuesday’s session of the Philippine Sportswriters Association Forum at Shakey’s Malate.

Powerlifting Association of the Philippines president Eddie Torres and team members led

by Joanne Masangkay are gracing the public service program presented by San Miguel Corp., Accel, Shakey’s, and the Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corp.

The national squad is set to see action in the IPF Raw Classing World Powerlifting Championship in Texas, USA from June 19 to 26, and the Asian Powerlifting Championships to be held in India on June 7 to 12.

T UE S DAY : A P RI L 2 6 , 2 0 1 6

SPORTS sports@thestandard.com.ph

A15 The real Mr. Left Hook STEP BACK ARMAN D. ARMERO

Rupert Zaragosa (left) and Luigi Guerrero shot identical four-under 68s at the start of the 2016 Philippine Amateur Open Match Play Golf Championship.

Zaragosa, Guerrero tied for PH Open lead RUPERT Zaragosa and Luigi Guerrero rode on a pair of fiery frontside assaults to shoot identical four-under 68s and wrest control in the men’s side while three shared the women’s lead at the start of the 2016 Philippine Amateur Open Match Play Golf Championship at the Orchard Golf and Country Club in Dasmariñas, Cavite on Monday.

Zaragosa, seeking a follow-up to his victory in the first MVPSF Visayas Regional Match Play in Cebu two weeks ago, gunned down three birdies in the first nine holes and closed out with two more against a bogey in scorching heat to pace the 36-hole stroke play elims of the annual event sponsored by the MVP Sports Foundation, Smart, PLDT and Metro Pacific Investments Corp. and hosted

by Ochard Golf and Country Club.

Guerrero actually turned in a more impressive start in a flight ahead as he rattled off four birdies at the front then went fiveunder with another birdie on the 10th. He, however, slowed down when playing conditions got tougher and tumbled with two bogeys, needing to birdie the par-5 18th to gain a piece of the lead.

Ace Stehmeier fought back from a shaky 39 with a solid 32 as he led the 71 scorers who included Rolando Pila and Jelbert Gamolo while Ryan Monsalve, who placed second to Zaragosa in Cebu, carded a 73 for joint sixth with Lanz Atienza Uy and Tom Kim of Korea, while Joseph Orbito made a 74 and Mark Lu and Noel Langamin turned in similar 75s.

Kim, coming off a victory in the Philippine Junior Amateur Open Golf Championship (Strokeplay) two weeks ago, held his ground against Zaragosa, hitting two birdies in the first five holes only to fumble with two bogeys in the next four. He rebounded with back-to-back birdies from No. 12 but fell back with a bogey on No. 14 and a double-bogey on the 17th.

Japanese Yuto Katsuragawa struggled on an unfamiliar turf and turned in a four-over 76

marred by a double bogey on the last hole.

But the back-to-back low amateur winner of the Asian Development Tour events the last two weeks remained in the hunt for berths in the knockout phase at joint 12th.

Kristine Torralba, Jona Magcalayo and Nicole Abelar, meanwhile, shot identical 78s to share the women’s lead with Korean A Eun Koh in fourth with an 81 and Diana Araneta carding an 82 for fifth.

Hwang Min Jeong, another Korea and winner of a ladies pro event last year, also wavered with an 83 while Tomi Arejola and Eagle Ace Superal submitted identical 85s in the event organized and conducted by the National Golf Association of the Philippines and held as PLDT Group National Amateur Golf Tour.

Korean Lee Jin Gon, on the other hand, took charge in the seniors category with an 81, two shots clear off Alan Alegre and Jose Inigo while Lino Magpantay made an 85.

Other 76 scorers in the men’s side were Nathan Kawpeng, Don Petil, John Jun, Marc Corrales, Ricar Candinato and Takuya Kawamura.

PH’s 3rd Asian taekwondo tourney gold hailed INCUMBENT Manila Councilor Arnold “Ali” Atienza hailed Pauline Louise Lopez’s gold medal-winning performance in the recent 22nd Asian Taekwondo Championships, saying the young Filipina jin has again put the country on the Asian taekwondo map.

Lopez’s gold—women’s -57 kgs at the expense of Korean champion Ah-Reum Lee, 8-6— was only the third for the country in the Asian Championships, considered the strongest continental tournament because of the presence of Koreans.

Atienza won the country’s second gold medal 22 years ago in the Asian Championships at the age of 21 in the

men’s welterweight category and like Lopez, Atienza beat the towering Korean champion Kim Kyung Hun in 1994 at the Ninoy Aquino Stadium.

Arnold Baradi bagged the country’s first gold medal in the event in 1984, beating his rival from Chinese Taipei, also in Manila.

“Pauline Louise is a prime example that Filipinos excel in taekwondo. She ended a long gold medal drought, and she did it before her countrymen,” said Atienza, who is the frontrunner in the City’s Vice Mayoral race.

Lopez was the only Filipino gold medalist in the Championship the country

hosted at the Marriott Hotel Grand Ballroom. Although the 19-year-old Los Angeles-based jin missed a ticket to the Rio Olympics in the Asian qualifier last week, she has set her focus on the 2020 Tokyo Olympics.

“She is still young and she has a long way to go in taekwondo,” said Atienza, who is running under the UNA party.

“She could be good for two more Olympics, even three if she remains focused and continues to train.”

Atienza has remained close to taekwondo—and sports in general—even after he has retired from active competition.

During the term of his father,

former Mayor Lito Atienza, the young Atienza headed the Manila Sports Council.

As MASCO head, Atienza staged an annual Manila Youth Games, a multi-sports competition among Manila’s schoolaged athletes, making the City—and the National Capital Region—even more formidable in the Palarong Pambansa and the Philippine National Youth Games - Batang Pinoy.

Atienza also conducted the Manila Marathon under the MASCO umbrella. To date, the Manila Marathon remains the biggest foot race ever staged in Manila—it drew more than 40,000 runners in each of its two editions.

ZSOLT Bedak, the Hungarian boxer earlier advertised as Mr. Left Hook, failed to live up to his moniker on Saturday when he challenged Nonito Donaire for the Filipino’s World Boxing Organization super featherweight title at the Cebu City Sports Complex.

Bedak is ranked no. 4 in the WBO, which gave him the legitimacy to challenge Donaire for the crown, and I thought that he would give the Filipino a difficult time in the match that drew a record crowd of 20,000. While watching the fight on TV, I was sort of anticipating what the Hungarian can do with his left hook.

But I was in for a disappointment.

Instead of Bedak scoring with his vaunted weapon, it was Donaire who unleashed his own, much deadlier version of the left hook that dropped the Hungarian not once, but twice in the second round.

Donaire then finished the job with a right straight that again dropped Bedak in the third round, capping an impressive victory that improved the his record to 327 victories, 24 via the short route, with only three losses.

After the fight, Donaire was quoted as saying in the Visayan dialect that “I know my left hook is stronger than his and I could read his movements.”

Well, Donaire’s left hook was not only stronger, it came a bit faster for the tough but slow-moving Hungarian.

It was actually the same left hook that sent several of Donaire’s opponent to the canvas in his previous fights, notably the one that sent Vic Darchinyan of Armenia to dreamland back in 2007, which had practically launched Donaire into superstardom.

Donaire is known as The Filipino Flash, but with the way he had been mowing his opponents with his lefts, it’s but fair to also christen him as The Real Mr. Left Hook.

As for Bedak, maybe we could start calling him as the Left Hook Victim. ##### The Ateneo Lady Eagles and the De La Salle Lady Spikers go at it again in Game 2 of the UAAP women’s volleyball finals at the Mall of Asia Arena on Wednesday. The Lady Spikers took Game 1 in straight sets, 25-22, 25-22, 25-21, last Saturday for a 1-0 lead in the bestof-three title series and are expected to go for the kill and regain the title they surrendered to the Eagles the last two years.

I believe that the Lady Archers won Game 1 not because they are the more skilled players, but because they are the hungrier team.

Hunger fuels an athlete to exert a bit more effort, to go the extra mile, or in the case of volleyball players, to dig a bit deeper for the ball, to soar even higher for a kill, and to do whatever it takes to win.

The Lady Eagles, however, can still turn the tide in Game 1 if they will be able to rekindle the fire that gave them two championships in a row and the one that sent them back in the finals.

Whatever the teams’ motivations are in Game 2, sports fans can expect a hell of a volleyball match on Wednesday. ###### For reactions, e-mail at armero_23@yahoo.com

LOTTO RESULTS 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

P0 M+ P0 M

T U E S DAY : A p r i l 2 6 , 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

Kawhi Leonard of the San Antonio Spurs shoots a lay up against the Memphis Grizzlies in Game Four of the Western Conference Quarterfinals during the 2016 NBA Playoffs at FedExForum in Memphis, Tennessee. AFP

Spurs, Cavaliers sweep foes; Curry hurts knee LOS ANGELES—San Antonio and Cleveland punched their tickets to the second round Sunday with the Spurs sweeping past the depleted Memphis Grizzlies and the Cavaliers doing likewise to the brash Detroit Pistons.

The Spurs eliminated the Grizzlies in four games with a 116-95 triumph in Memphis, becoming the first team to reach the second round. They overpowered a Grizzlies team beset by injuries -- most notably to Spanish big man Marc Gasol.

The Spurs were followed several hours later by the Cleveland Cavaliers who got a 31-point performance by Kyrie Irving to beat the young

Painters seek 2-0 lead turn to A14

Pistons team 100-98 in game four.

“They are like a machine,” said Memphis forward Zach Randolph of the Spurs.

In the other Western Conference contest, the Golden State Warriors used a big third quarter to beat the Houston Rockets 121-94 and take a commanding 3-1 series lead despite an abbreviated appearance by reigning most valuable player Stephen Curry.

The Warriors set an NBA playoff record with 21 three pointers, one of them from Curry before he left the contest after injuring his knee in the first half when he slipped on a wet spot.

Curry had missed games two and three with a right ankle injury. He is expected to have an MRI exam on Monday.

Warriors stars Klay Thompson and Draymond Green paced a third-quarter three-point barrage for Golden State as Thompson finished with 18 points, eight rebounds and six assists.

Thompson and Green combined to score 25 of the Warriors’ 41 third-quarter

points as they inflicted most of the damage from the perimeter.

The Warriors forged a 5656 tie at the half when Andre Iguodala converted a Houston turnover into a dunk with four seconds left.

In Memphis, San Antonio’s LaMarcus Aldridge posted a double-double of 15 points and 10 rebounds, while veteran French point guard Tony Parker contributed 16 points for the Spurs.

About the only thing that slowed the visitors was an 18-minute first-half delay after a power surge caused a loss of power at the Grizzlies’ arena.

The Spurs held only a slim

two-point lead at halftime, but a dominant 37-21 third quarter saw them take an 8466 lead into the final period, in which they led by as many as 25 points.

Memphis guard Lance Stephenson came off the bench to lead all scorers with his playoff career-best 26 points. Three Grizzlies starters scored in double figures -- Zach Randolph and Matt Barnes with 15 points each and Vince Carter with 14.

But it wasn’t enough to stop the ninth sweep of a sevengame series overseen by Spurs coach Gregg Popovich, who passed Phil Jackson for the most by a coach.

Zaragosa, Guerrero lead PH Open golf turn to A15

Kaya eyes revenge vs Kitchee

By Peter Atencio THE hot afternoon temperature will play a big factor when Kaya FC plays its third and final home game against Kitchee of Hong Kong on Tuesday in the Asian Football Confederation Cup group stage at the Rizal Memorial football stadium.

With the weather expected to go beyond 34 degrees C on game day, Kaya FC is tipped to be ready for a historic win, which would allow them advance to the Round of 16.

The Filipino squad is on top of Group F after having won three games, and lost only once, 0-1, incidentally, to the Hong Kong giant Kitchee, last February.

The encounter is set at the 3 p.m., with Kaya FC looking forward to bounce back from that setback.

“We are on top of Group F with nine points. Who would think we would be on top of the group? It looks surreal,” said team skipper OJ Portreria.

Portreria talked about their game during a pregame huddle Monday at the Sheraton Hotel in Malate, Manila.

TUESDAY: APRIL 26, 2016

RAY S. EÑANO EDITOR

RODERICK T. DELA CRUZ ASSISTANT EDITOR

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

B1

McDonald’s taps JobStart.

McDonald’s Philippines and JobStart Philippines sign an agreement on April 11, 2016 at McDonald’s Bluebay Walk, Pasay City, giving the youth skills training and wider employment opportunities. Flashing the thumbs-up are (from left) Filipinas Rosario Sampang, Public Employment Service Office manager for Pasay; Narcisa Rivera, senior program officer, Embassy of Canada; Nelson Hornilla, Labor Department-National Capital Region director; Chona Torre, McDonald’s Philippines vice president for human capital group; Ronald McDonald, McDonald’s chief happiness officer; Kelly Hattel, financial sector specialist, Asian Development Bank; Robert Ramos, McDonald’s Philippines VP for finance; and Simon Fraser, JobStart team leader.

Meralco’s power sales rise 12% PSe comPoSite

index

Closing April 25, 2016

8300 7840 7380 6920 6460 6000

7,250.13 5.26

PeSo-dollar rate

Closing April 25, 2016 48.00 46.00 45.00

P46.850

44.00

CLOSE

43.00

HIGH P46.700 LOW P46.870 AVERAGE P46.777 VOLUME 722.400M

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

oPriceS il P today

P34.55-P39.15 Kerosene Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas Monday, April 25, 2016

F oreign e xchange r ate Currency

Unit

US Dollar

Peso

United States

Dollar

1.000000

46.5780

Japan

Yen

0.008941

0.4165

UK

Pound

1.446900

67.3937

Hong Kong

Dollar

0.128932

6.0054

Switzerland

Franc

1.021868

47.5966

Canada

Dollar

0.789889

36.7914

Singapore

Dollar

0.737790

Australia

Dollar

0.769200

35.8278

Bahrain

Dinar

2.652520

123.5491

Rial

Power retailer Manila Electric Co. said Monday net income rose 3 percent in the first quarter to P4.54 billion from P4.42 billion a year ago, as electricity sales jumped 12 percent amid the high temperature and robust consumption.

Meralco said core net income also went up 4 percent in the JanuaryMarch period to P4.6 billion from P4.41 billion a year earlier.

Core net income is adjusted to exclude the effects of foreign exchange gains or losses, mark-to-market adjustments and other one-time, exceptional transactions.

“The sustained upward momentum of the Philippine economy, coupled with very warm temperatures throughout the quarter contributed to driving electricity usage to higher trajectory providing

growth opportunities for electricity demand across all industry sectors,” Meralco chairman Manuel Pangilinan said.

Meralco declared a special cash dividend of 10 percent out of the undeclared amount of the full year 2015 consolidated core net income equivalent to P1.68 per share. Record date will be on May 25, 2016 and payment is on June 17, 2016.

Meralco said the higher core net income in the first quarter was led by a record 12-percent increase in volume of electricity sold al-

though at lower distribution rate, increased contribution of subsidiaries to non-electric revenues, higher yields from temporary investments and updated provisions for estimated real property taxes on certain utility plants which were resolved recently.

The company, however, reported lower revenues at P60.2 billion in the first quarter, down 4 percent from P62.6 billion in the first quarter last year due to lower generation, transmission and distribution charges.

Electric revenues represented 96 percent of P57.9 billion of total revenues.

Meralco said electricity demand rose, as the Philippines continued to post resilient microeconomic indicators, including low inflation, low interest rates, excess liquidity, growing overseas remittances and business process outsourcing growth and higher temperature.

“The coming electoral process is expected to further support this

growth through the balance of the year,” Pangilinan said.

Meralco’s consolidated volumes of electricity reached 9,007 gigawatt-hours in the first quarter, with the residential segment growing 20 percent.

Commercial sales volume rose13 percent while industrial sales increased 5 percent.

Meralco said quarter-on-quarter peak demand grew 12 percent to 6,206 megawatts, registered on March 10, but this record level was surpassed by the April 14 peak demand of 6,619 MW. Pangilinan said the recent yellow and red alert incidences on April 11, 14 and 15 and the participation of the interruptible load program to minimize any power supply interruption, was a “cause for concern and a visible indicator that much more needs to be done in the power supply chain, from generation to transmission and distribution.”

Govt promises stable electric supply on election day

P19.25-P22.75 Diesel

Saudi Arabia

By Alena Mae S. Flores

0.266667

34.3648

12.4208

Brunei

Dollar

0.735078

34.2385

Indonesia

Rupiah

0.000076

0.0035

Thailand

Baht

0.028547

1.3297

UAE

Dirham

0.272272

12.6819

Euro

Euro

1.122000

52.2605

Korea

Won

0.000870

0.0405

China

Yuan

0.153811

7.1642

India

Rupee

0.015004

0.6989

Malaysia

Ringgit

0.256674

11.9554

New Zealand

Dollar

0.683600

Taiwan

Dollar

0.030874

31.8407 1.4380 Source: PDS Bridge

THE Energy Department said Monday there is no need for emergency powers to ensure adequate electricity supply during the May 9 election, as over 12,000 megawatts will be available in Luzon during the period.

Energy Secretary Zenaida Monsada told reporters if all the power plants were online as targeted, power supply in Luzon would be at a “very comfortable level.”

“The premise is that all plants will be in operation by election period and if that is followed, we will be in a very comfortable level for Luzon and Visayas,” Monsada said.

“For Luzon, demand is not expected to reach 9,000 MW because it is a holiday but we don’t

know the temperature, or how hot it will be. We are looking at available capacity of 12,000 MW,” she said.

Mondasa said two new power plants, including the 97-MW Avion natural gas plant and the 414-MW San Gabriel natural gas plant, started operation and were expected to be available to provide additional supply.

The additional capacity from the two new power plants will be on top of 12,000 MW expected to be available during the election period, she said.

“We don’t see the need for emergency powers because we manage [supply], learning from last year.

At this point , I would like to

thank cooperatives, all stakeholders, generators, transmission and distribution utilities because they have done so much to prepare for the elections,” Monsada said.

Monsada said Mindanao might still experience some power outages at the household level, but voting centers would have generating sets.

The energy chief, who is supposed to meet the power firms on Monday afternoon, appealed to them to complete all repair works a week before the election.

“We want to check the status of their maintenance schedule, if there are some plants who may have to extend,” she said.

Monsada said the 620-MW

Malaya diesel power plant was also on stand by as a must-run unit.

She said unit 2 of the Malaya power plant was running at 130 MW while unit 1 was on maintenance shutdown.

Monsada also defended that need to run the Malaya power plant. “As consumers, we don’t want power rates to go up but what do you think is more important, having electricity or having no electricity,” she said.

She said the department would continue to monitor the maintenance shutdown of power plants in June but “hopefully it will not be too hot by that time.”

Alena Mae S. Flores

TUESDAY: APRIL 26, 2016

B2

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

The STandard BuSineSS daily STockS review Monday, april 25, 2016

52 Weeks

Previous

High Low 7.88 75.3 124.4 107 56.5 2.49 4.2 17 30.45 2.6 1.01 100 1.46 30.5 75 91.5 137 80 361.2 57 180 1700 124 3.26

2.5 66 88.05 88.1 45.45 1.97 1.68 12.02 19.6 1.02 0.225 78 0.9 17.8 58 62 88.35 52 276 41 118.2 1200 59 2.65

47 5 1.46 2.36 15.3 89 148 20.6 125 85 36 65.8 2.97 4.14 21.5 21.6 11.96 9.13 11.8 2.89 31.8 109 20.75 15.3 9.4 0.98 241

35.9 1.11 1.01 1.86 7.92 40.3 32 15.32 62.5 20.2 10.08 29.15 1.5 1.5 10.72 9.55 9.04 6.02 8.86 1.06 20.2 71.5 13.86 13.24 5.34 0.395 173

4 33.9 90 13.26 293 5 5.25 12.98 15 7.03 3.4 4.5 6.3 1450 3.28 0.315 2.18 2.65 234 5.28 1.3 2.17

1.63 23.35 17.3 5.88 250.2 3.37 3.87 8.45 10.04 3.03 1.95 1 4.02 801 1.55 0.138 1.02 2.09 152 4.28 0.640 1.2

0.59 59.2 30.05 2.16 7.39 3.4 3.35 823.5 10.2 84 3.35 3.68 4.92 0.66 1455 7.5

0.44 48.1 20.85 1.6 6.62 0.23 0.23 634.5 7.390 12.8 2.6 1.15 2.26 0.152 837 5.3

76 9.25 0.85 17.3 0.71 5.53 9.66 0.0670 2.31 1.61 84.9 974 1.66 1.39 390 156 0.710 0.510

49.55 4.84 0.59 12 0.580 4.2 3 0.030 1.23 0.550 59.3 751 1.13 0.93 170 80 0.211 0.310

10.5 26.95 1.99 1.75 0.375 41.4 5.6 5.59 5.6 1.44 1.97 1.48 0.201 0.69

6.74 12 0.65 1.2 0.192 30.05 3.36 4.96 2.8 0.79 1.1 0.97 0.083 0.415

STOCKS

High

Low

FINANCIAL 3.14 3.08 46.3 45.75 103.60 101.40 91.00 89.90 38.95 38.5 2.93 2.93 1.94 1.55 14.2 14.1 16.46 16.16 1.77 1.7 0.640 0.610 84.45 82.75 0.99 0.96 14.56 14.40 24.50 24.50 53.85 53.35 102.9 102.9 592.5 400 273.8 269.2 32.1 31.9 174 168 1427.00 1415.00 57.50 57.40 1.56 1.55 INDUSTRIAL Aboitiz Power Corp.

44.75 44.8 44.2 Agrinurture Inc. 4.41 4.61 3.82 Alliance Tuna Intl Inc. 0.82 0.84 0.79 Alsons Cons.

1.42 1.42 1.38 Asiabest Group 13.62 18 13.62 Bogo Medelin 61 59.8 52.25 C. Azuc De Tarlac 220.00 220.00 220.00 Century Food 19 19 18.7 Chemphil 136.1 136 136 Conc. Aggr. ‘A’ 202 209 198 Cirtek Holdings (Chips) 18.22 18.88 18.1 Concepcion 48.5 48.5 48 Crown Asia 2.32 2.34 2.27 Da Vinci Capital 5.6 5.62 5.49 Del Monte 11.16 11.16 11 DNL Industries Inc. 9.250 9.200 9.090 Emperador 8.08 8.04 7.90 Energy Devt. Corp. (EDC) 5.88 5.92 5.86 EEI 7.50 7.59 7.30 Euro-Med Lab 1.67 1.69 1.67 First Gen Corp.

20.9 21.05 20.65 First Holdings ‘A’ 69.8 70 69.6 Ginebra San Miguel Inc. 14.04 14.04 13.98 Holcim Philippines Inc. 14.00 14.00 13.90 Integ. Micro-Electronics 5.8 5.84 5.68 Ionics Inc 2.540 2.540 2.360 Jollibee Foods Corp.

223.40 226.80 223.60 LBC Express 11.1 11.6 11.1 Mabuhay Vinyl 3.5 3.51 3.46 Manila Water Co. Inc. 27.45 27.45 27.15 Maxs Group 21.9 21.9 20.5 Megawide 6.68 6.77 6.65 Mla. Elect. Co `A’ 337.00 345.00 335.00 Panasonic Mfg Phil. Corp. 4.49 4.40 4.40 Pepsi-Cola Products Phil. 3.78 3.85 3.79 Petron Corporation 10.80 11.00 10.66 Phinma Corporation 11.64 11.62 11.60 Phoenix Petroleum Phils. 4.61 4.72 4.51 Phoenix Semiconductor 1.58 1.60 1.56 Pryce Corp. `A’ 2.8 2.78 2.71 RFM Corporation 4.33 4.37 4.29 San Miguel ‘Pure Foods `A’ 212.6 212.4 200 Splash Corporation 2.77 2.83 2.7 Swift Foods, Inc. 0.160 0.159 0.155 TKC Steel Corp.

1.23 1.26 1.18 Trans-Asia Oil 2.62 2.64 2.60 Universal Robina 202.4 207 204 Victorias Milling 4.9 4.85 4.8 Vitarich Corp.

1.09 1.1 1 Vulcan Ind’l.

1.28 1.34 1.27 HOLDING FIRMS Abacus Cons. `A’ 0.365 0.365 0.350 Aboitiz Equity 65.00 66.50 64.75 Alliance Global Inc. 16.46 16.42 15.94 Anglo Holdings A 1.11 1.17 1.11 Anscor `A’ 6.06 6.06 6.06 ATN Holdings A 0.315 0.460 0.310 ATN Holdings B 0.325 0.475 0.325 Ayala Corp `A’ 787 786 776 Cosco Capital 8.63 8.63 8.31 DMCI Holdings 12.36 12.64 12.36 F&J Prince ‘A’ 5.35 5.32 5.06 F&J Prince ‘B’ 5.11 5.11 5.11 Filinvest Dev. Corp.

5.61 5.79 5.61 Forum Pacific 0.212 0.212 0.212 GT Capital 1381 1383 1370 House of Inv. 6.49 6.47 6.12 IPM Holdings 9.73 9.70 9.62 JG Summit Holdings 83.40 83.65 83.30 Lopez Holdings Corp.

7.65 7.65 7.45 Lodestar Invt. Holdg.Corp. 0.7 0.8 0.68 LT Group 15.68 15.6 15.4 Mabuhay Holdings `A’ 0.485 0.480 0.480 Metro Pacific Inv. Corp. 5.79 5.79 5.74 MJCI Investments Inc. 3.38 3.35 3.35 Pacifica `A’ 0.0330 0.0330 0.0320 Prime Media Hldg 1.360 1.360 1.360 Prime Orion 1.890 1.910 1.890 San Miguel Corp `A’ 74.05 74.00 71.75 SM Investments Inc. 955.50 958.00 955.00 Solid Group Inc. 1.17 1.25 1.17 South China Res. Inc. 0.80 0.95 0.82 Transgrid 195.00 195.00 195.00 Top Frontier 161.000 161.000 155.000 Unioil Res. & Hldgs 0.3200 0.3200 0.3100 Zeus Holdings 0.285 0.285 0.275 PROPERTY 8990 HLDG 7.850 8.000 7.850 Anchor Land Holdings Inc. 7.22 7.23 7.15 A. Brown Co., Inc. 1.28 1.29 1.20 Araneta Prop `A’ 2.320 3.440 2.360 Arthaland Corp.

0.280 0.290 0.260 Ayala Land `B’ 34.700 34.700 34.100 Belle Corp. `A’ 3.03 3.06 2.95 Cebu Holdings 5.15 5.12 5.1 Cebu Prop. `A’ 6 5.43 5.43 Century Property 0.550 0.57 0.550 City & Land Dev. 0.97 0.98 0.97 Cityland Dev. `A’ 1.060 1.020 1.000 Crown Equities Inc. 0.130 0.145 0.131 Cyber Bay Corp.

0.485 0.485 0.475 AG Finance Asia United Bank Banco de Oro Unibank Inc. Bank of PI China Bank BDO Leasing & Fin. INc. Bright Kindle Resources COL Financial Eastwest Bank I-Remit Inc. MEDCO Holdings Metrobank Natl. Reinsurance Corp.

PB Bank Phil Bank of Comm Phil. National Bank Phil. Savings Bank Philippine trust Co. PSE Inc. RCBC `A’ Security Bank Sun Life Financial Union Bank Vantage Equities

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

Close

SHARES 18,500,128 114,270,242 178,098,959 359,442,591 308,349,148 576,393,095 1,560,766,103

3.14 46.3 103.70 90.00 38.5 3.00 1.53 14.2 16.16 1.78 0.620 84.45 0.96 14.58 25.20 53.50 102.9 395 270 31.9 169 1427.00 57.50 1.57

Close

%

Net Foreign

Change Volume

Trade/Buying

3.14 46.3 101.50 91.00 38.7 2.93 1.85 14.2 16.4 1.77 0.630 83 0.99 14.40 24.50 53.50 102.9 562 273.8 32 170 1415.00 57.50 1.55

0.00 0.00 -2.12 1.11 0.52 -2.33 20.92 0.00 1.49 -0.56 1.61 -1.72 3.13 -1.23 -2.78 0.00 0.00 42.28 1.41 0.31 0.59 -0.84 0.00 -1.27

115,000 16,700 2,714,110 575,060 395,500 3,000 5,776,000 3,500 3,339,100 11,000 1,088,000 1,207,600 169,000 72,700 500 46,370 10 410 660 377,500 1,133,030 270 44,060 110,000

44.6 4.6 0.83 1.38 16.68 59.8 220.00 18.88 136 198 18.3 48 2.34 5.51 11 9.100 8.03 5.89 7.32 1.67 20.75 69.65 14.02 13.92 5.69 2.380 226.80 11.1 3.46 27.4 20.9 6.65 343.00 4.40 3.79 10.70 11.62 4.70 1.58 2.72 4.36 206 2.78 0.158 1.26 2.60 205 4.8 1.01 1.31

-0.34 4.31 1.22 -2.82 22.47 -1.97 0.00 -0.63 -0.07 -1.98 0.44 -1.03 0.86 -1.61 -1.43 -1.62 -0.62 0.17 -2.40 0.00 -0.72 -0.21 -0.14 -0.57 -1.90 -6.30 1.52 0.00 -1.14 -0.18 -4.57 -0.45 1.78 -2.00 0.26 -0.93 -0.17 1.95 0.00 -2.86 0.69 -3.10 0.36 -1.25 2.44 -0.76 1.28 -2.04 -7.34 2.34

1,714,500 2,448,000 354,000 3,135,000 395,300 660 110 236,900 10 820 130,800 3,600 716,000 828,700 98,200 2,169,900 1,670,700 5,672,400 106,100 20,000 2,313,500 30,970 12,700 24,500 286,600 11,467,000 363,910 3,500 43,000 375,500 942,900 205,500 419,620 1,000 152,000 4,923,500 3,100 707,000 489,000 10,370,000 7,254,000 43,740 648,000 4,350,000 154,000 1,255,000 5,315,180 157,000 41,028,000 425,000

0.365 66.50 16.00 1.15 6.06 0.410 0.420 785 8.31 12.46 5.3 5.11 5.70 0.212 1376 6.47 9.70 83.65 7.5 0.74 15.46 0.480 5.76 3.35 0.0330 1.360 1.910 71.75 956.00 1.22 0.89 195.00 155.000 0.3150 0.275

0.00 2.31 -2.79 3.60 0.00 30.16 29.23 -0.25 -3.71 0.81 -0.93 0.00 1.60 0.00 -0.36 -0.31 -0.31 0.30 -1.96 5.71 -1.40 -1.03 -0.52 -0.89 0.00 0.00 1.06 -3.11 0.05 4.27 11.25 0.00 -3.73 -1.56 -3.51

200,000 497,140 5,411,600 201,000 74,100 61,030,000 20,360,000 138,320 1,846,900 6,105,800 19,400 1,500 679,000 10,000 46,015 51,200 1,410,100 601,990 1,663,400 4,409,000 3,222,300 350,000 30,369,200 12,000 28,400,000 14,000 163,000 176,130 199,700 721,000 1,497,000 130 8,380 3,630,000 1,290,000

8.000 7.15 1.21 3.030 0.280 34.150 2.98 5.12 5.43 0.550 0.98 1.020 0.135 0.480

1.91 -0.97 -5.47 30.60 0.00 -1.59 -1.65 -0.58 -9.50 0.00 1.03 -3.77 3.85 -1.03

37,500 9,600 29,523.00 8,726,000 70.00 41,488,000 4,096,880.00 560,000 10,545,200 -54,831,235.00 1,948,000 131,770.00 13,800 10,000 2,728,000 15,000 79,000 125,420,000 95,600.00 2,110,000

484,575.00 -68,629,752 16,950,727.00 -49,500.00 -17,805,574.00 1,770.00 -4,062,478.00 764,622.00 5,925.00 633,455 -45,920,494.00

34,410,525.00 15,600.00 1,405,000.00 2,302,790.00 -1,360.00 3,748.00 -19,400 92,450.00 55,500.00 -609,544.00 -2,114,727.00 -4,349,041.00 9,133,120.00 -131,472.00 15,262,825.00 -1,019,247.00 -557,323.00 175,540.00 -28,203,586.00 28,000.00 6,611,700.00 -538,750.00 -260,649.00 -28,824,316.00 530,600.00 -36,756,448.00 -91,060.00 101,560.00 -334,140.00 30,319,760.00 404,784.00

-66,410.00 196,879,894.00 595,200.00 178,740.00

23,115,222.00 -25,622,734.00 -2,424.00 -192,350.00 23,013,370.00 -38,039.00 -29,947,696.00 -2,248.00 6,164,435.00 31,086,540.00 -6,023,293.00 36,297,024.00 -53,893,330.00

-2,169,438.50 33,082,515.00 -378,600.00

52 Weeks

Previous

High Low

STOCKS

Close

10.96 0.97 0.305 2.22 2.1 1.8 8.4 5.94 0.180 0.470 0.72 8.54 31.8 2.29 4.9 21.35 1.06 7.56 1.62 8.59

2.4 0.83 0.188 1.15 1.42 1.27 3.1 4.13 0.090 0.290 0.39 2.69 22.15 1.6 3.1 15.08 0.69 3.38 0.83 5.73

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

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 14.88 15.82 0.1430 5.06 99.1 12.3 2.6 7.67 4 2720 8.41 1.97 119.5 7 5.8 12.5 0.017 0.8200 2.2800 5.93 12.28 3.32 3.2 95.5 1 2.46 15.2

1.97 35.2 1 0.63 10.5 8.6 0.0770 2.95 56.1 10.14 1.6 4.8 2.58 1600 5.95 1.23 102.6 3.01 4 8.72 0.011 0.041 1.200 2.34 6.5 1.91 1.95 3.1 0.650 1.8 6

0.62 1.040 22.8 6.41 18 185 22.9 3486 0.760 2.28 46.05 90.1

0.335 0.37 14.54 3 8.8 79 4.39 2748 0.435 1.2 31.45 60.55

11.6 0.85 2.95 10 0.490 1.9

7.59 0.63 1.71 5 0.315 1.14

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

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

Discovery World DFNN Inc. Easy Call “Common” Globe Telecom GMA Network Inc. Harbor Star I.C.T.S.I. Imperial Res. `A’ Imperial Res. `B’ IPeople Inc. `A’ IP E-Game Ventures Inc. Island Info ISM Communications Jackstones Leisure & Resorts Liberty Telecom Macroasia Corp.

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

Pacific Online Sys. Corp.

PAL Holdings Inc. Phil. Racing Club Phil. Seven Corp.

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

SSI Group STI Holdings Transpacific Broadcast Travellers Waterfront Phils.

Yehey

0.0098 5.45 17.24 0.330 12.7 12.8 1.19 1.62 9.5 4.2 0.48 0.420 0.440 0.022 0.023 8.2 49.2 4.27 1.030 3.06 0.020 0.021 7.67 12.88 10.42 0.040 420 9 0.016

0.0043 1.72 6.47 0.236 6.5 5.11 0.85 0.77 5.99 1.17 0.305 0.2130 0.2160 0.013 0.014 3.240 18.96 2.11 0.365 1.54 0.012 0.013 5.4 7.26 2.27 0.015 115.9 3.67 0.0100

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

Benguet Corp `A’ Benguet Corp `B’ 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 Omico Oriental Peninsula Res. Oriental Pet. `A’ Oriental Pet. `B’ Petroenergy Res. Corp.

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

TA Petroleum United Paragon

70 553 525

33 490 500

120 515 1047 84.8

6.98

ABS-CBN Holdings Corp.

Ayala Corp. Pref `B1’ Ayala Corp. Pref ‘B2’ BC Pref A 101.5 First Gen G 480 GLOBE PREF P 1011 PF Pref 2 PNX PREF 3B 75 SMC Preferred C SMC Preferred E SMC Preferred F SMC Preferred G SMC Preferred H SMC Preferred I 0.8900 LR Warrant Alterra Capital Makati Fin. Corp.

Italpinas Xurpas

15

3.5

12.88

5.95

130.7

105.6 First Metro ETF

High

VALUE 743,789,542.84 1,828,252,696.115 1,000,175,834.68 1,050,482,469.83 998,973,557.23 321,495,244.425 6,039,875,331.72

FINANCIAL 1,611.55 (DOWN) 7.43 INDUSTRIAL 11,754.82 (UP) 56.11 HOLDING FIRMS 7,203.94 (DOWN) 4.16 PROPERTY 2,946.05 (DOWN) 32.34 SERVICES 1,525.34 (UP) 6.92 MINING & OIL 10,720.03 (DOWN) 55.44 PSEI 7,250.13 (DOWN) 5.26 All Shares Index 4,383.48 (UP) 54.07 Gainers:86; Losers: 112; Unchanged: 45; Total: 243

Close

36.4 0.830 0.150 1.06 1.88 1.28 5.00 4.1 0.085 0.2550 0.540 8.53 28.90 1.6 3.15 22.80 0.87 6.52 1.150 4.830

%

Net Foreign

Change Volume

Trade/Buying

36.7 36.2 36.4 0.850 0.840 0.840 0.151 0.150 0.150 1.05 1.03 1.05 1.90 1.86 1.89 1.30 1.28 1.30 5.01 4.98 4.98 4.11 4.02 4.02 0.088 0.082 0.085 0.2550 0.2450 0.2550 0.650 0.540 0.640 8.53 8.5 8.5 28.90 28.05 28.35 1.61 1.57 1.61 3.15 3.15 3.15 22.75 22.40 22.65 1.05 0.85 1.03 6.52 6.25 6.25 1.200 1.140 1.180 4.820 4.690 4.800 SERVICES 8.2 8.45 8.2 8.2 57.2 57.9 56.95 56.95 1.28 1.28 1.28 1.28 0.570 0.610 0.580 0.590 11.16 11.16 11.1 11.1 4.49 4.51 4.43 4.45 0.0580 0.0580 0.0560 0.0570 3.1 3.1 3 3 90.15 90.1 88.25 88.5 9.68 9.4 9.38 9.38 1.75 1.77 1.77 1.77 7.09 7.28 6.98 7.18 2.93 2.95 2.95 2.95 2178 2210 2160 2200 6.93 6.94 6.90 6.93 1.18 1.23 1.12 1.13 66.6 67.95 66.55 67.95 15.26 15.26 14.02 14.02 156 158 135 135 11.66 11.62 11.6 11.6 0.0100 0.0110 0.0100 0.0100 0.320 0.335 0.310 0.335 1.8900 2.5900 1.9000 2.4200 2.2 2.3 2.2 2.3 7.99 8.00 7.97 7.99 3.77 3.97 3.65 3.90 2.80 2.80 2.79 2.80 23.90 23.50 23.50 23.50 0.590 0.610 0.580 0.610 2 1.99 1.99 1.99 2.15 2.24 2.13 2.15 4.00 4.00 3.82 3.92 0.300 0.295 0.285 0.295 3.400 3.640 3.350 3.410 17.5 17.5 17 17 4.83 4.90 4.83 4.90 8.75 8.66 8.66 8.66 110.00 115.00 113.00 114.00 22.30 24.15 22.30 23.75 1810.00 1840.00 1814.00 1828.00 0.450 0.455 0.435 0.450 0.860 0.870 0.840 0.870 41.30 41.30 40.00 40.40 79.90 80.00 77.25 77.60 6.41 6.60 6.43 6.47 3.55 3.56 3.45 3.52 0.630 0.640 0.630 0.630 1.9 2.3 1.9 2.08 3.6 3.61 3.51 3.53 0.340 0.345 0.325 0.345 5.300 5.650 5.300 5.600 MINING & OIL 0.0042 0.0042 0.0040 0.0041 2.15 2.05 2.00 2.02 4.23 4.26 4.19 4.21 0.255 0.250 0.250 0.250 8.2700 8.29 7.85 8.1700 7.9500 8.0000 8.0000 8.0000 0.75 0.77 0.75 0.75 0.560 0.560 0.540 0.550 8.79 9.20 8.85 9.08 0.960 1.000 0.920 0.960 0.290 0.330 0.290 0.305 0.233 0.230 0.225 0.226 0.246 0.250 0.240 0.242 0.0120 0.0130 0.0120 0.0120 0.0130 0.0140 0.0130 0.0130 2.2 2.29 2.12 2.15 5.53 5.65 5.3 5.6 2.66 2.85 2.66 2.84 0.6700 0.7000 0.6600 0.6900 1.3800 1.3800 1.3500 1.3500 0.0096 0.0099 0.0095 0.0099 0.0094 0.0095 0.0094 0.0095 3.68 3.85 3.71 3.85 5.85 5.87 5.66 5.70 2.35 2.32 2.19 2.24 0.0120 0.0120 0.0120 0.0120 126.00 126.00 125.50 126.00 3.21 3.22 3.02 3.04 0.0085 0.0087 0.0086 0.0086 PREFERRED 56.95 57 56.7 56.9 518 518 518 518 525 525 525 525 44.55 22.3 22.3 22.3 116.7 116.5 115.4 115.4 520 520 519 520 1015 1016 1015 1016 107.2 108 108 108 80.1 80.35 80.1 80.2 75.6 75.6 75.6 75.6 77 77.5 77.25 77.5 76.95 76.2 75 75 75.1 75.5 75.1 75.1 75.1 75.1 75.1 75.1 WARRANTS & BONDS 3.500 3.600 3.160 3.180 SME 4 4.2 4 4 4.69 44.75 4.5 4.73 3.16 3.1 3.07 3.1 18.36 18.5 17.3 17.32 EXCHANGE TRADED FUNDS 118.7 119 118.2 118.9

T op g ainerS STOCKS

Low

0.00 1.20 0.00 -0.94 0.53 1.56 -0.40 -1.95 0.00 0.00 18.52 -0.35 -1.90 0.63 0.00 -0.66 18.39 -4.14 2.61 -0.62

477,300 4,645,000 440,000 8,136,000 14,212,000 183,000 8,800 16,367,000 3,510,000 60,000 14,550,000 196,900 3,935,500 120,000 1,000 7,780,600 83,611,000 3,700 4,762,000 2,729,000

-5,028,150.00

0.00 -0.44 0.00 3.51 -0.54 -0.89 -1.72 -3.23 -1.83 -3.10 1.14 1.27 0.68 1.01 0.00 -4.24 2.03 -8.13 -13.46 -0.51 0.00 4.69 28.04 4.55 0.00 3.45 0.00 -1.67 3.39 -0.50 0.00 -2.00 -1.67 0.29 -2.86 1.45 -1.03 3.64 6.50 0.99 0.00 1.16 -2.18 -2.88 0.94 -0.85 0.00 9.47 -1.94 1.47 5.66

272,200 15,138.00 14,880 16,000 1,042,000 11,000 113,274.00 1,339,000 1,678,020.00 29,130,000 -208,050.00 5,369,000 26,010 -5,184,933.00 3,500 84,000 689,000 -392,218.00 10,000 33,225 24,086,750.00 122,300 1,684,000 24,400.00 243,900 4,394,875.00 70,200 600 11,100 600,000 148,320,000 2,070,250.00 54,650,000 -51,980.00 14,000 3,500 23,970.00 257,000 25,000 100 149,000 35,000 9,332,000 -1,521,710.00 4,166,000 -215,010.00 600,000 26,813,000 2,273,360.00 716,600 2,000 2,400 850 467,900 -34,200.00 81,260 -16,403,265.00 450,000 3,709,000 2,534,600 -7,449,315.00 1,563,310 1,005,067.50 1,011,500 -7,295.00 1,631,000 10,410.00 4,434,000 -288,540.00 904,000 49,750.00 1,061,000 -1,007,270.00 130,000 3,300.00 293,100 118,400.00

-2.38 -6.05 -0.47 -1.96 -1.21 0.63 0.00 -1.79 3.30 0.00 5.17 -3.00 -1.63 0.00 0.00 -2.27 1.27 6.77 2.99 -2.17 3.13 1.06 4.62 -2.56 -4.68 0.00 0.00 -5.30 1.18

331,000,000 -20,500.00 229,000 45,000 -16,930.00 200,000 3,900 1,000 1,857,000 704,000 944,000 81,865,000 12,105,470.00 6,440,000 29,650,000 2,260,000 38,000,000 7,600,000 1,329,000 41,350.00 3,405,600 -2,255,377.00 1,816,000 -34,080.00 3,748,000 9,800.00 51,000 27,600.00 9,000,000 5,000,000 2,000 854,100 288,751.00 1,499,000 -181,350.00 32,700,000 1,427,010 -18,747,608.00 1,033,000 13,000,000

-0.09 0.00 0.00 -49.94 -1.11 0.00 0.10 0.75 0.12 0.00 0.65 -2.53 0.00 0.00

146,010 6,900 8,300 300 40,000 15,600 7,300 500 66,300 15,500 38,560 226,400 229,200 58,250

-9.14

1,656,000

65,400.00

0.00 0.85 -1.90 -5.66

99,000 24,000 186,000 5,399,800

-9,300.00 21,469,194.00

0.17

3,080

52,000.00 3,717,240.00 -24,182,000.00 -33,500.00 -18,370,610.00 126,400.00 56,315,210.00 279,440.00 1,875.00 11,600.00 -2,472,600.00

-7,902,638.50

-7,145,640.00 -802,000.00 2,529,816.00 -16,686,484.00

T op L oSerS Close (P)

Change (%)

STOCKS

Close (P)

Change (%)

Philippine trust Co.

562

42.28

BC Pref A

22.3

-49.94

Araneta Prop `A'

3.030

30.60

Imperial Res. `B'

135

-13.46

ATN Holdings A

0.410

30.16

Cebu Prop. `A'

5.43

-9.50

ATN Holdings B

0.420

29.23

LR Warrant

3.180

-9.14

ISM Communications

2.4200

28.04

Imperial Res. `A'

14.02

-8.13

Asiabest Group

16.68

22.47

Vitarich Corp.

1.01

-7.34

Bright Kindle Resources

1.85

20.92

Ionics Inc

2.380

-6.30

Phil. Realty `A'

0.640

18.52

Apex `A'

2.02

-6.05

Sta. Lucia Land Inc.

1.03

18.39

Xurpas

17.32

-5.66

South China Res. Inc.

0.89

11.25

A. Brown Co., Inc.

1.21

-5.47

TUESDAY: APRIL 26, 2016

B3

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

Joint venture. Manila Doctors Hospital signs a joint venture agreement with Chinoy TV, the only Filipino Chinese television show that features Chinese heritage on April 18, 2016.

MDH under the agreement will have segments in the Living Asia Channel and PTV 4, which will be aired every Sunday and have replays on Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday, from April to October this year. MDH director Hian Ho Kua (second from right) shakes the hands with Alvin Kingson Tan, Chinoy TV president and CEO, after they signing the agreement. With them are Chinoy TV chief operating officer Loraine Tan (left) and MDH deputy administrative director Terrence Cham.

CebuPac is largest domestic air carrier CEBU Pacific remains the country’s largest airline in terms of passengers flown on domestic routes last year, Civil Aeronautics Board said.

Data from the CAB showed the budget airline owned by industrialist John Gokongwei carried 11.4 million passengers in 2015 from 11.08 million passengers a year ago.

Cebu Pacific cornered 52 percent of the domestic market.

Cebgo, formerly Tiger Airways Philippines, reported total domestic passengers of 1.69 million last year, up from 1.30 million passengers last year.

Rival Philippine Airlines posted total domestic passengers of 1.67 million passengers from 793,512 passengers in 2014.

PAL’s sister company PAL Express carried 4.70 million passengers in 2015 from 5.13 million passengers a year ago.

Philippines Air Asia Inc. flew 2.18 million passengers,up 29 percent from 1.69 million passengers in 2014.

Air Asia, meanwhile, carried 272,755 passengers from 283,896 passengers in 2014.

The total domestic passengers in 2015 stood at 22.08 million, an increase of 8.5 percent from last year’s 20.35 million passengers.

In terms of cargo, the local airlines carried a total 272.71 million kilograms in 2015 from 250.68 million kgs in 2014.

Cebu Pacific carried 118.95 million kilograms, followed by PAL Express, 67.86 million kgs; PAL, 50.71 million kgs; Cebgo, 16.66 million kgs; AirAsia Zest, 16.68 million kgs; and AirAsia, 1.24 million kgs.

Cebu Pacific earlier said the opening of new destinations such as Guam in Western Pacific would enable the airline to increase total passengers by 9 percent to nearly 20 million in 2016.

Darwin G. Amojelar

BDO still the biggest bank; Metrobank 2nd

By Julito G. Rada

BDO Unibank Inc., controlled by retail tycoon Henry Sy, remains the country’s biggest universal and commercial bank in terms of assets, capital, loans and deposits as of end-2015.

Data from Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas showed BDO had total assets of P1.943 trillion as of Dec. 31 last year. It was followed by Metropolitan Bank & Trust Co. at P1.461 trillion, and the Ayalaled Bank of the Philippine Islands with P1.241 trillion.

Other banks in the top 10 are Land Bank of the Philippines, P1.197 trillion; Philippine National Bank, P628.970 billion; Security Bank Corp., P532.984 billion; Development Bank of the Philippines, P508.463 billion; China Banking Corp., P454.852 billion; Rizal Commercial Banking Corp., P432 billion; and

Union Bank of the Philippines, P375.940 billion.

BDO also led in terms of capital with P198.636 billion, followed

by Metrobank with P186.856 billion; BPI, P145.768 billion; PNB, P94.336 billion; LandBank, P79.988 billion; RCBC, P58.096 billion; Union Bank, P54.677 billion; Chinabank, P54.136 billion; Security Bank, P53.161 billion; and DBP, P37.661 billion.

BDO had total deposits of P1.601 trillion last year, followed

by Metrobank at the second spot with P1.106 trillion, and Landbank with P1.046 trillion.

Completing the top 10 in

terms of deposits were BPI at fourth with P1.033 trillion; PNB, P470.76 billion; Chinabank, P373.478 billion; DBP, P324.007 billion; Security Bank, P290.994 billion; Unionbank, P268.671 billion, and RCBC, P264.069 billion.

BDO’s total loans last year stood at P1.310 trillion, followed

by Metrobank at second place with P697.840 billion and BPI at third with P666.099 billion. Others in the top 10 are Landbank, P525.921 billion; PNB, P332.531 billion; Chinabank, P257.849 billion; Security Bank, P233.135 billion; RCBC, P226.512 billion; DBP, P197.452 billion; and Citibank, N.A., P153.809 billion.

BDO in 2015 posted a record P25-billion net income, a 10-percent increase year-on-year, matching the earnings guidance for the year.

It attributed the growth to the solid expansion across all busi-

ness segments and the contribution of One Network Bank, the biggest rural bank in Mindanao, which it acquired in July last year.

BDO has one of the largest distribution networks, with more than 1,000 operating branches and over 3,000 ATM nationwide.

It has a branch in Hong Kong as well as 27 overseas remittance and representative offices in Asia, Europe, North America and the Middle East.

There are 40 universal and commercial banks in the Philippine banking system.

Industrial Bank of Korea, Shinhan Bank of Korea, the Japanbased Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corp., and the Taiwan-based Cathay United Bank—whose applications were approved last year by the Monetary Board after the further liberalization of the industry in 2014—are also operating as universal and commercial banks.

Stocks down slightly; Ayala Land, Xurpas drop THE stock market fell slightly Monday after losses on Wall Street and in Europe, with oil prices down and the yen recovering some of the losses suffered at the end of last week.

The Philippine Stock Exchange Index dropped 5.26 points, or 0.1 percent, to 7,250.13 on a value turnover of P6.04 billion. Losers beat gainers, 112 to 86, with 45 issues unchanged.

Ayala Land Inc., the secondbiggest builder, lost 1.6 percent to P34.15, while BDO Unibank Inc., the largest lender in terms of assets and capital, declined 2.1 percent to P101.50.

Robinsons Retail Holdings Inc. of industrialist John Gokongwei fell 2.9 percent to P77.60, while

technology stock Xurpas Inc. tumbled 5.7 percent to P17.32.

The rest of Asian markets sank again Monday, as dealers moved cautiously at the start of a busy week that includes policy meetings at the US Federal Reserve and Bank of Japan, as well as earnings reports from big-name firms including Sony and Nintendo.

The losses follow a sell-off Friday that was fueled by profit-taking from a recent rally.

Mitsubishi Motors dived almost five percent to extend its losses to a fourth session, having crashed more than 40 percent between Wednesday and Friday after admitting cheating on fuelefficiency tests.

On Friday the engine rigging

scandal that has already battered German giant Volkswagen spread to other car titans as Berlin said a probe found 16 major brands had shown irregularities.

Among the firms dragged into the crisis are Japan’s Nissan, France’s Renault and Italy’s Fiat.

Nissan ended down 0.6 percent in Tokyo.

Japan’s Nikkei index closed 0.8 percent lower, with a recovery in the yen weighing on exporters.

Hong Kong ended 0.8 percent lower and Shanghai closed down 0.4 percent while Seoul and Singapore were also in negative territory.

In early European trade London and Frankfurt were each up 0.1 percent but Paris slid 0.2 percent Sydney and Wellington were

closed for the ANZAC Day public holiday.

The Japanese unit sank against the dollar Friday on a report that the country’s central bank was considering helping financial companies by offering them negative rates on some loans.

The dollar was at 111.25 yen, having risen to 111.80 yen Friday in New York from 109.31 yen earlier in the day.

The yen’s move “on Friday was an over-reaction to speculation that the BoJ might be willing to lend to commercial banks with negative interest rates”, Gareth Berry, a foreign-exchange and rates strategist at Macquarie Bank in Singapore, told Bloomberg News. With AFP

B4 License renewal centers. Property developer

Megaworld Corp. and the Land Transportation Office sign a partnership involving the establishment of the government agency’s Driver’s License Renewal Office at Megaworld lifestyle malls, Megaworld townships and residential properties.

Shown during the signing of the memorandum of agreement at Eastwood Richmonde Hotel in Eastwood City are (from left) Megaworld assistant vice president for retail partners management Mylene Manlogon, Megaworld first vice president Kevin Tan, LTO assistant secretary Roberto Cabrera III and Megaworld vice president for controllership group Joey Villafuerte.

ADB says loans hit $16.3b in 40 years

By Gabrielle H. Binaday THE Asian Development Bank has extended $16.38 billion worth of loans and grants to the Philippines over the past 40 years.

The Manila-based multilateral lender said in its latest member data fact sheet it served as a strong development partner to the host country since the bank was established in 1966.

“ADB has been a strong development partner of the Philippines, its host country, with average annual lending of $745 million in the last 10 years,” the bank said.

The Philippines, since its membership with the ADB in 1966, received a cumulative lending, grant and technical assistance amounting to $16.377 billion.

Public sector management got the the highest percentage of the total loans with $3.849 billion, followed by the energy sector with $3.432 billion and agriculture and natural resources and rural development with $2.077 billion.

ADB approved $600 million for the financing of the country’s infrastructure development in 2015.

ADB lent $300 million for its first policy-based operation fully focused on publicprivate-partnership reforms in the Philippines. “The program will strengthen mechanisms to finance PPPs, improve implementation of PPP projects and strengthen legal and regulatory frameworks,” ADB said.

ADB said to complement support for the PPP program, it approved another $300 million as part of a phased approach to deepen capital markets and nonbank finance. This would increase the availability of longterm private finance to fund infrastructure investments, it said.

Total outstanding balances and commitments of ADB’s private sector transactions in the country as of the end of 2015 reached $150.39 million, representing 1.81 percent of ADB’s total non-sovereign portfolio.

Belle allocates P4b for City of Dreams

By Darwin G. Amojelar

PROPERTY and gaming company Belle Corp. said Monday it will spend up to P4 billion this year, mostly to settle obligations with the contractors of City of Dreams Manila.

“The capex for this year is about P3 billion to P4 billion. A lot of it is for finishing up on payments of contractors of City of Dreams,” Belle executive vice president and chief financial officer Manuel Gana said at the sidelines of the stockholders’ meeting.

The company’s capex amounted to P3 billion in 2015.

City of Dreams Manila is the second of four integrated resorts

to open in the 297-acre Entertainment City, a Las Vegas Strip-style casino hub that competes with Macau and Singapore. It has been in operation since December 2015, when it held a soft opening.

City of Dreams Manila has 981 hotel rooms under the Crown Towers, Nobu and Hyatt brands.

It operates 380 gaming tables, 1,700 slot machines and 1,700 electronic table games.

Gana said Belle was expected to sustain growth this year, mostly driven by gaming subsidiary Premium Leisure Corp.

“We do expect a significant higher earnings from our gaming subsidiary. So, we are very excited about the prospects for Premium Leisure. As you know we get a share of gaming earnings of City of Dreams,” he said.

PLC, which is 79-percent owned by Belle, is the beneficiary of an operating agreement with Melco Crown that entitles it to a share in gaming earnings of City of Dreams.

Data showed while Macau and other Asian gaming markets contracted in 2015, the Philippine gaming market grew 17 percent.

The Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corp. said total industry gross gaming revenues hit P130 billion last year, up from P111 billion in 2014.

“With the completion of the ramp-up of City of Dreams Manila’s gaming operations, and with our real estate development business expected to continue the improvement we saw in 2015, 2016 looks like it will be another exciting year for your corporation,” Belle president and chief executive Frederic Dybuncio said.

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.

Local group asks govt to inspect imported steel bars

By Othel V. Campos A GROUP of steel manufacturers asked the Trade Department to inspect the shipment of allegedly “deformed reinforcing steel bars” that arrived in the country on April 21.

The Philippine Iron and Steel Institute sent a letter asking the Port of Subic and the Trade Department’s Bureau of Product Standards to track the shipment.

“We ask of your assistance on this matter to ensure that these imported reinforcement steel bars are in conformity with Philippine National Standards and do not pose a threat to the security and safety of Filipino consumers,” the

group said in the letter.

An intelligence group alert order issued by the Bureau of Customs showed some 5,000 metric tons of “deformed steel bars shipment” were being unloaded at the Port of Subic, according to PISI president Roberto Cola.

Physical and chemical testing should follow as soon as the BPS provincial office in Zambales arranged the product testing which was a protocol for any consumer product, whether manufactured locally or produced abroad, the group said.

Mandatory physical testing involves testing for every 20 tons of sampling for strength and any deformation.

Cola said his group received the alert from the Bureau of Customs on April 18 to 19 and immediately sought assistance from the Port of Subic and the government on April 21.

“We just want everything to be aboveboard. It is our concern to ensure that the steel product shipment from China is of standard quality and will not cause harm to consumers. We want to witness the product testing,” he said.

Deformed reinforced steel bars are commonly used as steel reinforcement in the construction of high-rise buildings.

PISI also called for the holding of the import entry of steel importer Mannage Resources

Trading Corp. until the BPS conducted a complete inventory, thorough investigation and testing of physical, chemical and mechanical properties of the product to determine if the products conformed to PNC 49:2002.

Cola said there was currently a slight excess capacity of deformed steel bars locally, “but consumers were always looking for cheaper alternatives.”

“We are being cautious of steel shipments, especially those originating from China since we do not want a repeat of what happened during Typhoon Yolanda and other catastrophe that decimated the homes of people in affected areas,” he said.

T U E S D AY : A P R I L 2 6 , 2 0 1 6

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

Be afraid, be very afraid IF YOU’RE a registered voter, you need to worry.

Contrary to the assurances offered by the Commission on Elections (Comelec), the March 27 data breach it suffered exposes you to identity theft, fraud, extortion and other serious crimes that can put you and your family in harm’s way.

The trouble began just before midnight on March 27, when the hacker group Anonymous Philippines defaced the Comelec website and demanded that it activate the security features of the vote counting machines that will be used in the May elections.

Hours later, more serious damage was done by a second group calling itself Lulzsec Pilipinas, posted an online link to what it claimed was the entire Comelec database that it had obtained through the website. The 338GB database contains 75.3 million individual entries, 55 million of which roughly correspond to the number of registered voters in the country.

“A great lol to Commission on Elections, here’s your whoooooole database,” LulzSec Pilipinas wrote in a Facebook post.

In the wake of the massive data breach, Comelec officials played down the significance of the hack.

A spokesman said the information on the website did not contain “any sensitive information” that would affect the outcome of the May 9 elections—completely overlooking the possible dangers that 54 million voters face from having their personal data exposed.

But the security company Trend Micro said the hack contained a huge amount of highly sensitive personal data, including names, home addresses, birthdays, and even fingerprints of 15.8 million people, and the passport numbers of 1.3 million overseas voters.

“With 55 million registered voters in the Philippines, this leak may turn out as one of the biggest government-related data breaches in history, surpassing the Office of Personnel Management hack last 2015 [in the United States] that leaked [personally identifiable information], including fingerprints and social security numbers of 20 million US citizens,” the company said.

Contrary to the Comelec claims, Trend Micro said, its research showed that massive records of personally identifiable information, including fingerprints data were leaked. Included in the data was a list of Comelec officials that have admin accounts.

“Based on our investigation, the data dumps include 1.3 million records of overseas Filipino voters, which included passport numbers and expiry dates. What is alarming is that this crucial data is just in plain text and accessible to everyone,” the company added.

On April 21, hours after police arrested a 20-year-old hacker suspected of defacing the Comelec website, Lulzsec Pilipinas struck again, uploading the Comelec database to a searchable website it called “Philippines, we have your data.” While the site has since gone offline, copies of the database are now being distributed over the BitTorrent file sharing system—making it impossible to put the genie back into the bottle.

Some IT experts believe the hacked data can’t be used to affect the outcome of the elections, but the poll watchdog group Kontra Daya says the personal information could be used for intimidation or vote buying.

While the jury is still out on this, what is crystal clear is that every registered voter is now at risk.

“Cybercriminals can choose from a wide range of activities to use the information gathered from the data breach to perform acts of extortion,” Trend Micro warned.

In previous cases of data breach, the company added, stolen data has been used to access bank accounts, gather further information about specific persons, used as leverage for phishing and other email scams, blackmail and extortion.

Recognizing the dangers, the central bank has issued a memo ordering banks to be “more alert in establishing the true identity of customers.”

“Customer identification procedures of… financial institutions that rely on static information which may be obtained from the disclosed Comelec records should be supplemented by requests for additional proof or secondary information to establish the true identity of new and existing clients,” the central bank memo said.

The Bankers Association of the Philippines also advised its members to put safeguards in place to protect their clients, since many banks use personal information for verification purposes.

Despite the real dangers involved, the issue doesn’t seem to be stirring up the kind of public outrage it deserves.

That may change, however, as election watchdogs and IT groups talk about a class action suit against the Comelec for failing to protect our private information.

On Reddit, user jcgurango agreed.

“The Comelec didn’t take the steps to secure your data. If anybody is liable to pay anything it’s them, simple as that,” he said.

Another user, kcoako, asked the question that was on my mind: “How are people not talking about this more?”

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

B5

A Brown unit starts P500-m water project

By Alena Mae S. Flores

AB Bulk Water Co. Inc., a new subsidiary of A Brown Company Inc., held the groundbreaking for the P500-million bulk water supply project in Opol, Misamis Oriental.

AB Bulk Water will undertake the bulk water supply project in partnership with the municipal government of Opol under the public-private-partnership scheme.

A Brown executive chairman Walter Brown and president Robertino Pizarro led the groundbreaking ceremony.

“Mr. Pizarro and I are delighted to be able to participate in the first truly private-public venture, of huge importance—the development of water resources,” Brown said in a statement.

“We are very pleased with the level of cooperation of the local government of Opol. By working together, we would be able to improve the welfare of the local community and the province,” he said.

Brown expressed hope the project would be an example for other local communities.

“Potable water is an essential and central ingredient in the life of any community, especially in light of the ongoing El Niño,” he said.

Opol mayor Max Seno said

the development of a bulk water project would trigger inclusive growth for the municipality.

The water system is expected to benefit 25,000 residents of Opol town and nearby areas like El Salvador City and Laguindingan in Misamis Oriental.

A Brown, a company listed on the Philippine Stock Exchange, is the holding company for the various businesses of Brown and family, with strategic interests in agribusiness (palm oil plantation and milling), power generation (coal, diesel, hydro and renewables) and resources (precious metals, oil and gas exploration).

The company has generally focused on business interests in Mindanao, although its power and real estate segments have investments in other regions.

Real estate is one of the company’s core businesses.

DBP opens Caloocan branch. The Development Bank of the Philippines inaugurates a new

branch in Caloocan City at the Caloocan City Commercial Complex along A. Mabini Street in Caloocan City.

Shown during the inauguration of DBP Caloocan are (from left) DBP chief marketing officer Antonio Owen Maramag, Caloocan City vice mayor Macario Assistio III, DBP executive vice president Susan Prado, Caloocan City administrator Oliver Hernandez, DBP senior assistant vice President Madeleine Aldana (partly hidden) and DBP Caloocan branch head Lea Remolano.

Non-stop Makati-Alabang bus trip starts

By Darwin G. Amojelar THE Transportation Department on Monday launched a non-stop bus route between Makati City and Alabang, Muntinlupa City as a part of the program to modernize the public utility bus system.

“Residents from southern Metro Manila and parts of Cavite will now have a more convenient transportation option that will provide them significant travel time savings and enhanced passenger experience when traveling to the central business district,” Transportation Secretary Joseph Emilio Abaya said.

The winning operator, RRCG Transport, will have pick-up points at Alabang Town Center

in Alabang and Greenbelt 1 in Makati.

“We hope that other bus operators will also join us in our bid to raise the standards for public transportation by offering higher quality services to commuters,” Abaya said.

Other point-to-point routes that are currently operational are Trinoma-Makati, offered by Froehlich Tours, and OrtigasMakati, offered by HM Transport.

Another route will be available this week, which is the North Edsa-Ortigas. More services will be launched in the coming weeks once the operators acquire new buses for the Alabang-Ortigas and Fairview-Makati routes, the Transportation Department said.

The premium P2P bus service is a new public utility vehicle subcategory created by the Transportation Department that offers commuters another safe and reliable mode of transportation. It allows shorter travel time, as buses depart on a fixed schedule and travel directly from the terminal to the drop-off point.

The buses are equipped with modern features, such as automatic fare collection system, global positioning system devices, on-board closed-circuit television cameras and free wifi. In line with environmental sustainability, buses should be compliant with Euro IV emissions standards or better, or run on clean alternative fuels, such as electric or hybrid vehicles.

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TUESDAY: APRIL 26, 2016

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

20 linked to Bangladesh heist DHAKA, Bangladesh— Bangladesh police probing an $81 million electronic heist from the central bank said Monday that more than 20 unnamed foreigners were involved in the audacious theft.

Healthway partner. Healthway Medical representatives Carmie de Leon (second from left), vice president for sales and marketing, and Racquel Cagurangan(third from left), general manager, sign a partnership agreement with Lifeline Ambulance Inc. in an effort to go beyond the company’s core competency–outpatient clinics in malls. They are joined by Michael Deakin (center), managing director of Lifeline, Ghassan Abi Saab (third from right), operations managerof Lifeline and other Healthway and Lifeline representatives.

IPOPHL launches new electronic filing system

By Othel V. Campos THE Intellectual Property Office of the Philippines launched a new electronic filing system known, as the IPOPHL eTMfile, as part of the World IP Day Celebrations that started on April 23 with the Celebration of the World Book and Copyright Day. The IPOPHL eTMfile allows the online filing of new trademark applications 24/7 and is linked to three different payment channels.

With IPOPHL eTMfile, applicants and IP agents need not go to the IPOPHL to file trademark applications.

“The IPOPHL began enhancing its IT systems with the deployment of the Industrial Property Automa-

tion System as the new back office system for patents and trademarks in 2012. Now, we are focusing on tools that will modernize electronic transactions with the IPOPHL, starting with the new IPOPHL eTMfile,” said IPOPhl director general Josephine Rima-Santiago.

IPOPHL eTMfile is one of the tools of IPOPHL to modernize eservices used by clients.

The IPOPHL eTMfile is linked to two other tools—Asean TMclass, which makes the classification of goods and services much easier, and National IPOPHL TMview, allowing the generation of preliminary search reports that applicants may use as reference prior to filing.

IPOPHL eTMfile also has another new feature which makes pos-

sible the submission of documents, such as the special power of attorney, request for priority examination and declaration of actual use, along with the online application.

IPOPHL eTMfile is a system developed in collaboration with EU-Asean Project on IP Rights (ECAP III Phase II), a project being administered by the EU Intellectual Property Office.

“The IPOPHL eTMfile is the first of two eServices tools that we are deploying this semester. Next in the pipeline is the IPOPHL eDOCfile, an advanced electronic filing system for practically all types of trademark documents, including responses, powers of attorney, various types of declarations, assignments, and enables both the

IPOPHL and the applicant to digitally sign documents submitted to the Office,” Santiago said.

IPOPHL is the first Asean Office to deploy eTMfile. Itis also expected to be the first to go on production with the eDOCfile in June.

The IPOPHL eTMfile is accessible to all trademark stakeholders beginning today.served all three branches of the government.

Before her election to the Senate, Miriam Santiago was a member of the Cabinet—as President Cory Aquino’s Secretary of Agrarian Reform—and a regional trial court judge. There would definitely be no OJT if Senator Santiago were to emerge as winner of the coming Presidential election. She would hit the ground running.

Hackers stole the money from the Bangladesh Bank’s account with the Federal Reserve Bank of New York in February and managed to transfer it electronically to accounts in the Philippines.

Lead police investigator in the case, Shah Alam, said “at least 20 people from multiple foreign countries” have been found to have been involved with the robbery.

“We’ve found concrete evidence that these people were involved in the heist,” Alam told AFP, without giving any details.

“We cannot disclose their identity at the moment as it might hamper our investigation.”

Bangladesh’s ambassador in Manila, John Gomes, said the hackers were from nations other than the Philippines.

Alam said officers would seek assistance from Interpol in a bid to arrest the foreigners.

Investigators had earlier said local hackers were likely involved as “the names of local development projects were used in the payment advices sent to the Federal Reserve Bank”.

Earlier this month, detectives found suspicious malwares in the central bank’s computer system which had been sending information to Egypt, although it is unclear whether this played a role in the heist.

The spectacular cyber-theft has embarrassed the government, triggered outrage in the impoverished country and raised alarm over the security of Bangladesh’s foreign exchange reserves of more than $27 billion. AFP

Next logical Comelec move toward informing voters THE morning after Election Day, the Filipino people are going to wake up to find a whole pile of motherhood statements that Miriam Defensor Santiago, Mar Roxas, Rodrigo Duterte, Grace Poe and Jejomar Binay have made during the course of the Presidential campaign but they will not find the program of government complete with specific details of how each of the candidates intends to deal with many important problems—political, economic, social and diplomatic—facing this country. Motherhood is good, but specifics are better.

The revival by the Commission on Elections (Comelec) of the Presidential-debates series was a big step in the right direction, making possible, as it did, the statement by the candidates—in debate style—their respective views on the issues comprising the nation’s agenda. An excellent next step for the Comelec to take, for the 2019 and 2022 elections, would be for each of the candidates to submit, for dissemination among the electorate, a paper outlining his or her

position on key national issues and the specific actions he or she intends to take in furtherance of that position. The specificity to which such a paper—call it a white paper— will give rise will have the effect of making the Presidential and Vice-Presidential debates more focused and substantive.

Truth to tell, with only a few exceptions, the five Presidential and six Vice-Presidential candidates have yet to offer specific ideas on a number of critically important issues confronting the nation. These areas include tax reform, energy policy and climate change, mining policy, environmental protection, agricultural productivity in the coming days.

Nor has any of them put forward a program for strengthening the nascent move toward renewable sources of energy.

All of the candidates have been paying abundant lip service to strengthening agriculture, providing support for productivity enhancement and raising farm incomes. But not one of them has laid out a coherent and detailed program for bringing about the desiderata. Everyone knows, or should know, that the rain-dependent character of Philippine agriculture makes a network of functioning irrigation canals vital to the productivity of Philippine farms. But none of the

candidates had much to say about irrigation.

One of them even seemed to have trouble pronouncing the word.

The Presidential candidates should know that every credible assessment of this country’s economic prospects points to infrastructure deficiency as one of the principal deterrents to a stronger inflow of FDI (foreign direct investment) into this country. But the candidates have not gone behind making vague statements about the virtues of FDI and its impact on the GDP (gross domestic product). Neither Poe nor Roxas nor Duterte nor Santiago nor Binay has indicated how he/she intends to do things differently, FDI-wise, if he or she were elected on May 9. Unless specific changes are effected in this country’s approach to FDI attraction, the Presidentialdebate dialogue will be the same in the run-up to the 2022 election.

Access by the lower-income groups to public tertiary education surely is one of the indicators of inclusive economic growth.

More than that, greater access to the SUC (State universities and colleges) by students from lower-income families is assuredly one of the keys to the stability and strengthening of Philippine democracy. But beyond

motherhood statements about the need for a strong SUC sector, none of the Presidential candidates has stated out in detail his or her approach to meeting the financial requirements of the University of the Philippines system, PUP (Polytechnic University of the Philippines) and the dozens of struggling and grossly under-financed provincial universities and colleges.

The Presidential candidates obviously believe that Filipino voters who attend their campaign sorties will allow them to get away with simply making motherhood statements. Not all voters feel that way, though.

Many want specifics and details so that they can make truly informed choices.

This brings me back to the suggestion I made at the outset of this column. After the Presidential debates series, Comelec’s next logical election enhancement step should be requiring the Presidential and Vice-Presidential candidates in 2022—even the Senatorial candidates in 2019—to submit, for dissemination among the voters, a paper containing specifics for dealing with the most important urgent issues facing the nation.

E-mail: rudyromero777@yahoo.com

T U E S D AY : A P R I L 2 6 , 2 0 1 6

WORLD

CESAR BARRIOQUINTO EDITOR

editorial@thestandard.com.ph

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More US troops bound for Syria HANOVER—US President Barack Obama was on Monday set to announce plans to send up to 250 more special forces to Syria, stepping up military assistance to the rebels as a ceasefire falters.

Obama was in Germany for talks with Chancellor Angela Merkel, and both were to be joined later by the leaders of Britain, France and Italy in a meeting expected to focus on the fight against the Islamic State group.

On Sunday Obama had pressed for all parties to the Syrian conflict, including the regime’s ally Russia, to return to the negotiating table and “reinstate” an internationally-brokered ceasefire.

“I spoke to President Vladimir Putin early last week to try to make sure that we could reinstate the cessation of hostilities,” Obama told a news conference in the northern city of Hanover.

That was the clearest indication yet that the White House believes the ceasefire has all but disintegrated as regime and rebel bombardments claimed 26 lives Sunday.

Eight weeks into the declared truce between President Bashar al-Assad’s regime and non-jihadist rebels, violence has escalated around Aleppo, with dozens killed by government air strikes and rebel rockets.

The surge in fighting and stalled peace talks in Geneva have dimmed hopes that the ceasefire would lay the groundwork for finally resolving Syria’s devastating five-year conflict.

The White House has argued that the ceasefire, while imperfect, is worth pursuing and is the only way out of the brutal war, which has sparked a major refugee crisis in the region and Europe.

But its stance is bringing Washington and its allies into ever more conflict with rebel groups on the ground, which continue to be on the receiving end of regime attacks.

Deputy National Security Advisor Ben Rhodes said Obama would on Monday announce his decision to deploy to Syria another 250 special forces.

“This brings the number of US special forces to roughly 300,” he said.

US troops in Syria are mandated to advise and assist Syrian rebel

and anti-Islamic State forces.

“What we have seen is the small team that we have put in to Syria several months ago has been very effective in serving as a force multiplier. They are able to provide advice and support to the forces that are fighting against ISIL on the ground,” Rhodes

said, using another acronym for IS. Pressure on Obama is increasing in the United States, which is the throes of a fiercely fought presidential election race, and from European allies who want to halt the massive influx of refugees.

Many of Obama’s critics have called for

a safe zone to be established.

But he insisted that his refusal “is not a matter of an ideological objection on my part”.

“As a practical matter, sadly, it is very difficult to see how it would operate short of us essentially being willing to militarily take over a big chunk of that country.”

OFFICE OF THE SECRETARY

OFFICE OF THE SECRETARY Series of 2016

Memorandum Circular No. 004 Direct Licensing and Spin-off Terms under the Agriculture Industry that would be Considered as “Fair” to the Government Funding Agency (GFA) and/or Research and Development Institute (RDI) for Fast Tracked Issuance of Fairness Opinion Report (FOR) under Republic Act No. 10055, otherwise known as the “Philippine Technology Transfer Act of 2009” ___________________________________________________________________ SUBJECT:

Per the recommendation of the Industry-based FOB duly constituted for the Agriculture Industry pursuant to DOST Special Order No. 176 s. 2016 dated 21 March 2016, the following requirements and terms shall be considered “FAIR” to the GFA and/or RDI for fast tracked issuance of FOR: A. FOR DIRECT LICENSING

The following requirements must be satisfied before the proposed transaction shall be assessed: Fair Market Value: Not exceeding P10,000,000

Direct Licensing and Spin-off Terms under the Electronics Industry that would be Considered as “Fair” to the Government Funding Agency (GFA) and/or Research and Development Institute (RDI) for Fast Tracked Issuance of Fairness Opinion Report (FOR) under Republic Act No. 10055, otherwise known as the “Philippine Technology Transfer Act of 2009” ______________________________________________________ Per the recommendation of the Industry-based FOB duly constituted for the Electronics Industry pursuant to DOST Special Order No. 172 s. 2016 dated 21 March 2016, the following requirements and terms shall be considered “FAIR” to the GFA and/or RDI for fast tracked issuance of FOR:

(1) Basic Requirements The following requirements must be satisfied before the proposed transaction shall be assessed:

Types of IP: • Patents, UMs, Industrial Designs (IDs) and Trade Secrets

Eligibility of Licensee: If Sole Proprietor:

Eligibility of Licensee: a. If Sole Proprietor: • Registered at the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) • Filipino citizen • Equity at least equivalent to the cost of developing the technology (R&D Cost) or Value of the technology but not below P 500,000.00 • With existing facilities • At least three (3) years of existence

Registered at the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) Filipino citizen With Audited Financial Statement for the past three (3) years With existing facilities At least three (3) years of existence

If a corporation, partnership or cooperative: b1. b2. b3. b4. b5.

SUBJECT:

Cost of developing the technology (R&D Cost) OR Value of the technology: • Not exceeding P2,000,000

Types of IP: Patents, UMs and Trade Secrets

b.

Memorandum Circular No. 003

A. FOR DIRECT LICENSING

(1) Basic Requirements

a1. a2. a3. a4. a5.

Registered at the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) Domestic With Audited Financial Statement for the past three (3) years.

With existing facilities At least three (3) years of existence

b.

(2) Terms in the proposed transaction The following terms shall be the basis in the determination whether the proposed transaction is “Fair” to the GFA or to the RDI: Financial terms: a.

Royalty rates: At least 1% from the gross sales. If the agreement is exclusive, at least 5% from the gross sales.

Note: The TLA should contain performance milestones b.

United States into another ground war in the Muslim world.

In an interview with the BBC aired Sunday, Obama said that “it would be a mistake for the United States, or Great Britain, or a combination of Western states to send in ground troops and overthrow the Assad regime.” AFP

Republic of the Philippines DEPARTMENT OF SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY

Republic of the Philippines DEPARTMENT OF SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY

a.

Obama has come under criticism for his handling of Syria’s war, with opponents saying he could have done more to stem the bloodshed.

But the US president—who came to power vowing to withdraw US troops from Iraq and Afghanistan— has stood pat in his opposition to plunging the

If a corporation, partnership or cooperative: • Registered with the SEC • Domestic • Equity at least equivalent to the cost of developing the technology (R&D Cost) OR Value of the technology but not below P 1,000,000.00 • With existing facilities • At least three (3) years of existence

(2) Terms of the proposed transaction The following terms shall be the basis in the determination if the proposed transaction can be declared as “Fair” to the GFA or to the RDI, on the condition that the licensing agreement contains performance milestones: Financial terms: a. Royalty rates: At least 2% from the gross sales. b. Licensing fee: At least 2% of the cost of developing the technology (R&D Cost).

Exclusivity: * Non-Exclusive (with or without field of use or geographic limitation)

Licensing fee: At least 1% of the Fair Market Value of the technology.

Exclusivity: Both Exclusive and Non-Exclusive (with or without field of use or geographic limitation), subject to the above royalty rates.

Sub-licensing: With written consent/upon the discretion of the Licensor Effectivity / Term: a. For Patents and Trade Secrets: At least five (5) years, renewable b. For UMs and IDs: At least three (3) years or the Life of the UM/ID

Sub-licensing: With written consent/upon the discretion of the Licensor Effectivity / Term: a.

For patents and trade secrets: At least five (5) years, renewable

B. FOR SPIN-OFFS

b.

For UMs and IDs: At least three (3) years or the life of the UM or ID

(1) Basic Requirements

B. FOR SPIN-OFFS

The following requirements must be satisfied before the proposed transaction shall be assessed:

(1) Basic Requirements

Cost of developing the technology (R&D Cost) OR Value of the technology: • Not exceeding P2,000,000

The following requirements must be satisfied before the proposed transaction shall be assessed: Fair Market Value of the technology: Not exceeding P10,000,000.

Types of IP: Patents and UMs, industrial design, and trade secrets Eligibility: a.

Who can spin-off? a1. Employee who is still in the service with the RDI, whether or not a member of the research team that developed the technology, during the license period; or a2. The RDI that developed the technology.

b.

Type of spin-off: Corporation or partnership, with full or partial investment from the RDI. Draft SEC or DTI Registration Form should be attached together with proposed business plan.

c.

FOR request should also contain secondment/leave form, and an indication from RDI that researcher will be allowed. Researcher/member of research team to present leave of absence1 and waiver by RDI of conflict of interest. 2

(2) Terms in the proposed transaction The following terms shall be the basis in the determination whether the proposed transaction is “Fair” to the GFA or to the RDI: Financial terms: a.

Royalty rates: At least 1% from the gross sales. If the agreement is exclusive, at least 5% from the gross sales.

b.

Upfront fee: Non-required.

If exclusive without field of use or geographic limitations, full scale FOB evaluation is required.

Effectivity / Term: For patents and trade secrets: At least five (5) years, renewable.

b.

For UMs and IDs: At least three (3) years or the life of the UM or ID.

1. See RA 10055 IRR, Chap. VI, Rule 16 2. See RA 10055 IRR, Chap. VI, Rule 18

b.

c. d.

Type of spin-off: Corporation or partnership, without government funding support; government support may come in the form of Technology Business Incubator (TBI) space/ facility. Draft articles of incorporation or partnership should be attached together with the proposed business plan Capitalization equity: At least equivalent to the cost of the technology (R&D cost), or value of the technology, or value of the transaction; but not below P500,000.00.

FOR request should also contain secondment/leave form, and an indication from RDI that researcher will be allowed. Researcher/member of research team to present leave of absence and waiver by RDI of conflict of interest.

Start up companies are subject to full blown FOB evaluation.

(2) Terms in the proposed transaction The following terms shall be the basis in the determination if the proposed transaction can be declared as “Fair” to the GFA or to the RDI: Financial terms: a. Royalty rates: At least minimum of industry rate. b. Upfront fee: not required

•

Non-Exclusive (with or without field of use or geographic limitation). If exclusive without field of use or geographic limitations – Full scale FOB evaluation.

Effectivity / Term: a. For Patents and Trade Secrets: At least five years , renewable b. For UMs and IDs: At least three years or the lifetime of the UM/ID

This Circular shall take effect immediately after its complete publication in the Official Gazette or newspaper of general circulation and upon filing at the UP Law Center in accordance with law.

ARIO G. MONTEJO MARIO Secretary

Eligibility of Licensee: a. Who can spin-off • Researcher or any member of the research team • Employee / still in the service with the RDI during the license period

Exclusivity:

Exclusivity: Non-Exclusive (with or without field of use or geographic limitation)

a.

Types of IP: • Patents, UMs, Industrial Design and Trade Secrets

This Circular shall take effect immediately after its complete publication in the Official Gazette or newspaper of general circulation and upon filing at the UP Law Center in accordance with law.

MARIO G. MONTEJO Secretary

( T S - A P R . 2 6 , 2 016)

1. See RA 10055 IRR, Chap. VI, Rule 16 2. See RA 10055 IRR, Chap. VI, Rule 18

( T S - A P R . 2 6 , 2 016)

T U E S D AY : A P R I L 2 6 , 2 0 1 6

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CESAR BARRIOQUINTO EDITOR

editorial@thestandard.com.ph

WORLD

Tulips in the snow. Blooming tulips are covered in snow on a field in Hohenschaeftlarn, southern Germany, on April 25, 2016. A low-pressure zone over northern and eastern Europe brought polar air with cold temperatures and snow to Bavaria. AFP

Fears mount in quake-hit Nepal LANGTANG, Nepal—Former guest house owner Tenzing Lama remembers when foreign tourists thronged Nepal’s Langtang valley, trekking through the breathtaking Himalayan wilderness and soaking up the tranquility.

But the massive earthquake that ripped through Nepal one year ago, killing almost 9,000 people, obliterated the valley, part of the country’s oldest national park, along with the tourism industry on which it relied.

Villagers have since returned to the valley and started the Herculean task of clearing trails and rebuilding homes and guest houses flattened in a massive quake-triggered avalanche.

But as is the case in the rest of the country, trekkers and backpackers have so far stayed away, leaving already desperate locals facing an uncertain future.

“Every family here depended on tourism. One hundred percent of our economy came from that,” said

Lama, 45, who grew up in Langtang village which was decimated by the avalanche that sent huge blocks of ice barreling through the valley.

As a boy, Lama often saw foreigners passing through his village, where they would sometimes stop for a meal or an overnight stay, sharing chocolates with local children, during days-long trekking expeditions.

By the time he built his own guest house in 2000, the valley was enjoying a tourism boom, with Langtang village alone hosting dozens of lodges that served up everything from Nepali staples of lentils and rice to trekker favorites like apple pie.

When the avalanche struck on April 25, killing his brother, niece and nephew and burying hundreds

of neighbors and friends in rubble, Lama and other survivors were evacuated to Kathmandu until the valley was deemed safe.

The disaster killed 283 locals and 43 foreign visitors in the valley, according to police.

Many villagers like Lama have since taken rebuilding matters into their own hands, carrying sacks of supplies along steep, hilly paths and repairing trails and lodges on their own.

“I had nothing left... but then, as time passed, I thought I should go back, I should try and rebuild my life, my guest house,” the father-offour told AFP. When the earthquake struck, triggering avalanches and landslides, many backpackers were stranded for days in remote, mountainous areas accessible only by helicopter.

Terrified foreigners fled the Himalayan nation and many prospective tourists canceled bookings, even avoiding popular trekking routes such as the Annapurna trail, which escaped the carnage unscathed. AFP

Coalition says over 800 Al-Qaeda fighters killed MARIB, Yemen—Yemeni troops backed by Arab coalition air strikes killed more than 800 members of Al-Qaeda in an attack on a southeastern provincial capital held by the group for the past year, the coalition said Monday Pro-government forces recaptured an oil terminal as well as the city of Mukalla, which was considered a jihadist stronghold, military sources said.

“The operation resulted... in the death of more than 800 Al-Qaeda members and some of their leaders, while some others fled,” Arab coalition commanders said in a statement published by SPA, the official Saudi news agency.

The death toll could not be independently confirmed and no

indication was given of civilian casualties.

The operation was part of a wider offensive aimed at securing parts of the country captured by jihadist militants who have exploited a 13-month war between Gulf-backed loyalists and rebels supported by Iran.

It coincides with UN-brokered peace talks in Kuwait after a ceasefire entered into effect on April 11, but from which jihadists groups are excluded.

“We entered the city center [of Mukalla] and were met by no resistance from Al-Qaeda militants who withdrew west” towards the vast desert in Hadramawt and Shabwa provinces, a military officer told AFP by phone from the city the jihadists seized last April. AFP

Australians mark Anzac Day in France

Tribute. People attend Anzac Day in tribute to the Australian and New Zealander soldiers killed in combat a the Australian Memorial of the World War I battle of the Somme in Villers-Bretonneux on April 25. AFP

VILLERS-BRETONNEUX, France—Some 5,000 Australians will mark Anzac Day on Monday with a dawn service in northern France to honor their forebears who fought in the Battle of the Somme a century ago.

“It puts it all in perspective to come here,” Peter Crowle, 69, whose grandfather died in the battle, told AFP. “The conditions they were subjected to were hell on earth.”

The governor general of Australia, Sir Peter John Cosgrove, will be among the dignitaries on hand for the ceremonies in the town of VillersBretonneux, recalling the nearly five-

month battle in 1916 that saw more than a million casualties on both the Allied and German sides.

It is “an opportunity to remember more than 102,000 who have given their lives for our nation,” Major General Dave Chalmers of Australia’s veterans affairs department told AFP. The Battle of the Somme came to symbolize the futility of World War I. Each of the 141 days of trench warfare led to some 8,500 casualties, but for all that the Western Front shifted no more than a few kilometers.

For the Australian volunteers, the sacrifice began with a sea jour-

ney lasting up to four months, and those returning alive were but “mangled human freight”, as one poet of the time described them.

The spirit shown by the Anzac troops has long been seen as critical in forging a national identity in Australia as well as in New Zealand, both fledgling nations at the time.

Anzac Day commemorates the landing of the Australian and New Zealand Army Corp (ANZAC) on the Gallipoli peninsula on April 25, 1915, at the start of an eight-month campaign against the Ottoman Empire in which 8,700 Australians and nearly 2,800 New Zealanders died. AFP

tuesday : april 26, 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, Cu lt u re & t eCH

LIFE

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A gRAnD DISplAy Of bOnSAI AnD suiseki

t

he Bonsai and Suiseki Alliance of the Philippines, Inc. (BSAPI) 2016 National Show The Black Scissors Open Competition and Exhibition with the theme “A display of quality bonsai and suiseki from the country’s finest” will be held on April 28-May 8, at the flower garden of the Quezon Memorial Circle, Quezon City. The show will be a mix of activities such as display of quality bonsai and stones, an acoustic night, guided tours, and various workshops and demonstrations for bonsai and suiseki (stone appreciation) enthusiasts.

BSAPI said the show aims to showcase quality bonsai of collectors, enthusiasts and hobbyists in an educational and nontraditional manner. The group hopes to attract at least 800-1,000 visitors per day by inviting schools with summer classes, providing activities for different age brackets (kids, wives and budding hobbyists) and other stakeholders. Trade booths are invited to participate and promote bonsai culture.

The alliance has opened the competition to all hobbyists, enthusiasts, and collectors from its affiliated clubs, associations and friends.

The competition will be judged using the BSAPI Competition Guidelines, while the awards will cover four categories: bonsai, suiseki, penjing (bonsai landscaping) and the Pinoy Tropical Bonsai and Art Display.

Aside from the gold, silver and bronze awards for the bonsai, suiseki and penjing categories, special awards will also be given away such as Best in Daiza, Best in Stone Preparation, Best in Formed Stone, Best in Viewing Stone and Best in Spirit (abstract) Stone for suiseki. Cash prizes also await the winners of the Pinoy Tropical Bonsai and Art Display category.

The guest judges will be Robert Steven, international master (Indonesia); Lnvinh Lam Ngoc Vinh, international master (Vietnam); Pui Khiang, president, Malaysia Bonsai and Suiseki Society; Xu Hao, international master (China); and Su Fang, international master (China).

The demo-workshop sessions will tackle Bonsai Basics, Advance Bonsai, Penjing, Suiseki and Bonsai Accents.

The art of bonsai (which literally means “a tree in a pot”) has been around since the 13th century, tracing its origins in China although it was the Japanese who developed the art form. The first bonsai were wild trees that were dwarfed by nature, which the Japanese then collected and transplanted in pots. Over the years, the various techniques of growing bonsai – from pruning to wiring – have been refined and today, these miniature trees have become a source of beauty and enjoyment.

Suiseki (which is a combination of “sui” or water and “seki,” or stone), on the other hand, refers to the appreciation and study of naturally formed stones that are reminiscent of natural forms such as mountains, lakes, animals, waterfalls and many others.

The BSAPI is the national group of local organizations of hobbyists, beginners, enthusiasts and collectors of bonsai and suiseki. Every other year, the organization conducts a national show with entries from the provinces of Ilocos, Pangasinan, Pampanga, Nueva Ecija, Bulacan, Laguna, Cavite, Rizal, part of the Visayas and Mindanao as well as Metro Manila. The aim of the show is to promote the appreciation for the art and to share the natural beauty of these miniature trees and stones to the public.

For more information on BSAPI, contact Darwin Valenciano at 09209080792 or 09175232963. You may also visit BSAPI on Facebook.

Bonsai hobbyists, enthusiasts and collectors will compete for top awards during The Black Scissors Open Competition and Exhibition at the BSAPI 2016 National Show

tuESday : aprIL 26, 2016

C2

LIFE life @ thestandard.com .ph

@LIFEatStandard

ARTS AND CULTURE ROUNDUP What’s on in theaters and galleries this week

ExhibiTS Compose/Suction Galleria Quattrocento, Bonifacio Global City, Taguig Ongoing until April 27

TAPAS. Spanish Design for Food Tall Galleries, Metropolitan Museum of Manila, Manila Ongoing until June 1

Five artists from the Philippine Women’s University explore the progression, adaptation, immersion and absorption of composition in visual art making from the modern period up to present in this group exhibition.

Known as the Malvar Artists Group, the Fine Arts students present their works that dissect the subject.

Balajadia’s sculptures and installations revolve around his lifelong investigation on the role of radical ecology in the present situation of changing climate.

Meanwhile, De Leon’s intricate paintings and sculptures are metaphors of his personal and social advocacies and expressions.

More than 200 products designed by Spaniards that showcase the interaction between design and gastronomy are currently on exhibit here in the Philippines. According to curator Juli Capella, the show is a tribute to the origins of the word “tapa,” the Tapas tradition and the imagination and talent that made it possible for design to play a vital role in haute cuisine.

Spanish chefs, designers, architects, wineries and restaurants reflect the last 25 years of Spain’s avant-garde experimental blending of design and food. Aside from

Garcia’s personal struggle on her quest for perfection amid her premise of making mistakes, meantime, is her ironic way of creating images with the help of technology.

Madrigal’s image making formula, on the other hand, is based on his intention to confound and confuse his viewers by creating works that somehow have the ability to create impulses of decoration in between humor and irony. Rounding up the exhibition is Verayo’s work that explores the semiotic and cunning combination of figurative and abstracted images with the help of his mastery in coloring.

instruments, photographs, videos and installations, legendary Spanish culinary icons are also featured, including the paella pan, traditional wineskins and flasks, bota, botijo and porrón.

A large collection of wine bottles, whose bold and appealing labels made them stand out, and an audiovisual presentation featuring a selection of interior design in Spanish restaurants are also included in this exhibit.

To know more about the show, call (02) 708-7828 or email info@metmuseum.ph.

For more information on this exhibit, call (02) 823-0935 or 0917-8911322.

Splash of Colors Museo Iloilo, Bonifacio Drive, Iloilo May 2 to 31 Ilonggo artist Anton Chan exhibits her recent works in this show in her hometown. Mostly inspired by impressionists like Vincent van Gogh, Edgar Degas and Claude Monet, the paintings on display feature flowers and landscapes that lack in details but are alive with bold colors.

Chan first received her painting lessons from Fernando Kabigting before she pursued further studies in London under Ewelina Koszykowska.

“I have been drawn towards visual arts since childhood,” shared Chan.

“Now in my golden years, I am fortunate to have a passion that keeps me happily busy while at the same time helping my advocacy of schooling opportunities for the less fortunate.”

wORkShOPS Basic Creative Writing for Young Adults Ayala Museum, Makati City May 2, 4 and 6; 9:00 a.m. to 12:00 p.m.

Romance fiction author (Fairy Tale Fail and That Kind of Guy) and publisher Mina Esguerra will teach young adults (12 to 18 years old) with a knack for writing and storytelling how to tap their creative juices and hone their skills in this three-day workshop.

According to the facilitator, by the end of the session, the teenage participants are expected to be on

their way to writing their first story or poem.

The P5,000 workshop fee includes handouts, materials, snacks, a certificate, one-day free admission to the museum and one-day free access to the library. For inquiries, call Marj Villaflores at (02) 757-7117 to 21 local 25 or email villaflores.md@ayalafoundation.org.

The proceeds from the sale of her artworks will go to Hansel & Gretel School for Aetas in Bicol.

tuESday : aprIL 26, 2016

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proFIL HoLIdayS turnS SILvEr, LauncHES mobILE app For FILIpIno travELErS

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eading travel and tour company Profil Holidays recently celebrated 25 years in the industry, marking the celebration with the launch of Travel Scout, a multifunctional app designed to enrich the journey of all travel enthusiasts.

Profil, which stands for “professional Filipinos,” has been helping thousands of Filipinos explore various countries in five continents and giving them unforgettable travel experiences.

A 100 percent Filipino-owned company, Profil Holidays had its beginnings in a single 20-square foot room at the height of the Gulf War, fueled by a dream to provide Filipinos with services that set the benchmark in the travel and leisure industry. Since then, Profil Holidays had enabled Filipinos to see the world and enrich their experience through traveling.

“I’ve had my fair share of travels.

Seeing new ground helps one gain wisdom and perspective through the varying environment, mentalities, and cultures that broaden minds and help us think outside the box. This is particularly helpful in our quest to meet and surpass the current standards in the travel and leisure industry,” shares Rosanna Inciong, general manager of Profil Holidays.

Profil’s newly launched Travel Scout is a n all-in-one social travel and utility mobile app that can be downloaded on App Store and Google Play for free.

What’s best about it is that it can be used even without Internet connection once it’s been downloaded. The key features include a currency converter, a multicity weather forecast, a world clock, a travel checklist (to make sure you don’t forget the essentials), a travel guide, and an expense calculator to manage travel spends and costs.

Profil Holidays is also acknowledged as a pioneer when it comes to better itineraries with more exciting destinations. “Over the years, Profil Holidays was able to expand its network by having it built on strong relationship with more than 300 partners, 45 land handlers, 15 sightseeing firms, 10 hotel firms, two appointed general sales agents, and a fleet of partner airline companies,” added Inciong, who also

Profil Holidays sales director Benilo Tabang and Profil Holidays general manager Rosanna Inciong

shared that about 60 percent of the sales the company generated in previous years are mostly from European packages, followed by Mediterranean packages and Holy Land tours.

To mark its 25th year, Profil Holidays also introduced six new travel packages and a new and exciting tagline: “Always, the best experience.”

“We will not be successful in this industry without the trust and confidence of our partners, so we want to always ensure that what they get from us will always be the best experience,” Inciong shared.

Profil Holidays is a subsidiary of TAC Tours and Travel Corporation providing service to travel agents and tour operators in the Philippines, flying Filipinos to more than 100 countries around Europe, Africa, Asia, Australia, New Zealand, and the Americas. Visit the 4F/P Cynros Bldg., 513 Alonzo, Malate, Metro Manila or log on to www.profilholidays.com.

Follow Profil Holidays on Facebook.

– Charmaine Loveria

Travel Scout is an all-in-one social travel and utility mobile app that can be downloaded on App Store and Google Play

Last call for entries to 66th palanca awards

Carlos Palanca Memorial Awards for Literature Hall of Fame awardee Dr. Alice Tan Gonzales (center)

The Carlos Palanca Foundation, Inc., has announced its last call for entries to the 66th Palacna Award, with deadline set at midnight of April 30.

This year’s Palanca Awards is accepting entries for the following categories: Short Story, Short Story for Children, Essay, Poetry, Poetry Written for Children, Oneact Play, and Full-length Play (English Division); Maikling Kuwento, Maikling Kuwentong Pambata, Sanaysay, Tula, Tulang Para sa mga Bata, Dulang May Isang Yugto, Dulang Ganap ang Haba, and Dulang Pampelikula (Filipino Division); Short Story-Cebuano, Short StoryHiligaynon, and Short Story-Ilokano (Regional Languages Division).

Only one entry per category may be submitted.

The Kabataan Division which is exclusive to young writers under the age of 18 has the theme, “How do social media affect the formation of self-identity in the youth?” (Kabataan Essay) and “Paano makaaapekto ang ‘social media’ sa paghubog ng sariling pagkakakilanlan sa mga kabataan?” (Kabataan Sanaysay).

Not open this year are the Novel and Nobela. The announcement of winners will be on September 1.

Submit entries at Palanca Foundation offices at Unit 603, 6th Floor Park Trade Centre Bldg., 1716 Investment Drive, Madrigal Business Park, Ayala Alabang, Muntinlupa City; Unit 3G, OPL Bldg., 100 C. Palanca St., Legaspi Village, Makati City, or through the CPMA website at www.palancaawards.com.ph.

For more information, you may contact cpawards@palancaawards.com.ph or call (632) 511-0003 or +639253887103. Look for Leslie Layoso.

tuESday : aprIL 26, 2016

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@LIFEatStandard

Silken VoiceS, Silken RoadS Marco Polo ortigas Manila eMbarks on a cultural journey PhotoS by StaR SabRoSo

t

he Grand Ballroom of Marco Polo Ortigas Manila reverberated with the sound of well-loved opera songs from talented performers who serenaded guests who celebrated the hotel’s second anniversary with a grand affair.

“Dubbed as the Silken Voices, Silken Roads: An Opera Gala Dinner,” the event held last April 18 celebrated the 24-year journey of Venetian traveler Marco Polo through the Silk Road, with elegantly-dressed guests who experienced a virtual travel from West to East in one delightful evening.

The Silk Road journey began with a Venetian collection of couture pieces by fashion designer Renee Salud, who took inspiration from the place that impressed the young Marco Polo and made him dream of traveling to places far and beyond.

As models stood in the middle of the grand ballroom, canapes from Spain, China, and the Philippines were served, especially made by executive chef Lluis Pesarrodona.

Chinese Black Marinated Fungus and Mahi Mahi Crudo were just some of the savory dishes served to guests who were warmly welcomed by general manager Frank Reichenbach.

The culinary journey certainly paid homage to Marco Polo’s fascination with Europe. As the audience listened in rapt appreciation to Asia’s Got Talent runner-up Gerphil Flores and the Philippine Opera Company and Francisco Aseniero perform Italian opera song “Libiamo,” the satisfying appetizer of Italian Beef Tenderloin Carpaccio paired with a delightful 2014 Banfi Placido Pinot Grigio from Italy was served.

The intrepid traveler also went through the Middle East, an exotic region that became the inspiration for “Lakme,” a threeact opera with the song performed

by Philippine Opera Company’s Karla Gutierrez and Marian Santiago. This also gave way for the feast of Baby Calamari and Roasted Duck, a walk through Asian cuisine. Continuing the journey through Middle East was

violinist Joseph Brian Cimafranca with a contemporary piece, “Kashmir,” and a savory dish – the Chicken Kebab with orangeflavored hummus and dried fruits.

Gerphil Flores showcased her versatile talent with “Un Bel Di,” the most famous aria from Puccini’s Madama Butterfly, followed by a dish the brings a taste of China, the Stir-fried Lapu-lapu and Tiger Prawn in XO Sauce and Soft Tofu.

The world-class dish became even more enjoyable as Marian Santiago, tenor Christian Nagaño and baritone Lawrence Jatayna together with tenor Francisco Aseniero sang some of the most moving love songs, “Kismet” and “And This Is Beloved.”

China is truly the nation that made a big impact on Marco Polo’s journey because of the country’s rich and colorful culture. From his homeland in the West to the East where he made endless discoveries, Marco Polo Ortigas Manila celebrated the traveler’s milestones with the hotel’s pasta medley of Lemon Ricotta Tortellini and Fried Noodles with Scallops. The savory dish was followed by the very heartfelt rendition of “Yours Is My Heart Alone” and “When He Speaks” by Francisco Aseniero.

After 23 years, Marco Polo then returned to Italy – bringing with him a rich treasure trove of experiences and tales about the different cultures and practices from the different regions where he traveled. Topping off the culinary journey were scrumptious desserts from the country that always brings the best of the best – France. A French-type cake made with layers of almond sponge Joconde soaked in coffee syrup were enjoyed by guests while listening to “Funiculi Funicala” and “O Sole Mio.” And for one wonderful and magical night, the hotel brought its west to an amazing journey from the West to the East. The successful cultural journey definitely augurs more exciting things to come with Marco Polo Ortigas Manila set to celebrate this cultural journey every year.

From left: Karla Gutierrez, Francisco Aseniero, Marian Santiago, Asia’s Got Talent second runner-up Gerphil Flores, Marco Polo Ortigas Manila general manager Frank Reichenbach, Lawrence Jatayna and Renee Salud

For more information on Marco Polo Ortigas Manila, contact (632) 720 7777 or email communication.mnl@marcopolohotels.com. Visit facebook.com/MarcoPoloOrtigasManila or follow @MarcoPoloManila on Twitter or Instagram.

Marco Polo Ortigas Manila celebrated its second anniversary by paying tribute to the milestones of Venetian traveler Marco Polo during his 24-year sojourn to the East through the famed Silk Road. Dubbed as ‘Silken Voices, Silken Roads: An Opera Gala Dinner,’ the elegant affair showcased models in Renee Salud creations, and guests were serenaded with operatic pieces rendered by the talented Gerphil Flores, Francisco Aseniero, Karla Gutierrez and Marian Santiago with music from the Philippine Opera Company.

t uES DAy : A pRIl 26, 2016

SHOWBITZ

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NEw TV sERIEs RaNks NO. 1

uperheroes aren’t born. Well, maybe with the exception of a few. But as far as the rest are concerned, the storyline is simple: they start out as ordinary as they come as, normal human beings living their normal lives when all of a sudden, a seismic shift happens.

Sara Lance’s (played by Caity Lotz) transformation is one of such stories, but is no less an incredible one. Best known for her role as the Black Canary in Arrow, Sara emerges from the depths of the Lazarus Pit and is reincarnated in DC’s Legends of Tomorrow as the White Canary – a hardened, self-assured assassin, left to fend for herself.

White Canary is known to possess extraordinary agility, stamina and stealth, and to say that she is skilled in unarmed combat while still able to hold her own as a weapons master is an understatement.

After all, White Canary is defined by her martial arts prowess.

As a martial arts expert, Sara’s character arc requires Lotz to act as convincingly as possible. Perhaps calling in the help of a stunt double or two would make things easier. However, with all the finesse and flair that come with the job, don’t be shock to find out that this super heroine performs her own stunts and fight scenes.

Lotz is in fact an accomplished parkourist. Her dedication to the craft led her to train in Filipino martial arts, like Arnis, under the tutelage of Dan Inosanto who has a school in Los Angeles.

“I trained with [Inosanto], who is like a legendary master teacher. When I was training, all I used were two sticks, which represent anything, like swords and bo staff. It was great because now I can pick up any weapon and know how to move, and that style works well for film and television,” Lotz said.

Arnis, also known as Kali or Eskrima, emphasizes weapon-based fighting with sticks, knives, bladed weapons and various improvised weapons. To train in Arnis also means learning hand-to-hand combat, joint locks, grappling and weapon disarming techniques, making it the perfect fighting style for superheroes-intraining. “[The action scenes are] really fun.

It’s hard sometimes when I want more rehearsal time to really be able to get it.

But a lot of times I just have to learn it on set and then do it, which is fine because I have done it for so many years that I can pick it up fast,” she said.

Lotz’s journey as Sara Lance, both in Arrow and DC’s Legends of Tomorrow, can also be described in the same way – she had to learn to pick it up fast.

American actress caity lotz trained in Filipino martial arts, like Arnis, under the tutelage of FilipinoAmerican martial arts instructor Dan Inosanto

caity lotz as Sarah lance, a new recruit in the superhero universe

“It’s interesting to take a very dark character from a very dark world into a show that has a different tone. Keeping that same character and adjusting it to fit the kind of levity that a show has was a bit of a challenge. But as the episodes go on, we get to dive back into that darker Sara which is fine,” Lotz said.

DC’s Legends of Tomorrow brings together a ragtag team of superheroes – a combination of characters and even villains from The Flash and Arrow, along with fresh new faces from the DC Comics pantheon: Ray Palmer a.k.a The Atom, Sara Lance a.k.a White Canary, Leonard Snart a.k.a Captain Cold and his partner Mick Rory a.k.a. Heat Wave, Professor Martin Stein and Jefferson “Jax” Jackson forming the meta-human Firestorm and Kendra Saunders a.k.a. Hawkgirl and

Carter Hall a.k.a. Hawkman. Together, they travel to the future to stop the immortal Vandal Savage from wreaking total havoc and utter destruction on an embattled Earth.

Since its debut, DC’s Legends of Tomorrow has been consistently ranking No. 1 in its timeslot. Follow the Legends in their quest to defeat Savage and catch new episodes of DC’s Legends of Tomorrow every Friday, the same day as the US, on Warner TV at 9pm.

Warner TV is available on SKYcable Channel 77, SKYcable HD Channel 197, Cignal HD Channel 119, Destiny Cable (Digital) Channel 77, Destiny Cable (Analog) Channel 80, and Cable Link Channel 30. For more updates on the best in action, comedy and drama, follow on Facebook.com/WarnerTVAsia.

pokwAng now EngAgED to JERIc Wilma’s (Pokwang) dreams are starting to come true one by one now that she has her own hair salon and with Edwin (Jeric Raval) asking her hand for marriage in the Kapamilya afternoon series We Will Survive.

Without telling him he is back in the country, Edwin surprised Wilma as he showed up to express his support during her hair salon opening. As they saw each other once again, their feelings became sweeter and stronger, which led to Edwin’s decision to propose marriage to Wilma.

However, the celebration won’t last long as Jude (John Steven De Guzman) will disapprove of their engagement and will leave the venue unnoticed. The kid’s life will be put to danger when a speeding vehicle approaches Jude. But luckily, a man named PJ will rush to the rescue and save his life. But unknown to everyone, PJ is Pocholo (Carlo Aquino), Jude’s father.

Meanwhile, years have passed but Wilma still has not heard any news from her best friend. But little does she know that Maricel was brought in China by her employers and did not allow her to communicate with her family.

Will there be a way for Maricel to once again see her son? What will Pocholo do to make Jude understand the reason he was gone for years? Will Wilma’s marriage to Edwin still push through despite Jude’s disapproval?

More exciting scenes are set to surprise the viewers in We Will Survive, the teleserye that however ugly the world gets, there is beauty in life as long as we are together, weekdays after Tubig at Langis on ABS-CBN or on ABSCBN HD (SkyCable ch 167).

Viewers may also catch up on the program’s past episodes on iWanTV.com and on skyondemand.com.ph for Sky subscribers.

pokwang teams up with former action star Jeric Raval in the afternoon series “we will Survive”

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t uES DAy : A pRIl 26, 2016

SHOWBITZ

ISAH V. RED EDITOR

isahred @ gmail.com

Julia Roberts joins Jennifer Aniston in a film about unconnected people come to terms with the relationships they have with their mothers

“Mother’s Day” lead stars Jennifer Aniston and Kate Hudson

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‘MotHER’S DAy’ In tHEAtERS on MAy 4

arry Marshall, who moved everyone to tears of joy with his classic and endearing romantic comedies such as Pretty Woman, The Princess Diaries, Beaches, Dear God, New Year’s Eve, and Valentine’s Day, connects the world once again with his latest star-studded movie Mother’s Day starring Julia Roberts, Jennifer Aniston, Kate Hudson and Jason Sudeikis in a celebratory and inspiring story of what Mother’s Day really means to each of them.

Mother’s Day tell the intertwining stories

of mothers and a Mr. Mom as the holiday approaches. Julia Roberts is Miranda, as a television host, Jennifer Aniston plays recently-divorced Sandy, Kate Hudson plays the reluctant daughter and Jason Sudeikis, a widower trying to relate to his daughters.

The movie also stars Timothy Olyphant, Sarah Chalke, Shay Mitchell, Jon Lovitz and Britt Robertson.

Aniston and Sudeikis, who previously worked together in riotous comedies such as We’re The Millers marks their fifth movie

as their characters’ lives are intertwined in Mother’s Day. “With Jason, we’ve been doing movies together which makes it quite fun and comfortable in all the best ways,” Aniston shares.

Further Aniston talks about working with director Garry Marshall, “It’s as if he likes (to) walk with sunshine wherever he goes, and it just shows in his crew, he’s beloved and adored. I think a lot of people are here just to be with him. He also lets us

improve which is fun.”

Veteran director Marshall likewise enthuses on the wondrous things that mothers all over the world have done for their families.

Marshall, known for his heartfelt movies shares that “emotions are good..”

Celebrate the wonder of life, watch Mother’s Day starting May 4 in cinemas – from OctoArts Films International.

Check out the films trailer here: https:// youtu.be/IfjOhlD6_-U

First mobile app for enterprises As part of its commitment to enable a digital nation, Globe Telecom, through its information and communication technology (ICT) arm Globe Business and small and medium enterprise (SME) arm Globe myBusiness, unveiled the country’s first mobile app designed for large and SMEs to drive better customer experience via self-service account management.

Available for free on the App Store for iOS users and on Google Play for Android users, the Globe Business mobile app is a self-service, business automation app that gives enterprise and SME customers easier, faster, and more convenient access to their accounts while on the go, providing better and more personalized user control and eliminating the need to transact with traditional customer service channels.

With the Globe Business mobile app, users can view their account details (account name, account type, billing address, plan details, plan inclusion, DUO number, among others), view their bill details and billing statement, file service modification requests such as changing of SIMs and plans as well as activation of roaming services, get access to service modification request dashboard to allow viewing of requests filed and status, and send remarks and converse with an authorized Globe agent.

In addition, the assigned SPOCs can manage account settings such as on/off viewing of billing statements and autoapprove service modification requests as well as approve service modification requests filed by assignees, allowing Globe Account Managers to manage the needs

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of their clients better by having visibility to their requests and actions via the app.

“The new Globe Business mobile app is yet another innovation that testifies to our commitment to superior customer experience. With the digital revolution changing the way enterprises and SMEs operate, the app will allow our customers to enjoy an all-in-one platform for all their account-related transactions with a swipe, click or tap on their mobile devices, anytime, anywhere,” says Jacq Fuentes, vice president for Customer Experience Operations at Globe.

The Globe Business mobile app has been created to enable customized views and features for every end user’s role. The app has three types of access: Assignee’s access, company SPOC’s access and Account Manager’s access.

Globe Business app is designed for large and SMEs to drive better customer experience

t uES DAy : A pRIl 26, 2016

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OnEREpublIc pERfORMS In MtV MuSIc EVOlutIOn MAnIlA

TV Music Evolution Manila is back for more fun again in the Philippines. Tourism Promotions Board (TPB) Philippines reprises its collaboration with MTV, a unit of Viacom Inc. (NASDAQ: VIAB, VIA), and marks the return of MTV Music Evolution Manila to the Philippines on June 24.

This will be the second year the awardwinning show will be held in the Philippines and in 2016, the one-night only live music event will celebrate pop music like never before – enabling fans to experience and discover the evolution of pop music and its dance influence that keeps fans moving.

MTV Asia reveals its first act, iconic international pop band and prolific hitmaker, OneRepublic, who returns to the Philippines for its second performance since 2013.

“Stoked to be going back to Manila again!

We can’t wait to meet everyone for an awesome dance party at MTV Music Evolution Manila 2016,” says OneRepublic Despite starting their career as an alternative rock band, OneRepublic has emerged as one of the biggest pop bands over the last decade, integrating dance influences successfully in several of their international iconic pop hits like its smash “Counting Stars”, “Secrets”, “Feel Again”, “Love Runs Out” and more. The band has a sound signature recognizable everywhere

American pop rock band OneRepublic joins MtV Music Evolution 2016 happening in June

by its legions of fans, with music played in clubs, including club remixes. OneRepublic has also collaborated with world acclaimed DJs such as Alesso. The band has recently been in the studio recording their 4th album.

MTV Music Evolution Manila 2016 will showcase iconic and contemporary international music artists and the hottest new acts in both the regional and local music scenes on a single stage, while featuring

A nurturing soul The Philippines has long been known as a veritable hub for world-class talents, with a good number of Filipinos having made their mark internationally as singers, actors or musicians.

Truth be told, there are still many gifted Filipinos out there deserving of the limelight. Thankfully, they are not without staunch supporters, among them former Department of Energy Secretary Jericho L. Petilla.

Petilla has been pushing for recognition of local talents through the years, particularly in his native Leyte, organizing such endeavors as the Leyte Idol, a singing tilt.

He would rather not crow about it though, deeming the advocacy but part of his own core values.

“I believe every person should be guided, motivated or pushed somehow by something or maybe someone, to enable them, to help them accomplish their goals in life,” Petilla said.

A personal dream

Among Petilla’s keen desires is to harness Pinoy talent on a global scale.

“I think the government should support initiatives to boost and develop local talent. Activities supporting art, music and sports should always be considered priority programs,” he said.

If elected senator, Petilla plans to support specific programs that point to that. He also aims to help initiatives against music piracy.

“I think piracy is a serious problem in this country inasmuch as it affects both film and music industries. While there are laws against it, the problem is more on implementation. Government

former Department of Energy Secretary Jericho l. petilla

should intensify their campaign to prosecute offenders,” he said.

A fan

Petilla is a huge fan of local films, trying to catch one whenever he can.

“One of my favorite hobbies is watching movies with my wife and our kids. I consider it a good form of bonding,” he said.

Among actors he admires are Jericho Rosales and Anne Curtis.

“I admire Jericho Rosales not because we share the same name but because he is good at what he does. He is a very talented and very passionate actor,” he said.

About Anne, he said, “I like her because she is so versatile.”

To this end, Petilla believes government should also be more active in helping the local movie industry produce more quality films.

He maintained government should help subsidize films that could compete in international film festivals.

“If elected senator I would like to push for legislation that would help our local film industry grow and develop,” he said, noting he would also propel the creation of an expanded film festival that would cover other provinces and not just Metro Manila.

the best of Philippine music and culture to international youth audiences. Further details of MTV Music Evolution Manila 2016, including venue and additions to the artist line-up, will be announced in the run up to the event. The free-entry event is recorded live for global telecast under the MTV World Stage global series, to an international audience of more than three-quarters of a billion households in over 160 countries.

“We’re thrilled to return with MTV

Music Evolution Manila 2016. Manila is an iconic city renowned for its rich music and dance culture. With robust music fans, Manila is naturally one of the top cities for us to return with our music events in Asia,” said Mark Whitehead, executive vice president and managing director, Viacom International Media Networks Asia.

“The 2015 history-making show was a huge success. And, it could not have been possible without the strong collaboration with Tourism Promotions Board (TPB) Philippines. We’re looking forward to delivering an even bigger and better experience with a celebration of pop and its dance influence at MTV Music Evolution Manila 2016, bringing thousands of people from around the Philippines and across Asia.”

“The Philippines is delighted to host MTV Music Evolution Manila 2016 and to make it a mainstay event on ‘Visit the Philippines’ calendar. Last year’s inaugural MTV Music Evolution Manila helped put the Philippines on the map of international music and served as a global stage for the world to be introduced to Filipino acts too. We look forward to welcoming international and regional fans and artists to Manila. And we invite young people to come experience our music culture in the Philippines,” said Domingo Ramon ‘Chicoy’ Enerio III, chief operating officer, Tourism Promotions Board of the Philippines

Retired military officers support Marcos Pledges of support continue to pour into the vice presidential bid of Senator Ferdinand “Bongbong” R. Marcos Jr. Retired generals, colonels and other ranking officers of the Armed Forces of the Philippines threw their “unequivocal support” to his bid for the second highest position.

Retired uniformed officers, led by former AFP Chief of Staff Benjamin Defensor hosted a dinner for the senator in Makati City to express their support to his candidacy.

Defensor said his group is composed of four former chiefs of staff, three former major service commanders and other major commanders of the different forces of the AFP. Those present included former AFP Chiefs of Staff retired

Lt. Gen. Alexander Yano, Lt. Gen. Roy Cimatu, Brig. Gen. Florencio Junio and retired Major Gen. Rene Samonte, Commander of Philippine Air Force among others.

“We are privileged to introduce to you the next Vice President of the Republic of the Philippines, Senator Bongbong Marcos!,” Defensor declared to the roaring applause of the more than 200 people in attendance.

“Si Bongbong ay matagal na sa pulitika at I have seen, I have felt what it is like to be a candidate and I will tell you napakalayo ng lamang nya sa mga kalaban na kapag natalo si Bongbong ngayong halalan, sya ay dinaya,” he said.

He further stated that even if Marcos is leading in the surveys,

the senator (center) with his supporters during a campaign sortie

Vice presidential candidate Senator ferdinand “bongbong” R. Marcos Jr.

the results do not reflect the true sentiment of the voters. “Nakikita natin na mataas sya sa survey pero binabawasan pa yan kasi natatakot ang mga kalaban. Masyadong madikit,” he said.

Defensor also thanked Marcos for taking care of his sister, his presidential running mate Miriam Defensor-Santiago, in the campaign. “I have never seen someone take care of my sister in the campaign and that is the reason why I am returning the favor,” he said.

Marcos, in his speech, expressed his gratitude to the endorsement of the retired officers saying they are the prime example of his message for national unity.

“You are the only people in government who have pledged to lay their lives on the line and you have shown what unity can do for the country’s welfare and this is my very message to the Filipino people - that our nation can be great once again if only we forget about the divisiveness of politics and work together to give our people a progressive future,” he said.

t uES DAy : A pRIl 26, 2016

C8

ISAH V. RED EDITOR NICKIE WANG WRITER

isahred @ gmail.com

SHOWBITZ

DERRIck MOnAsTERIO DEBuTs As REcORDInG ARTIsT ISAH V. RED

I

t’s really impossible to miss the disarming looks and Adonis-like features of Kapuso hunk Derrick Monasterio. But what most people don’t know is that aside from being an effective actor, he also sings very well.

Derrick, who released his self-titled album under GMA Records recently, admits that this is a dream come true for him.

“Pinangarap ko talaga nung bata pa lang ako na magkaroon ng sariling album. Yung makita yung mukha ko sa CD pati na sa mga record stores,” he says.

Growing up, the GMA Artist Center star was a member of a choir and even joined several singing competitions in school. “Singing is my first love. When I was young, I’m part of the choir. So, singing talaga yung roots ko at ‘yun yung isa sa mga gusto kong ma-achieve.

At isang malaking factor din talaga yung pagsali ko sa singing contests sa school para mahasa ako sa pagkanta.”

His album, which comprises seven songs, including the carrier single “Give Me One More Chance”, a cover of Gary Valenciano’s hit “Kailangan Kita,” and a rock track titled “Batobalani.’

Derrick’s album can be downloaded via iTunes, Amazon Music, eMusic and Qobuz, while physical copies are now available at Astroplus, Astro Vision, The Landmark and SM Music and Video record outlets nationwide.

Currently, he is in the hit afternoon prime series Hanggang Makita Kang Muli and Vampire Ang Daddy Ko.

GMA ties up with Facebook for Eleksyon 2016 Leading broadcast news organization GMA News and Public Affairs bolsters its Eleksyon 2016 voter education campaign as it partners with Facebook, rolling out

various projects starting this April.

The tie-up started with the launch of “Para po sa Bayan: The GMA-FB Jeepney” on April 23. Tapping the Philippines’ most popular mode of transportation, the “GMA-FB Jeepney” will take FB users to where the vice presidential candidates will be during campaign period.

GMA News will interview each candidate on board the jeepney, live, using Facebook Live, with questions coming from FB users themselves. The jeepney will also be open to random people a few hours before the actual interview, which will give them the chance to ask the candidate/s questions on video.

On Election Day, the same jeepney will go around key places in Metro Manila to get up close with Filipinos who want to share their stories in relation to their voting experience.

These interviews will be posted live on FB. On top of the blow-by-blow coverage on television and radio, GMA News’ Facebook account will also conduct a series of Q&As and chats throughout election day. Moderated by GMA’s editorial team, the Q&A will be a venue for netizens to talk to resource persons. GMA News will also publish live FB bulletins.

The collaboration between GMA and Facebook is expected to encourage more Filipinos to take an active stance in this year’s presidential elections.

“Social media is changing the way we connect to people,” says GMA News and Public Affairs Senior Vice President Marissa L. Flores. “With elections coming up, GMA News is faced with an even more difficult task of making sure we have an informed electorate, and Facebook has been a key partner in making sure we reach our target. Its huge and highly engaged Filipino user base also puts a spotlight on how we value our democracy and its processes; GMA News appreciates this unique opportunity to encourage lively discourse among voters through our partnership with Facebook,” she adds.

“Facebook is the destination for authentic conversations about politics at scale,” said Ken Teh, APAC Media Partnerships,

Facebook. “It’s a place for Filipinos to learn about candidates, for friends to debate political issues and for candidates to reach voters. Our collaboration with GMA will help viewers engage in the elections conversation and give more voice to more people.”

From November 20, 2015 to April 20, this year, 15.2 million Filipinos have participated in election-related conversations, generating 137 million election-related interactions.

The number of monthly active users on Facebook in the Philippines is 49 million—almost half of the Philippine population.

Last season of ‘Bleach’ premieres on GMA Yesterday marked the comeback of Ichigo Kurosaki, the greatest Soul Reaper, to face his ultimate

battle in the last season of Bleach after 17 months when he defeated Sosuke Aizen— the sole reason why he lost his powers as a soul reaper.

Ichigo is now back as a simple high school student. However, because of the help he gave to someone in need, he realizes that someone is searching for him.

Who are they and will Ichigo be able to beat his last battle to still become the greatest Soul Reaper? Find out in the last season of Bleach, Monday to Friday, 8:30 a.m. after Yo-Kai Watch on GMA Astig Authority.

GMA Artist Center star Derrick Monasterio fulfills his childhood dream of becoming a recording artist